Spaniards, as all their ammunition, with the exception of a few
cartridges, was expended. In an instant the Indians mounted their
horses, and galloped out of sight. Another attack was still more
quickly repulsed. A cool Frenchman managed the gun; he stopped till the
Indians approached close, and then raked their line with grape-shot: he
thus laid thirty-nine of them on the ground; and, of course, such a
blow immediately routed the whole party.
The town is indifferently called El Carmen or Patagones. It is built on
the face of a cliff which fronts the river, and many of the houses are
excavated even in the sandstone. The river is about two or three
hundred yards wide, and is deep and rapid. The many islands, with
their willow-trees, and the flat headlands, seen one behind the other
on the northern boundary of the broad green valley, form, by the aid of
a bright sun, a view almost picturesque. The number of inhabitants
does not exceed a few hundreds. These Spanish colonies do not, like
our British ones, carry within themselves the elements of growth. Many
Indians of pure blood reside here: the tribe of the Cacique Lucanee
constantly have their Toldos [2] on the outskirts of the town. The
local government partly supplies them with provisions, by giving them
all the old worn-out horses, and they earn a little by making
horse-rugs and other articles of riding-gear. These Indians are
considered civilized; but what their character may have gained by a
lesser degree of ferocity, is almost counterbalanced by their entire
immorality. Some of the younger men are, however, improving; they are
willing to labour, and a short time since a party went on a
sealing-voyage, and behaved very well. They were now enjoying the
fruits of their labour, by being dressed in very gay, clean clothes,
and by being very idle. The taste they showed in their dress was
admirable; if you could have turned one of these young Indians into a
statue of bronze, his drapery would have been perfectly graceful.
One day I rode to a large salt-lake, or Salina, which is distant
fifteen miles from the town. During the winter it consists of a
shallow lake of brine, which in summer is converted into a field of
snow-white salt. The layer near the margin is from four to five inches
thick, but towards the centre its thickness increases. This lake was
two and a half miles long, and one broad. Others occur in the
neighbourhood many times larger, and with a floor of salt, two and
three feet in thickness, even when under water during the winter. One
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