130 



PAMPAS. 



Sept. 1833. 



rived, who brought a parcel from the next posta to be for- 

 warded to the general ; so that besides these two, our party- 

 consisted of myself and guide, the lieutenant and his four 

 soldiers. The latter were strange beings ; the first a fine 

 young negro ; the second half Indian and negro ; and the 

 two others nondescripts ; namely, an old Chilian miner, the 

 colour of mahogany, and another partly a mulatto ; but two 

 such mongrels, with such detestable expressions, I never 

 saw before. At night, when they were sitting round the fire, 

 and playing at cards, I retired to view such a Salvator Rosa 

 scene. They were seated under a low cliff, so that I could 

 look down upon them ; around the party were lying dogs, 

 arms, remnants of deer and ostriches ; and their long spears 

 were stuck in the turf. Further in the dark background, 

 their horses were tied up, ready for any sudden danger. If the 

 stillness of the desolate plain was broken by one of the dogs 

 barking, a soldier, leaving the fire, would place his head close 

 to the ground, and thus slowly scan the horizon. Even if 

 the noisy teru-tero uttered its scream, there would be a 

 pause in the conversation, and every head, for a moment a 

 little inclined. 



What a life of misery these men appear to us to lead ! 

 They were at least ten leagues from the Sauce posta, and 

 since the murder committed by the Indians, twenty from 

 another. The Indians are supposed to have made their 

 attack in the middle of the night; for very early in the 

 morning after the murder, they were luckily seen approach- 

 ing this posta. The whole party, however, escaped, together 

 with the troop of horses ; each one taking a line for himself, 

 and driving with him as many animals as he was able to 

 manage. 



The little hovel, built of thistle-stalks, in which they slept, 

 neither kept out the wind or rain ; indeed in the latter case 

 the only effect the roof had, was to condense it into larger 



lowed to escape. He told us that his legs were marked by great weals, 

 where the thong had wound round, as if he had been flogged with a 

 whip. 



