A VOYAGE TO 



gether. The neighboring Indian tribes are also de- 

 voted to him, principally through the means of his 

 adopted son, an Indian named Andres.* I give the 

 impression left on my mind from the conversation of 

 the general, it is possible I may have mingled in this 

 statement, something of what I may have heard from 

 others. 



I shall take this opportunity of giving a sketch of 

 the principal incidents in the life of this singular man, 

 as far as I have been enabled to do it, from conversa- 

 tions with persons during my stay at this place and at 

 Buenos Ayres, as well as from such documents as I 

 could procure after the most diligent inquiry. He 

 is a native of Monte Video, born of respectable pa- 

 rents, but when quite a youth, became enamored of 

 the wild life of the herdsmen, and strayed away from 

 the paternal roof. He joined a band of robbers and 

 smugglers, who infested the country, and in the course 

 of time became a noted leader. I have already re- 

 marked, the trouble which this class of men, so littlel 

 under the restraint of law and government, and in- | 

 habiting boundless plains, have always given to the 



* These Indians have excited great terror in the settlements on 

 the Parana. I saw several families at Buenos Ayres, who had fled 

 down the river in consternation, even from the neighborhood of 

 Santa Fee. Mr. Bonpland, the celebrated naturalist, had intend- 

 ed to ascend the river for the purpose of pursuing his researches, 

 but was prevented by the. accounts he heard of the Indians around 

 that place; the defeat of the troops of Buenos Ayres was chiefly 

 effected by them in the thick woods of the Entre Rios. This phi- 

 losopher, whose opinion is worth attending to, observed to me, "it 

 is a fortunate circumstance that Artigas is very old, and cannot 

 live long, otherwise it would be in his power to do irreparable mis- 

 chief." 



