48 CRUELTY TO HORSES AND CATTLE. 



tail^ one peon leads the foremost^ while another 

 rides behind with a long hide whip^ which is 

 incessantly applied without mercy. Cruelty to 

 these noble animals is certainly the worst trait 

 in these people's characters ; ^ the first horse that 

 carried the luggage from Buenos Ayres, drop- 

 ped instantly the load was taken off its back, 

 and no doubt ne^er rose again, for it then ap- 

 peared to be breathing its last. Many carcases 

 strewed the road, laying just where they had 

 died, some of them with the straw luggage 

 saddle still on their backs. 



After travelling twenty-four leagues, arrived 

 at the village of La Cruz Alta, which separates 

 the province of Santa Fh from Cordova. This 

 village consists of ten or twelve mud huts, en- 

 trenched, and some of them surrounded with mud 

 walls, as a defence against the Indians ; indeed 



If a native is travelling the Pampas, and a bad horse 

 should be given to him, when he arrives at the end of the post, 

 he will take out his knife and cut off one of its ears without 

 any ceremony. 



