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Show 120 BAHIA BLANCA. Aug. 1833. taken or killed, for the soldi· ers sab re ev ery m. an. Th. e Indians are now so terrified, that they offer. no r~sistance ~n a body, but each flies, neglecting even ~Is wife and children; but when overtaken, like wild ammals, ~hey fi~ht agam. s t any numb er to the last moment. One dymdg I11n diand Sei.Z e d W.i t h.h l.S t ee th the thumb of his advers. ary,. an a. owe l n.s own eye t o be forced out' sooner than relinqms· h his holidf . Another, who was wounded, feigned dea~h, keepmg. a kn e rea d y t o s t n' ke on e more fatal blow · My mformer said, when h e was pursum· g an Indian , the man cried out for mercy, a. t the same time that he was covertly loosing the bolas f~om h~s wa·i st , meanm· g to whirl it round his head and so stnke his pursuer. "I however struck him with my .sabre to ~he ground, and then got off my horse, and cut his throat with my knife." This is a dark picture; but how much more shocking is the unquestionable fact, that all the women who appear above twenty years old, are massacred i~ cold blood. When I exclaimed that this appeared rather mhuman, he answered," Why, what can be done? they .b~eed so!" . Every one here is fully convinced that this IS the m~st JU.st war because it is against barbarians. Who would behev.e. m this age in a Christian civilized country, that such atrocities were co~mittcd ? The children of the Indians are saved, to be sold or given away as servants, or rather slaves, _£or ~s long a time as the owners can deceive them; but I beheve m this respect there is little to complain of. In the battle four men ran away together. They were pursued, and one was killed, but the other three were taken alive. They turned out to be messengers or ambassadors from a large body of Indians, united in the common cause of defence near the Cordillera. The tribe to which they had been s~nt was on the point of holding a grand council;' t~e feast of mare's flesh was ready, and the dance prepared: m the morning the ambassadors were to have returned to the Cordillera. They were remarkably fine men, very fair, above six feet high, and all under thirty years of age. The three survivors of course possessed very valuable information; and Aug. 1833. INDIANS. 121 = :. to extort this they were placed in a line. The two first being questioned, answered, "No se" (I do not know), and were one after the other shot. The third also said "N 0 se ·" adding, "Fire, I am a .m.an, and can die!" Not one syllabie would they breathe to InJure the united cause of their country ! ~he . conduct of the cacique was very different : he saved ~Is hfe b! b~traying the intended plan of warfare, and the pomt of umon m the Andes. It was believed that there ~ere . already six or seven hundred Indians together, and t at m summer their numbers would be doubled. Ambassa~ ors were to have been sent to the Indians at the small sah.nas, ne~r Bahia Blanca, whom I mentioned that a c.a cique, this same man, had betrayed · The co mmum·c a-tlon, therefore, extends from the Cordillera to the east coast. .General Rosa.s's plan is to kill all stragglers, and having dnven ~he remamder to a common point, in the summer, with the ass1stance of the Chilenos, to attack them in a b d Th' t' . b o y. . IS o~era 10n IS to e. repeated for three successive years. I Imagme the summer IS chosen as the time for the main att~ck, because the plains are then without water, and the Indians ca~ only travel in particular directions. The escape of the Indians to the south of the Rio Negro, where in such a vast un~nown country they would be safe, is prevented by a treaty wtth the Tehuelches to this effect;-that Rosas pays them so much to slaughter every Indian who passes to the south of the river, but if they fail in so doing, they themselves are to ~e exterminated. The war is waged chiefly against the Indians near the Cordillera; for many of the tribes on this ~astern side are fighting with Rosas. The general, however, hke Lord Chesterfield, thinking that his friends may in a future day become his enemies, always places them in the fron.t ranks, so that their numbers may be thinned. Since leavmg South America we have heard that this war of extermination completely failed. Among the captive girls taken in the same engagement, there were two very pretty Spanish ones, who had been car- |