We searched for ammunition at all the houses for some leagues around,
and at one house we found and purchased a quantity of exceedingly
coarse gunpowder, with grain almost the size of canary-seed. They told
us it was cannon-powder, and to make it fit for use in our fowling-
pieces we ground it fine with glass and stone bottles for rollers on a
tin plate. Shot we could not find, so had to make it for ourselves by
cutting up plates of lead into small square bits with a knife and
hammer.
Eventually the civil war, which had dragged on for a long time,
brought an unexpected danger to our house and caused us to turn our
minds to more important things than ducks. I have said that the city
was besieged by an army from the provinces, but away on the southern
frontier of the province of Buenos Ayres the besieged party, or
faction, had a powerful friend in an estanciero in those parts who was
friendly with the Indians, and who collected an army of Indians hungry
for loot, and gauchos, mostly criminals and deserters, who in those
days were accustomed to come from all parts of the country to put
themselves under the protection of this good man.
This horde of robbers and enthusiasts was now advancing upon the
capital to raise the siege, and each day brought us alarming reports--
whether true or false we could not know--of depredations they were
committing on their march.
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