194

QUETRO-EIQUE RIVER.

PART II.

ferior race, only made to be subject to his brutal will and caprice?

Though the unhappy condition of these poor women excited the sensibility of the commissioners for an instant, it roused also their more manly feelings, and satisfied them that the government of Buenos Ayres owed it to its own honour and to humanity to act with energy, and to make some vigorous effort to rescue these poor victims from the consequences of their own supine and too lenient policy. It was, indeed, evident that any attempt to secure a permanent and satisfactory state of peace would be futile without such a demonstration as would act upon the fears of the Indians, and oblige them to submit to such terms as the government might determine to impose upon them.

Under this conviction the officers would have returned at once to Buenos Ayres, had they not been earnestly solicited by the inhabitants of some other toldos about the Sierra Ventana to visit them before their departure; a request they acceded to in the hope of its enabling them to acquire some geographical information with regard to that

range.

On the 2nd they set out with old Lincon, who insisted upon escorting them as far as the place of rendezvous. Their course lay W.S.W., through an undulating country, rich in pasturage, and studded with small lakes, about which were generally found small groups of Indians with their cattle. These lakes in the summer season are for the most part dry, and then the Indians remove within reach of the mountain-streams. Towards evening they pitched their tents on the banks of a stream called the Quetro-eique, the Ventana about two and a half leagues distant, where they found a large encampment of Indians, who received them with rejoicings. As far as the eye could reach, the plains were covered with their cattle and sheep.

Whilst waiting for the assembling of the caciques, the officers devoted two or three days to surveying; following up the Quetro-eique about three and a half leagues, they traced it to its sources on the side of the Ventana. The height of the principal mountain, so called, they deter

mined by measurement to be 2500 feet above the level of the plain from which it rises.* To the north-west a chain of low hills extends as far as a break by which they are separated from the minor group called the Curumualá. Through this break run two small streams, the one called Ingles-malhuida, from the circumstance of an Englishman having been put to death by the Indians there, the other Mallolenbú, or the White River; the course of both is from south-west to north-east, running nearly parallel with the Quetro-eique, and all, according to the Indian accounts, losing themselves in extensive marshes beyond. The rivers Sauce-grande and Sauce-chico, which fall into Bahia Blanca, rise from the southern declivities of this range, according to the same authority.

When the Caciques and their followers were all assembled there might be about 1500 men, who were paraded by their chiefs much in the same manner as before described-the same ceremonies to drive away the gualichú, and the same preliminary discussions amongst themselves, before they commenced their parleys with the officers; and these terminating precisely in the same unsatisfactory and indefinite manner. The presents, it was evident, were the only objects contemplated by the savages, and when these were not produced quite so quickly as they expected, an attempt was made to seize them by force, and the officers themselves would have been stripped, if not sacrificed, had not Lincon, their host, bravely protected them, and killed upon the spot with his own hand two of the most forward of the assailants: cowed by his intrepidity, and the preparations of their escort to defend themselves, the wretches slunk away, and so ended in blood and confusion the labours of the commissioners. To old Lincon they owed their lives and subsequent safety on their road back to Buenos Ayres, whither they were glad to return as fast as they could, under an escort furnished by him and some of the more friendly tribes of the Huilliches.

* Captain FitzRoy determined it to be 3350 feet above the level of the sea, from which it is distant 45 miles.

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PART II.

CHAPTER XIV.

The Buenos Ayreans march south into the Indian territories

Dangers of military operations in the Pampas - Erection of a fortification at the Tandil The boundary as laid down in 1828 - Lavalle's mutiny and assassination of Dorrego — Rosas employed in civilizing the Indians Raises the country against Lavalle - Restores the legal governmentIs chosen Governor for these services- Makes war on the savagesRescues from them 1500 Christian women and children Drives them beyond the Rio Negro, and greatly extends the territories of Buenos Ayres in that direction.

THE result of Garcia's negotiations roused the government of Buenos Ayres at last to the conviction that some vigorous demonstration of their physical force was required in order to re-establish that salutary fear of the superior military power and discipline of the Christians, which in old times had to a certain degree restrained and kept the savages in order; and they determined to adopt the group of the Vuulcan mountains at once as the boundary of the province in that direction, and to establish a chain of military posts from the sea coast as far west as the Laguna Blanca, with a sufficient force to overawe the Indians, and to afford efficient protection to such settlements as might be made within that line.

The construction of a fort on the Tandil was determined upon, and the Governor himself, General Rodriguez, prepared to superintend the work in person, and to take the field against the savages. The little army assembled for this purpose was ready to march about the close of February, 1823; it consisted of no less than 2500 men, seven pieces of artillery, and a numerous train of carts and waggons, with everything requisite for the formation of a permanent settlement.

The diary of its proceedings,* subsequently printed,

* 'Diario del Ejercito en la Expedicion al Establecimiento de la nueva Frontera al Sud,' publicado en Buenos Aires, 1823.

offers a curious illustration of some of the many difficulties attending military operations in the Pampas.

Instead of following the track of Garcia and his companions by the Tapalquen, after consulting with some guides, who professed to be well acquainted with the intervening country, General Rodriguez determined upon marching direct across it to the Tandil; an attempt, as it proved, more adventurous than prudent.

On the 10th of March the troops left the Guardia del Monte, and had hardly crossed the Salado when they found themselves in the midst of apparently interminable swamps, thickly set with canes and reeds higher than their horses' heads. It was with great difficulty that the waggons and artillery were dragged through; nevertheless, they floundered onwards as far as a lake, to which, from the clearness of its waters, they gave the name of Laguna Limpia; but there it became absolutely necessary to halt in order to reconnoitre the country before proceeding further.

So far they had been grossly misled by their guides, whose only knowledge of the country it appeared had been acquired in excursions in quest of nutrias, which little animals are found in vast numbers in these swamps; but nutria catching and the march of an army accompanied by heavy waggons and artillery are very different things, and the wonder is that all the guns and baggage were not left behind in the bogs. The marshes themselves are formed by the streams which run into them from the hilly ranges further south, and which seem not to have sufficient power to force their way through the low lands either to the Salado or to the sea-coast. Beginning from the morass in which the Tapalquen joins the Flores, they extend far eastward, and render useless a considerable tract of country south of the Salado.

The scouts returning brought accounts that they had found the river Chapeleofú, the course of which it was determined to follow to the Tandil, where it was known to rise; but the troops had hardly left the Laguna Limpia when they were beset by a new danger, which, for a short time, threatened a frightful termination to the expedition.

198

THE ARMY IN A FIRE-STORM.

PART II.

A sweeping wind blew towards them clouds of dense smoke, followed by one vast lurid blaze, extending across the horizon, and indicating but too clearly the approach of one of those dreadful conflagrations, not uncommon in the Pampas after dry weather, when the long dry grass, and canes and thistles, readily igniting, cause the flames to extend rapidly over the whole face of the country, involving all in one common and horrible destruction.

The Gauchos, on the first indication of danger, have sometimes sufficient presence of mind to set fire immediately to the grass to leeward, by which they clear a space on which to take refuge before the general conflagration reaches them; but there is not always time to do this, much less to save the cattle and sheep, numbers of which often perish in the devouring element. Upon the present occasion the guides seem to have lost their wits as well as their way; and, but for the fortunate discovery of a small lake near them, into which men and beasts alike rushed, dragging the carts with them, the whole army would have been involved in the same tragical end. There, up to their necks in the water, they remained for three hours, during which the fire-storm raged frightfully round them, and then, for want of further fuel, subsiding, left a desolated waste as far as the eye could reach, covered with a black stratum of cinders and ashes. Such is war in the Pampas! The best troops in the world, if not lost in the bogs, may be roasted alive, without the possibility of escape.

After these dangers the army continued its march along the western bank of the Chapeleofú, through a country which improved every step they advanced towards the sierras beyond. Picturesque and fertile, the lands seemed only to require to be taken possession of to form a most valuable addition to the territory of Buenos Ayres. The wandering tribes of Indians usually dwelling there had, to all appearance, abandoned them, and withdrawn further south, no doubt in alarm at the preparations made by the Spaniards to occupy them.

The wild guanacoes, and the deer, and the ostriches ranged in thousands over the pastures of their native