FOOTNOTES:
[27] The only authentic notice which I believe has as yet appeared of this important voyage is the very brief one attached to the "Collection of Astronomical Observations by Spanish Navigators," published by Don José Espinosa, chief of the Hydrographical Department of Madrid, in 1809.
[28] Carta esferica de la parte interior de la America Meridional para manifestar el camino que conduce desde Valparaiso à Buenos Ayres construida por las observaciones astronomicas que hicieron en estas partes en 1794 Don José de Espinosa y Don Felipe Bauza, Oficiales de la Real Armada—en la direccion hidrografica, año 1810.
[29] Position of Melinqué fixed by Azara, lat. 33° 42´ 24", long. from Buenos Ayres 3° 30´ 38".
[30] Neuquen or Nehuen signifies the rapid river, according to Angelis.
[31] Although in the copy of Crux's MS. in my possession, as well as in Señor de Angelis's collection, the name of this river is written Cobu-leubú; I suspect it to be an erroneous writing for Colu-leubú, which signifies the great river. I believe this the more, as I find that people who have journeyed south from Mendoza speak of it (at least of what I suppose to be the upper part of the same river) as the Rio Grande.
[32] The track laid down on the map from Fort San Rafael along the northern bank of the Diamante, to its junction with the Desaguadero, and thence southward into the Indian territory, was fixed by compass, and given me by Dr. Gillies.
[33] An estimate, annexed to his journal, of the expenses which he calculated would be requisite to make the road he had passed practicable for carriages the whole way from Antuco to Buenos Ayres, made them amount to no more than 46,000 Spanish dollars.
[34] Captain Fitzroy says that no less than four volcanoes, now in activity, may be seen from Chile.
[35] If coal really exist at the sources of the Neuquen, which he says is navigable to the sea, it is impossible to calculate on the extent of its future influence upon the prosperity of the neighbouring provinces whenever the people shall open their eyes to the power of steam-navigation. As yet, it would appear as if the people of Mendoza and San Luis had as little idea of the use even of a canoe as the Indians themselves, otherwise it seems hardly credible that the Spaniards should never have made the slightest attempt to send a boat down any one of these rivers.
[36] Pehuen signifies a pine-tree.
CHAPTER IX.
PROGRESS OF INLAND DISCOVERY.
Ignorance of the Buenos Ayreans respecting the lands south of the Salado previously in their Independence. Colonel Garcia's expedition to the Salt Lakes in 1810. The Government of Buenos Ayres endeavours to bring about an arrangement with the Indians for a new boundary. Their warlike demonstrations render futile this attempt. March of an army to the Tandil, and erection of a Fort there. Some account of that part of the country. The coast as far as Bahia Blanca examined, and extension of the frontier-line as far as that point. The hostility of the Indians makes it necessary to carry the war into the heart of their Territories. General Rosas rescues from them 1500 Christian captives. Detachments of his army occupy the Choleechel, and follow the courses of the River Negro and of the Colorado till in sight of the Cordillera.
Having given some account of the explorations of the Old Spaniards beyond Buenos Ayres, I shall now proceed to state what has been done by their successors since their independence. It is inconceivable the ignorance which, up to a very recent period, existed amongst even the higher classes of the people of Buenos Ayres respecting the Indian territories which immediately bounded their own lands to the southward. It is indeed only by a laborious investigation of the history of their frontiers, and of the steps taken from time to time to advance them, that we can even now obtain any tolerable notion of the physical features of that part of the continent. This, however, is worth the trouble, as it will furnish materials for laying down a considerable portion of country hitherto most imperfectly and erroneously described in all existing maps.
One of the first attempts made by the Independents to acquire accurate data respecting the country to the south of the Salado appears to have been in 1810, on the occasion of one of the periodical expeditions to the great salt lakes in the south. Those expeditions formed a singular exception to the ordinary supineness and indisposition of the Spaniards to cross their own frontiers. They consisted of large convoys of waggons dispatched under direction of the municipal authorities to collect salt for the yearly supply of the city, escorted by a military force to protect them from the Indians. Of their apparent importance some idea may be formed from one, of which an account has been preserved, and which took place during the time of the Viceroy Vertiz, in 1778, composed of 600 waggons, with 12,000 bullocks, and 2600 horses, and nearly 1000 men to load them, besides an escort of 400 soldiers. The Indians, on these occasions, were propitiated by suitable presents, and, as the caravans never deviated from their object, they became habituated to them, and, instead of regarding them with jealousy, in general rather looked forward with eagerness for the annual tribute in the shape of presents which the Spaniards were ready to pay them for an unmolested passage across their territories. They even lent the people their assistance at the salt-lakes to load their waggons in exchange for beads and baubles from Buenos Ayres.
The Viceroy occasionally attached some pieces of artillery to the troops, and generally availed himself of the opportunity to make a salutary display amongst the savages of the military discipline and power of the Spanish soldiers, which no doubt had its due effect; but no one thought of turning these expeditions to any further account:—they never departed from the same direct and beaten track across the pampas, and not the slightest pains were taken to collect any further information respecting the country beyond, at least in the time of the Old Spanish rule.
The members of the National Government, set up in 1810, were animated by a different spirit: they foresaw with the dawn of their new destinies the prospect of their becoming a commercial people, and the consequent necessity of giving such encouragement to the extension of their pastoral establishments as would tend to the multiplication of the staple commodities of the country. The extension of their frontiers, and their due protection by military posts were consequently among the first objects of their attention; and when the annual expedition to the Salinas was about to set out, they took care to select an officer for the command of it qualified to reconnoitre the country and to collect such information as might assist them in determining upon their future plans for an extension of their territorial jurisdiction.
Colonel Garcia, the officer in question, had previously seen much of the Indians on the coast of Patagonia. He was of a conciliatory disposition, and was on many other accounts eminently qualified for the task committed to him. From the diary of his expedition, which is in my possession, it appears that the caravan or convoy placed under his charge, on this occasion, consisted of 234 waggons, with 2927 bullocks, and 520 horses attached to them. His attendants, including soldiers, were 407: they had also two field-pieces with them. Nor was this considered a large party, compared with former expeditions with the same object; indeed Garcia soon found to his cost that his force was hardly sufficient to secure him common respect from some of the many Indian Caciques, who, from the time of his leaving the frontier fort of Cruz de Guerra to his arrival at the Salinas, successively besieged him with their importunities for presents, especially of tobacco and spirits, and kept him in continual alarm lest they should attempt to carry off by force what they could not obtain by other means. Each who presented himself called himself master of the lands they were passing through, and expected corresponding presents to purchase his permission to pass forward. Nor was this the worst: it appeared that something had given rise amongst the Indians to a suspicion of the ulterior objects of the Buenos Ayreans; and, under an impression that they projected a forcible settlement in their lands, the Ranqueles tribes from the plains south of San Luis and Mendoza, under their principal Cacique Carripilum (the same spoken of in the foregoing chapter), had collected their forces with the secret determination to endeavour to cut off the whole party. Fortunately the fidelity of some of the Puelches, or Eastern tribes, who hate and are continually at variance with the Ranqueles, enabled Garcia to discover and disconcert their hostile plans, and finally, though with considerable difficulty and danger, to accomplish his object, and return with his convoy of salt-carts in safety to Buenos Ayres.
Amongst the results of this expedition was the determination by observation of seventeen points along the line of road from the Guardia de Luxan, in lat. 34° 39´, long. west of Buenos Ayres 1° 2´, to the Great Salt Lake in lat. 37° 13´, long. west of Buenos Ayres 4° 51´;[37] the whole distance travelled being 97 leagues, or, adding 24 for that from Luxan to the capital, 121 from Buenos Ayres. The journey out occupied 23 days, and the return 25; altogether the party was absent just two months, viz., from the 21st of October to the 21st of December.
The only features which seem worthy of remark along the road are the numerous lakes, which appear to be the collections of the streams from the western ramifications of the Sierra Ventana; the most considerable of which is the Laguna del Monte, in lat. 36° 53´, long. from Buenos Ayres 3° 57´; its name, the Lake of the Wood, is taken from a large island upon it covered with fine timber; it is formed by the river Guamini, and other streams from the mountain group so called; its width was estimated to be three or four leagues, and in the rainy season it forms one with the lakes of Paraguayos, extending more than seven leagues to the south-west.
Although, the Laguna del Monte was salt, it was observed that the waters of some of the smaller lakes in its immediate vicinity were perfectly sweet. The same observation was made at the Salinas; the sweetest water was abundant in the immediate vicinity of the Great Salt Lake.
Shortly before reaching the lake of Paraguayos, the Sierra de la Ventana and its ramification, the Guamini, were seen and particularly observed: the Sierra Guamini bore south 15° east, and the Ventana south-east a quarter east. There they were met by several of the best-disposed of the Caciques and their followers, who supplied them with cattle in exchange for the articles they had with them. They accompanied them to the Salinas, which they reached two days afterwards; and to them they owed their protection from the hostile Renqueles and Carripilum, whose treachery they discovered and exposed.
Speaking of the character of these Indians, Garcia says they are remarkable alike for their cowardice as for their ferocity: their warfare is a system of continual deceit and treachery, and their stolen victories are always signalized by savage cruelties. Nothing could exceed their submissive obsequiousness to the Spaniards from the moment they knew they had an intimation of their hostile intentions, and were upon their guard against them. The prevailing vice amongst them all, even the best of them, is drunkenness,—the Caciques set the example upon every occasion; and it is seldom that their orgies end without the loss of lives, for in their cups they are always quarrelsome:—then the slightest offence is remembered, and they draw their knives, wounding and killing one another, and falling upon all, even their nearest relations, who would attempt to restrain them. Of all the Indians the Ranqueles are the worst:—they may be called the bush-rangers of the pampas:—if they cannot rob the Spaniards they will make war upon the other tribes, to carry off their horses and cattle. The Puelches, on the contrary, or eastern people, at that time settled about the Salinas and the mountains towards the coast, were found to be more peaceably disposed: they were the possessors of large herds and flocks of their own, and the manufacturers of many articles in demand amongst the Spaniards, such as ponchos, skin-cloaks, bridles, and feather-brooms, which they used to sell to them at Buenos Ayres and on the frontiers.
The extent of the Great Salt Lake is not given, and Garcia says it was impossible to ride round it from the thick woods which lined its banks; but, from an eminence a little to the south, he got a general view of it, as well as of the country for a considerable distance. Looking towards the south, as far as he could see, was one immense level plain, covered with pasturage: to the eastward, in the distance, some woods were visible, which, he was told, extended to the hilly ranges of Guamini and La Ventana. On the opposite side, to the westward of the lake, was a vast forest of chañar, algaroba, and an infinite variety of other trees, which the Indians told him extended with little interruption for three days' journey in that direction; and they added the singular circumstance that, about a day and a half off in the midst of it, upon a hilly range of some extent, were to be seen the ruins of the brick buildings of some former inhabitants (antigua poblacion), though, as to who they might have been, or when they ceased to exist, they had not the smallest notion, neither had they any tradition which could throw light upon it. The fruit-trees, they said, which, had been planted there, had multiplied exceedingly, so that it was a great resort of the Indians in their journeys across the pampas, to gather figs, peaches, walnuts, and apples, and other fruits, of which there was an abundance for all that went there. Wild cattle also, they said, were in the surrounding forest, but they were not so accessible, and were difficult to follow up through the woods. Colonel Garcia hazards no conjecture as to who could have been the settlers in this secluded and remote spot, nor has any one else obtained since any further account of them. The age of the trees might perhaps throw some light upon the date of the buildings, and I imagine that the names alone of those I have mentioned are sufficient to indicate that they must have been of European introduction, and consequently that those who planted them must have done so subsequently to the discovery of that part of the world by the Spaniards. Nothing, I was told, existed at Buenos Ayres which could throw any light whatever upon the subject.
Had the practice continued of carrying on these expeditions, it is probable that the Buenos Ayreans would have become better acquainted with the southern part of the pampas; but, upon the opening of an unrestricted trade, the importation of salt from the Cape de Verd Islands and other countries rendered it unnecessary for the government to put itself to any expense about them; and, as individuals without the protection of the troops would not run the risk of encountering the Indians, the Salinas ceased to be resorted to, and the people of Buenos Ayres became reconciled to purchasing of foreigners an article of which they have an inexhaustible supply within their own territory.
Garcia proposed to the government to form a military settlement at the Salinas, to be the central point of a line of frontier to be drawn from the river Colorado across the pampas to Fort San-Rafael on the river Diamante, south of Mendoza. This he conceived would effectually check the depredations of the Ranqueles and their thievish associates, whilst the friendly and well-disposed Puelches Indians to the south, he was tolerably assured, would at that period have been glad to have been brought under the immediate protection of the government of Buenos Ayres. The principal Caciques of the latter were three brothers, from the vicinity of Valdivia, where in their early life they had learned to respect the Spaniards, and to appreciate the benefits of keeping up a friendly and well-regulated intercourse with them. Nowhere had the king's officers taken such pains to conciliate the native tribes as in Chile, and so well had that system of treating them answered, that, in the present case, these brothers declared there was nothing they desired more than the permanent establishment of a more intimate connexion between them and the people of Buenos Ayres, and that they would gladly place themselves and their followers under the immediate protection of the government.
But Garcia's plan embraced more than could be done at once by the rulers of Buenos Ayres; and partly, perhaps, on that account, and partly because all their disposable forces and means were shortly afterwards required to carry on the struggle for their independence, it was, with many other projects laid aside, and many years elapsed ere any further step was taken.
Nevertheless the results of their new political condition developed themselves, as was anticipated, and the increase of their trade led to the extension of their pastoral establishments. Although the government took no measures for their protection, the people of the country began to occupy the lands to the south of the Salado, which soon brought them into contact and collision with the Indians, who, on their part, looked with a very natural jealousy upon settlements planted without their concurrence on lands which from time immemorial they had been accustomed to consider as exclusively their own. The more peaceable tribes retired to the fastnesses in the mountains to the south, but the Ranqueles and other migratory hordes retaliated by carrying off the cattle and plundering those who had thus intruded themselves within their territories. In these marauding expeditions they were often joined by some of the vagabond gauchos, deserters from the army, and such wretches flying from the pursuit of justice as, in times of civil commotion especially, are to be found in all countries. By those unprincipled associates they were soon taught to look with less dread upon the fire-arms of the Buenos Ayrean militia, and even to use them, whenever, either by the murder or robbery of some defenceless estanciero, they fell into their hands. Nor was this the worst. During the unhappy civil dissensions which broke out between Buenos Ayres and the provinces, some of the unprincipled leaders of the reckless factions which divided the Republic sought alliances with the Indians,[38] the fatal consequences of which they only too late discovered. Like bloodhounds it was impossible to restrain them. When once the weakest points were shown them, they burst in upon the frontier villages, murdering in cold blood the defenceless and unprepared inhabitants, and carrying off the women and children into a slavery of the most horrible description.
It was manifest that the impunity with which these outrages were committed arose mainly from the total absence of any protection on the part of the government for those settlers who had advanced their estancias beyond the old forts within the line of the Salado, and the public voice called loudly for some prompt remedies for the evil, the most efficacious of which appeared to be the adoption of some one of the many plans from time to time proposed for a new line of military posts to cover the rural population south of that river; the hilly ranges of the Vuulcan, especially, seemed to present a natural frontier which it appeared only necessary to occupy to secure the object; but the information respecting all that part of the country was still exceedingly imperfect; and it was determined, therefore, in the first instance, to send out an exploratory expedition to examine them. This led to Colonel Garcia being again called upon to proceed to the south, with the double object of endeavouring to induce the Indians to enter into an arrangement with the government of Buenos Ayres for a new boundary as the basis of a general pacification, and of acquiring precise information as to the most eligible positions for the establishment of military posts in the hilly ranges in that direction.
The communications he had had twelve years before with the leading Caciques of the tribes inhabiting the country eastward of the Salinas led him vainly to hope that those tribes at least might be brought to acquiesce peaceably in the views of the government, and, provided they were left in possession of the lands they occupied in the vicinity of the Sierra Ventana, that they would not oppose the occupation by the Buenos Ayreans of the more northern line of the Vuulcan and Taudil; but Garcia was not aware of the great change which had taken place in the feelings and policy of the Indians, from a variety of circumstances, since his journey to the Salinas in 1810.
The messengers, however, sent forward to announce his mission were well received, and a respectable deputation, headed by Antiguan, one of their principal chiefs, was sent forward to meet and to conduct the ambassador and his suite to their toldos at the foot of the Sierra Ventana, where the Caciques of the Puelches proposed the negociations should be opened, promising to invite thither at the same time representatives from all the tribes of the Pampas, not excepting the Ranqueles, and the Huilliches or People of the South, inhabiting the lands as far as the rivers Colorado and Negro.
Under this escort, and accompanied by Colonel Reyes, an engineer officer, and about thirty persons, soldiers and peons, Colonel Garcia set out from Lobos for the Indian territory on the 10th of April, 1822. On the 12th they crossed the Salado at a place where its depth allowed of the safe passage of carts, and where its width was not above thirty or forty feet; this was some way above the junction of the Flores, after which it becomes a river of more consequence, its breadth extending to 300 yards in the winter season, when it is impassable except in canoes. The next day they crossed the Saladillo at the pass of Las Toscas; this stream falls into the Salado a little above the river Flores, towards which they proceeded through a country much intersected by swamps, which obliged them to deviate continually from their direct course. When near the Lake de las Polvaderas, Colonel Reyes, being desirous to take an observation, produced his sextant, which led to an unexpected but serious manifestation of alarm and suspicion on the part of the Indians. Some foolish person, it appeared, when they were setting out had told them that the commissioners had with them instruments through which they could see all the world at once, and nothing would satisfy them, when they saw them brought out, that the Spaniards were not in direct consultation with the gualichù, or devil himself. It was impossible to do away with this notion of theirs, which led to the inconvenience of obliging the officers afterwards to take their observations by the stars at night instead of by the sun in the day-time.
About two leagues beyond where they crossed the Flores they verified its junction with the Tapalquen in a vast marsh. The Flores is in fact but the drain of the waters of that river; it was found to be more brackish than even the Salado. In the thick jungles along its banks many tigers were seen, which, however, excited little apprehension compared with the horseflies and mosquitos, from whose venomous attacks there was no escape. They followed the Tapalquen till they came in sight of the Sierra, distant ten or twelve leagues, the Amarilla Hills bearing south-south-east, and those of Curaco south-south-west; between these two groups runs one of the passes frequented by the Indians in their journeys to the Ventana, where the travellers halted, and in the night, whist their Indian guides were asleep, by an observation of Mars, determined the latitude to be 36° 45´ 10"; the longitude they fixed at 54° 13´ from Cadiz; variation 17° 10´.
The following morning, making a pretext for lagging behind out of sight of their Indian friends, they reconnoitred the pass, and determined with a theodolite the height of some of the hills in its immediate vicinity; the highest point of the Amarilla, or Tinta group, called Lima-huida, south-east of the pass, was 200 feet, and the two peaks of Curaco, which they had seen at a distance the day before, measured, the one 270, and the other about 200 feet. A small guard-house or fort would effectually close this pass against the Indians.
To the south of this part of the chain, the country is a succession of hills and dales, watered by many streams from the Sierra, and apparently well adapted for an agricultural settlement. Taking a course about south-south-west, on the third day after leaving the pass of Curaco they came in sight of the second range of mountains, called the Sierra de la Ventana, and arrived at the toldos of Antiguan their conductor, whose people, apprized of their approach, came out in great numbers, men, women, and children, to receive them. Antiguan lost no time in despatching messengers in every direction to summon the general meeting of the Caciques, whilst Colonel Garcia encamped with his little party on the borders of a lake, where it was determined that the grand parlamento, or parley, was to be held. Thither they were attended by a friendly old cacique, Lincon, whom Garcia had known and made a friend of on his former expedition, and to whose advice and assistance they were in the sequel very essentially indebted. From him they learnt that the chiefs of the Ranqueles were far from peaceably disposed, or inclined to take part in any treaties with the government of Buenos Ayres for their lands; and that there existed generally amongst the Indians much jealousy and distrust of the Spaniards, in consequence of the measures they had of late been taking with respect to them. He warned them, also, not to be surprised at any warlike display which might be made at the approaching meeting, as it was probable that the Caciques would avail themselves of the opportunity to show the number of fighting men they could command.
It was fortunate they had some such notice of what they were to expect; for when, in two or three days afterwards, the Indians assembled, they certainly made an appearance much more like a general gathering of armed forces for war than of negociators for peace.
On the day appointed for the general conference, a body of about 200 men made their appearance at an early hoar, formed in battle array, and slowly advancing towards the commissioners' tents to the sound of horns (cornetas). On arriving within a short distance, they broke into small parties, uttering loud shouts, and charging over the plain, making cuts and thrusts in the air right and left with their swords and lances, and then wheeling about and riding round and round their leader, who apparently directed these manœuvrings. The principal object of all this, the commissioners were told, was to drive away the gualichù, or evil spirit, whose secret pretence they apprehended might otherwise maliciously influence the approaching negociations.
The trappings of some of the horses of these warriors were curiously ornamented with beads, and hung, about with little bells. Several of them wore sort of helmet, and a buff coating of hide, so well prepared as to be perfectly soft and flexible, though several times double; the helmets made of it are so tough as to resist the cut of a sword, and sometimes are bullet-proof.
This was but the advanced-guard of a numerous host which afterwards came in view, covering the horizon, and making really a very imposing appearance. Altogether there might be something more than 3000 fighting men regularly marshalled under their respective Caciques in nine divisions. Though these Indians belonged to the soi-disant friendly tribes, the commissioners could not fail to be struck at once with the quantity of arms and accoutrements amongst them, which were manifestly the spoils of war and of their own countrymen murdered on the frontiers. Their whole demeanour, too, was insolent and arrogant in the extreme, partaking infinitely more of defiance than any real desire for a permanent peace, which caused many misgivings to Garcia and his officers as to the result of their mission.
After a variety of martial manœuvrings, on a given signal a great circle was formed, in the midst of which the Ulmenes or principal Caciques, taking their places, commenced the parlamento by a preliminary discussion amongst themselves as to whether or not they should enter into any negociations whatever with the government of Buenos Ayres without the Ranqueles. On this point there were great differences of opinion, the most sagacious of the speakers shrewdly prognosticating, that, unless the peace was to be a general one, it was useless to enter into it, inasmuch as, if hostilities continued between the Spaniards and any of the tribes, the rest could hardly fail, sooner or later, to be involved in them. The majority, however, only anxious to share at once the presents which they understood the Spaniards to have brought with them, and of which they probably feared that any co-operation of the Ranqueles tribes would deprive them of a portion, called aloud for an immediate treaty, and the commissioners were conducted, almost by force, to the place of deliberation, where a scene of great confusion took place, every one desirous to speak at once, and calling for the presents. The circle was broken, and, the Indians rushing in upon them, the officers with difficulty extricated themselves from the press.
After a time the authority of the Caciques was restored, and the conference resumed; the sole result of which was, that the majority present insisted upon treating at once with the Buenos Ayreans on their own account, after which they said the commissioners might proceed to negociate, as they could, separately with the Huilliches, or southern tribes, and with the Ranqueles. All this was rather a dictation, on the part of the Indians, than any mutual agreement; but it was evident there was to be no alternative, and the commissioners, putting the best face upon it, proceeded to distribute the greater part of the presents they had brought for the occasion,—the possession of which, it was perfectly clear, was the main, if not the sole object of the savages in entering at all into discussions with them. These Indians all called themselves Pampas and Aucases. The latter term, which signifies warriors, seems to be assumed by many of the tribes of Araucanian origin.[39] In the course of their parleys with them, so far from finding them disposed, as Garcia had flattered himself, to treat for a new and more advanced boundary-line, they vehemently complained of the encroachments already made by the Buenos Ayreans, and insisted upon their withdrawing the establishments already formed to the south of the Salado. Garcia found it useless to argue with them; and, as his personal safety would probably have been endangered by a positive refusal, he thought it better to temporize, and to promise to lay their representations before the government of Buenos Ayres on his return, contenting himself to stipulate that there should be peace in the mean time.
Having obtained all they could get, the Caciques took their leave, leading off their followers to their respective toldos. The next day they were succeeded by another and distinct party of the Huilliches or southern people, who, though summoned to the general conference, had not been able to arrive in time to take part in it. This tribe presented even a more martial appearance than the others, and Colonel Garcia, describing them, says, no regiment of cavalry could have made a more regular or better figure than these strikingly fine men. They were naked from the waist upwards, and wore a sort of helmet surmounted by feathers (a distinguishing feature in the dress of this tribe), which added to their extraordinary stature. Their Cacique Llampilco, or the black, was upwards of seven feet high, and many others were equal to him, and even taller. Most of them were armed with very long lances, and, like the pampas tribes, had their faces bedaubed with red and black paint; but their language was different, and, Garcia says, identical with that of the people from the southern part of Patagonia, from whom he imagines them to have sprung, and to the old accounts of whose height he refers.[40] He speaks of them as a superior and finer race of men in every respect than the others; admirable horsemen, and brave in war, without the cruelty of the pampas tribes, sparing their prisoners, and treating strangers with kindness and hospitality. They had come from the lands south of the Ventana, about the rivers Colorado and Negro, where they had located themselves, according to their own account, to avoid collision with the Spaniards, with whom they professed their great desire to establish a solid peace. They spoke with contempt and detestation of the marauding habits of the pampas tribes and of the Ranqueles, and offered at any time to assist in chastising them. This party consisted of 420 fighting men. They conducted themselves very differently from the others, and with great propriety, receiving thankfully what was given to them.
After their departure, the commissioners removed to the lake where the Cacique Lincon's people were located, and which bore his name. Its situation was about five leagues from the mountain-range beyond, something more than three to the west of that on which the conferences had been held, and about five and a half from one named after Pichiloncoy, another friendly Cacique, of whom more hereafter. From this place, looking to the north-west, one boundless plain presented itself to the eye. The Ventana mountain bore south-west, extending its lesser ramifications to the west-south-west, as far as the Curumualà, a small group of hills which may be seen running west to the more elevated range of Guamini; an extensive plain running between them. The highest part of the Guamini bore west 10° north, and was lost in the boundless pampas beyond.
A stay here for a few days gave them a tolerable insight into the manners and customs of the natives. Nothing could exceed the laziness and brutality, in general, of the men, who, looking upon the women as inferior beings, treated them as the most abject slaves. Not only were they obliged to attend to all the ordinary duties of the family, but upon them also, devolved the care of their husbands' horses, and even the tending of the sheep and cattle. Polygamy was permitted, and, according to his means, it appeared that a man kept more or less wives, which, so far from causing jealousy, seemed generally a source of satisfaction to the ladies themselves, inasmuch as it led to the lightening by subdivision of their domestic labours. Unless engaged in some predatory excursion, or in hunting deer and guanacoes, and other smaller animals, for their skins, the men seemed to pass their whole time in sleeping, drinking, and gambling, the habitual vices of all the tribes:—they are passionately fond of cards, which they obtain from the Spaniards, and will play for ever at dice, which they make themselves ingeniously enough, and, like gamesters in other parts of the world, will stake their all upon a throw, reckless of reducing their families to utter destitution.
In each toldo, or tent, which is made of hides stretched upon canes, and easily removeable from one place to another, five or six families, barely separated from each other, perhaps twenty or thirty persons in all, were closely huddled together in the most horrible state of filth imaginable; indeed, in many respects, they were but little removed in their habits from the brute creation. If fuel was scarce, as was often the case in the pampas, they cared not to cook their meat, but ate it raw, and always drank the warm blood of every animal they killed:—like beasts of prey, there was no part, even to the contents of the stomach and intestines, which they would not greedily devour.
They were superstitious in the extreme, and the credulous dupes and tools of a few artful men, who are to be found in every tribe, and in reality direct all its concerns by pretending to foretell the future, and to divine the cause of every evil. They are called machis, or wizards, and there is no tribe without them, and which does not implicitly submit to their decisions and advice. Their word is law, and the Cacique even, equally with the rest, submits to it. The commissioners themselves were nearly made the victims of the malice of some of these wretches, who probably anticipated a share of the plunder, if they could have induced their countrymen to destroy them. The old Cacique, named Pichiloncoy, already mentioned as living near the toldos of Lincon, and whose life was of great consequence to his tribe, fell seriously ill, and, according to custom, the machis were assembled to pronounce on the nature of his complaint, and to denounce those whose evil machinations or influence could have reduced him to such a state, for in all such cases some one must be responsible, and, once denounced, his life is seldom spared if the patient dies. In this case the machis unanimously ascribed the old Cacique's illness to the presence of the Christians, who, they declared, had brought the Gualichù, or evil spirit, with them, probably deriving the notion from the report spread by their guides respecting the supernatural powers of the instruments they were known occasionally to consult. If the old man had not fortunately recovered it might have gone hard with them, for their lives would certainly have been in great peril. As Garcia observes, it would have been a pretty ending of their embassy to have been sacrificed to the manes of old Pichiloncoy by the mad machis.
Notwithstanding the excessive nastiness and filth of their general habits, the women seldom failed to perform their daily ablutions, repairing the first thing in the morning to the neighbouring lake to bathe with their children, although the cold was so intense, that the snow nightly beat through their tents during the whole time the commissioners were there. Amongst these females were some Christian girls, captives, whose fair skin was but too strong evidence of their origin, and who seemed from habit to suffer as little from the severity of the cold as their dusky mistresses. Their unfortunate lot excited the strongest feelings on the part of the commissioners, whose interposition to obtain their liberation they pleaded for, as well they might, with tears and the most earnest entreaties. Nor were the officers backward in urging upon the Caciques every argument to induce them to give them up; but it was amongst the greatest of their disappointments to find all their efforts on this point unavailing. The Caciques declared they had no power in a case touching the spoils of war, which, according to their laws, were the sole property of the individual captors, to whom they referred them to make the best bargain they could. These brutes, on being applied to, demanded in general so extravagant a ransom as to destroy at once every hope on the part of the poor women themselves of its ever being raised, their relatives in general being of the labouring classes employed in the estancias on the frontier; in many cases they too were no longer in existence, having perished in the same inroads of the savages which had deprived them of their liberty.
In expectation that the treaties to be made with the Indians would have led to the immediate liberation of all prisoners, some poor people had obtained leave to follow in the train of the commissioners, in the hope of finding their wives and daughters, and carrying them back with them; and a most affecting sight it was, as may well be imagined, to witness their meeting again, and tender embraces after so cruel a separation; but it was piteous indeed to behold their subsequent despair on finding that the interference of the commissioners was unavailing, and that the purchase-money demanded for the prisoners was totally beyond what they could ever hope to raise. The parting again of these poor people was perhaps one of the hardest trials to which human nature could be subjected. Husbands and fathers forced to leave their wives and daughters to the defilement of brutal savages, with scarce a hope of ever being able to obtain their release; it need hardly be said that force was necessary to separate them, and to restrain the men from acts of violence which might have compromised the safety of the whole party.
If slavery as carried on by Christian nations appears so revolting to all our better feelings, and excites our strongest sympathies on behalf of the negro, whose condition, after all, is often perhaps in reality ameliorated by being brought under the protection of humane laws, and within the pale of Christianity, what must it be when the case is reversed, when the Christian woman, brought up in at least the decent and domestic habits of civilised society, falls into the power of a savage, whose home is the desert, and who, though little removed in his own habits from a beast of prey, looks down upon the weaker sex as an inferior race, only made to be subject to his brutal will and caprice?
Though the unhappy condition of these poor women excited the sensibility of the commissioners for an instant, it roused also their more manly feelings, and satisfied them that the government of Buenos Ayres owed it to its own honour, and to humanity, to act with energy, and make some effort of force to rescue these poor victims from the consequences of their own supine and too lenient policy. It was indeed evident that any attempt to secure a permanent and satisfactory state of peace would be futile without such a demonstration as would act upon the fears of the Indians, and oblige them to submit to such terms as the government might determine to impose upon them.
Under this conviction the officers would have returned at once to Buenos Ayres, had they not been earnestly solicited by the inhabitants of some other toldos about the Sierra Ventana to visit them before their departure; a request they acceded to in the hope of its enabling them to acquire some geographical information with regard to that range.
On the 2nd they set out with old Lincon, who insisted upon escorting them as far as the place of rendezvous. Their course lay west-south-west, through an undulating country, rich in pasturage, and studded with small lakes, about which were generally found small groups of Indians with their cattle. These lakes in the summer season are for the most part dry, and then the Indians remove within reach of the mountain-streams. Towards evening they pitched their tents on the banks of a stream called the Quetro-eique, the Ventana about two and a half leagues distant, where they found a large encampment of Indians, who received them with rejoicings. As far as the eye could reach the plains were covered with their cattle and sheep.
Whilst waiting for the assembling of the Caciques, the officers devoted two or three days to surveying: following up the Quetro-eique about three and a half leagues, they traced it to its sources on the side of the Ventana. The height of the principal mountain, so called, they determined by measurement to be 2500 feet above the level of the plain from which it rises.[41] To the north-west a chain of low hills extends as far as a break by which they are separated from the minor group called the Curumualá. Through this break run two small streams, the one called Ingles-malhuida, from the circumstance of an Englishman having been put to death by the Indians there, the other Malloleufú, or the White River; the course of both is from south-west to north-east, running nearly parallel with the Quetro-eique, and all, according to the Indian accounts, losing themselves in extensive marshes beyond. The rivers Sauce-grande and Sauce-chico, which fall into Bahia Blanca, rise from the southern declivities of this range, according to the same authority. Beyond the Curumualá is the group of the Guamini, the most westerly part of this range. An observation taken from their tents on the Quetro-eique gave the latitude 37° 50´; longitude from Cadiz 56° 20´; and thence a clear day gave them a general view of the whole range. The Ventana bore south 18° west, prolonging its ramifications to south 40° west. The Curumualá south 60° west, extending to 80°. The Guamini extended through 30° as far as west 10° north. The whole range may be described as running from south-south-east to north-north-west. The variation by repeated calculations was 18° 30´, at the other range it had been found as stated to be 17° 10´, and at the Lake of Polvaderas 16° 30´ east.[42]
When the Caciques and their followers were all assembled there might be about 1500 men, who were paraded by their chiefs much in the same manner as before described. The same ceremonies to drive away the gualichú, and the same preliminary discussions amongst themselves, before they commenced their parleys with the officers; and these terminating precisely in the same unsatisfactory and indefinite manner. The presents it was evident were the only objects contemplated by the savages, and, when these were not produced quite so quickly as they expected, an attempt was made to seize them by force, and the officers themselves would have been stripped, if not sacrificed, had not old Lincon bravely protected them, and killed upon the spot with his own hand two of the most forward of the assailants: cowed by the old man's intrepidity, and the preparations of their escort to defend themselves, the wretches slunk away, and so ended in blood and confusion the labours of the commissioners. To old Lincon they owed their lives, and subsequent safety on their road back to Buenos Ayres, whither they were glad to return as fast as they could, under an escort furnished by him and some of the more friendly tribes of the Huilliches.
Their route homeward was by the Sierra Amarilla, on the eastern slope of which rises the river Barancas, which they followed some way: before it emerges from the mountains it is joined by the Quetro-leufú, and both together form the Tapalquen. Beyond the Sierra Amarilla was seen that group called by the natives the Huellucalel, from which proceeds the river Azul, the waters of which, running parallel with those of the Torralnelú and Chapaleofú, are lost in the marshes sixteen or twenty leagues distant towards the Salado. Crossing the Tapalquen, they once more found the beaten track to the Guardia del Monte, which they reached in safety on the 28th of May, after an absence of about six weeks.
In reporting the results of their mission they recommended that the range of the Vuulcan should be at once adopted as the boundary of the province in that direction, and that a chain of military posts should be established upon it, extending from the sea-coast as far west as the Laguna Blanca, with a sufficient force to overawe the savages and afford efficient protection to such settlements as might be made within that line.
The government, at last roused to the conviction of the necessity of some vigorous demonstration of physical force, in order to re-establish something like that salutary fear of the superior military power and discipline of the Christians, which, in old times, had, to a certain degree, restrained and kept the savages in order, adopted the suggestion, and preparations on a considerable scale were made for carrying it into effect. The construction of a fortification on the Tandil was determined upon, and the governor himself prepared to superintend the work, and take the field against the savages with an adequate force. The little army assembled for this purpose was ready to march about the close of February, 1823. It consisted of 2500 men, seven pieces of artillery, with a considerable accompaniment of carts and waggons, and everything requisite for the establishment of a permanent military settlement.
Instead of following the track of Garcia and his companions, by the Tapalquen, after a consultation with some guides, who professed to be well acquainted with the intervening country, General Rodriguez determined upon marching direct across it to the Tandil; an attempt, as it proved, more adventurous than prudent. On the 10th of March the troops left the Guardia del Monte, and had hardly crossed the Salado when they found themselves in the midst of apparently interminable swamps, thickly set with canes and reeds higher than their horses' heads. It was with great difficulty that the waggons and artillery were dragged through; nevertheless they foundered onwards as far as a lake, to which, from the clearness of its waters, they gave the name of Laguna Limpia; but there it became absolutely necessary to halt in order to reconnoitre the country before proceeding further. So far they had been grossly misled by their guides, whose only knowledge of the country it appeared had been acquired in excursions in quest of nutrias, which little animals are found in vast numbers in these swamps; but nutria catching and the march of an army accompanied by heavy waggons and artillery are very different things, and the wonder is that all the guns and baggage were not left behind in the bogs. The marshes themselves are formed by the streams which run into them from the hilly ranges further south, and which seem not to have sufficient power to force their way through the low lands either to the Salado or to the sea-coast. Beginning from the morass in which the Tapalquen joins the Flores, they extend far eastward, and render useless a considerable tract of country south of the Salado.
The scouts returning brought accounts that they had found the river Chapeleofú, the course of which it was determined to follow to the Tandil, where it was known to rise; but they had hardly left the Laguna Limpia when they were beset by a new danger, which, for a short time, threatened a frightful termination to the expedition. A sweeping wind blew towards them clouds of dense smoke, followed by one vast lurid blaze, extending across the horizon, and indicating but too clearly the approach of one of those dreadful conflagrations, not uncommon in the pampas after dry weather, when the long dry grass, and canes and thistles, readily igniting, cause the flames to extend rapidly over the whole face of the country, involving all in one common and horrible destruction. The gauchos, on the first indication of danger, have sometimes sufficient presence of mind to set fire immediately to the grass to leeward, by which they clear a space on which to take refuge before the general conflagration reaches them; but there is not always time to do this, much less to save the cattle and sheep, great numbers of which perish in the devouring element. Upon the present occasion the guides seem to have lost their wits as well as their way; and, but for the fortunate discovery of a small lake near them, into which men and beasts alike rushed, dragging the carts with them, the whole army would have been involved in the same tragical end. There, up to their necks in the water, they remained for three hours, during which the fire-storm raged frightfully round them, and then, for want of further fuel, subsiding, left a desolated waste as far as the eye could reach, covered with a black stratum of cinders and ashes.
After these dangers the army continued its march along the western bank of the Chapeleofú, through a country which improved every step they advanced towards the sierras beyond. Picturesque and fertile, the lands seemed only to require to be taken possession of to form a most valuable addition to the territory of Buenos Ayres. The wandering tribes of Indians usually dwelling there had, to all appearance, abandoned them, and withdrawn further south, no doubt in alarm at the preparations made by the Spaniards to occupy them.
The wild guanacoes, and the deer, and the ostriches ranged in thousands over the pastures of their native regions, and, with hares, partridges, and armadilloes, afforded abundant sport to those sent out to shoot them. For some days the army was almost entirely subsisted upon them. Vast quantities of armadilloes, especially, were caught by the soldiers. One memorable afternoon's chase is recorded, in which upwards of 400 were taken; and a more delicate dish than one of these little animals, roasted, in his own shell, I will venture, from my own experience, to say, is not to be had in any part of the world. The rivers and lakes swarmed with wild and water-fowl of every sort, named and nameless, from the snipe to the beautiful black-necked swan peculiar to that part of the world.[43]
An observation was taken on the Chapeleofú in latitude 37° 17´ 34"; shortly after which the army left its course, and marched eastward to the Tandil, where they encamped, and whence the surveying officers reconnoitred the surrounding country, and determined upon the site for the new fortification.
The position of the fort constructed there has been fixed by repeated observations in latitude 37° 21´ 43"; longitude, west of Buenos Ayres, 39´ 4"; variation 15° east. It stands upon a small eminence, one of a lower group of hills which skirts the more elevated range beyond, and from which it is divided by the bed of a streamlet, which, after passing the works, about a quarter of a league to the eastward, and being joined by another from the westward, forms the river Tandil, which runs north till lost in the marshes in that direction already spoken of. It is screened to the west and north-west by a range of hills rising 300 or 400 feet above it, the summits of which are strewed with large masses of quartzose rock, having a very remarkable appearance when seen from a distance. The highest part of the range of the Tandil, about two leagues to the south-east of the fort, was ascertained to be about 1000 feet above the level of a small stream which runs along its base. It is visible from a distance of forty miles. The height of this part of the range gradually falls off till lost in a wide plain or vale, about twelve miles eastward of the fortification.
The climate in winter was found to be very cold; the prevailing winds from the south and south-west.[44] In the month of April the thermometer was twice 1½° below freezing-point; but variations of 20° and even 30° in the course of the day were of common occurrence. In that month (April) the highest of the thermometer was 68°, the lowest 28½°; in May the highest was 61°, the lowest 31°; in June the highest was 72°, the lowest 39°; in July the highest was 79°, the lowest 41°. In the summer the heat was almost insufferable, particularly in the low lands; but in the spring and autumn, which are the best seasons, the weather was found temperate and very agreeable.
Whilst the fort was building on the Tandil, communications were opened with the Indians residing near the Ventana, proposing to them to join in active operations against the Ranqueles tribes—the Spaniards thinking, as on other occasions, to invoke the tribes in war with each other, and to profit by the weakening of both parties; but the Indians were this time upon their guard. They saw clearly enough that the march of such an army into their territory could have only one object,—the forcible occupation of their lands,—and they took their measures accordingly with their usual astuteness and cunning. Assenting, apparently, to the general propositions made to them, they invited the Buenos Ayrean general to repair with his principal officers to the neighbourhood of the Ventana, there to enter into the definitive treaties. They probably hoped by some ruse to get the governor himself into their hands, and were greatly disappointed at his only sending his second in command, General Rondeau, to treat with them. Rondeau marched into their territory with a force of 1000 men, passing to the west of the Tinta mountains, and, after going some distance, was met by the principal Caciques, with a large assemblage of their fighting men; and here commenced a negociation, in which the Buenos Ayrean general was fairly outwitted. The Indians, affecting distrust, proposed that some officers of consequence should be sent to them as hostages during the conferences, offering, on their part, to place some of their principal Caciques in the power of the general. Rondeau fell into the snare, and took his measures so badly, that, before the exchange was made, his officers were suddenly made prisoners, and carried off at a gallop, enveloped by a cloud of Indians, who were soon out of sight. His cavalry was in no condition to follow the savages into the pampas, and he returned to the Tandil with the conviction that the Puelches tribes, as well as the Ranqueles, were combined in one and the same determination to have no more friendly intercourse with the Christians.
After this affair nothing further was attempted, except to send out a party to explore the continuation of the range of the Tandil to the coast, of which the following was the result.
It has been already said that the range of the Tandil gradually declines to the eastward till broken by a wide vale, which commences about twelve miles from the new fortification; the vale in question extends for a distance of forty-two miles:—many streams run through it, some few of which, inclining towards the coast, fall into the sea, though the greater part of them are lost in swamps in the low lands which intervene. It is the greatest break in the chain, and, from its rich pastures, a favourite resort of the Indians. They call it the Vuulcan, which signifies, in their language, an opening; and thence the sierra, which bounds it to the eastward, also takes its name. In many maps it is written Volcan, which has led to the erroneous idea of there being a volcano in those parts.
From the Vuulcan the range runs in a continuous line for thirty-six miles towards the sea, presenting, for the most part, towards the north the appearance of a steep dyke or wall. On the summits are extensive ranges of table-land, well watered, and with good pasturage, to which the Indians, who are well acquainted with the craggy ravines which alone lead to them, are in the habit of driving their horses and cattle, knowing that the nature of the ground requires but little care to prevent their straying. At a short distance from the coast the hills break off in stony ridges, running down to the sea, and forming the headland of Cape Corrientes, in latitude 38° 6´, and further south a line of rocky cliffs, which bounds the shore as far as Cape Andres.
Upon the borders of a lake a short distance from Cape Corrientes were discovered the remains of the settlement formed by the Jesuits in the year 1747,—a site chosen with all their characteristic sagacity, well suited for an agricultural establishment, of easy access to the sea, and with great capability of being rendered defensible. It is a striking proof of the indomitable nature of the pampas tribes that all the efforts of the missionary fathers to reduce them to habits of order and industry only ended in disappointment, and, after years of fruitless endeavours, to their being obliged to fly from an establishment where their lives were no longer safe. The Indians of the pampas, like the Arabs of the desert, inseparable from their horses, and wild as the animals they ride, were not, like the more docile people of Paraguay, to be subjected to the strict rules and discipline which it was the object of the fathers to introduce amongst them. The vestiges of their buildings, and the fruit-trees planted by them, are the only evidences remaining of their pious but unavailing labours.
Although this spot was in many respects a very inviting one for an agricultural settlement, it wanted the principal requisite of some tolerable roadstead or harbour to facilitate any direct communication from Buenos Ayres by sea with the new line of frontier, an object of great importance if possible to secure. The coast was vainly explored in search of one from Cape Corrientes some way to the south, and to the north as far as the great lake called the Mar-chiquita, which empties itself into the sea by a narrow channel, capable, perhaps, of being deepened by artificial means, so as to form a harbour for small vessels; but even this seemed extremely doubtful, and depending on a further examination and survey, which the officers were not at the time prepared to undertake.
Under these circumstances, it was thought advisable to postpone the construction of any further works till a more accurate survey of the coast should be made. This was subsequently commenced, and carried as far as Bahia Blanca, which was reported to be the only situation from the Salado on all the line of coast intervening which combined a tolerable harbour for shipping with the capability of being made a good defensible position. Although this was far beyond the line of frontier at first contemplated, which only reached to the range of the Vuulcan and Tandil, other considerations eventually determined the government of Buenos Ayres to extend their boundary to that point. Not only did it appear that Bahia Blanca was the only place capable of being made a harbour on the coast, but the want of some such harbour to the south became more than ever apparent when the war broke out with Brazil, and the River Plate was placed under blockade by the emperor's fleet; and, although that war at first necessarily diverted the attention of the government of Buenos Ayres from the completion of their original plan, it forced upon them a more enlarged view of their position, and led to the final adoption of an infinitely better boundary-line than that which was first thought of merely as a check upon the Indians.
The line in question, which was finally adopted in 1828, and which forms the present nominal frontier of the province of Buenos Ayres towards the pampas, will be found upon the map drawn about north-north-east, from the fort built on the river Naposta, which falls into Bahia Blanca, to the Laguna Blanca, another point occupied as a military position, at the western extremity of the range of the Tapalquen; thence it runs north by the fort of Cruz de Guerra to Melinqué, the north-west point of the province. It will be obvious, on reference to the map, that, whilst this line embraced within it an infinitely greater extent of country than that at first projected, it was in reality, being straight, a shorter one, and required less defences than the ranges of the Tandil and Vuulcan, supposing all the passes to be fortified.
The whole area of the territory within this line and the Arroyo del Medio, which separates the province of Buenos Ayres to the northward from that of Santa Fé, comprises about 75,000 square English miles.
The Indians would listen to no terms of accommodation, and fought for their lands; whilst, unfortunately for the people on the frontier, the civil dissensions which broke out at the close of the Brazilian war once more drew off the forces of the government, and exposed them to the inroads of the savages, before the fortifications on the frontier could be completed and sufficiently garrisoned for their defence. The devastation they committed in consequence was frightful; but it was signally avenged in 1832 and 1833 by General Rosas, who, at the head of the largest force that ever entered their territory, marched southward as far as the rivers Colorado and Negro, scoured the whole intervening country, and put thousands of them to death. Many tribes were totally exterminated, and others fled to the Cordillera of Chile, where alone they were safe from the pursuit of the exasperated and victorious soldiers.
That the Buenos Ayreans had ample cause for these hostilities may be judged from the number of Christian slaves whom they succeeded in rescuing from the hands of the savages; upwards of 1500 women and children were retaken by General Rosas' troops, who had all been carried off in some or other of their marauding incursions, their husbands, sons, and brothers having been in most instances barbarously butchered before them. Many of these poor women had been in their hands for years; some taken in infancy could give little or no account to whom they belonged; others had become the wretched mothers of children brought up to follow the brutal mode of life of these barbarians. General Rosas fixed his head-quarters on the river Colorado, midway between Bahia Blanca and the settlement of Carmen on the river Negro. Thence he detached a division of his forces, under General Pacheco, to the south, which established a military position on the Choleechel, now called Isla de Rosas, on the Negro, which river was followed to the junction of the Neuquen. Another detachment marched under the orders of General Ramos along the banks of the Colorado as far as latitude 36° and 10° longitude west of Buenos Ayres, according to his computation, from whence he saw the Cordillera of the Andes and believed he was not more than thirty leagues from Fort Rafael on the Diamante. Unfortunately not the slightest sketch was made of the course of this river, respecting which, therefore, we have no new data beyond a corroboration of the accounts obtained by Cruz, in 1806, of its being a great river, which runs without interruption direct from the Cordillera to the sea.[45] Of the Negro, General Pacheco has been kind enough to send me a sketch, which strikingly confirms the general course of the river as laid down by Mr. Arrowsmith, from Villariño's diary.