THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE 115 



Every one here is fully convinced that this is the most 

 just war, because it is against barbarians. Who would 

 believe in this age that such atrocities could be committed in 

 a Christian civilized country? The children of the Indians 

 are saved, to be sold or given away as servants, or rather 

 slaves for as long a time as the owners can make them 

 believe themselves slaves; but I believe in their treatment 

 there is little to complain of. 



In the battle four men ran away together. They were 

 pursued, one was killed, and the other three were taken alive. 

 They turned out to be messengers or ambassadors from a 

 large body of Indians, united in the common cause of 

 defence, near the Cordillera. The tribe to which they had 

 been sent was on the point of holding a grand council ; the 

 feast of mare's flesh was ready, and the dance prepared: in 

 the morning the ambassadors were to have returned to the 

 Cordillera. They were remarkably fine men, very fair, above 

 six feet high, and all under thirty years of age. The three 

 survivors of course possessed very valuable information ; and 

 to extort this they were placed in a line. The two first being 

 questioned, answered, "No se" (I do not know), and were 

 one after the other shot. The third also said " No se ; " add- 

 ing, " Fire, I am a man, and can die ! " Not one syllable 

 would they breathe to injure the united cause of their coun- 

 try ! The conduct of the above-mentioned cacique was very 

 different; he saved his life by betraying the intended plan 

 of warfare, and the point of union in the Andes. It was 

 believed that there were already six or seven hundred In- 

 dians together, and that in summer their numbers would be 

 doubled. Ambassadors were to have been sent to the Indians 

 at the small Salinas, near Bahia Blanca, whom I have men- 

 tioned that this same cacique had betrayed. The communi- 

 cation, therefore, between the Indians, extends from the 

 Cordillera to the coast of the Atlantic. 



General Rosas's plan is to kill all stragglers, and having 

 driven the remainder to a common point, to attack them in 

 a body, in the summer, with the assistance of the Chilenos. 

 This operation is to be repeated for three successive years. 

 I imagine the summer is chosen as the time for the main 

 attack, because the plains are then without water, and the 



