was taken to General Rosas, who sent me a very obliging message; and
the Secretary returned all smiles and graciousness. We took up our
residence in the _rancho_, or hovel, of a curious old Spaniard, who had
served with Napoleon in the expedition against Russia.
We stayed two days at the Colorado; I had little to do, for the
surrounding country was a swamp, which in summer (December), when the
snow melts on the Cordillera, is over-flowed by the river. My chief
amusement was watching the Indian families as they came to buy little
articles at the rancho where we stayed. It was supposed that General
Rosas had about six hundred Indian allies. The men were a tall, fine
race, yet it was afterwards easy to see in the Fuegian savage the same
countenance rendered hideous by cold, want of food, and less
civilization. Some authors, in defining the primary races of mankind,
have separated these Indians into two classes; but this is certainly
incorrect. Among the young women or chinas, some deserve to be called
even beautiful. Their hair was coarse, but bright and black; and they
wore it in two plaits hanging down to the waist. They had a high
colour, and eyes that glistened with brilliancy; their legs, feet, and
arms were small and elegantly formed; their ankles, and sometimes their
wrists, were ornamented by broad bracelets of blue beads. Nothing
could be more interesting than some of the family groups. A mother
with one or two daughters would often come to our rancho, mounted on
the same horse. They ride like men, but with their knees tucked up
much higher. This habit, perhaps, arises from their being accustomed,
when travelling, to ride the loaded horses. The duty of the women is
to load and unload the horses; to make the tents for the night; in
short to be, like the wives of all savages, useful slaves. The men
fight, hunt, take care of the horses, and make the riding gear. One of
their chief indoor occupations is to knock two stones together till
they become round, in order to make the bolas. With this important
weapon the Indian catches his game, and also his horse, which roams
free over the plain. In fighting, his first attempt is to throw down
the horse of his adversary with the bolas, and when entangled by the
fall to kill him with the chuzo. If the balls only catch the neck or
body of an animal, they are often carried away and lost. As the making
the stones round is the labour of two days, the manufacture of the
balls is a very common employment. Several of the men and women had
their faces painted red, but I never saw the horizontal bands which are
so common among the Fuegians. Their chief pride consists in having
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