194 



PATAGONIA. 



Dec. 1833. 



are only a few small wells containing but little water, and 

 that rather saline and half putrid. 



In such a country the fate of the Spanish settlement was soon 

 decided ; the dryness of the climate during the greater part o£ 

 the year, and the occasional hostile attacks of the wandering 

 Indians, compelled the colonists to desert their half-finished 

 buildings. The style, however, in which they were com- 

 menced, showed the strong and liberal hand of Spain in the 

 old time. The end of all the attempts to colonize this side 

 of America south of 41°, have been miserable. At Port 

 Famine, the name expresses the lingering and extreme suf- 

 ferings of several hundred wretched people, of whom one 

 alone survived to relate their misfortunes. At St. Joseph^s 

 bay, on the coast of Patagonia, a small settlement was made ; 

 but during one Sunday the Indians made an attack and mas- 

 sacred the whole party, excepting two men, who were led captive 

 many years among the wandering tribes. At the Rio Negro 

 I conversed with one of these men, now in extreme old age. 



The zoology of Patagonia is as limited as its Flora.* On 

 the arid plains a few black beetles (Heteromera) might 

 be seen slowly crawling about, and occasionally a lizard 

 darting from side to side. Of birds we have three carrion 

 hawks, and in the valleys a few finches and insect feeders. 

 The Ibis malanops (a species said to be found in central 

 Africa) is not uncommon on the most desert parts. In the 

 stomachs of these birds I found grasshoppers, cicadee, small 

 lizards, and even scorpions.f At one time of the year they 

 go in flocks, at another in pairs : their cry is very loud and 

 singular, and resembles the neighing of the guanaco. 



* I found here a species of cactus, described by Professor Henslow 

 under the name of Opuntia Darwinii (Magazine of Zoology and Botany, 

 vol. i., p. 466), which was remarkable by the irritability manifested by the 

 stamens, when I inserted in the flower either a piece of stick, or the end 

 of my finger. The segments of the periant also closed on the pistil, but 

 more slowly than the stamens. 



f These insects were not uncommon beneath stones. I found one 

 cannibal scorpion quietly devouring another. 



