That Was All There Was To See, Except The Herds Of Cattle And
Horses And An Occasional Horseman Galloping Over
The plain, and the
sight at long distances of a grove or small plantation of trees,
marking the site of
An estancia, or sheep and cattle farm, these
groves appearing like islands on the sea-like flat country. At length
this monotonous landscape faded and vanished quite away, and the
lowing of cattle and tremulous bleating of sheep died out of hearing,
so that the last leagues were a blank to me, and I only came back to
my senses when it was dark and they lifted me down, so stiff with cold
and drowsy that I could hardly stand on my feet.
Next morning I found myself in a new and strange world. The house to
my childish eyes appeared of vast size: it consisted of a long range
of rooms on the ground, built of brick, with brick floors and roof
thatched with rushes. The rooms at one end, fronting the road, formed
a store, where the people of the surrounding country came to buy and
sell, and what they brought to sell was "the produce of the country" -
hides and wool and tallow in bladders, horsehair in sacks, and native
cheeses. In return they could purchase anything they wanted-knives,
spurs, rings for horse-gear, clothing, yerba mate and sugar; tobacco,
castor-oil, salt and pepper, and oil and vinegar, and such furniture
as they required - iron pots, spits for roasting, cane-chairs, and
coffins. A little distance from the house were the kitchen, bakery,
dairy, huge barns for storing the produce, and wood-piles big as
houses, the wood being nothing but stalks of the cardoon thistle or
wild artichoke, which burns like paper, so that immense quantities had
to be collected to supply fuel for a large establishment.
Two of the smallest of us were handed over to the care of a sharp
little native boy, aged about nine or ten years, who was told to take
us out of the way and keep us amused. The first place he took us to
was the great barn, the door of which stood open; it was nearly empty
just then, and was the biggest interior I had ever seen; how big it
really was I don't know, but it seemed to me about as big as Olympia
or the Agricultural Hall, or the Crystal Palace would be to any
ordinary little London boy. No sooner were we in this vast place than
we saw a strange and startling thing - a man, sitting or crouching on
the floor, his hands before him, the wrists tied together, his body
bound with thongs of raw hide to a big post which stood in the centre
of the floor and supported the beam of the loft above. He was a young
man, not more than twenty perhaps, with black hair and a smooth, pale,
sallow face. His eyes were cast down, and he paid no attention to us,
standing there staring at him, and he appeared to be suffering or ill.
After a few moments I shrank away to the door and asked our conductor
in a frightened whisper why he was tied up to a post there.
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