A VOYAGE TO 



sible to the softer affections.* Azara relates curious 

 anecdotes of their stealing women, and Mawe tells us, 

 «^that a person may travel in these parts for days to- 

 gether, without seeing or hearing of a single female in 

 the course of his journey. To this circumstance may 

 be attributed the total absence of comfort in the dwell- 

 ings of these wretched men, and the gloomy apathy 

 observed in their dispositions and habits. It is true 

 that the mistress of an estate, may occasionally visit it | 

 for a few months, but she is obliged during her stay to 

 live in great seclusion, on account of the dreadful conse- 

 quences to be apprehended from being so exposed.^^ 

 As to religion, if it possesses any influence over them 

 at all, it is probably more injurious than useful. At 

 present they are freed from all restraints, excepting 

 such as are imposed by their leaders, whose inclina- 

 tions and habits are pretty much the same. Their 

 ideas beyond what relates to their immediate wants 

 and employments are few; and these are a passion for 

 liberty, as it is understood by them, that is an un- 

 bounded licentiousness, with the most absolute sub- 

 mission to their chiefs, and which contradictory as it 

 may seem, depends on popularity. The qualifications 

 necessary for the leader of a banditti, are by no means 

 common. But without a leader of this description, 

 the banditti must soon disperse. That there should 

 have been such a leader as Artigas, is probably the 



* See an interesting narrative of a shipwreck in the Boston Atiiee- 

 jieuni, No. 42. I do not recollect ot having ever met with a more 

 horrible and inhuman ferocity than was exhibited by the ^auchos 

 on this occasion. A consolatory contrast is there exhibited be- 

 tween the kindness and charity of the agricultural peasantry and 

 these monsters. 



