A voyage to South America, with an account of a shipwreck in the river La Plata, in the year 1817

by George Fracker

The bulls are taken from the wild herds in the interior, and they capture those of the most fierce and wild character; in other words, those that will give the most sport. These are driven by force and stratagem into the adjoining stables, where their natural ferocity is increased for several days, by starving and goading, and otherwise tormenting them.

These exhibitions are generally fully attended, and by a third part ladies. The circular and rising seats of this amphitheatre, will contain and will afford an equal view of the fight to ten or twelve thousand. On one of these sights, I remember to have seen ten bulls, six horses and one human being killed, and another wounded, in the space of three hours.

Every thing being ready, the bulls remained to be driven across the area from the stables where they were, to a smaller stable behind the amphitheatre, where each was to be kept apart. The first stable was not far from the amphitheatre, and a wall of boards six feet high was put up the whole way the bulls were to pass. At a quarter past four the ten bulls were let into the area, in order to be put into the stables at the opposite door; a man on foot led a tame ox, which had been bred with the bulls, before, to decoy them into these: they followed the ox very quietly; but they do not always do so. The three horsemen placed themselves at some distance, one on each side of, and the other opposite to the door at which the bull was to enter; the tap of a drum was the signal to let a bull in, and the man who opened the door got behind it immediately.

During this last quarter of an hour the bulls had been teazed by pricking them in the backs; this is done by persons placed on the ceiling of the stables, which was low, and consisted only of a plank laid here and there, and between those planks was space enough to use any instrument for that purpose. The bulls were distinguished by a small knot of ribbon fixed to their shoulders, the different colors of which shew where they were bred, which is known by the advertisements.

The bull made at the first horseman, who received him on the point of the spear, held in the middle tight to his side, and passing under his arm pit, which making a wide gash in the bull’s shoulder, occasioned him to draw back, the blood running in torrents; the force with which the bull ran at the man, was so great, that the shock had nearly overset him and his horse. It was then another man’s turn to wound the bull, as only one is to cope with it at a time. They are never allowed to attack the bull, but must wait the animal’s approach. The bull trotted into the middle of the area, and stared about, frighted by the clapping and hallooing of the multitude. The man on horseback always facing the beast, and turning when it turned; it then ran at the horse, and got another wound in the breast, and a third from the next horseman it attacked. It was now become mad with pain, the blood issuing from its mouth in streams, and faintness made it stagger; its eyes ‘flashed fury,’ it pawed up the ground, and lashed its sides with its tail; its breath was impetuously discharged like smoke from its nostrils, so that its head appeared as if in a mist. A drum then sounded, which was a signal for the horsemen to retire; and the men on foot began their attack, sticking barbed darts into every part of its body; the torture they inflicted made the bull leap from the ground, and run furiously at one of the men, who jumped aside; the bull then turned to another man, who had just stuck a dart into his back; the man took to his heels, and leaped over the rails, where he was safe; in this manner all the men continued tormenting the bull, who could hardly stand through loss of blood. The drum then sounded again, upon which the matador appeared, with a cloak extended on a short stick in his left hand, and in his right a two-edged sword, the blade of which was flat, four inches broad, and a yard long; he stood still, and at the moment the bull in the agonies of despair and death, made at him, he plunged the sword into the spine behind the beast’s horns, which instantly made it drop down dead. If the matador misses his aim, and cannot defend himself with the cloak, he loses his life, as the bull exerts all its remaining strength with an almost inconceivable fury. The dead bull was immediately dragged out of the area by three horses on a full gallop, whose traces were fastened to its horns. A quarter of an hour was elapsed, which is the time allowed for the murder of each bull, five minutes to the horsemen, five to the footmen, and five to the slayer.

Another bull was then let in; this was the wildest and most furious of any I ever saw. The horseman missed his aim, and the bull thrust his horns into the horse’s belly, making the bowels hang out; the horse became ungovernable, so that the man was obliged to dismount and abandon it to the bull, who pursued it round the area, till the horse fell and expired. Four other horses were successively killed by this bull, which till then, had only received slight wounds, though one of the horses had kicked its jaw to pieces. One of the horsemen broke his spear in the bull’s neck, and horse and rider fell to the ground; the rider broke his leg, and was carried off. The footmen then fell to work again, and afterwards the matador put an end to the life of this valiant animal, whose strength and courage were unavailing to save it. The third bull killed two horses, goring them under the belly, so that the intestines hung trailing on the ground. The seventh bull likewise killed two horses. In this manner were ten bulls massacred, and the whole concluded in two hours and a half. The bull’s flesh was immediately sold to the populace at ten quartos per pound, which is about three pence.

When the last bull had been sufficiently wounded by the horsemen, the mob were allowed to enter the area; they attacked the bull on all sides, and killed it with their knives and daggers. The bull sometimes tosses some of these fellows over its head.’

It should be remembered that in the interior, around the circle, are double walls of oak, with sally ports to the inner one, and a passage way between them of three feet wide. These apertures are sufficient to admit a man, but the toro cannot enter. Through these, when hotly pursued, the gladiator will escape, and the bull vents his rage on the impregnable walls.

A powerful black bull was now let in, and made instantly and without a stop, at the horseman, who stood ready, twenty feet from the door, with his spear firmly balanced and pointed to receive him. The aim was true, but the point struck a bone, which threw the horse upon his hind legs, and a lance twelve feet long, of an arm’s thickness, was shivered to pieces. The furious animal directly pursued his advantage, and the horse was overthrown, with the rider underneath him, whose case was at this time extremely dangerous. Generally, at the first wound of the spear, the bull will turn off in another direction; but when they push on, as those of a savage nature sometimes will, the horse is thrown to the ground, and the spearsman’s situation is, of course, very perilous. Such was the wonderful strength of the bull in this case, that the struggling horse was lifted free from the ground by the surprising power of his enemy’s horns, apparently with the ease that an apple might be raised by a fork. With difficulty, however, the rider extricated himself, and attempted to fly. The gladiators on foot ran to his rescue, and attempted, with their bright colored mantles, to draw off the beast and divert him from his purpose; but mad with rage, and scorning their efforts, he jumped across the prostrate horse, (drawing out his horns from his body) and quickly pursued his biped foe. The latter strained every nerve to reach the port-hole, and one hand was even within it, but the horns of his pursuer were the next instant in his ribs, and he was impaled against the wall. He was an old man, of a dreadful, cruel and relentless countenance; had committed many unprovoked murders, and was once condemned to be shot; but he chose rather to hazard his life weekly against wild beasts in the ring, and at last, having been twenty years so perilously employed, was thus killed by a brute of a nature nearly akin to his own.