Aug. 1833. 



INDIANS. 



121 



to extort this they were placed in a line. The two first 

 being questioned, answered, " No se^^ (I do not know), and 

 were one after the other shot. The third also said No se 

 adding, " Fire, I am a man, and can die Not one syllable 

 would they breathe to injure the united cause of their coun- 

 try ! The conduct of the cacique was very different : he 

 saved his life by betraying the intended plan of warfare, and 

 the point of union in the Andes. It was believed that there 

 were already six or seven hundred Indians together, and 

 that in summer their numbers would be doubled. Ambas- 

 sadors were to have been sent to the Indians at the small 

 Salinas, near Bahia Blanca, whom I mentioned that a 

 cacique, this same man, had betrayed. The communica- 

 tion, therefore, extends from the Cordillera to the east 

 coast. 



General Rosas's plan is to kill all stragglers, and having 

 driven the remainder to a common point, in the summer, with 

 the assistance of the Chilenos, to attack them in a body. 

 This operation is to be repeated for three successive years. 

 I imagine the summer is chosen as the time for the main 

 attack, because the plains are then without water, and the 

 Indians can only travel in particular directions. The escape 

 of the Indians to the south of the Rio Negro, where in such 

 a vast unknown country they would be safe, is prevented by 

 a treaty with the Tehuelches to this effect; — that Rosas pays 

 them so much to slaughter every Indian who passes to the 

 south of the river, but if they fail in so doing, they themselves 

 are to be exterminated. The war is waged chiefly against 

 the Indians near the CordiUera; for many of the tribes on this 

 eastern side are fighting with Rosas. The general, however, 

 like Lord Chesterfield, thinking that his friends may in a 

 future day become his enemies, always places them in the 

 front ranks, so that their numbers may be thinned. Since 

 leaving South America we have heard that this war of exter- 

 mination completely failed. 



Among the captive girls taken in the same engagement, 

 there were two very pretty Spanish ones, who had been car- 



