Facundo: Civilization and Barbarism (1845) PDF

FACUNDO: OR, CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM  CONTENTS CHAPTER I, PHYSICAL CONTENTS OF THE REPUBLIC. Physical Conditions Rivers without Commerce...

FACUNDO: OR, CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM  CONTENTS CHAPTER I, PHYSICAL CONTENTS OF THE REPUBLIC. Physical Conditions Rivers without Commerce An Unbroken Country The Rule of the Strongest Native Indolence Civilization by Cities American Bedouins Social Aspects Religious Aspects Gaucho Traits Sources of Wealth CHAPTER II. ORIGINALITY AND PECULIARITIES OF THE PEOPLE. 28 Poetic Character Musical Character Rastreador, the Track-Finder Baqueano, or Path-Finder The Gaucho Outlaw The Cantor, or Minstrel CHAPTER III, ASSOCIATION, 47 Pastoral Society The Gaucho’s Knife A Centaur Sovereignty The Country Commandant The Montonera  CHAPTER IV. 56 THE REVOLUTION OF 1810. The Beginning of the Revolution The Middle Party The Montonera’s Savagery The Violent Death of Cities Rioja San Juan The Rodriguez CHAPTER V. QUIROGA. 71 LIFE OF FACUNDO His Infancy and Youth The Tiger Quiroga’s Education Habits of Life The Gaucho’s Revenge Rebellious Spirit Domestic Character Facundo in Prison Characteristics Facundo as a Diviner CHAPTER VI. 86 LA RIOJA. Feud between Ocampos and Davilas Facundo as Commandant Davila made Governor Blanco made Governor Facundo as Financier Facundo’s Avatice Mining Fever Gambling Consequences of Facundo’s Government  CHAPTER VII, SOCIAL LIFE. 104 Transition Period Cordova Buenos Ayres Unitarios The Two Parties. Progress and Reaction Consolidation Inevitable Facundo’s Individuality CHAPTER VIIL. EXPERIMENTS. 123 Congress Colonel Madrid’s Mission Significance of the Color “Red” Effects of Freedom of Thought The Red Ribbon Facundo and the Federals Toleration The Black Flag The Catholic Party and Religion An Easy Way of Paying Debts Rivadavia Resigns CHAPTER IX. CIVIL WAR. TABLADA. 138 Dorrego and the Unitarios The Execution of Dorrego by Lavalle The Coming Campaign Battle of Tablada Tablada and Cordova General Paz Liberal Element in Cordova Treaty of Lopez of Santa Fé  CHAPTER IV. oF 1810. 56 THE REVOLUTION The Beginning of the Revolution The Middle Party The Montonera’s Savagery The Violent Death of Cities Rioja San Juan The Rodriguez CHAPTER V. QUIROGA. 71 LIFE OF FACUNDO His Infancy and Youth The Tiger Quiroga’s Education Habits of Life The Gaucho’s Revenge Rebellious Spirit Domestic Character Facundo in Prison Characteristics Facundo as a Diviner CHAPTER VI. LA RIOJA. 86 Feud between Ocampos and Davilas Facundo as Commandant Davila made Governor Blanco made Governor Facundo as Financier Facundo’s Avarice Mining Fever Gambling Consequences of Facundo’s Government  CHAPTER VII. SOCIAL LIFE. 104 Transition Period Cordova Buenos Ayres Unitarios The Two Parties. Progress and Reaction Consolidation Inevitable Facundo’s Individuality CHAPTER VIII. EXPERIMENTS. 123 Congress Colonel Madrid’s Mission Significance of the Color “Red” Effects of Freedom of Thought The Red Ribbon Facundo and the Federals Toleration The Black Flag The Catholic Party and Religion An Easy Way of Paying Debts Rivadavia Resigns CHAPTER IX. CIVIL WAR. TABLADA. 138 Dorrego and the Unitarios The Execution of Dorrego by Lavalle The Coming Campaign Battle of Tablada Tablada and Cordova General Paz Liberal Element in Cordova Treaty of Lopez of Santa Fé  ae CHAPTER X. 150 CIVIL WAR. The Murderer Barcena The Story of Severa Villafafie Ransoms Terror A Spark of Humanity Oncativo CHAPTER XI. 159 SOCIAL WAR. Chacon Buenos Ayres in 1840 Capture of Rio Quarto Castillo’s Blunders Castillo’s Civilizing Work Introduction of the Silk-Worm Facundo at his Old Ways Death of Villafafie Navarro Villafafie Facundo’s Discipline Terror a Power CHAPTER XII. 177 SOCIAL WAR. Ciudadela Tucuman Facundo’s Cruelty Tyranny River Navigation Persecution —_— CHAPTER XIII. BARRANCA-YACO!!! 189 Idea of Government Rosas Governor of Buenos Ayres Rosas and Facundo Facundo at Buenos Ayres Facundo’s New Plans Facundo’s Secret Opposition to Rosas Facundo’s Presentiments Facundo’s Obstinacy Facundo’s Individuality Facundo’s Death Santos Perez CHAPTER XIV. FRIAR JOSE FELIX ALDAO, BRIGADIER-GENERAL AND GOVERNOR. 206 t Lieutenant José Aldao The Catholic Party and Religion Aldao Captain under San Martin Aldao at Mendoza The Aldao Triumvirate Future Destiny of the Republic Barcala, the Educated Slave Facundo’s Palace Tablada El Pilar Aldao and Facundo Petition of Mendoza General Paz Lassoed Card-playing Rodriguez the Soldier Brizuela Acha Rodeo del Medio Aldao’s Harem Death of Aldao What Mendoza gained from Aldao’s Government  CHAPTER I Physical Aspect of the Argentine Republic, and the Forms of Character, “Habits, and Ideas Induced by It The extent of the Pampas is so prodigious that they are bounded on the north by groves of palm-trees and on the south by eternal snows. —HEAD The Continent of America ends at the south in a point, with the Strait of Magellan at its southern extremity. Upon the west, the Chilian Andes run parallel to the coast at a short distance from the Pacific. Between that range of mountains and the Atlantic is a country whose boundary follows the River Plata up the course of the Uruguay into the interior, which was formerly known as the United Provinces of the River Plata, but where blood is still shed to determine whether its name shall be the Argentine Republic or the Argentine Con- federation. On the north lie Paraguay, the Gran Chaco, and Bolivia, its assumed boundaries. The vast tract which occupies its extremities is altogether uninhabited, and possesses navigable rivers as yet unfurrowed even by a frail canoe. Its own extent is the evil from which the Argentine Republic suffers; the desert encompasses it on every side and penetrates its very heart; wastes containing no human dwelling, are, generally speaking, the unmistakable boundaries between its several provinces. Immensity is the uni- versal characteristic of the country: the plains, the woods, the rivers, are all immense; and the horizon is always undefined, always lost in haze and delicate vapors which forbid the eye to mark the point in the distant perspective, where the land ends and the sky begins. On the south and on the north are savages 9  DOMINGO F. SARMIENTO 10 the moonlight nights ever on the watch, who take advantage of their pastures, and to fall like packs of hyenas upon the herds in solitary caravan of upon the defenseless settlements. When the s, halts for a short wagons, as it sluggishly traverses the pampa grouped around their period of rest, the men in charge of it, the south upon scanty fire, turn their eyes mechanically toward dry grass, and gaze the faintest whisper of the wind among the of the sinister into the deep darkness of the night, in search moment, approach- visages of the savage horde, which, at any sound reaches their ing unperceived, may surprise them. If no which covers ears, if their sight fails to pierce the gloomy veil eyes, befor e entirely dis- the silent wilderness, they direct their any horse standing missing their apprehensions, to the ears of ed up or turned within the firelight, to see if they are prick interrupted con- carelessly backwards. Then they resume their the half- scorc hed pieces of versation, or put into their mouths fearfu l of the ap- dried beef on which they subsist. When not cause to dread proach of the savage, the plainsman has equal th his feet. This the keen eyes of the tiger, or the viper benea in my opinion, constant insecurity of life outside the towns, in stoical resigna- stamps upon the Argentine character a certa as one of the tion to death by violence, which is regarded this is the reason inevitable probabilities of existence. Perhaps much indiffer- why they inflict death or submit to it with so lastin g impression ence, and why such events make no deep or upon the survivors. ry unusually The inhabited portion of this country—a count variet ies of clim ates—may favored by nature, and embracing all ct characteristics, be divided into three sections possessing distin g the inhabitants, which cause differences of character amon themselves to growing out of the necessity of their adapting the physical conditions which surround them. an extensive forest, reaching to the Chaco, In the north, a space whose covers with its impenetrable mass of boughs  FACUNDO: OR, CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM 11 extent would seem incredible if there could be any marvel too great for the colossal types of Nature in America. In the central zone, lying parallel to the former, the plain and the forest long contend with each other for the possession of the soil; the trees prévail for some distance, but gradually dwindle into stunted and thorny bushes, only reappearing in belts of forest along the banks of the streams, until finally in the south, the victory remains with the plain, which displays its smooth, velvet-like surface unbounded and unbroken. It is the image of the sea upon the land; the earth as it appears upon the map—the earth yet waiting for the command to bring forth every herb yielding seed after its kind. We may indicate, as a noteworthy feature in the configuration of this country, the aggregation of navigable rivers, which come together in the east, from all points of the horizon, to form the Plata by their union, and thus worthily to present their mighty tribute to the Ocean, which receives it, not without visible marks of distur- bance and respect. But these immense canals, excavated by the careful hand of Nature, introduce no change into the national customs. The sons of the Spanish adventurers who colonized the country hate to travel by water, feeling themselves impris- oned. when within the narrow limits of a boat or a pinnace. When their path is crossed by a great river, they strip them- selves unconcernedly, prepare their horses for swimming, and plunging in, make for some island visible in the distance, where horse and horseman take breath, and by thus continuing their course from isle to isle, finally effect their crossing. Thus is the greatest blessing which Providence bestows upon any people disdained by the Argentine gaucho, who regards it rather as an obstacle opposed to his movements, than as the most powerful means of facilitating them; thus the fountain of national growth, the origin of the early celebrity of Egypt, the cause of Holland’s greatness, and of the rapid development of North America, the navigation of rivers, or the use of canals, 12 DOMINGO F. SARMIENTO of the remains a latent power, unappreciated by the inhabitants ay. A few banks of the Bermejo, Pilcomayo, Parana, and Paragu up stream small vessels, manned by Italians and adventurers, sail but after ascending a few leagues, even this from the Plata, which the navigation entirely ceases. The instinct of the sailor, Saxon colonists of the north possess in so high a degree, was to not bestowed upon the Spaniard, Another spirit is needed stag- stir these arteries in which a nation’s life-blood now lies nant. Of all these rivers which should bear civilization, power, continent, and and wealth, to the most hidden recesses of the Salta, Tu- make of Santa Fé, Entre Rios, Corrientes, Cordova, us states, the Plata alone, cuman, and Jujui, rich and populo which at last unites them all, bestows its benefits upon ‘the At its mouth stand two cities, Mon- inhabitants of its banks. the tevideo and Buenos Ayres, which at present reap alternately is destined advantages of their enviable position. Buenos Ayres to be some day the most gigantic city of either America, Under d a benignant climate, mistress of the navigation of a hundre rivers flowing past her feet, covering a vast area, and sur- for rounded by inland provinces which know no other outlet Babylon their products, she would ere now have become the ed upon of America, if the spirit of the Pampa had not breath the rivers her, and left undeveloped the rich offerings which bring. She is the only city in and provinces should unceasingly commu nicat ion with the vast Argentine territory which is in ages European nations; she alone can avail herself of the advant Vainly of foreign commerce; she alone has power and revenue. have the provinces asked to receive through her, civilization, industry, and European population; a senseless colonial policy re- made her deaf to these cries. But the provinces had their own venge when they sent to her in Rosas the climax of their barbarism. Heavily enough have those who uttered it, paid for the say- Medio.” ing, “The Argentine Republic ends at the Arroyo del _ FACUNDO: OR, CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM 13 It now reaches from the Andes to the sea, while barbarism and violence have sunk Buenos Ayres below the level of the prov- inces, We ought not to complain of Buenos Ayres that she is great and will be greater, for this is her destiny. This would be to complain of Providence and call upon it to alter physical outlines. This being impossible, let us accept as well done what has been done by the Master’s hand. Let us rather blame the ignorance of that brutal power which makes the gifts lavished by Nature upon an erring people of no avail for itself or for the provinces. Buenos Ayres, instead of sending to the interior, light, wealth, and prosperity, sends only chains, exterminating hordes, and petty subaltern tyrants, She, too, takes her revenge for the evil inflicted upon her by the provinces when they prepared for her a Rosas! I have indicated the circumstance that the position of Buenos Ayres favors monopoly, in order to show that the configuration of the country so tends to centralization and consolidation, that even if Rosas had uttered his cry of “Confederation or Death!” in good faith, he would have ended with the consolidated sys- tem which is now established. Our desire, however, should be for union in civilization, and in liberty, while there has been given us only union in barbarism and in slavery. But a time will come when business will take its legitimate course. What it now concerns us to know is, that the progress of civilization must culminate only in Buenos Ayres; the pampa is a very bad medium of transmission and distribution through the provinces, and we are now about to see what is the result of this condition of things. But above all the peculiarities of special portions of the country, there predominates one general, uniform, and constant character. Whether the soil is covered with the luxuriant and colossal vegetation of the tropics, or stunted, thorny, and un- sightly shrubs bear witness to the scanty moisture which sustains them; or whether finally the pampa displays its open and mo- 14 DOMINGO F. SARMIENTO flat and notonous level, the surface of the country is generally of San Luis and Cordov a in unbroken—the mountain groups the Andes toward the centre, and some projecting spurs of ess the north, being scarcely an interruption to this boundl continuity. - We have, in this fact, a new element calculated to consoli soli- date the nation which is hereafter to occupy these great tudes, for it is well known that mountains and other natural the iso- obstacles interposed between different districts, keep up North lation and the primitive peculiarities of their inhabitants. because its America is destined to be a federation, not so much account first settlements were independent of each other, as on to the of the length of its Atlantic coast, and the various routes Missis- interior afforded by the St. Lawrence in the north, the system of canals in the sippi in the south, and the immense centre. The Argentine Republic is “one and indivis ible.” Many philosophers have also thought that plains prepare holds the way for despotism, just as mountains furnish strong ess plain which permits for the struggles of liberty. The boundl routes the unobstructed passage of large and weighty wagons by cut upon which the hand of man has only been required to to away a few trees and thickets, and which extend from Salta more than Buenos Ayres, and thence to Mendoza, a distance of rthy seven hundred leagues, constitutes one of the most notewo ex- features of the internal conformation of the Republic. The done ertions of the individual, aided by what rude nature has means of commun icatio n; already, suffice to provide ways and shall attemp t fart shall offer its assistance, if the forces of society colossa l to supply the strength lacking in the individual, the and dimensions of the work will repel the most enterprising, insufficiency of labor will be an obstacl e. Thus in the matter the action of roads, untamed nature will long have control, and of civilization will continue weak and inoperative. the Moreover, these outstretched plains impart to the life of  FACUNDO: OR, CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM 15 interior a certain Asiatic coloring, which we may even call very decided. I have often mechanically saluted the moon, as it rose calmly and brightly, with these words of Volney in his descrip- tion of the Ruins: “La pleine lune 4 l’Orient s’élévait sur un fond bleuatre aux plainés rives de l’Euphrate.”’ There is some- thing in the wilds of the Argentine territory which brings to mind the wilds of Asia; the imagination discovers a likeness between the pampa and the plains lying between the Euphrates and the Tigris; some affinity between the lonely line of wagons which crosses our wastes, arriving at Buenos Ayres after a jour- ney lasting for months, and the caravan of camels which takes its way toward Bagdad or Smyrna. The wagons which make such journeys among us, constitute, so to speak, squadrons of little barks, the crews of which have a peculiar dress, dialect, and set of customs, which distinguish them from their fellow- countrymen, just as the sailor differs from the landsman. The head of each party is a military leader, like the chief of an Asiatic caravan; this position can be filled only by a man of iron will, and daring to the verge of rashness, that he may hold in check the audacity and turbulence of the land pirates who are to be directed and ruled by himself alone, for no help can be summoned in the desert. On the least symptom of insub- ordination, the captain raises his iron chicote, and delivers upon the mutineer blows which make contusions and wounds; if the resistance is prolonged, before resorting to his pistols, the help of which he generally scorns, he leaps from his horse, grasps his formidable knife, and quickly reéstablishes his authority by his superior skill in handling it. If any one loses his life under such discipline, the leader is not answerable for the assassination, which is regarded as an exercise of legitimate authority. From these characteristics arises in the life of the Argentine people the reign of brute force, the supremacy of the strongest, the absolute and irresponsible authority of rulers, the adminis- tration of justice without formalities or discussion. The caravan 16 DOMINGO F. SARMIENTO two guns to of wagons is provided, moreover, with one or a small piece each wagon, and sometimes the leading one has train is attack ed by the savages, of artillery on a swivel. If the and a succes sful resis- the wagons are tied together in a ring, y and rapa- tance is almost always opposed to the blood-thirst of pack-mules cious plunder of the assailants. Defenseless droves ns, and mule- often fall into the hands of these American Bedoui ys, the teers rarely escape with their lives. In these long journe e the habit of lower classes of the Argentine population acquir with nature, living far from society, of struggling singlehanded for protection of disregarding privation, and of depending no other resources against the dangers ever imminent upon than personal strength and skill. to The people who inhabit these extensive districts, belong combina- two different races, the Spanish and the native; the ions. The tions of which form a series of imperceptible gradat ts of Cordova pure Spanish race predominates in the rural distric rdesses and San Luis, where it is common to meet young shephe capital could fair and rosy, and as beautiful as the belles of a the bulk of the rural pop- wish to be. In Santiago del Estero, plainly shows its ulation still speaks the Quichua dialect, which use a very Indian origin. The country people of Corrientes a,” said his pretty Spanish dialect. “Dame, general, una chirip soldier may still be recog- soldiers to Lavalle. The Andalusian and in the city nized in the rural districts of Buenos Ayres; race, by foreign surnames are the most numerous. The negro has left, in this time nearly extinct (except in Buenos Ayres), man its zambos and mulattoes, a link which connects civilized inhabiting with the denizen of the woods. This race mostly ses talent cities, has a tendency to become civilized, and posses and the finest instincts of progress. resulted With these reservations, a homogeneous whole has familie s. It is char- from the fusion of the three above-named  FACUNDO: OR, CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM 17 acterized by love of idleness and incapacity for industry, except when education and the exigencies of a social position succeed in spurring it out of its customary pace. To a great extent, this unfortunate result is owing to the incorporation of the native tribes, effected by the ptocess of colonization. The American aborigines live in idleness, and show themselves incapable, even under compulsion, of hard and protracted labor. This suggested the idea of introducing negroes into America, which has pro- duced such fatal results. But the Spanish race has not shown itself more energetic than the aborigines, when it has been left to its own instincts in the wilds of America. Pity and shame are excited by the comparison of one of the German or Scotch colonies in the southern part of Buenos Ayres and some towns of the interior of the Argentine Republic; in the former the cottages are painted, the front-yards always neatly kept and adorned with flowers and pretty shrubs; the furniture simple but complete; copper or tin utensils always bright and clean; nicely curtained beds; and the occupants of the dwelling are always industriously at work. Some such families have retired to enjoy the conveniences of city life, with great fortunes gained by their previous labors in milking their cows, and mak- ing butter and cheese. The town inhabited by natives of the country, presents a picture entirely the reverse. There, dirty and ragged children live, with a menagerie of dogs; there, men lie about in utter idleness; neglect and poverty prevail every- where; a table and some baskets are the only furniture of wretched huts remarkable for their general aspect of barbarism and carelessness. This wretched manner of life of a people already on the decrease, and belonging to the pastoral districts, doubtless gave rise to the words which spite and the humiliation of the English arms drew from Sir Walter Scott: “The vast plains of Buenos Ayres,” he says, “are inhabited only by Christian savages 18 DOMINGO F. SARMIENTO said), ““whose known as Guachos” (gauchos, he should have whose food furniture is chiefly composed of horses’ skulls, pastime is run- is raw beef and water, and whose favorite ning horses to death. Unfortunat ely,” adds the good foreigner, to our cottons and “they prefer their national independence muslins.’”* e how It would be well to ask England to say at a ventur of muslin she would give to many yards of linen and pieces own these plains of Buenos Ayres! stand scattered Upon the boundless expanse above described of a province. here and there fourteen cities, each the capital would be to The obvious method of arranging their names positi on: Buenos classify them according to their geographical on the banks of Ayres, Santa Fé, Entre Rios, and Corrientes, arca, T'ucuman, the Parana; Mendoza, San Juan, Rioja, Catam l to the Chilian Salta, and Jujui, being on a line nearly paralle with Santiago, San Luis, and Cordova, in the centre. Andes; towns has no But this manner of enumerating the Argentine I have in view. connection with any of the social results which ate in the A classification adapted to my purpose must origin , for it is this which ways of life pursued by the country people above that determines their character and spirit. I have stated in this respect, the proximity of the rivers makes no difference is so trifling as because the extent to which they are navigated to be without influence upon the people. Mendoza, All the Argentine provinces, except San Juan and avails itself depend on the products of pastoral life; Tucuman g millions of agriculture also, and Buenos Ayres, besides raisin the numer ous and diver- of cattle and sheep, devotes itself to sified occupations of civilized life. of South The Argentine cities, like almost all the cities * Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, vol. ii., chap. 1.  FACUNDO: OR, CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM 19 America, have an appearance of regularity. Their streets are laid out at nght angles, and their population scattered over a wide surface, except in Cordova, which occupies a narrow and con- fined position, and presents all the appearance of a European city, the resemblance being increased by the multitude of tow- ers and domes attached to its numerous and magnificent churches. All civilization, whether native, Spanish, or Euro- pean, centres in the cities, where are to be found the man- ufactories, the shops, the schools and colleges, and other characteristics of civilized nations. Elegance of style, articles of luxury, dress-coats, and frock-coats, with other European gar- ments, occupy their appropriate place in these towns. I mention these small matters designedly. It is sometimes the case that the only city of a pastoral province is its capital, and occasionally the land is uncultivated up to its very streets. The encircling desert besets such cities at a greater or less distance, and bears heavily upon them, and they are thus small oases of civilization surrounded by an untilled plain, hundreds of square miles in extent, the surface of which is but rarely interrupted by any settlement of consequence. The cities of Buenos Ayres and Cordova have succeeded better than the others in establishing about them subordinate towns to serve as new foci of civilization and municipal inter- ests; a fact which deserves notice. The inhabitants of the city wear the European dress, live in a civilized manner, and possess laws, ideas of progress, means of instruction, some municipal organization, regular forms of government, etc. Beyond the precincts of the city everything assumes a new aspect; the coun- try people wear a different dress, which I will call South Amer- ican, as it is common to all districts; their habits of life are different, their wants peculiar and limited. The people com- posing these two distinct forms of society, do not seem to be- long to the same nation. Moreover, the countryman, far from 20 DOMINGO F. SARMIENTO with dis- attempting to imitate the customs of the city, rejects for the costume dain its luxury and refinement; and it is unsafe their saddles, or of the city people, their coats, their cloaks, anything European, to show themselves in the country. Ev- there, erything civilized which the city contains is blockaded any one who should dare to proscribed beyond its limits; and for examp le, or appear in the rural districts in a frock-coat, and brutal mounted on an English saddle, would bring ridicule assaults upon himself. country, The whole remaining population inhabit the open wooded or destitute of the larger plants, is which, whether by pastures, generally level, and almost everywhere occupied grass in some places of such abundance and excellence, that the not surpas s them. Mendo za, and of an artificial meadow would l absence of especially San Juan, are exceptions to this genera ts tilled fields, the people here depending chiefly on the produc plenty, the of agriculture. Everywhere else, pasturage being cannot call it means of subsistence of the inhabitants—for we ds us of their occupation—is stock-raising. Pastoral life remin Kalmuck, the Asiatic plains, which imagination covers with ns—a life Cossack, or Arab tents. The primitive life of natio am, essentially barbarous and unprogressive—the life of Abrah prevai ls in the Argen - which is that of the Bedouin of to-day, r by civili- tine plains, although modified in a peculiar manne of vation, The Arab tribe which wanders through the wilds warrior Asia, is united under the rule of one of its elders or of a mined lo- chief: society exists, although not fixed in any deter nging cality. Its religious opinions, immemorial traditions, uncha aged, make alto- customs, and its sentiment of respect for the pre- gether a code of laws and a form of government which as well as order and serves morality, as it is there understood, because the association of the tribe. But progress is impossible, of the there can be no progress without permanent possession of developing the soil, or without cities, which are the means — FACUNDO: OR, CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM 21 capacity of man for the processes of industry, and which enable him to extend his acquisitions. Nomad tribes do not exist in the Argentine plains; the stock- raiser is a proprietor, living upon his own land; but this con- dition renders association impossible, and tends to scatter separate families over an immense extent of surface. Imagine an expanse of two thousand square leagues, inhabited through- out, but where the dwellings are usually four or even eight leagues apart, and two leagues, at least, separate the nearest neighbors. The production of movable property is not impos- sible, the enjoyments of luxury are not wholly incompatible with this isolation; wealth can raise a superb edifice in the de- sert. But the incentive is wanting; no example is near; the in- ducements for making a great display which exist in a city, are not known in that isolation and solitude. Inevitable privations justify natural indolence; a dearth of all the amenities of life induces all the externals of barbarism. Society has altogether disappeared. There is but the isolated self-concentrated feudal family. Since there is no collected society, no government is possible; there is neither municipal nor executive power, and civil justice has no means of reaching criminals. I doubt if the modern world presents any other form of association so mon- strous as this. It is the exact opposite of the Roman munici- pality, where all the population were assembled within an inclosed space, and went from it to cultivate the surrounding fields. The consequence of this was a strong social organization, the good results of which have prepared the way for modern civilization. The Argentine system resembles the old Slavonic Sloboda, with the difference that the latter was agricultural, and therefore more susceptible of government, while the dispersion of the population was not so great as in South America. It differs from the nomad tribes in admitting of no social reunion, and in a permanent occupation of the soil. Lastly, it has some- thing in common with the feudal system of the Middle Ages, 22 DOMINGO F. SARMIENTO when the barons lived in their strongholds, and thence made war on the cities, and laid waste the country in the vicinity; but the baron and the feudal castle are wanting. If power starts up in the country, it lasts only for a moment, and is democratic; for want of moun- it is not inherited, nor can it maintain itself, that even the tains and strong positions. It follows from this, moral devel- savage tribe of the pampas is better organized for opment than are our country districts. d in its social But the remarkable feature of this society, viewe nts—to the life of aspect, is its affinity to the life of the ancie ilarity appears the Spartans or Romans; but again a radical dissim anoth er side. The free when the subject is considered from slaves the weight citizen of Sparta or of Rome threw upon his subsistence, while of material life, the care of providing for his or in the public he lived, free from such cares, in the forum the interests of the place of assembly, exclusively occupied with raiser has his State—peace, war, and party contests. The stock- the degrading share of the same advantages, and his herds fulfill s multiplication office of the ancient Helot. Their spontaneou his fortun e, the help of constitutes and indefinitely augments , his time, are not man is superfluous; his labor, his intelligence of life. needed to the preservation and increase of the means the supply of his But though he needs none of these forces for use of them, when thus physical wants, he is unable to make saved, as the Roman did. He has no city, no municipality, no intimate associations, and thus the basis of all social develop- ment is wanting. As the land-owners are not brought together, they have no public wants to satisfy; in a word, there is no res publica. ect, are here Moral progress, and the cultivation of the intell but impos- not only neglected, as in the Arab or Tartar tribe, for the instru ction of sible. Where can a school be placed con- children living ten leagues apart in all directions? Thus, ht about. Bar- sequently, civilization can in no way be broug  FACUNDO: OR, CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM 23 barism is the normal condition,* and it is fortunate if domestic customs preserve a small germ of morality. Religion feels the consequences of this want of social organization. The offices of the pastor are nominal, the pulpit has no audience, the priest flees from the deserted “chapel, or allows his character to de- teriorate in inactivity and solitude. Vice, simony, and the prev- alent barbarism penetrate his cell, and change his moral superiority into the means of gratifying his avarice or ambition, and he ends by becoming a party leader. I once witnessed a scene of rural life worthy of the primitive ages of the world, which preceded the institution of the priesthood. In 1838 I happened to be in the Sierra de San Luis, at the house of a proprietor whose two favorite occupations were saying prayers and gambling. He had built a chapel where he used to pray through the rosary on Sunday afternoons, to supply the want of a priest, and of the public divine service of which the place had been destitute for many years. It was a Homeric picture: the sun declining to the west; the sheep returning to the fold, and rending the air with their confused bleatings; the service conducted by the master of the house, a man of sixty, with a noble countenance, in which the pure European race was ev- ident in the white skin, blue eyes, and wide and open forehead; while the responses were made by a dozen women and some young men, whose imperfectly broken horses were fastened near the door of the chapel. After finishing the rosary, he fer- vently offered up his own petitions. I never heard a voice fuller of pious feeling, nor a prayer of purer warmth, of firmer faith, of greater beauty, or better adapted to the circumstances, than that which he uttered. In this prayer he besought God to grant rain for the fields, fruitfulness for the herds and flocks, peace *In 1826, during a year’s residence at the Sierra de San Luis, I taught the art of reading to six young people of good families, the youngest of whom was twenty-two years old. 24 DOMINGO F. SARMIENTO for the Republic, and safety for all wayfarers. I readily shed tears, and wept even with sobs, for the religious sentiment had n been awakened in my soul to intensity, and like an unknow for I never witnessed a more religious scene. I sensation, seemed to be living in the times of Abraham, in his presence, sn that of God, and of the nature which reveals Him. The voice of that sincere and pure-minded man made all my nerves vi- brate, and penetrated to my inmost soul. To this, that is, to natural religion, is all religion reduced in idioms, the pastoral districts. Christianity exists, like the Spanish by as a tradition which is perpetuated, but corrupted; colored gross superstitions and unaided by instruction, rites, or convic- tions. It is the case in almost all the districts which are remote za from the cities, that when traders from San Juan or Mendo arrive there, three or four children, some months or a year old, that are presented to them for baptism, confidence being felt their good education will enable them to administer the rite in and on the arrival of a priest, young men 4 valid manner; to break a colt, present themselves to him to be old enough anointed and have baptism sub conditione administered to them. In the absence of all the means of civilization and progress, which can only be developed among men collected into soci- eties of many individuals, the education of the country people is as follows: The women look after the house, get the meals ready, shear the sheep, milk the cows, make the cheese, and weave the coarse cloth used for garments. All domestic occu- pations are performed by women; on them rests the burden of the all the labor, and it is an exceptional favor when some of men undertake the cultivation of a little maize, bread not being in use as an ordinary article of diet. The boys exercise their strength and amuse themselves by gaining skill in the use of the lasso and the bolas, with which they constantly harass and pur- soon sue the calves and goats. When they can mide, which is as small service s as they have learned to walk, they perform some  FACUNDO: OR, CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM 25 on horseback. When they become stronger, they race over the country, falling off their horses and getting up again, tumbling on purpose into rabbit* burrows, scrambling over precipices, and practicing feats of horsemanship. On reaching puberty, they take to breaking wild colts, and death is the least penalty that awaits them if their strength or courage fails them for a moment. With early manhood comes complete independence and idleness. Now begins the public life of the gaucho, as I may say, since his education is by this time at an end. These men, Spaniards only in their language and in the confused religious notions preserved among them, must be seen, before a right estimate can be made of the indomitable and haughty character which grows out of this struggle of isolated man with untamed nature, of the rational being with the brute. It is necessary to see their visages bristling with beards, their countenances as grave and serious as those of the Arabs of Asia, to appreciate the pitying scorn with which they look upon the sedentary denizen of the city, who may have read many books, but who cannot over- throw and slay a fierce bull, who could not provide himself with a horse from the pampas, who has never met a tiger alone, and received him with a dagger in one hand and a poncho rolled up in the other, to be thrust into the animal’s mouth, while he transfixes his heart with his dagger. This habit of triumphing over resistance, of constantly show- ing a superiority to Nature, of defying and subduing her, pro- digiously develops the consciousness of individual consequence and superior prowess. The Argentine people of every class, civ- ilized and ignorant alike, have a high opinion of their national importance. All the other people of South America throw this vanity of theirs in their teeth, and take offense at their pre- sumption and arrogance. I believe the charge not to be wholly * Viscachas. 26 DOMINGO F. SARMIENTO for the nation unfounded, but I do not object to the trait. Alas, such a without faith in itself! Great things were not made for part people. To what extent may not the independence of that of these Argent ine gauchos , of America be due to the arrogance sun superio r to who have never seen anything beneath the themselves in wisdom or in power? The European is in their gets the eyes the most contemptible of all men, for a horse better of him in a couple of plunge s.* If the origin of this national vanity among the lower classes some noble is despicable, it has none the less on that account results; as the water of a river is no less pure for the mire and pollution of its sources. Implacable is the hatred which these s, people feel for men of refinement, whose garments, manner Such is and customs, they regard with invincible repugnance. be the material of the Argentine soldiery, and it may easily nce in war are the conse- imagined what valor and endura that these quences of the habits described above. We may add soldiers have been used to slaughtering cattle from their child- familiar hood, and that this act of necessary cruelty makes them of with bloodshed, and hardens their hearts against the groans their victims. Country life, then, has developed all the physical but none is of the intellectual powers of the gaucho, His moral character over of the quality to be expected from his habit of triumphing haughty, and the obstacles and the forces of nature; it is strong, t need of energetic. Without instruction, and indeed withou is happy any, without means of support as without wants, he in the midst of his poverty and privations, which are not such es than to one who never knew nor wished for greater pleasur blockade, *General Mansilla said, in a public meeting during the French. from those Europea ns, who are not equal to “What have we to apprehend and the vast plebeian audienc e drowne d the speaker' s one night’s gallop?” voice with thunders of applause. 7 FACUNDO: OR, CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM 27 are his already. Thus if the disorganization of society among the gauchos deeply implants barbarism in their natures, through the impossibility and uselessness of moral and intellectual edu- cation, it has, too, its attractive side to him. The gaucho does not labor; he finds his food and raiment ready to his hand. If he is a proprietor, his own flocks yield him both; if he possesses nothing himself, he finds them in the house of a patron or a relation. The necessary care of the herds is reduced to excur- sions and pleasure parties; the branding, which is like the har- vesting of farmers, is a festival, the arrival of which is received with transports of joy, being the occasion of the assembling of all the men for twenty leagues around, and the opportunity for displaying incredible skill with the lasso. The gaucho arrives at the spot on his best steed, riding at a slow and measured pace; he halts at a little distance and puts his leg over his horse’s neck to enjoy the sight leisurely. If enthusiasm seizes him, he slowly dismounts, uncoils his lasso, and flings it at some bull, passing like a flash of lightning forty paces from him; he catches him by one hoof, as he intended, and quietly coils his leather cord again.  CHAPTER II Originality and Peculiarities of the Argentine People Ainsi que I’ ocean, les Steppes remplessent Vesprit du sentiment de Vinfini. —HUMBOLDT Like the ocean, the Pampas fill the mind with the impression of the infinite. —HUMBOLDT If from the conditions of pastoral life, such as colonization and neglect have constituted it, rise serious obstacles in the way of creating any political organization, and much more for the in- troduction of European civilization and institutions, as well as their natural results, wealth, and liberty, it cannot be denied, on the other hand, that this state of things has its poetic side, and possesses aspects worthy of the pen of the romancer. If any form of national literature shall appear in these new American societies, it must result from the description of the mighty scenes of nature, and still more from the illustration of the struggle between European civilization and native barbarism, between mind and matter—a struggle of imposing magnitude in South America, and which suggests scenes so peculiar, so characteristic, and so far outside the circle of ideas in which the European mind has been educated, that their dramatic relations would be unrecognized machinery, except in the country in which they are found. The only North American novelist who has gained a Eu- ropean reputation is Fenimore Cooper, and he succeeded in doing so by removing the scene of the events he described from 28  FACUNDO: OR, CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM 29 the settled portion of the country to the border land between civilized life and that of the savage, the theatre of the war for the possession of the soil waged against each other, by the na- tive tribes and the Saxon race. It was in this manner‘that our young poet Echevarria suc- ceeded in attracting the attention of the literary world of Spain by his poem entitled “The Captive.” The subjects of “Dido and Argea”’ which his predecessors the Varelas had treated with classic art and poetic fire, but without success and ineffectively, because they added nothing to the stock of European ideas, were abandoned by this Argentine bard, who turned his eyes to the desert. In its immeasurable and boundless spaces, in its wastes traversed by wandering savages, in the distant belt of flame which the traveller sees approaching when a fire has bro- ken out upon the plains, he found the inspiration derived by the imagination from the sight of such natural scenery as is solemn, imposing, unusual, and mysterious; and from this the echo of his verses resounded, and was applauded even in the Spanish Peninsula. A fact which explains many of the social phenomena of nations deserves a passing notice. The natural peculiarities of any region give rise to customs and practices of a corresponding peculiarity, so that where the same circumstances reappear, we find the same means of controlling them invented by different nations. Thus, in my opinion, is to be explained the use of bows and arrows among all savage nations, whatever may be their race, their origin, and their geographical position. When I came to the passage in Cooper’s “Last of the Mohicans,” where Hawkeye and Uncas lose the trail of the Mingos in a brook, I said to myself: “They will dam up the brook.” When the trapper in “The Prairie” waits in irresolute anxiety while the fire is threatening him and his companions, an Argentine would have recommended the same plan which the trapper finally proposes,—that of clearing a space for immediate pro- 30 DOMINGO F. SARMIENTO tection, and setting a new fire, so as to be able to retire upon the ground over which it had passed beyond the reach of the approaching flames. Such is the practice of those who cross the pampa when they are in danger from fires in the grass. When the fugitives in ‘The Prairie” arrive at a river, and Cooper describes the mysterious way in which the Pawnee gathers together the buffalo’s hide, “he is making a pelota,” said I to myself, —“‘it is a pity there is no woman to tow it,’ —for among us it is the women who tow pelotas across rivers with lassos held between their teeth. The way in which a buffalo’s head is roasted in the desert is the same which we use for cooking* a cow’s head or a loin of veal. I omit many other facts which prove the truth that analogies in the soil bring with them analogous customs, resources, and expedients. This ex- plains our finding in Cooper’s works accounts of practices and customs which seem plagiarized from the pampa; thus, too, we find reproduced among American herdsmen, the serious coun- tenance, the hospitality, and the very garments of the Arab. The country consequently derives a fund of poetry from its natural circumstances and the special customs resulting from them. To arouse the poetic sense (which, like religious feeling, is a faculty of the human mind), we need the sight of beauty, of terrible power, of immensity of extent, of something vague and incomprehensible; for the fables of the imagination, the ideal world, begin only where the actual and the common- place end. Now, I inquire, what impressions must be made upon the inhabitant of the Argentine Republic by the simple act of fixing his eyes upon the horizon, and seeing nothing?—for the deeper his gaze sinks into that shifting, hazy, undefined horizon, the further it withdraws from him, the more it fascinates and con- fuses him, and plunges him in contemplation and doubt. What * Batear, r FACUNDO: OR, CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM 31 is the end of that world which he vainly seeks to penetr ate? He knows not! What is there beyond what he sees? The wil- derness, danger, the savage, death! Here is poetry already; he who moves among such scenes is assailed by fantastic doubts and fears, by dreams which possess his waking hours. Hence it follows that the disposition and nature of the Ar- gentine people are poetic. How can such feelings fail to exist, when a black storm-cloud rises, no one knows whence , in the midst of a calm, pleasant afternoon, and spreads over the sky before a word can be uttered? The traveller shudders as the crashing thunder announces the tempest, and holds his breath in the fear of bringing upon himself one of the thousand bolts which flash around him. The light is followed by thick dark- ness; death is on every side; a fearful and irresistible power has instantaneously driven the soul back upon itself, and made it feel its nothingness in the midst of angry nature; made it feel God himself in the terrible magnificence of his works, What more coloring could the brush of fancy need? Masses of dark- ness which obscure the sun; masses of tremulous livid light which shine through the darkness for an instant and bring to view far distant portions of the pampa, across which suddenly dart vivid lightnings, symbols of irresistible power. These im- ages must remain deeply engraved on the soul. When the storm passes by, it leaves the gaucho sad, thoughtful, and serious, and the alternation of light and darkness continues in his imagina- tion, as the disk of the sun long remains upon the retina after we have been looking at it fixedly. Ask the gaucho, ‘““Whom does the lightning prefer to kill?” and he will lead you into a world of moral and religious fancies, mingled with ill-understood facts of nature, and with supersti- tious and vulgar traditions. We may add that if it is certain that the electric fluid enters into the economy of human life and is the same as the so-called nervous fluid, the excitement of which rouses the passions and kindles enthusiasm, imaginative exertion 32 DOMINGO F. SARMIENTO ought to be well suited to the temper of a people living un- der an atmosphere so highly charged with electricity that one’s clothes sparkle when rubbed, like a cat’s fur stroked the wrong way. How can he be otherwise than a poet who witnesses these impressive scenes? Jira en vano, reconcentra Su inmensidad, i no encuentra La vista en su vivo anhelo Dé fijar su fugaz vuelo, Como el pajaro en la mar. Dogquier campo i heredades Del ave i bruto guaridas; Doquier cielo i soledades De Dios solo conocidas, Que él solo puede sondear. —Echevarria Or he who thus sees Nature in her gala dress? De las entrafias de América Dos raudales se desatan; El Parana, faz de perlas, I el Uruguai, faz de ndcar. Los dos entre bosques corren O entre floridas barrancas, Como dos grandes espejos Entre marcos de esmeraldas. Saludanlos en su paso La melancélica pava, El picaflor i jilguero, El zorzal i la torcaza. Como ante reyes se inclinan Ante ellos seibos i palmas, I le arrojan flor del aire,  FACUNDO: OR, CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM 33 Aroma i flor de naranja. Luego en el Guazti se encuentran T reuniendo sus aguas, _ Mezclando ndcar i perlas, Se derraman en el Plata. —Dominguez But this is cultivated poetry, the poetry of the city. There is another poetry which echoes over the solitary plains—the pop- ular, natural, and irregular poetry of the gaucho, Music, too, is found among our people. It is a national taste recognized by all our neighbors. When an Argentine is first introduced to a Chilian family, they at once invite him to the piano, or hand him a guitar, and if he excuses himself on the ground that he does not know how to play, they express won- der and incredulity, saying, ““An Argentine, and not understand music!” This general supposition bears witness to our national habits. It is the fact, that the young city people of the better classes, play the piano, flute, violin, or guitar; the half-breeds devote themselves almost wholly to music, and many skillful composers and players have sprung up among them. Guitars are constantly heard at the shop-doors on summer evenings; and late in the night, one’s sleep is pleasantly disturbed by ser- enades and peripatetic concerts. The country people have songs peculiar to themselves. The “Triste,” prevalent among the people of the northern districts, is a fugue melody expressive of lamentation, such as Rousseau considers natural to man in his primitive state of barbarism. The “Vidalita”’ is a popular song with a chorus, accompanied by the guitar and tabor, in the refrain of which the bystanders join, and the number and volume of the voices increase. I sup- pose this melody originated with the aborigines, for I once heard it at an Indian festival at Copiapo, held to celebrate Can- dlemas. As a religious song it must be very old, and the Indians 34 DOMINGO F. SARMIENTO of Chili can hardly have adopted it from the Spaniards of the Argentine Republic. The “Vidalita” is the popular measure for songs about the topics of the day, or for warlike odes; the gauchos compose the words which they sing, and trust to the associations which the song arouses, to make them understood by the people. Thus, then, amidst the rudeness of the national customs, two arts which embellish civilized life and give vent to many gen- erous passions, are honored and favored, even by the lowest classes, who exercise their uncultured genius in lyrical and po- etic composition. In 1840, Echevarria, then a young man, lived some months in the country, where the fame of his verses upon the pampa had already preceded him; the gauchos surrounded him with respect and affection, and when a new-comer showed symp- toms of the scorn he felt for the little minstrel,* some one whispered, “He is a poet,” and that word dispelled every prejudice. It is well known that the guitar is the popular instrument of the Spanish race; it is also common in South America. The majo or troubadour, the type of a large class of Spaniards, is still found there, and in Buenos Ayres especially. He is discoverable in the gaucho of the country, and in the townsman of the same class. The cielito, the dance of the pampas, is animated by the same spirit as the Spanish jaleo, the dance of Andalusia; the dancer makes castafiets of his fingers; all his movements disclose the majo; the action of his shoulders, his gestures, all his ways, from that in which he puts on his hat, to his style of spitting through his teeth, all are of the pure Andalusian type. From these general customs and tastes are developed re- markable peculiarities, which will hereafter embellish the na- tional dramas and romances, and give them an original shade * Cajeteija, little musical box.  FACUNDO: OR, CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM 35 of color. I propose at present only to notice a few of these special developments, in order to complete the idea of the cus- toms of the country, and so to explain subsequently the nature, causes, and effects of its civil wars. THE RASTREADOR The most conspicuous and extraordinary of the occupations to be described, is that of the Rastreador, or track-finder. All the gauchos of the interior are Rastreadores. In such extensive plains, where paths and lines of travel cross each other in all directions, and where the pastures in which the herds feed are unfenced, it is necessary often to follow the tracks of an animal, and to distinguish them among a thousand others, and to know whether it was going at an easy or a rapid pace, at liberty or led, laden or carrying no weight. This is a generally understood branch of household knowl- edge. I once happened to turn out of a by-way into the Buenos Ayres road, and my guide, following the usual practice, cast a look at the ground. “There was a very nice little Moorish mule in that train,” said he, directly. “D. N. Zapata’s it was—she is good for the saddle, and it is very plain she was saddled this time; they went by yesterday.” The man was travelling from the Sierra de San Luis, while the train had passed on its way from Buenos Ayres, and it was a year since he had seen the Moorish mule, whose track was mixed up with those of a whole train in a path two feet wide. And this seemingly in- credible tale only illustrates the common degree of skill;—the guide was a mere herdsman, and no professional Rastreador. The Rastreador proper is a grave, circumspect personage, whose declarations are considered conclusive evidence in the inferior courts. Consciousness of the knowledge he possesses, gives him a certain reserved and mysterious dignity. Every one treats him with respect; the poor man because he fears to offend 36 DOMINGO F. SARMIENTO one who might injure him by a slander or an accusation; and the proprietor because of the possible value of his testimony. A theft has been committed during the night; no one knows anything of it; the victims of it hasten to look for one of the robber’s footprints, and on finding it, they cover it with some- thing to keep the wind from disturbing it. They then send for the Rastreador, who detects the track and follows it, only oc- casionally looking at the ground as if his eyes saw in full relief the footsteps invisible to others. He follows the course of the streets, crosses gardens, enters a house, and pointing to a man whom he finds there, says, coldly, “That is he!”” The crime is proved, and the criminal seldom denies the charge. In his es- timation, even more than in that of the judge, the Rastreador’s deposition is a positive demonstration; it would be ridiculous and absurd to dispute it. The culprit accordingly yields to a witness whom he regards as the finger of God pointing him out. I have had some acquaintance myself with Calibar, who has practiced his profession for forty consecutive years in one province. He is now about eighty years old, and of venerable and dignified appearance, though bowed down by age. When his fabulous reputation is mentioned to him, he replies, “I am good for nothing now; there are the boys.” The “boys,’” who have studied under so famous a master, are his sons. The story is that his best horse-trappings were once stolen while he was absent on a journey to Buenos Ayres. His wife covered one of the thief’s footprints with a tray. Two months afterwards Cal- ibar returned, looked at the footprint, which by that time had become blurred, and could not have been made out by other eyes, after which he spoke no more of the circumstance. A year and a half later, Calibar might have been seen walking through a street in the outskirts of the town with his eyes on the ground. He turned into a house, where he found his trappings, by that time blackened by use and nearly worn out. He had come upon the trail of the thief nearly two years after the robbery.  FACUNDO: OR, CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM 37 In 1830, a criminal under sentence of death having escaped from prison, Calibar was employed to search for him. The un- happy man, aware that he would be tracked, had taken all the precautions suggested to him by the image of the scaffold, but they were taken in vain.“Perhaps they only assured his destruc- tion; for as Calibar’s reputation was hazarded, his Jealous self esteem made him ardent in accomplishing a task which would demonstrate the wonderful sharpness of his sight, though it in- sured the destruction of another man. The fugitive had left as few traces as the nature of the ground would permit; he had crossed whole squares on tiptoe; afterwards he had leaped upon low walls; he had turned back after crossing one place; but Calibar followed without losing the trail. If he missed the way for a moment, he found it again, exclaiming, “Where are you?” Finally, the trail entered a water-course in the suburbs, in which the fugitive had sought to elude the Rastreador, In vain! Calibar went along the bank without uneasiness or hesitation. At last he stops, examines some plants, and says, “‘He came out here; there are no footprints, but these drops of water on the herbage are the sign!” On coming to a vineyard, Calibar re- connoitered the mud walls around it, and said, “He is in there.” The party of soldiers looked till they were tired, and came back to report the failure of the search. “He has not come out,” was the only answer of the Rastreador, who would not even take the trouble to make a second investigation. In fact, he had not come out, but he was taken and executed the next day. In 1831, some political prisoners were planning an escape; all was ready, and outside help had been secured. On the point of making the attempt, “What shall be done about Calibar?” said one. “To be sure, Calibar!’”’ said the others, in dismay. Their relations prevailed upon Calibar to be ill for four full days after the escape, which was thus without difficulty ef- fected. What a mystery is this of the Rastreador! What microscopic 38 DOMINGO F. SARMIENTO power is developed in the visual organs of these men! How sublime a creature is that which God made in his image and likeness! THE BAQUEANO, OR PATH-FINDER Next to the Rastreador comes the Baqueano, a personage of distinction, and one who controls the fate of individuals and of provinces. The Baqueano is a grave and reserved gaucho, who knows every span of twenty thousand square leagues of plain, wood, and mountain! He is the most thorough topographer, the only map which a general consults in directing the move- ments of his campaign. The Baqueano is always at his side. Modest and mute as a garden-wall, he is in possession of every secret of the campaign; the fate of the army, the issue of a battle, the conquest of a province, all depend upon him. The Ba- queano almost always discharges his duty with fidelity, but the general does not place full confidence in him. Conceive the situation of a commander condemned to be attended by a traitor, from whom he has to obtain the infor- mation without which he cannot succeed. A Baqueano finds a little path crossing the road which he is following; he knows to what distant watering-place it leads. If he finds a thousand such paths, some of them even a hundred leagues apart, he is acquainted with each, and knows whence it comes and whither it goes. He knows the hidden fords of a hundred rivers and streams, above or below the ordinary places of crossing. He can point out a convenient path through a hundred distinct and extensive swamps. In the deepest darkness of the night, surrounded by bound- less plains or by forests, while his companions are astray and at a loss, he rides round them inspecting the trees; if there are none, he dismounts and stoops to examine the shrubs, and sat- isfies himself of his points of compass. He then mounts, and  FACUNDO: OR, CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM 39 reassures his party by saying, ‘““We are in a straight line from such a place, so many leagues from the houses; we must travel southwards,”” And he sets out in the direction he has indicated, without uneasiness, without hurrying to confirm his judgment by arriving at the town, “and without answering the objections suggested to the others by fear or bewilderment, If even this is insufficient, or if he finds himself upon the pampa in impenetrable darkness, he pulls up herbs from differ- ent places, smells their roots and the earth about them, chews their foliage, and by often repeating this proceeding, assures himself of the neighborhood of some lake or stream, either of salt or of fresh water, of which he avails himself, upon finding it, to set himself exactly right. It is said that General Rosas knows the pasturage of every estate in the south of Buenos Ayres by its taste. If the Baqueano belongs to the pampa, where no roads exist, and a traveller asks him to show the way straight to a place fifty leagues off, he pauses a moment, reconnoitres the horizon, ex- amines the ground, fixes his eyes upon some point, and gallops off straight as an arrow, until he changes his course for reasons known only to himself, and keeps up his gallop day and night till he arrives at the place named. The Baqueano also announces the approach of the enemy; that is, that they are within ten leagues; and he also detects the direction in which they are approaching by means of the move- ments of the ostriches, deer, and guanacos, which fly in certain directions, At shorter distances he notices the clouds of dust, and estimates the number of the hostile force by their density. “They have two thousand men,” he says; “five hundred,” “two hundred;” and the commander acts upon this assumption, which is almost always infallible. If the condors and crows are wheeling in circles through the air, he can tell whether there are troops hidden thereabouts, or whether a recently abandoned camp, or simply a dead animal is the attractive object. The 40 DOMINGO F. SARMIENTO Baqueano knows how far one place is from another, the num- ber of days and hours which the journey requires, and besides, some unknown by-way through which the passage may be made in half the time, so as to end in a surprise; and expeditions for the surprise of towns fifty leagues away are thus undertaken, and generally with success, by parties of peasants. This may be thought an exaggeration. No! General Rivera, of the Banda Oriental, is a simple Baqueano, who knows every tree that grows anywhere in the Republic of Uruguay. The Brazilians would not have occupied that country if he had not aided them; nor, but for him, would the Argentines have set it free. This man, at once general and Baqueano, overpowered Oribe, who was supported by Rosas, after a contest of three years; and at the present day, were he in the field against it, the whole power of Buenos Ayres, with its numerous armies, which are spread all over Uruguay, might gradually fade away by means of a surprise to-day, by a post cut off to-morrow, by some victory which he could turn to his own advantage by his knowledge of some route to the enemy’s rear, or by some other unnoticed or trifling circumstance. General Rivera began his study of the ground in 1804, when making war upon the government as an outlaw; afterwards he waged war upon the outlaws as a government officer; next, upon the king as a patriot; and later upon the patriots as a peasant; upon the Argentines as a Brazilian chieftain; and upon the Brazilians, as an Argentine general; upon Lavalleja, as Pres- ident; upon President Oribe, as a proscribed chieftain; and, fi- nally, upon Rosas, the ally of Oribe, as a general of Uruguay; in all which positions he has had abundance of time to learn something of the art of the Baqueano.  FACUNDO: OR, CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM 41 THE GAUCHO OUTLAW The example of this type of character, to be found in certain places, is an outlaw, a squatter, a kind of musanthrope. He is Cooper’s Hawkeye or Trapper, with all the knowledge of the wilderness possessed by the latter; and with all his aversion to the settlements of the whites, but without his natural morality or his friendly relations with the savages. The name of gaucho outlaw is not applied to him wholly as an uncomplimentary epithet. The law has been for many years in pursuit of him. His name is dreaded—spoken under the breath, but not in hate, and almost respectfully. He is a mysterious personage; his abode is the pampa; his lodgings are the thistle fields; he lives on partridges and hedgehogs, and whenever he is disposed to regale himself upon a tongue, he lassos a cow, throws her with- out assistance, kills her, takes his favorite morsel, and leaves the rest for the carrion birds. The gaucho outlaw will make his appearance in a place just left by soldiers, will talk in a friendly way with the admiring group of good gauchos around him; provide himself with tobacco, yerba maté, which makes a re- freshing beverage, and if he discovers the soldiers, he mounts his horse quietly and directs his steps leisurely to the wilderness, not even deigning to look back. He is seldom pursued; that would be killing horses to no purpose, for the beast of the gaucho outlaw is a bay courser, as noted in his own way as his master. If he ever happens to fall unawares into the hands of the soldiers, he sets upon the densest masses of his assailants, and breaks through them, with the help of a few slashes left by his knife upon the faces or bodies of his Opponents; and lying along the ridge of his horse’s back to avoid the bullets sent after him, he hastens towards the wilderness, until, having left his pursuers at a convenient distance, he pulls up and travels at his ease. The poets of the vicinity add this new exploit to the biography of the desert hero, and his renown flies through all 42 DOMINGO F. SARMIENTO the vast region around. Sometimes he appears before the scene of a rustic festival with a young woman whom he has carried off, and takes a place in the dance with his partner, goes through the figures of the celito, and disappears, unnoticed. Another day he brings the girl he has seduced, to the house of her offended family, sets her down from his horse’s croup, and reckless of the parents’ curses by which he is followed, quietly betakes himself to his boundless abode. This white-skinned savage, at war with society and pro- scribed by the laws, is no more depraved at heart than the inhabitants of the settlements. The reckless outlaw who attacks a whole troop, does no harm to the traveller. The gaucho out- law is no bandit, or highwayman; murderous assaults do not suit his temper, as robbery would not suit the character of the churviador (sheep-stealer). To be sure, he steals; but this is his profession, his trade, his science. He steals horses. He arrives, for instance, at the camp of a train from the interior; its master offers to buy of him a horse of some unusual color, of a par- ticular shape and quality, with a white star on the shoulder. The gaucho collects his thoughts, considers a moment, and re- plies, after a short silence: ‘“There is no such horse alive.”” What thoughts have been passing through the gaucho’s mind? In that moment his memory has traversed a thousand estates upon the pampa; has seen and examined every horse in the province, with its marks, color, and special traits, and he has convinced himself that not one of them has a star on its shoulder; some have one on their foreheads, others have white spots on their haunches. Is this power of memory amazing? No! Napoleon knew two hundred thousand soldiers by name, and remem- bered, when he saw any. one of them, all the facts relating to him. Therefore, if nothing impossible is required of him, the gaucho will deliver upon a designated day and spot, just such a horse as has been asked for, and with no less punctuality if  FACUNDO: OR, CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM 43 he has been paid in advance. His honor is as sensitive upon this point as that of a gambler about his debts. Sometimes he travels to the country about Cordova or Santa Fé. Then he may be seen crossing the pampa behind a small body of horses; if any one meets him, he follows his course without approaching the new-comer unless he is requested to do so. THE CANTOR (THE MINSTREL) And now we have the idealization of this life of resistance, civilization, barbarism, and danger. The gaucho Cantor corre- sponds to the singer, bard, or troubadour of the Middle Ages, and moves in the same scenes, amidst the struggles of the cities with provincial feudalism, between the life which is passing away and the new life gradually arising. The Cantor goes from one settlement to another “de tapera en galpon,” singing the deeds of the heroes of the pampa whom the law persecutes, the lament of the widow whose sons have been taken off by the Indians in a recent raid, the defeat and death of the brave Ranch, the final overthrow of Facundo Quiroga, and the fate of Santos Perez. The Cantor is performing in his simple way the same labor of recording customs, history, and biography, which was per- formed by the mediaeval bard, and his verses would hereafter be collected as documents and authorities for the future his- torian, but that there stands beside him another more cultivated form of society with a knowledge of events superior to that displayed by this less favored chronicler in his artless rhapsodies, Two distinct forms of civilization meet upon a common ground in the Argentine Republic: one, still in its infancy, which, ignorant of that so far above it, goes on repeating the crude efforts of the Middle Ages; the other, disregarding what 44 DOMINGO F. SARMIENTO lies at its feet, while it strives to realize in itself the latest results of European civilization; the nineteenth and twelfth centuries dwell together—one inside the cities, the other without them. The Cantor has no fixed abode; he lodges where night sur- prises him; his fortune consists in his verses and in his voice. Wherever the wild mazes of the cielito are threaded, wherever there is a glass of wine to drink, the Cantor has his place and his particular part in the festival. The Argentine gaucho only drinks when excited by music and verse,* and every grocery has its guitar ready for the hands of the Cantor who perceives from afar where the help of his “gay science’’ is needed, by the group of horses about the door. The Cantor intersperses his heroic songs with the tale of his own exploits. Unluckily his profession of Argentine bard does not shield him from the law. He can tell of a couple of stabs he has dealt, of one or two misfortunes (homicides!) of his, and of some horse or girl he has carried off. In 1840, a Cantor was sitting on the ground, cross-legged, on the banks of the majestic Paran4, in the midst of a group of gauchos whom he was keeping in eager suspense by the long and animated tale of his labors and adventures. He had already related the abduction of his love, with the difficulties overcome on the occasion; also his misfortune and the dispute that led to *Without wandering from our subject, we may here call to mind the note- worthy resemblance between the Argentines and the Arabs. In Algiers, Oran, Mascara, and the desert encampments, I constantly saw the Arabs collected in coffee-shops—strong drink being forbidden them,—closely crowded about the singer, or more usually two singers, who accompany themselves with guitars in a duet, and recite national songs of a mournful character like our fristes before mentioned. The Arabian bridle is of plaited leather thongs, continued into a whip-lash like ours; the bit which we use is that of the Arabs, and many of our customs show the intercourse of our ancestors with the Moors of Andalusia. I have met some Arabs whom I could have sworn I had seen in my own country.  FACUNDO: OR, CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM 45 it; and was relating his encounter with the soldiery, and the stabs with which he defended himself, when the noisy advance and the shouts of a body of troops made him aware that this time he was surrounded. The troops had, in fact, closed up in the form of a horseshoe, open towards the Parand, the steep banks of which rose twenty yards above the water. The Cantor, undismayed by the outcry, was mounted in an instant, and after casting a searching look at the ring of soldiers and their ready pieces, he wheeled his horse towards the river’s bank, covered the animal’s eyes with his poncho, and drove his spurs into him. A few moments after, the horse, freed from his bit so that he could swim more easily, emerged from the depths of the Paran4, the minstrel holding him by the tail, and looking back to the scene on shore which he had quitted, as composedly as if he had been in an eight-oared boat. Some shots fired by the troops did not hinder him from arriving safe and sound at the first island in sight. To conclude, the original poetry of the minstrel is clumsy, monotonous, and irregular, when he resigns himself to the in- spiration of the moment. It is occupied rather with narration than with the expression of feeling, and is replete with imagery relating to the open country, to the horse, and to the scenes of the wilderness, which makes it metaphorical and grandiose. When he is describing his own exploits or those of som