184 THE A3IAZ0N AND MADEIRA RIVERS. | 
taken off. But, Avliere one of those abominable chases proved niiuons 
rather than profitable, others, effected with more cii’cums2iection, provt'd 
successful ; and many thousands of the valuable and easily-transported 
hides, Avhen sold, brought such a plenty to the coimfay, that a perfect 
Fools’ Paradise ensued. 
The Caballero, who galloped proudly along in his red-strixDod poncho, 
Avith the large sombrero on his black hair, and .silver spurs to his tall deer- 
skin boots, but showing none of the grand (pialities of his Spanish 
ancestry save unbounded vanity and dandyism, then lost and AAmn immense 
sums, and hundi’eds of hides, at dice. These ho always can-ied Avith him 
on his rides over the campos ; and, at a moment’s notice, the saddle-cloth 
Avas sin-eacl on the ground, and the blind goddess was tempted. In the 
Pueblos the lazy Indians bimit talloAV instead of fuel, and yet there 
remained such Amst herds of cattle that a fat cow did not cost above tAVO 
dollars. So the Government, always embarrassed for money, and thinldng 
this soiu'ce of wealth to be inexhaustible, had the effrontery to pay then 
t)fRcials in the Pueblos on the Mamore (the correjidores, vigarios, and 
schoolmasters) Avith bonds for so many head of wild cattle, leaving it to 
tlieir OAvn judgment AA'hether they caught them themselAms, or sold then- 
bonds at a considerable abatement to the professional slaughterers. 
Hundreds and hundreds of fat, easily-domesticated animals could be 
had in this W'ay for little more than the ti-ouble of cajAturing them; but uu- 
fortvinately the example of our old friend, Antonio Cardozo, who acquired 
such herds and made them the stock of an estaneia near Exaltacion, has not 
as yet found many followers among the Bolivians ; and this is the more 
to be regretted as the consequences of such an inconsiderate policy soon 
began to shoAv themselves. The herds were gi-adually reduced until their 
last remains haAm retu-ed, under the guidance of proud bulls,* to remote 
corners of the campos, Avhere, by reason of the Avild Indians, they will be 
* The Bulrviaiis say that the strongest of the young bulls, after bloody lights with ■ 
liis competitors, forms a new herd, at the head of two or tliree dozens of cows, while 
the weaker bulls also unite in troops of some dozens. It is a strange fact that the hide I 
of these udld bulls is far superior to that of the tame, in respect of toughness and 
durability, and therefore is always much valued, especially for the lasso-making. 
Everj' year a great number of Gauchos come over from the Argentine Republic, from 
Salta and Tucuman, to buy these hides for making the indestructible nooses so indis- 
pensable to them for the seizure of the half-wild horses, mules, &o., on their pampas. ' 
As the so-caUed tame cattle of Bolivia, as well as of the Argentine Republic, are as ^ 
httlo stabled as the wild bulls on the Mamore and the Beni, the ditlerence in tlio I 
toughness of the hides can arise only from the tame bulls being coupled with a far 
greater number of cows than the wild ones. 
