In Such A Country The Fate Of The Spanish Settlement Was
Soon Decided; The Dryness Of The Climate During The Greater
Part Of The Year, And The Occasional Hostile Attacks Of The
Wandering Indians, Compelled The Colonists To Desert Their
Half-Finished Buildings.
The style, however, in which they
were commenced shows the strong and liberal hand of Spain
in the old time.
The result of all the attempts to colonize this
side of America south of 41 degs., has been miserable. Port
Famine expresses by its name the lingering and extreme
sufferings of several hundred wretched people, of whom one
alone survived to relate their misfortunes. At St. Joseph's
Bay, on the coast of Patagonia, a small settlement was made;
but during one Sunday the Indians made an attack and massacred
the whole party, excepting two men, who remained
captives during many years. At the Rio Negro I conversed
with one of these men, now in extreme old age.
The zoology of Patagonia is as limited as its flora. [9] On
the arid plains a few black beetles (Heteromera) might be
seen slowly crawling about, and occasionally a lizard darted
from side to side. Of birds we have three carrion hawks
and in the valleys a few finches and insect-feeders. An ibis
(Theristicus melanops - a species said to be found in central
Africa) is not uncommon on the most desert parts: in
their stomachs I found grasshoppers, cicadae, small lizards,
and even scorpions. [10] At one time of the year these birds
go in flocks, at another in pairs, their cry is very loud and
singular, like the neighing of the guanaco.
The guanaco, or wild llama, is the characteristic quadruped
of the plains of Patagonia; it is the South American
representative of the camel of the East. It is an elegant
animal in a state of nature, with a long slender neck and
fine legs. It is very common over the whole of the temperate
parts of the continent, as far south as the islands near Cape
Horn. It generally lives in small herds of from half a dozen
to thirty in each; but on the banks of the St. Cruz we saw
one herd which must have contained at least five hundred.
They are generally wild and extremely wary. Mr. Stokes
told me, that he one day saw through a glass a herd of these
animals which evidently had been frightened, and were running
away at full speed, although their distance was so great
that he could not distinguish them with his naked eye. The
sportsman frequently receives the first notice of their
presence, by hearing from a long distance their peculiar shrill
neighing note of alarm. If he then looks attentively, he will
probably see the herd standing in a line on the side of some
distant hill. On approaching nearer, a few more squeals are
given, and off they set at an apparently slow, but really quick
canter, along some narrow beaten track to a neighbouring
hill.
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