212 



JOURNEY ACROSS 



military force to protect them from the inva- 

 sions of marauding Indians, who harass the 

 country in all directions for plunder; always 

 making for the least defended points, and 

 moving with incredible celerity. A savage yell 

 at the dead of night at once arouses the sleeping 

 gaucho, and informs him of his danger. The 

 house is surrounded ; the daughters dragged 

 into bondage; and the corpses of fathers, 

 brothers, and sons, mangled and hewn bar- 

 barously into pieces, are left amidst the smok- 

 ing embers of their dwellings, to inform the 

 next traveller of the cruelties of the Indian. 



At Achiras, a village through which we 

 passed on our way to the next post, a great 

 number of women had assembled together 

 from all -parts of the country, to be protected 

 within the limits of a low mud wall, defended 

 by a ditch. The two together were such as 



