A Visit to the Ranquel Indians

This non fiction book, written in 1870, can be considered as one of the great adventure books. It deals with Lucio Mansilla's negotiations as a representative of the Argentine Government with the Ranqueles Indians in what is today the northern half of the province of La Pampa. In that part of the country, the ranqueles were the rulers of the land, and no white settlers lived there, but just a few years later, in 1879/80, the military expedition of General Roca known locally as the "conquest of the desert" would overrun the indian's resistance, and incorporate not just the province of La Pampa but the whole Patagonia east of the Andes, adding to Argentina a third of its territory. The ranqueles still live today (Argentine late rock star Maria Epumer was a descendant of them), though they are now totally assimilated to argentine life. Mansilla was in a peaceful mission and he presents a vivid, firsthand account of their encounter (though the indians seem to be aware that time was not on their side and that they would soon be overrun by the growing immigrant population of Argentina; one thing they discuss with Mansilla is the layout of a railway line through the indian territory). The history of the indians in the Argentine pampas, one must add, is remarkably similar to the history of the indians in the Great Plains in North America: there is even an analogy in that the indian's mastery of horse riding and their use of fire weapons made it difficult for europeans to overrun them until the last half of the 19th century.