I Did Not Anywhere Meet A More
Civil And Obliging Man Than This Negro; It Was Therefore
The More Painful To See That He Would Not Sit Down And Eat
With Us.
In the morning we sent for the horses very early, and
started for another exhilarating gallop.
We passed the
Cabeza del Buey, an old name given to the head of a large
marsh, which extends from Bahia Blanca. Here we changed
horses, and passed through some leagues of swamps and
saline marshes. Changing horses for the last time, we again
began wading through the mud. My animal fell and I was
well soused in black mire - a very disagreeable accident
when one does not possess a change of clothes. Some miles
from the fort we met a man, who told us that a great gun
had been fired, which is a signal that Indians are near. We
immediately left the road, and followed the edge of a marsh,
which when chased offers the best mode of escape. We
were glad to arrive within the walls, when we found all the
alarm was about nothing, for the Indians turned out to be
friendly ones, who wished to join General Rosas.
Bahia Blanca scarcely deserves the name of a village. A
few houses and the barracks for the troops are enclosed by
a deep ditch and fortified wall. The settlement is only of
recent standing (since 1828); and its growth has been one of
trouble. The government of Buenos Ayres unjustly occupied
it by force, instead of following the wise example of the
Spanish Viceroys, who purchased the land near the older
settlement of the Rio Negro, from the Indians.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 117 of 776
Words from 30890 to 31169
of 208183
