OF THE PAMPAS. 



29 



and by burning, by the hands of the jailer, on the 

 Plaza, the Carta de Mayo, which, to encourage the 

 settlement of the English in this province, had 

 lately granted to strangers religious toleration. In 

 the other provinces the priests have more or less 

 power, according to their abilities, and generally 

 according to their greater or less communication 

 with Buenos Aires. 



The religion of the Gaucho is necessarily more 

 simple than in the town, as his situation places him 

 out of the reach of the priests. In almost all the 

 huts there is a small image or picture, and the 

 Gauchos have sometimes a small cross round their 

 necks. In order that their children should be bap- 

 tized, they carry them on horseback to the nearest 

 church, and I believe the dead are generally thrown 

 across a horse and buried in consecrated ground : 

 though the courier and postilion who were mur- 

 dered, and whose funeral service I attended, were 

 buried in the ruins of an old hut in the middle of 

 the Plain of Sta. Fe. When a marriage is con- 

 tracted, the young Gaucho takes his bride behind 

 him on his horse, and in the course of a few days 

 they can generally get to a church. 



