322 CAROLINA GOLD-MINES. PART III. appear to be the last knolls of the Sierra de Cordova. Dr. Gillies gives it 2417 feet above the level of the sea, by barometrical observation, a greater elevation than the traveller from the Pampas perhaps would imagine. There is, however, a splendid prospect from it; the great saline lake of Bevedero glistening at a distance, and the interminable plains stretching away to the south, covered with a rich vegetation, brilliant with gaudy flowers, amongst which the bulbous plants are strikingly conspicuous.* Towards sunset, the Cordillera, capped with snow, is often visible, though above 200 miles distant. It has been generally supposed to be Tupungato which is thus seen; but Tupungato does not rise above the limit of perpetual snow,† and is often entirely free from it; is it not more likely therefore to be Aconcagua, which Captains Beechey and FitzRoy found to attain the enormous elevation of 23,900 feet, upwards of 2500 higher than the famous Chimborazo, making it the highest point as yet determined in the New World? The direct distance of either from San Luis differs very slightly: Tupungato is 213, and Aconcagua 216 geographical miles from it; the latter being about 50 miles to the north of the other. The gold-mines of La Carolina are about sixty miles to the north of San Luis, in the mountains, and eighty or ninety from the Morro, from which they may be reached by carts. They have long since been filled with water, and, as there are no capitalists or machinery to drain them, they are no longer worked, but the people of the hamlet wash and sift the alluvial soil collected at particular places (the lavaderos) in the neighbourhood, and so collect every year a quantity of gold in dust and small bean-like lumps, which they call pepitas. According to the official returns in the time of the Spanish Government, the pro * The cactus, which is found in every variety throughout the province of Cuyo, abounds in the neighbourhood of San Luis, and the natives collect the cochineal from it, and make it into cakes, which they use in dyeing their ponchos. + Although from June to December it is either wholly or partially covered with snow, I have seen it in the month of May wholly bare, when only a few days before there had been heavy falls of snow on the Cumbre, or central ridge, &c. I mention these facts to show that Tupungato cannot attain a higher level than that assigned to the limit of perpetual congelation, which in this latitude is about 15,000 feet, though, from the known height of the Cumbre, and its supposed elevation above the central ridge, I am disposed to conclude that its actual elevation cannot be far short of 15,000 feet.Miers. duce of one year, on which duty was paid, was about 150 lbs. At present the people take little trouble to collect more than is absolutely necessary to enable them to purchase at San Luis the few articles of clothing and horse gear which they require; if anything, they are even worse off than the gauchos upon the estancias. Captain Head paid them a flying visit, and has described the wretched poverty in which he found them. San Luis, as the frontier-town of Chile to the eastward, was in former times the place where the Captains-General, when they crossed the Pampas from Buenos Ayres to take possession of their government, first received the honours due to them. It takes its name from Don Luis de Loyola, a Governor of Chile, who founded it in the year 1596. By the road it is 226 leagues distant from Buenos Ayres, and 84 from Mendoza; and it is the only place that exceeds the description of a straggling village throughout the whole distance. The road which runs through it has been often described by those who have crossed the Pampas, and they have left little to say about it. By all accounts it seems to be a most uninteresting one; and the grand object, therefore, is to get over it with the greatest possible expedition. The more common mode of performing the journey is on horseback; but this is necessarily attended with great fatigue, and the man inust have an iron constitution who attempts it; although if he can live upon meat yet warm with life, or barely toasted over a gaucho fire, dispense with bread, drink brackish water, and sleep as a luxury upon the ground in the open air in spite of bugs as big as beetles, which will suck him like vampires, his saddle for a pillow, and the sky for his covering, and with such fare gallop a hundred miles a day, he may, barring accidents, reach Mendoza in eight or ten days. He will find no temptation to loiter on the way, though much to make him wish to reach his journey's end. There are post-houses, or stations, along the whole line of road, where relays of horses may be had; wretched animals in general, to all appearance, though the work they will do is almost incredible, and that of course en 324 CARRIAGE TRAVELLING. PART III. tirely upon green food: it is true their gaucho riders never spare them, and their tremendous spurs, reeking with blood when they dismount, but too cruelly indicate in general the goad which has urged them on. Unlike the Arab or the Cossack, the gaucho seems to have no kind feeling whatever for his horse: the intrinsic value of the animal being of no importance, if he drops on the way his rider cares not; he lassoes and mounts another beast, and abandons the exhausted one to the condors and vultures, always on the look-out for such a chance, and which will tear the flesh from the poor brute's bones as soon as they find he has not strength enough left to shake or kick them off. The mares lead a better life, being kept entirely for breeding; and custom is so strong that no consideration would induce a gaucho to mount one. The Pampa Indians have the same feeling, but they keep them for food as well as breeding; mare's flesh being preferred by them to any other-indeed it is their ordinary food. But it is not absolutely necessary to go through the fatigue of riding on horseback across the Pampas, and, for those disposed to consult their ease, an admirable sort of carriage may be had at Buenos Ayres, called a galera, in appearance very much resembling a London omnibus; it is swung upon hide ropes, and is of light though very strong construction; and in this the journey as far as Mendoza may be performed in fourteen or fifteen days without difficulty. At the same time that Captain Head started to ride on horseback across the Pampas, another friend of mine, with four or five persons in his suite, who was desirous to combine as much comfort as possible with such an undertaking, left Buenos Ayres in one of the carriages I have described; he had besides with him a carretilla, or cart on two wheels, for the conveyance of baggage, bedding, cooking utensils, &c., and much such a supply of stock as people would lay in for a voyage by sea of two or three weeks' duration. On reaching Mendoza, he sent me an account of his journey, from which I extract the following, for the benefit of those disposed to follow his example "Mendoza, December, 1825. "We reached this place on the morning of the eighteenth day from our leaving Buenos Ayres. Captain (now Sir Francis) Head, who started on horseback at the same time, did it in nine, but with so much fatigue as to be obliged to lie up for some days afterwards to recruit. We might easily have done it in our carriage in fourteen or fifteen, for we galloped nearly the whole way, as he did, but for the tiresome stoppages we were continually obliged to make in order to repair our cart; these kept us half a day at one place, one day at another, and two whole ones at San Luis. "Though you laughed, as well you might, at our setout, and at the appearance of our galera and carretilla, stuffed with my manifold preparations for personal comfort, I can truly say, now the expedition is over, that of all carriage contrivances the galera is infinitely the best calculated for an excursion across the Pampas; ours was remarkably easy over the roughest roads, capable of resisting all injury from them, and its high wheels well adapted for preventing our sinking in the quagmires, whilst it formed a comfortable bedroom at night. "Of the carretilla I cannot speak favourably:-from its construction it was not suited to keep pace with the galera ; two galeras would be better, especially if there were ladics of the party, in which case one might be fitted especially for their convenience, with couches for sleeping, &c. The pies and provisions might be stowed away in lockers, as the sailors would call them, made for the purpose; and the more good things in the shape of eatables and drinkables you can get into them the better, unless you have the stomach of an ostrich to digest what the gauchos offer you. The filth of the post-houses is beyond description, dirt and vermin of every kind in them, and no accommodation of any sort for the traveller; even our peons preferred sleeping in the open air, and you would not suspect them of being over nice. "The country is more uninteresting than any I ever travelled over, in any quarter of the globe. I should divide it into five regions:--first, that of thistles, inhabited 326 MARCH OF FRENCHMEN TO CHILE. PART III. by owls and biscachas; secondly, that of grass, where you meet with deer and ostriches, and the screaming horned plover; thirdly, the region of swamps and bogs, only fit for frogs; fourthly, that of stones and ravines, where I expected every moment to be upset; and, lastly, that of ashes and thorny shrubs, the refuge of the tarantula and binchuco, or giant bug. "Its geological aspect differed from what I expected. I should say that, to the north and south of Mendoza, there have been volcanoes, the eruptions from which have covered the country (perhaps the bed of a sea) with ashes as far as San Luis: the peculiar soil so formed, combined with the effects of climate and the salt lakes, may perhaps account for the particular species of thorny plants which are undescribed and confined to this region. The mountain streams, overflowing the saline lakes, are the origin of the vast swamps between San Luis and the Rio Quarto; and the decomposed granite and gneiss from the Sierra de Cordova gives rise to the difference in the soil, and to its elevation along the Rio Tercero." Whatever may be the monotony of the Pampas, most people would prefer the overland ride across them to a lengthened sea voyage round Cape Horn. So it was in the case of my friend, and others who have since published accounts of their travels. A like feeling gave rise to a very remarkable feat, which will long be memorable in the annals of Pampa travelling, performed in 1849 by some adventurous Frenchmen bound for the gold diggings in California, but who had been driven by bad weather into Monte Video on the way. Heartily sea-sick, they there went on shore to proceed to Buenos Ayres, intending thence to cross the Pampas and rejoin their ship at Valparaiso. Some of them fortunately were old soldiers; all were armed with guns, and with these and their knapsacks, carrying all a Frenchman needs, they started, as most people do, to commence their journey on horseback; but it turned out that the greater part of them were unused to riding, and suffered so much from the rough saddles of the country that, after trying it for two days, they dis |