48 



MODE OF TRAVELLING. 



the horse's neck, take from one pocket a bag of 

 loose tobacco, and with a piece of paper, or a leaf 

 of the Indian corn, make a segar, and then take 

 out a flint and steel and Hght it. 



The post-huts are from twelve to thirty-six miles, 

 and in one instance fifty-four miles, from each other; 

 and as it would be impossible to drag a carriage 

 these distances at a gallop, relays of horses are sent 

 on with the carriage, and are sometimes changed 

 five times in a stage. 



It is scarcely possible to conceive a wilder sight 

 than our carriage and covered cart, as I often saw 

 them*, galloping over the trackless plain, and pre- 

 ceded or followed by a troop of from thirty to 

 seventy wild horses, all loose and galloping, driven 

 by a Gaucho and his son, and sometimes by a cou- 

 ple of children. The picture seems to correspond 



* I was one day observing- them, instead of looking before 

 me, when my horse fell in a biscachero, and rolled over upon 

 my arm. It was so crushed that it made me very faint ; but 

 before I could get into my saddle, the carriages were almost out 

 of sight, and while the sky was still looking green from the 

 pain I was enduring, I was obliged to ride after them, and I be- 

 lieve I had seven miles to gallop as hard as my horse could go, 

 before 1 could overtake the carriage to give up my horse. 



