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GLYPTODON.

BUENOS AYRES,
AND
THE PROVINCES OF THE
RIO DE LA PLATA:
THEIR PRESENT STATE, TRADE, AND DEBT;
WITH SOME ACCOUNT FROM ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS OF THE PROGRESS OF GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY IN THOSE PARTS OF SOUTH AMERICA DURING THE LAST SIXTY YEARS.

BY
SIR WOODBINE PARISH, K.C.H.,
F.R.S., G.S., VICE PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON,
MANY YEARS HIS MAJESTY'S CHARGE D'AFFAIRS AT BUENOS AYRES.

LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.

1839.

LONDON:
Printed by William Clowes and Sons,
Stamford Street.

INTRODUCTION.

The greater part of the materials for this volume were collected during a long official residence in the country to which they relate: containing, as I believe they do, some information which may be interesting, if not useful, I feel that I ought not to withhold them from the public, in whose service they were obtained.

The chapters which give an account of the settlements made by the old Spaniards on the coast of Patagonia, and of the explorations of the Pampas south of Buenos Ayres, both by them and their successors in the present century, will be found to throw some new light on the progress of geographical discovery in that part of the world. Our occupation of the Falkland Islands, in the first instance, and the work shortly afterwards published by Falkner in this country, pointing out the defenceless state of Patagonia, joined to the enterprising character of the British voyages of discovery about the same period, appears to have stimulated the Spaniards, in alarm lest we should forestall them, to examine their coasts, to explore their rivers, and to found settlements, of which every record was concealed from public view, lest the world at large should become better acquainted with possessions, all knowledge of which it was their particular care and policy to endeavour to keep to themselves.

Thus, though Spain, at an enormous cost, acquired some better information relative to countries over which she claimed a nominal sovereignty, the results were not suffered to transpire, but remained locked up in the secret archives of the viceroys and of the council of the Indies; where probably they would have been hidden to this day had not the South Americans assumed the management of their own affairs.

In the confusion which followed the deposition of the Spanish authorities, the public archives appear to have been ransacked with little ceremony, and many documents of great interest were lost, or fell into the hands of individuals who, like collectors of rarities in other parts of the world, showed anything but a disposition to share them with the public at large. I will not say that this was always the case, but the feeling prevailed to a sufficient extent to enhance materially the value of those which were either offered for sale or obtainable by other means.

Some few individuals were actuated by a different spirit, amongst whom I ought especially to name Dr. Segurola, the fellow-labourer with Dean Funes in his historical essay upon the provinces of La Plata, whose valuable collection of MSS. (from which that work was principally compiled) was always accessible to his friends, and to whom I have to acknowledge my own obligations for leave to take copies of many an interesting paper. Others, also, whom I do not name, will I trust not the less accept my thanks for the facilities they afforded me for obtaining such information as I required. The government, I must say, was always liberal, in giving me access to the old archives, and in permitting me to transcribe documents[1] which I could not have obtained from other quarters.

With these facilities, and by purchase, I found myself, by the time I quitted South America, in possession of a considerable collection of MS. maps and of unedited papers respecting countries of which the greater part of the world is, I believe, in almost absolute ignorance.

Amongst the most interesting perhaps of these I may mention—

The original Diaries of Don Juan de la Piedra, sent out from Spain, in 1778, to explore the coasts of Patagonia.

A series of papers drawn up by his successors the Viedmas, the founders of the settlements at San Julian and on the Rio Negro.

The original Journal of Don Basilio Villariño, who, in 1782, explored the great river Negro, from its mouth in lat. 41° to the foot of the Andes, within three days' journey of Valdivia, on the shores of the Pacific.

The Narrative, by Don Luis de la Cruz, of his Journey through the territory of the Indians and the unexplored parts of the Pampas, from Antuco, in the south of Chili, to Buenos Ayres, in 1806.

The Diary of Don Pedro Garcia's Expedition to the Salinas, in 1810, given me by my most estimable friend, his son, Don Manuel.

Together with a variety of other unpublished accounts of the Indian territories south of Buenos Ayres, principally collected by order of that government, with a view to the extension of their frontiers.

The substance of these papers, all which relate to the southern and least known parts of the New Continent, will be found in Chapters VII., VIII., and IX.

Respecting the eastern or Littorine provinces of the Republic, as I have ventured to call them, the most valuable data existing are, first, those collected by the Jesuits, and next, the various reports and memoirs drawn up by the officers employed to fix the boundaries under the treaties between Spain and Portugal of 1750 and 1777. The especial qualifications of the individuals, particularly of those employed in the last case, the length of time spent upon the service (more than twenty years), and the enormous expenses incurred by Spain in the endeavour to complete that survey, led to a large accumulation of invaluable geographical data respecting extensive ranges of country never before properly examined, much less described.

Nor were the labours of the officers in question confined to the frontiers. They fixed, as I have stated in Chapter VIII., all the principal points in the province of Buenos Ayres, made surveys of the great rivers Paranã and Uruguay, and of their most important tributaries; and drew up many notices of great interest respecting the countries bordering upon the higher parts of the Paraguay, which the pretensions of the Portuguese in that direction rendered it requisite for them to explore with more than ordinary care and attention[2].

M. Walckenaer's publication at Paris, in 1809, of the Travels of Don Felix Azara, one of the King of Spain's commissioners on that service, contains a general review of the labours of those officers, and is perhaps the best work in print upon the countries which it describes; still it can only be regarded as a very imperfect sketch of the information collected by one of many able men employed upon that particular service.

Another of the commissioners, Don Diego Alvear, drew up an historical and geographical work upon the provinces of Paraguay and the Missions, quite equal in interest, if not more so, than that by Azara, for a MS. copy of which I have to thank his son, the present General Alvear.

Colonel Cabrer, the only surviving officer of all those employed on this important survey, was living during the time I was at Buenos Ayres, and for many years had, to my knowledge, been engaged in drawing up an elaborate account of the whole progress of the survey from first to last; in his possession I saw a complete set of all the beautiful maps executed by the Spanish officers, the originals of which are deposited at Madrid. He is lately dead, and I understand that the authorities of Buenos Ayres have been in treaty for the purchase of his papers, which will be of the greatest importance, not only to them, but to the governments of the Banda Oriental, of Paraguay, and of Bolivia, whenever the time comes, as it must ere long, for definitively fixing their respective boundaries with Brazil. I considered myself fortunate in obtaining copies of several detached portions of these surveys, and particularly of an original map, drawn from them by Colonel Cabrer himself for General Alvear, when commanding-in-chief in the Banda Oriental in 1827.

There is no doubt that, so far as the Spanish frontiers extended, these maps are the best existing data respecting the countries which they delineate: on the other hand, we must look to the Portuguese authorities for materials for the adjoining provinces of Brazil. The most perfect map of that part of the continent perhaps ever made was drawn at Rio de Janeiro in 1827, for the use of the Marquis of Barbacena, when appointed to command the Emperor's army in the war with Buenos Ayres, and was taken with his baggage at the battle of Ituzaingo, and afterwards given to me. It comprises, on a large scale, all the country lying east of the Uruguay, from the Island of St. Catharine's to the River Plate. On my return to England I placed it in the hands of Mr. John Arrowsmith, with the rest of my geographical materials.

As regards the greater part of the interior provinces west of the Paraguay, the information obtainable is very imperfect; indeed of some vast portions of those regions, it may be said that nothing but the general courses of the principal rivers is as yet known. The immense tract called the Gran-Chaco is still in possession of aboriginal tribes, and other extensive districts are inhabited by people who, though of a different race, seem little beyond them in civilization.

It was not the policy of Spain to take the trouble of accurately examining her colonial possessions, except when obliged to do so in furtherance of measures of self-defence, or in the expectation of some profitable return in the precious metals, the primary objects of her solicitude: and, but that the high road from Potosi to Buenos Ayres ran through them, I believe in Europe we should hardly have known, till recently, even the names of the capital towns of the intermediate provinces: it is only since their independence that they have brought themselves into notice, and that any information has been acquired of the nature and importance of their native products.

When I arrived at Buenos Ayres in 1824, in hopes of obtaining the best existing accounts of their statistics, I addressed myself to the governors themselves; and I have every reason to believe, under the circumstances, that they were desirous to meet my wishes. I received from them all the most civil assurances to that effect; but, excepting from the Entre Rios, Cordova, La Rioja, and Salta, I found the authorities themselves utterly unable to communicate anything of a definite or satisfactory nature; and, although they promised to set to work to collect what I asked for, I soon found they had most of them other matters on hand which had more urgent calls on their attention.

Of the information which I did so obtain, the most complete by far was from General Arenales, the Governor of Salta, who not only forwarded to me an interesting report upon the extent and various productions of that province, but, what I less expected, a very fair map of it, drawn by his own son Colonel Arenales; an individual who has since distinguished himself amongst his countrymen by the publication of a work[3] wherein he has with great pains collected all the information he could obtain to elucidate the geography and capabilities of a province which nature seems to have destined to be one of the most important of the Argentine Republic. Were his good example followed by equally intelligent individuals in other parts of the interior, the natives, as well as foreigners, would be greatly assisted in learning not only what are the productions of their own country, but in what manner they might be rendered available in furtherance of its prosperity.

He has done his duty, and rendered a service to his country, by pointing out the great importance of the possibility, now proved beyond a doubt, of navigating the river Vermejo throughout its whole course, from Oran in the heart of the continent to its junction with the Paranã, and thence to the ocean.

Mr. Arrowsmith has adopted his delineation of the course of that river, as laid down from the diary of Cornejo, who descended it in 1790. Soria, who came down it in 1826, was deprived of all his papers in Paraguay; and although, on reaching Buenos Ayres, five years afterwards, he not only published a short account of his voyage, but a map also to illustrate it, being entirely from memory, it is little to be depended upon; neither is it reconcilable with the distance from Oran to the Paraguay, as estimated either by himself or Cornejo.

Of Soria's voyage, besides his own account, I had a much more full and curious narrative from an Englishman of the name of Luke Cresser, who was one of the party, and whose personal adventures would form an entertaining episode in any history of that enterprise. He was a Yorkshireman by birth, and originally a watchmaker, in which trade, after making a little money at Buenos Ayres, he had found his way into the upper provinces, and had finally become a grower of tobacco in the province of Oran. Having a large stock on hand about the time Soria was about to descend the Vermejo, he was induced to ship it, and to embark with him for Buenos Ayres. He was of the greatest service to the party on the voyage, and was severely wounded, in the skirmish they had with the Indians, by an arrow, which pierced his arm, and occasioned him much and long suffering afterwards. On reaching the Paraguay, had Soria listened to his urgent advice and entreaties, he never would have placed himself in Dr. Francia's power; for which, indeed, there does not appear to have been the slightest necessity. When the vessel was detained by that despot's orders, Cresser, like the rest, was stripped of all he possessed; and, after much suffering, was sent to Villa Real,—a wretched establishment on the Paraguay, about 150 miles above Assumption.

There, whilst his companions were bewailing their fate, the more enterprising Englishman obtained leave to proceed into the interior to the forests, where the yerba or tea is gathered, to work for his livelihood; and with such success, that, from beginning without a dollar of his own, by the time he was allowed to leave Paraguay, five years afterwards, he found himself in comparative affluence; and, though only permitted by the dictator to carry out of the country a portion of the yerba he had by his industry collected, he had still enough left when he sailed for Buenos Ayres to compensate him for the loss of all the tobacco with which he had originally sailed from Oran. The narrative of this person contains such curious details, not only respecting his residence in Paraguay, but also regarding the country about Oran, where he had passed some years previously to his voyage with Soria down the Vermejo, that I have thought it worth communicating to the Geographical Society for insertion, if they please, at length, in one of their periodical journals.

If it was difficult to collect the most ordinary statistical data relative to the interior, it may easily be supposed how much more so it was to obtain information of any interest in a scientific point of view; nevertheless, in this respect, I was not altogether without resources; and the accidental residence of two or three observing and intelligent individuals of our own countrymen in the remotest parts of these widely-spread regions laid open to me sources of information even upon such matters as I little expected. The results of that portion of my correspondence will be found in various parts of this Volume, where I have had the satisfaction of acknowledging my obligations to the individuals from whom they were derived.

From the materials to which I have above alluded, and other papers in my possession, my original intention was to have attempted a work of a more extensive nature; but any necessity for this has been since superseded by the publication, which has been commenced by M. de Angelis, at Buenos Ayres, under the auspices of the Government, of an extensive collection of unedited historical documents relative to the provinces of La Plata.

In the course of the last three years five folio volumes, and portions of two more, have already appeared, in which not only many of the most interesting of the papers in my own collection are given, but a variety of others throwing great light upon the history and geography of the countries to which they relate[4].

I cannot hesitate to say that it is infinitely the most important and interesting publication which has as yet appeared in any of the new states of Spanish America, to the great credit of the enlightened editor, who has illustrated it with his own learned notes and observations, the fruits of a long study of the history of his adopted country.

Upon the appearance of the first volumes I gave up my own design, as a work of supererogation where one so much more valuable was attainable.

It became however manifest, as M. de Angelis' work proceeded, that its extent would rather render it available as a book of reference and authority than for general purposes; and, as it was in the Spanish language, particularly so for the general purposes of English readers. I was again, therefore, induced to resume my task, though with the essential change in its character from my original plan, to the brief and general sketch of the Republic, and of the progress of geography in that part of the world during the last 60 years, which now appears; referring those who desire more detailed information to the invaluable collection of original memoirs now in course of publication by Don Pedro de Angelis: it has been of great use to me in enabling me to complete my own chain of information, as indeed it must be to any one who pretends to give any account of the part of the world of which the documents it contains may be said now to constitute the original and authenticated historical records.

To M. de Angelis I am also indebted for the copy of a MS. map, by Don Alvarez de Condarco, in which are laid down not only a recent journey of his own in 1837, to examine the mines in the Indian territory south of the Diamante, but the several marches of the troops, detached from Mendoza, in 1833, to co-operate with the forces from Buenos Ayres under General Rosas, in the general attack made upon the native tribes. I had already received, as I have mentioned in Chapter IX., through my friend Don Manuel Garcia, a map drawn by General Pacheco, showing the march of the principal division of that army, along the banks of the River Negro, from the Islands of Choleechel to the junction of the Neuquen.

The routes in question have been very material to the laying down of the true courses of some of the many rivers which constitute the most important, though hitherto undescribed, features of that part of the continent:—and it is satisfactory to find that they are strikingly corroborative of the accounts, as far as they go, which I had already cited as given both by Villariño, by Don Luis de la Cruz, and our own countryman, Dr. Gillies.

Thus far I have spoken of my geographical materials:—they will be found embodied in the accompanying map of the Republic by Mr. John Arrowsmith, who has spared no time or labour in its construction. In this he has also availed himself of the invaluable recent survey of Captain FitzRoy, to give the whole of the line of coast upon the very best authority. In the interior the various routes, which appear now for the first time collected together, have been all re-protracted from the original sources of information, whilst a careful re-examination of the labours of the Boundary Commissioners and of other authenticated authorities has enabled him to correct many errors of position which had crept, I hardly know how, into the latest maps, not excepting those compiled in the topographical department of Buenos Ayres.

Upon the whole, although we have yet a vast deal to learn before any perfect map can be drawn of this extensive portion of the new continent, I trust that the present attempt will be regarded as no slight improvement upon our old geography of that part of the world[5].

I regret that I lost, during my residence at Buenos Ayres, the opportunity of making what too late I learnt would have been very acceptable additions to our zoological collections; but I never imagined that our public museums were so entirely destitute, as I found them upon my return, of specimens of the commonest objects of natural history, from a country with which we had been so many years in, I may say, almost daily intercourse. Mr. Darwin, and the officers of His Majesty's ship Beagle, have since done much to supply these deficiencies; but we still want, I believe, specimens of by far the greater part of the birds and beasts of which Azara gave us the description nearly forty years ago. The collections of some of the museums on the Continent are, I believe, much more complete; especially those of Paris, to judge from the accounts of the acquisitions made by M. Alcide d'Orbigny, the fruits of many years spent in those countries, to which he was sent in 1826, expressly, I believe, to collect information and specimens for the Museum of Natural History.

Instigated first by Dr. Buckland, I made those inquiries for fossil remains, the results of which I flatter myself have been of no common interest both to the geologist and comparative anatomist. The examination of the monstrous bones which I sent to this country, by the learned individuals who have taken the pains to describe them, assists us to unravel the fabulous traditions handed down by the aborigines respecting a race of Titans, whilst it proves indisputably that the vast alluvial plains in that part of the world, at some former period, the further history of which has not been revealed to us, were inhabited by herbivorous animals of most extraordinary dimensions, and of forms greatly differing from those of the genera now in existence.

To the account of the Megatherium, and other extinct animals, I am now enabled, by a delay which has unavoidably occurred in the publication of this volume, to insert the representation of another extinct monster, the Glyptodon, which has been very recently discovered at no great distance from the city of Buenos Ayres, apparently in a very perfect state, and which I trust ere long will be in England. Mr. Owen, of the College of Surgeons, has been good enough to draw up for me the description of it, which I have added in a note at the end of the tenth chapter.

It is, perhaps, not unworthy of a passing observation here, that, amongst all the remains of extinct animals which we have now obtained from the Pampas, most of which too seem to have been singularly provided with a structure for self-defence, no instance, I believe, has as yet been satisfactorily proved of the occurrence of any portion of a carnivorous animal.

It only remains for me to allude to the third and last part of my book, upon the trade and public debt of the provinces of La Plata; and of which I can only say that I have spared no inquiry to render it as correct as is compatible with so brief and general a notice. The accounts officially published by the Government of Buenos Ayres, and the papers laid before Parliament, have enabled me to complete the Returns of Trade to the close of 1837. They show that the River Plate to the British manufacturer has been the most important of all the markets opened to him by the emancipation of the Spanish Americans; and that the value of the British trade there alone exceeds the aggregate of all other foreign countries put together. Spain herself has not taken for many years past so large a quantity of British manufactured goods as, it appears, have been sent to the River Plate.

The particulars of the debt have only been brought down to the commencement of 1837; for, although the accounts have since been published for another year, I confess I do not sufficiently understand them at this distance to attempt to explain them, further than to say that they show increased difficulties, from the lamentable and unexpected circumstances which have again disturbed the peace of the Republic.

On the party questions which have hitherto agitated the people of these countries, I have purposely said as little as possible; much less have I thought of writing the history of a country which has not been a quarter of a century in existence; the institutions of which are quite in their infancy, and must necessarily require a long period ere they can assume a more definite character.

The generality of my readers, I take it for granted, are acquainted with the nature of the old colonial government of Spain, with the events which led to the emancipation of the South Americans, and with the fact of their having declared for a democratic form of government in all the new states.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Amongst other documents which I obtained through the kindness of the government were some large topographical maps of the province of Buenos Ayres, drawn expressly for me by desire of General Rosas, the present governor, comprising all the data respecting that province, collected by the topographical department up to the year 1834.

[2] A re-calculation by M. Oltmanns, of some of the observations of the Boundary Commissioners, has slightly altered a few of their positions: his corrections will be found in the volume for 1830, of the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences of Berlin.

[3] Noticias Historicas y Descriptivas sobre el gran pais del Chaco y Rio Vermejo, por José Arenales.—Buenos Aires, 1833, 8vo.

[4] Collección de Obras y Documentos relativos à la Historia antigua y moderna de las Provincias del Rio de la Plata, ilustrados con Notas y Disertaciones, por Pedro de Angelis.—Buenos Aires, 1836, folio. The completion of this work has been suspended for want of paper to go on with, owing to the French blockade of Buenos Ayres, since March, 1838.

[5] For the convenience of those who may desire to have it separately, the map may be had from Mr. Arrowsmith without the book.

CONTENTS.

LIST OF MAPS AND PLATES.

BUENOS AYRES
AND THE
PROVINCES OF LA PLATA.

CHAPTER I.
DIVISIONS AND PRESENT STATE OF THE REPUBLIC.

Extent, Divisions, and General Government of the Provinces of La Plata. Jurisdiction of the old Viceroyalties:—Necessity of dividing and subdividing such vast Governments:—Embarrassments arising out of this necessity. The backwardness in the Political organization of these Provinces, common to all the new Republics of South America; and attributable to the same cause; the Colonial system of the Mother Country. Mistake in comparing the condition of the Creoles with that of the British Colonists of North America. Natural ascendency of Military Power in the new States. Their progress in the last twenty-five years compared with their previous condition.

The United Provinces of La Plata, or, as they are sometimes called, the Argentine Republic, comprise, (with the exception of Paraguay and the Banda Oriental, which have become separate and independent states) the whole of that vast space lying between Brazil and the Cordillera of Chile and Peru, and extending from the 22nd to the 41st degree of south latitude.

The most southern settlement of the Buenos Ayreans as yet is the little town of Del Carmen, upon the river Negro.

The native Indians are in undisturbed possession of all beyond, as far as Cape Horn.

Generally speaking, the Republic may be said to be bounded on the north by Bolivia; on the west by Chile; on the east by Paraguay, the Banda Oriental, and the Atlantic Ocean; and on the south by the Indians of Patagonia. Altogether, it contains about 726,000 square miles English, with a population of from 600,000 to 700,000 inhabitants.

This vast territory is now subdivided into thirteen Provinces, assuming to govern themselves, to a certain degree, independently of each other; though, for all general and national purposes, confederated by conventional agreements.

For want of a more defined National Executive, the Provincial Government of Buenos Ayres is temporarily charged with carrying on the business of the Union with foreign Powers, and with the management of all matters appertaining to the Republic in common. The Executive Power of that Government, as constituted in 1821, is vested in the Governor, or Captain General[6], as he is styled, aided by a Council of ministers appointed by himself—responsible to the junta or legislative Assembly of the Province by whom he is elected. The junta itself consists of forty-four deputies, one-half of whom are annually renewed by popular election.

Geographically, these Provinces may be divided into three principal sections:—1st, the Littorine, or eastern; 2nd, the Central, or northern; 3rd, those to the west of Buenos Ayres, commonly called the provinces of Cuyo.

The Littorine Provinces are, Buenos Ayres, and Santa Fé, to the west, and Entre Rios and Corrientes to the east of the River Paranã. Those in the Central section, on the high road to Peru, are Cordova, Santiago del Estero, Tucuman, and Salta; to which may be added, Catamarca, and La Rioja. Those lying west of Buenos Ayres, and which formerly constituted the Intendency of Cuyo, are San Luis, Mendoza, and San Juan.

All these together now form the confederation of the United Provinces of La Plata.

Under the Spanish rule, the Viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres comprehended further, the provinces of Upper Peru, now called Bolivia; as well as Paraguay, and the Banda Oriental: and immense as this jurisdiction appears for one government, it was but a portion separated from that of the old viceroys of Peru, whose nominal authority at one time extended from Guayaquil to Cape Horn, over 55 degrees of latitude, comprising almost every habitable climate under the sun; innumerable nations, speaking various languages, and every production which can minister to the wants of man.

To Spain, it was a convenience and saving of expense to divide her American possessions into as few governments as possible; and under her colonial system, without a hope of improving their social condition, their native industry discouraged, and the very fruits of the soil forbidden them, in order to ensure a sale for those of the mother country, it was of little consequence to the generality of the people by what viceroy they were ruled, or at what distance from them he resided.

It became, however, a very different matter when that colonial system was overthrown, and succeeded by native governments of their own election. Then, all the many and various distinctions of climate, of language, of habits, and productions, burst into notice; and as they separately put forward their claims to consideration, the difficulty, if not impossibility, became manifest, of adequately providing for them by the newly-constituted authorities, which, although succeeding to all the jurisdiction of the viceroys, repudiated in limine the principles of the system under which such discordant interests had hitherto been controlled and held together.

The consequence has been, that most of the new states in their very infancy have been subjected to the embarrassing necessity of re-casting their governments, and dividing and subdividing their extensive territories, as the varying and distinct interests of their several component parts have shown to be requisite for their due protection and development. Nothing has tended more to retard the organization and improvement of their political institutions than this necessity; and nowhere has it been more strikingly exemplified than in the widely-spread provinces of La Plata. In the first years of the struggle with the mother country, one common object, paramount to all other considerations, the complete establishment of their political independence, bound them together—perhaps I should more correctly say, prevented their separation;—but the very circumstances of that struggle, and the vicissitudes of the war, which often for long periods together cut off their communications with the capital, and with each other; obliging them to provide separately for their own temporary government and security, gave rise in many of them, especially those at a distance, to habits of more or less independence, which, as they imperceptibly acquired strength, produced in some, as in Paraguay and Upper Peru, an entire separation from Buenos Ayres; and in others such an assumption of the management of their own provincial affairs, as ere long reduced the metropolitan government to a nullity.

It is true that, up to 1820, the semblance of a Central Government was maintained at Buenos Ayres, but in that year the unpopularity of the measures of the Directory and of the National Congress led to its final dissolution, under circumstances which precluded all hope of its re-establishment, and terminated in the system of federalism, which has ever since de facto subsisted.

Experience has taught Buenos Ayres the inefficacy of forcible measures to bring back the provinces under her more immediate control; and though congresses have been more than once convoked for the purpose of establishing something more definite as to the form, at least, of their national government, whether central or federal, individual and local interests have always prevailed in thwarting such an arrangement; and the probability now is, that for a long time to come the national organization of this State will be limited to the slender bonds of voluntary confederation, which at present constitute the soi-disant union of the provinces, not only with each other, but with their old metropolis, Buenos Ayres.

It is not my purpose here to enter into the history of the domestic troubles and civil dissensions which brought about this state of things in the new republic: it is an unsatisfactory, and to most of my readers would be a very unintelligible, narrative. Suffice it to say, that whilst the political importance of Buenos Ayres has been apparently not a little diminished; on the other hand, it may be questioned if the provinces have reaped any substantial advantage by shaking off their immediate dependence upon the metropolis. Most of them have suffered all the calamitous consequences of party struggles for power, and have fallen under the arbitrary rule of the military chiefs, who, in turn, have either by fair means or foul obtained the ascendency; and if in some of them the semblance of a representative junta has been set up in imitation of that of Buenos Ayres, it will be found, I believe, that such assemblies have, in most instances, proved little more than an occasional convocation of the partisans of the governor for the time being, much more likely to confirm than to control his despotic sway.

The present political state of the provinces of La Plata is certainly very different from what was expected by the generality of those who originally took an interest in the fate of these new countries. It is, however, a state of things not confined to this republic; we shall find, more or less, the same scenes; the same violent party struggles, the same continual changes of government; the same apparent incapacity for arriving at anything like a settled political organization in almost every one of the several independent states into which the old possessions of Spain on the New Continent have resolved themselves; and this under circumstances, to all appearance, the most dissimilar with regard to the locality, climate, soil, language, wants, and physical condition of the inhabitants; with no one common element, in fact, in their composition, save their having all been brought up in, and habituated to, the same colonial system of the mother country. What, then, is the conclusion we must draw from this fact? Is it not evident that it was that colonial system which, wherever applied, unfitted the people for a state of independence, and left them worse than helpless when thrown upon their own resources?

Well might Spain urge upon other nations, as an argument against the recognition of those countries, that the South Americans were unfit for a state of independence. She knew the full extent of moral degradation to which her own policy had reduced them; but it was futile to allege it, when it had become manifest to all the world that her own power to reduce them again to subjection was gone for ever, and that the people of South America had not only achieved their complete independence, but were resolved and fully able to maintain it. The notoriety of those facts left no alternative to foreign governments whose subjects had any real interest in the question, whatever might be the speculative opinions of some parties as to the eventual prospects of the New States.

In this country our ignorance of the real condition of the people of South America naturally led us to look back to what had taken place in our own North American colonies, and with but little discrimination perhaps, to anticipate the same results, whereas nothing in reality could be more dissimilar than the circumstances of the colonial subjects of Great Britain and Spain when their political emancipation took place.

In the British colonies all the foundations of good government were already laid: the principles of civil administration were perfectly understood, and the transition was almost imperceptible.

On the other hand, in the Spanish colonies the whole policy, as well as the power of the mother country, seems to have been based on perpetuating the servile state and ignorance of the natives: branded as an inferior race, they were systematically excluded from all share in the government, from commerce, and every other pursuit which might tend to the development of native talent or industry. The very history of their own unfortunate country was forbidden them, no doubt lest it should open their eyes to the reality of their own debased condition.

When the struggle came, the question of their independence was soon settled irrevocably; but as to the elements for the construction at once of anything like a good government of their own, they certainly did not exist.

Under these circumstances, what was perfectly natural took place. In the absence of any other real power, that of military command, which had grown out of the war, obtained an ascendency, the influence of which in all the New States became soon apparent. They fell, in fact, all of them more or less under military despotism. The people dazzled with the victories and martial achievements of their leaders, imperceptibly passed from one yoke to another.

It is true that national Congresses and legislative Assemblies were everywhere convoked; but, generally aiming at more than was practicable or compatible with their circumstances, they in most instances failed, and by their failure rather confirmed the absolute power of the military chiefs. They, however, abolished the slave-trade, put an end to the forced service of the mita, so grievous to the Indians, and nominally sanctioned more or less the liberty of the press,—measures which gained them popularity and support amongst men of liberal principles in Europe, who fancied they saw in them expressions of public opinion, and evidences of a fitness amongst the people at large for free institutions; but this was an error.

The people of South America, with the Laws of the Indies still hanging about their necks, shouted indeed with their leaders, "Independence and Liberty," and gallantly fought for and established the first; but as to liberty, in our sense of the word at least, they knew very little about it:—how could they?

They have yet practically to learn that true liberty in a civilized state of society can only really exist where the powers of the ruling authorities are duly defined and balanced; and where the laws—not the colonial laws of Old Spain—are so administered as to ensure to every citizen a prompt redress for wrongs, entire personal security, and the right of freely expressing his political opinions. The working of such laws makes men habitually free and fit for the enjoyment of free institutions. But such a state of things is not brought about in a day or in a generation, nor can it be produced by any parchment constitution, however perfect in theory. The experiment has been tried of late years in some of the oldest states of Europe, and has invariably failed. Is it then reasonable that we should expect it to be more successful in such infant states as these new republics? Time—and we, of all people in the world, ought best to know how long a time—is requisite to bring such good fruit to maturity.

Education, the press, a daily intercourse with the rest of the world, and experience not the less valuable because dearly bought, are all tending gradually to enlighten the inhabitants of these new countries, and to prepare them for their future destinies. And, although from a variety of causes, their advancement may appear slow, and their present state fall far short of what has been expected of them, the truth is, they have made immense progress, compared with their old condition under the colonial yoke of Spain;—and especially, I will say so, of Buenos Ayres.

FOOTNOTES:

[6] Upon the election in 1835 of the present Governor Don Juan Manuel Rosas, he refused, under the particular state of things at the time, to undertake the office, unless invested with extraordinary powers, which were in consequence granted by the Junta without limitation for such time as circumstances might render necessary:—he was elected for five years.

CHAPTER II.
RIVER PLATE.

The River Plate—why so called. Its immensity. Arrival off Buenos Ayres. Passengers carted on shore. Want of a better landing-place, for goods especially. Navigation of the River not so perilous as was supposed in former times.

The river Plate, or La Plata, was originally named after De Solis, who first entered it in 1515. Some years afterwards, Sebastian Cabot, ascending it above its junction with the Paranã, found silver ornaments amongst the natives; and thence believing, or desiring to induce others to believe, that that precious metal abounded on its shores, he gave it the false appellation by which it has ever since been known.

It is a singular coincidence, that thus the two mightiest rivers of the South American continent, indeed two of the most remarkable rivers of the world, the Plata, and the Amazons, should derive their names from fictions, rather than from those brave adventurers who first made them known, and to whom the honour was the more justly due; as both of them, Orellana, as well as De Solis, lost their lives in the prosecution of those particular discoveries.

But one feeling takes possession of the stranger on his arrival off this wonderful river—that of amazement at the immensity of its extent; a hundred miles before he enters it, he may have seen its turbid current, and had to struggle with its influence in the ocean itself[7]. At its mouth, from Cape St. Mary's to Cape St. Antonio, its width is 170 miles. Farther up, between Santa Lucia, near Monte Video, and the point of Las Piedras on its southern bank, within which its waters are generally fresh, it is double[8] the distance across from Dover to Calais.

But for that positive freshness, the stranger can hardly credit that he is not still at sea. He has yet to sail up it nearly two hundred miles ere he reaches the anchorage off Buenos Ayres, and then, at the end of his voyage, if the ship be large[9], he will probably find it difficult to make out the land.

It is only from the pozos, or inner roads, that the city becomes visible in its full extent, ranging along a slightly elevated ridge, which bounds the river. The towers of the churches, and here and there a solitary Umbú tree, alone break an outline almost as level as the horizon of the river itself. There is no back-ground to the picture, no mountains, no trees; one vast continuous plain beyond extends for nearly 1000 miles unbroken to the Cordillera of Chile.

Unless the weather be perfectly settled, of which the barometer is the best index, the landing is not unattended with danger. I have known many a boat lost in crossing the bar or bank which lies between the outer and inner roads[10]. Nor is the bank the only danger: thick fogs at times come on, suddenly enveloping land and water in total darkness without the slightest previous indication; in such a dilemma, if a boat be caught without the means of anchoring, the chances are that she may be carried down the river by the currents, and the people half-starved before they are picked up or can find the land again.

But supposing these dangers passed, nothing can be more inconvenient or strikingly characteristic of the country than the actual landing. A ship's boat has seldom water enough to run fairly on shore, and, or arriving within forty or fifty yards of it, is beset by carts, always on the watch for passengers, the whole turn-out of which I defy any other people in the world to produce anything at all approaching.

On the broad flat axle of a gigantic pair of wheels, seven or eight feet high, a sort of platform is fixed of half a dozen boards, two or three inches apart, letting in the wet at every splash of the water beneath; the ends are open—a rude hurdle forms the side, and a short strong pole from the axle completes the vehicle; to this unwieldy machine the horse is simply attached by a ring at the end of the pole, fastened to the girth or surcingle, round which his rider has the power of turning him as on a pivot, and of either drawing or pushing the machine along like a wheelbarrow, as may be momentarily most convenient:—in this manner, for the first time in my life, I saw the cart fairly before the horse:—in Europe we laugh at the idea; in South America nothing is more common than the reality.

The wild and savage appearance of the tawny drivers of these carts, half naked, shouting and screaming and jostling one another, and flogging their miserable jaded beasts through the water, as if to show the little value attached to the brute creation in these countries, is enough to startle a stranger on his first arrival, and induce him for a moment to doubt whether he be really landing in a Christian country. It is a new and a strange specimen of human kind, little calculated to create a favourable first impression.

In old times there was a sort of mole, such as it was, which ran some way into the river, and obviated a part, at least, of these inconveniences, but it was either washed or blown down some years ago, and the people have been too indolent, or too busy ever since to set about replacing it; not, however, for want of plans for its reconstruction, amongst which one for a chain-pier, some years ago submitted to the government, appeared particularly suited to the locality; why it was not adopted, I never heard, but it is no credit to the natives that something of the sort has not long since been built. Nothing is more wanted, or more deserving the primary attention of the authorities, whilst I believe no work they could undertake would more certainly repay its expenses, for the convenience to passengers is a small consideration compared with the value which any commodious landing-place for merchandise at Buenos Ayres would be of to the trade. The loss and damage yearly sustained by the present mode of carrying goods on shore, in the rude carts I have described, is incalculable, and highly detrimental to the port in a commercial point of view.

With respect to the passage up the river, though somewhat intricate, it is by no means so perilous as it was long believed to be, probably because the commercial shipping from Spain rarely ascended higher than Monte Video, to which Port the country produce from Buenos Ayres and the interior provinces was for the most part sent down in small craft for shipment to Europe.

In 1789 Malaspina commenced the elaborate survey of the river, afterwards completed by Oyarvide, and still further corrected by the observations of Captains Beaufort and Heywood, of the British navy, the latter of whom, also, published particulars directions for the navigation of the several channels between the banks. With his chart and sailing[11] directions, and due attention to the soundings and currents, there is now little risk; and that little would be still farther diminished by the establishment, long projected, of a floating light off the tail of the Ortiz bank, and of two or three leading landmarks opposite to the Chico channel.

The most dangerous parts of the river are buoyed, and licensed pilots ply off its mouth to take vessels either into the harbour of Monte Video, or up to Buenos Ayres.

Ships drawing fifteen or sixteen feet water may ran freely up to the anchorage of that city. Foreign vessels do not go higher, Buenos Ayres being at present the only port of entry; indeed, were it otherwise, and the navigation of the upper parts of the river thrown open, and declared free, as some of the provinces have at times wished, it is not likely that European shipping would ever avail themselves of it, seeing that the passage up from Buenos Ayres to Corrientes, besides the additional risk, would at least occupy as much time as the whole voyage out from France or England.

FOOTNOTES:

[7] Kotzebue says 200.—"In the parallel of the Rio de la Plata, although 200 miles from land, we were daily carried by the current thirty-nine miles out of our course; so great is the influence of this mighty river."—Kotzebue's Voyage round the World, 1823-26.

[8] The distance between Point Piedras and Santa Lucia Point is fifty-three miles.

[9] Vessels drawing more than sixteen feet water seldom get nearer than seven or eight miles.

[10] In former times the commanders of our men-of-war established a good rule, that "no boat should go on shore without its anchor, and none leave it after sunset;" which, if attended to by our merchantmen, might prevent many a calamitous accident.

[11] They will be found in Purdy's "Sailing Directory, for the South Atlantic Ocean," published by Laurie, 1837, together with those of M. Barral of the French navy, the results of a still more recent survey of the River.

CHAPTER III.
CITY OF BUENOS AYRES.

First Impressions of Buenos Ayres. Date of the Foundation, and Insignificance of the Colony for a long period. Contraband Trade carried on through it a grievance to the Mother Country. Erected into a distinct Viceroyalty in 1776, and its trade opened in consequence of the modified system adopted by Spain about the same time. The advantages of this to Buenos Ayres.

If my first feelings on being carted ashore at Buenos Ayres in the uncouth manner I have described, were none of the most agreeable, they soon passed off, and gave way to different impressions. As I walked up to the lodgings which had been prepared for me, I was struck with the regularity of the streets and buildings, the appearance of the churches, the general cheerfulness of the white-stuccoed houses, and especially with the independent contented air of the people—- a striking contrast to the wretched beggary and slave population, of which I had lately seen so much at Rio de Janeiro.

The date of the foundation of this city is comparatively recent, and long subsequent to the arrival of the first discoverers of the country, to whom neither the aspect of the Pampas, nor the warlike disposition of the Querandis, the then inhabitants, appear to have offered any attractions. Their search was for the land of gold and silver, which was evidently not this: in quest of those precious metals they ascended the river, and for the most part settled in the more inviting regions of Paraguay; hoping from thence to open an easy communication with the rich countries of Peru.

The first Settlement at Buenos Ayres, in 1535, beseiged by the Querandi Indians.

(From the original representation given in Ulric Schmidel's account thereof, on his return to Nuremberg.)

In 1535 the Adelantado, Don Pedro de Mendoza, on his way to Paraguay with one of the most brilliant expeditions ever equipped in Spain for South America, landed to recruit his people near the spot where Buenos Ayres now stands, and caused a fort to be built there for the first time, in which he left what he supposed a sufficient garrison for its defence; but he was mistaken—the warlike natives as soon as he was gone drove out the Spanish soldiers, and remained for nearly another half-century in undisturbed possession of all that part of the country.[12]

It was not till the year 1580 that the famous Don Juan de Garay, then in Paraguay, determined once more to endeavour to form a permanent settlement in the same neighbourhood. In this attempt the Spaniards as before met with a most obstinate resistance on the part of the natives, who attacked them armed with their formidable slings (the bolas now used by the gauchos) and with bows and arrows, to which they tied burning matches, which set fire not only to their tents but to their shipping. De Garay's little band, which only consisted of sixty men-at-arms, was at first well nigh overwhelmed by the number of the savages who poured down upon them bravely fighting for their lands. On both sides prodigies of individual valour are related. The death, however, of the Cacique, who commanded in chief, seems to have decided the battle; the Indians, seeing him fall, fled, followed by the victors till they were weary of killing them: and such was the slaughter that to this day the scene of the engagement is called La Matanza, or "the Killing Ground."

After this victory De Garay took formal possession of the country in the King of Spain's name, and founded the present city of Buenos Ayres—A.D. 1580.

For two centuries the settlement thus planted languished in insignificance, abandoned to its own resources, and the mother country, to all appearance, fearing rather than desiring its aggrandizement: nor was this without cause;—Spain, in fact, lost so immensely by the contraband trade carried on from Peru, through the river Plate, that she became accustomed to regard with something more than indifference a possession which in consequence of her own prohibitory and restrictive system, was totally unproductive to her, whilst the facilities it offered for illicit trading made it a fruitful source of grievance and of disputes with other nations.

The extent, however, of these evils in the course of time produced their own remedy. The King of Spain at last discovered that a Viceroy at Lima could not put down the smugglers in the river Plate, or prevent the continual territorial encroachments of the Portuguese in the same quarter.

The necessity had long been evident of establishing a separate and independent authority on the spot where its vigilance was in daily request, and in 1776 Buenos Ayres was made the seat of a new Viceroyalty, and separated from the government of Peru.

It was about that time, also, that Spain made most important changes in her colonial system. The exclusive and pernicious monopoly of the whole trade of South America, till then possessed by the merchants of Seville and Cadiz, was put an end to, and a comparatively free intercourse was, for the first time, permitted with many ports in the new world, with which till then it was death to communicate. Buenos Ayres reaped a large share of the advantages of this alteration in the commercial views and policy of the mother country; and from a nest of smugglers became one of the first trading cities in Spanish America. The rapid increase of her population, under these new circumstances, is worth notice.

FOOTNOTES:

[12] See annexed plate, copied from the original in the account published by Ulric Schmidel, a volunteer under Mendoza, and one of the garrison besieged by the Querandis.

CHAPTER IV.
POPULATION OF BUENOS AYRES.

Statistics of the Population. Its great increase in the last fifty years. Castes into which it was formerly divided now disappearing. Numbers of Foreigners established there, especially British. Their influence on the habits of the Natives. The Ladies of Buenos Ayres; the Men and their occupations.

In the year 1767, when M. de Bougainville visited Buenos Ayres, he tells us that the number of the inhabitants did not exceed 20,000.

In 1778, the year in which the port was partially thrown open under the free-trade regulations of Spain, as they were called, a census was taken, by which it appears that the inhabitants of the city and of its campaña, or country jurisdiction, amounted to 37,679 souls, of which 24,205 belonged to the city, 12,925 to the country, and 549 were members of religious communities; divided as follows, viz.:—

To these numbers, however, some, and not an inconsiderable, addition should be made for short returns, particularly from the country districts; for, let it be borne in mind, in examining all such official estimates of the population of the Spanish colonies, that, as any attempt on the part of the authorities to take a census was sure to be regarded as the forerunner of some new exaction for the service of the mother country, so it was as certain to be evaded, especially by the lower orders of the people, and, in proportion, to fall short of the reality. In this census it does not appear that the military were included, but in that year, or the preceding one, no less than 10,000 men were sent out from Spain under the command of the Viceroy Cevallos, in addition to the ordinary forces, to carry on the war with the Portuguese: a great part of them it may be assumed never returned, and should therefore be added to the numbers of the colonists. Making, then, a fair allowance for these deficiencies in the census for 1778, the population at that time probably did not fall short of 50,000 souls; and this calculation may be rather under than over the truth.

In 1789, ten years afterwards, Helms, the German traveller, on his way to Peru, was told by the Viceroy at Buenos Ayres that the city contained between 24,000 and 30,000 inhabitants, a calculation probably founded on the census of 1778, with his own vague notion of the probable increase upon it in the interim. No mention is made by him of the population of the country.

In 1795 the Viceroy Aredondo, on delivering up the government to his successor, took occasion to allude to the great increase which had taken place in the population since the opening of the trade, and spoke of it as then amounting altogether to nearly 60,000 souls.

In 1800 Azara calculated it to be 71,668, estimating 40,000 for the city, and 31,668 for the country-towns and villages within its jurisdiction—a great increase since 1778, compared with the past, which can only be ascribed to the more liberal policy adopted by Spain, and to the extraordinary impulse thereby given to the colony. This, however, was but an indication of the further results to be anticipated from the removal of those remaining restrictions which still grievously hampered the energies of the community, and retarded the development of the capabilities of a country formed by nature to be a great commercial emporium. The British invasions in 1806 and 1807 awakened the Buenos Ayreans to a sense of their own political importance, and the subsequent struggle with the mother country for their independence opened their ports to all the world; and in nothing are the consequences more strikingly exemplified than in the extraordinary increase which since that epoch has taken place in the population, notwithstanding all the waste of war in all its forms, foreign and civil, by land and by sea.

The following Tables of the Marriages, Births, and Deaths in the city and country districts of the province for 1822, 1823, 1824, and 1825, are taken from data published under the authority of the Government; and the calculations founded upon them give the most correct idea to be procured of the extent of the population up to the close of 1825.

Thus it appears that the proportion of births to deaths is in the ratio of about four to three: amongst the coloured population, the births are very little more than equal to the deaths; in the city they fall much short of them; the increase, therefore, is on the white stock. The births to the marriages appear to be as nearly five to one.

The Statistical Register of Buenos Ayres assumes the annual measure of mortality to be one in thirty-two in the city, and one in forty in the country; and, taking the average of the results for 1822 and 1823, arrives at the conclusion that the inhabitants of the city amounted, at the commencement of 1824, to 81,136, and those of the country to 82,080, making in all a population of 163,216. If we calculate, according to the same rule, the mean of the results of the bills of mortality for the four years ending with 1825, it will give us a population for the city of 81,616 persons, and for the country districts of 76,640, in all of 158,256, at the close of 1825; about 5000 less than the estimate made in the Register two years before, the falling off being in the country: but this is at once accounted for by the recruiting which took place in 1825 for the war with Brazil, which must have taken off a much larger number: allowing for which, I think we may fairly assume that the total population of the city and province of Buenos Ayres at the close of that year was not far short of 165,000 souls, being, as nearly as we have the means of calculating, about double what it was twenty years before. At the time I am writing, ten years afterwards, I have not a doubt that it amounts to nearly 200,000[13].

As an additional exemplification of the increase which has taken place in the population since the time of M. de Bougainville, I annex a plan of the city, showing what were its limits in his time, and what has been added since.

From the numbers let us turn to the general composition of this population.

The census of 1778 divided it into five castes.

1. The Spaniards and their descendants born in America, generally known as Creoles.

2. The native Indians.

3. The Mestizoes—offspring of the Spaniard and Indian.

4. The Mulattoes—offspring of the Spaniard and Negro.

5. The Negroes or Africans born.

Of these five castes, however, the Indians and their Mestizo offspring formed a very small and insignificant proportion, and can only be regarded as accidentally domiciliated at Buenos Ayres in consequence of its being at that time the principal channel of communication between Peru, their proper soil, and Spain.

The City of BUENOS AYRES, in 1767 (tinted thus ■) and in 1825, (blank).

The original Indians of Buenos Ayres were a hostile race, who would hold no intercourse with their conquerors. No mixture, therefore, of Spanish and native blood took place in that particular part of South America, which could produce a distinct caste, as in the Upper Provinces and in Peru, where the more peaceable and domesticated inhabitants continue to the present day to constitute the main stock of the population. In those parts we see a striking difference in the people; the further we advance into the interior, the more scarce become the white in proportion to the coloured inhabitants. The aboriginal Indian blood decidedly predominates in the Mestizo castes, whilst the negro and his Mulatto descendants, so common on the coast, are there almost unknown. The cause of this is easily explained; for a long period very few European women reached the interior of America: the Spaniards, therefore, who settled there, were under the necessity of mixing with the natives, from which connexion has arisen that numerous race, the Mestizoes, which forms so large a part of the present population of those countries. The same difficulty in transporting their women from Europe did not occur with respect to Buenos Ayres; there the European stock was easily kept up, though for a long period it increased but slowly; and, but for the adventitious circumstance of its having been for some years a depôt for the slave-trade, under the Asiento Treaties, the population of Buenos Ayres would have been nearly free from be seen that the Indian and Mestizo no longer appear: the division made is simply into the white and the coloured population; and, although the latter still at that time amounted to nearly a fourth part of the whole, it had ceased to increase. In the four years the births barely exceeded the deaths, and whilst the proportion of deaths amongst the coloured people increased, there was a striking falling off in the number of their marriages and births, even from 1822 to 1825. The slave-trade has in fact, been prohibited since 1813, by a decree of the Constituent Assembly, consequently any further supply from the Negro stock has ceased, and it cannot be very long ere all trace of its having ever existed must be merged in the rapid increase of the whites—a result which will be greatly accelerated by the introduction of fresh settlers from Europe, who are daily arriving and domiciliating themselves in the new republic. Of the extent of this some notion may be formed when I state that the number of foreigners, who, up to 1832, had fixed themselves in the city and province of Buenos Ayres, amounted, with their wives and children, to no less than from 15,000 to 20,000 persons. Of these, about two-thirds were British and French, in about equal proportions; the remainder was made up of Italians, Germans, and people of other countries, not the least numerous of whom were emigrants from the United States, and especially from New York.

As it may interest some of my readers to know what classes of our countrymen find employment at Buenos Ayres, I have given in the Appendix an account of them, as taken from a register which I established on my own arrival there, together with the marriages, births, and deaths amongst them, as far as they could be learned for the period stated: to these I have further added a copy of the Treaty I concluded with the Government of Buenos Ayres, in 1825, securing to His Majesty's subjects in that country many important privileges, and amongst the rest the free exercise of their own religion:—a great object to so numerous a community:—I had subsequently the satisfaction of seeing it fully carried out by the erection of an English church, capable of containing 1000 persons, towards which the Buenos Ayrean Government itself contributed, by giving a valuable plot of ground for the purpose:—His Majesty's Government appointed the chaplain, and regularly defrays one half of the annual expense, the British residents paying the remainder. A Presbyterian chapel has been since built in virtue of the same privilege by the Scotch part of the community; and for the Catholics, an Irish priest is allowed to do duty in one of the national churches.

In a population so intermixed, and in such daily communication with the people of other countries, it is not surprising that national peculiarities should have very nearly disappeared. Thus the men of the better classes in Buenos Ayres are hardly to be distinguished in their dress from the French and English merchants who have fixed themselves amongst them, whilst the ladies vie with each other in imitating the last fashions from Paris: it is only in their out-door costume that any difference is apparent; then the more becoming mantilla and shawl thrown over the head and shoulders supersede the European bonnet and pelisse. Some of them are very beautiful, and their polite and obliging manners, especially to strangers, render them doubly attractive. Our countrymen have formed many matrimonial connexions with them, which has contributed, no doubt, to the good feeling with which they are so generally regarded by the natives.

Education, it is true, has not as yet made great progress amongst them, but in this improvement is taking place, and if the young ladles of Buenos Ayres do not study history and geography, they are adepts in many pleasing accomplishments; they dance with great grace, and sing and play very prettily; the piano-forte, indeed, is a constant resource morning as well as evening in every respectable house.

Amongst the men there are native poets, whose productions do honour to the Spanish language. A collection of them, called La Lira Argentina, was printed in 1823, which is well worth the notice of all lovers of Spanish verse. But the men have more advantages as respects education than the ladies: in their schools and universities they are now very fairly grounded in most branches of general knowledge, and of late years it has been much the custom amongst the better families to send their sons to Europe to complete their studies.

I should say of them in general that they are observing and intelligent, and extremely desirous to improve themselves.

Their ordinary habits are certainly a good deal influenced by climate: I cannot speak of them as an industrious people, and yet it is rare to see a man who has not some nominal occupation.

From the number of doctores, a stranger might suppose that all the upper classes were lawyers or physicians. This is not exactly the case; but, as that degree serves to mark the man who has received a liberal education, it is generally taken by those who pass through the schools, without particular reference to their future calling. Thus I have known doctores in all pursuits—ministers of state, employés of all sorts, clerks in public offices, military officers, and merchants; all attaching to it the same importance as we do, perhaps with less right, to the ordinary title of esquire as the designation of a gentleman.

Law and physic, however, do give employment to revolution in this, as in other Catholic countries, has put an end to the unconstitutional influence exercised by them in old times, and under different circumstances: the Government having taken possession of the ecclesiastical property, the officiating priests are left to depend upon a stipend, in general barely sufficient for their decent maintenance, so that there is but small inducement left for men to devote themselves to a life of celibacy.

But it is the trade and commerce of Buenos Ayres which is the great source of occupation for its extensive population; since, though the importing and exporting part of the business may be chiefly carried on by the foreign merchants, the details are for the most part left to the natives: they collect, and prepare, and bring in for sale, all the produce of the country, and retail the goods imported from foreign countries: nor is it thought at all degrading for young men of the best connexions to stand behind a counter: there they gossip with their fair customers upon a perfect equality, and in dandyism a Buenos Ayrean shopkeeper may be backed against the smartest man-milliner of London or Paris.

The mechanics and artisans form also a large class, as may be supposed, in a country where everything is wanted, and no man feels inclined to do much; it is in this line that the European has so decided an advantage over the native from his more industrious habits; for he requires no siesta, and works whilst the natives of all classes, high and low, are asleep: he cannot fail to prosper if he will but avoid the drinking-shops; but he must be resolute on that point, for it is a temptation which he finds at the corner of every street: no less than 600 pulperias are open in the city alone, as appears by the list of licences annually taken out at the police[14].

For everyone who will work there is employment, and as to real want, it can hardly exist in a country where beef is dear at a halfpenny a-pound, and where the generality of the lower orders want nothing else.

FOOTNOTES:

[13] By a return for 1836, it appears that in the City in that year,

[14] The same list will give some idea of the general distribution of the trades for 1836; it was as follows:—

CHAPTER V.
CITY OF BUENOS AYRES.

Great extent of the City. Public Buildings. Inconvenient Arrangement and want of Comfort in the Dwellings of the Natives a few years ago. Prejudice against Chimneys. Subsequent Improvements introduced by Foreigners. Iron gratings at the windows necessary. Water scarce and dear. That of the River Plata excellent, and capable of being kept a very long time. Pavement of Buenos Ayres.

Buenos Ayres, like all other cities in Spanish America, is built upon the uniform plan[15] prescribed I believe by the Council of the Indies, consisting of straight streets, intersecting each other at right angles every 150 yards; and, from the peculiar construction of the houses, covers at least twice the ground which would be required for any European city of the same population.

With the exception of the churches, which, though unfinished externally, exhibit in their interior all the gaudy richness of the religion to which they belong, and will be lasting memorials of the pious zeal of the Jesuits, who built the greater part of them, there is nothing remarkable in the style of the public buildings. The old government considered money laid out in beautifying the city as so much thrown away upon the colonists, and the new government has been as yet too poor to do more than has been absolutely necessary; what has been done, however, has been well done, and does credit to the republican authorities.

In their private dwellings there was a wretched want of every comfort, when I first went to the country. With but few exceptions, they were confined to a ground floor; the apartments built en suite, without passages, round two or three successive quadrangular courts, called patios, opening into each other; and the whole distribution about as primitive and inconvenient as can be imagined.

The floors of the best rooms were of bricks or tiles, the rafters of the roof seldom hid by a ceiling, the walls as cold as whitewash could make them; whilst the furniture was of the most gaudy, tawdry, North American manufacture: a few highly-coloured French prints, serving, perhaps, to mark the state of the fine arts in South America.

Nothing could be more anti-comfortable to English eyes. In cold weather these cold-looking rooms were heated by braziers, at the risk of choking the inmates with the fumes of charcoal; chimneys, so far from being looked upon as wholesome ventilators, were regarded as certain conductors of wet and cold; and it was not till long after the introduction of them by the European residents had practically proved their safety and superiority over the old Spanish warming-pans, that the natives could be induced to try them. The apprehension that they increased the risk of fire was even without foundation, for never were the habitations of man built of such incombustible materials. The roofs and floors, I have already said, are all of brick, and the few beams which are necessary for supporting the former are of a wood from Paraguay, as hard as teak, and almost as incombustible as the bricks themselves.

Of the prejudices of the natives about chimneys I may perhaps have rather a sensitive feeling, from a practical experience I had myself upon the subject soon after my landing amongst them. There was but one in all the apartments I occupied with my family, and that one my Spanish landlord, to my no small dismay and astonishment, ordered a bricklayer to stop up one afternoon over our heads, because he had had a dispute with my servants about the necessity of occasionally sweeping it, which he chose to take this summary way of putting an end to. The weather was wet and bad enough, and I never was more in want of the comfort of a good fire; but no entreaty or remonstrance could shake the obstinate determination of the old Don. He had the advantage of us by living over head, in the upper apartments of the building; and he was determined to make us fully sensible of the de facto superiority of his authority. He required no chimney himself, and he could not be made to understand that a Spanish brazier would not answer all our English wants just as well as it did his.

I lived, however, long enough in Buenos Ayres to see great changes in these matters, and such innovations upon the old habits and fashions of the people as would make a stranger now doubt whether it really be the place he may have read of. In nothing is the alteration more striking than in the comparative comfort, if not luxury, which has found its way into the dwellings of the better classes: thanks to the English and French upholsterers, who have swarmed out to Buenos Ayres, the old whitewashed walls have been covered with paper in all the varieties from Paris; and European furniture of every sort is to be met with in every house. English grates, supplied with coals carried out from Liverpool as ballast, and often sold at lower prices than in London, have been brought into very general use, and certainly have contributed to the health and comfort of a city, the atmosphere of which is nine days out of ten affected by the damps from the river. Nor is the improvement confined to the internal arrangement of the houses, a striking change has taken place in the whole style of building in Buenos Ayres. With the influx of strangers, the value of property, especially in the more central part of the city, has been greatly enhanced, and has led the natives to think of economising their ground by constructing upper stories to their houses in the European fashion, the obvious advantage whereof will no doubt ere many years make the plan general, and greatly add to the embellishment of the city.

Some peculiarities will probably long be preserved, such amongst other as the iron gratings, or rather railings, which protect the windows, and which, on more than one occasion, have proved the best safeguards of the inhabitants: it requires some time for a European to become reconciled to their appearance, which ill accords with the beau-idéal of republican liberty and public safety; yet when painted green they are rather ornamental than otherwise, particularly when hung, as they frequently are, with festoons of the beautiful air-plants of Paraguay, which there live and blossom even on cold iron, and one does get reconciled to them, I believe, from a speedy conviction of their necessity in the present state of society in those countries:—in the hot nights of summer, too, it is some comfort to be able to leave a window open without risk of intrusion; though some of the light-fingered gentry have made this not quite so safe as it used to be. I have known more than one instance of a clever thief running off with the clothes of the sleeping inmates, fished through the gratings by means of one of the long canes of the country, with a hook at the end of it:—in one well-known case, a gentleman's watch was thus hooked out of its pocket at his bed's head, and he was but just roused by his frightened wife in time to catch a last glimpse of the chain and seals as they seemingly danced out of the window.

It will hardly be credited that water is an expensive article within fifty yards of the Plata, but so it is; nothing can be worse than the ordinary supply of it. That obtained from the wells is brackish and bad, and there are no public cisterns or reservoirs, although the city is so slightly elevated above the river, that nothing would be easier than to keep it continually provided by the most ordinary artificial means. As it is, those who can afford it go to a great expense in constructing large tanks under the pavement of their court-yards, into which the rainwater collected from the flat-terraced roofs of their houses is conducted by pipes; and in general a sufficiency may thus be secured for the ordinary purposes of the family; but the lower orders, who cannot afford to go to such an expense, depend for a more scanty supply upon the itinerant water-carriers, who, at a certain time of day, are to be seen lazily perambulating the streets with huge butts filled at the river, mounted on the monstrous cart-wheels of the country, and drawn by a yoke of oxen; a clumsy and expensive contrivance altogether, which makes even water dear within a stone's throw of the largest river in the world. Taken at the very edge, it is seldom of the purest, and generally requires to stand twenty-four hours before it deposits its muddy sediment, and becomes sufficiently cleared to be drinkable; it is then excellent, and may be kept for any time. I have drunk it myself on board ship, after it had been two voyages to England and back, and never tasted better.

The principal streets are now tolerably paved with granite brought from the islands above Buenos Ayres, especially from Martin Garcia. How the people got about before they were paved it is difficult to understand, for the streets must have been at times one continued slough; at least if one may judge from the state of those which are still unfinished, and which, after any continuance of wet weather, are nearly, if not entirely, impassable, even for people on horseback, much more so for carriages. I have seen in some of them the mire so deep that the oxen could not drag the country carts through it; and it not unfrequently happens, in such a case, that the animals themselves are unable to get out, and are left to die and rot in the swamp in the middle of the street.

It was a fair sample of the miserable economy and wretched policy of the colonial authorities, that a commercial city of such importance, and in which the traffic was daily increasing, should have been allowed so long to remain in such a state, with an inexhaustible supply of the best paving materials in the world within twenty or thirty miles of it, and of such easy water-carriage. The people however, were led to believe that the difficulties and impediments to such an improvement as the general paving of the city were next to insurmountable.

The Viceroy himself, the Marquis of Loreto, when the first notion of such a plan was started, gravely gave, amongst other reasons against it, the danger of the houses falling down from the shaking of their foundations, by the driving of heavy carts over a stone pavement so close to them, whilst another and still more weighty objection in his opinion was, the necessity it would entail upon the people to put iron tires to their cart-wheels, and to shoe their horses, which, he reminded them, would cost them more than the animals themselves. Fortunately, his immediate successors, Aredondo and Aviles, were not deterred by similar alarms. The former commenced the work with activity about the year 1795, with the aid of a subscription voluntarily raised by the inhabitants; and the latter carried it on to a much greater extent, levying a trifling duty upon the city for the purpose, which was readily submitted to, when, as the work advanced, the improvement became manifest. In later times, especially during the government of 1822-24, much more was done, and there are few of the principal streets which are not now more or less completed.

The granite is excellent, and was carefully examined in situ by Mr. Bevans, an English engineer, a few years ago, who reported that it was easy to be worked, and the supply inexhaustible. When the working of it is better understood by the natives, it will probably be brought into much more general use.

FOOTNOTES:

[15] Mr. Scarlet has given the best possible description of this plan, in comparing it to a chess-board:—the relative proportions are as nearly as possible four English acres to each square.

CHAPTER VI.
CLIMATE OF BUENOS AYRES, AND ITS EFFECTS.

Climate of Buenos Ayres, liable to sudden changes. Influence of the North Wind. Case of Garcia. Effects of a Pampero. Dust-Storms and Showers of Mud. The Natives free from Epidemics, but liable to peculiar affections from the state of the atmosphere. Lockjaw of very common occurrence. The Smallpox stopped by Vaccination. Introduced in 1805, and preserved by an individual. Its first introduction amongst the Native Indians by General Rosas. Cases of Longevity, of frequent occurrence.

Azara, the best of all writers upon the country, has with much truth observed that the climate of Buenos Ayres is governed not so much by its latitude as by the wind, a change of which will continually produce an alteration of from 20 to 30 degrees in the thermometer[16]?

I have been often asked whether the heats in summer are not almost intolerable. On some days they are so; the glass perhaps above 90° in the shade, and all nature gasping for air; but on those very days the most experienced of the natives will be clothed in warm woollens instead of linen jackets and trousers, for fear of catching cold.

During the greater part of the year the prevailing winds are northerly, which, passing over the marshy lands of Entre Rios, and then over the wide expanse of the Plata, imbibe their exhalations, and, by the time they reach the southern shores of the river, have a great influence upon the climate. Everything is damp: the mould stands upon the boots cleaned but yesterday; books become mildewed, and the keys rust in one's pocket. Good fires are the best preservatives, and I found them, if not absolutely necessary, at least very comfortable, during quite as many months as I should have had them in England; and yet I never, during nine years, saw snow, or ice thicker than a dollar, and the latter only once. Upon the bodily system the effect produced by this prevailing humidity is a general lassitude and relaxation; opening the pores of the skin, and inducing great liability to colds, sore throats, rheumatic affections, and all the consequences of checked perspiration; one of the best safeguards against which is doubtless the woollen clothing of the natives, of which I have already spoken; though they require it, perhaps, the more especially, because they seldom stir out of their houses in the extreme heat of the day; and it is at the time they do go out, when the sun has lost its power and the damps of evening are setting in, that such precautions are doubly necessary. Europeans, at first, are loth to take the same care of themselves, but sooner or later they discover that the natives are right, and insensibly fall into their ways.

The evil effects of all this humidity, so far as they are dangerous, appear to be confined to the immediate vicinity of the river, and to the inhabitants of the city; for in the pampas the gauchos sleep upon the ground during the greater part of the year in the open air without risk. Their skins, however, like those of the cattle they watch, are probably impervious to the wet.

Before I went to Buenos Ayres I had suffered much from malaria fever, caught in Greece; and when I saw, for the first time, the low, flat, marshy appearance of the whole country, I expected nothing less than a return of my old ague. Everything around seemed to bespeak it: but Buenos Ayres is free from such disorders, and cases of intermittent fever, such as that I speak of, are rarely known there.

Still, though free from the malaria of the Mediterranean coasts, the sirocco of the Levant does not bring with it more disagreeable affections than the viento norte, or north wind of Buenos Ayres; indeed, the irritability and ill-humours it excites in some people amount to little less than a temporary derangement of their moral faculties: it is a common thing to see men amongst the better classes shut themselves up in their houses during its continuance, and lay aside all business till it has passed; whilst amongst the lower orders it is a fact well known to the police that cases of quarrelling and bloodshed are infinitely more frequent during the north wind than at any other time. In illustration of this, I shall quote a case in point, the account of which I received from one of the most eminent medical men in the country, who had paid particular attention during a practice of more than thirty years to its influence upon the human system.

In the year —— a man named Garcia was executed for murder. He was a person of some education, esteemed by those who knew him, and, in general, rather remarkable than otherwise for the civility and amenity of his manners; his countenance was open and handsome, and his disposition frank and generous; but when the north wind set in he appeared to lose all command of himself, and such was his extreme irritability, that during its continuance he could hardly speak to any one in the street without quarrelling. In a conversation with my informant a few hours before his execution, he admitted that it was the third murder he had been guilty of besides having been engaged in more than twenty fights with knives, in which he had both given and received many serious wounds; but, he observed, it was the north wind, not he, that shed all this blood. When he rose from his bed in the morning, he said, he was at once aware of its accursed influence upon him;—a dull headache first, and then a feeling of impatience at everything about him, would cause him to take umbrage even at the members of his own family on the most trivial occurrence. If he went abroad his headache generally became worse, a heavy weight seemed to hang over his temples, he saw objects, as it were, through a cloud, and was hardly conscious where he went. He was fond of play, and if in such a mood a gambling-house was in his way he seldom resisted the temptation; once there, any turn of ill-luck would so irritate him, that the chances were he would insult some of the by-standers. Those who knew him, perhaps, would bear with his ill-humours, but, if unhappily he chanced to meet with a stranger disposed to resent his abuse, they seldom parted without bloodshed. Such was the account the wretched man gave of himself, and it was corroborated afterwards by his relations and friends, who added, that no sooner had the cause of his excitement passed away than he would deplore his weakness, and never rested till he had sought out and made his peace with those whom he had hurt or offended.

Europeans, though often sensible of its influence, are not in general so liable to be affected by this abominable wind as the natives, amongst whom the women appear to be the greatest sufferers, especially from the headache it occasions. Numbers of them may be seen at times in the streets, walking about with large split-beans stuck upon their temples; a sure sign which way the wind blows. The bean, which is applied raw, appears to act as a slight blister, and to counteract the relaxation caused by the state of the atmosphere.

But it is not the human constitution alone that is affected; the discomforts of the day are generally increased by the derangement of most of the household preparations:—The meat turns putrid, the milk curdles, and even the bread which is baked whilst it lasts is frequently bad. Every one complains, and the only answer returned is—"Señor, es el viento norte."

All these miseries, however, are not without their remedy; when the sufferings of the natives are at their climax, the mercury will give the sure indication of a coming pampero, as the south-wester is called; on a sudden, a rustling breeze breaks through the stillness of the stagnant atmosphere, and in a few seconds sweeps away the incubus and all else before it; originating in the snows of the Andes, the blast rushes with unbroken violence over the intermediate pampas, and, ere it reaches Buenos Ayres, becomes often a hurricane.

A very different state of things then takes place, and, from the suddenness of such changes, the most ludicrous, though often serious, accidents occur, particularly in the river; whither, of an evening especially, a great part of the population will resort to cool themselves during the hot weather. There they may be seen, hundreds and hundreds of men, women, and children, sitting together up to their necks in the water, just like so many frogs in a marsh: if a pampero breaks, as it often does, unexpectedly upon such an assembly, the scramble and confusion which ensues is better imagined than told; fortunate are those who may have taken an attendant to watch their clothes, for otherwise, long ere they can get out of the river, every article of dress is flying before the gale.

Not unfrequently the pampero is accompanied by clouds of dust from the parched pampas, so dense as to produce total darkness, in which I have known instances of bathers in the river being drowned ere they could find their way to the shore. I recollect on one of these occasions, a gang of twenty convicts, who were working at the time in irons upon the beach, making their escape in the dark, not one of whom, I believe, was retaken.

It is difficult to convey any idea of the strange effects of these dust-storms: day is changed to night, and nothing can exceed the temporary darkness produced by them, which I have known to last for a quarter of an hour in the middle of the day; very frequently they are laid by a heavy fall of rain, which, mingling with the clouds of dust as it pours down, forms literally a shower of mud[17]. The sort of dirty pickle in which people appear after being caught in such a storm is indescribable.

Sometimes the consequences are more serious, and the pampero is accompanied by the most terrific thunder and lightning; such, I believe as is to be witnessed in no other part of the world, unless it be the Straits of Sunda. Nothing can be more appalling. In Azara may be read an account of nineteen persons killed by the lightning which fell in the city during one of these storms.

But the atmosphere is effectually cleared; man breathes once more, and all nature seems to revive under the exhilarating freshness of the gale:—the natives, good-humoured and thoughtless, laugh over the less serious consequences, and soon forget the worst; happy in the belief that, at any rate, they are free from the epidemical disorders of other regions.

Still such variations from the ordinary courses of nature cannot but be productive of strange consequences; and, though the transient effects of an overcharged atmosphere may be quickly dispelled by a pampero, and the people be really free from the epidemics of other countries, there is every reason to believe that, in this particular climate, the human system is in a high degree susceptible of affections which elsewhere would not be deemed worth a moment's consideration. Besides those I have already spoken of as arising from the north wind, old wounds are found to burst out afresh, new ones are very difficult to heal; an apparently trivial sprain will induce a weakness of the part requiring years perhaps to recover from, as I know from my own experience; and lock-jaw from the most trifling accidents is so common as to constitute the cause of a very great portion of the deaths from hurts in the public hospitals. A cut thumb, a nail run into the hand or foot, a lacerated muscle, will generally terminate in it; and our own medical men well know how great a proportion of our wounded in the attack of 1806 and 1807 died from this dreadful cause. The native practitioners attribute its frequent occurrence to some peculiarity in the atmosphere acting upon the system in a manner they are as yet unable to explain. Under the name of the "mal de siete dias" (the seven days' sickness), a vast number of children are carried off by it in the first week of their existence; but, as this mortality is principally limited to the lower orders, it may perhaps in most cases be traced to mismanagement and neglect. With us, the long confinement of the mother ensures the same care of the infant in the first weeks of its life; but, in a country where the mother leaves her bed in two or three days to return to her work, the child must often be neglected. Many a Buenos Ayrean washerwoman may be seen at her usual work at the riverside three or four days after her delivery, with her infant lying for the greater part of the day upon a piece of cold hide, beside her on the damp ground. Can any one wonder that it takes cold and dies? There was a time, and but few years ago, when it was gravely asserted that the mortality amongst infants arose from their being baptized with cold water, and the authorities, concurring in the notion, actually issued a decree that none but warm water should be used for such purposes in the churches. I believe, however, that the deaths were not found to diminish, and that the priests are again permitted to use cold water as before, though I doubt the enactment to the contrary having ever been repealed; but why should these cases so generally terminate in lock-jaw[18]?

The dreadful ravages occasioned formerly by the small-pox have latterly been in a great measure arrested amongst the civilised portion of the inhabitants by the general use of vaccination: accidentally conveyed to Buenos Ayres in 1805 by the owner of a cargo of slaves, it was preserved by the patriotic zeal of an enlightened priest, Dr. Segurola, who, deeply impressed with its immense importance, voluntarily devoted himself to the task of propagating it amongst his countrymen, especially the poor, whose ignorant prejudices he had often to combat, and whom he was not unfrequently obliged to bribe to submit to the operation. For sixteen years he laboured incessantly in this vocation, at the expiration of which, he had the satisfaction of finding his single exertions no longer adequate to satisfy the general demand for it. The Government then (in 1822) relieved him of his charge, and instituted a proper establishment for the express purpose of propagating vaccination gratis, not only in the city of Buenos Ayres, but throughout the republic; others were afterwards added in the several country districts, from which the lymph is now distributed to all who apply for it, and has been sent into every province of the interior. The authorities make it compulsory, as far as they can, on parents to carry their children to these establishments; and the parochial priests are charged to see that they do so.

By a report published in 1829 upon this subject, it appeared that in the city alone, in the previous nine months, as many as 4160 children had been vaccinated; a large proportion to the births, which are estimated at little more than 6000 yearly. I was more than once applied to for it from Rio de Janeiro, whither it was always most readily forwarded by the Buenos Ayrean administrators.

But the destruction created by the small-pox amongst the Spaniards was nothing when compared to its dreadful consequences amongst the native Indians. Whole tribes have been swept away by it: I believe, nations—whose languages have been lost. The plague is not more a frightful scourge than this disorder, when it attacks the miserable inhabitants of the pampas: they themselves believe it to be incurable, a feeling which adds to its lamentable consequences, for no sooner does it appear than their tents are raised, and the whole tribe takes to flight, abandoning the unfortunate sufferers to the certainty of perishing of hunger and thirst, if the virulence of the disorder itself does not first carry them off.

An opportunity, however, offered during the time I was at Buenos Ayres of making known to these poor people, also, the effects of vaccination, under circumstances which it is to be hoped may eventually lead to its diffusion amongst them, as well as their more civilised neighbours.

A large party of some of the friendly tribes, with their wives and children, repaired to the city on a visit of duty to the Governor, General Rosas, and had not been there long when some of them were attacked with small-pox, amongst the rest, one of their principal Caciques. As usual, the sufferers were immediately abandoned by their own relatives, and might have died like dogs, had not their more civilised friends taken charge of them, for which the poor wretches were abundantly grateful; but their surprise was without bounds, when the Governor himself, who had a regard for the old Chief, went in person to visit him. General Rosas did not fail to remark the strong impression created by his visit, and saw at once the advantage to which it might be turned. Ordering the astonished Indians to be brought before him, he showed them the mark upon his own arm, and fully explained to them the nature of the secret which had enabled him to visit their dying Cacique with impunity. The result was, that nearly 150 of them, including some of their Caciques, Catrieu, Cachul, Tetrué, Quindulé, Callinao, Toriano, and Venancio, with their wives and children, were vaccinated on the spot at their own earnest solicitation; and great was their childish delight on finding, in due time, the appearance of the disorder upon their arms, which they were fully satisfied would prove an infallible charm against the worst powers of the Evil one.

The impression created by this interesting occurrence will not be easily effaced, and, although subsequent events may have unfortunately delayed for a time the further propagation of this inestimable blessing amongst the Indians, I have little doubt that it will again be sought for; and who can say that, with good management, it may not be converted into a means of domiciliating and reducing to Christianity the remnants of a race, who, in their turn, might repay with productive labour their benefactors a hundred fold?

I must not close this chapter without adding that, notwithstanding what I have said as to the effects of the climate upon some constitutions, the people in general live to a good old age in perfect enjoyment of their mental as well as bodily faculties; and that instances of longevity are common, the following extracts from the several population returns will sufficiently prove:—

"In the census of 1778, 33 cases are quoted of individuals then living in the city, aged from 90 to 100; and 17 of from 100 to 112."

In the tables of mortality for 1823 and 1824, 58 persons are said to have died between the ages of 90 and 100; 6 between 100 and 110; 3 between 112 and 116; 1 of 128, and another of 130. The two last were females.

FOOTNOTES:

[16] Meteorological Tables will be found in the Appendix.

[17] The following letter, received from Buenos Ayres after my own departure, gives an account of one of these visitations. It is dated

"Buenos Ayres, 11th February, 1832

"Yesterday we had another of those awful dust-storms which you have previously witnessed; it came on about a quarter past twelve o'clock. The rapidity of its approach, and awful opacity, alarmed the whole population; in an instant, as it were, there was a transition from the glaring ray of the meridian to the most intense darkness. Immense flocks, or rather one immense flight of birds, immediately preceded it, and, in fact, however incredible it may appear, commenced the obscurity by their numbers.

"The whole time of its duration was eleven minutes and a half, the total darkness eight minutes and a half, by watch, observed by Dr. S. and myself by candlelight; it was accompanied by loud claps of thunder, but not a ray of lightning was visible, although the thunder was by no means distant. After eleven minutes and a half the rain began to fall in very large black drops, which had the effect upon the white walls of making them appear, when the sun again showed itself, as if they had been stained or sprinkled with ink. I never witnessed a more majestic or awful phenomenon. The consternation was general; every one rushing into the nearest house, and all struggling to shut their doors on their neighbours. I have heard as yet of no accidents, although doubtless there must have been many; the wind, of course from S.S.W."

[18] Horses are very liable to the same affection, and are continually lost from it.

CHAPTER VII.
HISTORY OF THE SPANISH SETTLEMENTS ON THE COAST OF PATAGONIA.

Little known of Patagonia till the appearance of Falkner's work in 1774. It stimulates the Spanish Government to send out an expedition under Piedra in 1778, to form settlements upon the coast. He discovers the Bay of San Joseph's. Francisco Viedma forms a settlement on the River Negro. Antonio, his brother, explores the southern part of the coast, and forms another at San Julian's. His account of the Indians he found there. The New Settlements abandoned in 1783, with the exception of that on the River Negro. Villariño ascends that river, as far as the Cordillera opposite Valdivia. A dispute with the Araucanian Indians prevents his communication with the Spaniards of Chile, and obliges him to return. Piedra succeeds Viedma, attacks the Pampa Tribes, and is defeated. Don Ortiz de Rosas, father of the present Governor of Buenos Ayres, is taken prisoner by them, and succeeds in bringing about a general pacification. Subsequent neglect of the settlement on the Rio Negro. Its population in 1825, and coasting-trade with Buenos Ayres.

Before they became independent of Spain, and whilst the people of Buenos Ayres possessed in the Banda Oriental more waste lands than they wanted, safe from any incursions of the Indians, and better adapted perhaps than any other in South America for the rearing of cattle, at that time their only object, they had no particular inducement to extend their possessions further than the River Salado; all beyond was left to the Indians, and little or nothing was known of their country, except what they chose to communicate, until Falkner published his account of Patagonia in a country town in England in 1774. The appearance of that book produced results which the author perhaps little anticipated, for it stimulated the Spanish Government to make a general survey of the coast of Patagonia, and to form settlements upon it, the history of which to this day has never yet been made public. It is of those measures, and the information derived from them, that I purpose to give some account in this chapter.

Father Falkner, the author above alluded to, was an Englishman, who, from a very early age, seems to have had a passion for travelling. Brought up to the medical profession, he went in the capacity of a surgeon on board a trading-vessel to Cadiz, where he embarked in one of the Assiento ships, bound on a slaving voyage, eventually to Buenos Ayres: there he was induced to enter the order of Jesuits, in which, as a missionary, he afterwards made himself conspicuous for the zeal with which he devoted himself to the conversion of the Indian inhabitants of the unexplored regions of that part of the world. Forty years he passed amongst them, and, but for the expulsion of his order from South America, he would probably have ended his days there. On his return to England, he wrote his book, to this day the only authentic account we have of the manners and customs of the Indians of the pampas, whilst the map it contains, compiled partly from his own observations, and partly from Indian accounts, has furnished the principal, if not the sole data for all those which have since been published of the interior of their country.

One of his principal objects avowedly was to point out how vulnerable by any hostile naval power were the Spanish possessions in those parts; and hardly had the book appeared when the Spanish Government, taking alarm lest his suggestions should be listened to in England, sent secret orders to the Viceroy of Buenos Ayres to have the whole coast of Patagonia carefully surveyed, with a view "to the formation of such new settlements upon it as might secure the King of Spain's rights, and forestall the English in their supposed intention of appropriating to themselves the valuable fisheries on the southern part of the coast."

Competent officers were sent out from Spain for the purpose, and no expense was spared to execute the survey as completely as possible. The command was intrusted to Don Juan de la Piedra, who sailed from Monte Video on this service on the 15th December, 1778.

Running down the coast, on the 7th January he entered the great bay, then called Bahia Sin-fondo, or San Matthias' Bay, but now more generally known under the name of San Antonio, at the bottom of which, in latitude 42° 13´, he discovered the entrance of a noble harbour, which he named San Joseph's.

Piedra passed three months in examining the shores of this great gulf and the peninsula which bounds it, and so impressed was he with its capabilities that, without proceeding further, he left an officer and part of his men to build a fort there, and returned himself to the River Plate to give an account of his discovery.

According to his report, indeed, it appeared on many grounds to offer a most eligible site for a new settlement. The port itself was said to be deep and commodious, affording anchorage for ships of any size, whilst its situation seemed particularly convenient not only for facilitating the further exploration of the great rivers Negro and Colorado, which empty themselves a little to the northward of it, but for securing more or less the entrance of those rivers against any sudden surprise by the enemies of Spain, a point to which great importance was attached in the instructions of the surveying officers, in consequence of the statements made by Falkner as to the possibility of passing up them into the very heart of the Spanish possessions.

The vast number of whales and seals which were seen in its neighbourhood, moreover, held out the promise of its becoming a station whence to carry on those fisheries which the Spanish Government of the day were so anxious to establish[19]; whilst the extensive salt deposits in several parts of the peninsula promised an inexhaustible supply of an article of the first necessity in Buenos Ayres in curing the hides and beef.

The only drawback to the situation was the apparent scarcity of fresh water, which the discoverers had great difficulty in finding in the first instance, though subsequently a sufficiency was obtained at some distance from the coast: it was, however, at all times more or less brackish, and eventually caused much sickness and suffering to the settlers.

The Viceroy was dissatisfied with Piedra for returning, and superseded him, when it devolved upon Don Francisco and Antonio Viedma (the officers next in command of those sent out from Spain) to carry into execution the intentions of their Government. These brothers were long employed upon various parts of the coast of Patagonia, and collected much valuable information respecting that terra incognita.

In April, 1779, Don Francisco sailed from San Joseph's, to form a settlement on the River Negro, in favour of which he was fortunate enough to propitiate the Viceroy, who supplied him with men and stores, and all things necessary for the purpose.

Don Antonio was left in charge at San Joseph's; but, the scurvy breaking out amongst the people to a great extent, they became so dissatisfied that he was under the necessity in the course of the summer of returning with the greater part of them to Monte Video. He was not, however, permitted to be long idle; and in the January following (1780) was again despatched to carry out the original plan, and to survey the whole of the southern part of the coast of Patagonia.

In furtherance of these orders, he examined the several ports of St. Helena, San Gregorio, the northern shores of the great Bay of San George, Port Desire, and San Julian's: which occupied him till the end of May, when, the cold weather setting in, he hutted his people for the winter at Port Desire, and despatched one of his vessels to Buenos Ayres with an account of his proceedings.

Of all the places he had visited, San Julian's appeared to offer the best, if not the only suitable site for any permanent establishment. Everywhere else, the coast presented the aspect of sandy, steril dunes, intermixed with stones and gravel, fit only, to all appearance, for the occupation of the wild guanacoes and ostriches, which wandered over them in quest of the scanty coarse grass which constituted their only herbage. No wood was to be seen bigger than a small species of thorny shrub, fit only for the purposes of fuel; and, as to water, it was every where scarce, and the little to be found was generally brackish and bad. The ports, too, were most of them difficult and dangerous of access, affording little or no security for vessels above the size of a brig.

San Julian's was so far an exception, that at high tide the largest ships might enter and lay safely at anchor within the bar off its mouth. A constant supply of water, too, was found three or four miles inland, proceeding from some springs in the hills, about which there was good pasturage, and enough of it to have induced a considerable tribe of Indians to fix upon it as their ordinary dwelling-place. There, also, Viedma proposed to plant a little colony; and, the Viceroy approving the plan, the people were removed from Port Desire in the month of November, and commenced building their habitations in the vicinity of the springs above mentioned, about a league from the coast. They received the materials, and a variety of necessary supplies, from Buenos Ayres, not the least useful of which were some carts and about twenty draught-horses, which enabled them afterwards to keep up a constant communication between the shore and their little settlement.

They found the Indians extremely well disposed, and ready to render them every assistance in their power, in return for the trifling presents they made them. Altogether there might be about 400 of them, and about half as many more were encamped upon the Santa Cruz River further south. These were apparently the only inhabitants of those regions. They said that in their journeys northward they fell in with no other toldos or encampments till they came to a river twenty-five days off; there were some more two days beyond again upon a second river, and thence it was twenty days further to the toldos of the Indians of Tuca-malal, on the river called by Villariño the Encarnacion, which falls into the great River Negro; altogether, according to their computation, something less than fifty days' travel from San Julian's[20]. To those parts they were in the habit of occasionally repairing in order to buy fresh horses from the tribes there resident, who they said had plenty of them, and exchanged them for the guanaco skins which they took from the more southern part of the country. They caught those animals with their bolas and lassoes, and often supplied the colonists with fresh meat when they had no means of their own of obtaining it.

This assistance was of the greater value to them, as the winter set in with a severity, against which they were very indifferently prepared. The months of June, July, and August were piercingly cold, much snow fell, and the people, unused to such a climate, became very sickly, and many of them died. Viedma himself was so ill as to be some time confined to his bed; nor was it till the return of spring that the survivors began to recover their strength, and were able to go on with the works. They got through the subsequent winter better, after their houses were completed, and they were able to collect some necessary comforts about them. The vegetables they planted throve well, and in the second February they gathered in their first harvest, which yielded a fair crop in proportion to the corn sown. The brushwood in the surrounding country was sufficient to supply them with fuel, but there was no timber fit for building, of which they were daily in want; and in quest of this Viedma was induced to make an excursion into the interior by the Indians, who asserted that an abundance was to be had near the source of the Santa Cruz river, which they said was a great lake at the foot of the Cordillera, whither they offered to guide him.

On this expedition he left San Julian's early in November (1782), with some of his own people, and a party of the Indians under their cacique. Proceeding westward, and inclining to the south, over hills and dales, at a distance of about twenty-five leagues they reached the Rio Chico, or little river, which the Indians said fell into the harbour of Santa Cruz. There was at that time no difficulty in fording it, the water not being much above their saddle-girths, and its width not above fifty yards, though, from the appearance of its steep and water-worn banks, it was evidently a much more considerable stream during the season of the floods. The Indians said it was the drain of a lake far in the north-west, formed by the melting of the snows in the Cordillera.

So far, wherever they halted, they had found no lack of pasturage for their horses, or water, or brushwood for fuel; but after crossing the Chico the country became more rocky and barren: fourteen leagues beyond the Chico they came to a much more considerable river, called the Chalia by the Indians, who described it as issuing from another lake in the mountains, between the sources of the Rio Chico and those of the great river of Santa Cruz, which it joined, they said, further on. They found it too deep to cross where they first reached it, and were obliged in consequence to follow its course upwards for eight leagues, over a stony, rugged country, which lamed all their horses, and the desolate appearance of which was increased by the visitation of a flight of locusts which had devoured all the vegetation for three leagues. They crossed it, at last, at a place called Quesanexes by their Indian guides, from a remarkable rock standing out like a tower from the rocky, rugged cliffs which there bounded the bed of the river (some basaltic formation probably).

On looking at the sketch, in the seventh volume of the "Journal of the Geographical Society," of Captain FitzRoy's Survey of the river Santa Cruz, it appears probable that the Chalia is the stream which runs into it from basalt glen, and which, though a very inconsiderable one at the season he passed by it, was manifestly one of much more importance at other times.

Eight leagues after crossing the Chalia they came to the great lake under the Cordillera, which the Indians had talked of as the origin of the Santa Cruz River.

Viedma describes it as of great extent, situated in a sort of bay, or vast amphitheatre of the mountains, from the steep ravines of which ran down the many streams which filled it, chiefly derived from the melting of the snows in the north-west: he skirted it for twelve leagues to its extremity in that direction, and estimated its extreme length at about fourteen; its width, he says, might be from four to five leagues. Some dark patches amongst the snow on the distant heights indicated the clumps of trees of which the Indians had spoken; but the few which Viedma was able to examine were not what he had been led to expect; he speaks of them as resembling a wild cherry, with a fruit in appearance not unlike it, though of a more orange colour, and without a stone and very tasteless; the wood stunted, and so crooked as to be entirely unfit for anything but burning. May it not have been the crab-apple? We know there are plenty of apples further north in the same range.

Describing the appearance of the Cordillera from the head of the lake, he says, towards the north it looked like a vast table-land stretching from east to west; but it had a different appearance in the south, breaking into steep and broken peaks, for the most part covered with snow. The Indians said that neither to the north nor south was the main chain passable by man or beast for a very long distance. They all concurred in stating that a large river issued from the south-east angle of the lake, which they believed to be the great river of Santa Cruz[21]; Viedma, unfortunately, was not able to examine it, as he wished, in consequence of the apparent swelling of the mountain-torrents, which alarmed the Indians lest they should so increase the rivers as to prevent their recrossing them on their return; nor were they very wrong, for, by the time they got back to the Chico, they found it a wide and rapid stream no longer fordable.

It was proposed that some of the Indians who could swim should tow Viedma across on a balsa, which they set to work to construct of hides and sticks, but when completed, it looked so frail and dangerous a ferry, that the Spaniards preferred running the risk of swimming their horses over. This they accomplished without accident, and reached San Julian's in safety again on the 3rd of December, after nearly a month's absence, during which they were much indebted to the Indians for their friendly aid, and knowledge of the country through which they passed.

The people of this tribe, who had never seen a Spaniard before, Viedma describes as of large stature, generally above six feet high, and very stout and fleshy; their faces broad, but of good expression, and their complexion rather sunburnt than naturally dark. Their skin cloaks, worn very long, and reaching when on foot to their heels, gave them an appearance of greater height than the reality. Their habits and customs, according to his account, seem to differ little from those of the Pampa tribes, of which I shall elsewhere have to speak. The men employed themselves in hunting guanacoes and other animals for their skins, and for meat to eat, whilst the women performed all the domestic offices and drudgery of the household, such as it was; but the good disposition uniformly shown by them gave Viedma a most favourable opinion of them, forming, as it did, a striking contrast with the character of the tribes further north.

Shortly after this excursion (in April, 1783) Don Antonio, considering his little colony as fairly planted, proceeded to Buenos Ayres for the recovery of his health. There the mortification awaited him of learning that all his labour had been thrown away, and that the Government of Spain had resolved to break up the Patagonian settlements. The fact was, that the great trouble and expense already incurred, from the necessity of supplying all their first wants from Buenos Ayres; the grumbling and complaints of the settlers themselves, of the hardships they had to go through, and of the inclemency of a climate to which they were unaccustomed (which, joined to the bad quality of their salt provisions, had certainly produced scurvy amongst them to a frightful extent), had all tended to create so unfavourable an impression upon the Viceroy, that he had been led to express a strong opinion to his Government as to their worse than uselessness. The consequence was, that after three or four years, in which upwards of a million of hard dollars was spent upon them, orders were sent out to abandon them all, except the settlement upon the Rio Negro, after setting up at San Joseph's, Port Desire, and San Julian's, signals of possession, as the English had done at Port Egmont, for evidence in case of need, of his Catholic Majesty's rights[22].

Don Antonio Viedma, who took a lively interest in the settlement he had formed at San Julian's, in vain raised his voice against this determination, and endeavoured to show that the grievances of the settlers were but the natural difficulties to be expected in the infancy of all new colonies; that they knew the worst of them, and many of their remedies; that a further experience of the seasons had shown that the lands, so far from being unfit for cultivation, as amongst other things was alleged, were quite sufficiently productive to support them in after-years without further aid from Buenos Ayres; and as to the expenses, the heaviest were already incurred; whilst the fisheries alone promised sources of wealth and revenue to the mother country, as well as to the neighbouring viceroyalty. But these arguments met with little attention, and came too late to alter the determination of the higher powers.

The same jealous policy which led the Spanish Government to cause the coast of Patagonia to be surveyed, equally influenced them in withholding from publication the results, which remained carefully hid from all inspection in the archives of the Viceroyalty, though I cannot but think, had the reports even of Viedma himself been given to the world, they would have been the best possible security to his Catholic Majesty against the curiosity or encroachments of foreign nations. Not only did they all tend to show that the coast itself was full of dangers, but they also proved that the interior of the land was, throughout, a steril and desolate waste, scarce of water and vegetation: a region fit enough for the wild beasts which had possession of it, but very little adapted for the supply of any of the wants of man. I cannot conceive what temptations such possessions could possibly have offered to any European power whatever, nor can it, I think, create surprise that Spain herself abandoned them.

With respect to the fisheries, had there been any real spirit of enterprise in the people of Monte Video and Buenos Ayres, they might have monopolized them; but no such spirit existed, and they were suffered to fall into the hands of the more adventurous sailors of England, North America, and France. They equally neglected the importation of salt, though a more necessary article to them, perhaps, could hardly have been placed within their reach; and after Viedma's voyage it was well known that any quantity of it, of an excellent quality, could be obtained either at San Joseph's, Port Desire, or San Julian's. All that was necessary was to collect it at the proper season, in the months of January, February, and March, when it is hard and dry, and consequently in the fittest state for shipping.

Dean Funes, the historian of Buenos Ayres, writing on this subject, cannot suppress his indignation at the apathy of his countrymen, though he attempts, at the same time, to find an excuse for it in an observation of Humboldt's with a simplicity quite worth quoting. He says—"Who doubts that the Spaniards of South America might have carried on these fisheries at infinitely less cost than the English and North Americans, when their own coasts of Patagonia and round Cape Horn are known to abound in whales, even in the harbours, by all accounts? But it was not the cost, neither was it the want of hands, which caused this important object to remain neglected. It was the natural indolence of the people and indifference of the Government. How, indeed, was it possible," he adds, "to find men to follow the hard profession of the sea, amongst a people who prefer a hunch of beef to all the comforts of life? 'The hope of gain,' Baron Humboldt observes, 'is too weak a stimulus in a climate where bounteous nature offers man a thousand ways of obtaining a comfortable subsistence without the necessity of leaving his native home to go to fight with the monsters of the deep.'"

The Dean was a wise old man, who knew the character of his countrymen thoroughly. Nor are his observations confined to the Spaniards of South America. Speaking of the ill-success of a company in Spain to which the king, in 1790, had conceded extraordinary privileges, as an encouragement to carry on these fisheries, he says—"Its continual losses, up to the period of its final failure, lead us to the conclusion, that projects depending upon intelligence, economy, and activity, are not made for a people notoriously behindhand in information, and habitually extravagant and lazy."

Whilst Don Antonio was occupied at San Julian's, his brother, Don Francisco, was with no less zeal laying the foundations of the settlement upon the Rio Negro, the only one, as it appeared, of these new establishments which was destined to be maintained.

It certainly possessed many advantages over the more southern parts of the coast which had been explored. It was not, like San Julian's, a thousand miles distant from the governing authorities. Succours in case of need could be sent to it by land as well as by sea from Buenos Ayres; and this consideration alone obviated the strongest objections made by the poorer classes to settling themselves permanently on other parts of the coast. The river itself was not only a safeguard against the Indians, but fertilized the adjoining lands, and insured to the colonists a never-failing supply of fresh water, the want of which had caused perhaps the greatest part of their sufferings at the other places.

There were also other motives which operated more powerfully than these in determining the Spanish Government to maintain a settlement upon the River Negro.