When General Rosas left Buenos Ayres he
struck in a direct line across the unexplored plains: and as the
country was thus pretty well cleared of Indians, he left behind
him, at wide intervals, a small party of soldiers with a troop of
horses (a posta), so as to be enabled to keep up a communication
with the capital. As the "Beagle" intended to call at Bahia Blanca,
I determined to proceed there by land; and ultimately I extended my
plan to travel the whole way by the postas to Buenos Ayres.
AUGUST 11, 1833.
Mr. Harris, an Englishman residing at Patagones, a guide, and five
Gauchos who were proceeding to the army on business, were my
companions on the journey. The Colorado, as I have already said, is
nearly eighty miles distant: and as we travelled slowly, we were
two days and a half on the road. The whole line of country deserves
scarcely a better name than that of a desert. Water is found only
in two small wells; it is called fresh; but even at this time of
the year, during the rainy season, it was quite brackish. In the
summer this must be a distressing passage; for now it was
sufficiently desolate.
The valley of the Rio Negro, broad as it is, has merely been
excavated out of the sandstone plain; for immediately above the
bank on which the town stands, a level country commences, which is
interrupted only by a few trifling valleys and depressions.
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