BUENOS AYRES. 



101 



phytolaca dioica, and is so very soft and spongy 

 that the natives used it in the last war as wad- 

 ding for their artillery. 



The miserable hut we slept at had a ditch 

 surrounding it, and a plank laid across, which 

 was removed at night for fear of an invasion of 

 the Indians. These gentlemen, without any 

 warning, come riding up to the solitary farms 

 in the dead of night ; but their horses not being 

 taught to leap, they pull up on the outside of 

 the fosse. Near at hand is the coral, into 

 which the horses of the owner of the farm are 

 driven at night; but this being outside the 

 ditch, is at the mercy of the Indians, — who are 

 in the habit of stealing the cattle from these 

 places. This latter is, in fact, the chief object of 

 their marauding excursions ; though they attack 

 and kill the gauchos wherever they meet 

 with them. 



