t a cloud in the sky. The night may be perfectly calm.
Mosquitoes in vast numbers are busy with their sharp stings. Suddenly a
rustling in the woods may be heard afar off. The noise increases into a
dull roar. Clouds appear above the horizon. Still all is calm. The
mosquitoes vanish. The dogs are howling in anticipation of danger. As
if by magic, dark masses of clouds cover the heavens like a curtain.
They are rent asunder, thunder roars, lightning flashes, and the wind,
like an army of wild beasts, rushes on. Down comes the rain in
torrents, beating furiously against the hapless traveller exposed to its
fury, or on the deck of the ship. Flash succeeds flash; the lightning
in forked streaks darting through the air. In an hour, perhaps, the
heaviest part of the storm may be over, but still the wind blows
furiously; till at length it ceases, the clouds disappear, and the air
becomes delightfully fresh and cool.

The craft on the rivers are, however, often caught in these pamperos,
and driven into the bush, or upset, when the swift current carries down
the best of swimmers to a watery grave.

Houses, also, are frequently unroofed, orange groves stripped of their
golden fruit, and trees uprooted and hurled to the ground.

NATIVES OF LA PLATA AND ITS TRIBUTARIES--THE PAMPAS AND PATAGONIA.

When the Spaniards first arrived in that sea-like river, with shallow
shores--the mighty Parana, to which Sebastian Cabot afterwards gave the
name of La Plata--they encountered a fierce tribe (the Charranas)
inhabiting its shores. The natives endeavoured to repel the invaders by
a system of warfare which the latter, though they describe it as of the
most treacherous character, were not slow to imitate. Step by step,
however, the Spaniards fought their way; though sometimes defeated and
compelled to retreat, they again returned, establishing forts and towns
on the banks of the river, till they finally obtained a firm footing in
the land. They hesitated at no act, however atrocious, to secure their
conquests by the destruction of their foes.

On one occasion being warned that a tribe--the Guaycaruses--with whom
they had formed a treaty of peace, had laid a plot to cut them off, they
formed a counterplot, far surpassing in treachery that of the savages.
The Spanish Lieutenant-Governor, pretending that he had been smitten
with the charms of the daughter of their principal cacique, offered her
his hand in marriage. The propos