Thus it appears that the proportion of births to deaths is in the ratio of about four to three: amongst the coloured population, the births are very little more than equal to the deaths; in the city they fall much short of them; the increase, therefore, is on the white stock. The births to the marriages appear to be as nearly five to one.
TheStatistical Registerof Buenos Ayres assumes the annual measure of mortality to be one in thirty-two in the city, and one in forty in the country; and, taking the average of the results for 1822 and 1823, arrives at the conclusion that the inhabitants of the city amounted, at the commencement of 1824, to 81,136, and those of the country to 82,080, making in all a population of 163,216. If we calculate, according to the same rule, the mean of the results of the bills of mortality for the four years ending with 1825, it will give us a population for the city of 81,616 persons, and for the country districts of 76,640, in all of 158,256, at the close of 1825; about 5000 less than the estimate made in theRegistertwo years before, the falling off being in the country: but this is at once accounted for by the recruiting which took place in 1825 for the war with Brazil, which must have taken off a much larger number: allowing for which, I think we may fairly assume that the total population of the city and province of Buenos Ayres at the close of that year was not far short of 165,000 souls, being, as nearly as we have the means of calculating, about double what it was twenty yearsbefore. At the time I am writing, ten years afterwards, I have not a doubt that it amounts to nearly 200,000[13].
As an additional exemplification of the increase which has taken place in the population since the time of M. de Bougainville, I annex a plan of the city, showing what were its limits in his time, and what has been added since.
From the numbers let us turn to the general composition of this population.
The census of 1778 divided it into five castes.
1. The Spaniards and their descendants born in America, generally known as Creoles.
2. The native Indians.
3. The Mestizoes—offspring of the Spaniard and Indian.
4. The Mulattoes—offspring of the Spaniard and Negro.
5. The Negroes or Africans born.
Of these five castes, however, the Indians and their Mestizo offspring formed a very small and insignificant proportion, and can only be regarded as accidentally domiciliated at Buenos Ayres in consequence of its being at that time the principal channel of communication between Peru, their proper soil, and Spain.
The City ofBUENOS AYRES,in 1767(tinted thus■)and in 1825, (blank).
The City ofBUENOS AYRES,in 1767(tinted thus■)and in 1825, (blank).
The City ofBUENOS AYRES,in 1767(tinted thus■)and in 1825, (blank).
The original Indians of Buenos Ayres were a hostile race, who would hold no intercourse with their conquerors. No mixture, therefore, of Spanish and native blood took place in that particular part of South America, which could produce a distinct caste, as in the Upper Provinces and in Peru, where the more peaceable and domesticated inhabitants continue to the present day to constitute the main stock of the population. In those parts we see a striking difference in the people; the further we advance into the interior, the more scarce become the white in proportion to the coloured inhabitants. The aboriginal Indian blood decidedly predominates in the Mestizo castes, whilst the negro and his Mulatto descendants, so common on the coast, are there almost unknown. The cause of this is easily explained; for a long period very few European women reached the interior of America: the Spaniards, therefore, who settled there, were under the necessity of mixing with the natives, from which connexion has arisen that numerous race, the Mestizoes, which forms so large a part of the present population of those countries. The same difficulty in transporting their women from Europe did not occur with respect to Buenos Ayres; there the European stock was easily kept up, though for a long period it increased but slowly; and, but for the adventitious circumstance of its having been for some years a depôt for the slave-trade, under the Asiento Treaties, the population of Buenos Ayres would have been nearly free frombe seen that the Indian and Mestizo no longer appear: the division made is simply into the white and the coloured population; and, although the latter still at that time amounted to nearly a fourth part of the whole, it had ceased to increase. In the four years the births barely exceeded the deaths, and whilst the proportion of deaths amongst the coloured people increased, there was a striking falling off in the number of their marriages and births, even from 1822 to 1825. The slave-trade has in fact, been prohibited since 1813, by a decree of the Constituent Assembly, consequently any further supply from the Negro stock has ceased, and it cannot be very long ere all trace of its having ever existed must be merged in the rapid increase of the whites—a result which will be greatly accelerated by the introduction of fresh settlers from Europe, who are daily arriving and domiciliating themselves in the new republic. Of the extent of this some notion may be formed when I state that the number of foreigners, who, up to 1832, had fixed themselves in the city and province of Buenos Ayres, amounted, with their wives and children, to no less than from 15,000 to 20,000 persons. Of these, about two-thirds were British and French, in about equal proportions; the remainder was made up of Italians, Germans, and people of other countries, not the least numerous of whom were emigrants from the United States, and especially from New York.
As it may interest some of my readers to knowwhat classes of our countrymen find employment at Buenos Ayres, I have given in the Appendix an account of them, as taken from a register which I established on my own arrival there, together with the marriages, births, and deaths amongst them, as far as they could be learned for the period stated: to these I have further added a copy of the Treaty I concluded with the Government of Buenos Ayres, in 1825, securing to His Majesty's subjects in that country many important privileges, and amongst the rest the free exercise of their own religion:—a great object to so numerous a community:—I had subsequently the satisfaction of seeing it fully carried out by the erection of an English church, capable of containing 1000 persons, towards which the Buenos Ayrean Government itself contributed, by giving a valuable plot of ground for the purpose:—His Majesty's Government appointed the chaplain, and regularly defrays one half of the annual expense, the British residents paying the remainder. A Presbyterian chapel has been since built in virtue of the same privilege by the Scotch part of the community; and for the Catholics, an Irish priest is allowed to do duty in one of the national churches.
In a population so intermixed, and in such daily communication with the people of other countries, it is not surprising that national peculiarities should have very nearly disappeared. Thus the men of the better classes in Buenos Ayres are hardly to be distinguished in their dress from the French and English merchants who have fixed themselves amongst them, whilst the ladies vie with each other in imitating the last fashions from Paris: it is only in their out-door costume that any difference is apparent; then the more becoming mantilla and shawl thrown over the head and shoulders supersede the European bonnet and pelisse. Some of them are very beautiful, and their polite and obliging manners, especially to strangers, render them doubly attractive. Our countrymen have formed many matrimonial connexions with them, which has contributed, no doubt, to the good feeling with which they are so generally regarded by the natives.
Education, it is true, has not as yet made great progress amongst them, but in this improvement is taking place, and if the young ladles of Buenos Ayres do not study history and geography, they are adepts in many pleasing accomplishments; they dance with great grace, and sing and play very prettily; the piano-forte, indeed, is a constant resource morning as well as evening in every respectable house.
Amongst the men there are native poets, whose productions do honour to the Spanish language. Acollection of them, calledLa Lira Argentina, was printed in 1823, which is well worth the notice of all lovers of Spanish verse. But the men have more advantages as respects education than the ladies: in their schools and universities they are now very fairly grounded in most branches of general knowledge, and of late years it has been much the custom amongst the better families to send their sons to Europe to complete their studies.
I should say of them in general that they are observing and intelligent, and extremely desirous to improve themselves.
Their ordinary habits are certainly a good deal influenced by climate: I cannot speak of them as an industrious people, and yet it is rare to see a man who has not some nominal occupation.
From the number ofdoctores, a stranger might suppose that all the upper classes were lawyers or physicians. This is not exactly the case; but, as that degree serves to mark the man who has received a liberal education, it is generally taken by those who pass through the schools, without particular reference to their future calling. Thus I have knowndoctoresin all pursuits—ministers of state,employésof all sorts, clerks in public offices, military officers, and merchants; all attaching to it the same importance as we do, perhaps with less right, to the ordinary title of esquire as the designation of a gentleman.
Law and physic, however, do give employment torevolution in this, as in other Catholic countries, has put an end to the unconstitutional influence exercised by them in old times, and under different circumstances: the Government having taken possession of the ecclesiastical property, the officiating priests are left to depend upon a stipend, in general barely sufficient for their decent maintenance, so that there is but small inducement left for men to devote themselves to a life of celibacy.
But it is the trade and commerce of Buenos Ayres which is the great source of occupation for its extensive population; since, though the importing and exporting part of the business may be chiefly carried on by the foreign merchants, the details are for the most part left to the natives: they collect, and prepare, and bring in for sale, all the produce of the country, and retail the goods imported from foreign countries: nor is it thought at all degrading for young men of the best connexions to stand behind a counter: there they gossip with their fair customers upon a perfect equality, and in dandyism a Buenos Ayrean shopkeeper may be backed against the smartest man-milliner of London or Paris.
The mechanics and artisans form also a large class, as may be supposed, in a country where everything is wanted, and no man feels inclined to do much; it is in this line that the European has so decided an advantage over the native from his more industrious habits; for he requires no siesta, and works whilst the natives of all classes, high and low,are asleep: he cannot fail to prosper if he will but avoid the drinking-shops; but he must be resolute on that point, for it is a temptation which he finds at the corner of every street: no less than 600 pulperias are open in the city alone, as appears by the list of licences annually taken out at the police[14].
For everyone who will work there is employment, and as to realwant, it can hardly exist in a country where beef is dear at a halfpenny a-pound, and where the generality of the lower orders want nothing else.
FOOTNOTES:[13]By a return for 1836, it appears that in theCityin that year,The Marriages were412Baptisms3211Deaths2785exclusive of those in the hospitals. I have no return from theCountry.[14]The same list will give some idea of the general distribution of the trades for 1836; it was as follows:—358Wholesale stores.348Retail shops.323Tailors, shoemakers, milliners, and all handicrafts.6Booksellers.598Pulperias, or drinking shops.26Billiard-tables.44Hotels, taverns, and eating-houses.48Confectioners and liqueur-shops.29Chemists and apothecaries.76Flour-shops and bakeries.44Baracas, or hide-warehouses.33Timber-yards.13Livery-stables.6Coachmakers.874Carts and carriages paid duties.
[13]By a return for 1836, it appears that in theCityin that year,The Marriages were412Baptisms3211Deaths2785exclusive of those in the hospitals. I have no return from theCountry.
[13]By a return for 1836, it appears that in theCityin that year,
[14]The same list will give some idea of the general distribution of the trades for 1836; it was as follows:—358Wholesale stores.348Retail shops.323Tailors, shoemakers, milliners, and all handicrafts.6Booksellers.598Pulperias, or drinking shops.26Billiard-tables.44Hotels, taverns, and eating-houses.48Confectioners and liqueur-shops.29Chemists and apothecaries.76Flour-shops and bakeries.44Baracas, or hide-warehouses.33Timber-yards.13Livery-stables.6Coachmakers.874Carts and carriages paid duties.
[14]The same list will give some idea of the general distribution of the trades for 1836; it was as follows:—
Great extent of the City. Public Buildings. Inconvenient Arrangement and want of Comfort in the Dwellings of the Natives a few years ago. Prejudice against Chimneys. Subsequent Improvements introduced by Foreigners. Iron gratings at the windows necessary. Water scarce and dear. That of the River Plata excellent, and capable of being kept a very long time. Pavement of Buenos Ayres.
Great extent of the City. Public Buildings. Inconvenient Arrangement and want of Comfort in the Dwellings of the Natives a few years ago. Prejudice against Chimneys. Subsequent Improvements introduced by Foreigners. Iron gratings at the windows necessary. Water scarce and dear. That of the River Plata excellent, and capable of being kept a very long time. Pavement of Buenos Ayres.
Buenos Ayres, like all other cities in Spanish America, is built upon the uniform plan[15]prescribed I believe by the Council of the Indies, consisting of straight streets, intersecting each other at right angles every 150 yards; and, from the peculiar construction of the houses, covers at least twice the ground which would be required for any European city of the same population.
With the exception of the churches, which, though unfinished externally, exhibit in their interior all the gaudy richness of the religion to which they belong, and will be lasting memorials of the pious zeal of the Jesuits, who built the greater part of them, there is nothing remarkable in the style of the public buildings. The old government considered money laid out in beautifying the city as so muchthrown away upon the colonists, and the new government has been as yet too poor to do more than has been absolutely necessary; what has been done, however, has been well done, and does credit to the republican authorities.
In their private dwellings there was a wretched want of every comfort, when I first went to the country. With but few exceptions, they were confined to a ground floor; the apartments builten suite, without passages, round two or three successive quadrangular courts, called patios, opening into each other; and the whole distribution about as primitive and inconvenient as can be imagined.
The floors of the best rooms were of bricks or tiles, the rafters of the roof seldom hid by a ceiling, the walls as cold as whitewash could make them; whilst the furniture was of the most gaudy, tawdry, North American manufacture: a few highly-coloured French prints, serving, perhaps, to mark the state of the fine arts in South America.
Nothing could be more anti-comfortable to English eyes. In cold weather these cold-looking rooms were heated by braziers, at the risk of choking the inmates with the fumes of charcoal; chimneys, so far from being looked upon as wholesome ventilators, were regarded as certain conductors of wet and cold; and it was not till long after the introduction of them by the European residents had practically proved their safety and superiority over the old Spanish warming-pans, that the natives could be induced to try them. The apprehension that they increased the risk of fire was even without foundation, for never were the habitations of man built of such incombustible materials. The roofs and floors, I have already said, are all of brick, and the few beams which are necessary for supporting the former are of a wood from Paraguay, as hard as teak, and almost as incombustible as the bricks themselves.
Of the prejudices of the natives about chimneys I may perhaps have rather a sensitive feeling, from a practical experience I had myself upon the subject soon after my landing amongst them. There was but one in all the apartments I occupied with my family, and that one my Spanish landlord, to my no small dismay and astonishment, ordered a bricklayer to stop up one afternoon over our heads, because he had had a dispute with my servants about the necessity of occasionally sweeping it, which he chose to take this summary way of putting an end to. The weather was wet and bad enough, and I never was more in want of the comfort of a good fire; but no entreaty or remonstrance could shake the obstinate determination of the old Don. He had the advantage of us by living over head, in the upper apartments of the building; and he was determined to make us fully sensible of thede factosuperiority of his authority. He required no chimney himself, and he could not be made to understand that a Spanish brazier would not answer all our English wants just as well as it did his.
I lived, however, long enough in Buenos Ayres to see great changes in these matters, and such innovations upon the old habits and fashions of the people as would make a stranger now doubt whether it really be the place he may have read of. In nothing is the alteration more striking than in the comparative comfort, if not luxury, which has found its way into the dwellings of the better classes: thanks to the English and French upholsterers, who have swarmed out to Buenos Ayres, the old whitewashed walls have been covered with paper in all the varieties from Paris; and European furniture of every sort is to be met with in every house. English grates, supplied with coals carried out from Liverpool as ballast, and often sold at lower prices than in London, have been brought into very general use, and certainly have contributed to the health and comfort of a city, the atmosphere of which is nine days out of ten affected by the damps from the river. Nor is the improvement confined to the internal arrangement of the houses, a striking change has taken place in the whole style of building in Buenos Ayres. With the influx of strangers, the value of property, especially in the more central part of the city, has been greatly enhanced, and has led the natives to think of economising their ground by constructing upper stories to their houses in the European fashion, the obvious advantage whereof will no doubt ere many years make the plan general, and greatly add to the embellishment of the city.
Some peculiarities will probably long be preserved, such amongst other as the iron gratings, or rather railings, which protect the windows, and which, on more than one occasion, have proved the best safeguards of the inhabitants: it requires some time for a European to become reconciled to their appearance, which ill accords with thebeau-idéalof republican liberty and public safety; yet when painted green they are rather ornamental than otherwise, particularly when hung, as they frequently are, with festoons of the beautiful air-plants of Paraguay, which there live and blossom even on cold iron, and one does get reconciled to them, I believe, from a speedy conviction of their necessity in the present state of society in those countries:—in the hot nights of summer, too, it is some comfort to be able to leave a window open without risk of intrusion; though some of the light-fingered gentry have made this not quite so safe as it used to be. I have known more than one instance of a clever thief running off with the clothes of the sleeping inmates, fished through the gratings by means of one of the long canes of the country, with a hook at the end of it:—in one well-known case, a gentleman's watch was thus hooked out of its pocket at his bed's head, and he was but just roused by his frightened wife in time to catch a last glimpse of the chain and seals as they seemingly danced out of the window.
It will hardly be credited that water is an expensive article within fifty yards of the Plata, but so it is; nothing can be worse than the ordinary supply of it. That obtained from the wells is brackish and bad, and there are no public cisterns or reservoirs, although the city is so slightly elevated above the river, that nothing would be easier than to keep it continually provided by the most ordinary artificial means. As it is, those who can afford it go to a great expense in constructing large tanks under the pavement of their court-yards, into which the rainwater collected from the flat-terraced roofs of their houses is conducted by pipes; and in general a sufficiency may thus be secured for the ordinary purposes of the family; but the lower orders, who cannot afford to go to such an expense, depend for a more scanty supply upon the itinerant water-carriers, who, at a certain time of day, are to be seen lazily perambulating the streets with huge butts filled at the river, mounted on the monstrous cart-wheels of the country, and drawn by a yoke of oxen; a clumsy and expensive contrivance altogether, which makes even water dear within a stone's throw of the largest river in the world. Taken at the very edge, it is seldom of the purest, and generally requires to stand twenty-four hours before it deposits its muddy sediment, and becomes sufficiently cleared to be drinkable; it is then excellent, and may be kept for any time. I have drunk it myself on board ship, after it had beentwo voyages to England and back, and never tasted better.
The principal streets are now tolerably paved with granite brought from the islands above Buenos Ayres, especially from Martin Garcia. How the people got about before they were paved it is difficult to understand, for the streets must have been at times one continued slough; at least if one may judge from the state of those which are still unfinished, and which, after any continuance of wet weather, are nearly, if not entirely, impassable, even for people on horseback, much more so for carriages. I have seen in some of them the mire so deep that the oxen could not drag the country carts through it; and it not unfrequently happens, in such a case, that the animals themselves are unable to get out, and are left to die and rot in the swamp in the middle of the street.
It was a fair sample of the miserable economy and wretched policy of the colonial authorities, that a commercial city of such importance, and in which the traffic was daily increasing, should have been allowed so long to remain in such a state, with an inexhaustible supply of the best paving materials in the world within twenty or thirty miles of it, and of such easy water-carriage. The people however, were led to believe that the difficulties and impediments to such an improvement as the general paving of the city were next to insurmountable.
The Viceroy himself, the Marquis of Loreto, when the first notion of such a plan was started, gravely gave, amongst other reasons against it, the danger of the houses falling down from the shaking of their foundations, by the driving of heavy carts over a stone pavement so close to them, whilst another and still more weighty objection in his opinion was, the necessity it would entail upon the people to put iron tires to their cart-wheels, and to shoe their horses, which, he reminded them, would cost them more than the animals themselves. Fortunately, his immediate successors, Aredondo and Aviles, were not deterred by similar alarms. The former commenced the work with activity about the year 1795, with the aid of a subscription voluntarily raised by the inhabitants; and the latter carried it on to a much greater extent, levying a trifling duty upon the city for the purpose, which was readily submitted to, when, as the work advanced, the improvement became manifest. In later times, especially during the government of 1822-24, much more was done, and there are few of the principal streets which are not now more or less completed.
The granite is excellent, and was carefully examined in situ by Mr. Bevans, an English engineer, a few years ago, who reported that it was easy to be worked, and the supply inexhaustible. When the working of it is better understood by the natives, it will probably be brought into much more general use.
FOOTNOTES:[15]Mr. Scarlet has given the best possible description of this plan, in comparing it to a chess-board:—the relative proportions are as nearly as possible four English acres to each square.
[15]Mr. Scarlet has given the best possible description of this plan, in comparing it to a chess-board:—the relative proportions are as nearly as possible four English acres to each square.
[15]Mr. Scarlet has given the best possible description of this plan, in comparing it to a chess-board:—the relative proportions are as nearly as possible four English acres to each square.
Climate of Buenos Ayres, liable to sudden changes. Influence of the North Wind. Case of Garcia. Effects of a Pampero. Dust-Storms and Showers of Mud. The Natives free from Epidemics, but liable to peculiar affections from the state of the atmosphere. Lockjaw of very common occurrence. The Smallpox stopped by Vaccination. Introduced in 1805, and preserved by an individual. Its first introduction amongst the Native Indians by General Rosas. Cases of Longevity, of frequent occurrence.
Climate of Buenos Ayres, liable to sudden changes. Influence of the North Wind. Case of Garcia. Effects of a Pampero. Dust-Storms and Showers of Mud. The Natives free from Epidemics, but liable to peculiar affections from the state of the atmosphere. Lockjaw of very common occurrence. The Smallpox stopped by Vaccination. Introduced in 1805, and preserved by an individual. Its first introduction amongst the Native Indians by General Rosas. Cases of Longevity, of frequent occurrence.
Azara, the best of all writers upon the country, has with much truth observed that the climate of Buenos Ayres is governed not so much by its latitude as by the wind, a change of which will continually produce an alteration of from 20 to 30 degrees in the thermometer[16]?
I have been often asked whether the heats in summer are not almost intolerable. On some days they are so; the glass perhaps above 90° in the shade, and all nature gasping for air; but on those very days the most experienced of the natives will be clothed in warm woollens instead of linen jackets and trousers, for fear of catching cold.
During the greater part of the year the prevailing winds are northerly, which, passing over the marshylands of Entre Rios, and then over the wide expanse of the Plata, imbibe their exhalations, and, by the time they reach the southern shores of the river, have a great influence upon the climate. Everything is damp: the mould stands upon the boots cleaned but yesterday; books become mildewed, and the keys rust in one's pocket. Good fires are the best preservatives, and I found them, if not absolutely necessary, at least very comfortable, during quite as many months as I should have had them in England; and yet I never, during nine years, saw snow, or ice thicker than a dollar, and the latter only once. Upon the bodily system the effect produced by this prevailing humidity is a general lassitude and relaxation; opening the pores of the skin, and inducing great liability to colds, sore throats, rheumatic affections, and all the consequences of checked perspiration; one of the best safeguards against which is doubtless the woollen clothing of the natives, of which I have already spoken; though they require it, perhaps, the more especially, because they seldom stir out of their houses in the extreme heat of the day; and it is at the time they do go out, when the sun has lost its power and the damps of evening are setting in, that such precautions are doubly necessary. Europeans, at first, are loth to take the same care of themselves, but sooner or later they discover that the natives are right, and insensibly fall into their ways.
The evil effects of all this humidity, so far asthey are dangerous, appear to be confined to the immediate vicinity of the river, and to the inhabitants of the city; for in the pampas the gauchos sleep upon the ground during the greater part of the year in the open air without risk. Their skins, however, like those of the cattle they watch, are probably impervious to the wet.
Before I went to Buenos Ayres I had suffered much from malaria fever, caught in Greece; and when I saw, for the first time, the low, flat, marshy appearance of the whole country, I expected nothing less than a return of my old ague. Everything around seemed to bespeak it: but Buenos Ayres is free from such disorders, and cases of intermittent fever, such as that I speak of, are rarely known there.
Still, though free from the malaria of the Mediterranean coasts, the sirocco of the Levant does not bring with it more disagreeable affections than the viento norte, or north wind of Buenos Ayres; indeed, the irritability and ill-humours it excites in some people amount to little less than a temporary derangement of their moral faculties: it is a common thing to see men amongst the better classes shut themselves up in their houses during its continuance, and lay aside all business till it has passed; whilst amongst the lower orders it is a fact well known to the police that cases of quarrelling and bloodshed are infinitely more frequent during the north wind than at any other time. In illustration of this, I shall quote a case in point, the accountof which I received from one of the most eminent medical men in the country, who had paid particular attention during a practice of more than thirty years to its influence upon the human system.
In the year —— a man named Garcia was executed for murder. He was a person of some education, esteemed by those who knew him, and, in general, rather remarkable than otherwise for the civility and amenity of his manners; his countenance was open and handsome, and his disposition frank and generous; but when the north wind set in he appeared to lose all command of himself, and such was his extreme irritability, that during its continuance he could hardly speak to any one in the street without quarrelling. In a conversation with my informant a few hours before his execution, he admitted that it was the third murder he had been guilty of besides having been engaged in more than twenty fights with knives, in which he had both given and received many serious wounds; but, he observed, it was the north wind, not he, that shed all this blood. When he rose from his bed in the morning, he said, he was at once aware of its accursed influence upon him;—a dull headache first, and then a feeling of impatience at everything about him, would cause him to take umbrage even at the members of his own family on the most trivial occurrence. If he went abroad his headache generally became worse, a heavy weight seemed to hang over his temples, he saw objects, as it were, through a cloud, and washardly conscious where he went. He was fond of play, and if in such a mood a gambling-house was in his way he seldom resisted the temptation; once there, any turn of ill-luck would so irritate him, that the chances were he would insult some of the by-standers. Those who knew him, perhaps, would bear with his ill-humours, but, if unhappily he chanced to meet with a stranger disposed to resent his abuse, they seldom parted without bloodshed. Such was the account the wretched man gave of himself, and it was corroborated afterwards by his relations and friends, who added, that no sooner had the cause of his excitement passed away than he would deplore his weakness, and never rested till he had sought out and made his peace with those whom he had hurt or offended.
Europeans, though often sensible of its influence, are not in general so liable to be affected by this abominable wind as the natives, amongst whom the women appear to be the greatest sufferers, especially from the headache it occasions. Numbers of them may be seen at times in the streets, walking about with large split-beans stuck upon their temples; a sure sign which way the wind blows. The bean, which is applied raw, appears to act as a slight blister, and to counteract the relaxation caused by the state of the atmosphere.
But it is not the human constitution alone that is affected; the discomforts of the day are generally increased by the derangement of most of the household preparations:—The meat turns putrid, the milk curdles, and even the bread which is baked whilst it lasts is frequently bad. Every one complains, and the only answer returned is—"Señor, es el viento norte."
All these miseries, however, are not without their remedy; when the sufferings of the natives are at their climax, the mercury will give the sure indication of a coming pampero, as the south-wester is called; on a sudden, a rustling breeze breaks through the stillness of the stagnant atmosphere, and in a few seconds sweeps away the incubus and all else before it; originating in the snows of the Andes, the blast rushes with unbroken violence over the intermediate pampas, and, ere it reaches Buenos Ayres, becomes often a hurricane.
A very different state of things then takes place, and, from the suddenness of such changes, the most ludicrous, though often serious, accidents occur, particularly in the river; whither, of an evening especially, a great part of the population will resort to cool themselves during the hot weather. There they may be seen, hundreds and hundreds of men, women, and children, sitting together up to their necks in the water, just like so many frogs in a marsh: if a pampero breaks, as it often does, unexpectedly upon such an assembly, the scramble and confusion which ensues is better imagined than told; fortunate are those who may have taken an attendant to watch their clothes, for otherwise, long erethey can get out of the river, every article of dress is flying before the gale.
Not unfrequently the pampero is accompanied by clouds of dust from the parched pampas, so dense as to produce total darkness, in which I have known instances of bathers in the river being drowned ere they could find their way to the shore. I recollect on one of these occasions, a gang of twenty convicts, who were working at the time in irons upon the beach, making their escape in the dark, not one of whom, I believe, was retaken.
It is difficult to convey any idea of the strange effects of these dust-storms: day is changed to night, and nothing can exceed the temporary darkness produced by them, which I have known to last for a quarter of an hour in the middle of the day; very frequently they are laid by a heavy fall of rain, which, mingling with the clouds of dust as it pours down, forms literally a shower of mud[17]. The sortof dirty pickle in which people appear after being caught in such a storm is indescribable.
Sometimes the consequences are more serious, and the pampero is accompanied by the most terrific thunder and lightning; such, I believe as is to be witnessed in no other part of the world, unless it be the Straits of Sunda. Nothing can be more appalling. In Azara may be read an account of nineteen persons killed by the lightning which fell in the city during one of these storms.
But the atmosphere is effectually cleared; man breathes once more, and all nature seems to revive under the exhilarating freshness of the gale:—the natives, good-humoured and thoughtless, laugh over the less serious consequences, and soon forget the worst; happy in the belief that, at any rate, they are free from the epidemical disorders of other regions.
Still such variations from the ordinary courses of nature cannot but be productive of strange consequences; and, though the transient effects of an overcharged atmosphere may be quickly dispelled by apampero, and the people be really free from the epidemics of other countries, there is every reason to believe that, in this particular climate, the human system is in a high degree susceptible of affections which elsewhere would not be deemed worth a moment's consideration. Besides those I have already spoken of as arising from the north wind, old wounds are found to burst out afresh, new ones are very difficult to heal; an apparently trivial sprain will induce a weakness of the part requiring years perhaps to recover from, as I know from my own experience; and lock-jaw from the most trifling accidents is so common as to constitute the cause of a very great portion of the deaths from hurts in the public hospitals. A cut thumb, a nail run into the hand or foot, a lacerated muscle, will generally terminate in it; and our own medical men well know how great a proportion of our wounded in the attack of 1806 and 1807 died from this dreadful cause. The native practitioners attribute its frequent occurrence to some peculiarity in the atmosphere acting upon the system in a manner they are as yet unable to explain. Under the name of the "mal de siete dias" (the seven days' sickness), a vast number of children are carried off by it in the first week of their existence; but, as this mortality is principally limited to the lower orders, it may perhaps in most cases be traced to mismanagement and neglect. With us, the long confinement of the mother ensures the same care of the infant in the first weeks of its life; but,in a country where the mother leaves her bed in two or three days to return to her work, the child must often be neglected. Many a Buenos Ayrean washerwoman may be seen at her usual work at the riverside three or four days after her delivery, with her infant lying for the greater part of the day upon a piece of cold hide, beside her on the damp ground. Can any one wonder that it takes cold and dies? There was a time, and but few years ago, when it was gravely asserted that the mortality amongst infants arose from their being baptized with cold water, and the authorities, concurring in the notion, actually issued a decree that none but warm water should be used for such purposes in the churches. I believe, however, that the deaths were not found to diminish, and that the priests are again permitted to use cold water as before, though I doubt the enactment to the contrary having ever been repealed; but why should these cases so generally terminate in lock-jaw[18]?
The dreadful ravages occasioned formerly by the small-pox have latterly been in a great measure arrested amongst the civilised portion of the inhabitants by the general use of vaccination: accidentally conveyed to Buenos Ayres in 1805 by the owner of a cargo of slaves, it was preserved by the patriotic zeal of an enlightened priest, Dr. Segurola, who, deeply impressed with its immense importance,voluntarily devoted himself to the task of propagating it amongst his countrymen, especially the poor, whose ignorant prejudices he had often to combat, and whom he was not unfrequently obliged to bribe to submit to the operation. For sixteen years he laboured incessantly in this vocation, at the expiration of which, he had the satisfaction of finding his single exertions no longer adequate to satisfy the general demand for it. The Government then (in 1822) relieved him of his charge, and instituted a proper establishment for the express purpose of propagating vaccination gratis, not only in the city of Buenos Ayres, but throughout the republic; others were afterwards added in the several country districts, from which the lymph is now distributed to all who apply for it, and has been sent into every province of the interior. The authorities make it compulsory, as far as they can, on parents to carry their children to these establishments; and the parochial priests are charged to see that they do so.
By a report published in 1829 upon this subject, it appeared that in the city alone, in the previous nine months, as many as 4160 children had been vaccinated; a large proportion to the births, which are estimated at little more than 6000 yearly. I was more than once applied to for it from Rio de Janeiro, whither it was always most readily forwarded by the Buenos Ayrean administrators.
But the destruction created by the small-poxamongst the Spaniards was nothing when compared to its dreadful consequences amongst the native Indians. Whole tribes have been swept away by it: I believe, nations—whose languages have been lost. The plague is not more a frightful scourge than this disorder, when it attacks the miserable inhabitants of the pampas: they themselves believe it to be incurable, a feeling which adds to its lamentable consequences, for no sooner does it appear than their tents are raised, and the whole tribe takes to flight, abandoning the unfortunate sufferers to the certainty of perishing of hunger and thirst, if the virulence of the disorder itself does not first carry them off.
An opportunity, however, offered during the time I was at Buenos Ayres of making known to these poor people, also, the effects of vaccination, under circumstances which it is to be hoped may eventually lead to its diffusion amongst them, as well as their more civilised neighbours.
A large party of some of the friendly tribes, with their wives and children, repaired to the city on a visit of duty to the Governor, General Rosas, and had not been there long when some of them were attacked with small-pox, amongst the rest, one of their principal Caciques. As usual, the sufferers were immediately abandoned by their own relatives, and might have died like dogs, had not their more civilised friends taken charge of them, for which the poor wretches were abundantly grateful; but their surprise was without bounds, when the Governorhimself, who had a regard for the old Chief, went in person to visit him. General Rosas did not fail to remark the strong impression created by his visit, and saw at once the advantage to which it might be turned. Ordering the astonished Indians to be brought before him, he showed them the mark upon his own arm, and fully explained to them the nature of the secret which had enabled him to visit their dying Cacique with impunity. The result was, that nearly 150 of them, including some of their Caciques, Catrieu, Cachul, Tetrué, Quindulé, Callinao, Toriano, and Venancio, with their wives and children, were vaccinated on the spot at their own earnest solicitation; and great was their childish delight on finding, in due time, the appearance of the disorder upon their arms, which they were fully satisfied would prove an infallible charm against the worst powers of the Evil one.
The impression created by this interesting occurrence will not be easily effaced, and, although subsequent events may have unfortunately delayed for a time the further propagation of this inestimable blessing amongst the Indians, I have little doubt that it will again be sought for; and who can say that, with good management, it may not be converted into a means of domiciliating and reducing to Christianity the remnants of a race, who, in their turn, might repay with productive labour their benefactors a hundred fold?
I must not close this chapter without adding that,notwithstanding what I have said as to the effects of the climate upon some constitutions, the people in general live to a good old age in perfect enjoyment of their mental as well as bodily faculties; and that instances of longevity are common, the following extracts from the several population returns will sufficiently prove:—
"In the census of 1778, 33 cases are quoted of individuals then living in the city, aged from 90 to 100; and 17 of from 100 to 112."
In the tables of mortality for 1823 and 1824, 58 persons are said to have died between the ages of 90 and 100; 6 between 100 and 110; 3 between 112 and 116; 1 of 128, and another of 130. The two last were females.