122 



BAHIA BLANCA. 



Aug. 1833. 



ried away by the Indians when young, and could now only 

 speak the Indian tongue. From their account, they must 

 have come from Salta, a distance in a straight line of nearly 

 one thousand miles. This gives one a grand idea of the 

 immense territory over which the Indians roam : yet, great 

 as it is, I think there will not, in another half- century, be a 

 wild Indian northward of the Rio Negro. The warfare is too 

 bloody to last ; the Christians killing every Indian, and the 

 Indians doing the same by the Christians. It is melancholy 

 to trace how the Indians have given way before the Spanish 

 invaders. Schirdel* says, that in 1535, when Buenos Ayres 

 was founded, there were villages containing two and three 

 thousand inhabitants. Even in Falconer's time (1750) the 

 Indians made inroads as far as Lucan, Areco, and Arrecife, 

 but now they are driven beyond the Salado. Not only have 

 whole tribes been wholly exterminated, but the remaining 

 Indians have become more barbarous : instead of living in 

 large villages, and being employed in the arts of fishing, as 

 well as of the chase, they now wander about the open plains, 

 without home or fixed occupation. 



I heard also some account of an engagement which took 

 place, a few weeks previously to the one mentioned, at 

 Cholechel. This is a very important station, on account of 

 being a pass for horses ; and it was, in consequence, for 

 some time the head-quarters of a division of the army. 

 When the troops first arrived there, they found a tribe of 

 Indians, of whom they kiUed twenty or thirty. The cacique 

 escaped in a manner which astonished every one. The chief 

 Indians always have one or two picked horses, which they 

 keep ready for any urgent occasion. On one of these, an 

 old white horse, the cacique sprung, taking with him his 

 little son. The horse had neither saddle nor bridle. To 

 avoid the shots, the Indian rode in the peculiar method of 

 his nation ; namely, with an arm round the horse's neck, and 

 one leg only on its back. Thus hanging on one side, he was 



* Purchas's Collection of Voyages. 



