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