They
Were Seated Under A Low Cliff, So That I Could Look Down
Upon Them; Around The Party Were Lying Dogs, Arms, Remnants
Of Deer And Ostriches; And Their Long Spears Were Stuck
In The Turf.
Further in the dark background, their horses
were tied up, ready for any sudden danger.
If the stillness
of the desolate plain was broken by one of the dogs barking,
a soldier, leaving the fire, would place his head close to the
ground, and thus slowly scan the horizon. Even if the noisy
teru-tero uttered its scream, there would be a pause in the
conversation, and every head, for a moment, a little inclined.
What a life of misery these men appear to us to lead!
They were at least ten leagues from the Sauce posta, and
since the murder committed by the Indians, twenty from
another. The Indians are supposed to have made their attack
in the middle of the night; for very early in the morning
after the murder, they were luckily seen approaching
this posta. The whole party here, however, escaped, together
with the troop of horses; each one taking a line for himself,
and driving with him as many animals as he was able to
manage.
The little hovel, built of thistle-stalks, in which they slept,
neither kept out the wind nor rain; indeed in the latter case
the only effect the roof had, was to condense it into larger
drops. They had nothing to eat excepting what they could
catch, such as ostriches, deer, armadilloes, etc., and their
only fuel was the dry stalks of a small plant, somewhat
resembling an aloe.
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