PARAGUAY,

Translation of a Memorial addressed by the people of the Mission of San Luis to the Governor of Buenos Ayres, praying that the Jesuits may remain with them instead of the Friars sent to replace them.

(J. H. S.)

"God preserve your Excellency, say we, the Cabildo, and all the Caciques and Indians, men, women, and children, of San Luis, as your Excellency is our father. The Corregidor Santiago Pindo and Don Pantaleon Cayuari, in their love for us, have written to us for certain birds which they desire we will send them for the King:—weare very sorry not to have them to send, inasmuch as they live where God made them—in the forests,—and fly far away from us, so that we cannot catch them.

"Withal we are the vassals of God and of the King, and always desirous to fulfil the wishes of his ministers in what they desire of us. Have we not been three times as far as Colonia with our aid!—and do we not labour in order to pay tribute!—and now we pray to God that that best of birds—the Holy Ghost—may descend upon the King, and enlighten him, and may the Holy Angel preserve him!

"So, confiding in your Excellency, Señor Governor, our proper father, with all humility, and with tears, we beg that the Sons of St. Ignatius, the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, may continue to live with us and remain always amongst us. This we beg your Excellency to supplicate of the King for us for the love of God:—all this people,—men, women, and young persons, and especially the poor,—pray for the same with tears in their eyes.

"As for the friars and priests sent to replace them, we love them not. The Apostle St. Thomas, the minister of God, so taught our forefathers in these same parts,—for these friars and priests have no care for us. The Sons of San Ignatius, yes,—they, from the very first, took care of our forefathers, and taught them, and baptized them, and preserved them for God and the King:—but for these friars and priests, in no manner do we wish for them.

"The Fathers of the Society of Jesus know how to bear with our weaknesses, and we were happy under them for God's sake and the King's:—if your Excellency, good Señor Governor, will listen to our prayer, and grant our request, we will pay larger tribute in theyerba caa-mini.[54]

"We are not slaves, and we desire to say that the Spanish custom is not to our liking,—for every one to take care of himself, instead of assisting one another in their daily labours.[55]This is the plain truth which we say to your Excellency, that it may be attended to:—if it is not, this people, like the rest, will be lost. This to your Excellency, to the King, and to God,—we shall go to the Devil!—and at the hour of our death where will be our help?

"Our children, who are in the country and in the towns, when they return and find not the Sons of San Ignatius, will flee away to the deserts and to the forests to do evil. Already it would seem that the people of San Joaquim, San Estanislaus, San Ferdinand, and Tymbo, are lost,—we know it well, and we say so to your Excellency:—neither can the Cabildos ever restore these people for God and the King as they were.

"So, good Governor, grant us what we ask,—andmay God help and keep you. This is what we say in the name of the people of San Luis, this 28th of February, 1768.

"Your humble servants and children." (Signed by the members of the municipality.)

Complaint of the people of Martires of the conduct of the priests sent to them after the expulsion of the Jesuits.

(J. H. S.)

"To our most excellent Governor:—

"Blessed and praised be the holy sacrament! God our Lord grant you a long life and health on earth, and happiness hereafter in heaven. So we pray him,—we, the Corregidor, Cabildo, and Caciques of the people of the Holy Martyrs,—who, casting ourselves with all humility at your feet, give praises to God and to our King, and to you, Señor Governor, for having come by his command, as his deputy, amongst us.

"Holding you in the highest reverence, we make known to you that all this people are perfectly obedient to the orders of our Catholic King, trying to esteem and respect the spiritual pastors sent to us, in nothing failing in our duties towards them, with all due respect, as they are the ministers of God.

"But, although this is our behaviour, they are not satisfied with us:—for two or three days they were pleased with our humility, and no longer.

"It has happened that the Corregidor, wishing to execute the orders of the Governor, the Curate has said,—'This man wrongs you:—in what light do you look upon his authority compared with that of your priests? The King himself is only a superior governor, and shall be food for the worms, and nothing more:—I fear no one.' Saying so he ordered fifty stripes to be given to an Indian; and a poor woman he ordered to be tied to a post, and flogged. He goes about with a stick in his hand to beat us, and a few days past he punished an Indian with blows in the church itself, before all the people:—another he beat in the square, saying,—'If I kill him I shall do no great harm.'

"The Administrator alone sometimes protects us from these punishments, saying to him, with proper respect,—'Father, you have no business to interfere in temporal matters,'—and for this he is not well with him. This officer endeavours to observe the commands of God and of the King for the good of this people, and in nothing have we to complain of him. He helps us on all occasions, and much we stand in need of it, Señor Governor.

"But God and the King have appointed you for our comfort, and so we make known to you our difficulties. We are fearful lest the people should lose their obedience and respect for the King's orders, when they hear the priests call the mandates of the King, and of his Governor, words of no consequence:—and so for your guidance we tell youthe truth, which God knows, and is testified to by all this people. Santos Martires, 16th April, 1768."

(Signed by the Cabildo, &c.)

Bucareli, on receipt of the first of these simple documents, sent it to Spain, with the ridiculous announcement that he considered it as the forerunner of a rising in favour of the Jesuits, and had, in consequence, ordered a chosen body of troops to proceed immediately from Paraguay and Corrientes to the neighbourhood of the Missions to be in readiness to put down the expected insurrection: thither too he proceeded himself to take the field in person against the rebels.

He found them not in arms but in tears:—the Jesuits, though he could not believe it, had brought up the Indians in obedience, and in the love of their King as well as of God,—and, having said their say, they resigned themselves submissively to the orders of their newly-appointed superiors,—giving thanks to the King for having sent a personage of such importance as Bucareli to take care of them. Bucareli met, in fact, with not the slightest opposition from the Indians, in substituting his own system of administration for that of the Jesuits, which he had been amongst the foremost to find fault with.

The efficacy of his own measures may be judged by their result:—he sent them civil governors, andappointed Franciscan friars for their spiritual pastors:—the misrule of the first, and the little respect inspired by the latter, compared with the uniformly exemplary lives of their predecessors, brought about in little more than a quarter of a century, the entire ruin and depopulation of these once happy and prosperous communities. The Indians, as they themselves predicted in their letter to him, when there was no longer sufficient wisdom in their governors to prevent it, were lost both to God and the King.

In saying this I do not pretend to dispute that the institutions of the Jesuits were not, in many points, defective, like all others of man's creation; they were, however, framed under very remarkable and novel circumstances, for which great allowances must be made in any comparison of them with the social systems of Europe; if we look at the good they did, rather than for the evil which they did not, we shall find that, in the course of about a century and a half, upwards of a million of Indians were made Christians by them, and taught to be happy and contented under the mild and peaceful rule of their enlightened and admirable pastors,—a blessed lot compared with the savage condition of the unreclaimed tribes around them.

strictly speaking, has no place in this book, being, as it is for the present, a distinct and separate Republic; but, like the Missions, it is impossible to pass so near it without some allusion to its former prosperity, and to its present very singular condition under the despotic rule of Dr. Francia.

It was in Paraguay that the first conquerors of the country fixed their abode and the seat of their government:—it was there also, attracted by the same inducements of a genial clime and a profusion of natural productions to satisfy all man's wants, that the Jesuit fathers laid the original foundations of their celebrated establishments just spoken of. Its population, before it ceased to be a province subject to the government of Buenos Ayres, was estimated at 200,000 souls, and the yearly value of its surplus produce, exported for consumption to Buenos Ayres and the interior provinces, fell little short of a million and a half of dollars. Eight millions of pounds of Paraguay tea were annually sent to Santa Fé and Buenos Ayres, besides a million of pounds of tobacco, large quantities of timber for every purpose, cotton, sugar, molasses, spirits, and a variety of other articles.

The yerba-maté, or tea, which forms the principal article in the list, is as much in general use anddemand throughout all the provinces of La Plata, Chile, and many parts of Peru, as the teas of China are in Europe. The plant which produces it (theIlex Paraguayensis) is an evergreen about the size of an orange-tree, which grows wild and in great abundance in the dense forests in the northern and eastern parts of the province, whither the people repair yearly in numerous gangs to collect it. The difficulties of penetrating the woods to reach the yerbales, as they are called, are considerable, but they are amply repaid by the certain profits of the adventure. The whole process of preparing and packing it for market is performed on the spot. The tender branches and twigs, being selected, are roasted quickly over a fire till the leaves are crisp; and then, after being partially crushed or pounded, are rammed into hide bags, called serrons, containing 200 lbs. each, which, when sown up, are ready for sale.

The Jesuits cultivated the plant, of which there are three species, in their Missions; and by attention produced a better quality of tea, calledcaa-mini, than that from the wild plant collected in the woods.

From the practice of reducing the leaf nearly to dust probably originated the general custom in South America of sucking the infusion when made through a tube, at one end of which is a strainer, which prevents the small particles of the tea-leaves from getting into the mouth: it is usually made very strong,very hot, and very sweet with sugar; its properties seem to be much the same as those of the China tea. The Spaniards learned to use it from the Guarani Indians.

When the Viceroy's power was overthrown in 1810, the province of Paraguay refused to acknowledge the central government set up at Buenos Ayres to succeed him, and an army was in consequence sent to reduce it to obedience; but the Paraguay troops defeated the Buenos Ayrean general, Belgrano, who was glad to capitulate, and be permitted to return whence he came. Emboldened by this success, which gave them an idea of their own consequence beyond any they had before entertained, they proceeded at once to assert their absolute independence, not only of Buenos Ayres, but of the mother country, and to declare Paraguay a free and sovereign state, a step beyond any at that time contemplated, perhaps even by the rulers of Buenos Ayres themselves, who, though self-elected, continued to act in the King's name up to 1816, the date of their declaration of independence at Tucuman.

This proclamation of the independence of Paraguay was followed in the first instance by the setting up of a triumvirate government, of which Francia was the secretary, and soon became the secret mover of the whole machine. A sort of Mephistopheles, he was not long ere he set the members of the government by the ears, and by his intrigues brought about their resignation.

Then came the convocation of a general assembly of deputies from all the towns and villages of the province, to consider what was to be done under the circumstances. By these poor ignorant people thus dragged from their homes, Francia, a person in authority, a lawyer, or learned man,—for the terms are synonymous in the language of Paraguay,—living like an ascetic, and affecting a sort of cabalistical knowledge, was looked upon with a kind of reverential awe, as a person of wonderful acquirements and sagacity, whose opinions were eagerly sought to guide them in the weighty matters they were called upon to discuss, whilst on his own part he was not behindhand in maturing his plans and securing his influence.

When the Congress met he laid before it the following project for a government, which, as he anticipated, was regarded as thene plus ultraof wisdom, and was adopted by acclamation (por acclamacion). I give the document entire, not only because it has never before appeared in English, but as the best evidence of the low cunning of the projector, and of the extreme simplicity and subserviency of those who adopted it, believing all the time that they were a free and independent people.

Plan for a Constitution proposed by Dr. Francia to the General Congress of Paraguay, and adopted by acclamation.

"Article I.—The two citizens Don Fulencio Yegros and Don José Gaspar de Francia shall aloneconstitute the government, with the title of 'Consuls of the Republic of Paraguay.' They shall have the rank and honours of Brigadier-Generals, and their commissions as such shall be signed by the President of this Congress.

"Art. II.—They shall wear, as the insignia of their Consular dignity, a hat bound with blue, and the tri-coloured scarf of the Republic. They shall have the like and equal jurisdiction and authority, which they shall exercise uniformly and conjointly. In consequence, all acts of the Government shall be signed by both.

"Art. III.—Their first duty shall be the preservation, security, and defence of the Republic, with all the vigilance, judgment, and activity required under existing circumstances.

"Art. IV.—There shall henceforward be no Presidency.

"Art. V.—All the forces of the Province shall be under the joint command in chief of the two Consuls.

"Art. VI.—Nevertheless, all the active and effective troops of every grade, as well as all the arms and ammunition, shall be equally divided, and placed at the disposal, half and half, of each Consul, and each shall have his own separate barracks and magazines under his own command.

"Art. VII.—There shall be two battalions of infantry, each to consist of three or four companies for the present, or of more if necessary; so that each Consul shall have his separate battalion, of which heshall be the chief and commandant exclusively: he shall also have the command of one of the two companies of artillery; Consul Yegros shall command the first, and Consul Francia the second; the latter shall form his own battalion, towards which he shall be at liberty to take the fifth part of that commanded by Consul Yegros.

"Art. VIII.—The officers and men of these corps shall be approved of by their respective Chiefs, the said Consuls; but all officers' commissions shall be signed by both jointly, though they may be proposed by their own commanders respectively: in like manner, if it should be necessary to try them for any offence, it shall be before the two Consuls jointly.

"Art. IX.—The Consuls shall preside over the tribunals in turn for four months at a time each, with the title of 'Consul in Turn,' and not 'Consul Presiding,' lest that designation should give rise to mistakes. Consul Francia shall take the first turn, and in all cases, when the turn comes round, a notice of it, signed by both, shall be inserted in a book, and sent to the Cabildo of the city for their information.

"Art. X.—A chamber shall be set apart in the Government House for the Tribunal of the Consuls: it shall be open during the hours of office, and its forms shall be regulated by the Consul in Turn for the time being.

"Art. XI.—The Secretary shall take cognisance of such cases on which doubts may arise, and which are not hereby provided for.

"Art. XII.—It is left to the will and prudence of the two Consuls to regulate by common accord all that may be requisite for the due despatch of the business of the State, in all its branches; as well as to appoint one or, if necessary, two secretaries; also to create a superior tribunal of appeal, to determine, according to law, as a Court of Last Resort, such cases as it may be necessary to refer to it.

"Art XIII.—If either of the two Consuls should die or resign, the other shall proceed within a month to call together the General Congress of the Province, which shall consist ofone thousand Deputies, chosen, like the present, by popular election; and it shall be a fundamental, general, perpetual, and invariable law and rule, that henceforward such General Congress of the Province shall assemble every year, convoked in the same manner, and to consist of the aforesaid number of one thousand representatives; and the day for their meeting shall always be on the 15th of October: and the necessary convocation and summonses shall be issued in consequence by the middle of every month of September, in order that the Province may duly, and at least once a year, meet as a free and sovereign people, to deliberate on what may be most conducive to the general good, to improve, if necessary, its government, to provide remedies for abuses, and to take all such measures as may be suggested by the wisdom of experience.

"Art. XIV.—These rules shall be observed untilaltered by any future Congress, and shall be copied into the Book of the Resolutions of Government.

"Art. XV.—The Consuls shall immediately appear before the present Sovereign Congress to swear to observe faithfully, and to cause to be observed, these rules and regulations. The same oath shall be also forthwith administered by their order to all the officers of the troops, and by the officers to the soldiers, whereof a proper record shall be inserted in the archives of the Congress; and whoever shall refuse to take the said oath shall be dismissed the service, and punished as though he had broken it.

"Art. XVI.—The Province adopts the forms, as well as the number of Representatives assembled in the actual Congress, and the Government shall make no change in either one or the other.

"Done and Signed at Assumption,the 12th October, 1813."

Francia, having thus obtained one-half the power he aimed at, was not long ere he secured the other. When the thousand deputies met, in virtue of the 13th article of the Constitution, it was intimated to them that the substitution of one Governor for a pair of Consuls would be a great improvement; and Don Gaspar was, as a matter of course, elected sole Dictator, of the Republic of Paraguay.

His nomination in the first instance was for three years; at the expiration of which time he took care to have his power confirmed for life. The Deputies who passed this act, in their simplicity, returned totheir homes exulting in an arrangement whereby they were saved all further trouble, whilst the tyrant they had set up commenced a reign which, for systematic selfishness, cruelty, and unrestrained despotism, is almost unparalleled in the history of any country.

His first object, as may be supposed, was to put down all opposition; and this he did by imprisoning, banishing, or putting to death every individual of wealth or influence who could in any way interfere with him in the exercise of his despotic sway:—his spies were in every house, the most trivial expression of dissatisfaction was construed into treason, and ere long no man dared to speak to his neighbour for fear of being denounced: thus he silenced by terror all opposition from within; and, lest any should be attempted from without, he proceeded to restrict the communication with the adjoining provinces, and at last to establish a system of non-intercourse which for nearly twenty years he has rigorously enforced, and will doubtless continue to do so as long as he lives. The only trade, if trade it can be called, which of late years has been carried on, has been upon his own account, and such as has been necessary to further his own policy of habituating the lower classes to look to him, and to him only, for the supply of all their wants. His mode of managing this business is as singular as all the rest of his proceedings. When he wants an assortment of foreign goods, a permit is sent over to the adjoining province of Corrientes for a vessel to proceed to theopposite port of Nembucú; on her arrival there, the invoice of the cargo is immediately forwarded to him at Assumption, from which, after selecting such articles as he requires, he orders a quantity of yerba-maté to be put on board in payment. There is no appeal from his own valuation: no one is allowed to go on shore, and the ship is sent back as soon as the yerba is delivered:—the article itself is in such demand, from his having stopped the trade in it, that the people of Corrientes are glad to get it upon his own terms. He is the owner of several shops or stores, in Assumption, from which the goods are afterwards retailed, by his permission, to those who may stand in need of them.

In the same manner for a short period he allowed a peddling traffic to be carried on between the Brazilian Missions beyond the river Uruguay and the port of Ytapua, opposite to Candelaria, but that he altogether stopped about ten years ago.

His revenue chiefly arises from properties confiscated by his own arbitrary judgments, and from tithes in kind upon all articles of produce, the right to levy which is yearly sold by the government to the best bidder in each department; the contractors generally underlet them to others, and they are in consequence rigorously exacted.[56]The principal expenditure is in the maintenance of alarge militia force, in which every person capable of bearing arms is enrolled and called upon to do duty in turn. Francia is of course commander-in-chief of the army, as he is the head of the church, the law, and every other branch of the administration.

When I arrived in the River Plate, in 1824, I found that many British subjects had been for several years detained in Paraguay by this monster against their will; and it became my duty in consequence to make a representation to him upon the subject, and to apply for their liberation. This I was fortunate enough to obtain, together with the release of many other Europeans, whom, that it should not appear that he was granting any special favour to the English, he allowed at the same time to depart; amongst the rest Messrs. Rengger and Longchamps, two Swiss gentlemen, who have since published a highly-interesting account of their detention, and of the state of the country.[57]

He made, however, an exception of M. Bompland, the well-known companion of Baron Humboldt, whom he had some years before caused to be seized and carried off by an armed force, sent across the Paranã for the purpose, whilst engaged in his own inoffensive pursuits in the province of Corrientes. As there was no accredited French agent at Buenos Ayres at the time, I took upon myself to makeanother application to Francia, specially in favour of an individual in whose fate I could justly say that all the scientific world was interested; and I further offered to guarantee the fulfilment of any promise M. Bompland might himself choose to make, in case of his liberation, to return at once to Europe. I wrote in the same sense to M. Bompland, and enclosed my letter, open, to the Dictator, to forward to its destination if he approved of it. But, instead of doing so, he returned it to me, with a rude intimation that that must close our correspondence.[58]

I believe he was disappointed at finding that I could not concur with him in his notion of opening a direct trade between Great Britain and Paraguay, on which it appeared he had long set his heart, the rather as he expected thereby to be able to show to his own subjects his independence of his neighbours, and especially of the Buenos Ayreans.

That so extraordinary a state of things should so long have existed is I believe entirely to be ascribed to the miserable weakness of the adjoining provinces, which, had they been able to make the slightest combined effort, might long ago have put an end to the tyrannical rule of this crazy old despot. Nature will probably do this ere long, when it may be expected that Paraguay will once more join the confederation of her sister provinces.

FOOTNOTES:[53]The same saints are invoked to keep down the rats—another plague of these countries—attracted, no doubt, by the smell of beef everywhere, as they are in theabattoirsof Paris. The eleven thousand Virgins were the guardian angels against the locusts.[54]The best sort of tea, in which the Indians paid their annual tribute to the Crown.[55]The Indians, under the system of the Jesuits, had been accustomed to workin communityfor a common stock, out of which all the wants of every individual were regularly and adequately provided for.[56]A commutation of these tithes for a fixed revenue was agreed upon between the church and the municipal government of Assumption at an early period of the Spanish rule in that country.[57]The Reign of Don Gaspar de Francia in Paraguay, being an account of a six years' residence in that Republic, by Messrs. Rengger and Longchamps, translated, 1827.[58]M. Bompland has since obtained his liberty, after a detention of nine years.

[53]The same saints are invoked to keep down the rats—another plague of these countries—attracted, no doubt, by the smell of beef everywhere, as they are in theabattoirsof Paris. The eleven thousand Virgins were the guardian angels against the locusts.

[54]The best sort of tea, in which the Indians paid their annual tribute to the Crown.

[55]The Indians, under the system of the Jesuits, had been accustomed to workin communityfor a common stock, out of which all the wants of every individual were regularly and adequately provided for.

[56]A commutation of these tithes for a fixed revenue was agreed upon between the church and the municipal government of Assumption at an early period of the Spanish rule in that country.

[57]The Reign of Don Gaspar de Francia in Paraguay, being an account of a six years' residence in that Republic, by Messrs. Rengger and Longchamps, translated, 1827.

[58]M. Bompland has since obtained his liberty, after a detention of nine years.

Cordova.Government. Pastoral Habits of the People. Productions.La Rioja.Population, &c. Famatina Mines. Evils arising from the present subdivision of the Provincial Governments.Santiago del Estero.The Sandy Desert or Traversia. Quichua Language. Productions, &c. The Salado navigable to the Paranã. The Chaco. Mass of native Iron found there. Theory of its Meteoric Origin questionable. Account of the native Iron from Atacama.Tucuman.Delightful Climate. Mines—little worked. Richness of the Vegetation. Declaration of Independence of the Provinces made there in 1816.Catamarca.Population, &c. Original Inhabitants—their long Wars with the Spaniards.Salta.Divisions, Population, Government, Climate, Rivers. The Vermejo, and its Affluents from Tarija and Jujuy. Valuable Productions of this Province. Labour of the Mataco Indians obtainable, and preferable to that of Europeans in such Latitudes. Importance of inland Steam Navigation urged.

In proceeding now to give such information as I have been able to collect respecting the state of the provinces on the road to Peru, and to the westward of it, I shall take them in their geographical order, although it may be as well to observe that they were not, as may be supposed, originally conquered and settled by the discoverers of the Rio de la Plata. Those adventurers, following the course of the riverParaguay, reduced to subjection the warlike tribes they found upon its shores, and, navigating its higher branches, after incredible hardships and many valiant deeds, succeeded in opening a communication with their countrymen in Peru; but they made no attempt to possess themselves of the vast extent of country lying to the westward of them.

The discovery of those regions was reserved for the followers of Almagro, who, after the conquest of Peru, marched southward to take possession of Chile, in fulfilment of his agreement with Pizarro; and his successors laid claim to them as part of the jurisdiction originally allotted to him in virtue of that agreement—a pretension which gave rise to many contentions amongst the chiefs who first established themselves in those parts; nor were they put an end to until, by the king's authority, these settlements, comprising Tucuman, Santiago del Estero, the towns in the valley of Catamarca, and many others since destroyed, were erected into a distinct and separate province called Tucuman, from the chief of the Calchaqui tribes which inhabited them. This was in 1563, some years before the existence of Buenos Ayres. Nor was it indeed till nearly half a century after De Garay had founded his settlement there that they became politically connected, and were united under one and the same government.

The province of Cordova, after that of Buenos Ayres, is the most important of the Union. According to a census taken in 1822-23, the population then amounted to something more than 85,000 souls, of which from 12,000 to 14,000 lived in the city.

It is ruled by a governor, who is elective by a provincial junta occasionally convoked, and whose power is almost arbitrary; he has the command of all the forces and militia of the province, and has the power of reversing, on appeal, all decisions of the tribunals.

It is bounded by the province of Santiago del Estero to the north, and Santa Fé to the east, and on the western side by the mountain-ranges generally known as the Sierra de Cordova. From these ranges descend many rivers and streams which irrigate and fertilise the plains below; amongst which may be enumerated the Rio San Miguel, the Tortoral, the Carnero, the Primero, Segundo, Tercero, Quarto, and Quinto: of these the Tercero is the only one which reaches the Paranã; all the rest are lost in the flat intervening plains. It has been ascertained that very little is requisite to render the Tercero navigable for boats from the Paranã to within about thirty leagues of the city, whereby a watercommunication might be opened, which would save much of the present expensive and tedious land carriage of the productions not only of Cordova, but of the provinces of Cuyo, to Buenos Ayres.

The perpetual irrigation of so many streams gives rise to a constant supply of excellent pasturage for cattle and sheep, the facility of rearing which may in some measure account for the preference evinced by the people for pastoral over agricultural pursuits. These habits occasion the country population to be much scattered: they congregate but little in the towns; and the principal places after the capital, Conception, Ranchos, and Carlotta, are at the best but wretched villages.

In travelling from Buenos Ayres after passing the post of Frayle Muerto on the river Tercero, the aspect of the country begins to change: it becomes undulated, and at last there is an end of the monotonous scenery of the Pampas, throughout which not a tree is to be seen save the solitary Umbú, standing like a giant land-mark in the boundless plain.

The traveler's eye is relieved by the appearance of woods and forests which become more dense as the Sierra is approached. The trees are for the most part varieties of the mimosa family, thickly set with thorns; and so marked is this peculiarity in those parts, that I recollect a gentleman from Cordova who came to Buenos Ayres whilst I was there, expressing something more than common surprise at finding that the greater part of the trees which grew in the gardens about the city, and which were probably chiefly of European origin, were not covered with thorns like those of his own province.

The palm-tree is scattered over the valleys in the northern part of the province, and on the road to Santiago del Estero; and it is the land of the aloe and cactus in every variety.

The city which gives its name to the province was founded by the conquerors of Tucuman in 1573; it is situated in lat. 31° 26´ 14",[59]long. from Ferro, 314° 36´ 45", in a pleasant valley upon the banks of the river Primero, sheltered from the north and south winds, which, in the more exposed parts of the province blowing alternately hot and cold, produce great and sudden variations in the atmosphere, very trying to the constitutions of the inhabitants.

By the post-road it is 172 leagues distant from Buenos Ayres.

It is related that for many years after its foundation, the inhabitants were subjected to much inconvenience from the occasional overflowings of a lake in the neighbouring hills, until an earthquake swallowed up its waters, and drained it apparently for ever. Much damage, however, is still done by the mountain-torrents which descend from the Sierra inthe rainy season, and have made it necessary to build strong walls to save the city from being occasionally inundated.

Limestone and timber being to be had in the immediate neighbourhood, the houses are generally better built than in other towns in the interior.

Cordova contains many churches, and is the seat of a university, at which, in the time of the Old Spaniards, most of the better classes from all parts of the Vice-Royalty received their education: it was under the management of the Jesuits, to whom this city owes much of its importance. It was here they had their principal college (the Colegio Maximo); and they held large possessions in the neighbourhood, from whence they derived considerable revenues, the greater part of which were spent in the foundation and embellishment of the churches, and in other pious establishments. Here also they had a celebrated library, rich in manuscript records of their Missions and labours amongst the Indians, which upon their expulsion was sent to Buenos Ayres. The printed books formed the nucleus of the present public library in that city; but the greater part of the manuscripts, and amongst the rest an unpublished portion of Father Guevara's History, have never since been seen: they were probably, either sent to Spain or destroyed by Bucareli, who was charged with the expulsion of the Order; a duty which he fulfilled with a harshness and illiberality never to be forgotten in a country which owes all itpossesses in the shape of civilization, to the indefatigable zeal and enlightened spirit of that community.

Out of their confiscated property the university of Buenos Ayres was subsequently founded; and being more conveniently situated for the rising generation, it has in proportion diminished the importance of that of Cordova, which, though still kept up, has dwindled to the scale of a provincial school.

From the year 1699 Cordova was also the residence of a bishop (removed from Tucuman), but the see has been vacant since the first years of the revolution.

The effects of the preponderating influence of the monastic establishments are still visible in the habits of the generality of the people; and though the ladies are not all nuns, their manners are a vast deal more reserved than those either of the capital or of the other principal provincial towns. As an instance of this, a fair lady of Buenos Ayres told me she had caused no little scandal whist on a visit to some of her Cordova relations, by insisting on dancing at a ball with a male partner, instead of with one of her own sex, an innovation which greatly horrified the mamas. Captain Andrews, too, has given a lively account of the alarm he unwittingly occasioned by a like breach of decorum in offering his arm to a young lady on going to dinner. These scruples, however, have I believe, since been much modified, and I am told that ladies and gentlemennow dance country-dances together at Cordova, much as they do in other parts of the world, in spite of the fears of the mamas and the frowns of the priests.

Living is very cheap and provisions abundant, the wants of the people few, and their hospitality unbounded; their kindness, indeed, to strangers, is spoken of by all who have been amongst them.

Cordova at present forms a sort of centre of communication between the Upper Provinces and Buenos Ayres. Its own produce, consisting chiefly of hides and wool, is all sent to the capital, whence it receives European manufactured goods in exchange.

If steam navigation were established on the Paranã between Buenos Ayres and Santa Fé, Cordova, as well as the provinces further north, would share in its advantages, and would be more easily supplied through Santa Fé, by the road which runs nearly in a direct line between the two cities; whilst the shorter line of communication thus opened between the provinces of Cuyo and those on the Paranã, passing necessarily through Cordova, would fully compensate to the people of that place for any loss they might sustain in consequence of the transit trade from Buenos Ayres to the Upper Provinces being turned in another direction.

The people of Cordova and Santa Fé would also once more have a joint interest in checking the inroads of the Indians from the Chaco, and by a better combination of their joint means might be enabledto protect their frontiers more effectually and perhaps at less expense than either province is now at for the maintenance of the militia which is requisite for its separate defence.

Cordova, owing to the miserable weakness of the adjoining governments of both Santa Fé and San Luis, is obliged at present to support a large armed force to protect her frontiers, not only from the savages of the Chaco, but from those of the Pampas.

To the west of the province of Cordova, across the Sierra, lies La Rioja, formerly a dependency of that government, but now dignified with the title of an independent province, divided into four departments, viz., Arauco, Guandacol, the Llaños, and Famatina. It is nominally under the rule of a governor and a municipal junta of five members. The city from which it takes its name was founded in 1591, at the foot of the Sierra de Velasco, a granitic range, and is situated, according to a MS. in my possession, in latitude 29° 12´, though I know not upon whose authority. In 1824 the population did not amount to more than 3500 souls, though the whole province may contain from 18,000 to 20,000. Arauco, which is the most northern department, contains about 3000, chiefly occupied in the cultivation of vineyards, from which they make 8000 or 10,000 small barrels annually, of a strong sweet wine, which is sent to Cordova and the neighbouring provinces.

Guandacol, which lies to the westward, beyond the range of Famatina, and along the base of the Cordillera of Chile, contains about 1500 inhabitants,—chiefly congregated in the towns of Guandacol and Vinchina. They are employed in agriculture,and, at a particular season, in hunting the vicuñas in the Cordillera, the wool of which forms a valuable article of trade:—the flesh is an article of food.

The Llaños, which lie to the south of La Rioja, constitute a rich grazing district, in which about 20,000 head of cattle are annually bred. The inhabitants are calculated to be about 6000.

The department of Famatina, of which Chilecito is the principal place, lies to the west of La Rioja; it contains 5000 or 6000 inhabitants, who, like those of Arauco, are much engaged in the cultivation of their vineyards, from which they make 6000 or 8000 barrels of wine yearly. It takes its name from the famous mineral range of Famatina, distant from La Rioja about thirty leagues:—this range is described to extend for fifty leagues; in the centre is the Nevado, a lofty peak covered with perpetual snow,—its geological formation is chiefly gneiss and clay-slate; but it is specially celebrated for the richness of its silver ores, which are said to surpass in intrinsic value those of Potosi,—the extreme remoteness and inclemency of their situation, however, accessible only by rugged and difficult mountain paths, has been a constant bar to their being worked to any extent, and as yet they may be said to be only superficially known: nevertheless a mint was established at La Rioja, at which some gold and silver coins have been struck; and, in 1824 and 1825, during the rage for mining speculations in South America, companies were formed for theworking of those of Famatina:—those schemes, however, only ended in disappointment to all concerned in them, not from any scarcity, I believe, of the precious metals, but from miscalculations and mismanagement, and an entire ignorance of the political state of the country. In such remote parts it has been but too sadly proved how little foreigners can calculate upon any effectual protection either for their property or their persons. It is idle to talk of contracts or title-deeds where the only real law is the will of some petty despot, whose necessities or interests, direct or indirect, will always overrule all other considerations. That such should be the state of La Rioja is not surprising, when its geographical position is considered, which cuts it off from almost all intercourse with the more civilised parts of the republic. The roads which lead to it, if roads they can be called, which are hardly passable by mules, are as bad as they can be, whilst the distances by these circuitous paths to the nearest of the other provincial towns are enormous. From La Rioja to Cordova it is 114 leagues, to Mendoza 159, and to Buenos Ayres by the nearest beaten route 287. To Guasco or Copiapo, the nearest towns in Chile, the length of the route by the Cordillera of Guandacol is 130 leagues:—this pass is said to be easy of transit, and has been often used to convey goods across the Cordillera from Chile, when the communication with Buenos Ayres has been closed.

The people, as might be expected, are in a lamentable state of ignorance. The governor himself, in sending me an account of his province, confessed that the only school in it was one established in the town of La Rioja, where the instruction was entirely limited to reading and writing, and that, for want of support, was often closed.

If the establishment of the present federal system be found of any real advantage, or gratifying to the ambition of some other provinces, the local situation and means of which may induce them to look forward with any confidence to improving their social condition; on the other hand I fear it must be fatal to those which, like La Rioja, are necessarily thrown by it upon resources which are palpably inadequate either to ensure them any tolerably efficient government for the present, or any likelihood of an improvement in their condition hereafter. It seems to me that the only means of saving them from lapsing into a state of semi-barbarism is to make them, as before, dependencies of their more powerful neighbours:—nor would they alone benefit by such an arrangement; a concentration of the Republic into half-a-dozen instead of twice the number of provincial governments (as was originally contemplated when it was divided into provinces in 1813 and 1814), would render each in itself infinitely more respectable, and better able to maintain its own independence, whilst it would vastly facilitate the management of all their national interests and affairs by the government of Buenos Ayres.

The provinces to the north of Cordova and La Rioja originally formed only two governments, according to the division established by the National Congress in 1814:—that of Tucuman, which included Santiago del Estero and Catamarca; and that of Salta with Jujuy, Oran, and Tarija; but these have since subdivided themselves, and instead of two now form five distinct governments,—viz., Santiago, Tucuman, Catamarca, Salta, and Tarija,—the latter of which has become united to Bolivia: of the others, the first, after leaving Cordova, is Santiago del Estero.

The distance from the city of Cordova to that of Santiago del Estero is 110 leagues by the post-road. Portezuela is the first station beyond the jurisdiction of Cordova, shortly after which commences what is called the Travesia, a vast sandy zone thirty to forty leagues in breadth, for the most part covered with a saline efflorescence, and producing a salsola, from the ashes of which the inhabitants extract soda. It borders the Sierra de Cordova to the north, and extends west as far as La Rioja, running southward nearly to San Luis. In this arid district the sultry heat of the north wind, which is very prevalent in the summer season, is almost insufferable.

My intelligent correspondent Dr. Redhead, who has lived for more than a quarter of a century in the upper provinces, and to whom I am indebted for some of the most valuable of my information respecting them, speaking of its geological appearance, observes in one of his letters how forcibly he had been led to conjecture that the southern part of the province of Santiago must once have been a sea-coast. "Its sandy hillocks, he says, always reminded him of those on the shores of Flanders:"—certain it is, that throughout the whole extent of this sandy zone, from Ambargasta to Noria, the level of the country becomes very much depressed, and falls verynearly to that of Buenos Ayres; thus in the very heart of the continent, at a distance of 700 miles direct from the sea, we have a considerable tract of land hardly elevated above its immediate shores.

The following table of barometrical observations, taken by Dr. Redhead, will not only show the variations in the height of the country intervening between Buenos Ayres and Santiago, but also of that to the northward, along the high road, as far as Tupiza in Peru:—

Barometrical Observations, made on the road from Buenos Ayres to Potosi, by Dr. Redhead:—

Note.—At Buenos Ayres the mean of the barometer for the month of March, 1822, was 29·61.

In the upper parts of the Sierra de Cordova granite everywhere breaks through the surface, and innumerable fragments of it may be traced in the descent to the Travesia, whilst beyond that sandy zone there is not a vestige of it throughout the rest of the road to Potosi, the formation the whole way being of blue argillaceous schist and slate, with occasional strata of limestone and red sandstone. In the neighbourhood of Potosi, however, and on the tops of some of the highest mountains in its vicinity, Helms tells us that he fell in with a pretty thick stratum of granite pebbles rounded by the action of water. How, he says, could these masses of granite have been deposited here? Have they been rolled hither by a general deluge, or by some later partial revolution of nature? His astonishment would have been infinitely greater had he known that marine shells are to be found on the lofty mountain of Chorolque (about twelve leagues north-west from Tupiza, between Salta and Potosi), the summit of which has been determined by Dr. Redhead to be 16,530 feet above the level of the sea.

The word Chorolque is corrupted from Churucolque, signifying in the Quichua tongue that the mountain contains silver and shells. The Spaniards, however, little suspected that the latter were to be found there, till, in 1826, an enterprising Frenchman ascended the mountain and brought down specimens which established beyond doubt the fact.

A further study of that language might lead the scientific inquirer to many an important discovery. The disposition of the Peruvians for observation is well known, and their nomenclature of places is generally expressive more or less either of the nature of the soil, or some peculiarity attached to it: thus a person well versed in Quichua is beforehand aware of what he is to see. Peutocsi, for instance, difficult to be properly pronounced by an European, and corrupted into Potosi, signifies, "It is said to have burst forth:" such must have been their tradition, which the very appearance of this singular cone, standing alone and distinct from the system of mountains which surrounds it, and the hot springs in its vicinity, would seem to corroborate.

It is in the province of Santiago that the Quichua is first met with. The Jesuits reduced it to a written language, and published a grammar and dictionary of it in Peru.

The city of Santiago is a miserable ill-built place, containing not more than 4000 souls. It is situated in lat. 27° 47´, according to Azara, upon the banks of a considerable river which rises in the territory of Tucuman, and running south through this province is finally lost, under the name of the Rio Dulce, in the great lakes called the Porongos, to the west of Santa Fé. The whole population of the province it estimated to be about 50,000; the greater part of which is much scattered in small villages built along the courses of this river and of the Salado, whichruns parallel to it, and separates the province on that side from the gran-chaco, or desert, the low lands along their banks being better suited for the pasturage of cattle and for cultivation than the other parts of the province. The soil there is well adapted to the growth of wheat, which is said to yield eighty for one.

In most parts of the province the cactus may be seen growing to an unusual size, and the cochineal gathered from it used to form one of the most valuable productions of this part of the country: from 8000 to 10,000 lbs. of it were annually sent to Chile and Peru. Large quantities of wild beeswax and honey were also collected in the woods and sent to the other provinces, in which they were always in demand; but the civil dissensions which have of late years been so frequent in these provinces have checked the industry of the people, who have almost entirely abandoned their old pursuits, and given up their yearly gatherings of these once valued productions. This is the more to be regretted as they are said to be naturally an enterprising and intelligent race, less given to habitual indolence than some of the other inhabitants of these latitudes. The women manufacture ponchos and coarse saddle-cloths, or blankets, which are sold in great numbers to the people of Tucuman and Salta.

To the eastward of the river Salado lies the vast region commonly called the Gran-chaco, or desert, which extends to the Paranã, and reaches north asfar as the province of Chiquitos, solely inhabited by Indians of various tribes, who, safe in their own forests and jungles, have there found a refuge from Spanish domination and persecution. It is through this territory that the rivers Pilcomayo and Vermejo wind their tortuous courses to the Paranã from the most remote parts of the interior of the Upper Provinces.

Some way beyond the Salado, about seventy leagues east from Santiago (in lat 27° 28´), was found that very remarkable specimen of native iron which I sent to this country some years ago, and which is now deposited in the British Museum. Its existence was first made known by some of the people of Santiago, who had passed through that part of the country in their journeys to the forests beyond to collect honey; and their reports, which were transmitted to Buenos Ayres, induced the Viceroy, in 1788, to send Don Reuben de Celis, an officer in the King's service, to examine it. His report upon it was published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London for 1788, and excited much speculation at the time.

As in those times the working of iron was forbidden in South America, after sundry specimens of it were forwarded to Lima, to Buenos Ayres, and to Spain, the remainder lay neglected for many years in its original site.

In the beginning of the struggle for independence, however, when the Spanish ships of war blockadedBuenos Ayres, iron, amongst other necessaries, becoming extremely scarce, the people recollected De Celis's account, with the reports of the Indians, that in the same parts there were extensive veins of the same mineral; and at a great expense the mass in question was sent for and brought to Buenos Ayres. By the time it got there the blockade was over; and as it was evidently much easier to procure iron from Europe than by a cart-carriage of 1000 miles from the uninhabited wilds of the Chaco, no further trouble was taken to determine whether or not the Indian reports of its being procurable in larger quantities were true or not. By way of experiment a pair of pistols were manufactured from it, which were sent as a present to the President of the United States, and what remained was placed at my disposal by the Minister of Buenos Ayres on the occasion of my signing the treaty with him in 1825, which recognised on the part of Great Britain the political independence of his country. I sent it to Sir Humphrey Davy to be placed in the British Museum, hoping that he would himself have analysed it, and given his opinion respecting its supposed meteoric origin. The analysis I believe was never made, owing to his death, which occurred very shortly after the arrival of the iron in this country.

It seems, however, to have been assumed here that this iron, as a matter of course, is meteoric, because it contains those admixtures of nickel and cobalt which accompany other known meteoric productions.It appears to me that the hypothesis is not very satisfactorily or conclusively made out.

The mass I sent home weighs about 1400 pounds, and, making allowance for what may have been taken from it at Buenos Ayres, may probably when it arrived there have been not much less than a ton weight. Now De Celis estimates the mass he examined to have been about fifteen tons weight, and of much larger dimensions: either this therefore is only a fragment of what he particularly described, or it is another which has been found in the same part of the country, and if so, is corroborative of the Indian accounts of there being more in the vicinity. This was the opinion of Dr. Redhead, who, in writing to me on the subject, says, "The native iron found in Santiago is not a single mass, as has been said; there are several, and the most recent accounts describe them as huge trunks with deep roots (I use the expression of the natives), supposed to communicate with each other."[60]

Dr. Redhead's observation was caused by a discussion which arose here upon some other specimens of native iron, which he had forwarded to me, from the desert of Atacama, in Peru, and which were described by the late Mr. Allan in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh for 1828. Theywere analysed by Dr. Turner, who found them to contain—

a result which he considered decisive concerning their origin, because, he says, it differs from any compound hitherto described in the earth, and corresponds exactly both in appearance and composition with other meteoric iron.

But these opinions differ entirely from the belief of those who procured the specimens.

That iron is found scattered in large quantities over a plain at the foot of a mountain a little to the south-west of a small Indian village called Toconao, ten leagues from San Pedro, the capital of Atacama, and about eighty from Cobija, on the coast. The tradition there is, that the fragments have been thrown out by some volcanic explosion from the side of the neighbouring mountain, in which the people of Toconao say there is a largevetaof pure iron. The Indian who collected the specimens which I sent to this country was employed tocatear, or search for mines; and the nature of his occupation rendered it requisite for him to be particular in his observations: his account was, that "they were taken from a heap of the same nature, estimated at about three hundred-weight, and that they existedat the month of aveta, or vein of solid iron, situated at the foot of a mountain; he called them 'reventazones,' or explosions from the mine, orveta. He had been charged to bring a piece of thevetaitself, and some of the rock in which it is embedded, but this he said he could not effect for want of tools; he therefore contented himself with picking up some of the pieces that were at the foot of the hill, where the mouth of the vein opens."

Dr. Redhead says, that in giving him this account the man endeavoured to give him also some idea of the direction of the vein in the mountain.

Further inquiries were subsequently made, the result of which corroborated his testimony. The alcalde of Toconao, who had been at the place, stated that the fragments had issued from a cavity of about fifteen feet diameter, which, from the nature of the soil, was filling up. This is sandy, and for three leagues round there is neither wood nor water nor pasture of any kind. Several persons in San Pedro, and amongst others one named Gonzales, who had likewise seen the cavity, gave a similar account.

The Atacama iron is certainly remarkably similar to the specimen of that met with by Pallas in Siberia, which is to be seen in the British Museum, but what proof is there of that being meteoric?

The Santiago iron differs from them both in appearance. The Atacama and Siberian specimens are full of cavities, looking like large sponges orscoriæ. That from Santiago, on the contrary, is more like a solid lump of well-kneaded dough.

So long as such specimens were supposed to be of very rare occurrence, and differing as they do from the character of all other known minerals, it was not extraordinary that they should have been ascribed to an extraneous origin; but now that further discoveries have proved their existence in all parts of the world, and that enormous masses of similar iron have been met with in the northern parts of America, in Mexico, Columbia, Peru, Brazil,[61]and the provinces of La Plata, to speak of that continent alone, I think we may begin to doubt whether they may not bebonâ fideproductions of our own planet, instead of bringing them from the moon, or elsewhere. On this I shall only quote another passagefrom the letters of my excellent correspondent, who took the trouble to institute the inquiries for me as to the origin of the specimens from Atacama. "Time," he says, "may perhaps justify the tradition or opinion of the Indians relative to the origin of this iron; nor do I know why we should refuse to Nature the power of reducing in her laboratory a metal so easily separated from its combinations by the efforts of man."

Forty leagues (post distance) beyond Santiago del Estero is situated the city of San Miguel de Tucuman. It stands (in lat. 27° 10´) on an elevated plain in a position from which the prospect on every side is delightful; indeed all accounts agree in describing it as the best situated town in the republic. The climate, though hot, is dry and salubrious; and Nature has been so prodigal of her choicest gifts, that the province of Tucuman well merits its appellation of the garden of the United Provinces. The population amounts to about 40,000 souls, of which 7000 or 8000 reside in the city.

After leaving the travesia of Santiago, the road ascends a slightly inclined plane the whole way to Tucuman, the jurisdiction of which commences after crossing the river Santiago, there called theRio Hondo, or deep river, which separates the two provinces, and is formed by the confluence of many streams which rise in the mountains to the west. To the eastward the Salado continues to be the general boundary-line separating it from the Chaco: to the north the river Tala divides it from the territory of Salta; and to the west and south-west the lofty mountains of Aconquija separate it from Catamarca. The highest peak of this range is covered with perpetual snow, and is said to be above 15,000feet above the level of the sea. It abounds in mineral treasures, and contains ores of gold, silver, copper, and lead; but the toil and difficulty attendant upon mining operations in those parts of the sierra where they are to be found have caused them to be much neglected, and the mining, if mining it can be called, is now confined to a few wretched people scattered amongst the hills, who occasionally collect small quantities of silver, which they bring down to the city for sale. I have had some of the specimens of silver so collected, which are singularly rich and beautiful.

Themita, and other oppressive enactments have will nigh destroyed the unfortunate race whose forced labour brought to light the mineral wealth of these regions. Themamelucho, as the gaucho of Tucuman is called, the horseman of the plains, with the help of his wife, who makes the greater part of his clothing, has almost everything he wants about him. He knows not, and therefore needs not, those comforts which become wants in less genial climes, and where civilization is more advanced. Free as the air he breathes, he gallops over boundless plains unfettered by the slightest restraint upon his own inclinations. He has no temptation to quit such a life for the fatigues and dangers of an occupation which he considers as degrading,[62]to bury himself under ground, and to seek by the sweat of his brow treasures of which he does not stand in need. His cattle are the finest in the republic; and the least possible cultivation and labour is sure to yield in return not only the necessaries, but what in his opinion are the luxuries of life.

Nothing can be more luxuriant than the vegetation in this province; whilst the plains yield corn and maize, and rice and tobacco, in the greatest abundance, the base and slopes of the mountain ranges in the west are covered with noble trees in every variety, interspersed with innumerable shrubs, and hung with the most beautiful parasitical plants. Extensive groves also of aroma and orange-trees produce a fragrance which adds to the delights of this favoured region. The sugar-cane grows naturally in the low lands, and might be turned to valuable account; the demand for it, however, at present, is not sufficient to induce the country people to attend to it. Not so with the tobacco-plant, which they cultivate and find a ready sale for in all the adjoining provinces. The people are a well-disposed hardy race, proud of their beautiful country, and always ready to take up arms in defence ofLa Patria.

It was at Tucuman, in 1816, that a Congress of Deputies from the several provinces solemnly declared their independency and separation from Spain. From 1810 to that period the ruling authorities set up had been avowedly merely provisional, and all their acts had been in the King's name, the peoplevainly looking forward to the King's restoration for a redress of their grievances. It is useless now to say that if the Spanish government had treated them with kindness and conciliatory measures, they would have found the colonies abounding in the same loyal and affectionate feelings for the mother country of which in other times they had repeatedly given such striking proofs.

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