OCR Text |
Show 118 BAHIA BLANCA. Aug. 1833. with a yellow pulpy matter, which, examined under a microscope, presented an extraordinary appearance. The mass consisted of rounded, semi-transparent, irregular grains, aggregated together into particles of various sizes. All such particles, and the separate grains, possessed the power of rapid movement; generally revolving around different axes, but sometimes progressive. The movement was visible with a very weak power, but with the highest its cause could not be perceived. It was very different from the circulation of the fluid in the elastic bag, containing the thin extremity of the axis. On other occasions, when dissecting small marine animals beneath the microscope, I have seen particles of pulpy matter, some of large size, immediately they were disengaged, commence revolving. I have imagined, I know not with how much truth, that this granulo-pulpy matter was in process of being converted into ova. Certainly in this zoophyte such appeared to be the case. During my stay at Bahia Blanca, while waiting for the Beagle, the place was in a constant state of excitement, from rumours of wars and victories, between the troops of Rosas and the wild Indians. One day an account came, that a small party forming one of the postas on the line to Buenos Ayres, had been found all murdered. The next day, three hundred men arrived from the Colorado, under the command of Commandant Miranda. A large portion of these men were Indians (mansos, or tame), belonging to the tribe of the Cacique Bernantio. They passed the night here ; and it was impossible to conceive any thing more wild and savage than the scene of their bivouac. Some drank till they were intoxicated ; others swallowed the steaming blood of the cattle slaughtered for their suppers, and then, being sick from drunkenness, they cast it up again, and were besmeared with filth and gore. Nam simul expletus dapibus, vinoque sepultus Cervicem infl.exam posuit, jacuitque per antrum Immensus, saniem eructans, ac frusta cruenta Per somnum commixta mero. Aug. 1833. INDIANS. ll9 In the morning they started for th . with orders to follow the " rast " e scene of the murder, them to Chile. We subsequen;lo, h or ~ack, even if it led dians had escaped into th y p ear that the wild Incause the track had been ~ grdeat Oampas, and from some m1sse . ne gl h tell.s these people a wh o1 e hI' story s ance ·a t t e rastro amme the track of a tho d h · upposmg they ex-usan orses th ill by seeing how many have cantered t' ey w soon guess the depth of the other im . he number of men ; by I . presswns, wheth h oaded with cargoes . b th . . er any orses were h . ' Y e Irregu.lanty f th £ ow far tired · by the . 0 ' manner m which th £ e ootsteps' cooked, whether the pu rsue d travelled i e ho od has been general appearance' how l ong I't h as be n· aste ; by the They consider a rastro of t d en smce they passed. en ays or £ · recent enough to be h t d a ortmght, quite . un e out W 1 Muanda struck from th . e a so heard that . . e west end of th s· m a duect line to the island of Chol e . Ierra V entana, leagues up the Rio N Th' . eche!, Situated seventy egro. IS IS a di t two and three hundred mI'l e s, thr ouo-h a. cs antc e of between unknown. What other tro . h o oun ry completely dent ? With the sun fo t~p~ m ~ e world are so indepentheir saddle-cloths for br d eir gmde, mares' flesh for food, water, these men would e s,t-as long as there is a little A£ d pene rate to the land's end ew ays afterwards I saw anoth . ditti-like soldiers start on an exped1. t~ r· troop· of these ban- Indians at the small r IOn agamst a tribe of prisoner caci ue T sa mas~ who had been betrayed by a this expeditio~ ~as ahe Sp~marll~ who brought the orders for very mte 1gent H account of the last man. e gave me an Some Ind' h engagement at which he was present Ians, w o had been tak . . tion of a tr'b 1· · en pnsoners, gave informa- . I e Ivmg north of the Colorad T soldiers were sent. and th . o. wo hundred a cloud of dust fro~ their ~y firs; discovered the Indians by travelling Th orses feet, as they chanced to be · e country w · must have been far in th . a: ~ountamous and ~ild, and it sight Th I d' e m enor, for the Cordillera was in one h· undreed n Ida nts' m.e n ' wo men, an d ch I' ldren, were about an en m number, and they were nearly all |