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Show 122 BAHIA BLANCA. Aug. 1833. ried away by the Indians when young, and could now only speak the Indian tongue. From their a~coun~, they must have come from Salta, a distance in a straight h~e of nearly one thousand miles. This giv~s one a grand Idea of the immense territory over which the Indians roam: yet, great as I't I. s, I thI'n k there will not' in another half-century,. be a wild Indian northward of the Rio Negro. The ~arfare IS too bloody to last ; the Christians killing every In?Ian, and the Indians doing the same by the Christians. It IS melanch?ly to trace how the Indians have given way before the Spamsh invaders. Schirdel* says, that in 1535, when Buenos Ayres was founded, there were villages containing .two and three thousand inhabitants. Even in Falconer's time (l7 50) ~he Indians made inroads as far as Lucan, ArecC', and ArreCife, but now they are driven beyond the Salado. Not only .h~ve whole tribes been wholly exterminated, but the remammg Indians have become more barbarous: instead of living in large villages, and being employed in the arts of fishing~ as well as of the chase, they now wander about the open plams, without home or fixed occupation. I heard also some account of an engagement which took place, a few weeks previously to the o~e mentioned, at Cholechel. This is a very important station, on account of being a pass for horses ; and it was, in consequence, for some time the head-quarters of a division of the army· When the troops first arrived there, they found a tribe of Indians of whom they killed twenty or thirty. The cacique escaped in a manner which astonished every one. The chief Indians always have one or two picked horses, which they keep ready for any urgent occasion. On one ?f th~se, a.n old white horse, the cacique sprung, taking Wlth him his little son. The horse had neither saddle nor bridle. To avoid the shots, the Indian rode in the peculiar method of his nation; namely, with an arm round the horse's neck, and one leg only on its back. Thus hanging on one side, he was * Purchas's Collection of Voyages. Aug. 1833. I:\'DIANS. 123 seen patting the horse's head, and talking to him. The pursuers urged every effort in the chase; the Commandant three times changed his horse, but all in vain. The old Indian father and his son escaped, and were free. What a fine picture one can form in one's mind,-the naked bronze-like figure of the old ~an with his little boy, riding like a Mazeppa .o n the white horse, thus leaving far behind hI' m the host of h1s pursuers ! ~ saw .one da! a soldier striking fire with a piece of .flint, whiCh I Immediately recognised as having been a part of the head of an arrow. He told me it was found near the island of Cholechel, and that they are frequently picked up there. It. was between two and three inches long, and therefore twiCe as large as those now used in Tierra del Fuego: it 'Vas made of opake ~ream-coloured .flint, but the point and barbs had been mtentwnally broken off. It is well known that no Pampas Indians now use bows and arrows. I believe a small tr~be in Banda Oriental must be excepted ; but they are Widely separated from the Pampas Indians and border close on those tribes that inhabit the forest, and live on foot. It ap~ears, therefore~ that these arrow-heads are antiquarian* relics of the Indians, before the great change in habits consequent on the introduction of the horse into South America. * Azara has even doubted whether the Pampas Indians ever used bows. |