8o 
BAHIA BLANCA 
CHAP. 
attacks of the Indians beyond the boundaries of the plain on 
which the fortress stands. 
The part of the harbour where the Beagle intended to 
anchor being distant twenty-five miles, I obtained from the 
Commandant a guide and horses, to take me to see 
whether she had arrived. Leaving the plain of green turf, 
which extended along the course of a little brook, we soon 
entered on a wide level waste consisting either of sand, saline 
marshes, or bare mud. Some parts were clothed by low 
thickets, and others with those succulent plants which luxuriate 
only where salt abounds. Bad as the country was, ostriches, 
deers, agoutis, and armadilloes, were abundant. My guide 
told me, that two months before he had a most narrow escape 
of his life : he was out hunting with two other men, at 'no 
great distance from this part of the country, when they were 
suddenly met by a party of Indians, who, giving chase, soon 
overtook and killed his two friends. His own horse’s lees 
o 
were also caught by the bolas ; but he jumped off, and with 
his knife cut them free : while doing this he was obliged to 
dodge round his horse and received two severe wounds from 
their chuzos. Springing on the saddle, he managed, by a 
most wonderful exertion, just to keep ahead of the long spears 
of his pursuers, who followed him to within sight of the fort-. 
From that time there was an order that no one should stray 
far from the settlement. I did not know of this when I 
started, and was surprised to observe how earnestly my guide 
watched a deer, which appeared to have been frightened from a 
distant quarter. 
We found the Beagle had not arrived, and consequently set 
out on our return, but the horses soon tiring, we were obliged 
to bivouac on the plain. In the morning we had caught an 
armadillo, which, although a most excellent dish when roasted 
in its shell, did not make a very substantial breakfast and 
dinner for two hungry men. The ground at the place where 
we stopped for the night was incrusted with a layer of sulphate 
of soda, and hence, of course, was without water. Yet many 
of the smaller rodents managed to exist even here, and the 
tucutuco was making its odd little grunt beneath my head, 
during half the night. Our horses were very poor ones, and in 
