rse of a little
brook, we soon entered on a wide level waste consisting either of
sand, saline marshes, or bare mud. Some parts were clothed by low
thickets, and others with those succulent plants which luxuriate
only where salt abounds. Bad as the country was, ostriches, deers,
agoutis, and armadilloes, were abundant. My guide told me, that two
months before he had a most narrow escape of his life: he was out
hunting with two other men, at no great distance from this part of
the country, when they were suddenly met by a party of Indians, who
giving chase, soon overtook and killed his two friends. His own
horse's legs were also caught by the bolas, but he jumped off, and
with his knife cut them free: while doing this he was obliged to
dodge round his horse, and received two severe wounds from their
chuzos. Springing on the saddle, he managed, by a most wonderful
exertion, just to keep ahead of the long spears of his pursuers,
who followed him to within sight of the fort. From that time there
was an order that no one should stray far from the settlement. I
did not know of this when I started, and was surprised to observe
how earnestly my guide watched a deer, which appeared to have been
frightened from a distant quarter.

We found the "Beagle" had not arrived, and consequently set out on
our return, but the horses soon tiring, we were obliged to bivouac
on the plain. In the morning we had caught an armadillo, which,
although a most excellent dish when roasted in its shell, did not
make a very substantial breakfast and dinner for two hungry men.
The ground at the place where we stopped for the night was
incrusted with a layer of sulphate of soda, and hence, of course,
was without water. Yet many of the smaller rodents managed to exist
even here, and the tucutuco was making its odd little grunt beneath
my head, during half the night. Our horses were very poor ones, and
in the morning they were soon exhausted from not having had
anything to drink, so that we were obliged to walk. About noon the
dogs killed a kid, which we roasted. I ate some of it, but it made
me intolerably thirsty. This was the more distressing as the road,
from some recent rain, was full of little puddles of clear water,
yet not a drop was drinkable. I had scarcely been twenty hours
without water, and only part of the time under a hot sun, yet the
thirst rendered me very weak. How people survive two or three days
under such circumstances, I cannot imag