74 
RIO COLORADO 
CHAP. 
to show my passport. He began to cross-question me in the 
most dignified and mysterious manner. By good luck I had 
a letter of recommendation from the government of Buenos 
Ayres 1 to the commandant of Patagones. This was taken 
to General Rosas, who sent me a very obliging message ; and 
the Secretary returned all smiles and graciousness. We took 
up our residence in the rancho , or hovel, of a curious old 
Spaniard, who had served with Napoleon in the expedition 
against Russia. 
We stayed two days at the Colorado ; I had little to do, 
for the surrounding country was a swamp, which in summer 
(December), when the snow melts on the Cordillera, is over¬ 
flowed by the river. My chief amusement was watching the 
Indian families as they came to buy little articles at the rancho 
where we stayed. It was supposed that General Rosas had about 
six hundred Indian allies. The men were a tall, fine race, yet 
it was afterwards easy to see in the Fuegian savage the same 
countenance rendered hideous by cold, want of food, and less 
civilisation. 
Some authors, in defining the primary races of mankind, 
have separated these Indians into two classes ; but this is 
certainly incorrect. Among the young women or chinas 
some deserve to be called even beautiful. Their hair was 
coarse, but bright and black ; and they wore it in two plaits 
hanging down to the waist. They had a high colour, and eyes 
that glistened with brilliancy ; their legs, feet, and arms were 
small and elegantly formed ; their ankles, and sometimes their 
waists, were ornamented by broad bracelets of blue beads. 
Nothing could be more interesting than some of the family 
groups. A mother with one or two daughters would often 
come to our rancho, mounted on the same horse. They ride 
like men, but with their knees tucked up much higher. This 
habit, perhaps, arises from their being accustomed, when 
travelling, to ride the loaded horses. The duty of the women 
is to load and unload the horses; to make the tents for the 
night ; in short to be, like the wives of all savages, useful 
slaves. The men fight, hunt, take care of the horses, and 
1 I am bound to express, in the strongest terms, my obligation to the Government 
of Buenos Ayres for the obliging manner in which passports to all parts of the 
country were given me, as naturalist of the Beagle. 
