THE PAMPAS. 



265 



and that they would be with me immediately. As 

 soon as they arrived, they told me their story, and 

 asked what was to be done with the carriage *. It 

 was not worth more than one hundred dollars ; and 

 it would have cost more than that sum to have 

 guarded it, and to have sent a wheel to it six hun- 

 dred miles from Buenos Aires ; so I condemned it 

 to remain where it was, to be plundered of its 

 lining by the Gauchos, and to be gazed at by the 

 eagle and the gama, — in short, I left it to its fate. 



I had been much detained by the carriages, and I 

 was so anxious to get to Buenos Aires without a 

 moment's delay, that I resolved instantly to ride on 

 by myself. Three of my party expressed a wish 

 to accompany me, instead of riding with the car- 

 riage ; so after taking from the canvass bag suffi- 

 cient money for the distance, (about six hundred 



* After the party had left one of the posts about an hour, and 

 when they were twelve or thirteen miles from it, they saw a man 

 galloping after the carriage, endeavouring to overtake it. They 

 stopped, and when he came up^ they found it was the master of 

 the post-hut where they had sle[)t. He said very civilly that 

 they had forgotten to pay him for the eggs, and that they there- 

 fore owed him a medio, (two-pence halfpenny). They paid him 

 the money, neither more nor less, and then galloped on, leaving 

 the man apparently perfectly satisfied. 



