With the World's Great Travellers Volume I Part 17

I had left this shocking scene but a few yards when a fine boy of about twelve years of age, that had hitherto escaped, came up to me, and begged that I would let him lay hold of me, so that he might stand some chance of getting out of the hands of the savages. I told him that I would give him every a.s.sistance in my power, and to this purpose bid him lay hold; but in a few moments he was torn from my side, and by his shrieks I judge was soon demolished. I could not help forgetting my own cares for a minute to lament the fate of so young a sufferer; but it was utterly impossible for me to take any methods to prevent it.

I now got once more into the midst of friends, but we were unable to afford each other any succor. As this was the division that had advanced the farthest from the fort, I thought there might be a possibility (though but a very bare one) of my forcing a way through the outer ranks of the Indians and getting to a neighboring wood, which I perceived at some distance. I was still encouraged to hope by the almost miraculous preservation I had already experienced.

Nor were my hopes vain or the efforts I made ineffectual. Suffice to say that I reached the wood, but by the time I had penetrated a little way into it my breath was so exhausted that I threw myself into a brake, and lay for some minutes apparently at the last gasp. At length I recovered power of respiration, but my apprehensions returned with all their former force when I saw several savages pa.s.s by, probably in pursuit of me, at no very great distance.

In this situation I knew not whether it was better to proceed or endeavor to conceal myself where I lay till night came on. Fearing, however, that they would return the same way, I thought it most prudent to get farther from the dreadful scene of my past distresses.

Accordingly, striking into another part of the wood, I hastened on as fast as the briers and the loss of one of my shoes would permit me, and, after a slow progress of some hours, gained a hill that overlooked the plain which I had just left, from whence I could discern that the b.l.o.o.d.y storm still raged with unabated fury.

But not to tire my readers, I shall only add that after pa.s.sing three days without subsistence, and enduring the severity of the cold dews for three nights, I at length reached Fort Edward; where with proper care my body soon recovered its wonted strength and my mind, as far as the recollection of the late melancholy events would permit, its usual composure.

It was computed that fifteen hundred persons were killed or made prisoners by these savages during this fatal day. Many of the latter were carried off by them and never returned. A few, through favorable accidents, found their way back to their native country after having experienced a long and severe captivity.

The brave Colonel Munro had hastened away, soon after the confusion began, to the French camp to endeavor to procure the guard agreed by the stipulation; but his application proving ineffectual, he remained there till General Webb sent a party of troops to demand and protect him back to Fort Edward. But these unhappy occurrences, which would probably have been prevented had he been left to pursue his own plans, together with the loss of so many brave fellows, murdered in cold blood, to whose valor he had so lately been a witness, made such an impression on his mind that he did not long survive. He died in about three months of a broken heart, and with truth might it be said that he was an honor to his country.

THE GAUCHO AND HIS HORSE.

THOMAS J. HUTCHINSON.

[Among the skilled hors.e.m.e.n of the earth the gaucho of the plains of Argentina bears pre-eminence. The cow-boy of our Western plains somewhat nearly approaches him, but the cow-boy is only a pa.s.sing accident, not an inst.i.tution, like the gaucho, who will still flourish on his native soil when the cow-boy has ceased to be. Hutchinson's "Buenos Ayres and Argentine Gleanings" gives us a well-limned picture of this interesting individual, to which we owe the following selection.]

I can hardly consider myself presumptuous in believing that few travellers who have made an ascent of the Parana for the first time have done so with a more agreeable impression of its beauty than I experienced. The only drawback connected with this pleasure is the consciousness of being unable fully to describe it. My readers will, however, be indulgent enough to give me credit for an effort to do my best.

Our water-way in the little steamer "Dolorcitas," after leaving Buenos Ayres, was through one of the narrow pa.s.sages that are the boundaries of islets, higher up than, as well as parallel with, the island of Martin Garcia. As we steam along and pa.s.s the estancias of wealthy farmers, I observe on the banks hundreds of cows, large troops of horses, and flocks of sheep, in numbers sufficient to puzzle even the calculating Pedder. There are very few wild trees to be seen, except on the highlands an occasional specimen of the Ombu or Algaroba species.

The residences are invariably surrounded by groves or shrubberies of peach-trees. The physical aspect of the islands is quite flat, and until we advance a few hundred miles there is no elevation above a few feet close to the river's side. Now and then--as, for example, when pa.s.sing through the creek called the "Baradero"--I catch a glimpse of high land, on part of which there is a convent or chapel; but the whole country is uncultivated, except in isolated patches near the compounds of the tillers.

Flocks of wild duck and snipe are seen in abundance; wild turkeys likewise, with occasionally a group of flamingoes, whose scarlet plumage forms a strikingly dazzling object in the bright sunshine. Indeed, birds of various kinds are about us everywhere. Pa.s.sing through one of these island pa.s.sages, you see strewing the banks on the mainland side the skeletons of cows and horses, while other poor brutes are lying in the agonies of death; for the mud at the extreme edge of the water is too soft to support them; hence, when they go down to drink, they are swamped in its sponginess, and must therefore remain to die.

Steaming on, we pa.s.s or meet several small river-craft engaged in the coasting-trade between Montevideo, Buenos Ayres, and the towns up the river, until we land at an estancia, where cows, horses, and sheep are bred and nurtured: the cows and bullocks chiefly for the hides and meat, disposed of as already described at a saladero; sheep for their wool; while horses are reared for every possible purpose, and are turned to use whether alive or dead.

Horses dead! Their skins are tanned; the grease of the mare's body is used for light, and for many oleaginous purposes. Close to one of our towns is a rancho or hut belonging to a brick-maker, and there, between his door and the kiln, is an immense pile--as high as an ordinary house--of dead horses, whose bodies are to be used for burning the bricks. Mares' tongues, preserved, are sold in the market as luxuries; hoofs, skulls, shank, thigh, and other bones of the animal, as well as the hair of the mane and tail, are exported hence to England, America, and other places across the sea in large quant.i.ties. At the saladeros, too, they slaughter mares in hundreds for their hides and grease, the operation being conducted by crunching the animal's skull with a mallet, after it has been brought to the ground by means of a la.s.so thrown round the feet. One can scarcely travel a mile through the camp without seeing a dead horse somewhere.

Horses alive! At many stations on the river they fish on horseback, by riding into a considerable depth of water and throwing a peculiar kind of net, which is drawn back to the sh.o.r.e by the horse. Our letters are delivered at the door by a rat-tat in regular English style from the postman, who is on horseback. The daily journal is brought to us by a cavalier, who hands it in without dismounting; even a beggar-man rides up every Sat.u.r.day to solicit _Una limosna por el amor de Dios_, and he has a license from the police in the shape of a piece of branded wood suspended round his neck. The aristocracy of beggary is evident in this fellow, too; for on one occasion, being offered cold meat and bread by my servant, he rode off, indignantly saying he wanted money to buy cigarritos.

_Horses making bricks!_ Ay, incredible as it may appear, there are the very animals which dragged the dead bodies of their brethren to be made fuel of at the brick-kilns before mentioned, now driven round and round in a circus, tramping into malleable mud clay and water mixed together, and doing everything in the brick-making except the moulding.

_Horses threshing corn!_ Here at our friend's estancia I see another large circus, styled a _hera_, in which are placed several sheaves of wheat, and into this are turned fifteen to twenty horses; a mounted man goes in also, and drives these animals with whip and yell round the circus until all the corn is threshed by their tramping.

_Horses churning b.u.t.ter!_ A novel sort of thing it is to see a bag made of hides, into which the milk is put when it is turned sufficiently sour; this bag, fastened to a long strip of rope-hide, is attached at the other end to the leather girth which is round the horse's body; the latter is then mounted by a gaucho, and ridden at a hard pace over the camp for a sufficient length of time to secure the making of the b.u.t.ter, by b.u.mping the milk-bag against the ground.

A gaucho without his steed is an impracticability. To move his furniture, consisting of beds, chairs, tables, crockery, or hardware, the horse's back is fitted to the burden. Coffins are conveyed to the burying-ground by being strapped transversely on a horse's loins; and one would scarcely be surprised to hear of a specimen of the semi-centaur under consideration going asleep or cooking his dinner on horseback, more especially with the picture before us of a dentist operating on a poor fellow's grinders, the patient and his physician being both mounted.

No crusader of olden time could have borne himself more proudly at the head of a gallant regiment bound to the Holy Land than does the gaucho, who guides a troop of twenty to thirty carretas, each drawn by six bullocks, across the Pampas to Cordova or Mendoza. On his saddle, chiefly made of untanned horse-hide and sheep-skin, he sits with the consciousness that he is the horse's master. Indeed, it is rarely that the real gaucho puts his foot in a stirrup,--for practical purposes of riding never,--as it is only on state occasions that he uses them.

Stirrups made in this country are of a triangular form, of iron or silver, with the base fabricated after the fashion of a filigree cruet-stand, though on a diminutive scale. At the museum in Buenos Ayres I saw some of these triangular stirrups that were described as having been brought from Paraguay, made from hard wood, so large, clumsy, and heavy as to const.i.tute in themselves a load for a horse. With such heavy stirrups it may be imagined what a weight the gaucho's horse has to bear, when we consider the component parts of the saddle or recado.

[This saddle is a very complex affair, made up of layers of sheep-skin, carpet, cow-hide, woollen cloth, etc., too intricate to be here described. It consists in all of twelve separate parts.]

The skill and endurance of the gaucho in the management of horses is very remarkable. One of these men is reported to have stood on the transverse bar, which crosses over the gate of the corral, and dropped down upon the back of a horse, while the animal, in company with several others, without bridle or saddle, was at full gallop out of the enclosure. What made the feat more adroit was the fact of his having permitted a looker-on to select the horse for him to bestride before the whole lot were driven out. The endurance of the gaucho is also striking; and I have been told of a man, well known at Buenos Ayres, having ridden a distance of seventy leagues--that is to say, two hundred and ten miles--in one day to that city.

Senor Don Carlos Hurtado, of Buenos Ayres, informs me that the great gaucho game, in which the famous Rosas was most proficient, was what is called _el pialar_,--that is, catching horses by la.s.soing their feet (the ordinary mode of doing this round the neck is called _enlaser_).

Two lines of hors.e.m.e.n, each from ten to twenty in number, are placed at distances so far apart as to allow a mounted gaucho to pa.s.s between them. This man is to gallop as fast as he can from one end to the other,--in fact, to run the gauntlet. Every horseman in the lines between which he pa.s.ses is furnished with a la.s.so. As he gallops up to the end of the line the first la.s.so is thrown; should it miss him, the second is cast, and so on. The dexterity evidenced by the watchfulness of men able to throw in such rapid succession after a horse which is galloping, whilst they are standing, is truly expert. At length the horse is pinned, and down he falls as if he were shot. And now the activity of the gaucho is displayed, for he comes on his feet without any injury, smoking his cigarette as coolly as when he lighted it at the starting-post.

The original popularity of Rosas was founded on his gaucho dexterity.

The game of _el pato_ is performed by sewing a cooked duck into a piece of hide, leaving a leather point at each end for the hand to grasp. This play having been in former times limited in its carousal to the feast of St. John (or San Juan), a gaucho took it up. Whoever is the smartest secures the duck, and gallops away to any house where he knows a woman residing who bears the name of Juana,--Joan I suppose she would be called in English. It is an established rule that the lady of this name should give a four-real piece (_i.e._, one shilling and sixpence), either with the original duck returned or another equally complete. Then away he gallops to another house where lives a maiden of the name of Leonora, followed by a troop of his gaucho colleagues, trying to snap the duck-bag out of his hand. With it, of course, must be delivered up the four-real piece in the best of good humor. Falls and broken legs have often been the result of this game.

_Juego de la sortija_ is a cla.s.s of sport played by having a small finger-ring fastened under a gibbet, beneath which a gaucho gallops, and tries to tilt off the ring with a skewer which he holds in his hand.

This is done for a prize.

The salutation between two gauchos--even though they be the best of friends--who have not met for a long time is prefixed by a pa.s.s of arms with their knives. The conduct of these men is in general marked by sobriety, but when the "patron" pays them their wages they often buy a dozen of brandy or of gin, and this is all drunk, or spilled in drinking, by one man at a single sitting.

It often happens in the gaucho communities that some one gains a reputation for bravery. To prove his courage, this hero goes to a _pulperia_, with a bottle in one hand and a knife in the other, stands at the door, and turns out all the occupants. One gaucho in the north and another in the south hear of each other's bravery, obtain a meeting, and, after returning compliments, draw out their knives and fight to the death.

The gaucho dress is peculiar,--a poncho, which is placed over the head by a hole in the centre, and which falls over the body to the hips. This is often of a very gay pattern, especially on Sundays and holidays. The lower garment is a curious combination of bedgown and Turkish trousers, named _calzoncillos_; it is bordered by a fringe, sometimes of rich lace, from two to six inches in depth. Enormous spurs form part of the toilette. I saw a pair on a gaucho at the estancia of my friend Dr.

Perez that measured seven inches in diameter. These were of a larger size than those mentioned by Mr. Darwin in his "Journal of Researches,"

describing the "Beagle's" voyage round the world, and which he saw in Chile, measuring six inches in the same direction as aforesaid. The boots for working purposes are made of untanned hide, but those for holiday dress are often of patent leather with bright scarlet tops.

Many of the gauchos wear purple or yellow handkerchiefs over their heads, inside the sombrero, and others have wide belts around their bodies, that are glistening with silver dollars tacked on. The costume of a gaucho is, however, only complete when he is on horseback with the _bolas_, the _la.s.so_, and a knife at his girdle. The bolas consists of two b.a.l.l.s, which are fastened at the end of two short leathern ropes, and thrown by means of another short thong,--all three being secured together,--when they are whirled round the head of the thrower before propulsion, which is so efficaciously managed as to bring down at once the horse or cow in whose legs they get entangled.

Mr. Prescott, in his admirable work on the "History and Conquest of Peru," when alluding to the attack made by the Peruvians on their ancient capital Cuzco, then (A.D. 1535) occupied by the Spanish invaders under Pizarro, writes thus of the la.s.so: "One weapon peculiar to South American warfare was used to some effect by the Peruvians. This was the la.s.so,--a long rope with a noose at the end, which they adroitly threw over the rider, or entangled with it the legs of his horse, so as to bring them both to the ground. More than one family fell into the hands of the enemy by this expedient." The knowledge of the weapon was therefore, in all probability, derived from this quarter.

The horse-riding of the Chaco Indians, even in our day, surpa.s.ses that of the gaucho. Fancy a troop of horses, apparently riderless, galloping at full speed, yet each of these animals is managed by a man who, with one arm over the neck of his brute, and with his other hand guiding a bridle as well as grasping a lance, supports the whole weight of his body by the back of the feet near the toes, clinging on the horse's spine above his loins,--the rider's body being thus extended, under cover of the steed's side. As quick as thought he is up and standing on the horse's back with a war-cry of defiance,--although, according to Captain Page, U.S.N., never flinging away his javelin, for with him it must be a hand-to-hand fight,--whilst with equal rapidity he is down again, so as to be protected by the body of the horse, which is all the time in full gallop.

Mr. Coghlan, C.E., and now attached to the Buenos Ayres government, writes of those whom he saw when exploring the Salado del Norte: "The riding of the Indians is wonderful. The gauchos even give their horses some preliminary training; but the Indian catches him (of course with the la.s.so), throws him down, forces a wooden bit into his mouth, with a piece of hide binds it fast to the lower jaw, and rides him. I have seen a man at the full gallop of his horse put his hand on the mane and jump forward on his feet, letting the animal go on without a check, merely to put his hand to something."

VALPARAISO AND ITS VICINITY.

CHARLES DARWIN.

[It is doubtful if there exists a more interesting work of scientific travel than Darwin's "Journal of Researches into the Natural History and Geology of the Countries visited during the Voyage Round the World, of H. M. S. Beagle." Nothing of scientific interest and value seems to have missed the eyes of the indefatigable explorer, and he has described what he saw in so lucid and agreeable a style as to make his work a veritable cla.s.sic of travel and research. We give here his description of Valparaiso and the adjoining country.]

_July 23._--The "Beagle" anch.o.r.ed late at night in the bay of Valparaiso, the chief seaport of Chile. When morning came everything appeared delightful. After Tierra del Fuego the climate felt quite delicious,--the atmosphere so dry, and the heavens so clear and blue with the sun shining brightly, that all nature seemed sparkling with life. The view from the anchorage is very pretty. The town is built at the very foot of a range of hills, about sixteen hundred feet high and rather steep. From its position it consists of one long, straggling street, which runs parallel to the beach, and wherever a ravine comes down the houses are piled up on each side of it. The rounded hills, being only partially protected by a very scanty vegetation, are worn into numberless little gullies, which expose a singularly bright red soil. From this cause, and from the low whitewashed houses with tile roofs, the view reminded me of St. Cruz in Teneriffe.

In a northeasterly direction there are some fine glimpses of the Andes; but these mountains appear much grander when viewed from the neighboring hills; the great distance at which they are situated can then more readily be perceived. The volcano of Aconcagua is particularly magnificent. This huge and irregularly conical ma.s.s has an elevation greater than that of Chimborazo; for, from measurements made by officers of the "Beagle," its height is no less than twenty-three thousand feet.

The Cordillera, however, viewed from this point, owe the greater part of their beauty to the atmosphere through which they are seen. When the sun was setting in the Pacific, it was admirable to watch how clearly their rugged outlines could be distinguished, yet how varied and how delicate were the shades of their color.

The immediate neighborhood of Valparaiso is not very productive to the naturalist. During the long summer the wind blows steadily from the southward, and a little off sh.o.r.e, so that rain never falls; during the three winter months, however, it is sufficiently abundant. The vegetation in consequence is very scanty: except in some deep valleys there are no trees, and only a little gra.s.s and a few low bushes are scattered over the less steep parts of the hills. When we reflect that at the distance of three hundred and fifty miles to the south this side of the Andes is completely hidden by one impenetrable forest, the contrast is very remarkable.

I took several long walks while collecting objects of natural history.

The country is pleasant for exercise. There are many very beautiful flowers; and, as in most other dry climates, the plants and shrubs possess strong and peculiar odors,--even one's clothes in brushing through them became scented. I did not cease from wonder at finding each succeeding day as fine as the foregoing. What a difference does climate make in the enjoyment of life! How opposite are the sensations when viewing black mountains half enveloped in clouds, and seeing another range through the light blue haze of a fine day! The one for a time may be very sublime; the other is all gayety and happy life.