Some drank till they were intoxicated; others swallowed the steaming blood of the cattle slaughtered for their suppers, and then, being sick from drunkenness, they cast it up again, and were besmeared with filth and gore.
In the morning they started for the scene of the murder, with orders to follow the rastro, or track, even if it led them to Chile.

We subsequently heard that the wild Indians had escaped into the great Pampas, and from some cause the track had been missed.
One glance at the rastro tells these people a whole history.
Supposing they examine the track of a thousand horses, they will soon guess the number of mounted ones by seeing how many have cantered; by the depth of the other impressions, whether any horses were loaded with cargoes; by the irregularity of the footsteps, how far tired; by the manner in which the food has been cooked, whether the pursued travelled in haste; by the general appearance, how long it has been since they passed.

They consider a rastro of ten days or a fortnight quite recent enough to be hunted out.

We also heard that Miranda struck from the west end of the Sierra Ventana, in a direct line to the island of Cholechel, situated seventy leagues up the Rio Negro.

This is a distance of between two and three hundred miles, through a country completely unknown.