Page 32 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

30 GENERAL GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI

enemy’s cavalry constantly at their heels. To add to their misfortune, even
the Bugre Indians, primitive populations of the forest tormented the Rio
Grande columns with an implacable guerrilla. With a scarcity of packhors-
es, it proved necessary to look for foals and break them in to be used for rid-
ing and as packhorses.
Conditions were not much better when crossing the big mountain forests
of Mato Portuguez and Castelhano to descend and to seek safety in the
remote province of Misiones west of Santa Catarina. Finally there was a stop
in San Gabriel, where a camp was set up and Garibaldi could provide some
rest for his admirable companion, who had followed him on horse with the
baby wrapped up in rugs and under very inclement weather.
At this point Garibaldi, in need of some quiet and rest after six years of
feverish bellicose activity in support of the Rio Grande cause, asked and
received permission to leave the camp and retire for a while in Montevideo.
Having received (as the only form of compensation) a small troop of cattle,
from the sale of which he could get the bare necessities to avoid starvation
during the journey. Our Hero, now transformed into a cowherd, started on
the long road arriving after many other mishaps in Montevideo capital of
Uruguay, where he finally closed this period of American events getting
some rest despite being tormented by the most squalid misery, another
example of the model disinterest that enveloped in pure light his noble fig-
ure as man and as Italian, still condemned to live in a foreign land.

SECOND PERIOD (1842-1848)

We are now in the second period of Garibaldi’s war activities in America,
spanning, as mentioned previously, from May 1842 to 15 April 1848, date
in which the Hero, strongly attracted to Italy by the long-desired news of the
outbreak of the first national war against Austria and the thrill of liberation
that fires the entire peninsula, sailed from Montevideo with his legionnaires
to offer the Country his glorious sword and his big heart, burning with faith
and indomitable energy.
In this second period of his American campaigns, when his fame, crossed
beyond the confines of the theatre of action where his exploits took place