The weather is dry and
pleasant, and the fine blue sky is but seldom obscured. When
standing in the middle of one of these desert plains and looking
towards the interior, the view is generally bounded by the
escarpment of another plain, rather higher, but equally level and
desolate; and in every other direction the horizon is indistinct
from the trembling mirage which seems to rise from the heated
surface.
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 colonise this side of America south of 41 degrees 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.
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