102 



BUENOS AYRES. 



The Indians of the Pampas, as a nation, 

 appear never to have coalesced with the 

 Creole gauchos since the conquest of South 

 America. Some, indeed, have been tamed into 

 soldiers, and form part of the army of Rosas ; 

 but, speaking generally, these tribes have re- 

 mained irreclaimable, and in a state of fre- 

 quent and deadly hostility with the Spanish 

 inhabitants of the republic. Whoever encoun- 

 ters them in these wilds must expect death in 

 its most dreadful form, as his immediate lot ; and 

 travellers who meet each other inquire with the 

 greatest anxiety whether any Indians have been 

 seen or heard of on the route. The uncertainty 

 on this point adds considerably to the excite- 

 ment of a gallop over the Pampas. 



We set out again at daybreak, travelling over 

 the flat plain, which was here inundated with 

 the late rains, sometimes up to the horses* girths. 



