As these
circumstances, apparently so trifling, occur in two distant
continents, we may feel sure that they are the necessary results of
common causes.--See "Pallas's Travels" 1793 to 1794 pages 129 to
134.) Well may we affirm that every part of the world is habitable!
Whether lakes of brine, or those subterranean ones hidden beneath
volcanic mountains--warm mineral springs--the wide expanse and
depths of the ocean--the upper regions of the atmosphere, and even
the surface of perpetual snow--all support organic beings.
To the northward of the Rio Negro, between it and the inhabited
country near Buenos Ayres, the Spaniards have only one small
settlement, recently established at Bahia Blanca. The distance in a
straight line to Buenos Ayres is very nearly five hundred British
miles. The wandering tribes of horse Indians, which have always
occupied the greater part of this country, having of late much
harassed the outlying estancias, the government at Buenos Ayres
equipped some time since an army under the command of General Rosas
for the purpose of exterminating them. The troops were now encamped
on the banks of the Colorado; a river lying about eighty miles
northward of the Rio Negro.
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