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INDIANS. 



arms, the Spanish cavalry could not resist 

 their attack. Their superstitious horror of 

 fire-arms, has, however, of late years, been 

 removed; and they will now, I am told, 

 charge cavalry and infantry, under fire, with 

 the most astonishing recklessness. They are 

 always on horseback, often naked, without 

 even a hat ; and though they inhabit huts of 

 ox-hide when encamped on their own plains, 

 they will lie out on the bare ground all night, 

 when at war, or in pursuit of their ene- 

 mies, without any covering, and in all wea- 

 ther. Their wars with the Spaniards have 

 made them more cruel than they would na- 

 turally have been ; for they expect no quar- 

 ter, and their hatred and fury are raised to 

 such a pitch against the gauchos, that they 

 seldom are content to put them to death, 

 without the additional vengeance of mangling 



