SOUTH AMERICA. 



almost useless to make any attempt to arrest them. 

 The writer just quoted, informs us, '^that even in case 

 of murder, the criminal has little to fear, if he can es- 

 cape to the distance of twenty or thirty leagues; he 

 there lives in obscurity probably for the remainder of 

 his life, without ever being brought to justice.'^ The 

 gauchos are, for the greater part, loose fish who have 

 wandered from the missions, and especially from those 

 of the Jesuits. After the expulsion of the society, 

 their neophytes, who had been placed under the di- 

 rection of the Franciscans, gradually relapsed towards 

 their former state, and rapidly diminished in numbers. 

 Many withdrew to the neighboring missions and Spa- 

 nish settlements, while their intercourse with the Spa- 

 niards, introduced amongst them all the vices of the 

 lower classes of the people. Many of them wandered 

 into the plains, where they could enjoy unbounded li- 

 berty, and indulge their propensities. When they 

 chose to engage in any honest occupation, it was that 

 of peons, or herdsmen, whose chief employment was 

 to attend the cattle, and to slaughter them. There 

 were numbers, however, who would engage in no re- 

 gular occupation, or hire themselves to any one. These 

 sometimes formed themselves into bands, and infested 

 the country, or were employed to assist in smuggling 

 Some writers speak of a people resembling gypsies^ 

 in this country; an idea, which originated, no doubt, 

 from some imperfect account of the gauchos. 



One circumstance must have had an important in 

 fluence on their characters, which is the number of 

 males in proportion to that of females, not less than ten 

 to one; few of them having any families; it is natural 

 to expect that they should be in some measure iu^en 



