108 



THE PAMPAS. 



***** 



I CAME to a post, and found horses in the corral, but 

 the men all out. The woman told me they would 

 be in soon, if I would wait. I saw a little child 

 about seven years old, and said I would take him 

 as a postilion. " Bi^n"" (very well), said the woman, 

 upon which the little boy was going to say some- 

 thing, but I took him by the arm, and leading him 

 out to the corral, I caught our horses with a lasso 

 which was lying on the ground. 



After we had started, and had ridden about a 

 league, Oiga, Senor," said the little rosy- faced 

 urchin, yo no soy vaqueano" (I do not know the 

 road.) I took up my whip and frightened him on be- 

 fore me ; but we were shortly overtaken by a man, 

 who had galloped after us from the post as hard as 

 his horse could go. He said he was the boy's father, 

 that there were a number of salteadores" (rob- 

 bers) in the country — that it was not safe for the 

 child, and that he had therefore come to conduct 

 me. I had ridden more than a hundred miles. 



