Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1868-10-25
would be ridiculous and absurd to dis.

1 -
pute it.
One even more noticeable character is
tho BaqueanO, or Pathfinder. He is a
toPographer whose maps are in his head
who has surveyed the country with an
eye as unerring in its estimate of dis
tance and direction, as if it were a
human instrument He knows the
country as thoroughly as pilot knows
the harbor where he plies his vocation,
and in time of var his wonderful accurate
knowledge makes him indispensable to
the general, who with his aid may dis
pense with maps.
A Baqueano finds little path cross
ing the road which he is following; he
knows to what distant watering place it
leads. If he finds thousand such
paths, some of them even a 100 leagues
apart, he is acquainted with each, and
knows whence it comes and whittier it
goes. he knows the hidden fords of a
hundred rivers and streams, above or
below the ordinary place of crossing.
BE can point out a convenient path
through hundred distinct and exten-
sive swamps.
In the deepest darkness of the night,
surrounded by boundless plains or by
forest while his companions are astray
and at loss, he rides around them in
specting the trees if there are none, he
dismounts and stoops to examine the
shrubs, and satisfies himself of his
points of compass. He then mounts
and treasures his party by saying; "We
are in straight line from such place,
so many leagues from the houses we
must travel southwark" And he sets
out in the direction he has indicated,
without uneasiness, without hurrying to
confirm his judgement by arriving at the
town, and without answering the objec-
tons suggested to the others by fear or
beWilderment
If he finds himself upon pampa in |
impenetrable darkness, he pulls up herbs
from different places, smell their roots
and the earth about them, chews their
foliage, and by often repeating this
proceeding, assures himself of the neigh
borhood of some lake or stream, either
of salt or of fresh water, of which he
avails himself upon finding it to set him.
self exactly right. 1t is said that Gen.
Rosas knows the pasturage of every
estate in the south of BuenOs Ayres by
It's taste.
If the Baqueano belongs to the PAM
pa, where no road exists, and traveller
asks him to show the way straight to a
place Fifty leagues of, 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.
Another type of character, rather oc-
casional than professional, is the
Gaucho OUTLAW, who yet appears so
frequently, that he may be said to be-
long to class. He is one who has
passed out ofeven the small power of law
which has hold upon other gauchos with
his hand against every man, especially
against the white man. The lawful
gauchos regarding him rather with dread
and fear than hatred, and sharing in his
hostility to the whites, harbor him
when he comes amongst them. IF he
happens to fall in with soldiers, he ex-
hibits no fears, but sets upon them,
slashes right and left, and living stretch
ed on his horses back to avoid the bull
lets sent after him, rides off into the
wilderness.
This white-skinned savage at war
with society and prescribed by the laws,
is no moro deprived at heat than the inhab-
itants of the settlements. The reckless
OUTLAW who attacks the whole troop,
does no harm to the traveller. The
gaucho outlaw is 40 bandit, or high
waymen; murderous assaults do not suit
his temper, as robbery would not suit
the character of the churriador (sheep-
stealer) To be sure, he steals; but
this is his profession, his trade, his
science. He steals horses.
Something has been hinted in these
descriptions of the strong poetic side of
Argentine character. The Indian of
romance almost seems to appear actually
on the seene when we look at the
gaucho. The story teller and the min
streis are there, recognized as distinct
members of this drifting society, and /
the improvisatiens of the minstrel are [
drawn not onl ly from the wild, perilous /
Ieats Of the mounted herdsman and
gaucho outlaw, but the terrible reyeia. {
tons of nature.
The nature of the Argentine people
is poetic. The grandeur of the natural /
phenomena of the country tend to foster
a pOetical Imagination.
The capital city of Cordova is a cloist-
o. surrounded by ravines; the promenade 6
IS cloister with iron CRATES; every |.
square of houses has a cloister of nuns
or friars; the colleges are cloister the
Jurisprudence taught there, the theology,
all the medieval scholastic learning of
the place, is a mental cloister within
which the intellect is walled up and
fortified against every departure from
text and commentary. Cordova knows
not that aught besides Cordova exists on
sarth; it has, indeed, heard that there
is such place as Buenos Ayres.
The other cities, capitals of provinces,
are islands in the great waste of the
plains. Grass grows up to the very \
streets of the town. They do not :
We speak now of the earlier days more
han of the present-send forth human
King influences to the plains, but the ,
yaucho life hens them in on every side, =
md the security possessed by them is
Tue quite as much to the gaucho's 7
cornful tolerance, as to their own CO.
lesive power. These cities are the re- +
'resentatives of that civilization which !
anne over with Spanish coIonists, and 8
vas supported by Spanish soldiers and
he Spanish name.-Netc Highlander y
Nor LONG SINCE, at public dinner in r.
large midland town of England, Ro- Il
nan Catholic priest, who was sitting not a