This Gives Them A Great Facility Of Movement;
For The Distance To Which Horses Can Be Driven Over
These Plains Is Quite Surprising:
I have been assured that an
unloaded horse can travel a hundred miles a day for many
days successively.
The encampment of General Rosas was close to the river.
It consisted of a square formed by waggons, artillery, straw
huts, etc. The soldiers were nearly all cavalry; and I should
think such a villainous, banditti-like army was never before
collected together. The greater number of men were of a
mixed breed, between Negro, Indian, and Spaniard. I know
not the reason, but men of such origin seldom have a good
expression of countenance. I called on the Secretary to show
my passport. He began to cross-question me in the most
dignified and mysterious manner. By good luck I had a
letter of recommendation from the government of Buenos
Ayres [5] to the commandant of Patagones. This 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.
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