Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham, born in London, 1852, began traveling to the Americas in 1870. In Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Texas, & Mexico he ranched cattle, drove & schooled horses, hunted, grew maté tea, sold cotton, participated in a revolution, & wrote. He died in Buenos Aires in 1936.
The South American Sketches of R. B. Cunninghame-Graham edited by John Walker, University of Oklahoma Press, 1978, turns out to be a fine introduction to 19th century gauchos, indians, horses, landscape, wildlife, raids, warfare. I found the book at my public library. It's also available used at Amazon.
