© 2004-2017

Biblioteca Patagónica

Historias de Avestruces — Antología
Observaciones de «Rhea pennata» en la Patagonia austral

"The captive in Patagonia: or, life among the giants, a personal narrative",
Benjamin Franklin Bourne, London 1853
Benjamin Bourne formaba parte de un grupo de norteamericanos que viajaban desde Connecticut rumbo a California, para participar en la búsqueda de oro. El primero de mayo, 1849, cuando bajaron a tierra en el Estrecho de Magallanes en busca de víveres, Bourne fue tomado preso por un grupo de nativos. Al final de tres meses, logró escapar, refugiéndose en un islote del río Santa Cruz, ocupado en aquel momento por un grupo de extranjeros que extraían guano. En su relato, describe sus experiencias como acompañante forzado del cacique Tehuelche: este extracto relata una cacería de avestruces.

[enfásis editor]

Some ostriches were soon started up. The chief drew out his bolas, put spurs to his horse, and darted away. His mantle fell from his shoulders; his long, straight black hair, so coarse that each particular hair stood independently on end, streamed in the wind ; his hideously painted face and body loomed up with grotesque stateliness, and the deadly missile whirled frantically over his head. The whizzing weapon is suddenly hurled at his victim, the chief still sitting erect in his saddle to watch its effect. His horse suddenly stops, he dismounts nimbly, seizes the entangled bird by the throat, and swings it violently around till its neck is broken. As I rode up he deposited the great bird on my horse, remounted, and rushed in pursuit of another. That was killed and also placed in my keeping, making me a kind of store-ship. Others pursue the guanaco with equal success, till they are satisfied with their booty. We ride up to a convenient thicket, a fire is lighted, a portion of the prey is cooked and eaten, the remnants of the feast and the residue of the game are duly packed up, and the whole troop is under march for the camp.

[fin de extracto]