Aug. 1833. 



BAHIA BLANCA. 



89 



In the morning we sent for the horses very early^ and 

 started for another exhilarating gallop. We passed the 

 Cabeza del Buey, an old name given to the head of a 

 large marshy which extends from Bahia Blanca, Here we 

 changed horses_5 and passed through some leagues of swamps 

 and saltpetre marshes. Changing horses for the last time^, 

 we again began wading through the mud. My animal fell^ 

 and I was well soused in black mire — a very disagreeable 

 accident^ when one does not possess a change of clothes. 

 Some miles from the fort we met a man^ who told us that a 

 great gun had been fired^ which is a signal that Indians are 

 near. We immediately left the road^ and followed the edge 

 of a marsh;, which when chased offers the best mode of escape. 

 We were glad to arrive within the walls^, when we found all 

 the alarm was about nothing, for the Indians turned out to 

 be friendly ones, who wished to join General Rosas. 



Bahia Blanca scarcely deserves the name of a village. A 

 few houses and the barracks for the troops are enclosed by a 

 deep ditch and fortified wall. The settlement is only of recent 

 standing (since 1828) ; and its growth has been one of trou- 

 ble. The government of Buenos Ayres did not follow the 

 wise example of the Spanish viceroys in purchasing the land 

 from the Indians, as they did with the Rio Negro, but un- 

 justly occupied it by force. Hence the need of the fortifi- 

 cations ; hence the few houses and little cultivated land 

 without the limits of the walls : even the cattle are not safe 

 from the attacks of the Indians beyond the boundaries of 

 the plain, on which the fortress stands. 



The part of the harbour where the Beagle intended to 

 anchor being distant twenty-five miles, I obtained from the 

 Commandant a guide and horses, to take me to see whether 

 she had arrived. Leaving the plain of green turf, which fol- 

 lowed the course of the little brook, we soon entered on a 

 wide level waste, consisting either of sand, sahne marshes, or 

 bare mud. Some parts were clothed by low thickets, and 

 others with those succulent plants, which luxuriate only 



