Most modern travellers give these natives a good character; they are tolerably honest, good-natured, and treat their women well. They have no idols, but worship a good and great spirit; however, as said before, witchcraft seems to be the strongest element in their religion. One writer tells of a Patagonian setting his daughter on a horse naked and galloping after the animal lashing and shouting at it. The explanation was that the girl had a severe attack of measles, and as the devil was known greatly to dislike noise and cold, it was thought that these vigorous measures would induce him to forsake the girl's body. Within recent times they have not been ill-treated, but unfortunately, like most savages, they cannot resist the mysterious, wasting effect of civilisation. A recent traveller[135] says: "Those surviving are all civilised, and there is not the slightest danger for the traveller in associating with them. They often possess fine troops of horses; some of them also own cattle. Many speak Spanish, and once or twice a year they go down to Punta Arenas or to Gallegos to exchange their guanaco mantles and ostrich feathers for different kinds of provisions and implements. But the number of guanacos is diminishing day by day, the land is becoming absorbed, and the Indians impoverished by the white traders; they are getting mixed with the whites, and so the day cannot be far off when the last Patagonian in the old sense shall have ceased to exist." [Illustration: GUANACOS IN THE PARK OF MR. HECTOR COBO.] The most northerly part of Patagonia is the Gobernacion of Rio Negro. The only town of any importance is Patagones, which was founded by Viedema in 1780 under the name of Carmen. That part which is on the north bank of the Rio Negro is still called Carmen de Patagones, and the southern town preserves the name of Viedma. It has a good harbour, some miles from the sea, and has steamboat connection with Buenos Aires, while a coach runs to Bahia Blanca three times a week. There is a large trade in salt and also in fruit. The latter grows in abundance on the small islands of the river,[136] and the peaches and cherries are excellent, while irrigation is creating orchards on the mainland. Far inland, also on the Rio Negro, is Roca, a small military post. This Gobernacion is the most populous part of Patagonia, and when railways and irrigation are seriously applied to it, there will be no limit to its development. On the west it is bounded by the Andean territory of Nequen. [Illustration: CHUBUT VALLEY.]