THE MOJOS INDIANS. 
183 
management of which would have continued to yield increased i-esults. 
But “el Supremo Gohierno” at La Paz — adopting Aprh nous le 
deluge for its motttj — apparently prefers immediate profit to all the 
bright visions of the future, and has for twenty-five jmars past allowed a 
set of adventurers, coming mostly from Santa Cruz de la Sierra, to carry 
on a war of destruction against these cattle. The payment of a tax of 
one peso per head purohased the right of any one to kill as many as he 
liked or could catch ; and, if he understood his business, and hit on the 
right way of addressing the controlling Correjidor, he paid, let us say, 
300 dollars for 3,000 head of cattle. 
But as this mode of destruction was poihaps foimd to be rather a 
sloAV one, tivelve years ago a Avell-organizcd company pru’chascd, for the 
round sum of 5,000 dollai-s, the monopoly of slaughter on a large scale, 
for a period of ten years, on the campos of the Beni and the Mamorc ; 
and it must he confessed that the utmost was then done, even for 
South America, in the way of beastly brutality and thoughtless waste. 
In these cases, generally, only the hides and talloAV were made use 
of, the meat being left as Avorthless to the vultures. To he sure, neither 
the hands nor the appliances for cutting, salting, and drying — such as 
may be found in the great saladehos of the Argentine Ecpuhlic, 
Uruguay and Bio Grande do Sul * — could be easily found in Bolivia, 
and the jireparation of Liebig’s extract of meat, in the absence of 
machinery, has been, of course, quite out of the question. 
This summary mode of doing business, though it may be sometimes 
justifiable, Avill ahvays be op|30sed to European sentiment, especially 
when disclosiu’e is made of the disgusting particulars. The above- 
mentioned company, for instance, caused to be erected f strong fences, 
extending Avidely over the campos, and narrowing gradually toAvards 
the end. Into this waterless “ corral ” the flying herds were drhun by 
mounted Indians, and the poor animals, distressed with fear and tlihst, 
died in such numbers that, under the glowing tro^jical sun, the greater 
portion of the hides and fat was spoilt long before the hides could be 
* In somo saladeiros, or charqueadas (that is, factories of charque, or carno secca, 
drki wmC), from 800 to 1,000 oxen are slaughtered daily, and their meat cut with a 
duxterily that surpasses belief. 
t The palmgs of tliese fences are bound with strips of untanned hide, whioh is 
used in these countiios for the most different purposes. La^'os (slings) are made of it ; 
beds and chairs are covered with it ; and the cat-o’-niue-tails (the guasca) is a bundle 
of slightly-twisted strips of it. 
