Aug. 1833. 



SACRED TREE. 



79 



intervals^ a small party of soldiers, with a troop of horses 

 (a posta), so as to be enabled to keep up a communication 

 with the capital. As the Beagle intended to call at Bahia 

 Blanca, I determined to proceed there by land ; and ulti- 

 mately I extended my plan so as to travel the whole way by 

 the postas to Buenos Ayres. 



August 11th. — Mr. Harris, an Englishman residing at 

 Patagones, a guide, and five Gauchos, who were proceeding 

 to the army on business, were my companions on the jour- 

 ney. The Colorado, as I have already said, is nearly eighty 

 miles distant : and as we travelled slowly, we were two days 

 and a half on the road. The whole line of country deserves 

 scarcely a better name than that of a desert. Water is found 

 only in two small wells : it is called fresh ; but even at this 

 time of the year, during the rainy season, it was quite brackish. 

 In the summer this must be a distressing passage ; for now 

 it w^as sufficiently desolate. The valley of the Rio Negro, 

 broad as it is, has merely been excavated out of the sand- 

 stone plain ; for immediately above the bank on which the 

 town stands, a level country commences, which is inter- 

 rupted only by a few trifling valleys and depressions. Every 

 where the landscape wears the same sterile aspect; a dry 

 gravelly soil supports tufts of brown withered grass, and low 

 scattered bushes, armed with thorns. 



Shortly after passing the first spring we came in sight of 

 a famous tree, which the Indians reverence as the altar of 

 Walleechu. It is situated on a high part of the plain, and 

 hence is a landmark visible at a great distance. As soon as 

 a tribe of Indians come in sight of it, they offer their 

 adorations by loud shouts. The tree itself is low, much 

 branched, and thorny. Just above the root it has a diame- 

 ter of about three feet. It stands by itself without any 

 neighbour, and was indeed the first tree we saw ; afterwards 

 we met with a few others of the same kind, but they were 

 far from common. Being winter the tree had no leaves, 

 but in their place numberless threads, by which the various 

 offerings, such as cigars, bread, meat, pieces of cloth, &c.. 



