Last of the Incas

en Juan Diaz de Solis and Vicente Yanez Pinzon landed there

uched at these coasts in 1520, were the first to invent these Patagonian giants so tall that Europeans scarce reached their girdle, who were upwards of nine feet high, and resembled Cyclops. These fables, like all fables, have been accepted as truths,

ings of their course, agreeably break the uniformity of an arid, dry, sandy soil, on which prickly shrubs alone grow, or dispense life to the uninterrupted veg

ces; wherever they have retired, they have left alluvial soil covered with an eternal vegetation, and fo

and elephant seals. The guya, concealed in the marshes, utters its melancholy cry; the guacuti, or stag of the Pampas, runs lightly over the sand; while the guanaco, or American camel, sits pensively on the summit of the cliffs. The majestic condor soars amid the cloud

the Indians, in that inextricable labyrinth found on the banks of all American rivers. This traveller was a man of thirty years of age at the most, clothed in a semi-Indian, semi-European garb peculiar to the Gauchos. A poncho of In

ose together, gave him a distant resemblance to a bird of prey; his thin lips were contracted with an ironical air, and his prominent cheekbones suggested cunning. The Spaniard could be recognized by his olive tint. The effect of this fa

following, he entered a plain, the soil of which, burned by the sun and covered with small pebbles or gravel, only offered a few stunted shrubs to the eye. The further the stranger advanced in this desert, the further solitude extended in its gloomy majesty, and the footfall of his horse alone distu

sed, and in less than a minute the horses were unfastened; three men leapt into the saddle, and dashed forward at full gallop to reconno

ound?" one of them asked, as he

ve you been emptying a skin of aguardient

ce of Pedrito, if

my voice, my good fellow,

welcome," the th

led by one of those dogs of Aucas; ten mi

irmation, "for you have di

; but I have no

ell us your

I and my horse are hungr

remedied," said Pep

newcomer. This toldo, as they are called in the country, was a cabin thirty feet long and the same in depth, covered with reeds, and formed of stakes driven into the ground, and fastened

concealed objects. Lopez took up a piece of guanaco that was roasting, and planted the spit in the gr

n were b

r wanting, for they are handsomely paid. They often go twenty or five and twenty leagues from the fort, as extreme outposts, ambushing on spots where the enemy-that is to say, the Indians-must necessarily pass. Day and night they ride across the plains, watching, listening, and hiding. Scattered during the day, they reassemble at sunset, though they rarely venture to light a fire, which would betray their presence; and they ne

ing themselves at a good fire, a rare pleasure for men surrounded by dangers, and who hate a surprise to fear at any hour. But

own. If one of their comrades die, victim of an Indian or a wild beast, they content themselves with saying he has

in the last invasion. Their father and mother had succumbed under atrocious torture; two of their sisters had been outraged and killed by the chiefs, and the youngest

d had only one head and one heart. Their prodigies of courage, intelligence, and craft during the last seven

out the fire, and Juan mounted his horse to go the rounds; then the two b

brother?"

dest asked, "what have you bee

ke long," Lopez a

nse

are becoming absurdly timid; if this goes on, w

st," Pedrito said, "they

ou know?"

rito asked, inst

e seen nothing, hear

you s

you take us

you are m

ha

ur memory

I tell you," Pepe

on

squaw who crossed the plain this evening on a

smile, "knows the road as well as I d

exclaimed with a frow

very like

in you

all und

be only

ng on a sorry horse, and asked you the road to El Carmen," Pedrito s

l old witch, whose face

. Well, you are a

play with us like a c

is Pehuench

ho

obot

. Pedrito might have gone on talking for a long time without h

!" Pepe at l

you know it?

onceals a tempest. All the nations of Upper and Lower Patagonia, and even Araucania, have leagued together to attempt an invasion-massacre the whites, and destroy El Carmen. Two men have done it all-two men with whom you and I have been long acquainted-Nocobotha,

se. One of us must go at full gallop to El Carmen to i

ons of the chiefs. The quipu has been sent round, and the chiefs who will be

will th

tree of

e an easy thing to surpr

is impossible

ning. Here is Juan returned

" he said, as

Pedrito continued. "Listen to me, brothers.

three men

se you will

ywh

oo wish to be present at

re going t

tree of

possessed a superiority over his brothers, which the latter recognized; noth

ingle with the chie

will be twenty-one, that is all,"

heir horses, and disap