INDIANS. 



279 



Their numbers, compared to the vast regions 

 which they wander over, are very trifling. 

 Indeed, I have heard it asserted that there 

 are not five thousand, from Tierra del Fuego to 

 the Plata. But of this there can be no cer- 

 tainty. Insignificant, however, though they 

 be, the political perfidy and folly which con- 

 tinue to weaken the force of all these federal 

 states, — who, instead of combining against 

 the common foe, are for ever engaged in 

 civil broils with each other, — may possibly 

 pave the way for the Indian to wreak his 

 vengeance upon the usurper of his natural 

 soil, and, in their turn, the Creole nations 

 may be exposed to a war of extermination, 

 waged by the aboriginal inhabitants of South 

 America. 



The giants of Patagonia, who have so long 

 excited the curiosity of Europeans, are not quite 



