Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-02-12
A VICTORY.
How a Handful of F~atagonians Conquered
Five Hundred Brazilians.

How Il Handful OF EataROnl1ns CoHQ"o1eu
Five Hundred Brazilians.
Very early in this century the Bra
zilians were convinced that in the
Argentine nation they had a determined
foe to their plundering policy, and for
many years they waged war against
Buenos Ayres, putting forth all their
feeble energies IN operations by land
and sea to crush their troublesome
neighbor, until 1928, when they finally
abandoned the contest. During this
war the Imperialists conceived the idea
of capturing the Patagonian settle
ment of Ell Carmen, which was known
to be quite unprotected. Three ships
of war;, with a large contingent OF
soldiers, were sent out to effect this in
significant conquest, and in due time
reached the Rio Negro. One of the
ships came to grief on the bar, which
is very difficult, and there it eventually
became a total wreck. The other two
succecdedin getting safely into the river.
The troops to the number of five hum
dred men were disembarked and sent
on to capture the town, which is twenty
miles distant from the sea. The ships
at the same time proceeded up the
river, though it was scarcely thought
that their cooperation would be re-
CURED to take so weak a place as the
Carmen. Happily for the colonists, the
imperial armada found the navigation
difficult, and II of the ships ran on
to a sandbank about half way to
the town; the other proceeded alone,
only to arrive when it was all "
with the land force. Tidings of the
approaching army soon reached the
Carmen, and all a%ble-bodied men within
call were quickly mustered in the fort.
They numbered only seventy, but the
Patagonians were determined to defend
themselves. Women and children
were brought into the fort; guns were
loaded and placed in position; then the
commander had a happy inspiration,
and all the strong women were made to
display themselves on the walls in male
attire. Dummy soldiers, hastily inn
provised from blocks of wood, holsters,
and other materials, were also placed
at intervals; so that when the Brazilians
arrived in sight they were surprised to
see four or five hundred men, as they
thought, on the ramparts before them.
The day had been oppressively hot,
without a cloud, and that march of
about thirty miles over the waterless
Joy and amazement of the Patagonians,
their formidable enemy left without
firing a shot.
Another happy inspiration came to
the aid OF the commander, and as soon
the Brazilians had disappeared be-
hind the rising ground, his seventy men
were hastily dispatched to collect and
bring in all the horses pasturing in the
valley. When the invaders had been
about three or four hours on their
spiritless return march, the thunder of
innumerable hoofs was heard behind
them, and looking back, they beheld a
great army, as they imagined in their
terror, charging down upon them.
These were their seventy foes spread in
an immense half-moon, in the hollow of
being driven along at frantic speed.
The Brazilians received their equine
enemy with a discharge of musketry;
but though many horses were slain or
wounded, the frantic yells of the
drivers still urged them on, and in a
few moments, blind with panic, they
were trampling down the invaders. In
the meantime the Patagonians were
firing into the confused II ass of horses
and men; and by a singular chance
a miracle it was held to be at the
time-the officer commanding the
imperial troops was shot dead by a
stray bullet; then the men threw down
their arms and surrendered at dis
cretion-five hundred disciplined SOL
diers of the empire to seventy-six poor
Patagonians, mostly farmers, trades
men and artisans. The honor of the
empire was very little to those famish-
ing wretches crying out with frothing
mouths for water instead of quarter.
Leaving their muskets scattered about
the plain, they were marched by their
captors down to the river, which was
about four miles off, and reached it at
a point just where the bank slopes
down between the Parrots Cliff on one
side and the house I resided in on the
other. Like a herd of cattle mad
dened with thirst, they rushed into the
water, trampling each other down
in their haste, so that many were
smothcred, while others, pushed too
far out by the surging mass behind,
were swept from their feet by the swift
current and drowned. When they had
drunk their fill, they were driven like
cattle to the Carmen and shut up in the
fort. In the evening the ship arrived
before the town, and, going a little too
neal the shore on tie opposite side, ran
aground. The men in her were quickly
appraised of the disaster which had
oVertaken the land force; meanwhile
the resolute Patagonians, concealed
among the trees on the shore, began to
pepper the deck with musket-balls; the
Brazilians, in terror for their lives,
leaped into the water and swan to
land; and when darkness fell, the colon
lists had crowned their brave days
work by the capture of the imperial
war vessel Itaparica. No doubt it was
soon pulled to pieces, good building
material being rather expensive on the
Rio Negro; a portion Of the wreck,
however, still lies in the river, and
often, when the tide was low and those
old brown timbers came up above the
surface, like the gaunt fossil ribs Of
som gigantic pliocene monster, l have
got out of my boat and stood upor
them e~XDeriencinp 9 faelinr nj rro,,