Colonel Garcia, the officer in question, had previously seen much of the Indians on the coast of Patagonia. He was of a conciliatory disposition, and was on many other accounts eminently qualified for the task committed to him. From the diary of his expedition, which is in my possession, it appears that the caravan or convoy placed under his charge, on this occasion, consisted of 234 waggons, with 2927 bullocks, and 520 horses attached to them. His attendants, including soldiers, were 407: they had also two field-pieces with them. Nor was this considered a large party, compared with former expeditions with the same object; indeed Garcia soon found to his cost that his force was hardly sufficient to secure him common respect from some of the many Indian Caciques, who, from the time of his leaving the frontier fort of Cruz de Guerra to his arrival at the Salinas, successively besieged him with their importunities for presents, especially of tobacco and spirits, and kept him in continual alarm lest they should attempt to carry off by force what they could not obtain by other means. Each who presented himself called himself master of the lands they were passing through, and expected corresponding presents to purchase his permission to pass forward. Nor was this the worst: it appeared that something had given rise amongst the Indians to a suspicion of the ulterior objects of the Buenos Ayreans; and, under an impression that they projected a forcible settlement in their lands, the Ranqueles tribes from the plains south of San Luis and Mendoza, under their principal Cacique Carripilum (the same spoken of in the foregoing chapter), had collected their forces with the secret determination to endeavour to cut off the whole party. Fortunately the fidelity of some of the Puelches, or Eastern tribes, who hate and are continually at variance with the Ranqueles, enabled Garcia to discover and disconcert their hostile plans, and finally, though with considerable difficulty and danger, to accomplish his object, and return with his convoy of salt-carts in safety to Buenos Ayres. Amongst the results of this expedition was the determination by observation of seventeen points along the line of road from the Guardia de Luxan, in lat. 34° 39´, long. west of Buenos Ayres 1° 2´, to the Great Salt Lake in lat. 37° 13´, long. west of Buenos Ayres 4° 51´;[37] the whole distance travelled being 97 leagues, or, adding 24 for that from Luxan to the capital, 121 from Buenos Ayres. The journey out occupied 23 days, and the return 25; altogether the party was absent just two months, viz., from the 21st of October to the 21st of December.