YALE
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

A TWELVE MONTHS' TOUR

BRAZIL AND THE RIVER PLATE,

NOTES ON SHEEP FARMING.

By L. D.L&o-yv

Ceaae to persuade, my loving Proteus :
Home-keeping youths have ever homely -wits.
Were't not affection chains thy tender days
To the sweet glances of thy honour'd love,
I rather would entreat thy company
To see the wonders of the world abroad. Shakspere.

MANCHESTER:
ALEXANDER IRELAND AND CO., PALL MALL.
1867.

"Bra £~l '

BRAZIL AND THE RIVER PLATE.

INTRODUCTION.
Tuesday, May 8, 1866: Here I am at Radley' s Hotel,
in Southampton. My luggage is safely stowed in the
royal mail steamer " Douro," and to-morrow I sail for Rio
de Janeiro ; thence to the River Plate. This afternoon
we visited Netley Abbey, which is a beautiful old ruin,
surrounded by very fine scenery. Southampton is an
interesting old town. Once a place of importance, it
dwindled into insignificance, but of late years is much fre
quented, owing to its being the port of egress and ingress
for the Royal Mail Company's magnificent steamers and the
Peninsular and Oriental Line of boats, etc.
As I may have several little purchases to make to-morrow
morning, and other matters to arrange prior to sailing, I
shall turn into bed early, so wish you all " good night"
" Waiter 1"
" Yissir."
" Bring me a brandy and soda."
" Brandy and soda ? Yissir."
. . Lapse of three minutes and a half.
C'estfini ! Once more, " good night."

SOUTHAMPTON WATER.

Wednesday, May 9, 1.0 p.m.: On board the "Douro,"
waiting for the mails to come alongside ; then we shall
weigh anchor, and, in vulgar parlance, " slope."
3.30 p.m.: All is ready. We are off! The town is
gradually disappearing as we smoothly glide down the
Southampton water. If I was only poetical, I might now
say a good deal about leaving the land of my birth, about
losing sight of the cliffs of dear old England, abandoning
the land of bitter beer, and steering for the countries over
which the Southern Cross sheds its lustre, the countries
where the palm trees wave, bananas grow, and fleas bite.
But the truth must be told — I am not a poet; therefore,
sooner than make an ass of myself by an attempt at poe
tical effusion, in mercy I desist — in mercy to my own repu
tation, and still more to the tender susceptibilities of my
much-loved and revered friends.
We pipe down to dinner, and towards the close of that
meal pass the Needles. • This a kind of caution, for now
we are in the open sea, and the ship begins to manifest a
little more movement. A strange feeling begins to creep
over me. It must be occasioned by the rocking of the
vessel. I feel what is termed squeamish. Dear me, how
very unpleasant ! " A life on the Ocean Wave," indeed !
Ugh ! He must have been a fool without feeling who
wrote that song. There are not quite so many persons on
deck as there were about half an hour ago. How's that ?
Can't say, I'm sure. Oh dear, oh dear ; how dreadfully
this ship rolls ! Terrible and disgusting ship for rolling.
At this juncture a kind passenger steps up, and conside
rately says: "Take a cigar, old fellow?" "Thank you,
not just now. I — I — The fact is, I don't care to smoke

SOUTHAMPTON WATEE.

at present. Thank you all the same though." This last
request was too much ; for, in a few minutes more, I was
lying in my bunk, not feeling the very happiest mortal in
creation.

LETTERS.

On board the " Douro," May 12, 1866.
My dear A. — I did not receive your note till after
sailing. It came from Southampton with the mails, and
was delivered to me in my cabin. I was very squeamish
and sick for two days, viz., Thursday and Friday, but am
much better to-day, and have enjoyed the fresh air on deck.
We shall most likely arrive in Lisbon early to-morrow
morning. Passengers are showing up again to-day; some of
them looking as I did this morning after my sea-sickness —
pale as a sheet. The Bay of Biscay is not a very pleasant
place. Tell B  there are two Romish priests on board,
but as they leave us at Lisbon, I do not think they will be
able to convert me to their faith in so short a time. One
of them was very sick, I hear, but persisted in endeavouring
to eat his meals and drink his wine. He had paid the
company for his ticket, and no doubt thought he would
get his money's worth. — I have no more news, so believe
me, yours, etc.

On board the " Douro," May 16, 1866.
SATURDAY, May 12 (when I last wrote), was fine, and I
walked on the deck, feeling very squeamish after my late
sickness. The wind was high, and the " Douro" is a ter-

LISBON.

rible roller ; but I am informed that most screw ships have
this unpleasant peculiarity. Our passage over the Bay of
Biscay was not actually rough, though there were but few
persons on the vessel, I believe, who did not feel the effects
of it. I kept myself up on Saturday by munching all day
at dry biscuits, and by confining myself in beverage to
cold 'water.
Sunday, May 13: We got into- Lisbon this morning
about five o'clock. Weather very fine ; the sun excessively
warm, even in the early morning. The view of the town,
and of the country on the opposite bank of the river, is
very pretty, as seen from the deck of our ship. When I
was at breakfast, Mr. P  came on board and introduced
himself to me. Soon afterwards he and I went ashore in
a small boat. Mr. P-, — told me he had heard on the
preceding evening that we should be put into quaran
tine when we got to Lisbon, because some report had been
current that there were cases of cholera in Southampton.
On landing, I found the heat in the town excessive, though
it was nothing to what they get in Lisbon during summer.
The houses and shops here are all built of light-coloured
materials, and the glare of the sun upon these white build
ings is at times quite trying to the eyes. We went to one
of the barracks, which stands on an eminence in the town,
and commands a very extensive view of the city and the
river Tagus. There were some soldiers parading in the
barrack yard. They were by no means fine men, had very
darls complexions, and were dressed in dark uniforms.
Their officer (a diminutive specimen of humanity) seemed
dreadfully conceited. Saw the cathedral, which has nothmg
that I noticed very striking about it; the congregation,

LISBON.

too, was small. I am told that the Portuguese are not
great church-going people. The Foundling Hospital we
also visited. The church here is fine, and the Mosaic
Chapel a most extraordinary work of art. Nobody who
has the chance should miss visiting it. The Opera House
is a very large building, and so is the principal theatre.
Although the day was Sunday, most of the shops were
open. Some of the streets in Lisbon are full of the same
kind of shops. Thus one street contains jewellers' or silver
smiths' shops ; another street has shops in all of which
Manchester goods are sold ; another is devoted to shops for
the sale of Yorkshire goods, and so on. The public gar
dens are very beautiful. From a shady walk in the upper
gardens a pretty view of the country is obtained, and the
cool breeze which we felt here was very acceptable. In the
town, two or three dashing young fellows, dressed in red
uniforms and ample breeches, passed us. On inquiring
who they were, I was told, " Followers of General Prim."
These gentlemen have fled from Spain and taken refuge in
the country about Lisbon.
Some of the Portuguese ladies are dark ; one or two,
however, whom I noticed were almost as light-complexioned
as our own countrywomen. I do not admire them, though
from the little I saw of them perhaps I have no right to form
an opinion. Thick lips and a tendency to obesity were the
marked characteristics of those whom I had the rudeness
to inspect. By-the-bye, what would an English gentleman
say to his coachman if the latter, when waiting outside a
house or shop for his master, were to light his cigarette
and commence smoking on the box of the carriage ? This
would not go down at all in England, would it ? Yet I

PEAK OF TENERIFFE.

saw it done in Lisbon. Mr. P  was most kind to me,
aud gave me three letters of introduction to friends of his
in Buenos Ayres and Monte Video.
Lisbon^is on the whole a fine place ; still the following
lines are not quite correct :—
Quem nao tem visto Lisboa
Nao tem visto cousa boa.
A free translation of which is —
If a fellow to Lisbon hath never been,
Then a beautiful sight he hath not seen.
There are many beautiful spots in the world besides the
capital of JPortugair When I returned to the ship my
friend S  was on board. He comes on to Rio, and
kindly offers to be my cicerone everywhere. Left Lisbon
about 5.45 in the afternoon, having taken on board several
new passengers and some Cargo. As you sail down the
river, the view of the Cintra mountains is splendid. As
we passed them the sun was setting, and shed a rich purple
tint over their rugged forms.
Monday, May 14: Very fine day, and much less sea
on. About noon, passed at some distance the homeward-
bound French mail. She is expected to bring you the
news of something decisive between the Brazilians and
Paraguayans. The sun was very hot ; but the awning on
board shaded us most pleasantly, and the day passed away
very jollily.
Tuesday, May 15, was a fine day, and the sea very calm.
Wednesday, May 16, was "ditto." We passed the
Peak of Teneriffe, in the Canary Islands, this afternoon ;
and also saw the town of Santa Cruz. In an attack made
on this town in the last century, Nelson lost his arm and

AN INVOLUNTARY BATH.

had nearly one hundred and fifty officers and men killed.
The celebrated peak, they say, is more than 15,000 feet high,.
and is, of course, always covered with snow. In the morn
ing, signaled a ship at some distance, bound for Liverpool.
Thursday, May 1 7 : Fine day, and calm.
Friday, May 18: An amusing episode, as Artemus
Ward would say, occurred in our cabin this morning.
D  , who sleeps in the same cabin as I. do, is very elo
quent on the subject of sufficient ventilation. About
seven o'clock, or a little before, as we were lying in our
berths, he opened the port-hole, which is certainly desir
able after sleeping for a length of time in a close box of
a cabin. He then lay down in his berth to have a quiet
read ; but while thus engaged (and, let me add, he sleeps
under the port-hole) the ship happened to give a lurch,
and in came a large wave, thoroughly drenching poor
D  , who immediately jumped from his berth with his
night-gown wet through and dripping with the salt water.
He looked up at me (lying untouched) with a most implor
ing and frightened glance ; and then, opening the door,
still dripping and looking like a drowned rat, vociferated
in a voice of woe, " Steward ! steward !" His wants were
soon attended to, and we found that five bucketfuls of
sea had poured into the cabin and on to my unfortunate
companion, who, by-the-bye, is a very jolly fellow, and
took all this in good humour. The best of the joke was,
that about half an hour before he had been to the bath
room, and had taken a cold salt-water bath, little thinking
at the -time that he would presently have so sudden and
unpleasant a repetition of the same.
About 5.0 A.M. this morning crossed the Tropic of

CAPE VERDES, ST. VINCENT.

Cancer; we expect to cross the line about the 25th. I learn
from an intelligent Brazilian, and one who occupies a good
position in Brazilian society, that there is a strangefeeling
,of_dislike> and ,jealousv_ existing between the Portuguese
and Brazilians, akin to Jbat_whitch_exists,jmfortunately,
"l5etweensome of ourselves and the North Americans. My
"Informant tells me that tqjcall_a Brazilian a Portuguese,
is to vex him as much a£^ou_jwould some English-
"men by calling them Yankees. Portuguese subjects, he
adds, if they go to Brazil, are soon desirous of becoming
naturalised, and on their return to Portugal are eager
that it shall be understood they are now naturalised Bra
zilians. This is from a Brazilian ; of course, as there are
always two sides to.,a; question, you may take the state-
rh'Sfffc for whaf it is worth. A passenger perpetrated an
atrocious pun or bon-mot on deck to-day. When we were
speaking of having crossed the Tropic, he remarked that
we might consider ourselves very fortunate, for we had got
over our cancer without the least pain !
Saturday, May 19 : Another fine day ; very hot. We
are passing under the sun. Shall get to St. Vincent, in the
Cape Verde Islands, to-morrow morning, all being well ;
and I intend to post this epistle at the British consulate
there. — Yours, etc.

• On board the " Douro," May 22, 1866.
Early on the morning of the 20th May we arrived at
St. Vincent. The view of this island on the one side and

10 NIGGER PRIESTS.

of St. Antonio on the other is not by any means bad ;
the rocks of St. Antonio especially being commanding on
account of their height and their bold and rugged outlines.
But the town of St. Vincent and the island of the same
name are indeed found to be wretched, barren, and dull, or
to use a Shaksperian phrase, "stale, flat, and unprofitable,"
when you have rowed to shore on a tour of inspection.
I said " town," but I have used a misnomer, unless a few
poor straggling streets, containing houses for the most
part like the huts of the Irish peasantry, constitute a
town. This place possesses a custom house, a small fort,
and a Roman Catholic chapel, S  ; his brother, his
cousin, and I entered this chapel, and were much amused
(perhaps I ought to be ashamed to use the word) with
what we saw there. The service was Jjejng^_ndu(atfid_by_
JMSSSX-Sli&isJ One of them passed us, walking with
all the dignity and sanctity of an archbishop. Bravo
Sambo ! " Am I not a man and a brother ?" and all that
kind of Exeter-hall bosh. It seemed such an anomaly —
a priest decked out in the vestments of the Church of
Rome, but with a black complexion and with regular
Blackamoor wool on the top of his head. The chapel was
"got lip" in a style quite surprising, when you bore in
mind the utterly poor and desolate aspect of the place.
There were candles on the altar, and images of the
Virgin and Christ were to be seen there. The mem
bers of the congregation, too, offered a great contrast to
the inhabitants of the island whom we had seen outside,
for they were much superior, as regarded their dress and
general appearance. The music jn_this_place of worship
was ofavery peculiar kind, noLcalculated — as we are told

CAPE VERDE ISLANDS. 11
some melodious sounds are — "to soothe the savage breast,"
for I apprehend the tendency and effect thereof would
have been to diffuse a smile over the face of the most
serious listener. Shame be to our proud natures which
will laugh at the endeavours of less civilised and less
musical brethren !
The inhabitants of these islands are not quite asjblack
as"the rejrularAfrican Sambo ; theh^jkjns^bejng-Qf .a. dark
brown tint — a tint a little darker than the colour in
children's paint boxes called raw sienna. Before breakfast,
we were greatly amused by watching from the side of our
vessel some of the young natives diving for money, thrown
to them into the sea by passengers. They were apparently
as much at home in the water as on the land. They are
remarkably clever at diving after pieces of money and at
bringing them up. When they have secured one coin,
they hold it up to view, then deposit it in their mouths,
and dive for more that may be thrown to them. The
squabbles which go on under the water among these divers
are highly ludicrous. Filthy lucre then, you see, finds a
place even in the hearts of such savages as the natives of
the Cape Verde Islands. We bought some English beer on
shore, proving thereby that there is no locality in the
world, however bad, but has its redeeming point. Ye
happy beer drinkers of England, what think ye we paid
for our potations 1 The small sum of two shillings per
bottle ! The little boys in this highly civilised town run
about in a state of innocent nudity, in a style d la Lady
Godiva. Altogether, the natives appear to lead an exist
ence of great primitiveness. At ten minutes to one we
left this delectable spot, concerning which one of the

12 FLYING FISH.

passengers remarked, that it was the most barren spot he
had ever seen, not excluding the Desert, which he had
crossed more than once.*
Rain seldom falls in St. Vincent ; it is on record, that
this insular Sahara has been without the moist blessing
above alluded to for the space of three years. However,
St. Antonio, the opposite island, is, I am told, cultivated,
and has forty thousand inhabitants.
Monday, May 21 : Very hot ; warm enough to boil an
egg in the sun. The flying fish were lively to-day, and
one of those winged gentlemen made a bolt on to the ship,
where he was detained. In these latitudes it is not an
uncommon occurrence for these extraordinary fish to fly
in large numbers on to the deck of a vessel, when chased
by larger fish or attracted by light. It would appear that,
like moths, they are attracted by lights burning at night.
Young men falling desperately in love with a female pos
sessed of dazzling beauty are often compared to moths ;
and novelists, depicting an unfortunate hero in this pre
dicament, are wont to exclaim, " Beware, poor moth ! "
Might they not, I ask, employing as faithful a metaphor,!
exclaim, "Look out, old fish ?"
Friday, May 25 : Early this morning, about three or
four o'clock, crossed the Equator. The weather, for the
last two or three days has been most stifling. Last Wed
nesday we had a tropical shower. The rain for twenty
minutes came peppering down in fine style ; the clouds
* Since writing the above, I have learnt from an Englishman
who has resided in St. Vincent for six or seven years, that there is
some verdure and a little cultivation in the island — pasture for a
few hundred cattle and sheep. The natives also raise vegetables.

PERNAMBUCO. 13

were very black, and the " Douro " began to pitch ; all sail
was taken in ; the captain and officers assumed their
macintosh attire ; and it looked as if we were going to
encounter a storm before crossing the Line ; but it soon
cleared up again ; the sun once more shone upon us and
the dark clouds were dispelled. Thus, the elements
treated us as an angry maiden in quarrel treats her loving
and adoring swain. She pouts ; she frowns ; she weeps ;
nay, perhaps she scolds ; he in return apologises, laments,
nay, perhaps kisses ; in a word, as we did, he " hauls_in
sail." Then the fair one's anger is assuaged, her wrath
mitigated, and as she sees her lover humbled, smiles once
more beam upon her radiant countenance ; she is appeased
at last ; and yes, by Jove, she grins !
Saturday, May 26 : To break the dreadful monotony
of sky and water, we saw two sailing ships to-day. Rain
fell after dinner. We are to arrive at Pernambuco to
morrow at an early hour. Weather still frightfully hot.
These are indeed " melting moments."
SUNDAY, May 27 : Just anchored off Pernambuco.
After breakfast I am going on shore. A pleasant, cool
breeze is blowing off the land this morning. Breakfast is
nearly ready, so hoping you are all " salubrious," I beg
once more to sign myself, yours, etc.

On board the " Douro," May 30, 1866.
Sunday, May 27 : Pernambuco, an ill-drained and poor-
looking town. The day was intensely hot. The sea here

14 BAHIA.
is frequently rough, and we had great fun in the after
noon, getting on board the ship from the small boat which
brought us from the shore. This operation is exciting
enough. The tide in the afternoon being very strong,
plenty of water entered our boat, and when I got on to
tbe " Douro" I was literally wet through. We had a hard
bit of rowing, and the six fellows who had to pull per
spired till their dark skins resembled oiled ebony. Plenty
of pineapples may be obtained in Pernambuco. The price
is about sixpence each. Here I had my first experience
of a Brazilian winter, which was warm enough to give me
a splitting headache, and I suffered all day long from
insatiable thirst, which I in vain tried to quench with
iced soda water and brandy.
Monday, May 28, was a close, damp day, and rain fell.
The night was squally and uncomfortable, though cooler ;
the vessel pitched about in a very see-saw manner, and the
captain remained on deck all night, not going to roost till
half-past five A.M.
Tuesday, May 29 : Arrived at Bahia. The entrance
into the bay is very striking. Had a heavy shower just
after dropping anchor. In these southern latitudes the
sun knows how to shine, nor is the rain by any means.
ignorant of its office, for it comes down in double quick
style. We landed after rowing to shore, and very uncom
fortable landing it was. The pier is nothing more than a
few slimy green steps, on to which you are obliged to jump
from a small boat pitching about in a very lunatic and
excited manner. The fruit market, with its fair ( ? ) ven
dors, should be visited ; though, gentle and susceptible!
reader, I will not warrant that your olfactory organs wilE

BAHIA. 15
not be highly offended there. Many of you no doubt are
well acquainted with the odour of the negro, so to say more/7
would be useless. The streets of Bahia are nothing grandjt
though this town altogether is much superior to that of Per
nambuco. Bahia, they say, is at present the second town
in Brazil, but it is not a thriving city, whilst Pernam
buco is, and consequently the latter may be expected to
surpass the former ere many years have elapsed. For one
white face in Bahia, you will see at least fifty blsicF^es.
Some of the black women attain great size ; they are tall
and beautifully developed. Their attire is verjUgh^;
perhaps the climate licenses this breach ofdecorum. which
is certainly something very funny and novel to European
eyes. The Paseo Publico, which stands high, and to which we
were conveyed in sedan chairs, carried by niggers (the usual
mode of transit in Bahia), is well worth a visit ; the vege
tation there is luxuriant, and you may see numbers of
humming birds and beautifully coloured butterflies flitting
about. The view of the bay here is also very good. We
went to the hotel and had a Brazilian dinner. I trenlble
to think what I may come to in my diet. Garlic here,
there, and everywhere ; and such messes, such mixtures,
such corruptions of good food, I never saw. Hotel indeed !
Very different from an hotel in England, but I wont
attempt to particularise the points of difference. We had
some good oranges, however, and mangoes and bananas.
Bananas are too sweet for my taste, and mangoes I have
not yet tried. I am told that after eating a mango you
should always drink a glass of water, otherwise it may do
you much harm. This precaution, given me by a mango

16 RIO DE JANEIRO.

eater, may prove useful to some persons. We left Bahia
about half-past five o'clock, and hope to arrive in Rio de
Janeiro on the first of June (next Friday). — Yours, etc.

Exchange Hotel, Rio de Janeiro, June 5, 1866.
v We arrived here on the first of the month, about noon,
after having had, on the whole, a most favourable voyage.
I am staying at the English Hotel with S  , who goes
on to Rio Grande in a few days ; consequently I do not
care to remain a month in Rio, and have made arrange
ments to sail for Monte Video to-morrow morning at eight
o'clock. I fancy we shall reach our destination on Sunday
evening next. I am told that from here to the Plate will
be the worst part of the voyage— certain to be rough, now
that it is winter time. I am disappointed with the city of
Rio. Its streets are narrow, the pavements very bad, and
in walking through the town numerous wretched smells
greet your nose. In justice, however, I must add that it
is a very well-lighted city, and has lately been- thoroughly
well drained. For the excellent lighting the inhabitants
are indebted to the Rio Gas Company, which owes it
origin and success mainly to the perseverance and ent :
prise of the Baron de Maua, a most popular Brazilian
nobleman. The country around the city, and of which I
have seen a little, is magnificent. The luxuriance of the.
tropical vegetation, and the variety and splendid colours of
the flowers and trees, are nothing short of enrapturing. I
have visited Tijuca, Botafogo Bay, and the Botanical Gar-;

THE BAY OF RIO. 17
dens, but to attempt a description of all the beautiful sce
nery is more than I will venture upon. The entrance into
the bay, however, is the great treat — a treat never to be
forgotten. The surrounding scenery, it is admitted by all
travellers, is not excelled in the world. From a recent
writer I extract the following : —
"Who shall worthily describe the beauties of that which
is perhaps the most beautiful place in the world ? The
European traveller who visits Rio for the first time, if he
has any appreciation of natural beauty, cannot fail to be
entranced with the scenery that awaits him ; and, what
ever fate may attend him in Utopia or Sirenia, he may be
pretty sure that he will never see anything more lovely in
this lower world. As the noble vessel dances over the blue
waves to the shining islands in the distance, the excite
ment continually increases. Telescopes are produced ; the
palms are seen waving over the sea-born rocks; and that —
yes, that — is the renowned Sugar-loaf. We slide between
a twin pair of granite islands rising abruptly from the sea,
covered with palms and cactus and innumerable green
shrubs stretching down towards the water, and presently
we see the narrow entrance to the harbour. A mighty
polling swell sets inland, and already we can see the long
faasses of white surf chasing one another up the rocks,
gainst which the waves chafe in perpetual wrath. The
fort of Santa Cruz, trumpery enough perhaps in these
days of Monitors and Armstrongs, but imposing in ap
pearance, guards the right hand of the entrance ; and on
tie left, the perpendicular precipices of the Sugar-loaf
mountain, though unarmed with man's artillery, look down
awfully on the intruder."

18 HOSPITALITY OF THE BRAZILIANS.
This description is not an exaggerated one, but on the
contrary is minute and accurate. On the left hand side of
the bay as you enter, there is a very peculiar mountain to be
seen, which is called the Corcovado — i.e., hump-backed. It
is so termed because in shape it exactly resembles the back
of a stooping or deformed man. It rises 2,100 feet above
the level of the sea, and from the summit a magnificent
view may be obtained. The ascent is usually made upon
mules. The Sugar-loaf, or Pdo de Assucar as it is called
by the Brazilians, is a rocky mountain very similar in form
to a loaf of sugar which may be seen any day in a grocer's
shop window. The summit of the loaf is not easy of access,
for its sides are very steep and covered with cactus. An
English midshipman, however, climbed to the top one day.
The height of this Sugar-loaf is 1,200 feet,
I have little more to say, except to inform you that I
have received the most kind hospitality from all Brazilians
to whom I have been introduced in this city. Brazilian
hospitality is proverbial ; andjt is_not JpossjbJ.eJo~orcrrate
the polrfcene^jKwnJip„ all ..strangers .and foreigners by the~
^5ciL£LtJii»-^SEk&. ' Everything which a Brazilian
possesses is at the service and disposition of his friends •
and I feel convinced that when he informs you of this fact :
which he seldom fails to do, he says what he really means.
I have twice visited the Alcazar, a favourite place '..of
amusement here. The performances are in French and
consist of light comedy, comic opera, vaudevilles, etc. The
building is poor, but the music excellent. Rio has also an
opera house, and an Italian company sometimes visits the-
metropolis of Brazil. — I remain, yours, etc.

MONTE VIDEO. 19

Monte Video, June 13, 1866.
Sailing from Rio de Janeiro early on the morning of
the 6th, we anchored off Monte Video on the evening of
the 10th, after experiencing good weather during the five
days' voyage. As the darkness had set in, we were not
able to go ashore till the following morning. I soon got
my luggage through the custom house ; the officials being
very polite and obliging. I then proceeded at once to the
bank to visit Mr. H  , who, in P. R. parlance, "received
me smiling,'' and soon exemplified South American
hospitality by asking me to stay in his house as long as I
liked ; telling me the hours for meals, requesting me to
make myself quite at home, and in fact treating me
exactly like a member of his family. I have my room
here, and walk in and out of the house as if it were my
own ; "but of course I shall not abuse my host's hospitality
and stay too long. I intend in the course of a week or so
to cross the river to Buenos Ayres, in order to visit the
Baron's Estancia (or estate) in the province of Entre
Rios. With the city of Monte Video I am most agreeably
surprised. I prefer it to any Brazilian town I have seen ;
the streets here are broader, and the houses have a more
modern and less dilapidated appearance than those in
Brazil. All the houses have flat roofs, after the Moorish
style ; the shops, as far as outward appearance is to be
trusted, are very good; but Monte Video has the universal
fault of South American cities on this coast — the pave
ments throughout are bad, miserably bad. There is a
good theatre here, to which place of amusement I went
last night, to see an amateur performance. I was well

20 WATCHMEN.

pleased, for the acting was fair and the play presented a
novelty to me, being the first I had heard in the Spanish
language. The proceeds of this entertainment were for
the benefit of the " Orientales heridos," or the OrientaL
(the natives of this country) wounded in the war which is
now going on with the Paraguayans. The ladies here, the
aenoras and senoritas, are fully deserving of the great
praise bestowed upon their good looks. I have never seen
more beautiful faces than those I meet in the streets of
Monte Video. The ladies' complexions are not at all
dark, as I had expected they would be ; their features are
full and symmetrical, their expression, though generally
naive, possesses a touch of dignity, which is very charm
ing ; their eyes are of. the nature of those which " speak,"
and, together with their hair, are for the most part dark.
The excellent taste displayed by these ladies in their dress
would put to shame many English women, who undeniably
have too great a liking for gaudy colours. All this is my
unprejudiced opinion; I speak of the fair sex as they are; I
nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice.*
In Monte Video the old custom of watchmen calling
the hour of night is still preserved. As there are many
of these watchmen, and as they call the hours and half
hours simultaneously, you may imagine that no little noise
is produced throughout the town. In telling you the hour
of the night and the state of the weather they drawl out

* Since writing the above, I have been informed that quite one
half of the inhabitants of Monte Video are foreigners. This
eulogium then, must be qualified. It cannot be considered as con
ferred upon the " Orientales" only.

WATCHMEN. 21

their words in a slow, plaintive tone, in a sort of. melan
choly chant. There is a watchman, or sereno as he is
called in these parts, who each night stations himseK at
the corner of the street,, almost exactly under my bedroom
window, and every half hour drawls out his dismal call —
Las-on-ce^y-me-dia, y-se-re-no-o. Nor is this all, for at
the same moment between twenty and thirty watchmen
commence the same song in different parts of the town,
within earshot, and are frequently kind enough to rouse
you from a pleasant slumber. A stranger in Monte Video,
unaware of the existence of serenos, and awakened by
these dismal night sounds, would most probably come to
the conclusion that all the tomcats in the neighbourhood
had come together in nocturnal meeting, and were divert
ing themselves by a caterwauling concert. Mr. Hutchinson,
the British consul at Rosario, who has written a book on
these countries, gives a good description of the watchman.
He says :
" At ten o'clock, the stranger accustomed to the quiet
of an English town is startled by a mournful wail, re
minding him of what he has read in old times of the
melancholy ululatus of the Banshee in Ireland ;. and this
is the watchman, whose title is sereno. A real old Charlie
he is too, as we see him pass our door on a winter moon
light night, with his gray top-coat, cap like a monk's cowl,
long spear, and lantern. It occupies him at least a minute
and a half to drawl out — for he pronounces every letter —
the cry of L-a-s-d-i-e-z-h-a-n-d-a-d-o-y-s-e-r-e-n-o ; that
is to say, 'Ten o'clock has struck, and it's serene;' a
melody which is repeated by every watchman in town at
the same hour. This refrain is chanted each half hour

22 BUENOS AYRES.
during the night, with no difference except as regards the
time, and that occasionally the words y sereno are changed
into y nublado, indicating a brewing in the clouds of
something tempestuous."
Box organs are a great nuisance in this place ; one is
grinding away now, just outside the window. Begone,
brave Oriental, with your dissonant din, and let a cove
finish his letter: Begone, I say. — Yours, etc.

Buenos Ayres, Saturday Night, June 23, 1866.
I did not arrive here till this morning, or rather last
night, and landed to-day. I put up at the Hotel de la
Paix. I was delayed in Monte Video till Friday morning,
waiting for a steamer. The one by which I came should
have sailed two or three days before it did ; but procras
tination is quite the order of the day in this part of the
world. Hasta manana — "Wait till to-morrow, wait till
to-morrow!" — is a common phrase in almost everybody's
mouth. Mr. H  was particularly kind and attentive
to me during my stay in Monte Video, which I much
enjoyed. On my leaving, he gave me letters of recom
mendation to Mr. L  , and the latter told me I could go
up to the estate in Entre Rios either to-morrow or wait
till next Sunday. I have determined to start to-morrow
at nine o'clock. I go up the river Parana in a steamer
for the first day, sleep in some small town, the name of
which I have forgotten, and the next day go to the
Estancia either by diligence or on horseback. I hope to

BAD PAVEMENTS. 23
get to my destination on the evening of the second day —
Monday. I dined with Mr. L  and his family this
evening. He gave me an account of what my daily bill
of fare would be on the Estancia. Listen, ye pampered
epicures of England ! On rising, some coffee and biscuit ;
about eleven, beef or mutton, and by way of vegetable
a kind of pumpkin ; in the evening more beef with math
(the native tea) and bread. As I must be turning into
bed early to-night, in order to be up in good time, I say
good bye for the present. Buenos Ayres is a fine town,
quite equal to Monte Video. TtHiaTone or tw^erygoocl
plazas, a handsome cathedral, and several public build
ings of imposing aspect ; but then there is the same old
fault I have mentioned before, viz., wretched roads* and
.¦disgraceful pavements throughout the city. — Yours, etc. ,
* Wretched indeed, as the following paragraph which I cut from
the Buenos Ayres Standard at a subsequent period will prove to
you:- ' '"if
"Catastrophe at 'Plaza OonstItucioit.' — On Tuesday1 after
noon there was a horse drowned, or rather choked to death, in
the mud in the Calle de Lima, alongside of the tramway near the
Plaza de la Constitution. The mud in that particular spot is so
very deep that it is considered by most drivers to be nearly im
passable ; however, a carter, who must have been a very boldman
indeed, undertook the dangerous passage, and the poor horse, obey
ing the commands of his master, rushed into the muddy pool, but
it was never to come out of it again alive. ' The horse struggled
bravely, but the mud was very tenacious, and all at once the horse
disappeared. The cart nearly followed, but only sank, pressing the
horse down ; the driver had to scramble quickly to the top, pf the
cart, until the neighbours came to his rescue with planks, and after
some time had elapsed, drags being resorted to, the horse was drawn
out, quite dead. The event caused an immense sensation in the plaza
among the natives and the travellers by the tramway.''

24 DILIGENCE TRAVELLING.

" Estancia Isabel Fernanda," Entre Rios,.June 30, 1866.
I did not arrive here till last Tuesday. The journey up
country was a longer one than I had been led to expect
We left Buenos Ayres early on the Sunday morning, and
after travelling a short distance by rail, we arrived at the
Tigre, whence the steamer starts. The name of the boat
was the "Tala," a comfortable though small steamer,
and as there were many passengers on board we were
much crowded. We remained in a literally packed con
dition until half-past ten at night, when we changed
steamers, getting on to the "Dolorcitas," the "Tala" going
on to Rosario. We soon started again, and arrived at the
port of Gualeguay about one o'clock on Monday afternoon.
The sail up the rivers Parana and Gualeguay was very
monotonous ; long sedge and weeping willows are the chief
characteristics of the scenery along the banks. We slept
in Gualeguay on the Monday night, at a very funny
apology for an hotel. Early the following morning we
were uproused from our virtuous couches by the loud,
blowing of a horn. This blatant announcement signified
that the diligencia (or stage coach) was about to start ; so
we had to jump up, slip on our clothes, swallow some eggs
and a cup of coffee, and be ready for the old rumble-tumble
(which was very like an ancient omnibus painfully dislo
cated) in two jiffies. Off we went, and didn't we gallop
over the camp ?* Didn't we ? That's all ! Ten leagues
from Gualeguay, and we were at our destination — at least

* The word camp in South America corresponds with the bush of
Australia. The correct Spanish word is campo, which means open
country.

ENGINEERING. 25

the diligence did not take us further ; but we were met
here by a vehicle which goes by the 'name of the
" Machine " (the term, you will say, is very generic), and
by this mode of conveyance, after twenty minutes of the
roughest travelling I had ever before experienced, we
were safely landed on the Isabel Fernanda estate. I may
here remark that I have travelled in many peculiar and
hazardous ways since leaving home, and that sometimes I
have been constrained to court sleep in places where I did
not suppose she was to have been "wooed," much less "won ;"
but my experience of the last two or three days has taught
me something. In writing thus, however, I place the cart
before the horse, for I have not let you know sufficiently
how much I enjoyed my stay in Monte Video, nor the
extraordinary capacity in which I crossed from the last-
named town to Buenos Ayres. When I communicated to
Mr. H  that I thought it was high time for me to cross
the river, he told me there was then a vessel of the Baron's
lying in the harbour, that it would sail shortly for Buenos
Ayres, and that he would give me a passage in her. I
accepted his kind offer, and after some days' delay the
"San Paulo,", as the steamer was named, took up her
anchor* and " sloped," as our American cousins say. As
the " San Paulo " was chartered by the Brazilian govern
ment, and was taking up a large amount of ammunition to
Corrientes, of course it was against law to convey passen
gers. Well, when I got to the Custom House at Buenos
Ayres, they asked by what boat I had come, and who I
was. Mr. H — 's brother, who was with me, and who speaks
Portuguese fluently, replied that I had come by the " San
Paulo," and that I was an engineer in the Brazilian

26 ESTANCIA ISABEL FERNANDA.
service. After that, my trunks were passed rapidly. The
" ruse " served admirably, and my engineering abilities for
the first time in my life were very serviceable. .
Life upon a South American sheep farm is something
very novel to an Englishman. It is a life jc£jreedom, an
existence spent almost^entirely on horseback, and though
^unSolibtedly most healthyjs undeniab'lyTery monolifflous.
Tfiellab^rFernanda is a magnificent Estancia, covered
with rich pasture and stocked with forty thousand sheep,
eight thousand head of cattle, and a thousand horses. Our
daily bill of fare is by no means so bad or scanty as I had
been led to suppose it would be. At about half-past seven
in the morning we have a cup of tea, with bread and
butter ; at half -past ten breakfast is put upon the table,
and consists of beef or mutton, and by way of vegetable
we have pumpkin ; at half-past two we again take tea and
bread and butter ; and at seven o'clock supper, which is a
meal somewhat similar to the dinner. We have excellent
home-made bread and beautiful fresh butter. The two
last, by-the-bye, are perfect luxuries in the camp, though
I see no reason why all persons could not readily avail
themselves of them, flour being easily obtained, and cows
innumerable. Besides the peones, or native shepherds, we
have three or four Englishmen on the farm ; and our
manager and capataz are both Scotchmen, who have lived
for some length of time in this country. The work of a
shepherd, or, as he is called here, a puestero, is neither
difficult nor arduous. He has a house found for him, pays
nothing for his food, and receives wages of fifteen dollars
per month — in English money £2. 7s. 6d. . All he has to do
is to let his flock out of the corral, or pen, in the morning,

BIRDS, ETC. — CLIMATE. 27
to watch during the day that his sheep do not stray from
their right walk (as the portion of ground allotted to each
flock is termed) or mix with the other flocks, and in the
evening he has to drive the sheep into the corral again.
Upon this estate there are fourteen such puesteros. A
manager of an Estancia has plenty to do, for the natives
are dreadfully idle dogs, and require incessant watching.
The variety and beauty of the birds here are very striking.
I went out with my gun the other day, and fired at parrots,
pigeons, partridges, owls, etc. ; no lack of game, I can assure
you, such as it is. It is a very strange fact, however, that
the partridges of the Pampas will not rise until you get
close upon them. You are often obliged to shoot them on
the ground, as they will lead a sportsman a long chase
before taking to flight. We have no rabbits in this
country. What may be called a substitute, though indeed
a poor one, is the biscacho, a burrowing animal of the
marmot species, with a large head and fat, round body.
The flesh of these animals is little esteemed, and they
create much mischief in the camp, destroying the grass
with their numerous burrows, and making_ridingin many
parts highly dangerous ; for frequent accidents ' aind jails'
take place, occasioned 'By a horse stumbling in a biscachero
or biscacho hole. The weather here now is very cold in the
morning and evening, but the afternoons are as warm as
summer days at home, though this month is the middle of
winter. It is entirely a mistaken notion which is preva
lent in England that the winter in the River Plate is not
severe, and consists chiefly in the downfall of heavy rains.
Although we have seldom ice of more than the thickness
of a shilling, and snow never falls, still as this country is

28 SHEEP FARMING LIFE.
a flat plain, a boundless prairie, without a tree in most
parts, there is necessarily nothing to break the force of the
strong, cold, biting winds which blow from the south, and
are most intensely cold, piercing through the thickest
winter clothes and entering your very bones. Indeed, a
recent English writer has said that in Buenos Ayres he felt
the greatest cold he ever remembers to have experienced
in his life.
Saturday, July 14: I began this letter on the last
day of June, as you will see, but through delay, was too
late to send it by the French mail. Since then I have
received a letter from home. I was not surprised to hear
of the commercial panic, for the news from England
which we took with us in the " Douro" created no small
sensation, both in Rio and Monte Video. During my
stay in Monte Video there was a most unprecedented run
on the Maua Bank ; the news of the numerous failures in
London and elsewhere seemed to cause the greatest anxiety
to all persons. As for the life which I lead here, I like it
very much : plain food and early to bed. It seems hard
at first, but, like every other kind of virtue, " is its own
reward," for a fellow soon feels all the better for it.. I am
studying with eager interest that useful domestic animal
the sheep, and watching his mode of treatment with a
careful eye. Some Negretti rams arrived the other nighty
and are really magnificent animals. The night of their
arrival was very dark, and as Peter, a comical, cock-eyed
servant on the estate, was carrying one of these rams from
the bullock cart into the galpon his foot unfortunately
slipped and he went rolling over in the dirt with the sheep
in his arms. The episode was amusing, I must tell you

THE WAR — VERACITY. 29
that the aforesaid Peter is a Paddy, and a source' of great
amusement to us at nights, when he recounts numerous
Irish incredibilities and sailor-like yarns. In fact he is an
"illigant" liar. — — - «~~
— Therearetwo other young men on the Estancia besides
myself; one a Scotchman, who was a medical student in
Glasgow, and the other an Englishman, born in this
country. The man wh« works the plough (an English
man too) is a little musical, and has a concertina, which
he plays in the evening; and the two young fellows I
have mentioned, the mayor domo, Peter, and myself sing
uproarious songs, join in noisy choruses, and kick up a
most jolly row. Our concert generally takes place in the
kitchen, the dressers of which, together with some logs of
wood, make excellent seats — better than any of your re
served dress stalls at Her Majesty's Theatre. Besides,
evening dress is not strictly exacted, which is a great bles
sing. With regard to the Paraguayan war, you will no
doubt have heard that the Brazilians and Argentines gained
a great victory on the twenty-fourth of May. This, let me
plainly inform you, is an untrue report, and will no doubt
have found its way into most English papers. A battle
was fought on the day I mention, after which event both
armies held the same position as at the commencement of
the fight. Lopez, the Paraguayan chief, claims a victory
as well as President Mitre, and no doubt just as rightly.
You do not in England get' fair accounts of the progress of
this war ; all the news is Buenos Ayrean flavoured before
it reaches home. The fact is, Lopez, notwithstanding the
numbers of the allied army, holds quite as good a position
as he did at the beginning of this foolish struggle. Let

30 HORSES AND HORSE GEAR.
i "
the allies talk as they will, they cannot conquer nor even
dislodge the Paraguayan dictator. The sympathies, too, of
many ofthe inhabitants of the Argentine Republic are all
with the Paraguayans. There is at present much talk of
a peace being concluded, and most people seem to think
that this is not unlikely, for the Brazilians and Argentines,
I am inclined to think, are nearly at the end of their tether*
in regard to money matters. Add to this the sickness in
both armies, together with the wretched treatment and the
insufficient clothing the Argentines receive, and surely
they are lamentable facts which ought to conduce to this
desirable end.
The weather here for the last week or so has been severe.
It is well I brought winter clothes, for they are highly
necessary at this season of the year, and a top coat in the
morning is quite indispensable. Riding on a South Ameri
can horse is at first awkward for one who has been accus
tomed to rise in his saddle. In this part of the world a
man never rises from his seat on horseback, but, planting
his feet firmly in the stirrups, remains perfectly stationary.
The horses always gallop, trotting being almost unknown,
except in the towns. Horses are very cheap. A gold
ounce, which in English money is £3.| 6s. 8d., will purchase
a very good riding horse for ordinary purposes. The
natives do not use the English saddle, but the Spanish
r-ecado, which is a very cumbrous affair, weighing some
times between thirty and forty pounds. The South Ameri
cans are very fond of silver-mounted bridles and whips,
and often wear spurs made of the same metal. Indeed
you will be surprised to hear that in this country, although
a man be as poor as a rat, not having a real wherewith to

RIDING AND WALKING. 31

bless himself, he may be seen riding a fine horse decked
out with silver trappings. The natives of the Plate pro
vinces cannot understand why a man should take any
other mode of exercise but that of riding. I have read in
some book that one of Her Majesty's naval officers once
took a walk of six leagues near Buenos Ayres, and the
people at once put him down as a madman, and thought
he was too poor to buy a horse. Flocks of sheep are tended
by shepherds on horseback, and this mode of guarding
them is absolutely necessary, owing to the large number
of animals in each flock, and the almost total absence of
any good sheep dogs.
The editor of the Standard, the only English news
paper in the River Plate, was up here the other day and
stayed the night. I arranged with him to send you the
Weekly Standard by each mail. The news in this paper
will give you some idea of what is going on in these parts,
and of the rough and almost uncertain kind of life which
we lead in the camp. Mr.'Mulhall, the editor, is a very
courteous gentleman, and has invited me to call upon him
when I am next in Buenos Ayres. I accepted his invita
tion, and have no doubt he and his friends will supply me
with useful information as to the purchase of land, stock,
etc. I shall now bring this letter to an end, hoping you
are all well, and that the commercial panic has passed
over, leaving matters (to use a medical phrase) "as well as
can be expected." — Yours, etc.
P.S. : I enclose you a small map, from which you may
judge of my exact whereabouts. We lie about thirty miles
to the north-west of Gualeguay, where, I forgot to tell you,
a short railway was opened on the 9th ultimo, remarkable
as being the first line in Entre Rios.

32 NATIVE CHARACTER — INSECTS.

Gualeguay, Entre Bios,
September 25, 1866.
I yesterday received letters from England. Many thanks
for all of them. I got no newspapers, but this is no wonder,
for newspapers are articles which seldom reach their des
tination in this country ; where they go to I cannot say,
but everybody makes the same complaint. The winter we
have just passed through has been the wettest known for
the last thirteen or fourteen years. In the camp during
winter you must literally "winter" it. Comfort is not
known, and a fellow has to put up with a host of inconve
niences. Morally though, it does him good, for it shows
him what he can go through when put to it. The news in
this country is literally nil. The life is awfully monoto
nous. As to the general character of the natives, I can
only describe it to you by an English adjective of three
letters — bad. They are said to be dreadful thieves and
liars. In society there appears to be little, if any, distinc
tion. The government is the curse of the land — witness
the petty intestinal struggles always going on, especially
in the Banda Oriental. The natives are revengeful, and if,
they receive an affront are not over-scrupulous in adminis
tering to their adversary an inch or two of cold steel. I
saw a man the other day with no less than five wounds in
him; one close to his heart; another above his lungs,
which, until plugged, allowed the breath to escape. On
inquiring, I learnt that two cowardly rascals had set on
him, and treated him thus kindly.
I am dreadfully eaten up with fleas, mosquitos,, and I„
very much fear a more formidable insect, whose name

LATE TO BUY LAND — THE WAR. 33
begins with b, although I have not been able to capture
one of the last specimens of natural history up to the date
of writing.
The climate here is very variable ; one day hot enough
to roast you ; the next bitterly cold, with a piercing wind
from the south. The shearing season commences 'the
middle of next month, when of course every sheep farmer
will be unusually busy.
During the last month, I have come across several
Englishmen looking about them before settling, in the
manner I am doing. It is useless to conceal the fact that
ten years ago was a much better time to buy land than at
present. This I was told on the voyage out, and the expe
rience and inquiries of three months have confirmed the
report. Land in anything like a civilised district is now
bought up on all sides, and it is a lucky chance if you
alight upon any in those parts. Besides, the price asked
for camp in a civilised district near to a town is very high.
For instance, a suerte of camp in the Banda Oriental, near
to the Rio Negro, will cost you about £3,300. That a man
need never starve here for want of work will be readily ad
mitted by all who have seen the country ; but that money
is to be gathered in handfuls and amassed with amazing
facility, as many public journals represent, is very doubtful.
As far ar I can gather, the war in Europe is virtually at
an end. As regards the war here, nearly everything stands
just in the same position as when the struggle began.,
Rumours of peace are constantly reaching us, but are of
the same value as most idle rumours. Lopez, in vulgar
phrase, "holds out like a good one,'' and to all appearance
will thus hold out for some time to come. Pressing of men

34 RAIN AND ROOKS — ANTS.
for the army still continues, and most Englishmen carry a
" protection," to prove their rights as English subjects, and
consequent exemption from serving in a foreign war.
! These " protections " are really necessary precautions, and
can be obtained from our consuls in Buenos Ayres, Monte
Video, and elsewhere for a trifling sum.
The weather, for about the last month until within two
or three days, has been magnificently fine. When rain
falls here it comes down in torrents, and, sad to say, brick
layers' work is very inefficient ; the water often comes
through the roof into my bedroom, and prevents me
sleeping for a time by its monotonous splashing sound
upon the floor. In the camp', I have seen the floor of my
room half covered with mud and water. But that's
nothing to us sheep farmers. If the rain is entering
through the roof and falling rather too near my head to
be pleasant, I just move my bed into the dryest corner,
and fall asleep, defying the elements.
There are a great many ants' nests in the camps of
South America. On entering my expensively furnished
apartment, just before my bed was made, one morning, I
was not a little disgusted at finding a quantity of ants
running over my pillow. On further search, I discovered
that these small animals had found their way down into
the bed, and were courting the warmth of my blanket.
There must have been a nest in the immediate vicinity of
my bed, and the rain, which was coming down fast at the
time, no doubt had driven them from their abode, and caused
them to seek the drier regions of my unpretending couchj
I had, of course, a grand search after this discovery, and
succeeded in killing a large number of the invading army.

TORTURE. 35

You will be sorry to hear that in this part of the world
torture is resorted to, in order to extort confession from
supposed culprits. I have seen a lad "stretched" three
times, with the object of making him confess a supposed
theft — bear in mind, only a supposed one. The stretching
consisted in placing four rough stakes in the ground ; to
these stakes, by means of thongs of hide, the culprit's arms
and legs were attached— he lying with his face to the ground.
Then the comisario, or military policeman of the district,
gave the word to his men : " Tire, tire, tire mas !" which
means, Pull, pull away; pull tightly. The thongs were
pulled and tightened until the limbs of the tortured victim
were as stiff as he could possibly bear, and in this position
he remained for five minutes or so, crying dolefully in his
agony. The lad whom I saw undergo this pain fainted
twice under its influence, when, by way of bringing him
to his senses again, he received a douche of cold water
thrown over his face. No confession was obtained, and
the comisario then began to suspect that somebody else
was the thief. Nevertheless the poor lad was marched off
to prison. If you never before heard of real Justice being
administered, surely here is an instance in hand! We»
poor English have a foolish and mistaken idea that every
suspected, and even real, offender ought to have a trial
and the means of defending himself before any punish
ment is inflicted upon him ; but this is very ridiculous.
. How much better it would be in all cases to carry out the
summary administration of punishment, as practised by
these enlightened and by no means cruel Argentines !
I have no more news to give you, if you can term "news"
that which is written in this letter. It strikes me that it

36 A SALADERO.

is only a short epitome of facts and occurrences respec
tively observed and taking place in what is undoubtedly
a very uncivilised portion of God's globe. But " Live and
learn" is a good maxim, and I readily admit I am a wiser
fellow since I left home. — Yours, etc.

Buenos Ayres, October 4, 1866.
Since I have been in the town I have been enabled,
through the courtesy of a Brazilian gentleman, whose
acquaintance I made in Monte Video, to pay a visit to a
Saladero at Barracas. It is the property of a Frenchman.
Seven hundred to eight hundred novillos (young oxen),
besides numerous capones (wethers), are slaughtered there
daily. The killing is performed with great celerity, and
everything in connection with the cutting up and salting
of the beef is done with such perfect ease and nonchalance
by all the men employed, that the horror of the scene is
•in part diminished. I will endeavour to give you a brief
description of the process. r
THE "SALADERO."
The animals intended for killing are put into a corral or
enclosure. A man stands on an elevation, about the height
of the top of the corral which contains the animals, with a
rope in his hand, the end of the rope being formed for a
lasso ; the other end is attached to two horses or bullocks.

A SALADERO. 3?

When aU is ready for action, the man throws his lasso into
the herd of oxen, and fastens it round the horns of one, and
often of two. The word to pull is then given to the men
on the horses. They accordingly pull, dragging forward
the unfortunate brute with the lasso round his head1 to
one end of the corral, which is narrowed off, and from
which point there is a passage into a large shed, where the
bleeding of the animals and the cutting up of the meat
goes on. Over this passage stands another man, with a
knife in his hand ; and when the captured bullock is
dragged up into the narrowed end, and within reach of his
arm, he plunges the knife into the back of the neck, sever
ing the spine. This last movement is almost instantaneous;
and the slaughtered animal drops on to a truck, which is
immediately rattled away by some more men into the shed ;
there the dead ox is taken off, and the truck returned in
order to receive another victim in like manner. After the
bullock is taken off the truck his throat is cut, his hide
taken off, and he is cut up into numerous pieces. In an
inconceivably short period, say eight to ten minutes, he is
literally no more — i.e., no more a bullock, for by that time
he is entirely skinned, chopped up, and put into pickle,"
and his bones and fat are undergoing the process of being
boiled down to extract the grease from them. It must be
added that no part of an animal is wasted; nothing is
rejected ; hoofs, bones, horns are all made use of. The
meat, after being cut into thin slices or flakes, goes through
a great deal of salting, after which it is hung on palings
and dried in the sun, when it constitutes the jerked beef
of commerce, or as it is named here, charqui. I saw whole
plots of ground, miniature fields so to speak, covered with

38 PRESERVATION OF BEEF.
this meat in the process of drying. Hanging on the
palings it looked like so much leather become mildewed
and put out into the sun to dry. How this preparation
can possibly contain the smallest amount of nutriment, I
leave it to others to tell. The greatest consumption of
jerked beef is in Habana and Brazil. I suppose it is con
sidered as fit food for the nigger.
It is said that a new process for preserving beef has
been discovered and patented by Professor Morgan, of the
Royal College of. Surgeons in Ireland. The meat preserved
by this process is said to be much more palatable, and, let
us trust, less like leather than charqui. The following
paragraph I extract from a pamphlet upon the River Plate;
published by Bates, Hendy, and Co. : —
" ' The Morgan Patent Meat-Preserving Company' has
been formed in Liverpool for carrying out, on a large scale,
this process in South America, and patents have been
secured in the various South American provinces. Several
importations have already taken place, with complete suc
cess ; the prices realised by public auction being threepence-
halfpenny to fivepence, and even fivepence-halfpenny per
pound wholesale ; the meat being firm, but not hardened,
of a fresh, red colour, juicy, and in pieces of six or eight
pounds weight for beef, and the mutton in quarters. The
Company is now engaged in making further preparations
for a regular importation of these meats on a scale suited
to the wants of the 'million,' who will thus shortly be
supplied with sound, homely, and nutritious meat for the
much-talked-of threepence per pound, or, as a practical
rule, for half the price of the ordinary home supply even
of the coarse and inferior animals."

WASTE OF MEAT. 39

It is of course highly desirable that some mode of
preserving South American beef in a really palatable form,
and by which it could be offered at a moderate price,
should be discovered. It would be a great boon to the
poor of many European countries, and would put a stop
to the terrible waste of meat which daily goes on in the
River Plate. The following from the Pevista de Buenos
Ayres will give you some idea of that waste : —
"It is calculated that on an average six hundred thousand
head are annually slaughtered, of which, with the excep
tion of fifteen thousand consumed by Buenos Ayres, Monte
Video, Santa Fe", Corrientes, and the other towns, all the
flesh and other parts are completely lost. The enormity
of such a wanton waste may be more easily imagined by
the fact that three hundred and eighty nine vessels of from
200 to 300 tons might be annually freighted with the pre
cious offal. Convinced that a profitable business might be
done in this way, some Irish and Spanish speculators were
the first to engage in a trade which of late has been so
warmly entered into by Dr. Morgan and others, and which
already promises such happy results to them and the whole
country." I came down from the camp into town in order to take
up my summer clothes to the Estancia. To-morrow,
however, to use a French expression, I am going to return
to my sheep,* for if I don't take to-morrow's steamer, I
shall have to stop a week more in Buenos Ayres. Mr.
L  has promised to give me a letter of introduction to
the manager of the Mercedes estate, which he says I ought

* " Bevenons a nos moutons."

40 A DIARY.

not to miss seeing. I shall, all being well, proceed to
Mercedes in about a month or five weeks (after the shear
ing is over at the estate in Entre Rios), making my way
across country from Entre Rios to the Banda Oriental by
steamer and diligence travelling.
Mr. L  , the manager of the Banco Maua shows me
much hospitality and favour. I find it is much better to
lead a quiet life out here than to follow in the track of many
fellows in this country, who soon " go to the dogs." Brandy
drinking and gambling are rife both in the camp and town, (
and are bad traps into which a man soon falls, if he hasn't
got ballast enough to keep himself steady. By-the-bye, a
spirit which is very much drunk in the camp is cana — ai
kind of rum extracted from the sugar cane. The best/
cana comes from Habaria, and is unfortunately cheapj
Hoping all are well at home, yours, etc.
P. S. : I have paid my visit to the editor of the English
paper, who received me very graciously in his editorial
chamber. Of course I felt quite literary.

" Estancia Maua," near Mercedes, Uruguay,
November 21, 1866.
When I first came to this country, I began to keep a
diary, which, like many new things, at first ran on smoothly
and with a fair promise of success, but through lack of
anything new to put into it, when I had briefly written
down my opinion of the native character from personal
observation and experience, I was obliged to allow the
aforesaid diary to fall through. All I could have written

COCK-FIGHTING — WAKES. 41
after thajfc would have been in reference to the old subject
familiar to all — the weather. The diary would have run
on in the following strain : Fine day ; Wet day ; Very fine
day ; Very wet day. This would have been slightly mono
tonous, and would have caused you to exclaim, "Well,
well; we've heard that, or something very like it, fifty
times before 1" I intend however to make some use of
what little I have written, by sending you a few extracts
from my attempted journal on a sheep farm ; giving you,
so to speak, the cream of my literary efforts, and con
demning the milk to go sour, as I have no intention of
either preserving it or of putting it to any further use.
Well, here goes !
Sunday, July 1 : A cold, frosty morning, but the after
noon* was very warm, like a summer day at home. I
walked to a neigbouring pulperia (i.e., public house, but
in this country it is incorporated with a shop), and here I
indulged in some cana. Behind the pulperia a cock-fight
was going on. This is a sport the natives are desperately
fond of. In most of the towns there are public cock-pits,
which are termed circos de gallos. The spurs of the cock
are supplemented with steel or some similar metal, so that
he very feelingly administers blows to his antagonist. I
stayed and watched the fight out, though I cannot conceal
my conviction that cock-fighting is a degrading amusement.
Tuesday, July 3 : Cold, sharp morning; the afternoon
again very warm. I learnt to-day that on the occasion of
a death, the gauchos, like the Irish, have a "wake," which
in plain words means a feast and a jollification. Surely
these wakes are sadly out of place in the presence of the
sleep of death.

42 MARRIAGE, EDUCATION, AND RELIGION.
Thursday, July 5 : Cold and windy. I watched some
of the gauchos breaking in a wild horse. In this country,
it takes four or five months to break in a horse for the
saddle. Occasionally an animal is tamed in a much shorter
time, but four or five months is the usual period. The
Rarey system is not adopted here, for the horse is not
brought to by kindness, but, on the contrary, is treated
very cruelly. He is literally broken in, and his spirit
sometimes crushed. The gauchos, to do them justice, are
splendid riders, evidently more at home on the back of a
horse than anywhere else. This is only natural, since they
begin to ride when mere children. But they are terribly
cruel rascals, not having the least pity for the sufferings
of dumb animals ; indeed they seem to enjoy killing cattle
and sheep, performing the operation with an indescribable
kind of gusto, with a smack of the lips and a smile on their
faces. Thursday, July 12 : Fine day. Cold night. The
peasants of South America have not much, if any, religion.
Still a gaucho would not think of lying down to rest or of
rising in the morning without crossing himself. Such is
his superstition, for so it must be called, If he were cut
ting your throat, he would probably do his cross, such is
the force of habit. Marriage is not much patronised by
these fellows, the celebration of that ceremony generally
being omitted ; for this neglect, the priests are solely to
blame, for be a man rich or poor, they refuse to perform
the marriage service unless they are paid twenty or thirty
dollars (£5 or £6), a sum many poor men could not pos
sibly manage to pay. Education is at a very low ebb
amongst the gauchos, and sad to say the padres, as the

SUNDAY ON A SHEEP FARM — BIRDS. 43
priests are termed, do not come too often into the camp to
spread that gospel of which they are the professed and all-
professing teachers. I rather fancy that, on the contrary,
they prefer living comfortably and feeding well in the
towns. If a man, then, feels in need of a little religion, he
must ride into the town to get it — buy it, in fact, like any
other vendible commodity.
Sunday, July 15 : Fine. How different a Sunday in
the camp to a Sunday at home! Here you have no
brushing of your hat for ten minutes preparatoryto going
to church (for there is no church) ; no stretching of new
kid gloves (gloves indeed !) ; no extra good parting of the
hair; no special solicitude as to that spotless surtout
without a wrinkle. No, no ; Sunday on a sheep farm is
Sunday in name, and little more. The poetry appertain
ing to the first day of the week is nowhere to be found.
You do not see the old ivy-mantled church, with steeple
pointing heavenwards; no gray-headed parson proclaims
the Good News from a rickety pulpit of ancient oak ; no
little Sunday school child, with smiling innocent face and
clean pinafore, crosses your path ; no old red-nosed clerk
greets your ear with his sonorous Amen. If you want
these, dear friends, stay at home, and look not for them in
the midst of South American sheepfolds !
Tuesday, July 17: Fine day. Cold. "De gusbibus
non est disputandum." Very true; for I was told to-day
that the natives take butter in their tea.
Saturday, July 21 : Innumerable, I may almost say,
are the birds around here. 1 have seen partridges, parrots,
pigeons, owls, sparrows, blackbirds, hawks, ostriches, ducks,
geese, cranes, turkey-buzzards, coranchos, mockingbirds,

44 NATIVE GRATITUDE.

hummingbirds, swallows, lapwings, and many others.
The blackbirds are smaller than those at home, and fly
about in immense flocks ; and when these flocks settle,
they cause a large tract of ground to appear perfectly
black. The parrots are very noisy, have a green plumage,
and are said to be good eating. The cora.ncho is a large
bird of the vulture species, and is useful in devouring the
offal and garbage which are abundant in the camp, thus
acting in the capacity of a very serviceable and poorly
paid scavenger. This bird is not, however, without a bad
quality in its nature, for it attacks the young lambs, pick
ing out their eyes, or otherwise mutilating them. Ostriches
are numerous, and lay a great number of eggs, which are
fine eating and very useful for culinary purposes.
Sunday, July 22 : Beautiful day. I needn't tell you
that I did not attend church. How could I ? A man might
gallop a long way in this province before he hit. upon a
holy fane. Living in this state then, it is much to be
feared a man would wear out his saddle long before his
! prayer book, for the friction of his legs upon the former
(article would be prodigiously out of proportion to the
friction of his fingers upon the latter.
Thursday, July 24 : Here is a sample of native
character. I can vouch for the truth of the following.
Mr. M — ¦ — , our manager, once had a female servant of his
shot in the forehead through the carelessness of one of the
men servants. That the girl was not killed upon the spot
is a perfect miracle. However, through the kindness and
watchful care of M  , who in attending to her during
her illness, did not take his clothes off for five days, she
recovered. You would suppose, and naturally too, that

NATIVE VIEW OF DRUNKENNESS. 45
after the kindness shown to this girl, both she and her
parents would have been filled with gratitude towards their
benefactor. Nothing of the kind, my dear sir ! They
allowed him to pay the doctor's bill, and afterwards (there
is nothing like a good climax) robbed him of some napkin
rings. Sunday, July 29 : Very wet weather lately. Drunken
ness, our national vice, or at any rate the vice which
by the voice of all nations is laid to our charge as such, is
taken note of in this country much to our discredit. If
in Buenos Ayres a man is seen rolling through the streets
in a state of intoxication — in that condition which is so
inappropriately termed elevated, whilst it is, as you will
admit, the best specimen of a confirmed degradation — he
is at once stigmatised with the soubriquet of " Borracho
Ingles," which, being interpreted, means drunken English
man. Many Englishmen out here do certainly drink to a
dreadful extent, and give just cause to the natives to
despise them for their intemperance. But let us, my
countrymen, abstain from this beastly practice of drinking
to excess, not only for our own sakes, but for the sakes of
our friends at home, and in order that the English, who
have done so much to forward the progress and civilisation
of the River Plate, may not be justly condemned for a
crime utterly beneath, all men who lay claim to the name
of Christians. Another Sunday in the camp, concerning
which I can only state that it was remarkably like a
Monday. Tuesday, August 14 : The last two days have been
wet and stormy, but the weather to-day heats anything I
ever saw, The rain comes pelting down ; the country is

46 A STORMY DAY.

flooded ; the wind blows boisterously from the South- West;
a strong pampero drifts along the rain in fierce style.
How I pity the sheep and cattle, and more so the poor
peones who are exposed to the elements in taking charge
of them! The wind, without exaggeration, seems nigh
strong enough to blow a man from his horse. As I write
this in my room, the rain comes drop — drop — drop through
the roof, wetting everything, and it was at this little game
of " drop — dropping " all last night, much to the annoy
ance and disquietude of your humble servant. Never
mind ,- it doesn't drop on my bed, which as yet is high and
dry, though quite one half of the room is in a state of
pantano — i.e., a mud-hole. Qutfimporta? There is only
a brick floor. There is no fine Kidderminster to be spoilt ;
and this storm moreover gives me an opportunity of
making a remark, and that an important one. It is this :
Let no man form any idea of camp life, unless he has
experienced it in winter. In summer you have not so
many hardships to put up with, but at this season of the
year hardships are plentiful, arid must be borne. The
inconveniences here during the wet and cold season are
not a few, go where you will. I think of you all in old
England, with a warm fire for your toes, good covering for
your venerable heads, in possession of many comforts which
to me (through great contrast) are now seeming to be
luxuries ; you are in a demi-paradise, and you don't know
it ; I am thinking of you, I say, and am coming to the
conclusion that you would by no means insult me if on my
return home you were to offer me the hen-pen for a
dormitory. I shall be thoroughly hardened, and this rain,
wind, and bad weather, together with the mode of life I

REPUBLICS. 47

lead, will have the effect of the far-famed Knaresborough
well — it will petrify me; and I shall greet you in England,
when I come back, not only in a dilapidated but in a really
lapidated state.
Saturday, August 5 : A fine day. I rode over to a
neighbouring Estancia, about ten miles from here. Spent
the afternoon there, and rode back in the evening. In this
country you have no next-door neighbours and friends, as
in England, but generally have to travel several leagues to
visit any acquaintance. On one occasion, when I was not
feeling very well, I had to ride a distance of thirty miles
into Gualeguay to see a doctor.
Here endeth the diary, for I have presented you with
all of it which you would find any interest in reading. For
your special edification I now subjoin a few remarks upon
the Argentine Confederation and its inhabitants : —
I. The Government is republican. Who does not hate
the word " Republic V It always conjures up to my mind
images of proud and ignorant upstarts, each bearing his
banner high and lofty, with his own beloved motto inscribed
thereon — "Jack's as good as his master." A republic is often
synonymous with injustice, discord, anarchy, and rebel
lion. Party spirit and civil dissensions have quite destroyed
the strength of this commonwealth, for it is very true that
"a house divided against itself shall not stand." Tbe Argen
tines to a man seem to be dreadfully republican in all their
feelings and ideas. There is little distinction of classes in
society. Every riff-raff cobbler, every rough guacho ad
dresses you as amigo (friend) in the most familiar manner,.
and sticks out his greasy paw to shake hands. In this coun
try your bricklayer and your barber are quite your equals.

48 HABITS OF THE PEOPLE.
II. The lower orders of the community are excessively
ignorant, and some of them not , jjyer-scrupulous in regard
ToTleanlihess. "iThave watched kind mothers anxiously
liarcTimgTihe heads of their children, evidently with the
supposition that the hair of their offspring was inhabited.
Still I should be doing them a great injustice, if I led you
to believe that they are on t.hftjwhnl^adjrt.y nlass nf ppr-
sons, for Jhis. is. not jLhejjasfi. But it is undeniable that
they have no idea of jjonifort, . annate, not Jnxurious_jn
their tastes. Some of the most influential amongst the
natives have but lately begun to use spoons and forks.
They are as satisfied and at ease in an old rancho (a
thatched shed, built of mud) as an European would be in
Buckingham Palace. The gauchos have often no beds
beyond what their recados afford them. They discard
fire-places, preferring during winter to sit in their houses
shivering with cold. Carpets seem to be little patronised,
though perhaps the heat of the climate in summer may
account for this. In fine, that genial air of comfort which
in England is found in the labourer's cottage, and which
exists in the abode of the artisan who dwells in the dirtiest
and most smoky town, must be searched for here in vain.
III. Treachery and vindjctiveness are .two_sjdieni-p&inis_
in the South American character. With slight provocation
a~^aMcferwlirpTunge his knife into you. Many admire
tbe gaucho character, but let them deny this if they can.
Every man and boy wears in his belt a long kriife, which
serves him for numerous purposes, such as killing a sheej1
pr bullock, for eating his dinner, for picking his teeth, or
for slaying his enemy.
IV. All the vagabonds, thieves, and murderers are sent

"GEFES POLITICOS." 49
into the army, apparently by way of punishment for their
crimes. From this it may be presumed that the- sole quali
fication needed for a soldier is the capability to cut the
laryny,; of his fellow-creature, or dexterously to pilfer the
coin of his neighbour.
V.j It is sometimes very difficult to obtain justice in these
parts,. When a man has committed a murder in a certain
department or province, and is able to escape into another
province without being captured, the law seldom follows
him there, and he gets off scot free. The Gefa politico,
who is a kind of chief magistrate, and is invested with ex
traordinary power, is in this country frequently a most
illiterate and ignorant man, and the tyrant of his province.
Not to be in his best favour is unlucky ; for he is able, in
an indirect way, to do you the greatest injuries. In time
of war he can take away all your servants to make soldiers
of them, and can also compel you to supply horses for the
war, if you happen to be in possession of any of those ani
mals. Although the Argentines talk so loudly of justice
and liberty, in reality they are little acquainted with either
of them. The government of the country is 'in the hands
of such unfit persons, that they make it perfectly despotic.
The present Oefe politico of a certain town in the Banda
Oriental was at one time a well-known cut-throat and
horse-stealer, and led the life of a dissolute vagabond. I
have been in the town where this worthy ruler resides,
have heard his whole history from a gentleman who knows
him, and can assure you of the truth of all this. Maximo
Perez, as the Oefe is called, coolly admits that his past life
has been stained by numerous crimes, and does not scruple
to avow that he has committed murder, but adds — "I am

50 DILIGENCE TRAVELLING.
Gefe politico now ; I am quite reformed ; I used to be a
great thief, but now I am a good man." This same individual
is unable to read ; so the decrees issued by the government
in Monte Video are read to him by a secretary ! But\ "nil
admirari;" this is only one of those South Americaii re
publics which are proverbial for their comical form's of
government. VI. The climate of this part of the world is not nelarly
so good as it is represented to be. It is much too variable .
to suit some people. For the hijos del pais (persons born
in the country) the climate may be very healthy; but to
a newly -arrived European, I can, from experience, affirm it
is trying. The heat is excessively enervating, as Sir Francis
Head so well remarks in his racy, amusing, and instructive
book. Work, enterprise, and energy seem to be frizzled
out of a man, and in the middle of the day a siesta is in
dulged in by nearly everybody in the camp.
You will perceive from the heading of my note, that I
have again changed my quarters. I am now residing at
the Estancia Maud, near Mercedes, in Uruguay. I
travelled from Gualeguay to a town called Gualeguaychu
in the diligencia, but on account of very heavy rains,
which have played sad havoc with the roads, we took a
whole day to accomplish the distance from one town to
the other, which was fifty-eight miles. In one part of our
journey the diligence stuck in the mud, so we all had to
alight, and, standing in the dirt, with the rain coming
down in torrents, to put our shoulders to the wheels and
push the ugly vehicle from its muddy bed. At another
time, whilst ascending a small hill, we again stuck ; the

THE RIO NEGRO AND SARSAPARILLA. 51
coach leaning over to one side rather disagreeably, causing
anything but pleasant sensations to its inmates. The
driver endeavoured to extricate us by furiously lashing his
horses, but this was " no go," and the diligence began to
show more lob-sided tendencies. A Frenchman sitting
opposite to me began to grow alarmed and excited, and
bawled out to the driver to stop his lashing. " No ves,
hombre, que vamos & dar la vwelta ?" cried he. "Don't
you see, man, that we are going to upset ?" After this, we
got down into the mud again, and finally the diligence was
liberated. Such travelling has novelty, but nothing else to
recommend it. From Gualeguaychu, where I stopped a
day or two and met a passenger who had come out from
England with me, I proceeded in a very diminutive steam
boat to Fray Bentos, crossing the river Uruguay, and
landing on the Banda Oriental side. Stopping only one
night at Fray Bentos, which is a quiet though thriving
little place, I went next morning in the diligence to
Mercedes — a distance of seven leagues. The Estancia
Maud is a princely estate ; in circumference it is one
hundred English miles. The Estancia house has a most
commanding and handsome exterior ; inside, the walls and
ceilings are beautifully decorated and painted. In fact,
compared with other camp dwellings this is a perfeet
palace. The Rio Negro (or Black River) runs close to the
house. The country around, unlike Entre Rios, is well
wooded, and there is more of hill and dale than in any
other place to which I have been. The River Negro is a
remarkable one, being so strongly impregnated with Sar-
saparilla that its colour is perfectly yellow, and the taste
of its waters very sweet At Mercedes there is a regular

52 SOUTH AMERICAN ROADS.
season when numbers of persons come from Monte
Video and tbe neighbouring towns to drink these waters,
which are considered highly medicinal. The town of
Mercedes is thought to be a fashionable one by the natives ;
as a gentleman remarked to me the other day, "Si Senor,
en Mercedes hay mucho lujo." But the fashion and luxury
are probably more apparent to Orientales than to Euro
peans. One thing, however, is apparent to all, viz., that
there are a great many very pretty girls in the town, and
their manners are sprightly and attractive.
Here, too, are fine samples of South American roads and
streets in all their hideous roughness. Streets up hill and
down hill, with immense holes and perfect abysses in them,
which much resemble in their general appearance those
ghastly caverns and deep precipices that Gustave Dore-
draws in his illustrations to Dante's " Inferno." Indeed,
no roads could be more infernally bad than these are.
Yes, Mercedes ! After I had contemplated thee for the
first time, and when I had walked thy break-neck streets,
and gazed with adoration upon thy charming daughters, I
said unto myself, " Thou, 0 Mercedes ! with the sweet
waters of the Rio Negro running so near to thee that they
gently lave thy shores, offering to thee gratis unlimited
supplies of Sarsaparilla, thou wilt evermore be associated
in my mind with two things — bad roads and charming
girls !"
The warm weather has quite set in, and the heat from
about eleven in the morning till three or four in the after
noon is so intense that no out-of-door work is done during
that time. — Yours, etc.

SHEEP AND LAND. 53
[The following note was written in reply to a relation,
who had asked me several questions about sheep
farming in the River Plate Provinces.]
" Estancia Maua," Mercedes, E.O., November 30, 1866.
Dear F., — I was told the other day by a friend that if a
man determines to settle as a farmer in a civilised district
of this country, it is much more advisable for him to rent,
and not to buy his land. Another friend very soon after
said to me, " I have lived as a sheep farmer for seven years
in this country, and I advise you not to rent land, but by
all means to buy it." There is much diversity of opinion
on the subj ect of renting and purchasing land, as, you may
judge from this. My second adviser went on to say : "If
you have sufficient capital — say £3,500 to £4,000— buy a
suerte of- land in a civilised and well- watered part of the
camp, and then take another man's sheep on halves." A
bargain of this kind can always be struck, for many men
have more sheep than they have pasturage for. When you'
take sheep " on halves," as it is termed, you have to build
upon your land the puestos or shepherds' huts, to pay half
of the wages of the puesteros, and of course to see that the
sheep are well taken care of. In return, you claim as your
property one half of the increase of the flocks, and also
obtain a half of the profits from the sale of the wool.
When the lease with the original owner of the sheep is
concluded, you return to him the number of sheep he
handed over to your care at first, together with one half
of the increase of the flocks. Everything else is your
own. Both you and your neighbour are gainers by the
arrangement. He finds the number of his sheep augmented,

54 TRUTH AND FICTION.
and they have had pasturage free of expense to him ; whilst,
on the other hand, you have got the land which you pur
chased eight or ten years ago well stocked, without having
bought a single sheep. But if a man have not the requisite
•sum of money to purchase land, it is of course advisable,
since he has no other alternative, to rent land, and to buy
as many sheep to put upon it as he is able. In this way,
with £2,000, he might at present make a very respectable
start in sheep farming, even in so good a province as Entre
Rios, where all the land is bought up and difficult to ob
tain on any terms. But it is my opinion that, beginning
in a comparatively small way like this, a man might work
for a number of years, even for his whole lifetime, and then
only realise a very moderate fortune; working all that time,
too, in a country where comforts are scarce, and where the
natives are independent and proud to a degree, and very
difficult to manage. One Englishman, who started as an
Estanciero some few years ago in Entre Rios, assures me
' that with £2,000 invested in sheep, and with land rented
in the above-named province, anybody who gave his atten
tion to his business could, in six or seven years, make a
fortune. But this is simply ridiculous and altogether an
impossibility. It is through the spread of such specious
accounts as this that the River Plate countries are so lauded
to the skies at home, and reported in every respect to be
a complete Canaan — a land of milk and honey. On the
other hand, persons of a less sanguine temperament, who
are more inclined to think than to talk, will seriously tell
you that men who come to this- country now are " late for
the fair ;" that the day for making rapid fortunes is over ;
that fifteen or twenty years ago the land was dirt cheap

CATTLE FARMING. 55

compared with the prices now asked for it; and that to buy a
suerte of land consumes what many people consider a mode
rate capital. For a man without any capital to come to this
country is undoubtedly very foolish, for he can obtain in
England a better situation than out here, together with
better food, better lodging, and much better society. He
certainly here receives higher wages, but what advantage is
there in this when he has to pay double the European price
for almost everything he buys ? I have spoken with, English
labourers on Estancias in the River Plate, and they never
speak well of this country, and in their hearts, I believe,
regret that they left their native land.
Cattle farming, I must inform you, is a more difficult
matter than sheep farming, and not one Estanciero out of
half a dozen properly understands it. If settlers here were
only better acquainted with this branch of farmin'g, they
would be richer men, for everybody tells me that the trade
in cattle, if rightly carried 'on, is more lucrative than that
in sheep. Great labour is entailed in keeping together
your cattle, as they are wild, and must regularly be driven
up to the rodeo. They will frequently mix with your
neighbours' stock, and in a seca (or drought) they wander
for miles and miles in search of water, and many are lost.
During a seca in the Banda Oriental there was a case in
which no less than four thousand five hundred head of
cattle left the Estancia to which they belonged in search
of water and pasture. The owner of the cattle, after the
drought had terminated, was not able to get back more
than fifteen hundred of his stock, although he offered to
his servants a certain sum per head for every cow, ox, or
bull they brought back to him. Nevertheless, cattle
farming, if well managed, is a profitable business.

56 SORIANO.

I intend before long to take a trip into the interior of
this republic, and hope to travel as far as Mendoza, whence
I may possibly cross the Andes into Chile. On my return
from my wanderings, I will again write to you of my
adventures and experiences. — Yours, etc.

Soriano, Uruguay, January 6, 1867.
I am now on another of the Baron's Estancias, situated
near to Soriano, and eight leagues distant from Mercedes.
When I say on the Estancia, I am not quite correct, for I
am staying with Mr. A  , the manager, who lives at
present in the town, which is about a league from the
Estancia, whither he rides every morning, transacts his
business, and returns in the evening to the bosom of his
family. This only until a house is built for him on the
estate. Of all wretched attempts at a town I have ever
seen, this Soriano is the worst, with the exception of that
lovely St. Vincent which I have before mentioned to you.
San Domingo de Soriano, which is the town's name in full,
consists of one principal street (which claims that title be
cause it is the only one), a few stores, a prison, a church,
some straggling houses, and last but by no means least, a
piece of ground somewhat resembling in its general appear
ance a stunted turnip field, which, lest any mistake should
be made, you are requested to bear in mind is meant to
represent a plaza, or square ! When you have visited and
minutely inspected the places of interest which I enume
rate, you must rest contented, for you will have seen all

GAUCHO BREAKFAST — EXTRACTUM CARNIS. 57
that is to be seen in the celebrated San Domingo de
Soriano, the first inhabited town in the whole Banda
Oriental, and whose large name seems in some measure
to compensate for its own smallness.
The other day, at the Estancia, I ate a breakfast in true
gaucho fashion, with the capataz and his wife. Our first
course was a piece of boiled meat buried in a mass of vege
tables and rice, and which was placed upon the table in a
large pudding dish, from which we picked choice pieces
with our forks. It was an excellent mixture. Then came
soup, also in a pudding dish. In a moment, and as if ac
tuated by unerring instinct, we each of us simultaneously
seized a spoon, and, as we had no plates, helped ourselves
out of the soup tureen — I mean pudding dish. This ope
ration was picturesque and truly rural; showing as it did
how the gauchos, those hardy sons of Nature, utterly
discard all luxurious and superfluous accessories, and in a
spirit of admirable fraternity eat out of the same pot; ex
hibiting too, at the same time, their republican feelings of
equality. I must add, however, that rough as everything
was, I enjoyed that breakfast very much.
Whilst at Mercedes, I went one day to Fray Bentos with
a friend, and visited the renowned manufactory where the
" Extractum Carnis" of Liebig is made. The process is
very interesting.* We also inspected the Saladero attached

* I subsequently found the following description of the process in
the " Leisure Hour :" —
" For making this extract of flesh, it is requisite that the meat
should hang a short time before it is used ; hence the bullocks are
slaughtered two days before the meat is required. "When it has
hung sufficiently long, it goes through a sequence of cylinders. This

58 EXTRACTUM CARNIS.
to the establishment. With regard to the preparation of
the " Extractum Carnis," I learnt that one bullock on the
average yields seven to eight pounds weight of the extract,
or, as we may say, pure nourishment. About three months
ago, a sailing vessel from England brought forty thousand
pounds' worth of new machinery for this manufactory.
From all accounts it seems highly probable that Liebig's
process for preserving beef will be highly successful in
every way.
I am on my way to Buenos Ayres, and stopped here at
the kind solicitation of Mr. A— — , in order to see the
estate. In two or three days I shall resume my journey, for
the weather now is so fine that I have determined to avail
myself of the present opportunity to visit some of the inte
rior provinces. I shall first sail for Rosario, after which my
movements will be guided by information I mean to obtain.
The country towards Mendoza is in a very unsettled
state; civil war going on. Even near to Rosario, at a
place called Frayle Muerto, there has recently been a raid
of Indians, attended with plunder and loss of life.

process pounds and mashes it into a regular paste. Water is next
added, and in an immense caldron it is kept stewing until it is made
into a rich soup. From this caldron the liquid is strained off into a
much larger vessel, wherein it is kept at a simmering heat, so that
all the fatty matter may be skimmed from off the surface. Then
the broth goes into shallow evaporating vats, which are heated by
steam pipes, and evaporation is further increased by causing a blast
of air to play continuously over the surface of the liquid. Finally,
the liquor is carefully strained, and further concentrated by stirring
and steady boiling. When this has been continued the requisite
time, the extract is finished and ready to be soldered up in tin cases
for exportation."

LA PLATA V. ENGLAND. 59

How very different this country is from home ! This is
the best house in Soriano, yet our dining-room (which is
my sleeping apartment also) is simply a mud hut with a roof
of straw. There is no paper upon our walls. No, no ; there
they are, in all their real, unadorned beauty. There they
stand — fine, hard brown mud.
I can write no more, for the weather is so piping hot
that I feel too lazy to do anything, so must conclude, and
remain, as usual, yours, etc.
P.S. : By-the-bye, I forgot to say I was at a wedding
last Sunday. Mr. B  , of the Maud Estancia, was
married (poor fellow !) at his brother's house, in Mercedes,
by an English parson lately arrived out here. The bride
was a German lady. Such sights are solemn — very solemn ;
but the breakfast and champagne had a revivinginfluence
upon my depressed spirits.

Buenos Ayres, January 14, 1867.
My dear A., — I dtaly received your letter by the last
mail, and was glad to hear from you. You seem, like
myself, to have been knocking about for the last seven
or eight months, and looking at the world. As for my
own unworthy self, I have certainly learned^a^greaLiifiaJ
more of human nature than I ever knew before. These
~~gauchos are vCTy"difficurir''m"eri^to2^djaT with ; they are
proud, revengeful, and thievish. However, there is one
~goooT~qTIairty"in their nature which shines pre-eminent,

60 GAUCHO CHARACTER.

viz., their hospitality. _ Whilst in their houses your person
is sacred and inviolable ; still, if at any time you annoyed
one of these same gauchos, he would have no scruple
. whatever in killing you after you had left his house and
were not partaking of his hospitality. So uncertain is the
temper of these very hospitable gentlemen, that no sensible
foreigner rides even a league from his house without a
revolver at his waist. A South .American apparently
does not forget an injury, though it be slight; and when he
gets you into a corner — look out ! I only wish I could pro
cure for you cartes-de-visite of some of the grim, villainous-
looking, coffee-coloured fellows I come across in the camp
during my daily peregrinations. Thieves in this country
generally act upon the principle of " Dead men tell no
tales ;" and if they steal your money, or deprive you of any
other valuable upon your person, seldom fail to follow up
the crime by cutting your throat.
We are now having summer in all its intensity of heat,
and consequently perspiration and languor to no small ex
tent. The heat of the sun, even at an early hour of the
morning, is hotter than any noonday sun at home during
summer; but from 10.0 A.M. till 4.0 or 5.0 p.m. the rays of
the sun are almost painful. During the early part of the
present month, the thermometer in Buenos Ayres reached,
by nine o'clock in the morning. 92" in the shade; but this
was an exceptional case, the average heat being, I believe,
about 85° at noon. Nevertheless, I have ridden about in
the camp during the hottest part of the day, have taken a
siesta of two or three hours under the shade of a tree, got
on my horse and ridden home again. In many parts of
Entre Rios and the Banda Oriental, a rider has to pass

THISTLES. 61

through thick beds of gigantic thistles, which extend for
miles, and grow higher than a horse. The other night I
was busily employed clearing my legs from thistle spikes,
of which they were very full. Getting into a thistle bed
is unpleasant, but getting yourself out of it is still more so.
The poor horses in these cases suffer even worse than their
riders, and are usually protected by having a sheepskin
tied over their breasts. Mr. W. P. Robertson well describes
these " thistleries," as he terms them, in his interesting
letters on the River Plate and Paraguay. He says : —
"When I left Scotland, I thought I had left the country
par excellence of thistles behind me. I now found that
those of my native land, as compared with the thistleries
of the Pampas, were as a few scattered Lilliputians to the
serried ranks of the Brobdignagians. From one post-house
to another, a lane was cut out through these huge thistle-
fields, which hemmed you in on either side as completely
as if you were riding between walls fifty feet high ; you
saw as little in the one 'case as you would in the other.
The cattle find shade in these cardales, and are often lost
among them for days ; they afford a good shelter for high
waymen ; and, when at their highest growth, they are a
favourite resort for gentlemen of the road. They tower
above your head, and in many cases hide the post-house
from your view till you come close upon the door. In
short, Pampa thistles, like all things else in South America,
are on a large scale."
With regard to the scenery here, you will perhaps like
to hear a word or two. In the first place, then, there is
none which can strictly be called fine or interesting, and
certainly none which is in any way romantic. In some

62 FACE OF THE COUNTRY.
parts of the camp you may traverse miles and miles and
not see a tree or a hill — nothing but one vast, flat expanse
of grass ; indeed, the word pampa, applied to the South
American plains, seems to convey to the mind the idea of
a large, even tract of land, suitable for the maintenance of
horses, cattle, and sheep, which are almost innumerable.
In the immediate vicinity of a river you often find small
woods, called monies. These are about the only relief to
the monotony of the scenery. .Wild flowers though are
very fine and numerous ; the camp in some places being
studded all over with the verbena and other elegant plants.
I have come across many very beautiful flowers growing
wild in the montes, which would have done credit to any
hothouse in England. In Soriano, where I stayed a week,
the cacti are particularly fine, growing to a great size, and
forming tall flowering hedges, twenty to thirty feet in
height. There is also a kind of cork tree which bears
flowers whose richness of tint I never saw surpassed. Vege
tation in this country is seen under quite a different aspect
than at home. Everything appears more tropical. We
have vine groves in abundance, and plenty of orange trees,
the blossoms of which, in spring time, fill the air with a
delicious odour. But, sad to say, orange blossoms always
recall to my mind solemn events connected with a melan
choly ceremony — a ceremony which takes place in a church,
and during tbe performance of which, members of my
own oppressed sex, dearest A  , condemn themselves to
a future thraldom, rendering up their liberties and rights,
as vanquished heroes render up their swords, renouncing,
too, for ever the inestimable sweets of bachelorhood! —
they remind me of a marriage. And when the sweet odour

TEA DRINKERS. 63

of the orange blossom is wafted on the breeze, diffusing
fragrance all around, I fancy I hear the marriage bell, and
in my mind's eye see the nuptial procession pass in slow
and measured step before me ; but were fond imagination
indulged in further, I should come to domestic squabbles'
and overcrowded nurseries, so beg to refrain from intru
ding upon the privacy of such very domestic matters —
matters too about which, thank heaven, I know so little.
There is a custom here, which the natives indulge in at
all hours of the day. It is that of drinking math. This
mate is the decoction of Paraguayan tea, called yerba. The
yerba is put into a small hollow gourd, boiling water is
poured upon it, a little sugar generally added, and the in
fusion is then imbibed through a silver tube called a bom-
billa, which is inserted in the gourd. This custom exists
all over the country; wherever you may be travelling, if
you stop to rest or change horses at the house of either a
rich or a poor man, the first thing offered to you after
alighting from horseback is sure to be a math. Th e beverage
is handed to every person in the room, and all suck from
the same tube. This is rather disgusting at times, and is
equivalent to a teaspoon at home serving for some ten or
twelve different guests. It is very nice to get the bom-
billa just after a charming little seriorita has applied her
cherry lips to the same; indeed, that is the next' door to
placing your own lips to hers; but there are some South
American gentlemen, and even ladies, after whom you do
not particularly care to suck a tube. The flavour of math
is pleasant, and the tea has a very aromatic odour, but I
was often heartily tired of it through its frequent repeti
tion. Talk of old women in England being great tea-

64 BANDA ORIENTAL — SHEARING BALL.
drinkers ! Why, they are nothing compared with South
Americans, who will sit and chat and make their own
peculiar kind of tea all the live-long day, and never seem
to tire of it.
I must now conclude, expressing a hope that you will
excuse this rambling, disconnected letter. — Yours, etc.

Buenos Ayres, January 17, 1867.
I am down in Buenos Ayres again, as next Sunday I take
the steamer for Rosario, en route for Frayle Muerto — the
Indian frontier. I fancy my projected trip to Mendoza
will not be carried out. The country in that direction is
in a state of rebellion. Travelling there, if not actually
dangerous, would be indiscreet. I find living in this town
is very expensive work. When I go into an hotel to get a
breakfast, I pay twenty dollars, which, in English money,
is three shillings and fourpence. I bought a small felt hat
the other day in one of the shops here, and was charged
about one pound five shillings for it. In fact, nearly all
articles sold in this country bring double the European
price in the shops.
On the Estancia at Mercedes I spent a very jolly time.
Things were, on the whole, more civilised than in Entre
Rios. I had also capital opportunities of observing sheep
farming as carried on in South America. After shearing
was finished, our manager gave a ball to the shearers, who,
with their friends, mustered pretty strong. The ball-room
was the shearing-room, like an old barn at home. By way

CHINAS. 65

of music we had the heart-stirring strains of a box-organ,
which was brought from the town and played by a son of
Italy. By way of relief to the monotony of the organ, th ere
was also a guitar in the room. The guitar seems to be the
favourite musical instrument of the gaucho, and, it may be
said, almost the only one. A gaucho will sit cross-legged
for, a length of time strumming away on an old, tuneless
guitar, and singing in a dismally squeaky and plaintive
voice. Some of these fellows, I am told, are clever at im
promptu verses, chiefly relating to that inexhaustible sub
ject, love ; and although their natures overflow with a
horrible, unrelenting vindictiveness and cruelty, they will
squat down on a log of wood, or on their saddles, and sing
by the hour in strains of sorrow of a broken heart and
their false Mary Anne, and all that kind of thing. Well, to
return to, the ball. The dancing commenced in earnest
about eight o'clock in the evening. There were plenty of
chinas (as the native peasant women are called), all dressed
in their Sunday best, and very pretty some of them looked.
These women, although without any kind of education
worth speaking of, and though they seldom see towns, pos
sess a certain degree oj^refingment_in ^Jj^g^jnoyjmienfs
and actions which no farmers ^M_pxieryant maid at home
"could eveh~Tmitate. They have, for the mqst part, good
figures, and exhibit a grace mingled with a dignified bear-
ing which is entirely unaffected. They generally appear
yerv_mojest_and_innocent, but I have come to the conclu-
sion^jiot without just cause, that oj^mo^e^i^and innocence
they possess but a minimum quantity. Chinas have dark
complexions ~ano^~bl5ckTiaIr, and dress with, good taste.
The men came out very strong in their costumes and

66 THE BALL AND ITS INCIDENTS.
general appearance, though a little too gaudily attired
withal. One fellow, I recollect, was clad from head to
foot in bright scarlet. He was young, tall, and thin
and resembled a poor imitation of a newly -hatched
life-guardsman. The dancing was carried on with great
spirit, notwithstanding that the poor organ grinder, who
had been grinding away all day for the edification of the
bystanders and dancers, during a slight relief given to him
by the use of the guitar, actually fell asleep, with his mu
sical head gracefully yet very naturally reclining on his
musical instrument. He was, however, compelled to resume
his duties. On one occasion I took his seat and commenced
turning the handle in his. stead ; but so rapidly did I play,
being harassed by frequent shouts of " Quicker, quicker,"
that fearing evil consequences might be the result, the
owner of the organ caused me to desist. We had the
pleasure of seeing a native dance, which is novel to Euro
pean eyes. This dance consists chiefly in twirling the
body from side to side, and keeping time with the music,
both with the movement of the body and the legs, and
also by filliping the fingers. During all this fun, frolic,
and enjoyment, a pistol-shot is heard, and the room is filled
with powder-smoke. On investigation, the owner- of the
pistol declares that it went off by accident from under his
poncho. Soon after, however, a man who was nearly struck
by the pistol-ball makes a rush with his knife upon the
owner of the pistol, who thus appeared to be his enemy,
who had come there with the evil intention of settling old
debts in this dastardly manner. Great was the confusion;
and if our mayor domo had not rushed between the two
men, and a man-servant of the house, who at the time

PUBLIC PRINTS. 67

happened to ,be armed with a loaded revolver, had not
stepped up and presented the pistol at the head of one of
the combatants, threatening, if he moved another inch, to
blow his brains out, the case might have ended fatally.
As soon as the row commenced four or five of us ran into
the house for our revolvers, which we carried at our waists
for the rest of the evening. After this occurrence, every man
in the room was compelled to give up his knife or to
leave. A dance carried on in this manner is exciting
enough, to say the least of it, for at any moment we might
have had to draw our pistols and defend ourselves by letting
fly at a fellow-creature. One of the combatants was
wounded, but he received, fortunately, only a slight cut on
his arm. Rows like this often occur at native balls. When
a gaucho knows that there is a possibility of an enemy of
his attending a certain ball, he goes there with the express
pTjrpeee- of killing him. Harmony was at length restored,
the two combatants having bolted, and dancing continued
until daylight. I may add, for the benefit of those of you
who like to see the ends of justice carried out, that the two
disturbers of the peace were captured the next day and
clapped into prison.
I take notes of everything important. You can have no
idea of the~litter'untruths~issueTby papers "and journals
published in this city and at lmmejwitii_referene^^
country, I have kept my eyes and ears open ever since
"entering it, have studied its people and its customs, and
feel qualified to give a flat denial to numerous reports I
read, and which find their way to England. Jjorne are not
actualMsehoods, but are such stronglj^coljoirredj^
ItatJons^f circjumsjaflc^s^with all the disadvantages so

68 PUBLIC PRINTS.

plausibly concealed, that they do not by any means inform
you of the true state of affairs. My advice to all, before
determining to settle in the River Plate, is — " Come and
see for yourself, and don't believe a single word that you
may read in the papers about it."
I have determined to go up to Cordoba, and likewise to
have a look at St. Fe". I shall make inquiries for myself
as to those wild districts, although I am almost persuaded
that land in those camps, owing to the incursions of
Indians and other drawbacks, can hardly be called your
own. A great deal is said of the advantages offered by the
Santa Fe" lands. Much is spoken concerning its "liberal
government." Now, if its government really be liberal, it
is an exception to the general rule. Most of the Argentine
governments are composed of a set of blind, narrow-minded
ignoramuses. Justice is frequently only in word, and never
carried out in deed.
I have just been reading to-day's Standard. A writer
in that paper affirms that one league of the Santa Fe" camps
will feed twenty-jive thousand sheep. Ask any practical
sheep farmer what he thinks of that ? He will tell you
that a league of such land should never have more than
ten or twelve thousand sheep upon it. This shows you
the value of the reports.
I shall now bring this letter to a close, and remain, as
usual, yours, etc.

EN ROUTE FOR ROSARIO. 69
Bosario, January 23, 1867.
I commenced last Sunday a trip into the interior of this
republic. I left Buenos Ayres from the Retiro Station on
the Great Northern Railway, and, on arriving at the River
Tigre, embarked on the " Tala," a small steamboat (upon
whose diminutiveness I have remarked in one of my first
letters home) en route for Rosario de St. Fd. We left the
Tigre about noon, and soon began to suffer from the mono
tony of South American river-travelling. The small steamer
went puff! puff! ! puff! ! ! all the way ; and each puff was
accompanied with a spasmodic and sympathetic shake ofthe
whole vessel- — like an old gentleman in a fit of coughing'
when all his venerable frame is violently agitated. From
the Tigre we passed into the River Parana, a magnificent
mass of water, the colour of which is dark yellow. Some
say the water is very wholesome for drinking. I should
doubt this, although on the river-steamers you get nothing
else. There were two or three Englishmen on board, and
a very jolly old Welsh captain, who hailed from Cardiff,
and whose vessel lay off Rosario. He was one of the old
school — free-spoken, kind-hearted, and with a very poor
opinion of foreigners. With his jokes and conversation
he kept us alive till we got to our destination, about nine
o'clock on the Monday night. We stopped at many places
on our way — San Pedro, San Nicholas, etc., in order to drop
or take on passengers. The first night on board the boat
we were very crowded, and as there were only sixteen
berths to about thirty passengers, some of us slept on forms
or had beds made on the saloon table. For my own part,
I slept on the table, philosophising, as is, you know, my

70 ROSARIO.

wont, as I rested my body where lately had stood the savoury
dishes. No wonder if I had a nightmare that night, and
dreamt that I was being served up in pickle to satisfy the'
enormous appetite of a two-headed giant.
Rosario is a fine town, situated about, three hundred
miles from Buenos Ayres. Ships of large burden come up
to the port, but the town is deficient in good docks, which
it certainly ought to possess by this time. Many Argen
tines would prefer seeing Rosario the capital and seat of
government of their republic, instead of Buenos Ayres. It
would certainly be more central, and the so-called port of
Buenos Ayres is no port at all, but simply an open road
stead; so that in this latter respect at least Rosario deserves
the preference. I find that there is a very large number
of English and Irish estancieros in the camps around
Rosario, and any Englishman who comes to settle in this
part of the world can have plenty of the society of his own
countrymen. Of course Rosario, like all other towns in this
country, has a plaza ; and when you have seen the plaza
and walked through the principal streets, you have lionized
everything. Being firmly of this opinion, I have deter
mined to-morrow to proceed to Frayle Muerto, where
several estancieros have lately settled, and which is on the
Indian frontier — a wild part of the country, in fact as yet
hardly civilised. Thence I will write to you my opinions
and doings. — Yours, etc.

CENTRAL ARGENTINE RAILWAY. 71
Frayle Muerto, Province of Cordoba, January 25, 1867.
I beg to inform you that I have reached the land of the
'barbarians, where I am at present resident. I am out of
the pale of civilisation ; I feel very like an Indian. I am
dwelling in a part where stick-up collars are unknown, and
even crinolines not worn ; dwelling in a district where both
men and women must be delightfully innocent ; in a district
where lamp-posts never stood ; where worldly refinement,
mingled with the conceit and flippancy of ignorance, never
yet penetrated. But you will be surprised to hear that
amidst all this gloom, this darkness, and, so to speak, social
undevelopment, science — all-powerful science — has shed
her bright rays, and is now a glorious pioneer in these parts
for future improvements. Yes ; for even in this compara
tive desert there is actually a railway ! Every day a train
comes whistling and puffing up to Frayle Muerto. A great
barrier has been thrown down, a wide road has been opened
up, and we may hope for good if not great results.
A few words upon this Central Argentine Railway.
When we consider through what a wild, uncultivated part
of the country it runs, passing (in its way from Rosario to
Frayle Muerto, a distance of one hundred and twenty-five
miles) neither town nor hamlet, and merely possessing
stopping points on the way, it is a marvel. But if we ask
ourselves, " How is such a line to pay ?" let us remember
two things : First, that the country in the neighbourhood
of the line is expected before long to be extensively popu
lated by European immigrants ; and, second, that it is being
continued to the city of Cordoba, which may be called the

72 • INSECURITY — INDIANS.
central depot for many of the Argentine provinces, viz.,
Rioja, Catamarca, Santiago, Tucuman, Salta, and Jujuy.
This railway will convey goods and the products of the in
terior of this large republic to Rosario, whence they can be
shipped to all parts of the world. Everything is as yet
brought from the interior, and taken up thither from
Buenos Ayres in bullock-carts — a very slow mode of transit.
The railway in time will undoubtedly supplant this method
of carriage, and so obtain great traffic. Travelling on this
line is very novel and curious. You cross pampas which
are as flat as a dining-room table, and are at present a desert
prairie ^ for miles and miles you run along without seeing
a human being or a human habitation.
The village of Frayle Muerto is a miserable little place,
but the railway having been opened, the tide of immigra
tion which is now looked for will no doubt tend to enlarge
and improve it in every way. In the camps around here
several very jolly English fellows, whose acquaintance I
have made, have bought land and are settling as sheep or
cattle farmers. There is one great drawback to these
ca/mps— ttasy_jrJ3_j^j^ear_toth^^ About
four or five months agothese savages made a raid upon the
Frayle Muerto lands. They killed three Englishmen, and
actually advanced within two leagues of the town. The
Indians always fight with spears, and I was told by an
Irishman, who lives up in these parts, that the unfortunate
Englishmen who were slain had each of them as many
as forty or fifty spear wounds. The Indians mustered
from five to six hundred strong, and, had they chosen, could
easily have advanced and taken the town (?) of Frayle
Muerto. I inquired what the military force was in this

PASTURE AND WATER. ' 73

place, and. was told that there were about four or five

jjoldiers ! That is, a soldier .to every hundred of "Indians,
which is simply absurd. Thisjraid of the savage_ tribes
will be a serious let to immigration, and until the govern
ment erect more forts and fill them with efficient garrisons,
they must not expect Europeans to come and risk their
lives in such a desert and uncultivated spot as this is. The
settlers are not at all comfortable or at rest on this point.
They complain, and very rightly, that they lack protection,
and have offered to assist the government in all its efforts
to keep back the Indians. Two or three Englishmen have
erected forts on their own account. Others seenj not to
like the state of affairs very much, and have "retired from
the business." Concerning Frayle Muerto, it may be at
present stated with truth, and ought to be stated as a
warning to intending settlers, that as things now stand,
neither life nor property is secure. This assertion I should
not so readily make had I not thoroughly investigated the
subject on the spot. Beware, then, of all the specious ad
vertisements you read of these camps.
The land here is covered with pasto fuerte, or, as we
should say in England, coarse grass. It has, first of all, to
be refined, either by putting cattle upon it or by burning
it. Until this process of refinement has been gone through,
you cannot pasture good sheep there. This, however, is
immaterial at present, for I am told that there is now a
greater demand for coarse wool than for that of finer quality.
The drinking-water is in many parts of these camps very
bad, tasting perfectly salt. There is a difference between
the climate of this province and that of the more southerly
ones, as well as Uruguay ; namely, that in these latitudes

74 VALUE OF SHEEP AND CATTLE.
the rainy season is during the summer months, whilst in
Entre Rios, Buenos Ayres, and the Banda Oriental, the wet
season occurs in winter. I intend shortly to leave for the
city of Cordoba, which is situated some forty-five leagues
distant. I shall go by diligence. This mode of travelling,
especially in this part of the country, is rather trying. You
are all day shut up in the coach, and at night sleep at some
post-house, which is frequently a mud hut and very pro
bably full of vermin, but I shall certainly go, if only for
the sake of "roughing" it. By-the-bye, talking of mud
houses, they are the general thing up here. There are two
fondas, or iuns, in Frayle Muerto — the English one is of
mud, the Italian one of wood. This reminds a fellow of
the way in which our ancestors, the ancient Britons, 'lived.
But it must be strange for Britons in the nineteenth cen
tury to fall back into that primeval mode of living; yet such
must be done by all who settle as farmers in this province.
Before bringing this scribble to an end, I am going to
touch upon one more subject. It is the present great de
preciation in the value of sheep and cattle in the River
Plate. A sheep farmer from Buenos Ayres was speaking
to me very dolefully about this the other day. During
conversation be said: "Six years ago, when I settled in
this country, I paid forty-five Buenos -Ayrean dollars a
head for my sheep {i.e., about seven shillings and sixpence
each) ; now, when I want to sell them, I can only get
fifteen dollars" (half-a-crown).
The price of cattle, too, has fallen. Not very long ago,
in South America, a fat cow brought sixteen dollars
(£3. 6s. 8d.) ; the price at present is from six to ten dollars,
or thirty shillings. — I remain, yours, etc.

FRAYLE MUERTO TO CORDOBA. 75

Hotel de Paris, Cordoba, February 1, 1867.
I left Frayle Muerto for this place last Saturday after
noon, about four o'clock, and reached my destination a
little before sunset on the following Monday. I was thus
two whole days caged up in a coach, without sufficient
stretching room for my legs. It certainly was miserable
work on the whole, though I crossed a large tract of coun
try on the route, and was able to study the appearance of
the land.
There were two reasons why we took so long to accom
plish our journey of one hundred and thirty -five miles. It
had rained very much, and the roads, which in the camp
are, more properly speaking, only wheel tracks, were very
heavy. Add to this, that on the first evening, pushing on
our journey in the dark, we got out of the road, and conse
quently had to put up for the uight at the nearest habita
tion we could find, for it was very dark and rainy, and
would have been insecure to proceed on account of the
biscacho holes. We got to a little rancho (i.e., a hut),
where we were hospitably received by the poor inmates,
who prepared us a supper of very good roast mutton, with
out bread or any other luxurious accompaniment of course.
We sat around a small table, and devoured our meal with
keen relish, though in a savage manner withal.
There were three passengers besides myself. They slept
in the little hut; for my own part, in terror of fleas, not to
mention other malicious and more formidable insects, I pre
ferred sleeping in the diligence; so accordingly rolled myself
up on one of the seats of that vehicle and enjoyed a sound
sleep, undisturbed by the vampires of the night. The next

76 A POST-HOUSE.

morning we were up betimes, and travelled all day, arriving
at night at one of the post-houses. Here, about ten o'clock,
we got a very good plain supper, to which, considering
that we had not had a meal since noon, I am of opinion
we did ample justice. In this post-house there was a kind
of raised mud sofa, hard as stone, which extended along
the sides of the room. On this piece of earthen furniture,
which, although not as black or valuable as ebony, was
certainly quite as hard as that elegant wood, I spread my
rug, and lying down endeavoured at once to fall into the
arms of Morpheus. I had no such good luck, however ;
the fleas frustrated my intentions, and during the whole
night, what with the biting of those horrible insects, and
the extreme hardness of my couch, which was enough to
break my arm, not to mention the softness of my pillow,
which was a tightly-packed carpet-bag kindly lent me
by a fellow passenger, I scratched vigorously and rolled
about desperately until the light of morning shone upon
me. I hope no naughty words escaped my lips that night ;
but of this I am certain — I pronounced no benediction
upon South American mud couches.
Off again early the next morning, we galloped away
much faster, for the roads were a great deal drier. About
one o'clock in the afternoon we came to the banks of the
river Segundo, the waters of which had risen very high,
owing to the late rains. After much arrangement and
time wasted, a team of oxen and six or seven horses
were attached to the diligence, and it was a very novel
sight to see this long train dragging the coach through the
river, the water coming above the horses' bellies. We

SWIMMING A RIVER. 77
(the passengers) were constrained to cross on horseback.
With a strong current running, this is not so easy a task
as it would at first seem to be.
Whilst we were preparing to cross the river in this un
civilised and primitive way, one of the passengers turned
to .me and said, " Como le va, amigo ? Este no es como
Londres ?" " How are you getting on, my friend ? This
is rather different to London, eh ?" This same passenger
was an obese little gentleman, and informed me that he
had not mounted a horse for two or three years, so that
when he endeavoured to do so, in order to swim the river,
he shaped very awkwardly. I stood near, hardly able to
repress my laughter, watching him try to place himself
upon the saddle ; but at last, after many vain efforts, he
gave it up as a bad job, and, turning to me, exclaimed,
" Tenga la bondad, S&rior, de ayudarme un poco." " Be
so kind, sir, as to render me a little assistance." He then
put his foot into the stirrup, I gave him two or three good
lifts, and he eventually managed to get upon his horse,
where he sat smiling, evidently intensely satisfied with
himself. After crossing the river we had only eight more leagues
to do, and we arrived safe and sound that evening. I am
stopping at the Hotel de Paris, a French house, situated
in the plaza.
With the town (perhaps I ought to say city) of Cordoba
I am most agreeably surprised. Instead of finding, as I
expected to do, a small, insignificant, deserted village, great
is my astonishment to find a prettily-built, clean, and by
no means small city. It possesses, it is true, no very fine
buildings, except its churches, which are numerous and

78 CORDOBA.

striking to the eye; but its shops are good, the people
seem busy and well to do, and the whole aspect of the town
is unique, comfortable-looking, and, in a word, handsome.
It is decidedly the prettiest town I have seen in the Argen
tine Republic. The only drawback is its low situation.
You don't see the town in approaching until you are close
upon it. It lies, as a, native said to me when speaking of
it, " como en un pozo" (i.e., as if placed in a well). Still, I
imagine Cordoba is healthy, and as a place of residence it
would be preferable to Buenos Ayres.
There is a university here, and Cordoba has always been
a great seat of learning. The city was founded as early
as the year 1573. It is full of friars, who, walking about
in their long gowns, and wearing those enormous hats with
which Spanish priests are always represented in pictures,
are certainly no special ornament to the place. By-the-bye,
that long shovel-hat seems to answer the double purpose
of a hat and an umbrella.
Cordoba has some really fine scenery, which is a rare
thing indeed in this country. The sierra of Cordoba is a
pretty mountain range, which in parts reminded me of
some of the Welsh hills. This sierra abounds in goats.
Kid is served up as a dish at the hotel, and is capital
eating. The camps immediately around the city are not fit for
sheep. The ground is very good for cultivation, and it is
used chiefly for quintas, or market gardens, where Indian
corn, sandias (water melons), fruit, and vegetables are
grown. Fruit is very abundant. Pears, melons, peaches,
apricots, and grapes are both plentiful and cheap. I am
very glad I visited this town. It is well worth seeing, and

DISTRACTED STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 79
I have passed a very jolly time, having had the company
of three or four English estancieros from Frayle Muerto,
who are up here petitioning the government about forts.
As I told you before, they are not at ease on the Indian-
invasion question.
The fleas seem to have a spite against me. They will
devour me before they have done. Fleas are bad enough,
but do you remeniber that line of Shakspere, which says
something about "worse remains behind?" I dare say
you do. Well, I could have stood the fleas, and only have
murmured and scratched. How true it is that we never
know what may happen ! In three nights I have captured
no less than five insects crawling on my bed. They were
larger than fleas, and were not mosquitoes. Horror of
horrors ! Pero, en este pais, hay muchas chinches.
My projected trip to Mendoza is quite " knocked on the
head." The country in that direction is in a most dis
turbed state at present ; two or three of the provinces
being in open rebellion, and, according to the newspaper
accounts, the insurgents are committing great atrocities.
There are some here who believe that ere long the revo
lutionary party will enter this city, and overturn the
government. When, 0, South America, wilt thou learn that these
civil wars do but weaken thee, cripple thy powers, and
degrade thee in the eyes of nations ! I have met a Porteno
here who wants to cross into Chili. Of course he could
not go by Mendoza with much security, so he thought of
going further north, and trying to reach the Andes from a
much higher point than Mendoza. To carry out this
object he came up to Cordoba, and then posted it to a

80 HINTS TO TRAVELLERS.
small town called Rio Cuarto. He was, however, stopped
there by officials, who would not permit him to proceed.
I suppose they are suspicious of persons going to Chili, for
it is said the Chilenos have aided the revolutionists in this
rising, having supplied them with arms. This, however,
is not likely.
The weather for the last two or three months has been
delightfully warm. I have passed a burning hot Christ
mas for the first time in my life.
When I leave this town I am going back to Rosario,
whence I shall start for Santa Fe*, which .is a very ancient
place and the capital of the Province bearing that name.
In conclusion, let me add a piece of advice to any persons
who are about to take a ride in a South American dili-
gencia. They can profit by my sad experience. Take
plenty of food with you, with some bottles of wine ; other
wise you will starve. Another piece of advice : Take also
a small Crimean bedstead and a mattress ; otherwise you
may have to lie on the ground, and will probably be de
voured by fleas. Two pleasant alternatives forsooth —
either to starve, or to be eaten up ! I have had a slight
experience of each misery. — Yours, etc.

Santa Fe, February 12, 1867.
It would be useless for me to dwell at any length upon
my return journey from Cordoba. Having seen almost
every nook and corner of the city, I went back to Frayle
Muerto, and this time we had a much quicker run in the

STAGE-COACH TRAVELLING. 81
diligencia. Leaving on the Saturday morning about 8 30,
we reached Frayle Muerto late on the Sunday night. But
we took only four hours' sleep on the Saturday night, getting
up at 2.0 A.M. in order to reach our destination, if possible,
on the Sunday evening. By dint of travelling no less than
one hundred and twelve miles that day, we accomplished our
object. This, bear in mind, was stage-coach travelling, over
a tract of country destitute of anything like a made road.
It was hard work, and we were at it all day, for we. started
at four o'clock in the morning, before the sun had risen,
and arrived at 10.0 P.M., when it was pitch dark. We did
not even stop at a post-house to breakfast, as is the custom,
but sustained nature on the way by eating scraps of cold
fowl and bread ; and now and then, when we chanced to
pass a habitation, we purchased water-melons in order to
queneh our thirst. The day was terribly hot, and in some
parts of the road we were enveloped in a thick cloud of
dust, such dust as I never before saw. This last was the
greatest inconvenience of all. Hunger can be borne for a
certain length of time, but to be suffocated is not pleasant.
At one rancho we passed, and where we changed horses, I
purchased three small loaves of bread. The taste of that
bread was painfully suggestive of sawdust ! I know not
the exact epoch when bread was first made, but of one
thing I am certain, viz., that this in question was so very
old, so extremely and indubitably stale, so undeniably
ancient, that if it did not quite date back to the age when
the " staff of life " was first produced, it was not very far
from doing so.
I stayed during Monday in Frayle Muerto ("that love
liest village of the plain "), and made the acquaintance of

82 FRAYLE MUERTO LANDS.
two or three more Englishmen, who seem to be thinking
of settling in the camps around there. The difficulties
for a settler are very many. Things which are obtained
at home with the greatest facility are not to be had here
without much expense and trouble. An Englishman who
has bought some land near Leones, which is about seven
leagues from the village of Frayle Muerto, is in a sad
plight. For what do you think? He cannot find his
land ! That is to say, he knows when he is on it, but is
entirely unacquainted with the boundaries ; nor has he
obtained as yet any information to enlighten him on the
subject. Being about to erect his hut, he fears he may
possibly build it upon his neighbour's land, in which case
no doubt, the neighbour, if he were maliciously inclined,
could claim the edifice. The camp rent is very cheap in
that part of South America. A league of land can be
rented for £25 a year. It must, however, be more advis
able to buy the land, for at present it is sold at a low
price, and in ten or twelve years hence will be worth
something, as it is almost daily increasing in value. The
camp wants refining, and there must be a larger popula
tion before much good can be done up here.
On Tuesday I went to Rosario, where I stayed during
Wednesday. On Thursday morning, at twelve o'clock, I
left Rosario in the steamer "Ibicuy" for Santa Fd I
had a very agreeable sail of one hundred and five miles
up the Rio Parana, arriving at Santa Fd at nine o'clock
on Friday morning. The Parana is a magnificent sheet
of water, very wide in many places ; and, strange as it
may appear, when you arrive at the town of Parana, which
is four hundred miles from the mouth of the river, the

THE RIVER PARANA. 83
width has in no degree diminished. This river is, I
believe, classed as the third in the world, ranking after
the Mississippi. On the Thursday evening we had a
beautiful sunset, which caused the water to assume the
appearance of liquid fire. The steamer disturbed large
birds, which flew across our bows in the dim twilight ;
not a ripple was to be seen, though there was a refreshing
breeze at the time ; a double rainbow appeared in the
clouds, and all was still, calm, and beautiful, as the sun
sank to his rest in a golden splendour, and we continued
our course. I shall never forget that evening, with its
deep serenity, which seemed to calm and soothe the
spirits. Such sights and moments have a healthy in
fluence on the mind of man ; they refine his thoughts.
The beautiful and the sublime are a sweet nectar to the
soul. Victor Hugo is not far wrong when he says : " The
beautiful is as useful as the useful." Of Santa Fe- 1 can
say little. It is not a very large town, but an ancient one,
having been founded about 1651. The plaza is prettily laid
out, with a double row of trees around it. The town is
situated at the mouth of the Rio Salado, which flows into
the Parana. I may add that the mosquitoes annoy me
here more than they have done anywhere else ; with their
buzzing and their biting they contrive to keep me awake
all night. I went to see a conjuror yesterday evening, in
a building called " The Theatre." (" What's in a name ? ")
The conjuror was Hermann, a Frenchman, and a very
clever fellow, though he certainly murdered the Spanish
language when he attempted to address the audience at any
length. There a was full house, and the Santa Fe" ladies, or
Santa Fdcinas as they are called, appeared in the height
of fashion.

84 SANTA FE.

This town is very dull, triste as the Spaniards say — that
is, quiet, with nothing to see or to do. Santa Fe is well
calculated to give a violent attack of that distressing com
plaint called ennui. They tell me that the land about
here is well adapted for cultivation, and that all kinds of
trees will thrive, and Indian corn grows well. The camp
is being bought up by persons who mean to let it " stand
over " for a period of years, after which they will offer it for
sale at a much higher price than they gave for it. This
speculation seems to be a safe one. I intend to leave for
Buenos Ayres to-morrow. I believe I have learnt a good
deal of the country and its people during my trip. When
I get back to Buenos Ayres, I shall have been away for
nearly a month, and during that time shall have travelled
over a considerable tract of country. Travelling is the only
method whereby to gain any real knowledge of the country.
Many men come to the River Piate intending to have a
good look at it before finally deciding to remain ; but most
of them settle down in one particular spot, and there they
stay, never moving from it. This is like trying to learn
the history of England by reading only one chapter of the
book ; and reminds me of the tale of the man who, having
a house to sell, carried about with him a brick as a sample
of it. — Yours, etc.

Buenos Ayres, March 12, 1867.
This city at the present time may not at all inappro
priately be compared to a frog in the tadpole state.
It is undergoing a transition. Formerly purely South

THE CITY OF BUENOS AYRES. 85
American in its customs, regulations, and general economy,
it is gradually adopting European institutions, and its
aspect will soon be, by custom and practice, that of almost
any European city. European comforts will follow, and
will be easily obtained. European laws, I venture to say,
will be more revered and followed ; and, let us hope, jus
tice and liberty* be realities, not myths as they now are.
I need not say that when this comes about it will be a
great improvement upon the present style of things. The
change is being effected by the great tide of European
immigration which reaches these shores. There is a very
large population of Italians, French, and English in Buenos
Ayres, the former being especially numerous. Through
what vicissitudes, through what changes and misery, have
not Buenos Ayres and its people passed ! Ever since the
independence of the province was declared, in 1816, it
seems to have been a .prey to factions and civil wars.
Terrible deeds have been done here. The heart shudders
and the feelings are outraged when we read of the bloody
period of Rosas. Then it was that men's throats were cut
with as little compassion as a butcher would kill a sheep ;
nay, I have been assured that individuals were shot whilst
walking in the streets under Rosas's rule ; throats were
actually cut d serrucho, that is, with a saw ; the tyrant
was all-powerful; anarchy and cruelty reigned supreme.
One thing appears evident : These people are utterly unfit
to govern themselves ; the spirit of jealousy and contention
* What Mark Tapley said of the North Americans will apply
equally well to some of the Spanish descendants in South America —
"They've such a passion for Liberty, that they can't help taking
liberties with her."

86 THE PARAGUAYAN WAR.
is too strong in them, and they cannot avoid fighting for
place and power. They literally cut their own national
throat, and never think how much more profitable it would
be to cultivate and otherwise improve their country.
In justice, however, it must be told that the present
governor, President Mitre, is a most intelligent and liberal-
minded man, and probably the best president the republic
has seen ; too good for the situation, in fact. But how can
this country go ahead, its wealth increase, its resources be
opened up, when this Paraguayan war is going on ? The
Argentines have lost more men and money in that war
than they can well afford — to say nothing of the infinitely
greater loss to Brazil. The country is being drained of
its life's-blood by that abominable struggle. Many, many
valuable lives have been lost for nothing ; because, with
all the fighting, nothing has been accomplished, and Lopez
is as strong as ever he was.
The general appearance of the town of Buenos Ayres,
when viewed from the river, is very commanding. The
high, round domes of its churches are especially imposing.
But on landing, the stranger finds the streets narrow and
wretchedly paved. After a heavy shower of rain, these
so-called streets are in a terrible state — full of water,
although they are certainly not as bad as those of Rio de
Janeiro, where you pay a nigger to carry you across. This
town has no drainage system whatever, and is badly sup
plied with water. I cannot but think that if cholera or any
other plague broke out, it would commit frightful ravages.
The windows of the houses in Buenos Ayres, as in Monte
Video, and in all other South American towns I have
visited, are protected by substantial iron bars. Every

HOUSES — WAKES. 87

house looks like a gaol. You ask what purpose the iron
bars before the windows are intended to serve? Alas!
you have only need to remember the frequent rebellions,
revolutions, and scrimmages which take place. The roofs
of the houses are built after the Moorish fashion, viz.,
flat. In the evening nothing can be pleasanter than a
quiet stroll on the azotea, as this flat roof is called.
The houses are constructed with a square in the middle,
and upon this square the rooms open. The square, or
patio, has generally a cistern or well of rain water in the
centre, which cistern is termed the algibe. In the even
ings, when the great heat of the sun has passed, the seno-
ritas make their appearance, and if at this time you walk
through the streets, and can muster courage enough to
look up at the balconies, there you will see the little dears
gracefully lounging over the railings, and using their fans
in that extremely expert manner peculiar to Spanish and
South American women. By-the-bye, the fan forms quite
an indispensable part of their toilette. Mere children use
miniature fans, and thus by the time they have reached
sweet sixteen or seventeen, they handle that ornament in
such a dexterous and elegant manner that it excites sur
prise and admiration in a stranger.
• I have before told you that the people in this country,
on the occasion of the death of a relative, celebrate a
" wake," somewhat after the style of the peasants in Ire
land. When in the Banda Oriental, I attended one of
these wakes, which they call velorios. The body of the
deceased — it was that of a girl aged seventeen, who had
died the same morning — was laid out in an open coffin,
with candles burning around it. The dead girl bore a

88 FIREWORKS.

wreath of flowers on her forehead ; around the coffin sat
relatives, friends, and visitors drinking math and conversing
in subdued tones. I ate a portion of a small cake handed
to me by a member of the family, and sucked a math.
On a bed in the room where I sat, lay a sister of the dead
girl, who every now and then sobbed deeply. She was, I
beheve, overwhelmed with grief, and felt the solemnity of
the occasion, but to most of the others it was- only a show,
a pastime, an opportunity for drinking wine and meeting
a friend. Nothing else. As I sat not far from the
departed one, then sleeping the calm sleep of Death ; as I
gazed upon the corpse of a fellow creature whose soul had
so lately been called away to unknown realms, the sound
of laughter and noisy mirth reached my ears. These pro
ceeded from a room a little apart, where two or three girls
were gathered in company with a young man. Very little
respect is paid here to these solemn subjects ; the funeral
service is an awful farce, and no good lesson is gained by
the serious thoughts which no doubt the death of any
person ought to suggest to us.
The Argentines and Orientales are seemingly very fond
of fireworks. When a grand performance is coming off at
the theatre, a proportionate discharge of rockets apprises
you of the fact. I have seen them setting off rockets at
the theatre door on the above-mentioned occasions, and
whilst these were whizzing into the air, and bursting with
loud explosions, a band of music was stationed near,
increasing with its sounds the harmony or hubbub, which
ever it happened to be. Talking of fire reminds me of
fireflies. These insects are very numerous, and on a sum
mer's evening, darting to and fro, they fill the air with

MEALS. 89

scintillations. When at Santa Fd, walking through the
streets one evening, I saw some girls who had placed a
number of these flies in their hair. This was indeed a
very novel head-dress, and some leader of fashion might
take a hint from it.
It is a remarkable fact that at a menagerie, or in zoolo
gical gardens, the spectators always seem deeply interested
in watching the wild beasts fed. "When are the lions
and the tigers fed, Mr. Keeper ?" is a frequent interroga
tion of fond mothers, for the sake of their inquiring off
spring, at these places of amusement and instruction.
Conceal the fact as you may, the subject of eating is one
which occupies the attention of most people in this world,
for the wise and the ignorant, the rich and the poor, all
consult the interests of the stomach at times. It may not
be amiss, then, to say a few words upon how the animals
in this South American menagerie feed ; to inquire at
what hours the meals take place ; and what is eaten. ' As
a general rule, then, it may be stated that the natives
take only two meals per day. Breakfast is generally eaten
about ten or half-past, though not unfrequently as late as
twelve. Dinner takes place from five to seven in the
evening. When they rise in the morning they take a
math or two, or a cup of coffee, but eat nothing till ten or
eleven o'clock. They can't understand persons eating the
first thing in the morning, though it is decidedly most
natural to do so. When a man has partaken of a good
breakfast, he feels fortified and ready for the duties of the
day ; but these fellows work upon empty stomachs. I am
a firm believer in the saying that "Nature abhors a
vacuum," and have strong objections to making a voyage

90 GARLIC.

without a cargo. This late breakfast is a very elaborate
affair, consisting of numerous courses, and is much more
like a dinner than a breakfast. Wine is always on the
table, which custom seems to be borrowed from the French,
and when you have eaten all you want, coffee is served
round. There is nothing very remarkable about the din
ners, except that, like the breakfasts, they consist of nu
merous courses. Sometimes they have seemed to me quite
interminable. A favourite dish with these people is stewed
or hashed meat and vegetables, which is termed pucliero;
choclos (cobs or heads of Indian corn) are often taken with
the puchero. A very common vegetable is pumpkin ; but
to my mind it is a poor substitute for the potato. Joints of
meat here are cut in quite a different way to that in which
we cut them at home ; you never see a good round of beef,
or a fine leg of mutton. Meat is cooked and eaten in small
pieces, so to speak. The mutton of South America is not
appreciated as much as it ought to be ; to me it seems
superior to the beef. The latter undoubtedly does not
contain as much nourishment as English beef ; nor is the
milk of this country to be compared with the milk we get
at home. The rivers here abound with fine fish, which
are all very good. Tortoises are found in the rivers and
arroyos. The partridge is pretty abundant in the camps,
and particularly good ; the flesh is very white. Do not pull
up your noses when I inform you that the gauchos some
times eat horse flesh. Other favourite dishes of theirs I
could also mention, but in doing so I should offend many
fastidious persons. The Argentines, like their Spanish
ancestors, have a great predilection for garlic. Often, in
passing a man in the street, my nasal organ has been

CARNIVAL. 91

grievously offended, and I have, in fact, been half poisoned
by the odour of that everlasting garlic. But the most
amusing thing is to watch them eat olives. How they
pop them down their throats; with what a gusto they
seem to masticate them; and how very quickly a dish of
this fruit disappears under the devoted attention of four
or five natives ! Olives may be delectable, but whenever
I see them I am always reminded of the old drill-sergeant,
who, on tasting an olive for the first time, immediately
deposited it upon his plate, exclaiming in a military and
stentorian voice, "As you were !"
Carnival is just over. It took place on the 5th, 6th, aDd
7th of this month. During the three days of Carnival, any
body and everybody is at liberty, from two o'clock in the
afternoon until sunset, to throw water upon anybody
and everybody who may chance to pass in the street —
the compliment being returnable with interest. Num
bers of egg-shells filled with scented water (or other
wise) and waxed at one end, so that the water inside
may not escape, are sold in the streets before and during
the fun, if fun it can be called. After the hour of
two has been announced by the firing of a cannon, all
unfortunate passers-by get innumerable watery missiles
thrown at them. These eggs, when well directed at the
face, eye, or ear, have not a pleasing effect ; bursting, they
wet you all over, and for some time your occupation is
chiefly that of a water spaniel — shaking your ears* Some-
* I learn from the papers that during the carnival which is just
over, there were sold no less than seven hundred and eighty thousand
dozen eggs. The eggs cost about five paper dollars per dozen (ten-
pence). Thus, three million nine hundred thousand dollars were
expended ; all which resolves itself into £32,500 sterling.

92 CARNIVAL.

times people of a very liberal turn of mind, stationed in
the balconies of the houses, deliberately pour a can of
water over a special friend passing underneath, drenching
him to the skin. The poor cabmen get volleys of eggs
and numerous cans of water distributed over them, and
often present a most pitiable appearance. Any person
riding on horseback is sure to be honoured with a few eggs,
one perhaps in his mouth, and another on the nape of his
neck, when the water inevitably runs down his back. The
other evening, when walking to the hotel to get my dinner,
I was the unhappy recipient of a small cataract, a minia
ture Niagara, which descended with great force upon my
back from a window beneath which I was passing.
This (wrongly- termed) sport leads to innumerable
quarrels and fights, and deaths sometimes occur when
the combatants wax wroth. Horses take fright, and their
riders are thrown. Stones are hurled, and windows are
broken. The papers, when Carnival is over, publish long
accounts of the casualties. The press of the country
stigmatises this period as " dias de locuras" — days of
madness ; and yet the custom is persisted in. Query : Is
it not strange that the government of any nation laying
a claim to civilisation should allow these breaches of
decorum to take place year after year ? Carnival sports,
as carried on in the River Plate, are barbarous ; no busi
ness can proceed ; and the ladies, together with the
respectable part of the community, become neither more
nor less than close prisoners in their houses during the
days of Carnival. At this time, processions of different
societies take place. They are attended by bands of
music, and the members are dressed as dominoes, or are

CARNIVAL. 93

otherwise fantastically attired. Mask balls are given
each night at the theatres. All these extravagances are
indulged in, because the season of Lent is just being
entered upon, when people are supposed to be more
solemn and circumspect than usual. No mirth and fun
then; fish and sanctity only. For, if I am rightly in
formed, Roman Catholics during Lent consider fun and
flesh-meat as forbidden pleasures. I attended two of the
mask balls and was greatly diverted. The music was
excellent, the dresses extravagant and amusing, and the
dancing of a kind altogether peculiar. There was a very
fair display of female limbs, and many gestures, with
extensive throwing about of arms and legs. I have no
time to write more, as the mail is sailing this afternoon. —
Begging you will excuse this lengthy scribble, I remain,
yours, etc.

APPENDIX.

In some of_.thefore^rang_letters IJiave alluded. to i Indian
invasions^ i" thp^Sarvta^F^ and Frayle Muerto districts,
and have stated my opinion, that these invasions" must"
undoubtedly be a great drawback to the purchase of
camps in the neighbourhood of the savage tribes. That
I have not exaggerated the case in the .least degree in
my notices of the invasions and plunder of the Indians,
and that I have not been too hard upon the Argentine
government in my strictures upon its lamentable remiss
ness, the following paragraphs, cut from the Buenos Ayres
Standard two or three months ago, will sufficiently show.
"THE INDIANS IN SANTA FE. — ANOTHER INVASION
EXPECTED.
" To the Editors of the Standard.
"Rincon de Pavon, May 16, 1867.
" Gentlemen, — About three weeks ago a, number of
Indians made an incursion into a district near La Sepul-
tura, about fifteen leagues from Rosario ; and during the
last week they have made two invasions, the first to the
Orqueta del Saladillo, within eight leagues of Rosario, and
the second to the Puestos de Medina. On all these occa
sions, fire, rapine, and murder have, as usual, been the
order of the day; but, as an exception to the ordinary

APPENDIX. 95

tactics of Indians, I may mention the extreme coolness
with which they acted. Instead of driving off cattle in-
stanter, with the utmost deliberation they parared several
rodeos and. leisurely picked out all they fancied, and then,
when there was nothing left to take, quietly decamped.
A boy who was taken captive, and subsequently escaped,
reports that at the principal encampment, which is three
days' journey from Rosario, there are two thousand Indians
and eight hundred gauchos; allowing for exaggeration
we may estimate their force at half those numbers. They
have intimated that they intend visiting, next moon, some
rich estancias within five leagues of Rosario, and certainly,
to all appearances, there is nothing to hinder them.
Everybody in these parts is alarmed, and yet nothing is
done, and nothing in all probability will be done. Immi
gration is greatly on the increase in this province ; set
tlers of all nations, but principally Irish, are daily arriving
from the south camps ; but if such invasions as these con
tinue, immigration will be stopped, and the province will
be thrown back to what it was ten years ago. Hitherto
all our countrymen have escaped ; but should the next
invasion extend to the Monte Flores, as has been hinted,
a number of them will be in danger. — I am, yours truly,
"A Would-be Settler,"

"Villa Nueva, June 15th, 1867.
" On the 12th inst. the Indians made another descent,
to the south of this town, on the Estancia of D. Tomas
Frontera ; where they killed one peon, wounded six, and

96 APPENDIX.

carried off several captives. Nieves' escaped by chancing
to sleep at Fernando's puesto, and although the savages
passed close by, they did not stop at the puesto."

"INDIANS AT FRAYLE MUERTO.
" By last steamer we received from a subscriber in
Rosaria the following extract of a letter from one of his
friends, dated Frayle Muerto, June 10th :—
'The rascally Indians have just paid us another call,
the second during the last fortnight. The first was to Los
Al'foncitos, belonging to Messrs. Hamilton, De Waterville,
and Le Page ; and now they have been to Monte de Lena
(Lieutenant Trotter's Estancia), as well as the Saladillo.
We have no certain facts to rely on ; but two natives have
come from Saladillo, who tell us that the Indians made
their appearance at Monte de Lena about 6.0 A.M., and
took away all the horses, with the exception of two. It
appears that the residents ef the house all rushed up to
the azotea in their night dresses, and amongst them was
an English lady, Mrs. Best, who, with her husband, is on
a visit to Lieutenant Trotter. The men of the party
blazed away at the Indians, but killed none ; although
another account states that one was shot, and one carried
off wounded. But we must wait to get the main facts.
From Monte de Leiia the Indians went on to Saladillo,
and drove off all the cattle from these places. Some say
they went down south, in which case they will have
passed Messrs. Seymour's, and probably taken all our
cattle and horses. Others state that they have crossed
the Tercero and over the railway, on their route to the

APPENDIX. 97

Santa Fe" camps. I hope not, and do not believe it.
Those of us who are here are seriously thinking of getting
up, if possible, an expedition against the Indians ; for as
the government does not seem inclined to do anything
for us, we must do something for ourselves in self-preser
vation. If we could get two hundred or a hundred and
fifty Englishmen, and have a sort of military discipline,
with a little drill, we should do very well. We must also
make an arrangement with the government that we
should have the animals we capture. I really think it is
feasible.' "The Frayle Muerto colonists have really reason to
doubt in the existence of a government in this country.
Well may they ask, Is this the guarantee that we receive
for the expenditure of our time, labour, money ? Or is it
not ' a mockery, a delusion, and a snare ' to believe that
Minister Rawson is doing anything more than laughing
at them, when they find that all the big talk of last year
about a fort at the Saladillo has turned out such a delu
sion. We have no hesitation in saying that the Argentine
government is disgracing itself by the manner in which it
is permitting the Frayle Muerto colonists to suffer from
these attacks — whether they come from Indians or out
lawed gauchos."

[Extract from a Letter.]
"AN ENGLISH ESTANCIA ATTACKED BY INDIANS. — NARROW
ESCAPE OB' THE INMATES.
" Mr. H.'s place was sacked by the Indians not very long
since. He lives riear Frayle Muerto. The Cacique and

98 APPENDIX.

Indians marched right up to their rancho, although he
and his companions had their revolvers pointed at them
from port holes. Whilst they were talking to the Cacique,
the Indians were coolly digging into the rancho, and
breaking down the door with their lances ; so they agreed
if they retired twenty yards they would open the house.
They accordingly retired into the sheep corral, well armed.
The Indians then gave a savage yell and rushed into the
house, took' everything they could, and smashed the re
mainder, including the desks. Amongst other things the
Cacique got hold of a box of corrosive sublimate and was
in the act of swallowing it when they told him that it was
poison. If they had allowed him to take it, of course they
would all have been murdered. On going away, the
Cacique very politely shook hands with them, and sarcas
tically remarked that they were muy amigos* Mr. H.
says that if it were not for the Cacique they should cer
tainly have been murdered, as several times the Indians
wanted to make a rush on them, but were with difficulty
prevented by him.
" I will give you an idea of the losses suffered on the
southern frontier by the last two invasions of the savages.'
ITje-Anglo-Saxon principle is, that everything_that affects_
the people shouklbefreely ^rjaibjjshed and freely_discusssiL.
and I see no reason in this country to act otherwise. It
is only bad governments and bad authorities who derive
profit from keeping the people in ignorance and suppres
sing everything in the shape of bad news. In the first
invasion, Mr. Laprado lost, cows, 5,300 ; oxen, 250 ; mares,

Excellent friends.

APPENDIX. 99

1,000 ; horses, 250 ; sheep, 6,000 ; horses of peons, 250 ;
with one puesto destroyed. Horacio Duarte lost fifty-two
head of cattle, his house burnt, together with twenty fane-
gas of wheat. Fermin Bourbon, one hundred and four
head of cattle. Victor Baldez, sixteen head. Jose" Perez,
thirty-five milch cows and ten horses. Camilo Viva, eleven
horses. Purdo, two hundred mares. Carbonel, number
not known. Andres Morales, sixty horses and mares, and
eighty head of horned cattle. Los Leivas, sixty horses
and mares, and fifty head of cattle. Espinosa, three hun
dred horses and mares. The Widow Cardosa, eighty horses
and mares, and fifty cows. Rolando (Italian), five hundred
cows and one hundred mares. Luis Quintero (Rosario),
throat cut. Mariano Rodriguez (San Luis) lanced. Es-
tanislao Mancilla (Santiago), lanced. Antonio Quina (Men
doza), lanced. Maria  ¦ (Cordoba), lanced.
" The wife and four children of Horacio Duarte taken
away captives, as well as two women of the chacra, an'
two children, two peons, two children of the capataz, Ca
bonel, three persons from the carts of Mr. Amigo, captiv
In all, five killed, and sixteen carried off.
" Second invasion. Laprado y Ca., five thousand tl
hundred head of cattle, two hundred and twenty he
and mares. Fortunato Bravo, six hundred head of c
and fifty mares. Josd Andrada, two hundred cows,
seventy horses and mares. Moraza, two hundred
and twenty horses.
" There were a good many melancholy episodes tin
have not been able to collect the account of, and as I
not wish to put anything down that may not be strict
true, I refrain from speaking of them.

100 APPENDIX.

" These data, I think, ought to have the effect of in
ducing some strenuous measures to be taken. The price of
land, subject to these invasions, has fallen fifty per cent,
and who can calculate the vast loss we are suffering from
the bad effect these circumstances have on the current of
immigration that is running into the country ?
" I shall say nothing more to-day, but shall certainly
return to the subject, for it is our bugbear. Frayle Muerto
is receiving rio more settlers, for the sole reason that the
lands there may be said to be Indian territory. What a
shame ! What will be the effect on the liberal colonisation
schemes of the Central Railway Company ? — Yours, etc.,
" W. P."

A. IRE-LAND AND CO., PRINTERS, MANCHESTER.