The character of these men is singular: courageous to cruelty, they care not for the life of other persons or their own. If one of their comrades die, victim of an Indian or a wild beast, they content themselves with saying he has a mala suerte (ill luck). True savages, living without any affection or faith, they are a peculiar type in humanity.
These scouts were brothers, and their names were Lopez, Pepe, Juan, and Pedrito. Their home, twice plundered by the Aucas Indians, had been utterly destroyed by fire in the last invasion. Their father and mother had succumbed under atrocious torture; two of their sisters had been outraged and killed by the chiefs, and the youngest, Mercedes, a child scarce seven years of age, was carried off into slavery, and since then they had received no news of her, and were ignorant were she dead or alive.
The four brothers from this moment became bomberos, through hatred of the Indians and desire of vengeance, and had only one head and one heart. Their prodigies of courage, intelligence, and craft during the last seven years would take us too long to record, and, moreover, we shall find specimens in the course of this narrative.
So soon as Pedrito, who was the eldest, had finished his meal, Lopez put out the fire, and Juan mounted his horse to go the rounds; then the two brothers, curious about the news Pedrito brought them, drew closer to him.
"What news, brother?" Pepe asked.
"Before anything else," the eldest asked, "what have you been doing during the last week?"
"That will not take long," Lopez answered; "nothing."
"Nonsense."
"On my word it is true. The Aucas and Pehuenches are becoming absurdly timid; if this goes on, we shall have to send them petticoats like squaws."
"Oh! Set your minds at rest," Pedrito said, "they have not come to that yet."
"What do you know?" Lopez asked.
"What next?" Pedrito asked, instead of answering.
"That is all; we have seen nothing, heard nothing suspicious."
"Are you sure?"
"Hang it! Do you take us for asses?"
"No, but you are mistaken."
"What?"
"Search your memory carefully."
"No one has passed, I tell you," Pepe remarked confidently.
"No one."
"Unless you count as somebody the old Pehuenche squaw who crossed the plain this evening on a sorry horse, and asked us the road to El Carmen."
"That old squaw," Pedrito said, with a smile, "knows the road as well as I do. Canarios, your innocence amuses me."
"Our innocence!" Lopez exclaimed with a frown; "We are asses, then."
"You look very like it to me."
"Explain yourself."
"You shall understand."
"We shall be only too glad."
"May be so. The old Pehuenche squaw who crossed the plain this evening on a sorry horse, and asked you the road to El Carmen," Pedrito said, repeating Pepe's words, maliciously, "Do you know who she was?"
"Hang it all! A frightful old witch, whose face would terrify the fiend."
"Ah, you think so. Well, you are altogether wrong."
"Speak out, and do not play with us like a congonas with a mouse."
"My boy, this Pehuenche witch was – "
"Who?"
"Nocobotha!"
Nocobotha (the Hurricane) was the principal Ulmen of the Aucas. Pedrito might have gone on talking for a long time without his brothers noticing it, so greatly had the news startled them.
"Malediction!" Pepe at length shouted.
"But how do you know it?" Lopez asked.
"Do you suppose I have been amusing myself with sleeping away the last eight days, brothers? The Indians, to whom you want to send petticoats, are preparing, with the greatest secrecy, to deal you a furious blow. We must distrust silent waters and the calm that conceals a tempest. All the nations of Upper and Lower Patagonia, and even Araucania, have leagued together to attempt an invasion – massacre the whites, and destroy El Carmen. Two men have done it all – two men with whom you and I have been long acquainted – Nocobotha, and Pincheira, the chief of the Araucanos. This evening there will be a grand meeting of the delegates of the free nations, at which the day and hour for the attack will be definitely settled, and the final measures taken to insure the success of the expedition."
"¡Caray!" Pepe exclaimed, "There is not a moment to lose. One of us must go at full gallop to El Carmen to inform the governor of the danger menacing the colony."
"No, not yet; we must not be in such a hurry, but try to discover the intentions of the chiefs. The quipu has been sent round, and the chiefs who will be present at the meeting are twenty in number. You see that I am well informed."
"Where will they meet?"
"At the tree of Gualichu."
"¡Demonio! it will not be an easy thing to surprise them at such a place."
"Hang it, it is impossible," Lopez said.
"Where force fails, try cunning. Here is Juan returned. Well, have you any news?"
"All is quiet," he said, as he dismounted.
"All the better. In that case we can act," Pedrito continued. "Listen to me, brothers. I believe that you have confidence in me – "
"Oh!" the three men exclaimed.
"In that case you will follow me?"
"Anywhere."
"Quick to horse, for I too wish to be present at this Indian gathering."
"And you are going to take us – "
"To the tree of Gualichu."
The four bold comrades mounted their horses, and started at a gallop. Pedrito possessed a superiority over his brothers, which the latter recognized; nothing he did astonished them, so accustomed were they to see him perform marvels.
"Do you intend to mingle with the chiefs also?" Pepe asked.
"Yes, Pepe; instead of twenty there will be twenty-one, that is all," Pedrito added, with a careless smile.
The bomberos spurred their horses, and disappeared in the darkness.
CHAPTER II.
EL CARMEN
In 1780, long after the discovery of the New World, the Spaniards founded in Patagonia a factory, situated on the left bank of the Rio Negro, about seven leagues from its mouth, and called Nuestra Señora del Carmen, and also Patagonia.
The Ulmen Negro, chief of the Puelches, encamped in the vicinity of the Rio Negro, favourably greeted the Spaniards, and in consideration of a distribution made to the Indians of a large quantity of clothing and other useful articles, sold them the course of that river from its mouth up to San Xavier. In addition to this, by the wish of the Ulmen, the natives aided the Spaniards in building the citadel, which was to serve them as a shelter, and thus assisted with their arms in producing their own serfdom.
At the period of the foundation of El Carmen the post merely consisted of a fort, built on the northern bank, at the summit of a scarped cliff, which commands the river, the southern plains and the surrounding country. It is of a square shape; it is built with strong walls of dressed stone, and flanked by three bastions, two on the river to the east and west, and the third on the plain. The interior contains the chapel, the priest's house, and the powder magazine; on the other side run spacious quarters for the commandant, treasurer, officers, garrison, and a small hospital. All these buildings, only one storey in height, are covered with tiles. The Government also possesses outside vast granaries, a baking house, a mill, two blacksmiths' and carpenters' shops, and two estancias, or farms, stocked with