c THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA or THE UNIVERSITY '\^. THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA BY H. HESKETH PRICHARD F.R.G.S., F.Z.S. FELLOW OF THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE ; AUTHOR OF "where BLACK RULES WHITE: A JOURNEY ACROSS AND ABOUT HAYTI " WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM DRAWINGS IN COLOUR AND BLACK AND WHITE BY JOHN GUILLE MILLAIS, F.Z.S. AND FROM PHOTOGRAPHS NEW YORK: D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1902 c r c t f*fs PRINTED IN ENGLAND T/iis Edition is for sale in the United States of America only, and is not to be imported into countries signatory to the Berne Treaty TO C. ARTHUR PEARSON CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE Introduction xiii I. Patagonia .......... i II. Southward Ho ! 15 III. The Battle of the Horses a IV. The Battle of the Horses {continued) .... 50 V. The River Valleys (j? VI. Manners and Customs of the Tehuelches . . 85 VII. Tehuelche Methods of Hunting 104 VIII. Tne Kingdom of the Winds 116 IX. Round and About Lake Buenos Aires .... 130 X. The Gorge of the Rive-r de los Antiguos . . 144 XI. Some Hunting Camps 156 XII. Back to Civilisation 167 XIII. Journey to Lake Argentino 181 XI\'. The Downstream Navigation of the River Leona . 196 XV. A Hard Struggle -ii .W'l. Wild Cattle 224 VIU CONTENTS CHAi'TER XVII. On thi:' First Attitude of Wild Animals towards Man X\'III. Thk Larger Mammals of Patagonia XIX. First Passing through Hellgate XX. Discovery of River Katarina and Lake Pearso XXI. Homeward A Few Words about the Future of Patagonia Appendix A ......... I. Account of the Discovery. By Dr. Moreno II. Description and Comparison of the Specimen. By Dr. a. Smith Woodward, F.R.S. (a) Description (b) Comparisons and General Conclusions III. Description of Additional Discoveries. By Dr. A Smith Woodward, F.R.S IV. Description of Pangolins, Armadillos and Sloths By H. Hesketh Prichard .... Appendix B On a New Form of Puma from Patagonia. By Oldfield Thomas, F.R.S. Appendix C . • . • List of Plants. By James Britten, F.L.S., and A. B. Rendle, M.A., D.Sc. Glossary Index 235 247 261 277 287 294 301 301 30s 315 334 33& 341 343 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS Tehiielche Hunting Scene Oidfitt'mg in a Patagonian Store The first guanaco . A daughter of the Toldos A Neii/ Cure for the Measles A Tehuelche cacique A Tehuelche matron, showing hare-lip Children of the Toldos . Tehuelche matrons A Tehuelche beauty Bolcadores .... Sons of the Pampas The Tehuelche Toldos . Onas stalking guanaco . Store-clad Indians Tehuelche spying guanaco Best head of Huemul (Xenelaphus bisulcus). Shot by th Rest-and-be-Thankful Camp . Huemul in summer coat Descending the Barranca Guanacos descending a hillside A Patagonian lagoon . The Italian engineers' waggon Sierra Ventana The drinking place Fiord of Lake Argentina, showing forest on Mt. End of Southern Fiord of Lake Argeutino The Wild Man The World of Ice . (/« Colour) Frontispiece Facing page 22 (In Colour] (In Colour) author (In Colour) (Photogravure) (In Colour) (Photogravure) Avellanada ( Photogravure) 26 80 86 90 . 94 98 100 102 104 no 114 120 124 132 146 150 152 158 160 168 174 176 186 190 192 194 202 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS— (r^«//>/wfl') The fire ....... A glade in the Luke Rica Fores: The Leader of the Llerd .... As it was in the beginning .... Camp Thieves ....... Pearson's Puma .... The North Fiord Our launcli aniong the ice .... Another view of the Glacier de los Tempanos Eventide ....... The last reach ...... ( Photogravure) [In Colou?-) Facing page 220 226 230 2 ^2 244 252 264 270 274 278 284 ing second division TEXT ILLUSTRATIONS The pampas (shoicing first division One of our Gauchos Among the Andes A Tehuelche Cacique Lakes and the distant Cordillera (slio: A Patagonian Estancia Argentine Gaucho Half-breed Gaucho J. B. Scrivenor T. R. D. Bitrbury Welsh Settlement of Trclew Humphrey fones, fun. . Tlie start on our long trek . Mr. Langley's Estancia on the road to Frederick Barckhausen . A painpa round-up f. B. Scrivenor (geologise) and mula The big Overo, a buckjumper The hunter's return Felis concolor puma Guanaco hounds {father and mother of the author's hound Ready to be cargoed Mrs. Trelew .... Bahia Camcrones Tom) PAGE I I . 3- 7 8,9 II 12 13 17 20 21 23 27 29 31 34 39 41 44 45 46 50 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS XI TEXT ILLUSTR \TlONS—{cofifi/iued) Yegua Rosadu ...... The Asulejo ....... Cargoing-up ....... The author's two best horses, the Cruzado and Alaza Settlement of Colohuapi .... Our brand ....... The Germans ...... River Senguerr, where disaster overtook us . The Old Zaino ...... The Guanaco {an intimate of the Old Zaino's) The Alazan colt {nearly killed on the Sem^uerr) Wildgoose Camp ... . . Bad stalking {califate-bush on pampa) Wati! Wati! [Tehuelche exclamation of surprise) Indian Toldo. ...... Arrowheads and knife, found near Colohuapi, Chubut {now in collec tion of Mr. E. M. Sprot) Beauties of Tierra del Fuego Tehuelches visit Gallegos .... On ahead ..... Horsham Base Camp ..... Lake Buenos Aires ..... Sehor Hans P. 11'"^^, of the Argentine Boundary Commission Inlet of Lake Buenos Aires .... The horses retrieved ..... Sterile ground to north of Lake Buenos Aires Lake Buenos Aires from the Canadon of the River de los Antiguos Grassy camp ...... Young guanaco ...... First huemnl camp ..... The off-saddle Jottes smokes tiie pipe of victory . The Indian trad ...... River Olin ....... River Belgrano ...... The home of the Indian who gave us mutton La Gaviota ....... Siuitii Cruz ... ... PACE 53 • 54 . 56, 57 • 59 . 64 . 66 . 69 • 71 » 72 . 73 . 74 . 77 • 78 . 83- 85 . 89 • 108 . i5i • iiS • 123' 126 • I.i8' 131* 135* 139- 145 . 154 . 156 • l62« 165- 1 6b' 171- 17-: • 174* 176. 177- 178 b? Xll LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Photographed 'd'ith sum 11 sliot bv the author. Sid TEXT ILLUSTRATIONS— (^^«//;«W) Residents of Santa Cruz ....... The main street, Santa Cruz ...... Ford on the River Santa Cruz ...... Estancia of Mr. E. Cattle ....... The launch, xcitli Mr. Cattle and Bernardo on board . Bernardo Hahansen .... Where the squalls came from Forests under the snoics ivhere icild cattle b Edge of forest ..... Guanacos on sky-line .... The Inieniul doe ichich touched the author. camera as she retired Best head of liucinul (Xenelaphus bisulcus view ...... Head of guanaco ..... Guanaco chico (captured icith lasso) Red mountain wolf (Canis montanus. Hellgate ...... Beyond mails footsteps .... Glacier de las Tcmpanos Glacier and glacial detritus . Canadon of the River Katarina . River Katarina ..... Lake Pearson ..... Punta Arenas ..... Tlie author ...... Skin of Grypotherium, outer view Skin of Grypotherium, inner view PAGE 179 • 182 . 184 . 193 • 197 . 207 • 215 . 224 . 233 • 237 • 243 • 249. 254* 256 • 260* 262* 265 . 273- 275- 281. 283. 285. 292 • 293. 306 • 307 ■ MAPS Map sho'iving route of Expedition through Patagonia Map of the Eastern Portion of Lake Buenos A ires Map of Lake Argentina and District (shon'ing routes) 36 172 188 INTRODUCTION Patagonia is a country about which Httle is known to the world in general, books dealing with it being few and far between, while the aspect of that quaint tail of South America and its wild denizens has practically never before been pictorially brought under the eye of the public. The following pages have been written with the idea of familiarising my readers with the conditions of life in Patagonia, and of reproducing as strongly as possible the impressions we gathered during our journey through regions most interesting and varied, and, as regards a certain portion of them, hitherto unvisited and unexplored. The original motive with which these travels were undertaken lay in a suggestion that a couple of years ago created a con- siderable stir amongst many besides scientific people, namely, that the prehistoric Mylodon might possibly still survive hidden in the depths of the forests of the Southern Andes. In a lecture delivered on June 21, 1900, before the Zoological Society, Professor E. Ray Lancaster, the Director of the P)ritish Museum of Natural History, said : " It is quite possible — I don't want to say more llian that — that he (the Mylodon) still exists in some of the mountainous regions of Patagonia." Mr. Pearson, the proprietor of the Daily Expi'css, most generously financed the Expedition in the interests of science, and entrusted me with the task of siftin*'- all the evidence for or asfainst the chances of survixal obtainable on the spot. During the whole time I spent in i'atagonia I came upon no single scrap of evidence of any kind which would support the xiv INTRODUCTION idea of the survival of the Mylodon. I hoped to have found the Indian legends of some interest in this connection, and I took the utmost pains to sift most thoroughly all stories and rumours that could by any means be supposed to refer to any unknown animal. Of this part of the subject I have given a full account elsewhere. There then remained to us but one thing more to do, and that was to examine as far as we could — I will not say the forests oi^ the Andes, for they are primeval forests, dense and heavily grown, and, moreover, cover hundreds of square miles of unexplored country — but tlie nature of these forests, so as to be able to come to some conclusion on the point under discussion. This we did, with the result that I personally became convinced — and my opinion was shared by my companions — that the Mylodon does not survive in the depths of the Andean forests. For there is a sino-ular absence of animal life in the forests. The deeper we penetrated, the less we found. It is a well-known fact that, where the laroer forms of animal life exist, a number ot the lesser creatures are to be found co-existing with them, the conditions favourino- the life of the former equally conducing to the welfare of the latter. Our observation of the forests therefore led us to conclude that no animal such as the Mylodon is at all likely to be existino" among- them. This is presumptive evidence, but it is stron(>-, being based on deductions not drawn from a single instance but from general experience. Still I would not offer my opinion as an ultimate answer to the problem. In addition to the regions visited by our Expedition, there are, as I have said, hundreds and hundreds of square miles about, and on both sides of the Andes, still unpenetrated by man. A laro-e portion of this country is forested, and it would be pre- sumptuous to say that in some hidden valley far be\ond the present ken of man some prehistoric animal may not still exist. Patagonia is, however, not only vast, but so full of natural difficulties, that I believe the exhaustive penetration of its recesses will be the work not of one man or of one party of men, but the result of the slow progress of human advance into these regions. I have recorded some of my observations upon the habits of Patao-onian game, and have written somewhat fully upon that most INTRODUCTION xv interesting race, the Tehuelche Indians, but I have abstained from very lengthy appendices, for these would be of purely scientific interest. It is my hope to be able to return to Patagonia and to go further into the many interesting subjects to which my attention was drawn. In any book that may result from this second journey, I look forward to including lists of various zoological, palseonto- looical, and botanical collections, all the materials for which have not at the moment of writino- arrived in E no-land. I would very cordially acknowledge the unfailing help which Dr. F. P. Moreno has accorded to me in every way, and would specially thank him for tht^ photographs and maps he has allowed me to use in the following pages. My thanks are also due to Dr. A. Smith Woodward, P^.R.S., for his kind permission to reproduce his description of the Mylodon skin and other remains discovered at Consuelo Cove by Dr. Moreno ; to Dr. Moreno for permitting me to reprint his account of that interesting discovery, and to Mr. Oldfield Thomas, F.R.S., for allowing me to make use of his description of Felis concolor pcarsoni, the new sub-species of puma which we brought back. I further offer my acknowledgments to the Zoological Society, in whose " Proceedings "' the two first- mentioned papers originally appeared. My best thanks are also due to the Royal Geographical Society, who lent us instruments and gave us every aid in their power, and also to Dr. Rendle and Mr. James Britten, of the Botanical Depart- ment of the British Museum, for their kindness in preparing a botanical appendix. I must record my indebtedness to Mr. John Guilie Millais for the pains he took with his illustrations for this book. Hefore I started, my friend, Mr. ^lilhiis, drew mc some sketches of huemul, cruanaco, and other Patao-onian animals. These I showed to the Tehuelches, and was once taken aback by being offered a com- mission to draw an Indian's dogs. He offered me a trained horse as pa}'ment. The praise of the ''man who knows" is, alter all, the ofreat reward of art. My thanks are also due to Mr. hklwanl llawcs, who kindly overlooked the proofs of this book to correct the spelling of the xvi INTRODUCTION Camp-Spanish. And I would add the name of Mr. Frank A. Juckes, who saw to the outfitting of a medicine-chest. I would not omit grateful mention of Senor Garcia Merou, the late Minister of Agriculture of the Argentine Republic, of the late Seiior Rivadavia, the then Minister of Marine, to Senor Josue Moreno, to Messrs. Krabbe and Higgins ; also to Mr. Ernest Cattle, Mr. Theobald, of Trelew, and to the many kind friends who live in the Argentine Republic. I am indebted to my friend, Alfred James Jenkinson, Scholar of Hertford College, Oxford, for his kindness in preparing photo- graphs for reproduction. Most of all I owe a debt (a debt which runs yearly into com- pound interest) to my modier, who is accountable for anything that is worth while in this book, and who has collaborated in its production. H. HESKETH PRICHARD. ''^' ^-'^^ /-iMWIliM^M' Till. I'AMl'AS (^lluWTNc; FlKsT IiUTSION') V.\ B R A/? y CHAPTER I ^'^'VTRsiTY PATAGONIA -f,i^i. Physical features of Patagonia —The pampas — Climate — Discovery of Patagonia by Magellan — Description of the natives — Sir Francis Drake — Other travellers — Dr. Moreno — Coast-towns — Farms — Gauchos — Emptiness of interior — Route of expedition. P ATAGONIA forms the southern point or end of the South American continent and extends, roughly speaking, from about parallel 40'' to the Straits of Magellan. Up to very recent times the geography of this southern portion of the New World has been in a nebulous con- dition. Vast tracts of the interior of Pata- gonia are as practically waste and empty to-day as they were in the long-past ages. It is certainly curious that this land should have been left so completely out of view when the great overspill of European humanity looked overseas in search of new homes where they might dwell and ex- pand and find ample means of livelihood. Perhaps the description of Patagonia given in the earlier j) an of A ONE ui- oi'k GALcnos 2 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA the last century by Darwin had something to do with this omission. He spoke of it as a land having- " the curse of sterility " upon it. He dwelt on its desolate appearance, its "dreary landscape," and it would seem that his undervaluing of the country of which, after all, he had but a short and curtailed experience, influenced the whole circle of the nations, with the result that only during the last thirty years or so have the peoples who desire to colonise been discovering how desirable and profitable is the great neglected land of the south. Patagonia has grown to its present condition very rapidly. Not so long ago it was almost entirely given up to Indians and the countless herds of guanaco. Now there are farms upon the coast, and a few settlements, such as Gallegos with its 3000 in- habitants, and Sandy Point or Punta Arenas, still more populous with 11,000. Behind this narrow strip of sparsely inhabited coast-land the immense extent of the interior lies vacant. Patagonia strikes the traveller as huge, elemental. Its natural conformation is stamped with these characteristics. From the River Negro on the north it tapers gradually to the Straits of Magellan on the south. Three great parallel divisions, running north and south, of plain, lake and mountain, each strongly marked, make up the face of the country. From the shores of the Atlantic the pampas rise in gently graduated terraces to the range of the Andes, while between them are strung a mighty network of lakes and lagoons, some connected by rivers, others by channels, many of which shift and alter under the influence of climate and other local causes. From the sea to the Sierra Nevada stretch the pampas, all tussocky grass, thorn, guanacos and mirages. On the western rim of the pampas the Cordillera stand against the sky, a tumult of mountains clinibing upwards, their loftier eoro-es choked with glaciers, their hollows holding great lakes, ice-cold, ice-blue, and about their bases and their bastions thousands of square miles of shaggy forests, of which but the mere edges have yet been explored. Within its 300,000 square miles of surface Patagonia offers the most extreme and abrupt contrasts. Flat pampa with hardly a visible undulation, mountains almost inaccessible in their steep escarpments. Side by side they lie, crossing many degrees of PATAGONIA 3 latitude, the contrast descending to the smallest particulars, moun- tain against plain, forest as opposed to thorn-scrub, rain against sun. The wind only is common to both more or less, though it is felt to a far greater degree upon the pampa. The contrast extends to the coasts. The eastern coast is a level treeless I'^Eg'-'i". '"!?*>■ J - •-^.\ arrows, the bow being short and thick and the arrows tipped with black and white flint heads. In another place Pioafetta asserts that the least of the Pata^onians was taller than the tallest men in Castile. Magellan treated the man with kind- ness, and soon other natives paid the Spaniards visits. With them they appear to have brought a couple of young;- guanacos, leashed together and led by a cord. They stated that they kept these animals as decoys for the wild herds, who on approaching the tethered gua- nacos fell an easy prey to the hunters lying in ambush close at hand. The Pata^onians are said to have eaten rats, caught on the ship, whole, without even removing the skins ! How- ever, they seem to have been peaceably disposed towards the Spaniards, until Magellan, being struck with their great height, resolved to take home some specimens of the race as curiosities for the Emperor, and consequently he en- trapped two of the young men while on board his vessel. Seeing, however, that one of these Patayfonians gfrieved for his wife, Magellan sent a party ashore with a couple of the natives to fetch the woman : but on the road one ot the natives was wounded, the result being that the whole tribe took to flight after a slight skirmish with the Spaniards, one of whom died almost instantly after being struck by an arrow. From this event ii would seem that the Patagonians of that period used poisoned arrows, as do the Onas of Tierra del Fuego to-day. These people do not employ vegetable poison, but leave their arrows in a piitrid carcase until thev become infected. The next navicrator to visit the shores of Patagonia was Sir Francis Drake in 1578. He also commanded a small scjuadron ol A TEHUELCHKCACIQUE i ■^-^T" •^ '•? •«*''» !?^^ LAKES AM) THK DISTANT COKDII.L five vessels, and, curiously enough, had to cope with a plot against his life when in the same harbour of Port San Julian. The story is well known. Mr. Thomas Doughty, the chief mutineer, was given his choice of death, or of marooning, or to be taken home for trial. He chose death, and was accordingly executed. Drake speaks of the natives as being no taller than some Englishmen, During the next hundred years various expeditions touched upon the coasts, some captained by Englishmen, such as Nar- borough. Byron, and Wallis. The two latter differ a good deal from each other with regard to the stature of the Patagcinians. Byron mentions a chief 7 It. high, and adds that few of the others were shorter. Wallis, on the other hand, gives an average of from 8 ■- ?«?■ •r^^^^i^^^-^^^^^S^^ ll.\(, SKCUND iJIVlsIuN) 5 ft. lo in. to 6 ft., the tallest man measured by him bein<4 6 tt. 7 in. At an earlier date than either of these a Jesuit named Falkner, beings in Patagonia, mentions a cacique some inches over 7 tt. In 17S3 the traveller Viedma penetrated into the interior and discovered one link of the lono- chain of lakes Ivini/ under the Andes, which still bears his name. He gave the people an average of 6 ft. of stature. Some fiftv vears after this H.M.S. Beagle, with Darwin on board, touched at many points of the coast, and short trips inland were undertaken. Darwin's journals i(ive the first detailed account of the country. He agrees with Captain Fitzroy in describing the Patagonians as the tallest of all peoples. During the years 1869-70, Captain George Chaworth Musters. 9 TO THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA of the Royal Navy, spent several months with the nomad Indians, traversing- a great distance in their company, and becoming acquainted with many interesting facts concerning their habits and customs. Since the publication of his book in 1871 practically nothing exhaustive has been written about Southern Patagonia. One or two travellers have given short accounts of visits there, but the serious opening up of the country is due to the initiative and energy of Dr. Francisco P. Moreno, whose first excursion to Pata- gonia was made in 1873. In the following year he carried his investigations as far south as the River Santa Cruz. In 1875 he crossed from Buenos Aires to Lake Nahuel-Huapi and the Andean Cordillera, between parallels 39'' 30' and 42°. In 1876 he visited Chubut, and ascended the river Santa Cruz to its parent lake, which he proved was not that discovered by Viedma in 1782, but another lying farther south. To him is due the earliest suggestion of the great system of lakes which are situated in the longitudinal depression that runs parallel with the Cordillera. Again, in 1879, Dr. Moreno crossed the country to the Cordil- lera on parallel 44''. Up to that time surveying in those regions was by no means exempt from danger, on account of the hostile attitude of the tribes. The amount of valuable work done by Dr. Moreno did not end with his personal expeditions. Each summer of late years the Argentine and Chilian Boundary Commissions have been surveying and opening up the country. First and last Dr. Moreno must always be regarded as the great geographer of Patagonia. Among the gentlemen engaged on the boundary work I should like to mention the Norwegian Herr Hans P. Waag, who, on behalf of the Argentine Commission, penetrated from the Pacific coast up the river De las Heras to lake Buenos Aires, and from thence overland to Trelew. It would be difficult to overpraise the work of this traveller. Others, who as pioneers, travellers, scientific men, or surveyors, have taken a part in the good work of making the interior of Patagonia known to the world are Baron Nordenskjold, Mr. Hatcher, and the members of the Chilian and Argentine Boundary Commissions. I think that in any such list as the above mention PATAGONIA II A rATACOXlAN ESTAXCI.-t should be made of those who first settle in a district, and who realise in greater degree than even the pioneer explorers the diffi- culties and drawbacks of a new country, and undoubtedly their hardihood is of immense and enduring value. I would, therefore, include the name of the Waldron familv, who have taken a laro-e part in settling the southern districts of Patagonia and also in the colonis- ing of Tierra del Fuego. With this brief reference to the more important journeys hitherto made in Southern Patagonia, it may be well to o;ive here some description of the country as it appears to-day. There are upon the eastern coasts some settlements, as I have mentioned, and also the Welsh colonies of Trelew, Daw^son, Gaimon, besides these a very small and recent one exists at Colohaupi, near Lake Musters, and another, The i6th October, far away in the Cordillera. This last is the single settlement of any size south of parallel 40" in the central interior. A fringe of farms runs along the coast, and at the mouths of the rivers are situated little frontier towns, such as San Julian, Santa Cruz and GalleLTOS. Towards the south and aloiiij the shores of the Strait the fringe of farms has grown broader and the country is more generally settled, the Chilian t'wn of Punta Arenas being an important port. The few vast straggling farms are given up chiefly to sheep-breeding, the main export being wool. Put cattle and horses are also raised in large; numbers, for the land has proved very suitable for pasturage. The tarm buildings vary, of course, in many ways : some are large and comfortable homesteads, others mere scjualitl huts, but one and 12 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA all are almost invariably roofed in with the universal o-alvanised iron. AKGKNTINE GAUCHO The Welsh colonists have introduced a good strain to the oTOwing population, and there are constant wholesome as well as vicious importations. In a country where shepherding of one sort or another is the chief industry, it is inevitable that some equivalent of the cow- boy of the North must be developed. The Gaucho is the Patagonian cowboy, and he is manly and picturesque enough to be very interest- ing- The Gauchos are pic- turesque both in their lives and in their appearance : a pair of moleskin trousers, long boots, and a handkerchief usually of a red pattern, a slouch hat of black felt, and a gaudy poncho serve them for apparel. The poncho, which is merely a rug with a hole in the middle for the head, makes a comfortable great-coat by day and a blanket by night. A Gaucho may be sprung from any nation on earth. Even as the shores of Patagonia are washed by the farthest tides of ocean, so the same tides have borne to people her solitude a singular horde of massed nationalities. But it is the man born in the country of whatever stock who becomes the true Gaucho. In- fancy finds him in the saddle, and he grows there. Other men can stick on a horse, but the Gaucho can ride. Living as they do, they form a class alone. On horseback they are more than men ; on foot, I am half tempted to say, less, for they would rather ride fifty miles than walk two. They are farm-hands, shepherds, horse-breakers, occasionally good working vets, and when they prosper they buy waggons and go into the carrying trade ; in fact, they form the foundation of Patagonian life. The coast settlements are similar to such places all the world over : storekeepers, men who run wine-shops, traders, and the PATAGONIA 13 usual sort of folk who form the bulk of dwellers on the edge of civilisation. In Patagonia it is not dif(icult to leave civilisation behind you, for between lat. 43° and 50° S. the interior, save for a very few pioneers and small tribes of wan- derincr Tehuelche Indians, is at the present day un- peopled. When the line of the Cordillera is reached, you come to a region abso- lutely houseless, where no human inhabitant is to be found. Comparatively speak- ing, but little animal life flourishes under the un- numbered snow peaks, and in the unmeasured spaces of virp^in forest, which cov.er those valleys and in many places cloak the mountains from base to shoulder. Hundreds of square miles of forest-land, gorges, open slopes, and terraced hollow s lie lost in the vast embrace of the Patagonian Andes, on which the eye of man has never yet fallen. Our travels took us over a great part of the countr\'. Starling in September 1900, we zigzagged from Trelew by Hahia Camerones, to Lakes Colhue and Musters and alonor the Ri\er Senguerr to Lake Buenos Aires. After spending a time in the neighbourhood of that lake, we followed the Indian tr.iil for some distance, then touching the Southern (^hico we reached Santa Cruz on the east coast in January 1901. Leaving most of the expedition there, I returned with two companions by the course of the River Santa Cruz to the Cordillera, where I rcmainetl for some months, and in Mav I once more crossed the continent to HAI,F-BKEEO GAUCHO 14 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA Gallegos to take ship for Punta Arenas, the only port in Patagonia where a steamer calls regularly. I left Patagonia in June 1901. I compute that the whole distance covered by the journeyings of the expedition cannot have fallen short of 2000 miles. Of the zoology of Patagonia little is known. Of the fauna and tlora of the Cordillera of the southern central part it is not too much to say that practically nothing is known. Patagonia thus offers one of the most interesting fields in the world to the traveller and naturalist. With these preliminary remarks, I will beg the reader to embark with me upon the Argentine National transport the Priinero de Mayo, bound from the port of Buenos Aires for the south. CHAPTER II SOUTHWARD HO! Leaving England — Start — Priincro de Mayo — Port Belgrano — Welsh colonists — Story of Mafeking — First sight of Patagonia — Guolfo Nuevo — Port Madryn — Landing — Trelew — A pocket Wales — Difficulties of early colonists — Other Welsh settlements — Older and younger generations — Welsh youths and Argentine maidens — Language difficulty will arrange itself — A plague of " lords " — Lord Reed — Trouble of following a lord — Itinerary — Travelling in Patagonia — Few men, many horses — Pack-horses — Start for Bahia Camerones — Foxes, ostriches, cavy — On the pampas — Guanaco — First guanaco — Mate — Dogs — Farms — Indians — Landscape — Mirages — Vast empty land — Cahadones — Estancia Lochiel — Seeking for puma — Killing guanacos — Many pumas killed during winter months — Gauchos. We arrived at Buenos Aires early in September 1900, and on the loth we embarked again on board the Primero dc Mayo, one of the transports of the Argentine Government, by which my com- panions and myself had courteously been granted passages to Patagonia, The Prwiei^o dc Mayo is a boat of 650 tons. We carried an extraordinary amount of deck cargo, for there were a good many passengers on board, as these transports offered the sole means existing at that time* of communication by sea with Argentine Patacronia. We started about one o'clock. Lieutenant Jurgensen, the cominaiidaiite, was good enough to invite us to dine on that night with the officers in the deck-house. He subsequently extended his invitation to cover the entire voyage. After dinner we went out upon the deck. It was starlight, and the Prinicro dc J/avo was steaming down the brown estuary of the Plata. First night out! What a penance it is I It is "good-bye" translated into heaviness of heart, and it knows fnr the time * Since writing the above I learn that a German line has put steamers upon this, route. t6 through the heart of PATAGONIA no future and no hope. You can only look back miserably and long for lost companionship and All dear scenes to which the soul Turns, as the lodestone seeks the pole. It is a time when romance fades out, and nothing is left save the grey fact of recent partings and the misery of unaccustomed quarters. First night out — when one renews acquaintance with the thin cold sheets and those extraordinary coverlets whose single habitat in the world appears to be upon the bunks of steamers. Our fellow passengers also seemed very much under the same influence of greyness. They had packed themselves round the saloon-table, and were keeping the stewards busy with orders. There were not only a good many people, but peoples, on board ; all nations in ragged ponchos with round fur caps or those pointed sombreros that one associates with pictures of elves in a wood. As wild-looking a crew were gathered for'ard as ever sailed Southward Ho ! Germans, Danes, Poles, and heaven knows what other races besides ; each little party formed laagers of their possessions and resented intrusion with volley-firing of oaths. There was one laager in which I found myself taking a particular interest ; it was made up of two men, a woman, and her brood of children. Their only belongings appeared to consist of four ponchos, a matd pot and kettle, and a huge basket of cauliflowers. They crept in and entrenched themselves between the cauliflowers and the port bulwark in the waist of the ship. From there they did not move, but sat swaying their bodies during the entire voyage. Was Patagonia an Eldorado to which those people were journeying ? On that dark night, as the ship slid groaning and creaking over the brown waters, the dark scene, lit by stray blurs of light, called up a memory of Leighton's picture, "The Sea shall give up its Dead." Among the passengers was the Governor of Santa Cruz, Seiior Don Matias McKinlay Tapiola, who speaks English very well. There were also one or two gentlemen interested in sheep-farming SOUTHWARD HO 17 in Patagonia. Of these, Mr. Greenshields, whose estancia or farm we visited later, owned the credit of having broken new ground in colonising a part of the country some one hundred and fifty miles south of the Welsh settlement of Trelew. The earlier sheep- farms lay about Punta Arenas, eight degrees to the southward, and there the men of the south swore by the south, and much difference of opinion existed as to how sheep would flourish in the more northerly region chosen by Mr. Greenshields. But it seemed that his daring was likely to be richly repaid, and that many, when they heard of his suc- cess, would follow his example. At length it was bedtime, and we turned in with the com- fortinof reflection that when we woke "first night out" would be over. Next morning land had sunk from sioht and there was a litrht ^- ^- ^crivenor ground-swell, but the Priuiei'O de Mayo was rolling heavil)-. a trick that Government transports possess and seem to regard in the light of a privilege all the world over. The evenings and the mornings followed each other in grey but serene regularity, till on the 12th we turned coastwards, heading for Puerto Belgrano, and ran between low, green, hummocky banks up a stretch of shallow, mud-coloured water to our anchorage. It was a reddish sunset with lightning playing continuously upon the horizon, and while we were at dinner a thunderstorm broke with heavy rain. That nic^ht we were permitted the privilege and amusement of choosing the morrow's nicmi. We chose a truly British repast ; roast beef, jam - roll and plum-pudding figuring amongst the items. There are no employments too triihng to help one to pass the time on boartl a ship doing service as a coaster. As to the arrangements made for our well-being on the transport, the Minister of Marine bad. I was B I 8 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA informed, kindly given most generous orders with regard to our treatment. In the morning we disembarked forty-two sailors for the four men- of-war lying at anchor in the bay. Then we sailed away again for the south with a warm sun upon the crowded planking and a cold wind blowing aft. It was at this time that I altered my original plans and decided on landing at Puerto Madryn, our next stopping- place, instead of at Santa Cruz, which lies some seven degrees of latitude farther to the south. Upon hearing that winter had not yet relaxed its grip on the country south, it became clear that the horses down there would be thin and in poor condition, with the spring sickness upon them, and therefore quite unfitted to start upon such a journey as lay before us. The new scheme also promised a saving of time, as the Primero de Mayo, owing to the necessity of calling at various little places on the way down to Santa Cruz, would be a good deal delayed ; besides, the horses we required could probably be got together more quickly at Puerto Madryn. We had a number of Welsh with us on the transport, who were on their way home to the Welsh settlements of Trelew, Gaiman and Rawson. In the evenings of the voyage it was their custom to forgather and sing psalms in Welsh, psalms the sound of which took one's memory back to the Scottish hills and the yearly ante- communion preachings in the open-air. The surrounding greyness aided the idea — grey sea, grey sky, grey weather. By the way, on board we learnt a fact, or so we were assured it was, about the South African War, which is certainly not well known even among- those who love the Boer. One night at table, one of the diners solemnly declared that at Mafeking the English ate the flesh of the Kaffirs and were thereby enabled to hold out for so long. He was not attempting to hoax us, he really believed the fable himself, poor fellow ! I did not gather the gentleman's name. Coming on deck on the morning of the 15th, we saw, drawn across the western sea-rim, a low brown line. Above it a sky of steel-blue gleamed coldly and below a wash of grey sea. This was our first view of Patagonia. All day we crept along the grim. SOUTHWARD HO! 19 quiet, solitary-looklni^ cliff, until at last the Primero de Mayo was swallowed up in the vast embrace of the Golfo Nuevo. It was between evening and night when we approached our harbourage, Puerto Madryn. The half-lights were playing above it, and the afterglow of the sunset still shone feebly behind the land. W'e saw only raw cliff capped by dark verdure — the rim of the vast pampas which roll away in rising levels league upon league towards the Andes. The sea was cold, the wind was cold, the land looked forlorn and a-cold. Presently from it a little boat put out containing a figure wrapped in a long military cloak. This was the sub- prefect, who thus welcomed us to these desolate shores, for Patagonia from the sea is a desolate prospect indeed. It would be difficult to give an adequate idea of the dismal aspect presented by Puerto Madryn upon that evening. Suffice it to say that the settlement consists of half a dozen houses arid a (lacrstaff : the first crouch on the lip of the tide and the second shivers above on the bare pampa-rim. There seals and divers haunt the sea, a few sfuanaco-herds live upon the coast-lands, and there, in inhospitable fashion, the little colony of human beings clings, as it were, upon the skirts of great primordial nature. In the evening lights the cliffs showed curiously pallid above a strip of dead sand and shingle, only the sky and the water seemed alive. Next morning we hoped to get our baggage ashore and were moving early with that object in view. But the trend of public opinion in Puerto Madryn appears to be towards the conviction that there is no sort of reason for hurry under any circumstances. Hence the cargo disgorged itself slowly, and after interniinal)le waiting we found our particular share of it would not be reached that night. It was, in fact, not till the afternoon of the second day that we achieved a partial recovery of our belongings from the holds and took the first consio^nment of it ashore. The morninir had broken clear and fine, but mid-day brought a change. And by the time we had our boatload completed and rocketed away shorewards at the tail of the Prh7iero de Mayds steam-launch, a beam sea was Hying in spray high over us. 20 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA There was an anxious moment when the launch slipped the towing-cable and the sailor in the bows flung a rope, which dropped short of the black wooden jetty, and we were swept some boat-lengths away by a big broken sea. To be swamped at the moment of landintr ! — the thought was too disastrous to be dwelt on ; half our rifles and a box of instruments were on board. It cost us a long hour and a half of hard work before every- thing" was safe ashore. And while we toiled a dozen seals came and stared at us with their doglike faces, and lazy, solemn eyes. When all our pro- perty had been brought to land, luckily without mishaps of any kind, 1 left Scrivenor with our peones to bring up the heavy baggage and went on with Burbury to Trelew by the miniature train which plies to and fro between the Welsh colony and the coast. From Trelew a ten-days ride takes you beyond the farm of the last settler and into the waste places of the pampas. Trelew is a new and pocket Wales, but very much Wales all the same. To prove the accuracy of this statement it is only necessary to say that the waggon which set us on the first leagues of our way belonged to a Jones, that another Jones accompanied the expedition to the Cordillera, that I negotiated with a third Jones for a supply of mutton to take with us for use on the first part of our journey, that I was introduced to several Williamses and did business with various Hugheses. And all this in a day and a half. T. R. D. BURBUKY SOUTHWARD HO! 21 WF.I.SH SETTI.llMKNT OF TKKl.KW Trelew itself is a bare settlement of raw-looking houses and shanties, which has started up on the emptiness of the pampas. It cannot lay any claim to picturesqueness, and a pervading impres- sion of being unfinished adds a suggestion of discomfort to the place. All round about the mud houses the pampa rolls away to the dis- tances, harsh, stony, overgrown with little humpy bushes of thorn and dotted here and there with wheat - land. All throuo^h and over the settlement vou are never out of hearinor of three lano-uaQ^es — English, Welsh and Spanish. For thirty-five years the W^elsh have lived in this little colony of their own founding. Exactly all the reasons which led them to forsake their far-off homes for Patagonia it would serve no purpose to set out in detail, but the root of the matter appears to have lain in the fact that they objected to the laws relating to the teaching of English in the schools ; and, having the courage of their convic- tions, they came several thousand miles across the sea to escape the r"rass and endless scrub. We saw Cayenne plover ( Vaiiellus cayennensis) at an early stage of our travels. I have already mentioned the herds of oruanaco that roam the interior. This animal belongs dis- tinctively to South America, and is to be found nowhere else in the world, Darwin writes of it as follows : " The guanaco, or wild llama, is the characteristic quadruped of the plains of Pata- gonia. . . . It is an elegant animal in a state of nature, with a lono- slender neck and fine lefjs." In colour the ouanaco is of a golden-brown with white underparts, the hair upon the sides being somewhat long and fieecy. Enormous herds of from three to five hundred live upon the pampas, and we were aware that we should chiefly depend for meat on those we might chance to shoot during many months to come. One evening, when I was riding ahead with the troop of horses, I saw mv first ofuanaco. Comingf round a bend of the windintr canadoii, I looked up and perceived him. The sight was highly picturesque. It was an old buck standing alone on the top ol a cliff some two hundred feet high and looking down at me. He was posed against a background of pale green glinting sunset. I had hardly time to unsling my rifle before he bounded away. We saw many thousands afterwards, but somehow in the nature of thino's I shall never forget that first one. On the coast-farms, which, it must be recollected, are manv of 28 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA them scores of square leagues in extent, the guanaco grows com- paratively tame, becoming used to the passing of mounted shepherds ; but in other parts of Patagonia, noticeably in the valley of the River Chico of Chubut, through which we passed later, they are very wild, allowing no human being to approach within half a mile. This is owing to the Indians, who hunt them perpetually in that district. Once in camp in Patagonia life is very enjoyable, though perhaps the enjoyment varies with the amount of game to be seen. Up at sunrise, when the sun pokes its big bald lemon-coloured head out of the bed-clothes of the sky. Then some early camp- man stirs and rises, and waddles down to the wet grey ashes of yesternight's fire, and soon a weak trail of smoke goes rocketing away in the wind. The big pot is put on and breakfast is made and eaten. Then the cargo is packed, anci the horses are rounded up by a Gaucho or two, riding bareback. We saddle up and the caravan moves off on its leagues-long march. Marches vary from fifteen miles to forty, and when the after- noon sun waxes less strong the horses are off-saddled and turned loose, the waggons unpacked and the camp-fires lighted. Jllat^ eternally, a roast, tea afterwards and a pipe, and then the sleeping- bags. Matd or ye7^ba, I must explain, is the great drink of the pampas, and is most invigorating. A cup or tin is half fiUed with the yellow powdery leaves, to which is added a little cold water, followed by hot. It is drunk through a bombilla or tube, the maker of the decoction taking the first pull, and afterwards it passes from hand to hand, and I must add from mouth to mouth, round the circle. It is the greatest insult to refuse to partake, and when the originator of the brew happens to be an old and rather unappetising Tehuelche lady, the effort to take your turn and look pleased is often something of an ordeal. Day after clay went by in much the same manner, but few remem- brances remain with me more vividly than the pampa fox and cavy hunting which we enjoyed during those early times of our expedi- tion, h'our lurchers of sorts and my big greyhound, Tom, trotted behind our horses, and when game was sighted we went after it at full gallop. In that keen air nothing can be more exhilarating than SOUTHWARD HO! 29 //.#¥» LANGLEY's nSTAXCIA ON THE KOAD TO BAHIA CAMERONES such a chase over the broken ground of the pampa, where we were often successful, but among hummocks and hills the quarry frequently made good its escape. On the 25th we passed a ferm that was quite English in appear- ance — wire-fences en- closing sheep and lambs on downs that descended in undulations to the sea. By evenino- we were in broken country patched with red rock. The horses were rather troublesome ; Hughes, one of the Gauchos, rode an untamed mare and orave a o^ood exhi- bition of horsemanship, mk. Among the sheep and the hills an Indian rode down from the high ground ; he wore a poncho of red and black, tinted like autumn trees. His camp consisted of a little fire of three or four sticks, by which squatted his china. He took his place beside her, and watched our line of waggons and horses wind away out of sight. From Trelew to Camerones the country was for the most part like the bare deer-forests of the Scottish Highlands, brown bracken being replaced by espinilla (thorn, a general term) and the tureen shrub called by the Welshmen " poison-bush," the same blue skv above, the same occasional lochlike lagoons. For the first two days or more the pampas stretched to the rim of the horizon, empty and somewhat harsh even in the sunlight. Now and then mirages like squadrons of cavalry hovered along the edges of them. A few guanaco and ostriches, a S{)rinkling of cavy. and manv pampa foxes seemed to eke out an existence there. It was a land of vast prospects, a scene laid tt)rih with a sort of noble parsimony, which — as in the case of a miser so miserly that for the very exceedingness of his vice you respect him — was yet stupendous in its one or two grandly simple salient features, and drove the 30 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA spectator to that admiration which verges upon fear. Picture one such characteristic vision of Patagonia. As far as eye could reach a spread of wind-weary grass, roofed by a wind-blown sky, an eagle poised far off, a dot in the upper air. Nothing more. A man alone within this vast setting seemed puny. Lost here, without a horse, he would be the most helpless of things created. 1 1 was across this gigantic primordialism that our way led us. Three times we made our camp upon the bare pampas, three times in one or other of the many cahadones before reaching Bahia Camerones. You may be voyaging at an easy jog over the pampa, seeing the land roll apparently quite level to the horizon, when suddenly you come upon a spatter of white sand, a track leading between the shoulders of the pampa, you dive clown and are lost to sight in a moment ; then, perhaps, for four miles or for fourteen you are riding" a couple of hundred feet below the level spread of the pampa, and as you pass the guanaco on the cliff tops watch you un- easily. To be lost in such a land is the simplest possible matter. On the 2 7t.h we arrived at the Estancia Lochiel, where Mr. Greenshields most kindly entertained us. This estancia is situated at the head of a cafiadoii, which drops away to the sea eight leagues distant. It consists of a small colony of wooden houses with corrugated iron roofs. The Lochiel Sheep Farming Company, of which Mr. Greenshields is manager, have 15,000 sheep and forty square leagues of camp. " Camp," you must understand, in Patagonia means land. The day after our arrival Scrivenor and Burbury accompanied Mr. Frederick Haddock to his farm, eight leagues away, in order to bring back the horses I had purchased by contract in Trelew. I remained behind as Mr. Greenshields' guest, for a puma was reported by the shepherd to have killed five sheep upon the edge of the farm during the previous night. Macdonald, the Scotch shepherd, Barckhausen and I set out to see if we could lind the puma. On my way to the spot I shot my first guanaco. He appeared upon the skyline doing sentinel, possibly against the very puma we were after. We rode under the hill on wliich the guanaco was watching, and he began to move uneasily. \\. the bend of the hill was a small SOUTHWARD HO! 31 hollow, and, as we rode through this, I told my companions to ride on and threw them my cabresto (leadino-rope of a horse). I slid off the horse and crawled up the hill. Upon the bare face of it was a thicket of poison-bush, and into this I ultimately made my way. The sentinel guanaco was there above me, stretching out his long neck, and every now and then giving his high neighing laueh. When one hundred and ^ twenty yards off he saw me, and I had to snap him quickly. Swing- went his neck, and away he gal- loped with his swift, uneven gait. I thought I had missed him, when, to my delight, he began to slacken speed, and finally lay down in an ungainly attitude, his Ions: neck crooked in a curve in front of him. I crawled nearer, and up he got and was off again. I ran down to my horse and mounted, and Macdonald let Tom, my hound, loose. We galloped the guanaco up. He was very sick indeed, and inside of three hundred yards Tom pulled him down again. The ^Mauser bullet had hit hini two inches behind the shoulder about half way down the body. It had not come out. How he managed to get so far I cannot understand. We then went onwards, and saw by the way several herds of guanaco. I did not shoot any more, however, as they were uncommonly tame, and there was, of course, mutton at the estancia. We reached the spot on the hills above the puma's kill, low thorn bushes, vast moiiiuain and blue sea, but no sign of the puma was to l)e found. These animals will often travel four or five leagues after a kill. By the way, when you fire at a guanaco they will sway their heads downwards with an odd sort of ducking motion. Not one individual Ijui a whole herd will do this at any unaccustomed sound. The effect is most curious. While ciL Dahia Lamcroiies our parl\- was completed. W c FREDERICK BARCKHAUSEN 32 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA took with us five Gauchos, who are active, handy men as a rule. The population of the country is largely composed of Gauchos ; in fact, they form the foundation of Patagonian life. They live by the horse, and the horse lives by them. They drive mobs of cattle or of horses for owners across three degrees of latitude to sell them. They have been born in the camp, live in the camp, and will very likely die there also. In Patagonia they treat their horses in a method very different to that which we employ in our crowded country. There nature gives grass, water, and the horse ; man tames the animal as little as possible from his wild state, and forces an alliance with nature. At night the mares are hobbled and the horses turned loose ; while the Gauchos light their camp-fire and drink matd through the boinbilla. At the first light next morning they take it in turn to bring in the troop, which they do with an astonishing swiftness. Some- times, of course, the horses " clear," and then it is that the Gauchos in charge find them by tracking. In a country intersected by deep cahadoncs, which offer a secure hiding-place in their many hollows, this is a difficult matter. The tracks perhaps run easily through a belt of soft marsh, and then are invisible upon a pampa of shingle and thorn. A true Gaucho must be able to do a number of things — to back an untamed colt, to lassoo, to use the boleadores, which are heavy stones attached together by a hide rope, and are to the Patagonian what the boomerano- is to the Australian aborii^^ine. He must be able to cook, to make horse-gear from the pelts of beasts, to find his way without a compass from point to point, by instinct as it were. The Gaucho shares with the poet the honour of being born, not made. This proves that Gaucho work is Art, with a big A. Take, for instance, the power of driving single-handed a big mob of wild horses and keeping them compact. No one who has not tried it can imagine what heartbreakinir work it is to a beo-inner. O C3 O One learns to do it after a fashion in time, but never like the man who has been bred to the craft. CHAPTER III THE BATTLE OF THE HORSES Leave Bahia Camerones — Horses wild — Decide on taking one waggon — Bell- mare — Names of horses — Breaking-in of horses — German peones — Horses stray — Gaucho trick — Watching troop at night — Four languages — Signalling by smokes — Searching for horses — Favourite words and phrases — Nag of the baleful eye — Canadon of the dry river — Bad ground — Flies — Ostrich eggs — Shooting guanaco — River Chico of Chubut — Puma's visit at night — Condor — Lady killed — Singing in camp — Stormy night — Breakdown of waggon — Guanaco on stony ground — Long chase — Guanaco's death. I WILL not bore my readers with all the technicalities of our preparations for the real start. Suffice it to say that our total belongings were stowed upon a waggon and on the backs of four pack-horses. We had in all sixty horses, and eight men. About forty of these horses had been running wild upon the pampa for eight months previous to our acquiring them. During that time they had been lost and had only been recaptured shortly before our arrival in Trelew. The purchase of them was, however, the best speculation I could make under the circumstances, since all the animals were good and sound. Had I bought by small instalments in Trelew. not only would every man within journeying distance have very naturally attempted to palm off upon me the worst and most vicious animals he possessed, but the horses, not being used to one another's company, would have been impossible to keep together at night upon the pampas, as the various sections composing such a tropilla would inevitably have scattered to the four points of the compass. Patagonian horses, which are descended from those bnnight over bv the Spaniards in the sixteenth century, arc never stabled, but are turned out rain and snow in their troops. Hiese tn^ops or tropillas consist of an\- number from six animals to thirty, and 34 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA to each is assigned a madriiia, or bell-mare, which is never ridden, and which is trained to be caught easily. At night she is hobbled, and her troop remain round about her. Naturally a well-trained A I'AMTA RfM'Nn-UP jnadrina is one affair, while a badly-trained one is quite another. In my mob of horses I had four troops, two good luadrinas and one bad one, while the fourth w^as a rosada, whose sole object in life seemed to be to get away from her own troop and to kick any one who came within ten feet of her. When you desire to put a strange horse or colt into a troop, it is necessary to couple him to the inadrina for some days, after which he will remain with the troop. The inadrina should never be driven in hobbles, a mistake that is often made when bringing in the horses of a morning. A horse used to hobbles can travel in them four or five leagues in a single night, so the reason why the mares should not be allowed ever to become used to travellino- in hobbles is obvious. The niadrina has a bell attached to her neck, and the last sound heard before you sleep is the soft tinkle of these bells and the comfortable sound of feeding horses, unless THE BATTLE OF THE HORSES 35 the troop happens to take it into their head to make off, in which case you will have a long ride upon their tracks in the morning. The horses throughout the Argentine Republic are known by their colours (for which the Spanish language supplies an extra- ordinary variety of terms signifying every tint and shade), and to these names they answer. Some of the names are melodious and pretty — alazan, which means chestnut, criizado, the name given to a horse that possesses alternate white feet, the off fore and the near hind foot, or the other way round. There is a theory among the Gauchos that a cruzado will never tire. I cannot do better than give a list of the names of the horses of my own tropilla, though, of course, there are many others : Alazan, chestnut. Overo, piebald or skew- ■ Astilejo, bluish-grey and bald, white in patches. Pangard, brown or bay with Bayo, fawn. fawn muzzle. Blanco, white. Picaso, black with white Cruzado^ with crossed white blaze and white legs, feet. Rosado, red and white in Gateado, yellow with black patches, roan, stripe down back. Rosillo, strawberry. Hoi^qzieta, slit-eared. Tordillo, grey. Moro, grey. Tostado, toast-coloured. Oscuro, black. Zaino, brown or dark bay. The taminor of these horses is a business of which an account may not be uninteresting. The methods used are of a very rough description. The colt is caught from the mafiada, or troop of mares in which he was born, with a lasso, a head-stall is put on him and he is tied up to the palenqtte, or centre-post of the corral. Here he is left for twelve hours or so, during which he generally expends his energies in trying to pull the palenquc out of the ground. He is then saddled up, generally with an accompaniment of buckino-, and the Gaucho who is to tame him climbs upon his back. Another mounted Gaucho is near by to " ride oftV which he does by galloping between the colt and any dangerous ground or object. Probably the colt will begin by bucking, but if he does not do so during his first gallop it by no means follows that he will 1^6 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA turn out to be free from the fault. Indeed it is quite probable that he may be soft and fat after his easy youth upon the pampas, and not till about the fifth or sixth gallop will he show such vices as are in him. At first he is ridden on the bocado, which is a soft strip of hide tied round the lower jaw. This answers to the heavy snaffle which is the first bit a colt has to submit to in England. The Gauchos of Patagonia are not nearly patient enough with the mouths of their mounts, spoiling many by harsh treatment. Different colours in horses are supposed to indicate different tem- peraments ; thus they say a Moro colt is generally docile, while a Picaso has the reputation of being very much the reverse. The horses of Northern Patagonia — such as were ours, for they came from the banks of the Rio Negro — are reputed to be more spirited than those bred in the south. But this theory is possibly owinor to the fact that the averao^e Gaucho of the north is a better rider than his brother of the south. The horses are, I fancy, much the same. Many Patagonian horses are what may be called " quick to mount," starting at a canter as soon as their rider's foot touches the stirrup. This also is the fault of the breakers-in. There are few tricks more annoying or, upon a hillside, more dangerous. After this short description my readers will be able to under- stand more fully the happenings which I am about to describe. On October 3 we set out from Mr. Greenshields', and at the moment of starting Fritz Gleditzsch, a German from Dresden, whom I had broucrht with me from Buenos Aires, and whom I had enLTaged on the best recommendations, came to me and told me that he could not go farther because he had had no meat to eat upon the previous night. As the meat-shed was situated about two hundred yards from where my men were encamped, and as he had free access to it, I began to understand that F^ritz was something of an old soldier. Had 1 been able to get another man to replace him on the spot I should have done so, but with my large troop (jf horses I was more or less in the hands of my peoncs, a not uncommon difficulty to overtake the traveller in Patagonia, and one upon which nvdny peoncs count. The real reason for F>itz's recalcitrance turned out to be the ^^^3/7 ' i ■■■■ - ■ ■ ■ -4 .- - |...e 68 6ft 64, 62 ,n„i ^^ :V CHI ti'»,";- MAP Showing Route of Expedition through Scnla of Miloa. THE BATTLE OF THE HORSES 37 arrival in my camp of a compatriot and erstwhile companion. Hans Hollesen, who had applied to join the expedition. I took them both along, for, having paid Master Fritz's way from Buenos Aires, I did not relish the notion of obtaining no return for the outlay, and I knew that, once we passed Colohuapi, I shoukl be master of the situation. I heard months afterw^ards from a New Zealander, who had been on board the Primero de Mayo with Fritz, that that gentle- man was looking forward to a soft job, and had boasted that he would certainly desert us if we marched more than ten miles a day. Our first march was about three leagues, and we made our camp beside a small shallow lagoon upon which a couple of ashy-headed geese {Beruicla poliocephald) were swimming. I shot them both for the pot. It was about six o'clock w^hen we camped, and Burbury, who was in charge of the horses, took every possible precaution to prevent their straying, a very likely contingency upon their first night in the open pampa. In spite of the fact that the horses were watched all night, morning found us with but thirty-seven out of the whole number. Soon after daylight Burbury, with some of the men, rode out to recover them. They returned unsuccessful. Durino- the mornino- a wanderino- Gaucho came into camp and said he had seen some horses in a cahadon near by. The Welsh- men rode out there but came back disappointed, as the horses were not ours. At eleven o'clock next morning" I sent three of the men back to Mr. Haddock's, from whose estancia the lost troop had been acquired, the probabilities being that the\ had headed back for home. But shortly after Burbury and the Germans returned with the horses, which had travelled about nine miles, and were discovered calmly feeding in a canadon. It was Burlniry who dis- covered them by a smart piece of Gaucho work. Next night, October 6, we watched the horses in turns. It was a cold ni'>ht lit bv a moon. W'c had some reason to beliexe that our Gaucho friend of the day before had not been altogether innocent in connection with the straying ot the horses. Such a man will ride quietly through the scattered horses feeding in the =^ THE BATTLE OF THE HORSES 37 arrival in my camp of a compatriot and erstwhile companion, Hans Hollesen, who had applied to join the expedition. I took them both along, for, having paid Master Fritz's way from Buenos Aires, I did not relish the notion of obtaining no return for the outlay, and I knew that, once we passed Colohuapi, I should be master of the situation. I heard months afterwards from a New Zealander, who had been on board the Primei'O de Mayo with h>itz, that that gentle- man was looking forward to a soft job, and had boasted that he would certainly desert us if we marched more than ten miles a dav. Our first march was about three leagues, and we made our camp beside a small shallow lagoon upon which a couple of ashy-headed geese (Bernicla poliocephala) were swimmiiig. I shot them both for the pot. It was about six o'clock w^hen we camped, and Burbury, who was in charge of the horses, took every possible precaution to prevent their straying, a very likely contingency upon their first night in the open pampa. In spite of the fact that the horses were watched all night, morning found us with but thirty-seven out of the whole number. Soon after daylight Burbury, with some of the men, rode out to recover them. They returned unsuccessful. Durino- the mornino- a wandering- Gaucho came into camp and said he had seen some horses in a canadon near by. The \\ elsh- men rode out there but came back disappointed, as the horses were not ours. At eleven o'clock next mornino- I sent three of the men back to Mr. Haddock's, from v\hose estancia the lost troop had been acquired, the probabilities being thai Lhc\ had headed back for home. But shortly after Burbury and the Germans returned with the horses, which had travelled about nine miles, and were discovered calmly feeding in a canadon. It w^as Burbury who dis- covered them by a smart piece of Gaucho work. Next niofht, October 6. we watched the horses in tin-ns. It was a cold night lit by a moon. We had some reasc-in to belie\-e that our (iaucho friend of the day before had not bcm .iltogether innocent in connection with thc^ straying ot ilie horses. Such a man will ride quietly through ihc scattered horses feeding in tlu' 38 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA gloom and stampede them. He will follow a small mob and drive them into some fold of the hills, such as, no doubt, he knows a dozen of, and hide them there until, after several days, a reward is offered by the owner. The Gaucho will then ride casually into the camp, drink a inatc\ hear the story, and remark that he is well acquainted with the country round. If asked whether he can give any opinion as to the whereabouts of the lost horses, he says, '' Quien sabe?'' but suggests they may be in a '' canadon inuy livipio'' to which horses often stray. In reply to any question as to where the cahadon may lie, he replies, " Over there," and waves his hand half round the compass. He may add that he is looking for seven mares of his own that strayed away last Friday week or he would himself undertake the office of guide. If any hint of payment be given, he goes on to say that, since his mares have been lost so long they may remain lost a little longer, while he guides and aids the travellers in their search, not, of course, for the money's worth, that will not recompense him for the mares, which may wander away altogether out of the province because of his delay in looking for them, but because he would do a kindness to persons for whom he has conceived a liking. So he acts as guide, and, after a decent interval, finds the horses and pouches his reward. It is an excellent trade, as there is no risk and plenty of emolument to recommend it, and, in fiict, it is a common enough trick in Patagonia. I sat most of the night by the fire — except when my turn came to ride round the horses, which we had placed in a small hollow — writing up my diary by the light of the fire, and watching the men ride in and out of the moonlight and the shadows. As the night advanced the cold increased. The moon left us about 3.30 a.m. and it became very dark. As I circled on my beat I passed by a wild cat. Morning found the horses all right. We had, however, to delay a little to allow of our men returning from Haddock's. On October 7 we fared forth once more upon our way, and the ill-luck that had attended us at this first camp was with us up to the last moment of the three days we spent there, for as the waesfon besan to move off an alazan fell beneath the front wheel, which passed clean over his near fore leg. Strangely THE BATTLE OF THE HORSES 39 enough, owing to some inequality of the ground, the waggon, although very heavily laden, did not hurt the animal. He was not even cut, and when we got him up he resumed his journey as if nothing had happened, and eventually turned out one of our best horses. We now made two or three good marches in succession, but on J. B. SCKIVKNOK (GEOLOGIST] AM) MULA October 10, in spite of all precautions, the horses belonging to the black mares troop deserted her.* Upon this, finding that until the horses of the different troops became more used to each other, it would be almost impossible to keep them together on the open pampas, where, as a further disadvantage, the grass was poor and sparse, and the horses had to scatter a great deal to feed, I decided to cut across to the Rio Chico of Chubut and march aloni^ the river valley, the tall cliffs of which would serve as a barrier to pre- vent the tropilla straying. Never was such an awful place as these pampas in which to lose anything, or, worse still, to get lost yourself You ride a hundred yards or so and you arc in some deep-mouthed cahadoii, lying Bush with the pampa, and out of sight of your com- panions in an instant. On the expedition we spoke four languages — Spanish, English, Gernian and Welsh, but English was more used than the others. '■•- When a mare is in foal — as was the case with the black mare — her troop will often desert her and wander away, but when the foal is born the horses become very nuich attached to it. 40 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA On one occasion we had to light a couple of fires to signal some of the men who were out looking for horses; one of these spread rather much, but was easily put out with a spade. It is strange how small an area burns in that part of the country, even with a high wind to helji the flames. The weather was windy and bitterly cold. I extract the following from my diary : '"October lo, evening. — I write this by the camp-fire. The men take it in turns to cook. Two armadillos {Dasypus niinntus) have been cau^^ht by the Germans. They are strong little beasts ; you can hardly pull one, which has half buried itself in the ground, out with both hands. We roast them whole with hot stones and they taste like chicken. Fritz and Hollesen went for the horses this morning and found three of the Trelew troop gone, the Tordillo, the Zaino, and the Blanco, and this although one was maneado and the other two tied together. This is a great hindrance. We got the waggon ready on the interminable pampa and decided to strike down at once for the Rio Chico by way of a \2s again, " By evening- we reached the cahadon of the Rio Chico and camped upon the banks. " October 12. — With an effort oot away by nine o'clock. I rode on down the cahadon, as we had no meat and some was wanted. We appear to be now entering- a good game country. Saw five ostriches. I rode the big Tostado. He loped lazily across stony ridges, which crawl to the foot of th(^ purple hills that are on the other side of the Chico. Two herds of Q^uanaco tied while I was on the horizon. I cantered a lono- way, it seemed yery far, oyer the rolling ridges of [jebble and thorn-bush. Mirages smoked and danced on the horizon. I came at lencjth to the wao-o-on- track which runs through the wild gorge of the Chico, and is only used about once or twice a year. I rode down this track, and at the side found a single ostrich ^^^. Shortly after I sighted the horses, which Jones had tied up here and there. I left my belt and the ^&rt' "^^^^ went back into the scrub to seek for that game which I could not find. Saw one guanaco, but it had seen me first, cmd would not let me approach within a quarter of a mile. Sighted the horses and waggon far away on the high ground and rode to meet them. Put them in a new troop and got away again at one o'clock. Found that if I could not shoot a guanaco we must open our reserve of tinned meat, and 1 did not wish to begin upon it so soon. Rode on ahead of the troop revolving these matters. .M\ horse was extra lazy. I was thinkinof of the ostriches I had observed when I saw over a ridge to the left the ears of a guanaco. There was a dry nullah-bed which curved in beneath the ridge. It was jiebbly and sparsely set with thorn. I lay down and crawled until 1 came to some water, and then I looked again. I could see the first guanaco, an old buck, peering with his long neck swa\-ing. and looking at the Tostado which I had tied up. To tie up \ our horse in view is the most successful thing you can do in this countr\- of lonof-necked crame, and of o-ame which is so often inirsued w ith dogs and on horseback. Sometimes the most ordinary game takes, from tlic circumstances surrounding its j)ursuit. a reflected interest not its own. So it was in this case; nor, indeetl. is the guanaco 44 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA always an easy quarry, in fact it is a shy animal in the districts where it is hunted by Indians.* I crawled along, just a thorn-bush, and that a lean one, between me and detection. I had set my hopes on a low green l)elt of j)oison-scrub, and this I attained at last. From it I saw a foot of the big buck's neck and the heads and ears of six more. I had made up my mind to take a fine bead shot, but he orave me no chance of doing so. I had only time to snap him as he saw me. The bullet smashed his neck. As the others ran away I put two shots out of four into one, and killed it as it entered the scrub of thick, thorny, califate bushes that lived hardily there in the valley. I went on after shooting the guanaco and left Fritz and Hughes to cut up the meat. We made a league and a half through the gorge of the Chico when up came Fritz and said the waggon was broken down by, so he explained, a "horse falling on the pole" within a hundred yards of where I had shot the guanaco. This was a disaster indeed. Here were we just doing a good march when this wretched breakdown occurred. We turned the troop and went back only to find the waggon, a league away, coming merrily towards us. They said it could go no farther, but after repairs it achieved a league and a half more. Passing along we agreed it was a good country for lions {Kc. pnnia. locally called lions). We encamped beneath a high cliff, sixty feet of moss-grown basaltic rock beside the muddy river, THE HUNTKK'S KKXrKN Darwin describes the guanaco as "generally wild and extremely wary." THE BATTLE OF THE HORSES 45 FJIL/S CO.XCO/.OK PL M.I where it winds through the marshes. In the niiiht the doo-s be^'-an to bark, for a lion came into camp. We could hear it moving by the dead camp-fire among the pots and pans. Burbury fired his revolver in its direction ; he was sleeping on the outside of the tent. This morning we have found the lion's lair, twentv vards up in the rock above our camp. Fritz said last night, ' And if you hear me cry out, it is the lion, he zomp on me.' " Fritz is very jocu- lar sometimes : ' Aha, my little horse, he zomp !' and ' Mine little bitch, vou ooand catch a pfuanaco.' To-niixht he was roasting an os- trich e^To- and it ex- ploded and shot him all over with yellow yolk. He remarked, ' He is goot, this ^%%, but he smell a bit of skunk.' " October 13. — Mending waggon, no wood. At ten o'clock waoforon mended but needed a rest in the sun till the hide of cruanaco we had bound it with should drv. So I decided to take to-day as our Sunday and march to-morrow. Burbury is making a plum-duff. Served out tobacco this morning. " Mock Sundav and at rest, a time for dreaming. Awav at home the trees are browning. How one's heart turns to theni and dreams of them ! The men born out here wonder how we can look forward to the hap])iness of going home, perhaps for the sight of some village church hidden in I^nglish lanes and fields. Half the charm of this life we are living out here lies in thinking of our return to the land that gives us all comfort and a silent welcome of green springs. Went out to-day after the lion and found tracks, but the ground was too hartl for following them up. He lives in a x'alley of grey dead bush. As we wciii a\\a\- from the dead guanaco yesterday, a condor {Sarcor/ia/ft/>/iits 46 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA gyyphus) appeared and dropped on tlie carcase almost before we left it. " October 14, Sunday. — We o-ot away at nine o'clock and came fast. The miiddv narrow Chico flowinij" throui-h a land which looks GUANACO HOL'NDS. (FATHF.R AND MOTHER OK THE AUTHOR S HOUND, TOM. as if it led over the edge of the world. It reminds one of a flowering- wilderness. Last night we tied up the dogs, and dear old Tom howled till I had to get up and correct him. When up I let poor little Lady loose, the last service I was ever destined to do for her, for to-day the waggon went over her belly, and she lies dead on the track a few leagues back. She was six months old, always cheerful, and wagging her whip of a tail, always up to the march. Half an hour before she died I saw her hunting a young fox, her first. She had brown eyes and 1 had got fonder of her than I knew. Tom used to drive her from her food, biting her, and from the softest bed, and I am now glad to think I sometimes made him give way to her. Just before Lady's death, I shot a cavy iyDolichotis patagonica) with the Mauser. He gave me a nice shot THE BATTLE OF THE HORSES 47 sitting up on his haunches, near the track on the skyHne of a low- bare ridge. Yesterday we had a very fine puchcro or stew, pickled eggs given me by Pedro at Camerones and two plum-duffs made with waggon-grease by Burbury, who is quite a chef at plum-duff. After our meal we had out the concertina and found that Burbury knew 'The Church's One Foundation,' and Jones a melancholy Welsh hymn. " The two best of my horses have sore backs. " We spent an hour trying to get the waggon up a steep ridge 100 feet high, and had to unload and all work at it. Made a long seven leagues and encamped at the foot of a ridge with 200 yards of dead bush between us and the yellow Chico. Going very pebbly, the ground here and there burnt up and arid. It is always in such places that the mirages are most common. ''October 15. — Got off 8.40. At 11 unloaded waggon, which was in great danger of turning over. Scrivenor photoed it. At 2.20 waggon horses unfit to go farther. Camped by the Chico; shot a yellow-billed teal. " October 16. — Out of humour all day, first, because, I found one of the cameras put unprotected into the waggon among the tins of potted meat, &c. Wearily, wearily we wend our way towards the blue distant hills of our desires. Even as in life we wend towards distant ambitions, and, coming up to them, find new ones arise upon the horizon beyond, and so we travel all our days, look- ing longingly ahead. This valley of the Chico is a wild place, conical hillocks of sand have now taken the place of the bush- covered ones. The Chico remains yellow and winds crreatlv. Purple hills crown the distance. It is all high-coloured and clear- shaded as in a picture. "To-day, coming round a bend of the Chico glen, I saw seven guanaco feeding in the valley. They had seen me and begun to move, so I galloped round the ridge, and as I jumped ott my horse one passed and halted within seventy yards. The herd made a pretty picture standing on the bare, desert-brown hillside in the tearing wind. I clean missed the buck with the first shot, and only killed him as he ran off. hitting him low behind the shoulder. The wliulwas blowing hard today and full in our faces. 48 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA "A windv niL2"ht. the sand of the river-bed dri>'in(r and fillino;' everythinL;'. Presently we shall crawl into our sleepinor-bags and, with our feet to the wind, bid any weather defiance. A pipe is a mighty ally. Here am I in the little 4 ft. tent which Burbury and Scrivenor have pitched to sleep in, wrapped in a poncho a-reek with the smoke of Indian camp-fires, enjoying" a pipe and writing this, and as it grows too dark to write and the wind roars and bellows louder down the river-bed, I shall sit here watching the red glow of my pipe and dreaming. " Octobc}' 17, 9 d clock. — A month hence from to-day will be my birthday. Where shall we be ? At the lake Buenos Aires, I hope. Several horses this morning have sore backs, and Burbury, excellent fellow, has been doctoring them. " How the face of this country changes with the weather ! Bleak and windy even in warm sunlight, though fine and bracing ; in evil weather it wears an aspect of forlornness. The farther you penetrate into Patagonia the more its vast emptiness weighs on you and overwhelms you. " Eleven d clock. — Where shall we be a month hence ? Where, indeed ? To-day we had a great disappointment, and I hardly know how to write of it. The natural difficulties of the country are very great, but with care, in spite of boulders and hard-going, it seemed as if I could get my waggon up to the foothills, and I looked forward to bringing back many specimens in it. But after 300 and odd miles of travel a particularly hummocky valley proved too much for its endurance. When the horses tried to move it this morning it broke up altogether, and here it lies ! *' Total day's march, 200 yards. Burbury and Jones have ridden on towards Colohuapi, where there are some pioneers' huts, to try and get wood and bolts. What is to be done 1 I do not know. Take to cargueros? We could bring back no specimens to speak of in that case. One must wait and see what Burbury can get from the people at Colohuapi. The camp is in a valley and is surrounded bv bare mud cones 100 feet in height, a few Ixishes shiver in the throat of the upper end of the gorge. In the gorge and round our camp-fire spreads a growth of rank lean weed, full of yellow flowers, and a few small wind-polished stones lie at the base of one of the ant-heaplike hills. THE BATTLE OF THE HORSES 49 "'Oh, the drearv, drearv moorland! Oh, the wearv, wearv shore ' (of the Chico) ! I took my gun down to the river and shot five widgeon {^Mareca sibilatrix) and six martinetas {Calo- di'omas elegans). " Late in the evening Scrivenor and I went up over the ridge of bare hills rather with the idea of shooting, if possible, a condor we had seen poised high up. Sight at back came off Scrivenor's Mauser.* W^e went on and saw a herd of guanaco, one much nearer than the rest, and we crawled towards him. The stones were a penance. The only cover was thorn, and little of that up there on the high pampa above the valley where our camp is. At two hundred yards I shot and hit him, but he went on. and })resently swayed his neck and lay down. I crawled up and had a shot at his neck. Thereafter followed periods of cantering in a rickety way, followed by periods of lying down, and at last we went round over a rise and crawled down on him. I thought he was dead but for the shadow of his neck, and I crawled on with ])ut one cartridge left in my gun. As I neared him, up he got and I fired again and hit him. He was growin,; very weak. Scrivenor shouted that he had no revolver, and so here were we with only our knives. I followed the guanaco and Scrivenor w^ent round. I was upon him first but my knife was weak. Scrivenor, startled from his usual calm, and with a shout, leaped at the guanaco and caught him round the neck. So we bore him to earth and slew him. 1 examined him for wounds and found four. Two of the shots were \'ital. vet he had led us a chase of two and a half miles, and we had to carry the meat back to camp. Arrived there, and preparing a meal bv the fire, in came Burburv and Jones. Thev had met a Gaucho trekking to Colohuapi, whu told them that Colohuapi w^as yet twenty-five leagues away and that there were no bolts or wood to be had there. I went to bed and smoked, feelino- pretty sad. There is but one thing to do. We must jettison some of the cargo and sew \\\\ the rest in the skins of guanac(xs. and go forward with pack-horses." =•■• This happened in the case of two Mausers I had with mc. One came oft" at the third shot from the mere recoil — a serious business. CHAPTER IV THE BATTLE OF THE HORSES— {continued) First march with pack-horses — Difficulties — Friendship among horses — The melancholy Zaino — Revolt of an old philosopher — Shifting cargoes — Reach River Chico — Guanaco-shooting — A glimpse of a puma — Pumas and sheep — Arrival at Colohuapi — Hospitality of pioneers — The value of horse-brands. Morning (19th) came to us very grey with a pallid sun, and ushered in the first day of the new system. We found it necessary to use sixteen horses as cargueros or pack-horses. In the early dawn we caught the chosen animals, and tied them up to the smashed wa^o-on. It is " one of the inconveniences of pampa travel that bushes stronor enough to hold a horse which is at all restive are few and far between. In that particular spot there was ab- solutely nothing in the way of a bush, however small, which could by any chance have borne the strain. So we tied them up to the waggon and they immediately proceeded to tie themselves and their headropes into still more complicated knots : they made cats' cradles, reef-knots, sliding nooses, a dozen knots one knew and a dozen one had never dreamed of. Of the sixteen horses, half had never had a cargo on their backs until that day ; we had meant to break them in, but the waggon succumbed too soon to the hardships of the way, and before we had had time to carry out our intentions. During" the three days we remained in campamono- the stronor- Kl,Ali\ 1'- . CAKCiOKU THE BATTLE OF THE HORSES 51 scented yellow flowers where the waggon lay, all hands had been hard at work sewing up stores into the skins of guanacos, which I had killed for food on the march. The proper arranging of packs for horses is a very difficult matter ; shape, size and weight have all to be considered. Each cargo should be divided into three portions, the balance of the two sides being carefully adjusted, and the centre piece, that which surmounts the pack-saddle, should not be more than twelve inches high. There should be at least two rugs and a sheepskin underneath the saddle. As we had not enough sheepskins, the pelts of guanaco were in some cases made to serve our purpose. Several different forms of pack-saddle have each of them points to recommend them, but to niy mind the form used on the cattle-plains of North America is preferable to any other, and is more easily loaded, as the horse can be led between the two side-packs, which are hung along upon hooks attached to the wooden frame of the saddle. The whole cargo is best kept in place by means of a couple of cinches or girths. This form of pack is, however, but little used in the Ari^entine Republic. With such pack-saddles Hahansen and I, at a later date, travelled one hundred and fifty miles, during which it was not necessary to stop more than once or twice to readjust the cargoes. During the whole of our subsequent wanderings, the horses entered so much into our lives that some descriptive remarks having regard to the peculiarities of each will perhaps not be out of place. Any one who has been thrown very much into a close association with horses can hardly have failed to notice the extraordinary friendships which these animals not infrequently form between themselves. Among our troop there was a pale bronze-coloured horse to which the Spanish language assigns the term Gateado. Ihis creature's whole life was spent in close attendance upon the largest horse in the tropilla, a piebald, called by us the Big Overo. The Big Overo was a buck-jumper, and when we wanted to catch him. he and the Gateado, his intimate, were wont to evade us together. I f we could catch the BIlt Overo bv craft, the Gateado was as orood as captured also ; but if. unluckily, our first attemj)t uj)()n the Big Overo failed, both animals made a point of charging about the MRS TRKLEVV 52 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA camp and frio-htenin^" all the other horses. On one occasion, when it was judged well to give the Big Ov^ero a lesson, Hughes bolasscd lilni and after a galloj) of a couple of hundred yards he came to the around in an inextricable tangle.* The Gateado remained by his side and allowed himself to be caught without any struggle. After a time the intimacy between these horses grew to such a pitch that we gradually dispensed with a rope for the Gateado, knowing that if the Big Overo was once tied up his friend would stand beside him and allow us to put on his cargo quietly. This odd friendship finally reached such an extreme that when the Big Overo was sogaed out for the night, the Gateado was in the habit of giving up his hours of feeding in order to satisfy the claims of friendship. The feeling was mutual, for the Big Overo manifested almost as many proofs of his preference. Another case of friendship was struck up between two of the viadi'inas, but this was an essentially feminine affection, all upon one side. The Rosada would follow the Trelew mare, who was in foal, and would hardly allow her to feed in peace. Mrs. Trelew, as the men nicknamed the round-barrelled old black mare, objected very strongly to the advances of her admirer, and once they had a regular (juarrel owing to Mrs. Trelew kicking the Rosada with such force as to nearly break her ribs, which the latter rather resented. The Rosada was a vicious unbacked brute within five yards of whose heels it was unsafe to approach, and she, in common with the long-maned Little Zaino, acquired the execrable habit of attempting to kick any one who on horseback ='= Except in very rare cases the bokadovcs should not be used to catch horses. For a kicking animal they are, however, a good corrective. THE BATTLE OF THE HORSES S3 ventured to come near. This is ;i trick that is \ery rare even amono- the most untamable and vicious horses, which, although they will kick a man on foot, will seldom do so when he is mounted. Then there was the Old Zaino, a melancholy animal of the sardonic school. He was the worst of all the horses. 1 remcmher once Burbury making me laugh very much by saying in a moment of indicrnation : " You haven't been a colt these thirty years, you ever- green son of a buckjumper ! " This horse had a way of coming to stand- still in the very centre of the troop on the march, and, after regarding us with a patient but baleful eye, he yegua rosada would solemnly buck all his cargo off and attempt to kick it to pieces. At one time he was used as a riding-horse, having, indeed, a turn for speed, but his paces were so rough and his trick of rearing as one was mounting so uncomfortable that we were compelled to make him one of the car£-ueros. But perhaps the horse that caused us the most amusement was the Asulejo. He was a sort of uncertain dapple-grey in colour, and to look at him you would say that a more quiet, lazy, say- nothing-to-anybody little bit of old age did not crop the grass in Patagonia. Often and often did we feel sorry for that little animal and lighten his load. One afternoon, as we came along with the waiTQ-on, he seemed to be thinkino- more and more of the past, ot the time when he had the power to make his riders sit tight and used to be a creature of some truculence. He had upon his back a light cargo of cooking-pots, and it took the undixided attention of one man to keep him at a walk. We fixed our cAmp ujioii an open plateau of coarse grass and thorn beside a lagoon in a shallow hollow. The cargoes were pulled off and the cook ot the night made a grateful smoke ascend. I took a shot-gun and went after some eeese for the morrow's breakfast. It \Nas, perhai)s. an hour and .1 half later, antl a good league from camp, that I lu-ard the 54 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA neighing of horses, and was surprised to see seventeen of our troop hurrying off, as it were, upon some unl^nown errand. And well in front of them — could I believe my eyes ? — was the horse we knew as the Asulejo. hut his eye was brighter and he neighed in THE AM. l.KJU the joy of his heart as he trotted friskily along ! He was the obvious leader of the revolt. No sooner did he see me than he fell behind, trying to look as though one of the younger animals had lured him from the path of duty, but that pretence did not serve, and after driving him back into camp we put vianeas on him, upon which he recognised with the philosophy of age that he could not fight against the inevitable, and so retired into the lee of a thorn-bush, where he lay down to dream, no doubt, of the days when things were different and he had been a scampering three- year-old on the banks of the River Negro. However, to return to our journey, and our earliest attempt at marchine without a waoxron. It was first and last one of the most trying days that we experienced. To begin with, the eight fairly well-behaved horses were cargoed up, and then the wild ones were taken in hand. The first of these happened to be the Gateado. His load was flour and tinned beef. He allowed him- THE BATTLE OF THE HORSES S5 self to be saddled up with no more than the usual accompaniment of blowing" and snortingf. He even suffered his cartro to be sluno- and the noose to be slipped along- the cztic/i until it was in place. Every horse needs two men to put on his cargo. One ties the knot and hauls while the other takes in the slack. The latter has to hold up his side of the cargo with his shoulder, and to do this must get pretty nearly under the animal. In our case, although we jettisoned a portion of our belongings — including, I am sorry to say, a number of birds which I had spent my evenings in skinning, and which 1 truly grieved to leave behind — some of the packs were of necessity rather unwieldy. This, indeed, is almost always the case during the earlier stages of any expedition. The behaviour of the Galeado was similar to that of many of the cargueros. He waited until his man was well under, and then he came into action with a series of diabolically well-aimed, one- legged kicks. Having after a little got rid of us by this means, he went on to buck all his cargo off, and then stood with his saddle cork-screwed round under his belly. Jones held on to tin- head- rope, or no doubt the Gateado would have completed his perform- ance bv clearintr off into the low hills or hummocks which sur- rounded the place. Most of the others were, in their separate ways, as bad as the Gateado. Some bucked, some reared, some would not be approached, but all agreed in one thing — all, when cargoed up and ready for the start, solemnly lay down and rolled on their cargoes. If they got them loose, the wretched animals rose again and bucked them within reach of their heels, after which they extricated them- selves by kicking. That morning was, indeed, a study of shifting cargoes. They came off all ways, bucked off, kicked off, rolled on. Some stuck out to port of the horse and some to starboard, a few hung dis- consolately beneath the cargue^'ds body. Again and again we did our part, and again and again the horses defeated us by their horrible tricks of lying down and rolling. Meantime the sun had risen, and heat and flies were added lo the long tally ot ^\^v day's disagreeable items. A very hea\\' wind was also Mowing, which ,v..rj? I /'' ■ // I. V ivu! .-) ''fj . 4 made it exceedingly difficult to place the saddle-cloths upon the horses' backs. I have often noticed that, when saddling up a colt or wild horse, it is well to make use each day of the same saddle- cloths, as he grows used to these, and does not fear them, espe- cially if you allow him to bite and smell them. At length, however, shordy after midday the horses began to get worn out. The cargoed ones ceased to struggle and lay still, tongues out, fat-barrelled, like a troop on a battle-field, humped with cargo and grotesquely dead. In the fighting-line, I remember, remained only a horse named Horqueta (the slit-eared), and the indefatigable Gateado. Horqueta's cargo consisted of a pair of tin boxes, for, bucking apart, he was a fairly steady pack-horse. He and the Gateado were the last to be finished, the others having yielded after the long struggle of the forenoon. All would now have orone well had it not been for the fact that the handles of one of the tin boxes upon Horqueta were loose. 56 '■'..r:-- .V. J> /;sm i The moment we let him go he began to buck and the unkicky handles to beat a devil's tattoo upon the body of the tin box. He made off into the troop of cargoed horses, and the noise he brought with him proved too much for their nerves. They scrambled up to their feet and four of them broke away in different directions. Five minutes later we surveyed once more a scene of scattered cartridges, flour, oatmeal, sacks of beans, clothes, skins bumped out with tinned provisions, and I don't know what else. I hey lay in confusion amoniif the tjrass and bushes in the vallev, and up and down the slopes of the conical mud hills. The Germans were reduced to inarticulate oaths, and the Welshmen looked out of heart. I)ut to camp upon a failure is the worst ot business and ot policy, and so the men were laughed into a gootl humour, and we all went at it once more, the ammunition and our other goods were collected and the cargoes were fixed \\\) \ et again. 57 58 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA It was ten minutes past three o'clock by my watch when we rode slowly up the cliff that lay between Wag-gon Camp and the River Chico of Chubut. We reached the top without mishap, chiefly, I think, because the horses were now fairly exhausted with their exertions. At the top of the rise we stopped and looked back ; our broken waggon lay dark and low among the coarse yellow weeds, the afternoon sun, still warm, beat upon the baldhills, and that was the last we saw of our unlucky camp. The procession moved slowly on, and we did not rest until twilight, by which time we had travelled between twelve and thirteen miles. Our march now lay along the banks of the Chico. The going was soft, and more bushes began to appear on the land- scape. That night we celebrated our first carguero journey by serving out cocoa for all hands. The night we struck the River Chico was a very cold one, the temperature falling 12^ below freezing-point. These figures, however, give no idea of the cold, as one of the characteristics of Patagonia is the prevalence of tremendous winds. And when these blow from the direction of the Cordillera, they bring with them chilly memories of the snows over which they have passed. Wind, of course, increased the rigours of the cold, and I remember that during the night on which we felt the cold most severely the temperature did not fall below 35°. The next morning we got off about 10.30, having less trouble with the cargtieros. I went on in front to choose our way, which here passed over very bad ground. At the midday halt it was found that only part of a haunch of guanaco had been brought on from the last camp. I therefore galloped on ahead with a shot-gun and shot thirteen ducks, of which only six came to hand, as several fell among the reeds in the marshes which fringe the river. Of these six ducks, four were brown pintails [Da/ila spinicaiidd) and two were Chiloe widgeon {Mareca sibilatrix). In the afternoon I exchanged the shot-gun for the rifle, as a few more guanaco-skins would be very handy for various purposes and meat was wanted. About four o'clock, when riding" behind the troop, I saw a guanaco among the hills to the THE BATTLE OF THE HORSES 59 east. I was fortunately mounted upon the Cruzado, who had by this time learned to stand to shot and to remain standing- when his reins were dropped over his head. He was infinitely the best shooting-horse in the troop, and I used always to ride him when game was wanted, although, owinof to his beincr a lars^e horse, his canter was not suited to riding behind the tropilla. He had come to us with a very bad name for throwing himself back, |^^i^»5^j^^^fii\j ' m which is one of the nastiest llR«B^^|BSi|^|| U tricks a horse can possess. But ' '^ T WTT H ** — this he soon gave up, and ex- >t^'^ ■^^-C?li>^^'^J>. cept that he always remained rather hard to catch in the mornings, was what an adver- 11 11 i( ..1 11 THK author's two BKST H0K.->E», THE CRL'ZADO tiser would call a thoroughly ..-,.„,,... o J AND ALA/AN confidential horse." I am glad to think that when I left Patagonia he became the property of Burbury. The Cruzado seemed to enter into the spirit of the chase, and in the present instance went off at a fast canter towards the hills. The guanaco had moved from his point of vantage upon the top of a conical hill of mud, and had probably, according to the custom of these animals, sought another eminence. I thought he had seen me, in which case he would at once have made for the highest point within reach, but, as I came into the throat of the gorge where there were some mud hills, I saw him again upon the side of a large hummock one hundred feet or so in heiirht. I immediately tied up mv horse. The guanacos of the valley of the Chico were very wild owing to the fact that the Tehuelche Indians hunt them ihere during the months of October and November. This valley was once celebrated for the abundance of its game, but of recent years the herds seem to have moved westwards and northwards. This *'uanaco was the first we had seen that day. 6o THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA I crawled up the hill, sinkinor to my knees at every step into the dry mud. When half-way up I saw the ears of the guanaco appear against the sky-line. I lay down, and he remained still and utterly unconscious of my presence for some minutes. He was watching my companions, who, with the horses, were moving off into dimness down the valley. Presently he ran forward one or two steps and gave out his high-pitched neighing laugh in a sort of strange defiance at our retreating troop. He was a very old buck with dark markings on his face. He was about fifty yards away, and when I fired he reared and fell backwards. I threw out the cartridge, and at the same instant seven guanacos, startled by the report, dashed across the valley and galloped along parallel to me on the other side of the cahadon at about one hundred yards distance. I fired at the second one because it looked fat, and brought it to the crround. The ouanacos now turned in great affright and raced past me aqain, when I dropped two more. This brought them to a standstill, as they had not yet made out where the shots were coming from, and no doubt I might have been able to shoot the entire herd, but we had now enough skins. When I rose the remaining four sprang down into the valley and disappeared up the opposite barranca. I now went to the top of the hill, where I had fired at the old buck, and found that the bullet had broken his neck. He was, as I had surmised, a very old animal, and bore upon him traces of an encounter with a puma. The skin of his neck was immensely thick and his teeth were worn down. One of the other guanacos, which had fallen upon the far side of the valley, proved to be a year-old doe, so it was unnecessary to take any of the meat of the buck. I now signalled, and Bur bury soon joined me to help in cutting up. When we overtook the horses we found that the hounds, Tom and Bian had killed a cavy iyDolichotis patagonicd), so that we hcicl a good stock of meat. The cavy is excellent eating, resembling English hare. I was told that Tom had not covered himself with glory, for, although he proved himself very fast, and turned the hare, it was Bian that killed it. Bian was a rough, yellow lurcher, who stood the rough ground and hard experiences of our journey r V- 1 '3 h' :\ r ^ » ' »- n C3 / f y V. THE BATTLE OF THE HORSES 6i very much better than Tom, although the latter was a well-bred hound with a pedigree to back his pretensions. Bian belonged to young Jones. During the day we observed enormous flocks of Chilian widgeon (Mareca sibilatrix) as well as some grey teal {Qucrqiiedula versicolor). On October 22, as we had expected, we arrived at Colohuapi, the farthest settlement in the heart of Patagonia. Near by lie twin lakes Colhue and Musters. About one o'clock, coming over a rise, we saw the Lake. As the sun was shining it was very blue, and upon the far side rose the hills, llie mournful whistle of waterfowl in countless flocks was to be heard. A breeze from the north-west was blowing across the lake, and there was that peculiar wet smell in the wind which can only be derived from a passage across wide waters. This day the Gateado bucked off his cargo of tinned meats and was unfortunate enough to give himself a deep wound in the pastern. Jones tied it up with his handkerchief, and the horse was so lame that we thought it would be necessary to leave him behind at Colohuapi. As it turned out, however, being of a very strong constitution, he improved rapidly, and was with us to the very end of our journeyings. Our march on this occasion was upwards of twenty-seven miles, and at the end of it I rode ahead to choose a place for a camp. Earlier in the day Burbury, who was riding the Colorado, a half- broken colt that had had only a few gallops, got into difficulties, and I relieved him of a bag which he was carrying. I had tied this bag to my saddle, but just before we camped it came loose, and, thinking I was not going to have any other chance of shooting, I slung it over my rifle, which I was carrying across my shoulder as usual in a sling. I had chosen a valley to camp in and turned round to jog quietly back to meet the troop, when with the tail of my eye I cauo'ht sisfht of an animal which 1 thouLiht was Tom, but it looked too large, and I turned my head to see it more fully. There, fifteen yards behind my horse, staring at me, switching its tail slowly from side to side, and standing full up, was a tine male puma(/'". concolor). I rolled off my horse, which. lortunaieK-. 62 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA had neither seen nor winded the puma, and began to unsHng my rifle. In the middle of the operation, when I already had the hindering bag upon the ground, the puma, which up to that moment had continued to lash its tail and stare at me, turned round and loped off at the cumbrous and uncouth canter habitual to these animals. At one hundred and fifty yards it stopped for an instant, but was off again at once. I attempted to mount my horse with the idea of galloping down the puma, an easy thing to do, as these animals never run far, and are readily blown, but the horse, which happened to be a mule- footed oscui'o, known as Mula, became quite unmanageable. I at once coo-ed and was joined by young Humphrey Jones, who in eighteen years' residence in Pata- o-onia had never seen a puma, and as he had strong sporting instincts, was extremely anxious to encounter one. We followed the track of the lion — as the puma is locally called — but after topping the hill it led along a bare slope and was lost in a clump of hioh dry bush, where it w^as quite hopeless to find the creature. We rode back into camp very disappointed. Just as Mr. Selous remarks that hunters sometimes spend years in Africa before they come upon their first lion, so many a man is as lono- in Patao^onia before he comes across his first puma. The puma is a very furtive and cowardly animal, and though we saw so few during our months of travel, I have no doubt that many a puma watched our troop passing across the pampa from the safe cover of rocks and bushes. Seeing or not seeing pumas is purely a matter of luck, and the tales concerning pumas having attacked men, which abound in the country, are generally fabri- cations. A puma with young will attack man if he stumbles upon her and her family, and my friend Mr. Waag told me that on one occasion- a puma in the Cordillera had shown evident signs of attack. In the majority of cases, even when wounded, the puma will only snarl and spit, and the Indians, as well as the Gauchos, despatch it with the tolas. The puma is a terrible foe to the sheep-farmer, levying heavy toll upon flocks, and often enjoys a long career of sheep-killing before strychnine or the bullet puts an end to its existence. The snow is directly responsible for the death of a great many THE BATTLE OF THE HORSES 63 pumas, for when it is lying on the ground the animals can easily be tracked. At this season the shepherds o{ \.\\{iesla)icias near the coast attempt to clear the ground of their very unwelcome visitors, the weapon most commonly used being the .450 revolver, and the shot is often taken at a distance of less than ten paces. The puma is very easy to kill, especially if the first shot is well placed. It is the first shock which tells in the case of these animals. Great sport could, no doubt, be had with the puma were he hunted with a pack of dogs that would bay him and distract his attention. The average hound of the country is, however, far too wise to pit himself against such an animal, and will often even refuse to acknowledge the scent. That night the lake, as seen from the camp, was wonderfully beautiful. The waters were leaden-grey bounded by faint blue hills, with soft mists of an unearthly green clinging about them. The only sounds to be heard were the wash of the ripple on the shore and plashing of wildfowl. On October 23 we made as early a start as possible, and pursued our way over very level pampa, which had not yet been hardened by the sun of spring. We put up an ostrich [R/iea darwini) from his nest, and found three eggs. Presently there appeared in the centre of the pampa, ahead of us, three little huts of earth and three black cattle. Save for one eoree through which the River Senguerr figws, and through which we afterwards took our way, a perfect circle of hills of greatly varying heights surrounded the small settlement. The huts belonged to a Welsh- man named William Jones, who, with his wife and six children, had trekked out here some six or eight months previously. One of the three huts, which was untenanted, Mr. Junes put at our disposal, and after taking off the cargoes, Burbury and Scrivenor accompanied me across to William Jones' home. Mrs. Jones received' us with hospitality and treated us to mati'\\\\\\ milk, tea and scones, and we got a sight of ourselves in the looking- glass. The wind of the pampas had removed all the skin from our faces, and we were a ijood deal unlike the intlividuals who h.id started trcMii Trclew some four or live weeks before. 64 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA That night the men slept inside the hut, but it was too warm for my sleeping-bag, so I took up my bed and went out, passing the night on the lee side of the hut. Perhaps what delio^hted us SETTI.KMKNT OK COI.OHUAPI most was the fact that in the shelter of the hut we were able to smoke our pipes in peace, safe from the buffeting of the wind. At dawn Mrs. Jones kindly sent her children over with a pail of milk. It would be impossible to imagine any more healthy specimens of the Welsh race than these sun-kissed, clear-eyed youngsters. Ruddy and brown and strong, the air of the wilder- ness had need of no better proof of its splendid health-giving qualities. I gave the children chocolate from our store, a luxury to which they were not accustomed, and which they enjoyed immensely. William Jones had brought his wife and family to Colohuapi in a wasfoon, following- the banks of the River Chico from Trelew. His journey had, however, been made late in the year, when the marshes were dry, and his waggon had been more suited to the hardships of the way than was ours. THE BATTLE OF THE HORSES 65 Two other Welshmen with their wives lived higher up the valley, and the full strength of the colony was made up by a Swede named Oscar, who acted as comisario, and an Argentine who had settled on the other side of the river. To the last-named gentleman Burbury paid a visit on the following day. Now set in another era of preparation. We purchased sheep- skins and laid in a stock of mutton, and on the 25th once more made a start. Before taking leave of Colohuapi I should like to record my appreciation of the great kindness which the settlers there extended to us especially Mr. and Mrs. William Jones, the latter of whom was thoughtful enough to l3ake us a large loaf to speed us on our way. On the eve of our departure we gave a small dinner, at which the iiienu was as follows : Mutton piuhero, made with desiccated potatoes and cabbage ; stewed apple-rings and milk ; lime-juice tablets ; chocolate food ; and two tins of sardines. I was very sorry not to be able to add a bowl of punch to the feast, but the fact was I had with me but three bottles of brandy, and those for purely medicinal purposes. The country round about Colohuapi is very suited for cattle- breeding, but, of course, the chief difficulty encountered by the colonists are those connected with transporting their produce to the market, as the district is not yet in any way opened up. But I hope and believe that a prosperous future lies before the young settlement, and much of the good to come should certainly fall to the lot of the Welshmen William and Walter Jones, whose pioneer efforts deserve great reward. At present it is a hard life that the colonists are obliged to lead, divided as they are by more than a coujjje of hundred miles from their nearest white neighbours. One could not help being struck by the solitary aspect of the two or three small huts, set as they are at present on the edge of the hill- encircled empty plain. Just as we were off from Colohuapi, the couiisano rode up antl proceeded to make the necessary examination ot our horses. In this connection very strict laws obtain throughout the northern provinces of the Argentine l\c-j)ublic. In a cc.unlry where liorse- breeding is carried on upon so extensive a scale, and where, besides, the animals are allowed to wander frctly upon ihr wide 66 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA spaces of the pampas, a strong check must be placed upon any infringement of the law of property. A strict system of registra- tion and surv^eillance as to brands upon horses must be kept in force, and is, in fact, one of the first steps towards security. The brand, which I had registered in Trelew, and which was invented by Burbury, represented the rising sun. It was an excellent brand, as it had not much "fire" about it, and was very different to any other mark we came across. Another point to be considered in choosing it was that it would be a difficult one to fake. Our branding took place at Bahia Camerones, Mr. Green- shields being good enough to allow us to use his corral for the purpose. Our half-wild horses did not permit us to operate upon them without a struggle. A few days after the operation the burns caused by the iron had quite healed. OUK BKAMj CHAPTER V THE RIVER VALLEYS Arbitrary distribution of animals in Patagonia — Trouble with Gauchos — Indian guide — Germans turned back — Cahcuion of River Senguerr — Bad weather — Old Zaino again causes damage — Loss of clothes, ammunition, &c., in the river — Shooting upland geese — River Mayo — Hailstorm — A day's sport in Patagonia — Shooting a wild cow — Was it a wild cow? — Musters' account of wild cattle — First meeting with Tehuelche Indians. In consequence of the visit of the r^ww^r/o' we were' somewhat late in starting from Colohuapi, but nevertheless made a good march of about fifteen miles, and camped in the valley, after driving the two horses past a bend of the river that would prevent them from attempting to break back towards their pasture at Colohuapi. The day was very warm indeed and the night rather cold, the thermometer at midday and at night being respectively 74*" F. and ^^^j" F. We were now upon the banks of the River Senguerr, the Senguel of Captain Musters. The extraordinary tameness of the upland geese in the neigh- bourhood of Colohuapi was very remarkable ; they allowed one to approach within eighty yards before bestirring themselves. Alter the first day's march beyond Colohuapi we never saw again any specimen of the Patagonian cavy (Dolic/ioiis patagonica), although round the shores of the lakes Musters and Colhue these animals abound. It is strange that the habitat of the cavy should be .so sharply defined, considering that there appears to be no apparent reason, such as alteration of the nature of the ground or vegetation, to account for the fact. The armadillo {Dasy/>i(s ?)iinii/us), which is found in numbers on the north bank of the River .S.uua Cruz, is entirely absent from the south bank, nor, to my knowledge, has a single specimen ever been secured there. This instance of the 68 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA distribution of the armadillo agrees with other facts of the same kind which are common to Patagonia. The rivers running from west to east across the continent mark the limit of the distribution of some of the mammals. Thus I am assured the jaguar {Felis onca) is not to-day found south of the River Negro. And the puma does not exist in Tierra del Fuego, the dividing water in this latter instance being the Straits of Magellan. The guanaco. however, is distributed throughout the whole of Patagonia and also in Tierra del Fuego. I met with this animal deep inside the Cordillera, and indeed once, with consecutive shots, I killed a huemul and a Sfuanaco. About this time it became apparent that neither Fritz nor Hollesen, the German Gauchos, were very much in love with the hard work and hardships which they conceived lay before them. It was a favourite trick of theirs to fall out of the troop on the plea of fixing a cargo, and then, as soon as we were lost to sight, to sit down and smoke their pipes ; in fact, they had determined to take things easy. On the evening of our leaving Colohuapi Hollesen asked me for some cartridges for his revolver, saying that when working under the Argentine Boundary Commission he had had a quarrel with an Indian concerning the Indian's wife, and that he feared meeting him, for the man had sworn to be revenged. Durino- the nio-ht the doos ate about ten kilos of mutton which we had brought with us from Colohuapi, although it was wrapped up in a tent, so the next morning we were forced to breakfast upon an old gander, that made a very tough and tasteless pucJiero. Our next march was about six leagues, and that evening an Indian rode into our camp and offered to guide us across the pampa to Lake Buenos Aires. He was a Tehuelche, and he told us that some of his tribe were encamped in the valley of the River Mayo at its junction with the River Chalia. All the following day, leaving the river and guided by the Indian, we rode across bare stony pampa devoid of game, and in the evening, after passing three lagoons, we made our camp round a spring of water. As, owing to the depredations of the dogs, we had no fresh food, I took the gun and attempted to stalk a couple of upland geese. THE RIVER VALLEYS 69 As I was returning unsuccessful, Burbury met me and told me that the Germans had again been givincr him trouble. I was prepared for the news, as I had noticed they were inclined to shirk work of late, constantly lingering behind and in every way making themselves objectionable. On an expedition where there is naturally plenty of work for every one, it is useless to have men who orrowl at doino- their fair proportion of it. They were also trying to influence the other Gauchos, for this trick of deserting at a critical time, when their services cannot be replaced, is a very old one with peones, who on such oc- casions can sometimes force their employers into giving them disproportionately high wages. I was, of course, resolved not to yield to their demands but to push forward, even if they left us. I consulted with Burbury, who agreed that we could manage without their help, though it would leave us awkwardly short- handed. On arriving at the camp I asked the Germans the reason of their late behaviour, but they could give me no satisfactory answer, but burst into a tirade about an inoffensive companion. Barck- hausen. which was obviously only an excuse to cover dieir real designs. I told them they must in future behave properly or else leave my camj) next morning. After a certain amount of talk and bluster Fritz said that not only Hollesen and he but the Welsh peones would in that case turn back. During the course of the evening I spoke to Jones, who informed me that h>itz had persuaded him to desert, but on \w\ pointing out that this would not be a very wise proceeding, he at once threw in his lot with us. In llic morning, hnding I was of the same mind, ilu- (icnnans again informed me of their wish to turn back. 1 therefore gave 70 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA them food to last them upon their journey to civilisation, as well as the worst buck-jumper of the troop, and told them to leave the camp as soon as possible. Fritz, after some further talk and after remarking to Hollesen in German that they had better have stayed after all, climbed on to the horse and rode away. The Germans at the outset had been admirable workers, apart from their cunninof, which tiuLTcd most of their conduct. Yet perhaps, if they had gone on with us, we might have paid for Hollesen's misdoings with the Indians, by getting into trouble with the tribe who had saved his life and whom he had so scurvily requited. As it happened, a few days later we came upon the very tribe with whom he had had to do. I will now take some extracts from my diary : " October 28. — The Germans left us this morninor. I think we shall be all the better without them. Immediately on their depar- ture I determined to march to the cahadon or valley of the River Senguerr, giving up the route suggested by the Indian, as it v^as likely that the horses would stray upon the pampa. It was neces- sary to decrease the weight of some of our cargo, which we at once set about doing. The reason for this was that, having so few men, each pair of us would have to look after six cargueros, or pack- horses, and we were consequently obliged to lessen their number. " While we were getting ready a thin rain and a yelling wind came down the cafiadon as we started to catch the horses. The salt marsh over which the Germans had orone lav behind us, and ahead were shallow lagoons around which the tussocks whistled in the wind. But I think we none of us noticed the inclemency of the weather, we were soaked to the skin as we worked, and in an hour and a half — a record as to time in cargoing up even with the aid of the men who had gone — we had loaded the last cargueiv of the twelve, and with extra ropes hanging to the saddles, a brandy bottle protruding from each of the pockets of Barckhausen and with Jones perched high and stirrupless upon a sack of beans, we set off." Providentially, not a single cargo shifted, although we covered something like fourteen miles. I should have mentioned that one of the reasons which weio'hed with me in a^rain seekingf the cafiadon THE RIVER VALLEYS 71 of the River Senguerr was the fact that four of the horses had strayed in the night. It was our intention to camp as soon as we reached a suitable place in the valley and to scour the country for the lost horses. This, however, turned out not to be necessary, as we came right upon the truants grazing in the mouth of a small rift in the cliff of the caiiadon. One of them cantered out with a neigh to meet the troop npon the hillside. It rained so heavilv in the night that we put up the tent and were crlad of its warm shelter. Morning came with pearl-grey mists in the valley. We worked like slaves, and our hands be- came verv sore with the new RIVEK SEXGUEKK, WHI.Kl. l/I~.\-ll.i< IK TOOK US cargo-ropes. The next day, had I but known it, marked the last ot our mis- fortunes, for after that we enjoyed as good luck as we had hitherto experienced the reverse. We spent most of the morning in slowly marching a couple of leagues, and then Scrivenor, who was leading, came back to say that our way was barred by a sheer cliff, close under which the river ran. Burbury, however, was of the opinion that it would be easier to proceed than to attempt to scale the tall barranca, which was our only alternative choice. We straggled across the hall- dry marshy grass that fringed the river-bed, which here winds o;reatlv. Presently we climbed on to a steep slope on the cliffs, where directly below us the river ran with a current of about three knots. The passage along this slope was very difficult, and we were driving the horses with infinite care. The face of the clift was scarred with the traces of a landslip. One of the horses, the ( )ld Zaino, so called not because of any weight of years, but on account of the gravity of his demeanour, climbed up and uj), in spit'^ ot all our efforts, among the shifting earth and loose stones until he was some hundred feet above the niain body of the troop. He was a tall, ewe-necked animal, and always bore an exasperating 72 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA expression of insulted dignity. He was carrying a cargo of flour. When he had. in his own opinion, managed to get sufficiently ahead of his companions, he stopped dead and looked down upon us with a baleful eye as we toiled beneath him. Then suddenly, w_ but methodically, he began to ..^^ , ii^HlHll'ltri descend towards us in a suc- JB^ ^ \;^ cession of devastating bucks. ^ ^ >• / Nq cargo, tied with ropes, could withstand such treat- ll ^'iv''* ment. The ci7ic/i gave way, ^1 j 1 and he and his pack arrived j;;c:^53s» wffffH'lj^fit^'''m\ simultaneously in the middle ot the troop. He cannoned against a black horse carrying" ammu- THE OLD ZAINO . . 1 i • nition and oatmeal, and it besfan to slide down the cliff towards the river on its haunches. The remainder of the horses stampeded, some fell, some got into impossible positions. . . . For several minutes the big black horse huno- within measurable distance of violent death upon the rocks below, but Barckhausen made a great effort to save him, and succeeded, thouoh the caroo w^is kicked off in a most perilous place. Only a guanaco track led along the steep hillside, and over the edge of the slope our belongings dropped into the river a hundred feet below. Each lifted a small cloud of spray as it fell and floated serenely away on the current or sank from sight. The water was dotted with the various packages. All Burbury's clothes, some of mine, flour, oatmeal, a case of corned beef, six hundred rounds of ammunition, and the concertina — these were amono- our losses. A salvage-party was at once despatched to attempt the rescue of such of our goods as were still swimming, while the rest of us collected the horses and returned with a sufficiency of ropes to enable us to get down the cliff, for upon the ragged edge left by the landslip and overhanging the river some of our things had lodged. We felt that we were for the time bein^ out of luck. THE RIVER VALLEYS 73 THE GLANACO (AN INTIMATE OF THK OI.O ZAINO's) We had not long lost the waggon, and now followed the losing of important stores and the yet more Important ammunition. We knotted together eight of the cargo-ropes, and while Scrivenor and I were doinof- this, Barckhausen retrieved one of the boxes of ammunition, and told us that there were a couple more farther down, and out of reach, he feared, which had stuck in the soft earth of the landslip. However, with the aid of the rope I managed to bring both up to safe ground. " During this time we could see Burbury and Jones far away in the valley, where the river narrowed and the current swino-ino- near the bank offered a hopeful chance of catchinor the floatinof ar- tides. They succeeded in dragging ashore most of the packages, but Burbury's clothes, which were in a brown waterproof bag, sank, the bag, I fancy, having filled with water. Our total losses thus amounted to 200 1 2-bore cartridges, a tin of Mauser ammunition, a 25-kilo bag of oatmeal, and the clothes. On the whole we could not help thinking things might have been very much worse. " The horses had meantime come to a standstill in a patch of hicfh orrass farther alon^r beneath the barranca, and there we rounded them up and re-cargoed. "When this was done it was found that we had another place, almost as difficult as that upon which we had come to grief. t(3 surmount. This time, however, Burbury led a horse in front, and the others followed meekly in his track. We had wasted several hours in neofotiatin''- the first barranca, and it was soon time to camp. As we had no meat, 1 went to sec it I could not kill some geese [Chlocphaga inagc/Zanica), which I had observed ui)on a neck of land, that stretched out into the river. There were five geese, and 1 was luck)- enough to kill 74 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA two, both females, which are very much more tender than the males. On one side of the camp was a chain of small lagoons, evidently formed by the overflow of the river, and in one of these I saw a flock of brown pintails. These were easily stalked behind the rushes, and the discharge of two barrels of the 12-bore left five upon the water. At dark a storm of rain blew up. " October 30. — This car- going work is very weari- some, and has got upon our nerves. Even in one's sleep one sees the reeling, writhing mass of kicking and strug- gling cargtieros on the white and raeeed-sided bai'ranca*' ^^ THE ALAZAN COLT (NEARLY KILLE Got off at 10.30 and reached the River Mayo, a very small D ON THE SENGUERR) Stream herc, flowing through a wide valley lined by bare steep cliffs 200 feet or so in height. We are all becoming quite expert with the cargoes ; Burbury and Barckhausen, and Jones and 1 work in pairs. The newness has now worn off the ropes, and haulng on them does not any longer cut our hands. Still an occasional cargo shifts, and the horse, wildly refusing to be caught, gallops away kicking at his cargo. Thus did the Alazan to-day, scattering Mauser ammunition among the bushes, and kicking the spout from our last kettle, so that we can only fill it half full. "There is comparatively little game in this bit of country, few guanaco, and those very wild because of the Indians, whose beat we are now approaching. When there is rain, which fortunately is not often, we have to carry our change of clothing upon our saddles to dry them. To-day Jones was very much loaded up with his extra breeches and top boots, that were wet, a gun-cover, '^- Any traveller, settler or cattleman who is acquainted with the vagaries oi cargueros will understand our position. Some of the horses which we used as cargueros had never before had a saddle upon their backs. THE RIVER VALLEYS 75 fifty rounds of ammunition dropped by the Alazan, two ducks, a telescope, and a water-bottle ! " October 31. — Soon after we started a big cloud blew out of the south and brought with it a heavy hailstorm, which whistled before a drivintr wind. The horses would not face it, but huddled to-'^ether in the centre of the valley. We encamped early as we needed meat. Jones and I left the camp here among the sand-dunes in the valley and went a-hunting. We rode up a cailadon, in the centre of which our horses foundered in some verv bad ground. Getting out of this we struck a stretch of desolate pampa, across which we cut towards the big caiiadon of the Mayo in order to explore the route which we must follow upon the morrow. To my surprise we presently came to a clear stream, flowing through another wide caiiadon, which joined the Mayo from a south-westerly direction. Can this be the River Genguel .-^ The Indian tjuide told us that it would take us a month to o-et from here to lake Buenos Aires. If it is the Genguel, however, we should arrive at the lake in ten marches — a very different matter. It would be as well to halt to-morrow for the day, so that an observation may be taken to determine this point, and also to enable us to go hunting, as we have but one duck in the camp, and, since our losses at the Senguerr barranca, it is more than ever necessary to save our stock of tinned provisions. " To-day the Old Zaino, this time fortunately not carrying a cargo, again attempted to repeat his trick of the Senguerr barranca, but was circumvented by Burbury and Barckhausen. ''November i. — To-day Scrivenor shot the sun 70 56' W. long, and 45° 39' S. lat. So the river we saw yesterday is the Genguel, which is excellent. Jones and I went out to shoot for the pot. As there were no guanaco in the neighbourhood, he took the Paradox and 1 my 12-bore, and we confined ourselves to following some flocks of upland geese which we had observed in the valley. I will describe the day's sport at length, as it was very typical of Patagcmian wild-fowl shooting in a fairly good district. "We rode our horses, of course, I taking the Cruzado and Jones ' JA'.I'^.' a small brown animal, so called because he bears 76 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA th.it brand upon liis flank. The first f^eese we came upon were a party of five standing upon an island in the Mayo. As it was impossible to stalk these birds we tried driving, and I sent Humphrey Jones, who, by the way, was a very keen sportsman, to attempt to drive them over me, where I had taken up my quarters in some bushes upstream above them on the bank. Jones meantime made a large circle and galloped up towards them. When he was within about 200 yards they rose, and honking indignantly made straight up in my direction. Hying, however, a little too wide. They went down again about a quarter of a mile away, and we repeated our tactics, I remaining where I was. I could not help thinking how much time was saved bv Jones being on horseback. Had he been on foot it would have taken him a long time in that bare valley to fetch a circle bio- enough. As it was, in five minutes the birds were again on the wing, and this time they gave me a chance and I brouo-ht down two ; one, however, falling on the other side of the river, had to be abandoned." Any one who travels through Patagonia cannot fail to be struck by the enormous quantities of upland geese (Ckloepliaga niagel- lanica) which abound in the vicinity of the rivers and lagoons. At this time a great many of the birds are paired, but at a latter date in the valley of the Coyly we once made a camp round which the country in all directions was covered by thousands ol these geese. After our shot Jones rejoined me and we proceeded to the edge of a small laooon, where he told me he had seen some ducks. On approaching it I examined the birds through my telescope and discovered them to be brown pintails (Daji/a spinicaudd). I held the horses while Jones enjoyed the stalk, which ended in his killing two of the birds, to retrieve which it was necessary to wade into pretty deep water. We now rode towards the valley of the Genguel, and there flushed innumerable snipe, at which we did not shoot, as we could not afford to waste ammunition on so small a bird. We next descried a flock of nineteen geese, which were peculiarly wideawake and would not allow us to approach for a long time, and presently we deserted their pursuit in favour of that of a single old gander THE RIVER VALLEYS 77 that was standing upon the shingle beside the river. I got up quite close to this bird and had a rising shot at him as he tlevv across the stream. I killed him quite dead, but it seemed if VVII.DGOOSE CAMP impossible to retrieve him, and we were rather disconsolately watching his body drift away when it struck us that Jones, who was very clever with the lasso, might manage to recov^er it at a point where the current brought it within reach of our side. We therefore galloped parallel to the bird along the bank, and after one or two ineffectual efforts, Jones succeeded in getting the lasso round him, and so dragged him in. " We ne.xt had lunch which consisted of niati^. As we sat waiting for the kettle to boil, several blue-winged teal i^Oucnjucdiila cyanoptcrd) passed over us and went down in a small marsh towards the Genguel. After these Jones had another stalk, and killed two. As he was returning a couple of geese (lew over at about thirty-five yards distance, and he dropped the female (piite dead. It is e.\traordinar\- what an amount of shot these greese will in a 78 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA general way carry off with them. For all my shooting in Patagonia I used No. 4 shot and 26 gr. of ballistite. The gun which I used most was a 12-bore moderately choked in both .m/CL-. T^tk"^'-- -vi,--^VA.v^-.:.i. -'^.^ BAD STALKING (CALIFATE-lJUbll ON I'AMl'A) barrels, and this I found answered every purpose of wild- fowl shooting in Patagonia excellently. " At reasonable ranges a number of black-necked swans {Cygnus nigricollis) fell to this weapon. " After picking up the goose, we again turned our attention to the nineteen that I have mentioned earlier. They then went on a irood distance downstream, and here, under cover of the rushes, we stalked up within twenty yards of them, and shot three as they rose. One of the flock swung back, and both of us fired at him, bringing him down. Thinking we had enough geese, we decided to follow the ducks, which we did in a rather desultory manner. We bagged two more, both pintails, before we returned to camp in the evening, having had a very pleasant day's sport." THE RIVER VALLEYS 79 Although I never attempted to make a big bag upon any day during the time I spent in Patagonia, yet, no doubt, an enormous (juantity of geese could be shot in a single day. Quite close to the settlements a couple of hundred might be secured by two guns in a day, and during the migration a far greater number. The whole of the valley of the River Chico is excellent for wild-fowling, and I expected the numbers of birds to increase as we drew nearer to Lake Buenos Aires. And certainly in the canadon of the River Deseado I was not disappointed, but of that I will write in its due place. On November 2 we resumed our march, still following the valley of the IMayo, past the scenes of our sport of the previous day, A little after midday Jones saw a whitish object among some bushes at the edo^e of the river and asked mv leave to eo and see what it was. Presentlv he came ridinof back to sav it was a wild cow and that h-; had observed her throucJ"h the glasses. She was nearly a mile distant, and, taking my rifle, I rode off with Jones and we stalked her to about 200 yards. W^e again examined her carefully through the telescope, and seeing that she was five or six years old and unbranded, the fact of her belonorinof to a wild herd rather than being a truant escaped from the settle- ments two hundred miles away appeared to be certain. It was v-'ith considerable keenness that we crawled up nearer, as wild cattle afford the best sport of all Patagonian animals. These wild cattle have some of them been wild for manv generations, their remote ancestors probably being the herds which the Spaniards originally possessed in the Valdez Peninsula on the east coast during the earlier occupation of Patagonia. Since then from time to time numbers of cattle escape from the coast-farms and run wild, and, joining the older free herds, breed wild. Such herds are still to be found in considerable numbers amoncj the foot-hills of the Cordillera. Musters in his book gives an account of meeting with a wild bull. " W'e had expected before reaching this point to have found cattle in considerable numbers, but the warmth of the day had probably driven them into the thickets to seek shelter Presentlv .... after riding about a miU-. I espied two bulls. Two men were sent round to endeaxour in drive 8o THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA the animals to a clearing- where it would be possible to use the lassoo .... At the end of five minutes .... a yell from the other side put us anxiously on the alert, and we had the gratifica- tion to see one of the animals coming straight towards our cover. Alas ! just as we were preparing to dash out, he turned on the edge of the plain, and after charging furiously at his pursuer dashed into a thicket, where he stood at bay. We immediately closed round him. and dismounting, I advanced on foot to try and bring him down with a revolver. Just as 1 got within half a dozen paces of him, and behind a bush was quietly taking aim at his shoulder, the Indians, eaeer for beef, and safe on their horses at a consider- able distance off, shouted, 'Nearer, nearer!' I accordingly slipped from my cover, but had hardly moved a pace forward when my spur caught in a root, and at the same moment el Toro charged. Entangled with the root, I could not jump on one side as he came on ; so, when within a yard I fired a shot in his face, hoping to turn him, and wheeled my body at the same instant to prevent his horns from catching me, as the sailors say, 'broadside on.' The shot did not stop him, so I was knocked down, and, galloping over me, he passed on with my handkerchief, which fell from my head, triumphantly borne on his horns, and stopped a few yards off under another bush. Having picked myself up and found my legs and arms all right, I gave him another shot, which, as my hand was rather unsteady, only took effect in the flank. My cartridges being exhausted, I returned to my horse and found that, besides being considerably shaken, two of my ribs had been broken by the encounter. " The Indians closed round me, and evinced great anxiety to know whether I was much hurt. One, more courageous than the rest, despite the warning of the cacique, swore he would try and lasso the brute, and, accordingly, approached the infuriated animal, who for a moment or two showed no signs of stirring ; just, how- ever, as the Indian was about to throw his lasso, it caught in a branch, and before he could extricate it the bull was upon him. We saw the horse give two or three vicious kicks as the bull fored him. At len^xth he was lifted clean up, the fore-leo;s alone remaininfj on the ground, and overthrown, the rider aliohtino- on ^ A DAUGHTER OF THIi TOLDOS THE RIVER VALLEYS 8i his head in a bush. We closed up and attracted the bull in another direction, then went to look for the corpse of our comrade, who, however, to our surprise, issued safe from the bush, where he had lain quiet and unhurt, though the horse was killed. This little incident cast a gloom over our day's pleasure, and lost us our Christmas dinner, as Orkeke ordered a retreat to the spot where we had left our mantles, although we tried to persuade him to attack the beast again, or, at any rate, remain and eat some of the dead horse, and try our luck next day, but he was inflexible. . . . On our way across the plain previously described, wild cattle were seen, and one chased ; but he, although balled by Orkeke, con- trived to slip the bolas, and escaping to cover, stood to bay, where he was left master of the field." In the present instance, however, nothing at all exciting was in store for us. Mv first bullet struck the cow behind the shoulder a little high, she went down upon her knees, and a second shot brought her to the ground. On our approaching she staggered to her feet, whereupon Jones gave her a shot in the brain. We then set about grallocking and skinning our quarry, and were delighted to find that she carried a good deal of fat. We were at the time running very short of this essential article of diet, for, as has been said, the guanacos supply none at this season of the year, when they are still in poor condition after the hardships of the winter. When we had finished cutting up the meat, we packed it as well as we could upon our saddles and rode away. The amount of meat with which we had laden our saddles made them extremely uncomfortable ; this was very much so in my own case, as I was riding a little black horse whose temper was not of the sweetest, and which had been but seldom ridden since our start, and was consequently very fresh and skittish. We had spent a long time over our task of cutting up the cow, and the trooj) had gone far ahead. After riding about an hour we saw a white bull upon the hillside above us, but on using the telescope perceived it carried a brand upon its flank. We therefore left it in peace. A little later, as we were riding under the western barranca of the canadon of the River Mayo, we came upon some fairly fresh 82 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA tracks of sheep. This fact, taken in conjunction with the appear- ance of the white bull, made me begin to wonder whether it was possible that the cow I had shot might not prove to be a tame one. We pushed on more rapidly, the tracks growing sharper and more distinct. Presently the tracks began to run into beaten lines, and such always mean in Patagonia that man is not far off. As we rode we discussed the chances as to who the owners of the sheen would turn out to be, and this we found sufficiently exciting, as we had beheld no strange face for many a day. Very soon, as we rode round a curve of the cliff, we came in sight of five armadillo-shaped tents lying snugly in the valley. We had not expected to come upon the Indians, who, so our guide had told us, were in the valley of the River Mayo, until some time later, but this was undoubtedly the encampment to which he had alluded. A number of sheep and of horses, together with a small herd of cattle, proved them to be an unusually rich tribe. The remainder of our party, on sighting the huts of the Tehuelches, had halted and were waiting for my arrival. We now rode together in the direction of the tents, and, while we were yet afar off, the hounds about the squat tents broke into a chorus of barkino". As we drew nearer we could see that the tall figures, wrapped in guanaco-skins, were standing in the openings of the toldos, on the look-out for the arrival whose presence had been heralded by the dogs. The sun was setting by this time over the high cliffs of the cahadon, and the toldos threw lengthened shadows upon the ground. When we came within a short distance, the Indians stepped forward, finely developed men, of a swarthy brown, with high cheek-bones, their coarse black hair falling round their faces, and tied about the brows with a red band. The tents seemed to be full to overflowing of old women and lean hounds, all huddled together upon the ground, and a crowd of curious faces peeped forth. The toldos were made of guanaco-skins, sewn loosely at their edges, and supported scjuarely on awkward-looking props or posts, forked at the top to admit the ridge-poles. The skins were fastened to the earth outside with wooden pegs. These dwellings appeared to be anything but weather-proof, for at the seams and THE RIVER VALLEYS 83 lower edges were gaping slits, through which the sky or the ground was visible. As to the shape of the toidos, if you can imagine a very squat, deep-draught boat, cut off at rather beyond the half of jft\:V»-s- WATI ! WATI ! (TEHUELCHE EXCLAMATION OF SURPRISE) her length, and turned upside down, you will have some idea of their appearance. On the roof, and about the wooden props, pieces of guanaco-nieat had been hung out to dry in the sun. Within, as I have said, upon the skins which strewed the floor the doo"s and o-randmothers of the tribe were mingled. It was our first experience of a Tehuelche encampment, and perhaps the most remarkable feature of it was the presence, in one form or another, of the guanaco. Some of his flesh was cooking at a fire outside the tents, the toidos themselves were composed of his pelts, the ponchos which some of the women were weaving were made from his wool, tin- boots were formed of his neck-skin, some of the horse-gear uf his hide, the men's capas of his skin, while dogs, men, and women alike were fattened upon the food he 84 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA provided. As I stood there, examining all these things, my mind kept running upon the cow which I had killed, and which I was now more than half afraid might have belonged to the Indians. If such proved to be the case, I knew that they would resent it very bitterly, and even perhaps attempt to make some sort of reprisals upon our horses. The idea of saying nothing about it. were my sur- mise as to the chance of its having been their property correct, struck me as being the least troublesome course to pursue ; but nothing is more abhorrent than dealing in this way with aboriginal tribes. Personally, I should look upon picking the pocket of a civilised person as, in comparison, almost a meritorious action. I may as well say at once that I told them of the matter of the cow through the vaqtteano or guide whom I hired from their tents, and offered to pay for it if it happened to be their property. The vaqtteano, how- ever, said that no cow of that colour belonged to their herd, and, taking into consideration that she was six years old and unmarked, I made my mind easy on this point I shall now break off from the thread of my narrative and give a description of the Tehuelches, detailing the facts which I gathered about them during my residence in Patagonia. I will only preface it by saying that few peoples are more interesting to study than the Tehuelches, of whom various travellers have given such widely differing accounts. INDIAN TOLDO CHAPTER W MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE TEHUELCHES Indian method of curing measles — Driving out the devil — Magellan — Patagon — Long boots — Reports of travellers — One of the finest races in the world — Nomadic — Hunters — Decreasing in numbers — Introduction of horses — Bolas — No history — Keen bargainers but not progressive — Features — Good teeth — • Women — Morality — Young and old women — Half-bloods — Paisanos — Reserved in character — Habits — Infants' heads bandaged — Dance — Wives bought — Price of a wife — Marriage ceremony — White man in tolcios — Bad influence — Connections of white men and Tehuelche women — Dress and adornment of women — Work — Lazy race — High wages — Ceremonies and customs — Religion — Gualicho — Fear of Cordillera — Fat hunger — Tehuelche lives on horseback — Esquimaux and Tehuelche — Primitive peoples and their habits — Food — Tobacco — Pipes — Language — Tribal government — Physical strength — Decreasing numbers — Men of silence and men of uproar — Courtesy of a Tehuelche. Snow lay in the hollows so deep that only the lean crests of the higher bushes could thrust themselves throu^j^h Its surface. The wind, which had driven the snowstorm of the morning away to the east, swept drearily down out of an evening sky where neither sun nor sunset hues were to be seen, nothing but a spread of cold and misty grey, growing slowly overshadowed by the looming promise of more snow. In the middle of the level white pampa two figures upon galloping horses were visible. As we came nearer we saw that one was that of a man clothed in a cJm'ipa and a capa in which brown was the predominating colour. fie was mounted on a heavy- necked powerful ceb7'uuo horse, his stirrups were of silver, and his ofear of raw-hide seemed smart and t-ood. As he rode he yelled 86 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA with all his strength, producing" a series of the most horrible and piercing shrieks. But strange as was this wild figure, his companion, victim or quarry, was stranger and more striking still. For on an ancient zauio sat perched a little brown maiden, whose aspect was forlorn and pathetic to the last degree. She rode absolutely naked in the teeth of the bitter cold, her breast, face and limbs blotched and smeared with the rash of some eruptive disease, and her heavy- lidded eyes, strained and open, staring ahead across the leagues of empty snow-patched plain. Presently the man redoubled his howls, and bearing down upon the zaiuo (logged and frightened it into yet greater speed. The whole scene might have been mistaken for some ancient barbaric and revolting form of punishment ; whereas, in real truth, it was an anxious Indian father trying, according to his lights, to cure his daughter of the measles ! It appeared that the girl had taken the disease in an extremely acute form, and Indian belief and reasoning run something on these lines : First fact — The child was possessed by a devil of great power and ferocity, who set up such a trouble inside her body that it came forth through her skin in blotches and spots. Second fact — A devil is known to dislike noise and cold. All devils do. Hence the ride of the unlucky patient without a shred to protect her from the strong west wind snow-fed with bitter cold, and the almost incredible uproar made by the old gentleman upon the dark brown horse. If one concedes the premises, it must be admitted there was method m his madness. The above account was given me by Mr. Ernest Cattle, an accurate observer, whose knowledge of the wild districts of Patagonia is unique. Such is the Tehuelche Indian of Peitagonia to-day, and facts tend to show that he has in very few particulars departed from the customs, manner of living and modes of thought which distinguished his forefathers in the dawn of authentic Tehuelchian history. The earliest mention of the natives of Patagonia occurs on the occasion MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE TEHUELCHES 87 of the discovery of the country by Magellan in 1520. They were described as men of huge stature, gi-ints in fact, and the very name Patagonia is said to be derived from the epithet '" patagony or "large feet,'' which the Spaniards bestowed upon them on account of the enormous tracks their footsteps left upon the sand of the sea- shore. The Tehuelches are not, as it happens, a large-footed though they are a tall race, but, considering the curious per- sistency of habit, which is one of their chief characteristics, the idea taken up by the Spanish is easily explained. The Tehuelches wear boots oi potro (colt-skin) or guanaco-skin, which project in a narrow point some inches beyond the toes. There can be little doubt, judging by all else we know of them, that their ancestors of Magellan's day wore the same shape of foot-gear, llie impressions left by such boots would very naturally, on being observed by voyagers, take their place as indications of a race of giants. In connection with this idea I may mention that several early writers united in giving a very bad name to the Tehuelches. No reputation could be more totally unmerited. From reading such accounts one would be left with the conviction that the Tehuelches are blood- thirs.y and barbarous savages. This is certainly not the case now, and I do not believe, judging from all I saw of them under various circumstances, that such accusations could ever have been deserved. Some travellers appear to have fallen into the error of confounding them with other Indian races of South America, whose charac- teristics and history differ absolutely from the people of whom I am writing. We see here how easy it is for travellers to make mistakes. More than one writer has charged them with the habit of eating raw llesh ; whereas they cook the meat for food, but on occasion thev will eat raw fat and drink the warm blood of the ostrich, which facts, no doubt, have "iven rise to the above misstatement. Although not gi .nts, the Tehuelches are certainly one of the finest races in the world. Most of them averacre 6 ft., some attain to 6 ft. 4 in. or even more, and in all cases they are well built and well developed. Physically, the men are splendid fellows, who look yet more nobly formed and proportioned because t)l the ample folds of the skin capas wwdi ponchos in which they wrap themselves. 88 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA Their way of life tends to muscular excellence, but even taking that into consideration the development of the arms, chest, and, in fact, the whole body above the loins is extraordinary. But the lower limbs are sometimes disappointing-, being, in fact, the lower limbs of a race of riders.* The Tehuelche Indians of Patagonia are essentially nomads, living chiefly upon the proceeds of their hunting, and, in a less degree, maintaining themselves upon sale or barter connected with their limited holding- of domestic animals. Ao-riculture or tillacje is absolutely unknown amongr them. The huntinsf-eround is farm enough for them, and they pitch their tents of skin where they will, or change their quarters at the dictates of necessity or whim. They always break camp if a death occurs among the tribe, for the spot is then considered accursed. And they are, of course, also largely influenced in their movements by the wander- ings of the guanaco herds, which form their principal quarry. There are five existing camps of Indians to be found in Patagonia. I visited two of them and a third small outlying group. Their numbers have sadly decreased since the days of the opening 'seventies, when George Chaworth Musters made his abode in the tribal toldos and followed with them in their wanderings. He speaks of two tribes of Tehuelches, the northern and the southern, only distinguishable by a slight difference of dialect, and who met and intermarried, although they did not object to espousing opposite sides in a quarrel. Other tribes whom he mentions did not inhabit the part of the country of which I am writing. The Tehuelches proper appear to have been fairly prosperous and numerous in his day, but even then he says, speaking of them : " Supplies of rum procured in trade at the settlements . . . and disease, small-pox especially, are rapidly diminishing their numbers." Things have undoubtedly gone from bad to worse in this unhappy direction, and I am inclined to think that the number of Tehuelche Indians surviving at this period can be little over a few hundreds in number. Rum is undoubtedly their chief foe. * There is, however, a great variation in the development of the lower limbs in different individnals. MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE TEHUELCHES 89 Drink to the uncivilised man is a clanger against which he is pro- vided with no defence, either social or moral. Having- once tasted AKKOUHKAUS AM; KNIFE, KUU.NU .\1:AR COLOHUAri, CllLliUT. (NuW l.\ CuI.I.KCTION OF MK. E. M. SPKOT) its fatal pleasures, he has no reason for forbidding himself an indulgence his animal nature craves. Since the day on which the Spanish adventurers first sighted the Patagonian coast, perhaps the one "event" in the history of the Indians may truly be said to be the introduction of horses into their land. Otherwise they seem to have altered little in their way of life. Magellan says they came down to the sh'p clad and shod in i^uanaco-skins ; thev are clad and shod in cruanaco-skins to-day. Their tools and knives were sharp-edged flints ; I have seen the Indians skin their (juarry with precisely the same weapons. Bows and arrows were indeed in use among the tribes when the Spaniards visited the coast ; these ha\e now been superseded b\" the do/eadores, an innovation which in its prcstiu tnrm came into fashion after the Indians bet-an to know the value of the 90 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA horse. The bolas is the weapon of the Tehuelche. With it he kills his game, and with it also he catches wild colts, and finds it useful in his simple process of training. The bolas is made up of three thongs of raw hide fastened together at one end, the other free ends having attached to them stones or bits of pot-iron sewn up in skin. The Indian throws his weapon with marvellous accuracy at any animal he may be pursuing, and the thongs coiling instantly round the legs or neck of the creature, bring it to the ground, or, at any rate, entangle it hopelessly. It may w^ell be judged that this race have no history. They remain in touch with the methods and customs according to which their forefathers were wont to live centuries ago, and who in their turn had derived them from still older oenerations, ThouQ^h most of the men now possess cheap store knives of steel, I have seen, as I said before, many a quarry skinned with the prehistoric Hint knife. They are an intelligent people, indeed keen where bar- gaining is concerned, as long as they are sober ; yet they seem to be entirely lacking in that quality which would enable them to forget the past with its traditional usages and methods, and to follow even remotely the sweeping onward rush that, like a tornado, carries with it the lasfijinor races of mankind. Although the men possess unusual strength, they do not in the least know how to apply it. Their faces are somewhat fiat, although the features are more or less cast in the aquiline mould, and fairly regular. The hair is coarse and lustreless, its blackness relieved by a fillet or h mdkerchief of scarlet. Their teeth are excellent, toothache being almost unknown in their tents. Although they bathe, I have never observed among them any article that would in any way correspond to the tooth-stick of other nomadic peoples. Their beautiful teeth are perhaps due to their habit of chewing a gummy substance that exudes from ihe incensio bush. Musters, in his book, says they use this as a dentifrice. The women are not, according to our European ideas, beautiful, and such comeliness as they may sometimes possess in youth blossoms and fades cjuickly. They are, however, strong, and much of the camp work falls to their share. The older women can boast of a brand of u":liness all their o\\ n. Aoe to these ladies I A TEHUELCllF. CACKjLIi MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE TEHUELCHES 91 brinas several vices in its train. Most noticeable is a cravino- for strong waters, a weakness from which the younger women are entirely free. The morality of the Tehuelches is, on the whole, admirable. Unfaithfulness in the wife is rare, and not often bitterly revenged. A point as regards the morality of the women is to my mind rather luminous. While the younger chinas are unexceptionable in their moral virtues, the older women cannot be so hiohly commended. They are rather apt to wander from the stricter paths of decorum. When the husband of one of these elderlv houris dies, as soon as the due period of mourning is past, the bereaved one will take up with any male in her tribe for either a longer or a shorter period. For ugliness sheer and unrivalled these grandmothers of the tribes stand alone. Also, as they get on in years, these ladies often run to fat. I remember one immense woman in the toidos on the pampas between Lake Argentino and Gallegos, who had put on flesh in a manner and to an extent almost unbelievable. The younger women, while the flush of girlhood is still upon them, possess a certain comeliness which I can only describe by the adjectives "savage" and "stolid." Yet the abundant coarse black hair hanging round the heavily quiet faces, in which the features, though flattened, are still slightly aquiline, the wide-open, patient eyes, the healthful colour, and the strong, white, even teeth, which their slow smiles disclose to vou. make them, on the whole, a personable race. The half-bloods, as is usual, often possess real beauty, the alien strain giving them that vivacity which the pure race seems to lack. Some of the pictures show an unsightly slic of the lip in the case of a few paisanos.^ This hare-lip is b\- no means universal, but is an hereditary peculiarity that appears in many of the members of one special household. The arrival of a stranger in the camp makes the women retire sin Iv within themselves, and it is only b\- chance — as it is in the case of wild animals — "-'■■ This name is preferred by the Indians themselves. To call them loi Iiulios is a breach of etiquette. Paisdiw means, of course, son of the laud, a title in which the Teheulche takes pride. 92 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA that the new-comer ever sees the unaffected and natural character shine out. When in contact with whites the Tehuelche man also becomes reserved, the whole expression of his countenance changes, and he is very suspicious of being laughed at, a point on which he is very susceptible, and which he deeply resents. I cannot but think that the constant accusations of unclean- liness that have been brought against the Tehuelche Indians are due to the sino-le fact that their do«-s are allowed to live in the toldos. The result in a countrv where scab is common may be left to the imagination. But, apart from the crawling things which inhabit his toldos, the Indian is fairly cleanly, bathing each day and swimming in the lakes and lagoons. The women make excellent mothers, and the father is inordinately proud of his offspring, especially of his sons. Of how many races can so many good things be truthfully said } They have a singular custom of bandaging the heads of infants in such a manner as to produce a flattening of the back of the skull. It might be worth the while of physiologists to go deeper into the matter, with a view to discovering how far this alteration in the brain-space determines the character of the indi- vidual operated upon. Interesting results might thus be obtained and some vexed problems solved. A certain stage in the life of each girl is celebrated by a festivity in the camp. An ornamented toldo is put up temporarily for the girl's occupation, and the young men of the tribe march round it singing while the women howl, probably with a view to exorcising any evil spirit who may be lingering about the camp.* The ceremony is followed by a feast, and the evening winds up with a dance. The men alone take part in this, and it consists in circling round the fire, pacing sometimes slowly and sometimes quickly. A few dance at a time, accompanying their movements with a constant bowino- or noddino- of the head, which is adorned with tufts of ostrich feathers. When one party is tired out another takes its place. Wives, of course, are bought and sold, but when a lady is purchased by a suitor whom she happens to dislike, there is ■-■'• The evil spirit is supposed to take up its quarters behind the toldos. MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE TEHUELCHES 9 t trouble for the bridegroom, and conjugal obedience is only enforced after struggles, of which the not infrequent result is that the mark of the lady's teeth remains permanently upon her lord. The price of a wife varies, as must be expected in the natural course of things. Strangely enough, a girl's value often depends upon the number of her brethren, who must receive two horses apiece. To buy a bride with means or rather animals of her own, an heiress in fact, who comes of well-to-do people, as much as a hundred mares have been given — or shall I say paid,* When desirous of carrying on matrimonial negotiations the would-be bridegroom must always employ a go-between. To omit this ceremonial method of approach would be an outrage on etiquette. I conclude, though I do not know it for a fact as regards Patagonia, that the go-between in that country gets his pickings from both sides as his cono-ener does elsewhere. The marriage ceremony is delightfully simple. After the pre- liminary bargaining has been successfully brought to a close, the happy bridegroom mounts his horse and rides to the toldo of his intended and hands over his appointed gifts, receiving those of the parents in return. He then carries back his bride amid the cheers and cries of his friends, and in the evening there is a feast. Musters remarks that on these occasions the dogs are not permitted to touch the meat or offal of the animals killed, as it is considered unlucky if they do so. The gifts which are exchanged between the parties form in a more or less degree a marriage settlement, for in case of divorce her parents' gifts accrue to the wife. Polygamy is allowed but not much practised among the tribes. Few phenomena are to my mind more unaccountable than the action of the white man who "ooes fantee." o " Went fantee, joined the people of the land, Turned three parts Mussulman and one Hindoo, And lived among the Gauri villages, Who gave him shelter and a wife or twain." * While prosecuting the inquiries which led to the compilation of this account of the Tehuclches it was thought that the author desired Lo take a bride from the toliios. He was informed that seven mares would purchase a young and efficient helpmate. 94 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA This singular mental or moral warp which results in a man " troino" fantee " is by no means uncommon in Patagonia. Of course, as may be imagined, a certain proportion of such men fall to this condition at the end of the career variegated. Others prefer ruling in Cathay to serving in any other community more dienified ; others aoain take dauo'hters of the land to wife because their trade lies with the Indians. There is, however, one very strong objection to this latter course of marrying, Tehuelche fashion, a c/ihm of the toldos, and that is that all the relatives of the lady in question are apt to quarter themselves upon the bridegroom. Occasionally the white man objects, but I imagine that the cases of those who object suc- cessfully are rare. But there is one cstanciero in Patagonia who is the father of two buxom daughters by a Tehuelche wife. These girls are now grown up, and their tribe was encamped during the winter of 1900 not two hours' ride from the dwelling-place of their father. Yet I am assured the father never aided the tribe or his own offspring in any way, although that winter was so severe that starvation visited the ioldos of the tribe. A man of this mettle is, however, not frequently to be heard of, and cases of a quite laud- able affection haviny: existed between a white man and a china are on record. But, at the same time, it must be repeated that the inHuence of the white who goes to live among the Indians as one of themselves, almost without exception, makes for evil. I have already spoken of the offspring of the mixed unions. The Tehuelche blood gives to the faces of the half-breed women an expression of sad patience, while the Spanish connection adds certainly to their gift of beauty. The women have very simple ideas of adornment. They generally take the form of silver necklets and the red fillet bound in their hair.^' Their dress is composed of the picturesque guanaco- skin capa, or mantle, worn with the wool inside. Woman, to tell the truth, holds no such bad position among the Patagonian Indians. She does the cooking, but little else that can be called hard work, except the taking down and pitching of the ioldos when the tribe break camp. They carry on a slack industry in the form of weaving ■■' Tehuelche beauties are uot above wearing a tail of false hair. fmrnm TMfliiltr'ir- TKIIUEIX-HE MATROX, SFK )\\IX( i H ARF.-LIP MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE TEHUELCHES 95 pjnchos from guanaco wool. Some species of earth is used for dyeing the wool, b'Jt the resulting colours are dull. In this parti- cular the Tehuelches differ from the Indians of the northern pampas, whose dyeing materials are derived from herbs, and '^ive brighter tints. T\iQ'=,& poncJios and saddle-rugs made by the cJiinas are much prized and sought after as curiosities, hence the makers demand very high prices for them — even up to thirty or forty dollars each. The women also spend some of their time in sewino- tog-erher the skins of ofuanaco or ostriches into rugrs, usincr sinews for thread. Ru^s of this kind and bunches of ostrich feathers form the staple commodities which they offer at the settlements for sale. The hair of the adult animal, being harsh and coarse, is of less value in the market than that of the vouno- o-uanaco ; therefore the hunters endeavour to secure chieriy the pelts of tl.e young ouanaco, some of the ruos beinor even made from the skin of the unborn, which is cut out of the mother a few days previous to the date when they would naturally be dropped. At certain seasons enormous numbers of these pelts are to be seen drying, pegged out, beside the Indian toldos. The time of year durin''" which the huntino- of cruanaco c/iicos, or little ones, is carried on includes the latter half of October and the month of November. I am afraid it must be confessed that the Tehuelches are a very lazy race. Nearly everything which makes any demand upon their energies — with the exception of hunting — seems too much trouble for them to do. Few individuals become even comparativclv rich, and even then live none the better for it. One could never cruess o whether a man were rich or poor by his dress ; he carries no sign of improved circumstances in his person or bearing. The owner of two thousand beasts will come into camp and sit by your fire, putting in a plea with the humblest for a cupful of tNatc. Occa- sional]}' an Indian will act as a guide across the empty distances of the pampas. They have an excellent idea of the value of their services and of the ^p■c\\)(iv peso of the Argentine Rej)ul)lic. They set a high price upon themselves — cxvaqueauo, or guide, demanding five dollars a day or seventy dollars a month. 96 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA But however this quality may seem to approximate to civilisa- tion, tlie customs with which he still surrounds the events of birth, sickness, and death are the old cruel forms that have been per- petuated through the ages, and they stamp him as remaining even to this day the very slightly diluted savage. In some cases when a child is born, a cow or mare is killed, the stomach taken out and cut open, and into this receptacle while still warm the child is laid. Upon the remainder of the animal the tribe feast, and when they feast they carry out the notion thoroughly. After eating their fill, they lie about gorged and half insensible and let the world spin on. This is a quiet festivity, and only takes place in this modified form when the tribe happen to be out of fire-water. But should there be liquor at hand, the younger women, who never drink on such occasions, go round beforehand and gather up every knife, hatchet, or, in fact, all and any weapon they can find, and bury them in some hidden spot about the camp.* This custom, which is in its own way pathetic, speaks for itself. Under the influence of liquor the nature of the peaceable Indian becomes completely changed. It maddens him, and the dance round the fires often ends in a free fight. A variation of the foregoing birth-ceremony is yet more savage. If a boy is born, his tribe catch a mare or a colt — if the father be rich and a great man among his people, the former ; if not, the latter — a lasso is placed round each leg, a couple round the neck, and a couple round the body. The tribe distribute themselves at the various ends of these lassos and take hold. The animal being thus supported cannot fall. The father of the child now advances and cuts the mare or colt open from the neck down- wards, the heart, &c., is torn out, and the baby placed in the cavity. The desire is to keep the animal quivering until the child is put inside. By this means they believe that they ensure the child's becominof a fine horseman in the future.! o - On the occasions I describe, even the asadores (iron spits three feet in length and sharpened at the end which enters the grovmd) are taken away and buried by the young women. f These customs are now dying out. MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE TEHUELCHES 97 If an Indian dies the place becomes accursed. The camp is immediately removed to a fresh locality. When the dead man or woman is buried, certain ceremonies are observed about the o-rave, evidently with a view to enabling- the departed to start in another life with an adequate outfit. Horses and dofjs are slauo-htered so that he may have the means to pursue and kill the guanaco in the land of ghosts. Food and dead game are also placed in the grave to supply his needs at the outset of the new existence. Should the dead happen to be a child or a person of tender years, fillies and colts are slaughtered at the burial. In former times, and in fact until quite recent years, it used to be the custom to place beside the corpse the silver-mounted horse- gear of the dead man, and to close the grave upon it. In a land where life depends not infrequently upon the strength of your raw- hide head-stall, for instance, the value of sound gear is properly appreciated ; therefore this particular precaution for the welfare of the dead shows a very practical solicitude on the part of the sur- vivors. To-day the Tehuelches still bury these possessions in the grave, but the custom is only continued with a reservation. In- stead of leaving the valuable gear under the earth for all time, they now at the end of a twelvemonth dig it up again. How they reconcile this economical arrangement with the comfort of their lost friend I do not know, but it may be suggested that they imagine the inhabitant of another world has had full time in the course of a year to make suitable new gear for himself. The relii^ion of the Indians is interestinij. It consists, of course, in the old simple beliefs in good spirits and devils, but chiefly devils, which, with variations dependent on climate and physical environment, represent all over the world the spiritual creeds of uncivilised races. The dominant Spirit of Evil, as feared by the Tehuelches, is called the Gualicho. And he abides as an ever-present terror behind their strange, free, and superstitious lives. They spend no small portion of their time in cither fleeing from his wrath or in propitiating it. \'()u may wake in the dawn to see a band of Indians suddenly rise and leap upon their horses, and gallop away across the pampa, howling ami gesticulating. They are merely scaring the Gualicho away from their tents back G 98 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA to his haunts In the Cordillera — the wild and unpenetrated moun- tains, where he and his subordinate demons groan in chosen spots the lone nio^hts throuQrh, The expedition under my command happened to encamp near one such place upon the southern shore of Lake Rica. It was a moonlight night, and loud rushing noises broke the peace of every hour of it. There happened to be a huge glacier on the opposite side of the lake, from which great pieces became detached at frequent intervals (for the mass of the glacier overhung the cliff), and these plunged with strange, loud explosions, I might almost call them, into the water. Such are the noises that terrify the Indian ; he cannot explain them, and it is small wonder they excite his fears in the highest degree. For it must be remembered that in all practical ways the Tehuelche is a very brave man. Yet no pay can tempt him within the region of the Cordilleras, where to his superstitious mind the near presence of the Gualicho is mani- fested by those awful groanings and sounds which no human agency known to him could by any possibility produce. In common with other savage peoples, the Tehuelches believe the Good Spirit to be of a far more quiescent habit than the spirits of evil. Long ago, at the epoch of Creation perhaps, the Good Spirit made one effort for the benefit of mankind,* but since then he has been otherwise occupied, and shown himself little interested with earthly matters. Like Baal, he is perchance upon a journey, or perchance he is sleeping. The result is the same ; his worshippers must take care of themselves as well as they can, and the best method which offers is to ward off by all means in their power the attacks of the maleficent influence. For the Gualicho is of a very active disposition, and shows no scorn of small things. On the contrary, he is quite capable of descending upon a single Indian to punish him for an offence and to work him harm. It is a humiliating reflection that the great mass of peoples have always been, and will always be, far more ready and fervent in propitiating an evil spirit, or endeavouring to avert the action of * According to Tehuelche beliefs, the Good Spirit created the animals in the caves of a certain mountain called " God's Hill," and gave them to his people for food. y. MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE TEHUELCHES 99 any punishing power, than in seeking the favour of the Good Spirit or returning him thanks for benefits received. Human nature under the frock-coat of civihsation is much the same as under the capa of the Tehuelche. By inference one can see that the Patagonian beHeves in a future Hfe — a Hfe much on the Hues of his earthly one, but abounding in those things which he most desires, and which here he finds in short measure. I only know that the land he is going to after death is a land flowing, not with milk and honey, but with grease. On the pampas of life here below the guanaco is lean and seldom yields an ounce of fat, and as I have myself experienced the craving for fat, or fat-hunger, I know it to be a very real and uncomfortable demand of the human system. But in the Patagonian Beyond the guanaco herds will be plump and well provided with supplies of suet, and the califate-bushes always laden w.th ripe and purple berries. The traditions of the tribes go back to the epoch when they hunted on foot and used bows and arrows, as well as the tolas, armed with a large single ball of stone. That period may be one hundred, or possibly a hundred and fifty, years ago. Then a tribe of Pampa Indians rode down out of the north and brought to the Tehuelches the inestimable boon of horses. At the present day no worse evil can happen to an Indian than to be left without a horse and dependent on his own legs. He rides perpetually, and in consequence has almost lost the walking capabilities of other men.* He lives upon horseback, and there earns his living, so to speak. With his dogs he rides down his game, but he has no skill in tracking any more than the dogs. l>ut, for all that, his sight is keen ; the quality of extraordinary long-sightedness, which distinguishes men used to scanning vast levels of sea or land, is essentially his. The Tehuelche, although in many ways offering a complete contrast, yet in some points forms a strange parallel to the Esqui- ■■■ Here I disaf^ree with Captain G. C. Musters, who claims excellont walkin.c; powers for the Tehuelches. That they can walk well if forced to do so is possible, but we need look no farther than their boots to perceive that they rarely go afoot. The Patagonian pampas are covered with thorn and tin- thin foot-covering of the Indians would be torn to pieces in the course of a two-hours tramp over such ground. loo THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA maux. The Esquimaux has never seen a horse, the Tehuelche never uses a boat, althouo-h his land abounds in sheets of water. Both races are eminently slug-o-ish and peaceable. Both fear evil spirits, which they fancy live in particular localities. It is indeed a far cry from Greenland to Patagonia, but if you substitute the horse for the kayak and the seal for the guanaco, you will find that, although separated by space and race and circumstance, a certain resemblance between the people of the Far South and of the Far North exists. And of both races little evil can be said. These primitive peoples, living close to nature, divided from man's original state only by the thinnest and filmiest of partitions, attain in a wonderful degree the art of doing without things. The Esquimaux starts upon a long day's hunting, with the thermometer marking many degrees below zero, upon nothing save a drink of water! A luxury such as coffee is said to enervate him.* The Patagonian Indian rides out of a morning having taken nothing at all in the way of sustenance. But he puts a pinch of salt in his belt, and when his dogs pull down their first guanaco or ostrich, he draws off the blood and swallows it mixed with salt. The tribes live to a considerable extent on guanaco, and it is practically their life-work to follow the wanderings of the herds througfh the chant^inof seasons. But the flesh of the ostrich is more palatable, and is, consequently, preferred when it can be pro- cured. They drink mate in large quantities, which, as has been shown, is the universal habit on the pampas, where it is, in fact, indispensable, supplying, as it does, to a certain extent, the place of vegetables, besides having the valuable quality of refreshing and invigorating in a quite extraordinary degree. They rarely smoke pure tobacco ; it is too precious. They mix it with about 80 per cent, of califate-wood shavings. Once, when short of tobacco, I tried their mixture, and in truth there are many worse smokes upon the English and American markets. The califate is certainly a little acrid, but burns with a very blue smoke. I fancy one could get on tolerably well with this faked tobacco, aided by a bit of imagination and a strong throat. For the most part the tribes use stone pipes of a very singular '■•• Nansen's " Esquimaux Life." TEIRELCHE MATRONS MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE TEHUELCHES loi coffin-like shape. One Indian, however, possessed a silver pipe, the stem of which had begun life as a dombilla, or silver tube for drinking" luate through. Musters mentions frequently seeing the men become insensible after smoking, which would lead to the supposition that they use some drug corresponding in its effects to opium. I never observed a single instance of this sort, although I smoked the camp-fire pipe on many occasions with Tehuelches. In fact, of those I met, two out of three were not smokers at all. The language of these people is very guttural, and one word is used to signify a number of different things, which proves its elementary and simple character. In most of their camps Spanish is understood more or less, and with even a slioht knowledge of this tongue one can get on very well. Practically the Patagonian is governed by no tribal laws. He does not need their restraint, for, save when drunk, he seldom commits crimes of greater or less magnitude. In politics he is democratic apparently, for though it is true that a cacique is at the head of each camp, his authority seems limited to ordering the plan of the hunt. If any individual objects he can leave the community, an alternative extremely distasteful to so gregarious a people. Quarrels and fights are of very rare occurrence, except when there is drink in the tents. The natural peacefulness of the Indian is cer- tainly commendable, for his muscular development is enormous. H^: can tear the skin from a guanaco after merely raising enough with his knife to give him a hand-grip. Once it was a free and a happy life that they lived, with fortunes ruled by the changing of the seasons. In those days, five-and- twenty years ago, they were scattered throughout the country, moving along the Indian trail. Now, in the whole of my long travel through Patagonia, I came upon only three encampments of them, and I have reason to believe I visited nearly every one that exists at the present day. It is probable that I may be their last chronicler ; they will be brushed off the face of the earth by the sweeping besom that deals so hardly with aboriginal races, and is known as "civilisation." The cause of their disappearance is not far to seek. Vou may I02 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA dust a savage people with Martinis and increase their manhood, if the punishment be not severe and too prolonged, but as sure as the whisky bottle — the raw, cheap, rot-gut country spirit — is introduced among them, a primitive people is doomed. In all sorts of places in the world I have seen this baleful influence at work. The Indians, as I knew them, are a kind-hearted, docile and lazy race. In all the dealings I had with them I found them invariably most courteous. Treat them as you desire they should treat you, and not in the odious " poor-devil-of-a-heathen, beast- of-a-savage " sort of style, which obtains with some of our own countrymen abroad, I am sorry to say, and you will receive a grave and quiet consideration, and they will call you biien hombre, a good man. Progress, the white man's shibboleth, has no meaning for the Patagonian. He is losing ground day by day in the wild onward rush of mankind. Our ideas do not appeal to him. He has neither part nor lot in the feverish desires and ambitions that move us so strongly. As his forefathers were, so is he — content to live and die a human item with a moving home, passing hither and thither upon the waste and open spaces of his native land. He is far too single-minded and too dignified to stoop to a cheap imita- tion. He does not shout aloud that he is the equal of the white man, as more vulgar races do. It has often struck me that the primitive races of the world might be put under two heads — the men of silence and the men of uproar. Among the men of silence we have the Zulu, the North American Indian, the Tehuelche, and some others. These silent peoples cannot exist, like the negroes, as the camp followers of civilisation. They have not the ya hoop imitative faculty of the negro race. They are hunters, men of silence and of a great reserve. When they meet with the white man, they do not rush open-mouthed to swallow his customs. The men of silence will, in the savage state, take a hint as quickly as an English gentleman ; the men of uproar will only accept a hint when it is backed by a command. The Tehuelche will not remain at a camp-fire where he is not wanted. He lacks passion, perhaps, but appreciation pleases him. His dignified courtesy can best be exemplified by a story. A Ti'.iirKLciiK i',i:.\rTV MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE TEHUELCHES 103 At one time, while we were travelling across the pampas and had camped for the night, an Indian rode in upon us in the twilight. The Indian did not talk Spanish, nor could we speak Tehuelchian. In silence he joined us at our evening meal and stopped after- wards to smoke a pipe of tobacco, then he got to horse and rode away. The next morning our horses were missing; they had evidently strayed during the night. I went out to look for them, and after a time saw them far away across the pampa advancing towards me in a compact mob. A rider was driving them up. As soon as he saw me, and I had recognised our guest of the preceding evening, he sent forward the horses at a gallop in my direction, and, wheel- ing" round, was off and out of sight in a moment. He did not wait to be thanked, and yet it was obvious, from the condition of the horses, that he must have found them a long way off and driven them for a considerable distance. It is in courtesies of this kind that the silent peoples excel. I am no wild admirer of the noble savage. He is, generally speaking, a highly objectionable person. But to see a race — -so kindly, picturesque, and gifted with fine qualities of body and mind — such as the Tehuelches, absolutely at hand-grips with extinction, seems to me one of the saddest results of the grow- inor domination of the white man and his methods of civilisation. CHAPTER VII TEHUELCHE METHODS OF HUNTING Hunting season — Surefooted horses — Description of big hunt — Ring round game — Splendid riding of Tehuelches — Horses dishke jumping — Game killed and spared by Tehuelches — Difference of their hunting methods from those of the Onas of Tierra del Fuego — Artistic perception of Onas — Ill-faith of early settlers — Indian trail — "No place for us" — Deterioration of horses — They prize piebalds — Method of breaking in — Perfect riders — Helpless on foot — Staying powers of horses — Dogs — Evil of liquor trade — National sin of per- mitting this traffic — Picture of trader — Drinking bout of Tehuelches — Gambling for horses — Fatal weakness of Tehuelches — Another instance. During the latter half of October and during November, which is the Patagonian spring, the Tehuelches hunt the guanaco ckicos, or young guanaco. At this period the young have not all been dropped, and the most prized pelts are those of the unborn young, which are obtained by killing the mother. These pelts, being very soft and fine in texture, are used to make the most valuable capas or robes, and if sold out of the tribes at the settlements, bring in the highest prices. At this season the Indians move to their favourite huntino- grounds; it is, in fact, to them the most important period of the year. Two requisites are necessary to make their hunting a success : the first is plenty of game, and in this there is rarely any disappoint- ment ; the second is cfood grround on which to hunt it. As lone, however, as the guanaco do not take absolutely to the crags, the Indians, with the help of their sure-footed unshod horses, are able to levy a heavy toll on the herds. The method of hunting adopted by the Tehuelches is interest- ing enough to call for description at length. On the morning of the hunt, the Indians saddle up a good long-journey horse apiece, they also catch each man his fastest mount, upon which he puts a FOR OSTRICH FOR GUANACO FOR HOKSF.S i BOLEADORES {In the Collfctioii of Die .■li//Aor) TEHUELCHE METHODS OF HUNTING 105 bozal and cabresto, as well as a bit in his mouth. The hunter rides the former horse, and leads the latter for use later on. The biij herds of o-uanaco have meantime been located, and the plan of the day's hunt arranged by the caciqtie. All the hunters start forth in couples, riding' in different directions, and so form an immense circle, into the centre of which they systematically drive the game. They then signal their whereabouts to one another by means of smokes until the ring round the guanaco is complete. Each hunter is accompanied by his dogs, of which he possesses probably a score. Six or eight gaunt hounds of no particular breed, but whose characteristic points run chiefly to legs and teeth, follow their master. As the circle narrows the terrified game huddle together in the centre of it, and there may be seen hundreds of guanaco, many ostriches, and possibly a puma or two. The guanaco bucks pace upon the edge of the herd, and give out their neighing, half-defiant call as their human enemies approach. The positions assumed by guanaco when under the influence of curiosity and fear are most singular. They will stand staring at the Indians for many seconds, and will then dash off at a wild gallop with the strange leaping run peculiar to them. The necks, too, swing and sway at all conceivable angles, and whenever their ears are assailed by a sudden sound, I have seen a whole herd, up- wards of one hundred strong, sway their necks to within a couple of inches of the o-round almost in unison. In the meanwhile the Indians draw remorselessly nearer, dis- mouni from their saddle-horses, leap on their led animals, and pre- cipitate themselves from all sides upon the frantic herds. The horses that are left have generally been carefully schooled to stand when their reins are dropped forward to the ground over their heads. The Indians howl and roar as they dash down upon the guanaco, whirling their boleadores round their heads. This bolas, with which they hunt the guanaco, is very heavy, and the three balls are generally made of stone, but they use a lighter form for the capture of the ostrich. In the case of guanaco c/iicos, clubs are often employed. Holding his weapon by the shortest of the three sooas, or thongs, and while going at full gallop, the Indian launches it at the io6 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA long neck of the i^uanaco ; a doe is always selected if possible. Extremely expert in its use, the rider's weapon probably reaches its mark, and the quarry, maddened by the tightening of the sogas, bucks and rears, until she becomes hopelessly entangled. 1 have mentioned that the Tehuelches hunt in pairs. The companion of the Indian who has thrown the bo/as then leaps to the ground and despatches the guanaco. Meantime his comrade has dashed forward at the tail of the herd, and has probably secured another animal. The dogs, too, do their part, and as the storm of the chase sweeps across the pampa, it leaves the ground in its path dotted with the yellow-brown forms of the slain. The chase tails itself out for many miles, and may be followed over desolate leagues marked by lines of dead guanacos and dropped boleadores which have failed to carry home. I should be afraid to say how many animals are killed at one of these singular battues. To see the Indian hunt the ofuanaco is to see the art of rousfh- riding exemplified. How they gallop ! Down one sheer barranca, or cliff, and up another. The roar of- loosened stone behind them. The guanaco jink and dodge and break back, always making for the highest ground in the vicinity. The dexterity with which the horses of the hunters keep their feet is truly wonderful. They will go at full gallop anywhere, and hardly ever fall or miss their footing. There is, however, one thing which they universally dislike, and that is jumping in any of its forms. Here and there in some parts of Patagonia the pampa is cut and scored with fissures a few feet in width. To have your horse stop dead, both feet together, on the edge of one of these and violently shy away at an acute angle is no uncommon ex- perience. Generally, however, a certain amount of inducement and coercion at length takes them over in a complicated buck. When the chase has run itself out, the lean dogs are fed upon the grosser parts, the pelts of the young are pulled off, and the meat, such of it as is wanted, is cargoed or packed upon the horses, and the hunting-party jogs back to the shelter of the wigwams, made from the skins their fathers and their grandfathers slew before the white men began to move southward and to overrun the land. The Indians kill no bird save the ostrich, and this is a curious TEHUELCHE METHODS OF HUNTING 107 fact, because the lagoons and pools literally swarm with great flocks of upland geese {Chlocphaga niaoel/anicd), which are very- fair eating. Perhaps the reason why they spare the geese arises from the fact that they have no weapons suitable for killing them. On one occasion when I shot a brace of geese, the Indians seized upon them and pronounced them "good." Also, they kill few animals but the guanaco and the puma. Had the guanaco a reasonable amount of fat upon it, the life of the Indians would be idyllic, but in this the guanaco fails. Of lean meat he sui)plies plenty, for he is a large beast, but though he lives in a land where sheep grow fat and well-liking, the long-necked Patagonian llama retains his leanness and his running condition. Although it may be slightly outside the province of this book, I cannot help contrasting the very different methods employed by the Onas of Tierra del Fuego, who are after all only separated from the Tehuelches of Patagonia bv the narrow Straits of Magellan, in hunting the same animal. The Onas do not use horses, and kill the guanaco with bows and arrows. When they perceive a herd, they surround it as the Tehuelches do, but, of course, the circle is on a much smaller scale. It is their aim to remain invisible to their quarry, for which purpose, during their stalk, they are in the habit of wrapping themselves in the skins ot the animals which they have formerly killed. Once the herd is surrounded, it is with the same accompaniment of screams and shouts that the hunters rush in to secure their prey. The dissimilarities between the Tehuelches and the Onas are numerous.* While the Tehuelches are peaceful, the Onas are warlike. There is a storv current that the onK white man who has ever lived in the very primitive dwelling of boughs, which are all the Onas have to shelter them from a bitter climate, was a Scotchman whom the Indians had captured. He was with tlu-m three weeks, and his face was adorned by a singularly luxuri.uii ■•■ The Tehuelches are enormously above the Onas of Tierra del Fuefjo in the scale of civilisation. A Fuegian woman has been known to live in the Tehuelchian tents, but how she came there I am unable to say. On the other hand. 1 have never heard of any Tehuelchc living with the Tierra del Fucgians, and cannot conceive such a state of things to be possible. But the Tehuelches will mix occasionally with the Araucanian tribes of Northern Patagonia, and intermarriages are common. T08 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA crop of orano-e whiskers. The Onas are reported to have amused themselves bv pullincr these out in instahnents bv the roots. Might not some anthropologist base a treatise upon "The BEAUTIES OF TIEKKA IHJ. 11 l.i.O Artistic Perceptions of the Onas of Tierra del Fuego " upon this occurrence ? The Onas are also a tall people, although not equalling in height my friends the Tehuelches, and their physical development is less conspicuously remarkable. The Ona woman does not, as does the Tehuelche china, form an attachment to a white suitor, appearing to have no desires outside her own race and people, but under certain circumstances the women have shared the hearth- stone of the foreigner. Polygamy is allowed and practised among them. There is something of the spirit which characterises the Gipsy of Europe about this people ; they are quite ready to take all they can get from the alien, while they at the same time main- tain a bitter rancour against the hand that gives. But this is not, as it is in the case of the Gipsies, the continuance of an original TEHUELCHE METHODS OF HUNTING 109 dislike and implacability, but rather the result of the infamous ill- faith which leavened the dealings of the very earliest visitors to the coasts of Tierra del Fuegfo. I must confess that all my sympathies are on the side of the primitive races, who on coming into contact with the white man suffer those outraq-es on their best feelinors which, I am sorr\- to say, are only too common. You must understand, however, that I in no way refer to the settlers of this generation. My remarks must be taken to refer to the first pioneers. At the present day — so Burbury, who has had a great experience of Tierra del Fuego, informed me — the Indians there are treacherous and absolutely implacable, and do endless harm in their periodical raids upon the " white guanaco," as they call the sheep. They do this not only when hunger presses them, but at all times out of a spirit of revenge. Sometimes they drown the sheep and leave them in the ice, where they keep good for weeks, during which time the Onas feast on them. Patagonia bears upon its length the clear-cut and long-drawn initial of the Tehuelche race. By this I mean the Indian trail, which can be followed from water to water, from good camp to good camp, stretching from Punta Arenas in the south to Lake Buenos Aires in the north and beyond it. Up and down this trail and along others, less extended, generations of Indians have wandered with their wives and children, their tents and horses. We struck it when travelling south from Lake Buenos Aires, in the early January of 1901. It was hard to distinguish the Indian road from any parallel series of guanaco-tracks, which here line the country in numbers, and, indeed, il was onl\- by keeping a sharp look-out for the hoof-prints of horses that we were able to follow the trail at all. It runs alon^' under the Cordillera at a varying distance of about twenty or thirty miles from their bases. It was a sad remark that an Indian made to us while talking about the ancient wanderings of his people. " Once," he said. " we had the sea upon the one side of us, and upon the other the Cordillera. But this is not so now. The white man is ever advancing u{)on oiu- side and the Cordillera remains ever unchanging upon the other. Soon there will be no place for us ; yet once the lantl was ours." no THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA One would imagine that a people so dependent on their horses for the very necessities of life would give attention and care to the breeding and improv^ement of the stock. But this is far from being the case. The Tehuelches appear to be, like other far less intelligent races of uncivilised peoples, incapable of much fore- thought. They live for to-day and make little provision for to-morrow. As a case in point, they are allowing their horses to become very deteriorated. The animals are, almost without exception, to use a Spanish term, maiiero, which means of a spoiled temper. In some localities they have been crossed with the horses of the settlers which have a strain of English blood, and the result is animals of spirit and of character, but viuy inanero. The Tehuelches prize white horses, and overos, or piebalds, exceedingly. The backs of their horses are generally badly galled, but this is no matter for surprise, as they often ride upon a sheepskin flung anyhow across the beast. The method of breaking-in or taming is simple and severe in the extreme. It consists of leaping on a raw colt and galloping him to exhaustion. One reason why their horses are falling below level certainly is that the Indians have a foolish trick of riding two- and three-year- olds both hard and far. A colt of this age once fairly "cooked" by an over-long ride will never be of very much use afterwards. And yet these people are peculiarly dependent upon their horses. They will not walk ten yards if they can ride them. And they have undoubtedly carried the art of riding to the last perfection. I never knew what riding really meant until I went to Patagonia and saw the Indians on horseback. We once asked an Indian what he could do if he were left on the pampa without his horses. "Sit down," he said. This man, however, was not a Tehuelche but a Pampa Indian. The horses are far from large, the average running to about thirteen hands, but they are wiry, untiring beasts, and some show extraordinary speed. The manner in which they carry the heavy well- developed Indians is wonderful. They are entirely fed on grass. When the camp is made, they are simply turned out to graze upon the pampa, where frequently the grass is sparse and poor enough, though near many of the Indian camping-grounds V \ t- r > .7 SONS OF llll'; I 'A Ml 'A TEHUELCHE METHODS OF HUNTING in good veo-as of rich grass exist. In winter, of course, the tropillas become very thin and in poor condition, Ijut at that season they have infinitely less work to do, as there is hardly any hunting, and the camp is usually stationary for the coldest months. The hounds of the Indians are something- like our lurcher breed. In the tents they lie about among the rugs and bedding. They are irreclaimable thieves and very cowardly. A good guanaco hound is, however, of very great value, for a pair of accomplished hounds, skilled in the chase, represent a capital upon which an entire family can live. One of the strongest feelings which I brought away with me from Patagonia was a hatred of the trader who battens upon the failinofs of the Tehuelches. If he hears of a festival or any tribal ceremony, he arrives upon the spot with drink. He sells liquor in exchange for horses, and when his customers are well steeped in the poison he brings, he makes some magnificent bargains. His influence is far-reaching and fatal as far-reaching to the picturesque and harmless race out of whose degradation and death he makes his living. Savage races may survive war and internecine struggles, and the decimation not infrequently caused by a cruel rule such as was T'Chaka among the Zulus, but they never survive the Civilisation of the Bottle. The horrors of the wars of history would pale beside the cold-blooded slaughter, the gradual, malignant, poisoning processes which the most self- satisfied and religious nations of the world allow to continue vear after year, I should say century after century, among the aboriginal tribes, who live nominally under their protection. The pioneer trader with his stores of cheap maddening liquor is free to sell as much as he pleases, although it is a well-known fact that such trading means ruin and extermination to the unhappy ignorant folk who buy. The sin after all is national rather than personal, for the trader has his livinor to earn, whereas the nation which is responsible for allowing him liberty to traffic puts out no hand to stay the evil, I do not in the least bring any charge against the Argentine Government ; we British are guilty of the same crime or carelessness, and in some of our dependencies terrible object- lessons of precisely the same kind can be observed. 112 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA Let me draw a picture of one of these traders for you. A lean stooping man of Paraguayan extraction, dressed out in store clothes which he but half filled. A plump face of the caste peculiar to the lowest type of the Latin peoples, with a full greasy- lipped animalism stamped upon it, after the manner of his kind. The lean body and fat face formed a contrast that struck you with repulsion as an actual deformity. This fellow played a very old trick upon a batch of Indians and considerably enriched himself thereby. The Indians had come in upon the outskirts of a coast-town, rich with the sale of a six-months harvest of ostrich feathers, guanaco-skins and other such merchandise as they gather from the pampas. After some drinking and a variety of games of chance, our friend the trader started an argument as to which of the Indians owned the swiftest horse. A race was soon decided upon, the trader most liberally offering a prize in the shape of a bottle of drink. The race was to be ridden bare-back, as is usual in contests of this description among the Indians. The trader further sucrsfested that the race should be run off in heats. A horse with a white blaze and a very fine head won, and his pro- prietor, a tall Indian in a black poncho, received the prize, which he, with help, soon disposed of. After this the talk fell naturally upon the merits of the respective horses. "Your picaso is a good horse," said the trader to the tall Indian, "but I have a horse in my troop that could leave him far behind." At first the Indian laughed, but the trader's boasting and insistence presently stung him to resent the aspersion on his mount, and he said he should like to see the thing done. The trader jumped at the opportunity. The Indians had had sufficient drink to destroy their ordinary cautiousness, and were ready to take up any challenge. "The loser to forfeit his horse to the winner," continued the trader, who had laid his plans beforehand. He then called a Chileno lad, who soon appeared leading a big lean alazan. It was easy for any seeing eye to recognise that the animal had been tied up the night before and was in quite fair racing trim ; besides f^ l/.N(iVERs(-r> TEHUELCHE METHODS OF HUNTING 113 which, the Indmns />icaso was already tired with the previous races. The Chileno boy swung up and the two horses came thundering along their course. The Indian's weight also told as compared <-W-43 TEHUELCHES VISIT GALLEGOS with the lightness of the Chileno boy, and the result was altogether a foregone conclusion. But this by no means ended the business. The Indians were excited and ripe for any amount of gambling, and being skilfully handled by the trader they did not leave the settlement until he had stripped them of all their possessions. The tall Indian, who had come in with eighty dollars and five horses, returned to hi^ camp with a two-kilo bag ol' ycrda and on a horse which he hatl been forced to buv for the return journev from the trailer ai. of course, the trader's own price. There are man)' IndicUis who avoid the coast-towns, hui 114 THROUGH THE HEARr OF PATAGONIA althoueh these do not cro to the trader, the trader, as I have mentioned in another chapter, comes to them. Throughout Patagonia, upon the rim of civiHsation, are scattered boliches, or frontier drink-shops, whose hquor sales consist chietly of "champagne cognac," whatever that potion may be. These estabhshments hold out a perpetual temptation to the passing Indians. The frequent presence of silver gear, such as the Tehuelches possess when fortune smiles upon them, that is almost always hanging from the ceiling of the neighbouring- store, tells its own tale. An Indian has rarely enough money to " look upon the wine when it is red," or rather upon the unwhole- some jaundice tinge of "champagne cognac," so he pays in kind ; and when once the craving for drink grips him he will gamble away everything to satisfy it. This infatuation appears to lay a fatally strong hand upon the uncivilised peoples. They have no principles to stay them, no scruples to overcome, they have found a short cut to a wild species of happiness, and one cannot wonder that they seek its extraordinary pleasures as often as possible. So it is that liquor has destroyed whole races, wiped them clean off the face of the earth. Some one has written : Oppression and the sword slay fast, Thy breath kills slowly but at last, and it is certainly a terrible truth in this connection. I can call to mind two Indians, whom I saw ride up to a boliche near Santa Cruz. They offered a contrast to one another which it is not easy to forget. The first was an Indian with a close-shut mouth and the dark and ponderous dignity of the big Tehuelche, His gear was richly studded with silver, and his saddle covered with embroidered cloths. His head was bare, save that his brows were bound with a band of red finery. He made a picturesque and imposing figure as he cantered up on his white horse with its oflintinuf eves. Followed the second. He, too, was an Indian, but his eear was cruiltless of silver, his bozal was worn and blackened with age. The best thing he possessed was his horse. He wore an ancient tail-coat, once black but now green, this in conjunction with a chiripa, or Indian loin-cloth, gave him an appearance TEHUELCHE METHODS OF HUNTING 115 sufficiently incongruous. Instead of the (luiet dignity of the first man, his face expressed httle save vacuity. He was a pitiful object in the strong pampa sunshine, his health evidently broken by frequent orgies. And no doubt he had been a self-respecting Indian enough — before the trader came within the province of his knowledo^e. CHAPTER VIII THE KINGDOM OF THE WINDS Como No — Wind and driven sand — Laguna La Cancha — Como No's dogs — Cold winds — Lake Buenos Aires and Sierra Nevada — Cross River Fenix — Stony ground — Skeletons of guanaco — Fine scenery — Short rest — Colt killed — Base camp made — Boyish dreams — Sunday — Routine at Horsham Camp — Driftwood round lake — Constant wind — My tent-home — Scorpions — Guanacos — Engineers' camp — Cooking-pots — First huemul. We now set forth upon the last stage of our journey to Lake Buenos Aires, I had hired one of the Indians to guide us across the high pampa. He was, although dwelling in the tents of the Tehuelches, not a Tehuelche. He called himself a Patagonc7'o, and belonged to one of the tribes of Pampa Indians of the north. His tribe, he told me, were Christians. Before we left the Indian encampment, one of the older ladies belonging to it began to paint her face in horizontal lines of black, whether with a view to capturing our hearts or not I cannot say. We left on November 3, and accomplished a very long march in the face of somewhat trying conditions. The Indian rode ahead with his dogs on the look-out for ostriches. A mighty wind from the west, cold with the snow of the Cordillera, blew in our faces, bringing with it showers of sand that stung us sharply. We could hardly persuade the horses to meet the wind, and their hoofs kicked up still more sand for our benefit. We were off shortly after nine o'clock, and about noon I would have given much to say " Camp." When fighting with the elements one goes through three distinct stages. First, there is the stage exultant, during which you feel the joy of battle, and struggle rejoicingly. The second comes when the irresistible tires you down, however strong you are, and forces the sense of your puniness so plainly upon you that you feel a sort of hurt despair, and a half impulse to THE KINGDOM OF THE WINDS 117 give in before a force so far beyond you. Last of all, you go on enduring until you become, as it were, acclimatised, and inclined to laugh at the despair you experienced a while previously. So it was on this day's march. About noon I said to myself as we were crossing the high pampa above the barranca of the Riv^er Chalia — a desolate spot, rough and tussocky, and gambolled over by Titanic winds— "We will camp at four sharp." The decision at the moment was a comfort, but in the end we did not camp until close upon seven o'clock, blind with sand, and our hands bleeding from the cold and the harsh friction of the cargo ropes. It was as we approached this camp that I saw beside a lagoon of snow-water two American oyster-catchers (^Hcpinatopus palliatus) which, no doubt, had nested in the vicinity, as, on my going closer, they rose and circled with their darting flight above my head, but I failed to find the nest. There were many guanacos about, and I was not surprised to hear that this lagoon, Laguna La Cancha, was a very favourite encampment of the Indians, The scenery sur- rounding the pool is peculiarly inhospitable. Some one remarked that it reminded him of Dore's illustrations to the Inferno, adding, " If you were to put heat to it, it would be Hell." Huge rolling downs, bare hills, and no vegetation save a few tussocks and scattered meagre shrubs. The Indian said the winter hits this land very hard, and the whole district is buried under snow, only the high, bald tops of the hills being visible. The next day was Sunday, but not on this occasion a day of rest. One thought of the bells ringing far away at home and the concourse of people moving along the winter roads. Here was wind, cold, and a march, cargo to be fixed and refixed to the day's end, then a windy camp-fire, and after a short sleep till dawn. Hitherto the toil had been hard, but we were nearing the lake, and looked forward to a time of rest and hunting. We were rich in meat with the cow, sheep, a Darwin's rhea caught by the Indian's dogs, and three geese. The hounds of the Indian proved themselves to be troublesome thieves. Hurbury and I were obliged to sleep beside the meat. r)esidcs being cunniiv'' thieves the dosfs were cowards. Thev were to all intents and purposes wild as regarded their habits. \'et good guanaco- ii8 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA hounds represent very sterling value to their owners, whose liveli- hood they procure. The best at the work I met with in Patagonia (.)N AHKAU were those which belonged to this Indian ouide. Wg called the man Como No because, whatever question was put to him, his invariable reply took the form of '' Como no?'' or " Why not ? " You said perhaps, " It is not far to the next camping-ground, is it ? " '' Como no?'' he would answer. After some three hours at an amble, you would repeat your inquiry. "Is it much farther.'*" '' Como no ?'' The most impossible queries met with precisely the same response. However indeterminate Como No may have been in his mental THE KINGDOM OF THE WINDS 119 attitude, his dogs were definitely good ones. He owned a hip- brindled dog, a small black one and a couple of yellow pups. Como No had a habit of riding far ahead of the general troop of men and horses, his figure making a far-off outline etched in black against the cold blue horizon of the pampa. Sometimes, when he lost sight of us for any length of time, he would burn a bush to give us our direction by the smoke, and we would follow on, driving the pack-horses and those free ones which were not being used either for riding or cargo at the time. Presently, perhaps, when rounding a low thicket, we would come suddenly upon him, squatted on his haunches beside a dead ostrich, from which he had stripped the feathers. These feathers, though far inferior to those of the African ostrich, or of RJica aniericaua, are worth anything from two to four dollars. As he rode forward ag-ain, his doos would rano^e on either side of him. By-and-by they would again start an ostrich or a guanaco, and pull it down within 500 or 600 yards. W'here- upon Como No would ride up, drive them off, kill and cut up the- quarry, giving the hounds the liver, strip the feathers if it happened to be an ostrich, and then mount and ride on once more. This performance would be repeated over and over again during the course of the march, until, before we saw the last of him, his saddle had become an enormous bunch of feathers, from out of which his body and shoulders protruded in a (juaint manner. At night these dogs, however, were a terrible nuisance. They would forage about the camp for food, and pull down the meat we had placed on bushes and de\'our it. Such was eventually the fate of the last remnants of the mutton wc had uiih us, and the loss was all the harder as we knew that the stolen mutton was the last we were destined to taste for months. After that we lixcd un lean guanaco. By this date we had gradually climbed to some 1 100 teci above the sea-level, and the temperature was extremely cokl. Our reindeer-beds became a great comfort. The 5th Ix'gan witli an liour of welcome sun. but it j-jassed only too soon, and tlu; wind rose nicjre piercingK' cokl ih.ui ever. It penetrated to one's very bones. W'c hov\e\er, made seven I20 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA leagues, and reached the River Genguel, which here makes a great curve. We camped in a narrow shute, strewn with big stones and giving upon the river, the cahadon being very wide and devoid of shelter. The water was broken into small sharp waves bv the wind, and we were s^lad to collect what firewood was obtainable — bushes being scarce at that spot — and make a fire. The Indian burned a bush and warmed himself. His does had, unaided bv him, killed a small o^uanaco and a fox {Canis griseus). We lay by the fire and the wind came down bitterly chill from the Sierra Nevada, while Jones cooked, and we learnt the delights which, in a cold climate, are to be found in mutton fat! After food to bed, and then a cold sleet set in. It was a nasty night, but in our reindeer bags we were, of course, untouched by the cold. Next day nine leagues were achieved. Very long marches these, but we were pressing on to reach Lake Buenos Aires. Cahadon and pampa and high ground succeeded each other as we rode along, sometimes bare, sometimes sandy, sometimes thorn- covered, often stony and strewn with fragments of basalt. Generally overhead a pallid blue sky, and below wind, wind, perpetual wind. So we toiled on past little chill lagoons, ruffled with the keen breeze, until in the afternoon I came up with Burbury and the Indian on a rise, and there lay our goal before us — a great stretch of water wonderfully blue and cold-looking beneath the Sierra Nevada, whose summits were crowned with snow above their dusky purple The Tostado kicked ofT his cargo during the day, and among the scattered contents of Jones' kit I picked up a broken looking- glass. I had not seen myself since leaving Colohuapi, and con- fess I found no cause for vanity in the sight of a distinctly dirty- looking pirate with smoke-reddened eyes, a peeling face and nose, and with enough beard to put a finishing-touch to the horrid spectacle. On the 3rd I discovered a scorpion in my bed in spite of the cold. By the 6th we reached the River Fenix, and, crossing to an island, camped in the sleet, the temperature reading that night being 30'' F. F'rom there we pushed on to the farther bank, and o X. CO < THE KINGDOM OF THE WINDS 121 marched to the campini^-ground of the Indians, which, though the nearest of their old camps to Lake Buenos Aires, was still a good distance from it. The Azulejo had been lost, but was brought in quite spent, by Barckhausen. Poor little beast ! He lay down more dead than alive under a bush, a pathetic little figure enough. After reaching camp, Jones and I had to turn out again, pretty tired as we were, to look for food. We rode for hours, and saw- only a herd of guanaco. At this season the country round about here is rather devoid of game, the ground is stony, with thorn and dry, blackened bushes. We w ere disappointed in our hunt again on the second day, seeing only two guanaco, lion-tracks, and a couple of pigeons, but we did not shoot them, and I am unable to speak with any certainty of the species to which they belonged. I have never seen a district so bare of life. We had come, as it were, to the world's end. I sat in my tent-door and wrote my diary. Far away I could see the Cordillera, splendid giants, with the sun shining upon them ; below, the lake that reminded me strongly of the picture in which Hiawatha sailed into " the kingdom of Ponemah. the Land of the Hereafter." That scene was just so wild, and so remote, with a great red sunset burning over it, and round about it rock and sand and marsh, with a pale wide rim of dead-wood, swept down by floods from the neighbouring forests On our way to the shores of the lake we had passed through a stretch of extraordinary aridity, a white and yellow spread of mud and stones that filled a valley between two scrub-covered hills. From far off it looked level, but in reality we found it to be intersected and veined with mighty gashes, which formed windino; ororgres. There the wind blew, and at times the sun beat down ; very cold it was, and very hot by turns, but never temperate. W^e had expected to find plenty of game in the vicinity of the lake, but in this, as I have said, we were disappointed, the consequence being that our supply of meat ran short. Tiiere was nothin''" for it but to kill the eiiihteen-months old colt o( one of the niadriiias. But before we did this we hunted for three davs, during which time 1 shot a couple of upland geese, which made the sum 122 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA total of our bag. In a new country one has always to buy experience. We were buying ours at this period. Owing to the wildness of our horses the journey front Trelew had been an especially trying one, although, under other circumstances, the difficulties need not be oreat.* The breakdown of the waes'on at so early a stage had entailed a large amount of extra labour, and by the time we reached Lake Buenos Aires we were, both men and horses, pretty well done up. On the third day of our hunting I took Barckhausen instead of Jones, who had been out with me on the two previous days. We passed along through the stony thorn-lean gorges towards the east. Here nothing lived save the strong birds of prey, and lions, whose tracks we observed leading to the rocks. Death lay nakedly there in all directions, skull and backbone, with rain-polish and snow- polish upon them, picked clean years ago by now-dead caranchos and chimangos. During our ride we saw two monster owls, two condors, many caranchos, and so pushed on over hill rising behind hill, stony, dark, with wind-lifted wisps of sand turning and twisting upon them. Ill the early afternoon we came upon a more pleasant land, and to a little marshy pool in a hollow of the hills, crowded round with forest-bushes, and upon this pool from far away I spied two upland geese. I dismounted, took my gun, and began a stalk. While I was still well out of range a bough broke under my foot, and the geese were away. W^e lay up for a time, but the birds did not return, so we took a turn westwards in the hope of getting some coots I had observed the day before upon another lagoon, close to Lake Buenos Aires. Upon the shore of the lake a smart shower of sleet, hail, and rain overtook us, and we had to lie down in the lee of a thorn-bush. I saw one golden guanaco racing along a hill-top against the sunset. Some coots were on the lake ; I shot four, but contrary winds drove them out into the water too deep to venture after them, and we turned campwards empty- handed. ■■'• Pampa travel is like cricket in that it defies forecast. Sometimes everything falls in right, at other times nothing comes opportunely to hand. THE KINGDOM OF THK WINDS 123 As we galloped over the hills the clouds broke on the western side of the lake, and made a scene ominously beautiful. The rifted dusky blue, the long pale gleam of water shining like an angel's sword, the white snow-peaks, the purple-black bell) of :>-^-«. ' i*-J. -*jr'^ the rain-storm, all cast together formed a picture that affected the senses stronoflv. As we neared camp, I saw something gleam white behind a bush. An upland goose! I crawled up and found two. With what care I mana"ed that stalk! I killed the female with one barrel on the ground and pulled over the male as he swung upwards. After riding seven leagues, we got our small results of the day's seeking within a mile ot the camp! One or other of us had seen far-off guanaco Hying out of sight, and I decided to start next day for the River Fenix to try for some, camping- there the night and returning next day to begin our long-needed rest. Vet the next day (November 9) none of us wiiu a-Iuinting after all. We were fairly jjlayed out. Personally I had had not 124 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA one day's rest since starting two months before, as upon me prin- cipally fell the duty of providing for the pot, so that upon coming in of an evening on the close of a long march it was usually necessary to saddle a fresh horse and ride a further distance from five to fifteen miles in search of game. So we killed the colt to provide for our wants while men and horses enjoyed well-earned repose. I had formed a base-camp about five miles from the shores of the lake, intending to make short expeditions, lightly equipped, round and about the vicinity. As for the camp, three large thorn-bushes were Nature's con- tribution towards it, and what a relief even the shelter of a thorn- bush can be in the Kingdom of the Winds, you could only learn by an experience such as was ours. Below the camp, which stood on a ridge, the ground fell away in a three-mile slope to the usually angry w^ater ; eastwards was a pantano or swamp of yellow reeds, which ran a long way below the scrub-grown ridge. The tents huddled back-to-wind, as much under the lee of the bushes as possible. We made an oven, but it turned out a failure, the earth being too soft for our purpose. Round the fire was a hedge of thorn hung with horse-blankets, red, yellow and black, which gave a rather festive air to the camp. The only sounds were the neigh of a horse, the hooting of night-birds, and the never-silent wind. During the night of the loth, half a gale of wind blew up with an extraordinary rancour of coldness. I lay in my tent and heard the sides of it flapping like some great wounded bird. Sleep was put off till far into the small hours. Through the open tent-door I could look at the bushes writhing in the gale, the long black back of the ridge and the glint of stars. How often one sees in half- sleep the scenes of home and of the past ! I seemed again to be watchincr the boats comin