The communication, therefore, between the
Indians, extends from the Cordillera to the coast of the Atlantic.
General Rosas's plan is to kill all stragglers, and having driven
the remainder to a common point, to attack them in a body, in the
summer, with the assistance of the Chilenos. This operation is to
be repeated for three successive years. I imagine the summer is
chosen as the time for the main attack, because the plains are then
without water, and the Indians can only travel in particular
directions. The escape of the Indians to the south of the Rio
Negro, where in such a vast unknown country they would be safe, is
prevented by a treaty with the Tehuelches to this effect;--that
Rosas pays them so much to slaughter every Indian who passes to the
south of the river, but if they fail in so doing, they themselves
are to be exterminated. The war is waged chiefly against the
Indians near the Cordillera; for many of the tribes on this eastern
side are fighting with Rosas. The general, however, like Lord
Chesterfield, thinking that his friends may in a future day become
his enemies, always places them in the front ranks, so that their
numbers may be thinned.
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