OF THE PAMPAS. 



true, make cheese, and sell it for money, but if he 

 has got a good saddle and good spurs, he does not 

 consider that money has much value: in fact, he is 

 contented with his lot ; and when one reflects that, 

 in the increasing series of human luxuries, there is 

 no point that produces contentment, one cannot but 

 feel that there is perhaps as much philosophy as 

 folly in the Gaucho's determination to exist without 

 wants ; and the life he leads is certainly more noble 

 than if he was slaving from morning till night to 

 get other food for his body or other garments to 

 cover it. It is true he is of little service to the 

 great cause of civilization, which it is the duty of 

 every rational being to promote; but an humble in- 

 dividual, living by himself in a boundless plain, 

 cannot introduce into the vast uninhabited regions 

 which surround him either arts or sciences : he may, 

 therefore, without blame be permitted to leave them 

 as he found them, and as they must remain, until 

 population, which will create wants, devises the 

 means of supplying them. 



The character of the Gaucho is often very 

 estimable; he is always hospitable — at his hut 

 the traveller will always find a friendly welcome, 



