SIX DAYS WITH GENERAL URQUIZA.

IDA AL BAILE—GOING TO THE BALL.

Theagremensof social life for natives, and, what is still more rare in South American cities, for foreigners, are numerous. Not only are there comfortable Club-Houses, to which they resort in considerable numbers, but there is the opera for lovers of music—an art, or rather a passion pursued here with even greater devotion than in the rival sister city of the Plate, of which we have spoken in the previous chapter; but here of course this passion is far more effectually administered to than at Monte Video, because of the presence of a well-supported and very effective lyric corps. As with ourselves at home, to be sure, the opera-house is resorted to not exclusively because of its chromatic or choreographic allurements, but for the fashion of the thing, and, on the part of the male sex, for the sake of the opportunity of witnessing the Buenos Ayrean belles, who, on such occasion, are seen to infinite advantage, probably even more so than on the Prado, in all the magic of mantilla, and that peculiarly bewitching gait they derive from their Andalusian mammas. Much as I had heard before-hand of what Lord Palmerston, in describing aldermen’s wives at Lord Mayors’ dinners, calls the ‘galaxy of beauty’ which assembles in the Buenos Ayrean Opera-House, I was altogether unprepared for the reality; and certainly I never saw so many charming looking women collected together, especially in a part of the theatre corresponding to our upper boxes, but here nicknamed the Hen-Coop, into which sanctum none of the worser half ofhumanity is admitted any more than is the better half in the Omnibus Box in Covent Garden, or what used to be such when there was a place once known as Her Majesty’s Theatre. Unlike our Omnibus Box, however, the Hen-Coop admits of its occupants being seen by the whole house, and the privilege is apparently no less gratifying to those who dispense than those who participate in it. In the regular dress boxes, ladies and gentlemen mingle as with us; and whether in mien, physiognomy, or manners, may challenge comparison with any audience I have ever seen anywhere. The Buenos Ayrean ladies are social and unreserved, without the least degree of boldness or effrontery; they mix freely with foreigners, and go about out of doors without either duenna or cavalier servente. The peculiar custom of seeming exclusiveness at the theatre just alluded to, arises from a wish to go unattended whenever they feel disposed, in their regular sitting or house dresses, which evince great natural taste and simplicity, and not from any wish to avoid the company of the other sex. Coming out of the theatre, they are met by their brothers, parents, or husbands, and walk home as unceremoniously as they go. Among their other accomplishments should be included a peculiarly graceful equestrianism, which invariably excites the admiration of all Europeans in a marked degree, and not the least so of the English, who pursue the sports of the turf with the ardour which our countrymen carry with them for that pastime whereverthey go. The Buenos Ayrean races are very popular with the inhabitants; and in return their fetes and festivals find considerable favour in British eyes.[91]

PIESTAS MAYAS.—MAY-DAY IN BUENOS AYRES.

Since the restoration of peace, consequent upon the raising of the blockade by Urquiza, the trade of Buenos Ayres has wonderfully improved, and not only as regards the exports of the staples of the Plate of which we have already spoken, but in the importsof all manner of European luxuries;[92]and the letters that continue to be received here by every mail represent the animation in commercial circles as most buoyant.[93]There is now the greatest reason to believe that this state of things will long continue, or at least not be terminated by civil war, notwithstanding the fact of Urquiza having been re-appointed President of all the provinces of the Confederation, with the exception of that of Buenos Ayres. Brazil, having effected the tranquillization of the Banda Oriental,must of course be equally solicitous for the peace of the whole region on either side of the Plate; and now that the Uruguay is thus effectually closed against the machinations of any of the agitators of the Confederation, it is to be presumed that the object for which this country[94]made such costly but abortive efforts will at length be accomplished, and in a great degree by the instrumentality that would have been employed there had judicious advice been followed, viz. by the firm mediation of Brazil.

While these pages were going through the press, there have occurred, or rather the recollection has been revived, of some circumstances that induce me to supply a few details I did not originally contemplate.

URQUIZA AND ROSAS.

Though on a small scale, the preceding sketches of these remarkable men are excellent likenesses, in either of which the physiognomist and phrenologist may find it difficult to decipher attributes that should reconcile the requirements of science with the characteristics of the individual. First, as regards the elder of the two. Not only did Rosas incur unexampled odium by his cruelties in a sphere where what would be regarded as barbarity elsewhere is looked upon as laudable firmness of disposition, but he enjoyed a reputation for a caustic pleasantry and wit, such indeed as pertained to many of the most remarkable tyrants of all ages, in all parts of the world; though, perhaps, less so to those of Spanish idiosyncrasy than any others. As he has now been expelled, beyond the possibility of restoration, from the scene of his prolonged enormities, I should not seek to revive the recollection of them, or to disturb the quietude of his declining years in his retreat in this country by now adverting to them, were it not that some of the most singular, and, as it was alleged by many of his salaried partizans in Europe at the time, some of the most apocryphal, have suddenly been rehabilitated with indisputable truth, and surrounded with a degree of interest not unworthy of one of M. Dumas’ romances, under the circumstances named in the annexed paragraph, which appeared in the leading English journal while these pages were being prepared for the press, viz.:—

Two more of the ‘mashorqueros’ have been condemned and shot—a fate they so richly merited. One of them, it is said, confessed to having assassinated no less than 21 personsby the orders of Rosas, and 19 on his own account. It is said the Government is in possession of undoubted proof of the murder of the English family (Kidd), when Mr. Ouseley was in Buenos Ayres in 1845, by the orders of Rosas; and that it is their intention to place these proofs before the British Government. This, however, may be a work of supererogation, as it is believed here that Mr. Ouseley sent home ample proofs of the facts many years ago, as well as proofs of the deliberate murder of the midshipman Ross some time after.

In order to understand the meaning of the strange term used in the first line of the preceding quotation, it may be necessary for the information of the younger reader,—for during Rosas’ sway the phrase occurred too frequently to need explanation to any one who perused the revolting reports from the Plate—to supply an elucidation. This cannot be better done than in the words addressed by the Uruguayan Agent in this country, General O’Brien, to the then Secretary of Foreign Affairs, and present Prime Minister of England, in 1844, when seeking British assistance against the Buenos Ayrean oppressor of the Banda Oriental. The General said:—

The Masorcas, or secret affiliation, in support of Rosas’s government, derives its name from the inward stalk of the maize, when deprived of its grain, and has been used by the members of the clubs as an instrument of torture, of which your Lordship may form some idea when calling to mind the agonizing death inflicted upon Edward II. By the members of this club, assassination of those indisposed to the rule of Rosas was, audaciously in some instances, covertly in more, constantly exercised. Amongst the victims was Maya, the first benefactor of Rosas. The estates of all who fell by the hands of the band of Rosas, as well as of those who fled from his vengeance, were seized by him. His absolute command of Buenos Ayres, and his possession of the bank, enabled him to manage the finances of the country, and in 1842 gave to him an army of 10,000 men. Many were collected by fear, from the positive knowledge that, if they did not obey his summons, their fate would be similar to that of men who, having refused to join his troops, were dragged out of their beds at night by members of the Masorca Club, and in the very presence of their wives and children brutally put to death! Like as it happened with the early revolutionary armies of France, which had commissioners from the Convention, the soldiers of Rosas were accompanied by individuals of the Masorca Club, and they but too faithfully executed the commission confided to them, depriving the victims of Rosas’s vengeance or suspicion of life, amid tortures and cruelties that shock humanity but to hear of them. My Lord, I know of these tortures being inflicted. At the time that Oribe invaded the Banda Oriental, with the army and the Masorca commissioners of Rosas, I was residing on my estate in the country. I am aware of wretches being staked into the ground forty-eight hours before their heads were sawed, not cut, off;—of the lasso being flung over persons’ necks, and then drawn by a horse at full speed until life became extinct;—of spikes being driven into the mouths of human beings, and they, whilst living, thus nailed to trees.

Of the way in which such machinery was capable of being used by such a man as Rosas, we may form an idea from General O’Brien’s description of his antecedents:—

Rosas is known to me for five-and-twenty years. For his early education he was indebted to Maza, afterwards president of the Buenos Ayres congress. His calling in life was that of a ‘Capataz,’—or care-taker of the property of his relatives, the Anchorenas, and this brought him into constant intercourse with the wild Indian tribes of the Pampas. He ingratiated himself greatly with these tribes, for he not only conformed himself to their habits, but he also won the favour of their Caciques by presents, judiciously distributed amongst them. This was his state of life until 1820, when the influence of his kinsmen, the Anchorenas, obtained for him the lieutenant-colonelcy of the militia of the frontiersof the Indian territory. It was then, and not till then, that he appeared as a soldier. It was to aid Martin Rodriguez in a successful revolution; but once the victory of his friend had been secured, he again retired to the Pampas, put himself in contact with the Patagonian and Pampa Indians, and thus added to his popularity and his influence amongst that savage race of men. Rosas maintained his friendly relations with the Indians until the civil war, in 1829, in Buenos Ayres. In that war the President Dorrego was shot by Lavalle, and Rosas at once became the head of the party of Dorrego. With the death of Dorrego commence the calamities of that part of the world. The conduct, the bearing, and the demeanour of Rosas, were such as to obtain for him universal approbation. He gained in his favour the opinions of the good, whilst he was concocting schemes for winning the bad. He left the society of civilized men, and again repaired to the Indians. It was under his auspices, it has since been discovered, that the Indians were incited to attack the property of those who were civilized; and their hostility was especially directed by Rosas against all whom he believed would be capable or disposed to resist his attempts at possessing himself of despotic power. He established a camp, which had all the privileges of a sanctuary for every malefactor of every district, from Buenos Ayres to Upper Peru and the Cordilleras of the Andes. His protectorate of crime was not avowed, but it was actively exercised. It shielded the criminal from the punishment of man, and it won impunity by the perpetration of new atrocities upon all who were suspected by Rosas. Between 1829 and 1833, Rosas laid the foundation for that despotism which he has since exercised. The means he employed were worse even than the object itself, for they consisted in ‘the organization of a band of assassins.’ I assure your lordship there is not the slightest exaggeration in the phrase.

A French writer whom we shall again have occasion to quote at the conclusion of this chapter, in explanation of the causes which lead to that indifference to the lives of others which distinguishes the guachos, describes a characteristic trait of Rosas, which it is necessary to understand, viz.—

Every one who has visited the provinces of La Plata, and has written about General Rosas, has spoken of his energy, his patience, his cleverness, and his cruelty; but there is that in him which is paramount to all his other qualities, and which may be said to be the most prominent trait of his character, and that is his science in mendacity, his skill in working out, even to a most perfect system—a gigantic scheme of lying. It is an accomplishment in which he never has been equalled, and never can be surpassed. It would be difficult to convey an idea of the degree to which this faculty has been developed in the dictator of Buenos Ayres. The only explanation of his being permitted to exercise power for such a length of time, is to be found in this instrument of action, and which he has employed at all times and in all places with a perseverance that cannot but excite our wonder. Are the acts of his government denounced to the indignation of Europe, he audaciously denies them even to the very face of those who have been eye-witnesses to them. Is an accusation preferred against himself, he instantly turns it against his adversaries, and unceasingly pursues them with it before the entire world; and this he does by means of his journal printed in three languages, with which he inundates the American continent, and which his agents sedulously circulate in every part of Europe. Sustained by a dogged obstinacy which defies all obstacles, nothing can make him deviate from the course he has marked out for himself, and unscrupulous as to the means, he knows that time and patience will effect for him all that he desires. In this respect Rosas has been perfectly consistent. At the moment in which he consecrated in his own person a government essentially Unitarian, by effacing even the last traces of a federation, he compelled the population, upon pain of death, to cry out, ‘Long live the Federation!’ The same day, on which he substituted his own will for all the codes of the republic, he caused himself to be saluted with the title of ‘restorer of the laws!’ Whilst his portrait was publicly incensed in the churches, and received, by his order, divine honours, he invoked the vengeance of heaven upon the impious Unitarians who daily offend the Almighty. When, in fine, he let loose, in the broad day, into the streetsof Buenos Ayres, bands of assassins, who massacred the population, he could not find tears enough to deplore ‘this unhappy popular ebullition, which made his paternal heart bleed!’ We do not believe that hypocrisy and audacity ever reached to such an extreme degree of shameless impudence. It was thus that Europe was misled as to the real character of the events that occurred, and that it accustomed itself to consider as the representative of peace, and as the protector of order, commerce, and civilization, the man who has never ceased for eighteen years to be on the banks of La Plata, the element of sanguinary wars, of crimes, and of violence of every kind.

Reverting to the case of the Kidd Family, their murder was one of the most atrocious on record in any age or any country, considering, first, the number, ages, and utter inoffensiveness of the victims; secondly, the rank, motive, and perfidiousness of the assassin; and, thirdly, the want of public virtue or spirit to resent it among the community in the midst of whom it was perpetrated, but who had been so subdued by such deeds amongst themselves as actually to affect indignation that strangers should name the culprit. The object of Rosas was, under the pretext of popular hatred of foreigners, on account of the policy that was being pursued by the British Government, to strike terror into the English residents in the province and city of Buenos Ayres; so that this terror, reacting on the diplomatist, or at least upon the English cabinet, which it is now notorious that it unfortunately did, might lead to a change in the course so obnoxious to the Dictator, because so fatal to his power of desolating the Uruguay. The Kidds were a highly respectable English, or rather Scotch, family who resided on an estancia a short distance from the city of Buenos Ayres, engaged, as they had been for several years, in the rearing of cattle, and neither interfering, nor being accused of interfering, in the political disputes of the country in the smallest possible degree. They were nine in number—from the aged grandfather, to the infant in arms. These were found one morning with their throats cut in the most barbarous and revolting, yet deliberate, manner; their bodies ranged along the floor; and, in the case of two young girls about fifteen or sixteen, and remarkable for the luxuriance of their hair, their tresses were brought round the head, and tied in fantastic knots in the gashes in their throats. That the object of this bloody business was not plunder was obvious from the circumstance of there not being a particle of property removed, or the least disturbance of the furniture, and also from the ferocious mockery of decency exhibited in the orderly adjustment of the bodies. Of course it made a vast sensation, and it was intended that it should do so.

But Rosas little calculated how completely the tables were about to be turned upon him, and how the engineer would be hoisted with his own petard. Every man, woman, and child in Buenos Ayres knew that the deed had been done by Rosas’ directions, and his ‘Mashorqueros’ brigands boasted of it as the crowning audacity of their master, and one that would soon bring the English minister to his senses. The blow, however, had hardly been struck when it recoiled upon the author. Sir W. G. Ouseley immediately offered the sum of ten thousand dollars for the detection of the murderers; and, inviting the coöperation of all who abhorred the crime to aid in augmenting the reward for the discovery of its perpetrators, carried the list to Rosas himself, and demanded thatheand his daughter, Donna Manueleta,should head it! Of course refusal was impossible, without an open avowal of his guilt, about which no one entertained, or could entertain, a doubt. Accordingly, forth there came, the following morning, and daily for a long time afterwards, the names of Rosas and the British minister, and of many British inhabitants, stigmatising the outrage, and invoking vengeance on the monsters who had effected it. But mark the result. Not only was there no detection, but not a single Buenos Ayrean citizen, or a single person in any way amenable to the power of Rosas, put down his name for a solitary rial, or was heard to whisper a syllable of desire that the assassins should be brought to justice. But there was no hope of anything of the kind, nor would there ever have been as long as Rosas remained in the position he was at the time of that villany, as well as the subsequent one alluded to in the extract, and which was more the prompting of baffled spite against the British minister, than with the least idea it could have had any effect of the kind intended in the direction where the Kidd massacre had so signally failed. But ‘murder, though it hath no tongue, will speak with most miraculous organs;’ and certainly a more strange one could hardly be than that of a ‘mashorquero’ implicating Rosas in one of the greatest enormities of this age, and while yet there is proof sufficient to make its truth apparent even to those whom the Dictator had persuaded he was the victim of foreign calumny. He tried this sanguinary strategy with considerable success, on the occasion of the French intervention in Buenos Ayrean affairs, in 1842, and likewise practised it against some British subjects, as in the case of the midshipman alluded to in the extract from theTimes, and also in the still more ferocious one of the murder of Lieut. Wardlaw, the depositions of the boat’s crew, who saw him foully butchered, when landing on the Rosista territory under a flag of truce, having been published in full detail in the English papers soon afterwards.

But enough, and more than enough, of Rosas. Turning now to his former friend and sometime successor, General Urquiza. Although he has been expelled from Buenos Ayres, yet, in consequence of his having been again rechosen as President of the Confederation by all the other provinces, as well also as continuing in the position he had filled for many years as President of his native province of Entre Rios, there is little doubt that he is destined to play again a conspicuous part on the stage of South American politics, especially should there be a separation of the states into distinct and independent governments, or minor confederacies, as has frequently been proposed, and to which the position and vast extent of these regions point as a prudent course, particularly now that Buenos Ayres may be regarded as having virtually and practically ceased to be a component part of the Argentine republic. I have thought it may not be uninteresting to the English reader to furnish some particulars of this remarkable man, and for that purpose have subjoined a condensed translation of a little work that has attained a great circulation in South America. It is entitled ‘Seis Dias con el General Urquiza, que comprenden Muchas Noticias Sobre su Persona. El esclarcie miento de hechos importantes. Y Algunos Datos Sobre la Situacion Actual de la Provincia de Entre-Rios.’ It will be seen that it is the production of a great admirer of Urquiza, and on that score will be received with due qualification, which mustbe further extended to the style of the writer, whose grandiloquent idiom has been preserved with some closeness in the translation. The principal reason, however, for giving the annexed data is because of the picture afforded of the private life of a South American chief, and, incidentally, of society in portions of that country hitherto undescribed by English travellers. I will only preface these memoranda by saying that Urquiza is now about 54 years of age, abstains from wine and tobacco, and though a great admirer of beauty is still a bachelor. Since 1840 he has been president of Entre Rios, and sided with Rosas during the civil war of Lavellé and Rivera, the latter of whom he routed at the battle of Inda Muerta, in 1846. At last perceiving that the interest of his own state was highly prejudiced by the conduct of Rosas in excluding it from all access to the ocean, he seized the opportunity when Rosas annually resigned the presidency of the Confederation to accept such resignation, thereby depriving the dictator of the legal authority longer to represent and conduct the foreign relations of the Confederation. He then joined Brazil in driving Rosas and Oribe out of the Uruguay, and subsequently out of Buenos Ayres, of which he became president, and was himself in turn ejected from that city and state, under the circumstances already detailed. In the translation the use of the first personal pronoun has been retained:

I arrived at the General’s residence, which is eighteen leagues from the village of Gualeguachú, on the left bank of the river of that name; and, to my surprise, about that magnificent country house, where I expected to find a military encampment, full of officers, soldiers, and men in the service of the renowned champion of Entre-Rios, a profound silence reigned, interrupted only by the blows of the axe of a rustic, who was working upon some trees. I alighted, and entered the house. At the door of one of the apartments stood a man whom I at once recognized as the General, having seen him in the Oriental Republic twenty years before. I knew him because his visage was not changed, and not because his dress manifested anything by which I might recognise him as the supreme chief of the province of Entre-Rios. I took off my hat, but he immediately bade me follow him, and put his hand on the neck of a mastiff, which was lying at his feet. This animal is the famous Purvis,[95]the only sentinel and companion General Urquiza has in a spacious edifice in which five hundred persons can accommodate themselves. His only attendants are an old man who serves him, and a coloured woman who attends to the apartments, where they receive the persons who daily arrive to see the General, some in the public service, but the greater part with private objects. Some other men have occupations in the house, in the labours of his beautiful garden, and in the indispensable services of a country mansion, where there reign order and the most admirable economy. The General made me sit down, and asked me some questions, which inspired me with confidence, at the same that his presence imposed respect. He was dressed rather negligently, covered with a light poncho of the finest vicuna, and wearing a hat of white cloth, with a coloured ribbon, which is distinctive of the Entre-Riano army. I saw him in the same dress all the time that I was with him. He has very little beard, nor does he wear the moustache, so general among the military, and still worn by the peasants; but he does not lose thereby the aspect of a warrior. He is of a very robust constitution, has a broad and extremely prominent chest, and is altogether a remarkably well-formed man. His face preserves all the freshness of youth, although, in my judgment, he must have been born at the commencement of the century. He is of moderate stature, and slightly inclined to corpulence. His complexion is fair, but its bloom has been somewhat darkened by the sun during his military career. All his features are full of expression. His mouth is small, his teeth good, his eyes of a clear grey colour, and full of fire and vivacity. They are unsteady when he speaks, fixing themselves on every object around him, especially when he refers to any act of extreme severity. His hair is black, and begins to fall off his clear unwrinkled forehead. His manners are frank, jovial, and cheerful, so that he predisposes in his favour all who approach him.

‘Why,’ he inquired, after a brief pause, ‘have you come to this country, after having been associated with the foreigners, who have deceived you all, and prolonged a war which ought to have been by this time concluded?’ ‘It is true, sir,’ I replied, ‘but past events linked themselves by degrees, and the torrent of successes has led us’—‘Stop! you must not say that the torrentof successes has precipitated it; you must say that it deceived you, for men of ideas and education do not permit themselves to be led with the multitude, who observe nothing. The Monte Videans have not comprehended their own interests; they ought long since to have settled that unfortunate question, in which so much blood has been shed, and I am persuaded, if such were the case, things would go on well, and the Orientals would not see their country destroyed.’

With these words, he rose, and went out, leaving me quite alone; so I began my toilette, and had the comb in my hand when he returned. ‘You do well to adorn yourself, because you are so ugly,’ said he, in so affable and familiar a tone that it inspired me with complete confidence, for I was already aware that such is his manner when he receives a person with pleasure and good-will. I replied that, at least, I had not a crooked nose, a phrase which General Urquiza often uses, and applies to military cowards and men of small mental capacity. It is the familiar expression which he employs to manifest the contempt which a person deserves from him. Dinner was now announced, and he invited those who were present to dine with him. His table is plain, but abundant; he eats very little meat, and does not drink wine or any kind of liquors; neither does he smoke or take snuff. His principal food, during the six days that I was with him, was roast chicken; at supper he eats very little, and chiefly pastry, with the object, as he says, of taking a little water. After dinner, he remains long at the table, and talks of the events of his youth, particularly of the period when, as representative of the people, he manifested his firmness in opposing anarchy, and had to endure a thousand vicissitudes, by which his life was often in danger, having once been ordered to be shot, and owed his escape to providential causes. He speaks very often of recent events, which he details with so much exactitude that he does not forget the most trifling incident. He never forgets the name or the features of any person he has once seen. He relates the events of the war with an impartiality which does him honour, since he has been so conspicuous an actor in many of them. ‘Do not believe,’ he said to me one day, ‘that I fail to recognise the tendencies of the political parties who have fought for so long a time. On both sides there have been errors, but the Monte Videans have lost by committing themselves to the drowsiness brought on by foreign intervention, and those foreigners have not comprehended what would be beneficial to their interests; in my judgment, they have done the contrary of what they ought to have done. There was that unfortunate General Lavalle, whom I have liked, notwithstanding that he sullied the lustre of his services by serving under the Governor Dorrego; he ruined himself by wishing to combat me without understanding the revolution. I wished to draw him from the way of his destruction, and to bring him to Entre-Rios, for he was a virtuous man; but he refused my offers, because his political friends at that moment surrounded him. I did all I could for him, but my duty was to conquer him. I detested the disloyalty of some of his officers, who treacherously abandoned him, dividing one part of his army from the other, after the battle of Tucuman, and who came to Corrientes, passing through the Great Chaco. There is in Entre-Rios an officer who was faithful, who did not abandon him after the defeat of Famalla, andwho accompanied him until his death. This individual is commendable for his loyalty, and I assure you that I esteem him. The Monte Videans have much reproached me for the death of Carlos Paz, whom, after the battle of Vences, I made a prisoner, and sent to be shot; but he deserved death, for he was a traitor, who was betraying the Madariagas, and afterwards betrayed me. He placed himself in communication with me, supplying me with important information as to the state of the Corrientine army, and certainly he was not deceiving me. He did more still; he assured me that he would not make use of the artillery that he was commanding, if it arrived at the commencement of a battle. But he probably repented his perfidy, for he ceased all correspondence with me, and on the day of the battle, confiding in the superiority of the forces of Madariaga, and in the elements of defence which they had concentrated in the formidable position of the potrero of Vences, the artillery which he was commanding opened a deadly fire upon my infantry. Colonel Saavedra also perished after the victory: the unhappy man, when he already had in his hands the guarantees which I had sent him, was surprised by a force of Corrientines, whose officer beheaded him. I regret his death, but his imprudence deserved it. Thus it is that my enemies, without investigating the circumstances of the deeds, represent me as a terrible man, and write a thousand injurious censures against me.’

On another occasion, the General, speaking of the press of Monte Video, referred to the time when Rivera Indarte used to conduct the ‘National,’ and reproved the mean publications and immoral doctrines of that epoch. ‘In the battle of Pago Largo,’ said he, ‘Baron Astrada met with his death, and, according to my enemies, I was the cause of it, and likewise of that which was done to his corpse—stripping off part of the skin of the body; and it was also published in Monte Video that I made a horsecloth of it, and presented it to General Rosas. Abominable lie! Of that skin nothing has been made, for it is not long since that it was preserved in Gualeguachú, in the house of D. N., in the wardrobe. Baron Astrada died in Pago Largo, as many others died, in the retreat, and the skin was drawn off from the neck to the shoulders, the first notice of which was given to me by M. Asumbrulla, a Brazilian, who was commissioned by General Bentos Gonzalez, a relative of General Echague, who was with me on the second or third day of the battle. There was a young soldier passing near us, at the sight of whom the Brazilian exclaimed, “See that; see that.” I fixed my eyes on the soldier, but could not recognize in him anything that should call forth the exclamation, until the Brazilian said to me, “The thing which that soldier carries hanging from the neck of his horse is the skin of the Governor of Corrientes.” I called the soldier immediately, to inform myself of the deed.’ The General was going to continue this narration, when a peasant entered. ‘What a strange coincidence,’ said the General; ‘here you see him who drew off the skin of Baron Astrada. Who drew off the skin of the Governor of Corrientes?’ he enquired. ‘I, sir,’ replied the peasant. ‘And who commanded you to do it?’ ‘I say no more, sir.’ ‘And what did I tell you when I called you to ask what it was you carried on the neck of your horse?’ ‘That I could not deny that I was an assassin, and that I would have been rewarded by being shot, butthat I was very young.’ ‘And why did you declare in the Banda Oriental that I had commanded the act?’ ‘Because General Nunez, who then served with Rivera, told me that unless I declared that it was your Excellency who had stripped the skin off the Governor of Corrientes, I should be shot; and because I did not wish to die, I told an untruth, and said that your Excellency had commanded me.’ ‘And why did you declare the same afterwards in Monte Video?’ ‘Because I apprehended that something would happen to me.’ ‘Well,’ said the General, addressing himself to me, ‘you may now perceive that this boy is a knave, who has been amongst the uncultivated Unionites until he implored my pardon, and I granted it. You now know the history of a deed which has been attributed to me, when I have not had the slightest part in it. It has also been written that I commanded all the boys who were made prisoners at Pago Largo to be destroyed. This is false: the prisoners whom we made in that victory were not sacrificed, although it is true that some were executed by the order which I gave, for which I had just and powerful reasons. After the defeat, the infantry of the Corrientines retired, but I followed them with the cavalry that I was commanding, for Don Pascual Echague was then general-in-chief. I was commencing active hostilities in the retreat, when, seeing themselves lost, they wished to surrender, but asked for guarantees before they laid down their arms. I immediately sent them to them, but the officer who carried them was killed by the very men who wished to capitulate. The second time the same thing was done, and I then gave more rigorous orders. They began to separate, and to seek the mountains near hand, but all were made prisoners, and consequently I had to chastise the perfidy. The investigation made resulted in the discovery of those who were the authors of the murders, and those only I commanded to be shot. This is the truth; and if my enemies and the Monte Videans have said to the contrary, and have written slanders against me, I look upon them with scorn. There has been here one of those who in Monte Video was a fabricator of impostures, who used to say that I was a Gaucho, and my mother a Chinese woman. I have had him in my presence, and I have asked him if I really was a Gaucho, and why he was guilty of such falsehoods; and, as is natural, he found himself confounded, without knowing what to say in reply. This individual is now in Entre-Rios, and has no reason to repent having come, for I have done something for him, as I do for all who come to this country.’

After this conversation, the General retired, and I remained alone, meditating upon what I had heard. The account which he had given me of the unfortunate Baron Astrada was to me interesting, for it removed from my mind the error under which I was labouring until that moment, and I saw with satisfaction General Urquiza exonerated from an atrocious act.

When General Urquiza speaks of deeds such as those which I have here detailed, he gives to his voice an accent, and to his action an expression, so vivid, that it impresses on his words the seal of truth, and manifests, to whoever observes him, that he is not one of those men who, because they have power, hold in contempt the judgment of their cotemporaries. General Urquiza likes to preserve a good reputation, and has respect for public opinion.He prefers to govern from retirement to being surrounded by the trophies of his victories and the insignia of his power. Morality and education are his special care, and a magnificent edifice is being erected under his directions, to be called the Entre-Riano College. Nothing proves more completely that the tendencies of General Urquiza are towards progress than the interest which he takes in the education of the people.

Education is completely disseminated, and the most convenient system for accelerating the progress of early instruction has been adopted. There is no country district which has not a school sustained by the treasury of the province, to which fathers are under the obligation of sending their sons. These establishments are independent of those that are in all the towns, and are under the immediate supervision of the local magistrates. Their purpose is the instruction of those children whose parents live in the scattered villages, far away from the towns. With this system there will, in a short time, be few persons destitute of the rudiments of education.

‘Entre-Rios,’ said General Urquiza one day, ‘receives all men, whatever may be their origin, their opinions, and their political antecedents; they will be respected, and even favoured, if their tendencies are towards goodness, and they do not interfere in our affairs. I wish from those who come to this land only respect for the established authorities, and the observance of the laws. The Unionites, French, English, all may come to Entre-Rios, to pass through our villages, to cross over our country in all directions, and to establish themselves where they wish, in the assurance that they will not hear a single voice raised against them which might cause the slightest offence. I wish to be at peace with all, and will provoke no one; but he that incites me will find me disposed to fight in defence of my country. The Entre-Riano army is valiant, and has proved itself capable of great things, and I have great confidence in its valour and its enthusiasm.’

The army of Entre-Rios embraces from nine to ten thousand men of the three arms, but its principal force consists in the cavalry. This is composed of eleven divisions, corresponding to the departments into which the province is divided, which, although I have no data upon the extent of the territory of Entre-Rios, ought, I think, to comprise a little more or less than 5,000 square leagues. The cavalry, in times of peace, is completely liberated, and a portion is employed in the police of the departments. When the army returns from any campaign, it lays down its arms and disbands, with the understanding that, at the slightest rumour of a military summons, they are to present themselves with their uniforms, and the cavalry with their horses. It is an undoubted fact that, in six or seven days after the issue of the first order from the General’s quarters, for the reunion of the army, it can be completely reunited, armed, clothed, perfectly equipped, and in readiness to march, so that General Urquiza, with the Entre-Riano army, can be in front of the city of Monte Video in twenty or twenty-two days after issuing the first orders for its reunion, notwithstanding the difficulties presented by the majestic river Uruguay. With such troops it is not strange that General Urquiza should have obtained such signal victories.

‘The battle of Vences,’ said the General, ‘is an affair which does greathonour to the Entre-Riano army, which had to combat powerful enemies, and yet penetrated to where the Corrientines were not expecting it. They were astonished and terrified at the courage of my soldiers, who penetrated through immense morasses and difficulties which the enemies placed in their way; and I can assure you that I myself was astonished by the magnitude of the dangers which we encountered, and the obstacles which we overcame. This daring gave us the victory, as the army of Madariaga was superior to mine in its number, and particularly in infantry and artillery.’ On another occasion, the General entertained me with interesting details of the campaign in the Oriental Republic, in which he manifested a degree of activity and skill which has done him great credit, for, though he had to combat in a land unknown to him, the victory was his, and was a work exclusively of his own inspiration. These details convince me that the General is a man of great penetration, and of elevated capacity, so that he has been known to foresee many events which have prolonged the war, and upon which he looks as the origin of many evils.

‘I have the satisfaction of knowing,’ he observed, ‘that the army of Entre-Rios has been a model of morality and subordination, and that there have been few complaints of it. I have acted throughout from conviction, and the public accounts will show that I have not taken a single dollar for my own use, not even the pay to which my rank of general entitled me. On the contrary, the treasury of the province is indebted to me in the sum of 30,000 dollars, the amount of debts contracted in the public service, and which I have yet to pay. From the Oriental country I have brought nothing but compromises and this dog,’ pointing to the mastiff, Purvis, which was lying at his feet. ‘It is true he is a wicked animal, for he respects no one but me, and even those who feed him are not certain that he will not leave his food to bite them; but in me he seems to recognize a certain superiority. He has his history and his instincts which I cannot comprehend, and which no one will ever be able to explain. He belonged to Colonel Galazza, but suddenly attached himself to me, and would not be driven away. Seeing the pertinacity with which he persisted in following me, I allowed him to remain, and he has never left me since, running by the side of my horse throughout the campaigns of the Banda Oriental and Corrientes. He manifests no terror under fire, and when struck by a spent cannon-ball at India Muerto, and hurled several yards from me, he quickly recovered his legs, and resumed his post by my side!’

The superficial character of Entre Rios being that of an extensive plain, watered by numerous rivers, and affording excellent and abundant pasture for cattle, not equal to that of the beautiful territory of the Oriental republic, but superior to that of the province of Buenos Ayres, General Urquiza is so sensible of the advantage of promoting the breeding of cattle that he will not permit the killing of cows; but this prohibition is not absolute, depending on the number belonging to each individual; and while far from being a real grievance to the land-owners, it will tend to greatly increase the wealth and importance of the country. This is the general’s great aim, his whole policy being directed to the development of the natural resources of the country.

The frequent allusions in the foregoing to the sanguinary practices pursued by rival chiefs against each other suggests the desirability of endeavouring to account for the creation and growth of the disposition to which such ferocity is attributable. We cannot do better than quote the words of M. Chevalier de St. Robert, a Frenchman, officially engaged in the affairs of the Plate, who, in his pamphlet, entitledLe General Rosas et la Question de la Plata, and translated by M’Cabe, the late Acting Consul-General for the Uruguay in London, gives probably the best account anywhere to be met with of life in the wilds, in this region of the world, and of the mode in which such life affects humanity in the cities afterwards. He says:—

The population of the Pampas have a peculiar physiognomy, such as is to be found in no other part of the world. They exhibit the instincts and the faculties which the desert every where developes, but still they have not those traits which elsewhere particularise a pastoral or a warlike tribe. The Arab, who dwells or wanders in the deserts of Asia, is but a fraction of that great Mahommedan society that dwells in cities. The tribe coincides with society in many things, it has the same creed, the same obedience to religious dogmas, and preserves every where the same traditional organization. There is nothing like this to be found in the Pampas. In the bosom of those immense plains, which extend from Salta to the Cordilleras, that is, over a space of more than seven hundred leagues, there are to be found neither distinct castes, nor tribes, nor creeds, nor even that which may be properly called a nation. There is nothing to be found butestançias(farms) scattered here and there, which form so many petty republics, isolated from the rest of the world, living by themselves, and separated from each other by the desert. Alone in the midst of those over whom he is a complete master, theestancierois out of every kind of society whatsoever, with no other law than that of force, with no other rules to guide him but those that are self-imposed, and with no other motive to influence him than his own caprice. There is nothing to disturb his repose, to dispute his power, or interfere with his tranquillity except the tiger that may lurk about his grounds, or the wild Indians that may occasionally make a hostile incursion on his domains. His children and his domestics,gauchoslike himself, pass the same sort of life, that is to say, without ambition, without desires, and without any species of agricultural labour. All they have to do is to mark and to kill, at certain periods, the herds of oxen and flocks of sheep which constitute the fortune of theestanciero, and that satisfy the wants of all. Purely carnivorous, the gaucho’s only food consists of flesh and water—bread and spirituous liquors are as much unknown to him as the simplest elements of social life. In a country in which the only wealth of the inhabitants arises from the incessant destruction of innumerable flocks, it can be easily understood how their sanguinary occupation must tend to obliterate every sentiment of pity, and induce an indifference to the perpetration of acts of cruelty. The readiness to shed blood—a ferocity which is at the same time obdurate and brutal—constitutes the prominent feature in the character of the puregaucho. The first instrument that the infantile hand of the gaucho grasps is the knife—the first things that attract his attention as a child, are the pouring out of blood, and the palpitating flesh of expiring animals. From his earliest years, as soon as he is able to walk, he is taught how he may with the greatest skill approach the living beast, hough it, and if he has the strength, kill it. Such are the sports of his childhood—he pursues them ardently, and amid the approving smiles of his family. As soon as he acquires sufficient strength, he takes part in the labours of the estancia; they are the sole arts he has to study, and he concentrates all his intellectual powers in mastering them. From that time forth he arms himself with a large knife, and for a single moment of his life he never parts with it. It is to his hand an additional limb—he makes use of it always, in all cases, in every circumstance, and constantly with wonderful skill and address. The same knife that in the morning had been used toslaughter a bullock, or to kill a tiger, aids him in the day time to cut his dinner, and at night to carve out a skin tent, or else to repair his saddle, or to mend his mandoline. With the gaucho the knife is often used as an argument in support of his opinions. In the midst of a conversation apparently carried on in amity, the formidable knife glitters on a sudden in the hands of one of the speakers, theponchosare rolled around the left arm, and a conflict commences. Soon deep gashes are seen on the face, the blood gushes forth, and not unfrequently one of the combatants falls lifeless to the earth; but no one thinks of interfering with the combat, and when it is over the conversation is resumed as if nothing extraordinary had occurred. No person is disturbed by it—not even the women, who remain as cold unmoved spectators of the affray! It may easily be surmised what sort of persons they must be, of which such a scene is but a specimen of their domestic manners. Thus the savage education of the estancia produces in the gaucho a complete indifference as to human life, by familiarizing him from his most tender years to the contemplation of a violent death, whether it is that he inflicts it on another or receives it himself. He lifts his knife against a man with the same indifference that he strikes down a bullock: the idea which everywhere else attaches to the crime of homicide does not exist in his mind; for in slaying another he yields not less to habit than to the impulse of his wild and barbarous nature. If, perchance, a murder of this kind is committed so close to a town that there is reason to apprehend the pursuit of justice, every one is eager to favour the flight of the guilty person. The fleetest horse is at his service, and he departs certain to find wherever he goes the favour and sympathy of all. Then, with that marvellous instinct which is common to all the savage races, he feels no hesitation in venturing into the numerous plains of the pampas. Alone, in the midst of a boundless desert, and in which the eye strains itself in vain to discover a boundary, he advances without the slightest feeling of uneasiness—he does so watching the course of the stars, listening to the winds, watching, interrogating, discovering the cause of the slightest noise that reaches his ears, and he at length arrives at the place he sought, without ever straying for it, even for a moment. Thelassowhich is rolled around his horse’s neck: thebolassuspended to his saddle, and the inseparable knife suffice to assure him food, and to secure him against every danger—even against the tiger. When he is hungry, he selects one out of the herd of beeves that cover the plain, pursues it,lassosit, kills it, cuts out of it a piece of flesh, which he eats raw, or cooks, and thus refreshes himself for the journey of the following day. If murder be a common incident in the life of a gaucho, it often also becomes the means to him of emerging from obscurity, and of obtaining renown amongst his associates. When a gaucho has rendered himself remarkable by his audacity and address in single combats, companions gather around him, and he soon finds himself at the head of a considerable party. He ‘commences a campaign,’ sets himself in open defiance to the laws, and in a short time acquires a celebrity which rallies a crowd about him.

Preparations for an experimental trip up the Parana.—Captain Sullivan’s descent of the river at a terrific pace.—Island of Martin Garcia.—Note on the confluents of the Rio Plata.—A Scotch experimental philosopher in Corrientes.—Alluvial deposits at the delta of the Parana.—Signs of progress in the interior.—An American pioneer of civilization.—The steamer aground, and fired upon.—Moonlight on the river and the woods.—Geographical note on the Parana and the Rio Plata.—Obligado and San Nicolas.—Mr. Mackinnon’s description of the scenery.—Arrival at Rosario.—Multifarious applications of hides and horns.—Descent of the river, and arrival at Martin Garcia.—Corrientes and the guachos.—Military system of the country.—Its evil effects on the morals and industry of the people.—Grazing capabilities of Corrientes.—Facilities and prospects for commerce.—Interest of the Platine provinces in the opening of the river to foreign trade.—Difficulties of the navigation, and a word about the Uruguay.

The important light in which England, and, yet more especially, those portions of England to whose mercantile wants the company I represented administer, regarded the opening of the great confluents of the Plate, particularly those leading to the famed fairyland of Paraguay, so long guarded by the wondrous Ogre, Francia, naturally rendered me anxious to follow, for however trifling a distance, in the wake the French and British ministers had so lately pursued towards the capital of that mystic country which, after almost half a century’s total isolation from the rest of the world, they have brought into commercial relationship with Europe. Accordingly, though not contemplating anything of the kind on leaving Liverpool, I gladly availed myselfof certain favourable circumstances that turned up somewhat unexpectedly, to make a short experimental trip up the Parana, as far as the towns of San Nicolas and Rosario, although for so doing time was very short, as the Argentina had to be back at Monte Video to meet the Brazileira, expected out from Liverpool,viâRio Janeiro, on the 28th or 29th of September. The commanders of H.M. ships Vixen and Locust gave us valuable information, and kindly recommended an experienced pilot, whom I engaged. The British Vice-consul at Buenos Ayres, Mr. Parish—a name of long-recognized Anglo influence in those regions, as the mention of his relative, the veteran Sir Woodbine, and ofhisrelatives, Messrs. Parish Robinson, the authors of the delightful ‘Letters from Paraguay,’ will sufficiently vouch—also obliged us with the loan of some admirable charts published under sanction of the Admiralty, from surveys made by Captain Sullivan of H.M. ship Philomel, and these, so far as our observation extended, proved to be wonderfully correct.[96]Of course, in an extensive navigation of this kind, with shifting sands, there will be occasionally variations of depth of water, but nothing to alter the general character of the survey, or the correctness of the gallant officer’s explorations and soundings. We left Buenos Ayres at 1 p.m. on the 21st, with a pleasant party on board, and steamed across to Martin Garcia, where the navigation becomes difficult, and the channel very narrow. This rather large island, composed of granite rocks with a good elevation, and entirely commanding thechannel of the great rivers, has long been a disputed point among the belligerents in the Plate, and among the diplomatists on paper, for only lately has the free navigation of the rivers been recognized; but a good deal of ill-feeling still exists with reference to its possession, belonging, as it does, ostensibly to Buenos Ayres, though it is stated that, if everyone had their own, it is really the property of an individual from whom it was forcibly taken, on the principle so very extensively practised in this quarter of the globe, that might gives right, and that there is nothing wrong but the want of means to defend it. One thing is certain, that whoever holds Martin Garcia will control the entrance to and exit from the whole stream above it;[97]for, as the only navigable channel runs close past it, there is no possible means of escaping the guns of its batteries. Thus, it is obvious, that the future progress of commerce up these immense rivers, as also, in a very great degree, the well-being of the countries watered by them, is really dependent on the way in which this important point is disposed of.

And here it is impossible to look back on the policy pursued by former rulers of Buenos Ayres without the deepest regret that the navigation of such noble rivers, and the development of so fine a country, should have been subjected to such miserable trammels, or their destinies been placed in hands so unworthy of the bounties that Providence had showered upon them. There cannot be a doubt, that if a liberal-minded, common-sense view of things had been taken by the rulers of the city and province, after their emancipation from Spain, at this moment fleets of steamers would be navigating the rivers, and a countless population be settled in the upper countries watered by them. It would be, in fact, the valley of a southern Mississippi, vying with its northern counterpart in everything that could contribute to the prosperity and grandeur of an immense continent. Even comparatively short as the time has been since the destinies of this part of South America were under native control, it is sufficient to have turned a barren waste into a land teeming with riches and abundance—a fact indisputable, and which must be evident to the most cursory observer. But, alas! the gifts ofProvidence have been bestowed in vain: the ‘dog in the manger’ principle has been beautifully illustrated; and, unless a stronger power and a stronger arm than that which exists in the country be brought to bear, the long night of Egyptian darkness may otherwise even still prevail. Amongst the numerous conflicting statements and opinions, as to what policy shall be carried out, it is difficult to ascertain who are really the stop-gaps in a work of this kind. There can be no question that the barbarous policy of Rosas was virtually to close the rivers; and the wonder is, that he did not effectually destroy the entrances, which he might easily have done by sinking vessels laden with stone in the channel off Martin Garcia. His object, as everyone knows, was to reduce the upper provinces to a state of complete dependence on thecity, towards which end the equally barbarous but much more romantic, and, perhaps, more justifiable, despotism of Dr. Francia materially aided. Latterly, a feeling seems to be gaining ground in the provinces, that the navigation of their rivers and the promotion of immigration, are objects of importance; and, once this is backed by free and uncontrolled navigation, things will advance rapidly. The late mission of Sir Charles Hotham and the Chevalier St. George is one of the means to such end; and their treaty with Paraguay must, sooner or later, bring forth its fruits, especially if a real cession of Martin Garcia forms part of the arrangements stipulated. Considerable jealousy still exists on this point; but there are the interests of a mighty continent and of civilized Europe against the petty pride of a people who have not yet learned even to govern or take care of themselves; and desperate diseases require strong remedies. In the hands of nautical parties, with the guarantee of the most powerful nations of Europe and America, Martin Garcia would soon be rendered the nucleus of commerce extending from thence to the shores of the Pacific; the channels and entrances would be properly buoyed and lighted under some equitable tax on shipping, and countless fleets would soon be passing backwards and forwards. Unless something of this kind is done, local dissensions between provinces will always mar the general good. Moreover, a considerable outlay of money is absolutely required to render the navigation safe and practical; and where is that to come from, except through the now almost sole machinery of all revenue in these regions—the customs, which foreign shipping, and abundance of it, can alone furnish to the smallest respectable amount?

One of the most remarkable pioneers of the present day, in connection with the development of the river navigation and of the upper provinces, is an American citizen, Mr. Hopkins, who, with all the characteristic ardour and discerning forethought of his country, in seizing upon ‘fresh fields and pastures new,’ wherever the spirit of commerce is likely to find the smallest resting-place for the sole of its foot, had just left Buenos Ayresfor Assumption, in a steamer, with various kinds of machinery on board for establishing manufactories in the Paraguayan metropolis. One of these is for the preparation of cigars for the European and North American markets, on the plan pursued at the Havannah. There are not less than fourteen or fifteen different descriptions of tobacco grown in Paraguay, each of its kind pronounced by connoisseurs, to whom samples have been submitted in England, to be superior to corresponding qualities produced elsewhere, whether for the purposes of snuff or smoking. On the score of its tobacco alone, therefore, the opening of intercourse with Paraguay is calculated to prove a boon to many a used-up Sybarite, pining dyspeptically for a new pleasure. Mr. Hopkins also, I understand, contemplates improvements in the preparation of the famous Paraguay tea, maté, that will, if possible, enhance its popularity throughout South America, where there is scarcely a meal in a house with the least pretentions to respectability or refinement in which the beverage is not introduced; and elegance and adroitness in sipping it, through a tube or reed, something after the fashion adopted in the Yankee beverage, known as sherry-cobbler, affords scarcely less opportunity at atertullia, or evening party, for the display of breeding than does the use of the fan in Spain. The taste of maté is not at all dissimilar to that of green tea, but without the acrid flavour of the Chinese infusion; and it is not improbable that Mr. Hopkins may render it a very acceptable addition to our drinks in this country; for it would, at least, form an agreeable variety to the somewhat limited range of compounds now in vogue among our temperance preachers and practitioners. Mr. Hopkins is the head of an enterprising and affluent joint-stock company, formed some few years ago in the States, who have already expended considerable funds in the prosecution of South American enterprise of this nature, undeterred by the wreck of a fine vessel they were bringing out, called ‘El Paraguay,’ which was condemned and sold at Maranham. He is one of those rare, indomitable spirits who often revolutionize countries without benefiting themselves; andthis I should much fear, and deeply deplore, would be his case now, unless, indeed, after having been so long buffeted by the billows of mishap, he now at length ride on the tide of regenerate Paraguay, and ‘share the triumph and partake the gale’ of its prosperity, which is seemingly soon to come. He has spent many years in that extraordinary country;[98]been four times backwards and forwards; travelled on horseback some 36,000 miles! and his whole life, in short, has been a romance, as wonderful in reality among real inhabitants of an almost unknown planet, as was the apocryphal existence of the imaginative Mr. Herman Melville among his ideal Omoos and phantasmagoric Typees of the Marquesas and the South Sea Islands. He is a great favourite of the present Governor of Paraguay, M. Lopez; and he will confer immense benefit on mankind if he succeeds in still further developing those commercial and philanthropic ideas of which the mind of the governor has shown itself so creditably susceptible, by despatching to Europe his two sons, and a large suite, to reciprocate the overtures towards mercantile cordiality proffered by Lord Malmesbury and the imperial government of France [see chapter on Paraguay]. If any person can carry such highly desirable points as we have adverted to, Mr. Hopkins appears the man to complete, by personal interposition, and personal explanation of the workings of the commercial system in commercial countries, those purposes that were intended by the framers of the Malmesbury treaty, and in the carrying out of which North America has nearly as great an interest as France, or England itself. At all events, we must hope for the best. But, meanwhile, it is time that we proceed with our trip to Rosario.

As we approached Martin Garcia, we saw near it two or three small vessels at anchor, and there appeared to be a roughly-built fort on shore, where the Argentine flag was flying, in salutation of which we hoisted our colours. We thought we heard the report of a musket or two on land, but supposed it was the mere shooting of some idlers for amusement, and so steamed quickly past; when, to our great astonishment, a ball came whistling over us from a small schooner at anchor under the island, followed by a second, that fell short. We were in the narrowest part of the channel, impossible to bring to, or even stop with safety; and, owing to the confusion caused by this unexpected salute, the steamer grounded on a spit, from which we soon backed her off, and continued our route, being anxious to get into the mouth of the river before sunset, now fast approaching. When the second shot was fired we immediately hoisted the Argentine flag, and these punctilious representatives of ‘confederated dignity’ did not fire again, and we were soon out of their reach if they were disposed for the exaction of any further deference beyond what we had already paid. An hour brought us to what is called the Boca de Guasa, one of the chief entrances to the great river, up which we were soon steaming, guided by the banks, wooded nearly the whole distance. Before midnight a thick fog came on, which compelled us to drop anchor until about 2P.M., when we resumed our silent course, aided by a late moon, the effect of which, as seen on this waste of waters, surpassed anything I remember to have experienced elsewhere; for the solitude of river navigation differs from the loneliness of ocean sailing, inasmuch as in the former case youfeelthere is land-life around you, and where you feel that it isnot, as in this instance, the depression is correspondingly great. In traversing the ocean, however still, there is always a sense of animation and vivacity, and the consciousness that you are in the pathway of intercommunication with your kind. But in pursuing a vast river of this sort, through a country superabounding in every element calculated to sustain the densest population on the face of the globe, and knowing all the while that population thereis almost none, you are bowed down by a conviction of the insignificance of man’s efforts to effect any radical change in nature; for the European voyager here is deprived of the buoyant pride and hopeful expectancy that sustain the explorer of hitherto undiscovered seas or countries; and, gloomily, but naturally, his mind reverts to the early navigators of these rivers—their mighty achievements, and the little results that had followed them—a lapse of four centuries leaving things here pretty much as they were when the first European flag floated upon this now placid and majestic stream.[99]

These are sentiments, however, which the reader may naturally think are not very pertinent to a purpose like the present, and not exactly in keeping with an occasion expressly connected with the commercial opening-up of those streams by the instrumentality of English enterprise, in a form so indicative of progress as steam. So, too, thought the writer, after a moment’s rumination of the ‘cud of sweet and bitter fancy;’ for he reflected that these magnificent regions, first discovered by Cabot—English, born and bred, though of Venetian parentage—had stagnated, not under the rule of the countrymen of that ‘good olde and famuse man,’ but under the rule of those in whose service he had found out a river which might, indeed, have proved worthy of the name the avaricious Spaniards had bestowed upon it—La Plata, the Riverof Silver—had they been imbued with a particle of the spirit which has converted ‘icy Labrador,’ the first territory discovered by the same glorious adventurer, into a comparatively industrial paradise. I augured, I hope with no unjustifiable audacity, that now the descendants of Cabot and of his companions had been brought into direct relationship with the people of the Parana, something would be done to render that ‘Mississippi of the South’ not altogether unworthy of some slight social and political comparison with the Northern ‘Father of Waters’ before many more generations should roll by; and I deemed it a not altogether impossible contingency that the younger members of our crewmight live to cast anchor in certain riverine ports hereabouts, amid a forest of masts and funnels belonging to all the maritime states in the world, not one of which countries but may find produce of some kind or other profitably suitable to its markets on these fertile shores.

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