Cornell University Library 
 F 2675.M28 
 
 Paraguay, Brazil, and the Plate iletters 
 
 3 1924 021 183 227 
 
The original of this bool< is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924021183227 
 
IN TMB PSESa, ^T TSB SAME AUTHOB, 
 
 ON THE CONSTITUTION OF SALTS. 
 
 Edited, from the Author's MS., hy 
 N. S. MASKELYNE, M.A., 
 
 (■ffABHAM COLLEGE, OXITOBD,) 
 BEADEB IS" MIITBEALO&Y IS THE UNIVESSITY OE OXFORD. 
 
PARAGUAY, BRAZIL, AND 
 THE PLATE. 
 
printeS fig 3. 15. ffisglor., UmiliDtt, 
 
 FoK MACMILLAIir & Co., Cambridge. 
 UnnBaE: bell and daldy. 
 
 ffixfntJl ; J. H. AND JAMES PABKER. 
 
 Slimfittrg]^ : edmonston and dotiglas. 
 JBufiliu: willlam kobbrtsok". 
 
 JAMES MAOLEHOSE. 
 
— '■^yUc^.^y^^^i^K^^:^^^^^^ 
 
PARAGUAY, BRAZIL, AND 
 THE PLATE. 
 
 LETTERS WRITTEN IN 1852-1853. 
 
 C. B. MANSFIELD, Esq., M.A., 
 
 OV CLAEE HALL, CAMBKIDGE. 
 
 WITH 
 
 A SKETCH OF THE ArTHOB'S LIFE, 
 
 BT 
 
 THE EEV. CHABLES KINGSLEY, Jun., 
 
 op BTBBSI.BY, HANTS. 
 
 SUSitJ) a iWap, Portrait, ant Ellttstratfonis. 
 
 ffiamhritige : 
 MACMILLAN & Co. 
 
 MDCCJSBVI. 
 
EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 Some explanation is perhaps due as to the title of 
 this work. Why place in the forefront of it the 
 name of the country last visited by the writer, and 
 which supplies only a comparatively small portion of 
 his matter ? 
 
 I believe the spirit of the work itself is the main 
 answer to such a question. Paraguay is, so to speak, 
 its leading idea. The writer goes to America with no 
 definite purpose ; scarcely there, he finds one in the 
 wish to reach " the inland Japan ;" and in proportion 
 as he nears the goal, his views and observations grow 
 broader and clearer, until at last they centre in the 
 scheme for colonizing the Chaco, which thenceforth 
 became a part of his life. " Paraguay" is the only 
 word which could for him have expressed the mean- 
 ing, have summed up the value of that ten months' 
 absence from England. 
 
 But lest any should cavil, it seems best to quote 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 here a short account of the country and of his stay- 
 there, supplied by Mr. Mansfield himself, at the re- 
 quest of several members of the Philological Society, 
 in a letter to one of its Honorary Secretaries, dated 
 Weybridge, AprU 15, 1854. This will show at once, 
 on the one hand, the extent of the writer's oppor- 
 tunities for knowing the country, — on the other, his 
 feelings respecting it. 
 
 My dear P , 
 
 I promised to answer your iaquiries about Paraguay. 
 I Tiave nothing very interesting to tell you ; nothing to 
 put into formal shape. But I will make a plain state- 
 ment for your benefit, and you may make any use you 
 please of it. 
 
 Of course you know that Paraguay has been shut up, 
 like Japan, from the day of the foundation of its ca- 
 pital till last year. The keys of course were kept by 
 the Spanish Grovernment, until the independence of the 
 country was declared in 1813. From that time tUl his 
 death, in 1840, Prancia, the despot elect, locked the 
 world out from within ; and from that time till Pebruary 
 1852 the maUcious jealousy of Rosas, the tyrant of 
 Buenos Ayres, closed the river, which formed the only 
 easy channel of communication between Paraguay and 
 Earth. During the last twelve years or so, almost the 
 only access to that country has been by a tedious horse- 
 back journey from Bio Qramde do Swl on the Brazilian 
 coast. A few foreigners have made that trip. 
 
 The only published accounts of the country, in Eng- 
 
PHEFACE. VU 
 
 lish, are, I believe, the foUowing: — 'An Account of 
 Francia, and his Eeign of Terror,' in three volumes, by 
 the brothers Robertson : an amusiag book, got up only 
 to sell, twenty years after the authors had been there 
 trading. The Robertsons visited Paraguay just at the 
 commencement of Prancia's reign, before his rigorous 
 system of isolation was fully enforced. 'An Account 
 of their Detention ia Paraguay by Prancia,' by Messrs. 
 Eengger and Longchamps, — from which the Robertsons' 
 last volume is made up, — dreary, but true. ' A Memoir 
 on Paraguay,' communicated to the American Greogra- 
 phical and Statistical Society by Mr. Hopkins, in 1852, 
 which contains not a syllable geographical or statistical, 
 nor anything remarkable, except a seasoning of childish 
 jealousy of everything English. Also a Report, by Mr. 
 Grraham, another American, published some years ago in 
 the ' Morning Chronicle.'* 
 
 After the fall of Rosas in 1852, our Government sent 
 out an Embassy to recognize the independence of Para- 
 guay, and make a treaty with that Republic. The navi- 
 gation of the Parana was declared open by Urquiza, who 
 succeeded Rosas ia power at Buenos Ayres; so ships 
 went up to Assiunption with English goods, to bring 
 down tobacco and Paraguay tea. 
 
 I arrived at Buenos Ayres in the August following 
 Rosas's fall, and went up-stream as far as Corrientes 
 in one of the sailing schooners which ply on the river. 
 Haviag then applied by letter to the President of Para- 
 
 * Since the text of this letter was written, some interesting oom- 
 munioations about Paraguay have appeared in the New York 
 ' Courier and Enquirer,' from the pen of an " Own Correspondent." 
 
 A 3 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 guay for leave to enter his country, and to travel by 
 land to the capital, I received permission, and (as is ge- 
 nerally accorded also, if such leave is granted, which was 
 then a rare case) had post-horses and every other want 
 supplied gratuitously by the hospitality of the Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 About a month after I arrived in Assumption, the capi- 
 tal, Sir Charles Hotham, our Envoy, arrived. I remained 
 two months and a half in the capital, and then returned 
 down the river to Buenos Ayres by ship ; and a month 
 later the Embassy returned, having made their treaty. 
 
 I only went to Paraguay to gratify a whim, which I 
 have cherished for many years, of wishing to see the 
 country, which I beUeved, and in many respects truly, to 
 be an unspoiled Arcadia. 
 
 I was not the first Englishman who had been there, 
 even lately, for I found three young Englishmen in the 
 country, two of them established as merchants. One 
 of these two, and the third, had come up since the fall 
 of Eosas had enabled Argentine vessels to go up, some 
 months before I arrived. The other had come up when, 
 in 1845, the combined English and French squadron 
 forced the passage of Obligado, where Eosas had block- 
 aded the river, and convoyed a fleet of merchantmen 
 to Corrientes. He had remained there ever since. I 
 believe no Englishman had ever been there to see the 
 country before I went ; and I was obliged to come home 
 without learning a tithe of what I wanted. In fact, I 
 know next to nothing about the country ; indeed little 
 more than could already have been gathered from the 
 odds and ends that have been published. 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 Assumption is a town of some fifteen thousand inha- 
 bitants, beautifully placed on the banks of the Paraguay. 
 These inhabitants are of mixed Spanish and Indian 
 blood, the former pretty pure among the more comfort- 
 able class, the latter predominant among the labourers. 
 These latter are of the Gruarani race, and are a noble set 
 of fellows. Gruarani, a very beautiful language, fuU of 
 nasals, gutturals, and vowels, of which you probably 
 know more than I do, except as to pronunciation, is the 
 language of the country. Spanish is spoken to foreigners 
 in the capital, and is the language of state. Eoman Ca- 
 tholic the creed. 
 
 ****** 
 
 Paraguay is the most interesting, loveliest, pleasantest 
 country in the world, I believe. Wishing my yarn alout 
 it could give to your members even the edge of the shadow 
 of the pleasure which my short residence there afforded 
 me, 
 
 I remain, yours very sincerely, 
 
 C. B. MANSPIELD. 
 
 One word more, though perhaps unneeded. Let 
 none forget that this work is a posthumous one, — 
 put together out of letters written with all the care- 
 less familiarity of one who is addressing his nearest 
 kindred, his most intimate friends, — materials "home- 
 spun for home use," to quote some happy words re- 
 specting them. Had the writer lived to shape out 
 these materials, who knows how much he might have 
 suppressed, how much added, how much rewritten ? 
 
PBEPACE. 
 
 Those only who have had in hand his graver works 
 (such as that on the "Constitution of Salts/' now 
 in the press) can tell with what scrupulous, almost 
 painful care he was wont to elaborate the finished 
 expression of his thoughts. 
 
 And the task of one editing a posthumous work, 
 unchosen moreover by the dead, diflers greatly from 
 that of the chosen editor of a work by a living writer. 
 The latter stands on the author's own footing, and 
 may well deem himself bound to alter or omit what- 
 ever might be excepted to. The former should rather 
 seek to preserve all that is capable of being defended, 
 all that the writer might have really wished outspoken. 
 What might have been his last word, we know not; 
 we only know that this was his first. And most es- 
 pecially is one called upon to be dif&dent in altering 
 the writings of one like Charles Mansfield, in whom 
 so many rare and loveable gifts were so strangely 
 blended, that though one may meet his equal, none 
 who knew him will ever expect to meet in this world 
 his like. 
 
|it gl^moriam C §. 
 
 The Author of these pages was one of those rare 
 spirits to -ffhoTn this life and this world have been, as 
 far as human minds can judge^ little beyond a school- 
 house for some nobler life and world to come. Cut 
 off at the very climacteric of his years, just as he was 
 beginning to give the world evidence of his extraordi- 
 nary faculties, and just as he had acquired the power 
 of using them in an orderly and practical method, he 
 has left little behind but the disjecta membra philo- 
 sophi. His scientific works, many of them fragmen- 
 tary, all of them (according to the verdict of those 
 best able to judge) most valuable, are in course of 
 publication. This more popular work goes forth as a 
 sort of specimen of his 'intellect, when employed in 
 more common and general subjects. However collo- 
 quial its style may be, the observant reader will find 
 its very jests full of thought and earnestness. 
 
Xll MEMOIR. 
 
 He was born in the year 1819, at a Hampshire par- 
 sonage, and in due time went to school at Winchester, 
 in the old days of that iron rule among masters, and 
 that brutal tyranny among the boys themselres, which 
 are now fast disappearing before the example and in- 
 fluence of the great Arnold. Crushed at the outset, 
 he gave little evidence of talent beyond his extraordi- 
 nary fondness for mechanical science. His desk was 
 fuU of mysterious fragments of springs, pulleys, wood- 
 work, and what not, and of scientific books, such as 
 came to hand. But the regime of Winchester told on 
 his mind in after-life for good and for evil ; first by 
 arousing in him a stern horror of injustice (and in 
 that alone he was stern), which showed itself when 
 he rose to the higher forms at Winchester, by ma- 
 king him the loving friend and protector of all the 
 lesser boys ; and next by arousing in him a doubt of 
 all precedents, a chafing against aU constituted au- 
 thority, of which he was not cured till after long and 
 sad experience. 
 
 From Winchester he went to Cambridge ; and none 
 who knew him there but must recollect with pleasure 
 his graceftd figure, slight and deHcate, yet trained to 
 all athletic sports, and of an activity almost incredi- 
 ble; his forehead fuU and high, and yet most bland; 
 his fair locks ; his finely-cut features, most gentle and 
 most pure; his eyes beaming with thought, honesty. 
 
MEMOIR. xin 
 
 humour, and a superabundance of genial life, such 
 as I who write have never beheld in any other man. 
 
 None can forget the brilliance of his conversation, 
 the eloquence with which he could assert, the fancy 
 with which he could illustrate, the earnestness with 
 which he could enforce, the sweetness with which 
 he could differ, the generosity with which he could 
 yield. Perhaps the secret of that fascination which, 
 even at Cambridge, and still more in after-life, he 
 quite unconsciously exercised over all who really knew 
 him (and often, too, over those who but saw him for a 
 passing minute, or heard him in a passing sentence, 
 yet went away saying openly that they had never met 
 his like), was that virtue of earnestness. Never have 
 I met a human being to whom, as clearly as to him, 
 the thing which seemed right was a thing to be 
 done forthwith, at all hazards and any sacrifice. Even 
 where most mistaken, truth seemed his only goal; 
 and, thank God, he reached truth, and had rest at 
 last, though too late, perhaps, for this his short mortal 
 stay. Such a man would hardly find himself at ease 
 in any of the now recognized professions. And in 
 fact he tried more than one, medicine especially, and 
 after mastering the elements of each sufficiently to 
 show that he might have excelled in any, settled or 
 rather unsettled himself into a purely scientific coui'se. 
 One profession — holy orders — in which I think that 
 
MEMOIR. 
 
 he might have done more and been more, whether 
 among the most cultivated or the poorest congrega- 
 tion, than almost any man I ever met, was closed 
 to him till a comparatively late period by doctrinal 
 doubts, which arose rather from intellectual than 
 from moral diflaculties. Those doubts vanished at 
 last : but the scar given in youth was not healed tiU 
 mature manhood, when his profession in life was fixed, 
 and a noble worker lost to the English priesthood. 
 
 From the time of his leaving Cambridge he devoted 
 himself to those sciences which had been all along his 
 darling pursuits. Ornithology, geology, mesmerism, 
 even old magic (on which subject, as on others, he 
 collected a curious library) were his pastimes; che- 
 mistry and dynamics his real work. The history of 
 his next ten years is fantastic enough, were it writ- 
 ten, to form material for any romance. Long periods 
 of voluntary penury, when (though a man of fair 
 worldly fortune) he would subsist on the scantiest 
 fare, at the cost of a few pence a day, bestowing his 
 savings on the poor; bitter private sorrows, which 
 were schooling his heart and temper into a tone more 
 truly angelic than I have ever seen in man ; magnifi- 
 cent projects, worked out as far as they would go, not 
 wildly and superficially, but on the most deliberate 
 and accurate grounds of science, then thrown away 
 in disappointment, for some fresh noble dream; an 
 
MEMOIR. 
 
 intense interest in the social and political condition 
 of the poor^ which sprang up in him (to his great 
 moral benefit) during the last five years of his life ; 
 and in the meanwhile, as a recreation from mingled 
 toil and sorrow, the voyage to Paraguay described 
 in the following pages; — here were the elements of 
 his schooling, — as hard a one, both voluntary and 
 involuntary, as ever human soul went through. 
 
 At last, when he was six-and-thirty years of age, 
 the victory seemed complete. His enormous and in- 
 creasing labour seemed rather to have quickened and 
 steadied, than tired his brain. The clouds which had 
 beset his path had all but cleared, and left sunshine 
 and hope for the fiiture. His spirit had become puri- 
 fied not only into doctrinal orthodoxy, but also into 
 a humble, generous, and manful piety, such as I can- 
 not hope often to behold again. He had gathered 
 round him friends, both men and women, who looked 
 on him with a love such as might be inspired by some 
 being from a higher world. He was already recog- 
 nized as one of the most promising young chemists 
 in England, for whose future renown no hope could 
 be too high-pitched J and a patent for a chemical 
 discovery which he had obtained, seemed, after years 
 of delay and disappointment, to promise him what he 
 of all men coveted least — renown and wealth. There 
 is no bathos, as wiU be seen, in mentioning this the 
 last of all. 
 
MEMOIR. 
 
 In February, 1855, he was at work on some 
 experiments connected with his patent, in a room 
 which he had fitted np near the Regent's Canal. By 
 a mistake of the lad who assisted him, the apparatus 
 got out of order ; the naphtha boiled over, and was 
 already on fire. To save the premises from the effects 
 of an explosion, Mr. Mansfield caught up the still 
 in his arms and attempted to carry it out ; the door 
 was fast; he tried to hurl it through the window, 
 but too late. The still dropped from his hands, half 
 flayed with liquid fire. He scrambled out, rolled in 
 the snow, and so extinguished the flame. Fearfully 
 burnt, bruised moreover about the head whilst esca- 
 ping, he had yet to walk nearly a mile, leaning upon 
 a woman's arm, to reach a cab, and was taken to the 
 Middlesex Hospital, where, after nine days of fearftd 
 agony, he died like a Christian man. His servant 
 died in the course of the same night. 
 
 Oh fairest of souls ! Happy those who knew thee 
 in this life ! Haippier those who will know thee in 
 the life to come ! 
 
 C. KiNGSLEY. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 VOYAGE TO PERNAMBtrCO. 
 
 Be8t of Lodgings at Sea.-^Weather. — Fellow Passengers. — Ar- 
 rival at Lisbon. — Sights there. — ^Whalea. — Life on Board 
 Ship. — The Horse Latitudes. — St. Vincent's. — Neophron 
 Vultures. — Delays in Coaling. — A Consular Diplomatist. — 
 The Thrasher. — The Eegion of Calms.— Flying Ksh.— The 
 Equator through a Telescope. — The Southern Cross. — Arrival 
 at Pemambueo ........ 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 PERNAMBUCO. 
 
 Scenery. — The Eeef. — Negroes. — Climate. — Sitios. — Life in the 
 Town. — The Singing Lady and Praying Mantis. — Butterflies. 
 — ^Ants. — OUmhers. — Pahna. — The Environs of Pemambueo. 
 — Projected Excursion. — Eroga . . .26 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ENVIRONS OF PERNAMBUCO. 
 
 Trip to the Engenhoa. — Mangroves. — Matutos, or Sugar-Car- 
 riers. — ^The Eoad and its (inner) Landscapes. — Atoleiros. — 
 Engenho Suasuna. — ^Engenho Carrauna. — Forest Scenery. — 
 
XVlll CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 Creepers.— The three kinds of Forest.— The Capoeira and its 
 Imbauba-trees.— Parasites.— Palm-trees.— Life on an Bnge- 
 nho.— Mat4 or Paraguay Tea.— Bngenho Macuje.— Bngenho 
 Noroaga.— Eetum to Pemambuoo.— A Wegro Baby cured of 
 Convulsions.- How smaQ Blacks eat Parinha.— Past good 
 Fortune.- Plans.— St. John's Day in Town and Country.— 
 Arrival at Eio 
 
 CHAPTBB IV. 
 BRAZIL. 
 Crime. — Political Economy. — Colonization. — Slavery. — Com- 
 
 69 
 
 CHAPTBR V. 
 
 MO AND ITS ENVIRONS. 
 
 PetropoUs to Pazenda Bom-Jardim.—Milho-Threshing.— Lodg- 
 ings. — ^View from the Serra. — Another Bngineer-Guide. — 
 Thorny Palm-Tree. — ^Bancho Boberto. — Slave-Drove. — Mule- 
 Droves. — Bazenda Benjamin. — ^An energetic Cultivator. — 
 Timber-woods of Brazil. — The Virgin Forest. — Monkeys. — 
 Snakes. — ^Birds. — Termite Nests. — Security of the Country. 
 — ^Winter Heat. — Cross the Parahyba. — Gigantic Arums. — 
 The Pahnito. — ^Physiognomy of the Forest. — Sand-FUes. — A 
 broken Crupper. — ^Large Fazenda. — Wasliing for Diamonds. — 
 Return to Estrella. — Steaming to Bio. — Plans . . .79 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 FROM RIO TO BUENOS AYRES. 
 
 Departure from Rio. — ^The River Plate. — ^Buenos Ayres and its 
 Stenches. — Gaucho Costume. — Plans for reaching Assump- 
 tion. — Jiggers. — Carrapatos.— Irish Qtiuchos. — A Ride in 
 the Outskirts of the Town. — Disgusting Sights. — The TJmbu 
 Tree. — Regularity of the Tovm. — Beauty of the Ladies. — ^Trip 
 
CONTENTS. XIX 
 
 Page 
 to Monte Video. — The Nine Years' Siege. — Matadero, or 
 
 Slaughter-house. — Misnomers. — English and Spanish Ceme- 
 teries. — Return to Buenos Ayres. — Prospects on Board the 
 ' Neptune,' bound for Corrientes. — Paraguay and its History. 
 — A Sunday in the Pampas. — Interview with Urquiza. — Ox- 
 horn Fences. — Ostriches. — ^Bisoaohos. — Saladeros, or Salting- 
 places. — Travelling Companions to Paraguay. — Opening of 
 the Rivers 122 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 UP THE PARANAj FROM BtJENOS AYRES TO COR- 
 RIENTES. 
 
 Difficulties at Starting. — PeUovr Passengers. — ^BiU of Fare. — 
 The Island of Martin Garcia. — Run aground. — ^A Bathe. — 
 Appearance of the Country. — A Fire. — Four Steamers pass 
 up the River. — A Honey-wasps' Nest. — ^Trial of Canoe Pad- 
 dling. — Obliga<lo. — Rosario. — Locusts. — The Steamers Re- 
 turn. — Diamantes. — ^Another Prairie Fire. — Aground Again. 
 — ^A Fleet of Vessels. — ^A Storm. — Scenery. — Change from 
 'Neptuno' to 'Rosario.' — ^Vegetation. — ^Another Storm. — 
 Breadth of the River. — Aground again. — Locusts. — Mirage. 
 — Arrival at Corrientes. — Natives. — Interview vrith the G-o- 
 
 169 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE FUTURE OF EASTERN SOUTH AMERICA. 
 
 Waste of Land in South America. — Possibilities of Anglo-Saxon 
 Colonization. — Paraguay the choicest Site for a Colony. — Fer- 
 tihty of the Regions about the Plate. — Timber Tram-Roads. 
 — Steam Timber Rafts. — How Rivers may do their own Tug- 
 Work 222 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 CORRIENTES. 
 A Country Ride. — ^Trees.— Birds.— The Misiones. — A Ball. — 
 
:x CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 Public Buildings.— Dwellmg-houses.— A Visit to the Bishop. 
 —Birds' -Nests.— A Soiree.— Prcgected Expedition to Mi- 
 siones. — News from Buenos Ayres. — Needle- work. — Heas and 
 Jiggers.— Verbenas.— Silk-Cotton Tree.— Dogs and Progs.— 
 Crossing a Ferry.— Visit to Don Pedro.— TJnsuccessful Tiger 
 Hunt. — A Play. — ^Brilliant laghtning. — Co-operatire Spiders. 
 —An Extensive Horsedealer.— A Fete Day.— A Storm. — 
 Churches. — Oven Bird. — Manners and Customs. — Don Pe- 
 dro.— A Ford.— Mandioca Planting.— A Primitive Plough.— 
 Cattle Doctoring.— An Ant-Lion.— Ant-hills.- The Emperor 
 of Cranes.— WUd Turkeys.- Sensitive Plants. — ^A Letter of 
 Introduction. — Politics ... . . 235 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 CORRIBNTES TO ASSUMPTION IN PARAGUAY. 
 
 The Cavalcade start at last. — Costume. — The Parrot. — Ferry 
 across the Parana. — Paraguayan Fort. — A Sharp Look-out. 
 — The Encampment of Paso. — Military Music. — ^Peculiar Fea- 
 tures of the Country. — The Phoenix Plant. — Birds. — Pilar. — 
 Paraguayan Bread. — An Ant-Eater. — Bed Pigs, &oats, and 
 Men. — Camauba Palm. — Costume and Equipment. — Grass- 
 hoppers. — A Pair of Spurs. — The Ferry across the Tebiouare. 
 — Plan of a Cottage. — A Four-post Bedstead. — Stage for 
 Vines.- — The TJrundu-igh. — Corrals. — Treacle and Honey. — 
 Cactuses. — Villa Franca. — Goitre. — An Estero. — A Fire-Fly. 
 — Mosquitoes. — An Upset. — Mountains in Sight. — A Bridge. 
 — HardWork and Bad Quarters. — FirstGhmpse of Assump- 
 tion. — Arrival. — ^Hospitable Quarters . 288 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 PARAGUAY AND THE GRAN CHACO. 
 
 High Qualities of the Paraguayans. — Saxon appearance of the 
 People in many cases. — The Gran Chaco the Empty Cradle 
 of a Great Nation. — Can the Chaco Indians be civilized ? — 
 
CONTENTS. XXI 
 
 Page 
 Colonization of the Misiones — of Bio Grande, in Brazil. — 
 
 Bamboos. — Slavery 350 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ASSUMPTION. 
 
 Temperature. — The Siesta. — Introduction to and Interview 
 with the President. — Passports. — Fruit. — ^Wasps. — The Gua- 
 rani Language. — A Funeral Service. — Smoking. — Mounte- 
 banks. — Falls of the Parana. — Indian Corn. — Mandiooa. — 
 A Swedish Naturahst. — Salt-Making. — The Chaoo. — The 
 Payaguas. — Market Place. — Arrival of Sir C. Hotham. — 
 Tame Birds. — Salutations. — Introduction to the Royal Fa- 
 mily. — System of G-overnment. — Christmas Day. — F^te of 
 the Manger. — Manners and Customs. — The Guarani Lan- 
 guage. — A Grand BaE. — A Curt Refusal. — Future Plans. — 
 Sudden Determination to start for England. — Farewell to the 
 President. — Passage taken .... . 362 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE VOYAGE HOME PROM ASSUMPTION TO 
 
 SOUTHAMPTON. 
 
 Guardias.— Cicadas. — A Deer Slain. — The ' Vixen.'— The ' San 
 Vicente' taken hy the 'Correo.' — Passengers transferred to 
 the latter. — The 'Merced' taken.— The 'Vixen' comes up 
 and Passengers are transferred to her. — Arrival at Buenos 
 Ajrea. — A Siege. — Voyage to Rio Janeiro. — Scarcity of 
 Birds. — ^Voyage from Bio to Pernambuoo. — Nearly too Late. 
 — Arrival at Southampton ... ... 410 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 A Sketch of the History of Paraguay ... .428 
 
 Appendix 
 
 . 479 
 
EBEAT I. Jl. 
 
 Page 222, in the title of Chapter VIII., for " Western South 
 America," read, " Eastern South America." 
 
LETTERS 
 
 FKOM 
 
 BRAZIL AND PARAGUAY. 
 
 CHAPTER I * 
 
 VOYAaE TO PERNAMBTJCO. 
 
 BEST OE lODO-IN&S AT SEA. — "WEATH3SB. — EELIOW PASSEN&EES. — 
 ABBIVAL AT HSBOH". — SIO-HTS THEBE. — WHALES. — LIFE ON 
 BOAED SHIP. — THE HOESB LATITUDES. — ST. VINOENt's. — NEO- 
 PHEON TULTtTEES. DELAYS IN COALIN&. — A CONSTTLAE DIPLO- 
 MATIST. — THE THEABHEE. — THE EBQ-ION OE CALMS. — ELYIN& 
 PISH.j— THE BQTTATOE THEOTiaH A TELESCOPE. — THE SOITTHEBN 
 CBOgS. — ^AEEIVAL AT PEENAMBTTCO. 
 
 May IS, 1852. 
 My deak , 
 
 We started from Southampton, May 10th/ 1852, at 
 
 half-past two o'clock p.m., with a pretty strong wind 
 
 , right, ahead, which of course very soon shut us up ; 
 
 bij^ I believe that it is much the best plan to have 
 
 rough weather at first, as one gets off the queasiaess 
 
 * The (Eary of the outward voyage was contained in three letters 
 posted at Zjisbon, St. Vincent's, and Pemambuco respectively ; they 
 are printed in one chapter, to avoid interrupting the continuity of 
 the narrative. 
 
 B 
 
2 VOYAGE TO PERNAMBUCO. 
 
 soon. I did not make any attempt to hold out, as I 
 have always done on former occasions, but retired to 
 my berth, went to bed, and remained there tiU' I was 
 well, which was in about thirty-six hours. Now as 
 to the steamer and my berth. I, having come late, 
 had obtained, as per ticket, as was to be expected, the 
 worst berth on board ; but as it has turned out, with- 
 out any great efforts of diplomacy, I believe I am now 
 better off than any one in the ship, not excepting the 
 Captain. In the first place, you must know that what 
 I paid for was the half of a double second-class berth, 
 according to which I was liable to be chummed with 
 anybody. However my berth was choke-fuU with 
 parcels (I suppose, because it had not been taken 
 sooner, and was supposed not likely to be taken) ; so 
 the stewards, almost without my asking them, no 
 doubt for their own purposes, put me into another 
 berth, not a double one, which I have whoUy to my- 
 self, and for which I should have had to pay, if I had 
 secured it, ten pounds more than I have paid. Of 
 course I accepted the change with very little grum- 
 bling. 
 
 It is not a first-rate lodgment. The heat (even 
 when it was so cold on deck that a great-coat and 
 plaid were requisite to ,keep one comfortable) was 
 scarcely tolerable, when I was only covered with a 
 sheet ; what it will be under the Equatoi-, I have not 
 yet calculated. Added to the heat, every ill odour 
 that you can imagine about the lower deck of a 
 
LODGINGS AT SEA. 3 
 
 steam-vessel floated freely in the air, and hung lov- 
 ingly about the bed-clothes. Nevertheless I spent 
 thirty-six hours there very pleasantly in a state of sea 
 sulkiness; not suffering at all, I am glad to say, but 
 
 simply sulky ; indulging, according to A 's advice, 
 
 in occasional libations of arrowroot, and reproducing 
 the same as soon as possible. By this means I got 
 my brain in good order by yesterday morning, and 
 am now, I believe, ready to circumnavigate. As soon 
 as I got well I managed to improve my condition still 
 further by making the steward carry my bed into 
 Power's berth, which is in the afterpart, not intended 
 for a double berth, but with plenty of room on the 
 floor, and a port in it for the admission of any amount 
 of fresh air. So now I have both a bed-room and a 
 dressing-room, a luxury which not even the Captain 
 enjoys. On the floor then, underneath Power's mat- 
 tress, I have passed the night. The day passes plea- 
 santly, with eating continually, and talking in the 
 intervals. I cannot say much for the eating, as the 
 kitchen fare is not only not intended for vegetable 
 feeders,* but for animal eaters of rather a coarse 
 order, so that I am not much tempted to transgress 
 my usual habits. However, having gone without food 
 for two days and two nights, I was rather hungry on 
 the third, and found four meals, after I had eaten 
 them, rather too much. 
 
 Next, as to the weather. We had, as I have said, 
 * The writer did not eat animal food. — Ed. 
 
 B 2 
 
4 VOYAGE TO PBRNAMBUCO. 
 
 a head-wind, whicli lasted us till we had got across 
 the Bay of Biscay. The passengers were all sick ; but 
 I cannot say I thought much of it, but rather consider 
 the terrible Bay must froth of small beer; for the 
 stewards considered the passage a bad one, and it was 
 nothing like what I expected. 
 
 Next, as to my fellow-passengers : most of them are 
 French or Portuguese merchants, one or two English. 
 My great ally is a young Englishman named De 
 Mornay, of French lineage, who has lived in Brazil 
 for thirteen years; an engineer by profession, and 
 a very gentlemanlike fellow, acute, clever, and very 
 observing, and who seems to know the interior of 
 some parts of Brazil very well. He has already made - 
 my eyes itch by his accounts of the wonderful trees 
 in the forests, where he says he has cut down trees 
 six or seven feet in diameter to get the orchises from 
 the top. He says he can give me introductions to 
 sugar-planters up the country from Pernambuco, who 
 wiU entertain me joyfully, and show me. wonders; and 
 that two of his friends, to whom he will introduce 
 me, having adjoining estates, are at deadly warfare, 
 having been out armed day and night for years, under 
 vow to slay every living being of each other's houses. 
 Pleasant state of things ! However we are talking of 
 making an expedition up the country together, as he 
 will have to go on business to some sugar-plantations 
 soon after he gets there. He has just been over to 
 England about a patent which he has lately taken 
 
LISBON. 5 
 
 out for some improvement in the sugar machinery. 
 His turn of mind coincides singularly with my own 
 in many ways, except that he is a good hand at get- 
 ting on in the world. 
 
 We arrived at Lisbon on Saturday, May 15th. It 
 is a very beautiful place. I was never so agreeably 
 surprised. I expected to find it dirty and miserable : 
 contrariwise, however, it is a very magnificent town : 
 the larger streets very clean, and the houses lofty and 
 handsome. The small streets, nevertheless, were in 
 many instances in a dreadful state of filth : dead 
 dogs lying about here and there. Dogs asleep ia the 
 middle of the streets anywhere, — a striking symptom 
 of the inactivity and lifelessness of the town. The 
 few carriages to be seen about are of three or four 
 most wonderful species ; exactly the same as were in 
 use in England early in the last century ; just such 
 cabs as Hogarth would have drawn. That the people 
 are very sober may be inferred from the fact, that in 
 the evening we found in the Great Square men 
 standing about, each with a large pitcher full of water 
 and a tumbler, selling Adam's wine by the glass. The 
 great want of Lisbon, and of the country round, is 
 tree-shade ; there are almost no trees in the town, 
 and none on any of the hills in sight from the river. 
 Almost the only trees we saw were those (chiefly cy- 
 presses) in the English Cemetery, which is a beautiful 
 little garden; geraniums are climbing up in the cy- 
 presses to twenty feet from the ground. We slept on 
 
6 VOYAGE TO PEBNAMBUCO. 
 
 shore, at an hotel in the upper part of the town; the 
 view from our windows, at the top of the house, was 
 most glorious. It was much hotter there at eight in 
 the morning than we found it at noon in Madeira. 
 What struck me most on going up the river, and on 
 approaching and entering the town, was the ntter ab- 
 sence of all the enormous advertisements and notifi- 
 cations of names, trades, and goods, which one sees 
 in every English town, and in almost every other 
 that I have ever been in. So that it is quite evident 
 that whatever other cause may have reduced the 
 prosperity of Lisbon, it is not to competition among 
 themselves that their depressed state is owing. Not a 
 single word of announcement is to be seen on the walls 
 from the river, and scarcely any in the town, except 
 here and there where " Neve" (snow) appears in small 
 letters over a cafe window, or where a hairdresser 
 (whose trade is the most employed, by aU appear- 
 ances, in Lisbon) has written up his invitation to the 
 lazy Lisboners to come and get shaved or cropped. 
 The banks of the Tagus consist of undulating hiUs of 
 no great height ; but the sweep of the shores and the 
 extent of the town — a large portion of which is built 
 of white marble (a coarse kind) — gives a very splen- 
 did panorama. The very mouth of the Tagus (above 
 which Lisbon lies nine or ten miles up the river) has 
 upon its northern side a great pile of mountainous 
 hills of volcanic origin, — the heights of Cintra, of a 
 most barren and rugged aspect. There is said to be 
 
A SHOAL OP WHALES. 7 
 
 a splendid view from the summit, but we had not 
 time to go there. Quantities of delicious oranges are 
 seUing in the streets of Lisbon^ some of them with 
 the leaves on, and very large, which gives a foreign 
 look to the baskets which are loaded with them. 
 They are much softer and more ragged than the 
 oranges that come to England; and the rind, which 
 is very thick, is so full of oil, that on peeling them 
 one's fingers are smeared all over with it. 
 
 We landed at Lisbon just after sunset, on Satur- 
 day, and had to be on board by one p.m. next day; 
 so, as you may imagine, we did not see much of it. 
 Such momentary peeps as we have had of it and 
 Madeira are very tantalizing. So the engines were 
 started again at two p.m. on Sunday (the 16th), as 
 soon as the mails came on board, and we repassed 
 the promontory of Cintra, and were soon out at sea. 
 And so we steamed on till ten a.m. on Wednesday, 
 the 19th, when we dropped anchor in Funchal Bay. 
 The chief variations of the monotony of our voyage 
 have been the seeing of some whales, amongst a 
 shoal of which we passed; we saw their backs and 
 their spoutings a mile or so from the ship; but 
 they did not seem to be very mighty Behemoths; 
 and on Monday afternoon a smart wind (the Captain 
 called it a summer gale), which gave us a taste of 
 what rough weather meant. It was a rough sea, with- 
 out mistake ; the waves were high enough to bound 
 our view by the crest of the nearest one, when the 
 
8 VOYAGE TO PERNAMBUCO. 
 
 ship was in the hollow; and when the ship pitched, 
 the end of the bowsprit sometimes descended through 
 a depth of forty feet at least (judged by the eye). 
 But the sun was shining brightly, and it was by no 
 means unpleasant ; especially as the seamen assured 
 us the wind would fall at sunset. And so it did, 
 and next day nothing remained but a long swell on 
 the water. It was so rough however on Monday af- 
 ternoon, that Mr. L , the Admiralty agent, con- 
 fessed to being sea-sick, and to wishing very much he 
 was ashore. This, by the way, is the most simple- 
 hearted, amiable man I ever met with, and is great 
 fun, especially when he talks big about how he would 
 blow other nations' ships out of the water if he was 
 in command of one of Her Britannic Majesty's ships, 
 and how he has butchered crocodUes in Nicaragua : 
 only his stories are a little too long, especially when 
 he is upon the Turkish service (in which he was), or 
 his sweetheart, whom he wants to get back to. It is 
 quite refreshing to meet with such a piece of nature ; 
 he being too a perfect gentleman, and full of infor- 
 mation. The Captain is a capital feUow, very good- 
 natured, and an excellent seaman no doubt. There 
 are some agreeable people among the passengers, who 
 have all now well shaken into their places. 
 
 My friend Mr. De Mornay, whom I before mentioned, 
 is very well informed about everything connected with 
 Brazil, — ^birds, beasts, reptiles, and plants ; though 
 he is not scientific about it, which is a great blessing. 
 
MADEIRA. 
 
 I must not omit to mention^ that besides there are 
 two more Consuls on boards going to their stations, 
 a Frenchman and an Italian (from Turin). We oc- 
 casionally enliven the time by a game of Bull, which 
 consists in pitching bits of lead upon a board marked 
 with certain figures : people at sea are easily amused. 
 I am continually making vigorous efibrts to read; 
 first Gardner's Travels in Brazil, then Portuguese 
 Grammar, then something else ; but my talkative 
 friend puts books to flight altogether, and I have 
 only yet learned two words of Portuguese. 
 
 On the 19thj knowing that we were to reach Ma- 
 deira before noon, we looked out of the port-hole in our 
 berth, and saw an island. So we rushed up, dressed, 
 and went on deck ; but we found that it was only one 
 of the Dezertas, a group of rocks like Sark on a large 
 scale, lying north-east from Madeira, which was stiU 
 some twenty-five miles ahead. We were passing be- 
 tween the Dezertas and Porto Santo, which is another 
 rugged-looking island more to the west. Madeira 
 was ahead of us, enveloped in clouds. We gradually 
 crawled up to it (the 'Tay' only crawls), and as we 
 reached it the mist cleared away, leaving only a veil 
 of clouds hangiag over the tops of the mountain. I 
 need not say how beautiful the view was. The bay 
 itself was very lively : an American frigate was lying 
 there, and a large English man-of-war steamer, and 
 two or three yachts. We went on shore by the first 
 boat after the mails went off; but as we only had 
 
 B 3 
 
10 VOYAGE TO PERNAMBUCO. 
 
 two hours and a half leave, we had no time to rush 
 up the mountain on pony-back, according to custom. 
 Altogether our visit to the island was a failure, for it 
 ended in our hurrying from one part of the town to 
 another, and spending an hour of our two hours and 
 a half at the grating in the reception-room of the 
 Convent, waiting tUl the old fat nun had done talk- 
 ing, and would bring us the sweetmeat we wanted. 
 I wished to get up on the hill outside the town to see 
 something of the vegetation, but was disappointed, 
 and obliged to content myself with looking at the 
 bananas in the gardens, and noting the prickly pear 
 cactus on old walls, and a sort of potato, with a very 
 curious leaf, with lots of thorns on its ribs, and large, 
 tempting-looking fruit, which I was told were deadly 
 poison, and called the Devil's tomatas. This was 
 growing everywhere in the outskirts of the town, and 
 no end of little lizards were cutting about in the sand 
 among their stems. Immense branches of bananas 
 were imported into the steamer : those who are ac- 
 customed to them say they are delicious ; I do not 
 above half thinlc them so at present. At Lisbon and 
 at Funchal we took ia great fat green peas nearly 
 over-ripe ; likewise a small bean, which comes up to 
 table jet black, and is very good. Mr. De Mornay, 
 who is suffering from Brazilian liver complaints, is 
 turning vegetable eater, in imitation of me, being 
 fully convinced it is the right plan. 
 
 We got into the trade-wind soon after leaving 
 
THE ISLAND OF TENEMFFE. 11 
 
 Madeira^* and had a beautiful run to TenerifFe. I 
 have been much surprised at the coolness of the air. 
 One day the wind, which affected us only as a light 
 breeze from the east, was quite cool, and the same 
 evening I found two coats desirable on deck. How- 
 ever Friday the 21st was piping hot, there being for 
 some reason or other no wind. We have seen just 
 nothing at all of Teneriffe, which I wanted to see 
 more than any of the places we stopped at. We arrived 
 there at ten p.m. We saw nothing of the Peak, though 
 we had seen the island for five or sis hours before 
 we came close to it : this, as we were running about 
 nine knots, and the weather was cloudy, will give you 
 a notion of the height of the land. AH that we saw 
 of it was the rugged outline of the mountains, tower- 
 ing up into the clouds. When we came close to it, 
 aU we saw was the black mass of cliff and mountain, 
 under which we ran, after rounding the Cape at the 
 eastern extremity of the island. We seemed to be 
 close under it, but as it turned out, when we had to 
 go on shore we were about three miles off, so decep- 
 tive is the height. There were a number of fisher- 
 men's boats all along the coast, each with a beacon- 
 fire burning at the bows, for the attraction of the fish. 
 They looked like big fire-flies or suns, while the water 
 under the bows and paddle-wheels of the ship was 
 just like the Milky Way, not shining with a feeble 
 phosphoric light, as the water about our coasts often 
 * No, we didn't — it was Dot tlie Trade.— 0. B. M. 
 
12 . VOYAGE TO PEENAMBUCO. 
 
 does, but spangled all over with bright dots of bril- 
 liant light, exactly as if the stars were reflected in 
 the water. I have never seen this in our seas, but it 
 seems the regular amusement here, as I have observed 
 it ever since we crossed the Bay of Biscay ; and the 
 blobs of animated moonshine seem to get bigger as 
 we get more south. Then as we drew near the town 
 (Santa Cruz, on the south side of the island), to 
 which we were guided by the few lamps in the streets, 
 a blue light or two were burned on board, and some 
 rockets sent up from the ship to give notice of our 
 approach, which enlivened the scene. 
 
 We did not anchor at all at Teneriffe, but the en- 
 gines were stopped, and the ship lay on her paddles, 
 while we went ashore. " We" means the Admiral 
 (as we call the good-natured Lieutenant, who says he 
 was, an Admiral in the Turkish service), and the three 
 Consuls who are on board, and two other passengers 
 whom the Admiral asked to accompany him, of whom 
 I was one. None of the other passengers landed. 
 It was rather good fun, for we could not find the 
 landing-place at once, and it was quite dark, the sky 
 being clouded. The Admiral had to deliver and re- 
 ceive his mails, so we went to the Consul's house ; 
 and wliile business was being transacted the idlers 
 looked at the exquisite drawings of his good lady, 
 whom however we did not see, as she was at their 
 country-house. The town (Santa Cruz) is a very nice 
 one, with wide streets, and, so far as we saw in one 
 
THE ISLAND OP TENERIPFE. 13 
 
 half-hour's wandering about it (with a lantern, which 
 the French Consul would have to light him), very 
 clean; the houses substantial, and (judging by the 
 Consul's house) beautifully planned : a haU in the 
 centre, which however forms a court, being open 
 above, with balconies all round it at each story, and 
 some banana-trees growing at the bottom. We 
 spent a couple of hours on shore, helping to stamp 
 the letters and seal the bags, and then returned to 
 the ship at one o'clock this morning, and went sup- 
 perless to bed (the Consul forgot to feed us !), and 
 having only just satisfied ourselves that such a place 
 as Teneriffe does exist; and started again instantly 
 on our course. 
 
 We asked one of the middies to call us in the 
 morning if the weather became clear, and the Peak 
 became visible, when one got to a distance. (The 
 Peak is never visible from the sea near the island, 
 at least in the part where the steamer comes, for it 
 is hidden by the other high land.) But we were not 
 called, and we have heard this morning that the Peak 
 was not seen by any one. In clear weather it may be 
 seen at sea a hundred miles oflF. Teneriffe must be a 
 magnificent island : it is sixty or seventy miles long, 
 and has another town inland, besides Santa Cruz. I 
 am sure people had much better come to it than to 
 Madeira, for there is every variety of scenery, and 
 much more scope for excursions. Of course, as En- 
 glish people do not flock thither at present, there is a 
 
14 VOYAGE TO PJERNAMBUCO. 
 
 dearth of society. Lord Nelson lost his arm and his 
 colours here: the colours are kept in the churches^ 
 and shown with great delight by the Spaniards (who 
 possess the island) to the English. I wonder they 
 do not show his arm also. 
 
 May 22. 
 
 We are now out for three days^ steam to St. Vin- 
 cent' Sj off the Cape Verd Islands. They say it is the 
 most dreary, uninteresting place in the world, — aU 
 sand, and devoid of verdure, being much misnamed; 
 but as we have to stop there a whole day, I shall 
 have the opportunity perhaps of telling you what I 
 think of it. We only stop at St. Vincent's to take in 
 coal. I wish the Company had found it convenient 
 to coal at Teneriffe. 
 
 The Captain calls these parts the "horse latitudes," 
 not because it is a bad style of latitude of inferior 
 degree, but because in former days, when they used 
 to send horses to the West Indies, the ships were 
 often becalmed, and they had to pitch the horses over- 
 board. The sea has been like a sheet of glass all 
 day, — not a breath of air stirring, not a ripple on 
 the water beyond the agitation caused by the steamer, 
 — so smooth indeed that a petrel, which was flying 
 three or four hundred yards from the ship, was quite 
 plainly seen reflected in the water. Nothing sur- 
 prises me so much as the total want of visible life. 
 This petrel is the only bird I have seen today; and 
 
LIFE ON BOARD SHIP. 15 
 
 the only other signs of life that have shown them- 
 selves have been about half-a-dozen black lumps float- 
 ing ia the water a few hundred yards from us, which 
 people said were the heads of turtles, and two or 
 three little jelly-fish. The heat is by no means op. 
 pressive ; yesterday indeed it had been quite cool, but 
 we found the heat on shore at Tenerifie very great. 
 I suppose we shall cross the Tropic of Cancer tomor- 
 row, and next day the sun wiU be vertical over our 
 heads at noon, it being now within four weeks of 
 the solstice, when it reaches the Tropic. I do not 
 suppose it wUl be much hotter at sea anywhere than 
 it was today to us, as of course the sun was nearly 
 vertical. A flying-fish was seen today by one of the 
 passengers, but I was not so fortunate; however we 
 shall have plenty of them soon. We do not get any 
 sharks for our money, as the paddle-wheels drive 
 them away. A day in a tropical sea-calm is a won- 
 derful dreamy bit of life ; and at the end of it the 
 sun drops hard and bright behind the clean, sharp 
 edge of the horizon, as if it were eclipsed by the edge 
 of a knife ; the fringe of clouds at the very verge 
 seeming to rise like solid rocks out of the water, 
 which is of the most magnificent deep ultramarine 
 blue colour, different from anything we see about our 
 coasts. 
 
 May 24. 
 
 The calm only lasted one day, and we were soon 
 
16 VOYAGE TO PEENAMBUCO. 
 
 fairly in the trade-wind,— a steady, gentle breeze, 
 just enougli for us to run before it, making about 
 two knots more than we should by the paddles only, 
 without ruffling the sea much, so that there was no 
 more perceptible motion in the vessel than in the 
 perfect calm : the speed of the engines however was 
 slackened, that we might not reach St. Vincent's 
 (Cape Verd Isles) too early, i.e. before daylight. "We 
 crossed the Tropic yesterday, and the sun was almost 
 exactly vertical over our heads at noon, not throwing 
 any shadow at aU. Today the little shadow our bo- 
 dies cast, when standing in the sun at noon, fell on 
 the south side of us, — a new sight for northern eyes, 
 — as we were about two degrees south of the sun. Of 
 course it is very warm, but not oppressively so. My 
 plan is, not to go to bed till the night is pretty far 
 advanced, and to take a nap in the early part of the 
 afternoon. 
 
 May 25. 
 
 We anchored in St. Vincent's harbour (Cape Verd 
 Isles) this morning about half-past six o'clock, find- 
 ing there a French frigate, an American war-brig, 
 and the English transport steamer ' Megaera,' miss- 
 ing some time ago. A French officer soon came on 
 board, to learn news about the 10th of May, and as 
 to whether he was the servant of an Emperor or 
 not. We however could not tell him, as the news 
 had not reached Lisbon when we were there. We 
 
ST. Vincent's. 17 
 
 went ashore at seven o'clock, by the first boat that 
 left the vessel, wandered about for two hours, and 
 returned quite disgusted with the state of the place. 
 The whole island is as barren (except, I am told, 
 on the top of one of the mountains, where there 
 is some green grass) as a London street. Nothing 
 grows but a few tamarisk bushes in a valley or two. 
 They say that the other islands of the group are rich 
 and verdant; but the side of the nearest island (San 
 Antonio, I believe), which landlocks the bay here and 
 makes a harbour of it, is as barren as this one. There 
 is a miserable village on the shore, which has been 
 collected by reason of the anchorage, which is first- 
 rate. Its aspect is the most miserable you can con- 
 ceive. Its inhabitants are — the American and English 
 Consuls, the Steam Company's coal agent, and about 
 five hundred poor wretches, Negroes, Portuguese, and 
 Mulattoes, chiefly the former. Some of the men 
 are tail, handsome fellows, with beards, and some of 
 the women very pretty. The village had its popu- 
 lation reduced one-half last year by ague and starva- 
 tion ; i. €. an epidemic ague came and killed them all 
 ofi', because they had not food enough. The Consul 
 said he had his whole family, servants and aU, ill, but 
 lost none, simply because they had food. The houses 
 are the extremity of wretchedness ; and these misera- 
 ble Portuguese, by way of improving the island, have 
 built one fort, and are building another ! However 
 it must be confessed, the people do not seem anything 
 
18 VOYAGE TO PEKNAMBUCO. 
 
 like so badly off as some of the poor wretches in the 
 London alleys^ and they have fresh air. 
 
 All round the village were perched on the ground, 
 and flying ahoutj white birds with black tips to their 
 wings, which I at first thought were gulls, but soon 
 found were vultures ; they seemed to be very tame, 
 allowing us to come within a stone's throw. They 
 are not Turkey buzzards, but I think Egyptian neo- 
 phrons, which, you may see in any book of British 
 birds, are the only vultures ever taken in England. A 
 big lazy eagle, a little hawk, and some wild Guinea 
 fowls, formed the rest of the population. 
 
 The whole of this island is a lump of lava, basalt, 
 and other such dreariness ; but there can be no doubt 
 that if it were planted with trees, and the men who have 
 it did their duty, it might become a verdant place. 
 
 I 
 
 May 29. 
 
 We were detained at St. Vincent's about twenty- 
 eight hours by the curious gusty wind which was 
 blowing, and which prevented the process of coal- 
 ing. The only use at present served in the economy 
 of the universe, so far as we know, by the isle of 
 St. Vincent, is that of a coaling station for the Bra- 
 zilian steamers. A very nice fellow, who is going to 
 Rio Janeiro as Charge d' Affaires from the Sardinian 
 Government, picked up a lot of shells there, and gave 
 me some of them. They are not beauties, nor large, 
 and can, I think, be matched from our coasts. I am 
 
A FRENCH CONSUL. 19 
 
 sorry I did not wander about a little more at St. Vin- 
 cent's ; but there was something so uninviting in the 
 island^ that I did not feel tempted to prolong my stay, 
 when Power, who was quite disgusted with the place, 
 returned on board. So we spent the remainder of the 
 time we were in harbour on board. 
 
 The principal game that day (Tuesday) was a co- 
 medy enacted by a silly vulgar fellow from Corsica, 
 who is going to Pemambuco as French Consul. A 
 French frigate was anchored in the harbour, with an 
 Admiral on board, and he went to pay his respects in 
 full dress, — a most magnificent uniform, bran-new, 
 with the buttons done up in silver paper. He in- 
 sisted on putting it on, notwithstanding the advice 
 of everybody, and, having been very shabbily dressed 
 before, strutted about exactly like a pert peacock. Of 
 course he got his uniform damaged, for the sea was 
 very rough; and in the evening he went again to 
 diae with the Admiral in his undress uniform ; and 
 when he came back, told us how the Admiral at 
 dinner had held forth about the English, saying 
 that English influence was felt everywhere, and that 
 France never could prosper till England was put 
 down altogether, and that all the nations in Europe 
 ought to combine to crush us. What a diplomatist 
 for a Consul ! and, worse still, he took with him as 
 his companion a young Englishman, and did not tell 
 the Admiral that he was other than a Frenchman, 
 for which any one would take him. 
 
20 VOYAGE TO PERNAMBUCO. 
 
 The wind was blowing so hard that the coal barges 
 could not come off from the shore ; and one of them, 
 after unloading, as well as one of our boats, got 
 adrift and was blown across the harbour, and it was 
 some hours^ work to pull them back again against 
 the wind; indeed it took the men half an hour to 
 row from our ship to the Prenchman, which was not 
 three hundred yards from us. The force of the wind 
 was no doubt owing to the high land of the islands 
 forcing the trade- wind into a narrow channel; and 
 the gusts owing to the eddies formed by the shape 
 of the hills round the harbour. However it luUed a 
 little at night, and next morning the coals were got 
 on board. We got imder weigh at about half-past 
 eleven on Wednesday morning, the 26th of May. 
 The amusement for the few hours before we left har- 
 bour consisted in a small shark, which came near the 
 vessel for a few minutes (the only one I have yet 
 seen) ; in some small spermaceti whales, which came 
 in for a lark (luckily for them, after the American 
 and French vessels had left, who would assuredly have 
 walked into them) ; and chiefly in a monster which 
 the sailors and doctor said was a "thrasher," and 
 which is very rarely seen. The form thereof was 
 that of a huge ivory paper-knife, sabre-shaped, appa- 
 rently about ten feet long, perfectly white, which was 
 occasionally protruded perpendicular out of the water, 
 and then suddenly brought down with a tremendous 
 thrash into the water. The Captain and sailors say 
 
THE REGION OF CALMS. 21 
 
 it was a fish whicli attaches itself to the whale's body 
 by its teethj and then amuses itself by belabouring 
 him in this way. But my opinion is that the thrasher 
 is nothing else than one-half of the tail of the whale, 
 which is pushed up by the animal throwing itself 
 on its side (whales' tails lying usually horizontally), 
 and is then suddenly brought down again by the 
 animal righting itself;* but I cannot convince people 
 that I am right. 
 
 June 1. 
 
 For the first four days after leaving St. Vincent's 
 we had nice weather, the north-east trade-wind blow- 
 ing steadily and helping us on well, but the next 
 three have been very difierent. On Saturday we got 
 out of the trade- wind into the " region of calms," as 
 the wise men who write books and have never been 
 at sea call it, the "variables" as the sailors call it, 
 and the " squalls and water-works" as I should call it. 
 Saturday had been very hot, the thermometer at 83° 
 ia the shade ; the wind had fallen ofi' and then risen 
 again, shifting a little, and the sky had become cloudy. 
 Suddenly, at half-past seven p.m., torrents of rain 
 came down, and a squall, and then commenced life 
 in an oven for the passengers ; skylights all down and 
 ports shut, with an equatorial atmosphere, and the 
 furnaces of a 350-horse-power engine. I rushed on 
 deck in a shirt and pair of trousers, of which super- 
 * See post. 
 
33 VOYAGE TO PERNAMBUCO. 
 
 fiuities I soon divested myself^ and enjoyed a good 
 shower-bath ; it was not a cold bath by any means^ 
 for the rain was warm enough to have made tea with, 
 and so we have had it ever since. 
 
 Sunday was spent between decks. It was impos- 
 sible to have service, which was read on the previous 
 Sunday by the Captain on deck, — a very beautiful 
 ceremony. I relieved the monotony of the day by 
 reading one of Kingsley's sermons to a few of the 
 passengers, to their great delight. We have seen very 
 little of the sun for the last few days, the sky being 
 generally clouded, squalls, showers more or less vio- 
 lent, and calms alternating. We have seen very little 
 of the calms; we perhaps have run through in an 
 hour a calm or two which might have detained a 
 sailing vessel for a week. The only real calm we have 
 had, which was of sufficient extent and duration to 
 still the sea completely, was between Teneriffe and 
 St. Vincent's. 
 
 Soon after leaving St. Vincent's we began to see 
 some flying-fish. I have not been so fortunate as 
 to see many, never more than one at a time; some 
 of the passengers have seen several at once. How- 
 ever, I have seen enough of them to satisfy myself 
 that their flight is a real flight, and a very beautiful 
 act of aerial navigation. They twist and scud over 
 and among the waves, just like swallows, with every 
 appearance of the most perfect ease. The flight is 
 not for a long distance, it is true. I have not seen 
 
SEEING THE EQUATOK. 23 
 
 any near enough to satisfy myself whether they flap 
 their ■wings to propel themselves^ like birds, but I 
 do not think they do. I imagine they leap with their 
 tails like salmon, and then steer their course at plea- 
 sure with their wings. But a steamer is not a good 
 ship for seeing the wonders of the deep from, as the 
 paddles frighten thfe creatures away. We saw dol- 
 phins one day playing under the bows, but nothing 
 else worthy of note. 
 
 On Monday, May the 31st, about eight p.m., we 
 crossed the Line. That afternoon we persuaded the 
 French Consul that he saw the Equator through a 
 telescope, we having previously put a hair across the 
 glass ; he was quite charmed, and said that he saw it 
 like a bar of iron. I was in hopes that he would 
 have reported it to his Government; but unfortu- 
 nately he found out, or some one told him, the trick ; 
 but he confessed that he was quite taken in, and I 
 fancy stiU. believes the Line is visible. He is so igno- 
 rant that he actually asked yesterday whether Louis 
 Philippe was a Protestant. 
 
 We did not see the Line at all (not being so 'cute 
 as the old Corsican), it was so cloudy. We got 
 however out of the rains and squalls soon after get- 
 ting south of the Equator, and after a short time the 
 clouds became whiter and less ragged, and higher up, 
 and we found ourselves in the steady south-east trade- 
 wind. The last two days were very beautiful, and 
 their nights were magnificent, — the moon being just 
 
24 VOYAGE TO PERNAMBTJCO. 
 
 full, and nearly in the zenith about midnight; the 
 light so bright that we could easily read by it ; and 
 the stars scarcely visible. By the way, the stars of 
 the south hemisphere are by no means so striking as 
 those of the north. The Southern Cross, as it is called, 
 
 a group of four stars placed thus * *, is the only 
 
 one that attracts attention at all ; the long line of the 
 Cross points nearly to the south pole. About the 
 Equator we see the Southern Cross on one side, and 
 the Great Bear on the other, at about the same alti- 
 tude. The sunsets at sea were very poor, not at all 
 equal to those in England in the autumn. Altoge- 
 ther the voyage has been pleasant, at least not very 
 unpleasant. I have however come to the conclusion 
 that a sailor's life is not. a pleasant one, and that no 
 sailors really like the sea ; also that the human race 
 is a great fool for travelling by sea, when it might so 
 easily go by air ; and for carrying its goods by sea in 
 such absurd vessels as our present infant steamers, 
 which are certainly no more like the ships of the fu- 
 ture than an egg is like an eagle. 
 
 We came in sight of the coast of South America 
 about ten o'clock on Thursday morning; a long low 
 line of gently undulating ground, covered, as we 
 saw on near approach, with vegetation; the hiUs, or 
 slightly rising ground (scarcely hiUs), fringeS with 
 cocoa-nut trees, especially as we approached Pernam- 
 buco. We anchored about a mile off Pernambuco 
 
ARRIVAL. 25 
 
 at half-past one p.m., on Thursday, the 4th of June. 
 The steamers cannot enter the harbour on account of 
 a baXj which only allows vessels of smaller size than 
 the English steamers to pass over it. The weather 
 being very fine, the transit to shore was very pleasant 
 (it is often very disagreeable) . On landing we were 
 received by our friends : T say mmr friends, for even 
 I found three acquaintances on the beach whom I 
 had previously met in London. One of these, Mr. 
 Poingdestre, who is now my host, I had seen several 
 times, and, I think, had entertained him at breakfast 
 once or twice, so that I felt somewhat at home at 
 once. 
 
36 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 PEENAMBTICO. 
 
 SCENEEY. — THE EEEF. — NEGKOES. — CLIMATE. — SITIOS. — MEE IN 
 THE TOWN. — THE SINGHK& LADY AlTD PBATINa MANTIS. — 
 BITTTEBELIES. — ANTS. — CHMBEES. — PALMS. — THE ENTIEONS OP 
 PEENAMBUOO. — PBOJECTEB EXCTTESION. — ^PEOGS. 
 
 What a Paradise is, or at least might be, this country 
 if it were possessed by the English ! I do not feel at 
 all sure that I am not dead, and have not recommenced 
 another life. Everything is so utterly nn-European,* 
 I should be pretty certain that I was not in the earth- 
 world, but in some other planet, if I had had a sound 
 sleep lately to cut the thread of consciousness. But 
 
 * Extract from a letter of the Author's to a friend, June 5. — ^After 
 shortly narratiug the voyage, and describing St. Tincent's, " an awful 
 desert, inhabited only by a Consul or two and some Negroes. . . . 
 What a contrast here ! this place is, even in the hands of these 
 wretched, undeveloped people, an Eden of beauty. "What a Paradise 
 it would be made by Englishmen of this century ! what a heaven it 
 will be made by the brother-men of the age that is to come ! I need 
 not pour out my rapturous admiration of the worts of the Grreat 
 Poet-Father, as you have seen such, and have worshiped in similar 
 scenes. The beauty is almost bewildering. The glorious cocoa-nut 
 trees, bananas, and several kinds of palms, breadfruit, etc. etc., and 
 the magnificent green oranges. ... I am too giddy to write soberly 
 about anything. I feel inclined to cut capers under the trees till I 
 
ASPECT OF PERNAMBUCO. 27 
 
 latterly, on board the steamer, I have Bot seemed to 
 want sleep at all. The heat, the wet, the fine weather, 
 the discomfort, and the amusement, altogether utterly 
 prevented my sleeping. So, as I can pretty well re- 
 member each stage of the process of life lately, I 
 cannot help thinking that I must still be on earth, and 
 that you will receive this some day by terrestrial post. 
 The view of Pernambuco from the sea is very fine. 
 The houses are lofty, and prettily built in the Por- 
 tuguese style, with channelled tiles and turned-up 
 comers; they are generally whitewashed, but some 
 are tinted. The land is for the most part quite flat, 
 but about two miles from Pernambuco to the north 
 there is a hill, on which stands Olinda, the old town 
 of this harbour. This hill looks very well, dotted 
 with white houses among the dark green foliage, and 
 friaged with cocoa-nut trees. They say that Olinda is 
 quite decayed, and that, notwithstanding its beauty 
 
 am tired, then sigli like a hippopotamus for some one to poirr it all 
 out upon, and then lie down and dream. As for studying the botany 
 of the country, it is impossible. Nothing is possible but to photo- 
 graphize everybody and everything : cameras cannot get giddy with 
 wonder.'' To another friend he writes, June 4 : — " How I wish you 
 were here, with yotir head, and camera, and eyes, and, better than any, 
 your heart, to fall down and worship, and to sympathize with me in 
 my admration of the scene, even of the little ghmpse I have had of 
 it ! Xet I suppose there is scarcely any one here who values the 
 glorious imagery of the Mighty Poet who has made all this. Negroes, 
 Mnlattoes, Portuguese, BraziKans, all have pigs' eyes, I suppose, by 
 virtue of Adam's fall, and the English for the same reason are all 
 absorbed in the pursuit of wealth, and so cannot enjoy.'' 
 
 c2 
 
38 
 
 PERNAMBUCO. 
 
 [J^IGHTHOUSES 
 
 when seen from a distance^ it is very dirty and deserted- 
 looking -witliin. Now you must understand how the 
 harbour of Pemambuco is formed, for it is certainly 
 among the wonders of the world, though there is no- 
 thing very striking about it in appearance. I do not 
 yet know much of the geography of the place, but I 
 can give you a rough notion of it. 
 
 The top of my small map is 
 the north, the bottom south. 
 The shaded part on the left is 'fejJ 
 the mainland. The black line 
 that runs parallel to the beach 
 is a narrow reef of rock, which ^ 
 
 just rises above the top of the 
 water at high water, at low 
 water is exposed about six feet 
 high. This reef, which seems to 
 be about five or six feet across, 
 runs along the coast for some 
 three hundred miles, leaving a 
 
 navigable channel from a few hundred yards to a mile 
 or so in width, between it and the beach, aH the way. 
 I do not know what the geologists think of it ; it is 
 formed of sandstone, full of pebbles and shejis, and 
 stands up just like a wall. The harbour of I'ernam- 
 buco is formed by this acting as the breakwater, and 
 the entrance to the harbour is through an opening in 
 the reef. I suppose that an engineering nation would 
 make the whole coast a harbour from end to end. 
 
THE NEGROES. 29 
 
 Pernambuco might be made, without building an 
 inch, simply by cleaning and tidying, a magnificent 
 town. The houses are very solidly built, and ele- 
 gantly designed ; there is a beauty about them all, 
 and the dabs of colour here and there give them a 
 very picturesque appearance. But it is a dreadfully 
 dirty place ; there is not a drain of any sort, and all 
 imaginable filth lies in the streets : yet it does not 
 smell bad : to Lisbon it is sweet, and to Cologne it 
 is a rose in comparison. An arm of the sea (into 
 which two rivers run) winds through the town, with 
 a long bridge over each reach. Two-thirds of the popu- 
 lation seem to be naked Negroes, in cotton drawers. 
 They are, generally, splendid specimens of muscular 
 development, at least about the chest and arms, with 
 skins shining Kke velvet; most of them are slaves. 
 Now the first thing that strikes me about these slaves, 
 so far as I have seen of them, is the dignity and in- 
 dependent look which they preserve. There is some- 
 thing Achilles-like in the stride of the Nigger as he 
 brings a dish to table ; I only wish such cheerful faces 
 were to be seen among our English poor. If what 
 we see here is anything like a fair specimen of sla- 
 very, my opinion is that the cry against slavery, as 
 raised in England, is a vile sham, and lip- worship ; for 
 I do believe we English are fuUy as real slaveholders 
 as these people.* 
 
 * Extract from a letter to a friend, June 5 : — " Nominal slavery 
 is bad enough, G-od knows, with poor, half-developed, half-educated 
 
30 PERNAMBUCO. 
 
 Now to resume my narrative. We were conducted 
 by Mr. Poingdestre to a storehouse, or factory (which 
 is much like similar places in England, except that 
 the rooms are loftier and cleaner), where we dined. I 
 fared sumptuously on mandiocca farinha, and great 
 green oranges. After our meal, we started for his 
 sitio, or country-house; he and I on ponies, Power 
 and a young American in a four-wheeled trap. And 
 such a ride ! along a road, or rather lane (of sand and 
 mud), through one continuous garden of all sorts of 
 marvellous beauty. The sun just setting, the sky 
 just like one of Danby's pictures, — the rich deep 
 green of the trees, of all imaginable forms except such 
 as you see in England, just visible, and their outlines 
 all sharp agaiast the sky. Bananas, palms, etc. etc., 
 with the glorious cocoa-nut trees towering over all, 
 everywhere, filling just the same part in the land- 
 scape that the elm does about Rowner.* This is now 
 the winter, as of course you know, but with very few 
 signs of anythiag like our notions of that season. A 
 few trees are shedding some of their leaves, but none 
 are bare. There are very few birds. I have made 
 
 barbarians as masters. But real slavery, with competition for its name, 
 and higbly cultiTated followers of Christ for lords, is worse. . . . 
 I should not be a bit surprised to see slavery put down by a colony 
 of EngHshmen, estabUshing themselves on the Sertao, and gradually 
 absorbing all Brazil by their industry. , . . Brazil must come to be 
 tenanted by English or Americans ; the degraded people who hold 
 the land here now must follow the forests and be swept away, for I 
 suppose they wO never submit to be educated." (See hoviever post.) 
 * The Author's birthplace in Hampslure, 
 
THE CLIMATE. 31 
 
 the acquaintance of one or two : a beautiful little 
 snow-white wagtail with black wings^ which runs 
 about near the house in the country^ and a little wren 
 that sings a short song, the only singer, they say, of 
 the Pernambuco district. 
 
 I sleep at Mr. Poingdestre's country-house, riding 
 or driving out in the evening,* and returning in the 
 same way in the morning. I find the climate most 
 delightful. We drove in today at noon, and I did 
 not find the heat the least oppressive. Power says 
 it makes him feel sick to be in the sun ; I don^t feel 
 it otherwise than health-infusing. The efiect of the 
 heat is so much less parching than that of the Eng- 
 lish summer sun, that the palms of my hands, which 
 are there always dry, are here delightfully soft and 
 moist. I am sure some invalids might get set right, 
 and that ia no time, by coming here. Depend upon 
 it that httle W ^'s husband will have his country- 
 house in Brazil, and that Englishmen of the next 
 generation will go out of town hither, as they do now 
 to their usual dwellings. 
 
 Mr. de Momay has just been here, and tells me that 
 
 * "A glorious drive, lit up by fireflies, and ringing with the 
 quaint music of the frogs." (Letter to a friend, June 5.) 
 
 " You cannot call the thing a road, but a sandy lane, through six 
 miles of gardens and viUas, fringed with wonderful shapes of every 
 kind of vegetative beauty. The air is so full of vocal music, — not of 
 birds, but of frogs, — that one cam scarcely hear oneself speat, and 
 the fireflies flit about in every direction Hke shooting stars. But it 
 is useless attempting to describe. . . . Nor should I have time now 
 to wiredraw it for you in prose.'' (To another friend, June 4.) 
 
32 PERNAMBUCO. 
 
 he is going up into the country to make a survey for 
 a railway, which he is projecting ; so I said I would 
 go with him, and help him. This will be a new bit 
 of life at any rate, though undoubtedly not very 
 luxurious. I don't see how I am to spend any money. 
 It seems to be a rule that strangers are guests every- 
 where : I am enjoined, whatever I do, to offer money 
 to no one, as it is a great insult. I suppose I shall 
 have to buy a hat and a horse, and shall be able to 
 sell the latter again at a small loss, when done with. 
 The Yellow Fever has been here. You must know 
 that, to the astonishment of every one, it suddenly ap- 
 peared among the shipping a few years ago, not hav- 
 ing affected many people on shore. It has just been 
 here again, but has disappeared, but is said to be stiU 
 at Rio rather severely. 
 
 Nothing can be more delightful than the climate 
 at this time of year, and I suppose the heat in the 
 summer is not much greater than it is now, to the 
 sensations of a person who has been gradually accli- 
 matized by arriving in the winter-time. This is of 
 course the winter, or, as it is called, the raiay season, 
 according to theory, but in fact it is the height of 
 summer. The country is clothed in the richest green 
 you can conceive, and the most delicious oranges in 
 the world are in profuse abundance on the trees in 
 aU stages of ripeness. It is about as hot as in Eng- 
 land in the two or three hot days we have in Au- 
 gust ; but the days are short, the sun setting about 
 
THE CLIMATE. 33 
 
 half-past five vm., and rising about half-past six a.m. 
 The mornings and evenings are deliciously cool^ and 
 nearly all day long the direct heat of the sun is mi- 
 tigated by a soft breeze. There is a regular gentle 
 monsoon blowing up the coast from the south all day^ 
 which cools the town^ and night and morning the 
 land and sea-breeze refresh the air. The temperature^ 
 by the thermometer in the shade, is generally about 
 80° Fahr. at midday, but not nearly so high to one's 
 sensations. As it happens, too, it is no more a rainy 
 season than it is a winter just now, for it has not 
 rained in the daytime more than twice since I have 
 been here. There has been an unusual quantity of 
 rain during the last three or four months, which are 
 generally dry. It appears as if the weather has been 
 as wet here, as it was dry in England before I left. 
 Perhaps the " rainy season," which, according to cus- 
 tom, should be just commencing now, is to be less 
 rainy than usual; if so, it is a hedge for me. It 
 has however rained very heavily once or twice in the 
 evening and at night ; the showers came on very 
 suddenly, a cloud coming up over the clear sky, pour- 
 ing down a torrent for a few minutes, and then pass- 
 ing off. I have not been at aU annoyed by mosquitos 
 till last night, when I slept in a house near the river, 
 where I was stung a little, but not to any severe ex- 
 tent. 
 
 I am staying at present with Poingdestre, who 
 lends me one of the nicest horses, or rather ponies, 
 
 c3 
 
34 PERNAMBtJCO. 
 
 in the place^ as good a one as I ever rode. All the 
 horses at Pemambuco, you must know, are ponies : 
 they do not trot, but skip or canter at a great pace. 
 All the roads about Pemambuco are lanes, which are 
 entirely of sand, except where they lie lowest, and 
 there they are of mud. There is however one road, 
 which commences a few miles from the town, and 
 runs straight away into the country among the en- 
 genhos, or sugar-plantations, which is macadamized 
 in the middle. AU the merchants here have their 
 sitios, or country-places, where they dine, sleep, and 
 breakfast, and leave their wives, if they have any; 
 they themselves spending their days in their counting- 
 houses in town. 
 
 The IMc Calmonts' counting-house is on the shore 
 of the harbour, which it overlooks, as some of those 
 precious holes in London overlook the Thames. But 
 the view is very different from the windows of his 
 house (whence I am now writing, in a sitting-room 
 above the office). There is the open Atlantic before 
 us, from which the long harbour, full of ships, is just 
 cut off by the long, narrow reef, which rises above the 
 surface. I have nearly every day hitherto come into 
 town, and made this room over the office my head- 
 quarters during the day ; partly because I have left 
 all my luggage there, partly because I wish to know 
 the town well before I get up the country, partly to 
 get some things I want, and partly to see people. 
 
 In the evening I either go to dine with some of the 
 
THE PRAYING MANTIS. 35 
 
 people^ or go out to Poingdestre's sitio, and then per- 
 haps to make a call, and spend the evening with some 
 family in the neighbourhood. All calls are made in 
 the evening. The ladies must have a miserable time 
 of it during the day, as it is too hot for them to go 
 out ; so they keep at home all by themselves among 
 the blackies. In the evening doors and windows are 
 aU open, and insects and visitors drop in as they feel 
 inclined. Two or three eveniags ago I was at a mer- 
 chant's house; a lady was singing at the piano-forte 
 something about " Spring is coming, insects hum- 
 ming," etc. Just as she was shaking out the "hum- 
 ming" ia fine style, a jolly great " praying mantis," 
 which had been dashing about the room, flew in her 
 face, and fastened on her neck : so the next note was 
 a scream, and the chorus was a shout of mirth. I 
 never saw anything more ludicrous. You must know 
 that a "praying mantis" is a big thing, something be- 
 tween a locust and a dragon-fly; a kind of walking 
 leaf, about three inches long, with claws in proportion. 
 There are a great number of insects here, of course. 
 Some of the butterflies are magnificent; whacking 
 great swaUow-tailed fellows, as big as sparrows in 
 expanse of wing, are dashing about in every direc- 
 tion. The ants are very numerous : the commonest is 
 a white one, about the size of the common EngUsh 
 black ant; it builds great nests of earth on the 
 branches of trees, some of them as big as two or 
 three men's heads, and constructs covered ways for 
 
36 PERNAMBUCO. 
 
 runs up and down trees^ and on walls of rooms, iii 
 every direction. It eats up everything, books, furni- 
 ture, beams of houses, etc. One clever black crea- 
 ture of this kind builds large palaces underground, 
 which it fills with leaves of trees. I saw several small 
 trees in a garden yesterday which had been quite 
 stripped of leaves by these black ants in a day or 
 two, exposing to the gaze of day the nests of three 
 birds, to their great discomfiture : one of them, the 
 nest of a humming-bird, left unfinished, and deserted 
 by reason of the exposure. The ants walk up the 
 tree, and cut off the leaves ; these fall, and other ants 
 remaining below receive the leaves, saw them into 
 small pieces (many times bigger than themselves how- 
 ever), shoulder them, and carry them oflF to their nest. 
 There was a long line of these fellows marching along 
 at double-quick pace, with a great piece of green leaf 
 towering over their heads, just like Birnam Wood 
 going to Dunsinane. Macduff or Shakespeare must 
 have taken the notion from these ants. 
 
 Yesterday I wandered about in a wood about eight 
 miles from the town ; not a part of the virgin forest, 
 but still very magnificent. AU the large timber has 
 been cleared away there, except the trees of one or 
 two kinds, which have wood that is too soft. One of 
 these is, fortunately for the scenery, a most superb 
 tree : it is one of the mimosa kind (which abound 
 here, of all sorts and sizes) ; it rises forty or fifty feet 
 without branches, and then throws out great limbs. 
 
THE VEGETATION. 37 
 
 which spread their branches out just like a cedar, in 
 flat plate-like masses. At a distance they look like 
 magnificent cedars ; near, they look like a cross be- 
 tween an oak and an acacia. They tower high above 
 everything else in the forest. From the branches of 
 some hang climbers in long thin ropes, just like the 
 cordage of a ship's masts, seventy or eighty feet long, 
 without any perceptible taper, without a leaf or a 
 branch, and about as thick as three or four fingers 
 pressed together. It seemed a puzzUng question, 
 whether they grew down from the trees or up from 
 the earth to the branches, which were covered with 
 the foUage of the climber. However, though I at first 
 felt quite certain they were parasites growing on the 
 tree, and throwing down trailers to the ground, I 
 found that they were not, for with much diflSculty 
 I traced two of them among the underwood, where 
 they wound and twisted about in every direction for 
 hundreds of feet, to a common stem from which they 
 branched. Now they cannot have grown up to the 
 branches, for they hung wavering in the air twenty 
 or thirty feet from the stem of the tree, which had 
 not a single creeper on it, nor had they any tendrils 
 for climbing with; so the conclusion remained, that 
 they must have clung to the young twigs of the tree 
 when it was a sapling, close to the ground, and grow- 
 ing with its growth must have been gradually pulled 
 up to their present lofty attachments.* This will give 
 * See however post. 
 
38 
 
 PERNAMBTJCO. 
 
 you a notion of the magnificence of the vegetation. I 
 have sketched on this sheet a rough diagram of the 
 way these things were grown. 
 
 But few plants, comparatively, are in flower now; 
 which is the only evidence, and that a negative one, 
 of this being the winter season. However there are 
 flowers about : I have only found one of any striking 
 beauty, — a pea, of which I mean to send some un- 
 ripe seed-pods, and shall hope to get some good ripe 
 ones some day. I intend, before I leave the country, 
 to get some blotting-paper and boards, and squash 
 some plants, when I see what are worth keeping, and 
 to collect all the seeds I can, good, bad, and indifier- 
 ent, for my sisters to amuse themselves in trying to 
 grow. 
 
PALM TREES. 39 
 
 I find the people here (at least the English to whom 
 I have spoken) know very little about the natural 
 productions ; I could not even get any information 
 from them about the palm-trees, as to the number of 
 kinds. There is a general notion that there are one 
 or two kinds of palm-trees besides the cocoa-nut. I 
 have made out seven kinds of palms altogether ; of 
 some I have only found a single tree of each species. 
 There is, first, the "cocoa-nut;" second, the "palm" 
 (for which the people seem to have no other name) ; 
 third, the dendezeiro ; fourth, the cabbage palm ; fifth, 
 a little thorny -leaved one in the woods; sixth, the 
 date pahn ; seventh, the carnauba palm. All these ex- 
 cept the last have for leaves immense feathers about 
 ten feet long, all very much alike in general appear- 
 ance.* The last (of which, as well of the " date 
 palm," I have only seen one specimen) has a beauti- 
 ful fan-shaped leaf. This carnauba palm, though rare 
 
 * A somewliat different and larger list is giyen in one of Mr. 
 Mansfield's note-boots. " Palms seen near Pemambuco : — Cocoa- 
 nut ; Macaiba (Acrocomia sclerocarpa) ; the common Pabn, bulging, 
 at stem alone ; Pahneira imperial ; Dendezeiro (JElcds Chwineensis) ; 
 Carnauba (only one, by the roadside in a cocoa-nut grove) ; Date (only 
 one, in a sitio) ; Maiara, or Maraia, short feathery thorny Pahn (in 
 woods) ; Coquinho, or Coquin, little pahn with a long trunk and fea- 
 thery leaves, covered at base with smaB thin prickles, bears a bunch 
 of red berries Hke hoUy-fruit ; Jurara (under high forest-trees, in 
 stony wet ravines ; very elegant little nuts) ; Articum (in woods at 
 Pantova); Barba de bode, exquisitely delicate pahn with taU thin 
 stem, regular feathery leaves, and no thorns." He mentions else- 
 where, as seen near Pemambuco, a " Pindoba'' palm, similar to the 
 "Piassaba" of Bahia. 
 
40 
 
 PBRNAMBUCO. 
 
 herCj is (I am told) the common palm of the country 
 in some places not very far distant. Here palms 
 are by no means characteristic of the country. All 
 along the coast the cocoa-nut tree is, certainly, the 
 most marked feature in the scenery; its long thin 
 stems towering up everywhere, with their crown of 
 leaves at top, above everything else ; but the cocoa- 
 nut is not, I fancy, a native of this place, but has 
 been introduced. I suspect all the other palms have 
 been brought here also, except the little thorny-leaved 
 one that I find in the woods ; for all the others seem 
 to be in the gardens and orchards. 
 
 The country, you must know, about Pernambuco, 
 is an extensive sandy plain, bounded by a semicircu- 
 lar range of low hills of red clay. The view from the 
 tops of these hUls is mag- 
 nificent in the extreme : 
 it lies stretched out be- 
 fore you, like a vast pa- 
 norama of the brightest 
 green. You can imagine 
 it from the scratch on the 
 margin. The lulls come 
 down to the sea at OUnda 
 on the north (the old town 
 built on the hill), and at a 
 cape (whose name Iforget) 
 on the south. Pernambuco lies on the seaside, at 
 the centre of the semicircle. All round the town, in 
 
SITUATION OF PERNAMBUCO. 41 
 
 its nearer vicinity, the plain is cut up into gardens 
 and orchards, each with its country-house; in fact 
 it is all one great garden, not much taken care of. 
 Beyond this, as you get further from the town, the 
 houses become thinner ; and then there are only the 
 small houses of the poorer people, with a few large 
 houses of the sugar-planters. On the outer part of 
 the plain, near the hills, the gardens disappear, giving 
 place to fields of sugar-cane, interspersed with maize 
 and mandiocca. The whole, nearly, of this. plain is 
 loose sand, and poor as it looks, it is on this that all 
 the fruit-trees, and other rich productions of nature, 
 are growing. The hUls that bound it consist of red 
 clay. It is obvious that, at no very distant time, the 
 whole was covered with the sea, and that the beach 
 was along the base of the hills. The" town of Per- 
 nambuco stands at the mouth of a river which winds 
 across the plain, called the Capibaribe, or river of the 
 Capybaras. The capybara is a creature sometimes 
 called the water-hog, a kind of small hippopotamus ; 
 however I believe there are none in the river now. 
 
 I have told you that the De Mornays are getting 
 up a project for a railway to Eio de Janeiro, and they 
 require to ascertain which is the best line to take, at 
 a point some thirty or forty miles south of this place. 
 They have very kindly asked me to accompany them. 
 As soon as I said I would buy or hire a horse to go 
 with, De Mornay said he would get me one ; and as 
 he assured me that he was neither going to buy nor 
 
43 PERNAMBUCO. 
 
 hire.it, I very gladly accepted his offer : he has bor- 
 rowed one for me from some friend of his. We shall 
 go with five or six blackies in our train, and shall 
 put up at the sugar-planters' houses. 
 
 I have written to Maskelyne to ask him to send me 
 out a camera and photographic apparatus; I want 
 to take a good set of Talbotypes of the trees here. I 
 do not get on much with Portuguese yet : I make an 
 occasional dig into an old newspaper with the dic- 
 tionary; but my conversation does not yet extend 
 much beyond " thank you." 
 
 There are immense numbers of frogs here ; in the 
 evening the whole air is full of their music : all sorts 
 of notes ; some work on an anvil, like blacksmiths, 
 others whistle like a man calling a dog, some bark 
 like a dog (but this I have not heard). I caught one 
 beautifal one yesterday, of a bright pale grass-green, 
 with suckers on his toes instead of naUs ; he takes a 
 header and clings to the wall like a fly, and goes up a 
 window-frame as easily as along the floor. There are 
 a lot of very jolly birds here, but I have not heard 
 of any veiy rare species in these parts. All the won- 
 ders are said to come from Para and the parts about 
 the Amazon : I hope to get there before I return. 
 
43 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ENVIEONS OP PEENAMBUOO. 
 
 TEIP TO THE ENGENHOS. — MANGEOTES. — MATUTOS, OB STTGAB- 
 CAEErEES. — THE EOAB AND ITS (iNNEE) LANDSCAPES. — ATO- 
 LEIEOS. — ENGENHO StTASUNA.— ENGENHO CAEEAUNA. — EOEEST 
 SCBNEET. — CEEEPEES. — THE THBEE KINDS OP POEEST. — THE 
 CAPOEIEA AND IIS IMBAUBA TEEES. — PARASITES. — PAIM TEEES. 
 — IIPE ON AN BN6ENH0. — ^MATE, OB PABAGtTAT TEA. — ENGENHO 
 MACtrJE. — ENGENHO NOEOAGA. — EBT17EN TO PEENAMEUCO. — A 
 NEGEO BABY CITEED OP CONVTOSIONS. — HOW SMALL BLACKS 
 EAT PAEINHA. — PAST GOOD POETTJNE. — PLANS. — ST. JOHN'S DAY 
 IN TOWN AND COTTNTBY. — ABBIYAL AT BIO. 
 
 I MENTIONED in my last letter that I was about to 
 make a little expedition into the country with the 
 two De Mornays. Now you must understand that 
 these two gentlemen are engineers, twin-brothers, 
 exactly of my age, and so exactly alike that many 
 people do not know them apart. My acquaintance 
 with them has been extremely fortunate; indeed I 
 consider the presence of one of them in the 'Tay' as 
 my fellow- voyager, to have been a special dispensation 
 of Providence, to help me ia seeing something of the 
 country here. I find that not only are they, as I had 
 been told, the persons best able to put me among the 
 forests and sugar plantations ; but they ai'e the only 
 
44 ENVIRONS or PERNAMBTJCO. 
 
 persons (it seems to me) in Pernambuco who could 
 do so. For the English merchants are kept by their 
 employment ia and about the town, and all they seem 
 to know of the country is derived from an occasional 
 expedition, which a few of them have made, once in 
 their lives, in pursuit of debts, into the interior. On 
 the other hand the De Momays are the only English 
 engiaeers here, and their profession necessarily takes 
 them into the country among the planters, for whom 
 they superintend the repairs of the Engenhos (mills). 
 The consequence of this is that they know the country 
 very well ; besides this they seem to be very popular 
 with the Senhores d'Engenho (mill-owners or squires), 
 and have the additional advantage of being on the 
 most intimate terms with the excellent owner of the 
 estate where I am at present writing (June 19th) . By 
 common consent of every one, this estate (Carrauna) 
 is said to be the best managed ia the province, the 
 house the best of all the Engenhos, and the owner the 
 best educated and most estimahle man. And so far 
 as I have yet seen, report speaks truly ; but man and 
 place might be the best without being good ; never- 
 theless they are -both excellent. Om* host is a most 
 amiable person, a perfect gentleman, well-educated, 
 well-informed, very handsome, just my own age, 
 though he looks much older, and as great a trump 
 altogether as I have met with for some time. But I 
 am anticipating. 
 
 Under the auspices of the De Momays I started 
 
TRIP TO THE BNGENHOS. 45 
 
 on Monday morning last, about five a.m., from Recife 
 (which is a part of Pernambuco, the name being often 
 applied to the whole town) . They had failed in bor- 
 rowing a pack-horse to carry our trunk, a letter hav- 
 ing miscarried, so we started three alone on horse- 
 back. The trunk, a good big one too, was given to 
 a Black to carry on his head to this place (about ten 
 miles by the road from Recife), and it came before 
 evening. My friends put me on what they said was 
 the best horse of the three, but he was a miserable 
 brute, rather lame, and could not go the pace at which 
 travellers always go in this country, a kind of double- 
 quick walk, called a skip. His imitation of this was 
 a jog-trot of the most execrable description, and he 
 could not canter without effort ; so that my only me- 
 thod of keeping near my companions, was to let them 
 go ahead while my horse walked, and every now and 
 then catch them up, when the road became such as 
 would admit of a trot. This, I dare say, seems ra- 
 ther an unsociable mode of travelling, but it is not 
 peculiarly so, for the roads or paths here are such 
 that it is very rarely possible for two persons to ride 
 abreast. 
 
 On Monday then we rode out of town, along a 
 road (this is really a road, though not a very good 
 one, macadamized in the middle in some places) lead- 
 ing about south-west from the town into the coun- 
 try ; it lies a few miles across the sandy plain which 
 surrounds Pernambuco for some distance, on all sides. 
 
4G ENVIRONS OF PERNAMBUCO. 
 
 except where the sea bounds it. This is not so pretty 
 a road as those by which I had left the town before, 
 as it does not pass along the country places and 
 gardens of the comfortable classes, but through some 
 villages of poorer people, and, for some distance, 
 along a marshy tract covered with mangroves. You 
 must know (what I never could learn yet from any 
 book, or from any traveller) that a mangrove is a sort 
 of bush very like the alder, both in its situation (ex- 
 cept that the water which it affects is salt, not fresh) 
 and in appearance; it grows on the shores of all 
 the inlets of the sea, where the water is quiet, and 
 along the banks of the rivers, as far up as the salt 
 tide reaches. 
 
 After these five miles of plain, which is chiefly sand, 
 the road enters the hills, which consist of clay, white 
 in some places, in many places deep red, and of all 
 intermediate shades in others. And these hills, from 
 the character of all this part of the country, are per- 
 haps the best suited of any kind of surface to give 
 beauty and variety to forest scenery. The hills are 
 not high or extensive, the whole of the country being 
 sawn out by water into undulations. The hills are 
 not above three or four hundred feet from the bot- 
 tom of the valleys to the top ; and the valleys being 
 not more generally than half a mile apart, the sides 
 of the hills are for the most part rather steep. The 
 whole country seems to be made of clay ; every here 
 and there, on the hill-side and in the valley-bottoms, 
 
SUGAR-CARKIEBS. 47 
 
 great masses of rock jut out or are lying on the sur- 
 face : whether they are protruding pieces of a great 
 underlying mass, or are boulders deposited on the 
 surface, I am puzzled to make out. 
 
 The road ran on, and we with it, along the val- 
 ley bottoms, pretty nearly straight, with no visible 
 branches, passing here and there magnificent pieces 
 of forest, interspersed with marsh, half-cleared land, 
 fallow land, and fields of sugar-cane and mandiocca. 
 This road is a sort of artery, by which the sugar 
 from the Engenhos in this direction reaches the town. 
 Accordingly we met continually droves of horses, 
 carrying each two small sacks of sugar, slung like 
 panniers, with barefooted drivers running at their 
 sides or mounted on other horses. The drovers or 
 carriers are, for the most part, owners of their own 
 horses, and make a living by carrying the sugar from 
 the estates to the town; they either purchase it of 
 the growers, to sell again, or sell it on commission. 
 They are called Matutos, which is, being interpreted, 
 countrymen, or rather foresters. Sometimes they 
 sit on horseback in a very peculiar way : a load of 
 some kind is slung on each side of the horse, where 
 their legs ought to hang, so they sit cross-legged, 
 mth their feet not under them like tailors, but before 
 them on each side of the horse's neck. However, 
 when their horses are not burdened, as is often the 
 case, on their return journeys they do sit astride, and 
 then those of them that are not swells have, by way 
 
48 ENVIRONS OF PEKNAMBUCO. 
 
 of stirrup, a rope-loop, into which they insert their 
 big toe. All the sugar of the province comes up to 
 market on these horses; for you must imderstand, 
 that except the main roads in certain directions, the 
 things called roads, by which the produce leaves the 
 farms, are absolutely impassable to wheel-carriages. 
 
 After two or three hours we began to feel inclined 
 for breakfast, so we pulled up at a baker's shop, in a 
 village through which we passed, called " St. Amaro." 
 Here we had set before us a sumptuous repast of fa- 
 rinha, eggs, cake, oranges, bananas, biscuits, etc. etc., 
 for which the proprietor refused to take any payment. 
 The De Mornays had assured me beforehand that it 
 would be the only time we should have to pay for 
 anything in all the journey. Soon after leaving this 
 village, we came to an actual branch of the road, 
 turning off to the south over a neat bridge, which 
 was built under the superintendence of my guides; 
 but very soon it ceased to be a road, and became a 
 track through the forest. 
 
 Now I must just explain to you what kind of a 
 thing such a track is in these parts. It consists of 
 alternations of these two kinds of surface. The first 
 consists of deep ridges and furrows, of this kind 
 --^.^-v.^-^-'^ lying at right angles to the course of the 
 road, directly across it; the ridges being banks of 
 stiff clay, the furrows being valleys, half, and some- 
 times quite full of mud and water. These present 
 such a regularity, that it seems as if the corduroy 
 
TRACKS THROUGH THE FOREST. 49 
 
 pattern had been made on purpose. The furrows 
 have, in fact, been dug out by the regular tread of the 
 pack-horses. The ridges are of such height that the 
 horses can just lift their legs over them. In some 
 places the mud in the bottoms between is so thick 
 that the horse's foot, in being drawn out, makes by 
 the suction a flthop, just like a loud pop-gun. In 
 others, where they have favoured one part of the road 
 (middle or side) more than another, the road is also 
 dug down into longitudinal 
 valleys, like ruts, — not like 
 English ruts, but great chasms, 
 in which the horses walk, while 
 the rider can just see, per- 
 haps, over the top of the road. 
 Indeed the landscapes in the 
 road itself are often of the 
 most romantic description. The other kind of diver- 
 sion which the road affords, which is chiefly in the 
 valleys, is that of mud holes, or atoleiros, as they 
 are called. Where these prevail, the road is generally 
 less confined than on the hills, and there is some 
 choice of line. The bottom consists of clay, with 
 occasionally sand; and sometimes the road passes 
 through a brook, which during the heavy rains is a 
 swimming matter for the horses. The atoleiros occur 
 where the bottom consists of a certain white clay, 
 of a very-tempting-to-ride-over-because-it-looks-so- 
 smooth appearance, through which the water springs 
 
50 ENVIRONS or PERNAMBUCO. 
 
 up from below. If you ride into this, your horse and 
 you are apt to disappear, and many a horse has been 
 abandoned, as inextricable, in the mud. The horses 
 seem to know where these holes are perfectly well, and 
 it is very amusing to see them pick their way, and 
 go round to avoid a suspicious place. My animal, 
 notwithstanding his ill paces, shows great sagacity in 
 picking his road, and climbs just like any goat, — an 
 accomplishment which is very desirable here, for the 
 hills are so steep sometimes that it is quite climbing 
 to get up them ; and sometimes there arises in the 
 path a big rock, which would require considerable 
 education in a chamois to surmount it. 
 
 Now, as you understand the track we have to fol- 
 low, we can proceed. The De Mornays commenced 
 their operations, — which, you must know, have for 
 their object to make out how a raQway should run 
 southwards in this part from Pernambuco to the Rio 
 San Francisco, — ^by making inquiries of some men 
 at work on the road (for they do attempt to repair 
 the roads sometimes, making them rather the worse 
 thereby) as to the directions of the valleys, etc. We 
 then proceeded through the forest by one of these 
 wonderful tracks. After some time, and the inspec- 
 tion of several valleys, we met a man on horseback, 
 whom my friends knew (they seemed to know every- 
 body) . He was the son of the owner of an Engenho, 
 towards which we were proceeding ; he told us that 
 he had had a messenger sent to him (by the men of 
 
ENGENHO SUASUNA. 51 
 
 whom we had asked information) ^ to say that three 
 men on horseback were surveying his territory, and 
 he had come to see what was up, because some law- 
 suit is pending with him about his boundaries, and he 
 thought we were probably surveying for his enemy. 
 However his mind was soon set at rest ; and he 
 asked us to come and dine and sleep at his house, 
 and showed us the paths that were required, to the 
 great satisfaction of the engineers. 
 
 Accordingly we put up at his house, which is 
 called Suasuna; his father being a Baron, of the 
 
 C family, who are big folk in these parts. The 
 
 house was not very baronial, bearing a very decayed 
 appearance, but seemed as if it had been a fine place 
 in bygone years. Its interior aspect is very similar 
 in point of elegance to a third-rate farm-house in 
 England; the sugar manufactory was not at work, 
 the season being over, and seemed to me a very dirty, 
 Hi-ordered affair. Of the several Engenhos I have 
 visited, I have only found one at work, at present. 
 However we dined and slept well.* I fare splendidly, 
 for the farinha is very nice, and sometimes there 
 are several sorts of vegetables ; and there are excel- 
 lent doces (sweetmeats) at most of the Engenhos. 
 The chief sweetmeat is gayaba jam or cheese, which 
 
 * The following singular memorandum occurs at this place in the 
 Note-book :— "Maouca: bird of which every part {e.g. feathers, or- 
 dinarily burnt) cures snake-bites in man or beast. The gentleman 
 at this Engenho has tried it over and over again." 
 
 d3 
 
53 ENVIRONS OF PEKNAMBUCO. 
 
 is more like preserved quince than anything else. But 
 I have not met with anything like the guava jelly, so 
 famous in England, which, I suppose, comes from the 
 West Indies. They call the fruit guyaba here, and 
 put such quantities of sugar to it, that the taste is 
 almost nothing but sweet, — but still very nice. 
 
 Next day, after breakfast, we started again, first 
 riding back towards Pernambuco for a few miles by 
 another route, to examine another vaUey, and then 
 returning to Suasuna, which we passed again. We 
 continued our course south-west to this place, Car- 
 rauna. The track runs through most beautiful sce- 
 nery, as indeed does the whole of the course we have 
 taken. There is a very general similarity in the fea- 
 tures of this part of the country, so I will just give 
 you a notion of it without endeavouring to enter 
 into detail. I have said before that the whole surface 
 consists of undulating hUl and valley, — chiefly steep, 
 low, round-topped hills, with narrow valleys between. 
 Every here and there a wide valley, stretching out to 
 form a small plain, occurs. Now the general aspect 
 of the whole country is forest ; by which, of course, 
 you understand a very different kind of arrangement 
 from the New Eorest or Windsor ditto. The forest 
 consists of the most magnificent timber-trees, rising, 
 for the most part with straight trunks, to a height of 
 sixty or seventy feet without a branch, the stems be- 
 ing at bottom from one to five or six feet in diame- 
 ter (there are no monstrously huge trees — they have 
 
FOREST SCENERY. 53 
 
 all been cut out and removed) ; and all under these 
 trees the soil is overgrown with smaller ones^ most 
 of which have the same character of tall thin sterns^ 
 with leaves chiefly at top,— of all sizes, and with 
 leaves of all forms, the mimosa, the laurel-shaped, 
 and the chestnut-shaped leaves prevailing, with a few 
 low palms interspersed J and the whole intertwined 
 with creepers, climbers, parasites, epiphytes, and all 
 kinds of miracles in every possible direction. 
 
 In some places we have had to ride right through 
 the wood, where there was no track, or the timber- 
 road (by which the trees are drawn out of the forest) 
 had been overgrown. Here there are two ways of 
 getting executed ; either by having one's throat cut 
 by the stray edges of a climbing grass, which hangs 
 about the trees in great profusion in some places, and 
 both clings to everything and cuts like a knife, — 
 or by being hung in the creepers. In these places 
 we have either had some Blacks to precede us, armed 
 with bUl-hooks at the end of long handles, or the 
 foremost of the party has carried a sword to cut the 
 way. But once or twice I have been obliged to have 
 recourse to a knife, to sever the creepers with which 
 I have been entangled, to avoid being pulled off my 
 horse, and suspended, to the great glory of turkey- 
 buzzards and the laughter of red ants. 
 
 Well, this forest gives the general aspect to this 
 part of the country. But the whole land is not co- 
 vered with the wood anywhere here ; the valleys seem 
 
54 ENVIRONS OF PERNAMBUCO. 
 
 to have been all cleared. Scattered about in this 
 forest lie the Engenhos, marked by a bright spot of 
 light green verdure (grass and sugar-cane) among the 
 dark green of the woods. Each Engenho, large or 
 small, is surrounded with a fence, which separates 
 (where the estates are large) a sort of park from 
 the forest ; this is clothed with grass, and forms pas- 
 ture for the oxen and cows, which are prevented by 
 the fence from straying into the forest, the sugar- 
 cane plantations, or the neighbouring estate. Here, 
 at Carrauna, the pasture-land might be made into a 
 beautiful park, as it extends over several low-lying, 
 gently-undulating hills, which have been entirely 
 cleared of wood; the position, of course, has been 
 chosen on account of the less steep character of the 
 hills. Thus, then, stretching away along the valley- 
 bottoms, and up the sides of the hills (never to the 
 top, and rarely very far up the sides), lie the sugar 
 plantations, of a bright pale green, with generally 
 some fields of mandiocca, of a darker green; and 
 mixed with these are valley-bottoms and hill-sides 
 covered with rank grass, with a few straggling sugar- 
 canes, in a meagre condition, informing one that such 
 ground is lying fallow, having been planted three or 
 four years with cane, and now taking rest, tUl its turn 
 comes again. In this sort of way, all the valleys that 
 are not mere narrow gorges seem to lie clear, either 
 as pasture, fallow, or in cultivation, while all the hill- 
 tops are covered with trees or forest. 
 
THREE KINDS OF FOREST. 
 
 55 
 
 Now the forest consists of three kinds: — First, 
 the mato virgem, which has never been cleared, but 
 from which the forest-trees have, in these parts, been 
 removed; this is the part to see the magnificence 
 of God's work. Secondly, the Capoeirow, which is 
 coppice- wood, that has been cleared entirely, but has 
 now become again covered with tolerably large trees. 
 Thirdly, the Capoeira, which is where the cleared 
 ground is beginning to be covered with trees again. 
 This last, with which the former two kinds of forest- 
 land are almost always fringed on the hill-sides, is 
 marked by a very peculiar appearance, from the great 
 quantities of a particular tree, the Imbaiiba (whose 
 leaves are the food of the sloth), 
 which spring up everywhere. 
 The trunk grows up perfectly 
 straight, having generally but 
 very few branches, but throw- 
 ing out on all sides a raiment 
 of leaves, like large horse-ches- 
 nut leaves, on very long stems. 
 The stems are hoUow, and are 
 used for water-pipes ; they grow with immense rapi- 
 dity at first, but never reach any great size. I was 
 assured by several persons that a part of the wood 
 where a number of these trees were growing fifteen 
 and twenty feet high, with trunks as thick as my arm 
 at the shoulder, had been cleared to the ground only 
 four months ago. The wood is of course not very 
 
56 ENVIRONS OF PERNAMBUCO. 
 
 strong ; indeed I was quite surprised at the ease with 
 which it breaks ; but it is real wood, and not- a mere 
 juicy stem. This Imbaiiba towers up above all the 
 underwood in the capoeira ; but when the other trees 
 grow up, it shrinks into insignificance, and, I ima- 
 gine, disappears altogether very often. There do not 
 seem to be any of them in the primeval forest, though 
 there is another species somewhat similar which grows 
 therein. 
 
 There are no, or almost no flowers to be seen in 
 the forest now, though I am told that this is the 
 greenest time of the year. Nothing indeed can ex- 
 ceed the beauty of the verdure. I find it very dif- 
 ficult to learn the names and characters of the forest- 
 trees; for, first, their variety is so great; and secondly, 
 they are so immensely lofty, that their foliage cannot 
 be distinguished. Their leaves are generally very 
 small in comparison to the magnitude of the trees, 
 and there are generally none whatever within sixty 
 feet of the ground. The only way to get their leaves 
 and flowers will be (except by cutting the trees down) 
 to have recourse to gun and chain-shot. But the 
 verdure of the underwood is exquisite. The herb- 
 age plants have many of them immense leaves, as 
 if to make up by their size for the delicate foliage 
 of their gigantic neighbours. Some of the parasites 
 have very large leaves, like immense arums. Some 
 of these wind up the trees like ivy, with a big leaf at 
 regular distances ; others cling on to the side of the 
 
PAEASITIC AND CLIMBING PLANTS. 57 
 
 trees by a thick root^ which looks as if it were cut off 
 just below the plant, with a blunt end, a rich crown 
 of big leaves at top, and a single little fibre of root 
 stealing down the side of the tree like a bell- wire to 
 the earth, some twenty or thirty feet below. Then 
 there are great aloe-like things, sitting in the forks 
 of the branches, and hooking on to their sides, some 
 trees seeming quite covered with them. I suppose 
 this is not the season for the orchids, for I have seen 
 no plants that I fix upon as being such ; at any rate 
 none are in flower now. Then again there are climb- 
 ing grasses and climbing ferns, and one plant, which 
 I am told is a climbing paLn, with long barbs like fish- 
 hooks at the ends of the leaves, to hook on with. 
 
 There are no large pahn-trees in the forest. It 
 seems to me that all of great size have been imported 
 and planted, except perhaps one (called the dende- 
 zeiro). There are several kinds of little ones which 
 grow among the underwood, aU of them with feathery 
 leaves, with some distinction in the mode of their 
 arrangement, most of them covered with thorns or 
 long pin-Hke prickles. The different plants seem to 
 grow in patches in the different woods. We rode 
 yesterday through one, the whole of which was a per- 
 fect hothouse of the most beautiful of all the plants. 
 All the little palms were there ; one of them, which 
 I have observed nowhere else, was the most beautiful 
 and elegant plant I have ever seen; it had a long 
 thin stem, about thirty feet high, nowhere thicker 
 
 d3 
 
58 ENVIRONS OF PERNAMBUCO. 
 
 than my arm at the elbow, gradually tapering, and 
 apparently covered with green grass-like sheaths, with, 
 at the top, a few exquisite delicate feathery leaves, 
 curving in the most graceful forms conceivable. The 
 commonest palm in the woods has no stem at all, the 
 leaves growing up from the ground ; it is called Maiara 
 by the people : every plant has its name with them. 
 Another very beautiful little palm is called Coquim ; 
 it has a straight, long, thin stem, generally as thick 
 as a holly whip-handle ; the biggest I have seen was 
 as thick as my wrist, with wood as hard as lignum 
 vitm on the outside, as black as ebony, and quite 
 inflexible, but breaking with a sudden snap if very 
 strongly strained ; with a soft white wood in the in- 
 side. This kind, too, has a beautiftd head of feathery 
 leaves, and bears a little spike of red nuts, like holly 
 berries. I have not yet observed any tree-ferns, and 
 but few ferns of any remarkable beauty. But what I 
 have seen has been for the most part from horseback, 
 when I have been desirous not to stop at all, lest I 
 should delay my companions; so you can imagine 
 that what I have seen is but a mere skimming of the 
 surface of the cup of riches. Having thus given you, 
 or tried to give you, a general notion of what the 
 forest in this part of Brazil is like, I will continue 
 my account of my trip. 
 
 On Tuesday we came hither (to Carrauna) from 
 Suasuna, the track passing by two large Engenhos, 
 called Macuje and Jardim. The owner of this place 
 
PAHAGUAY TEA. 59 
 
 is, as I said, just my age, and speaks about as much 
 French as I can, so that we can get on together. He 
 has a little Spanish wife (his second), from one of the 
 Argentine States, — and a brother of his lives with 
 him, a very handsome fellow, about five years younger 
 than himself. He is a member of the Provincial As- 
 sembly of Pemambuco, and also of the Chamber of 
 Deputies of the General Government at Rio. Great 
 part of the country around is held by members of his 
 family, who migrated hither from the Sertao (the high 
 land of the iaterior) in the last generation. Two of 
 his brothers have estates adjoining. It is the fashion 
 in this house, apparently, that the lady does not dine 
 with the gentlemen, but, after dinner, she comes in 
 and makes tea for us. 
 
 Once or twice we have had, just after dinner, Para- 
 guay tea, or mate, as they call it, served ; it being the 
 beverage of our hostess's native country, and she hav- 
 ing great skill in making it. The mode of adminis- 
 tering this preparation is somewhat odd, but it is cer- 
 tainly the most social mode of taking refreshment I 
 have ever seen. The mate as kept for use consists 
 of a quantity of little bits of stick, mixed with green 
 powder (of leaves, I suppose) . It smells very like fra- 
 grant tea. The beverage is drunk out of the teapot 
 by all the guests in succession, and lastly by the lady 
 herself. But the tea-pot is rather a peculiar one : it 
 consists of a little thin black calabash, shaped like a 
 pear, the thin end serving the purpose of a handle. 
 
60 ENVIKONS OF PEENAMBUCO. 
 
 It holds about as much as a large coflfee-cup. It has, 
 in the top, a round hole about an inch across : into it 
 through this is placed a little sil- 
 ver pipette for drinking through; 
 this consists of a smaU tube six or 
 seven inches long, with a bulb 
 at one end, which is perforated 
 with small holes. This bulb is just big or small 
 enough to slip through the hole in the top of the ca- 
 labash. When the pipette is put in, some sugar and 
 a little hot water is poured in, and then the mate — a 
 good lot of it; the bits of stick first, to keep the holes 
 clear, and the powder afterwards. The calabash is 
 then filled up to the brim with boiling water or milk 
 (kept hot by a spirit-lamp), and handed to the person 
 who is to drink it. This is accomplished by sucking 
 at the silver tube ; each person sucks until the air be- 
 gins to come in with the liquid, and causes a rattle, 
 a sign that the pot is nearly drained. He then re- 
 turns it to the lady, who fills it up with hot water or 
 milk (according to whatever is in use), and hands it 
 to the next, and so on. 
 
 So we passed the evening very pleasantly, and next 
 day rode over to the Engenho Macuje, where we were 
 entertained at dinner by the proprietor. Here his 
 wife, a very goodnatured-looking old lady, and her 
 three daughters, dined with us. The style of this 
 place is about that of the best class of farm-houses. 
 There is not so much refinement in any of the En- 
 
ENGENHO MACUJE. 61 
 
 genhos as in that at Carratma, where everything (ex- 
 cept the spittoons on the floor) is elegant. One of 
 the sons of the proprietor, who talks French a Httle, 
 rode with us to the top of a high hill in the neighbour- 
 hood, where our way being cut by Blacks through the 
 forest, we climbed up a tree, and had a most mag- 
 nificent view, over hill and valley, of the country 
 towards Pernambuco, which we could distinctly see, 
 with the sea beyond it, some fifteen or sixteen miles 
 off. Here the one of the De Mornays who remained 
 with me (the other having returned to town) took 
 some observations of the country for the railway 
 scheme, to his great satisfaction. 
 
 We returned to Carrauna, to our kind hosts. Next 
 day we had another beautiful ride along some other 
 valleys between these same two Engenhos. On the 
 road we stopped at an Engenho, where the proprietor 
 gave me three oranges, of sorts I had never seen be- 
 fore, one of them a green one, as big as my head,- — 
 at least my hat exactly fitted it tightly. We returned 
 again to Carrauna, and next day rode to an Engenho 
 named Noroaga, about twenty-two miles in a direct 
 Hne south-west from Pernambuco, but more than 
 twelve miles from here by the tracks we followed. 
 This place is a large house ; the owner of it an old 
 Portuguese, quite bald, with all his family dead, in- 
 cluding two wives. He was a foundling, and made 
 his fortune by managing sugar-estates for others, and 
 then set up on his own hook; he is a miserly old 
 
62 ENVIRONS OF PEENAMBUCO. 
 
 fellow, but good-natured in his way. He assured me 
 the house was mine, but only gave me one sheet to 
 my bed, which was so dirty that I slept in my clothes, 
 to avoid touching it. Next day, yesterday, we re- 
 turned here by another route. Dr. D has in- 
 vited me to come over on the 34th to a feast, a sort 
 of housewarming of some new rooms in his house, 
 on the day of St. John, which is a great day in these 
 parts. On June 21st we returned to town from Car- 
 rauna. I am in most exuberant health, — burnt so 
 red by the weeVs sun, that the people here (my old 
 friends of a week's standing) said that they did not 
 know me. I am of course highly delighted with the 
 place, the climate, the people, both English and, so 
 far as I have seen them, the Brazilians (I fancy that 
 the country-folk are almost a different race from the 
 townspeople), and the weather. It has not actually 
 rained once upon me aU the time I have been out in 
 the country, and I have been on horseback almost 
 from morning till night each day. It happened to 
 rain heavily once or twice when I was indoors. 
 
 While at Carrauna a poor little Nigger baby-slave 
 was taken with convulsions, which by the blessing of 
 God I was enabled to cure.* I was quite delighted by 
 the tenderness with which the master of the house 
 
 * " In the evening a small Negro baby, fifteen months old, be- 
 longing to Dr. D , is reported aifeoted with convulsions. I ofier 
 
 to magnetize it. It is brought up. Dr. D holds it lying in his 
 
 lap. It is said to have had a tumor in its left arm, and to have 
 
MESMERIZING A NEGRO BABY. 63 
 
 treated the little thing : he had him up in his draw- 
 ing-room, and kept him in his lap ; it was evidently 
 his own kindness, and not the sense of property, which 
 animated him. By the way, I saw at a small En- 
 genho we stopped at, twenty-four little Niggers in a 
 back-room, the eldest not more than three years old, 
 arranged round two tubs of fariuha, a dozen round 
 
 been otherwise iU; and suddenly (just now, today) to have been 
 
 taken with these conTulsions, which are a kind of St. Vitus's dance, 
 
 twitching the left arm, and the muscles of the left side of the mouth, 
 
 slightly affecting also the left leg with twitchings. Byes open and 
 
 fixed, no sign of consciousness. I magnetize it by passes, as it Ues 
 
 in the master's lap, for about half an hour, without visible effect of 
 
 any kind : but still continue. I then observe that its eyes seem to 
 
 move very slightly, when I have pointed my fingers to them for some 
 
 time. So I continue thus, making occasional passes. The head was 
 
 very hot, and the perspiration very profase. I now raise it to the 
 
 sitting posture. Soon, quantities of sahva run from its mouth ; and 
 
 on returning it to the horizontal position, the saliva rattles in its 
 
 throat as it breathes. I now take it, after about three-quarters of an 
 
 hour, into my own lap, lying with its head towards my left hand, 
 
 which I place under its head, and magnetize it with my right hand, 
 
 chiefly by pointing the ends of my fingers to its eyes. My prayer 
 
 is right, and I soon perceive indubitable effects of influence on it. 
 
 The eyelids begin to droop, and the eyes to shift their position ; the 
 
 perspiration on the forehead diminishes, and the head becomes quite 
 
 cool. I go on making occasional passes ; the eyes begin to swim, 
 
 and at last the eyelids close, then open a Kttle, and so on, and at 
 
 last, after an hour and a half, close completely, and soon the child is 
 
 sound asleep. During great part of this time the breathing had been 
 
 stertorous and rattling ; at last it is quite quiet. After about an hour 
 
 and three-quarters its mother is called, and I place it in her arms 
 
 asleep. Mem. The baby seemed in good condition, and I did not 
 
 feel the least exhausted. 
 
 "June 21st, I am none the worse for my long efforts on the baby, 
 
64 ENVIRONS OF PERNAMBUCO. 
 
 each, stuffing themselves with their fists— a wonderful 
 sight, a hint for infant schools.* 
 
 A month has now expired nearly since I arrived 
 here (four weeks exactly), and nearly two months 
 since I left England, and the time has slipped away 
 like an oiled snake, and very pleasantly too; whe- 
 ther or not I am much the better for it, I must leave 
 to the Arranger of these matters to determiue. I 
 have altogether been so fortunate in the main, that 
 
 who IB reported muoli better this mommg, — free from conTulsions, 
 and to have slept well, though affected, as it had been before, by 
 slight diarrhoea. 
 
 "Mem., that on 17th, while at Carrauna, magnetizing a young 
 man suffering from prostration of strength, moral and physical, I 
 after great efforts for three-quarters of an hour closed his eyes against 
 his will, and produced the appearance of quiet sleep, from which 
 he woke up after a quarter of an hour more, giving an unreliable ac- 
 count of his feelings, and saying he had not slept. I was the next 
 morning quite ' seedy.' He seemed like a siere, into which life had 
 to be poured." — Note-book. 
 
 * The following are loose memoranda about birds and plants 
 belonging to this part of the journey : — " Small black finch (Curi<5). 
 Black and yellow starhng, or mocking-bird (Checheo). Black gros- 
 beak, with white rib on primary quill of wing (Bicudo). Blackbird 
 with thick long beak, between starhng and bimting ; size of star- 
 ling ; from Sertao ; sings low and shrill (Cajrauna). Blue tit ? with 
 yellow breast, sings; from woods near Pemambuco (Gurinhataa). 
 Brazilian woods (Pemambuco) : — The queen of trees, Visgueiro. 
 Piijni. Matugaz of Brazil, yeEowish, Amwrello. Pao de ferro ; Iron 
 wood, brown. Sicopira, very durable; heart brown. Angico: mi- 
 mosa, with dehoate leaves and rough bark ; the leaves very healing 
 for wounds ; the most medicinal plant of Brazil ; beautiful wood 
 — Zeimwood; gum good for pulmonary disease. Brazihau fruits 
 (Pemambuco) : — Jaca {Artocarpm integrifolid) ; Bread-fruit {Arto- 
 carpus incisa) ; Mango {Mangifera Indica) ; Abagata ; Mangaba ; 
 Sapoti." 
 
PAST GOOD FORTUNE. 65 
 
 it really seems as if the Divine hand prospered my 
 travel : first, I met with nice people who have housed 
 me, all begging me to come and stay with them 
 again J then I met on board the steamer the only 
 person in the whole province who could have put me 
 in the way of seeing the country, and he a person 
 who knows it better than the natives do ; thirdly, the 
 weather, contrary to all custom, held up fine, in the 
 thick of the rainy season, from two days before my 
 arrival here tiU the very last day of my excursion in 
 the country ; so that it only began to rain just as we 
 were returning to town. You must remember, too, 
 that arriving in fine weather is an immense advantage 
 in getting an idea of a place. The passengers who 
 came today by the ' Severn' will have a very difierent 
 notion of Pemambuco from that which I have formed, 
 as they will see it first in rain, if any fresh arrivals 
 there be. fourthly, now, as I have seen all I want 
 to see at present of this part, and am thinking that 
 fine weather would be pleasant, my travelling com- 
 panion De Momay is going down to Rio, where this 
 particular season (which is rainy here) is the finest 
 time of the year,- so that I get by going thither a guide 
 and interpreter on first landing, and a companion for 
 odd hours ; of course, as he is on business, I shall 
 not have the advantage of his company in my ex- 
 cursions. I already know two or three people at Rio, 
 and shall have iiitroductions to some more, so I have 
 no doubt I shall get on well. 
 
66 ENVIRONS OF PERNAMBUCO. 
 
 I hope not to retum from Kio without seeing some- 
 thing besides the town and its bay, of which the world 
 is so proud. Whether I go down by steamer to Monte 
 Video and Buenos Ayres, and ride across the Pampas, 
 or whether I go into the interior of San Paulo or 
 Minas Geraes, or into Paraguay, which is my chief 
 hope, is at present written in the Unreadable Book. 
 Among all uncertainties, however, I hope to go to the 
 Organ Mountains. The worst of it is, that I have no 
 camera to take photographs of all the wonders. I have 
 written to Maskelyne to send me one; I shall have 
 to work this on the forests of the north, and shall 
 hope to bring home a correct representation of that 
 part of the equinoctial line that passes near Para : I 
 dare say it wiU seem something like une barre de fer, 
 as the old French Consul saw it in the telescope. (By 
 the way, this man is so ludicrously ignorant, that he 
 asked the English Consul the other day, with an in- 
 credulous air, whether we are within the tropics here ; 
 he was answered, " Un peu" — ^rather.) I find it quite 
 impossible to sketch : everything is so crushingly new, 
 and there is so much to see, that it would be an in- 
 sane waste of time to set about making bad repre- 
 sentations for nobody's benefit, to the exclusion of 
 good realities from my eyes, which T may be able to 
 describe to you. 
 
 All this has been about the future. I will now 
 hark back to the past, and just tell you how I have 
 butchered time since T sent my last letters by the 
 
ST. John's day. 67 
 
 'Tay.' Before she arrived here, on Tuesday, June 23, 
 i. e. about five a.m., De Mornay and I started again for 
 the country. We rode some fifteen or sixteen miles 
 to breakfast at an Bngenho about twelve miles from 
 town, stayed there one day, and then went again across 
 the country to Carrauna, where we spent two days 
 more, one of ■which was the feast of St. John — a day 
 much celebrated by Brazilians, seeming to be to them 
 as great a day as Christmas-day with us. Their mode 
 of celebration, in the town, is by an infinity of fire- 
 works and dangerous sqmbs in the streets; in the 
 country, by bonfires, by eating cakes, and the dullest 
 possible telling of fortunes, out of a book of fate, sold 
 for the occasion. After this, much gratified with the 
 kindness shown to us at Carrauna, I returned to Per- 
 nambuco. 
 
 Eio de Janeiro, July 13, 1852. 
 
 I arrived here last Friday, having left Pernambuco 
 on the Tuesday previous. We stopped a night and 
 half a day at Bahia, which is a fine town, most splen- 
 didly situated, like Clovelly, on the side of a cliff 
 looking over a vast bay.* This Rio is a magnificent 
 place ; it is indescribably grand. The scenery is the 
 most beautiful that can be conceived. The most 
 rugged magnificence is blended in the most perfect 
 
 * In his Note-book Mr. Mansfield mentions having seen here a 
 pahn called Piassaba, " short and stumpy,'' "with " cloth on the leaf- 
 roots,'' similar in growth to the Pindoba palm, near Pernambuco. 
 
68 ENVIRONS OP PEKNAMBUCO. 
 
 harmoiiy with the most delicate tenderness of form 
 and colour. 
 
 I hope to go up to the Organ Mountains next 
 week. I have found a companion in a young English 
 merchant. It is the most delightftd weather you can 
 imagine, — cool at night, and in the day about as hot 
 as in our finest summer days. Sir Charles Hotham 
 was here when I arrived : I found that he was in the 
 first hotel I went to, to look for lodgings, so I made 
 bold enough to walk in upon him. He did not give 
 me much encouragement about going to Paraguay 
 with him, but he was very kind. I also called on 
 Admiral Grenfell, who is a great man in Brazil. He 
 is going to give me introductions to people down 
 south, amongst others to Urquiza, who has just es- 
 tablished himself as dictator of the La Plata States. 
 I have two or three strings twisting for my Paraguay 
 bow. 
 
69 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 BEAZIL* 
 
 CEIME. — POIITIOAL EOONOMT. — COI/ONIZATION. — SLAVBET. — 
 COMMEECE. 
 
 By the blessing of .God I have learned a deal more 
 about the outside of the country than most people 
 coming here would be likely to have done in the same 
 time. But as to the internal economy of things^ not 
 being able to converse with the people^ I have not 
 many very definite notions. The only industry^ so 
 far as I have learned, among the Brazilians here is 
 sugar-growing, mandiocca-eating, and assassination. 
 Murders are being committed continually : capital 
 punishment is the law, but only one execution is in 
 the recollection of an old stager here. All quarrels 
 seem to be settled here off-hand by the knife. A gen- 
 tleman for whom De Mornay did some work at his 
 Engenho, introduced him at dinner at his table to a 
 person as an assassin of a score of bloody deeds (which 
 was notoriously true), hiuting that if his work was 
 not properly done, his payment would be in steel, 
 
 * This letter, written to a friend, is earlier than the close of the 
 last one, and is dated from Pemambuco. — Ed. 
 
70 BEAZIL. 
 
 not in silver ; — and this man is a Baron of the Empire 
 (created for merit, for titles are not hereditary). A 
 man was murdered in open air one morning last week, 
 close to this house. Last year one of the slaves of 
 my host was killed close by the house by another 
 Black, who was never even taken up. A friend writes 
 me word that a notorious assassin (a man who would 
 kill you any one for five dollars) has just been exe- 
 cuted at Paraiba, — not by justice, however, but by 
 private revenge,— and yet here it is contrary to law 
 for any one to kill his horse, if mortally wounded or 
 dying by inches, and imprisonment follows the perpe- 
 tration of such an act. 
 
 Corruption, they say, pervades every department of 
 the administration, from Emperor to constable. Verily 
 this is an infant country : there is a vigorous vege- 
 tation of weeds in matters of law, giant creepers of 
 customs-duties, parasites on the life of the main trunk 
 of industry ; enormous levies, not only on imports, but 
 on exports. And yet it is said that the Government 
 desires to be very liberal, and to encourage commerce 
 and the industry of its own citizens. So to this end 
 it gets foreigners to establish, for instance, two iron- 
 foundries here : and, to protect them, puts a huge duty 
 on English ironwork. I wonder when Governments 
 will set about Protection in the proper manner. Of 
 course the promotion of home industry ought to be a 
 chief object. I suppose that when we have a Socialist 
 Ministry, we shall do this by setting up, on capital 
 
RESOURCES OF THE COUNTRY. 71 
 
 jfaised by direct taxatioiij sucli enterprises as are most 
 favoured by naturcj and most required by our country. 
 But we should not spend our money in iron-factories 
 in Brazil. Brazil ought to be an agricultural coun- 
 try, and notwithstanding the name of its province 
 Miaas Geraes, cannot, for a century at least, be a me- 
 tallurgical one. They ought to be growing sugar, 
 maize, lentils, and all kinds of food for all the world : 
 instead of that, they are actually importing mandiocca 
 farinha in large quantities, though it is actually pro- 
 tected against its neighbour provinces of Brazil by a 
 duty. 
 
 Of course (the saying is always in my mouth) all 
 this must be done some day by free labour and Anglo- 
 Saxon capital ; and the question is often on my tongue. 
 How is it that English money is not invested in the 
 improvement of this land, where, without the neces- 
 sity of naturalization, any foreigner can purchase the 
 soil ? However, I am told the difficulty is great, of 
 getting any work done ; white men cannot work, and 
 black men wiU not : of course they cannot and will 
 not. Wine- bibbing, prawns -by-choice- and -not- by- 
 necessity*-eating white men cannot work here; and 
 blacks who have no interest in their work will not do 
 it with a win : and they are quite right, poor fellows ! 
 There can be no doubt that this country is to be the 
 
 * The writer, in spite of his habits of abstinence from animal food, 
 had eaten some prawns at the farewell breakfast off Southampton, 
 when in company with the friend to whom this letter was addressed. 
 —Ed. 
 
72 BaAziL. 
 
 garden of the world, and that Anglo-Saxons are to be 
 the gardeners (associated, I doubt not, with Niggers) ; 
 but whether Englishers or Yankees are to be the men 
 to do it I must reserve opinion, until I have seen 
 India, as to whether Englishman has done any of his 
 duty there. My impression is, that Englishman hav- 
 ing been tried in India, and having refused his duty 
 there, will be found wanting for Brazil, and that North 
 American, when he has seen the error of his ways 
 down South touching slavery, may have his work to 
 do in these parts. I am continually thinking, what 
 would not be made of this place in the hands of En- 
 glishmen? and am continually stumped in my spe- 
 culations by the reflection, that there are 15,000,000 
 acres of waste land at home ; and Heaven knows how 
 many souls waste too, bodies and all. So I suppose 
 God, in His own time, will get this magnificent Para- 
 dise cultivated; and that we had better not trouble 
 our heads, until we have paid our debt to the earth 
 in England. 
 
 I do not hear any accounts here of cruelty to the 
 slaves, and have rather reason to believe that they are 
 kindly treated, and are considerably better off than 
 labourers in England ; but I believe there is the most 
 supreme indifference on the part of the masters to the 
 question, whether or no their blackies have soul or 
 spirit. To my mind one of the most curious condi- 
 tions of this country is the combination of the Negro 
 element with Roman Catholicism. If anywhere you 
 
A NEGRO PREACHER, 73 
 
 can have idolatry^ it must be Lere. I should like to 
 be able to see the inside of the system : it must be the 
 completest degradation of worship in the world. You 
 have the childish^ meretricious^ gewgaw decoration 
 of the Popish churches here^ exaggerated to the last 
 degree ; and the Nigger, just transferring his attach- 
 ment from his fetish image to the rather more dis- 
 gusting doll of the European Obi; or perhaps not 
 transferring, but simply adding the one to the other. 
 And yet I imagine, from what I hear, that our black 
 brother is by nature a very far more pious and inno- 
 cently reverent animal than we are. I hope I shall 
 be able to learn something of Portuguese, that I may 
 be able to fraternize a little with Blackie ; but hitherto 
 I have found out-of-doors distractions so importu- 
 nate that I have made no steps in liuguism beyond 
 "muito obrigado," — a phrase which black man does 
 not often get from white, I fancy. 
 
 I am told that, a year or two ago, a Negro who had 
 got his freedom took to preaching in the Victoria 
 Paxks of this place, in back slums and other places 
 where black men most do congregate ; that he mounted 
 his barrel, and spoke with the greatest fervour and 
 eloquence, repeating chapters of the Bible to the peo- 
 ple (who of course are ignorant of it) and expound- 
 ing it vdth great wisdom, — a real Negro Luther, un- 
 merciful to sins, hypocrisies, and frauds, and telling 
 black man that he was his own slave, as well as white 
 man's. He was followed by great crowds, and began 
 
 E 
 
74 BRAZIL. 
 
 to be called the " Divine Master." At length the Go- 
 vernment got information laid against him, as for fo- 
 menting political sedition — which everybody knew was 
 false, — so he got condemned to three years' imprison- 
 ment, or banishment, or — nobody knows what^ and has 
 not been heard of since. But generally the Negroes 
 care not at all for each other, and as soon as a black 
 man has his freedom, he wiU no longer associate with 
 slaves, will not sit at table with them : — the gentlemen 
 button-makers ! the old story. They say that the Ne- 
 groes at Bahia are a finer race than those of Pemam- 
 buco, or of any other part of Brazil, coming from a 
 different part of Africa ; and that they are much more 
 united together. They have got up a revolt once, and 
 will do so again some day. There are even among the 
 Blacks here some noble-looking feUows ; and there is 
 a curious air of independence about most of them ; 
 and they have a real independence, for they are con- 
 tented Tftiih. farinha, and do not require prawns to eat, 
 though they get nasty dried beef three times a week 
 too. 
 
 The population of Pernambuco is said to be about 
 70,000 : a third of these, I believe, are slaves, black 
 and brown, of all shades ; another third are free co- 
 loured folk; the rest Brazilians, Portuguese, French, 
 and EngUsh. There are said to be more than three 
 hundred English here. There is an English church, 
 a neat building ; the clergyman maintained by the in- 
 habitants. The Brazilians of the country seem to be 
 
COMMERCE. 75 
 
 quite diiFerent from those of the town ; many of them 
 very handsome ; they look as if they had stuff enough 
 in them to keep a country goings but yet everybody 
 says their business of sugar-growing scarcely pays 
 them at aU. There is great want of labour, now that 
 the slave-trade has been stopped, and but little free 
 labour is to be had; on the other hand, it cannot 
 be supposed that they have much science to fit them 
 for making the most of a bad business. It does seem 
 very wonderful that the growth of vegetable matter 
 out of the soil should not pay in this very metropolis 
 of vegetation ; but the very luxuriance of the vege- 
 tation is the enemy of the cultivator, for perpetual 
 weeding seems to be required to keep back the exu- 
 berance of the soil-life, and let the cane get ahead. 
 The country wants to be colonized — there is nothing 
 else for itj and if association is necessary in tem- 
 perate climates, it is more than ever requisite here, 
 where man requires some stimulus to exert himself; 
 the hope of improvement is essential to give him ani- 
 mation. 
 
 Now touching commerce. This town presents a la- 
 mentable sight ; there are, to begin with, a dozen or 
 twenty or more English merchants' houses (not to 
 mention the few other foreign merchants) established 
 here, for the purpose of supplying this province 
 through an army of shopkeepers, who live in the 
 town, with such necessities as England yields. Of 
 course one well-organized merchant-house would 
 
 E 3 
 
76 BB.AZIL. 
 
 serve all the purposes. It is a sad sight to go into 
 the coimting-houses of these gentlemen — real gentle- 
 men, well-educatedj fine-hearted men, — and see them 
 lounging about boxes of calicoes and bags of sugar, 
 and fancying themselves of use; each selling the 
 same articles as his next neighbour, at of course the 
 same price. And there are several causes of wonder- 
 ment too about these friends of mine : first, for some 
 to me incomprehensible reason, they fancy themselves 
 of superior dignity to shopkeepers, — I suppose be- 
 cause they sell larger quantities at a time ; scarcely, 
 I conceive, because they seU to the shopkeepers ; for 
 by that logic a shopkeeper would be of higher grade 
 than the gentleman to whom he sells, which of course 
 is absurd ! 
 
 THE ORGAN MOUNTAINS. 
 
 [A letter which Mr. Mansfield ' forwarded to his family from Pe- 
 tropolis, describing an excursion to the Organ Mountains, has un- 
 fortunately been lost. It was addressed so as to go by a Brazilian 
 coast-steamer to Paraiba (do Norte), and to be forwarded thence by 
 the British Consul to England. Mr. Mansfield refers to it elsewhere 
 as the most interesting of his letters ; and writing to a friend from 
 Assumption, December 25, 1852, says : — 
 
 " I went down to Eio by the steamer, and spent a month there, in 
 the neighbourhood of the town, and in a trip over the Organ Moun- 
 tains. The majesty of the forests there is glorious, my heart yearns 
 after them continually." 
 
 The following memoranda are all that can be recovered of this 
 seven days' excursion.] 
 
THE ORGAN MOUNTAINS. 11 
 
 July 20, 1852. 
 
 I left Rio de Janeiro at noon (by steamer) with three 
 friends. Running up the bay we landed at a quarter- 
 past two at Piedade, having touched at Isla Paqueta, 
 and found a carriagCj which had been previously or- 
 dered, not come to meet us, the letter not having 
 been delivered. So a Negro was sent on mule-back 
 to the little town of Maje, three or four miles inland 
 (at the foot of the Serra dos Orgaos, or Organ Moun- 
 tains), to bring a carriage. We waited meanwhile 
 at a kind of store and packing-house at the landing- 
 place, and dined on some filthy fish and rice cooked 
 in lard. At half-past four came the carriage — an old 
 coach with four mules ; and we proceeded over a 
 sandy plain with stunted vegetation to Maje, through 
 which we passed, and soon entered the valleys among 
 the clay hills, like the country near Pernambuco. 
 We arrived, at seven p.m., at a rough kind of hotel, 
 a wayside rancho called Freichal, kept by an old 
 man named Caetano, with twenty-three children. I 
 supped on oranges and orange marmalade, which 
 put my stomach to rights after my greasy dinner, and 
 we all four slept on beds in the same room. 
 
 July 21. — I was up at six, and we started at seven 
 on our mules, soon commencing the ascent of the 
 Organ Mountains. At ten a.m. we breakfasted at 
 
 H ^s, where we met a large party. At one we 
 
 started again, and descended the mountains, arriving 
 at three p.m. at Mr. H th's house, Constancia, 
 
78 BRAZIL. 
 
 whither onr luggage was to be sent. Here we put up, 
 and passed two days on the estate ; riding thence over 
 the peaks of the Organ Mountains to the new colony 
 (German) of PetropoHs.* 
 
 * The foEowing summary of this trip also occurs in one of Mr. 
 Mansfield's note-boots : — 
 
 " Data for Mio de tfamewo Journal vn mountains. 
 
 " July 20. Steamer to Piedade, T., M., B., S. ; candage to iienda 
 at Preiohal, at foot of momitains, passing through Maje. 
 
 " Juh) 21. Tip mountains on mule-back. Breakfast at Mr. H 's. 
 
 Thence to Constancia. 
 
 " Jnhj 22. Estate with teargarden. 
 
 " Juh) 23. Oapitara limit. 
 
 " Juh/ 24. Ride to PetropoUs, passing the carpenter's cottage, by 
 the Imbuhy Pass, and a fazenda, the proprietor of which left his 
 estate to his slaves. 
 
 " July 25, Simday. The Q-erman colonists' baB." 
 
 (The rest need not be extracted, as it refers to the same date as the 
 letter next following.) 
 
79 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 RIO AND ITS ENVIEOlSrS. 
 
 PETEOPOIIS TO PAZENDA BOM-JABDm. — MILHO-THEESHING. — lODS- 
 INQB.— VIEW TEOM THE SEBEA. — ANOTHEE EN&nfEEE-aUIDE. — 
 THOBNT PALM-TEBE. — ^EAUCHO EOBBETO. — SLATB-DBOTE. — MtTLE- 
 DEOTES. — EAZENDA BENJAMIN. — ^AN ENBEGETIO CTJLTITATOE. — 
 TIMBEE-WOODS OF BEAZIL. — THE VIEGHN EOEBST. — MONKEYS. — 
 SNAKES. — BIEBS. — TEEMITE NESTS. — SECUEITY OE THE OOUNTET. 
 — ^WINTEE HEAT. — CE0S3 THE PAEAHTBA. — GIG-ANTIO ABUMS. — 
 THE PALMITO. — PHTSIOGNOMT OE THE POBESTS. — SAND-FLIES. — 
 A BEOKBN CEUPPEE. — EAEGE EAZENDA. — WASHING EOB DIA- 
 MONDS. — EETUEN TO ESTEEIiIA. — STEAMING TO BIO. — PLANS. 
 
 I WISH you had a hothousCj that I might send you 
 some of the orchids which grow in such profusion in 
 the woods here ; however this is not the season for 
 their flowerings so I am not much henefited by their 
 beauty — I have only seen three or four of them in 
 flower. Wellj I will continue my journal from the 
 point where I left off in my last letter.* 
 
 You will be surprised to hear that I have been at 
 Paraiba : however, aerial navigation is not yet ac- 
 complished in Brazil, and I have not passed from the 
 south to the north of Brazil in a day or two. This is 
 another Paraiba, commonly called " do Sul" (of the 
 * This letter was never received. 
 
80 KIO AND ITS ENVIRONS. 
 
 south) ; that which I came to see is " do Norte." 
 This one lies on the banks of a river of the same 
 name, a little to the north of Rio de Janeiro, just 
 as the other is to the north of Pemamhuco. The 
 how I came to go there is on this wise. 
 
 I had a particular wish to visit this Paraiba, be- 
 cause of its name, because it is on a fine river, be- 
 cause it is in the heart of the coffee country, and be- 
 cause to reach it one travels right across the province 
 of Rio de Janeiro, going over the mountains, and 
 because it is near the borders of another province 
 (Minas Geraes). When we left Rio, it was our in- 
 tention to go thus far; however we (or rather my 
 companion, for I was quite game, but it is my rule 
 in travelling always to knock under) found that it 
 would not be very agreeable to travel in a country 
 where we knew no one, and do not speak the lan- 
 guages ; so we determined to leave Petropolis and re- 
 turn to Constancia. 
 
 On Monday morning (July 26th) the mules were 
 saddled and the packs strapped on, and we were just 
 going to ride off from the Hotel Inglez (kept by Mr. 
 Carpenter, a mechanic brought out from England by 
 De Mornay's father) for Constancia, when a gentle- 
 man, the only other guest in the hotel, who was stand- 
 ing by to see us off, asked if we would like to go up 
 to the river Parahyba; "By aJl means," of course I 
 said. So it was soon arranged that we should ac- 
 company T to a house where he was to stop on 
 
JOURNEY TO THE PARAHYBA. 81 
 
 the road to Constancia, and return the next day. 
 Aecordinglyj we unbuckled our packs and left them 
 behind, and started for Donna Brigida's fazenda, 
 Bom-jardim. 
 
 The route lay for about two leagues along the high 
 road to the province of Minas, by which we had come 
 to PetropoHs ; and through a winding valley, part of 
 which was covered with capodra, part with tnato 
 virgem, and part with the remains of forest, either 
 prepared for burning, already recently burned, or 
 overgrown with fern. The ground was cultivated 
 here and there with coffee, or maize {milho), and near 
 a house or two which we passed were orchards of 
 quince-trees, which grow well at this elevation, being 
 planted for the making of doce (jam), which is in 
 great request in these parts : (quince jam, by the bye, 
 and goiabada, guava jam, have been my meat since 
 I have been in the mountains.) We started at half- 
 past ten, and about half-past two arrived at Donna 
 Brigida's. 
 
 Our hostess is an elderly widow, whose husband, 
 the owner of a good estate here, had left her in debt ; 
 so she receives payment from guests whom she ac- 
 commodates. Her house is built somewhat after the 
 manner of an hotel ; indeed most of the farm-houses 
 seem to be constructed in the same way, with a 
 kind of reception-room separated more or less from 
 the part occupied by the family, with two or three 
 small rooms or closets opening out of it, in which are 
 
 E 3 
 
82 EIO AND ITS ENVIRONS. 
 
 beds for the accommodation of the visitors. The re- 
 ception-room or saloon here was as dirty a place as 
 I have seen for some time. It was occupied by a 
 turkey and fowl or two, and a few Negro and Mulatto 
 children sprawling about ; the floor and tables in a 
 state of glorious unsweepedness. At one end was a 
 recess, with locked doors, which , proved to be a little 
 chapel, — or rather, I fancy," it is the chancel of the 
 church, the saloon being the body thereof; this I pre- 
 sumed from the appearance of six candlesticks on the 
 wall, looking very much as if they belonged to some 
 sacred apparatus. In two closets opening out of this 
 long room were three filthy bedsteads, on which we 
 were to sleep. 
 
 In our saloon we were served with dinner, and 
 afterwards with tea, the latter infusion being made 
 from tea grown on the estate. Of course I drank 
 some, and slept not at all in consequence during the 
 night. The tea is very good, resembling the finest 
 green tea from China ; the plants grow in the garden 
 at the back of the house : they only make enough 
 for use in the house. After tea, we were immensely 
 diverted by a dance, which was got up for us among 
 the Mulatto retainers of the household. Their dances 
 were a sort of refinement on the Negro dances, and 
 to my mind some of them quite as sensible as those 
 of an English ball-room. The atmosphere of our sa- 
 loon became of the most awful description : we were 
 glad enough to escape into the fresh air. 
 
THRESHING MILHO. 83 
 
 It was a splendid moonlit night; so we walked 
 about tlie premises, after Donna Brigida had retired 
 with her domestics and, in true Brazilian fashion, 
 locked us out of the house proper, into our church 
 and bed-rooms. We found the Negroes dancing in 
 one out-hoTise, and singing going on in another ; so 
 we went into the latter, and found it to be a barn, 
 in which some Negroes were threshing milho, sing- 
 ing to their work, and others enlivening the scene 
 by keeping up a fire on the floor with the husks of 
 the corn. Accordingly I joined in, song and all, and 
 threshed away with black brothers. The heads of 
 maize are first stripped of the sheaths which envelope 
 them, and then thrown on a wooden stage ten feet 
 square, and three feet from the ground j this is co- 
 vered with corn-heads. In front of it stood six 
 Negroes, armed with long straight poles, with which 
 they belaboured the corn, in two sets of three, striking 
 alternately, and chanting a queer monotone in time. 
 We then retired to our beds. I did not dare to take 
 my clothes ofi", for fear of dirt and vermin ; nor did I 
 wash or breakfast next morning for the same reason, 
 but took my breakfast with me, bathed in the first 
 httle river we came to, and fed afterwards. 
 
 Next morning, then, we left Donna B in a 
 
 considerable state of amusement at the barbarous 
 condition of things, and retraced our steps to Petro- 
 poUs, by the road we had come the day before. In 
 the evening, just before sunset, I walked from Petro- 
 
84 RIO AND ITS ENVIRONS. 
 
 polls to the top of the steep road of the " Serra" 
 (mountain-chain), by which travellers come from Rio. 
 The top of this road is about two miles from the 
 village. 
 
 The view was most magnificent : I made a rude 
 sketch of it by way of memorial. I should think it 
 must be something like the road down into Italy from 
 the Alps, on a rather smaller scale. The kind of 
 scenery may be imagined from this. On the left is 
 
 the side of the mountaia-chain (Serra d'Estrella), sup- 
 posed to be seen in section with the road winding up 
 it, and then sloping slightly down after passing the 
 ridge to Petropolis. Below, it passes over a plaia, 
 with hills dotted about on it, represented by the ho- 
 rizontal, irregular hne. Beyond this plain, towards 
 the south, lies the harbour of Rio, represented by the 
 straight horizontal line; and the horizon is bounded 
 in the distance by the Tijuca range of mountains, 
 behind Rio. The scale of my diagram is all wrong, 
 like Wyld's big shell, commonly called Globe. The 
 mountain-side on the left is about 3000 feet high, 
 and the top of Tijuca about the same on the right ; 
 but they are sixty or seventy miles asunder. From 
 the point where I stood, the peak of Tijuca occupied 
 
VIEW FEOM THE SERRA. 85 
 
 exactly the centre of tte picture, the Corcovado and 
 the Gavea (remarkable mountains in the same range, 
 the latter flat-topped, and also called Lord Hood's 
 Nose) distinctly visible, and the Sugar-loaf Rock, 
 which forms one of the door-posts of the harbour- 
 gate, just visible on the left, where the view is closed 
 by a mountain in the foreground. 
 
 On Thursday, July 29th, we left Petropolis, in the 
 company of our new fellow-traveller, or rather guide, 
 who is an engineer, and is engaged now in surveying 
 for a railway from Rio into the province of Minas 
 Geraes, so that I am to make my acquaintance with 
 this province in exactly the same manner as I did 
 with that of Pernambuco. I am not quite sure of his 
 name, but his initials are C. G., which will do to re- 
 present him ; he is a foreigner, but speaks English as 
 well as I do. There is a high-road from Rio Janeiro 
 to the district of the mines, which passes through Pe- 
 tropolis and Paraiba. It was on this road that we had 
 travelled for some two leagues on coming from Con- 
 stancia, and on going to and returning from Donna 
 Brigida's; so, by way of showing us new country, 
 our friend C. G. took us by another route through the 
 forest, which joined the Estrada, about a league and a 
 half from Petropolis. It led through the finest piece 
 of thick forest I have yet seen, along the banks of the 
 little river Piabanha ; the forest trees of a large size 
 and great height, and a variety of beautiful palm-trees 
 in the underwood. These woods keep me in a con- 
 
86 RIO AND ITS ENVIRONS. 
 
 tinual state of ecstatic amazement. I do not know 
 which to wonder at most, the glorious vegetation or 
 the indifference with which every one I am with re- 
 gards it. 
 
 Among all the palms, I must not forget to mention 
 one (called Iri) which is easily distinguished by being 
 covered with long thorns, like porcupine quills or 
 packing-needles, from one to five or six inches long ; 
 the stems are surrounded with rings of them, and 
 some run along the under sides of the leaves. The 
 trees generally grow in clumps, and their stems rise to 
 about fifteen feet high, and occasionally higher. The 
 outside wood is almost as hard as iron : I notched the 
 edge of a hatchet frightfully the other day in cutting 
 one down. I mention this palm because I have cause 
 to remember it. I slipped down one day in a wood, 
 and ran a score or two of the thorns into the palm of 
 my hand, to various depths, from half an inch to an 
 inch. One went into my wrist and broke off at the 
 skin, leaving an inch in among the bones. I got a 
 man to extract it ; but it has maimed my hand a little, 
 and I still feel it when I move my hand in certain 
 positions, though it was a fortnight ago that it was 
 taken out. 
 
 After riding through the forest six or seven miles, 
 we joined the high road at a fazenda, called Correia, 
 where there were a great number of araucarias. By 
 the way, most of thefazendas in these mountains have 
 some araucarias growing near them ; fine trees, about 
 
VALLEY OF THE PIABANHA. 87 
 
 forty or fifty feet high. There are generally^ along the 
 roadside in their neighbourhood, a quantity of aloe- 
 like plants, whose name I do not know, which send 
 up annual flower-stalks thirty feet high, which are at 
 this time of year covered with young plants ; for every 
 seed buds and forms a plant before it falls. Our road 
 now was the high-road^ aU along the valley of the 
 Piabanha, where the railway (a tramway for mules to 
 bring the produce from the interior) is to run. The 
 hills are covered with mato virgem, capoeiron, capoeira, 
 coffee, fern, and maize in turns. The only thing of note 
 which happened was, that as we were going down a 
 steepish hill, close to the house where we were to stop 
 for the night, my mule slipped down, rolling over, and 
 fell upon my leg, without however hurting me in 
 the least, only bending my spur a little. You must 
 know that everybody here rides in the country with 
 long boots that come up over the knee outside the 
 trousers, to protect the leg from river and rain water, 
 sticks, snakes, etc. ; and on these boots every one wears 
 spurs, some made of silver, of enormous size ; these 
 for the most part come from the river Plate. I have 
 not yet provided myself with long boots, but am con- 
 tent with some India-rubber leggings which I bought 
 at Pernambuco. 
 
 So, after a ride of about four leagues, we stopped 
 for the evening and night at a place called Roberto, 
 after the name of a man who has a cottage and rancho 
 there. His name is Roberto Malpas. People are 
 
88 KIO AND ITS ENTIKONS. 
 
 called in this country by their Christian names, es- 
 pecially in the rural parts j and places, it appears, 
 hereabouts, after their owners. Mr. Malpas keeps 
 house in a way which seems frequent here ; not re- 
 ceiving all guests as at an hotel, but only those whom 
 he knows, and from them taking a small payment. 
 He is a fat, coarse, good-natured fellow; his father 
 English (he says), but himself quite innocent of that 
 language. He entertained us very hospitably; and 
 his wife and daughter, and a young lady staying with 
 them, seemed as if they would be agreeable to those 
 who could understand what they said. They were 
 much amused, as most of the people seem to be, at 
 the notion of my not eating flesh or drinking wine : 
 they all say they cannot understand an Englishman 
 (who generally prefers beef and beer to everything) 
 having such habits. 
 
 We were not the only guests that evening. A drove 
 of about sixty slaves, who were being driven across the 
 country for sale by some miserable speculators, occu- 
 pied the outhouses. They were not just landed from 
 Africa, for that trade is pretty well stopped now in 
 Brazil, but had been purchased cheap, I suppose, at 
 Rio and thereabouts, to be sold at a profit in the in- 
 terior. At night I opened my window, as usual, on 
 getting into bed, to admit the fresh air, but the poor 
 Negroes, under a shed about thirty or forty yards off, 
 smelt so horribly that I was obliged to shut it. 
 
 I ought to have mentioned the troops of mules 
 
MULE DROVES. 89 
 
 which we meet everywhere on the high-roads, and 
 occasionally on the caminhos, or bye-roads, bringing 
 produce from the interior, and carrying back articles 
 required in the provinces from Rio. Each mule 
 carries about eight or nine arrobas (an arroba is 
 about thirty-two poimds English) ; about seven are 
 attended by one driver. They all go in a line, the 
 leader generally decorated with a bit of red cloth, 
 sometimes with bells. They travel about ten miles a 
 day in the forenoon, and are turned out in the after- 
 noon to graze in the capoeira. The drovers sleep in 
 the sheds called ranchos, where the burdens are piled 
 in heaps. Each burden, when on the mule, is covered 
 with an ox-hide to protect it from the weather. 
 
 Next morning (July 30th) after a wash in a neigh- 
 bouring rivulet, which I always take when practicable, 
 and breakfast, we started again, under the guidance 
 of our friend C. G., otherwise called the Colonel. We 
 forded the river Piabanha, close to Roberto's house, 
 and then followed along the course of that river, on 
 its eastern bank, by a picada, recently cut. (A pi- 
 cada is a path through the forest, made by simply 
 cutting down the brushwood and smaller trees, avoid- 
 ing the larger trees ; these paths are often not wider 
 than just enough for one horse to pass at a time.) 
 Thus we went on, for an hour or two, through ca- 
 poeira and capoeiron, passed by a coffee-plantation or 
 two, and then forded the Piabanha again at a point 
 where its course suddenly turns to the east. Here 
 
90 RIO AND ITS ENVIRONS. 
 
 oiir conductor took us away from the river to tlie 
 north-west by a valley, which was almost entirely 
 cleared of forest, and but little cultivated, with here 
 and there a patch of the virgin forest. In this valley 
 we saw standing (some of them were wrecks from the 
 fire, some still vigorous) a few of the largest trees I 
 have seen ; one or two of them nearly, I should think, 
 a hundred feet high from the ground to the lowest 
 branch ; about six feet across at the root, and three 
 or four feet thick at the fork, — ^magnificent monsters ! 
 Suddenly we came into the thick forest again, and 
 soon turned off from the caminho by a small path to 
 the left, through a beautiful piece of forest, rich with 
 the beautiful green bamboos and palms. 
 
 After a few miautes we emerged into a clearing, 
 which the Colonel informed us was the fazenda of a 
 German friend of his who had settled in this coun- 
 try, and with whom we were to stop for the night. 
 We arrived here about noon. This was a very interest- 
 ing place, as it showed us the progress which might 
 be made by an industrious, clever man in a short time. 
 It was about sis years ago that Senhor Benjamin com- 
 menced clearing the forest at this estate, which he had 
 then recently acquired, and now he has a large yearly 
 increasing coffee plantation, in a high state of produc- 
 tiveness. At present he has only twelve slaves, who 
 perform all the work of his coffee. He grows also a 
 small quantity of sugar for home consumption. To 
 his occupation as a planter he adds that of engineer, 
 
ESTATE or SENHOR BENJAMIN. 91 
 
 making machinery for his own and his neighbours' 
 mills. 
 
 In his workshop I had the opportunity of seeing 
 some of the splendid timber-woods of this country 
 under the carpenter's tools. He told me the vari- 
 ous qualities of many, such as Piroba, Garauna, Si- 
 copira, Ipe, Garapa, Vinhatico, Amarella, Jacaranda 
 (rosewood), etc. etc., of which I remember little or 
 nothing.* The timber here is as excellent in qualities 
 as it is magnificent in dimensions. There is no pro- 
 perty requisite in any wood for any purpose, which is 
 not to be found, in first-rate degree, in some wood or 
 other of these forests. The number of them is im- 
 mense : it woidd be the labour of a life, I should 
 think, to become acquainted with them all, and their 
 qualities. It is most melancholy to see the reckless- 
 ness with which these splendid trees are remorselessly 
 sacrificed in the clearing of the woods. The under- 
 wood and the smaller ones are cut down and left to 
 dry, when dry set fire to, and then the giants are 
 
 * The following are memoranda as to these woods, taken from 
 Mr. Mansfield's Note-book: — "Srazilicm Woods. The Garapa or 
 Garapiapimha is yellow, hard, close-graiaed, good for tool-handles. 
 Of the Ipe there are two qualities, the white and the dark ; it is the 
 best wood of the proTince of Rio. The Piroba is a hard wood, of a 
 brown colour. The Jacaranda, which is of a dark black-red, is our 
 rosewood. The Vinhatico is yellow, like mahogany. The Iri, a thorny 
 pahn, has rery hard wood on the outside, and all through when old. 
 The G-arauna is a black wood, good for earthwork ; hard, but too 
 easily split for a machine (?). The Sicopira is a dark hard wood, 
 and excellent." 
 
93 BIO AND ITS ENVIRONS. 
 
 converted into charred masts^ whicli fall down in pro- 
 cess of time. The proprietors say, when you express 
 your surprise at this waste, " The trees are of no value 
 to us, we have more than we can use; we cannot 
 clear the ground without destroying them ; we have 
 no hands to remove them." 
 
 Mr. Benjamin walked with us, through his coffee 
 plantation, to the virgin forest, which surrounds it 
 on every side, hke an island in a sea of verdure. 
 Just as we got within stone' s-throw of the trees, I 
 perceived the stillness of their branches disturbed by 
 a rustling in one place, and soon distiaguished some 
 dark body moving among them. There were two 
 huge monkeys springing about the tree-tops. As soon 
 as they caught sight of us they swung away into 
 the forest. These were the first and only monkeys 
 we have seen : lots of marmosets came on board the 
 steamer in baskets at Bahia as pets, but they don't 
 count. I have seen no wild quadrupeds in the 
 country at all, except lizards (which don't count) and 
 a few little things like guinea-pigs. I see lots of holes 
 in banks everywhere, which I am told are of or be- 
 longing to armadilloes. Of the world-famous snakes 
 I have only seen a green one, the " Cobra de S. Joao," 
 and a coral one with red rings. 
 
 The silence of the forests is most striking ; scarcely 
 a bird is seen or heard in the mato virgem. Two or three 
 different kinds of parrots are sometimes heard scream- 
 ing as they fly across the valleys at a great height. In 
 
HUMMING-BIUDS. 93 
 
 the more open and cultivated parts, or where the soil 
 is covered with capoeira, other sorts of birds are to be 
 seen : anus, black birds with thick deep bills and long 
 tails, always in flocks; little black starlings, which 
 sing very sweetly, and build bottle-shaped nests, hang- 
 ing in families from some solitary tree in the vaUey ; 
 lots of humming-birds. Of these I have seen three or 
 four kinds ; the commonest one is a very little fellow, 
 aU covered with iridescent green. The flight of these 
 httle things is the most wonderful sight : you some- 
 times see one, as you think, sitting on a twig : when 
 you get a little nearer, you see that there is no twig ; 
 he is sitting on the air, remaining quite stationary, 
 while his wings are vibrating like microscopic steam- 
 engines ; his beak is probing some flower on a bunch. 
 Then he gives a little jerk with his tail, and his posi- 
 tion is shifted half an inch to the next flower on the 
 bunch ; there he remains again motionless for a few 
 seconds, and then repeats his manceuvre, or perhaps 
 vanishes, having darted off like a streak of lightning 
 to some other tree. Several difierent kinds of hawks 
 are continually to be seen, sitting generally on the top 
 of some dead tree-branch : very tame, as are all the 
 birds. 
 
 We dined and slept at Benjamin's ; he did not ex- 
 hibit his family to us, but entertained us very kindly. 
 He told us that he lost once five of his slaves, who 
 died unaccountably. A sixth sickened, and, as he was 
 dying, told his master that another of his slaves had 
 
94 RIO AND ITS ENVIKONS. 
 
 poisoned him ; other evidence brought home the guilt 
 to him, and it was proved that he had poisoned the 
 other five. So he was ordered to be punished, — to be 
 whipped every three days, as long as he could bear it, 
 solitary confinement in the interim. After the third 
 flogging he was fijund dead in his cell, having suffo- 
 cated himself with his tongue. 
 
 Next morning (July 31st), after an early breakfast, 
 we left Benjamin (so the place is called) in company 
 with the owner, who was to show us a short way 
 through the forest to a point which the Colonel want- 
 ed to see. We soon came upon the Piabanha again, 
 followed its torrent-like course (it is sometimes rocky 
 torrent, sometimes sandy-bottomed stream — no fish 
 in it) for a mile or two, and then turned off through a 
 dusty capoeira, with very Kttle bright verdure about 
 it. The striking part of this ride was the immense 
 quantity of termite hills (white ant) aU along the side 
 of the path, and all over the hill-sides, where, being 
 cleared, we could see them. These nests are from one 
 to seven feet high, not peaked like the Alps, as the 
 tarry-at-home traveller represents them, but round 
 at the top, like the half of a big sausage stuck on the 
 ground. After a few miles through capoeira and 
 forest, we came to a rancho on the high-road from 
 Petropolis to Parahyba, which we followed, turning 
 (northwards) to the right. 
 
 The only places on these roads are houses, and 
 these are aU Qit\ie,T fazendas (farm estates), or ranchos 
 
SECURITY OF THE COUNTRY. 95 
 
 (mule-troop halting-places with public-house) . Just 
 beyond one of these, called Uibeirao, there are on the 
 road-side three wooden crosses, each of which indi- 
 cates the place where a person has been found mur- 
 dered : in each of these cases the deaths ensued from 
 quarrels. Our friend the Colonel was present at the 
 discovery, a few months ago, of two of them. Robbery 
 and violence is very rare here. The troops of mules 
 coming from the country are never attacked ; some 
 of them of course bring gold and diamonds from the 
 mines, and these, though escorted by a few armed 
 men, would be an easy prey to bandits; I believe 
 however that they are perfectly safe. 
 
 Our road now lay through forest, continually going 
 down-hill, as we had been in the main ever since we 
 left Petropolis. Of course we were very glad when 
 the Colonel told us that the hills we saw in front of us, 
 at no very great distance, were on the other side of 
 the Parahyba. The Parahyba was now our pillar of 
 Hercules, which we longed to see as our boundary for 
 this day, beyond which we should not have to travel ; 
 for the sun was hot, and the mules and ourselves ra- 
 ther tired. As we proceeded, the difference in level 
 became more and more evident at every turn in the 
 road ; the cool mountain air was becoming more tro- 
 pical, and we were again passing from the European 
 climate into the Brazilian. 
 
 At last we got out of the virgin forest ; the capoeira 
 soon became of an entirely different character from 
 
96 RIO AND ITS ENVIRONS. 
 
 any that I had before seen in Brazil. The rich green 
 of the forests had disappeared, and the whole country 
 presented the appearance of a mixture of our summer 
 with our winter. The grass was aU as hrown as hay, 
 and the trees almost bare of leaves, except a few palm- 
 trees ; but they were few and scarce. 
 
 I could not for some time understand the cause of 
 this state of things. This was, it is true, the depth of 
 winter, but the trees could not have been stripped of 
 their leaves by the cold, for the sun was hot enough to 
 roast. Neither did it seem likely that the country 
 should be parched by the heat at this season, the 
 coldest in the year, since it must be green at some 
 time. However, I found that the fact is this : in this 
 part of Brazil the summer is the rainy reason (the 
 reverse of the Pernambuco arrangement), and the 
 winter the dry one ; and here it had not rained for 
 a long time (one person said two months, another 
 five ; but I, not being able to talk the lingo, could not 
 make proper inquiries) ; so that the country really 
 was parched up, for want of rain, by the heat, within 
 cannon-shot of the freshest spring green. 
 
 At last the Colonel pulled up at a neat little venda, 
 on the left-hand side of the road, and said this was 
 our lodging for the night. We had agreed, in con- 
 formity with his advice, not to sleep in the town of 
 Parahyba, as it is a miserable place, but to stop here, 
 about half a mile on the south side of the river near 
 the town. So we took up our quarters at Pacheco's 
 
VIEW OP THE PARAHYBA. 97 
 
 (such was our host's name) venda, and walked out to 
 see the " viDa" while dinner was preparing. We had 
 yet seen nothing of the Parahyba. Suddenly, on 
 turning a comer, we found the beautiful river just 
 below us. It is a fine stream here, some three or four 
 hundred miles from the sea. It is about as broad as 
 the Thames at Hammersmith, much more picturesque, 
 but not quite so usefal. Like its tributary, the Pia- 
 banha, it is half-torrent half-stream, full of rocks and 
 rapids, with here and there a peaceful reach, of course 
 not navigable here, though it is so lower down ; at the 
 town of Parahyba it is full of rocks. The Colonel 
 was very much astonished at my expressing a desire 
 to descend the river in a canoe; which, I should 
 thiak, would be very practicable, and, with proper 
 precautions, very delightful. The river is intended to 
 be crossed by a respectable bridge here : four stone 
 piers have been standing five or six years in the river, 
 the remains of an unfinished undertaking. 
 
 We crossed the river along with a lot of mules re- 
 turning to Minas, by the ferry-barge, which carries 
 over all the traffic of this part of the provinces. A 
 chain and a rope are stretched across the river, the 
 latter below, the former up in the air. On the chain 
 runs a pulley, to which the barge is fastened by an- 
 other chain, and two or three men pull the barge 
 across, by laying hold of the rope with their hands. 
 We walked through the town, the most wretched of 
 places. A church, a burial-ground, a venda and bil- 
 
98 EIO AND ITS ENVIRONS. 
 
 liard-table, and a few scores of dirty houses, with a 
 poptdation of Negroes and half-castes, and a few 
 Indians, with their Chinese-looking brown faces and 
 long black hair, compose the town of Parahyba. 
 Verily, if Parahyba do Norte is no better than its 
 namesake do Sul, her Majesty's Consul there has a 
 miserable berth. I took a bath in the river, and we 
 returned to dinner, — my companions to their greasy 
 pork, I to my bread and doce, black beans and rice. 
 
 On the morning of August 1st we crossed the Para- 
 hyba with our mules in the ferry-boat, and rode to a 
 fazeuda called Boa Uniao, the property of Major de 
 Carvalho. Our road, after crossing the river, lay along 
 its northern bank, for about a league through capoeira, 
 and occasional coffee-plantations. The country here 
 is far greener than on the other side of the river, not 
 presenting the same parched appearance, though to the 
 eye the soU is the same — sandy. We passed a large 
 fazenda, near the river, belonging to the father-in-law 
 of the gentleman just named. Here we turned north- 
 wards, away from the river-bank, and the hills began 
 to be covered with coffee. We then passed through 
 about half a mUe of forest, and then opened out on 
 (what I had not seen before in this province) an open 
 pasture, — park-land, where the hiQs, here low (two or 
 three hundred feet) like those near Pernambuco, were 
 covered with grass, and horses and cattle were grazing. 
 But the grass was not green, though here the trees 
 were. Rain had evidently long been absent, and the 
 
THE SERRARIA. 99 
 
 pasture was parched in consequence. This was the 
 pasture of the Major, surrounding his house, at which 
 we soon arrived. 
 
 The Colonel was now on ground new to him as well 
 as to us. He went to the house, to ask where the 
 proprietor to whom he had a letter of introduction 
 was, as we heaxd from a Black on the premises that 
 he was not at home ; and found that he was gone to 
 a place called the Serraria (the saw-mill), a mile or 
 two distant, which we understood to be the saw-mill 
 of his estate. The Major's wife sent a servant to 
 conduct us to the place. The man led us northwards 
 among some hills, which seemed to be covered for 
 miles and miles with coifee, into the forest, and then, 
 pointing to a path, told us to go straight on and we 
 should come to the Serraria. So on we went, and 
 came to a fork in the path, took of course the wrong 
 turn, and had to retrace our steps a mile : took the 
 other, and found that instead of a straight path it was 
 a most singularly tortuous one ; however, passing a 
 cottage or two, and asking the way, we got on the 
 track, and on we went, round about among miles of 
 coffee, with a broiling sun, and the Colonel (who is a 
 most peppery feUow) in a towering rage ; till at last, 
 after about two hours' ride, we came again upon a 
 park of pasture, and a fine large house with mills at- 
 tached. We marched in, and the Colonel found the 
 Major and delivered his letter. It turned out that 
 this was not his saw-miU, as we had expected (we 
 
 f2 
 
100 ElO AND ITS ENVIRONS. 
 
 were only looking out for a thatched shed with a water- 
 wheel at side), but another fazenda, belonging to a 
 Senhor Ilario. 
 
 The proprietor received us very kindly, but neither 
 he nor the Major, his neighbour, spoke French or Eng- 
 lish ; so B and I could only look on. The fanuly 
 
 had dined, so they gave us dinner alone ; and after- 
 wards amused themselves and us by sending up a fire- 
 balloon, and walking in the garden, where were clove- 
 trees growing, with their leaves as aromatic as the dried 
 spice, cabbages, cauliflowers, tropical fruit-trees (fruit 
 not ripe, except oranges, which are alway? so), and 
 some beautiful clumps of bamboos, under the shade 
 of which they told us the air is perfectly cool in the 
 hottest days of summer. I think the foliage of one 
 or two of the kiads of bamboo the richest I know ; 
 the green is so deep, and the form so graceful. This 
 is a very large fazenda, and the owner a very wealthy 
 man. They had made 16,000 arrobas (thirty-two 
 pounds each) of coflee this year. Here we slept, — three 
 beds in a small room without a window in it, the 
 house being rather full. Of course we paid nothing 
 for our accommodation here ; when travelling in this 
 country one has to pay nothing, or immensely high, 
 for entertainment. At this fazenda, Serraria, we were 
 very near the river Parahybuna, a tributary of the Pa- 
 rahyba. The Parahybuna is here the boundary of the 
 province of Rio, and the hills which we saw within 
 half a mile of us were in the province of the Minas. 
 
 Next morning (August 2) I was up at six, and took 
 
A WEALTHY COFFEE-PLANTER. 101 
 
 a shower-bath under one of the water-mills ; and then, 
 in company with the Major, rode back to his fazenda 
 (Boa Uniao) to breakfast. It was an unmitigated 
 luck for us that the Major was not at home, as we had 
 a beautiful ride, and saw another Brazilian house, 
 where the ladies (mother and two daughters) were in- 
 troduced to us. I think the custom which travellers 
 describe, of hiding away the ladies, must be disappear- 
 ing with the march of intellect in Brazil, for in most 
 of the houses I have been in they have presented 
 themselves. This day's ride was the most amusiag, 
 as weU as charming, that we had in the whole trip. 
 After breakfast we started, the Major, the Colonel, 
 
 B , I, and two negroes, the servants respectively 
 
 of the two first. Before proceeding, I must tell you 
 that the Major is a very spirited person, remarkable for 
 a Brazilian. He is now one of the richest and most 
 influential persons ia those parts. His coffee-planta- 
 tions are of immense extent ; he is introducing experi- 
 ments in the preparation of the berry, and is altogether 
 going ahead. Only eleven years ago his estate was all 
 virgin forest, and now he has all those miles of coffee 
 and beautiful pastures, with the best horses and mules 
 in the country upon it. He has only one hand ; one 
 day, at a place which he showed us in the wood, he 
 was shooting, and by some accident blew the other 
 off. A firiend of his, who saw what had happened, 
 fainted and fell ; the Major^ unconscious of any in- 
 jury to himself, thought he had shot his friend, and 
 
103 RIO AND ITS ENVIRONS. 
 
 rushed to his side, when he foimd blood droppiag 
 from himself, and then missed his hand. He is a 
 very clever, energetic feUow, and a good-natured one 
 too. His inquiring mind is going to carry him to 
 England next year : of course I told him to come 
 and see me. 
 
 Well, he undertook to conduct us today to a place 
 to which the Colonel wanted to go, and thus we 
 started as aforesaid. In the direction in which we 
 went, about east, his house is on the verge of that part 
 of his estate which is cleared ; so we soon passed out 
 of the home-pasture or park into the virgin forest. 
 Our road lay for several miles through the mato vir- 
 gem, and this was the most beautiful wood I have ever 
 seen ; it differed from aU others I have been through, 
 m lying on a plain with only a slight undulation of 
 the ground here and there. But the chief beauty of 
 the wood was the stuff it was made of. Enormous 
 trees, the largest we had seen anywhere, shooting 
 up skyward, like the masts of Brobdignag ships, with 
 rigging to match, the cordage being either the stems of 
 gigantic vines, or the roots of great epiphyte arums. 
 These arums are one of the ornaments of the forest 
 whenever they occur. They sit round the stems of the 
 trees at a great height, like the capitals of some huge 
 columns, with their bunch of large deep green leaves 
 in rich contrast with the straight brown stem; the 
 older plants have stems which project from the tree, 
 while the heart-shaped leaves of others seem as if 
 
GIGANTIC AKUMS. 
 
 103 
 
 they grew at once out of the trunk. I helieve that 
 the stems of the arums are properly creepers, that cling 
 to the tree like ivy, but that 
 they get ripped off, by the 
 pulling of their own roots. 
 The stems throw out long 
 fibres, some which go straight 
 round the tree, horizontally, 
 and tie the plant on ; others 
 go directly down to the earth, 
 sisty or eighty feet perhaps 
 below, and then take attach- 
 ment to the soil. These 
 
 roots can be distinguished from the other rigging of 
 the trees by their going plumb down, while the stems 
 of the creepers often wind and twist about, or hang 
 slantwise like rope-ladders of a ship. 
 
 By the bye, I believe I was mistaken in a former 
 letter from Pernambuco, in saying that the creeper- 
 stems hanging from the branches of the great Vis- 
 gueiro at Casiaga, must have been of the same age 
 with the tree itself. I see there is another way of 
 accounting for their position, which is probably the 
 true one. The vine climbs like ivy or by tendrils up 
 the stump of the tree, and so out upon the branches ; 
 then in process of time the dingers get rotted off, 
 and the creeper-stem by its own weight is ripped away 
 from its attachment to the trunk, and so hangs from 
 the branches at a point a long way from the main 
 trunk. 
 
104 BIO AND ITS ENVIRONS. 
 
 But the chief beauty of this splendid forest was that 
 of the palms. The underwood of this forest does not 
 (like most that I have passed through) consist of bam- 
 boos, or of dense shrubs or herbage, but of laurel-like 
 trees, and palms, principally of one species, the most 
 elegant of all that 1 have seen growing wild ; they call 
 it the palmito. It is the one of which, more com- 
 monly than of any other, the embryo leaves are eaten ; 
 and a very nice dish it makes, either stewed or as 
 salad. Countless thousands of this tree studded the 
 whole forest, of all heights and sizes, from one foot to 
 a hundred in length of stem ; the stems of the biggest 
 however not exceeding sis or eight inches in diameter 
 in the ground, tapering very gently, being almost as 
 cylindrical as a round ruler ; the stem as smooth and 
 round, all the way up, as if turned in a lathe, scarcely 
 even marks visible of the places where the leaves have 
 fallen off. At top is the crown of leaves, most deli- 
 cate feathers, not crowded together as ia most palms, 
 but each quite separate; the upper two feet of the 
 stem, below the lowest leaf, as green as grass, the rest 
 of the stem brown like bark ; the outside here being 
 in fact the lower part of the leaf-stalk of the lowest 
 leaf, which on this palm (as in the Casuarina in the 
 Botanic Gardens at E,io) forms the sheath of the stalk 
 at the top, and encloses the edible palmito. These 
 trees yield very good mits, on which the economic 
 Major feeds his pigs. The leaves make first-rate 
 thatch. The trunks are very strong, and make splen- 
 
PHYSIOGNOMY OF THE FORESTS. 105 
 
 did fences or log-housesj by virtue of their perfect 
 straightness and roundness. The crown of leaves 
 towers up to the branches of the high forest-trees, 
 forming the foliage of the mid-height. They are said 
 to be a mark of good soil wherever they grow well. 
 Below them are other palms, and the shrubby trees 
 like laurels and rhododendrons, all now flowerless. I 
 did not see a single tree-fern in this forest; indeed 
 I do not remember seeing one north of the Parahyba, 
 nor near it on the south side. This was the only 
 wood in which I have seen many of these palmito 
 trees. 
 
 I have been very much struck by the difference in 
 the physiognomy of the different forests, or parts of 
 the same forest. Every wood has some particular 
 character which marks it ; generally it is the preva- 
 lence of some particular palm or cane. I have no 
 doubt the forest trees differ too, but they are so much 
 alike, and the leaf so out of sight, that I am no wiser 
 than you are as to their peculiarities, of which I merely 
 observe some half-dozen in the form and growth of 
 the heads or branches. There is also an immense 
 variety of shades of green to be seen on the hiU-sides 
 that are covered with forest ; a few trees are bare of 
 leaves (in those parts where the bulk of the forest is 
 as green as a meadow), and very few show tints of 
 fading, like an English autumn. There are no Vis- 
 gueiros with their immense cedar-like limbs, as at 
 Pernambuco. There is a tree called the cedar, from 
 
 f3 
 
106 mo AND ITS ENVIRONS. 
 
 the resemblance of its wood to the true cedax in co- 
 lour, smellj and texture, but it is a broad-leaved tree ; 
 it is very common, much valued, and grows to an im- 
 mense size. 
 
 Thus our road lay for some miles along a wide 
 picada, not long ago made by the Major through this 
 forest in seven days, by aid of seventy Blacks. At last 
 the ground began to rise, and we emerged on a cleared 
 space on the top of a hill, with a fine view of the lulls 
 in the province of Minas before us in the north-east, 
 on the other side of the Parahybuna, and of the 
 mountains of the Petropolis range in the south, be- 
 yond the Parahyba. But neither of the rivers were 
 visible ; being buried in woods and hills in this undu- 
 lating country, you do not see them until you come 
 close upon them. A mile or two more, through capo- 
 eira and felled forest prepared for burning, took us 
 to a little fazenda, the property of our conductor, he 
 having lately purchased it ; here we dismounted and 
 looked about us. We found the Parahybuna close at 
 the back of the house, with a large island hill in the 
 middle of it, cleared and covered with dried wood 
 ready for burning, and a coffee plantation on the hill 
 at the other side : and beyond, aU round, the virgin 
 forest. Such a beautiful position ! our friend the 
 Major is going to cultivate fiercely, and make a pet 
 of the place, and gardens on the islands. The river 
 is here a torrent rushing over a bed fuU of stratified 
 gneiss rocks, standing up on edge, only half of it 
 
CROSSING THE RIVER. 107 
 
 visible from the houses the other half being behind the 
 island which splits the stream. 
 
 We soon proceeded, rode down along the river- 
 bank about a mile, and puUed np on the margin, at a 
 point where a ferry is established. The ferry-boat (be- 
 longing apparently to a small farmer, whose house is 
 at the other side of the river, half a mile up) was lying 
 on the opposite shore; there we sat ourselves down, 
 having unsaddled our mules, to wait for the ferryman, 
 for whom a Negro was sent into some mysterious re- 
 gions down the river. We waited long, so to amuse 
 myself I stripped and swam across to see whether I 
 could bring the ferry-boat over : there was no paddle, 
 and the boat was padlocked to a tree ; but the sand- 
 flies were not under lock and key, — alas ! my body 
 was soon covered by hundreds of them, so small that 
 I scarcely noticed them at the time, and felt no sting- 
 ing ; but when night came and I was in bed, the tor- 
 ment commenced; I was covered from neck to heel 
 with little pimples, itching like fturnaces, and so it was 
 for three or four nights after. The river at this 
 point where the ferry is has a sandy bottom, and runs 
 straight for a mile with wood on both sides, the water 
 about as wide as the Thames at its broadest part op- 
 posite Weybridge lock; so I had to swim back, and 
 saw the ferryman in the distance paddling away at a 
 frightful pace up the stream in a little canoe; he 
 loosened the ferry-canoe, which was (as are all the 
 smaller river-boats here) cut out of a single tree hoi- 
 
108 RIO AND ITS ENVIRONS. 
 
 lowed out, about forty or fifty feet long. Into this 
 canoe we put all our bridles^ saddles, and traps, which 
 were first ferried over, with the two Blacks, to receive 
 the mules. Then all the mules were driven into th& 
 water ; as soon as they were fairly immersed^ they at 
 once turned their heads towards the opposite bank, 
 and swam across to the landing-place, where they were 
 caught and bridled by the servants; the ceremony 
 concluded by our following in the ferry-boat. 
 
 We mounted again, and rode on through the capo- 
 eira, which is here marked by a considerable quantity 
 of a palm-tree, which 1 had not seen growing wild 
 before today. It dififers from most others in having 
 leaves growing much farther down the stem (which is 
 rather thick and straight) than most of the palms, the 
 stem beiag covered almost to the ground with the 
 sheaths of the leaf-stalks. This kind of palm bears 
 a nut rather bigger than a walnut, which I believe is 
 eaten by the people. Soon after this, in the low ground 
 near the river, we passed a marsh with a number of 
 Spurwings (a kind of Rail, with a spur on its wing, 
 that walks on the leaves of the water-plants,) and snow- 
 white herons. The latter flew up into the trees when 
 we approached, seeming to be much wilder than most 
 of the birds in this country, which are generally very 
 tame (some of the parrots however are very shy). 
 In this capoeira, not far from each other, I found 
 two shrubs, neither of them with any leaves on, with 
 curious great seeds; one a pod covered with down. 
 
A MISFORTUNE. 109 
 
 the other an indescribable thing like some queer ani- 
 mal's head, foil of milk : I mean to bring them home 
 if I can. The worst of travelling through the coun- 
 try in this sort of way on horseback is, that I have 
 no time to examine anything, lest I should detain 
 companions, whom business or inclination hurries on ; 
 so I look upon what I pick up, in these rapid glances 
 at the country, as just a sort of introduction to what 
 may be learned at times when I may have a little lei- 
 sure in the woods. 
 
 After about two or three miles through the same 
 kind of country that we had passed through before 
 so often, — forest, clearing, and ground planted with 
 coffee, castor-oU, and maize, — we came to a little cot- 
 tage on the banks of a good-sized river, — the Parahyba 
 again, below its confluence with the Parahybuna and 
 the Piabanha, which runs into the former at the same 
 point on opposite sides, the former from the north, 
 the latter from the south, both nearly at right angles 
 to the coiirse of the larger river. However, just be- 
 fore we reached the place, an incident occurred which 
 afforded much diversion to aU the party, not the least 
 to the person most concerned in it. A mile or so be- 
 fore we stopped, I had heard a small snap behind me, 
 which I thought was some movement of a cord which 
 tied my bundle on the pack-saddle behind. It turned 
 out that the crupper had broken and fallen off. Soon 
 after, we came to a steep descent, at a point where 
 the road dipped down a little hollow on the hill-side. 
 
110 KIO AND ITS ENVIRONS. 
 
 In the bottom runs a little trickle of what sometimes 
 may be water, bnt was then a mass of the blackest 
 mud out of Styx, and of abominable smeU. As my 
 mule went down the hill, I felt myself gradually ap- 
 proximating his ears in an unaccountable manner ; at 
 last the saddle turned round just as the mule came 
 to the middle of the filth, and down I came into the 
 mire, and rose a delicious figure. When we arrived 
 a few minutes after at the boatman's cottage on the 
 river-bank (where we were to leave our mules for the 
 night), I changed my clothes, so as to be in some 
 degree presentable at the house of ihe fazendeiro on 
 the other side. 
 
 We left our animals in charge of the Negroes, and 
 crossed the Parahyba, getting very nearly upset on the 
 passage, by some one moving, just as we entered the 
 most rapid part of the current. These boats are al- 
 most as easily upset as the modern outrigger wherries, 
 which occasionally duck Englishmen in the Thames. 
 After landing on the other side, a walk of about a 
 mile brought us to the large fazenda of Colonel Santos, 
 an old Portuguese, who came out with Don Pedro I., 
 and has settled in the country. The Major had come 
 hither to introduce us to the old Colonel. He re- 
 ceived us very kiudly. We were the first Englishmen 
 who had ever been at his house, and he seemed to 
 take a fancy to us. He begged us to stay at least 
 three or four days with him, and seemed quite sorry 
 when he heard that it was impossible, and embraced 
 
FAZENDA TRES BARRAS. HI 
 
 ns in the most paternal manner when we went away. 
 He has an immense estate, and upwards of two hun- 
 dred slaves at work upon it. 
 
 His house consisted of two floors, the inhabited 
 part of it being the upper floor. The house faces a 
 large square court or yard, about a hundred yards 
 across, one side of which is occupied by outbuildings, 
 miUs, etc. ; another, opposite to this, by the owner's 
 house, and by the long row of slaves' cottages. This 
 is very much the way that all the fazendas are ar- 
 ranged, with the Negro cabins close to the house. 
 About eight o'clock in the evening we heard a bell 
 ring ; this, we were told, was for aU the slaves to wash 
 their feet ; soon after another rang, and as we stood 
 on the balcony, overlooking the great square, we saw 
 a Negro walking across the enclosure towards the 
 house with a large torch (a bamboo about twenty feet 
 long) balanced on his shoulder, charged with inflam- 
 mable matter at one end and lighted. Negroes came 
 pouring out on all sides, and soon a semicircle round 
 the front of the house was formed, with the women 
 on one side, and the men on the other : I counted 
 about one hundred and eighty. In the middle, by the 
 side of the torch-bearer, appeared a white man carry- 
 ing a whip. He commenced a regular roU-call, siag- 
 ing out a long list of names (all Christian), to each 
 of which " sum" or something similar, was answered 
 in true Winchester style. The inspector then, accom- 
 panied by the torch-man, walked round the amphi- 
 
112 RIO AND ITS ENVIEONS. 
 
 theatre, and looked, or pretended to look, at the feet of 
 each one, to see that they were clean. They were 
 then despatched to supper. I went out to see how 
 they managed this, and foimd them crowding into an 
 out-house, in which was a large cauldron over a fire, 
 containing a mess of cooked farinha, which was served 
 out into the half-calabash of each as he came up, with 
 a big ladle. The name of this fazenda is Tres Barras 
 (the Three Bars), so called from the neighbouring 
 confluence of the rivers, which I have mentioned. 
 
 Next morning, August 3rd, it was proposed after 
 breakfast that we should go up the Parahyba in a 
 boat, to the mouths of the two tributaries ; but the 
 Major, whether on account of his one-handedness or 
 for other reasons, was afraid of the possible conse- 
 quences of an upset of the canoe ; so the old Colonel 
 put us on mules of his own, and we rode up along thp 
 side of the Parahyba. You will understand that we 
 were now on the south side of the river, in the pro- 
 vince of Rio de Janeiro again. This Tres Barras is 
 a very remarkable poiat ; the junction of the rivers 
 is in the midst of the forest, the trees thick every- 
 where, except at the angle nearest to the fazenda, 
 where Indian corn and the castor-oil plant were grow- 
 ing on the cleared land. A large island, formed by a 
 fork of the Piabanha, where it joins the Parahyba, in- 
 tercepted from our view the mouth of the Parahy- 
 buna. The latter of the two tributaries is a far larger 
 river than the former, being nearly as large as the 
 
JUNCTION OF THE RIVERS. 113 
 
 Parahyba. We then returned to the ferry^ where we 
 left the Colonel's mules in charge of a Negro, and 
 crossed the river to the old ferryman's house, where 
 we found our animals ; the poor brutes had had no- 
 thing to eat, with a day's work before them. 
 
 We returned by the road by which we had come 
 (which for a few miles lay through a bit of Minas), 
 stopping through the heat of the day at Major de 
 Carvalho's little fazenda, near the Parahybuna, which 
 we had to cross in the same manner as before, the 
 mules swimming. Here we dined. A small island in 
 the river, on which the Major means to make a gar- 
 den, was on fire, in process of clearing. I dare say 
 it would have been a very pretty sight at night : (we 
 were not so fortunate as to see a large forest fire 
 all the time we were out, though we everywhere saw 
 woods felled and dry, in preparation for firing.) My 
 companions amused themselves for a little while by 
 washing for diamonds in the sand in some of the holes 
 in the rocks of the river-bed. The Major said that 
 diamonds were to be found there. I, not being very 
 sanguine of treasure, preferred mooning about the 
 blazing wood. In the afternoon we returned to Boa 
 Uniao, through the beautiful palmito forests. 
 
 Next morning (August 4th), after breakfast — {Mem. 
 This was the only house I have been in in which we 
 had no bread at all, either on this or on our former 
 breakfast here : I breakfasted on black beans and 
 mandioca farinha), — we rode with the Major to the 
 
114 RIO AND ITS ENVIRONS. 
 
 fazenda of his father-in-law^ which we had passed in 
 coming from Parahyba. We looked round the farm- 
 buildings ; I there saw a kind of cask quite new to 
 me ; it consisted of two great troughs of wood, each 
 twenty-seven feet long, and about fourteen inches high 
 and broad, hewn out of solid trees, and closed at the 
 ends with pieces of wood let iato grooves in the sides 
 of the troughs. The sides and ends were about two 
 inches and a half thick, so you may imagine the im- 
 mense weight of the whole. The two troughs were 
 of exactly the same shape and size : one was laid on 
 the ground horizontally on its bottom, the other was 
 laid exactly over it, bottom upwards ; so that the 
 edges of their sides, which were quite smooth and flat, 
 were in contact. Around the two passed two or three 
 stout frames of wood, which, by driving in wedges, 
 were made to embrace the troughs tightly, and force 
 the faces of their edges into close contact. I was told 
 that the pressure thus produced was sufficient to pre- 
 vent the escape of any liquid from the interior, when 
 it was quite fuU. I confess I am rather incredulous, 
 for I did not see the cask in use ; it was quite new. 
 The purpose of this apparatus was to hold cachaqa, 
 which is a kind of rum (quite colourless), made from 
 the treacle which flows from the sugar in the purifica- 
 tion. On some estates they make the spirit at once 
 from the sugar-cane juice, fermenting and distilling 
 it, instead of preparing sugar from it. 
 
 The fazenda is close to the Parahyba, on its north 
 
IlETUK^f JOURNEY. 115 
 
 side, about a league and a half east of the Villa 
 Parahyba. While we were about the premises the 
 mules had been made to swim across the river, as we 
 were to return southwards from this point, without 
 going back to the so-called town. The old fazendeiro 
 produced some bottles of Dublin stout, and regaled 
 my friends therewith, under a big Gamelleira tree, 
 which stood near his house. This tree is said to be a 
 kind of wild fig-tree ; it is of the same kind as that 
 growing on the road to Petropolis, at the Fazenda 
 Correia. I have, since I saw that one, seen several 
 others : they are planted near the houses for the sake 
 of their shade. So we were ferried across the Para- 
 hyba, taking with us a Negro from the fazenda to 
 conduct us some distance, tiU we should come to 
 ground known to C. G. ; and having taken leave of 
 the Major, we passed at first through parched-up leaf- 
 less capoeira, and after some little time got into green 
 forest, the trees however being neither so large, nor 
 so verdant as those we had seen on the other side of 
 the river, or on the higher land on this side. We kept 
 rising higher and higher up-hiU from the time we left 
 the river. 
 
 After three-quarters of an hour of rather uninter- 
 esting ride, we came to a fazenda on the banks of the 
 Piabanha. The owner asked us to stop, but a council 
 of war being held, it was determined that we should 
 push on and sleep at a place on the high-road to Para- 
 hyba from Rio, from which we could reach Petropolis 
 
116 EIO AND ITS ENVIRONS. 
 
 next day. So on we went^ a rather wearisome ride, 
 as the poor mules were tired. After two hours or so 
 through forest and wood^ passing two or three fazen- 
 das and seeing nothing worthy of note, we came out 
 upon the road two or three miles to the north of Ei- 
 beirao, near the murder-crosses. We reached Ribeirao 
 just before sunset, and dined and slept there : it was 
 a rancho and venda of rather superior class, remark- 
 able for the immense quantity of pigeons in which its 
 owner rejoices. 
 
 Next morning we were up early, and off before 
 
 breakfast, as B and I had a long ride before us, 
 
 and wished to get over as much as possible of it in 
 the cool hours. Colonel C. Gr. accompanied us as 
 far as the rancho of Lage, where we had joined the 
 road on coming from Benjamin on our way to Para- 
 hyba ; this is only a mile or two from Ribeirao. Here 
 our kind conductor left us, with a tender farewell, and 
 
 struck off for Benjamin W ^s, which was to be his 
 
 head-quarters for some little time, and B and I 
 
 continued our journey, passing several fazendas. The 
 scenery in some places was very magnificent, becom- 
 ing continually more and more mountainous, the 
 hills for the most part covered with forest, and fre- 
 quent fine views of the loftier peaks of the Estrella 
 range, especially of Maria Camprida, a very con- 
 spicuous cone. 
 
 We were to breakfast at Roberto's, where we had 
 left the road on our outward voyage, and we anxiously 
 
ROBERTO AS AN OFFICIAL. 117 
 
 looked ahead at every turn of the winding road^ in 
 hopes we were approaching his cottage, as we were 
 getting hungry. At length we met a cavalcade of 
 horse and mtde-men. Among these was a consequen- 
 tial-looking personagCj in a blue frock-coat, with a 
 soldier behind him; I at once recognized our host 
 Roberto, who seemed very glad to see us. It was evi- 
 dent he was on duty of some kind ; so we explained 
 as well as we could that we were going to breakfast at 
 his house, and then rode on. But it was half an hour 
 yet, full eleven o'clock (as we had started at half- 
 past seven) , before we reached the little rancho on the 
 banks of the Piabanha. Here I took a bath in a brook 
 that came down the hill-side, while the little Nigger 
 got us breakfast. The ladies, it appears, were gone 
 out, and Roberto himself was on his way, when we 
 met him, to a soldier's funeral. He is Juiz de Paz, or 
 magistrate, of the district. After a feast of bread and 
 treacle for me, and milho for the mules, we resumed 
 our journey at about two p.m., and after a ride of 
 three hours more arrived at Petropolis : here we dined, 
 and slept at Carpenter's Hotel : four milreis a day 
 was the charge for bed and three meals of bread and 
 doce. 
 
 Next morning we sent our portmanteaus, which 
 had been left here, on by a carriage which was going 
 to Porto de Estrella, whither we were bound ; and at 
 eleven o'clock mounted our mules, being informed 
 that it was about three hours' ride to the little port 
 
118 BIO AND ITS ENVIRONS. 
 
 on the river EstreUa, whence the steamers start for 
 Rio. An excellent carriage-road winds down the side 
 of the mountains (or the western side of a gorge which 
 runs up into the Serra)^ backwards and forwards for 
 about 3000 feet, forming by its sinuosities a descent 
 so gradual, that it is scarcely perceived by the eye that 
 each reach of the road is not horizontal ; yet a gentle- 
 man told me he had once walked down, and that his 
 knees ached for a week after. We soon fotind that 
 the three hours we had heard of were not three hours 
 of the mules' walking pace, at which we had been 
 travelling lately, but three hours of steady trot for 
 carriage-animals; so we had to trot nearly all the 
 way down the mountain-side, and along the ten or 
 twelve mUes of sandy flat, from the foot of the Serra 
 to the village. The road aU down the mountain has 
 the forest above and below it, — great trees and pre- 
 cipices in strong contrast with the very creditable 
 carriage-way. We saw a black snake about five feet 
 long, recently killed, lying in the road. The sandy 
 plain, from the foot of the mountains to the harbour- 
 edge, here seems to be of much the same character as 
 that between the foot of that part of the same range 
 which is called the Organ Mountains and Piedade, 
 across which we commenced our travels ; but the 
 shrubs are greener, and there are a great number of 
 houses and a good deal of cultivation. We had not 
 however much time to look about us, for the steamer 
 starts daily at three p.m., and time was going on. 
 
PORTO DE ESTRELLA. 119 
 
 Our poor mules — marvellous models of unwearying 
 patience — had to canter in the last two miles, as we 
 feared being too late. 
 
 At Porto de Estrella we fotmd our luggage in a 
 shop, after a little inquiry, and got on board the 
 steamer, where I at once plunged into a pennyworth 
 of bananas and a pennyworth of oranges (more than 
 
 B and I could eat between us) ; and at three p.m. 
 
 we started. The little river, about the size of the Cam 
 at Cambridge, runs through the fenny flat, among 
 reeds, stunted palms, and brushwood, winding most 
 eccentrically, and at last joins the harbour near its 
 north-west comer. The steamer found its way among 
 the islands, passing close by the large one of Gover- 
 nador (about twelve miles long), and at length ap- 
 proached the city and the neighbouring island of Co- 
 bras, and stopped to coal at the Ilha das Inchadas. 
 Here we observed two large steamers, the nearest one 
 a Yankee going to California (probably to ply between 
 San Francisco and Panama ; these vessels come oc- 
 casionally, and touch here and at Valparaiso, going 
 through Magellan's Straits) ; the other the Teviot, 
 still blowing oif her steam, only three or four hours 
 arrived, and two days and odd hours before her time. 
 We landed at Rio at six p.m. 
 
 I spent Sunday at St. Domingo, a village on the 
 other side of the harbour, near Praga Grande, toge- 
 ther with which, I believe, it forms the town of Ni- 
 therohy, a name seldom used. Nitherohy is the old 
 
120 mo AND ITS ENVIRONS. 
 
 Indian name of the harbour, said to mean " sudden 
 water," — a very far more appropriate one than the ab- 
 surd name by which this place is at present known. 
 It is very different from this side — a pretty rural dis- 
 trict (reminding me much of Guernsey and Jersey) 
 with undulating hills and beautiful bays entangled 
 among them. Nearer the mouth of the harbour and 
 inland behind, there are low precipitous mountains, 
 one of which, seen in a certain direction, looks very 
 like the Sugar-loaf Rock, to which it forms a kind of 
 pendant, — though seen in the other direction it ap- 
 pears as a long hiU. 
 
 I understand that the independence of Paraguay is 
 aqknowledged by the Argentine States, and that the 
 navigation of the river is open, in which case I shall 
 hope to ascend it. I have just seen a gentleman who 
 tells me that a Brazilian steamer is to sail from B-io 
 de Janeiro, bound for Assumption (the capital of Pa- 
 raguay), to take thither a new Minister from the Go- 
 vernment of Brazil, and that I can get a passage up 
 there from Monte Video in her. If this turns out to 
 be true, it wiQ be great fiin. It is said that, the Bra- 
 zilian steamer having been announced to be about to 
 ascend the river, the English and French authorities. 
 Sir C. Hotham and M. St.-Georges, declared their in- 
 tention of doing likewise, as having as good a right, 
 and that Urquiza therefore declared the rivers open 
 altogether. This does not seem very likely to me ; at 
 any rate it seems pretty clear that the inland Japan of 
 
FREE NAVIGATION. 131 
 
 Soutt America is about to have its ports open, about 
 the same time that the Island of the East is being- 
 lanced about the gums, and that I have as good a 
 chance of going up in the first steamer as any one else 
 has, notwithstanding Sir Charles's not very encou- 
 raging reply to my semi-application. My health has 
 been absolutely perfect, whatever the temperature has 
 been ; I have not yet found the sun too hot anywhere 
 for my comfort. I am more likely to suffer from cold 
 than heat, for I have scarcely any warm clothes, and 
 it will be rather cold, I expect, at the River Plate. 
 
122 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PEOM RIO TO BUEWOS AYRES. 
 
 DEPABTUEE BEOM EIO. — THE EIVEB PIATE. — BTTENOS ATEES AND 
 ITS STENCHES. — GATJOHO COSTUME. — PLANS POB EEAOHIUG AS- 
 StTMPTION. — JIffl&EES. — CAEEAPATOS. — lEISH GAUOHOS. — ^A EIDB 
 
 IN THE OUTSKIETS OP THE TOWIf. — DISGUSTING SIGHTS. THE 
 
 UMBU TEEE. EBGUIiABITY OP THE TOWN. BEAtTTT OP THE 
 
 LADIES. — TEIP TO MONTE TIDEO. — THE NUTB YEABS' SIEGE. — 
 MATADEEO, OE SLAtTGHTEE-HOHSE. — MISNOMEES. — ENGLISH AND 
 SPANISH OEMETEEIES. — EETUEN TO BUENOS ATEES. — PBOSPECTS 
 ON BOAED THE ' NEPTUNE,' BOUND POE COEEIENTES. — PAEAGUAT 
 AND ITS HISTOET. — A SUNDAY IN THE PAMPAS. — INTEBVIEW 
 "WITH UEQUIZA.- — OXHOEN PENCES. — OSTEICHES. — EISOACHOS. — 
 SALADEEOS, OE SALTING-PLACES. — TEATELLrNG COMPANIONS TO 
 PABAGUAT. — OPENING OE THE BITEES. 
 
 I HOPE that the same steamer -which carried my last 
 letter will carry home another^ which I had sent to 
 
 P to forward previously. I do not feel so sure 
 
 that you wUl ever receive that letter^ as it was put 
 into the post at Petropolis, and the Brazilian posts 
 are very uncertain and ill-managed.* After I finished 
 my last letter^ I packed up my traps, wrote a, note of 
 introduction for Mr. E. De Momay to take to you, 
 that he may deliver to you verbal report of my visible 
 * The missing letter before spoken of. — Ed. 
 
BEPARTURE FROM RIO. 123 
 
 existence at that time, went on board the Prince, 
 leaving a portmanteau, with some clothes and books, 
 with a firiend, as a sort of link of union with the civi- 
 lized world, and at half-past four p.m., on August 12th, 
 steamed out of the magnificent harbour, and under 
 the " Sugar-loaf" into the sea. 
 
 We had beautiful weather for a month at and about 
 Rio, but the night of the 11th had been a stormy wind- 
 up, — thunder, lightning, pelting rain, and a fierce gale. 
 It rained heavily at Rio in the morning, and I had 
 had twenty milreis extorted out of me by the passport 
 minions, on account of some trifling deficiency in my 
 English passport. So I was wroth, and the weather 
 too, and as soon as we got out to sea I turned in and 
 sulked for twenty-four hours. The sea was rough, and 
 the wind blew hard, and the frigate-birds sailed trium- 
 phantly with motionless wings, high ia the air. And 
 so it went on; gradually the wind lulled, becoming 
 however unpleasantly cold (from south-east). Next 
 day we were followed by lots of "Cape pigeons," as 
 they call a kind of sea-bird, white, with black backs 
 and wing-tops and jaws, and with the most elegant 
 flight of any I have ever seen, — dashing and skimming 
 and whirhng about, without visibly moving their wings. 
 I was glad that it was rough weather, too rough for 
 passengers to try to shoot them. On the 14th I was 
 very glad to put on two shirts, and should not have 
 been sorry to have had a thicker great-coat. It was 
 colder stiU on the 15th, but the sea was not so rough. 
 
 G 2 
 
124 PROM mo TO BUENOS AYRES. 
 
 On the 16th the wind lulledj and it was almost quite 
 calm, with a long swell ; the weather was beautiful, 
 and the sun quite warm at midday, so that lighter 
 clothing was pleasant. Colder again on the 17th; an- 
 other shirt again, as we pushed down into the winter. 
 Wind fresher again. 
 
 At ten A.M. we sighted the Island of Lobos (Seal 
 Isle), a rock-lump standing by itself. Immense quan- 
 tities of sea-birds were flying about us ; no " Cape 
 pigeons," but huge albatrosses, heavy, lubberly -looking 
 birds, just hke great black-backed guUs, but not nearly 
 so elegant as any gull. I was much disappointed, for 
 I fancied the stuffed head in our hall belonged to a 
 very magnificent bird. Lobos is at the north side of 
 the mouth of the Eiver de la Plata. At noon we were 
 off Maldonado ; long low hills, just indicating that 
 land was stretching along on our starboard side, east 
 to west : a seal or two swimming occasionally showed 
 their noses, to justify the name of Lobos Islands. 
 
 So here we were now in the wonderful river, three 
 hundred mortal miles across, with the indigo-blue of 
 the ocean changed for mud-colour, — the dirty pale 
 green of the estuary. We saw scarcely anything 
 more of the land till Monte Video came in sight, and 
 at five P.M. of the 17th we anchored in the bay. I 
 had intended to stop to see the town, but there were 
 a few cases of fever at Rio; so (as we learned on 
 board the 'Prince' there would be) there was quaran- 
 tine of three or four days to be passed by all passen- 
 
BAY OF MONTE VIDEO. 125 
 
 gers from Rio, at a miserable little island in the bay 
 called Rat Island, where they make wretched victims 
 pay hugely for board and lodging. On the other hand, 
 those who go on to Buenos Ayres by the steamer, if 
 kept ia quarantine, remain on board the vessels, and 
 feed at the Company's expense. So Boutcher and I 
 determined to go on, and to imagine Monte Video for 
 the present. So off to Rat Island went the miserable 
 passengers to Monte Video, and with them a quack 
 (laaval surgeon) going to the Falkland Islands, — sent 
 by the Government to keep the colonists in health, or 
 thin them off, as the case may be. He was to go next 
 day by the 'Amelia' schooner, on her second outward 
 voyage ; she has just been established, to carry the 
 mails from Monte Video to the FaUdands, in conti- 
 nuation of the steamer-line from England. 
 
 Four-and-twenty hours we lay in the bay, looking 
 at the town, — a curious-looking place, with a Moorish, 
 oriental air ; all the houses flat-topped, terrace-roofed, 
 and with tall church- towers like minarets. The bay 
 sweeps round with a fine deep curve, enclosing multi- 
 tudes of ships. On the eastern side lies the town, on 
 very slightly rising ground. A long low bank skirts 
 the bottom of the bay, and a low solitary hill, with 
 a fort at the top, — the mountain by courtesy, which 
 must have given its name to the place. Next day (18th) 
 the time was enlivened by occasional visits from the 
 shore ; among them a former acquaintance of mine on 
 board the 'Severn,' who came to inquire for some pack- 
 age ; but no visitors dared come on board, for fear of 
 
126 FROM RIO TO BUENOS AYRES. 
 
 being put in quarantine by the wiseacres who anointed 
 with vinegar or holy water the mail-bag from Rio and 
 all its contentSj as soon as they got it in the boat. 
 
 At four P.M. on the 18th we got up anchor, and 
 started for Buenos Ayres. Next morning, the 19th, 
 was foggy and cold. When I went on deck about eight 
 A.M. land was just visible on our left-hand, — a low line 
 of coast, — but there was no sign of it on the other 
 side. A little bird was brought me by one of the 
 officers before I was out of bed, that had come on 
 board in the night ; it was a water-rail, exactly Kke 
 our English one in colour, but not much bigger than 
 a lark.* I threw it up in the air to let it fly away, 
 but it would not leave the vessel, but ran about one 
 of the boats as if it were quite at home. And the 
 water was really fresh, for, scarcely believing what they 
 told me, I tied a cup to a line and drew up some 
 water out of the sea, and behold ! it was quite fresh 
 and good, though a little turbid. It was very cold 
 
 * The following more precise description is from a note-book of 
 Mr. Mansfield's : — " About seven incbes long from bill to tail. Top of 
 bead snuff-brown ; back featbers black in tbe middle, brown on tbe 
 sides ; wing-coverts tbe same, but paler, and with a wbite bar near tbe 
 tips, about one-tbird from the end of each feather; white border to 
 carpus ; tail-covert3 dark brown with light edges ; throat and breast 
 slate-grey; under tail-coverts black and white barred, so as to mottle ; 
 quills all pale brown at the tip, the tmder sides pale silvery grey, on 
 the outer one a narrow pale whitey-brown border on the outer web j 
 legs, each joint a long inch, and the middle toe the same in length, 
 brown ; beak about three-quarters of an inch long, dark grey ; the 
 nostrUs perforate though rectangular; iris bright scarlet. Euna very 
 fest ; not very shy." 
 
BUENOS AYRES. 127 
 
 this morning, and the wind blew sharper continually. 
 About ten a.m. we anchored in the outer roads of 
 Buenos Ayres, some five or six miles from the town, 
 about two hundred yards from the guard-ship, which 
 ought to have sent the visit-boat to us, to see that we 
 were all right, or whatever that mystical ftiuction is 
 which is executed by officials in visit-boats ; but the 
 guard-ship telegraphed to shore that it was too rough 
 for them to go on board of us. So the captain took 
 the mails ashore, and two or three hours after, when 
 he returned, answered to our eager inquiries as to how 
 long a quarantine we were condemned to, that there 
 was no quarantine for us at aU, and we could go on 
 shore as soon as we liked. We did not believe him at 
 first, but you may imagine how we cheered, as soon 
 as we fairly realized the fact that we were not to remain 
 four or five days anchored out in the roads. The cap- 
 tain had landed the mails, for no boat came off, as was 
 the rule, to meet him (officials too timid), and refused 
 to return to his ship, saying it was too rough. So the 
 wise officials, seeing that the captain could stand on their 
 ground without infecting the place with instant fever, 
 and that he would not go, and that they did not dare send 
 him off by force, thought the easiest way of solving the 
 absurdity was to let him off quarantine, and of course 
 us also. So as soon as this was settled, the captain found 
 no difficulty in coming off with the news, and brought 
 with him a shore-boat, manned by four Englishmen, 
 to take off such passengers as would face the wind. 
 
128 FROM RIO TO BUENOS AYRES. 
 
 Six of US jumped into the boats, and it is rather to 
 be supposed that we did spin along : a right good 
 boat she was ! It was a regular gale, with occasional 
 torrents of rain. I don't think all our passengers 
 were quite easy in their little souls, but I saw the 
 wind was quite steady, and had no concern for our 
 safety. We spun over the bank that divides the river 
 from the outer roads, passed among the shipping in 
 the inner roads, and after three-quarters of an hour 
 of such a bit of sailing as I never had before, came to 
 anchor about fifty yards from the beach. A cart and 
 horse came out to meet us, and in a few minutes we 
 were safe ashore at Buenos Ayres, and had to pay four 
 pounds for the boat that brought us there. 
 
 Buenos Ayres ! What a misnomer ! The first thing 
 that greeted our eyes on landing was the skinless car- 
 case of a horse Ijring on the beach on one side of the 
 landing-place ; the second, another ditto on the other 
 side ; and the " good air" of the town was the stench 
 thereof. Wonderful to our eyes were the figures of 
 the people around us : scarlet ponchos, scarlet jackets, 
 scarlet leg-coverings, of a most puzzhng description, 
 halfway between knee-breeches and petticoats, evi- 
 dently an equestrian edition of the kilt, the mountain 
 costume adapted to the plain, — and underneath these, 
 white trousers of immense capacity ending in a fringe, 
 with bare feet, to establish a connection between the 
 strange figure above and the earth below. Such is a 
 Gaucho. 
 
BUENOS AYRES. 129 
 
 We soon found ourselves in an English hotels kept 
 by a good-natured little fisherman, and were right 
 glad to put our feet under a roastiag fire, burning 
 good EngHsh coals in a good English grate. We 
 were not much delighted with our bedrooms, which 
 were of a rather rough description ; but we found, on 
 looking about for other quarters, that the other hotels 
 had no fireplaces ; so we determined to remain. 
 
 It is very curious to find how soon travellers drop 
 into r^ular cosmopolitan habits, and find friends 
 everywhere. I came to Buenos Ayres without a single 
 introduction, and there was not a soul in the town 
 who three months ago was aware of my existence; 
 but I soon found myself among friends. A young Ger- 
 man, who was on board the ' Severn' with us, saw our 
 names in the list of passengers when the captain 
 landed, and sent ofi" the boat for us, which brought us 
 ashore ; and he soon came and found us out at the 
 hotel, and conducted us to the Club,^ — an institution 
 kept up by subscriptions among the resident foreigners, 
 where reading-rooms, dining-rooms, and the usual 
 etceteras of a Club, in a somewhat more homely style 
 than those about St. James's, but still very comfort- 
 able, and -with good fires, are provided ; and to this 
 strangers are admitted gratuitously, for three months 
 after their arrival ; if they stay longer they are ex- 
 pected to subscribe. On my way to the Club I met 
 my excellent friend Cerruti, the Sardinian Charge d' Af- 
 faires, who was so delighted to see me that he forgot 
 
 G 3 
 
130 FROM BIO TO BUENOS ATKES. 
 
 to kiss me, and at the first hotel we went to in search 
 of lodgings we were greeted by the smiling face of Ma- 
 dame G , my probable fellow-traveUer, or rather 
 
 guide, to Paraguay. 
 
 Next morning, the 20th, I went to breakfast with 
 Mr. Cerruti, and from him heard all about the politics 
 of these parts, which are to me as particularly inter- 
 esting now as they always were uninviting, when a 
 few months ago I used to see a column in the ' Times' 
 headed " River Plate," and doubted whether it meant 
 the prize cup of some Thames rowing-match, till the 
 name of Rosas catching my eye would connect the 
 news with some human interests on a somewhat larger 
 scale. I will endeavour to give you some notion of 
 the political state of things if I have time, and of the 
 reason why it is so particularly interesting to me. 
 Of course the principal thing is the acknowledgment 
 of the independence of Paraguay by Urquiza on the 
 part of the Argentine Repubhc ; this being the most 
 important event perhaps in the history of that coun- 
 try, the commencement for it of a new life. How- 
 ever it appears that the navigation of the river Parana 
 has not yet been declared open, so that no foreign 
 steamer can yet go up the river ; secondly, though 
 there can be no doubt that this step vrill be taken ere 
 long, as a consequence of Sir C. Hotham's mission, yet 
 this will not be done for some two months yet, duriag 
 which some palaver has to go on ; so that neither Sir 
 C. Hotham (who, it is understood, intends to go up in 
 
PLANS FOB, REACHING PARAGUAY. 131 
 
 the EngUsli steamer ' Locust/ which is lying here) nor 
 any foreign vessel can ascend yet. 
 
 It became important for me to learn, as soon as I 
 could, what other means there were of going ; so I 
 
 went to my friends the G s to learn their plans. 
 
 Mr. G is a Frenchman, married to an American 
 
 (U. S.) lady of French extraction; and they have al- 
 ready spent some years in Paraguay, and are well ac- 
 quainted with the President of that Republic. Ma- 
 dame G is a partictdarly agreeable and clever 
 
 person, and you wiU understand that she is a lady of 
 some enterprise, if you will look at the map of South 
 America, and then know that she has twice ridden on 
 horseback with her husband across the whole country 
 between Assumption and E,io Grande do Sul, the pas- 
 sage to Paraguay being at that time blockaded by 
 Rosas, so that there was neither egress nor ingress 
 by the river; and, except for people of such endur- 
 ance and energy as Mr. G ', there was no access to 
 
 that country. Well, I learned jfrom them first that 
 they had not yet gone, and were still where I saw 
 them (whereof I was most particularly glad, as so far 
 I had not lost my guides) ; secondly, that they had not 
 yet made up their mind how they should go ; thirdly, 
 that they thought there was no chance of going in 
 any other way than by a saiHng-boat ; fourthly, that 
 they would be very glad of me as a companion. They 
 had not heard, before I told them of it, that the Bra- 
 zilian steamer the ' Dom Pedro Segundo' was to have 
 
133 FROM EIO TO BUENOS AYRES. 
 
 left Rio de Janeiro on tlie 14th for Assumption. It 
 appeared however that it was doubtful how long this 
 steamer would remain at Monte Video or at Buenos 
 Ayres before proceeding up the river j that it was 
 even doubtful whether she would be allowed to go up 
 before the formal recognition of the public freedom of 
 the navigation, and of course there was some doubt 
 whether a passage could be got in her. 
 
 Wellj for the last day or two I have been chiefly 
 occupied with considering how my body is to be trans- 
 ferred from this place to Assumption. There is no 
 difficulty about going in a sailing-vessel. Sailing- 
 vessels, under the Argentine flag, are continually go- 
 ing, and you- have only to pay your passage, and go 
 as far as a place called Pilar or Neembucu, many 
 leagues below Assumption, whence you send to the 
 President, and ask his permission to enter, and wait 
 ten days for the answer; whether you go any further 
 depends upon him, and is sometimes very doubtful. 
 But sailing up a river is a long job : a gentleman who 
 returned a few months ago from Paraguay, where he 
 had been on commercial business, told me he was 
 sixty-three days on the voyage from Buenos Ayres to 
 Assumption ; and another person, a little later than 
 he, was ninety days about it. Then it struck me, 
 as I know several persons who want to go to Para- 
 guay, that a steamer might be induced to go for the 
 nonce, on passengers being found j and on inquiring, 
 I heard of two, either of which would go, and could 
 
PLANS FOR REACHING PARAGUAY. 133 
 
 carry people up at about £10 apiece; but the diffi- 
 culty here recurred, that both of the steamers are 
 Brazilian vessels^ and of course would not be allowed 
 tOj^o. Then I thought of going to Urquiza ou the 
 strength of Admiral GrenfeU's introduction, and ask- 
 ing leave for a special steamer to go ; but I was ad- 
 vised that it would be better not to do so. Next, it 
 appeared that an Argentine steamer of war was to go 
 up to Santa Pe (the capital of one of the provinces 
 of the Argentine Confederation), to take Provisional 
 Director Urquiza up to the meeting of the Congress, 
 now sitting there to consider a Constitution for the 
 Republic. But then it was doubtful whether a sailing- 
 vessel could be found at Santa Fe, to take us on to 
 Assumption ; or if so, whether the owner would not 
 ask a high price, reckoning on our necessity of taking 
 him. Then again was the alternative of waiting till 
 the navigation is opened, and the taking a passage by 
 some private steamer, sure to go then, or begging a 
 passage in Sir C. Hotham's vessel ; but this involved 
 remaining two months probably at Buenos Ayres — 
 not a tempting prospect to me. The result of our deli- 
 berations has been that we take a passage in the first 
 reasonably comfortable sailing-vessel we can find, and 
 start ; and that we meantime request a passage in the 
 Brazilian steamer, so that if she should overtake us on 
 the voyage, we may exchange if we please. On the 
 whole, I think the sailing-vessel would be the best way 
 of going (next to going in an English steamer), for 
 
134 FROM KIO TO BUENOS AYEES. 
 
 however long the voyage, it is not like beiag at sea ; 
 and there will be much to see on the banks, and many 
 opportunities of landing, with the additional consider- 
 ation (a strong one with me), that I should be certain 
 to be a tolerably long time without much demand on 
 my purse. 
 
 The second day after we arrived at Buenos Ayres it 
 blew a gale, and rained heavily. Many of the ships 
 in the roads dragged their anchors, and all the boats 
 were sunk at their moorings (N.B. I am sucking 
 mate out of a calabash through a silver bombilla while 
 I write), and looked like a shoal of porpoises as they 
 put their noses occasionally above water. We were 
 right glad we were ashore. 
 
 I had flattered myself I had escaped from Brazil 
 without getting any jiggers iuto my feet, which I very 
 much dreaded ; I was somewhat dissatisfied by find- 
 ing a black spot on the end of one of my toes, which I 
 felt sure was one of these curious inflictions. I had 
 to cut the nail of my toe, and dug out a creature with 
 hundreds of little eggs, leaving a hole big enough to 
 put a pea in ; and next day I found another in my 
 other foot, which I could not get at, but fortunately 
 a gentleman was in the house who, having lived in 
 Brazil, had had experience with these wretches, and 
 he took it out for me. Of course they had been in 
 my feet ever since I left Rio, and I had not felt them ; 
 they are unknown iu the latitude of the river Plate. 
 Talking of cutting, the day before, on board the 
 
INSECT TORMENTORS. 135 
 
 steamer, I got the surgeon to cut a thorn out of my 
 wrist, which had been buried invisibly in the flesh 
 ever since I fell down on the palm-tree, a month ago, 
 at Eio. It was full half an inch large, and the top of 
 it nearly half an inch under the sldn, yet it neither 
 had caused any inflammation, nor for a fortnight any 
 paia. And, talking of iasect grievances, I must not 
 forget the carrapatos, or ticks, which one picks up 
 in the shrubs in the capoeira in Brazil occasionally. 
 I got lots of them about me at Petropolis. They live 
 on some shrubs, and then, having been vegetarians all 
 their life, if human flesh comes near them, they turn 
 anthropophagi, and bury their heads in the skin, leav- 
 ing their bodies out to fatten. It was many days be- 
 fore I got rid of them. 
 
 I sallied forth this morning in the rain to a circu- 
 lating library, kept by an Irishman, and got a book 
 which I heard was there, and which I had been trying 
 to get at E.io, and which you must immediately get 
 from Mudie's and devour, — Robertson's ' Letters from 
 Paraguay.^ A second series of it has been published, 
 called Dr. Francia's ' Reign of Terror in Paraguay,' 
 or something of the sort. There are also ' Letters 
 on South America,' by the same author. The author 
 of it was kept prisoner in Paraguay by Francia, the 
 late President. I have not read it all yet, but it is 
 very interesting, and kept me employed all the rainy 
 day, with the occasional diversion of some talk with 
 a very nice old gentleman,, who came down from 
 
136 PROM KIO TO BUENOS AYEES. 
 
 Rio in the 'Prince' with me, and who was himself 
 kept prisoner for five years in Paraguay by the ty- 
 rant, — and with a young man who returned from 
 Paraguay two or three months ago, after a short resi- 
 dence there. 
 
 The bad weather of these two first days at Buenos 
 Ayres prevented my presenting myself to Urquiza, as 
 I intended. Next day, Sunday, 32nd, was a beautifal 
 day ; the wind had lulled, and changed to south-west, 
 a gentle breeze from the Pampas, fresh and clear as 
 crystal. There is something most delicious about the 
 air of this place, notwithstanding the horrible stenches 
 from the putrid flesh all about the town. Nothing 
 but the splendid climate can prevent the towns from 
 being perpetually depopulated by plague ; yet all such 
 diseases are unknown here. In the morning we went 
 to church, — quite a large building. There are lots of 
 English, Scotch, and Irish, especially the latter, in 
 Buenos Ayres ; and there is a Scotch church too. 
 Many of the Gauchos in ponchos and chiripas are 
 Irish labour- emigrants. 
 
 In the afternoon Blakeway and I took horses and 
 sallied forth to see a little of the outskirts of the town. 
 We took the road towards the north, along the shore 
 to Palermo, the residence of Urquiza. If Buenos Ayres 
 is not the most disgusting place on this earth, there 
 must be sickening spots indeed. The roads, from 
 the late rain, were mere belts of mud with occasional 
 pools, with carcases of horses or oxen lying here and 
 
OUTSKIRTS OF BUENOS AYKES. 137 
 
 there, in the middle of the road and along the shore, 
 everywhere j the air was regularly thick with stench. 
 The only variation from that of putrid flesh was that 
 of burned bones. There are actually carcases and their 
 remains in every stage of putridity, lying in the mid- 
 dle of the streets and before the doors of the houses 
 in the outer parts of the town. The only vegetation 
 visible was, — hedges of aloes, with huge cactuses in- 
 terspersed among them, and the leafless branches of a 
 curious tree, called, I beheve, " Umbu," which looks 
 just like the roots of some big tree, pulled bodily out 
 of the earth and stuck up on end ; very few of them 
 have any leaves on now. The aloes are a totally dif- 
 ferent species from those about Rio de Janeiro, but 
 like them throw up tall flower-stalks, though not to 
 so great a height. Then came a few orange-trees with 
 fruit on them, and standard peach-trees in flower. 
 My companion, when we returned to the town, found 
 he wanted his dinner ; so I continued my exploration 
 alone, and rode about through the town, a little way 
 into the country on the other side, to see as much as 
 I could before sunset. There are no hills, and scarcely 
 any undulations ; after long search, I only found one 
 place where I could get a view. 
 
 Buenos Ayres is a very curious town, quite unlike 
 anything I have yet seen, except Monte Video. It 
 is biult with the most perfect regularity in blocks (or 
 (Madras, as they call them) of houses, one hundred 
 and forty yards long in the side, so that the whole 
 
138 FROM RIO TO BUENOS AYRES. 
 
 town is intersected by streets perfectly parallel to 
 each other, in two directions, at right angles and at 
 equal distance. Every house in the town is flat-topped, 
 and has a terrace on the roof, where in fine weather 
 the people sit or walk, and one or two courts in the 
 middle, with windows looking into them. By far 
 the greater numher of the houses are only one room 
 high ; some have one story, and a few three. The 
 private houses of the better class have often fireplaces 
 and chimneys in the EngHsh style, but most of them 
 have no mode of obtaining artificial heat for the rooms. 
 Urquiza's residence at Palermo is only one room 
 high, and is surrounded with a lot of porticoes. It was 
 built by the wretch Rosas, and lies on a flat close to 
 the river, with a grove of miserable-looking trees be- 
 tween it and the water. 
 
 One of the most striking peculiarities of the town 
 is the beauty of the ladies ; they are all charming to 
 look at, and are said to be as amiable as angels. Very 
 few of them wear bonnets; they either walk about 
 with heads bare, or with a hood formed out of a part 
 of their shawls thrown over their heads. Then the 
 place is full of Gauchos, and Peons (labourers), and 
 soldiers in the Gaucho costume. The soldiers are not 
 a very imposiag set, consisting chiefly of Mulattoes and 
 Indians, with a few Negroes. But the regular Gauchos 
 are noble-looking fellows. There are very few Negroes 
 in the place; when the Spanish colonies declared 
 their independence, many of them at once freed their 
 
STARTING FOR MONTE VIDEO. 139 
 
 slaves, and I believe they have all done so since. 
 There are certainly no slaves in the Argentine States 
 or in Monte Video ; the consequence is that the 
 houses and the people are clean, and there is an air 
 of comfort about the town (notwithstanding the pu- 
 tridity) that one misses very much in Brazil. The 
 people too are altogether a finer race than the Brazi- 
 lians of the sea-coast towns. 
 
 This afternoon had been very fine, with a beautiful 
 fresh aix from the Pampas, and clear sky; it is al- 
 ways fine weather when the south-west wind blows off 
 the Pampas, though sometimes the same wind comes 
 sweeping over the plains like a hurricane ; this they 
 call a Pampero : but the air is always clear. The next 
 day was beautiful. I was occupied in pottering about 
 
 with Mr. Gr in search of information with respect 
 
 to vessels going up the river, till just before the 
 steamer sailed for Monte Video, and had to rush on 
 board in a vast hurry. 
 
 I had two objects in going back to Monte Video : 
 first, because I wished to see the town ; second, be- 
 cause I wished to learn about the Brazilian steamer 
 that is to go up to Assumption, and if possible to beg 
 
 a passage in her. Meantime I agreed with Mr. Gr 
 
 to be bound by any arrangement he might make for 
 our voyage, and to come back by the next steamer, to 
 be in readiness to start with him. At about a quarter 
 past four P.M. the little steamer the ' Countess of 
 Lonsdale' started off from the inner roads ; and as 
 
140 FKOM mo TO BUENOS AYRES. 
 
 we passed among the vessels in the outer roads^ we 
 were delighted with the most magnificent sunset I 
 ever saw. Mr. Lafone, an English merchant in these 
 parts, very kindly asked me to stay at his house while 
 I was at Monte Video. It was quite a pleasure to meet 
 again with the English hospitality, which made Per- 
 nambuco so pleasant. It was a most magnificent 
 night, with a moon like silver. The voyage occupies 
 twelve or thirteen hours, and next morning (24th), 
 at half-past seven, we found ourselves steaming into 
 the Bay of Monte Video, through a dense fog, which 
 enveloped the Cerro, as the hiU is called, and the 
 shipping. We soon found ourselves snugly lodged in 
 Mr, Lafone's house, which is quite different from any 
 of the merchants^ houses that I have seen, inasmuch 
 as it is a very clean place, and he lives in it with his 
 own family when they are at that town. 
 
 The general aspect of Monte Video is much the 
 same as that of Buenos Ayres. It is all built in 
 blocks, about one hundred yards square, but not with 
 such perfect regularity as the latter town, for there 
 are two divisions of it, the old and the new, and the 
 streets in the two are not parallel with each other. 
 The houses too are all flat-roofed, with the azoteas, 
 or terrace-roofs, just as at Buenos Ayres. Many of 
 them, and indeed all those of the merchants, have 
 flat-topped towers for gazebos, or miradores, as they 
 call them, for looking at the shipping. There is only 
 one large church in Monte Video, whereas there are 
 
ASPECT OF MONTE VIDEO. 141 
 
 seven or eight in Buenos Ayres, and some of them 
 with convents attached. The Cathedral at Monte 
 Video has no pretensions to beauty ; the most — to my 
 eye — remarkable object in it is a Negro saint image 
 as large as Hfe. I don^t know who it is, but there he 
 stands enshrined as the idol at one of the altars in 
 the side of the church, — no doubt a relic of the time 
 of slavery, placed there to captivate the poor Blackies ; 
 but there are very few Negroes now to be seen there. 
 There is an English church, but no clergyman at pre- 
 sent. The ladies are as beautiful as at Buenos Ayres. 
 The Gaucho dress is not much seen. The soldiers are 
 clad in European costume ; ponchos however are the 
 cloaks usually worn. Perhaps the reason that Gau- 
 chos in their chiripas are not much seen at Monte 
 Video is, that their occupation has been almost gone 
 by reason of the war. 
 
 The most remarkable thing about Monte Video is 
 that it exists at all, at least that there are any signs 
 of vitality about it. I dare say you are not aware 
 that it is not more than nine months ago since it was 
 liberated from a siege unprecedented for duration in 
 history, except by that of Troy. For the nine years 
 preceding last November, that poor town was belea- 
 guered by the forces of Kosas under General Oribe. 
 During all that time the inhabitants had been locked 
 up in the town, cut off from all communication with 
 the interior, and for great part of the time block- 
 aded by sea. Last November the siege was raised by 
 
142 FROM RIO TO BUENOS AYRES. 
 
 the joint forces of Urquiza and the Brazilians. They 
 say that the scene presented by the town when the 
 news spread that the enemy was gone, was most ex- 
 traordinary. The poor people rushed about embra- 
 cing each other in the streets, yet scarcely believing 
 the news. The suburbs still show signs of the siege. 
 The town stands on a promontory, so that it is pro- 
 tected on two sides by the sea ; towards the land, on 
 the third side, lines were thrown up for the defence 
 of the town. The strongest battery is known as 
 " Purvis's," after Admiral Purvis, of Bury, who is a 
 great man here. Outside of these lines the houses 
 were knocked about by the besiegers ; many of them 
 are ruins, and many bear abundant marks of shot. 
 And, strange to say, about three miles beyond stands 
 a town of considerable size, called Union, built by the 
 Argentine enemy during the siege : here comfortably 
 resided the general, and here he buUt a school for the 
 children of his officers, which is now the University of 
 the Monte Videans. But the strangest thing is that, 
 notwithstanding all the suffering to which the inhabi- 
 tants have been subjected, the town looks now more 
 lively and ilourishing than Buenos Ayres. It is clean 
 and bustling, and repairs are going on with great 
 rapidity. Of course during the siege the whole of 
 the industry of the country was at a standstill, if 
 industry can be a proper term for the disgusting ope- 
 ration of slaughtering cattle wholesale, by which the 
 people in the River Plate provinces subsist. 
 
POLITICS OF MONTE VIDEO. 143 
 
 I must explain (what I may presume you do not 
 know, as I did not know it in England, or if I had 
 known it one day should have forgotten it the next) 
 that Monte Video is the capital town of a large dis- 
 trict, bounded on the west by the river Uruguay, on 
 the north and east by the province of Rio Grande of 
 the Empire of Brazil, from which it is separated by 
 the river Ibiary, which runs into the Uruguay. On 
 the south it is bounded by the estuary of the Rio 
 de la Plata. This territory is that of the Republic 
 of Uruguay (formerly the Spanish province of that 
 name) ; it is now more usually called the Randa 
 Oriental, as lying on the eastern bank of the Uru- 
 guay. This republic, as also that of Paraguay, have 
 desired to be independent of and separate from " the 
 Argentine Confederation" of fifteen or sixteen small 
 republics comprised under that name. Rosas wished 
 to compel the " Orientals" iato submission to his ty- 
 ranny, as dictator of the Argentine Confederation ; so 
 he besieged their capital, (the Paraguayans were too 
 strong for him, so he let them alone, but aimoyed 
 them and the rest of the world by shutting up the 
 navigation of the river Parana,) and occupied their 
 country, ruining all the estancieros by carrying off all 
 the cattle of the States for the support of his army. 
 The Banda Oriental is almost one entire beautiful 
 meadow ; it might grow com for the whole world. The 
 climate must be the very finest for wheat; but it has 
 been occupied almost entirely as a pasture, covered 
 
144 PEOM RIO TO BUENOS AYKES. 
 
 •with countless thousands of horses and oxen^ while 
 its coasts were reeking with their blood. So it has 
 pleased God to punish them^ — whether for not growing 
 com I cannot tell, — ^but He has sent upon them war 
 and misery, and put a stop to the wholesale butchery 
 of cattle by the slaughter of men. The plague of the 
 sword is now removed, and it remains to be proved 
 whether corn wiU. grow. 
 
 WeU, the first day I was at Monte Video was spent 
 in going on board a ship recently purchased by Mr. 
 Lafone as a wreck at the Falkland Isles for £100, 
 which, by expending a few hundred pounds on, he has 
 made worth £8000 or £9000. You must know two 
 things thereanent : first, that the Falkland Isles are 
 being made into a grazing colony by an English Com- 
 pany, who are introducing Gauchos and their lassos 
 for the management and slaughtering of the cattle ; 
 secondly, that it is quite a regular occurrence for ships 
 loaded with coal from Baltimore (U.S.) and other 
 places, to take fire by spontaneous combustion in the 
 neighbourhood of the Falklands. The captain of the 
 ship I saw sailed from Baltimore in another ship of 
 which he was then master, loaded with coal, leaving in 
 harbour his other vessel, loading, to foUow him in two 
 or three weeks, both being bound for Valparaiso. His 
 ship caught fire in the latitude of the FaUdands, hope- 
 lessly; so he and his crew took to their boats, and after 
 many days and nights landed on those islands, which 
 they did not know to be inhabited. There they sub- 
 
SHIPS ON FIRE. 145 
 
 sisted for many days on sea-birds (not being on the part 
 where the wild cattle are) . They were then discovered 
 by the inhabitants, and taken to Stanley Harbour, where 
 the first thing he saw was the other ship which he had 
 left loading at Baltimore, lying scuttled^ having also 
 caught fire at sea, and having been run into the shore 
 by the captain, and scuttled. The captain of this se- 
 cond vessel, having lost his own, then took the com- 
 mand of another which came there in want of a cap- 
 tain, and this third vessel took fire at sea, and reached 
 her destination, Valparaiso, in flames. Further, the 
 very day I saw this vessel in Monte Video roads, an- 
 other American vessel came into this port on fire. So 
 fire is the rule at sea in these latitudes, as if the 
 storms of Cape Horn were not sufficient. I conclude 
 that people are intended to go to Valparaiso not by 
 sea, but either across the Pampas or through the air. 
 Well, the ship I was on board of is going to sail 
 soon to the FaMands with a cargo of horses and sheep, 
 which do not abound there as kine do. From her we 
 took a boat and rowed across to the "Mount" on the 
 opposite side of the harbour, a low, gently sloping hill 
 called " the Cerro" by the natives, about the height 
 of St. Katherine's, Winton, but not so steep, with an 
 old fort crowned with a lighthouse at the top. The 
 Argentines were unable to take this fort at any time 
 during the siege from the heroic Orientals. You will 
 wonder why the invaders did not bombard the town ; 
 and when you hear that the Enghsh would not let 
 
146 FROM RIO TO BtJENOS AYKES. 
 
 them, you will then wonder no doubt why we let them 
 hesiege at all, and you may continue to wonder, as 
 probably will aU posterity, till Lord Palmerston hands 
 in his account at the Judgment Day. 
 
 There is a fine view from the top of the hill over 
 the rolling plain of grass, diversified only with patches 
 of thistles (at present quite short), and by square en- 
 closures of aloe-hedges, surrounding fields of grass, 
 rather greener than that outside. The only elevation 
 there is another gentle rise on the north-west of the 
 town, called the " Cerrito," or the little hill, on the 
 top of which is another fort, to which I rode the next 
 day (August 35th), with an English youth staying at 
 Mr. Lafone's, who has purchased a share in an es- 
 tancia about twenty-four leagues from Monte Video, 
 on which he is going to farm (not only cattle, but I 
 am glad to say com also). The estancia has of course, 
 like all the others ia this province, been ruined by the 
 siege. 
 
 We left the town by the main street towards the 
 north, and then turned down to the water's edge at 
 the head of the bay. We first passed among an im- 
 mense multitude of laundresses, with aU the linen of 
 Monte Video stretched out on the sand round certain 
 curious little pools, each surrounded with a hedge of 
 aloes (they say these aloes die as soon as they have 
 flowered) . A little further on we came upon a horrible 
 scene, one of the slaughter-houses {mataderos) . Fancy 
 a square enclosure, sixty or seventy yards across, 
 
A MATADERO. 147 
 
 slightly sloping down to the beach ; the three upper 
 sides forming the boundaries of enclosures confining 
 bullocks, the lower side occupied by two slaughter- 
 houses. In the enclosure were several men on foot 
 and on horseback, with lassos ; beasts were continu- 
 ally being driven out of the pens through doors in the 
 sides. As fast as each came out a horseman threw or 
 tried to throw a lasso over its horns, and then, with 
 the assistance of the foot-lasso-men, dragged the ani- 
 mal to the sheds at the bottom, where in a minute 
 or two he was deprived of his hide. Previously to 
 taking off the skin, a man plunges a knife into the 
 neck of the creature, so as to injure the spinal mar- 
 row and make it fall like a shot, deprived of all power 
 of motion, — whether of feeling or not I cannot tell, 
 neither I should think do the butchers much care. 
 You may imagine the rapidity with which this is done 
 from the fact, that at one or two estancias, a gentle- 
 man told me, before the war they used to kill eleven 
 hundred oxen a day. I hope never to see anything 
 so horrible again as this. I was just thinking how it 
 would disgust any lady, when I looked round and saw 
 a lady on horseback just behind me, riding along the 
 beach to the town; her handkerchief was up to her 
 nose, but her eyes were fixed on the matadero, which 
 she seemed to think very interesting, as her horse was 
 walking very slowly. I beUeve this place was only 
 providing the town with food. The saladeros, or salt- 
 ing-houses, where they preserve the hides and meat 
 
 h2 
 
148 PEOM mo TO BUENOS AYKES. 
 
 on the large scale, were not yet at work again near 
 Monte Video. There were not so many carcases lying 
 about here as at Buenos Ayres, but still a good many. 
 
 By the bye, please note the curious misnomers which 
 the towns and places of these parts are honoured with, 
 on the principle of lucus a non lucendo, which. some 
 one will translate for you: Rio de Janeiro, called par 
 exellence Rio (the river), where there is no river at 
 all ; Rio Grande, where there is not the great river of 
 these parts ; Monte Video, where there are no moun- 
 tains at all ; Buenos Ayres, where the most horrible 
 stenches prevail ; and lastly, Rio de la Plata, where 
 there is no silver at all, being just at the opposite 
 side of the continent to the silver district. 
 
 We proceeded along roads of mud about a foot deep, 
 market-gardens, now recovering themselves, and fields 
 of grass, to the Cerrito, which is open down. Here we 
 rode into the fort, now occupied only by a very civil 
 sentinel, who requested us not to enter except on foot. 
 Hence we galloped back to town across the plain and 
 among the mud-tracks, passing near the town of Union, 
 built, as I have said, during the siege of Monte Video; 
 but I had not time to go to see it, as I had an engage- 
 ment in town, to be introduced by Mr. Lafone to Senor 
 Lavalle, father-in-law of the Brazilian Minister, who 
 is going to Assumption, to ask him to ask his son-in- 
 law, Senor Leal, to give me a passage up to Assump- 
 tion in his stea,mer, if she overtakes our sailing vessel 
 on the river. 
 
ENGLISH AND SPANISH CEMETERIES. 149 
 
 Next day (the 26tli), after breakfast, I walked out 
 to the cemeteries outside the inner lines, — the English 
 one, and the native ; — the former said to have been 
 a very pretty place before the siege, now a dreary spot 
 with a few ruined monuments, and the ragged stumps 
 of what had been some very fine umbii- trees (these are 
 most curious productions ; they look like old stubbed 
 oaks, and you would fancy them as hard, but their 
 wood, whether green or dry, is as soft as cork or cab- 
 bage-stalks ; you might easily cut down one a yard 
 thick with a penknife) . The Spanish cemetery is very 
 curious; it is a large square enclosure, surrounded 
 with a high wall, which wall consists of vaults, built 
 one above the other, containing coffins, only shut out 
 from the open air by a door, in many cases of rotten 
 wood, and loose on the hinges, on which the name is 
 engraved ; these tiers of vaults are about twenty feet 
 high. There are graves about, the ground too, and 
 here and there a pond of water with coffins and frag- 
 ments thereof floating about ; and in one place a large 
 heap of human skulls and bones bleaching in the air. 
 The most conspicuous object in the cemetery is a soli- 
 tary sculptured monument in marble to a general who 
 had been killed somewhere by the Indians, with a pa- 
 thetic appeal on each of the four sides : on one side, to 
 the Monte Videan patriots ; on another, to the enemies 
 of the KepubUc ; on another, to foreigners ; on the 
 fourth, to the Indians, conjuring them to be in a cold 
 perspiration for some time when they think of him. 
 
150 FROM RIO TO BUENOS AYRES. 
 
 At five P.M. we steamed out of Monte Video Bay, 
 en route for Buenos Ayres, where we anchored in the 
 inner roads at seven the next morning. We got 
 into a boat to go ashore. The landing was rather an 
 amusiag afiair : as soon as our boat came within 
 about a quarter of a mile of the beach, (she was sail- 
 ing along at a very considerable rate, and was a large 
 heavy boat too, with fourteen or fifteen persons in 
 her,) she was surrounded by carts and horses, driven 
 by red-poncho'd Gauchos standing with one leg on the 
 pole between the two horses, and one knee on the back 
 of one of them. Furiously they drove, but with won- 
 derful skill ; the water was up to the horses' middles, 
 and how they escaped being run down by the boat I 
 cannot tell. Our steersman said he broke a wheel- 
 spoke occasionally, whenever he could. However, we 
 and our baggage were soon transferred to one of the 
 carts, and soon after jpcre landed on the beach. 
 
 As soon as I had breakfasted I went to Mr. G ■ 
 
 to learn what was decided. I found that he had not 
 yet seen the vessel, but was determined to go, and she 
 was ready to sail almost immediately. So after much 
 pottering about, and more waiting for the captain, we 
 went to sea again — or rather to river — in a cart ; we 
 were driven out this time in a tandem, full half a mile, 
 to meet a boat from our ship, a schooner, or goleta, 
 as they call them, of ninety-nine tons. We went from 
 the Custom-house stairs, which are about half a mile 
 from the place where the steamer passengers land 
 
PROSPECTS ON BOARD. 151 
 
 at the office of the " Captain of the Port." It was a 
 most busy scene here^ really a strange sight. The 
 whole beach just above the sandsj as far as the eye 
 could reachj for a mile and a half at least, was oc- 
 cupied by laundresses, and linen lying on the ground. 
 The sand-flat, and the water beyond it, was covered 
 with carts, the best built I have seen out of England, 
 conveying goods to and from the ships in the roads, 
 with Gauchos riding about with lassos, made of strips 
 of hide plaited, tied to their horses' girths, to help 
 carts requiring an extra tug ; perhaps also there were 
 among them mounted custom-house officers, to pre- 
 vent contraband landing of goods. 
 
 So we went on board the 'Neptuno,' and I confess I 
 did not much envy myself my lot for the next month, 
 or maybe two or three. The ship is to be loaded with 
 salt ; so far not bad. But the cabin ! — a little hole 
 about twelve feet by eight, and six feet high, with 
 four shelves, in recesses about eighteen inches deep in 
 the sides. Two of these boxes are to be occupied by 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. G , one by me, and the other by 
 
 a young Frenchman, going to establish a printing- 
 press at Corrientes. What Madame wiU do I can- 
 not think : how her husband could think of putting 
 a lady in such a hole I cannot imagine. The captain 
 and sailors are all Italians (as is generally the case 
 on this river), very fine fellows; but how she will 
 like their cookery I do not know, — they are to cook 
 for us. For my part I shall buy a bag of beans and 
 
153 FROM BIO TO BUENOS AYBES. 
 
 some dried peaches, and shall not be much dependent 
 on their provisions. They are to take us to Corrientes 
 for twenty-four ^a^acooM* (or dollars), food included; 
 but I shall only use their bread. The captain says 
 he was only twenty days going up to Corrientes on his 
 last voyage ; but I have made up my mind to be two 
 months about it, and will consider it as lucre if we 
 have a favourable wind and do it sooner, or if the 'Dom 
 Pedro Segundo,' with Senor Leal on board, overtakes 
 us and gives us a lift. 
 
 This is a great jump out of the world ; when I shall 
 receive any news from you I cannot divine, though 
 I shall probably be able to send some of myself oc- 
 casionally. In Paraguay, Guarani is the language of 
 the country, the better-educated people speaking Spa- 
 nish, — two languages of which I have not the wildest 
 notion. Of course I shall work fiercely at Ollendorff, 
 whom I bought in Spanish here the other day j he 
 has not yet attacked Guarani. I have no introduc- 
 tions in the country, except what I may get through 
 
 the G ^s, who have spent some months, and have 
 
 friendsj there ; but I have no manner of doubt I shall 
 fall on my legs, as I have everywhere else hitherto in 
 my travels. I do not know when I shall come back ; 
 I take with me a hundred pounds, and mean to stay 
 till either I am tired of the country, or I have only 
 enough left to carry me to Parahyba do Norte, or till 
 the President orders me off, or I find I cannot see any 
 more of the country. I am told that living is very 
 
STATE OF PARAGUAY. 153 
 
 cheap there, and that fruit and vegetables abound. 
 I cannot learn that any traveller since Azara (about 
 1800) has gone to Paraguay to see it. Robertson, who 
 wrote the book I mentioned, and Mr. Macfarlane, whom 
 I have met here, were long enough there against their 
 wills, and many Englishmen have been there lately, 
 but only on business. Bonpland, who travelled with 
 Humboldt, was confined there for many years by 
 Francia, but that tyrant is now defunct. 
 
 The state of things in Paraguay at present is this : 
 it was one of the first of the Spanish American colo- 
 nies which declared its iudependfence of the mother 
 country, and declared itself a republic. Not long 
 after this. Dr. Francia got himself made Dictator of 
 the country, and ruled it with the awful severity of 
 which you may read in Robertson's book for a quar- 
 ter of a century. After him came Lopez, the present 
 President, not a cruel man, but narrow-minded in 
 many things. Meantime Rosas, the usurper of the 
 dictatorship of the Argentine Confederation, has as- 
 serted (though he never proved either by law or by 
 force) that Paraguay was one of the States of the Ar- 
 gentine Confederation, and as such subject to Buenos 
 Ayres, which has assumed to itself, or he for it, the 
 supremacy of the Confederation. And he made the 
 Paraguayans practically subservient to him, by cut- 
 ting them off from communication with the world, by 
 closing their God-given outlet, the glorious Parang ; 
 so that either by their rulers at home or by their 
 
 h3 
 
154 FROM EIO TO BUENOS AYRES. 
 
 enemies they have been pretty well secluded. Now 
 comes Urquiza at the beginning of this year, and 
 smashes Rosas' tyranny, and pro tern, takes his place 
 as Provisional Director of the affairs of the Argen- 
 tines, obtaining from the people by a form of vote 
 (compelled by military force) fdl powers to settle all 
 the foreign affairs of the Confederation. 
 
 His first act has been to acknowledge formally the 
 independence of Paraguay as a separate republic, 
 and to make a treaty with the President, regulating 
 the relations of the two powers. Of course the natural 
 next step is, to declare the navigation of the rivers by 
 which Paraguay is reached free to all nations : this 
 is not yet done, so no vessels but those under the 
 Argentine flag can go up the river at present. The 
 acknowledgment of the independence was celebrated 
 with great joy ait Assumption on the 17th of last 
 month, and a few days ago the treaty was published 
 in the Government newspaper here. Either Urquiza 
 is afraid to open the rivers on account of the jea- 
 lousy of the Buenos Ayreans, who have hitherto kept 
 the keys of the navigation for their own benefit, or he 
 wishes to appear to defer to the decision of the Con- 
 gress (which consists of delegates from each of the 
 States of the Confederation) just about to sit at Santa 
 Pe, whom of course he will compel to decide as he 
 chooses. Meantime there can be no doubt, that, even 
 if not inclined to do as he is in duty bound, the pre- 
 sence of Sir C. Hotham, and M. St.-Georges, the French 
 
WAITING FOR THE WIND. 155 
 
 Envoy sent to arrange this matter^ will determine his 
 opening of the rivers. It is understood that Sir C. 
 Hotham will then start up the river in the " Locust/ 
 and that other steamers will go up also. It is supposed 
 that this cannot take place for two or three months, 
 but that the Brazilian steamer, with the Minister on 
 board, will have special permission to ascend sooner. 
 
 Paraguay is of course a totally different country 
 from those at the mouth of the river ; instead of vast 
 monotonous plains of grass, there are beautiful woods 
 and every variety of scenery and climate. I suppose 
 that every vegetable product which man uses, except 
 Iceland moss, may grow within its confines. It differs 
 from these coxmtries in being weU peopled, and in 
 having a quiet, industrious race of inhabitants, instead 
 of a population of idle, half- wild horsemen, and indo- 
 lent half-awake citizens. More, with the blessing of 
 God, of its people, its palms, its fruits, and its croco- 
 diles, you shall hear hereafter. 
 
 Our sailing has been delayed for a day or two, 
 and we shall probably not start before Tuesday, the 
 31st of August ; after that, everything depends on the 
 wind. Of course I am devoutly hoping for a pampero 
 (as the south-west winds of the Pampas are called), or 
 a south wind, to waft us up the river. It was favour- 
 able yesterday, but is very changeable. Having made 
 purchases for the voyage, in the shape of a supply of 
 small beans, dried peaches, raisins, a pot of China pre- 
 serves, and some candles ; and having asked Madame 
 
156 PROM BIO TO BUENOS AYK.ES. 
 
 G to purchase me a mattress and pillow when 
 
 she bought her own^ I considered myself ready for 
 the voyage, and sallied forth to see what I could do 
 in the way of getting small or great change for Ad- 
 miral Grrenfell's introduction to the Provisional Di- 
 rector. 
 
 I happened to have come down in the steamer 
 from Rio with a very gentlemanly-like young man, 
 son of one of Rosas' generals and of the sister of the 
 tyrant himself. He has been in England and India, 
 and speaks English perfectly; he promised to intro- 
 duce me to some one who would get me access to 
 Urquiza, and would find me an interpreter, as the 
 General speaks no language but Spanish. Accord- 
 ingly he took me to a certain Dr. Garcia, apparently 
 a legal fanctionary, who, when my desires had been 
 explained to him, requested me to come to him at 
 one o'clock. At the appointed hour I presented my- 
 self; and a young man, with the dandyest pair of 
 silk gloves I have seen here, and a mysterious letter, 
 conducted me to the Government-house (where the 
 great man sits every day, attending to the affairs of 
 the Confederation), and handed me over to a cer- 
 tain Dr. P , to whom he gave the letter, stating 
 
 verbally that I wanted to see Urquiza ; the Doctor of 
 course said it was quite impossible, meaning that the 
 King (for such is the fact) was far too busy, but 
 on reading the note addressed to him he looked 
 blander, and asked me to follow him. 
 
INTEEVIEW WITH URQUIZA. 157 
 
 He conducted me to a room, where he asked me to 
 remain outside the door for a minute while he en- 
 tered ; he soon beckoned me in, and I found myself, 
 in an old great-coat and dirty boots, with my wide- 
 awake in one hand and my credentials in the other, 
 in front of a table behind which sat a very respectable 
 English farmer-like, honest-looking man, in a neat 
 blue uniform coat and white waistcoat, with a lot of 
 officials and applicants sitting or standing in a row at 
 the side.* I did not look at any one but Urquiza, who 
 politely rose from his chair, and when I presented my 
 ' letter, motioned me to take a seat. He then handed the 
 letter to the Doctor who brought me in, and told him 
 to read it, and having heard it, he told the Doctor 
 (who spoke English very well) to ask me what was 
 the assistance which I required, as requested for me 
 by the Admiral, who had represented me as wishing 
 to travel in the countries of the Argentines for scien- 
 tific purposes. So I told him that I wished to go 
 up the Parana, and to visit the Argentine territory on 
 its banks, and Paraguay, and that I should be much 
 obliged to his Excellency if he would give me intro- 
 
 * In a letter to a friend Mr. Mansfield says : — " I like TJrquiza's 
 face. I think he is a real man ; he looks like an English farmer, and 
 they say he is a teetotaller and vegetarian — a phenomenon in these 
 parts, where the earth is soaked with heast-blood. The Buenos 
 Ayreans hate him, and would make hhn out to be a second Rosas, 
 because he is taking out of their hands the key of the river, which 
 they have used and would continue to use for their own benefit, to 
 the disadvantage of the other States." 
 
158 PROM RIO TO BUENOS AYRES. 
 
 ductions in those parts, and to the President of Para- 
 guay. In reply, I was informed that he had given 
 directions to have letters of introduction written to 
 the Governor of the States of Entre Eios and Corri- 
 entes, and to the Argentine Minister at Assumption ; 
 and I was then asked if I wanted anything more. I 
 had half a mind to ask for a Government steamer to 
 take me up the river, but I thought that would he too 
 impudent ; so I only asked if a steamer was going 
 up the river, on which I could get a passage (it was 
 reported that Urquiza was to go in a few days up to 
 Santa Fe, per steamer, to open the Congress), but 
 was answered No. So I thanked the hero, and think- 
 ing him really a hero and a trump, bowed myself out. 
 The Doctor told me to come again at four o'clock for 
 the letters. 
 
 Now I consider this a great fact in history, and 
 equivalent to the actual opening of the navigation 
 of the river, or at least the first step thereto ; for it 
 is an actual formal permission to and encouragement 
 of a foreigner to go up the Parana to Paraguay. 
 People of course have had passports for that country 
 before, but I do not suppose any foreigner has yet 
 been there, specially recommended by the authorities 
 of Buenos Ayres. I consider that I have got done 
 for myself what Sir C. Hotham has to get done for 
 the world. It is very jolly that I have come in the 
 very nick of time, just as the Eiver Plate Republics 
 seem to be getting into a state of peace, and just as 
 
LETTERS OF INTRODUCTION. 159 
 
 Paraguay is about to be thrown open to the world 
 for the first time. I shall probably, if I have reason- 
 ably good luckj get up to Paraguay just before the 
 freedom of the navigation of the rivers is declared, 
 for it is supposed that this will take place in about two 
 months. 
 
 At four o'clock I went to the Government House, 
 and received my letters, which represented that the 
 official was ordered by the Provisional Director to re- 
 quest the Governors to facilitate my travels, and to 
 treat me with such consideration as I deserve ! ! (how 
 much that is, is wisely left to the authorities to deter- 
 mine for themselves.) The Minister at Assumption 
 is desired to present me to the President of the Re- 
 pubHc of Paraguay if I desire it. Of course I shall 
 desire it, for if one is not in the good graces of the 
 President, one is very liable to be ordered out of the 
 country, and there can be no doubt that a recom- 
 mendation jfrom Urquiza must be very useful with the 
 President of Paraguay, who must look upon him as 
 the best friend of his country, as he has been the first 
 to acknowledge on the part of Buenos Ayres its in- 
 dependence and freedom. What a joke it will be, 
 being taken for a swell by the innocent people up in 
 the country ! 
 
 As soon as I had got my letters, we sallied forth, a 
 
 party of five, on horseback, to go to Mr. L 's 
 
 chacra, or country-house, about fifteen miles from 
 the town. It was a beautiful evening. We passed of 
 
160 FROM KIO TO BUENOS AYRES. 
 
 course the most horrible sights in the road, — dead 
 horses and oxen everywhere, — pools of stagnant water 
 in the holes, and sometimes over the road also, where it 
 lay rather lowj these holes generally contained a car- 
 case or bones, and one large one was positively fuU of 
 the intestines of slaughtered animals. The immense 
 quantity of bones is quite wonderful : they are, I am 
 told, used as fuel by the poorer people for cooking 
 and heating ovens. The road is repaired by filling 
 up the holes with them, and in some places you 
 see hedges made of them. I have seen one or two 
 corrals (as they call the enclosures into which they 
 drive horses and cattle when they want to catch them) 
 surroimded by fences made entirely of the bones that 
 form the cores of the horns of oxen, and so close and 
 thick that you cannot see light through them. Besides 
 the waste of land (which might grow com) , the cruelty 
 and the disgusting scenes which all this implies, I am 
 annoyed by the consideration of the enormous waste 
 of animal matter, which putrefies in the open air, and 
 which might all make ammonia or saltpetre. The 
 carcases are putrefying all round the houses, almost 
 in them. The people do not seem to smell the 
 horrible stench at all — perhaps they like it ; I even 
 fancy that / am becoming indifferent to it. 
 
 Well, our road lay southwards, in a direction slo- 
 ping away at an acute angle from the river-shore. It 
 lay for several miles among houses, cottages, gardens, 
 and fields fenced with willow or some other brush- 
 
CROSSING THE PLAIN. 161 
 
 wood ; poplars and weeping willows fringed the road 
 in some places. We crossed a small river, which runs 
 into the Plata about three miles from the town, by 
 the so-called " Barracas Bridge/' up to which it is 
 navigable for small vessejsj and at the village there 
 many vessels are loaded with the came seca and salted 
 and dried hideSj which form the chief article of export 
 from this country. About a mile and a half beyond 
 this bridge^ the road — ^which nowhere was paved or 
 macadamized, but only a wide belt of the sandy-clayey 
 soil — opened out upon the plain ; we were clear of the 
 houses, and of the trees, which are only found ia their 
 neighbourhood, and now it became a broad track of 
 bare soil across the boundless plain of bright green 
 grass. The horses here seem to have scarcely any 
 other pace but a gallop ; so away we went over the 
 plaiu, at a glorious pace, for about ten miles. 
 
 There is something most remarkably exhilarating 
 about the air of the plain. Notwithstanding all the 
 carcases which one meets everywhere, the air is 
 sweet and fresh in an indescribable degree. Buenos 
 Ayres is indeed no misnomer for the plain, where man 
 has not entirely befouled the clean earth. There are 
 no trees, except where, here and there, hedges of 
 poplars and wOlows, and small copses of peach-trees 
 have been planted ; the latter are now just flowering ; 
 the people feed their pigs with the fruit, and use the 
 wood for fuel. Here and there stands a great umbii- 
 tree, looking at a distance like a great English oak, 
 
162 FROM RIO TO BUENOS AYRES. 
 
 — the veriest sham of a tree that grows. Only the 
 orange-treesj which grow well here, have any leaves 
 on now, but the groimcl is covered with bright green 
 grass, short and smooth like a cricket-ground. In 
 some places are large quantities of thistles, at this 
 season only a few inches high, having no stalks, but 
 only a clump of leaves spreading over the ground. 
 
 I was surprised at the quantity of animal life: there 
 were birds aU over the plain in great numbers ; quan- 
 tities of flights of wild ducks were making their way 
 towards the river, high in the air ; peewits, very like 
 our English one, but not so pretty,* were screaming 
 in every direction ; little owls got up under our horses' 
 feet, and flew a few yards out of the way ; there were 
 black starlings trotting about the cattle's heels ; two 
 kinds of big heavy hawks, and one immense vulture 
 — a condor at least, which flew within a few yards 
 of me ; and while I was looking at it, an emu, or 
 ostrich, as they are called here, sprang up close to 
 my horse : I had ridden up to him as he walked, with- 
 
 ■ » " The Pampas Peewit. — Lega, bill, eyelid-edges, pale pini ; fore- 
 head, throat, and breast black ; belly white ; head, and neck-top grey; 
 back grey-green, with metallic lustre ; upper tail-coverts white ; 
 tail-feathers white at the roots, a black bar all beyond coverts, a 
 pale brown- white tip ; upper wing-coverts duUred, of metallic lustre ; 
 under-ooverts green, of metallic lustre, with red play of colours, dull, 
 the lower row white ; quills, first and second black, third and seventh 
 grey ; crest of eight thin feathers, black, five inches long. A bird of 
 heavy flight (in this very unlike our peewit) ; the wings very round 
 at the point. Screams something like Mttiwake." — JExtracted from 
 Mr. Marajield's Note- Book. 
 
A COUNTRY-HOUSE. 163 
 
 out seeing him. There were two together, but they 
 were not quite wild, being protected and probably fed 
 as pets by the owner of the land ; but there are said 
 to be numbers of them wild not very far oif. I never 
 saw such an appearance of immense strength combined 
 with agility as that exhibited by the legs of those 
 birds, as I galloped after them; their strides were 
 quite prodigious. Then there are partridges, very like 
 our own, infinite sandpipers, and lots of snipes, and 
 a great black-looking curlew in flocks ; and every 
 here and there queer creatures (particularly just about 
 sunset) like enormous rabbits, with tails like beavers' 
 stuck on the wrong way, with hair on the top, faces 
 like a mixture of a badger and guinea-pig, and hair 
 like rats, and as big as a large hare, stand and look at 
 you, and then bolt into holes with which they have 
 tunnelled the ground : they are called Vizcachas by 
 the people here. 
 
 There was plenty of twilight, and some time after 
 sunset we arrived at our friend's cJiacra. It is a 
 small cottage with four or five rooms in it, surrounded 
 by a small grove of trees, leafless now, as all the trees 
 are (except a solitary palm-tree, a fine one too, which 
 I was surprised to see growing here, planted) . On 
 their branches are several queer nests, built of mud, 
 closed over at top with holes at the side, belonging to 
 ar bird like a thrush, that chatters horribly ; and in a 
 poplar-tree close to the house is a mass of sticks like 
 a magpie's nest, that they tell me is that of a parrot. 
 
164 FKOM KIO TO BUENOS AYRES. 
 
 This place was first built as a country retreat for plea- 
 sure, but the owuer is now beginning to farm, — to 
 grow com. 
 
 This morning three of us galloped over to the 
 Roman Catholic church at a village about four miles 
 off, and there we found a congregation of Irish, with 
 an Irish priest performing ; he preached afterwards 
 well and sensibly, till he got ofi' the rails about penance 
 as a sacrament. He comes here once in six months. 
 They say he is always journeying about the Pampas ; 
 his mission is in the State of Buenos Ayres, and he 
 suffers much hardship in his labours. There seems 
 to be a very large Irish population in these parts. 
 Many of the poncho'd and chiripa'd Gauchos are 
 Irishmen. By the way, one sees sometimes some mag- 
 nificent Gauchos, — wild princes, fellows, in chiripas 
 and ponchos of fine brilliant scarlet cloth, with girdles 
 and horse-trappings loaded with silver, each button a 
 doUar-coin, and with enormous spurs, overloaded with 
 silver chains; there are many noble-looking fellows 
 too, more coarsely clad. 
 
 On August 30th we rode into town, after a rough 
 breakfast ; one of the horses having bolted off, its 
 rider had to borrow another. Nothing can be more 
 charming than a gallop over these beautiful plains, 
 the morning air is so fresh ; but as we came near the 
 town we changed fi-om our road of Saturday to avoid 
 some large pools in the road, and went round by the 
 saladeros, or salting-places and slaughter-houses, near 
 
A NEW COMPANION. 165 
 
 the Barracas Bridge. Here the stench was too awful : 
 there were ditches filled with blood instead of wa- 
 ter, actually in all stages of putrefaction ; miles and 
 miles of fences, three or four feet high and two thick, 
 dividing off the different establishments skirting the 
 road, and forming corrals, made entirely of the bones 
 of the bullocks' horns. 
 
 When we arrived in town, our host of the cha- 
 cra (an excellent young fellow, who had never heard 
 of Christian Socialists, and told me that he was a 
 Socialist because he was a Christian, and a Chris- 
 tian because he was a Socialist — a Roman Catholic 
 in belief, whose father fifty years ago was a phy- 
 sician at Manchester) introduced me to an English 
 quack, who has been travelling four months in South 
 America, and arrived here two days ago, having rid- 
 den across the Pampas from Valparaiso to Mendoza 
 and Cordova. It ended in his expressing a wish to 
 accompany us to Paraguay. So I have thus a com- 
 panion, a great acquisition, as he speaks Spanish weU 
 
 and is very lively. Mr. G speaks French so 
 
 indistinctly that I cannot understand half he says, 
 and cannot speak Spanish. His wife is just the re- 
 verse, speaks Spanish and English, as weU as French, 
 very clearly, so that I can understand her in two 
 tongues ; and I hope soon to be able to do so in the 
 third. I have just learned that we shall have to 
 perform part of the journey on horseback, so I have 
 counter-ordered my mattress, and shall get a Gaucho 
 saddle and appurtenances, which make a capital bed. 
 
166 FROM BIO TO BUENOS AYRES. 
 
 A great event took place here on August 31st. A 
 decree appeared in the Government newspaper, re- 
 gulating the customs matters of the Confederation ; 
 amongst other things, the river Parana was declared 
 open. This was very unexpected, and seemed at first 
 likely to alter our plans, because if the rivers are 
 open, of course steamers may go up. However, on 
 examination of the decree I found that it was not to 
 come in force before October 1st, and there are se- 
 veral limitations in it; such as, that, though ships 
 of aU nations may go up, no foreign vessels may, ex- 
 cept such as are of more than 130 tons burden, and 
 these may only touch at such ports as have custom- 
 houses, and may not even stop at the islands on the 
 river; so a small steamer could not go, and if she 
 did, could not go as her passengers would like. So 
 we determined to stick to our old sailing-boat, and 
 shall at any rate get some little distance on the way 
 before the steamers can begin their journey. This 
 decree is, though full of limitations, a great beginning, 
 the opening up of a new world. 
 
 I went this evening to drink tea with Mr. Lafone, 
 whose family are now living here, having a house 
 here as well as at Monte Video. I learned from 
 him that he had got for me a passage on board the 
 ' Dom Pedro Segundo' from the Brazilian minister ; if 
 she does catch us up, I shall only have to go and ask 
 to be taken in. While I was at Mr. Lafone's, Sir C. 
 Hotham came in ; he did not recognize me as the in- 
 truder on his Excellency at Rio de Janeiro, till being 
 
PREPARING FOR DEPARTURE. 167 
 
 told I was going to Paraguay^ and speaking to me of 
 it, I reminded him that he had discouraged me as to 
 my hopes of getting there ; to which he replied, " But 
 affairs are in a very different state now," and asked 
 me to give his compliments to Lopez, the President 
 (whom he knows, having been at Assumption before, 
 when he forced Rosas' blockade of the river, and went 
 up), and say he hoped to see him soon. I took this 
 as a hint that he meant to be there before me ; I want 
 to get there first,* before the first gush of foreigners, 
 and was rather afraid this evening that Sir C. Hotham, 
 and a lot of people who might get passages in his 
 vessel, would beat me by a month at least, for the 
 ' Locust' is going to sail on September 6th, and it is 
 currently reported that she will go up to Assumption. 
 However I learned this evening that he is only going 
 up to Santa Fe, to accompany Urquiza to the Con- 
 gress there. I suppose his diplomatic duties will 
 occupy him there some time before he goes up fur- 
 ther. I hope that reading all this wUl not bother 
 
 * In a letter to a friend, Mr. Mansfield writes : — " I wish some one 
 better fitted than myself for the task, had the splendid opportunity 
 which seems before me, of seeing the magnificent Mesopotamia of 
 the Parana. I think I have some work to do up there, and I am 
 occasionally visited by a very strong notion that I am to spend the 
 rest of my hfe in Paraguay. Have you any friends near enough to 
 the present Government to ask for the appointment of Minister at 
 the Court of Paraguay, or Charge d' Affaires, or Consul, political or 
 commercial, for me ? Wow that Paraguay is independent, and the 
 inlets of commerce about to be opened, we shall be fancying we want 
 a representative of some kind here, and we may as well have a live 
 one. I mean to be the fittest person for the position before I return 
 to England." 
 
168 FROM RIO TO BUENOS AYRES. 
 
 yoTi ; but I cannot help thinking that all these little 
 things which interest me so much wiU be interest- 
 ing to jou, as I jot them down as they pass through 
 my mind. 
 
 The next boating-trip that Robert will have to take 
 will be up the Parana with me when I return to Pa- 
 raguay. The Parana flows only three miles an hour, 
 and may be pulled against ; but there will be steamers 
 there, and the boat may be taken up, and he can puU 
 down. 
 
 This is a sort of farewell epistle, a last word b,efore 
 I plunge into regions untraversed by the wings of her 
 Majesty's mails. I expect to sail immediately up this 
 mighty river into the mysterious land of Paraguay ; 
 the nearer I get to this to my mind enchanted land, 
 the deeper is the interest which seems to envelope 
 it, and the more anxious I am to find myself within 
 its bounds. It was always one of my dreams to go 
 to Paraguay, and see the remains of Jesuit social- 
 ism among the isolated civilization of the Indians; 
 and now it seems as if my vision was to be realized. 
 But I must not count my chickens before they are 
 hatched, 
 
169 
 
 CHAPTER VII.* 
 
 VP THE PARANA, PROM BUENOS AYRBS TO 
 CORRIENTES. 
 
 DIFnCUMIES AT STABTIlfa. — FELIOW PASSEJT&EES. — BILL OF 
 FAEE. — THE ISLAtTD Or MARTIN O-AEOIA. — EUN A&EOUND. — 
 A BATHE. — APPBAEANOE OE THE COtTNTET. — A ElEB. — EOTJE 
 STEAMEES PASS UP THE BIVEE. — A HONBY-WASPS' NEST. — TBIAl 
 OE CANOE PADDLnsra. — OBIiaABO. — EOSAEIO. — lOCUSTS. — THE 
 STEAMEES EETUEN. — DIAMANTES. — ANOTHEE PEAIEIE EIEE. — 
 AGEOirND A&AIN. — A PIEET OF TBSSEIS. — A STOEM. — SCENEEY. 
 — CHANGE EEOM 'NEPTUNO' TO 'EOSAEIO.' — VEGETATION. — 
 ANOTHEE STOEM. — BEEADTH OF THE EIVEE. — AOEOUND AGAIN. 
 — LOCUSTS. — MIEAGE. — AEEIVAL AT COBEIBNTES. — NATIVES. — 
 INTEEVIEW WITH THE GOTEENOB. 
 
 September 2. 
 
 I WILL now give you the log of my voyage to Para- 
 guay. After a number of vexatious delays, and a deal 
 of tedious waste of time, being on the point of sail- 
 ing every day, we actually got on board the ' Neptuno' 
 
 * This voyage lasted from the 2nd of September till the 2nd of 
 October. The letter was written from day to day, and chronicles 
 all the changes of the wind, the passing and re-passing of the dif- 
 ferent vessels on the river, the heaving and weighing of the anchor, 
 and other occurrences of deep iaterest to the traveller, during a long 
 and monotonous voyage, but possessing no particular charm to the 
 general reader. Much of this has been omitted. — Ed. 
 
 I 
 
170 BUENOS AYEES TO CORRIENTES. 
 
 this afternoon. The Doctor, who was to have accom- 
 panied lis, turned out to he so ill that he could not 
 go, and I left him in bed. I am very thankful that 
 he found out that he was not up to it in time, other- 
 wise I should have had to nurse him on the voyage. 
 Getting on board a ship at Buenos Ayres is by no 
 means so simple a matter as it is in England : first, 
 you have to procure a passport, and pay seven- and- 
 sixpence for it; then a "permit" to embark your 
 luggage ; then, when you think you are going to step 
 into the cart to be driven out to sea, some one seizes 
 on you, to hurry you off to one office where the pass- 
 port has to be vise, and then some one else to ano- 
 ther, for your permit to undergo the same operation. 
 We had gone through all this, and a hundred other 
 worries and bothers, by about four p.m., having re- 
 ceived at eleven A.M. the Captain's almost incredible 
 information that he wanted Us on board this after- 
 noon, to sail tomorrow morning early. I pity poor 
 
 Madame G . I have before described to you our 
 
 cabin ;* besides our four selves aft, there are four or 
 five French journeymen printers as fore-cabin pas- 
 sengers. I expect our voyage will be a roughish sort 
 of affair. 
 
 September 3. 
 
 As soon as out of bed I took a header over the bul- 
 warks into the Plate, to the great astonishment of the 
 crew, who are all Italians, and cannot conceive what 
 * See p. 151. 
 
INCIDENTS OF THE VOYAGE. 171 
 
 an Englander can want to wash himself for. My bed 
 consists of two or three hides of cow or ox in different 
 states of preparation, and some rough cloths ; my pil- 
 low of a Pampas saddle, the whole together making a 
 recado (pronounced ricow), or Gaucho's bed-saddle. 
 I manage to arrange myself between these things 
 somehow or other with a plaid and poncho for addi- 
 tional covering ; and, instead of sheets, I envelope my 
 legs in a pair of calzoncillos, the enormous petticoat- 
 trousers of the Gauchos. If it was not for the bugs 
 and fleas, I should sleep very well ; the mosquitos are 
 yet to come. 
 
 After dressing, I pulled in the ship's boat to a 
 French vessel called the ' Harmonia,' a neat schooner 
 belonging to an officer in the French navy, who has 
 come out here on a private exploring expedition of 
 his own. He is going to sell his schooner, which 
 is too large to go up the river, and is building a 
 smaller vessel, with paddle-wheels, to be worked by 
 hand, with which he is going up the Parana, and its 
 great tributary the Bermejo, which falls into the Pa- 
 raguay a little above its junction with the Parang. 
 The Bermejo rises up in Bolivia, and runs through 
 part of the upper provinces of the Argentine Confede- 
 ration, and through the Gran Chaco, in the heart of 
 the continent. Its banks are infested with fierce In- 
 dians, who have a strong taste for white flesh, so that 
 little is known of the country through which it passes. 
 There is a good deal of talk about it now, and of a 
 
 i3 
 
172 BUENOS AYRES TO COERIENTES. 
 
 colonizing company for navigating it. This French- 
 man is going armed with guns for his defence, and 
 presents to win the natives. Unfortunately he was 
 not on hoard; judging by the name of his ship, 
 and by Fourier's ' Theorie de TUnite UniverseUe,^ 
 which was lying on his table in the cabin, he must be 
 an ardent Socialist. A few minutes after we returned 
 to the ' Neptuno,' the expected fourth after-cabin 
 passenger, the French master -printer, came on board, 
 and we were soon under weigh, endeavouring to beat 
 up the river against a head-wind. The day that I 
 came from Monte Video, there were numbers of little 
 floating islands (mats of water-plants from the Parana) 
 to be seen on the river, but very few are visible today. 
 
 September 4. 
 When I turned out this morning we were in sight 
 of Colonia, in the Banda Oriental. Our meals on 
 board are rather rough affairs — only two in a day — a 
 relief after the four meals in the English steamers, 
 when one could never get an appetite without missing 
 a meal, and then being famished before the next ar- 
 rived. Fore passengers and aft feed together, and the 
 table is on the top of the after-cabin. Quantities of 
 meat stuffed with garlic, dry biscuits, and execrable 
 logwood wine, form both breakfast and dinner, — with 
 the addition of some soup for the latter meal. I had 
 laid in a stock of my nice little beans, called porotos, 
 for my own consumption; with these, dried fruit, 
 
COAST OF BANDA OEIENTAL. 173 
 
 preserves^ and biscuit, I can go ahead greatly. The 
 water of the river is excellent in taste, though very 
 turbid, but one knows that it is only clean dirt, and 
 so can drink it without disgust. I brought some 
 blotting-paper with me to filter it, but the funnel I 
 ordered was not packed up, so I drink native Plata 
 water without sophistication. 
 
 September 5. 
 
 This morning we ran along the low undulating 
 sandy coast of the Banda Oriental, some tenor twelve 
 miles from shore, with the vast river stretching away 
 to infinity on the port side, but were soon becalmed. 
 For my part I made up my mind for this sort of work 
 before I started, and, being well provided with books, 
 can endure the monotony well enough, but am in con- 
 tinual pity for poor Madame G , who is very 
 
 anxious to get to Paraguay in a hurry. (By the bye, 
 I may have spoken of La Plata being three hundred 
 miles wide at its mouth ; that is a mistake, it is about 
 one hundred and seventy.) We anchored for the 
 night just off the island of Martin Garcia, near the 
 eastern bank of the mouth of the Uruguay. We heard 
 the musical croaking of the frogs on shore distinctly, 
 although it was a mile off. 
 
 September 6. 
 
 I took a header overboard, which I cannot conve- 
 niently manage when we are under weigh, and then 
 
174 BUENOS AYRES TO CORRIENTES. 
 
 went ashore to the island with part of the crew going 
 to get vegetables. This island will some day be an 
 important station for the coaling of the steamers going 
 up the Uruguay and the Parana. There are some 
 quarries on it, from which stone for paving Buenos 
 Ayres has been obtained. The soil is very fertile, 
 beautiful clover growing in profusion all over it. We 
 found a few soldiers here, under the command of an 
 old officer, who offered us mate. We walked about the 
 island, which is about three miles long in one direc- 
 tion, and two in another. Peach-trees in magnificent 
 flower were planted everywhere ; European vegetables 
 are said to grow in great abundance, and with wonder- 
 ful rapidity. Amongst other things, we found a tangled 
 mass of a beautiful creeper with crimsonflowers, shaped 
 and coloured like a fuchsia, but stuck on, and tasting 
 somewhat like a nasturtium, which we were informed 
 was sarsaparilla. They say such quantities of sar- 
 saparilla grow on the banks of the Rio Negro, one of 
 the tributaries of the Uruguay, that the waters are 
 impregnated with its essence^ and are highly salutary 
 as a beverage. There were lots of little birds, some 
 of them very pretty, and some sing very nicely. The 
 island is not much more than a hundred feet high 
 at its highest point ; on top of which is a little mud 
 fort, where we found a trumpeter, a fifer, and a drum- 
 mer, strumming away magnificently. There is a little 
 village of mud huts, close by a small cove, which forms 
 a good anchorage for small vessels. This island now 
 
AN ODD FISH. 175 
 
 belongs to Buenos Ayres, and, if properly cultivated, 
 it would be a very nice little property. The old officer 
 offered us horses to ride, but we had to go on board, 
 as there were symptoms of a breeze from the south. 
 We went to the boat, where we found one of the men 
 had killed a water-rail, very much like our English 
 specimens in size and shape, but having, as have 
 several of the South American birds (e. g. the lapwing 
 of the Pampas), a spur on its wing. 
 
 We were now for the first time in sight of the two 
 opposite shores of the river at once, in the distance, 
 with the opening of the mouth of the Uruguay visi- 
 ble on our starboard quarter, — still in La Plata, not 
 yet in the Parana. The cabin-boy caught a most 
 queer fish, with four large feelers like a shrimp, two of 
 them as long as its body (nine or ten inches), with a 
 flat belly, a sharp back, and spines like scythes to its 
 pectoral finsj the creature croaked like a frog and 
 jumped vigorously about the deck. About six p.m. 
 we ran aground hard and fast in the mud, with only 
 five feet of water about our stern (we drew eight feet), 
 and twenty feet under the bows. The anchor was 
 carried out in the boat some fifty or sixty yards, and 
 dropped, and we then commenced the warping ; after 
 about an hour's hard work we got off, and by ten p.m. 
 entered the Parand. It was quite dark, so I saw no- 
 thing of it but a low black mark for an horizon on the 
 port side. Before very long we found the music of 
 the frogs filling the air. As we advanced up the river, 
 
176 BUENOS AYRES TO CORRIENTES. 
 
 some woods were burniDg at a long distance right 
 ahead : they shed a faint light on the river, so that we 
 could see our way, with the two banks on each side. 
 
 September 7. 
 
 I was woke by the heaying of the anchor, rushed 
 on deck, and jumped into the Parana ; just as I was 
 overboard, the ship began to make way, and, the cur- 
 rent beiag pretty smart (nearly four miles an hour), I 
 guess I had smart work to swim for it. I had taken 
 care to throw the accommodation ladder over the side 
 to mount by, but I could not reach it, and got fairly 
 carried astern. I made a desperate effort to get along- 
 side again, and made a grab at a rope that happened 
 to be dragging overboard ; when I missed it, I began 
 to think I had got into a mess, and that I might have 
 to halloo for a boat, and be carried down the stream 
 ever so far before they could catch me. So I made 
 another effort, and seized the rope just at the moment 
 that the Captain caught sight of me, and was going to 
 lengthen it out. I was precious glad to get on board 
 again. — N.B. Not to jump overboard when the anchor 
 is up, without a rope in my hand. 
 
 We are now fairly in the river, sailing with a fine 
 south breeze up one of the mouths of the Parana. This 
 river opens into the estuary of the Plata by a delta, 
 among a lot of islands. The chief mouths are the 
 Parana de las Palmas, and the Parang Guazu. I think 
 we entered by the latter, but when I show the map to 
 
THE PARANA. 177 
 
 the Captain and ask him, he does not seem to know, 
 — he only knows the way. This part of the river, 
 which must be much narrower than it is above the 
 delta, is about as wide, I suppose, as the Thames at 
 Greenwich. The land on each side (on one side at 
 least it is islands) is dead flat, covered entirely with a 
 copse of a kind of umbii-tree, quite bare of leaves ; 
 here and there are a few orange-trees in leaf and 
 peach-trees in blossom, and I saw three palms at one 
 place; rushes and flags seem to clothe the ground. 
 I got up the masthead this afternoon, to try whether 
 I could see the other branches of the river and make 
 out the islands, but nothing was visible but an in- 
 terminable flat of sedge, fringed near the edge of the 
 river with stunted trees, and a cloud of smoke from 
 the bumiag rushes in the north-east. 
 
 At four P.M. we arrived in a reach called the Bo- 
 tija, or pot, by the sailors, from its curvation, and our 
 vessel was run up close to land, some of the men 
 jumping ashore. I was not a little surprised at seeing 
 the ship, which had been aground out in the middle, 
 where the river is so wide that you can scarcely see 
 the banks, run purposely close to the shore. However 
 I supposed it was all right, and that we were going to 
 be tied to a tree, which is the correct mode of mooring 
 in some parts of the river. My surprise was increased 
 when half-a-dozen of the crew shouldered a cable, and 
 commenced towing the ship (ninety-nine tons burden) 
 up the stream, while another on board kept her ofiF the 
 
 I 3 
 
178 BDENOS AYRES TO CORRIENTES. 
 
 hank with a pole. I got on shore to see what it was 
 like; and found the whole ground covered with a mass 
 of sedge, and a sort of flag with thorny edges, like a 
 cross between a pine-apple and a common flag. The 
 men said there were lots of tigers (as they call the 
 ounces or jaguars, which are as fierce as any tigers) 
 in this jungle, and showed me what they declared was 
 the print of the foot of one on the mud at the water's 
 edge. We were towed along thus for I suppose a 
 couple of miles, and then the sails were got up again, 
 and we sailed away ; the wind was again in our favour, 
 but soon fell ofi" after sunset, and we anchored a short 
 way astern of the other ship, which had been towed in 
 the same manner along the Botija. The anchor was 
 scarcely down before a faint breeze sprang up from 
 the west, under which we ran up a little further, and 
 then, this dying away too, anchored again. The scene 
 this evening was very beautiful. All around the east 
 horizon a dense cloud of smoke had been hanging du- 
 ring the afternoon, and from other points towards the 
 north long pillars of smoke were leaning against the 
 sky ; as the night came on, a fringe of light covered 
 the ground beneath this smoke. The land lies so low 
 that the shrubs and rushes on the banks hid the flames 
 from our sight, as they were at a great distance, so 
 tliat we only saw the reflection against the smoke 
 above, or the very tips of the flames. One of these 
 fires was exactly ahead of us, and rather nearer to us 
 than the others, and illumined the lower regions of 
 
AT ANCHOR. 179 
 
 the sky in that direction very grandly. Another ship 
 slowly glided between us and the fire at one timSj pro- 
 ducing a most beautiful sort of spectral effect. 
 
 September 8. 
 
 At anchor all day. So I ground away fiercely at 
 OUendorffj and expect to be taken for a white Spaniard 
 at Assumption. The river in this reach seems to me 
 about as wide as the Thames at Gravesend. 
 
 September 9. 
 Being still at anchor^ I went in the canoe to an 
 island for firewood. There was a vast expanse of 
 matted sedge and flags, with a fringe of willows near 
 the water's edge, and a margin of mud, covered with 
 big prints of ounces' feet, quite fresh ; evidently they 
 had been down to drink the night before. It was not 
 very tempting to go into the sedge, as many a man 
 has been eaten in these parts thereby. The French 
 passengers went chasser, and killed two little wood- 
 peckers and a big grosbeak. Very few waterfowl were 
 seen — occasionally a duck or two, or a pair of divers ; 
 no doubt they get a better living in the marshes and 
 pools of the Pampas. Here and there a heron or 
 crane sat contemplating (" ein Kerl der speculirt") 
 near the bank, with a long black crest hanging from 
 the nape of his neck. Very soon after this we got 
 under weigh, and heard a low plash, dash, scream, 
 struggle, and roar, within a hundred yards of us, on 
 
180 BTJENOS AYRES TO CORRIENTES. 
 
 the shore of the island on which we had landed in the 
 morningj and not very far from where we had been 
 walking : no doubt the jaguar, whose track we had 
 seen, made his supper just then. But what these 
 fierce brutes find to eat I cannot imagine, for there 
 are very few signs of animal life in these sedge-jungles. 
 Mosquitos beginning to be somewhat vexatious, I hung 
 a piece of muslin, which I bought at Buenos Ayres for 
 the purpose, over the door of the cabin, to keep them 
 out in the evening, when the candles were lighted. 
 
 I happened to go upon deck about 9.30 p.m., and 
 beheld a mysterious dancing of lights, like a lot of 
 enormous fire-flies, down the river. It was soon evi- 
 dent that it was the steamers coming up ; and so they 
 have coolly gone by us, three of them, one no doubt 
 carrying Urquiza, the other Sir C. Hotham, and the 
 third M. St.-Georges. It was too dark to see anytlung 
 of them but their light and their outliaes, as they 
 ploughed by us within two hundred yards' distance. 
 They are only going up to Santa Fe, but it is dis- 
 gusting to be passed thus. About midnight another 
 steamer went by us. 
 
 September 10. 
 
 The wind being adverse, a canoe was sent ofi" with 
 a cable, which was tied to a tree on the bank, and 
 then men on board hauled it up ; by this means, and 
 by men on the bank towing, we made progress to the 
 extent of half a mile in three hours, and then tied our- 
 
HONEY-MAKING WASPS. 181 
 
 selves to a tree. It seems that a league a day is about 
 our average progress. After breakfast I climbed from 
 the bowsprit into the branches of the willow to which 
 we were tied, and so ashore; — a miserable tangled 
 scene of reeds and sedge, with here and there a shrub ; 
 it is all dry, and would burn like tinder. Some one 
 brought on board a splendid wasps' nest, bigger than 
 my head, made of strong papier mdche ; a stout case, 
 like a skull, forming a hive, with an immense number 
 of small cells in combs, just like a bees' nest, ranged 
 in tiers, one above the other, inside. It was said to 
 belong to honey-making wasps ; some of them were 
 dead inside, little black fellows with a yellow spot on 
 the thorax, about the size of the big ants of St. George's 
 Hill.* The nest had evidently been attacked by birds, 
 who had pecked big holes in it ; but it was reported 
 to have been singed by fire (to which probably the 
 destruction of the insects was owing) in some past 
 conflagration. The outgide of the nest was covered 
 with large blunt spines, made of the same papier 
 mdche.-\ This evening we descried some big animal 
 swimming in the water, near the bank, with the top of 
 his head and back out of the water ; and behold, an- 
 other like unto him was stalking along on the muddy 
 bank, which at that point sloped down to the water. 
 They were between two and three hundred yards off, 
 and the sun was just about to set almost exactly be- 
 hind them, so it was very difficult to make them out. 
 
 * Surrey. t See Appendix A. 
 
182 BUENOS AYRES TO CORKIENTES. 
 
 I had no time to get a good view of them, for my 
 companions were begging for my telescope, which of 
 course T could not refuse ; and when they had done 
 spying, the beast had become eclipsed behind a little 
 promontory. I should have thought they were tapirs 
 by the shape; but from the glimpse I caught of the 
 one on shore, he seemed to be hairy, and I did not 
 see his beak ; they were about as big as a good-sized 
 calf apparently. A wiseacre passenger, who is by way 
 of knowing the river well, says they are called ca- 
 pinchos in these parts : perhaps they are capybaras, 
 but I thought these were much smaller beasts; at 
 any rate they help to explain the mystery of how the 
 ounces get a living. 
 
 September 11. 
 
 StiU. at anchor. To diversify the time, I thought of 
 practising canoe paddling, so tied the painter of the 
 canoe, which was lying astern, to a line a hundred 
 yards long, made fast to the ship as a security against 
 being carried down the stream, and got into it. I had 
 scarcely finished my preparations, when I found, to 
 my disgust, that I was loose in the stream. Some 
 one, either a French passenger or a cabin-boy (who 
 owes me a spite for making him really clean the cabin 
 instead of pretend to do it), had untied the painter. 
 I thought I had precious little chance of being able to 
 stem the stream, especially as I was unskilled in the 
 use of the paddle ; and so I found it. I was fifty or 
 
CA\OE PADDLING. 183 
 
 sixty yards astern before I found out I was adrift^ and 
 with all my efforts I could only keep where I was, 
 and after some minutes' hard work found myself going 
 down the stream. So I shoiited vigorously for a boat : 
 one was fortunately hanging from the davits ready, 
 and a couple of men soon came to my rescue. I was 
 pretty nearly a quarter of a mile astern before they 
 picked me up, and uncommon hard work we had to 
 pull against the stream back to the ship. Of course 
 I was very much disgusted at the trick that had been 
 played me ; but being unable to make the exact state 
 of my mind known to the cabin-boy (who I am pretty 
 sure was the miscreant) in Spanish, held my tongue, 
 and contented myself with making explanation to 
 
 the Captain, through Madame G , as interpreter. 
 
 N.B. Pulling up the Parana would be very little fun. 
 September 12 and 13, still at anchor. 
 
 September 14. 
 Last night's new moon brought a change of wind ; 
 we ran up to the end of a reach, followed by four other 
 schooners, one behind the other — a regular regatta. 
 One of them soon caught us up and went by us, 
 carrying sixty passengers, and among them a dozen 
 monks in cowl ; soon after another, the ' Rosario,' 
 who was an old antagonist (having continually been 
 in sight of us either ahead or astern), shot by also. 
 But when we came to the reach where we had to tack, 
 the ship with the monks ran in so close to shore on 
 
184 BTJENOS AYEES TO COaRIENTES. 
 
 our tack, that she could not get off, missed stays I 
 suppose in going about, and had to anchor. So we 
 left her behind, and the race now was between us and 
 the ' Rosario.' By-and-by however the ship that had 
 lost her position got off, and came spinning along, 
 gaining on us ; and we gained on the other, and at 
 length we both passed her at the same moment, one 
 on each side : it was a very pretty sight. About two 
 P.M. the green ship, with the cargo of monks, ran 
 fast and hard aground ; we had just time to put up 
 the helm and steer clear of her, avoiding both colli- 
 sion and the bank. I must say it seemed very un- 
 righteous to me that we sailed on without stopping to 
 help them out of their difficulty, but I suppose they 
 are accustomed to it. They went aground, very ap- 
 propriately, exactly opposite the convent of San Pedro, 
 on the left bank of the river. 
 
 The scene here was varied by a high bank or cliff, 
 here called a barranca, an ancient bank of the river, 
 where there is a slight rise in the plain, amounting to 
 a gentle hill for these parts. Just at the highest point 
 stands the old, red-brick, gloomy-looking convent, 
 now I believe a barrack ; and along the ridge were a 
 few ranches (thatched cottages), corrals, and big lying 
 umbii-trees ; and on the flat under the cliff, beyond 
 the marsh, oxen and sheep grazing. This was quite 
 a wonder to us, after the monotony of willows and 
 sedge for the last week. A few miles above San 
 Pedro, on the west of the river, is the famous spot 
 
CLEARNESS OF THE AIR. 185 
 
 " Obligado," wliere the combined English and French 
 fleets cut the chains which Rosas had put across the 
 river, under fire of his guns, Sir C. Hotham being 
 the English commander. Whether Obligado derives 
 its name from the narrowness of the river at that 
 point, from the fact that vessels going up the river are 
 obliged to pass that way on account of the shallow- 
 ness of the other channel, or from the ligature which 
 Rosas threw across, I must leave to you to determine. 
 
 September 15. 
 
 We had a glorious breeze all night, and ran pretty 
 nearly as far during the night, as our distance from 
 Buenos Ayres in a straight line was yesterday. I 
 never saw anything so brilliant as the stars were, 
 they sparkled like spots of lightning. The air was 
 clearer than I suppose it ever was in England, and 
 the sun and moon were both as far off as they could 
 be ; the effect was quite astonishing. Soon after ten 
 A. M. this morning we passed the little town of Rosario, 
 which is rather an important place in its way, being 
 the chief port of the Province of Santa Ee : (the town 
 of Santa Ee, the capital of the province, is not on the 
 main river, but on a side- water, cut off from the main 
 channel by a long island.) Rosario stands on the top 
 of a cliff from sixty to eighty feet high. There is a 
 church in it, with two tall towers like minarets, — a 
 favourite fashion for the churches in these parts. The 
 houses are mostly built with the azoteas, or flat roofs. 
 
186 BUENOS AYRES TO CORKIUNTES. 
 
 which give so peculiar an aspect to Monte Video and 
 Buenos Ayres : but outside the town are numbers of 
 cottages, or ranchos, with sloping roofs like those of 
 an English house. (N.B. A rancho in the Spanish 
 settlements is a different thing from a Brazilian ran- 
 cho.) Between the bottom of the cliff (on which the 
 town stands, and which here forms the edge of the 
 Pampas), and the river, is a flat semicircular bit of 
 beach, which presented an almost busy scene, — a great 
 contrast at least to the desert islands we had been, 
 among of late. There were numbers of the queerest 
 carts from Tucuman, which bring the inland produce 
 down the coast, and take back foreign instead; — 
 strange crosses between bathing-machines and gipsy- 
 carts, with a touch of the pig-stye about them, — small 
 platforms of wood, mounted on enormous wheels six 
 or seven feet in diameter, and roofed over with hides, 
 with walls of wattle. Gauchos were lazily lounging 
 about among them, and gulls busy making a meal by 
 their side. Some few of these strange vehicles were 
 slowly moving up the road (which ascends through a 
 notch in the cliff), drawn by oxen : I should think a 
 mile an hour must be rapid work for them. And this 
 is the best mode of conveyance for goods used in the 
 country, which must be the very finest in the world 
 for railways. Along the edge of the water were the 
 usual shoal of laundresses spoihng linen. Just above 
 the town of Rosario, the cliff, which there recedes 
 from the river a little, comes down to the river-side. 
 
BURROWING PARROTS. 187 
 
 and runs along its margin for many miles^ with a 
 narrow slip of beachj in most places, between its 
 bottom and the water's edge. The substance of the 
 cliff is the alluvial sandy clay of the Pampas, with a 
 particularly thin layer of mould at the top. The phy- 
 siognomy of the shore is very like that of Lee Lane 
 End,* except that no trees at all are to be seen on the 
 top of it : and the cliff is full of bird- burrows, which 
 however are not those of sand-martins as at the latter 
 place, but of parrots. I did not know before that 
 there was a burrowing parrot : here were hundreds of 
 them, long-tailed creatures, green and grey, with a 
 flight like a cuckoo, and a scream like a jackdaw. 
 
 We rattled on before the south wind, blowing half 
 a gale, and as cold as an English north-east, but not 
 quite so cutting. The thermometer today was about 
 55° at noon : it was 85° Eahr. at the same hour the day 
 before yesterday. The river is just like a sea, as rough 
 as it often is between the Isle of Wight and Hants. 
 What has become of our rival of yesterday I do not 
 know. How these Italians do hate all monks and 
 priests, whom they call lying canaille ! At noon we 
 passed the convent of San Lorenzo, situated a little 
 way inland from the edge of the cliff, on the same side 
 (west) of the river as Rosario, — a red brick pile, with 
 an ugly whitewashed church among it. About one p.m. 
 I observed a great number of what were apparently 
 bits of sticks floating on the water, which on closer 
 * Part of the coast of Hampshire opposite to the Isle of Wight. — Ed. 
 
188 BUENOS AYRES TO COKRIENTES. 
 
 examination proved to be hundreds of locusts ; there 
 must have been a visitation of them somewhere. Every 
 now and then one alighted on the deck, and for half 
 an hour we were passing through the scattered host ; 
 the numbers of them were nothing enormous, for they 
 did not lie thick. At ten p.m. the Captain ordered 
 the anchor down, because his wife, whom he has on 
 board, did not like his being up. 
 
 September 16. 
 
 The consequence of this was that all the other ships 
 went by us in the night, and that in the morning the 
 wind fell off, and we had to anchor for another week, 
 or longer perhaps, as events may turn out. About 
 six A.M. we perceived, some miles ahead, the smoke of 
 what seemed and turned out to be a steamer coming 
 down the river : it was the French steamer the ' Flam- 
 bard,' which had taken M. St.-Georges up to Santa 
 Fe, in company with Urquiza. Of course we specu- 
 lated as to how it was that she was going down alone, 
 and we imagined she might be going to fetch the 
 European mails, which the ' Prince' brings in two or 
 three days. But about half an hour afterwards we 
 descried another trail of smoke on the other side, on 
 an island a mile or two ahead, and soon after the tops 
 of the masts of another steamer appeared above the 
 trees ; and I soon made out the red flag of old Eng- 
 land at the main, and the Argentine at the fore : it 
 was the ' Locust,' with Sir C. Hotham on board, and 
 
RETURN OF URQUIZA. 189 
 
 his blue flag at the stern too. She soon passed us, 
 and disappeared round the next turning. So now we 
 determined that the two commissioners had completed 
 their ceremony, and were going quietly back to Buenos 
 Ayres tiU Urquiza should return. But another half 
 hour had scarcely elapsed before another steamer came 
 in sight, with the Buenos Ayres, the Santa Fe, and 
 the Entre Rios flags flying, and she span away down 
 the river. What could Urquiza be going back so soon 
 for ? He can scarcely have opened the Congress, at 
 which he was to preside, to discuss the afiairs of the 
 Republic, and here he is ofi" back again, — for there 
 could be no doubt that he was on board. Perhaps he 
 had only thought it necessary to open the meeting, and 
 then left the delegates to deliberate. Well, after some 
 httle time longer another steamer came in sight, with 
 the Union ensigns flying, — and the Argentine colours 
 too, — towing another vessel with the Spanish flag 
 and the Buenos Ayrean. This was a private English 
 steamer that runs between Monte Video and Buenos 
 Ayres, which no doubt had been enlisted for special 
 service on this occasion, and was of course the fourth 
 steamer we had seen going up the river on the night 
 of the 9th. All these flags looked quite gay, and 
 seemed like a prophecy of some future day when the 
 steamers of all nations shall be coursing up and down 
 the magnificent Parana. But on the vessel towed by 
 this steamer, notwithstanding the peaceful indications 
 of its foreign flag (for the Spanish one must have been 
 
190 BUENOS AYEES TO CORRIENTES. 
 
 the owner's, not that of the vessel, for none under 
 foreign flags can navigate the Parana before Octoher 
 1st), tl^ere were other symptoms : it was loaded with 
 red-poncho'd soldiers ; and the steamer which towed 
 it had also a very martial appearance — its occupants 
 were chiefly officers of the Argentine army. We at 
 once suspected that some mischief was brewing at 
 Buenos Ayres, and that Urquiza was hurrying back 
 to set things straight. 
 
 At nine a.m. we anchored just in sight of the high 
 ground of Diamantes, the first sign of any beauty in 
 the scenery which we have seen on the river. Soon 
 after breakfast I started oif in the canoe with some 
 of the passengers and sailors who were going to Dia- 
 mantes to get meat ; for the poor carnivorous crea- 
 tures had been short of that substance for some days, 
 and had been constrained to dine chiefly on dried 
 beans and peas stewed, as I do, thinking myself in 
 clover when the cook does not put too much bacon 
 fat in the mess. "We paddled, panted, and towed 
 alternately, about six miles up, and then across, the 
 stream ; the last half-mile under the lee of the heights 
 of Diamantes, along the side of an osier-bed, and then 
 under the base of a clifiF, piled with huge fragments 
 of spongy white coral-rag, lying upon a bed of sandy 
 stone, full of shells, to the landing-place. 
 
 Now this Diamantes is really a very striking spot ; 
 the ground rises considerably, — I suppose, to between 
 two and three hundred feet above the level of the 
 
DIAMANTES. 191 
 
 riverj — and is broken into numerous undulating hills. 
 Towards the water it slopes suddenly down, forming 
 almost a cliff in some places, but for the most part 
 the slope is such that trees can grow on itj and 
 as they are here protected from the sweeping winds 
 of the plaia, and find in the rock some encouraging 
 nourishment, they grow well ; and a tolerable thick 
 coppice clothes the whole slope with a variety of trees, 
 chiefly thorny mimosas ; also a kind of holly, with grey 
 leaves, and only three prickles on each leaf; hundreds 
 of strange air-plants, with their dry grey curly leaves, 
 hanging about the branches, — none in flower now. 
 Most of the trees are bare of leaves also, it being early 
 spring, and we are not here in the land of perpetual 
 verdure, as I hope to be in Paraguay, if ever I get 
 there. I found lots of the bright crimson and purple 
 verbena in flower, but scarcely any other ; there were 
 cactuses by the dozen too ; and lots of one very queer 
 plant, the like whereof I have never seen, with a fan- 
 leaf like the carnauba-palm, and a thorn at the end 
 of each finger : I suppose it belongs to the aloe order. 
 I imagine these hills were formerly a coral-reef at 
 the bottom of the great estuary of the Pampas ; but 
 what it is now is more to the point. It is the place 
 where Urquiza's army passed the Parana, after raising 
 the siege of Monte Video in December last, and firom 
 which they followed Rosas to Monte Caseros, near 
 Buenos Ayres, where they thrashed him. The man 
 who accompanied me today (a Frenchman) was master 
 
192 BUENOS AYKES TO CORRIENTES. 
 
 of the flying press of Urquiza's army ; lie printed all 
 his proclamations, and was constantly near him, and 
 so knew all about it. He also designed and engraved, 
 by a patent process of his own (as he says), the vi- 
 gnette at the head of the ' Illustrated London News.' 
 A small town of mud huts was raised in a very short 
 time by the army while encamped at Diamantes, and 
 there having been no houses there before, they are now 
 going to make a town of it. A little church has been 
 built and whitewashed, and a few streets have been 
 marked out, and a few brick cottages and a shop or 
 two have sprung up, where Bass's pale ale and Man- 
 chester cottons lie alongside of dulces de Paraguay 
 (which are quaint little bricks of brown sugar), and 
 yerba mate of course. The little town is on the top 
 of the hill ; the only signs of industry, some women 
 washing down at the river-side, and some Indian sol- 
 diers playing fives : this game is a very favourite one 
 among the lower orders in these parts ; I have seen it 
 played with wonderful skill in two or three places. I 
 think a Gaucho boy or two, turned loose on ball court 
 at Winton, would astonish a Wykehamist a little. 
 The site of the to-be-town of Diamantes is extremely 
 pretty, but the view from it to the east is magnificent ; 
 the huge Parana, sweeping under the high bank that 
 curves away towards the north, looks just like a fine 
 bay on a sea-coast j in the foreground and beyond 
 it right away rolls the plain of the Pampas, as far as 
 you can see, broken only in the mid-distance by the 
 
ANOTHER REVOLUTION. 193 
 
 winding reaches of a branch or side-water of the 
 mighty river, which embraces a long island, too long 
 for the eye to distinguish either end; and in the 
 other direction, to the west, is an undulating open 
 country, for all the world like an English down, with 
 cactuses and mimosas instead of furze — (by the bye, I 
 saw a patch of furze near Monte Video in flower.) 
 Urquiza has given land at Diamantes to all the officers 
 of his army. 
 
 As soon as we landed at the beach at Diaman- 
 tes, we heard from the boatmen that another re- 
 volution had broken out at Buenos Ayres; that the 
 Correntino soldiery left there had revolted against 
 Urquiza, taking part with the bourgeoisie of the town, 
 who hate him; and that orders had been issued to stop 
 every vessel going up the river, and to employ them 
 in conveying soldiers to Buenos Ayres. Here then 
 was the explanation of the speedy return of the 
 steamers, and the fulfilment of our suspicions. But 
 what a fix for us, if the ' Neptuno ' is stopped and 
 pressed into the transport service! So we paddled 
 back to the ship down-stream in a quarter of the time 
 we had occupied in the ascent, bringing half a dis- 
 gusting carcase of an ox for the regalement of the pas- 
 sengers longing for the flesh-pots of Egypt. (Ship- 
 biscuit and raisins are my fare now.) M. G 
 
 thiaks we shall perhaps get our vessel ofi' from being 
 stopped, as he has his diplomatic passports, and 
 the printer passes for being a Government officer ; I 
 
194 BUENOS ATKES TO CORKIENTES. 
 
 think too I can bring the big seals of my letters to the 
 Governors up the river to bear in case of emergency. 
 Our old rival the '' Rosario ' sailed on ia the night past 
 us and the authorities of Diamantes. It would serve 
 
 our Captain right if he is stopped. G found a 
 
 crocodile asleep on the island near the ship todays it 
 only winked at him and would not move. He declares 
 it was a beautiful creature, of aU the colours of the 
 rainbow, like a chameleon ! 
 
 September 17. 
 
 Soon after breakfast the Captain, with M. G and 
 
 the French printer, started for Diamantes in the boat, 
 to see the officer in command, and to inquire if we 
 could get leave to proceed. Meantime I and some of 
 the other passengers went ashore, they to kill wretched 
 wild-ducks for dinner, I to explore the island. The 
 part, so far as I could see, near which we were an- 
 chored is, or rather was, an immense expanse of sedge, 
 bushes, and swamp, affording cover and food to nu- 
 merous wild-ducks (of a very beautiful species, with 
 their whole wing like the shiny bit of a mallard's, ex- 
 cept a spot of snow-white near the body), flocks of 
 ibises, or curlews, of a dark green to brown colour 
 with metallic lustre, and snow-white herons. (By the 
 bye, there are lots of cormorants about the river all 
 the way up; I never saw any birds of this kind on 
 fresh water before.) There are gulls and terns of seve- 
 ral lands, and numbers of hawks and buzzards ; I saw 
 
FIRING THE PRAIRIE. 195 
 
 four of the latter sitting on a tree close together this 
 afternoon, and got withia twenty or thirty feet ; they, 
 like most of the birds of these parts, are very tame. I 
 wandered for a couple of miles or so along the sandy 
 beach, till I came to a place at the side of a broad 
 creek, where I found lots of prints of the ounce's feet, 
 quite fresh ia the sand, the impression sis inches 
 long ; an ugly customer to get a scratch from ! To 
 see if I could drive him out of cover, and for the fun 
 of a good blaze, I set a light to the dry sedge, and 
 got up a tree to behold. The fire was very grand, and 
 the sound of the reeds, as they crackled, was like pla- 
 toons of distant musketry, or a discharge of countless 
 crackers; but no animals appeared. A long line of 
 fire and smoke soon stretched away over the land, 
 forming a belt of black desolation instead of brown 
 ditto, which, within an hour, was some miles long 
 down the wind. 
 
 About four P.M. I returned to the vessel, and found 
 that the boat had come back, with permission for us 
 to land. They had persuaded the commanding officer 
 
 that M. G was on a diplomatic mission, and that 
 
 the printer was on Government duty. I had sent my 
 big letters of introduction, heavily sealed and mightily 
 addressed, to add weight, if necessary, to their argu- 
 ments, as they looked exactly like Government de- 
 spatches. At the same time that they received per- 
 mission for us to proceed, they received an order to 
 be carried to a poor little cutter lying alongside of us, 
 
 k2 
 
196 BUENOS AYRES TO COKRIENTES. 
 
 to come up to Diamantes immediately to take soldiers. 
 Poor people ! they have made a long voyage, all the 
 way from Italy ; to be stopped here thus is worse than 
 shipwreck, for they will get neither compensation nor 
 
 pity. G heard today at Diamantes that a ship 
 
 had attempted to go by this morning on her way up 
 the river, but a cannon-shot was fired at her from the 
 shore, which soon brought her to. The officer has 
 given us papers that will enable us to pass at Parana 
 and the other ports, to which similar orders have been 
 sent. So the sails were got up, just as the sun was 
 setting, and I lent a hand with a right good will to 
 hoist the mainsail ; it was just like getting out of two 
 prisons at once, the wind and the embargo. It was 
 dark when we passed Diamantes. They shouted to 
 us from the shore, and soon, as I expected, came a 
 flash, whiz, and bang ; I shouted ' Neptuno ' as loud as 
 I could roar ; whether or not this had any effect I do 
 not know, but we got safely by, and scudded along 
 under a horribly cold east wind, at a good rattling 
 pace. I had the satisfaction of seeing a bright line 
 of lights, at least a league in length, fringing the ho- 
 rizon over the low land on the west side of the river ; 
 this was my fire : I dare say it wiU bum for a month, 
 to celebrate our escape from detention. (N.B. Dia- 
 mantes is also called Puntagorda ; and the big island , 
 we were on today is that called the island of Santa Fe, 
 which cuts off the branch, on which Santa Fe is situ- 
 ated, from the main river.) 
 
THE SHIP AGROUND. 197 
 
 September 18. 
 Soon after midnight our slumbers were disturbed 
 by an awful scraping, as if the great-grandmother of 
 all nutmeg-graters was working away at the ship's 
 bottom ;* the noise lasted a minute or two, and gra- 
 dually ceased as we stuck tight in the mud. I did not 
 bother my head about it, knowing that I could not 
 get her off, so I went to sleep again, and I suppose 
 she was got afloat somehow, for twice afterwards, be- 
 fore I rose, I was awoke by the same process. When 
 I came on deck, we had on our left the large island of 
 Santa Fe, with the smoke of my fire still steaming up, 
 and forming a cloud in the distance. At the end of 
 the next reach we saw the high bank of the river, with 
 a bold cliff called the Bajada de Santa Fe, — meaning 
 the descent to that town, which is on the opposite 
 bank of the river, beyond the end of the island. On 
 the top of this high bank is the town of Parana, the 
 capital of Entre Rios ; it seems to be about ten miles 
 off, and is apparently a good large place. Our rival, 
 
 the ' Eosario,' is anchored near us here. M. G 
 
 went on board two vessels that had come up to learn 
 the news about the revolution. All the people on 
 board one of the ships just come up from Buenos 
 Ayres were asleep, except one youth ; from him it was 
 gathered that his ship came away in a hurry as soon 
 as the revolution broke out, without any papers, and 
 that the people had set on fire one of the barracas 
 * See page 209. 
 
198 BUENOS AYEES TO CORRIENTES. 
 
 (hide-warehouses) at Buenos Ayres. Prom the otheA 
 ship it was gathered that a new governor^ General 
 Pinto, had been elected, that General Paz had come 
 from Monte Video to support him, and that a large 
 number of the troops had joined the bourgeoisie, who, 
 as well as the foreigners, were arming. Now will be 
 the time for Urquiza to show whether he is a hero, or 
 a tyrant worse than Rosas, as his enemies say : if he 
 is honest, and finds the Buenos Ayreans strong enough 
 to resist him, and not wanting him, he must at once 
 withdraw, and return to his own province of Entre 
 Rios, where he is very popular. If he attempts to 
 force himself by arms on the Buenos Ayreans against 
 the will of the mass of the people there, he will enact 
 his own condemnation. I should think the English 
 and French Commissioners have put themselves in 
 an absurd position by following Urquiza, when his 
 authority was not based on a secure foundation. 
 
 September 19. 
 
 Five more ships have come up from below, and an- 
 chored near us in this bay ; we are now quite a fleet. 
 I suppose that either they have got as many vessels 
 as they want at Diamantes, or the story about the 
 stopping the ships is a piece of gammon of the officer 
 in command. The current here is tremendous — it 
 runs like any miUstream ; it would be immense la- 
 bour to pull a boat against it. 
 
 September 30, anchored all day in the same place. 
 
SLOW TRAVELLING. 199 
 
 September 21. 
 This morning, at eight a.m., the fleet got under 
 weigh, and proceeded for three or four miles. We 
 were invaded at noon by hosts of sand-flies, small 
 fiends about a line long, whose sting is like fire; 
 they rejoice in the sun. The mosquitos come out 
 in the evening, but it has been generally too cold for 
 them ; hitherto my muslin curtain, which I put up as 
 soon as the candles are lighted, has protected us efiec- 
 tuaUy. But I am almost eaten up by bugs and fleas^ 
 mosquitos are angels compared to these inhuman 
 monsters ; one-half of my body is on flre with irrita- 
 tion from their stings, the other half is raw from my 
 own nails. Seven times during the day the wind 
 showed signs of veering round to north; seven times the 
 anchor was weighed, and seven times dropped again : 
 we made about a hundred yards more thus during 
 the day. This place is said to be called the " Bank of 
 
 Patience." 
 
 September 22. 
 
 The fleet got under weigh about ten a.m., and ran 
 up about half a mile. This hot north wind is rather 
 oppressing, and is said to afiect the Buenos Ayreans 
 in an extraordinary way, and to make them mad. 
 Lots of little green parrots, two and three at a time, 
 kept flying over our heads from north to south, at a 
 considerable height. The canoe was sent up to Pa- 
 rana (which is about a league ahead of us, glittering 
 with whitewash, on the top of the high bank) this 
 
200 BUENOS AYKES TO CORRIENTES. 
 
 morning for flesh, and returned with that unpleasant- 
 ness, and the news that Urquiza had taken the change 
 .at Buenos Ayres quietly, and retired thence to his 
 own province of Entre Riosj so there will be no 
 bloodshed there at present. This is the best possible 
 thing that could happen, I think, for these countries ; 
 it will probably break up the Argentine Confederation, 
 which is at present a sham, much too extensive to be 
 governed by one machinery, the population being 
 scattered very much, and collected in towns at vast 
 distances from each other. Counter-orders had been 
 sent by Urquiza from Buenos Ayres for the troops 
 not to come ; hence the reason of the ships coming up. 
 
 September 23. 
 
 The wind remained north-east tiU. about nine this 
 morning, and then the sky to the south became inky 
 black; the barometer had been falling for the last 
 forty-eight hours. For some reason or other, best 
 known to himself, the Captain got the sails up, ran in 
 close to the shore and made fast, fore-and-aft, to trees 
 on the south side, from which he expected the wind. 
 Soon the lightning began to dash about in every 
 direction, and the rain to come down, and the black 
 curtain of clouds to move up from the south; and 
 about nine a.m. the wind went bang round to the 
 south with a regular gale. The whole fleet (for we 
 were now quite a squadron, — eighteen vessels, twelve 
 of them at least of more than eighty tons, one of two 
 
RIVER SCENERY. 201 
 
 hundred, and two or three of more than a hundi-ed tons) 
 got under weigh, except our ship. Why our Captain 
 would not make sail I do not know; I suppose his 
 wife was afraid. However at about half-past nine 
 the sails did go up, and we started ; not however till 
 after the foremost vessels of the fleet had got round 
 the bold point of the Bajada, about a league ahead of 
 us. At last we got round the point, which is very 
 similar to that of Diamantes, but seemed higher, with 
 the same sort of rocks; after rounding this the 
 scenery changed altogether. On the left bank of the 
 river (our right as our faces are up the stream) was a 
 high cliff of bare earth [barrancas) dipping right into 
 the water, quite precipitous in some places, at others 
 sloping a little and covered with trees ; the country 
 just within being very like an English park, with grass 
 and patches of low trees scattered about. The other 
 bank was the same low, reed and sedge-covered coun- 
 try that we had all the way up ; partly island, partly 
 peninsula, between the river Salado (which runs into 
 the Parana at Santa Fe) and the Parana. The river 
 in some places, probably where there are no islands, 
 seemed to be at least a league across ; there were 
 waves like those of any sea. About three p.m. wind 
 went round to west [s, pampero), the first we have had 
 since we left, not however at present anything but a 
 very gentle breeze. The north wind is extremely 
 oppressive, the contrast between the exhilarating feel 
 of the air now, and wbat it was this morning, is ex- 
 
 k3 
 
303 BUENOS AYEES TO CORRIENTES. 
 
 traordinary. The pampero (wind from the Pampas) 
 always clears the air deliciously. This is the country 
 for emigration, — climate, soil, etc., the finest in the 
 world, and of all sorts. Some creature stung me 
 this morning on the back of the hand, and made my 
 knuc^es swell up like a leg of mutton, at first with- 
 out any itching; I suspect it must have been a spider : 
 I am told some of the small ones bite nastily, and I 
 saw one about my berth yesterday. 
 
 There were many islands about here, and in one 
 place some of the ships took one channel, and some 
 another ; this gave us a good notion of the vast mass 
 of water in the river. We were sailing in a stream 
 nearly a mile across ; then there was a mile or so of 
 island, and the masts of the ships in the other branch 
 beyond visible over the wiUows, they probably sailing 
 in a channel as wide as ours. This afternoon we passed 
 for the first time some islands small enough to be dis- 
 tinguished by the eye as such. All along the high 
 bank there ran a white horizontal band of some earth, 
 about ten feet thick, halfway between the water and 
 the top of the clifi' in its highest part. The surface of 
 the ground was undulating ; the stratum below was 
 as level as a table, and without any interruption (ex- 
 cept where a valley had cut it right away) for a score 
 of leagues at least along the shore. 
 
 September 24. 
 G has found out that the Captain of our vessel 
 
CHANGE OF SHIPS. 203 
 
 intends to discharge his cargo at Goyaz^ a small town 
 in the province of Corrientes, and that he has relations 
 hving there, and -will consequently stop there several 
 days. He has also learned that the ' Rosario/ which 
 is now anchored just ahead of us, is going all the way 
 up to Assumption direct, whereas the 'Neptuno' is 
 only going to Corrientes : so he asked me if I would 
 give an ounce (Spanish gold coin = about £3. 8s.) to 
 the Captain of the ' Rosario' to take us to Pilar,* alias 
 Neembucu, and our baggage to Assumption, and trans- 
 ship at once. As I make it a rule in travelling never 
 to have a will of my own, I said I would do what he 
 hked, devoutly hoping his negotiation would fail, as I 
 had been looking forward to seeing something of the 
 country at Goyaz and Corrientes. However the ar- 
 rangement was made, twenty dollars ; so all T had to 
 do was to listen blandly to G 's arguments, prov- 
 ing that it was the best thing we could do. Early in 
 the afternoon our troops were sent in the canoe to the 
 ' Rosario,' and soon after we transshipped ourselves. 
 We found our new quarters much more commodious 
 than those we had just left, the ship being consider- 
 ably larger (136 tons), and the Captain a very good 
 and accommodating fellow, with the additional advan- 
 tage that he has no wife on board, so that we shall 
 never lose the wind for a woman's caprices. The 
 
 * A village in Paraguay about twenty leagues below Assumption, 
 where all travellers have to stop till they get permission to proceed 
 fi-om the President. 
 
204 BUENOS AYRES TO COREIENTES. 
 
 ' Rosario' left Buenos Ayres on the 9th of September 
 at six P.M., six days and a half after ns, and arrived 
 off the " Bank of Patience," below Parana, two days 
 before us; she seems to sail faster than the 'Nep- 
 tuno' with a light wind, but the latter beats her be- 
 fore a stiff breeze. Our chief advantage however in 
 moving is, that we have got quit of a brute of a 
 Frenchman who had the fourth berth in our cabin in 
 
 the ' Neptuno.' He made Madame G ^^s life a 
 
 burden to her by his coarse behaviour ; here there are 
 no other passengers but ourselves. The glad music 
 of the cable smote our ears as soon as we had dined 
 (plain boiled maccaroni) , ringing first from the ' Bo- 
 sario,' and fi'om that time till now (half-past ten p.m.) 
 we have been under weigh, progressing very slowly 
 with a gentle suck of air from the east. Still the same 
 cliff and park-like land on our right and on our left, 
 low flat islands, chiefly of sand ; a totally different soil 
 from that of the real bank of the river on the east, 
 being evidently a deposit from the river in its own 
 bed, since it has been reduced to dimensions not much 
 greater than its present. 
 
 Such a magnificent night ! with a glorious moon 
 three-quarters fuU, and the air so clear, that I could 
 see the holes in the moon's face with my little tele- 
 scope, with just the same mottled, snake-Hke appear- 
 ance they show when viewed through the big ones. 
 Such a sight is this vast river, — as smooth as ice, but 
 rushing like any millrace. 
 
SCENERY. 205 
 
 September 25. 
 There was a great difference in the scenery here 
 from what we have observed before. There were se- 
 veral kinds of trees arranged in avenues across some 
 of the islands. These belts of wood looked like thick 
 coppices as we approached them from the side, but as 
 we passed their ends we saw that they were double 
 rows of trees, the soil between being rather depressed 
 below the level of the rest of the island ; the trees too 
 were not the willows which usually fringe the water's 
 edge, but other sorts. It is obvious that these have 
 been channels through which part of the water of the 
 river has run some time or other ; many of the trees 
 were garlanded like hop-poles with climbers, one of 
 them in flower, like old-man's-beard. They however 
 are but small, and I see no signs either of the air- 
 plants which I noted in the woods on the high bank 
 at Diamantes, or of the other parasites of Brazil, nor 
 any palms ; indeed, I have only seen three of them 
 since the first day that we entered the river. 
 
 September 26. 
 In the morning we found a vessel anchored about 
 half a mile ahead of us ; she proved to be the property 
 of Mr. Lafone, with an American skipper, who in the 
 course of the morning came on board our vessel to 
 borrow an anchor, and get some information about 
 the channel. It was his first trip upon the river, and 
 he did not know the banks ; he has. been twenty-five 
 
206 BTJENOS AYRES TO CORRIENTES. 
 
 days coming from Assumption, and had heard nothing 
 of the revolution at Buenos Ayres. Some of our. 
 sailors who went out in the canoe in search of ducks, 
 set fire to the herbage on the island on the other 
 side; the fire crackled all day like platoons of mus- 
 ketry, and blazed gloriously at night. I suppose this 
 hot wind wiU terminate in a storm on the third day, 
 as it has done twice already in our voyage, and as 
 Azara, in his travels, says it always does. It seems 
 that we get about one good day's sailing in each 
 quarter of the moon. 
 
 September 27. 
 About nine o'clock a black veil began to form over 
 the south horizon, and in a very short time the whole 
 southern half of the sky was shrouded in black ; the 
 northern half still cloudless, or with a few white fleecy 
 clouds glistening in the sun. Soon flashes of light- 
 ning began to sparkle about us. I watched the pro- 
 gress of the storm with great interest, for I had ob- 
 served the manner of the gathering of the last one, 
 and expected to see the same appearance again ; I was 
 watching for a curtain of lighter-coloured clouds than 
 the rest which I expected to see, seeming to be lifted 
 up from the horizon, and gradually marching up ; in. 
 a short time it came exactly as I expected. The un- 
 defined veil of black clouds seemed scarcely to move, 
 it crept on so slowly towards the north, gradually 
 narrowing the blue sky like the pupil of a big eye ; 
 
A STORM. 307 
 
 occasional flashes, or rather sparks (for they were not 
 the least like common lightning) played about us. At 
 last, about ten a. m. I saw near the horizon a layer of 
 Hghter clouds, like a regularly defined bank ; I felt 
 sure that was the storm-cloud, and that the wind 
 would change in a few minutes. It was still blowing 
 a gentle breeze from the north-west. On came the 
 bank of clouds, gradually rising up from the horizon, 
 and advancing imder the black veil; and suddenly, 
 chop went the wind round dead-south, and in a minute 
 or two more our anchor was up, and we were running 
 with only a foresail before the gale ; down came the 
 rain in torrents, and the river was like a sea again. 
 About eleven a.m. a shower of hail fell among the 
 rain, — good big stones of the size of small peas, shaped 
 like a short truncated cone with both ends rounded 
 over, and the small end generally white and opaque, 
 — and then the wind shifted to south-west, and the 
 storm ceased, or at least had passed over us and was 
 making its way to the north. Soon after this the air 
 was cleared by the delicious pampero which came 
 sweepiug on, hurrying the clouds away to Brazil, and 
 us towards our destination. Our last storm ended 
 just in the same manner, after a slight fall of hail, — 
 then a pampero. 
 
 In the afternoon we got a sight, at a considerable 
 distance, of a part of the Gran Chaco — the Great 
 Desert of the interior, tenanted at present only by 
 untameable Indians, who, the books say, never can be 
 
208 BUENOS AYRES TO CORRIENTES. 
 
 tamed. In the distance was a line of low land^ dis- 
 tinguished from all the rest we have seen by being 
 covered with wood, with tall palm-trees towering up 
 (like cocoanut-trees) above the rest of the wood. In 
 all the forests in Brazil, the palms, however taU they 
 are, are the underwood beneath the heads of the other 
 trees. The river here was immensely wide, it seemed 
 two miles at least ; the bank on our right was only 
 an island, but soon after we caught sight of a little 
 town called, I believe. La Esquina, built on a cliff on 
 the real bank of the river on the right (east), this was 
 at least a league from us: but we have not yet seen 
 both banks at once. I saw the head of a capybara 
 floundering in a marsh among the reeds on an island 
 close to which we were sailing. It is astonishing to 
 see these big ships rushing along nine or ten knots 
 an hour, so close to the trees and rushes that you 
 could pitch a biscuit ashore. 
 
 This whole voyage has been a race between us and 
 the ' Neptuno' (she is close to us now) and several 
 others — a regatta of a thousand miles ! The ' Ade- 
 laide' was left behind at Parana, distanced : she lost 
 the best south gale by some passengers having gone 
 ashore for whom she had to wait ; of the other ves- 
 sels, we have left behind all but one, which has regu- 
 larly sailed away from us today. No doubt we shall 
 leave the 'Neptuno' behind tonight, if the wind keep 
 up, as our Captain is much the most plucky. At sun- 
 set we see lightning still flashing in the north, the 
 
AGROUND AGAIN. 209 
 
 storm that we had had in the morning now far away 
 from us. The whole afternoon splendid, sky cloud- 
 lessj temperature delicious; a magnificent moonlit 
 night — faU moon j a few fleecy clouds fleeting about, 
 all those on the west side lit up red by a vast fire 
 burning on the Chaco, for miles and miles. We can- 
 not see the fire, but see the light reflected from the 
 smoke, — this light is white : why that reflected from 
 the clouds above is red, I do not know. We are now 
 between the province of the Corrientes and the Chaco ; 
 we passed from the province of Entre Rios to that 
 of Corrientes this afternoon ; the little town we saw 
 is in the latter province. 
 
 September 28, half -past seven a.m. 
 Gggrriinnndddandssttiicckk.* Bolted up, and found 
 we had stuck fast, just in the opening of a narrow 
 channel (three or four hundred yards wide) between 
 two islands, i.e. near the end of one of them. We 
 were at a noted nasty place in the river, where the chan- 
 nel takes a turn, called the " Vuelta de Guarigatoy," 
 and is full of sand-banks. Our Captain sent the canoe 
 up the other channel to sound, to see whether there 
 was water enough for us to pass. At last we got off, 
 dropped a little way down-stream, and turned the 
 corner of the island, into the large channel. This was 
 a very interestiag piece of navigation. On each side 
 
 * This is probably an attempt at a phonetic expression of the 
 language of "the great-grandmother of all nutmeg-graters." See 
 p. 197.— Ed. 
 
310 BUENOS AYEES TO COBRIENTES. 
 
 of the bows stood a man with a long bamboo, sound- 
 ing; we drew about eight feet of water, and here we 
 had for some distance less than ten. The wiad was 
 south-east, the channel ran nearly due east, and we 
 were close to the north bank, on to which the wind, 
 a mere suck of air, tended to drive us, as well as to 
 propel us ahead. Two men with long poles punted 
 vigorously at the bows on the port-side to prevent 
 our making lee-way, and thus we ran for about a 
 mUe, sailing very close to the wind, and keeping close 
 along the lee-shore till the channel turned slightly 
 towards the north, and we got the benefit of the wind 
 a little more. 
 
 The channel we were now sailing up is a fine wide 
 reach, apparently, one would suppose, the main trunk 
 of the river ; the reason that we did not take it this 
 morning was, that there is very rarely water enough 
 over the bank at its mouth, at the place where the 
 other small channel forks from it, to allow any vessel 
 to pass ; while ordinarily all the ships pass up the 
 little narrow channel in which we had stuck. By 
 accident however the usual channel had got silted up 
 shallow, and stopped us, so that instead of being ahead 
 of all the others, we were now last ; but by accident 
 the other channel was opener than usual, and we 
 found it out, though not till after the other ships had 
 gone by us up the small channel : so we alone got the 
 benefit of the discovery. The consequence of this 
 is, that if this breeze continues, we shall make a good 
 
-NAVIGATION OF THE PARANA. 211 
 
 run of eight or nine leagues before we come to ano- 
 ther turn in the river, through which it will not carry 
 us, while the rest of the squadron (except two little 
 vessels who preceded us this way in the morning) 
 will have been obliged to anchor again a mile or 
 two above, where they gave us the go-by, on account 
 of the turning of the channel slightly towards the 
 wind in one place. Such is river navigation in sail- 
 ing-boats : running aground is a great bore ; but it 
 must be remembered that in all our voyage we have 
 only been really stuck three times (only twice in the 
 Parana), and today was the first time the ' Rosario' has 
 been aground since she left Buenos Ayres ; this too 
 with vessels drawing seven or eight feet of water. 
 There is, I suppose, no other river in the world where 
 such navigation is practicable. The Mississippi is a 
 gutter compared to this river ; they must have vessels 
 there drawing only two feet of water to be safe at all, 
 and even those are liable to be speared by snags : be- 
 yond any doubt the Parana is the queen of rivers. All 
 these islands, which are perfectly flat, — about four or 
 five feet above the present level of the river, some- 
 times inundated, now inhabited by frogs, herons, ca- 
 pybaras, and tigers, — would grow rice for the whole 
 world : I suppose it is warm enough. 
 
 A most magnificent evening, — fuU moon, sky quite 
 cloudless, except a long low bank of cloud hanging 
 over the west horizon, formed of the smoke from the 
 fire in the Chaco. The fire-light still visible tonight, 
 but not so much of it, only a patch or two ; it has 
 
312 BUENOS AYKES TO COBRIENTES. 
 
 protably burned all there was to bum over a large 
 tract of country, and is now only smoking, or has 
 strode out of sight. 
 
 September 29. 
 
 About ten a.m. some locusts began to drop on 
 deck, brown fellows about two inches and a half long ; 
 they rapidly increased in number, and from about 
 half-past ten to half-past eleven they passed overhead 
 in a continuous swarm. They did not darken the sun 
 the least, or make any approach thereto, but as their 
 wings glittered in the light they looked like flakes of 
 snow passing over the blue sky ; the air was full of 
 them at all heights, from twenty to thirty feet above 
 the water to many hundreds, not flying in a dense 
 mass, but scattered about, some with their heads up 
 the wind, others fluttering the other way, — aU carried 
 along by the breeze, which blew pretty strong fi'om 
 east-south-east. A few hundreds of them fell on deck, 
 and many were eaten with great eagerness by the mi- 
 serable fowls that were kept for killing. The islands 
 are of a beautifully bright fresh green ; the spring is 
 further advanced here than it was below when we en- 
 tered the river, where the willows were only beginning 
 to leaf. On one of the islands, or the side near the 
 Chaco, I noticed a small group of the same tall palms 
 which I saw the day before yesterday on the Chaco. 
 Soon we came to a part of the channel where a strong 
 ripple, a sort of a chopping sea in a small way, indi- 
 cated a bank stretching right across the river. We 
 
THE ' NEPTUNO' AGROUND. 213 
 
 partly sailed and partly punted across it^ moving very 
 slowly ; I suppose our keel was in the sand for many 
 yards. It is splendid to see the crew of the ' Rosario' 
 work — as smart, active a set of fellows as I ever saw, 
 all Italians — they seem as if they enjoyed it. We 
 were soon in deep water again, scudding along in fine 
 style ; but the poor ' Neptuno/ which had anchored 
 about a mile ahead of us last night, stuck fast. It 
 was an hour and a half before we were out of sight of 
 her, but we could not see through our glasses that 
 they were endeavouring to get her off again. Our 
 Captain says they were in a very bad position, and 
 may have great difficulty in getting off, — perhaps may 
 even have to discharge their cargo, and send it to 
 Goyaz, which is only a league or two off, and for 
 which it is destined. Poor ' Neptuno ! ' of course we 
 are aU very sorry for her, but very glad to be out of 
 her. It must be most particularly vexatious for the 
 Captain of the ' Neptuno^ to be hitched thus, close to 
 the port he was bound for, and at which his relations 
 live ; very disgusting too for the passengers. Mean- 
 time we passed, soon after getting out of the Vuelta, 
 a little after sunset, the channel between two islands, 
 which leads up to the little river at the mouth of 
 which Goyaz lies ; but it was too dark to see any- 
 thing of its geography, so we went ahead gloriously, 
 with the Southern Cross behind us, showing that our 
 head was in the right direction. Between nine and 
 ten P.M. we came again in sight, by the bright moon- 
 light, of the barrancas of the true east bank of the 
 
214 BUENOS AYEES TO CORRIENTES. 
 
 river, at a place called Eubio, in the proviace, or state, 
 or whatever it may be by this time, of Corrientes, 
 and soon we were sailing almost under them. On the 
 top of the high land, a small hump broke the uni- 
 formity of the outline, at the place where we came 
 nearest to the cliff. This they said was an estancia — 
 no doubt a miserable house, almost the only sign of 
 human life we have seen along the river, except the 
 half-dozen little towns and villages. To all real pur- 
 pose, the whole country is an unoccupied desert, which 
 requires but a little industry to make it a paradise. 
 
 September 30. 
 
 In the early morning there is always a mirage on 
 the river, which, where we see along it for a consider- 
 able distance uninterruptedly, produces a queer effect 
 by liftiag, here and there, some of the distant trees 
 slightly above the horizon, and making them look as 
 if they were lots of little islands, or ships on a sea 
 of glass. The same is visible on the Pampas, where 
 there is no water. About ten a.m. we got sight of 
 a village on the high bank beyond the islands, called 
 Bella Vista, in Corrientes. During part of the day we 
 had the Chaco in sight on our left, with islands on 
 our right. The Chaco is, at least near the river, co- 
 vered with wood, consisting of trees not now in leaf, 
 very like the oaks of a Hampshire coppice ; indeed 
 the wood looks very like an English one (the trees 
 not being very large) except that here and there a 
 palm-tree reminds one that it is a very different place 
 
A STKANGE BIRD. 215 
 
 and that tlie underwood consists of dense thickets of 
 hamhoosj the beautiful feathery foHage of which is 
 scarcely to be matched in England. On the islands 
 the vegetation is entirely different, being generally co- 
 vered with beautiful green willows, now in fresh leaf, 
 or with sedge ; the latter however is for the most part 
 the brown dead herbage of last year. I saw a most 
 wonderftd bird today ; he was sitting on a dead tree, 
 which was lying in the water close to the bank of an 
 island. I thought he was a cormorant, but on look- 
 ing at him through my telescope, I saw that he was 
 aU brown, except his head and neck and the tips of 
 his wings, which were yellowish-white, and he had a 
 bill like a toucan, long and curved; he flew away 
 Mke a big hawk, with a great strong broad tail. His 
 business is evidently fishing, but what manner of being 
 he is, I cannot consider. 
 
 We passed by two more vueltas, — that of Loreti, 
 going here so close to the shore that as we rushed by 
 I pulled a branch off a willow-tree which projected 
 into the water, and that of Taquani. Then we got 
 our head due north again, and passed within about a 
 league of the river-bank on the Corrientes side, behind 
 the islands ; a long line of light-coloured chff, with a 
 grassy down above it, and thin woods scattered about ; 
 a rancho (thatched cottage), and lots of cattle grazing, 
 indicating an estancia. On our left we had the Chaco, 
 and for the most part kept close to it, with occasion- 
 ally an island between us and the "Tierra firme." 
 About five P.M. we came in sight of an assemblage 
 
216 BUENOS AYRES TO COREIENTES. 
 
 of miserable-looking telescopic ranchos on the top of 
 the down, named Empedrado, about twelve leagues 
 from Corrientes. We are actually now so near our 
 journey's end ! We have had a magnificent run for 
 the last twenty-four hours, — indeed, with two interrup- 
 tions of half a day each, for the last three days and 
 nights. Certainly fortune has shone upon our change 
 
 of ships, — it was a divine notion of M. G . At 
 
 sunset we were rushing along a magnificent reach, 
 for the first time with the two real banks of the river 
 looking each other in the face, without any islands to 
 split up the torrent-sea into different rivers. The 
 river seems to be about a mile and a half wide, but 
 distances are so deceptive over water, especially when 
 it is dusk, and when there are no objects of known 
 magnitude on the distant land to judge by, that I 
 cannot be certain. Certain however it is, that it is 
 so much more like sea than a river, that a lady might 
 well be pardoned for being sea-sick. 
 
 The most curious thing to my mind is the totally 
 different physiognomy of the two banks : on the Chaco 
 side (near to which we are sailing, within three or 
 four hundred yards sometimes) the bank is not above 
 four or five feet (often less) high, the land perfectly 
 flat and covered with dense wood, (how far inland 
 the wood extends I do not know) ; on the other side, 
 a high bank (I suppose fifty or sixty feet), with an un- 
 dulating surface, generally higher inland than at the 
 river-side, and with but few trees. Whether or not 
 this part of Corrientes has ever been clothed with 
 
COUBIENTES. 217 
 
 forest I do not know ; perhaps it has been, and the 
 wood has been destroyed by the estancieros, but I sus- 
 pect not. 
 
 At ten P.M. we rounded a point which projected out, 
 with a low barranca, from the east bank of the river, 
 and found ourselves at the Port of Corrientes, with a 
 few low houses on the top of the bank, and the masts 
 of some ships — one of them a three-masted vessel, of 
 I shoidd think three hundred tons — lying close to the 
 shore. For the first time since we started from Buenos 
 Ayres, we heard with satisfaction the anchor-cable 
 rushing out, in ten fathoms of water, within a stone's 
 throw of the shore. 
 
 Corrientes, October 1. 
 The first thing I saw on going on deck this morn- 
 ing was an Englishman, a mercantile youth, transacting 
 business with the Captain : verily we are ubiquitous ! 
 The next thing that struck my eye was a steamer 
 coming in sight, down-stream (unfortunately) from 
 Assumption, with the flags of every conceivable king- 
 dom and republic flying in every possible position: 
 it was the ' Correo,^ an English-built vessel of the 
 Buenos Ayres Government, which had taken a month 
 ago a son of Urquiza's up to Paraguay on a special 
 mission, and was now bringing him down again with a 
 flea in his ear, in a state of considerable anxiety as to 
 his future prospects, having heard nothing of the revo- 
 lution at Buenos Ayres, but a hint that his father had 
 
218 
 
 BUENOS AYRES TO CORRIENTES. 
 
 been kicked out. I went ashore, and walked about 
 the town — a miserable place. It stands on a rocky 
 soil of hard black and red sandstone, very different 
 from the cliffs that we had hitherto seen. All the 
 lower orders seem to be of Indian blood, and speak 
 Guarani ; they wear the Gaucho dress, more or less. 
 But prowiing about the street every here and there 
 are groups of wild Indians from the Chaco, the most 
 
 awfid-looking ruffians I ever saw, — copper-brown, des- 
 perately ugly, rather tall, with quantities of long lilack 
 hair crawHng down their backs ; a filthy cloth enve- 
 loping their bodies from waist to knees, and sometimes 
 anotlier thrown over the shoulders, and an old Euro- 
 
LETTER TO THE GOVERNOR. 219 
 
 pean hatj or straw hat with high-crowned narrow brim, 
 make their costume : in short, they are the most hu- 
 miliatiag objects I ever saw, — a curious compound 
 of squalor, vigour, helplessness, ferocity, and cunning 
 about their demeanour. The town is built in square 
 blocks, or cuadros, like Buenos Ayres, but not so re- 
 gularly ; there are very few houses with a story above 
 the ground-floor, and most of them have sloping roofs, 
 — some have the azoteas ; small ragged gardens with 
 luxuriant orange-trees are scattered about. I went 
 
 with M. Gr and his wife to call on a French 
 
 tanner, who has set up business here, and from whom 
 he wanted some information about horses. While 
 we were with him an old Cacique of a tribe of Indians 
 in the Chaco strode in, — a noted old scoundrel, with 
 an air of stateliness about him, notwithstanding the 
 cunning and ferocity in his visage ; a broken leg and 
 a limp, a few grey hairs, and a slight bend in his back, 
 with a little drunkenness to boot. He was going to 
 war with a neighbouring tribe, and wanted to luiow 
 at what price the Frenchman would purchase his cap- 
 tives as slaves. I believe that the slave traffic is 
 forbidden by law here, but the people do not seem 
 to think anything of it. 
 
 I had an introduction to a Catholic priest here, re- 
 cently sent, as a sort of bishop, to look after this pro- 
 vince; he speaks English very well, having been a 
 good deal in England. I had also Urquiza's letter to 
 the Governor ; I thought I might as well deliver the 
 
 l2 
 
220 BUENOS AYRES TO CORRIENTES. 
 
 letter while I could do it with some decency, as Ur- 
 quiza is not yet known to have fallen teetotally. So 
 I thought I would go to the Padre, and get him to go 
 with me to the Governor, and interpret, in case the 
 Governor's French was not sufficient. Accordingly 
 I went to the house which was shown to me as Dr. 
 Ildefonso Medrano's (the bishop), and asked for him. 
 I was shown into a room where sat a good-natured, 
 ruddy-faced, Sunday-footman-dressed sort of person- 
 age (blue coat and brass buttons) in the prime of life, 
 eating dinner off a coarse table, half covered with a 
 coarser cloth. I thought it was a very unpriestly- 
 looking party, but I handed him the letter ; he said 
 Dr. Medrano was not in, but he would send to look 
 for him. A fat old woman (as to whom, whether she 
 was the cook or lady of the house I do not know) 
 came in, sat down, put her naked elbows on the table, 
 and looked blandly, as much as to demand a bow. 
 The messenger came back and said Dr. Medrano was 
 in, so I bowed to the gentleman in blue, and the old 
 elbows, and followed my conductor up a dirty narrow 
 staircase, through one little bedroom with a neat bed- 
 stead in it, to another, opening out of it, with a shabby 
 one in it, and a tall, thin, cock-eyed, parchment-faced 
 man in a long black gown. This was the Bishop, — a 
 very hearty, kindly, clever, weU-informed man, parti- 
 cularly fond of Englishmen, and delighted to see me. 
 It turned out that he was a great friend of the Gover- 
 nor, was now staying in the Governor's house, and 
 
urquiza's son. 221 
 
 that the gentleman at dinner, whom I had left with 
 the cook's arms on the table, was the Governor him- 
 self! So it was a very simple matter to go down and 
 present myself again to him with my credentials from 
 Urquiza, and to get old Medrano to explain that I 
 did not know who he was before. He was immensely 
 civil, shook hands with me warmly, and entreated me 
 to let him do something for me in the way of help or 
 protection. I told him that if I came back I would 
 ask for help if I wanted it, and lefb him to finish his 
 dinner, and to get on board myself, as I understood 
 we were to sail this evening. (Everybody says that 
 this Governor is a really excellent fellow, the best man 
 in his province.) But the old Padre would introduce 
 me to young Urquiza, and when I told him to tell the 
 youth I hoped he would hear satisfactory news at 
 Buenos Ayres, and that I considered his father had 
 done good things for the country, he interpreted my 
 negative generalities into such a flowing strain of po- 
 sitive superlatives that I felt he was making me lie 
 horribly; but I bore it with a good grace, and told 
 the youth I would not trouble him for his proffered 
 offer of an introduction to the President of Paraguay, 
 as his father had already given me one. The old priest 
 assured me I should find him (the priest) my most 
 affectionate friend ; and I hurried off to the ship, where 
 I found however that we could not sail yet. 
 
233 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE FUTURE OF WESTERN SOUTH AMERICA.* 
 
 ■WASTE OF IiAlTD IN SOUTH AMEEIOA. — POSSIBIIITIES OP AN&LO- 
 SAXON OOIONIZATION. — PAEAGTTAT THE CHOICEST SITE POB A 
 COIONT. — FBBTILITX OP THE BBaiONS AJBOTTT THE PIiATE. — 
 TDMSEE TEAM-EOABS. — STEAM TIMBEB-BASTS. — HOW BITEES 
 MAY DO THBIE OWS TU&-WOEK. 
 
 September 21, 1852. 
 Here we are on our voyage up the mighty riverj 
 nineteen days out from Buenos Ayres, having been 
 able to sail sis of those days. What a country ! what 
 a river ! How wasted ! What business have these 
 Spaniards and Portuguese to lay claim to these mag- 
 nificent lands, which they do not occupy and never 
 will ? Here is another revolution at Buenos Ayres. 
 What is to become of these poor children, these 
 Argentines, maltreated by their parents of Spain, tor- 
 tured by one another ? Will they eat one another till 
 nothing is left but their tails ? If Urquiza fights the 
 Buenos Ayreans now, may vengeance stop him ! Now 
 will be the proof whether he is a real man or a tyrant. 
 
 * This Letter was written to a friend while at anchor on the Parana, 
 just below the town of Parana and the Bajada de Santa F^. 
 
WASTE OF LAND. 323 
 
 There is no placing any confidence in a word any one 
 tells you about him : one swears he out-Rosases Kosas 
 in fiendishness ; another vows he is a hero, with no 
 intentions but the best, — and he certainly has done 
 many good things. But I can neither see into his 
 designs, nor into the present at Buenos Ayres, or the 
 future here ; so let me speak only of what I have seen 
 and now see, and what I think thereof. 
 
 Now the first great fact is, that here, in South 
 America, are numberless thousands of square miles 
 of the most splendid land in the world, for the pro- 
 duction of every article the soil will yield to man. 
 Here, in Brazil, and in the provinces drained by the 
 tributaries of the La Plata, is every variety of soil, 
 mountain, vaUey, plain, and forest, claimed by a race 
 of people who, like dogs in manger, will not cultivate 
 themselves, and yet claim a right to prevent others 
 from doing so. What a monstrous folly, to guarantee 
 by treaties the possession of these lands to these 
 Iberians ! 
 
 Now one of two things will be done some day : 
 either the industrious masses of Europe will invade 
 these countries, and take by force what they require 
 here for their necessities; or these lands must be si- 
 lently conquered by the slow and sure process of im- 
 migration, and the present owners absorbed in the 
 industrious race that wUl really people the country. 
 Here is aU this glorious continent, that has been beg- 
 ging these four hundred years to be replenished, still 
 
224 THE PUTUUE OP WESTERN SOUTH AMERICA. 
 
 occupied only in spots few and far between, and these 
 more Uke sore places — some skin-disease — than even 
 rags of clothing for the earth. Before I came to this 
 country, I thought much less favourably of emigra- 
 tion, even of colonization, than I do now. What I 
 have seen here has opened quite a new field to my 
 view ; what I held before (that it is our urgent duty 
 to cultivate our own land to the nth degree) is aU 
 right; but it is 'not enough, my notions were narrow : 
 it seems to me, now even, that I see God bringing 
 this good out of the evil of the ownership of land 
 in England, that thus He is actually compelling us to 
 go forth and replenish the earth, far and wide, instead 
 of cramming ourselves aU into our own island, and 
 making all England one great town. 
 
 The process of absorption of the Iberian race has 
 given symptoms of commencement already. There are 
 multitudes of Irish in the Pampas, and hundreds of 
 English in the towns (Monte Video, Buenos Ayres, 
 Rio de Janeiro, etc.), the latter chiefly merchants.* 
 
 * The extent of Basque emigration, both from Spain and Prance, 
 to the shores of the Plate, and especially to Monte Video, is however 
 also a fact that should not be overlooked. Some years ago, if not to 
 the present day, there,'were whole viUages near Monte Video in which 
 nothing but Basque.was spoken, like Graelic in the Highland settle- 
 ments of Canada. Indeed the heroic defence of Monte Video during 
 its long siege is perhaps mainly to be attributed to that Basque tena- 
 city of purpose, which has maintained in our days a " seven years' 
 war" against the whole forces of Spain. 
 
 Now, inasmuch as the Basques are the genuine Iberi, — the Spa- 
 niards generally only the Grothicized or Vandalized descendants of 
 
IRISH IMMIGRANTS. 235 
 
 They say however that most of these leave the coun- 
 try after amassing what they may consider enough. 
 I doubt however this of the former^ for I believe 
 these Irish help the exodus by sending home money 
 to their friends to bring them out^ and they are well- 
 behavedj industrious people here ; but the merchants 
 aU go home when they have filled their purses, except 
 the few who are fascinated by the beautiful girls of the 
 River Plate, and marry there. So there is not much 
 intermixture of our blood among the better-dressed 
 class of people attached to the soil. From the Bra- 
 zihan towns they all go home, frightened off by the 
 yellow fever (which I have no doubt is a special curse 
 upon Negro slavery ; I do not believe it has yet ap- 
 peared anywhere, except where the Whites are in con- 
 tact with Negroes, either for the purpose of the slave- 
 trade, or for living upon the produce of slave-labour ; 
 but I may be wrong) . Perhaps, too, Brazil is too hot 
 for the Englishman to work out-of-doors at present : 
 I do not think it would be too hot for a vegetable- 
 feeding white, but we must take John as we find him. 
 However there can be no question that Brazil may 
 be made perfectly habitable for him, or he made a fit 
 inhabitant for Brazil, thus — ^by gradual acclimatiza- 
 
 the same race, — ^that race may be said to be renoTating itself &om its 
 original stoct, so far as Basque immigration is concerned. But the 
 juxtaposition of Irishman and Basque on the shores of the Plate is 
 one of the most curious facts of contemporary history. Are we to 
 ■witness, after thousands of years have elapsed, the formation of a 
 second people of " Celtiberi"? — Ed. 
 
 l3 
 
326 THE FUTURE OF WESTERN SOUTH AMERICA. 
 
 tion. There is no other country in the world except 
 Africa, in which this process can be perfectly gone 
 through, and Africa is not to be colonized by Whites 
 yet : (all the Negroes have to be sent back to Africa, 
 and taught, perhaps compelled, to cultivate their con- 
 tinent for their own benefit.) The climate of the 
 River Plate and the parts near it must be the most 
 splendid in the world, the most pleasant to a Euro- 
 pean. Here then, on the banks of these rivers, as 
 high up as possible, — as near the heat as possible (to 
 shorten the process and to be more central) , — let the 
 commencement be made ; and let us, generation after 
 generation, push further northwards, colonizing ever, 
 till our blood has become suited in our descendants 
 to the glorious sun of Brazil ; and let us make haste 
 about it too, that we may occupy that country before 
 all its splendid timber has disappeared before the ruth- 
 less fire of the lazy Portuguese, who can find no means 
 of disposing of it but burning it as it stands. 
 
 Now emigration as we see it in England is absurd 
 — competition in its worst form, as a youth instead 
 of as a dotard. We must do as the old Greeks and 
 Phoenicians did, and as the bees still do, — colonize in 
 bodies, and show too that we can set about it in a 
 less amateur style than the Canterbury people have 
 done. In all these countries individuals can obtain 
 grants of land from the State, either freely or by pur- 
 chase at a low price ; or, I understand, in Paraguay on 
 the justest of all possible tenures in the present state 
 
CAPABILITIES OF PARAGUAY. 227 
 
 of things, viz. on the payment of an annual quit-rent 
 to the State. 
 
 I am going to Paraguay, to see the capabilities 
 of this country for such an experiment. I have my 
 fears about the temperature being too high for a 
 first settlement, but we shall see. The situation of 
 Paraguay is unparalleled, certainly in this world, pro- 
 bably in the Solar System. Note its insular position 
 between the rivers Parana and Paraguay, the latter 
 splendidly navigable, with its soft sandy bottom ; the 
 former with power enough in its vast cataracts to turn 
 all the mills of the world, and the moon too. Note 
 too that the sources of the Paraguay are close to those 
 of the Madeira, one of the largest tributaries of the 
 Amazon. Do you not see that Va.ra.guay is a misprint 
 for 'Pa.ra.dise, and that these and the Uruguay are the 
 rivers of Eden ? (Paradise evidently was here some- 
 where, for the syllables " Para" occur everywhere : Pa- 
 rahyba, Parahibana, etc., and Para itself at the mouth 
 of the Amazon : this perhaps is a piece of converging 
 etymology.) 
 
 There is already a movement hither in this direc- 
 tion, or rather signs of two movements, a French and 
 an English one. The latter is in the form of some 
 confounded speculation for the purpose of personal 
 enrichment on the part of some English and French 
 merchants in the Banda Oriental and in Corrientes. 
 The other, the French, is the leading idea of my com- 
 panion here, M. G , who is quite a hero in his 
 
228 THE FUTURE OP WESTERN SOUTH AMERICA. 
 
 quiet way. He is the best Frenchman I ever met 
 with, and quite different from any other I ever saw, 
 with a depth of seriousness and perseverance about 
 him that must be very rare in this country. He has 
 very much the same notions as I have about the ob- 
 vious necessity of colonizing South America, but he 
 has just enough of the intense nationality of his coun- 
 trymen to narrow his views, and put the problem be- 
 fore him in the form of French influence to be ex- 
 tended ; but he has less of obtrusiveness in this all- 
 for-France of his, than most of his compatriots have. 
 I should be very glad to see South America colonized 
 by France, if I thought they would do it well ; but 
 seeing they cannot govern their own country, I do not 
 think it likely they will succeed here just yet. 
 
 I need not tell you that all the land almost, between 
 the Andes and the Parana-Paraguay, is one mighty 
 plain ; all the southern part of which, almost, is now 
 sacrificed to that lowest and most degrading form of 
 occupation, that sham of industry, the feeding and 
 butchering of cattle, — a vile occupation, delighted in 
 by master capitalists, because it yields them a return 
 on their money with the employment of the smallest 
 possible number of workmen, — delighted in by work- 
 men, because their employment is a lazy one, which 
 exerts none of their faculties, except those necessary 
 to enable them to sit on horseback, and to rip the 
 hide off half-killed oxen, I should like some of you 
 lovers of flesh to see the reeking horrors of the 
 
FERTILITY OP THE SOIL. 229 
 
 saladeros of the River Plate. Do not fancy these 
 Gauchos are fine fellows because they can ride, and 
 live on horseback hke the Arabs ; they care not one 
 straw for their horses, except to use them, spur them 
 to death, and then buy another for a song. There is 
 nobility about these fellows no doubt, but it is in spite 
 of their equestrian habits, not because of them, and 
 in spite of the degrading employment, to which every 
 man who eats flesh helps by his example to condemn 
 them. 
 
 Fancy the capabilities of these lands, where they 
 plant woods of peach-trees for firewood and to feed 
 their pigs, — not because the fruit is not first-rate, 
 but because there are not men enough to eat it (or 
 the men prefer swine's blood) ! Olives too grow in 
 great perfection at Buenos Ayres, and the vine luxu- 
 riates in the upper provinces, Mendoza and Tucu- 
 man. Here is a land of corn, oil, and wine ; and as 
 for the honey, as if it was not enough that there should 
 be a score of sorts of bees to make it, the very wasps 
 brew delicious honey.* The Banda Oriental and 
 Entre Rios have the same capabilities as the plain of 
 the west, with such other advantages as are given by 
 a more undulating and broken groimd, with a great 
 deal of mineral wealth. Further north, in Corrientes 
 and Paraguay, you have the semi-tropical and tropi- 
 cal climates, where the richest oranges, sugar, coffee, 
 tea, yerba mate (which, mind you, is not to be de- 
 * See Appendix A., before referred to. 
 
230 THE FUTURE OF WESTERN SOUTH AMERICA. 
 
 spised, and has yet to be sold at the co-operative stores 
 in England), silk, and all the glories of a sun-blessed 
 vegetation, are to be had for the asking. 
 
 Then for intercommunication. In those parts where 
 the country is hilly there is the best water-carriage in 
 the world ; and over the plains, what a country for 
 railways ! Why, the whole Pampas ought to be fur- 
 rowed with tramways (not to speak of steam-loco- 
 motives, which they do not want yet); here is an 
 employment for the thousands of horses which are to 
 be had and fed for nothing. All the towns of the 
 plain might lay down tramroads from one to the 
 other, commencing with one from Salta to Buenos 
 Ayres. The glorious timber of Paraguay will do for 
 the trams ; iron is not needed. 
 
 So much for the land ; now for the rivers. These 
 rivers are a mine of uncountable wealth, the coal of 
 England is nothing to them. I was speaking of the 
 timber of Paraguay : now here is a beginning, for a 
 colony to make heavy profits at starting, to enable it 
 to get out a lot of hands ; here is a branch of trade 
 with Europe hitherto undreamed of. People have 
 thought and tried to import timber from Brazil, and 
 still do in small quantities, a few sTiip-loads of Jaca- 
 randa per annmn ; but Paraguay as a wood-market 
 for Europe, I should think, has scarcely been hinted 
 at, except to be derided ; and yet, excepting the 
 banks of the Amazon, no place is so well suited for 
 supplying the timber, which is the most splendid of 
 
EXPOET OF TIMBEK. 231 
 
 all the splendid products of South America, and the 
 one most cruelly wasted. One great obstacle to the 
 exportation of the Bra^iilian timber is the difficulty 
 of getting it to the coast : here however is the Para- 
 guay-Parana ready to float down the timber from the 
 interior. 
 
 Now every tree not wanted might be floated in 
 huge rafts (as the Germans do on the Rhine) down 
 the rivers to the Plata, and then bodily across the 
 Atlantic to Europe. Is it not a mighty folly, that 
 importing of timber across the sea in driblets, by 
 ship-loads ? Why build ships to carry what will it- 
 self float, and is even benefited by immersion in the 
 sea ? You wdll see at once that there is no reason 
 why a raft which will float down a river should not 
 float across the Atlantic, nor why it should not ar- 
 rive safely in the port for which it is destined, if the 
 powers of wind and steam are properly brought to 
 bear upon it. Of course, to do it safely and to make it 
 pay, it must be done upon a large scale : the trans- 
 oceanic raft must be a great island of timber, that will 
 defy the storms by its very size. (I have no doubt 
 that the next generation, instead of loading ships 
 with Wenham Lake ice-blocks, will tow icebergs from 
 the poles to the equator, by steamers or other power. 
 Who knows how climate may be modified in this 
 way ?) Of course it will not require a colony to open 
 up on these rivers the steam -navigation which that 
 scoundrel Rosas has kept out of them. I think how- 
 
233 THE FUTUEE OF WESTEEN SOUTH AMEEICA. 
 
 ever that associate shipwrights at Paradise will show 
 them how to build steamers of a better construction 
 than any which they will get from the capitalists of 
 Europe, whose self-interest prevents the introduction 
 of improvements. However, these rivers do not want 
 steam to navigate them; glorious water-gods, they 
 are of extra size, on purpose to do all the work them- 
 selves. 
 
 I wonder rivers have never been made to do their 
 own tug- work ; they have in locks to be sure, but 
 that is a way of making them do the job only ap- 
 plicable on narrow waters, and then only for lift- 
 ing, not for propelling. Of course the proper plan is 
 to have stationary engines worked by wheels driven 
 by the river itself, placed at convenient distances, with 
 endless ropes running round pulleys, to which the 
 craft bound up and down the river can attach them- 
 selves, and so be towed up and down stream at any 
 pace. And so, too, vast floating factories might be es- 
 tablished on the Parana, where every kind of machi- 
 nery should sing psalms of praise to the Great Fa- 
 ther. This plan is at work on the Ehine, on a small 
 scale, just below Mannheim : they have a few barges 
 moored in the river, with water-wheels attached, and 
 corn-mills within ; but these are baby-toys to what we 
 may have here. The power available on this Parana 
 is positively unlimited ; human hands need do no la- 
 bour within hundreds of mUes of its banks, however 
 thickly they were populated. Here it rolls on, a mile 
 
APPLICATION OP WATER-POWER. 333 
 
 all wide and at least three miles an hour in pace, of 
 all depths, from five feet to twenty and upwards. All 
 that is wanted is a floating house, and leave to moor 
 it in a good position, with as many great screw-pro- 
 pellers immersed, or feathering paddle-wheels dipping 
 ia the water, as may be necessary to take the power 
 wanted from the stream. This is the future of these 
 waters. (I was let into this secret hy having once 
 jumped overboard for a bath without a rope in my 
 hand, and another time having been untied in a canoe, 
 wherein, having tied myself to the stern of our ship, 
 I was practising paddling. I believe it is a current 
 which pours here down to the sea!) Oh, what an 
 enormous reservoir of force utterly wasted ! Verily 
 the exuberant bounty of God is awful, and the idle- 
 ness of man is ghastly ! 
 
 Another mode of applying the power of the river to 
 its own navigation would be to have a steamer (pro- 
 pelled by an immense paddle-wheel), which should 
 tow up the river a fleet of any number of ships, at no 
 greater expense of coal than that necessary for its 
 own propulsion. The paddle-wheel must have a big 
 barrel, which it can be made to turn, carrying a mile 
 of cable; one or two of the ships are to be attached 
 to the cable, and the steamer starts up stream, let- 
 ting its cable run out of the barrel, without exerting 
 any traction. When the cable has run out, the vessel 
 having run up a mile, the steam is to be turned, and 
 the current allowed to act on the paddle-wheel and 
 
234 THE FUTURE OF WESTERN SOUTH AMERICA. 
 
 turn it. The barrel is put in gear with the paddle- 
 wheelj and winds up the rope, and with it of course 
 the ships. When they have reached the point where 
 the steamer is, the cable is unwound, and, if there are 
 any more vessels to come up, floated down to them, 
 to haul them up in the same way. This may seem a 
 very slow process, but it is not so slow a one as being 
 anchored seven days at the bottom of a reach only 
 a few miles long, with a head- wind blowing, which 
 would be favourable in the next reach above, as hap- 
 pened to this ship last week. But not even steamers 
 are necessary for this, — the river may be made to 
 propel each ship separately against its own current ; 
 but I need not worry you with my dynamical dreams, 
 of which this huge deluge in harness, waiting only to 
 be tied to the traces, is very suggestive.* 
 
 * The following further suggestions appear in Mr. Mansfield's 
 Note-Book : — 
 
 " Steamers to be provided with two feelers, fore and aft, one on 
 each side, each connected with rudder, and the two with engine, to 
 reverse, if both strike. Machines to sweep out channel, turned by 
 river alone.'' (Sept. 30.) 
 
 " The value of land in the province of Corrientes, according to Mr. 
 Dudgeon, the accredited land-surveyor of the Grovemment, as taken 
 of Government, is about five or six hundred silver dollars per square 
 league to purchase, and about eight or ten silver dollars per annum 
 to rent. Mr. D has himself about four square leagues of pasture- 
 land (part of it bad), for which he pays nineteen silver dollars per 
 annum ; but during the war, when his cattle was taken, he paid 
 nothing. His laud is on the bank of the Mirinai, beyond Paso 
 Caoguazu." 
 
335 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 COREIENTES. 
 
 A COTTNTET EIDB. — TEBES. — BIEDS.— THE MISIONES. — A BAIL.^ 
 PTTBHC EUIIiimtGS. — ■ BWELLIITa-HOtrSES. — A VISIT TO THE 
 BISHOP. — bibbs' -NESTS. — A SOIBBE. — PBOJBCTBD EXPEDITION TO 
 MISIONES. — NEWS BEOM BUENOS AITEBS. — NEBDI/E-WOEE:. — 
 PIEAS AND JIQ-aBES. — TEEBENAS. — SILK-OOTTON TEEE. — DOGS 
 AND EBOGS. — CEOSSING A PEEET. — VISIT TO DON PEDBO. — B"N- 
 SUOOBSSPITI TIGBB-HTTNT. — A PLAT. — BEILLIANT LIGHTNING. — 
 CO-OPEBATIVE SPIDEES. — ^AN EXTENSIVE HOESEDEAIEE. — A EETB 
 DAT. — A STOBM. — CHTTEOHES. — OVEN BIED. — MANNEES AND OTTS- 
 TOirS. — DON PEDEO. — A EOED. — MANDIOOA PLANTING. — A PEI- 
 MIirVE PLOUGH. — CATTLE DOCTOEING. — AN ANT-LION. — ANT- 
 HILLS. — THE EMPEBOB OF CEANES. — WILD TtTEKEYS. — SENSITIVE 
 PLANTS. — ^A LETTEE OE INTEODUCTION. — POLITICS. 
 
 October 2. 
 
 I BORROWED a horse from Mr. B , a "young 
 
 Scotchman," the consignee of part of the cargo of the 
 ' Rosario/ and went out into the country to see what 
 it is like. I rode towards the Bast about a couple 
 of leagues, along a road or rather sandy track, one of 
 those by which the queer ox-drawn waggons from the 
 interior reach the port. As the river turns somewhat 
 towards the east here, this road does not lead directly 
 away from it. A curious piece of apparatus is at- 
 
336 COERIENTES. 
 
 tached to these carts— the goad ; it is a bamboo pole, 
 about twenty feet long, suspended and balanced upon 
 a thong which hangs from the roof of the cart, in front, 
 so that it is easily turned by the lazy carter, as he is 
 lolling inside ; at the outer extremity of this pole is 
 a spike, and from it, about four feet from the end, 
 hangs fixed another rod, with a spike upon it, so that 
 the oxen can be goaded by a thrust either forwards or 
 downwards. There are six oxen to each cart ; the end 
 point goads the leaders, the branch point the middle 
 pair. There are two or three bunches of emu's fea- 
 thers tied to the pole for decoration. The country 
 
 is all sandy or clayey ; not open plain nor forest, but 
 covered with patches of thorny shrubs, here and there 
 so thickly set as to form a coppice ; in other places 
 forming thickets, with patches of grass between. The 
 trees, mostly about the size of ordinary hawthorns, 
 are terribly thorny ; many of them are mimosas, with 
 only a very few air-plants about them. Here and 
 there a large tree is seen standing up like a forest giant 
 above the others, but on a nearer approach it proves 
 only to be one of the umbiis, planted for shade near 
 
VEGETATION. 237 
 
 a house or a corral ; they are just coming into leaf. 
 There are also scattered here and there groves of 
 orange-treesj the flowers of which smell deliciously 
 sweet, planted in regular rows ; the deep green of 
 their rich foliage is in strong contrast with the rest 
 of the trees. These orange-farms yield a good reve- 
 nue to the proprietors, many of whom have quintas, 
 or small country-houses, attached to them. Lemons, 
 enormous cabbages, sweet potatoes shaped like pears, 
 the sweet mandioca (not the sort which yields poison- 
 ous juice, and from which the farinha and tapioca is 
 made in Brazil), and our common vegetables, grow 
 admirably here, showing what a little care will do with 
 the soil. I twice noticed scrubby-looking mamaveiras 
 (melon- trees), which are in every garden in Brazil. 
 But the most beautiful objects in the scenery are the 
 lapacho-tree&y a few of which are scattered about both 
 in the gardens near the town and in the camp, as they 
 call the country ; they grow about thirty or forty feet 
 high, exactly like young oak-trees, and are now in full 
 flower. The blossom is a large beU, of a beautiful rose 
 colour, with yellowish markings inside, rather larger 
 than a foxglove bell, and with an open spreading mouth; 
 they look at some distance like immense roses stuck 
 on a bed of moss; the colour is quite unmixed, as 
 there are no leaves at all on them, and the blossoms 
 quite thick. It is said to be one of the very best tim- 
 ber-trees of the country, and there is much timber in 
 the interior. I rode on among the thorn-thickets and 
 
238 CORKIENTES. 
 
 scattered orange-groves, till I came to a place where 
 the road passed between two large marshes or shal- 
 low ponds, covered with aquatic plants and numerons 
 wading water-fowl, which, like most of the birds here, 
 are very tame. About the thickets were numerous 
 green parrots ; in one place I encountered a large flock 
 of them, chattering like all London. There are many 
 beautiful finches in the trees, — the cardinal, with his 
 crimson head, one of the finest. There was no variety 
 in scenery, as far as I could see, and scarcely any un- 
 dulation of the ground. As I returned I observed 
 quantities of great ugly black vultures and brown 
 carrion-eating buzzards with dirty yellow tips to their 
 wings and tail, pottering about the slaughter-houses 
 outside the town, and so tame that they looked just 
 like poultry.* The wind being still the same, I slept 
 on board the ' Rosario.' 
 
 B ofiered to ride with me the next morning 
 
 into the country, and show me some other part ; so 
 we started early in the forenoon. However, he took 
 me exactly the same road I had been before, but 
 not so far .by two miles. We walked about in an 
 
 * The following list of birds, seen apparently near Corrientes, oc- 
 ovirs in a note-book : — Black vulture, yery numerous ; brown buzzard 
 {oarrtmeha), ditto ; chattering wren, browni mud shell nests ; scissor- 
 tail fly-catcher, with two tail-feathere eight or nine inches long; 
 snow-white robin, with black tips to wings and tail ; iemtevi (car- 
 dinal). In the wood : white heron, dark brown ditto, brown ibis, 
 spurwing, ducks, lapwing, smaller plover, little doves, green parrots, 
 humming-birds. 
 
THE MISIONES. 239 
 
 orange-grove, belonging to a friend of his, for some 
 time while it rained. The fresh leaves of the lemon 
 and orange trees have a very nice smeU when crushed 
 in the hand. In the afternoon, the wind being still 
 the same, I stayed ashore, and was struck with a 
 desire to see the territory of the Misiones. This 
 is the district lying between the rivers Uruguay and 
 Parana, at the point where they approach most 
 nearly to each other, — at Candelaria, on the Parana, 
 where the most famous of the reducdones, pueblos, 
 or misiones of the Jesuits were. This country has 
 long been a disputed point between Paraguay and 
 Corrientes, as to which republic owned it. By the 
 treaty lately made between Paraguay and the Ar- 
 gentine confederacy, the territory of the Misiones is 
 ceded to Corrientes by Paraguay. It is now entirely 
 uninhabited, though it is the richest part of the pro- 
 vince, or indeed of the whole of the Argentine States.* 
 So I went to the Governor, and asked him whether 
 there was any possibility of seeing this country. He 
 informed me that there happened to be a particularly 
 good one, as he was going to send a military force in 
 a few days to take formal possession of this important 
 territory, much desired by the Brazilians, and that I 
 could go with the troop if I liked, AH I could say 
 was, that I was very much obliged to him, but that I 
 was going to sail for Paraguay next morning, and 
 that therefore I could not do this, but that when I re- 
 * See Appendix B. 
 
340 CORKIENTES. 
 
 turned I hoped there would be another opportunity. 
 He said there would be no difficulty. I then went 
 
 to rejoin G at a house where I had left him, 
 
 when he informed me that certain aflairs of his ren- 
 dered it necessary for him to remain here for a fort- 
 night or so at least, and that therefore he and his 
 wife would leave the ' Rosario,^ and allow her to sail 
 without them. I at once determined to do likewise, 
 and to accept the Governor's offer, and take this op- 
 portunity of seeing the Misiones. 
 
 B got me invited this evening to a baU at a 
 
 private house, so I went to see the humours. I was 
 told that it was not the custom for those who were not 
 going to dance to enter the ball-room. As I had no 
 intention of dancing (first, on general grounds; se- 
 condly, because I had wounded my foot with my spur 
 in the morning, and was lame ; thirdly, because the 
 style of dancing adopted by the Correntino gentlemen 
 seemed to involve an amount of attitude of which I am 
 not master), I took my quarters, while that exercise 
 went on in the sala, or drawing-room (brick floor, 
 carpeted), in one of the anterooms (bedrooms with 
 the beds up), in one of which sat old ladies and non- 
 dancing men ; and in the other were the refreshments, 
 which consisted of sweetmeats, English bottled ale 
 (which is the beverage on all great occasions here) , and 
 cigars. There was a very fair military band in the 
 court of the house outside the sala windows. I after- 
 wards went into the dancing-room, and sat there for 
 
THE CHURCHES. 241 
 
 some time to look on ; but as I was alonCj and had no 
 one to introduce me to the ladies, who would have 
 helped me out with my Spanish, and the Governor 
 (who is a most vigorous performer, and sometimes 
 danceth all night) came and urgently entreated me to 
 follow his example, I speedily beat a retreat. I how- 
 ever took the opportunity of telling the Governor I 
 was going to stay, and would avail myself of his offer 
 of accompanying the troops to Misiones. The Cor- 
 rentino ladies are for the most part decidedly pretty, 
 and seem to be amiable : their beauty is not of the 
 same sparkling kind as that of the Buenos Ayreans, 
 they are more chubby ; I think there must be a little 
 Guarani blood in most of them. I slept ashore, on a 
 
 table. 
 
 October 4. 
 
 At nine a.m. I went on board the ' Rosario' (which 
 lies off the quay or jetty, which projects into the river 
 some two hundred feet), packed up my traps, and 
 transferred them to the Captain of the Port's office, 
 whence, after tedious waiting and pretended inspec- 
 tion by the Custom-house authorities, I took them to 
 B 's house. 
 
 The churches in Corrientes are very peculiar con- 
 structions ; they resemble barns more than anything 
 else, with long projecting eaves, which, being sup- 
 ported by wooden posts, form a verandah along the 
 side. The Cathedral, La Matriz, has a tower stand- 
 ing near it, quite isolated, for the bells, which sound 
 
 M 
 
243 
 
 COKRIENTES. 
 
 like cracked saucepans. Another of the churches has 
 the bells hung up in the open air, above a stage, on 
 which a boy stands to strike them. The other public 
 buildings are the Cabildo, or town-haU (one of the 
 very few two-storied houses in the town), which stands 
 on one side of the large square in which the Cathe- 
 dral is, and which has a double tier of arches in front, 
 forming two heavy verandahs or porticoes one over 
 the other; and the Custom or Government House 
 (where the Governor transacts business, the Post- 
 office is, and some soldiers are quartered), which is a 
 
 A STREET IN CORKIENTES. 
 
 low but extensive building, having only rooms on the 
 ground-floor, with two large grassy courts Hke a col- 
 lege, and a portico formed by the eaves sloping in- 
 wards all round : it used formerly to be the Jesuits' 
 CoUege, and was built by them. The streets are all 
 
THE STREETS AND HOUSES. 243 
 
 sandy and rather rough, nowhere paved, but there is 
 in some places a trottoir, bricked, which is generally 
 under the porticoes, formed, as I have said, by the pro- 
 jecting eaves. There are two sorts of houses in the 
 town : some, which seem to be the oldest, are a sort 
 of little fortresses, square masses of building with a 
 court in the middle, into which the doors open from 
 the street, — a single tier of rooms covered by an invi- 
 sible flat roof of brick, — all the windows, both those 
 facing the street and those looking into the court, 
 barred with a strong iron grating ; the others are cot- 
 tages, with sloping roofs of tiles or of split palm-poles 
 hollowed out, and laid over 
 each other, as in the margin. 
 The tiles here, as well as in 
 all Brazil and at Lisbon, are 
 laid in the same way, and form, 
 a very effectual though pon- 
 derous shelter, those which 
 
 have their concave sides upwards forming channels by 
 which the rain runs off. The market-place is a large 
 bam-like shed, standing in the middle of one of the 
 squares; under and aroimd it are sold meat, sweet 
 potatoes, mandioca-root, oranges, tallow, sugarcane, 
 and ground-nuts, but scarcely anything else. 
 
 October 5. 
 I slept last night on the table again, on my recado, 
 but was so cruelly maltreated by bugs or fleas that I 
 
 M 3 
 
24:4s COREIENTES. 
 
 petitioned for a hammock^ which I had seen in a box. 
 As soon as I was up, I sallied forth in search of a 
 bath in the river. I found the bank to consist of 
 masses of the same dark-coloured sandstone, full of 
 cavities, which is to be seen at the landing-place; it 
 is cut into pretty little caves every here and there, but 
 all unfortunately, both within the precincts of the 
 town and for at least a mile outside of it, occupied by 
 women washing clothes, so I had to walk a long dis- 
 tance before I found a convenient place. At last I 
 hit upon a very pretty spot, with a sandy beach, and 
 masses of rock lying about, just like the seashore; 
 lizards were running and jumping in every direction, 
 and there was a cliff behind, overgrown with beautiful 
 shrubs in full verdure : all along the bank indeed the 
 vegetation is much brighter and greener than inland. 
 
 I called today on the old Bishop, who has seen the 
 whole world almost, — North America, East Indies, 
 etc., — and talked to him about the Jesuits in the Mi- 
 siones; he said they had not done much in the way of 
 civilizing or Christianizing in these parts. He gravely 
 told me that miracles had been performed in one of 
 the churches here long before the Jesuits came to the 
 country, and he finally bade me adieu, saying that I 
 had only to ask for anything I wanted, and I should 
 have it. 
 
 October 6. 
 
 I went out for a ride this morning in the opposite 
 direction to that in which we went the other day ; 
 
BIKDS' NESTS. 245 
 
 found the country for some miles just the same, — 
 thorny thickets scattered aboutj with pools of water, 
 showing that there is some impervious soil under 
 the surface. Turning to the right towards the river, 
 we came to a place where, for a considerable dis- 
 tance, there runs a cliff, or escarpment, a few feet 
 high, parallel to the Parand, with a low tract of land 
 covered with trees, interspersed with pools between it 
 and the river. My guide wanted to persuade me that 
 the laud had been washed away by the rains, but I 
 fancy it has been chiefly dug out for making bricks,* 
 as I noticed a brick-field at no great distance. There 
 Were lots of birds' -nests on the trees, built of quantities 
 of sticks, like those of magpies, but belonging to little 
 birds ; one of them, which I stood on the back of my 
 horse to look into, was the habitation of a little wren, 
 at any rate she had a little white egg laid in one of its 
 several cavities; either the nest belonged to several 
 families, or it was the accumulated building of several 
 years, for it consisted of a mass of sticks as big as a 
 bullock's head, with three or four little caverns in it. 
 These nests are mostly built on hanging twigs : seve- 
 ral sorts of birds, here and in Brazil, build nests of 
 this kind; people suppose they do it to escape the 
 snakes. Two which I pulled to pieces I found were 
 built round old wasps' -nests as a core. Another very 
 queer nest is built by a sort of snuff-brown thrush, 
 which chatters and chirrups boisterously : it is always 
 * See however page 258. 
 
246 COKRIENTES. 
 
 perched on the upper side of a branch, or on the top 
 of a post, and is a mass of mud or clay in the form of 
 
 a spherical shell with 
 a hole in the side, and 
 a sort of commence- 
 ment of a winding en- 
 trance. (No. 1, a front 
 view thereof; No. 2, a 
 horizontal section.) Externally it resembles a clay 
 hut, and is very like one of the ovens of this country. 
 There is a very pretty snow-white bird of the robin 
 kind, with black tips to its wings and tail, something 
 like the Lavandera of Brazil, but more entirely white ; 
 and a flycatcher, with two very long feathers in his 
 tail, called the " scissor-tail," which is very pretty. 
 
 I was invited this evening to meet a certain Dr. 
 Molina, a man in much consideration here, who had 
 just arrived, having been sent from Entre Eios by 
 Urquiza on some political mission, with respect to 
 which there are many on-dits afloat. Thus much 
 however is certain, that Urquiza has retired peace- 
 ably to Entre Rios, and that Buenos Ayres is quite 
 quiet. When any great person of the place returns 
 here, it is customary for his friends to send word 
 to him to expect them in the evening to pay their re- 
 spects. They get up a party to go, and in the even- 
 ing march, with a military band playing and rockets 
 flying, to his house, where he stands at the door, 
 shakes hands with each, and walks them into the 
 
A VISIT OF CEREMONY. 247 
 
 sala ; there they sit formally round the room, while 
 the band occasionally strikes up in the court. Gene- 
 rally the health of the hero is proposed^ drunk in beer 
 (always) , a speech or two made^ and then they either 
 dance, if there are ladies, or disperse. We arrived too 
 late for the first entrance of the guests, and were 
 walked in separately, presented to the hero, and then 
 took our seats on chairs with their hacks against the 
 waU, forming thus part of the stupid row which sat 
 all round the room ; the ladies of the fanuly sat on 
 the sofa, at one end thereof. Beer and cigars were 
 handed round, — they smoke anywhere and every- 
 where here, whether in the presence of ladies or not. 
 The latter do not themselves smoke in public, though 
 I am told they often do when by themselves, but the 
 poorer women do so continually. There were no 
 toasts or speeches on this occasion, — nothing stu- 
 pider ever saw I. About two mortal hours we sat 
 round the room ; the band enlivened it a little, — one 
 of them, a Negro, played the cornopean capitally. At 
 last the spirit moved some one to get up and shake 
 hands with the hero, which we all did in turn, and 
 then retired, with a discharge of rockets and flourish 
 of music. 
 
 October 7. 
 I went this morning to see the Governor at his 
 office, as I had failed in finding him at home yester- 
 day; and I was anxious to know when the expedition 
 
248 COREIENTES. 
 
 to Misiones was about to start, and whether I was to 
 provide myself with horses. I found that the officer 
 in command was to proceed the next day, but that he 
 was only now going to the frontier of the Misiones 
 on this side, and that he would have to wait there till 
 the Governor received from the President of Paraguay 
 certain letters relative to the formal delivering up of 
 the territory which is to take place. On receipt of 
 these letters, which are expected daily, he meant to 
 send some more men, and he said that he would pre- 
 fer my going then, as he wishes me to see the whole 
 of the territory ; and he would give me letters to all 
 •the best people, so far as the country is inhabited, and 
 send with me a cart to carry my traps and my bed if 
 I liked. Of course I told him this was not necessary, 
 that I had my recado, and that was enough ; but he 
 said that I might as well be comfortable. I found 
 that he wanted to know what Misiones has in the way 
 of natural riches : of course I said I would report 
 to him on my return all that I had observed. He 
 really is a very excellent fellow ; if all the Governors 
 were such men as he, these countries would soon be 
 free from military turmoil. A French doctor, who 
 has some emigration schemes in his l^ead, says that 
 he means to go with the party, but other people do 
 not think he wiU. Right opposite Corrientes is the 
 Chaco, within a mile, vdth eyery tree visible on the 
 river-bank, and numbers of its wild inhabitants are 
 to be seen in the streets here every day; yet no person 
 
THE INDIANS. 249 
 
 from Corrientes ever goes there, — perhaps few have 
 ever been, except woodmen, who go over to cut wood, 
 and get occasionally killed themselves. Every one 
 dreads the Indians, who are said to be the most 
 treacherous creatures alive. In Corrientes lives a 
 French tanner, Martin D'Aguerey by name, who has 
 somehow managed to win the confidence of the Guay- 
 curus (the most powerfd tribe, who live just oppo- 
 site), and of some others; Jose Largo (Long Joe, 
 pronounced Hosselargo, which I thought must be the 
 same as Hochelaga, tiU I knew the meaning), the 
 cacique whom I saw in his house the other day, is one 
 of his principal agents among them. They say that 
 the Frenchman is looked upon by the Indians as the 
 
 Great Cacique. He offered to go with the G s, 
 
 and conduct them a few miles inland to see the coun- 
 try ; I was to have gone with them today, but the 
 expedition has been put ofiF, and I fear it will not take 
 place till after I am gone. The temperature now is 
 most delightful, about that of the very hottest sum- 
 mer in England, with however this diflPerence, that it 
 is hotter at noon, and the days are not so long, so that 
 the nights are cooler. 
 
 October 8. 
 
 Today a Correntino named Menzies, a wealthy mer- 
 chant (concerning whom I cannot learn that he con- 
 siders himself of Scotch descent), arrived from Buenos 
 Ayres, having performed the journey in fourteen days 
 
 M 3 
 
250 CORKIENTES. 
 
 on horseback, going round through the Banda Ori- 
 ental, to avoid Urquiza in Entre Eios. He brought 
 a proclamation, issued by the Assembly of Buenos 
 Ayres, which was dissolved by Urquiza and has now 
 reconstituted itself. The proclamation is said, by 
 those who have read it, to be very excellent, — speak- 
 ing of peace, freedom, open rivers, etc. etc. Every- 
 body says that all the people, even the very Gauchos, 
 are now tired of war, and that even if Urquiza has 
 ambitious designs, he will not be able to raise a force 
 to support him. What proposition was brought from 
 him by Dr. Molina the other day has not transpired. 
 Perhaps it is doubtful whether the President of Para- 
 guay will so willingly hand over the territory of the 
 Misiones to the Correntinos, now that Urquiza, with 
 whom he made the treaty, has fallen: perhaps he 
 will wait to see whether the Buenos Ayreans mean to 
 adhere to the conditions therein expressed. 
 
 Nothing is to be had or done here between the 
 hours of twelve and two. Everybody dines at twelve, 
 and then takes a siesta for two hours. It is the 
 height of bad manners to remain in any one's house 
 on a call after twelve o'clock ; they say no one but 
 dogs and Englishmen are to be seen in the streets 
 between twelve and two. The women however seem 
 to be more industrious than the men ; they are very 
 skilful at embroidery and lace-making. Every Peon 
 (common labourer) and Gaucho turns out sometimes 
 in beautifully worked drawers, which any lady might 
 
FLEAS AND JIGGERS. 251 
 
 wear as a scarf. Some of the shopkeepers^ when 
 lounging behind their counters^ wear shirts of the 
 most elaborate needlework ; and yet this lace- work is 
 enormously expensive, so much so that I fear I shall 
 not be able to bring any specimens of it. 
 
 October 9. 
 The fleas make my life a burden to me : there are 
 quantities of them about the floors of the house, be- 
 tween the bricks ; I have ne> skin left on my shins ; 
 my great hope in life is, that they will not sting raw 
 flesh. They pitched me bodily out of my hammock 
 last night from three feet above the ground, on the 
 bare brick-floor, flat as a pancake on my back, and 
 then, when I groped about for a lucifer to light me 
 to the reconstruction of my bed, made me knock 
 down a bran-new bottle of salad-oil, which I had just 
 purchased at a high price ; of course this was done in 
 revenge, because I rubbed my shins with some of the 
 oil before I went to bed, to prevent their biting. The 
 mosquitos have made my eyes and face swell up once 
 or twice, and have spotted my forehead aU over like a 
 leper's; but they are a joke to the fleas. The jiggers 
 also keep me in bodily fear; I have not yet found 
 any in my feet, but they are said to abound here. 
 One person tells me he had once had twelve taken 
 out of his feet one evening, and found eleven more 
 the next morning. 
 
 The town is supplied with water chiefly from the 
 
253 CORRIENTES. 
 
 river by women, who walk to and fro in processions 
 in the evening with pitchers on their heads. I how- 
 ever saw two water-carts (casks on wheels) filling at 
 the river today — a wonderful stretch of ingenuity ! 
 Some of the houses supply themselves with rain-water -, 
 in Buenos Ayres scarcely any other is used. The 
 water runs from the roofs of the houses into wells, 
 which are sunk in the middle of the court. I took a 
 shower-bath today, during a heavy thunderstorm, un- 
 der the eaves of the house in the corner of the court, 
 — a wonderful refresher and giver of appetite ! 
 
 I have found three species of verbena growing here : 
 the commonest, which abounds everywhere like butter- 
 cups in England, is purple, with finely divided leaves ; 
 the next is the scarlet one, not quite so common, with 
 notched leaves ; the third, of which I have only found 
 one plant, was lilac-coloured, with leaves between 
 those of the two others in form. The oranges here 
 are not in season now, though there are plenty to be 
 had, but not fresh ; the oil of the rind does not make 
 one's lips feel blistered, as those of Pernambuco. 
 
 October 10. 
 I went out for a ride this evening to explore the 
 coast above the town, and found it indented with 
 beautiful little coves, with the cliffs, twenty or thirty 
 feet high, covered with beautiful shrubs in rich leaf 
 and flower. About a mile and a half from the extreme 
 limit of the town (which is bounded to the north-east 
 
TREES AND SHRUBS. 253 
 
 by a small creek which runs for half a mile inland^ gra- 
 dually narrowing oif to a ditch, just beyond which, 
 on top of the cliff, is an old fort and flagstaff) I came 
 to an orange-farm, situated on the brink of a beauti- 
 ful cove, and surrounded with a rough fence, which 
 runs up inland tiU it meets a thick copsewood. I 
 tried to bore my way through the wood at several 
 points, but was obliged to give it up, and had to strike 
 away about half a mile inland, till I came to a road. 
 Near the river there seem to be more shrubs desti- 
 tute of thorns than further inland. The wood was a 
 tangled thicket of beautiful shrubs, some of them with 
 sweet-smeUing flowers : there is one which would 
 make a beautiful garden-shrub ; it has leaves about 
 as big as those of a bay-tree, but of a bright pale 
 green, and softer j the foliage is thin and light, and it 
 is covered with a profusion of sweet-smelling flowers, 
 something like a periwinkle, of various shades of co- 
 lour, iirom pure white to dark blue. There is a very 
 curious tree which grows in considerable quantities 
 among the thickets near the river; I believe it is 
 called the silk-cotton tree, it bears pods containing 
 a beautiful white cotton. I saw both this tree and the 
 one that produces brown silk-cotton growing in simi- 
 lar situations on the beach of the harbour at Rio de 
 Janeiro. But the most curious peculiarity of this tree 
 is that stump and all is covered with huge conical 
 thorns ; as the old tree increases in size, the old bark 
 splits longitudinally, and exposes the new green. bark 
 
254 comiiENTES. 
 
 underneath, and from the lines thus formed the thorns 
 spring up, like the Andes out of the big cleft in the 
 earth's crust, from pole to pole. Some of their stems 
 bulge out (like a casuaiina palm) in a very curious 
 way when they are advanced in life. I saw one today 
 which was not more than thirty feet high 
 to the top of its branches, but must have 
 been sis feet in diameter at the base.* 
 After following the road for another half- 
 mile, I found that a path from it turned 
 down towards the river. It led me to a 
 magnificent spot, a headland covered with 
 a beautiful lawn, with shrubs scattered 
 about on it ; from this point in the direction up the 
 river, the high bank shelved away, and retreated from 
 its straight line, forming a splendid bay two or three 
 miles across, dotted all over with large islands. The 
 river has been rising very much lately. I dare say this 
 bay is not always so beautiful, but is commonly a 
 swamp, as the water was evidently very shallow. At 
 the middle of the bay, at the water's edge, there was 
 a large brick factory. Thence I rode back, with a 
 splendid sunset behind the towers of Corrientes. 
 
 There aie quantities of disgusting little dogs here, 
 without any hair, just like wire-drawn swine. They 
 are said to have this great value, that they do not 
 harbour fleas; if so, they are the only things here, 
 
 * In connection with the silk-cotton-tree, the Note-Book seems to 
 mention a " clirubing cactus," and " two sorts of tree-cactuses." — Ed. 
 
FROGS. 255 
 
 living or dead^ that do not. There are almost as 
 great a variety of frogs here as in Brazil ; in the even- 
 ing, about some little ponds in the outskirts of the 
 town, they make such a noise that I do not think 
 people could talk audibly within thirty yards of them. 
 This evening, after passing the creek that limits the 
 town towards the north-east (which, by the way, was 
 so swoUen that the usual passages were stopped, and I 
 had some diflBculty in finding my way across), I heard 
 a noise on the open ground beyond, which, if I had 
 not heard it several times before, and been at first de- 
 ceived and since undeceived, I should have thought 
 was the growling of a tiger, and at the same time was 
 a cry which I did think was that of a lamb or sheep ; 
 both of these came from frogs, — the growling one I 
 thought must be a bird when I had found out that 
 it was not a tiger. Soon the sound of the other in- 
 creased to that of a whole flock of lambs baa'ing their 
 lungs out : all this came out of a little pool hidden in 
 a thicket close to me. 
 
 October 11. 
 This morning a young Frenchman invited me to 
 go with him to the estancia of a countryman of his, 
 about three leagues from here. At eleven a.m. my 
 conductor came for me. He has travelled all over 
 South America, and has been killing tigers in Iildia, 
 where he had commanded a French vessel. His chief 
 aim in life seems to be to slay a tiger here. Our 
 
256 CORRIENTES. 
 
 road lay to the south-east, passing at first over the 
 uninviting dreary clay land covered with pantanos 
 (pools of water), and then, where the clay becomes 
 softer, through thickets of thorny shruhs, and lastly 
 along a beautiful lane, the general physiognomy of 
 which was something like those of England, but that 
 the high hedges consisted of mimosas instead of haw- 
 thorns, and of other queer-looking shrubs instead 
 of blackthorns, and the trees at the side of the road 
 here and there were umbiis iustead of oaks. Then we 
 came out on an open country again, with thickets 
 scattered about on a pasture-land, here and there the 
 land being sandy, and destitute of grass ; the bottoms 
 of the thickets were stuffed with a kind of sloe-looking 
 shrub, with beautiful red spikes of flowers ; and a kind 
 of wild pineapple-like plant grew all over the plain,^ 
 instead of thistles. Here and there was a small cot- 
 tage, with generally an orchard of orange-trees close 
 to it. 
 
 After about two leagues my companion pointed out 
 to me a small orange-orchard on the plain, about a 
 mile ahead of us, with a valley between us and it, and 
 informed me that, in consequence of the height of the 
 Parand at present, the httle river called the Riachu- 
 elo, which runs down the vaUey, was so swollen that 
 we should have to make a considerable detour to cross 
 it in a ferry-boat, instead of walking straight through, 
 as is generally done ; and that he had never been by 
 the ferry, so did not know the way. After some in- 
 
VISIT TO DON PEDEO. 257 
 
 quiries at a rancho, and at a pretty little cottage with 
 a portico covered with grape- vine, rose-hushes, and 
 geraniums, growing in very English style hy the side 
 of it, where a Peon pretended that he did not know the 
 way, we met a Gaucho who was himself going to the 
 ferry, and we accompanied him. As we approached 
 the little river the thickets became thicker and the 
 foliage richer, the land sloping so gradually that the 
 descent was scarcely perceptible. When we arrived 
 at the place where the canoe was, the Frenchman and 
 I took off our recados from our horses and put them 
 in the canoe, so also did the Gaucho ; but when we 
 got into the canoe, holding our horses by the bridles, 
 our Gaucho friend took off his clothes, tied them round 
 his hat, and rode into the river; he crossed partly 
 on his horse's back, partly swimming and holding by 
 his animal's tail : we were ferried across, while our 
 horses swam by our sides, held by the reins. 
 
 We soon arrived at the house of our host, a very 
 fine handsome fellow, not a bit like a Frenchman, 
 married to an enormously fat and good-natured Cor- 
 rentino lady, by whom he had obtained his estate 
 here. He received me most hospitably, in his most 
 uncomfortable cottage. In the afternoon we went out 
 to ride round a part of the estate in search of a tiger, 
 who had that morning eaten a horse of our friend's : 
 the rising of the river had driven them off the islands, 
 where for quietness and capincho they usually bide, 
 and they are reported numerous just now on the main- 
 
258 CORRIENTES. 
 
 land. Don Pedro L , out host, owns a large estate ; 
 
 he could not tell me how many square leagues he had. 
 We rode down to the bank of the Parana, here for the 
 most part a cHff ahout thirty feet high, and for a mile 
 or two along the bank skirting the woods which ge- 
 nerally grow near the edge towards the river. We 
 found the traces of tigers' feet on the sand in certain 
 hollows, but saw nothing of the animals. These hol- 
 lows are curious places, forming bays and creeks, high 
 and dry above the river, but opening to it ; they are 
 bounded by cliffs and undercliffs on a small scale, 
 and are evidently formed by the action of the rain on 
 the surface and beneath it. They would evidently in 
 process of time form valleys, and as their edges be- 
 come rounded off would cut up the flat land into hills; 
 they show beautifully the process by which undulat- 
 ing ground has been formed out of plains by denuda- 
 tion. I see now that B was right the other day, 
 
 in saying that a somewhat similar escarpment, which 
 I saw near Corrientes, was formed by the rain.* It 
 was on the sand at the bottom of these gullies that 
 we saw so many tigers' footprints, and Don Pedro 
 says it is in the herbage and brushwood in and about 
 them that these creatures conceal themselves. 
 
 This estate is magnificent, but melancholy. It is 
 
 an enormous, beautiful park, very unlike the land 
 
 which I have seen near Corrientes, where the srrass 
 
 is either eaten short, worn off, or drowned in pools ; 
 
 * See p. 245. 
 
DON Pedro's estate. 259 
 
 the soil here is covered with the most splendid rich 
 pasture-grass, which when it becomes too rank is 
 simply set fire to when dry, and burned, and then it 
 springs up again beautifully fresh. It is dotted all 
 over with thickets of the thorny shrubs, and in many 
 places, especially near the river, is interrupted by 
 belts of thick coppice- wood, in which there are plenty 
 of good-sized timber-trees, the wood of many of which 
 is said to be excellent. They are covered with quan- 
 tities of air-plants of two sorts, one like tufts of a very 
 minute aloe, the other with leaves about a foot long, 
 curled like the feelers of a cuttle-fish, as if to hold 
 on to the air vdth all their might ; both sorts are of 
 a dull greenish-grey colour. The smaller trees and 
 larger shrubs are chiefly mimosas, cruelly thorny, 
 some of them with their little tufty flowers extremely 
 sweet ; I have not yet discovered any sensitive-plants 
 among them. It is melancholy to see all this beauti- 
 ful land wasted. The owner of this princely domain 
 (with a thousand homed cattle, many of them quite 
 wild, and never caught except once in their lives by 
 the lasso, to be killed, and a hundred horses grazing 
 and galloping about) is actually in poverty. His 
 house consists of but two rooms, with a row of out- 
 houses for a few servants. AU that he, or rather the 
 land, is in need of, is human beings there to cultivate; 
 but this is the want of the whole continent. In the 
 evening, after supper, till we went to bed, the lady of 
 the house sat (and thus she was employed frequently 
 
260 CORRIENTES. 
 
 auring the day) making cigars from the tohacco 
 grown in their little scrap of garden. 
 
 October 12. 
 
 This morning we were to have been up at five a.m., 
 to go in search of the tigers ; however, somehow or 
 other the horses had to be caught, etc. etc. : we were 
 not off much before seven. By that time the dew 
 was off the grass, so the scent did not lie, and 
 neither the dogs nor we saw anything more of the 
 ; tiger than his footprints, many of which we found in 
 places we did not visit yesterday. Our party con- 
 sisted, besides myself, of three Frenchmen, who were 
 respectively armed with a gun, a rifle, and a Garde- 
 mobile musket from Paris. I had no particular de- 
 sire to aid in the slaughter of the animal, and was 
 thinking of matters more important than tigers or 
 their lives. Nothing can be more delicious than the 
 air and temperature. We remained out till about 
 eleven, when it became rather warm, but far from 
 oppressive : it was not so hot during the whole day 
 as it is in the town at noon and for an hour or two 
 after. We saw several roe-deer, and one of the party 
 killed a pheasant, — a larger animal than ours, but of 
 plain brown plumage,* and a large rounded tail ; and 
 
 * Described more fuUy in Note-Book : — " Large dark oliTe-brown 
 pheasant : breast feathers edged with white ; tail rounded when 
 spread ; throat just below bUl ahnoBt bare of feathers." The follow- 
 ing description of a "jay-pie" is also teom the Note-Book at this 
 place :— " A jay-pie : size of English jay, with long tail ; head and 
 
A PLAY. 261 
 
 the dogs killed an unhappy iguana lizard ahout two 
 feet long. Our excellent host pressed me very much 
 to stay^ and said that if I would remain a week it 
 would only give him pleasure ; but as my companion 
 of yesterday was summoned back to town by a mes- 
 senger, I returned with him. 
 
 In the evening the boys of the chief school here 
 (called the CoUege) acted a play in an out-of-doors 
 theatre for the amusement of the public. Unlike the 
 Westminster play, this was attended by all the mobi- 
 lity of the place, instead of the nobility. I walked 
 round the crowd in the vain endeavour to get a sight 
 of the dresses and action of the youthful actors, and 
 felt that my pockets were certainly safer, whatever 
 my throat might be, than they would be at any simi- 
 lar mob spectacle in England. 
 
 October 13. 
 A silly proclamation from Urquiza, addressed to 
 the Correntinos, arrived here, out of which no one 
 could make anything but pomposity. It is reported 
 that he has declared the rivers open to all ships of all 
 nations ; if true, probably to ingratiate himself with 
 the European Powers. 
 
 neck black, except a magnificent azure-blue eyebrow, and patch at 
 comer of gape and nape of neck ; iris yellow ; breast and belly pale 
 cream-yellow ; back, and upper part of wings, and upper part of tail, 
 except an inch to two inches of tip (which is white), deep blue ; 
 under side of wings and tail grey ; the upper side of the quill fea- 
 thers has the outer webs dark blue, the inner black." 
 
263 CORRIENTES. 
 
 October 14. 
 I have been occupied all day in copying a map of 
 the Proviace of Corrientes and Misiones: the only 
 one in the town belongs to an old French apothecary, 
 who travelled ia these parts with M. D^Orbigny, and 
 is one of the few persons here who have been in the 
 Chaco. I have had a talk with an old Yorkshireman 
 who has lived in these countries many years ; he is 
 one of the few men alive who have navigated the River 
 Bermejo (which enters the Paraguay just above its 
 junction with the Parand), having descended it from 
 Oran with one Soria, who afterwards pubHshed an 
 account of the voyage : when they got to the mouth 
 of the Bermejo, Francia, the despot of Paraguay, seized 
 them and aU their papers, and kept them prisoners 
 seven years. A Swiss just arrived from Paraguay 
 called on me today, to ask whether I would go with 
 him and a partner of his to examine a certain miae 
 district ia Paraguay, saying that he had been in treaty 
 with the President of Paraguay on the matter, who 
 was goiag to pay all the expenses. I gave him a 
 doubtful answer, as I should wish first to know from 
 the President what the business really is. 
 
 October 15. 
 The Governor, beiag about to go out of town for 
 some time, has issued a decree nominating a substi- 
 tute during his absence ; from this and from the state 
 of affairs I infer that the expedition to the Misiones 
 
CO-OPERATIVE SPIDERS. 263 
 
 cannot come off just yet ; so I went to the Governor 
 to ascertain the state of things. He said that it was 
 very douhtful ; that he was awaiting the arrival of Dr. 
 Durque (the Argentine Minister at Paraguay) ^ whose 
 family live here, and who is about to leave Assump- 
 tion on account of the changed state of affairs, and 
 that upon the news brought by him all movements 
 would depend. This evening there was a most magni- 
 ficent thunder-storm ; the lightning was so vivid and 
 rapidly repeated, that the effect of it upon the room, 
 as I lay in my hammock with the door open, was 
 exactly as if a most brilliant Benzole light was burn- 
 ing in the court, but flickering with an unsteady light. 
 I am sure that if I had been out there and protected 
 from the heavy rain, I could have read continuously 
 for nearly an hour. I was rather tired, and forgot 
 that I had a big pair of water-boots, or I should have 
 gone out to see it. 
 
 All about the town, in the gardens, one sees sus- 
 pended between the trees the webs of co-operative 
 spiders. In a garden this afternoon I saw a large 
 canopy stretched between two orange-trees, about 
 twelve feet long and six feet across, formed of this 
 spider's web, with thousands of the spiders on it ; 
 when I first saw them, I thought they were captured 
 flies. There are a good many fireflies about in the 
 evening now; I saw four or five this evening, caught 
 in a spider's web in a ditch ; their light is not conti- 
 nuous, but intermitting, so that the effect produced. 
 
264 COREIENTES. 
 
 as they lighted up nearly at the same moment, was 
 just that of an electric shock, sent through a conduc- 
 tor broken at several points, with a spark at each* 
 
 October 16. 
 Notwithstanding the storm it is still very hot. This 
 afternoon I went to see the French tanner, whom the 
 Indians call the Great Cacique. We hope to get some 
 horses from him for the journey to, and to use in, 
 Paraguay: he does business on a large scale; the 
 Guaycurii and Tobe Indians from the Chaco work for 
 him, and bring him tan-bark. When the ports of 
 Paraguay' were closed by the Correntinos blockading 
 the river, two or three years ago, and no yerba mate 
 was to be had at Buenos Ayres or anywhere else, 
 this tanner alone had his supplies ; the Indians used 
 to go up to Paraguay through the Chaco, and bring 
 it for him. He slaughtered a thousand mares a few 
 days ago, for their skins and fat ; he buys the mares 
 at about four or six silver reals (two shillings or two 
 shillings and sixpence) apiece. None but the very 
 poor win ride a mare in this country ; they say that 
 the evidence of a man who would do so would be va- 
 lueless in a court of justice. A drove of mares was 
 driven in while we were there: one bolted; away 
 went a Gaucho after her, whirling the bolas round his 
 head; just as he disappeared behind a bush I saw 
 
 * The Note-Book also containB an entry of "cuokoo-spit with 
 brown insect." 
 
FEAST OF ST. ROSARIA. 265 
 
 them fly out of his hand ; no doubt the unhappy victim 
 rolled over and over, with her legs entangled in the 
 rope that unites the fatal balls. 
 
 October 17. 
 They celebrated this Sunday the feast of St. Ro- 
 saria, a saintess, in a little hut of a church, that of 
 St. Domingo, close by this house. A military band 
 playing outside kept up the excitement for about an 
 hour or so, and at last a procession came forth, bear- 
 ing a doll, representing the saintess, on a platform, 
 amid the discharge of little rockets. The Peons and 
 Chinas (the Guarani women) all fell on their knees in 
 the street : it is sad to see such a power of devotion 
 thrown away. This morning and last night there 
 were quantities of mosquitos about ; the backs of my 
 hands and my forehead are all in mountains with 
 them ; they sting me through my trousers too. 
 
 October 18. 
 This morning I encountered some of the passen- 
 gers by the ' Neptuno' in the streets ; she arrived last 
 night, brought up by the south wind, having been 
 fifteen days on the voyage from Goya, which we in the 
 ' Rosario' accomplished in twenty-nine hours. So all 
 that I have gained by my expenditure of the oupce has 
 been arriving here eighteen days sooner than I should 
 have otherwise done, and being quite eaten by fleas, 
 instead of only half, as I was in the ' Neptuno.' If 
 I could experience the sensation of ennui, it would be 
 
 N 
 
266 CORRIENTES. 
 
 here ; the only consideration however that annoys me 
 is, that I am kept all this time away from news 
 
 from home. The G s and I settled to send our 
 
 baggage up to Assumption by the ' Neptuno/ who has 
 changed her mind, and is going thither : so I packed 
 up my traps, keeping enough clothes to rough it on 
 here for a week or two more and on the route to As- 
 sumption. In the evening I rode with Gr and 
 
 the French tanner- cacique along the river southwards, 
 in and out among thickets of the thorny and other 
 shrubs, in full verdure and bloom now vrith the fresh 
 spring. The flowers of the lapacho are nearly off, 
 and the leaves out now. This must be the country 
 to supply England with garden-flowers: if the ver- 
 bena grows so well here and in our gardens, probably 
 some of the others will grow in England too, with 
 care ; so I have asked the old French apothecary to 
 collect me some seeds when they ripen, against my 
 return from Paraguay. In part of our ride we went 
 along a beautiful sandy beach, exactly like a seashore, 
 sloping into the water, the only difference being that 
 the shrubs on the bank were fresher and greener than 
 they usually are near the seaside. There are no ba- 
 nanas here, except a few in the courts of some of the 
 houses ; I believe they do not bear fiiiit : nor are 
 there any palms, except a few in the gardens. 
 
 October 19. 
 The wind having returned to north it was very hot 
 
WAITING TO START. 267 
 
 again, so 'Neptuno' could not go yet; however "it 
 is an ill wind that blows nobody good," so this has 
 blown us good in the other direction, for it brought 
 this afternoon from Paraguay the young Frenchman 
 
 for whom the Gr s have been waiting here. I 
 
 do not know when I was so pleased to see any one in 
 my life : I shook hands with him as if he had been 
 an old friend, partly from delight at the prospect of 
 being liberated from this place, and a little also be- 
 cause he is a perfectly gentlemanlike youth, which is 
 a variety in these parts. However we have not yet 
 bought horses, so I dare say, as everything is slow in 
 this country, we shan't get away yet awhile. 
 
 M. Z was five days on the voyage from As- 
 sumption, and met the 'Rosario' below Pilar, the 
 port where we should have left her, so that we should 
 not yet have landed in Paraguay, much less have 
 reached Assumption, if we had gone on in her. 
 
 October 20.* 
 The castor-oil plant grows about here everywhere, 
 
 but the people make no use of it. We (the G s 
 
 and I) wrote letters this evening to the President of 
 Paraguay, to request permission to travel by land 
 from the Paso de la Patria (place where we cross the 
 
 * The foUowing note, occurring at this date, stands in singular 
 contrast to the subjects of the letter ; — " Steam or water-power fort, 
 to charge air-muskets ; air laid on in pipes, under pressure ; safer 
 than steam-guns. 1852, October 20, Corrientes." 
 
 n3 
 
268 CORRIENTES. 
 
 Parana to enter Paraguay from Corrientes) to Assump- 
 tion ; ttis formality is always necessary, and not only 
 this, for one is also obliged to wait for an answer to 
 the application. Most people who go to Paraguay, 
 and who, to escape the tedious passage by water up 
 the river Paraguay, travel by land from the Paraguay 
 frontier to the capital, stop at the village of Neem- 
 bucii or Pilar, send an application thence to the Pre- 
 sident, and wait at PUar eight, ten, or twenty days 
 for an answer. Our letters will be taken by the ' Nep- 
 tuno' whenever she sails, and will be delivered to the 
 coast-guard at Paraguay at the first station which 
 the vessel passes. We intend to remain here till the 
 
 G s have found some horses to suit them, and 
 
 then we shall start, and hope to find at the Paso per- 
 mission to proceed to the capital. 
 
 October 24. 
 A couple of storms last night, both from the south, 
 unroofed many of the ranchos in the outskirts of the 
 town, blew down several orange-trees in the gardens, 
 and the altar-end of one of the churches, a little 
 shed of a place, called the Capellita. There are six 
 churches in the town, — the Cathedral (La Matriz), 
 and La Merced, in the principal square ; St. Fran- 
 cisco and St. Domingo, in the street in which I am 
 living, one on each side of the house, — the former, 
 with a convent attached, is the largest church in the 
 town ; the latter a little bit of a hut with no windows. 
 
THUNDERSTORMS. 269 
 
 The two others are that of La Cruz, with the cemetery 
 attached, in an open square outside of the town to- 
 wards the south, and the Capellita, which was blown 
 down last night; it stood in a large square, where 
 the carts stop that bring the goods from the country. 
 All these churches, except the one at the burial- 
 ground, and little St. Domingo, stand north and south. 
 The main streets of Corrientes run north and south 
 (at right angles to the river at the landing-place, which 
 here turns towards the east), and east and west, being 
 at right angles to each other, and dividing it into 
 squares, like most of the towns in these parts. 
 
 I was getting quite seedy, from the combined effects 
 of the irritation of the flea-bites, and the want of sleep 
 which they produced, but I had a few hours' sleep 
 last night, and feel as fresh as a lark this morning. 
 The difference between the bodily sensations before 
 and after one of these storms is extraordinary : no- 
 thing can be pleasanter than the temperature today, 
 yesterday it was oppressive in the highest degree. 
 The sailors on the river assert, in defiance of Euro- 
 pean wise men, that the weather is regulated by the 
 phases of the moon, the wind changing at the moon's 
 quarters. Now it is curious that for the last six weeks, 
 ever since we have been on the Parand,, we have had 
 a thunderstorm very nearly at the time of the moon's 
 changes, followed in each case by a shift of the wind 
 from north to south. The days of the moon's changes 
 were: Sept. 13, •; 30, D ; 38, O ; Oct. 6, C ; 13, 
 
370 COKRIENTES. 
 
 • ; 19, J J and the days of our thunderstorms have 
 been September 14, 23, 27; October 9, 15, 22 : the 
 first three occurred in the morning, the last three in 
 the evening. 
 
 I had two jiggers {piques, as the people call them 
 here) taken out of one of my toes yesterday. The 
 little boy who has examined my feet repeatedly for 
 them grinned with delight, on my desiring him to in- 
 spect my toe this morning, as he nodded affirmatively 
 in answer to my inquiry if they were not piques : he 
 
 took them out very skilfully. Gr was laid up with 
 
 an inflamed toe from one, two or three days ago ; I 
 felt nothing of them at all. 
 
 I noticed an imbanba-tree on the bank near the 
 river-side a little below the town yesterday : this tree, 
 with one or two other species (of the genus Cecropia), 
 characterizes the 7)iato virgem and the capoeira in 
 Brazil everywhere ; its appearance here is, I conclude, 
 one of the indications of an approach to tropical cli- 
 mate. I saw one of them on an island twenty or thirty 
 leagues below Corrientes on the last day of our voy- 
 age, just above the first of the vueltas we passed on 
 that day ; I did not see any other all up the river. 
 
 T cut open one of the oven-birds' nests yesterday, and 
 found five white eggs, size of a thrush's, bird sitting ; 
 when I passed, an hour after, the poor bird was sit- 
 ting by the side of her nest, in dismay at its fracture, , 
 though T had put it together as well. as 1 could: I 
 learnt that it is called the oven-bird from Darwin's 
 
POPULATION OF THE TOWN. 271 
 
 interesting little book, in Murray's " Home and Colo- 
 nial Library/' ' Journal of the Voyage of the Beagle/ 
 which I recommend to your notice. It was given to me 
 at Buenos Ayres by the same excellent young fellow 
 
 who gave me that worthless book of Sir W. P 's. 
 
 This town is said to have about eight thousand in- 
 habitants, and the province about one hundred thou- 
 sand. It is said that there are about three times as 
 many women as men in the provinces, the male po- 
 pulation has been so thinned off in the wars. Mar- 
 riage is an arrangement almost unknown among the 
 lower classes ; about one woman in fifty of the poor 
 is married. There is no aristocracy but that of 
 wealth or state-employment. There being but little 
 education among the best of them, they cannot ap- 
 preciate it in others ; so well-educated people here 
 sometimes feel aggrieved to find that a poor mechanic 
 is thought as much of as themselves, if he can earn a 
 decent coat. The disgusting vice of shopkeeping of 
 course prevails among the upper classes here; any 
 man will stand behind his counter all day (except of 
 course siesta time, twelve to two) and will consider 
 himself a gentleman in the evenings, and all day too. 
 On the 26th I rode out to the Riachuelo to pay a se- 
 cond visit to M. Pierre, otherwise Don Pedro L ; 
 
 my host accompanied me, but returned in the even- 
 ing to town. I remained with the hospitable French- 
 man till last evening, having inflicted myself upon 
 him and imbibed the milk of his kine for five days. 
 
273 CORRIENTES. 
 
 The "little river" Riachuelo, which runs, as the boun- 
 dary of his estate, in front of Don Pedro's house, had 
 fallen so much that we went to cross the river oppo- 
 site his house ; the depth was uncertain, and on that 
 the method of passing to be adopted depended, i. e. 
 whether the horses would have to swim or to wade. 
 Now it was a matter of some importance for me not 
 to have everything wetted, as I had brought with me 
 a portmanteau fall of bread, partly for my own con- 
 sumption, and partly as a present to my host, not 
 to mention some sugar-plums for the children, and 
 my clean shirts. Accordingly I considered it requi- 
 site to know the state of things pretty exactly ; so I 
 stripped and walked across, the river being about a 
 hundred yards wide at this time and place, with 
 sloping sandy bottom ; the water in the middle came 
 nearly up to my shoulders ; the horses therefore could 
 easily wade across without wetting the tops of their 
 backs. My companion and I therefore took the re- 
 cados off our horses, folded up the horse-cloths, and 
 
 strapped the saddles on the top thereof; B went 
 
 across kneeling on the top of his saddle : this is the 
 regular plan of fording a river in these parts, when too 
 deep to wade with the saddle in its usual position, 
 without wetting it and one's legs, and not deep enough 
 to oblige the horses to swim. On the top of my re- 
 cado I strapped my clothes, and on the top of my head 
 I put the portmanteau full of bread, and so strode 
 across, leading the horse. In the middle of the pas- 
 
CULTIVATION OP MANDIOCA. 373 
 
 sage my bundle of clothes showed signs of shifting 
 round and falling into the water ; so to prevent this 
 I had to support them with one hand, whUe I steadied 
 the load on my head with the other ; and then my 
 horse stopped, as I was not ahead of him, leading, and 
 when I kicked him to make him go on, he wanted to 
 turn round and go back, to the imminent danger of 
 my clothes falling ofF him. It was a most ludicrous 
 position : however, it ended very well, without wet- 
 ting either clothes or bread. 
 
 So I spent five days with the good-natured French- 
 man (he comes from the neighbourhood of Pau), wan- 
 dering about" on foot or on horseback among the 
 thickets and over the pastures, or pottering about in 
 his field (for in all his estate he has but one), and 
 learning the art of planting mandioca and preparing 
 the ground for the other crops. Maize, sweet pota- 
 toes (which grow on the roots of a creeping plant like 
 cucumbers), sandias (water-melons), sugar-cane, and 
 mandioca were the crops in preparation : it is now 
 just the time for sowing all of them. The process of 
 sowing the mandioca is very simple : the stalks of 
 the last year's plants, forming sticks three or five feet 
 long, with an immense number of knots at regular 
 distances where the leaves have fallen oif, are cut 
 into lengths three or four inches long, each of which 
 contains three knots, and are the source of the new 
 crop; I presume that the young plant comes up from the 
 middle one of the three. The sticks are very soft and 
 
 N 3 
 
274 CORBIENTES. 
 
 brittle, and with a large soft pith, so that two or three 
 chops with a knife are sufficient to cut each exactly 
 across, at any point where it is struck; thus the stallis 
 are very rapidly cut up into the required lengths, and 
 without waste. It is necessary that the pith should 
 be perfectly white, and that it should show no signs of 
 decay; an inch or two is cut off the ends of each stick 
 where the pith is a little brown. In the course of 
 an hour or two one afternoon, half-a-dozen men 
 and women had cut up the store of mandioca sticks 
 (gathered six months before, when the roots were 
 dug) into four or five thousand cuttings ready for 
 the ground. The ground is prepared by the plough, 
 — a very primitive instrument, consisting of a hori- 
 zontal piece of wood, sharp at the point, which forms 
 
 the ploughshare, at- 
 tached to one end of 
 a long bar of wood, 
 with a cross-bar at 
 the other end, which 
 is tied to the horns 
 of the oxen that draw 
 it; a projecting han- 
 dle attached to the lower end, near the share, com- 
 pletes the machine. Simple and primitive as this in- 
 strument is, it answers the end for which it is in- 
 tended, as perfectly as the best plough in the big Ex- 
 hibition fulfils the purposes of English tillage. The 
 soil is a light rich loamy sand, such as you might find 
 
CULTIVATION OF MANDIOCA. 275 
 
 it in any harbour-bottom which has a river running 
 into it. It requires almost no power at all to turn it ; 
 and such are the soil and climate, that a trench four 
 or five inches deep places the seed far enough below 
 the surface, when covered, to ensure its sprouting 
 and thriving. The ground is first turned up with the 
 plough, then bush-harrowed, then parallel furrows are 
 cut with the plough one pace apart ; down these fur- 
 rows walk two men, the first with a poncho full of 
 mandioca-cuttings on his shoulder, dropping one slip 
 at every two paces, and pressing it with his foot into 
 the soil; the other follows him, and with his foot 
 kicks the earth right and left over each piece dropped. 
 Like unto this is the mode of planting the sweet po- 
 tatoes, etc.* The Peons work from sunrise to noon, 
 
 * " The Sandias are sown about October 18th, and come up in ten 
 days ; they are sown four feet apart, in shallow furrows, themselves 
 seven feet apart. Of the Sweet Potato, the small roots are sown about 
 October 27th, two paces apart, in shallow furrows four feet apart : 
 a man walks with a bag of them, drops one every two paces, presses 
 it in with his foot, and then ticks the soil over it, right and left ; they 
 are ready to dig in March. The Cotton begins to produce in the first 
 year, yields more in the second and third, and lasts thirty years ; it 
 is cut down every year. The Sugarcane grows about five or six feet 
 high ; the same roots are used for four years : the presses are very 
 rough, and no sugar is made, but only coma^ from the inspissated 
 sugarcane juice. Of Maize, two crops are grown in the year on same 
 lands : it is sown in August and December, and cut in July and 
 November. It is much used for horses : three pints are given at 
 daybreak before drinking, two at noon, and three in the evening after 
 drinking. The Orange-tree is worth about one patacoon a year, 
 bearing six or seven thousand oranges. The agricultural Peons get 
 fifteen paper ^e«ci» a month, and meat, eating nothing else and drink" 
 
276 CORRIENTES. 
 
 and from two p.m. to sunset, and receive from six- 
 pence to one shilling a day, with as much beef as they 
 can swallow, and are content. 
 
 1 intended to have left Riachuelo on October 30th, 
 but as Don Pedro said he was going to have a bul- 
 lock-hunt on that day, — i. e. to kill one of the wild 
 animals, — I stayed to see the lasso worked. However 
 it turned out that there were not men enough to be 
 found to drive the wild cattle ; so it ended in his send- 
 ing into the town to buy his meat, and in an inspec- 
 tion of the tame cattle, instead of the slaughter of the 
 wild. For this purpose we rode out to a part of the 
 estate where the tame animals were known to be feed- 
 ing, and, by just riding round the herds, soon collected 
 and drove them into the corral near the house, into 
 which they at once ran quite naturally. Each ani- 
 mal then that had any wound which required dressing 
 was caught with the lasso by men on horseback, and 
 submitted to the operation. The little calves were 
 caught anyhow, by the noose thrown over them. The 
 bulls and cows were rather more difficult of capture : 
 they are first caught by one lasso thrown over their 
 horns, the other end being always secured to the girth 
 of the man's horse who threw the noose; this con- 
 fines the motion of the animal to a circle of about 
 
 ing only water. A charette is let for twenty or twenty-fire pesos 
 paper for thirty leagues' distance, carrying one hundred arrobas. Mr. 
 
 L wants two thousand patacoons capital to work his estate, 
 
 equal to £'WlO."—:Extractedfrom Mr. Mansfield's Note-Sook. 
 
A BULLOCK-HUNT. 377 
 
 thirty yards' radius, of which the horse is the centre ; 
 another Gaucho now throws his noose so as to catch 
 the two hind-legs : this was scarcely once neatly done 
 all the time I was looking on. It was usually effected 
 by throwing the noose so that one part of the rope lay 
 over the brute's back, and the other part hung to the 
 ground on each side and behind him; the animal 
 was then either induced by the manoeuvres of the first 
 Gaucho, who had him by the horns, or forced, by 
 being dragged by the tail by another man on foot, to 
 step over the part of the noose that lay on the ground. 
 The man who threw the second lasso then gallops 
 away, in the direction opposite to that taken by the 
 first man, and so the poor wretch is extended between 
 his horns and his hind-heels, without any power of 
 resistance. Two things struck me in the operation : 
 first, the immense waste of power in the quantity of 
 trouble taken to secure a poor tame, spiritless crea- 
 ture ; and second, the very small amount of skiU. ex- 
 hibited in the practice of this roundabout business. 
 
 My remaining a day longer at Riachuelo ended in 
 my buying a capital horse from a small farmer, who 
 came over to visit Don Pedro. I took a fancy to his 
 animal, and he sold him off-hand to me for fourteen 
 patacoons, i. e. for about £2. 16s., — not a large sum, 
 you will think, for an animal combining all the chief 
 requisites of a horse in a high degree ; and yet it is 
 rather a high price to pay here. One day, while at 
 Riachuelo, I saw a troop of four hundred mares going 
 
278 COERIENTES. 
 
 into town to Don Martin, to be slaughtered, some 
 of them beautiful creatures. My host purchased one 
 of them which he fancied, from the drover, for a 
 little cheese and a bottle of treacle, both made on the 
 premises, and worth about sixpence each. Nothing 
 can be more delicious than the weather here ; in the 
 town it is too hot at midday, but out in the country 
 the temperature is always charming, and the air is 
 fragrant with the flowers of the sweet-smelling mi- 
 mosas.* 
 
 * The following ornithological notes are taken from Mr. Mansfield's 
 Note-Book at this place : — 
 
 Tree-Creeper, with long tail, brownish ; belly whitish ; throat yel- 
 lowish, with black spot. A twig nest, lined with wool and catkins, 
 the door large ; in the nest five white eggs. 
 
 Small Parrot, called Cowrito : feeds on ground; bmlds nests in 
 a mass of several together, forming a colony, with winding entrance ; 
 about eleven inches long, from the tip of the beak to the tip of the 
 tail ; tail five inches long ; wings about fourteen inches in extent ; 
 bin curved, notched, a deep yeEow-grey ; forehead, throat, and breast 
 pale greenish-grey or whitey -brown ; tip of each breast-feather 
 fringed at the end, which is blunt, with dirty white ; the belly more 
 and more yellowish-grey, deepening to lower tail-coverts, which are 
 bright green-yellow ; under wing-coverts pale greyish-green ; under 
 side of quills blue-grey ; whole of upper part of body, except the 
 wing-quiUs and the four middle tail-feathers, yeUow-green, brightest 
 at taU-ooverts, dullest, with a drab cast, on back between shoulders ; 
 of the wing-quills, the outer web and part of the inner pale grey- 
 blue ; inner web grey ; the outer web of tertiaries yeUow-green ; of 
 the two middle tail-feathers, the middle third is of a duU green-blue ; 
 the margins dull green, the next pair being bluish towards the tips j 
 tail pointed and fan-shaped, the middle feathers much the longest, 
 those next, the next longest, and so on ; twelve feathers in tail. In 
 nests of this bird, about twenty feet from the ground, in a tangled 
 mass of sticks on the fork of a branch, I found four white eggs, on 
 
A USEFUL SERVANT. 279 
 
 When I came back to Corrientes I found things 
 
 going on much as usual, except that the G s, 
 
 having taken fright at the smallpox, which is said to 
 be very severe here now, had been vaccinated ; I hope 
 they will not be iU with it, and stay another month 
 
 to nurse. M. G- is provided with his horse, and 
 
 has taken a wonderiul servant, a Guaycuni half-caste 
 Indian, born in the Chaco, who has been in France, 
 speaks French, Spanish, Guarani, and Guaycaru, — 
 
 quite an acquisition ! Madame G^ 's horse has not 
 
 yet appeared, so that we have yet to wait. 
 
 Oranges here are about as dear as in London at 
 
 fresh leaves, in one nest ; two in another. In the stomachs of two 
 I found little seeds, with grains of transparent quartz sand. 
 
 Little Warbler, with a nest like a diminutiTe chaffinch's. Eggs 
 white ; the first laid 28th October, another 31st. 
 
 Large grey-brown Grosbeak, with white eyebrow and white spot 
 under thi'oat ; a cup-nest (like a blackbird's) of grass fibres, feather- 
 Uned ; lays bluish-white eggs, black-spotted and streaked roimd the 
 thicker end, something like a thrush's egg, but the ground blue, of 
 paler colour, and the spots more streaky. Eggs laid 30th and 31st 
 October. 
 
 Birds' -nests found with eggs at Eiachuelo Estancia, near Cor- 
 rientes : — Oourito (or Corroto, Torigh in Paraguay), the small green 
 and grey parrot ; four eggs, white. Oven-bird (in every tree) ; five 
 eggs, white. Small Long-tailed Creeper ; four eggs, white. SmaU 
 Accentor (?), nest felt-lined ; three eggs, white. Large Accentor (?) ; 
 three eggs, white mottled with purple-brown. Large G-rosbeak ; two 
 eggs, blue, black-spotted. Large Pinch (?), grey, with brown wings ; 
 one egg, white mottled with purple-brown. SmaU Warbler (chaffinch 
 nest) ; two eggs, white. 
 
 November 4th. — Near Corrientes, on the river-bank, beyond the 
 fort, found the nest of a small dove,— a platform floored with fea- 
 thers, — with two white eggs, very small. 
 
280 COERIENTES. 
 
 this timej which is the season of their scarcity. There 
 are none on the trees now : one buys three for the 
 eighth part of a shilling (a paper real) . An orange- 
 tree in full bearing — about eight years old — is worth 
 about one patacoon (45.) a year to its owner. I think 
 I saw an ant-lion the other day (it was an ant as big as 
 a hornet) fumbling about at the mouth of a big hole in 
 a sandy path. I was with Don Pedro on horseback, 
 so I was not able to stay and see what he was about ; 
 but I went two or three times a day to the place 
 for several days afterwards, hoping to see him again, 
 and at last dug out the hole ; but I saw no more of 
 him. There are many large ant-hiUs about near the 
 house at Riachuelo, — sloping mounds, five or six yards 
 across and about three feet high, with regular roads, 
 from which every blade of grass is eaten off, diver- 
 ging away from them in every direction. Along 
 these roads thousands of ants are continually pouring, 
 all those that are going home carrying either a blade 
 of grass or a bit of leaf or wood much bigger than 
 themselves. Sugarcane is grown in this province; 
 it does not however reach a very large size, being 
 checked by the slight frosts of winter. The lazy, ig- 
 norant people however make no sugar, but only use 
 the juice to make spirit from, which they call cana. 
 
 IfoTember 2. 
 As I was ridifig this evening across the Pantanos 
 (marshes), — a district on the south side of the town. 
 
THE EMPEROR OF CRANES. 281 
 
 where the soil is clay, and the surface is covered with 
 little shallow pools of water, with pretty water- 
 plants and quantities of wading birds, — I saw the 
 most magnificent bird I ever beheld : he must be 
 the king that was sent down from heaven to meet 
 the demands of the frogs, — a perfect emperor of 
 cranes. I had just been watching a big heron, when 
 I caught sight of this fellow. At first I thought he 
 was a cow, and then that he was a man ; at last I per- 
 ceived that his gait was far too stately for any biped 
 but a bird, and he let me come as close to him as 
 about the length of an ordinary room; and he was 
 all snow-white, except his beak and his head and 
 his neck, which were black, and a broad collar round 
 the lower part of his neck, between the black and 
 white, which was deep red; and his beak was pon- 
 derous, like unto a pelican's, and full a foot long, 
 with a heavy lower jaw. He must have stood five 
 feet high without his boots; and he let me look at 
 him ever so long, and he stalked about quite pro- 
 miscuous ; and there was close to him a big white 
 heron, that looked quite small ; and as I sat and won- 
 dered, he spread his wings, all snow-white, and sailed 
 straight away down south for miles and miles, till the 
 speck of white in the sky was too small to see.* This 
 province must be the paradise of the wading birds : 
 cranes, herons, egrets (splendid little snow-white fel- 
 
 * The following entry occurs elsewhere : — " Q-iganfiio crane, M^c- 
 teria Americana." 
 
282 CORRIENTES. 
 
 lows of different sizes), ibises, snipes, and plovers 
 flourisli in profusion; among them is the strange 
 bird, with a long bitL like a curlew, and a short neck, 
 which I saw once on the shore of the Parang, as I 
 was voyaging up. He goes about in pairs at Ria- 
 chuelo, close to Don Pedro's house, and makes a noise 
 of two notes, — like a dog's bark spliced on to a don- 
 key's bray. Likewise I think I came across a pair 
 of wild turkeys at Riachuelo ; leastways while I was 
 bathing one day I saw a pair of big grey birds sitting 
 near the water, and I crawled nude upon hands and 
 knees a hundred yards, and got close to them, and 
 thought them very like turkeys, though I did not ex- 
 pect to see such fowls about the water, but afterwards 
 I heard that they were to be found thereabouts. 
 
 November 3. 
 
 I had often wondered there were no sensitive - 
 plants among the numerous mimosas here; but I 
 have at last found several diminutive little dwarf 
 plants, with two feather-like leaves stuck on together, 
 both shut up, and the leafstalks drooping on being 
 touched ; they were growing among the herbage in a 
 thicket near the town. Among the beautiful flower- 
 ing-shrubs here is one called, I believe, the lapachillo .- 
 its flowers are almost exactly like those of the la- 
 pacho, but have not the yellow inside, and are stuck 
 on the plant in quite a different way; it is a trail- 
 ing shrub. Passion-flowers grow here also, and the 
 
PERMISSION TO TRAVEL IN PARAGUAY. 383 
 
 fruit is said to ripen well ; they bear the same name 
 as in Brazil, maracajd. Very few Indians from the 
 Chaco are to be seen about in the streets : they are 
 said to be dying by thousands of smallpox, and the 
 living to have cleared out from these parts, having 
 burnt their huts and gone to the other side of the 
 Bermejo. 
 
 November 5. 
 
 These six weeks that I shall have been at Corri- 
 entes have been a complete disaster to me, — a slice 
 taken right out of my life. Had I anticipated being 
 here so long without the chief benefit of staying in 
 foreign towns, that of seeing the manners of the 
 people, I never should have stayed. I hoped I should 
 have made the acquaintance of some of the native 
 
 families, and was expecting continually that B 
 
 would have introduced me to some of them, as he had 
 promised; instead of that, I find he has given out 
 that I had no wish to make acquaintances here. 
 
 The Envoy from the Argentine Confederation, sent 
 by Urquiza to Paraguay, whose return hither (where 
 he lives) has been expected by the Governor, to in- 
 form him of the intentions of Paraguay with respect 
 to the Misiones, has just arrived. He has brought 
 to M. G a letter from the President, with per- 
 mission for his party, including me, to travel by 
 land from the Paso de la Patria to the capital, and 
 telling him when he arrives at the pass to make sig- 
 
284 COERIENTES. 
 
 nals for the Paraguay canoes, and they shall be sent 
 over to us. The Paraguayans have a good stock of 
 large canoes on their side of the Paso ; the Corren- 
 tinos have but one little one, so this will expedite 
 matters considerably. We found out today the rea- 
 son of the delay about the G s' horses. They 
 
 are on an island ia the Parana only about fourteen 
 leagues off; but the man who had charge of the island 
 got drunk one day about a fortnight or so ago, before 
 he went across the river in his canoe, and has not been 
 heard of any more. We happened to hear of this in- 
 cident ten days ago, as the owner of the island and 
 
 horses is a friend of B 's ; but we did not know 
 
 that it was from him or his isle that the horses were 
 coming, or we could have sent for them long ago. 
 
 November 6. 
 Another thunderstorm last night and early this 
 morning, with torrents of rain and a tremendous 
 wind, after an intensely hot day yesterday. It is 
 exactly a fortnight since the last storm j we have 
 passed over one quarter of the moon without one, 
 but this has come, like the other, close to the quar- 
 ter, — the third quarter of the moon was yesterday. 
 I called today on Dr. Durque, the late Argentine 
 Minister at Assumption, who is just returned here; 
 I had a letter of introduction to him from Urquiza. 
 In exchange for it he is going to give me a letter to 
 the President of Paraguay, to whom he was desired. 
 
A LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION. 285 
 
 in the letter I brought, to present me if I desired it. 
 
 I have no doubt that this and M. G 's introduction 
 
 will get me facilities in Paraguay. Madame G is 
 
 at last provided with a horse, which she might have 
 had some days ago, those from the island not having 
 yet arrived. It is settled that we start the day after 
 
 tomorrow. B and a young German are going 
 
 to accompany us to the Paso, and to introduce us to 
 a family who wiU entertain us hospitably on the first 
 night, dividing the journey to the Paso into two : we 
 shall be quite a cavalcade ! Besides the six persons 
 
 thus made up, there will be the G s' servant and a 
 
 carguero, or baggage-horse, and a Peon to take charge 
 of him and bring him back. Dr. Durque tells me that 
 the Misiones is to be ceded to Corrientes, the Buenos 
 Ayreans having confirmed Urquiza^s treaty with the 
 President of Paraguay j so perhaps I shall see that 
 interesting district on my return from Paraguay. 
 
 NoTember 9. 
 
 I went this morning to get from Dr. Durque my 
 small-change for Urquiza's letter; he has given me 
 a flaming letter, adding to the recommendation he 
 received that he knows me to be of a distinguished 
 family and highly moral, so I expect the old Presi- 
 dent will be very civil. He also gave me a letter to 
 the Argentine Consul, offering to tell him to put me 
 up in his house on my arrival at Assumption ; this 
 I declined, as I hear that there are three young En- 
 
286 COKRIENTES. 
 
 glish mercliants there^ of whom every one speaks in 
 the highest termSj and of one of them I hope to be 
 the guest, at least for some time. 
 
 Now here is another cause of delay j we shall 
 never get off. Durque brings word from above that 
 there is a sort of misunderstanding between Brazil 
 and Paraguay; and that the Brazilian Minister, M. 
 BeUegarde, who was at Assumption, is going to leave 
 immediately, indeed has already left by ship : so M. 
 
 G • thinks now of stopping to see him here. Oh, 
 
 what a nuisance ! I wish all ambassadors (except 
 
 Durque and G ) were up trees. I have said nothing 
 
 in my letter about the political state of this province, 
 because the history is so intricate that I, with only 
 one or two informants, am unable to make it out. 
 This time last year, nnder the government of the Vi- 
 rasoros, this wretched province was groaning under 
 a military despotism, not much less cruel than the 
 reign of terror of Francia in Paraguay. The tales of 
 atrocious cruelty which I hear would be almost in- 
 credible to me, if I had not been at school under the 
 fagging system, and did not thus know by experience, 
 comparing small with great, to what lengths of refined 
 barbarity men can proceed when a selfish person has 
 power in his hands. 
 
 I shall certainly have to spend all my days here. 
 
 G announced to me this evening that his horse 
 
 had hurt his foot, and that his wife's vaccinated arm 
 had become so much inflamed that she could not 
 
READY TO START. 287 
 
 venture to start for some days. The Governor too 
 
 is expected back daily, and G wants to see him. 
 
 I am very thankful to be well stored with patience. 
 Everything was ready for our start tomorrow. Riding 
 
 out this evening with the G s, we encountered 
 
 a pair of those magnificent emperor-cranes, or what- 
 ever dignity they may be of, one of which I saw the 
 other day ; they were feeding in a lagoon close to 
 the river; they were very tame, and twice taking 
 flight, only flew thirty or forty yards, and then strode 
 about again quite unconcerned. Even my companions 
 were quite amazed by the beauty of these superb 
 creatures. 
 
 November 12. 
 
 Seven a.m. — After innumerable delays, which have 
 
 disgusted me beyond all bearing, the G s have 
 
 declared that they will be ready to start in an hour ; 
 I do not believe it the least, but am bound to act as 
 if I did. In pursuance thereof, I have strapped my 
 saddle-bags on my cargo-horse, and will now wind up 
 my letter. 
 
288 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 COEEIENTES TO ASSUMPTION, IN PAEA&UAY. 
 
 THE CATALCABE STAET AT LAST. — COSTUME. — THE PAEEOT. — 
 PEEET ACEOSS THE PABANA. — PAEAOTTATAN" POET. — A SHABP 
 LOOK-OUT.- — THE ENCAMPMENT OP PASO. — MILITAET MUSIC. — 
 PECULIAB PBATUEES OP THE COUNTET. — THE PHCENIX PLANT. 
 — ^BIEDS. — PILAE. — PAEA&UATAir EEEAD. — AN ANT-EATEE. — BED 
 PIG-S, OOATS, AND MEN. — CABNAUBA PALM. — COSTUME AND EQUIP- 
 MENT. — GEASSHOPPEES. — ^A PAIE OP SPUES. — THE PEEET ACEOSS 
 THE TEBICUAEE. — PLAN OP A COTTAGE. — A POUE-POST BEDSTEAD. 
 — STA0E POE VINES. — THE UEUNDU-I&H. — COEEALS. — TEEAOLE 
 AND HONEY. — CACTUSES. — TILLA PEANCA. — &01TEB. — ^AN ESTEEO. 
 — A PISE-PLT. — MOSQUITOS. — AS UPSET. — MOUNTAINS IN SI&HT. 
 — A. BEIDflE. — HAED WOEK AND BAD QUAETEES. — ^PIEST GLIMPSE 
 OP ASSUMPTION. — AEEIVAL. — HOSPITABLE QUAETEES. 
 
 On November 12th I turned out at sunrise and went 
 to the hotel, determined to make a vigorous effort at 
 forcing a start ; first, because I was generally despe- 
 rate, and secondly, because the patience of B and 
 
 the very good young German who had offered to ac- 
 company me on the road towards the " Paso," to be 
 our guides, and to introduce us to houses of friends of 
 theirs for bed and board, was nearly exhausted, and 
 this was the last day they would go with us. I sue- 
 
OUR CAVALCADE. 289 
 
 ceeded in getting the G s out of bed, so that we 
 
 acftially did make a start, and by eight a.m. our ca- 
 valcade was in motion, consisting of Monsieur and 
 Madame, our two vaqueanos, and three-Peons, each on 
 horseback; three other horses in soga, i.e. led, one 
 
 a supernumerary horse of the G s', one hired to 
 
 carry their baggage, and the third my horse, which 
 I would not ride, as my recado had hurt his back a 
 little, but which I made to carry my luggage, and, to 
 make up for this indignity, led him myself; M. 
 
 G 's pretty but useless spaniel, which he bought 
 
 " pour la chasse," and his wife's beautiful, and worse 
 than useless, parrot : this latter animal is an impor- 
 tant personage. So we started, eastward, along the 
 very track which I happened to take the first day I 
 was at Corrientes, when I went out to explore. 
 
 Perhaps you would like to have a picture of me 
 equipped for travel, beginning at the top. First was 
 a black wide-awake hat, London-made and bought, 
 with which I have literally bored my way through 
 woods in Brazil, and into the presence of dignita- 
 ries in these parts, — my only hat at present, and the 
 best thing for travelling. Next comes a white cot- 
 ton poncho, Jlanchester-made, but Corrientes-bought, 
 which covereth all my person nearly to the knees. 
 What is under poncho, horizontally, is, first coat, 
 telescope in sling, second coat, Gaucho belt, contain- 
 ing aU my worldly wealth in Spanish doubloons, third 
 coat, and then comes I. When it gets very warm, 
 
 o 
 
290 CORRIENTES TO ASSUMPTION. 
 
 first coat comes off, poncho remaining where it was, 
 and in. this condition of things life is a luxury. All 
 this is gratis, however, not being part of the picture, 
 to which to return. Then, next below poncho, first- 
 rate for travelling, vertically, come three or four inches 
 of blue and white ticking trousers, Winchester-made 
 some eighth of a century ago. Next comes the leg- 
 part of some long brown leather boots, very light and 
 thin, reaching up to the knee, splendid for hot wea- 
 ther and bushes. Finally come spurs, considerably 
 longer than my feet, Buenos Ayres-bought but Bir- 
 mingham-made, of Britannia metal, electro-plated to 
 a most silvery magnificence. The above contains 
 my body, which is perched upon a recado (a thing 
 like the back of a huge caterpillar, suddenly petrified 
 in an inquiring attitude), surmounting innumerable 
 horse-cloths and hides of ox, tanned and untanned, 
 and finally of sheep, with the wool on, next the horse. 
 In front of recado is tied on one side a black caou- 
 tchouc poncho, London-made, Rio de Janeiro-bought, 
 and a horn containing water to drink; and on the 
 other side, one of a pair of ditto leggings, converted 
 pro tern, into a bag, containing some bread and some 
 raisins for my meals, some black tobacco to give to 
 friendly Peons (the greatest favour conferable on them 
 is a morsel of such stuff; I am told they do not smoke, 
 but chew it; if they smoked, I would not give it), 
 and, when it is hot, my coat. Behind recado is tied 
 on each side one of a huge pair of boots, very thick. 
 
TRAVELLING EQUIPMENT. 291 
 
 strong, and long; very good for water and snakes. 
 Such is the burden my horse has to carry, — not a 
 slight weight for ten leagues a day^ day after day. 
 
 The garniture of my pack-horse consists of^ com- 
 mencing belowj a sheep-skin with the wool next the 
 horse^ the best thing for preyenting chafing ; an ox- 
 hide with the hair outside, a leather saddle-bag on 
 each side, one containing my clothes, the other a 
 queer little pot for boiling porotos (little beans) in, 
 full of said beans, these for occasional heavy meals ; 
 some stone ink-bottles, one of which contains ink, the 
 others oil for my face and boots, to keep the water 
 oflF the latter and the mosquitos off the former : (I do 
 not know whether this is a new notion of mine; I re- 
 member now that I saw it used in Brazil once, but 
 I believe it is effectual, though I have never tried it 
 against any fierce host of mosquitos, but only on a 
 small scale, when it seems to be a good safeguard.) 
 The list of contents of a kitchen- drawer in one of the 
 Comic Annuals of some twenty years back, (substitu- 
 ting a little Spanish dictionary for the ' Whole Duty 
 of Man;' the cure for the itch, you have already 
 seen, is included,) wiU complete the description of the 
 contents of my other saddle-bag. Between the bags 
 and on the top of the horse's back is an oilcloth pack, 
 containing odds and ends, some more bread and raisins 
 for self, some maize for horse ; another large wool- 
 len poncho, Santiago del Estero-made, Buenos Ayres- 
 bought, for night, and a pair of shoes. 
 
 o2 
 
293 COKKIENTES TO ASSUMPTION. 
 
 Thus rigged out, and cantering along with the soga 
 (long halter of hide) of my pack-horse tied to the 
 girth of my nag, I feel about as independent as a 
 man can feel, — able to eat, drink, and lie down to 
 sleep at any hour of day or night, and at any spot I 
 please. However, as a member of a human brother- 
 hood, I limit my independence to the feeling : for I 
 am at present in fraternity with my two fellow-tra- 
 vellers, on whom I am in some degree dependent for 
 my reception in Paraguay ; while they do not fancy 
 themselves at all dependent on me, but perhaps are, 
 not a little; so, instead of dashing off and living 
 with my two horses in the woods, as I feel inclined 
 to do, I ride diligently and meekly at Madame's side, 
 ready to serve her like any Sancho Panza, — and this 
 is no slight undertaking, I assure you. The more I 
 see of my friends, the more I am astonished by the 
 courage they must have had to take their journey 
 from' Eio Grande to Assumption and back. For M. 
 G himself it was a deed of heroism, for he can- 
 not ride a bit. He is a short, broadish, round-shoul- 
 dered man, and he has a handsome great grey horse, 
 which would be a large animal in England, and in 
 these countries, where all the horses are small, it looks 
 huge. Then he wears an enormous, misshapen, broad- 
 brimmed straw hat, which he always puts on askew, 
 and a little sword by his side; and when he puts 
 his animal into a very slow canter (which he calls 
 galopper) for a little way, I admire him with a great 
 
TAKING CHARGE OF A PARROT. 293 
 
 reverence; Madame however is a first-rate horse- 
 woman. So you see I have two people to take care 
 of, one way or the other. 
 
 Well, we got away from Corrientes; but in enu- 
 merating the articles of my equipment, I omitted 
 one which formed part of it on starting, and which 
 was very nigh becoming an appendage of mine for the 
 whole voyage. As soon as she got on horseback, 
 Madame asked me to be so good as to take charge of 
 her parrot in a little box-cage ! I carried it a little 
 way in my hand, and then, not much fancying em- 
 ploying my arms in this way, I tied the cage to my 
 telescope-belt and slung it behind me, thus thinking 
 I had reduced the nuisance to the smallest possible 
 compass. However, to the blessing of my poor self, 
 it happened that my belt hung somewhat loose, and 
 the poor bird got terribly jolted ; the consequence 
 of this was that it was transferred to the servant's 
 hands, to carry before him on his saddle. So we 
 proceeded, and I was enabled to substitute poncho 
 for bird-cage and coat — a very agreeable exchange. 
 
 The road was through an extremely pretty coun- 
 try aU the way. Soon after passing the marshes, or 
 lagoons, which I reached on my first expedition, we 
 opened out on a beautiful champaign country,— an 
 immense meadow for leagues, with little lakes at 
 every half-mile, some of them open water, others 
 overgrown with water-plants ; here and there pretty 
 woods, which at a little distance look just like those 
 
294 COKRIENTES TO ASSUMPTION. 
 
 of England, of the purest green; here and there big 
 cactus-trees of two kinds, peeping up among the un- 
 derwood in the more open parts, and now and then a 
 small cottage with a little patch of slovenly culti- 
 vated ground, and a group of orange-trees alongside. 
 One of the lakes which we passed, entirely covered 
 with reeds and other herbage, is called the Laguna 
 Brava. We passed through a place about eleven a.m. 
 called Guacaras, or Santa Ana, a village by courtesy; 
 a miserable assemblage of mud-huts in reality, with a 
 shed called a church among them. 
 
 At two P.M., in the prettiest part of the whole day's 
 route, amongst the most beautiful pasture, between 
 two pretty lakes, and with a ditto wood on one side, 
 we stopped at the house, or rather cottage, of a widow 
 estanciera, with three pretty daughters. The family 
 were very land. They had a nice garden, with many 
 kinds of roses, geraniums, larkspurs, etc., vines trained 
 on trellises, palms, orange-trees (the largest I have 
 seen), and fig-trees, growing side by side. This not 
 being the fruit-season, we did not benefit thereby; 
 but in the wood near the houses I found two kinds 
 of fruit, one of them in appearance like a good-sized, 
 mellow, yellow apple, growing on a tree like a dehcate 
 willow, with long, thin leaves ; this fruit has a very nice 
 acid taste, with a strong smack of Russia leather ; the 
 other, when ripe, a deep blood-red, like a hump-backed 
 cherry, with a sweet, perfumed taste ; both have stones 
 in them, and queer Guarani names, which I do not 
 remember. 
 
MISHAPS ON THE BOAD. 395 
 
 At five P.M. we started again. We had not proceeded 
 very far before I found I had left something behind, 
 
 for which I galloped back, asking the Gr s' servant 
 
 to lead my pack-horse till I caught him up. On re- 
 turning, I found that their packs had become disar- 
 ranged, and the man in charge of them was looking 
 for an nmbrella which had fallen from the horse. I 
 soon found this, and with it their carpet-bag, which 
 the man had not missed ! The rest of the party had 
 gone on. I could not foUow them, to take my horse 
 from the Peon, because I found that it was necessary 
 for me to stop with their luggage, to superintend it, 
 for their man was drunk, and the things kept falling 
 off every ten minutes. At last I fastened them up 
 myself, and rode the whole of this part of our jour- 
 ney to San Cosme, behind their pack-horse, with my 
 eyes fixed on the packs. Many a time I had to stop 
 the man, and make him pick up the things that had 
 
 fallen; in short, the G s would have lost about 
 
 half of their traps if I had not looked after them. 
 
 The road was among numerous lagoons, with very 
 little wood, the whole country being an immense mea- 
 dow. One of them, which we passed just as the sun 
 was setting, was more overgrown with taU rushes than 
 the others. This was the resort for roosting of hun- 
 dreds and thousands of dark brown ibises, which were 
 flocking to it in troops from every quarter, and perch- 
 ing iu clusters on the rushes, just as starlings do in 
 some places in England, — big fellows, as big as rooks. 
 
296 CORRIENTES TO ASSUMPTION. 
 
 This district of lagoons is called Las Ensenadas. Of 
 course the sun very soon set, and before we had got 
 over half our journey we were in darkness. Neither 
 the boy leading the packhorse, nor the Gaucho in 
 charge of it, knew the way, especially not the latter 
 while drunk ; but by asking at a few ranches, and of 
 some persons we met, he got us at last to the little 
 straggling village of San Cosme, where we were to 
 sleep ; it is said to be ten leagues from Corrientes. 
 
 I found the Gr s put up in a miserable hole, — I 
 
 cannot call it a room, — a sort of back shop in a little 
 pothouse, to the owners of which they had a letter of 
 
 introduction from a Frenchman at Corrientes. B 
 
 and Don J were settled in much better quarters 
 
 on the other side of the road (but still a very poor 
 place), at the shop of an acquaintance of theirs. Poor 
 Madame was quite upset by the parrot being ill: I 
 had half shaken his little soul out of him ; so about 
 the first words I was greeted with after I had re- 
 counted the affair of the baggage (for which I re- 
 ceived good thanks from Madame, and a groan of in- 
 dignation from her spouse, the latter meant for the 
 Gaucho, not for me), were, "Be so good, Mr. Mans- 
 field, as to magnetize my parrot for me." So before 
 I attended to my horse, always my first care, or to my 
 stomach, I set to work to cm'e the parrot. 
 
 I then left the G s to themselves, and joined 
 
 the two youths in their quarters, where I found their 
 host, a most excellent fellow, who produced some Para- 
 
NATIVE MUSICIANS. 297 
 
 guay sweetmeats for my benefit, on which I fed largely. 
 Our host was evidently very poor, but his hospitality 
 was real. He turned out of his bedroom, slept in 
 his shop, and made us up three good beds; but just 
 as I was hoping to turn in, in walked the church 
 musicians, three fiddles and a flageolet; one fiddle 
 was also a violin, and both very good ; all common la- 
 bourers, or Peons, all self-taught and playing by ear. 
 They ground away for I should think three hours (but 
 it is long since I have had any correct measure of 
 time, as my watch is off its legs) ; we could not send 
 them away, because it was mere kindness and the de- 
 sire to entertain strangers, which brought them in. 
 At last they went away, and we were soon extended 
 on our hide stretcher, neatly covered with white cot- 
 ton coverlets, under the low sloping thatched roof of 
 the Kttle back shop. 
 
 Madame's last words to me the night before were, 
 "Let me beg one thing of you, Mr. Mansfield, that you 
 rise very early tomorrow, that we may be off soon :" a 
 matter in which not much begging is requisite with 
 me. I was up before sunrise, and had my horses 
 saddled and packed, and standing at their door before 
 they were awake. As soon as I got them up there were 
 all sorts of excuses : first, the parrot was still weak, 
 and not equal to the journey; it was going to ruin; 
 and then there was too much wind for the horses to 
 SAvim the river. At last I got a start decided on. 
 
 Here then, at San Cosme, we took leave of our 
 
 3 
 
398 CORRlteNTES TO ASSUMPTION. 
 
 kind vaqueanos, who were going back to the town, 
 and on the morning of the ISth, about eight a.m., 
 started for the ferry across the Parana. I took with 
 me the first fiddle as vaqueano to the Paso, and to 
 
 take back thence to Corrientes B 's horse, on 
 
 which I had ridden. Our road lay across a marshy 
 district called the Canada, which however had very 
 little water on it on this occasion, so we were in good 
 luck. The morning was beautiful, as every day has 
 been since I have been at Corrientes. It is about 
 three leagues from San Cosme to the Paso. As we 
 got nearer to the river, the country became prettier, 
 — the same rich, park-like scenery as that of the Ria- 
 chuelo, — coppices scattered about in green pasture. 
 At last y^e, came to a long belt of wood, in which the 
 trees were somewhat larger than before, and which 
 stretched right across our road : it was evident we 
 were coming to the river. 
 
 Suddenly we turned a comer of a projecting spur 
 of the road, and the glorious stream was in front of 
 us, with a most lovely meadow about two hundred 
 yards broad, continuing the green pasture down to 
 the water's edge, between the woods. I never saw a 
 more lovely bit of rural scenery.. Opposite to us were 
 the green woods of Paraguay, with a neat little fort 
 built on a promontory, and a sandy beach below. 
 The river seemed to be narrowed at tliis point, being, 
 I should think, about a mile and a quarter wide, with 
 a sandbank in the middle, with some water-plants and 
 
nUST VIEW OF PARAGUAY. 299 
 
 reeds growing on it on one part. On the Corrientes 
 side our view was bounded by tbe extreme points of a 
 little bay, with a sloping sandy beach, and the rich 
 pasture running down to within a few yards of the 
 water's edge, the meadow in the background closed 
 by the belt of wood, with a few cows grazing, and a 
 ruinous, dirty little rancho near the beach, occupied 
 by a ferryman, or watchman, for he was too small to 
 ferry, and it would require two or three men at least 
 to row across the stream ; but we, being personages, 
 were not for the poor little ferryman or his little 
 canoe. 
 
 We soon had a specimen of the marvellous contrast 
 between Corrientes and the whole Argentine States 
 that I have seen anything of, and Paraguay. The 
 
 President had written to Gr , to tell him that all 
 
 he had to do was to make a signal to the Fort of Ita- 
 pini, on the Paraguay side, and he would be sent for ; 
 but no sooner was our cavalcade on the beach, long 
 before our men had got up a signal (a white cloth tied 
 to a bamboo pole, held up for the moment, for there 
 is not even a flagstaff there), than, as I could see with 
 my telescope, a canoe was putting off from under the 
 fort, on the opposite side. In about twenty minutes 
 it landed on the beach, and my eyes, which had been 
 gradually opening with wonder at the vigour of the 
 paddlemen, were fixed in admiration on the splendid 
 fellows who jumped ashore, shouting with laughter, 
 not at us, but from fun. 
 
300 COBRIENTKS TO ASSUMPTION. 
 
 The men were utterly unlike the rest of the South 
 Americans that I have seen: there were seven of 
 them, and I should have supposed they had all been 
 picked men from England or Italy, — some of them 
 quite fair, — none of them with any signs of Indian 
 blood. The captain was in white cotton drawers, with 
 fringes about a foot long, with a white cotton chiripa 
 (kilt) over them, a white shirt, a red poncho tied round 
 his waist, a uniform cap on his head (a neater and 
 more smart-looking one, by the way, than any sol- 
 dier's cap I have seen in Europe), no shoes or stock- 
 ings ; the rest of the crew were in various conditions 
 of semi-nudity. We had scarcely discussed with them 
 the mode of our transfer, and explained that we had 
 five horses to send over, and agreed that we should 
 go first with the baggage and saddle, and the horses 
 to follow, when another canoe appeared rounding the 
 sandbank, and a second crew, of equally splendid fel- 
 lows, were soon ashore at our service. I left the horse 
 which I had ridden in charge of the Peon (fiddler) to 
 
 take back to B 's, at Corrientes, and my own horse 
 
 to the mercy of the Paraguay soldiers (our ferrymen 
 were all soldiers) to bring across. Our crew dashed 
 off with us ; I never saw a more glorious sight than 
 these men at work, they seem to enjoy it so tho- 
 roughly. The whole way it was a spurt, at least as 
 hard work as a race up the Long Reach at Cambridge; 
 and the men were shoiiting and laughing the whole 
 way, yet working with the most perfect regularity, 
 
PARAGUAYAN FERRYMEN. 301 
 
 and keeping the most exact time ; they do not row, 
 but paddle, standing upright, and the boat is flat- 
 bottomed, more adapted for carrying than for speed : 
 the rapid current of the river makes the labour great ; 
 they punted and lifted the boat across the lower part of 
 the sandbank, where under water, and then paddled 
 in similar smart style across the other channel, and 
 soon landed us under the Fort of Itapiru. 
 
 Here was a contrast to Corrientes ! Everything 
 was neat, though plain ; the masonry of the Fort, brick 
 and stone, excellent ; the two or three guns, mounted 
 on the top, quite clean. We were conducted to a little 
 thatched rancho outside the fort, and told we were 
 to wait there; but there too everything was clean. 
 Soon an officer appeared and four men, each tarrying a 
 chair ; he too was a fine, good-looking fellow, dressed 
 in a coarse blue cloth smock-frock, cut after the pat- 
 tern of a Hampshire laboiirer's short one, with red 
 cuffs and collar, and blue trousers, with a red stripe 
 down the side ; a pair of boots, and a cloth cap with 
 gold band, completed his costume. He treated us very 
 politely, and told us that a canoe would take us up to 
 the Campamento del Paso de la Patria, where we were 
 to lodge. 
 
 Meantime the other canoe was bringing the horses 
 across. Since the rapidity of the stream would carry 
 the boat down, when rowed at the slow pace necessary 
 for the conduct of the horses, the horses were taken 
 to a point about half a mile higher up the river than 
 
303 CORRIENTES TO ASSUMPTION. 
 
 that from which we started ; and here they were em- 
 barkedj or rather wi^A-barked^ for they had to swim, 
 each horse being led by a halter by a man in the 
 boat. The sandbank in the middle of the river is a 
 great advantage for the animals, as it enables them 
 to rest; but even with this division it is a tremen- 
 dous exertion for the poor animals. In due time 
 we saw four horses landed on the island ; mine was 
 still left behind. Another canoe started off from the 
 fort to fetch these horses, and one went back to the 
 other side for my animal ; but since we had landed in 
 Paraguay the sky, which had been cloudless for some 
 days, or with only a few clouds, became overcast; 
 and scarcely were the poor horses lodged on the sand- 
 bank when it was evident a storm was coming. In a 
 few minutes, the wind began to blow hard from the 
 north, and a driving rain come on. This was not a 
 thunderstorm ; but it is impossible to swim the horses 
 when the river is at aU rough, as the poor beasts are 
 easily drowned ; so they had to remain on the sand- 
 island, without a vestige of food or consolation of any 
 kind so long as the storm might last, one hour or 
 four-and-twenty. Fortunately the storm did not last 
 very long; and in less than two hours the water was 
 so smooth that they could again start for the other 
 half of the voyage, and my animal could come across 
 from the other side, so he had to swim across without 
 resting, not to keep the rest waiting. At last they 
 all landed safely : my poor beast seemed a little bit 
 tired, but some rich pasto soon set him to rights. 
 
CAMPAMENTO DEL PASO. 303 
 
 The Fort of Itapirii stands on a promontory, which, 
 projecting into the river, narrows the passage some- 
 what at that point. There was a highish tree on the 
 top of the bank, near the shed in which we sheltered, 
 up in the top of which was a stage, to which there is 
 an ascent by ladders ; on this lies a lad on the look- 
 out ; whether he lies there always I do not know, but 
 this accounts for their instantaneous knowledge of 
 our arrival : he was watching there for a great part of 
 the time that we remained, and I presume he is there 
 still. This is a part of the rigid system of vigilance 
 by which aU intruders have been kept off the coasts 
 of the inland Japan. 
 
 The storm being over, another canoe was in readi- 
 ness to conduct us to the place where we were to be 
 lodged for the night : this was at the new military 
 village known as the Campamento del Paso de la 
 Patria, about two miles higher up the river. We 
 started under the impulse, as before, of seven human 
 steam-engiaes, while our horses went round by land, 
 under the conduct of a soldier. The river flows with 
 a rattling current, and there was a brisk wind stiU 
 blowing from north-east dead ahead. It was tre- 
 mendous work for the engines ; but they shouted and 
 screamed with laughter, as if the work were the best 
 joke they had ever known. They kept close under 
 the bank, to avoid the current as much as possible ; 
 when the bank became shelving they would jump into 
 the water and push, or get on the bank and tow, and 
 
304 CORRIENTES TO ASSUMPTION. 
 
 their laughter was redoubled when one of them floun- 
 dered into a hole^ or the steersman was knocked over- 
 board by a branch. The dress of our crew consisted 
 chiefly of a small piece of leather, or kind of apron, 
 called a tirador ; one or two sported a shirt besides, 
 and one, a greater swell than the others, a pair of cal- 
 zoncillos (drawers). 
 
 After about an hour's work we landed near a couple 
 of war-brigs, with fittings for several guns on deck, at 
 a sort of wharf, about half a mile from the village. 
 Here we were accommodated with chairs under a shed, 
 where a lot of half-naked soldiers were cooking beef 
 and mandioca in a pot, over a wood fire. No doubt 
 we were objects of much amusement to them, and 
 to an extremely pretty girl dressed in a white che- 
 mise, who came to peep at us from behind the rancho 
 (guard-house). The officers in command were a cap- 
 tain, dressed like the officer at the fort, with blue 
 cloth smock, trousers, and boots, and a young subal- 
 tern (with a fine English, busiaess-like face) in ditto, 
 smock, and cotton drawers, without boots or stock- 
 ings. When our horses, which arrived a little before 
 us, were ready, and the baggage disembarked, we tode 
 across the wet meadow which lies between the Cam- 
 pamento and the shore, and were conducted into a 
 small courtyard, surrounded on three sides by clean, 
 mud-built, thatch-roofed, mud-floored cottages, with 
 the open side of the square towards the river. ' Several 
 officers, fine, gentlemanly fellows, received us, and we 
 
officers' quarters. 305 
 
 were handed into a little room or house, and informed 
 that that was to be our abode, and that whatever we 
 wanted we were to ask for and we should have it. 
 
 This little place was one of the houses of the of&cers' 
 quarters, for such was the little square of which this 
 formed a part. It had no windows^ but two doors ; 
 one opening to the court which we entered, and the 
 other on the opposite side (under a verandah formed 
 by the projecting eaves) upon a beautiful lawn, which 
 on one side sloped down a bank to the extensive mea- 
 dow beneath, and on the other joined an immense lawn 
 or parade, which formed the centre of the encamp- 
 ment. The furniture consisted of three or four chairs, 
 two little rough tables, two bedsteads, with stretched 
 hide bottoms, and two strong posts about six feet 
 high, close to the wall, on opposite sides of the room, 
 with rings near their tops for hanging a hammock. 
 We soon had supper served, with an excellent dish 
 of stewed beans for me, which, notwithstanding my 
 request that it should be free from flesh or grease, 
 was very savoury, and I have no doubt that my re- 
 quest was implicitly followed, for exact obedience to 
 order is not more rigidly exacted in Russia than in 
 Paraguay, and the orders were that we should have 
 what we wanted. I made a screen across the room 
 with my ponchos on a cord, and with my horse- 
 cloths made my bed on one of the stretchers, and 
 soon fell asleep, highly gratified in general at find- 
 ing myself at last on the right side of the Parana, 
 
306 CORRIENTES TO ASSUMPTION. 
 
 after exactly three months of patience (reckoning 
 from August 13th, when I left Rio), actually inside 
 of the inland Japan, and particularly pleased with the 
 kind treatment that I have received in this queer 
 country. (There is a large, rose-coloured bird just 
 alighted at the edge of yon pond, a bird I have only 
 seen once before, and then on the wing ; I think it is 
 a flamingo, but must have a peep at it with my tele- 
 scope ; — no, it 's only a spoonbUl, such a jolly beast, 
 with a brown ibis feeding alongside.) 
 
 I continue my journal, hoping that if received it 
 win be kept, as it will be a great bore for me if it 
 is lost, since I shall perhaps have no other record of 
 my seeings in this country. My last two letters must 
 have been miserably duU ones, making up for that 
 however in length; so that, by reading a few sen- 
 tences a day, you may in the course of a month or 
 two read them through, if they ever come to hand. 
 
 November 13. 
 
 I was awoke about every half-hour through the 
 night by the shouts of the sentinels, who sang out, 
 one after another in succession, all round the camp ; 
 and about two in the morning there was a long and 
 vigorous performance by the band of some heroic 
 airs. They do exactly the same in all the villages we 
 stopped in, and at the capital (drum in former, music 
 in latter), which did not suit sleeping very well. 
 
 November 14th was a regular Winchester day,— a 
 
A MILITARY VILLAGE. 307 
 
 rainy drizzle nearly all day long. The Campamento is 
 a large village, built about three years ago as a military 
 station for the defence of the frontier; it is aU built 
 of mud, and thatched, except the little church, which 
 is tiled; it lies on the edge of a plain, just where it 
 slopes down by a low bani to some low-lying meadow- 
 groimd that borders the river. On the side nearest 
 the bank lies the church, the Cura's house, the Ge- 
 neraFs ditto, the guardhouse, the officers' quarters 
 (where we were lodged), and the village of the com- 
 mon people ; behind there is an immense lawn, and 
 beyond this the camp, the cottages of the soldiers. 
 I was astonished by the exquisite cleanness of the 
 lawn : not a speck of dirt, not a weed was visible on 
 it. In the course of the day the mystery was explained 
 to me : at least five hundred men, under charge of 
 officers, were marched out to pick up with their fin- 
 gers every spot of dirt and every sign of weed, which 
 was carried off on hides stretched on poles, carried 
 by four men. Never was such waste of power ; but 
 the result obtained, cumbrous as was the process, was 
 very pretty, and strongly indicative of the difference 
 in habit between the Paraguayans and the Gaucho 
 people below. The soldiers were for the most part in 
 a state of nudity, or nearly so, but when on guard 
 or duty their uniforms were among the neatest I have 
 seen. Some regiments seem to have trousers, others 
 only calzoncillos and chiripas. 
 
 The women about the village were generally ex- 
 
308 CORRTE^'TES TO ASSUMPTION. 
 
 tremely pretty ; the small amount of dress they wear, 
 almost entirely white, consisting of a chemise of white 
 cotton, with a border all round the top embroidered 
 in black wool, and a quantity of lace about the shoul- 
 ders ; over this comes a petticoat, commonly of cur- 
 tain-muslin, tied round the waist by a scarlet wooUen 
 girdle, and adorned with a profusion of lace for 
 flounce; the petticoats are, I believe, sometimes en- 
 tirely of lace : the patterns are all designed by the 
 poor people themselves, or picked up wherever they 
 meet with them; they are very pretty. Some of 
 the women wear English muslin prints for petticoats. 
 The dress of the labourers, when dressed, is a white 
 shirt, commonly made of a very soft, coarse kind of 
 cotton muslin made in the country, with a beautifully 
 embroidered front, a pair of drawers reaching just 
 below the knees, the lowest three or four inches em- 
 broidered and of open work, with long thick fringes 
 of loose threads hanging to the ankles ; over this is 
 the chiripa, or kilt, either of wooUen cloth with co- 
 loured stripes horizontally, or of white cotton cloth 
 vpith a fringe all round the edge, tied on with a crim- 
 son girdle : this was the costume of our cook at the 
 Paso, a very handsome fellow, — a more picturesque 
 figure I never saw. The equestrian form of the chi- 
 ripa, which is the transition from the kilt to the 
 Turkish trousers, is not known in Paraguay. The 
 men generally carry their poncho over one shoulder ; 
 the commonest kind is made of white cotton, with 
 
PARAGUAYAN COSTUME. 309 
 
 blue atrapsj for warm weather; and of woollen stuff 
 for cold. In Paraguay, the poncho has not usually a 
 hole in the middle for the head ; it is worn like the 
 Highlander's plaid ; the dress is in fact the Highland 
 dress, which I dare say was once as general as the 
 coat-and-trousers is now ; it still remains in Greece 
 as well as here. The term Gaucho is not used in Pa- 
 raguay J they are not an equestrian people, and there- 
 fore more active and industrious than their Centaur 
 neighbours. By the way, the poorer women, when 
 they want protection for head and shoulders, wear a 
 kind of scarf of white cotton with a white fringe, 
 which they throw either over their shoulders or over 
 head and shoulders too : I am told they only wear 
 this when they have no shoes on ; if thej put on shoes, 
 which very few, except the upper hundred, ever do, 
 they wear a shawl or scarf of a more common kind. 
 
 November 15. 
 "We still remained at the Campamento. I walked 
 out to see some pretty coppices there are near the 
 town. Three features in the landscape struck me, 
 which I had not seen at Corrientes. (The first is not 
 distinctive, because in other parts of Corrientes, where 
 I did not go, it occurs.) First, there were a quan- 
 tity of palm-trees growing on the grass-land outside 
 the wood, forming in fact a forest of themselves. The 
 common long grass, which I found about there, had a 
 most delicious odour of verbena when rubbed in the 
 
310 CORRIENTES TO ASSUMPTION. 
 
 hands ; I believe it is from this grass that aU the so- 
 called oil of verbena of commerce is made ; the flower 
 is a very ordinary-looking, long, thin spike. Secondly, 
 I observed isolated forest-trees left evidently on pur- 
 pose, when the woods were cleared, for their value, — a 
 case which I have seen nowhere else in South Ame- 
 rica; these were chiefly lapacho, now all green. And 
 thirdly, there were extensive plantations of maize, 
 looking very neat and rich. 
 
 November 16. 
 
 At six A.M. we left the Campamento on the Go- 
 vernment post-horses, or rather ponies, — ^very rea- 
 sonably good little animals, — with two soldiers for 
 postilions. About a mile after leaving the village we 
 entered the palm-forest ; myriads of these trees (and 
 no others), with feather-shaped leaves of a greyish- 
 green colour, extended over the plain as far as we 
 could see. In a marshy district called Terovellaco we 
 crossed the arm of a rush-grown lagoon in a canoe, it 
 being too deep to ride through. I saw some flocks of 
 great blue parrots as big as crows, and plenty of a wild 
 pine-apple of a most gorgeous kind ; the outer or lower 
 leaves of the plant are green and spreading, the inner 
 ones bend suddenly down at a sharp angle, so as to 
 be nearly horizontal, and are of the most splendid 
 scarlet, forming a sort of cup of fire, in the midst of 
 which sits the flower-clump of little white blossoms 
 stufied in a cushion. It ought to be called the phoenix- 
 
THE JOURNEY RESUMED. 311 
 
 plant : it is just like the portraits you see of that hird 
 grilling. 
 
 At the next stage we saw several wild turkeys, 
 trumpeting sonorously, (they are very handsome grey 
 birds, with a black and a white collar round their 
 necks, and no wattles, and the sound of their wings 
 like a mighty wind, with a flight like an eagle,) and 
 quantities of wading birds. About noon we stopped 
 at the post-house of Indure, where was an old woman 
 industriously spinning cotton, with a spindle in her 
 fingers, and any number of naked little girls. 
 
 Another two hours, and two leagues over an open 
 country of pasture and swamp, with numbers of wa- 
 ding birds and quantities of ducks, brought us to 
 the Estanda of San Solano, belonging to the State, 
 where we got accommodated in a nice room of a new 
 house built for the General of the Forces, the Pre- 
 sident's son. I got some of my beans cooked, and, 
 as the G-eneral was away and kept the key of his 
 plates, they were served up in the cauldron. I took 
 a bath in a small lake at the back of the house. 
 Here were immense corrals (enclosures of fences 
 made of strong timber) for the horses. This place 
 was five leagues from the Paso, and seven from Pilar, 
 our next resting-place. I slept on my recado, on the 
 ground under the verandah, and soundly too. 
 
 NoTember 17. 
 At five A.M. we started, and soon passed numerous 
 
313 CORKIENTES TO ASSUMPTION. 
 
 lagoons of thousands of wild ducks; among them 
 were some magnificent black fellows, with white se- 
 condary quills, as big as geese, which are almost only 
 seen in pairs, and at least four species of snow-white 
 herons and egrets (the smallest a delicate little thing 
 about the size of a gull), several of those glorious 
 fellows with black heads and scarlet collars, and rosy 
 spoonbills. This marshy plain was covered with ant- 
 hills, in many places about three feet high, and very 
 hard. In the afternoon we passed through a swamp 
 half a mile long, with water up to the horses' knees. 
 Here were two flocks of wild turkeys feeding, one of 
 a hundred, the other of thirty. But as for the ducks, 
 the soil was in some cases brown with them : I never 
 saw such multit^ides of any other animals except in- 
 sects ■ they were very tame, and would rise close to 
 you in myriads, quite obscuring the sky on the side 
 where they flew, and settling again in a dark patch at 
 no great distance. 
 
 At the other side of the plain we reached the village 
 of Pilar (as it is called, after some Saint), formerly 
 called Neembucii, presented ourselves to the Com- 
 mandant (the only disagreeable fellow I have yet seen 
 in Paraguay), demanded board and lodging, and re- 
 ceived the same in a httle house or room, one of a 
 row, with a verandah along it, facing a large lawn, 
 with the church on the opposite side. The church 
 is a neat, low building, with wide-spreading, sloping 
 roof, and verandahs on each side, with (by way of a 
 
PILAR. 3] 3 
 
 belfiy) a neat wooden open scafFold-towerj about fifty 
 or sixty feet high, standing near it. Pilar is the pret- 
 tiest village I have ever seen. The streets intersect 
 each other at right angles, forming regular squares, 
 occupied by the houses ; every street is a beautiful 
 lawn, without a stone, or scarcely a cart-rut even, to 
 be seen. It is beautifully situated on the bank of 
 the Paraguay, the visible channel of which is here 
 very much narrowed by a large island covered with 
 wood. The houses, or rather cottages, for none have 
 upper stories, are very neat and clean. I scarcely had 
 time to refresh myself by a bath in the neighbour- 
 ing little river Neembucii, before a thunderstorm and 
 heavy rain came on, which we were very glad to have 
 escaped. 
 
 It was soon over, and I sallied forth to get some 
 provisions for the rest of the journey. Having got 
 a vaqueano — soldier — to take me round the village, I 
 found an old woman who undertook to bake some 
 bread for me, specially without grease, which they 
 generally put in bread, vrith some faint-tasting seed- 
 water. There was no bread in the town, for there 
 were no foreigners, all having removed in consequence 
 of the opening of the capital to them since the fall of 
 Rosas ; the last, an EngHshman, left two days before 
 our arrival, in a canoe, for' Assumption, where he ar- 
 rived eight days after us, having, with all his boatmen, 
 been asleep when the steamer passed, so that they lost 
 that conveyance. The Paraguayans, instead of bread. 
 
314 CORKIENTES TO ASSUMPTION. 
 
 eat a kind of cake called chipa, which looks just like 
 very light bread, but contains no flour, being made of 
 mandioca, almidon, or starch (a kind of tapioca), eggs, 
 cheese, and grease ; notwithstanding the objectionable 
 ingredients it is undeniably good when fresh, but in a 
 day or two becomes tasteless or musty. I got some 
 
 chipa for the G s. The old woman bargained to 
 
 bake me ten little loaves for a dollar by three o'clock 
 next morning, .and to deliver them before I was ready 
 to start, at four. I calculated on being seven or eight 
 days on the road, and having to supply my unprovided 
 companions too. As we only got one meal a day usu- 
 ally, and that at the end of it (except a cup of milk at 
 the first stage in the morning), I reckoned on having 
 a little loaf for breakfast en route on horseback, be- 
 sides something eatable for my fixed meal. I slept 
 outside the house, on the ground. 
 
 November 18. 
 
 I rose at four, and, my bread not having come, 
 went down to my bakeress, and got it pulled out of 
 the oven not quite baked, — well enough however, and 
 very fairly good. It was a rainy morning, and the 
 
 G s did not get under weigh till seven o'clock. 
 
 Close by our lodging was a little school, with one 
 hundred and fifty small boys, soldiers' children, gab- 
 bling away, and supposing that they were learning to 
 read and write Spanish ; I could see no master in the 
 room. Guarani is never taught in the schools, though 
 
AN ANT-EATER. 315 
 
 every native sovl in the country speaks it ; the upper 
 hundred affect to despise it. In the country very few 
 spealc anything else, though they may be able to read 
 CastUian, as they call it. (A woman has just come in 
 with a stuffed ant-eater on her head, wanting to seU 
 it ; she and it together make a most queer picture. 
 This is certainly one of the most marvellous animals 
 in creation : body about three feet long, and tail the 
 same, or more; tail an enormous bush of extremely 
 coarse hair or rather bristles, . immensely long ; the 
 skin is stuffed with yerba, and ten dollars demanded 
 for it, which she is not likely to get.) About a mile 
 above the town we got ferried, and our horses swam 
 across the Arroyo de Neembucii, which is here a river 
 twice as big as the Wey, or nearly as big as the 
 Thames at Weybridge. We then passed for about a 
 mile through a marsh overgrown with rushes. These 
 swamps have aU hard clay bottoms, so that they are 
 not dangerous, though not pleasant; (here we had 
 the only rain we had during aU the time w£ were on 
 horseback, but it soon passed off;) they skirt coppices, 
 invested with beautiful long hanging lichens. 
 
 At about ten a. m. we stopped at the post-house of 
 Talavera Montuoso, and took some milk. A nice little 
 
 slave- girl wanted Madame G to 'buy her. This 
 
 post-house was more ruinous and dirty than those I 
 had seen before; but the master was a very goo.d-look- 
 ing, fair man, with light hair. Here I saw the only 
 pig I have yet seen in Paraguay (another evidence of 
 
 p 2 
 
316 CORRIENTES TO ASSUMPTION. 
 
 the cleanliness of the people is the rarity of this beast) : 
 it was of a bright red colour, the only red pig I ever 
 saw ; by red I mean the same colour as human red 
 hair, or a very red cow. There were goats about the 
 ■glace, too, of the same colour, and the man himself 
 was what the people here call red {rubio, that is, fair) ; 
 in short, all the animals were red. 
 
 After leaving this post-house we entered a fine belt 
 of wood, and waded through a pretty stream, with very 
 black water, named Montuoso, which it fringes on 
 both sides ; then we crossed an immense open plain, 
 overgrown with a sort of sedge-like grass, and very 
 swampy. At the side of a little brook, which, sawing 
 its channel through the clay-land and running very 
 fast, showed how easy it would be by a little industry 
 to drain and cultivate this plain, we passed a single 
 palm, of a species quite different from those of that 
 forest through which we passed near the Paso. It 
 has fan-shaped, not feather-formed leaves : it is called 
 ffaranda-iffh in Guarani. Whether or not it is the 
 carnauba, of which I saw a single specimen at Per- 
 nambuco, and which I heard was the common palm 
 of the coimtry, near Maceio or Ceara, I forget which, 
 I cannot teU. ^The leaves are of the same shape, 
 yet I think the colour is greyer, and the physiogno- 
 my of the tree not so elegant as that which I saw at 
 Pernambuco. It has hooked thorns on the leaf-stalks, 
 and bears a branch of nuts three or four feet long, 
 like a huge, thin bimch of grapes ; very few were in 
 
COSTUME AND EQUIPMENT. 317 
 
 fruit, they were mostly in flower ; the nuts are about 
 the size of large grapes ; the leaf-scales remained on 
 near the ground, but at the upper part of the tree were 
 all rubbed oflfj evidently by the action of the wind on 
 the hanging leaves, — the reverse of what happens with 
 most palms, on which, if the scales stay anywhere, it 
 is at the top. 
 
 We occasionally skirted woods of thorn-hushes, with 
 a few larger trees, and swamps, with tussocks of sedge 
 in them; very nasty riding, especially for Madame, 
 who carries her parrot on her arm, and her arm, at my 
 suggestion, in a sling. I may as weE. describe our ca-. 
 valcade : the vanguard consists of one of our postilions, 
 
 leading a horse that carries the G s' luggage ; then 
 
 come we three, with the parrot on Madame's arm. 
 As I like to be compact, I carried my baggage with 
 me j my personal decoration I have before described. 
 At my recado, in front, was tied on each side one of a 
 pair of India-rubber leggings, as bags, one containing 
 a caoutchouc poncho for rain ; the other, a white cot- 
 ton poncho for sun, a piece of bread, some raisins, and 
 black tobacco for heart-winning of postmasters and 
 vaqueanos. Behind said recado was tied on each side 
 one of a pair of boots, which were either thick or thin 
 according as the condition of the country or the wea- 
 ther required thin or thick upon my legs. Through- 
 out the greatest part of our ride through Paraguay I 
 was obliged to keep my legs in water-boots. Behind 
 my legs, on each side, hung my saddle-bags, and be- 
 
318 CORRIENTES TO ASSUMPTION. 
 
 tween thenij behind my back, my precious bundle of 
 bread, which gradually diminished in size, tied up in 
 a towel, and then wrapped in an old oilcloth poncho. 
 This was a considerable weight for a pony to carry; 
 but the stages were generally so short and our pace so 
 leisurely, that it caused no inconvenience to the nags. 
 
 The rear was brought up by the G s' servant and 
 
 the other postilion, driving before them our five horses. 
 "We met today at our third stage the first cart and 
 oxen we had seen on the road ; the style of these was 
 the same as at Corrientes and in the other Argentine 
 States. The fan-palm now became common, the island- 
 like woods being Mnged and studded with them : I have 
 not seen a single specimen of the palm so numerous 
 near the Paso for the last two days. This fan-palm is 
 not here in forests of its own, like the other trees. 
 
 At one post-house one of G 's horses, of whose 
 
 strength he was particularly proud, showed signs of 
 knocking up, and was to have been left behind and 
 sent on next day ; but as soon as he saw that his com- 
 panions had started off he would go too, and crossed 
 the river with them. 
 
 We arrived at the estaneia of Yacare, belonging to 
 the State, by beautiful moonlight, at eight p.m., pass- 
 ing a large field of maize, and huge corrals made of 
 palm-poles, belonging to the farm. The farm-house 
 was not a very grand affair, but better than the post- 
 houses, and the capataz (steward) was a very good 
 -fellow. We were tolerably comfortable, and I got 
 
GRASSHOPPERS. 319 
 
 my beans decently cooked. I always made it a rule 
 to go into the back premises and make friends with 
 everybody, and I found I was always cheerfully served 
 and civilly treated. I slept on November 18th on 
 my recado in one of the tilted carts of the country, 
 which was standing under a shed close to the house. 
 
 Wovember 19. 
 
 We remained all the morning at the estancia, to 
 give G ^s horse rest. A swarm of miniature lo- 
 custs were visiting the premises, — little grasshoppers, 
 not quite an inch long, black and brown, in stripes 
 from head to tail, — no wings, consequently could eat 
 nothing but the ground-herbage. They chiefly at- 
 tacked the grass, and almost bared the ground as a 
 red-hot iron would wherever they touched ; when dis- 
 turbed they all hopped at once, making the air thick : 
 the ground was quite black with them, in patches of 
 several yards in length in some places, and of at least 
 fifty yards in one place near the house. During the 
 two following days of our travel we were continually 
 crossing swarms of these insects, busily engaged in 
 clearing the road of grass. I did not observe any 
 bird or other animal feeding on them. 
 
 Mr. Darwin speaks, in his ' Journal of Eesearches ' 
 on the 'Beagle' voyage, of measuring a pair of spurs in 
 Cluli, of which the rowels were six inches in diameter: 
 Here is the form and size of the rowel of a pair of 
 spurs, hanging up in the room we occupied at this 
 
320 CpRKIENTES TO ASSUMPTION. 
 
 estanciaj I have no measure, but I think it beats 
 
 Mr. Darwin's.* The 
 rowel and mounting 
 were of iron, forged ; 
 the buckles of silver; 
 of course the star was 
 complete. 
 About five p.m. we left the estancia (which with its 
 homestead stood on a sandy soil, elevated a foot or 
 two above the rest of the country by a very gentle 
 slopCj and consequently dry), and, after riding about 
 a league, suddenly emerged on the green pasture on 
 the banks of a most beautiful river, the Tebicuare. 
 This was a most pleasing surprise to me, as I had no 
 notion that we were coming to so fine a stream. At 
 the place where we crossed it, which I suppose was 
 not many miles from the point where it falls into the 
 Paraguay, it was about the size of the Thames in 
 the widest part a little below Putney bridge, and the 
 wooded banks on the opposite side reminded me of 
 the gardens on the Middlesex side of the Thames 
 there, with grassy slopes down to the water's edge. 
 This was a most beautiful spot ; the reach of the river 
 was about a mile long, and turned away into beautiful 
 green woods at either end. We were soon ferried 
 across in a canoe, which then returned, and in two 
 trips brought the horses over, they swimming while a 
 
 * The size of the original sketch is 5i inches from point to 
 point. — Ed. 
 
PLAN OF A COTTAGE. 
 
 321 
 
 man in the boat held the head of each; two were 
 thus brought over at once. The fifth came over with 
 
 the G s' servant swimming with him; the man 
 
 swam at the horse's side, holding by his mane or 
 tail, and kept the animal's head forward by splashing 
 water in his face if he attempted to turn. 
 
 While we were waiting on the shore watching the 
 arrival of the horses, an old lady with two young 
 ones, her daughters, one of them with a child in her 
 arms, came down to greet us ; she was the wife of the 
 postmaster, and told us she had two more, equally fine 
 girls. The ferryman was the postmaster, and the 
 post-house was close by, on the top of the slope. The 
 sun was soon set, and these most hospitable, excellent 
 people made us very comfortable with a good meal; 
 instead of bread we had mandioca-cakes, exactly like 
 flat oatcake in appearance ; and we had catres and 
 hammocks for the night. 
 
 As the post-houses are good 
 examples of the country cot- 
 tages, and this was a good 
 specimen of a post-house, I 
 will give you a notion of it. 
 Here is the plan :* it consists 
 of two thatched cottages side 
 by side, with about a foot of 
 space between the eaves of 
 
 * A, Kitchen ; B, Bedroom ; c, Lmnber-Bhed ; D, Liraig-shed ; 
 E B, Andramara. 
 
 p3 
 
332 CORRIENTES TO ASSUMPTION. 
 
 the two, part of each of which is walled, forming a 
 room ; the other part is open at the sides, the roof 
 heing supported by sheds. One of the rooms is occu- 
 pied by the family, and contains their bedsteads; the 
 other is the so-called kitchen, a place without chim- 
 ney or fireplace, where a fire made of bits of wood 
 on the floor boils things in three-legged pots, and 
 roasts meat on sticks stuck in the ground slanting- 
 wise. The atmosphere of this apartment consists, 
 when the fire is lighted, of wood-smoke, horridly pain- 
 ful to my eyes, apparently agreeable to the natives j 
 the under side of the roof consists of a coating of soot. 
 Under the living-shed the hammocks, usually made 
 either of cotton or of a hide cut in this fashion into a 
 net (like ceiling fly-papers : the 
 strokes represent cuts) , are slung 
 to the posts; and the lassos, 
 bolas, recados, horse-gear, etc., 
 are hung to the beams, or over 
 tressels. (In the post-house of Tebicuare everything 
 was in its place and in order.) In the other shed 
 stands perhaps a cart, and other odds and ends. In 
 front of the house stands the andramdra, or four-post 
 bedstead of Paraguay : this is a stage of poles of palm- 
 tree or other straight beams, with (commonly) split 
 bamboos laid across, or a thick bed of palm-leaves on 
 the top ; it is supported by four strong posts, one at 
 each corner, stuck in the ground, and about ten feet 
 high ; sometimes one side is a little higher than the 
 
STAGE FOR VINES. 323 
 
 otherj so as to slope the platform, sometimes it is 
 horizontal: there were two such in front of our 
 model cottage. A bamboo ladder or a notched palm- 
 pole leads to the top. The purpose of this mysterious 
 affair is for the people to sleep on when the mosquitos 
 become very annoying ; they say that the mosquitos 
 keep for the most part near the surface of the ground, 
 and thus are to be escaped by mounting. In Brazil 
 it was generally said that the mosquitos do not bite 
 the natives or old-stagers in the country ; here they 
 spare no one : I am sure there are several species. 
 
 There is generally another stage of similar construc- 
 tion, but of open bamboo- work instead of close floor- 
 ing, near the house, as I have shown by dotted lines 
 in the plan ; this is for training the vines upon, and 
 a most beautiful addition it is to the premises. The 
 vine grows and bears luxuriantly ; the grapes are said 
 to be delicious. A gentleman has just brought me in 
 a guayaba ripe, the first I have seea; it is a yellow 
 fruit, like an apple, with a thin skin, and full of a 
 softish rose-coloured pulp with seeds in the middle, 
 like a melon ; the taste is exactly the same as that 
 of strawberries, biit not so good. There were said to 
 be so many tigers about here, that it was necessary 
 to tie up the horses at night close to the house. "We 
 were now ten leagues from Pilar. 
 
 Norember 20. 
 At six A.M. we left the house of Pedro Luis Villa- 
 
324 COKRIENTES TO ASSUMPTION. 
 
 mayor, whose name be known, as he is a trump. Our 
 road (which is still, as it has been nearly all the way, 
 about north-east by north) lay at first through the 
 beautiful belt of wood that skirts the Tebicuare; be- 
 yond it were coppices of thorny shrubs, with quanti- 
 ties of small brown pheasants chattering lustily. We 
 got out on a marshy plain, where there were plenty 
 of wading birds, among them the screaming lapwing 
 of the Pampas, still plentiful. There had been a road, 
 at least a track, through the woods; but here we 
 left it, as there was less water to be passed by an- 
 other road. We passed through two esteros, over- 
 grown with rushes, with water nearly up to the horses' 
 knees, a mile broad each. We then came to a coun- 
 try with scattered wood, the urundu-igh growing to 
 a good size. This is one of the best timber-trees. 
 The outside wood is yellowish- white ; the inner heart 
 deep brown-red, like rosewood, and very hard. It 
 looks like an ash-tree, which its leaves resemMe, and 
 they have a very nice smell, something like those of 
 walnut. It is the most elegant of the forest-trees 
 here, I think. 
 
 The first post we stayed at (a league and a half 
 distant) is called Amarilla. Of course these leagues 
 have never been measured, only estimated : a Para- 
 guay league is 5000 varus, each vara not quite a yard ; 
 a Correntino league is 6000 ditto. After this we passed 
 again across esteros, with lots of ant-hills standing in 
 the water in some places, through scattered woods of 
 
COKRALS. 
 
 325 
 
 thorns^ with a few larger trees ; thus far we had seen 
 no palm-trees on this side of the Tebicuare. The 
 ovenbird and scissortail flycatcher were to be seen, but 
 they were not so numerous as about Corrientes. 
 
 At the second post. Mora Aquina, the corral was 
 not made of palm-poles, as those on the other side 
 of the river, which showed the absence of these trees 
 in these woods ; for they are so convenient for this 
 purpose that they would be sure to be used wherever 
 they are found. The Paraguay corrals are thus made : 
 
 two strong posts are driven into the ground close 
 together [i.e. nine or ten inches apart), just leaving 
 between them a space wide enough to admit the thin 
 tree-trunks — palm-poles or some other timber — which 
 form the crossbars. These posts stand side by side, 
 across the direction of the fence. Each pair is of such 
 distance from the next as just to hold the ends of the 
 poles, which reach from one to the other; the poles 
 then lie alternately one upon the other, as shown 
 
326 CORRIENTES TO ASSUMPTION. 
 
 in the diagram. At top, above the upper beam, the 
 posts are bolted together by cross-ties wedged in 
 their place : this makes a tremendously strong fence, 
 and there are very few fastenings. 
 
 At this post-house the river Paraguay was in sight, 
 about half a mile off. Some time after leaving this 
 we entered" a pretty wood, which reminded me much 
 of some parts of the New Forest. I noticed here, for 
 the first time, one or two feather-leaved palms (by 
 which I mean having leaves of the common shape, 
 like those of the cocoa-nut), of a different kind from 
 those near Pilar, the leaflets having a peculiar bend, 
 which gives a very graceful appearance to the tree ; 
 the colour being a fresh green, not a dull grey and 
 green, indicating, I think, richer life. We stopped 
 about noon at Chevaria, the third post, it being so 
 
 hot that Madame G was unable to proceed with 
 
 comfort. The post-house was very prettily situated in 
 an open space in the forest. The postmaster showed 
 us the scar of an awftil wound on his arm, inflicted 
 about two years ago by a tiger, which attacked him in 
 open day, as he was riding ; his horse was not hurt, 
 and the tiger left him without farther attempt on his 
 life. {Mem. The thatch in these parts is the most 
 beautiful I have seen ; it is made of the flat stalks of 
 a sedge, laid very close and fastened to laths under- 
 neath with clay.) They gave us a meal of the uni- 
 versal boiled beef, which I left to the G s, and a 
 
 very nice dish of pounded mandioca and milk, fol- 
 
TREACLE. 337 
 
 lowed by the favourite sweet dish of Paraguay and 
 CorrieuteSj new cheese and treacle (or miel, honey, as 
 they call it) . This treacle is tip -top ; it is not the 
 dirty stuff drained out of the sugar which we get in 
 England, but the entire juice of the cane boiled down 
 to a syrup, — not boiled so far as to solidify. I was 
 much disappointed at Corrientes when I' saw lots of 
 huge ponchos, each made of an entire ox-hide, hang- 
 ing up in a distiller's shed, and which I was told was 
 miel. I thought I should have jolly breakfasts if 
 honey was so plentiful, but I soon found it was only 
 treacle. I cannot make out that the people use the 
 honey at all, though lots of bees, and wasps too, make 
 it for them ; at Corrientes I heard that a small quan- 
 tity was brought from the Chaco by the Indians, but 
 -I never saw any. 
 
 Here I noticed, for the first time, the trees covered 
 with a beautifal lichen (I suppose, though it looks 
 somehow as if it ought to flower), called barba de 
 velho in Brazil. The forests were quite grey in some 
 places in the Organ Mountains, with the long tresses 
 of this elegant plant. It does not seem to be fixed to 
 the branches at all, at least I could not discover its 
 attachments. The long lichen I before mentioned, 
 just like an English one, abounded here also, While 
 
 the G s and their hosts went to sleep, I strolled 
 
 out into the wood to see the world. On the trees 
 also were, besides the two kinds of air-plants, or 
 epiphytes, I had seen up these rivers, another kind 
 
328 CORKIENTES TO ASSUMPTION. 
 
 with long, thin, cylindrical leaves, and a species of 
 misletoe very like the English, but with longer and 
 narrower leaves. 
 
 I counted seven kinds of cactus about here. No. 1, 
 with flat, short, oval lobes, that bears a fruit like a fig, 
 and is, I believe, the cochineal plant, with yellow, rose- 
 shaped flowers. No. 2, with large, fleshy, upright stems, 
 with twelve or thirteen longitudinal ribs, star-like 
 bunches of thorns, and young shoots quite globular. 
 No. 3, a three- or four-ribbed sort, bowing and strag- 
 gling, with white flowers and lots of long stamens. 
 No. 4, a four- or five-ribbed sort, which, like No. 1, 
 grows to a great height : I have seen trees of this 
 thirty or forty feet high in the woods, and more than 
 a foot in diameter at the trunk, which looked brown 
 and woody, and round like any tree, all the ribs hav- 
 ing disappeared. No. 5, a small, eight- or nine-ribbed 
 sort. No. 6, a crawling sort, with long, elliptic lobes. 
 No. 7, a cylindrical sort, with three rows of thorns, 
 climbing up the trees, and hanging in trailers from 
 the branches. 
 
 Among the trees were stretched across, from one 
 to the other, quantities of white spider-silk, which I 
 wonder has not been used for making lace in this 
 country: it is much stronger than cotton, though 
 not so strong as silkworm silk. The little locusts 
 were about everywhere, rattling like rain on the her- 
 bage as they hopped away from me. At half-past 
 three p.m. we proceeded, the road stiU through the 
 
ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY. 339 
 
 forest for two or three miles, with a few fan-palms by 
 the roadside, but all young and small (seeds dropped, 
 I suspect) .* Hitherto we had passed very few habita- 
 tions except the post-houses ; here we passed several 
 cottages, giving a more cheerful aspect to the coun- 
 try, which was still the same unvaried flat. We then 
 passed for half a mile through a clayey district, with 
 pantanos with an upright plant bearing a pretty, large 
 convolvulus flower ; it is almost the only plant in the 
 pantanos in some places, for instance about Corrien- 
 tes ; it grows five or six feet high. We then came 
 suddenly upon the bank of the Paraguay, with the 
 green forest of the Chaco coming down to the water's 
 edge on the other side. The road then ran parallel 
 to and near the river, through a wood with plenty of 
 the rebora-hacho (a tree looking like a mixture of 
 plum and elm-tree), and the algarroba, a kind of mi- 
 mosa, both valued as timber. We soon arrived at the 
 charming Kttle village of Villa Franca, where, at half- 
 past four P.M., we stopped for the day. 
 
 * Orfdihological Notes. — " Exquisitely beautiful small nest of a 
 . . . finch. Eenaale pale yellow and grey; male black, with the 
 brightest yellow breast and forehead. Nest ten feet from the ground, 
 on branch covered with creeping fern (?) or moss (?). A httle brown 
 finch sits on its huge staek-bmlt nest and sings sweetly, something 
 like a robin. Nest as big as my body, without the head and hmbs ; 
 hangs from the extreme end of a long hanging twig, eight feet long. 
 Pound a similar nest without the channel, with three eggs, ground 
 dirty white, purple-red spots all over ; belongs to a yellow-beUied, 
 brown-backed, tyrant flycatcher. The birds sing very sweetly here, 
 one, hke a blackbird." 
 
330 CORRIENTES TO ASSUMPTION. 
 
 We rode up to the quarters of the Commandant 
 (there are soldiers in every village in Paraguay, I 
 believe), dismounted, and asked to see him. In a few ' 
 minutes the doors opened, and we were walked in. 
 He kept us waiting for two or three minutes ; it was 
 evident in a moment why : the excellent fellow had 
 been taking off his undress of calzoncillos and Para- 
 guay shirt, or perhaps his uniform, and riggiag him- 
 self in an English shirt, waistcoat, and trousers (no 
 coat), made at least twenty years ago : the waistcoat 
 reaching down to about the middle of his breastbone, 
 and his trousers to his ankles. I never met with a 
 greater trump than Jose de Carmen Gomez. I went 
 to bathe in the Paraguay, the bank of the river con- 
 sisting of a white clay crammed full of crystals of sele- 
 nite — I never saw the like thereof. 
 
 Nothing can be prettier than Villa Franca. It 
 consists of about fifty houses in continuous rows, all 
 thatched (except the Commandant's), with a verandah 
 all along in front, covering a path. Most of them are 
 arranged on two sides of a square, at right angles to 
 the river ; a third side is occupied by the lodging of 
 the Commandant and the soldiers' quarters ; the fourth 
 side is open to the Paraguay, the bank of which 
 bounds it; the whole area of the square is covered 
 by a beautiful lawn. The rest of the houses are dis- 
 posed in short streets, proceeding with perfect symme- 
 try from the corners of the square. Opposite to the 
 village is the end of a large island, which, by dividing 
 
VILLA FRANCA. 331 
 
 the river, as the place is approached from the south, 
 gives the appearance of the junction of another river 
 with the Paraguay. The island and the Chaco op- 
 posite are richly wooded, and beyond the village on 
 the north side the open space on which it stands is 
 abruptly terminated by a beautiful wood within two 
 hundred yards of the houses, with green pasture in 
 the spaces between. 
 
 The Commandant entertained us very kindly, — gave 
 me a huge dish oiporotos, which would have dined all 
 the vegetarians I know, and various good dishes for 
 the others. A remarkably clever young man, whom 
 he appeared to have invited to meet us, asked me in 
 the course of talk whether the city of Alemania (Ger- 
 many) was near England; and Madame Q says 
 
 he asked me whether Buenos Ayres does not belong to 
 the English ! Such is education hereabouts ! Our 
 
 good host turned out of his bedroom for the G s, 
 
 and slung up hammocks for himself and me in his 
 sitting-room. 
 
 November 21. 
 
 At six A.M. we left Villa Pranca, and proceeded by 
 
 a road through a rich green forest of largish trees, 
 
 among which the rebora-hacho prevails, to the first 
 
 post-house, in an open glade surrounded by the forest, 
 
 with lots of cows.* The goitre prevails very much in 
 
 this country : we saw one or twQ instances of it at 
 
 * Pew cows in this country yield more than a pint of nulk in the 
 day, taken in the morning. 
 
332 COREIENTES TO ASSUMPTION. 
 
 this post.* After leaving this post the road passes 
 through a wood, ■which becomes more straggling, the 
 fan-palm appearing again in the open parts; then 
 among thorny mimosa-thickets, the timber-trees dis- 
 appearing. The sou now became more clayey, and 
 we soon emerged on an open meadow grown with 
 rushes ; waded a riacho about as large as the Wey, 
 as deep as the bottom of my saddle-bags, called the 
 Pasope, and entered again a district of thorn-thickets 
 interspersed with fan-palms above scaA. pantanos un- 
 derfoot, till we came to the post-house of Estero 
 Cora, so called from the estero, or tract of country 
 overgrown with rushes and water-plants, and covered 
 with water except in dry weather, which we had now 
 to cross. The road continued through a wood of fan- 
 palms interspersed with thorns ; then the thorns dis- 
 appeared, and the palms only formed the wood by 
 themselves, pretty thickly distributed, and extending 
 for many miles over the plain. Soon after this we 
 crossed the estero, under water nearly up to the horses' 
 knees for about a mile and a half, interrupted only 
 by a small piece of drier ground in the middle, with 
 palms on it ; after this the road ran through a wood 
 consisting chiefly of good-sized mimosa-trees of vari- 
 ous kinds. 
 
 The next post was close to a large lagoon, over- 
 grown with various water-plants; among them one 
 
 * At Assumption I think there is at least one lady more or less 
 goitred in each family I have visited. 
 
WATER-PLANTS. 333 
 
 bearing a spike of most beautiful pale blue flowers, 
 the upper one of the six petals of each having a bright 
 yellow spot in the middle. It was about noon, so we 
 
 stopped to rest Madame G and spare her the sun. 
 
 The good, hospitable people gave us the best victuals 
 they could, which amounted to some beef and a very 
 nice cake made of maize flour. With the latter, and 
 some bread and raisins, I managed a good lunch ; and 
 then, while the people slept their siesta, walked out 
 to look about. I dare say you wiU fancy that walking 
 about with thick waterproof boots reaching far above 
 the knee, under a noonday sun in these latitudes, was 
 tiring workj I did not find it so, but if I sat down 
 with my boots on I soon began to feel sleepy. I 
 noticed in the woods two or three epiphytes on the 
 trees that I had not seen before : I expected to see 
 them increasing in numbers as we got northwards. 
 There were lots of wild ducks and several trumpeting 
 turkeys about the lagoons near the house.* At 
 two P.M. we started again, the roads beginning actually 
 in the lagoons up to our horses' knees, the garden- 
 hedge, which we skirted, bordering the water. We 
 soon came to a vast estero (through which we waded 
 about a league), dotted thickly with ant-hills and tus- 
 socks of sedge, the tops of which were as high as my 
 head. At last we came to a beautiful wood, which 
 
 * " Wild turkey, decidedly in habita a wading bird ; has blue down 
 on bis head, and a tuft, larger at the back ; no wattle ; a black collar, 
 edged above with -vthits"— Note-Book. 
 
334 CORRIENTES TO ASSUMPTION. 
 
 however we did not enter^ but only skirted : here ap- 
 peared a new feature in the scenery^ — a number of a 
 beautiful palm-tree, with feather leaves of a bright 
 green, in the wood, among the other good-sized trees 
 (the species of which I mentioned before, having 
 seen one or two) ; then again across more of the estero, 
 overgrown with various long grasses and occasional 
 cardoons, a thistle-hke plant with leaves something 
 like a pine-apple, which grows in vast quantities, six 
 or seven feet high and very rapidly, in many parts of 
 the plain as far down as the Rio de la Plata; it is 
 different from the Pampas thistle. We then skirted 
 a wood where the fan-palm and the green feather- 
 palm were again growing side by side among the tim- 
 ber-trees. The three kinds of palm I have mentioned 
 are all trees, growing commonly twenty to thirty feet 
 high, and occasionally very much higher; the dia- 
 meter of the trunk eight inches. I heard here the 
 blacksmith frog tinkering away furiously ; I do not 
 remember to have heard him further south, though 
 he abounds in Brazil. Another half-mile of estero, 
 —the last hundred yards through a belt of magnifi- 
 cent rushes, with a very elegant head as high as my 
 own, — took us out of the tedious estero of Yatape, 
 which must be nearly two leagues across, and in which 
 listening to the splash of water had become almost as 
 natural to me as breathing. 
 
 We then passed through a belt of beautiful sandal- 
 wood, with large mimosas and rebora-hachos, and 
 
oliva'. 335 
 
 emerged on an open meadow surrounded by the wood, 
 with several cottages dotted ahout its borders, and 
 numerous refreshing patches of maize. Amongst these 
 was the post-house of Campo Rivera, a somewhat 
 larger place than most of those we had passed. We 
 soon changed horses, and, after crossing the open 
 campo, passed through a pretty wood, and then a 
 marshy flat; and after another such league came to 
 the post-house of Sanchita. Here they told us we 
 were twenty-five leagues ffom the capital ; I was not 
 sorry to begin measuring distances from that end of 
 
 our journey. [Mem. Madame G 's parrot always 
 
 chattered when other parrots flew near it, recognizing 
 its congeners, though of species quite difierent from 
 itself.) We arrived at our resting-place, Oliva, after 
 
 sunset, not however without G 's horse shying and 
 
 swerving a little, and depositing him consequently in 
 the mud in a very dirty bit of road. We were very 
 civilly received by the Commandant, who had but a 
 score of soldiers under him, and seemed to be of in- 
 ferior grade to our friend at ViUa Franca. We had 
 but a rough supper, and I soon fell asleep on my re- 
 cado under the verandah in the enclosure at the back 
 of the house. 
 
 IfoTeinber 22. 
 
 Oliva is a pretty village, about a mile from the 
 Paraguay, which is not in sight from the village it- 
 self. It consists of about twenty houses, arranged 
 
336 CORRIENTES TO ASSUMPTION. 
 
 in a square, built continuously in two opposite rows, 
 with the Commandant's house and the soldiers' quar- 
 ters on the other side. At sis a.m. we started ; skirted 
 a heautiful wood, with cleared spots planted with 
 maize, and a few cottages among them; crossed a 
 little brook, skirted a large marsh overgrown with 
 sedge, with some few palms scattered about, — a thorn- 
 wood on our right, — the soil sandy clay ; milked at 
 a post-house prettUy placed by the side of a wood, 
 with thorn-scrub in front ; passed through a wood of 
 thorns and fan-palms, with occasional pantanos. The 
 country was uninteresting, so when we rested during 
 the heat of the day at a dirty estancia, I extracted 
 what amusement I could from oiling my boots, and 
 went to sleep. No good water was to be had ; that 
 used by the people of the house, from a neighbour- 
 ing brook, was quite dark grey with clay and dirt, 
 and nndrinkable : yesterday we had too much water, 
 today we could get none. At four p.m. we started 
 again. Some time after, crossing a small brook, the 
 country was diversified by several cottages at inter- 
 vals, with orange-trees close to some of them; the 
 fruit not ripe, but green as they were, the juice of 
 half-a-dozen was soon devoured by me. 
 
 Among the fireflies at SaladUlo (where we slept, 
 after crossing in a canoe the brook of that name) I 
 noticed one very pretty little fellow just like a death- 
 watch, or the little ticker we used to call such, in shape 
 and habit of knocking; he carries his light not under 
 
QUARTERS FOR THE NIGHT. 337 
 
 his tail and at the end thereof, as in the other two 
 species I have seen, but on the top of his thorax, at the 
 hiader comers, in two very distinct and bright points, 
 by the light of which I could easily read small type 
 in the darkest corner, when he was held quite close 
 to the paper; his light, too, was quite continuous, 
 not intermittent like that of those I had seen before 
 in Brazil, and of which there are many here also. I 
 took a bath in a little puddle full of frogs near the 
 house; supped on porotos, which were here the fa- 
 shion, as the only dish offered the G s was haricots 
 
 stewed with cheese; a very good dish, for the new 
 cheeses here have no taste at all, as there is scarcely 
 any butter in the milk to give it a flavour by turning 
 rancid. 
 
 The G s had their hammocks slung under the 
 
 shed, and I spread my recado in the open air on the 
 grass in front of the cottage, vainly thinking I would 
 cover myself up and defy the mosquitos, which we 
 soon found abounded here. The heat was too great 
 for me to bear any covering except my light cloth- 
 ing, and through that the winged" fiends stung me 
 easily. I could not even bear a handkerchief over 
 my face; so, after two or three valiant endeavours, 
 alternating with a stroU among the tobacco and 
 orange-trees in the garden, I mounted the andramdra 
 
 (where the G s' servant and a Peon or two had 
 
 wisely disposed themselves before), and with a poncho 
 for a feather-bed (for here the round palm-logs had no 
 
 Q 
 
338 CORRIENTES TO ASSUMPTION. 
 
 covering at all) courted the "balmy air. There were 
 plenty of mosquitos up here too, but not so many as 
 below; and the air was a little cooler, the place being 
 completely exposed to any little breeze that there might 
 be. I slept a little, notwithstanding the grumbling 
 
 of the poor G s, whose dignity could not preserve 
 
 them from the mosquitos, and who spent great part 
 of the night sitting up in despair. 
 
 There was no danger of our over-sleeping ourselves. 
 I was moving at four a.m. on the 33rd, and the rest 
 were also soon in motion. I always had to saddle my 
 own horse, as all the time of the postilions was taken 
 
 up in arranging the G s' carguero horse ; and as 
 
 soon as this was done they started, without waiting 
 for me if I was not ready. I usually managed to be 
 so first however, notwithstanding my hard work ; but 
 this morning the horse assigned to me happened to 
 be a frightened, restive beast, and it was a most diffi- 
 cult thing to get aU my traps on his back without 
 
 assistance. G called off a man who was holding 
 
 the animal's head while I was getting on the saddle- 
 bags, and then started off some time before I was 
 ready ; the consequence was that my traps were not 
 
 so compactly fixed as usual. The G s got so far 
 
 ahead, that I saw nothing of them till we got to the 
 next post, as I stayed behind with the loose horses, 
 and the vaqueano, whom I kept to show me the way. 
 
 However, about five a.m. I got under weigh, a little 
 before sunrisej but before I had proceeded far (through 
 
A FALL. 339 
 
 woods with pantanos interspersed, and an estero with 
 a belt of wet meadow skirting a wood), somehow part 
 of my rigging got shifted, and my animal took 
 fright, and set off plunging and rearing in a not very 
 pleasant style, considering the amount of packages 
 among which I was buried, and the certainty that 
 every plunge he made must make matters worse by 
 loosening the gear. At last the whole affair was loose 
 on his back, and as he swerved to avoid a tree, off 
 I came, and away went the horse, scattering saddle 
 and herias* in every direction. The recado was torn 
 by the ripping of the packages that were tied to it, 
 and the leather to which the stirrups are slung was 
 torn bodily off, and one of my spurs dragged off my 
 foot. In a little time however the beast was caught, 
 having got rid of everything but the girths and saddle- 
 bags, and my traps rearranged on the vaqueano's horse, 
 who put his saddle on my animal. 
 
 I found my left knee a little stiff and bruised on 
 the inside, and it was not till I stopped at the next 
 stage that I found the cause of it in the print of the 
 horse's hoof on my boot; he had evidently stamped 
 on my knee, and I was very glad I had boots on, and 
 he no shoes. This was the only bad horse I had all 
 the journey; one or two were lazy, but most of them 
 were capital little brutes. After skirting the marsh, 
 passing through a beautiful wood with fine timber- 
 trees, and then through a wood of smaller trees and 
 
 * i.e. Keins, in the widest sense, including all the head-gear.— Ed. 
 
 q2 
 
340 CORRIENTES TO ASSUMPTION. 
 
 fan-palms, we stopped at the post-house of the State 
 estancia of Para-ugh, situated on the hank of a river 
 of the same name, about the size of the Wey, with a 
 very pretty wooded bank on the other side, and a 
 winding channel. If we had come on here the previous 
 night, we should have been better lodged, and should 
 have been saved a good deal of a hard day's work, — 
 hard work especially for me, as I had to unsaddle 
 
 and saddle and pack my animal while the G s 
 
 were resting ; and they were always in a hurry at the 
 posts, and never in a hurry on the road : they would 
 never go beyond a walk or a slight jog-trot for a little 
 distance. G remarked, on hearing of my acci- 
 dent, "We have both had a fall now, and there's uo 
 jealousy any more !" 
 
 We were ferried across the river, and the fresh 
 horses swam over, and were then saddled on the other 
 side. Then came the old story, of timber-woods 
 (always refreshing to the eye, — the trees still only of 
 English size and shape, nothing like the Brazilian 
 forests), thorn-coppices and marshes alternating j a 
 deep brook to wade, not without wetting our saddle- 
 bags ; a swampy district with scattered thorn-bushes ; 
 then an open estero to cross, water-plants intermixed 
 with rank pasture, with cattle feeding. 
 
 In the middle of this wide estero, suddenly from 
 behind some trees in the distance appeared a small 
 knot of rugged mountains, bearing about east-north- 
 east, quite by themselves, with their blue peaks in 
 
GOOD WATER. 341 
 
 relief against tlie sky^ apparently some ten leagues off 
 or more, called, I was told, Acaai. This is the first 
 thing that can be called a hill I had seen since I left 
 Buenos Ayres; it was like a draught of water to 
 my thirsty soul. And nearer still, more towards the 
 north, was a low range of wooded hUls, which looked, 
 almost incredibly, as if our road might possibly pass 
 among them. 
 
 The water of the swamp was too nasty to drink, so 
 I amused myself by fishing up cupfuls and dashing 
 them in my face, by way of basting to the roast. Our 
 guide, thinking 1 was going to drink, told me not to 
 do so, that we should find some good water a little 
 way ahead. Accordingly, after crossing this ocean of 
 swamp, we came to land at a projecting spur of wood. 
 Here was the good water, — a dirty little puddle, which 
 differed from the rest of the swamp in being a few 
 inches deeper, and under the shade of a tree, so that 
 it was a little cooler ! But we were not yet out of the 
 marsh ; we had at least another league of it to pass, 
 skirting the wood, with just the tantalizing fact that 
 the road was not in the shade of the wood. 
 
 We stopped about noon at the miserable post-house 
 of Suruby-eugh, where, for breakfast and lunch, I ate 
 a little bit of bread, a bit of Paraguay brown sugar, 
 and a head of roasted maize, which was almost too 
 hot to eat. I was longing for a bath. We stayed 
 here for an hour, and then started again through a 
 wood at the back of the house, where to my disgust 
 
342 COERIENTES TO ASSUMPTION. 
 
 we passed by a bridge (actually the third I have 
 seen in this country) over a rushing little river called 
 the Suruby-eugh, or water of the fish called suruby. 
 If I had but known how close we were to that stream, 
 I should have been so jolly fresh, instead of feeling 
 like a roast flapflob.* At this post-house we heard 
 that the steamer had passed up the river the even- 
 ing before. No doubt this little river came from the 
 hills we had seen a few miles off. We then passed 
 on the edge of a marsh, and entered a wood of thorn- 
 trees, the soil of which under the trees was devoid 
 of verdure, the ground being perfectly dry — a clayey 
 sand ; a strange contrast to the swamps we had been 
 passing, due only to a difference of a foot or two in 
 level, and a little less clay in the soil ! 
 
 While we were at the next post, a Chasqui, or 
 letter-carrier, — that is, a soldier with two men, aU on 
 horseback of course, each of the latter carrying a 
 large leather case in front of him as big as himself, 
 each probably containing one letter, — arrived ; and as 
 the Chasqm required the men, we now only had one 
 postilion, Soon after this, proceeding through the 
 thorn-wood on parched mud, we passed a mysterious, 
 military-lookiag, square, uninhabited building, sur- 
 rounded with a stockade, and a flagstaff appended. I 
 suppose it was a guard-house, as the river was near, 
 though not seen for half a mile after. We passed an 
 
 * The Winohester name given to a certain section of a breast cl 
 mutton. — Ed. 
 
SCENERY. 343 
 
 estero, — ^water nearly up to the horses' knees, over- 
 grown with what I call the shrub-convolvulus, — and 
 entered a beautiful fresh green wood, strikingly dif- 
 ferent from that on the other side of the estero, full 
 of acacias and the green feather -palm — to my eye al- 
 ways suggestive of a rich soil. After this we suddenly 
 emerged on an open flat country, with the almost in- 
 credible sight of a hill-country just in front of us, — at 
 least of a long, low, undulating down, perhaps fifty 
 or sixty feet high, that reminded me of the country 
 near Monte Video; and beyond it was a range of 
 higher wooded hills, perhaps a hundred or a hundred 
 and fifty feet high, towards the east on our right. 
 Before reaching the bottom of the slopes, we had to 
 wade through a deep and almost quite stagnant brook 
 of dirty water up to my saddle-bags. 
 
 The arriving on the sloping ground was much the 
 same to me as landing after a long voyage at sea. 
 The low downs, for hills they cannot be called, were 
 covered with greensward and cattle - pasture, with 
 here and there a small house, and a grove of orange- 
 trees near it. The post-house of Paitanby was about 
 a mile from the bottom of the rise, with a fine view 
 of the undulating woody country beyond, and a re- 
 markable conical hill standing up above the others. 
 The soil here consisted of sand, with a pale reddish 
 tint ; some lumps of a coarse sandstone lying about 
 seemed to indicate that there was more of it beneath 
 the surface. I had been obliged to ride, 'the latter 
 
Sii CORRIENTES TO ASSUMPTION. 
 
 part of the day, with my bruised leg resting horizon- 
 tally on one of my packs on my saddle-bowj for it was 
 painful when in the usual position. I was getting 
 very tired with the work of shifting my saddle, and our 
 slow pace was much more fatiguing than galloping. 
 Another two leagues of this undulating open pasture 
 took us unto the post-house of Guazucora ; I think 
 this district is called ViUetta. The sun had now set ; 
 I was hungry and thirsty and longing for a hath, but 
 we started again for another post of two leagues, 
 across just the same rolling pasture-country ; flashes 
 of lightning in the south seemed to indicate a coming 
 storm, and the sky was becoming overcast. About 
 nine p.m. we arrived at another post-house; here the 
 
 G s began to discuss whether they would proceed 
 
 or not, in hopes of getting better quarters j they were 
 told that two posts further on there was a good house: 
 this was a very miserable place. While they were 
 settling the point, I asked if there was any place where 
 I could bathe. I was told there was an arroyo (stream) 
 close by, so I gladly took a little boy to show me. 
 But, behold ! the arroyo was a little muddy pool, not 
 even worthy of the name of a ditch, full of croak- 
 ing frogs, and the air full of mosquitos; however, I 
 stripped and dabbled in the water (not three inches 
 deep), tiU I felt more cool and a little fresh. On 
 returning I found my friends had decided to eat 
 something, and then start again, to reach the next 
 post-house, if possible, before the storm came : I had 
 
ANTICIPATED STORM. 345 
 
 scarcely eaten anything all day, so was not sorry. 
 There was do food ready cooked at the post-houses, 
 so my provision of bread and raisins was acceptable. 
 
 Soon after leaving this post-house we passed a 
 brook, on the other side of which we mounted a 
 steepish bank, with a real hiU sloping up from it. 
 Here the scenery suddenly changed : it was the most 
 interesting part of the whole route. It was so dark 
 that I could only see that the country was very richly 
 wooded, and cultivated too in many places, with fre- 
 quent cottages at the roadside. It was very tanta- 
 lizing not to see this, after having waded over sixty 
 leagues of flat. I took off all my clothes, except 
 Jersey and trousers and boots, and tied them up in 
 my India-rubber leggings, to prepare for an appa- 
 rently inevitable ducking, keeping my waterproof 
 
 poncho in readiness for Madame G . However 
 
 the storm did not come, so we proceeded, as the 
 
 G s were very desirous to get on, so as to be able 
 
 to reach the capital pretty early next morning. 
 
 We arrived about midnight, bright moon, at the 
 post-house next but one to the capital, called " Gudy- 
 aty." Here, instead of the promised good house, the 
 poor G s had not even a place to hang a ham- 
 mock, and were obliged to lie down on a hide outside 
 the rancho of the post-housei, on the sandy ground, 
 and I at their side, on my recado. I never was so 
 tired. I had been either on horseback, or drudging 
 at the really hard work of unloading and loading my 
 
 q3 
 
346 CORKIENTES TO ASSUMPTION. 
 
 horse, or at something else, ever since four a.m., ■with- 
 out having eaten a pound of food, and had had a fall 
 off my horse iato the bargain. It was hard too for 
 my friends ; but they had had two meals of some sort, 
 and a ten minutes' rest at least at each stage : none 
 of us had much sleep the night before, neither got 
 we any this night, for the mosquitos. 
 
 At four A. M. on November 24th we got up, with 
 only two stages before us: the soil a beautiful rich red 
 sand, with sandstone showing itself here and there; 
 the coimtry richly wooded, but cleared near the road 
 and planted with maize, with quantities of the beau- 
 tiful palm-tree which they call " coco " here : it is 
 something like a cocoa-nut tree, but the leaves are 
 darker green, and not so yellow ; the nuts, about the 
 size of a grape-shot, hang in large bunches. We had 
 now only three leagues to go. We stopped at the 
 last post-house, about half-way ; here I washed myself 
 in a pond, and we changed our clothes, to enter the 
 town with decency. I rejected Jersey, poncho, and 
 long boots, and took shirt, coat, and short boots ; so 
 we proceeded, after polishing off the last of my loaves. 
 The scenery was still of the most beautiful, quiet, and 
 rural description imaginable, and the ground undu- 
 lating; the road (for we were now on a real road, 
 though only of sand) with numerous ox-carts going ia 
 both directions, and women carrying things on their 
 heads. Here and there we had a beautiftd view, far 
 away over the Chaco in the distance ; the conical hill 
 
ARRIVAL AT ASSUMPTION. 347 
 
 I have mentioned making at one or two points a fine 
 feature in the landscape, with occasional glimpses of 
 the river. At last we came to the top of the last hiU, 
 and the town was below us, with the bold sweep of 
 the river in the mid-distance, and the luxuriant de- 
 sert of the Chaco stretching away in the horizon. It 
 was about nine a.m. on the 24th of November when 
 we arrived. 
 
 We had been eight days on the journey from the 
 Paso, a distance of about seventy leagues. It did not 
 cost us a farthing ; for if you have permission to travel 
 by the post, that implies that you use the horses of 
 the State, which of course is above being paid, and 
 the simple and generous people gladly give you such 
 food and lodging as they can, in the freedom of their 
 hospitality. 
 
 The G s went to the house of some friends of 
 
 theirs, with whom they meant to stay. I betook my- 
 self to the house of Mr. Thompson, a young English 
 merchant (called here Don Guillermo), where I did 
 not find him, but two equally hearty fellows, Welsh 
 and Scotch respectively, being however first received 
 by a capital old gentleman, a native, son-in-law of 
 the G s' host, and landlord of mine. 
 
 These gentlemen soon made me feel quite at home, 
 and before Mr. Thompson came in I had fairly taken 
 possession of his house ; a capital, gentlemanlike fel- 
 low he is, far above the usual run of merchants. I 
 devoured some bread and an incredible quantity of 
 
348 CORllIENTES TO ASSUMPTION. 
 
 oranges, to refresh my blood, wMch had been drained 
 by mosquitos and parched by want of water ; I after- 
 wards dined, as is usual here, at twelve o'clock, with 
 my new friends, and then, according to the custom of 
 the country, but contrary to my own habits, lay down 
 to sleep : but it was no mere siesta for me ; I slept 
 from' about one p.m. to six without an instant's inter- 
 ruption, and most unwakeably — an event with me. 
 
 The most curious thing is that a steamer, which 
 is both the first private steamer and the first foreign 
 trading-vessel (i. e. under flag not Argentine, Para- 
 guayan, or Spanish) which has come up to Paraguay 
 since — ever, arrived here the very day before us, hav- 
 ing left Buenos Ayres the day before we left Corrien- 
 tes, and thus having come up from Buenos Ayres to 
 Assumption in exactly the same time that we have 
 been coming hither from Corrientes. Had I felt 
 inclined to be vexed at being beaten thus (but I was 
 not beaten, because it was in Paraguay I wanted to 
 arriv^<not in Assumption, and I was in the country 
 ten days before the steamer), my annoyance would 
 have been entirely dissipated by the most welcome 
 receipt of my letters ; and not only had the steamer 
 brought my letters, but it had on board my portman- 
 teau, which I had left behind at Eio de Janeiro in 
 charge of a friend, and about which, having sent for 
 it, I felt not a little anxious, as it had to pass through 
 the hands of many persons and barbarous waters to 
 reach me. You cannot imagine how delighted I was 
 
RECEIPT OF LETTERS. 349 
 
 to get my letters ; I scarcely dared to ask if there were 
 any for me. I thought the chance so slender, that 
 every link in the chain I had laid for them would 
 hold tight ; and when, on inquiring if any had been 
 
 heard of for me, I was told that Don Juan A , 
 
 whom I knew at Monte Video, had one for me, I 
 gave up my hopes, because his brother had promised 
 to send me a letter of introduction here, and I made 
 sure this was it. However, when I awoke from 
 my siesta I found a packet of letters for me on the 
 table, and myself as fresh as a lark: it was about the 
 most luxurious moment of my life, and when I had 
 washed and sat down to read them, there were very 
 few people that I would have changed places with. 
 
350 
 
 CHAPTER XI * 
 
 PAEAGHJAY AND THE GKAN CHACO. 
 
 HIQ-H QUALITIBS OP THE PAEAGHJAYAUS. — SASON APPEAEAKCE OF 
 THE PEOPLE IN MAMTT CASES. — THE SBAIT CHAOO THE EMPTY 
 CEADLB OP A GBEAT NATION. — CAN THE CHACO IHHIANS BE 
 CIVILIZED ? — COLONIZATION OP THE MISIONES — OP BIO GBANBE, 
 IN BEAZIL. — BAMBOOS. — SLATBBY. 
 
 Asuncion del Paraguay, H^ov. 30, 1852. 
 Here I anij in this curious capital of Prester John's 
 country in the South. When I arrived at Corrientes 
 I despatched a letter for you.t It was sent by a pri- 
 vate hand, on board a steamer which had been sent 
 up to Paraguay by Urqtiiza, just before I arrived at 
 Buenos Ayres^ and which arrived at Corrientes on her 
 return from above just after I got there. I find that 
 Urquiza, who after his fall had retired to Entre Rios, 
 stopped the steamer on her descent, and perhaps he 
 got hold of my letter ; if he did, I guess, if he found 
 any one to read it to him, he must have considered 
 that he had given letters of introduction to a man 
 either mad or of a very dangerous description, for the 
 * Addressed to a friend. f Chapter VIII. 
 
PARAGUAY. 351 
 
 river Parana broke its banks in my bead, and rusbed 
 into my soul in a stream of propbecy, of wbicb I gave 
 you tbe benefit. 
 
 You are nearer Buenos Ayres tban I am, so I will 
 not pretend to give you any news about tbese parts, 
 wbicb are yet far from being in a quiescent state. I 
 came bere witb tbe double purpose of taking a look 
 at tbe country, as to wbetber it is tbe promised land 
 or not, and of putting myself in a position to let people 
 at bome know wbat tbis country is really like. As 
 to tbe first of tbese objects, I do not tbink it is tbe 
 country to begin mtk, being somewbat too bot per- 
 haps for people fresb from cold England ; bowever I 
 begin to tbink tbat Saxons stand beat better tban any 
 race except Negroes, and not mucb worse tban tbey. 
 Here I find everybody complaining of tbe beat, and 
 sleeping for two bours in tbe middle of tbe day, ex- 
 cept tbe Englisbmen, of wbom tbere are four bere, 
 young mercbants. As to tbe second, tbere is a rap 
 
 to be bit at Sir W. P 'a book about tbe Eiver 
 
 Plate, for wbicb be bas evidently been paid by Rosas. 
 No one bere, not even tbe natives, know anytbing 
 about their country. Tbat it bas been sbut up for 
 some mighty purpose is quite obvious. It bas been 
 tbe focus to which tbe docile race of the Guarani In- 
 dians and tbe organizing talents of tbe Jesuits were 
 concentrated; it was besides tbe part of Southern 
 America where the civilization of the Spaniards was 
 first planted, — the spot where the seed of the first 
 
352 PARAGUAY AND THE GRAN CHACO. 
 
 cropj now effete^ was sown. The insular position of its 
 territory, and the seclusion in which the people have 
 been kept by the diabolical tyranny of their own rulers 
 and their neighbours, have fostered a true feeling of 
 patriotism ia the people. The peasantry are a noble 
 race; there is no aristocracy, Francia extirpated it; 
 the present upper hundred are comparatively a mise- 
 rable set, though good-natured. I am convinced that 
 these people are to be a part of the hands by which 
 English heads are to do wonders for civilizing the rich 
 deserts of South America. 
 
 The most curious thing about these people in this 
 country, — where undoubtedly the fusion of the Spa- 
 nish and Indian blood was most complete, where all 
 the Conquistadores took Guarani wives, and where 
 too there seems to have been less opportunity for 
 misture with the fair-haired European races, — ^is, that 
 among high and low there is less appearance of In- 
 dian blood, and more resemblance to English com- 
 plexion, than in any part of South America I have 
 seen. In poor cottages in the country I have seen 
 numerous children whom I should have supposed to be 
 the offspring of some high-bred English family, with 
 delicately cut features, rather long than broad, and 
 hair as fair as any Saxon ; among many of them I 
 see reddish hair, quite Scotch. Now the Jesuits, who 
 of course were of various nations, are allowed even by 
 their enemies to have been sexually continent ordi- 
 narily ; and the half-dozen English or Scotch prisoners 
 
VASTNESS OF THE COUNTRY. 353 
 
 whom Prancia kept in some remote towns are scarcely 
 sufficient to account for this physiognomy, notwith- 
 standing that the extreme laxity or rather almost 
 total absence of morality among the women may 
 have facilitated, when possihle, the intermixture which 
 the despots sought to prevent. I am driven to con- 
 clude that among the Spaniards who peopled this part 
 there was a singular absence of Moorish blood, and 
 that the Northern Vandal has turned up here. One 
 thing must be observed, that there is certainly far less 
 Negro blood here than in the other parts, so small 
 a tincture that it amounts to nothing; whereas in 
 Brazil, and even down this river, there is plenty of it 
 everywhere. 
 
 I fancy that the vastness of everything here has re- 
 vealed to me more the infinite love and the vast power 
 of our great Father, and has made me feel the pos- 
 sibility, if not the reality, of hope on a huge scale; 
 has somehow turned me inside out, and made me feel 
 to the quick what I only was logically convinced of 
 before, that there are joys for all who love Him, in 
 worlds where the capacity for love will be to that of 
 men and women on earth as the capacity of life in 
 the glorious Chaco, right opposite here, is to that iu 
 Jacob's Island. 
 
 At present I do not give much thought as to what 
 is to be my future work ; I only see very clearly that 
 I have some work to do here. One day, when I had 
 been meditating upon the marvel of this splendid un- 
 
354 PARAGUAY AND THE GEAN CHACO. 
 
 occupied paradise, I took up the Bible to read, and 
 happened to fix on the first chapter of Joshua, as to 
 which I had no recollection of what it was about: 
 ever since then the words, '' Be strong and of a good 
 courage, for unto this people shalt thou divide for 
 an inheritance the land," has been singing in my 
 ears. How long I may have to remain here now I 
 cannot tellj but I feel that the future work, or at 
 any rate some great part of the work of my Hfe, has 
 to do with this country. I told you, in one of my 
 first letters from Brazil, that I felt sure I had been 
 sent out for some purpose, I could not tell what ; I 
 felt as a fool when I thought of it. I had no plans, 
 nor even motives of action; but various people and 
 circimistances, one after another, in a most curious 
 chain, have told me, as if from a guiding spirit, 
 and have cleared the way for me to go on up hither. 
 Sometimes I think that, to enable me to mature 
 something or other, I am to be Consul here for a 
 time, and so I mean to lose no opportunity of trying 
 to get that office; trusting that God's wiU will be 
 done, for I do not want to have it the least : at any 
 rate, my work is pretty well cut out for me for some 
 months in learning Spanish and Guarani, and seeing 
 the richness and the nakedness of the land. 
 
 One thing is abundantly clear to me, viz. that the 
 Gran Chaco is the yet empty cradle of a mighty na- 
 tion : it must be the theatre of a new era in history 
 — it is the place. Just cast your eye upon the map : 
 
CAPABILITIES OF PARAGUAY. 355 
 
 just see the tract of land, in length from Santa Pe 
 ten degrees of latitude northwards, and some six de- 
 grees of longitude in breadth from the Paraguay- 
 Parana towards the west, and consider if it be not a 
 marvel. A splendid country, possessed by wild In- 
 dians alone, who live on nothing but wild beasts, — 
 men who, by their neglect of the earth, have forfeited 
 their right to claim national property in it, — a wild 
 garden, surrounded on all sides by provinces occupied, 
 or pretended to be occupied, by Spanish tribes, none 
 of whom dare set foot in this territory, and yet have 
 the impudence to claim it as their own, — this terri- 
 tory is actually an undiscovered country. One white 
 man's boat has descended the Bermejo, from Oran to 
 the Paraguay ; and the Bolivians are offering £4000 
 to any one who will bring the first boat up the Pil- 
 comayo to them (I would soon relieve them of this, for 
 the benefit of the Association fund,* if I had the money 
 to build a boat and buy beads) . It is just known that 
 the rivers are or may easily be made navigable, and 
 the rich verdure of the country is visible from the top 
 of this house ; and that is all that is known about it. 
 Not only is the country unexplored, but no nation of 
 white race puts in a claim to its possession, founded 
 on anything that can be considered legitimate. The 
 earliest acknowledged title to the country was, I pre- 
 sume, that of the Spaniards, derived from the ludicrous 
 
 * i. e. The fund of the then Society for Promoting Working Men's 
 Associations, to which the writer helonged. — Ed. 
 
356 PARAGUAY AND THE GRAN CHACO. 
 
 grant by the Pope of one part of South America to 
 Spain, and the rest to Portugal : but the old Spaniards 
 do not lay any claim to any part of this continent 
 now. The republicans of the different states drove out 
 their parent claimants from the districts they occu- 
 pied ; but they never expelled them from the Chaco (for 
 neither party was there), nor have made any attempt 
 to occupy that land. This country then is still open. 
 The only positive right which the neighbouring re- 
 publics or provinces claim with respect to the Chaco, 
 is that which they doubtless have in common with 
 the rest of the world, that each may extend its fron- 
 tier so far as it can into the Chaco, by encroachment 
 of actual occupation. But not being able to do this, 
 they add the negative manger-dog claim of refusing 
 to other people the right of doing the same.* 
 
 Besides the cultivation of the Chaco-land, there is 
 the cultivation of the Indians to be effected. These 
 are the "untamable Guaycurus," etc., which tradi- 
 tion says never can be tamed ; the answer to which is, 
 " Tradition is a liar. Gentlemen ; Jack, put your head 
 in his mouth." I have no doubt it is perfectly true 
 
 * The following extract from a friend's letter to Mr. Mansfield, 
 dated October 1, 1854, ■will show that Ms colonization scheme for 
 the Grran Chaco was by no means premature. " Benigno (Lopez ?) 
 informs me his brother has contracted with a company at Bordeaux 
 to give them some land in the Chaco opposite Asuncion, which they 
 are to colonize with a thousand famihes, Irish, French, and Spanish ; 
 the latter two, I suppose, will be Basques." And see Appendix C, 
 "The Gi-an Chaco."— Ed. 
 
THE INDIANS. 357 
 
 that these savages cannot be tamed by the Spanish 
 republicans. The Conquistadores treated them trea- 
 cherously and cruelly, and never showed them an ex- 
 ample of life much more human than that which the 
 Indians themselves pursued. A traditional enmity 
 has ever existed between the Indians and those whose 
 ancestors looked upon them only as material for sla- 
 very; but I firmly believe that Englishmen with some 
 real Christianity in their souls would civilize them 
 in some degree. At Corrientes they come across from 
 the Chaco, and work bravely enough for those who 
 will employ them. Of course they cut the Corren- 
 tinos' throats if they come into the Chaco, because 
 they suppose their visitors only come to enslave them ; 
 and so they are said to be as treacherous as Satan : I 
 dare say they are treacherous enough, but not worse 
 than the rest of mankind. Whether or not the In- 
 dian race is to die out, there can be no doubt that it 
 is our duty to do all we can to preserve it, just as we 
 do the life of an old relation whose disease may be 
 mortal. The maltreatment of all the Indians by the 
 Iberians, and the reckless pursuit of mere gold which 
 carried them on, seem to have brought a curse upon 
 them, which prevents them from advancing with the 
 rest of the world : they must yield to another people, 
 who must be tried in their turn. 
 
 But the Chaco is not the only point at, which 
 colonization must commence. There is the district 
 of Misiones, lying between the Uruguay and the 
 
358 PARAGUAY AND THE GRAN CHACO. 
 
 Parana^ about the point where they most nearly ap- 
 proach each other. This district is now absolutely 
 a desert so far as man is concerned; the rats have 
 not even left their tails. The Brazilians, Paraguay- 
 ans, and Correntinos have been fighting about it, 
 pretty nearly, I suppose, ever since the Jesuits were 
 expelled ; and now, since I have been in these parts, 
 they are going to settle the matter by ceding the ter- 
 ritory to Corrientes. Every one says it is a beautiful 
 country, — ^the choice of it by the Jesuits would be 
 sufficient ground for believing so. This district must 
 be colonized, and the present Governor is very desi- 
 rous that it should be. See what a position it is, 
 nor forget the Socialist prestige which the Jesuits 
 have given it, — the Parana always navigable, the Uru- 
 guay nearly always, and easily made so no doubt. 
 Then again in Brazil, in the beautiful province of Rio 
 Grande, colonization by Germans has already been 
 commenced : its climate and richness point it out as a 
 necessary position, and, to tell the truth, the pseudo- 
 imperial Government of Brazil would be a much plea- 
 santer atmosphere for a weak infant colony than any 
 of the pseudo-republics of the rivers. 
 
 I am thinking of a small speculation for the Asso- 
 ciation fund. I mean to bring home a collection of 
 all the portable productions of Paraguay that I can 
 carry*; and fancy having a small exhibition at a penny 
 
 * Part of this collection was eventually disposed of to the Museum 
 of Ornamental Art, Marlborough House. — Ed. 
 
BAMBOOS. 359 
 
 and a shilling a head, for the benefit of the Associa- 
 tions ! 
 
 I have been quite unable to write for Mrs. H , 
 
 for want of time. I have too much to learn now, to 
 have any time for imparting instruction to others; 
 and as I have a more or less limited time for taking 
 in, I had better make the most of it, and give out 
 at my leisure by-and-by. Meantime I have kept a 
 diary, in the form of letters to my family, which I 
 have sent home. Unfortunately one of the most in- 
 teresting of them has been lost; and unless I can 
 pass into a state of trance, to recover my memory of 
 things therein contained, I shall have nothing left 
 but general impressions. 
 
 Tell F that, having a beard of six months' 
 
 growth untouched, I much sympathize with his af- 
 fection for his excrescence. If he had (as did the 
 EngUsh in Entre Rios, when Urquiza ordered them to 
 cut off their beards, some years ago) snubbed a tyrant 
 and asked for his passport, I should have applauded 
 the continuity of his hairiness. Curiously enough, 
 shaving is here universal, and whiskers, like our En- 
 glish ones, are the most general. 
 
 The scenery I saw at Rio was of course far grander 
 than that of Pernambuco. There I saw lots of the 
 bamboos about which you enthusiaze ; they form, in 
 clump, certainly as gracefiil a form as anything in 
 nature. The bamboo of commerce does not grow 
 wild in any part of Brazil that I have seen, but is 
 
360 PARAGUAY AND THE GRAN CHACO. 
 
 planted frequently near houses. In the forests are 
 any amount of allied species ; and the tree-ferns, and 
 the infinite other ferns in the mountains about Rio — 
 THAT is exquisite beauty. How I wish I could carry 
 out my design of a pictm-e gallery for the million of 
 actual portraits from the life of the tropical plant- 
 life ! But God has taken me away from that for the 
 present. 
 
 Do not suppose I had any opinion about slavery 
 which requires altering. I knew what was the cause 
 (physical) of the Negroes' erectness, and had men- 
 tioned it in one of my letters ; but I am certain that 
 no human being, unless he be conscious of some 
 kind of dignity, can habitually hold up his head, nor 
 even keep it up for long together, by muscular effort. 
 I suspect the Negroes know that they are the finest 
 race in Brazil ; at Bahia they undoubtedly are. The 
 Brazilians are certainly kind to their slaves in gene- 
 ral : I only once saw a fellow thrashing a black man — 
 self-love prevented me from knocking him off the pier 
 into the water — at Rio. Slave importation is nearly 
 stopped in Brazil now. There is here a condition of 
 slavery allowed, which I cannot get informed about ; 
 some slaves are kept as such while children, but be- 
 come free at eighteen ; others are permanently slaves. 
 A fine Negro, one of a very few I have seen here, 
 presented me a paper the other day, saying that he 
 was for sale, for about £14! I am almost sorry I 
 did not buy him off, as I shall want a servant soon. 
 
CLEANLINESS OP THE PEOPLE. 361 
 
 You see I have not told you much about Paraguay, 
 for the simple reason that I do not know much about 
 it yet. The striking feature in the physiognomy of 
 the country (after Brazil and the down-river towns) 
 is the great cleanliness of the people and their houses 
 and streets. 
 
362 
 
 L?^tea~.-Mil 
 
 THE CABIEDO, ASSUMPTIOlf. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ASSUMPTION. 
 
 TEMPEBATtTEE. — THE SIESTA. — INTEODTTCIIOS' TO AHB INTEETIEW 
 WITH THE PEESrOENT. — PASSPOBTS. — PBUIT. — WASPS. — THE 
 aUAEANI LAN&UAaE. — ^A FtTNEEAL SEBTICE. — BMOKENG. — MOUlf- 
 TEBANZS. — PALIS OP THE PABANA. — INDIAN COBN. — MANBIOOA. 
 — A SWEDISH NATUEALIST. — SAXT-MAKIUa. — THE CHACO. — THE 
 PATAGITAS. — MAEKET-PLACE. — ABBITAI; OP SIB C. HOTHAM. — 
 TAME BIEDS. — ■ SAIUTATIONS. — INTBODTJCTION TO THE EOTAL 
 PAMILT. — SYSTEM OP aOVEENMENT. — CHBISTMAS DAT. — PETE OP 
 THE MAUaEE. — MANHEES AND CUSTOMS. — THE aUAEANI lAN- 
 GTTAGE. — A GBAND BAH. — ^A CimllbEPTJSAI.. — PTTTUEE PLANS. — 
 SUDDEN DETEEMINATION TO STABT POB ENGLAND. — ^PABEWBLL 
 TO THE PBESIDENT. — PASSAGE TAKEN. 
 
 December 2. 
 I WONDER how' you would all like the temperature 
 here ; I find it very pleasant : I am never too hot or 
 too cold anywhere out-of-doorsj when able to move 
 aboutj but I find it rather warm in tjje house. The 
 
TEMPERATURE. 
 
 363 
 
 thermometer on the table now (half-past three p.m., 
 sun shiniag) is 82° Fahrenheit ; it varies during the 
 day between 80° and 90°.* At night I usually sleep 
 in a hammock under the verandah in the court, with 
 only a sheet on me. Most of the people here sleep 
 iir the middle of the day, dining at twelve, and taking 
 a siesta afterwards for an hour or two ; I do not find 
 any necessity for sleeping, unless I have been parti- 
 
 * " Temperature, Assusaption, November 26 to December 10, 
 1852 ; in-doors, in tbe shade, when not otherwise marked : — 
 
 Not. 26. 8 a.m. 82° Fahr. 
 
 „ liP.M. 88 
 
 „ 4 P.M. 90 
 
 Nov. 29. lOi a.m. 80 
 (After a storm, cloudy, during 
 
 ram.) 
 Not. 30. 8i a.h. 80 
 Dee. 1. 3i p.m. 84 
 (After storm.) 
 Dec. 2, 11 A.M. 84 
 Dee. 3. 10 a.m. 82 
 „ 3 P.M. 88 
 
 (116° in sun.) 
 Dec. 4. 7 A.M. 82 
 (Cloudy day.) 
 „ 10 A.M. 84 
 Dee. 5. 8 a.m. 82 •• 
 
 „ 3iP.M. 88 
 
 Dec. 6. 8 A.M. 78 
 (Eain in night ; out-of-doors, 
 cloudy.) 
 
 Deo. 6. 10 A.M. 84° Fahr. 
 
 (In-doors.) 
 
 „ Noon. 87 
 
 „ 2 P.M. 89 
 
 „ 5 P.M. 90 
 
 6ip.M. 90 
 
 Dec. 7. Noon. 89 
 
 Hr.M. 92 
 
 „ 6 P.M. 91 
 
 Dec. 8. 7 A.M. 86 
 
 „ 8 A.M. 88 
 
 lOiA.M. 92 
 
 6iP.M. 93 
 
 „ 10 P.M. 86 
 
 (After storm.) 
 
 Deo. 9. 8 A.M. 79 
 
 „ 11 A.M. 77 
 
 „ 2 P.M. 77 
 
 Dec. 10. 6 A.M. 84 
 (Out-oi-AoOTB.)"— Note-Booh 
 
 "From November 26 to December 15 the temperature out-of- 
 doors in the shade, in the morning at seven A.M., is usually about 
 78° Fahr., and about five p.m. about 90°; gradually increasing, ex- 
 cept during south wind after storm, when at seven A.M. it is about 
 64°, and at five p.m. about 80°."— Memorandmi. 
 
 R 2 
 
364 ASSUMPTION. 
 
 cularly hard-worked or without sleep before, nor do 
 my English friends. I am in the most perfect health, 
 and have never had an hour's iUness or uneasiness, 
 barring sea-sickness, since I left England. 
 
 I am much obliged to Lady E. Hotham for her letter 
 of introduction to Sir C. Hotham; a good word from 
 him to the President will be very useful to me here. 
 By my singular good fortune in meeting with Admiral 
 
 Grenfell at Rio de Janeiro, and falling in with G , 
 
 who stands high in the books of the President, I had 
 secured for myself a more favourable reception with 
 that queer old gentleman than has ever been accorded 
 to any traveller. My friend M. Cerruti, the Sardinian 
 Charge d' Affaires, also is coming up here in Sir C. 
 Hotham' s steamer, having gone as far as Corrientes in 
 the ' Manuelita,' which has just arrived ; he has diplo- 
 matic business here ; and with his good words, and 
 best of all, Sir C. Hotham's, I hope to be in clover ; 
 but already I have got more than I ever expected. 
 
 I went to the President the day before yesterday, 
 and presented the letter which Seiior Derqui,* the Ar- 
 gentine Envoy, gave me. He asked me what I wanted ; 
 so I told him that I wished to see the country, and 
 without further ado he told me I might go wherever 
 I liked ; that nothing was necessary but that I should 
 come to him before I started, and he would give me 
 a passport that would carry me everywhere. There 
 was only one condition which he made, and that was 
 * By mistake called " Durque," pp. 284 and follomng. 
 
PERMISSION TO TRAVEL IN PARAGUAY. 365 
 
 that I should lodge with him, for the national archives, 
 a report of anything I might observe worthy of note. 
 By this stipulation he has given me an opening, which 
 I mean to avail myself of, for telling him what I think 
 of the state of the coimtry, and how its resources may 
 be developed ; so you see I have already nearly got all I 
 want in prospect from him. Sir C. Hotham may clench 
 the nail for me, by telling him he has not misplaced 
 his confidence. That I am in high luck you may ima- 
 gine from this, that not only no foreigners, but not 
 even the natives, may leave the capital without ask- 
 ing permission. I believe the former may go out for 
 a ride, provided they come back before night, but they 
 dare not go to such a distance that they inust sleep 
 out, without a passport, which is equally necessary for 
 the natives if they want to go to any other place. I 
 believe that lately permission has been granted to the 
 natives of such foreign states as have acknowledged 
 the independence of the " Republica del Paraguay" 
 to go to certain places on taking a passport ; but ordi- 
 narily a special application to the President himself 
 must be made for every trip, and leave is often re- 
 fiised. Shortly before I arrived in Paraguay an En- 
 glishman, who had been living at Pilar, wrote to the 
 President for leave to come by land to the capital ; 
 after waiting eight days, the necessary time for the 
 delivery and return of the despatch, he received a re- 
 fusal ; he had to start in a canoe, and he only arrived 
 this morning. 
 
366 ASSUMPTION. 
 
 I have Prince Adalbert's Travels, and was much 
 amused by the simplicity of his account of Ms doings 
 at Rio de Janeiro : he exclaims with joy at his feat 
 of shooting an anu, a bird something like an English 
 blackbird, fully as common, going in flocks, and much 
 easier to hit ; I have not yet read his account of the 
 Amazon voyage. Here we have no fruit at present but 
 oranges, and plenty of big insipid sandias, or water- 
 melons ; the former are very plentiful, and far better 
 than those of Corrientes. Bananas* grow here pretty 
 commonly, and are, I am told, good ; guayabas grow 
 abundantly ; I passed through a wood full of the tree 
 growing wild, the other day ; they are now in flower, 
 which is white, and very pretty, not unlike that of the 
 orange, but not so sweet, having only a faint, agree- 
 able odour.f 
 
 * otherwise called Pac^yas, Pacova (&u.), or Plantanos. 
 
 t The following scattered notes as to other fruits and plants of 
 Paraguay are here coUeeted from Mr. Mansfield's Note-books and 
 Memoranda: — "Ohirimmia (Sp.), Araticu (Gu.), a small yellow 
 
 fruit, which I met with in the garden of the T s at Assumption. 
 
 PapcMmmdo, a glutinous fruit. Aguaigli makes an excellent pre- 
 serve; the fruit said to be acrid when raw, and requiring to be 
 boiled. Pimes were beautifully ripe about January 20, selling twenty 
 for one real. Ch-apes were first ripe about January 6. Mani (Sp.), 
 MandmU (Gti.), a small plant with four leaves, thus -€S , planted 
 in the fields; it yields a bunch of root-nuts underground, from which 
 oil and a coarse Mice is made ; the oil by a hand-press : the oil is 
 colourless and delicious, devoid of taste, and better than olive-oil 
 (Campo Grande, January 17, 1853). Seam, many varieties ; coral- 
 i-ed, with black spots at end ; dull morone-red ; large and white, like 
 flattened pigeons' eggs, one inch by two-thirds and one-third ; in pod 
 nearly a foot long by an inch and a half broad and half an inch thick ; 
 
HORNETS AND MOSQUITOS. 367 
 
 We have here ' Illustrated London News' in profu- 
 sion up to August, and one country newspaper of Sep- 
 tember, so my notions of English general news are very 
 limited. I should be thankful for a few late numbers 
 of the ' Spectator' or ' Illustrated News' sometimes. 
 
 I saw nearly a dozen hornets' nests imder the ve- 
 randah in front of the house where I was staying, at 
 Riachuelo, near Corrientesj they were however no 
 bigger than the little wasps' -nest under the glass at 
 Weybridge, being tenanted by only four or five in- 
 sects ; I was stung by one such the other day on the 
 neck, but it did not hurt me for more than a few 
 minutes. I am not troubled much with fleas here ; 
 I see a good many, but they do not bite much, and 
 are very easily killed ; they are relaxed by the heat, I 
 suppose. The mosquitos do not annoy me at all ; but 
 the last two nights of my journey up were rendered 
 sleepless by the attacks of these creatures ; they stung 
 through one's clothes without the least hesitation. I 
 saw a jolly little humming-bird's nest a few days 
 ago, on a vine-twig under the verandah of a house I 
 went to visit at ; the little thing was sitting on two 
 
 ten to fifteen in a pod. Falm, which produces nuts that yield oil, 
 not much made, called Coco by the Spanish, Bocadydacd in Gruarani ; 
 the tree rery plentiful. Caragiiatd, the scarlet-headed wild pine- 
 apple, grows everywhere; yam, twine, and ropes are made of it 
 (doubtless the same plant as the Cramata of BraaU, from which fibre 
 is made). DiameUa, a flower peculiar to Paraguay, like a small white 
 double camellia, with a rich, feeble odour." And see Appendix D., 
 as to " Paraguayan Woods." 
 
368 ASSUMPTION. 
 
 little white eggs. C H would certainly have 
 
 thought the bird was a little insect.* I met with 
 Melville's 'Whale' at Pemambuco, and came to the 
 conclusioiij from what I read in it, that no doubt there 
 is such a fish as a thrasher, but that what we saw at 
 St. Vincent was only the tail of an old sperm-whale. 
 I found out some time ago* that I was wrong about 
 the creepers in the forest ; and if one of my former 
 letters ever reaches you, you will see that I had found 
 out since what the true explanation of the affair is. 
 Unfortunately in Brazil there is no such thing as an 
 insulated forest-tree except palms, and the charred 
 stems of timber-trees; so the behaviour of the vis- 
 gueiro under such circumstances cannot be witnessed. 
 The state of society here is very curious : the people 
 are very good-natured, but extremely poor, and utterly 
 uneducated : the only amusement they have is visit- 
 ing, and this goes on aU day, from eight a.m. to ten 
 P.M., except during siesta-time, twelve to three p.m. I 
 generally make several visits in the day : a short time 
 ago I made three morning calls to the same family 
 in one morning, dropping in with one or other of 
 my friends, and it was all right. Of course I want to 
 talk as much as I can, for the sake of learning the 
 
 * Tliis observation seems to have been made at Campo Grande, 
 November 28. The following notes occur in connection with it : — 
 " TJraca {Acae, G-uarani), black-headed jay ; lays cream-coloured eggs, 
 mottled with a spot of light grey-brown at the thick end : three found 
 in cup-nest of sticks, root-lined." — Note-Book. 
 
 * See pp. 37, 103. 
 
THE GUARANI LANGUAGE. 369 
 
 language (Spanish), but I find my deafness a greaf 
 drawback ; I cannot make out any words in conversa- 
 tion, unless I have first learned them from book. I 
 am learning the Guarani tongue too j it is a very queer 
 gibberish, but not devoid of elegance; it is full of 
 vowels ; but the chief difficulty is, that the consonants 
 are so indistinctly pronounced that it is difficult to re- 
 present them phonetically. I wish I knew Mr. Ellis's 
 mode of representing outlandish sounds, that I might 
 use the same notation. I mean to make a dictionary 
 of it, if I can accomplish it ; one is in existence, made 
 by the Jesuits, but it is very scarce ; I only heard of 
 one copy at Corrientes and one here. I would give any- 
 thing for J 's quick ear and nice discrimination of 
 
 vocalities. The Guarani word for water is the shibbo- 
 leth of the language ; they say no foreigners can pro- 
 nounce it ; it is more like the vowel part of the Gaelic 
 word for a calf, quickly pronounced, than any other 
 sound. The more respectable people here, the dozen 
 families corresponding to the upper ten thousand in 
 New York, have a sort of used-up look, which is not 
 inviting. Among the numerous Paraguay ladies I have 
 seen only one is good-looking, and many of them have 
 the goitre; but she is very handsome. Among those 
 of the lower classes very many are pretty, and the 
 peasant men are decidedly a noble race. The curious 
 thing is, the number of fair English and Scotch-look- 
 ing faces that one sees, with fair, and even red hair ; 
 you see none among the Spanish-speaking natives 
 
 R 3 
 
370 ASSUMPTION. 
 
 of the countries lower down the river. Every Para- 
 guayan, male and female, speaks Guarani, and most 
 of the lower classes nothing else ; but Spanish is the 
 official tongue, and the " gentry" affect to despise the 
 Guarani. 
 
 December 3. 
 
 Last night I went to see the Brazilian Minister and 
 his wife, who came up in the steamer the other day ; 
 it was most refreshing; they are very nice people. 
 Both speak English nearly as well as I can, and I 
 think Madame does quite ; she is a Portena (Buenos 
 Ayrean) by birth, her husband of course Brazilian ; 
 she would pass for an agreeable, nice-looking person 
 in London, and is quite young: their tea-table, in 
 thorough English family style, was very joUy ; it al- 
 most induced me to take a cup of strong green tea, 
 for she had forgotten to bring any black, and could 
 not get any here. I considered it a prophetic indica- 
 tion to hear a Frenchman who was present and this 
 pair conversing perfectly in English, without any En- 
 glishman joining in the tallt. So it will.be every- 
 where in due time ! 
 
 I went this morning to a funeral-service in the Ca- 
 thedral, on occasion of the burial of a lady who died 
 last night. I was much astonished by the perform- 
 ance of a mulatto-man, who formed part of or rather 
 the entire choral force of the church, and who chanted, 
 or rather drawled through his nose, with great gusto. 
 
MOUNTEBANKS. 371 
 
 the whole service in Latin. All this coming out of the 
 mouth of a man with no shoes or stockings^ or gther 
 dress but a shirt and drawers, with a piece of green 
 baize for a poncho on his shoulder, was striking, as 
 also was the solemnity with which he spat from time 
 to time on the pavement. I never saw such a scoun- 
 drelly-looking set of fellows as the corps of priests who 
 officiated. As soon as the service was over in the 
 church the coffin was carried outside the door, under 
 the verandah, to await the hearse, which was to carry it 
 to the Recoleta (the cemetery, with a very neat church 
 attached to it, about three miles from the town) . The 
 chief mourner prepared for the procession by sticking 
 a cigar in his mouth. Everybody here, except the 
 young ladies of the upper dozen, and even they when 
 alone, smoke vigorously at all hours and places.: the 
 tobacco is said, by those who can judge, to be cxccIt 
 lent, scarcely if at all inferior to that of Havannah. 
 
 In the steamer there came up here a party of 
 moimtebank-tumblers, to exhibit : this is the first spec- 
 tacle that the inhabitants of Paraguay have ever seen, 
 and, poor people ! they were much amused. The men 
 got leave to put up a marquee and exhibit, on condi- 
 tion of giving three gratis performances ; I went to see 
 it just after sunset. With the thermometer at least 
 85° outside, the stew within was something awful ; 
 there were full one thousandfive hundred persons (all 
 the female part of the spectators dressed in white), in 
 the tent, which covered a kind of circus, in which 
 
373 ASSUMPTION. 
 
 these fellows exhibited their miserable antics : a far 
 superior performance in the way of agility and strength 
 may be seen half-a-dozen times a day in the streets of 
 London ; and this was allj except that the performance 
 wound up with a caricature representation of a man 
 being shaved. I never saw anything so terribly ah- 
 surd ; it was quite humiliating and painful to think of 
 any fellow-creatures being amused by such rubbish ; 
 yet such was the first theatrical display in Paraguay, 
 and such, next day, some ladies told me they thought 
 " muy Hndo," i. e. very pretty ! 
 
 I think it very likely I shall stay a year. There are 
 many interesting specialities to be seen, besides the 
 general interest of everything in the country: there 
 are the yerbales, or woods where the Paraguay tea 
 grows ; the timber forests of the north ; the Indian 
 villages, which were formerly the Jesuit reductions; 
 and last, not least, the Cataract of the Parana, in the 
 latitude of Concepcion, said by Azara to be nearly as 
 large as the Falls of Niagara.* No one living in civi- 
 lized or half ditto parts has ever seen it. I heard of 
 one old man who had been there, but on seeking him 
 out I found that he had only heard it at a distance 
 of eight leagues. I hope to see these before I turn 
 homewards. It is pretty certain that some represen- 
 tative or other of our nation must be left or sent 
 here; I think it desirable for the general interests of 
 humanity that it should be me ; so, if her Majesty is 
 * See Appendix E., " The Cataract of the Parana." 
 
VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL FOOD. 373 
 
 wise, she will appoint me for a time ; but perhaps it 
 is some other business I have to do. 
 
 The nicest possible dish may be made in England 
 with Indian corUj even though it wiU not ripen ; they 
 call it chocolo here : it consists of the young ear of the 
 corn when just turned yellow and still softj simply 
 boiled or roasted ; it would pay well to plant it for 
 this, and to feed the horses on the green stalk.* I 
 picked up one day on the road a head of maize in a 
 particular stage of its growth, in which it was one of 
 the most delicious things I ever tasted ; the grain was 
 exactly like the richest possible fresh milk ; I have 
 never seen another in the same stage. They do not 
 eat so much of mandioca farinha here as in Brazil, 
 but the root of the non-poisonous species, boiled, is 
 the staple vegetable, and I believe the chief article of 
 diet of the poor.f Meat is not so frightftdly cheap as 
 lower down the river, but the people are fully as car- 
 nivorous, notwithstanding the rich vegetality of the 
 soil. J Most of my acquaintances are very much as- 
 tonished at my abominating flesh ; a lady asked one 
 of my English friends yesterday what religion I could 
 be of. Nobody supposes the English to be Christians, 
 though they are great favourites here. 
 
 * A dish is also made of the ripe maize with wood-ash ley, called 
 masamora {fiagweudengh, Gu.). 
 
 t Almidon, or starch, is also made of it hy means of mills. 
 
 1 "The hides, value two doUars each, are exported, and are worth 
 more at Buenos Ayres than the Buenos Ayrea hides, being preferred 
 for the American market as being lighter; they are exported only 
 sun-dried, never salted"— Memorandmi. 
 
374 ASSUMPTION. 
 
 The thermometer stands at 116° in the sun, being 
 88° in-doors (two p.m., December 3) : it is very agree- 
 able, even in-doors, vrhile I have nothing on but a 
 shirt and a pair of Gaucho calzonciUos ; out-of-doors 
 one puts on more clothes, but I never feel the heat 
 disagreeably when walking or riding. 
 
 An hotel was opened here for the first time a fort- 
 night before I arrived. There is a Swedish naturalist 
 here, who has been in Paraguay four or five years ; he 
 has been collecting specimens of the birds, insects, and 
 plants of this country for his Government, and now 
 they cannot get him away. They sent for hiTn last 
 year, and a ship of war was waiting for him some 
 months at Buenos Ayres, but he would not go. He is 
 a man of great talent, and speaks, it is said, all the 
 languages of Europe, — ^he certainly talks English very 
 well : he is very shy and retiring, but I hope to get 
 round him somehow. He showed me infinite lots of 
 insects the other day ; he has sent homewards already 
 one collection, but the Swedish war-ship conveying it 
 was lost at sea;' he is now packing up a second lot. 
 He is said to know more of the country than any 
 person living. 
 
 December 23. 
 
 I am still here at the capital, which I have not left 
 
 at all, having been here for a month ; I have lived a 
 
 very monotonous life, without any incidents to make 
 
 it worth while to keep a journal, so I have very little 
 
APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY. 
 
 375 
 
 to communicate. I have been principally occupied in 
 trying to learn Spanish and in reading in-doors ; for 
 the weather has been so hot, that although I could 
 have roamed about with great pleasure if I had had a 
 companion, I have not felt incliaed to do much in the 
 way of exploration alone. My acquaintance with the 
 coimtry is confined to what I have seen in occasional 
 morning and evening rides about the environs for a 
 few miles. The country round the town is the very 
 
 CHACBA, HEAB ASSUITPTION. 
 
 perfection of quiet rural beauty ; I think the scenery 
 is the most charming I ever saw ; it has the beauty 
 of some of the prettiest parts of England, enhanced 
 by the richness of the verdure of the palm-trees with 
 which the whole country is studded. There is nothing 
 of the grand about either the surface scenery or the 
 
376 ASSUMPTION. 
 
 vegetation; the trees are all small, but the foliage 
 exuberant/with dark greens prevailiiig. The greatest 
 part of the country here seems to have been covered 
 with woodj a good deal of which still remains ; but 
 now its general aspect is one of tolerably industrious 
 cultivation. The cultivated land is all divided into 
 fenced fields, or capoeiras as they call them (a capo- 
 eiron is a large field), wherein grow maize, mandioca, 
 and sugar-cane;* and the cottages dotted about in 
 every direction complete the pleasantness of the aspect 
 of nature. There are roads in every direction, not 
 kept in first-rate condition, but still decently good, — 
 far better than any I have seen since I left Rio ; those 
 that are most used are very sandy, of which substance 
 the soil mostly consists ; but the cross-roads, which 
 are not so much worked, are beautiful grass lanes, 
 or rather lawns; for they are often of considerable 
 width, and for the most part perfectly strai^t. In 
 some places the country presents the appearance of a 
 splendid park, studded with rich coppices, and dotted 
 with palms, which seem to have been left when the 
 forests were cleared, for they are of the same size as 
 most of those growing ia the woods. 
 
 About six miles from the town, down the river 
 and on its shore, is a curious isolated conical hiU, 
 
 * Some cotton seems also to be grown. " Two thousand arrobas 
 of cotton were exported from Assumption by the ' Manuelita' steamer ; 
 it was found to lose seTcnty-five per cent, in cleaning from seeds, the 
 residue being valued at sisteen-pence per pound." — Memorandwm. 
 
THE CHACO. 377 
 
 about three or four hundred feet high, covered with 
 wood ; it is called Lambarre : at the foot of it is a 
 miserable village, the inhabitants of which live by 
 making salt from the mud of the river-bed. The 
 same branch of industry is carried on on some banks 
 of low land in the river, just above the town. I sup- 
 pose the salt comes up from belowj for when the river 
 is low it leaves exposed in certain spots the salt mud, 
 or sand; the inhabitants collect this and put it on 
 cloth filters, where it is washed with water, and the 
 brine trickling through is evaporated in pots over the 
 fire : the river of course is perfectly fresh. The ca- 
 pilla, or parish church, is a pretty little building, as 
 aU small white- washed buildings surrounded with ver- 
 dure always are, with a wooden scaffold-tower stand- 
 ing near it, and the beUs under the roof at the top. 
 
 Nothing can be prettier than the ride from this 
 place to the town, with the occasional glimpses of the 
 splendid river between the near woods and the Chaco, 
 — the magnificent park kept here for the amusement 
 of the Guaycunis. My favourite view is from a little 
 upper room at the top of this house, which is nearly 
 as high as any point in the town, and commands a 
 view over all the better part of it, with the river in 
 front, and right over the Chaco to the distant hori- 
 zon. There is an indescribable wonder and awe to 
 me about this Chaco, which nobody seems to appre- 
 ciate : there it lies, apparently a most rich alternation 
 of woods and possible pastures, — now probably rank 
 
378 ASS0MPTION. 
 
 long grass^ full of tigers, — ^looking exactly like a finely 
 cultivated country, witli large tracts of waving com 
 and wood, yet without the faintest sign of anything 
 living. I often scan it with my telescope, in hopes of 
 seeing a capincho or an Indian; but never anything 
 animal but a carrion hawk appears, to indicate that 
 there are any eyes to look among the trees there and 
 behold the mysteries. Nobody ever goes there, except 
 some of the Payaguas, who are on speaking terms 
 with the savages that sometimes appear on horseback 
 and armed with lances on the other side, as I am told ; 
 but I have never seen them. 
 
 The Payaguas are very queer creatures : they are 
 tame Indians,* the descendants of the people whose 
 name the Spaniards corrupted into ' Paraguay,' and 
 gave to this river and land; so far tame, at least, 
 that they will live near the white men, without mixing 
 with them, imitating them. Or cutting their throats. 
 I believe their fathers made in ancient days an alli- 
 ance with the Spaniards, after having been thrashed 
 by them ; and that in consideration thereof they have 
 been allowed to drag on their miserable life unmo- 
 lested, on the soil taken from them by the white men. 
 They have a village (consisting of about twelve huts) 
 on a low bit of waste land, close to the river-brink 
 just above the town, and another just at the port ; I 
 beUeve they have other villages in other places. They 
 
 * Desperate pirates at one time. See Appendix P., " The Payaguis 
 in the last Century," 
 
THE PAYAGUA INDIANS. 
 
 379 
 
 are miserable-looking crieatures, — a few of them fair- 
 haired ; the men look just like women. One or two 
 •of them are large and well-built however, but ugly. 
 The men gather their hair up into a small knot on 
 the top of their head, and wear queer bits of cane, 
 size of a cedar-pencil, through the lobes of their ears. 
 
 instead of earrings. The women are distiaguishable 
 from any of the Paraguay women by their extreme 
 hideousness, and their not wearing any white, which, 
 if they wear anything at all, is sure to be the dress of 
 Paraguayan women. These Indians wear precious 
 little clothing, but what they do is generally of dirty 
 bluish or greyish woollen or cotton cloth, a sort of 
 
380 ASSUMPTION. 
 
 pinafore without sleeves, and a kind of sack frock; 
 they wander about the town and pick up a living 
 by selling birds and little things which they make; 
 wherewith they buy in the market such food as they 
 cannot catch for themselves. It is not true that In- 
 dians do not laugh, for the Payaguas laugh much.* 
 
 The market here is a very pretty sight, — such a 
 contrast to that of Corrientes ! In the first place, 
 there is no market-building, as there is at the latter 
 town, but there is plenty of traffic in it, which there 
 is not there. The country-people who daily come in 
 on foot, on horseback, and in carts, from all the coun- 
 try round, and some from great distances, bring their 
 goods, — spread them on the ground in the open plaza, 
 and for any shelter they may want resort to their 
 carts (if they have them), which stand in rows in one 
 part of the square. The wares for sale are maize, 
 mandioca, oranges (now scarce), water-melons, pump- 
 kins, bread, cakes of various kinds (cheap and nasty 
 for the most part, mostly made of coarse sugar) ; salt ; 
 grease, which they colour yellow, like the stuff used 
 for rail-car wheels (butter is not made) ; combs, very 
 nicely made of horn; and lastly, all sorts of rubbish, 
 necessary or unnecessary, from England, which the 
 poor people buy of the merchants and shopkeepers, 
 and then sell again for a next-to-nothing profit. It 
 is curious to see some of the countrymen of the better 
 
 * See Appendix G., for some further detafls as to the Payagufc, 
 oommimieated to the Pliilological Society by Mr. Mansfield. 
 
COSTUME. 381 
 
 sort coming into town on horseback^ with no shoes 
 or stockings, the long fringes of their calzoncillos 
 dangling about their bare legs, and their toes stuck in 
 massive silver stirrups; silver also decorating their 
 bridles and headstalls with a considerable weight of 
 metal. But the market itself, as I said, is a very 
 pretty sight, being crowded all the week round, Sun- 
 days included, with women in white (as snow) cotton 
 dresses; their petticoats flounced with lace, coarse 
 or fine according to the wearer, about a foot deep, 
 and above the flounce a broad band of embroidery 
 in black wool like that of the chemise, not to speak 
 of the scarlet girdle ; with here and there a man, 
 equally in white, but with a scarlet or blue poncho 
 slimg over one shoulder.* 
 
 Yesterday a great event happened, viz. the arrival of 
 the first English man-of-war steamer, with his Excel- 
 lency Sir C. Hotham and a minister from the United 
 States on board, the first live ambassador they have 
 ever had here from a European power, and sent to 
 
 * In connection with Paraguayan costume it may be mentioned 
 that Mr. Mansfield's Memoranda refer to several dyeing materials 
 found in Paraguay : — " Cochineal {grand), said to come in April on 
 the cactus outside the Chacra, at Campo Grrande : I did not see it. A 
 red dye is made by treating the ohye-coloured wood of the Lapacho 
 with a wood-ash ley ; the red solution thus produced is turned yellow 
 by acids. A yellow dye is made fi-om the wood of the Tataduwa 
 (Tatajura?). Another yellow dye is made from oertaia yeUow 
 flowers." The following Memorandum may also here be inserted; — 
 " Whetstones, fine and coarse, of excellent qual**^' a^e found abo 
 Assumption." 
 
382 ASSUMPTION. 
 
 Paraguay as to an independent republic. The steamer 
 ' Locust ' left Buenos Ayres on the 25th of last month^ 
 in company with the French steamer 'Mambard,' which 
 had on board the French Envoy, M. Saiat-Georges : 
 however the French vessel, though a much more 
 swift and powerftd one than the little ' Locust/ has 
 been left behind somehow or somewhere, probably 
 owing to their national desire of being first every- 
 where, and so getting into a mess by being in too 
 great a hurry. 
 
 December 24. 
 Tomorrow is Christmas Day : it will be a strange 
 Christmas Day for me, far away from you all, with 
 the thermometer at 90° in the shade at eight o'clock 
 in the morning. We were going to have endeavoured 
 to make a pudding for the celebration, but no currants 
 were to be had. Sir C. Hotham has taken the best 
 house in the town for sis months, so it is to be pre- 
 sumed he is going to remain here for some time, 
 though not of course for that period, but it is said 
 that the proprietor would not let his house for less 
 than that time. The same man has let his country- 
 house to the G s, so he is making a good thing 
 
 of the foreigners. I have not seen Sir C. Hotham 
 yet, as he is too busy to be called upon. When the 
 ' Locust ' arrived at the Guardia of Tres Bocas, at the 
 mouth of the Paraguay, she was stopped by the little 
 guard-ship there, and detained till a messenger could 
 
FARROTS. 383 
 
 be sent up to the capital to ask what was to be done, 
 a matter of four days ; of course the President sent 
 down word to let her pass instantly. The people had 
 their guns loaded^ and were standing match in hand, 
 ready to fire on the steamer if she attempted to pass, 
 just like a tomtit defending his nest from an eagle, 
 and that eagle a friendly one : at the same time the 
 Commandant begged them not to force their passage, 
 or that his throat would not be worth anything. Of 
 course it is pretended that this was an accident, that 
 instructions had not been sent that the steamer 
 should be allowed to pass; but it was evidently a 
 dodge of the President's, to show his authority. 
 
 The woods here are fuU of parrots : there are seven 
 or eight species quite common, of aU. sizes, from that 
 of a tomtit to that of a pheasant.* I have a pair of 
 each of the three smallest kinds, sitting on an Indian 
 
 1 
 
 * "Parrots of Paraguay, from Dr. Eberliardt's collection, begin- 
 ning with the smallest : — 
 
 " Fsittaeus passerimis (Aaara, 288) : green ; blue taU-corerts in 
 male ; blue wing-spot fire inches long ; blue under- wings ; short tail. 
 
 " Psittacns mrescens (Azara^ 283) : green ; yellow wing-spot ; 
 longish taU. 
 
 " Psittacm mitratus (Azara, 284) : green ; orange-red on the 
 top of head and forehead ; blue under-wings, and blue tip to tail ; 
 shortish tail. The female has not the head red. 
 
 " Psittaciis cotoro, or tuigli (Azara, 282) : green ; dirty grey fore- 
 head and breast ; bluish wing-quiUs ; long tail, bluish near tip. 
 [Seems the same bird as described cmte, as Coy/rito.] 
 
 "Psittaous oAi/rens (Azara, 280) : green; forehead and area of eye 
 orange ; brownish-grey breast ; brownish imder tail ; taU long. 
 
 " Psittams av/reus (Azara, 278) : green ; duU blue forehead, top 
 
384 ASSUMPTION. 
 
 arrow at the table here ; they are the prettiest little 
 things alive. In Brazil I scarcely saw any^ and no- 
 where so abundantly as here. The birds are most 
 wonderfully tame, not only in the sense of the wUd 
 birds not being shy ; but when caught or taken from 
 the nestj and brought for sale to the houses, as they 
 are continually, they are as tame as lap-dogs. For a 
 few shillings one might soon get quite a large me- 
 nagerie : the people bring in every day some queer 
 bird for sale. One of the Englishmen in this house 
 has a happy family of curassows, owls, macaws, and 
 parrots, which he is sending down to Buenos Ayres, 
 as presents to his friends.* 
 
 of head, and cheeks ; reddish-brown under tail ; about twelve inches 
 long. 
 
 " Psittacus aureus (Azara, 279) ; green ; black head ; dark black- 
 blue wing-spot and quill ends ; tail long, black beneath, bluish 
 above ; scarlet thighs, bluish breast. 
 
 " Fsittactts menstrutis (Azara, 287) : green ; head mottled with 
 dark iuty-blue; the edges of the feathers so tinted; breast inky- 
 blue ; under tail-coverts bright crimson. 
 
 " Psittacus milita/ris (Azara, 274) : green ; forehead with orange- 
 red spots ; head inky bluish-green, shading off to green ; dull red 
 patch on belly ; wiug-quiUs and upper end of tail blue j lower man- 
 dible very deep. 
 
 "Psittacus Amazonicus (Azara, 285): green; the feathers with 
 black end fringes, mottUng ; forehead pale blue ; top of head and 
 cheeks yelow ; scarlet wing-spot ; wing-quills blackish-blue ; shoul- 
 ders yellow, orange-spotted. The female has less yellow on the head.' ' 
 —Note-Sook. 
 
 * "ETest of blackbird (Gwlr-a-u), under banana-leaf, with one 
 white egg, purple-spotted. Pound at Campo Grande, l7th January, 
 1853. Saiigria, a bird with a crest falling forwardish, of long thin 
 feathers just over base of bill ; long feathers on neck j very long red 
 
A COUNTRY-HOUSE. 385 
 
 The ' Locust' has brought us down the news of the 
 Duke's death ; I can well imagine what a sensation this 
 must have caused in England. I am still living with 
 Mr. Thompson, and am likely to continue to do so ; 
 my only fear is, that I shall have to quarrel with him 
 because he wUl not let me pay fairly for what I con- 
 sume. The living habits of the people here are very 
 absurd; they get up at sunrise, which is very wise, 
 take a cup of coffee or mate then, and breakfast at 
 noon ; then go to sleep for an hour or two, and eat 
 no more till ten o'clock at night. I cannot stand 
 this; so, after suffering discomfort for a month, I 
 have taken to dining by myself in the afternoon, by 
 way of dividing the day a little more reasonably. 
 
 About eight miles from the town, on the border of 
 an open plain of pasture, about three miles across and 
 six or seven miles long, called Campo Grande, is the 
 chacra or quinta (country-house) of Mr. Thompson's 
 landlord, named Aramburu, a very pretty place ; we 
 
 legs ; the hind toe an inch above the others ; powerful red bill, like 
 a cock ! plumage grey ; about eighteen inches long. Sits with the 
 carpus along the ground, and heel touching the ground. A wading 
 type of the Gallmacea. — Caterpillar of Sphinx, feeding on tomato- 
 leayes, three inches long ; pea-green, on seven last segments a sloping 
 line downwards and forwards of white (with a small eye behind near 
 lower end) ; bordered above with a purplish-black streak, and a shade 
 of grass-green ; tail-segment like a hippopotamus' head, with a mouth- 
 like line of yeUow, and yellow lower edge to hinder foot; turns 
 purplish and duU on January 14th, 1853, and on 15th seems to be 
 looking about for something, so give it some soft moist sand. It 
 buries itself very soon — in a few minutes." — Note- Book. 
 
 S 
 
386 ASSUMPTION. 
 
 sometimes ride out there to spend tte day. The house, 
 like all the others here, except a very few in the town, 
 consists only of a ground- floor, and on each side of it 
 are large shady stages, covered with vines bearing a 
 profusion of grapes, which will soon be ripe. About 
 ten days ago Thompson and I walked out there, to the 
 great astonishment not only of the good people there, 
 but of everybody in the town who wears shoes, for 
 the upper class have no notion of walking ; however 
 we both got our feet hurt by our shoes, which were 
 new and did not fit, and Thompson is stUl laid up 
 with the effects of a blister on his heel; mine has 
 quite recovered.* 
 
 I have only seen the President once since I was 
 introduced to him. I then met him on the road as I 
 was out riding ; he was coming into town from his 
 country-house in a queer old coach, — the only one in 
 the place, — with as great an escort of soldiers and of- 
 ficers as the Queen would have. Everybody is obliged 
 to stop and take off their hats when he passes ; so of 
 course I did so, and received a most gracious bow in 
 return. In Francia's time everybody was forced to 
 take off their hats to every soldier, and the country- 
 boys, who wear no clothes at all, were obliged to wear 
 hats for the purpose of saluting them. I was saluted 
 
 * " At the Campo Grande, in the capoeira, I found «. sensitive* 
 plant with entire leares, six together, in two sets of three, not 
 feathery, hie the mimosa; it grows like clover or lueem, has a 
 catkin flower, of pink colour, and has small thorns on the stem."— 
 Note-Boole. 
 
THE president's FAMILY. 887 
 
 the other day by a boy who had no clothes whatever 
 but a hat, which he doffed as I passed. 
 
 I went two or three days ago to be introduced to 
 the President's wife and daughters ; she was a stout 
 old lady, and her daughters very ditto young ones : 
 they live sometimes in the town, sometimes at their 
 quinta, about six miles out : at this latter place I went 
 to see them. She at first received us very stiffly and 
 formally, but by degrees relaxed, first moving the 
 chairs out under the corridor, then trotting us out 
 into the garden and showing us her curiosities, viz. 
 two fine coffee-trees, the only ones as yet in the coun- 
 try, and then leaving us to chat with the two prin- 
 cesses, which I did not do, as I did not care about 
 plunging into my bad Spanish, but my Mend did, 
 with the characteristic familiarity of the country. The 
 ladies of the Royal family (as they ought to be called, 
 for no king is more absolute than the old gentleman) 
 do not seclude themselves firom the society of other 
 people, but mix with their fellow-creatures like ordi- 
 nary mortals, keeping a httle more state, in tune with 
 their greater wealth ; for almost every other family in 
 the coxmtry except their own has been impoverished 
 by exactions. 
 
 The President himself rarely sees or receives any 
 society : he is, I suppose, more utterly alone than any 
 man in the world, for, unlike other kings, he has nei- 
 ther ministers nor advisers of any kind ; everything is 
 arranged by his own head, every officer of the execu- 
 
 s3 
 
388 ' ASSUMPTION. 
 
 tive appointed by him. The Bishop is his brother too, 
 and the General of the army his son. The President 
 is immensely fat : as he sat to receive me'with his hat 
 on, cocked a little on one side, he looked like George 
 the Fourth. Strange as the system of government 
 
 POBTBAIT OP LOPEZ. 
 
 is, it cannot be denied that vrhile nearly all their 
 neighbours have been cutting each other's throats for 
 the last quarter of a century, Paraguay has been in a 
 state of peace with the world without, if non-inter- 
 course can be called peace; and internally they have 
 been, to the best of their abilities, industrious. An 
 Englishman, accustomed to freedom, is scarcely able 
 to pass a fair judgment on the state of things here ; 
 the people ought not to be measured by the same rules 
 as ourselves, for their antecedents and circumstances 
 
CHRISTMAS-DAY. 389 
 
 have been utterly different.* I suppose the system 
 is, like the nature of human beings in general, a mix- 
 ture of the hateful and the admirable.! 
 
 * " A man wlio applied for a passport having teen reported to 
 tlae President for tearing up a piece of stamped paper which was 
 returned to him, as not being of high enough price, was shot." — 
 Memorandmn. 
 
 + " This is the most curious association of those curious animals 
 called men that you can conceive, — a sort of forecast shadow of the 
 present !Freuoh republic in the dim distance of half-peopled America. 
 It calls itself a Republic, but is a society governed by the despotic 
 will of one very fet old man. This is rather an interesting moment 
 here : our Envoy has just arrived, and is to acknowledge the inde- 
 pendence of the BepubHc (?), and to maie a treaty vrith the Govern- 
 ment. It is not unlikely that this may cause a change in the internal 
 system of the state, tending to develope the resources of the country, 
 which are very great. The people have in them the elements of life, 
 which is more than any others of these south-eastern Spanish states 
 have. But I do not think even the Paraguayans vriU do the kind of 
 work we want done on the world's siirfece vrithout the help of Eng- 
 lishmen. . . . Here are we, in a town of some 20,000 souls, and on 
 the other side is the Chaoo, wherein of these 20,000 not one dares 
 set his foot. Can you conceive the looking from your window over 
 a luxuriant desert, where not even a landlord or a gamekeeper ever 
 treads, — where perhaps once a year a party of Indians may be seen 
 on horseback for a day or two, and then vanish ? I can stand for 
 hours and gaze from the hills here over that Chaco. There is about 
 it an infinite mystery, which nothing that I have seen elsewhere 
 approaches, except the sight of the starry heavens. To see this alone 
 is to me worth having come all the way from England. But you 
 cannot see it without coming here ; for tiU you reach Assumption, 
 or very Httle below it, there are no elevations of the land worthy of 
 the name of hiUs, even on the occupied side, from which you can get 
 a view ; and if there were, tiU you get to Paraguay the river is too 
 wide for you to see the scenery, — at least you would have no fore- 
 ground to lead your eye into the distance, with a suggestion of what 
 it is like." — Extract from Letter to a Friend. 
 
390 ASSUMPTION. 
 
 P.S. Christmas Day. — We had a storm last night, 
 which soon sent the thermometer down twenty de- 
 grees. 
 
 P.S. December 2Qth. — ^Yesterday we ate plum-pud- 
 ding on board the ' Locust' with the officers ; in the 
 evening there was a grand ball, very well got up and 
 conducted, and kept up till an early hour this morn- 
 ing ; you will be surprised to hear that I remained 
 there till the end, though I did not dance. The ac- 
 cessories of the ball were most curious, the ante- 
 rooms being so crowded with the poor people, some 
 in their best clothes, others in none at aU, that one 
 could only move with difficulty ; the heat was awful, 
 for the wind after the storm turned back, north, again. 
 
 eTannary 2, 1853. 
 
 A happy new year to you aU ! If you are only 
 half as happy as I am hot, you will rejoice greatly. 
 There is one very curious way of celebrating Christ- 
 mas Day here, which I should not think was to be 
 seen anywhere else : in several of the houses of the 
 better class of the poorer sort they rig up what they 
 call apesebre, which is, being interpreted, " a manger." 
 No doubt it was originally a representation of the 
 birth of our Lord ; but it would seem that this mean- 
 ing of it is quite lost, and nothing remains but the 
 most painfully silly exhibition you can conceive. The 
 room, which may perhaps be twelve feet square, is 
 half filled by a sort of bower made of calico and 
 
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 391 
 
 lace; under the canopy of this, on a stage raised 
 about four feet from the ground, are scattered (you 
 can neither say arranged nor grouped) every kind of 
 little figure that can he collected ; the centre of the 
 background is occupied by a doll which represents the 
 Virgin, and all around are the stupid little figures, 
 which look as if they were gleaned from the toy- 
 shop of some remote country viUage in England, if 
 there be such a thing. There were grotesque little 
 images of Oliver Cromwell and Eobin Hood, with an 
 apostle or two, and little dogs mounted on squeak- 
 ing bellows, with little patches of live grass dotted 
 about among them, and candles to illuminate. The 
 visitors' room is crowded in the evening with spec- 
 tators, many of them on seats placed for their accom- 
 modation ; and these poor people sit and gaze in ad- 
 miration on the motionless spectacle, and every now 
 and then break out in a melancholy chant or song, 
 which I suppose is meant for some act of reverence. 
 If this was seen in a newly discovered country, there 
 can be no doubt it would be set down as the worship- 
 ing of their idols. The spectators consist chiefly of 
 the Chinas, or women of the lower orders ; but the 
 ladies of the higher families go about to see them as 
 an amusement, and not, I fancy, without much grati- 
 fication. 
 
 The more I see of these simple people, the more I 
 like them : there are three or four families whom, 
 though I have only known them a month, I should 
 
393 ASSUMPTION. 
 
 be sorry to see for the last time, if I were going away 
 tomorrow. The artlessness of the young ladies is par- 
 ticularly pleasing ; of course they are utterly devoid 
 of education, beyond reading and writing. An elderly 
 lady of one of the best families asked me confidentially 
 the other day whether people went by land or by sea 
 from Buenos Ayres to the United States, displaying 
 an amount of ignorance of the state of the country in 
 their own vicinity which perhaps you will not at once 
 appreciate. The ladies are always visible from eight 
 A.M. to ten P.M., except between twelve and three ; in 
 the morning one commonly has to wait a little while 
 till they are dressed; in the evening they generally 
 sit in state to receive visitors in the patios of their 
 houses, or on the causeway in the street, under the 
 corridor : their morning dress is about of the style of 
 an English housemaid on a work-day, and that for the 
 evening like ditto on Sunday ; their ball and holiday 
 costumes about the same as that of an English lady 
 of the sensible sort. One or two families, who are a 
 little ahead of their neighbours in following the estilo 
 de abajo (the " style of below" — down the river, which 
 includes Buenos Ayres and all the rest of the world), 
 I suspect have even introduced stays.* 
 
 A great deal of my time is consumed in visiting. 
 The oftener you come to see any family, the better 
 
 * " A few short jackets and waistcoats are still worn [by gentle- 
 men], but are almost superseded by the esUlo de abajo." — Memo- 
 randum. 
 
THE GUAEANI LANGUAGE. 393 
 
 they axe pleased^ and no length of time is too long 
 for one to stay. I dare say you will wonder how I 
 manage to find conversation for more than a minute 
 with them ; however this is very simple^ for I am not 
 able to understand much of what they say^ and so 
 they have to repeat over and over again till I catch 
 the sense. It is very difficult to hear anything in- 
 doors, for there is such an echo from the absolutely 
 bare, whitewashed walls, that no sound is distinguish- 
 able to my ears. There are no pictures ; and the furni- 
 ture usually consists of a chest of drawers, with some- 
 times a little looking-glass on the top, a small table, 
 and any number of chairs that can be crammed round 
 the walls of the room. Then Guarani forms a never- 
 failing source of talk and fan ; for I make them tell me 
 words, and when they have repeated them a sufficient 
 number of times for me to be satisfied of the pho- 
 netics, I write them down : then of course I say, by 
 way of thanks, "He oro hdipu ndebe" which means, 
 ' I love you very much ;' or, " Che oroipotdite cheri- 
 berieora," ' I should like you very much for my wife.' 
 Take for another specimen of a Guarani compliment, 
 "Nde pugwmghpe capupecha, ndepope rosa potricha," 
 ' I am under your feet like the grass, and in your hand 
 like a rose.' In this way I manage to pick up Spa- 
 nish and Guarani together. I am so plucky in Spa- 
 nish that I took some of the officers of the ' Locaist' 
 the other day to introduce them to some families, 
 and acted as interpreter, which is something great, 
 
 s 3 
 
394 ASSUMPTION. 
 
 considering I had never spoken half-a-dozen words in 
 Spanish when I came here. 
 
 The Guarani is a queer and difficult language ; I 
 do not expect to be able to learn much, but I am try- 
 ing to make a glossary of it, — ^no easy task, for very 
 few people I ask can tell me the Guaram equivalent 
 of any Spanish word ; even the substantives are dif- 
 ficult to get at. For instance, I asked one person the 
 word for the head {la cabeza, in Spanish) ; he told 
 me " nyanaaca ;" another told me " chadca." I after- 
 wards found out that the real word for head is acd, 
 the first of the other words meaning our heads, the 
 second meaning my head. They speak in phrases, not 
 in words, and most of them are quite unable to ana- 
 lyze the sentences ; but the queer compound words 
 seem all to be formed according to some rules, which 
 I hope to make out by the help of the Swede, who is 
 an extremely nice fellow and of the most singular 
 modesty, and an intelligent Paraguayan, who has sent 
 me an imperfect copy (the only one in the country, I 
 believe) of an old Guarani dictionary, compiled by 
 some of the Jesuits before the expulsion. The Gua- 
 rani of the dictionary is however of no use here, the 
 language being very much corrupted : it is said that 
 the Guarani spoken now in the Indian villages of the 
 Misiones of Paraguay is the same as that of the dic- 
 tionary ; there are no words of pure Guarani for most 
 of the articles of Spanish introduction ; for instance, 
 horse is cabaj4 [caballo, Sp.) ; but for some reason or 
 
RECOGNIZING THE REPUBLIC. 395 
 
 Other mbudjyape is breadj a substance certainly not 
 known to them. 
 
 We English are quite strong here now ; there is Sir 
 C. Hotham, and his brother Captain Hothanij acting, 
 I beHeve, as his secretary, and two other young men, 
 the Secretary of Legation and an attache; the latter 
 a son of Sir W. Gore Ouseley, formerly our minister 
 at Monte Video ; and the officers of the steamer. I 
 hope the Paraguayans consider us the first nation on 
 earth : I am incliaed to think they do ; at any rate 
 we are very much respected, which is a great thing. 
 
 There was another ball last night, given by a native 
 merchant who wishes to make himself conspicuous, 
 and he is going to give another tonight. The day 
 after tomorrow Sir C. Hotham, to recognize publicly 
 the independence of the "republic" on the part of 
 Great Britain,* is going to give a ball in his house, 
 for which purpose he is flooring part of the courtyard 
 with boards and awning it with sailcloth, to form a 
 supper saloon ; an innovation which will, I hope, be 
 taken as a hint by the Paraguayans, who give their 
 balls in their rooms, not being up to dancing out-of- 
 doors, in a climate where nothing but imitation can 
 
 * The recognition of Paraguayan Independence by Great Britain 
 was pubEshed on the 4th January, 1853, in a handbill signed by 
 the President ; and to give some notion of the extent of publicity in 
 Paraguay, it may be mentioned that three himdred copies of the 
 handbill are ordered to be printed, in order that it may speedily 
 reach the knowledge of every one (" Imprrmanse trescientos ejem- 
 plares, a fin de que brevemente llegue a noticia de todos"). — Ep. 
 
396 ASSUMPTION. 
 
 ever have led people to wear clothes, much less to a 
 dance in a house. The thermometer was at 93° in 
 the room last night ; what it must have been under 
 the coats of the dancers I cannot say ; and the men 
 do dance here with a vengeance, or rather the down- 
 river people, a good numher of whom are here, do. 
 The people who were not admitted into the room 
 adopted a novel method of looking on ; they thrust 
 their naked legs through the bars of the windows into 
 the room, holding on to the upper part with their 
 arms, while their grinning faces shone out above. 
 
 I was riding along the street yesterday, near the 
 square" in which the Government buildings are, and 
 heard a precious firing of rockets and viva-iag. Be- 
 hold ! the people were carrying the portrait of the 
 President fi-om the Cabildo to the ball-room j the 
 noise was adulation of the effigy. In the evening he 
 came to the ball ; he arrived a few minutes before I 
 did, so I lost the sight of his entry ; when I came he 
 was sitting in an armchair at the end of the room in 
 a magnificent uniform, with a huge gold-headed cane 
 in his hand : there he sat for about two hours, the 
 most perfect picture of pompous good humour; on 
 his right sat his wife, like any queen. I did not no- 
 tice a single Paraguayan except his wife and his son 
 (a yovmg lad of twenty or so, the General of the army) 
 go near him. The Representatives of the foreign 
 Powers that are here went up and saluted him as 
 they came in ; he stood up to shake hands vrith Sir 
 
FUTURE PLANS. 397 
 
 C. Hotham, an honour which he also accorded to the 
 Brazilian Minister, but to no one else. I went up 
 with two other Englishmen and made obeisance to 
 him, at which he looked highly pleased; I do not 
 think any one else went near. Two gentlemen, Ar- 
 gentines, actually danced a solo before him, intended 
 for and called an EngHsh hornpipe. At last, about 
 ten P.M. (the ball was opened at eight, by his son 
 dancing with his daughter) he rose and walked out of 
 the room, amidst the obsequious bows of some and 
 the retreating of others ; and as he departed, under 
 shouts of Viva la Republica del Paraguay ! Viva el 
 excelentisimo Senor Presidente ! the stiffness suddenly 
 relaxed, a hum of talk pervaded the room, the good- 
 natured Presidentess burst into a bland smile and 
 swept into the seat just vacated by her husband, and 
 there she sat without moving, except once to go and 
 take refreshments, tiU the end. I did not stay very 
 long, as not many of my special fiiends were there, 
 and I had already seen enough of the humours of a 
 Paraguay ball. 
 
 There is a person here who wanted to make an 
 expedition with me to Villa Rica.* I was not very 
 anxious myself to have him as a travelling companion 
 in this country, as I knew him to be a most indiscreet 
 individual. He was talking very big a week or two 
 
 * " The LoliaHtantB of ViHa Bica and Oarugaty are called Gruay- 
 renios, those towns having been peopled from the province of 
 Gkiayra, of which the inhabitants were withdravra from their settle- 
 ments on the Parana, near the Salto Grande." — Memorandum. 
 
3 98 ASSUMPTION. 
 
 ago about his being great friends with the President, 
 who was going to give him the post-horses to travel 
 withj and so on. But the other day he went to ask 
 leave to go to Villa Rica, and was astonished by the 
 President answering him with "You don't go: the 
 police know your irregularities j you will leave the 
 country instantly !" and then turning on his heel and 
 leaving him gaping in the room. However, by means 
 of the young General he managed to get let off the 
 banishment ; but his trip to ViUa Rica of course comes 
 to nothing, and he has found out of a sudden that 
 business requires his presence in Monte Video early 
 in February ! His offence was, that at a country-house 
 where he went to stay a few days, he, by request of 
 his host, magnetized one of the ladies, and cured her 
 of a headache, and astonished the people with some 
 antics he played with his patient. 
 
 The French steamer is not yet arrived with the 
 Minister, though she has arrived at Corrientes ; having 
 been twice aground in the river for many days. I 
 have prepared for my journeying thus far, in hiring a 
 servant, a very honest, willing fellow ;* and my horse 
 tm-ns out a trump, fuUy justifying my opinion of him, 
 in spite of the counter-opinion of my friends at Cor- 
 rientes : I shall be quite sorry to leave him when I 
 leave the country. Sir C. Hotham looks very thin j 
 
 * The following Memorandum as to this proceeding occurs in one 
 of Mr. Mansfield's Note-books, and may serve to give an idea of ser- 
 vants' wages in Paraguay ;— " 1853, January 1, Asuncion, Paraguay. 
 Tate aa servant Vicente Fruto Alvar^ at four silver dollars a mouth, 
 and one real a day for food when I do not find him thereiu," 
 
FUTURE PLANS. 399 
 
 he says he finds the heat very relaxing. Hitherto I 
 am very well, and like the heat, though I hate my 
 clothes. I am thinking of making a wholesale ex- 
 tract of yerba mate, Paraguay tea, for the preparation 
 of thein on the large scale. By the way, the people 
 here do not drink much of this infusion ; they send 
 it down the river (or rather the President does, who 
 monopolizes the sale of it) to the Argentines and 
 Orientals, who are always drinking it : I like it better 
 than tea. 
 
 I dare say you will iaot be sorry that this letter is 
 not quite so long as my former ones. I hope and 
 trust that the year now commencing, and which will 
 be pretty far advanced before you receive this, will be 
 a happy one for you all ; and I fervently hope to be 
 with you again before it is ended. I cannot tell when 
 I shall turn homewards ; having come into this unex- 
 plored country, I do not like to depart without making 
 some attempt to see something of it, and this cannot 
 be done in a hurry, — first, fi-om the difficulty of get- 
 ting on in a perfectly strange country ; and secondly, 
 on account of the expense. By remaining stationary 
 for some time, I economize my forces so as to enable 
 me to launch out in spurts every now and then. 
 
 I have lately learnt from the Brazilian Minister 
 that since I arrived in South America (July last) a 
 steamer has been started by a Brazilian company to 
 run up the Amazon to the frontiers of Peru ; I should 
 very much like to make that voyage, but shaU pro- 
 bably however be a great deal too home-sick when I 
 
400 ASSUMPTION. 
 
 leave thiSj to think of running across the continent 
 again; I should like best to go hence to Peru by land, 
 and then down the Amazon. 
 
 I have not made any sketcheSj always finding that 
 I have too much to do (it takes such a long time for 
 an unskilled artist) ; but I am every day and hour 
 longing for the power to draw.* 
 
 January \2th. — The French steamer 'Flambard' 
 arrived, having been aground eight days at one place, 
 and four at another, besides several at Corrientes; 
 she brought up the French and Sardinian Ministers. 
 
 January \%th. — I have spent my time in an almost 
 contiaual round of visits, except when interrupted by 
 a rick in the back, which I received from a fall out of 
 my hammock on the last day of last year, and a some- 
 what severe cold, which was accompanied by a swelled 
 face and toothache, during which time I was altoge- 
 ther rather a victim : but I am quite well again now. 
 
 January 19/A. — Three scorpions were foimd alive 
 under packing-cases in the warehouse. 
 
 January 22nd. — A man brought me a horse which 
 he offered to sell for ten dollars ; I liked his looks so 
 much that I told him to leave it for me to try : after 
 dinner I started (at two p.m.) on the charming little 
 animal, and rode out to Campo Grande, where I spent 
 
 * Owing to tlie sudden departure of the writer from Assumption, 
 that port of the Diary from which the remainder of this Chapter and 
 the next are extracted was never posted as a letter. 
 
PARAGUAY MONEY. 401 
 
 a very pleasant afternoon^ and left at eight. During 
 my ride backj I came to the determination not to buy 
 the horse, but to go down the river by the first ship, 
 and return straight home to England. 
 
 January %7th. — I went down to the Government- 
 house to take leave of the President. After waiting 
 for about one hour and a half, I was ushered in, and 
 talked with him for half an hour, during which con- 
 versation he was veiy civil, and told me that I might 
 come again with perfect freedom. I returned to 
 dinner, and about four p.m. we rode out to the coun- 
 try seat of the Seiiora Presidenta, and bade farewell 
 to the affable old lady. 
 
 January ZQth. — Having heard that a ship called 
 the ' San Vicente ' was lUiely to start soon down the 
 river, I went down to the port to get an interview with 
 the Captain ; I found him with his feet in the stocks 
 in the guardhouse, and he then and there agreed 
 to take me to Buenos Ayres for twenty-five dollars, 
 and to sail on Tuesday morning next, certain, if the 
 wind was favourable.''^ In the afternoon I started with 
 
 * Memorandum as to Paraguay money : — " The current money is 
 Spanish patacoons, o* (Jollare, no difference being made between the 
 two. There are pieces of four reals, two reals, one real, and half a 
 real ; those of the last three values being stamped and cut. The cut 
 money is of all irregulat shapes, the real being sometimes difficult to 
 distinguish from the two others. There are also gold ounces, and 
 fractions of ounces ; and paper-money of these different values, all 
 circulating at par. Payments may be made either in gold or silver, 
 or partly in specie and partly in paper, — paper-money not being a 
 legal tender for more than one-half the sum paid." 
 
 The success of the Paraguayan paper-money does not seem to be 
 
■'V 
 
PARAGUAY MONEY. 403 
 
 a party consisting of father, mother, three daughters, 
 little boy, and a baby in a servant's arms, to take 
 them over the ' Locust.' On the way T offered my 
 arm to one of the ladies, when she declined, alleging 
 that such a method of joint progression was forbidden 
 in Assumption during the daytime. We passed a 
 very pleasant evening on board the steamer ; one of 
 the young ladies ventured down into the engine-room, 
 and was the first Paraguayan who has performed that 
 act. She was followed by two others ; a fourth could 
 not venture. 
 
 January 31st. — Sir C. Hotham recommended me to 
 take a passport, so I went to the Stamp-office to get a 
 stamp, and then to a lawyer to get the petition written, 
 
 owing to any very refined calculations as to currency. The following 
 sample of a Paraguayan currency law (March, 1847) might mate a 
 Birmingham financier's mouth water : — 
 
 " The President of the EepubUc, wishing to give greater freedom 
 to the circulating medium, as befits the workings of the national in- 
 dustry and trade, and to try a suitably calculated issue of paper- 
 money, either towards forming a bank, or for paper of credit (0 sea 
 para lafimdacion de tm ianco, 6 sea para efectosde crSdito), subject 
 to the necessary precautions against the withdrawal of the metallic; 
 currency, or the depreciation of notes, decrees as follows : — 
 
 " Article 1. The National Treasury shall issue notes up to the 
 total value of 200,000 dollars. 
 
 "Article 2. Such notes shall be divided into five classes with sepa- 
 rate numbers ; those of the first class being for one dollar ; those of 
 the second for three ; those of the third for five ; those of the fourth 
 for nine ; and those of the fifth for twenty, conformably to the ac- 
 companying pattern. 
 
 "Article 3. At the PubUo Treasury and the other pubKc offices 
 such notes shall be received as current coin in payment of duties, or 
 other claims whatsoever of the State, one-half being first paid in 
 metallic currency." — Er. 
 
404 ASSUMPTION. 
 
 which I left with the officer of the palace guard for 
 the President's signature ; I then got another stamp 
 and permit for my luggage, which was signed at the 
 Custom-house. A tremendous storm of rain came 
 on in the afternoon, but as it was my last chance for 
 paying my farewell visits, I put on my india-rubher 
 poncho and leggings, and went out and accomplished 
 that duty. 
 
 February \st. — There was considerable delay in get- 
 ting my passport, but thanks to Sir C. Hotham I did 
 get it at last; Thompson had to persuade the con- 
 signee of the ' San Vicente ' to keep her waiting tUl I 
 was ready. Sir C. Hotham said that he would send 
 me a bag of letters for the British Consul at Buenos 
 Ayres, and a letter for myself, saying that I was the 
 bearer of despatches. 
 
 HEAD OV PATAGXTA INDIAN. 
 
405 
 
 DEOPPINGT DOWN THE PAEAGUAY. 
 
 February 3, 1853. 
 
 I went roving in tlie woodlands,* where tlie Sun unsleeping glows, 
 Fondly watching the rich silence of his cherish'd Earth's repose ; 
 Where all Nature lingers resting, swathed in light of gorgeous sheen. 
 Painted petals, gilded plumage, flecking her undress of green. 
 
 " Earth is slumh'ring, Sun is waiting, till the dawning of the day 
 When the Lord's own chosen people shall turn hither for their play, 
 Eor the work to which the husy iron-islanders go forth. 
 Shaming all the sloth of ages with the labour of the North.f 
 
 " Then the bridegroom of the heaven shall relax his ardent gaze ; 
 In her fresh robes Earth shaE laugh then with the kisses of his rays, 
 And, her loose dishevell'd tresses braiding up with loving art, 
 Grather graces new to gladden her king-planet's giant heart. 
 
 " Then, where now its tangled burden, in mid -region of the air 
 Poised aloft on stately columns, waves the forest vrild and fair, 
 There the land shall poiiT her sweet milk through the golden-shafted 
 
 cane, 
 Erom her bosom, garden-vested, jewell'd o'er with fruit and graia.'' 
 
 Thus I mused in southern woodlands, as I wander' d, seeking ease. 
 Seeking rest with birds and herbage, consolation from the trees ; 
 Steep'd my sense in in&nt wonder at the endless picture-scroll 
 By the loving Eather painted to delight the sinning soul. 
 
 * Brazil ; see Chapter II. and foUovring. t See Chapter IV. 
 
406 DROPPING DOWN THE PABAGCAY. 
 
 Then to me a Voice came whispering, " These are timbers, ferns, and 
 
 palms, 
 Feeling not, not stirring. Sea-like, minds will fester, wrapt in cahns. 
 Here is sleep where should he action. Thou hast learnt what here 
 
 shall he. 
 Enough! this ne'er will staunch thy heart; thou hast other sights 
 
 to see. 
 
 " G-et thee quickly down to Egypt, where the floodstream of the 
 
 South 
 Weary yawns for fleets to pour in Hng'ring commerce to its month ; 
 There, among its plains and peoples, more of peace thy heart shall 
 
 know 
 Than the Indian jungles ever to thy dreaming brain can show.'" 
 
 So I hied me down to Egypt, where the mighty Silrer NUe* 
 Tells by its lying name the shame of a greedy nation's gmle ; 
 Greedy still and murderous ever, — in whose city of Sweet Breatht 
 I stood aghast, and gasp'd thick air, heavy with the smell of 
 death ; 
 
 Where the tiger tears the wild-horse, and the flesh-hawk's gorge is full 
 Of the scraps the wild-man's noose and knife may leave of tortured 
 
 hull; 
 Christian cheats and butchers Christian, and would roast and eat 
 
 him too. 
 But that beef is cheap and coarser, men too delicate and few. 
 
 " O my God ! these plains are crimson, sure no peace can here be seen ! 
 An aching heart is craving peace, siching eyes are craving green." 
 Then the Voice came to me whispering, " Faithless murmurer, be still ! 
 Who pursueth good encountereth shapes of evil, — take thy fill." 
 
 So I sat me down expectant, by the Still Voice cheer'd meanwhile, 
 Bones and carcases around me, where the tainted Silver Nile 
 RoUs not sands of treasure-spangle, but a gloomy tide of mud, 
 All appropriately tinted with the ominous hue of blood. 
 
 * La Plata. t Buenos Ayres, see Chapter VI. 
 
DROPPING DOWN THE PARAGUAY. 407 
 
 Rose at last the welcome whisper, " All the banks of Silver Nile 
 Are not so imbued with murder, not so stain'd with passions vile ; 
 Par above, in Abyssinia,' towards the ocean-river's source. 
 Lies the good land of Prester John ; thither, vagrant, steer thy course. 
 
 " There a nation dwells unknown yet to the world of wealth and strife, 
 Hidden there for many ages, fiill of love, of peace, of life ; 
 There in mystery imprison'd by full many a jealous wile 
 Of the savage dragon-piratesf cruising on the Silver If Ue. 
 
 " But the evil power is broken, and the wary dragon slain, 
 And the savage pirates conquer' d, Prester John's land free again ; 
 'Now the city gates are open, hie thee up the Silver NUe, 
 To the plains of Abyssinia : there the truant time beguile. 
 
 " As thou voyagest thou shalt witness round about thee and within. 
 Proper sights to cheer the spirit in this weary world of sin ; 
 Only ever, nothing doubting, fold strong hope about thy breast. 
 That for thee too, in yon charm'd land, ia reserved a store of rest." 
 
 Then came stealing o'er my mem'iy dim day-dreams of wayward 
 
 youth. 
 Childhood's long-forgotten fancies, half-prophetic shades of truth. 
 That one day in strange and lovely Prester John's land I should find 
 Some enigma dark imriddled, peace denied else for my mind. 
 
 Many a week and many a day then, many a long long league and mile, 
 
 Sail'd I up the torrent ocean of the mystic Silver Wile ;% 
 
 But nor weeks nor leagues were weary, for there whisper'd still the 
 
 Voice, 
 " Yon is the land of Prester John, there e'en thou may' st yet rejoice." 
 
 Hope half-conscious glow'd within me, tho' I could not yet conceive 
 
 What hope could bring, how joy could come, to a heart past all re- 
 prieve. 
 
 Held by head-winds lounged I brooding o'er my bark's side on the 
 flood; 
 
 Then my vision teem'd with wonders, carved in clouds of fleeting mud. 
 
 * Paraguay. t The Argentines. J See Chapter VII. 
 
408 DROPPING DOWN THE PARAGUAY. 
 
 Sparks of hope flew briskly upward, as I saw the Silrer Nile 
 Txim to life-blood of new nations, stirriug Earth to breed and smile ; 
 Far and wide dispensing forces, strung in thews of gum and steel, 
 Prom the wild flood's endless power, hamess'd to the patient wheel.* 
 
 Sped I o'er the waste of waters, perching up on topmast high ; 
 Then the tract of huge Zaharaf lay stretch'd out 'twist me and sky ; 
 This the Yoice would show me, whisp'ring, " Canst thou fency, faith- 
 less child, 
 That in a Kving uniTerse this must e'er be desert wild ? " 
 
 Hope flamed brightly through my being as I saw the sands grow green, 
 Harvests springing, cities ringing, all the land one vast machine ; 
 As I saw the engines whirling hTlk of ice across the flat 
 !Prom the far Moon-peaks, to temper sultry winds in Tafilat : 
 
 So I floated, busy dreaming, and I dream' d and floated on, 
 TiU I reached the ancient haven, where the town of Prester John,J 
 Like an old, white-mantled matron, with her ever-cheerful smile. 
 Sits and ponders on the ages mirror' d in the Silver Nile, 
 
 Sits the dame in easy-chair there, draped with softest velvet green, 
 Broider'd o'er with finnts and blossoms, feather'd fentasies between j 
 Lories quaint and tiny sun-birds lap the grapes and kiss the flowers, 
 Where the lihes link the com-flelds to the old town's silvery towers. 
 
 There, aiound the piUar'd porches, eeil'd with antic thatch and tile. 
 Kindly races, gentle brothers, tiU the banks of Silver Nile ; 
 While fair sisters 'neath the vinesheds and the fragrant orange bowers 
 Spin and braid the snowy gossamer all the shady summer hours. 
 
 There they quaff sweet influences, love-difflising, quelling bile, 
 From the heart-enchanting lotus]] of their own dear Silver Nile ; 
 Heeding nought of foreign tumults, pillow'd in contentment calm, 
 Doat they ever on their own land, as they sip the lotus bahn. 
 
 * See Chapter VIII. J Assumption. 
 
 + The Chaoo. ]] The yerha mate. 
 
DROPPING DOWN THE PARAGUAY. 409 
 
 Hither then a wanderer came I, and, to seek rest, sat me down 
 In the corridors and bowers of the ancient mystic town ; 
 'Neath each corridor and bower everywhere I found a friend. 
 And the Still Voice now was whispering, " Here the curse will have 
 its end." 
 
 Through the summer nights I fancied all the wonders I would do : 
 How I 'd scour all Abyssinia ; make a trip to GKmhuotoo ; 
 Track the Wiger* from its sources ; see the mighty Silver Nile 
 Pouring all its headlong thunders o'er the cataract's craggy pile.+ 
 
 And the days went plunging downwards, noon-heat drown'd in 
 
 deepest books, 
 Mornings bhthe with birds and flowers, wash'd away among the 
 
 brooks ; 
 And the evenings follow'd faster to th' eternal sea of hours, 
 Down the stream of mirth and converse in the corridors and bowers. 
 
 For in free and merry converse with the swains and maidens young 
 Leam'd I there to Hsp the accents of their old mysterious tongue ; 
 Tongue so sweet in maiden's prattle, yet so strange ; what pedant's 
 
 lore 
 Shall by quirk etymologic trace it to the Ark of yore ? 
 
 And I sipp'd their witching lotus, Prester John's own magic herb, 
 Fit spell loving hearts to fasten, potent roving souls to curb : 
 And it wrought me charming Ia.ndscapes o'er dissolving-views of home, 
 Winning me to love the strange land, w innin g me from wish to roam. 
 
 So a life-long chain seem'd broken, and a clinging curse repeal'd ; 
 Seem'd tha.t from my hmbs fell shackles, and that fest'ring wounds 
 
 were heal'd. 
 In the sighing of the south wind whispers e'er the still small Voice ; 
 Dark eyes twinkhng in the stars too, prophesy, " Bejoice ! Eejoioe ! " 
 
 * The Amazon; see p. 399. t TheFalb of the Parana; see p. 372. 
 
410 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE VOYA&E HOME FEOM ASSTJMPTIOK TO 
 SOUTHAMPTON. 
 
 eUAEDIAS.— CICADAS. — A DEEB SLAIN. — THE 'tIXEN.' — THE 'SAIT 
 VICENTE ' TAKEN BY THE ' OOEBEO.'— PASSENftEES TBANSIEEEED 
 TO THE lATTEE. — THE ' MEECED ' TAKEN. — THE 'VIXEN' COMES 
 UP AND PASSENS-EES ABB TBANSEEEBED TO HEB. — AEEIVAIi AT 
 BUENOS AYEES. — A SIEfiE. — VOYAGE TO BIO JANBIEO. — SCABOITY 
 OP BIEDS. — VOYA0E PEOM BIO TO PEBWAMBUCO. — NEABIY TOO 
 LATE. — ^ABBIVAL AT SOUTHAMPTON. 
 
 February 1st. — I left my good old horse as a legacy 
 to Thompson, and having bid farewell to aU, I went 
 on board the ' San Vicente/ and we sailed oflf slowly 
 with a hght east wind, passing under the ' Locust j*^ 
 the letters not being quite ready, they were sent after 
 us in a boat. About sunset, the low red sandstone 
 cliff, with its beautiful foliage above, shut out from 
 my view Assumption and all it held — ^for how long ? 
 Soon after dark the ship stopped, and I hung my 
 hammock with its mosquito-net under the boom, 
 though there were but few of those plagues about. 
 As I left London on my own birth day, so I leave 
 Assumption for home on my brother's. 
 
LEAVING ASSUMPTION. 
 
 411 
 
 The ' San Vicente^ is a filthy vessel, with a cargo 
 of hides and bamboos ; the cabin is about eight feet 
 by ten, horribly dirty and stinking, and stufied fuU of 
 luggage J there is no berth in it : there are two men 
 passengers besides myself, and lots of parrots, puppies, 
 monkeys, and coatis. 
 
 February 6th. — We had not many incidents during 
 the last few days. The banks of the river were mostly 
 
 A GTTABDIA. 
 
 wooded on both sides, the trees not very large, but 
 richly green ; the Chaco all verdant with long grass 
 and woods. On the Paraguay side we passed several 
 Guardias and an occasional cottage, the latter fenced 
 closely round with a barrier of stakes, and the former 
 with elevated platforms, to spy from. In going round 
 one sharp comer we scraped the bank, missed stays, 
 and ran our bowsprit right into the clay cliif of the 
 Chaco, just under a point where the ruins of a corral 
 fence indicated a former attempt at a settlement. 
 
 T 2 
 
413 THE VOYAGE HOME. 
 
 Before anchoring above Pilar we passed on our right 
 hand a beautiful island, with most richly varied tints 
 of greeuj — ^the chicharras (cicadas) ringing their silver 
 beUs merrily. The weather was tremendously hot, 
 and the only shelter to be had was under the sails; 
 and about eleven, when I breakfasted, not even there. 
 We passed the mouth of the Bermejo without know- 
 ing it J but a little below we noticed the deep ochre 
 tint of the water, which for some distance remained 
 distinct from that of the Paraguay, and for a long time 
 after appeared in insulated spots in the eddies, till at 
 last the whole river became of a uniform muddy tint. 
 The chicharras* sing most vigorously a little before 
 sunset, and then come out the mosquitos : as we often 
 sailed during the night, I was on these occasions de- 
 prived of sleep and exposed to the unmerciful attacks 
 of these insects, as the only place for me to sMng my 
 hammock was under the boom, which of course was 
 impracticable as long as we continued in motion. 
 
 At Tres Bocas we passed a lot of cottages in the 
 water, the river being high. The Guardia and a col- 
 lection of huts were now (since my sail up-stream) 
 established on the other, or Chaco side. There were 
 soldiers, and an officer or two about. Among them I 
 observed a fair young man in white shirt and trousers, 
 whom I concluded to be, and who was one to whom I 
 
 * " There are three kmds of oigarra, or chicharra ; m/ac4ngra, the 
 largest, has a note just like a silver bell. The loud, ringing note of 
 these insects becomes however a loud chirp when in the hand," 
 
DESCENDING THE PARANA. 413 
 
 had messages and parcels, — a very fine young fellow, 
 but smaUpox-pitted and shoeless. 
 
 About eight p.m. today we span out into the mag- 
 nificent Paran^j and soon lost sight of Paraguay in 
 a mirage ; the river was open to the horizon at both 
 ends, which can nowhere be seen on the Paraguay : 
 we passed Corrientes without stopping. There were 
 now but few of a blue-green stinging fly, with black 
 wings and transparent wing-tips, plentiful- and an- 
 noying on the Paraguay. 
 
 February 7th. — We went along at a rattling pace tiU 
 about four p.m., when signs of a coming storm began 
 to show themselves : we had arrived about this time 
 in the Vuelta of Jabontiri, so we fastened to a tree, 
 the same, I believe, which we shaved so closely in 
 going up in the ' Rosario' that I plucked off a branch. 
 I dreaded the heat of the cabin during the storm, so 
 I put on my India-rubber poncho and paced the deck 
 during the torrents of rain tiU midnight, when my 
 eyes ached so much from the lightning that I was 
 forced to go below. I made up a bed there on my 
 bags, and put up my mosquito-curtain, but it was 
 useless ; the whole air rang with them ; they came up 
 through the chinks of the floor and filled the net, so 
 I did not sleep a wink, which indeed was pretty much 
 the condition of every one else on board. 
 
 There were lots of cicadas about. The note of the 
 great cicada begins with a series of beats, gradually 
 becoming more rapid tiU they seem to merge in a 
 
414 THE VOYAGE HOME. 
 
 vibration, theu a hum, and then a clear, ringing, bell- 
 like, musical note, not unlike the railway whistle on 
 one line in England ; this suddenly stops, and then 
 the loud chattering beat begins again, and so on : the 
 note of one in the wood on the bank could be heard 
 distinctly above the sound of an organ that was grind- 
 ing on board our ship. 
 
 February 8th. — The wind being unpropitious, we 
 made fast to a tree, under a pretty wood, with bam- 
 boos twenty feet high. What a change has come over 
 me ! If in going up-stream I had found myself in 
 such a place, how I should have rushed into the 
 wood to seek the beautiful ! But now I have found 
 it, and am contented ; and I lie all the afternoon on 
 deck working Spanish out of Ollendorff, sleeping, and 
 reading Maurice's glorious ' Kingdom of Christ.' 
 
 FebruarylOth., — While running rapidly down-stream 
 between low, flat island -meadows, we caught sight of 
 an imfortunate deer swimming across from one island 
 to another. A musket-ball was sent after it without 
 effect, and then the men went after it in a boat, and 
 hit it on the head with an oar ; it sank like a stone, 
 so they lost it. 
 
 About ten p.m. we came in sight of the barrancas 
 of Entre K,ios, and the tail masts of a steamer beneath 
 them; this turned out to be the 'Vixen,' Captain 
 Bernard, which had come up to wait for the ' Locust.' 
 I went on board with the bag of letters, and found to 
 my delight a large packet for myself from England. 
 
DESCENDING THE PARANA. 415 
 
 Another incident of my travel, for which I have to be 
 very thankful, has been the receiving the letter-bag for 
 the ' Vixen/ without which I should scarcely have ven- 
 tured to go on board, and so should have lost my own. 
 
 February Wth. — The wind being adverse, we tied 
 on to a tree on the Chaco side, opposite Antonio To- 
 mas (Entre Rios) . A fine stag was browsing three or 
 four hundred yards ofij which the men stalked, shot 
 at, and missed. After breakfast we sailed across to 
 the Entre Rios side, where a schooner was loading 
 with crooked timbers for the wheelwrights ; the poor 
 fools were carrying and dragging it downhill, and. 
 then up into the steamer by hand. The river here, I 
 suppose, is about a mUe and a half wide. The cliffs, 
 which are not perpendicular, are about two hundred 
 feet high, and covered in many places with scrub ; 
 they consist of a calcareous-looking clay with a stra- 
 tum of hard white nodular stone running along for 
 miles, at about a hundred feet above the water. 
 
 We went into a miserable rancho belonging to an 
 old Paraguayan seventy-five years old, and as active 
 as a lad of fifteen : the men laid ia a stock of came 
 (meat). On the top of the barranca, in the scrub- 
 wood, I observed the curious crown of thorns of the 
 fan-palm of Entre Rios, very different from that of 
 Paraguay ; it is a stunted plant, tall at ten or twelve 
 feet ; the leaf-stalks, which are very much flattened, 
 have no thorns on them, but each leaflet of the fan is 
 bifid at the point, having two sharp points or thorns 
 
416 THE VOYAGE HOME. 
 
 when oldj apparently only one when youngs splitting at. 
 the longitudinal fold which each leaflet has ; the trunk- 
 bark is scaly with the roots of leaves ; each leaf, as it 
 comes, has for case-cover below a most curious white 
 network ending in long thornSj with lace below, like 
 a lady's back-hair comb, carved with open work ; the 
 flower is in a raceme, with two or three chief branches ; 
 it bears small nuts of the size of grapes, and very hard. 
 
 The Captain and two of the passengers, a gunpowder 
 merchant and a grinding organist, stopped on shore 
 for a dance at the rancho ; I recrossed the river and 
 bathed; the current, even close to the shore, was 
 more than I could swim against. What a contrast to 
 the placid Paraguay ! However, just above its junc- 
 tion with the Parang, the Paraguay is more rapid. 
 Beautiful sunset : the prismatic colours in exact suc- 
 cession, from red at the horizon to violet, and then 
 grey up to the blue sky, at an angle of about 30°. 
 
 February 12th. — ^We stopped at the Bajada, or 
 Parang, about two p.m. I went on shore to call on 
 Captain Gore, the English Minister, recently arrived 
 in the 'Vixen,' to deliver letters to Pena, the Argen- 
 tine Minister of Foreign Afiairs, and to see the town. 
 There was a new theatre, dedicated (as said a gilt 
 inscription over the curtain) to Urquiza; and three 
 churches, one unfinished. The town itself was some- 
 what neat and straggling, full of scrubby gardens with 
 fig-trees, and here and there peach-trees. I ate some 
 hard peaches, said to be ripe, with bread and grapes. 
 
DESCENDING THE PARANA. 417 
 
 at a carpenter'Sj friend of our Captain's. The cliffs 
 were sprinkled with stunted thorn-bushes, and seemed 
 to be of a calcareous marl with a zone of hard shell 
 limestone near the water's edge, and the white layer 
 of nodular stone above. 
 
 My visit to the town was curtailed by one of the 
 passengers coming and telling me that it was neces- 
 sary to start immediately, as the Captain had private 
 information that his vessel was likely to be stopped 
 to carry troops to San Nicolas. As I was embark- 
 ing Captain Gore came down on horseback, and re- 
 quested me to call on Rosas on my return to England, 
 and tell Manuelita that I had seen him on her horse. 
 We dropped down this night below the "Bank of 
 Patience," and in our way passed a small snake swim- 
 ming across the river (here a mile in width) with its 
 head erect out of the water. 
 
 February IMh. — The low barrancas near San Lo- 
 renzo are quite different from those of the Entre Eios 
 shore above, being not over fifty feet high, so that 
 the topmasts and upper yards of a small schooner 
 lying in the port were seen over the cliff from our 
 ship, and from our cross-trees I could see right over 
 the cliff to the base of the monastery, half white- 
 washedj half red brick. These cHffs too are of the 
 Pampas alluvium, while those of Entre Rios are not, 
 being of quite a different rock or rocks, and four times, 
 the height in most places. The ledges and the land 
 at the top of the latter also are generally clothed with 
 
 T 3 
 
418 THE VOYAGE HOME. 
 
 scrubby trees; those of the Pampas formation are bare, 
 with thin grass at the top. 
 
 February \Mh. — We had passed on the previous 
 nights Diamantes and RosariOj where the Captain 
 had expected to have been stopped if seen ; but about 
 sunset today we saw a steamer coming down stream 
 behind us, which we immediately suspected to be the 
 ' Correo/ in pursuit of us ; and so it proved to be. 
 We were ordered to anchor, and the Captain to go 
 on board ; on his return he informed us that he was 
 ordered to sail up with soldiers to San Nicolas. Some 
 Enghsh sailors (in service on board the 'Correo') 
 brought the soldiers ; and they informed us that they 
 had an Irish surgeon on board their vessel, so I told 
 them to tell him that I was carrying Government de- 
 spatches. Soon after this came the captain of the 
 ' Correo' and the Irishman, and I had to show my 
 letters. It ended in the Captain (a very gentleman- 
 like fellow) saying that out of compliment to Sir C. 
 Hotham he wotdd take me and my luggage on board 
 the ' Correo,' and put me into the first ship he should 
 meet going to Buenos Ayres. I asked permission for 
 the little one-eyed Spanish powder-merchant to ac- 
 company me,' which was granted; and so we went on 
 board the ' Correo,' where I found the commandant 
 of the squadron, an old weather-beaten, one-armed 
 tar, and was accommodated with a berth in the cabin. 
 I was told that the 'San Vicente' was the property 
 of one Casares, who had taken a very active part 
 
CHASE OF THE 'MERGED.' 419 
 
 against Urquiza ; that three or four of his ships had 
 been taken already, some armed; and that his son 
 was on board, a prisoner (tiU lately in irons), and to 
 be shot instantly if his father fired a single shot 
 against the outside party. 
 
 February IQth. — In our way down-stream we over- 
 hauled a ship, which was allowed to pass, and an- 
 chored alongside another which had brought up some 
 goods for the ' Correo,' and a load of Capuchin monks 
 besides. 
 
 We breakfasted at twelve ; there were present the 
 Commandant, the Captain and officers, the prisoner 
 young Casares, an individual half prisoner half em- 
 ploye, and the little Spaniard. Soon after we passed 
 out of the mouth G-uazu into the La Plata, and ran 
 across to the island of Martin Garcia, where we 
 anchored, having previously stopped and questioned 
 three or four more vessels. 
 
 February 17th. — ^At seven a.m. we got up steam, 
 and soon saw a steamer ahead towing two trading 
 goletas ; she was recognized as the ' Merced,' a little 
 war-steamer belonging to Buenos Ayres, and in pos- 
 session of the inside party. So we started in pursuit : 
 phe cast off the vessels in tow, and soon two boats 
 were seen to leave her, which were supposed to con- 
 tain officers escaping. The decks were cleared for 
 action, the guns run out ; about sixty ragged-looking 
 soldiers dressed in Gaucho costume, Indians, Niggers, 
 and half-breeds, were ranged on deck with their mus- 
 
430 THE VOYAGE HOME. 
 
 kets loaded, and we two passengers were ordered down 
 below. We gained steadily on her, and after about an 
 hour's chase the 'Merced' fired an unshotted gun, 
 dipped her ensign, in the water, and hoisted a white 
 flag. They then sent off a boat to us, in which was 
 the captain, with a cigar in his mouth, white jacket 
 and trousers ; he buckled on his sword only to take it 
 off again, and to present it to the old commandant. 
 The prisoner captain looked almost as much pleased 
 as his capturer, who jumped for joy at this stroke of 
 good luck. We then took the /Merced' in tow, and 
 picked up the two goletas, which the ' Correo ' had 
 been expecting and. had liberated in this unexpected 
 way. The ' Merced ' was almost entirely manned by 
 Englishmen,* fifty out of sixty of the crew being either 
 Britons or Americans : she only carried about twelve 
 soldiers. The captain spoke English well, and gave 
 his orders in that language ; he told me that he sur- 
 rendered from motives of humanity, as he knew that 
 he had no chance, and did not wish to sacrifice the 
 men. He said that he was captain of the artUlery 
 at the affair of Obligado, where there were thirteen 
 hulks with their masts taken out sunk, and three 
 chains thrown across, two fore and aft, of one inch, 
 and one amidships of an inch and a. quarter : he pep- 
 pered away till all hi§ ammunition was exhausted. 
 All the ships anchored for the night near Martin 
 Garcia, the pilot not knowing the way. 
 
 * The ' Correo' had about a score of English seamen. 
 
ARRIVAL AT BUENOS AYRES. 431 
 
 February \%th. — Soon after getting under weigh 
 we saw a large steamer coming towards us, which 
 was recognized as the 'Vixen;' she anchored near 
 Martin G-arciaj and we ran alongside her. Captain 
 Bernard offered myself and the powder-merchant a 
 passage to Buenos Ayres, and so we with our traps 
 were speedily transferred on board the ' Vixen.' 
 
 I walked about the quarter-deck with some of the 
 officers, and exhibited to them my collection of Pa- 
 raguay productions. About five p.m. the 'Correo,' 
 which we had seen run aground, and which the 
 ' Merced ' had been trying to tug off, sent to us for 
 assistance, saying she had orders to go up to Urquiza 
 immediately : this was of course refused, as it would 
 have been a breach of neutrality. I dined with Captain 
 Bernard, and he kindly gave me a berth in his cabin. 
 
 February %Oth. — We had been detained some time 
 owing to the lowness of the water, but it now having, 
 as was expected, risen sufficiently for us to proceed 
 across the flats, we started about two a.m. for Buenos 
 Ayres. When I got up at seven the town was in sight, 
 and the 'Prince' steamer approaching; she got into 
 the inner roads just before us ; we anchored at half- 
 past nine in the outer roads. Captain Bernard put me 
 on shore. The captain of the port allowed my luggage 
 to pass without inspection, on my stating that I was 
 the bearer of despatches. I tried to get lodgings 
 where Admiral Henderson and Captain Bernard were, 
 but there was no room, so I put up at Amonsen's 
 
432 THE VOYAGE HOME. 
 
 Hotel. I delivered tlie despatches to the Consul and 
 got a receipt for them, which I enclosed in a letter to 
 Sir C. HothaiUj keeping a duplicate myself. I called 
 on Admiral Hendersonj who was very kind and civil : 
 it rained nearly all day ; my feet had been wet all the 
 morning. In the evening I walked back to my hotel 
 without shoes or stockings. 
 
 February 24. — Senor De Angelis,* a Buenos Ayres 
 acquaintance, tells me he has studied Guarani from 
 books, and has a large collection of some fifty volumes 
 in Guarani and other Indian languages, all of which 
 he has now sent to Paris to be bound. He is writiDg 
 an essay on Guarani and the Indian languages, which 
 he iatends to send to some learned society in Europe. 
 He considers the Guarani to be the most philosophi- 
 cal of all languages ; everything can be expressed in 
 it; the radical ideas are expressed in monosyllables, 
 the more complex notions by circumlocutory compo- 
 sitions thereof. Thus, he says that Paraguay means 
 the water of, or coming from, the sea : Para = sea, 
 gwa = of,y^^-wa,tGv; meaning the river that runs 
 out of the lake of Xarayes. He says that Paya- 
 gua is an altogether different word ; that it is Gua- 
 rani, and means "hung to their oars," because the 
 Payaguds are the especial boatmen of the river.t 
 
 * Author of ' Coleecion de Obras y Dooumentoa ineditos sobre el 
 Eio de la Plata, por Don Pedro de Angelis. Buenos Ayres, 1836 ; six 
 vols. 4to.' 
 
 t The foUowing memoranda may here he inserted : — " February 
 23rd.— During the siege the price of corn was 270 dollars the fanega ; 
 
CHANGING MONEY. 423 
 
 (The day after my above conversation with De Angelis 
 I saw in the paper that he was put in jail, to the great 
 exultation of the 'Progreso;^ thus: — "De hoy en 
 adelante la traicion y la cobardia no se anidaran en el 
 corazon de esta ciudad magndnima siempre, siempre 
 noble y valiente.") 
 
 February 25th. — I had to go to a money-shop to 
 get a bill on my London bankers cashed. I was paid 
 ia ounces at 66s. each, part of which I had imme- 
 diately afterwards to pay away to the secretary of the 
 steam-company at 65s., and so was done out of a so- 
 vereign. Going to eat grapes at a friend^s house, I 
 saw some of the baxricades stiU standing at the street 
 ends. 
 
 February 26th. — At the police office yesterday, tak- 
 ing out my passport, the fellow wanted to charge me 
 for two passports, because on asking me where I was 
 going I had answered " Brazil and England." 
 
 March 2nd. — I bought some Spanish and English 
 Bibles, dictionaries, and grammars, as presents for 
 some Mends in Paraguay. There are no Bibles in 
 that country : one lady has a Spanish one, printed in 
 London, which she prizes as a curiosity, but does not 
 like it " because there is so much repetition." 
 
 now that it is over, parties undertake to supply it at 70. February 
 Zhth. — Beef costs here 40 dollars (Buenos Ayres paper) the arroha, 
 and 2 dollars the pound at Tigu, above Buenos Ayres : it costs (in 
 plata, or silver) 4 dollars the arroha; and one can buy a buUook of 
 28 arrobas for 106 doUars (about 22i dollars of Buenos Ayres = 1 
 patacoon=50 pence)." 
 
THE VOYAGE HOME. 
 
 March 3rd. — Mr. Fitzgerald, captain of a small En- 
 glish trading vessel^ a young, spirited fellow, tells me 
 he has often been up to Santa Fe, and knows San 
 Espiritu, a league or two (?) below Santa Fe. Gabot's 
 Tower is here, a small, ruined vestige, eight or ten 
 feet high, of the wall of a round building. The shore 
 of the Parana is here very gently sloping ; ships can- 
 not come near for the shallowness of the water. The 
 river which runs in is about a hundred and eighty 
 yards across. The tower stands perhaps fifty yards 
 from the water's edge. A few ranchos are there, but 
 scarcely any inhabitants ; the country beautiful, per- 
 fectly flat, with groves of trees about twenty feet high, 
 with spreading heads. (The Fort San Espiritu is be- 
 tween the mouths of Rio Carcavanal south, and north 
 Rio Santo Tome, " qu.'h la latitude de Santiago on ap- 
 peUe Salado." Azara's maps, just below extremity of 
 Isle of Santa Fe.) 
 
 March 4th. — Nothing of importance occurred du- 
 ring my stay at Buenos Ayres. I spent my time 
 mostly calling on friends, writing, and reading news- 
 papers at the club, or ' Uncle Tom's Cabin ' in my 
 room. The town was besieged in a quiet way : the 
 little one-eyed Spanish merchant told me that one of 
 his children had been shot. One day I strolled out 
 to the Retiro, where there was a review, and also a 
 skirmish going on about a mile from the breastwork. 
 Infinite ladies were walking about on the slopes look- 
 ing on, and from time to time a shotted guu was 
 
VOYAGE TO KIO JANEIRO. 425 
 
 fired close to lis, over the heads of the reviewing ca- 
 vaJry, at the enemy. 
 
 At four P.M. I started off for the steamer ' Prince/ 
 which was to take me to Rio Janeiro, with a tremen- 
 dous toothache, one of my old swingers; camphor 
 was ineffectual, so I tried a compoimd of mastic and 
 creasote, which was recommended to me ; it had no 
 immediate effect, but soon after I got in motion the 
 pain stopped. 
 
 March 6th. — At Monte Video I called on old and 
 new friends, had a fruit feast of peaches, apples, and 
 nectarines (there being also pears, figs, and grapes), 
 and heard service performed (it was Sunday) at the 
 English church by the chaplain of an American ship. 
 
 March 12th. — We had a splendid passage from 
 Buenos Ayres; the Captain said that he had never 
 known such weather, nor ever had such a passage ; 
 but we did not go very fast, there not being sufficient 
 wind to draw the fires, and being obliged to burn an- 
 thracite, as there was not enough of the proper coal 
 to be obtained at Monte Video. 
 
 While on the voyage down in August last, there 
 was an infinite number of Cape pigeons and alba- 
 trosses flying about the ship during the voyage, but 
 this time there were no birds at all to be seen, except 
 on two occasions a solitary Cape pigeon. We saw 
 some turtles, and the Captain went out in a boat to 
 try to catch one, but it dived and escaped ; we also 
 saw a small shoal of large white porpoises. We an- 
 
426 THE VOYAGE HOME. 
 
 chored in Rio Janeiro harbour at ten this evening, 
 having had the Sugar-loaf in sight before sunset. 
 
 March \Qth.—l spent the last few days calling on 
 old and making new friends in Rio, and was able once 
 more to pay country visits in that civilized vehicle, a 
 'bus. I went this morning to see the great diamond 
 found in Minas, which was deposited in the bank ; it 
 was offered for sale at £300,000 to the Brazilian Go- 
 vernment ; but as the directors were not in I could 
 not get a sight of it. In my way down to the boat 
 this evening which was to take me on board the ' Taj,' 
 a custom-house officer wanted to stop my luggage be- 
 cause I had no permit to embark, and wanted a bribe 
 of twenty milreis to let it pass, upon which I told him 
 to stop it if he liked : he let it pass for nothing, after 
 a little gammon. When I got on board the ' Tay' I 
 found one passenger who had come out with me in 
 her from England, but the captain and all the officers 
 except the surgeon, purser, chief engineer, and two 
 middies, were changed. 
 
 March 22nd. — At four p.m. yesterday we steamed 
 into Bahia Bay, and after our five o'clock dinner I 
 went ashore. For the first time on landing, I found 
 myself without friends ; so, after walking up to the 
 public garden with a young feUow-passenger, I re- 
 turned on board at eight. I should have remained 
 on shore to take a ride into the country, but were 
 told we should start early the next morning, which 
 we did not. All the grass was parched quite brown ; 
 
ARRIVAL AT SOUTHAMPTON. 427 
 
 the trees even were not bright green. There has been 
 no rain for some months^ and the sugar crops are fail- 
 ing for want of water. 
 
 March 25th. — After running along for some time 
 in easy sight of a beautiful, undulating, wooded coast 
 country, with cocoa-nut trees along the shore, we 
 stopped one night at Pernambuco, where all my old 
 iriends and their cooks and Negro servants were very 
 glad to see me, and left that place for Old England 
 this Good Friday, at noon. I was nearly left be- 
 hind ; when I got to the beach I found that the mails 
 and aU the passengers had started half an hour, so I 
 jumped into a boat, went off as fast as four Negroes 
 could pull me, and found the steamer already under 
 weigh : but she waited for me. The mails had been 
 closed earlier than had been expected, the Captain 
 having told me that I need not be on board before 
 twelve. 
 
 March 29th. — We passed the line at eight a.m. 
 The phosphorescence of the sea is now very beautiful 
 at night. There are large flashes of light in the wake 
 of the ship, besides brilliant spangles; but I think 
 the sea itseK is not generally luminous, as in our lati- 
 tudes. 
 
 April 7th. — About five p.m. I saw the Peak of Te- 
 neriffe, a pointed shadow, hanging high up in the sky. 
 
 April 17th. — We had a good passage, and arrived 
 at Southampton at six this morning. 
 
438 
 
 CHAPTER XIV, 
 
 A SKETCH OP THE HISTOEY OF PAEAaUAY. 
 
 [On his return from Paraguay, Mr. Mansfield was requested on 
 various sides to give the results of his voyage and observations in a 
 lecture or lectures. He was however only able to deliver one, at the 
 Hall of Association in Castle-street East, Oxford-street. Only the 
 notes for the historical portion of this Lecture appear to have been 
 made out by Mr. Mansfield : these are here given, vrith some additional 
 developments, derived from documents which he had ooUeoted.] 
 
 Paraguay, as now understoodj is the district situated 
 between the Paraguay and Paraaa rivers j it formerly 
 included all that part of South America which is 
 washed by them. 
 
 In 1492, Columbus of Genoa, under the patronage 
 of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, discovered Cuba 
 and Hayti; in 1493, Jamaica and the other West 
 India islands ; in 1498, Trinidad and that part of the 
 coast of South America which is now called Cumana. 
 
 In 1497, Vasco de Gama, in the service of Ema- 
 nuel, King of Portugal, sailed from Lisbon to the East 
 Indies round the Cape of Good Hope. 
 
 In 1499, Pedro Alvares de Cabral, being sent out 
 by the same King to India, was carried by the ocean- 
 
HISTORY OF PARAGUAY. 429 
 
 current to the coast of Brazil, in latitude 10°, and so, 
 without any search^ discovered that part of South 
 America. He sent home an account of his discovery, 
 and went on to India. 
 
 Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine, was then sent out 
 to survey the coast, which he did, and, having pub- 
 lished an account of it, has had the honour of giving 
 his name to the continent. 
 
 In 1515, Juan Diaz de Solis, Great Pilot of Castile, 
 sailed from Spain to continue the examination of the 
 Brazilian coast, and search for a south-west passage 
 to India ; and on the 1st of January, 1516, he dis- 
 covered Rio Janeiro, and continued down the coast 
 tin he came to the mouth of the great river (then 
 called Parana Guazu, or Great Sea-like River) now 
 known as the Rio de la Plata, and sailed up it as far 
 as the island of Martin Garcia (so called after his 
 pilot), where he was killed, roasted, and eaten by the 
 Indians in sight of his companions, who retm-ned with 
 the iatelligence to Spain. 
 
 A vagne story is told of some Portuguese haviug 
 gone overland from Brazil to the Parang, and so on 
 to Peru, and of their having been murdered by the 
 Indians on the Paran^ on their return. 
 
 In 1519, Fernando Magelhaens, searching for a 
 western passage to India, entered the Plata, but find- 
 ing that it was not a strait, he left it ; and after coast- 
 ing down Patagonia, he, in October, 1530, discovered 
 and passed through the Straits of Magellan. He sub- 
 
430 A SKETCH OF THE 
 
 sequently left the service of the King of Portugal, be- 
 cause he would not give him 2s. 6d. more per month, 
 and entered the service of the Emperor Charles V. of 
 Spain. 
 
 But the discovery of Paraguay was reserved for 
 Sebastian Gabot, an Englishman, who was born about 
 1477. His father was a Venetian merchant, who 
 had settled at Bristol. He, with his two brothers, 
 was included in a patent granted by Henry VII., in 
 1496, to his father, for the discovery of foreign lands. 
 In 1497 he discovered Labrador. A.fter the death of 
 Henry VII., Ferdinand of Spain sent for Sebastian, 
 and made him a captain and a member of the Council 
 of the Indies, and gave him a salary. On the death 
 of Ferdinand, Gabot returned to England, and Henry 
 VIII. sent him to look for a north-west passage, when 
 he seems to have entered Hudson^s Bay. He then 
 returned to Spain, and was made by Charles V. Pilot 
 Major of the kingdom. In consequence of Magel- 
 haens' discovery of the south-west route to the Spice 
 Islands, a company was formed at Seville to carry on 
 the trade to the Moluccas, and iu April, 1526, Sebas- 
 tian Gabot was asked to take the command of an ex- 
 pedition thither. Some of his officers and men hav- 
 ing mutinied, he put them ashore in Brazil, and being 
 obhged to give up the expedition to the Moluccas, he 
 went northwards, and entered La Plata. 
 
 Having explored the Parana, and made some set- 
 tlements, he sent home an account of his discoveries. 
 
HISTORY OF PARAGUAY. 431 
 
 The merchants refused to support him, but the king 
 undertook the expense of the expedition, and sent 
 him out supplies. 
 
 Gahot left his large ships in La Plata, and with two 
 small vessels entered the Parana on the 8th of May, 
 1537. He anchored off the mouth called (then Car- 
 carana, now) Tercero, where he built a fort, to which 
 he gave the name of San Espiritu, — the first settle- 
 ment of Spaniards in those parts. Having left a small 
 force here, he proceeded up the Parana till he came 
 to the cataracts ; he then descended again as far as 
 the junction of the Paraguay, up which he sailed as 
 far as Eio Bermejo, where he was attacked by the 
 Payaguas (then a warlike race) and lost his first-lieu- 
 tenant and many men. He beat them however, and 
 the Indians, like true heroes, conceived a great admi- 
 ration for their conquerors, and gave them provisions, 
 and gold and silver ornaments, which they had ob- 
 tained from Peru. So Gabot sent word to Spain, by 
 George Barlow, an Englishman, that he had found 
 the road to the celebrated gold diggings, the exist- 
 ence of which had been previously reported, but the 
 whereabouts was unknown. When Barlow arrived in 
 Spain (May, 1528) he found Francisco Pizarro there, 
 who had returned to report that he had actually been 
 to the country of silver (Peru) by sea from Panama. 
 So the King sent no answer to the " good Gabot" (as 
 he is called by several contemporaries who mention 
 him), and five years after he returned to Spain and 
 
433 A SKETCH OP THE 
 
 resumed his office of Piloto Mayor. He afterwards 
 went to England, and Edward VI. granted him a 
 pension of 350 marks (£170) per annum. He was of 
 much use to our country by his advice, which his ex- 
 perience as a navigator rendered very valuable : he 
 seems to have been the first person who particularly 
 noticed the variation of the compass. 
 
 The reports of Pizarro and Barlow about the mar- 
 vellous gold country in Peru roused aU the heroism 
 and avarice of Spain. There is this difference between 
 the Spanish gold-fever of that* day, and the English 
 one of the present : now, those who flock to the lands 
 of gold are chiefly men who have but little of the 
 yellow ore, or at least are not derived from a class 
 that must be expected to know better ; but the Pe- 
 ruvian fever attacked chiefly the more comfortable 
 classes, who seem to have been even more eager to 
 better themselves than the honest labourers who now 
 go to the diggings, to get some tickets for the produce 
 of industry which they cannot earn at home. " No- 
 bles of the highest rank and hidalgos of every grade," 
 we are told, " pressed forward to offer their services to 
 the Crown, and to solicit as a favour to be permitted 
 to embark at their own cost and expense for the gold 
 lands. Never had so many cavaliers of noble and 
 gentle lineage embarked for the New World as Her- 
 nando Pizarro took with him on his return, in 1534, 
 to join his brother Francisco in Peru ; but scarcely 
 had this expedition started when a more brilliant one 
 was prepared." 
 
HISTORY OP PARAGtTAY. 433 
 
 And what has become of this nation of gold-grasp- 
 ing aristocrats ? It has fallen into irrecoverable sloth 
 and utter hopelessness of life. I think that all those 
 who love England may thank God that the highly- 
 born and highly educated of our country are not those 
 who hurry after the glittering prize. I think we may 
 take this as a certain auguryj if such were wanting, 
 that whatever may be the effect of the gold mania 
 upon our nation, it will not be the same as it was 
 formerly upon the Spaniards. There was doubtless a 
 fire of heroism, of adventurous daring among the con- 
 querors of the New World, but greediness and cruelty 
 were but too prominent features in their enterprises. 
 It is difficult to see to what good end their avarice 
 and bloodshedding has led; it seems as if they had 
 had a trial on the magnificent field which was opened 
 to them, — as if they had been weighed in the balance 
 and found wanting. The same love of getting is now 
 drawing off thousands from our shores ; let us pray, 
 heart and soul, that our brothers there may pass the 
 fiery ordeal, and that out of the confasion of the 
 scramble there, God may lead those brothers, through 
 their English love of law and right, up into a vigorous 
 nationality. 
 
 But to return to the " River of Silver," as by one 
 of the singular misnomers which characterize the 
 nomenclature of these parts, the Parana (which has 
 never yielded a particle of that metal) was called. 
 Gabot had sent home some ornaments (brought, as we 
 
434 A SKETCH OF THE 
 
 have seen, from Peru), and the Spanish nohles con- 
 cluded that the river was to yield them an endless 
 store of silver ; so they called it Rio de la Plata, and 
 forthwith prepared to seek the metal on its banks. 
 
 So Don Pedro de Mendoza, a gentleman of the 
 Emperor's household, started, by permission of Kiag 
 Charles V., with fifty individuals of distinction and 
 a force of 2500 men, to conquer the gold, the silver, 
 and the Indians in honest Gabot's mighty Parang in 
 August, 1534. 
 
 He entered the Parana in January, 1535, and on 
 February 2nd founded the settlement of Santa Maria 
 de Buenos Ayres (another misnomer by the way). 
 But they were soon driven out, and those that escaped 
 with their lives went up to Corpus Christi, or Buena 
 Esperanza, as they named a fort which they built ia 
 the neighbourhood, or on the site of Gabot's deserted 
 settlement of San Espiritu. Here they mustered only 
 500 of the original expedition ; 2000 had died. 
 
 Mendoza sent Juan de Ayolas up the river to ex- 
 plore — of course with the iutention of finding the way 
 to Peru. As he did not return within a year, Men- 
 doza started for Spain, and died of grief and fatigue 
 on the way. Ayolas went up the river, fighting as he 
 went, and on the 15th of August, 1537, had a battle 
 vdth the Payagua Indians, in which he was victorious, 
 and immediately afterwards built a fort on the banks 
 of the river in the neighbourhood, which he called 
 Assumption, from the day on which the engagement 
 
HISTORY OF PARAGUAY. 435 
 
 took place. He then went higher up the riverj and 
 started to march overland to Peru, but was murdered, 
 with all his companions, by the Indians. 
 
 Ayolas had been appointed Commander {Adelan- 
 tado) in case of Mendoza's death, and in the event of 
 the death of Ayolas the settlers were to elect their 
 own governor : they unanimously chose Don Domin- 
 go Martinez de Irala (1538). In the meantime all 
 the rest of the Spaniards had deserted Buenos Ayres 
 and Corpus Christi, and come up to their comrades ; 
 and thus, says an old account, they were all collected 
 together " in the form of a republic " at Assumption ; 
 and Irala was the first Governor of the first permanent 
 settlement on the shores of the rivers of this part of 
 South America (1538). 
 
 They were here in a very different position fi'om 
 that which they had been in at Buenos Ayres. The 
 natives of Paraguay, the Guarani Indians, were more 
 civilized than those of the Pampas ; they cultivated 
 maize, mandioca, sweet potatoes, and cotton, from 
 which they wove cloth. After a conspiracy or two, 
 and the receipt of a good thrashing, they yielded 
 to the Spaniards, who intermarried with them, and 
 adopted their language. And thus sprang up a race, 
 of which an old Spanish writer in 1612 wrote as fol- 
 lows : — " They are commonly good soldiers,, and of 
 great valour, inclined to war, skilful in the manage- 
 ment of all kinds of arms; excellent riders, so that 
 there is none among them who cannot break in a colt; 
 
 u3 
 
436 A SKETCH or THE 
 
 and above all, very obedient and loyal servants of his 
 Majesty. The women are generally of noble and ho- 
 nourable sentiments, virtuous and beautiful, endowed 
 with discretion, industrious, and well skilled in all 
 kinds of needlework, in which they are continually 
 engaged." (This is in great part true at the present 
 day, especially the last characteristic.*) But how- 
 ever this may be, the King of Spain had no notion 
 that an independent colony had been, or was Mkely 
 to be, established. He had received intelligence of 
 Mendoza's death, and having received no tidings from 
 Paraguay, felt assured that Ayolas was also dead ; so 
 he sent out, in 1540, Don Alvarez Nunez Cabeza de 
 Vaca (who had offered to spend 8000 ducats of his 
 own in the enterprise), with power to make another 
 endeavour to found a settlement, and to assume the 
 government, with the title of " Adelantado del Rio de 
 la Plata," charging him not to tolerate any lawyers 
 or attorneys in his province. 
 
 This man, a real hero, fiill of sagacity and courage, 
 landed on the island of St. Catherine, and took pos- 
 session of it in the name of the crown of Castile. Here 
 he learnt from some Spaniards (who arrived there 
 soon after him, having escaped in an open boat from 
 the wreck of the colony of Buenos Ayres) the state 
 
 * 'Argentina^' p. 61. This -writer's work has been recently re- 
 printed in Assumption, apparently for the purpose of insinuating 
 that their nation was originally established under a republican form 
 of goTBmment. 
 
HISTORY OF PARAGTJAy. 437 
 
 of things, and the foundation of the settlement at 
 Assumption. He therefore determined at once to 
 march directly across the country through Brazil to 
 that place, and to send his ships round by water. He 
 accomplished his hazardous march, by the aid of the 
 Guarani Indians, with the loss of only a single man, 
 who was drowned in crossing the Parana. At Assump- 
 tion he was received by Irala, at the head of the gar- 
 rison and municipal officers of the new settlement, 
 read his commission, and was at once saluted and 
 acknowledged as Adelantado ; he was however after- 
 wards deposed, packed up, and sent back by ship to 
 Spain, under a false accusation of maladministration 
 (1545) . Irala was ultimately confirmed by the King 
 in his government, and after a long and vigorous rule, 
 chiefly occupied in subduing the neighbouring hostile 
 Indian tribes and in embellishing his capital, died of 
 fever, in 1557, about twenty years after his first elec- 
 tion. 
 
 Thus matters went on : two or three governors suc- 
 ceeded each other duly and unduly, till at last one of 
 them, named De Garay, seeing the necessity of a port 
 at the mouth of the river, determined again to form a 
 settlement at the original place occupied by Mendoza, 
 and accordingly foimded, in 1580, the town of " San- 
 tisima Trinidad de Buenos Ayres," the original seed- 
 ling of the city of that name of the present day ; and 
 succeeded in establishing the settlement on as firm a 
 basis as Irala had that of Paraguay. 
 
438 A SKETCH OF THE 
 
 Thus Buenos Ayres was an offshoot from Assump- 
 tion of Paraguay. In 1620 the Government of Rio 
 de la Plata was established, including all the settle- 
 ments on the Parand and La Plata, south of the con- 
 fluence of the Paraguay and Parand, but still forming 
 part of the Viceroyalty of Peru. 
 
 In 1542 Tucuman had been founded. 
 
 In 1562 Santiago del Estero. 
 
 In 1573 Cordova. 
 
 In 1582 Salta. 
 
 In 1593 Jujuy.* 
 
 These were offshoots from Peru, founded by adven- 
 turers who had accompanied Almagro in his expedi- 
 tion to Chili ; they were consolidated into a separate 
 province under the name of Tucuman. Thus three 
 separate Governments were established, to which the 
 access was by the River de la Plata, viz. Paraguay, 
 Buenos Ayres, and Tucuman. 
 
 Under the Emperors Charles V. and Philip II. mis- 
 sionaries (at first Franciscans) were sent out to Para- 
 guay, and in 1547 the city of Assumption was made 
 a bishopric, under the title of " Oppidimi seu Pagus 
 de Rio de la Plata." 
 
 The Spaniards parcelled out the Indians who sub- 
 mitted to their authority into Departments, or Co- 
 mandos : they were granted to private persons for a 
 certain number of years, after which time they were 
 
 * This colony had been previously twice destroyed by the Indians 
 of the Chaco. 
 
HISTORY OF PARAGUAY. 439 
 
 employed in public TTorks, or again handed over to 
 private individualsj for whom they were ohhged to 
 work two months of the year, and pay a certain tri- 
 bute besides. In return for this their masters (or 
 Encomenderos) were to provide them with all neces- 
 saries, and instruct them in the principles and prac- 
 tice of the Christian religion : this arrangement, as 
 might have been expected, worked very badly, and 
 ended in the Indians being in fact reduced to a state 
 of slavery, and the Crown at last was obliged to inter- 
 fere to put a stop to it. 
 
 Luis de Bolanos (a Franciscan) foimded the first 
 Christian colony among the G-uarani Indians ; it after- 
 wards passed into the hands of the Jesuits, and was 
 the germ of the churches of the Parang and the Uru- 
 guay. 
 
 The Jesuits had firmly established themselves in 
 Brazil and Peru by this time (Ignatius Loyola was 
 bom about the time of the discovery of America by 
 Columbus) ; and about 1588 they settled at Assump- 
 tion, at the request of the bishop. The first Jesuit 
 church was built in 1595. They were very popular 
 for some time, owing to their excellent management 
 of the Indians ; but ultimately this very cause led to 
 great hostility being shown towards them, for, indig- 
 nant at the cruelty and oppression with which the 
 Indians were treated by their masters, they strongly 
 and publicly remonstrated against it, and represent- 
 ed the state of affairs to the home Government : in 
 
440 A SKETCH OF THE 
 
 consequence of which, in 1609, the King of Spain 
 sent express orders that for the future slavery should 
 be abo- lished, and the Indians converted by mild 
 means, and not by the sword. 
 
 The Jesuits endeavoured to carry out this plan, and 
 though they received much opposition from the Spa- 
 niards, who knew that they were opposed to the Co- 
 mando" system, succeeded in establishing several 
 settlements of converted Indians, "Reductions," 
 as they were called : the first of these was Loretto. 
 The authority of the Jesuits in these ^settlements was 
 authorized by Philip III., and confirmed by his suc- 
 cessors. In 1756 there were thirty of them, and 
 no Spaniards, except such as were in attendance on 
 the Jesuits^ were permitted to enter them. 
 
 In each village were two schools, one in which 
 reading and writing were taught, and in the other 
 dancing, singing, and music. Every family had a 
 piece of land assigned to it sufficient to supply the 
 necessaries of life ; " as for superfluities (says Charle- 
 voix), they are strangers to them, and there is every 
 reason to hope that they wiU ever continue so." Other 
 lands were set apart for the repair of the churches, 
 the support of the widows, the sick and infirm, the 
 maintenance of soldiers, civil officers, etc., and any 
 surplus went to swell the tribute to this King. Beg- 
 gary was not allowed, and any one convicted of that 
 ofifenc was condemned to cultivate the reserved lands, 
 or " God's inheritance," as they were called. 
 
HISTORY OF PAKAGUAY. 441 
 
 It must not be supposed that the Indians of the 
 " Reductions " enjoyed a life of quietness under their 
 Jesuit instructors. On the contrary, each settlement 
 had a host of foes to contend with, — heathen tribes, 
 always at war with the new converts, Spaniards ; 
 especially from Santa Cruz, by whom regular slave- 
 hunts were frequently organized, and whose miscon- 
 duct towards the Indians was such that their stay at 
 ' any of the Reductions had to be forbidden by law ; 
 and lastly, the so-called Mamelukes of Brazil, a horde 
 of land buccaneers, so to speak, than whom no more 
 atrocious community probably ever existed. 
 
 These Mamelukes were in fact the inhabitants of the 
 Brazilian town of Sao Paulo, a race apparently of half- 
 breeds, recruited by scoundrels of all nations, and by 
 fugitive Negro slaves, who found freedom at Sao Paulo 
 on the terms of helping to enslave others, Indians es- 
 pecially. This community, by favour of an almost in- 
 accessible position, had ended by becoming virtually 
 independent of the crown of Portugal. They enforced 
 the most atrocious system of slavery in their mines 
 and sugar-plantations; they destroyed all the sur- 
 rounding tribes of Indians, or laid them under heavy 
 tribute. In search of slaves and plunder of other de- 
 scriptions, they performed forays of the most extraor- 
 dinary nature, as far even as the banks of the Amazon ; 
 and parties of them are said to have traversed a thou- 
 sand leagues of country in five or six months, ravaging 
 everywhere as they went. Fourteen Christian Re- 
 
 u3 
 
443 A SKETCH OF THE 
 
 ductions had been destroyed by them in the middle 
 of the eighteenth century; it was reckoned that in 
 a hundred and thirty years they had made slaves 
 of upwards of two millions of Indians, of whom fifty 
 thousand were Christians ; and it appeared by authen- 
 tic registers (so harsh was the treatment inflicted) that 
 of three hundred thousand captives carried away by 
 them, scarce twenty thousand remained at the lapse 
 of five years, — a mortahty of ninety per cent. 
 
 One of the stratagems of the Mamelukes consisted 
 in sending a few of their number disguised as Jesuits, 
 together with a certain number of Indians, who re- 
 presented the converts, by whom the missionaries were 
 generally accompanied on their excursions. They 
 pretended to have come for the purpose of taking the 
 Indians to some spot where they shordd have better 
 dwellings, and where, joined with others, they should 
 form a numerous tribe. By the time that a sufficient 
 number of dupes were collected, the remainder of the 
 band came up fuUy armed, and the wretched Indians 
 were loaded with irons, and carried oflf to Sao Paulo. 
 
 To guard agaiast these forays, the Indians of the 
 Reductions were armed with European weapons, and 
 disciplined ; and scouts were always kept out during 
 the summer, beating the country around, to a distance 
 of fifty or sixty leagues even. The Mamelukes were 
 repeatedly defeated by them ; and missionary histories 
 record in particular a battle which took place near the 
 Reduction of Santa Cruz, when eight hundred Ma- 
 
HISTORY OF PARAGUAY. 443 
 
 melukes and four thousand of their tributary Indians 
 were utterly routed by the native converts, and for the 
 most part exterminated. The gallant conduct of the 
 Christian Indians on many other occasions is recorded; 
 and to them is attributed the honour of the capture 
 in 1680 of a strong Portuguese fort, on the spot after- 
 wards occupied by the town of San Sacramento. 
 
 There is no doubt that, whether the system pursued 
 by the Jesuits towards the Indians was on the whole 
 for good or for evil, they were much beloved by them; 
 and when they were expelled from the country, in 
 1767, by Charles III., their departure caused great 
 grief to the people. It is reckoned that the Missions 
 comprised upwards of a hundred thousand civilized 
 Indians, who were ready to take arms in defence 
 of their spiritual leaders ; and it was only by their 
 own earnest entreaties to their flocks that tranquillity 
 was preserved ; nor is it easy to find a parallel in his- 
 tory to the act of gigantic self-abnegation, so to speak, 
 by which the Order renounced without a blow a do- 
 minion so vast, and seemingly so firmly founded, as 
 that which they exercised in Paraguay. 
 
 The result showed, nevertheless, that however bene- 
 ficial the sway of the Jesuits might have been to the 
 Indian tribes, it had failed to make a people of them. 
 The settlements fell into utter decay;* Misiones be- 
 
 * See Eobertson's Paraguay, vol. ii. pp. 106 et seq. Irifowr years 
 from the expulsion of the Jesuits, the number of tame cattle in Mi- 
 siones had fallen from 743,608, to 158,659 ! According to Mr. Eobert- 
 aon, by 1838 the population of the whole district was only 8000 ; it 
 had been 100,000, as above stated. 
 
444 A SKETCH OF THE 
 
 came at last a huge desert ; .the ChacOj which though 
 unsuhdued had been traversed wellnigh from end to 
 end by adventurous missionaries, became a sealed land 
 to the foot of the Christian. It is difficult even to 
 conceive what became of the civilized Indians of the 
 Reductions. The bulk of them probably migrated 
 into Paraguay Proper, and there merged into the com- 
 mon stock of the native Guaranis ; others in like man- 
 ner took refuge in Santa Fe and Corrientes. The 
 great devastation of the country seems however to 
 have taken place after the revolutions which we are 
 about to notice, when the Brazilians, in a war which 
 they carried on with Artigas, chief of the Banda Ori- 
 ental, — ^the settled Indians, excited by Artigas to re- 
 volt against Paraguay, — the army of the Paraguayan 
 Dictator Prancia, on its retreat before the insurgents, 
 and finally the troops of Artigas, completed the de- 
 struction of fifteen of the most flourishing towns be- 
 longing to the ancient Missions, and comprising all 
 that were situate between the Uruguay and Parang. 
 These events appear to have taken place in 1817 and 
 the following years.* 
 
 The Viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres (which was only 
 detached from that of Peru in 1776) latterly compre- 
 hended the provinces of Tucuman, Upper Peru (now 
 called Bolivia), Paraguay, and the Banda Oriental. 
 
 * See Eengger and Longchamps' 'Eeign of Dr. Joseph Gaspard 
 Roderic de Franoia in Paraguay' (London, 1827), p. 33, n.* ; and 
 Bobertson, ». s. 
 
HISTORY OF PARAGUAY. 445 
 
 General Beresford's brilliant coup de main at Buenos 
 Ayres in 1806, and General Whitelocke's disastrous 
 repulse of the following year, are events which belong 
 rather to the history of Buenos Ayres than to that of 
 Paraguay ; although it is to be remarked that a con- 
 siderable portion of the garrison which defended 
 Monte Video against the English was composed of 
 Paraguayan troops. 
 
 During the captivity of the Spanish Bourbons in 
 France, and the occupation of the throne of Spain 
 by Joseph Bonaparte, most of the Spanish colonies in 
 the New World, as is well known, proclaimed them- 
 selves independent. 
 
 On the 25th of May, 1810, the movement com- 
 menced in Buenos Ayres, by the peaceful substitution, 
 for the authority of the Viceroy, of a Junta or council, 
 consisting chiefly of native Americans. The old Vice- 
 roy's name appeared in the list of the new Junta, which 
 he was compelled to join ; and the object of the new 
 Government was stated to be the maintenance of the 
 authority of Ferdinand VII., in whose favour Charles 
 • IV. had abdicated, and in whose name its decrees 
 were issued. But the old Viceroy was soon shipped 
 off to Old Spain. Out of this movement a war arose, 
 between the native Americans who favoured the Junta 
 and the Spaniards who would support a Viceroy. 
 
 The governing Junta of Buenos Ayres proceeded at 
 once to take steps towards raising the other provinces 
 of the Viceroyalty. Paraguay was applied to on the 
 
446 A SKETCH or THE 
 
 27th of the same revolutionary month of May^ to re- 
 cognize the authority of the Buenos Ayrean Junta, 
 and to send deputies, who should take part in its de- 
 liberations until the meeting of a general legislative 
 congress.* 
 
 The then Governor of Paraguay and Misiones, Bri- 
 gadier Velasco, was a man of moderate rule, and en- 
 joying the esteem of the people. He called together 
 the Cabildo, or munieipahty of Assumption, which on 
 the 26th of June decided that, the matter being one 
 of extraordinary character and of the greatest impor- 
 tance to the whole province, it was necessary to call 
 together a general assembly of the clergy, military 
 officers, magistrates, corporations, men of letters, and 
 landowners of the whole jurisdiction, and to submit 
 it to their decision; and an answer to this effect was 
 returned to the Buenos Ayrean delegate. Colonel Es- 
 pinola, who seems to have seen in it such a threat that 
 he took immediate flight. The assembly met on the 
 34th July, and resolved that fraternal relations should 
 be kept up with the Junta of Buenos Ayres, without 
 acknowledging its superiority ; and that whilst await- ' 
 ing ulterior decisions from Spain, all military steps 
 should be taken to place the province in a state of 
 defence. 
 
 * The details here given, up to the nomination of the governing 
 Junta in 1811, are mostly extracted &om the first nimiber of the 
 'Paraguayo Indepeudiente' (President Lopez's Gazette) for April 
 26th, 1845. The treaty of October 12, 1811, with Buenos Ayres, 
 will be found ia No. 2 of the same journal, for May 3, 1845. 
 
HISTORY OF PARAGUAY. 447 
 
 Tte Buenos Ayreans now determined to enforce the 
 authority of the Junta over all the district which had 
 acknowledged the sway of the Viceroy. In pursuance 
 of this resolve. General Belgrano was sent in October, 
 1810, with one thousand men, to depose the Governor 
 of Paraguay, and compel the Paraguayans to acknow- 
 ledge the Junta ; but they resisted and thrashed their 
 invaders at Paraguari, a village about fifteen leagues 
 from the capital, in January, 1811, and Belgrano was 
 obliged to return. 
 
 The Paraguayans however imbibed revolutionary 
 notions from their invaders, and the principal natives 
 of the country resolved on being independent. On 
 the 16th of May, 1811, a provisional government was 
 established, consisting of Governor Velasco as Presi- 
 dent, Dr. Jose Gaspar de Francia and Don Juan 
 Valeriano de Zevallos as assessors. But the leaven of 
 jealousy between European and American soon showed 
 itself between the members of the provisional govern- 
 ment, and on the 9th of June the Governor was sud- 
 denly arrested. 
 
 The general assembly which had been called by 
 the provisional government met on the 17th of Jime, 
 and decreed, 1st, That the province of Paraguay 
 should govern itself separately and without any in- 
 tervention of Buenos Ayres ; 3nd, That nevertheless 
 relations of confederation, friendship, and harmony 
 should be opened with Buenos Ayres, and that depu- 
 ties might be sent to the general congress ; 3rd, That 
 
448 A SKETCH OF THE 
 
 trade being restored, the revenue duties should be re- 
 gulated, and the tobacco-farm put an end to ; 4th, 
 That in no case should the laws and decisions of the 
 general Argentine Congress oblige the province of 
 Paraguay, unless previously approved by its general 
 Assembly. Independence of Buenos Ayres, and not 
 of Spain, was thus the first object of revolutionized 
 Paraguay. 
 
 A treaty of alliance on the above basis was con- 
 cluded with Buenos Ayres on the 12th of October, 
 1811 ; and indeed it may be observed that it was not 
 till 1816 that the provinces of the Rio de la Plata, 
 assembled in congress at Tucuman, declared their 
 separation from Spain. 
 
 The General Assembly of Paraguay had elected for 
 their government a Junta consisting of a President 
 (Don Fulgencio Yegros) and four assessors j one of 
 these, acting as secretary, Don Joseph Gaspar Rodri- 
 gues de Francia, soon became the soul of the new go- 
 vernment : from time to time, disgusted with the fri- 
 volity of his colleagues, he would retire to his country- 
 house, whence he was speedily petitioned to return. In 
 1813 a new congress was summoned, and two con- 
 suls, Yegros and Francia, were appointed for one year. 
 In 1814 Francia succeeded in getting himself nomi- 
 nated Dictator for three years, and in 1816 for life. 
 
 Meanwhile jealousies had sprung up between Bue- 
 nos Ayres and Paraguay, which led eventually to that 
 isolation of the latter coimtry from which we have 
 
HISTORY OF PARAGUAY. 449 
 
 seen it emerge in the last few years only. The Treaty 
 of 1811 bound the two provinces not only " to pre- 
 serve and cultivate a sincere, soHd, and perpetual 
 friendship," but also to mutual and efficacious help and 
 co-operation " with all manner of succoiir, according 
 as the circumstances of each should allow, whenever 
 it should be demanded by the sacred end of annihila- 
 ting and destroying any enemy who might attempt 
 to oppose himself to the progress of their just cause 
 and common liberty." Soon the Crown of Portugal, 
 fearing for its Brazilian possessions, and alleging mu- 
 tual rights on behalf of one of the members of the 
 Royal family of Portugal, threatened at once with in- 
 vasion the Banda Oriental, or left bank of the river 
 Plate, and the frontiers of Paraguay. In the latter 
 country it had correspondence with the ex- Governor, 
 Velasco, or his partisans. Paraguay was the first to 
 denounce to Buenos Ayres the designs of the Portu- 
 guese, and to ask for help in muskets and ammunition 
 for a corps of one thousand men which it was about to 
 raise. This was as early as October, 1811. In Ja- 
 nuary, 1812, the Portuguese having begun hostilities 
 in the Banda Oriental, Buenos Ayres urged Paraguay 
 to send a thousand men to join the forces of the 
 Buenos Ayrean General Artigas, promising in return 
 to supply it with money and ammunition, and to send 
 troops for its defence in case of attack. 
 
 But Paraguay was threatened on its immediate 
 frontier ; Buenos Ayres, attacked on the other side of 
 
450 A SKETCH OF THE 
 
 a huge river. The Paraguayan Government did not 
 deem it prudent to part with its only soldiers on a 
 distant expedition. It decliaed the request of the 
 Buenos Ayreans, although several times repeated, 
 urging its own peril, and alleging reasons which up to 
 April, 1812, at least, Buenos Ayres admitted as valid. 
 Meanwhile it furnished a few supplies in tobacco and 
 yerba to Artigas ; and sent help to it? next neighbour, 
 Corrientes, against a Monte Videan squadron then as- 
 cending the Parana. Nor were its allegations of peril 
 illusory ; for the Portuguese forces of the province of 
 Matogrosso took possession of one of its forts. Fort 
 Bourbon (now Port Ohmpo) . An armistice was con- 
 cluded by Buenos Ayres with Portugal on the 9th of 
 July,, and ten days after it expressed its regrets to 
 Paraguay on the news of the fall of Port Bourbon ; 
 but the question of the refusal by Paraguay of the 
 auxiliary force of one thousand men, whether justifi- 
 able or not, remaiaed as a bone of contention between 
 the two allies from henceforth.* 
 
 The coolness thus engendered soon broke out into 
 open opposition. A shipment of Paraguayan produce 
 on behalf of the Government having been sent down 
 the river, the Paraguayan agents were maltreated by 
 Buenos Ayrean, officials, the ships taken by Monte 
 Videan privateers within a league of the town of Santa 
 Pe, without receiving any assistance, and when recap- 
 tured by a Buenos Ayrean ship-of-war, were retained 
 * ' Paraguayo Independiente,' No. 3, lOth May, 1845. 
 
HISTORY OF PARAGUAY. 451 
 
 by their last captors. Paraguay complained ; Buenos 
 Ayres declined to do justice to its complaintSj treated 
 the seizure of the ships as a mere Admiralty question, 
 and to crown all, iu spite of the siecond article of the 
 treaty of 1811, which enabled it to lay a low duty on 
 Paraguayan yerba and tobacco, took upon itself to 
 double the fixed duty, and persisted in the imposition, 
 in spite of all remonstrances. 
 
 Together with these coercive measures, Buenos 
 Ayres urged strongly upon Paraguay the necessity of 
 sending deputies to the General Congress, both by 
 letter, and latterly through the means of an Envoy 
 Extraordinary; but the Paraguayan Congress of 1813 
 (the same which named Yegros and Prancia Consuls) 
 referred the proposal to the Executive, which declined 
 for the present, in the name of the Congress, to send 
 any deputies to Buenos Ayres. The same Congress 
 proclaimed Paraguay a Republic, and assumed na- 
 tional arms and colours.* 
 
 No immediate rupture however took place between 
 the two countries. Buenos Ayres recognized succes- 
 sively both the Consulate, and afterwards the Dicta- 
 torship of Francia. In fixing the limits of Corrientes 
 in 1814, it infringed on paper what the Paraguayans 
 deemed their territorial rights ; but it did so without 
 communication with Paraguay, and suffered the Para- 
 guayans to retain possession of what it claimed for 
 Corrientes. On the restoration of the Spanish Bour- 
 * ' Paraguayo Independiente,' No. 6, May 31, 1845. 
 
452 A SKETCH OF THE 
 
 I 
 
 bons, and the news of expeditions preparing for the 
 reconquest of America, a last appeal was made by 
 Buenos Ayres to Paraguay, to send men for the com- 
 mon defence, in exchange for artillery and munitions 
 of war. But the over-tax on Paraguayan produce was 
 not removed, and Francia made no response to the 
 appeal beyond adopting as his own a system of volun- 
 tary isolation, in place of that compulsory one with 
 which the commercial policy of Buenos Ayres was 
 threatening Paraguay : that in the course of his Dic- 
 tatorship he visited the Argentines with penalties 
 which might have been spared, is admitted by his suc- 
 cessor.* 
 
 Francia, indeed, on his accession to the supreme 
 power, soon proved himself to be a most unscrupulous 
 tyrant. He filled the prisons with the persons whom, 
 he suspected of being opposed to him, and torture, 
 banishment, and death were distributed with no spa- 
 ring hand. The old Spaniards were the principal ob- 
 jects of his suspicion and dislike, and he succeeded 
 pretty nearly in exterminating them ; the clergy also 
 found no favour with him, and he arrogated to him- 
 self all the powers of a Pope. He almost annihilated 
 the commerce of the country by his exclusive system, 
 scarcely permitting any vessels to come up to or leave 
 Assumption; the foreign merchants were detained 
 against their wUl, or expelled from the country, as it 
 suited the pleasure of the Dictator. Among those who 
 were banished was Mr. Robertson, who has written 
 * ' Paraguayo Independiente,' No. 7, June 7, 1845. 
 
HISTORY OF PARAGUAY. 453 
 
 an interesting book on Paraguay and Francia^s rtile. 
 Mr. Robertson gives a most fearful account of his 
 cruelties and oppression ; so very bitter indeed is he, 
 that one cannot help thinking (as he himself seems 
 to apprehend we may) "that he has delineated his 
 character and depicted his actions with the acerbity 
 of a disappointed man or the prejudice of an ill-used 
 
 one, 
 
 "* 
 
 As an instance of his method of proceeding, the 
 case of M. Bonpland, the eminent French naturalist, 
 may be mentioned. He had formed a settlement 
 opposite to Paraguay, in the province of Corrientes, 
 when, without any notice, Francia's soldiers massa- 
 cred his servants, and made him prisoner. Francia 
 detained him in Paraguay for many years, till at last, 
 growing jealous of his prosperity, he sent him sud- 
 denly out of the country. " He did not," says Mr. 
 Robertson, " quit Paraguay with a feeling of abhor- 
 rence of Francia, but with philosophic serenity, and 
 only regretted that there was no chance of the Dic- 
 tator's allowing him to return." 
 
 Francia depended much on the army for the main- 
 tenance of his power, and it was of course treated 
 with great consideration. He was most particular 
 that persons should salute him when he passed, and 
 
 * Mr. Carlyle's severe notice of this book in the 'Foreign Quar- 
 terly,' No. 62, for July, 1843, is well known, the whole article being 
 in fact a glorification of Francia, as the one true man « in a bewil- 
 dered Ghiacho (i. e. Gbucho) world." 
 
454 A SKETCH OF THE 
 
 the soldiers were ordered to punisli those who omitted 
 to do so ; it is even said that, as many of the young 
 lads in that warm climate used to go ahout inpuris 
 naturalibus, Francia issued an edict which required 
 every one of whatever age to wear some kind of head- 
 dress, that they might have something to doff when 
 he passed. 
 
 Indeed during the latter years of his life it is dif- 
 ficult to believe that something of insanity was not 
 mixed up with Francia's tyrannical proceedings. In 
 1836, a muirain having appeared amongst the cattle, 
 caused apparently by swarms of ticks (garrapatos) , 
 which reduced them to extreme emaciation and some- 
 times caused their death, the Dictator, under pretext 
 of preserving the cattle on the State farms, gave orders 
 to kill the herds of private individuals, in any number, 
 where there should be a single head of cattle attacked 
 by ticks. Thousands of animals were thus destroyed, 
 even to the single yokes of oxen, the single cows of 
 labouring men, who had no other fortune. In order 
 to expedite the business^ bands of soldiers, well pro- 
 vided with ammunition, were sent out, who shot down 
 the condemned animals. " If there were not so many 
 [living] witnesses of this extravagant freak," says the 
 writer who relates it, " if I had not seen the original 
 decree, it would not be possible for me to believe it."* 
 
 * ' El Paraguay, lo que Fud, lo que Es, y lo que Sera, por un Es- 
 trangero que residid seis anos en aquel pais' (Bio de Janeiro, 1848 ; 
 Asuncion, 1849). This work, published under the sanction of the 
 Paraguayan Legation in Brazil, and understood to be written by M. 
 
HISTORY OF PARAGUAY. 455 
 
 His iron-handed and exclusive despotism had how- 
 ever one good effect, viz. that of keeping Paraguay 
 out of the wars in which all the neighbouring states 
 were continually engaged ; since his death the block- 
 ade of the river by Rosas has continued its isolation, 
 and let us hope, now that the mighty Parana is free 
 to the commerce of nations, that the horrors of war 
 will not come in with the blessings of commerce and 
 civilization. 
 
 The suspension of foreign trade had indeed another 
 useful result, that of turning the attention of the 
 Paraguayans more to agriculture and industry. Al- 
 ready, it is related, at an early period of his govern- 
 ment, Francia had produced a complete revolution in 
 the system of rural economy in Paraguay, through a 
 decree of the year 1820, by which, to make up for 
 the ravages of locusts in that year, he had required 
 the landowners to sow their land a second time. The 
 harvest was most abundant, "to the surprise of the old 
 farmers, who up to that time never dreamt of such 
 a thing as a double crop in the same year ;" and the 
 produce of the country became thus considerably aug- 
 mented, so that common necessaries, which had been 
 hitherto imported from Buenos Ayres and the adjacent 
 provinces, were now grown at home.* On the closing 
 
 GreUj, tte head of the Legation, by origin a i^enchman, must be 
 considered as official ; and in justice to Messrs. Robertson, it must 
 be said that it fully confirms, although in less heated language, the 
 general effect of their statements as to Francia' s tyranny. 
 * Eengger and Longchamps, pp. 46-48. 
 
456 A SKETCH OF THE 
 
 of the frontiers, " rice, maize, the two sorts of yucca 
 root, were cultivated upon a more extended scale, and 
 with much greater diligence; and vegetables, which 
 were hitherto unknown in Paraguay, began to cover 
 the plains. The cultivation of cotton, which was for- 
 merly whoUyreceived fromCorrientes, now proceeded in 
 such a way as that the home produce of that article 
 entirely replaced the quantity which had been usually 
 imported. Horses and horned cattle were encouraged 
 in the same way; in place of receiving cattle from 
 Entre Rios, as was before the practice, the farmers of 
 Faraway had now enough to enable them to export. 
 Up to this time the people of Paraguay made use of 
 cottons only in the formation of a sort of light cloth, 
 fit for shirts ; necessity now compelled them to em- 
 ploy that article in the manufacture of all sorts of gar- 
 ments. The ponchos, a sort of cloak, together with 
 horse-cloths made of wool, which were annually im- 
 ported from abroad at a vast expense, were henceforth 
 made at home. There used to be before no such thing 
 as a dexterous workman in Paraguay. But the Dic- 
 tator, by the number of the public works which he 
 caused to be undertaken, gave a spring to industry : 
 out of blacksmiths, shoemakers, and masons he created 
 a race of whitesmiths, saddlers, and architects."* 
 
 Francia died in his bed, suddenly, in September, 
 1840, at the age of eighty-five, after a virtual reign 
 of twenty-nine years, and an absolute one of twenty- 
 * Eengger and Longohamps, pp. 48-50. 
 
HISTORY OF PARAGUAY. 457 
 
 six. Seven or eight hundred persons were in the pri- 
 sons at the time of his death, — some who had been 
 loaded with irons for twenty years without knowing 
 the cause of their arrest ; and a list of fifty persons to 
 be shot was found among his papers. 
 
 His death was kept secret for some hours ; mean- 
 time his factotum (or Actuary, as he was called) com- 
 municated with the four commandants of the regi- 
 ments quartered in the town. These officers formed 
 themselves into a junta, taking the actuary for secre- 
 tary, but they soon sent him to prison, where he hung 
 himself. A congress was summoned, consisting of 
 five hundred members, elected by universal sufirage, 
 in March, 1841, and two consuls were elected for three 
 years, Don Carlos Antonio Lopez, a wealthy landowner 
 and lawyer, and Don Mariano Roque Alonzo, an officer 
 of long service. On them was imposed the duty of 
 governing, under an oath to preserve and defend the 
 independence and integrity of the Republic ; and into 
 their hands the military resigned their power — an 
 honourable contrast to other South American states. 
 AU political prisoners were at once set at liberty by 
 the Consuls ; confiscated property, which was still in 
 the hands of the Government, was restored to the 
 owners, or, as respects land, the price of it was paid 
 to them. A police was created ; a judicial establish- 
 ment set on foot; a coUege opened. Francia's law- 
 less soldiers were disbanded, and 3000 men of more 
 regular troops enrolled. Public worship had fallen 
 
458 A SKETCH OF THE 
 
 into such neglect, that at Francia^s death there were 
 not fifty priests in all the country, aU. old. Negotia- 
 tions were opened with the Court of Rome to procure 
 fresh clergymen, the cathedral was rebuilt, church 
 foundations were put to rights. The importation of 
 slaves was forbidden ; the issue of slaves from hence- 
 forth declared free. Roads were opened, bridges built, 
 two canals cut, new towns formed, frontier fortresses 
 constructed. 
 
 In 1844, at the conclusion of the consular term, 
 the Congress agreed upon a constitution, and elected 
 Lopez President of the Republic for ten years ; which 
 office he now holds. 
 
 The policy of isolation was implicitly given up by 
 the first congress held after Francia's death, when it 
 directed its declaration of independence to be commu- 
 nicated to the siuTounding Governments and to that 
 of the Argentine Confederation. An Envoy was sent 
 in December, 1843, to Buenos Ayres, to notify the 
 resolvitions of the Congress, and to request a recog- 
 nition of the independence of the Republic. Rosas, 
 the then dictator of Buenos Ayres, in a singular de- 
 spatch, quite characteristic in its flowers of Gaucho 
 euphuism, whilst expressing himself " penetrated with 
 sentiments of the most delicate friendship and hearty 
 goodwill towards the Paraguayan people," yet " im- 
 pelled by considerations of the gravest transcendency 
 to liberty and independence," found himself " in the 
 imperious duty of manifesting to His Excellency " 
 
HISTORY OF PARAGUAY. 459 
 
 (President Lopez) " how much he felt the not being 
 able to lend his acquiescence to the desires of that 
 most excellent Government;" alleging "the very- 
 grave inconvenience's which were offered by the inde- 
 pendence of that country."* 
 
 Whilst urging reasons in favour of its recognition 
 as an independent power, Paraguay did not insist on 
 this being done, but contented itself with expressing 
 the hope that commercial relations might be carried 
 on without obstacle. This Eosas professed himself 
 disposed to accede to, subject to the exigencies of 
 the war which he was then carrying on with Cor- 
 rientes : he published a commercial tariff, seemingly 
 favourable to Paraguay, but in fact confined the ad- 
 vantages of it to Argentine vessels, and finally took 
 pretext of a commercial convention concluded between 
 Paraguay and Corrientes, and which the former Go- 
 vernment expressly invited him to join, to institute 
 an absolute blockade of the river Parang, which his 
 tool, Oribe, in the Banda Oriental, soon extended 
 to the Uruguay, the only other outlet of Paraguayan 
 trade. 
 
 During Rosas's government, Paraguay thus re- 
 mained isolated from the world by the iniquitous go- 
 vernment of Rosas in the Argentine Confederation; 
 he however never dared to invade it, and the Para- 
 guayans were too wise to engage in warfare them- 
 selves ; they preferred to remain shut up, as they were, 
 * 'Paragnayo Independiente,' No. 8, June 14, 1845. 
 
 x3 
 
460 A SKETCH OF THE 
 
 more or less absolutely from the outer world, and 
 cultivate their lands in peace. 
 
 In order to make an appeal to the national spirit, 
 the official Gazette, called ' El ^araguayo Indepen- 
 diente/ was published on the 26th of April, 1845, for 
 the first time, and continued thenceforth weekly (with 
 occasional supplements on other days) for one twelve- 
 month, and occasionally from thenceforth, containing 
 in its first numbers a history of the foundation of 
 Paraguayan Independence, followed by that of the 
 Argentine Confederation. In order to place the army 
 on a respectable footing, volunteering was invited, and 
 the appeal seems to have been well responded to. A 
 decree establishing a National Guard, and binding all 
 the citizens of the republic to take up arms for the 
 service of the country, soon followed, together with a 
 further decree for the orgaiuzation of the army, the 
 composition of which was fixed at four regiments of 
 grenadiers (of 468 rank and file each, besides officers, 
 non-commissioned officers, drum and fife) j six of 
 chasseurs (of 450 rank and file) ; four of cavalry (the 
 same), and two of artillery (240 men). Lastly, a body 
 of "auxiliary guards" was created, composed of all 
 citizens who for want of fortune should not be included 
 in the National Guard. 
 
 The existence of Paraguay as an independent state 
 was moreover, although denied by Buenos Ayres, 
 pretty well acknowledged throughout the rest of the 
 world. Brazil had recognized the independence of 
 
HISTORY OF PARAGUAY. 461 
 
 Paraguay at tlie time of proclaiming its own^ and had 
 named a resident diplomatic agent to that country 
 as early as 1824; it repeated its acknowledgment in 
 1844j in spite of the protests of Rosas. Bolivia and 
 Chili recognized it in 1853 ; Uruguay (Montevideo) in 
 1845. Great Britain sent an Envoy in 1842, with a 
 view to concluding a treaty of commerce, which was 
 however deemed premature by Paraguay; but friendly 
 commercial relations existed between the subjects of 
 Paraguay and those not only of Great Britain, but of 
 France and the United States. The Court of Rome 
 admitted the right of presentation to bishoprics when 
 exercised by the Government of Paraguay, — a well- 
 known attribute of sovereign power in the sphere of 
 Romanism. 
 
 Paraguay in its turn, it must be observed, was be- 
 ginning to manifest a liberality towards foreigners, 
 the very reverse of the policy of Francia. Decrees 
 on the naturalization of foreigners, on the enjoyment 
 of patent rights, were followed by one* which pro- 
 claimed as towards foreign nations the principle of an 
 entire equality of rights and privileges between all, 
 and authorized all foreigners to enter the ports of the 
 republic and carry on trade there with entire liberty 
 under the protection of the authorities, and free from 
 all military service and requisitions and extraordinary 
 taxes. It assured them from molestation on account 
 of religion, provided they did not carryon any special 
 * Published in the 'Paraguayo Independiente' of If ovember29, 1845. 
 
462 A SKETCH OP THE 
 
 worship in public and paid respect to that of the State 
 and its ministers. In case of rupture with any foreign 
 nation, it guaranteed to its subjects resident with- 
 in the repubhc freedom to remain and trade without 
 disturbance : it gave to strangers the right freely to 
 dispose of their property, either by will or other act, 
 as well as to iaherit property by intestacy, subject 
 nevertheless to special succession duties. 
 
 At a later period (January 3nd, 1846) a simple and 
 very fairly liberal Customs law was decreed, declaring 
 free of import duty all machines and implements of 
 agricultare, industry, navigation, art or science, not 
 fabricated or not in general use ia the republic, as well 
 as the precious metals, and reducing all other import 
 duties to twenty-five and twenty per cent. Export du- 
 ties were reduced by the same occasion to six and ten 
 per cent. Yerba however, and timber fit for naval pur- 
 poses, were by another decree of the same date declared 
 the property of the State, so that no private person 
 could trade in yerba, or cut timber of the above de- 
 scription.* The importance of a free and active trade 
 for developing the resources of the country was more- 
 over energetically pointed out by the Government to 
 its subjects, in a really able and statesmanlike article 
 of the official Gazette, on " the navigation of the Pa- 
 rana and its confluents."t 
 
 On the 4th of December, 1845, finally, President Lo- 
 
 * ' Paraguayo Independiente,' January 17, 184-6. 
 t Ibid., December 13, 1845. 
 
HISTOKY OF PARAGUAY. 463 
 
 pez, alleging the complete prohibition of Paraguayan 
 trade by Eosas and Oribe, and Rosas's solemn an- 
 nouncement that there was no means of good intel- 
 ligence between the two countries but that of incor- 
 porating Paraguay in the Argentine Confederation, 
 declared war upon Buenos Ayres, Corrientes being 
 treated as a natural ally to Paraguay. A first column 
 of the Paraguayan army, of about 5000 men, soon be- 
 gan its march towards the frontier, under the com- 
 mand of one of the sons of the President. The time 
 seemed well chosen, — ^it was that of the combined 
 English and French intervention in the River Plate, 
 which the 'Paraguayo Independiente' (dealing actually 
 henceforth in " foreign intelligence " for the benefit 
 of its readers) warmly supported. In the course of this 
 intervention. Commanders Hotham and Trehouart, 
 having forced the Buenos Ayrean blockade at Obli- 
 gado, ascended the Paran£-Paraguay (15th and 16th 
 of January, 1846) ; the French war-steamer ' Fulton' 
 reached Assumption itself, and being the first steamer 
 ever yet seen in those inland waters, attracted crowds 
 of visitors. Meanwhile Urquiza, then Rosas's lieu- 
 tenant, had invaded Corrientes, and in a successful 
 conflict, on the 4th of February, he took prisoner one 
 of the Mada;riagas, the Correntine leaders. The pri- 
 soner was gained over and made a tool of by his cap- 
 tor, and a revolution in Corrientes deprived Paraguay 
 of its ally ; it withdrew from this moment from open 
 hostilities, and soon disbanded four-fifths of its army. 
 
464 A SKETCH or THE 
 
 General Urquiza was forbidden to invade the Para- 
 guayan territory. President Lopez by a decree de- 
 clared that matters should stand on the same footing 
 as before the declaration of war, i. e. that Paraguay 
 should remain neuter as respected the disputes of the 
 Argentines. 
 
 The United States now offered their mediation, to 
 terminate the differences between Buenos Ayres and 
 Paraguay. The latter country, whilst expressing the 
 utmost willingness to treat, yet steadily refused to 
 do so on any other footing than that of the recogni- 
 tion of its independence. The negotiation failed, and 
 soon the Anglo-Prench intervention in the River Plate 
 ceased also ; Paraguay remained in its insulated posi- 
 tion, cut off by Rosas from the civilized world. Some- 
 thing of despair seems to have come over President 
 Lopez ; he felt apparently that he had nothing to 
 say to his so-called fellow-citizens. For nearly a whole 
 year the publication of the ' Paraguayo Independiente' 
 was suspended : the 71st number came out on the 
 27th of February, 1847, — the 73nd only followed on 
 the 13th of February, 1848. War was then again 
 threatened by Buenos Ayres, and Paraguay officially 
 treated as an Argentine province by Colonel Virasoro, 
 a Correntine officer (afterwards Governor of Corrien- 
 tes), the jurisdiction of Paraguay over any portion 
 of the left bank of the Parana being denied in the 
 most offensive manner. To meet these pretensions, 
 the question of the territorial rights of Paraguay in 
 
HISTORY OF PARAGUAY. 465 
 
 Misiones was now treated by the Paraguayan Journal 
 in that series of articles, which were afterwards re- 
 printed in a collected form, under the title of " Dis- 
 cusion de Limites Territoriales."* 
 
 An important event of this period for Paraguay was 
 the news of the recognition of its independence by the 
 Emperor of Austria (in July, 1847), which Eosas 
 did not fail again to protest against. Venezuela had 
 in May of the same year been added to the States 
 by which that independence had been acknowledged. 
 The President meanwhile had made a year's tour 
 through the country, and had amongst other things 
 ordered the evacuation by the Correntine wood-cut- 
 ters of the island of Apipe, near the right bank of the 
 Parana. The rights of citizenship were conferred, by 
 a decree of the 7th of August, 1848, on the Indians 
 of twenty-one pueblos, or townships. An army of 
 8000 men was set on foot, to prepare against the pro- 
 babilities of war ; and as a last appeal to the national 
 spirit, a Congress was called in May, 1849, before 
 which President Lopez laid a lengthy Message, con- 
 taining a fiill detail of the external and internal events 
 of the last five years, including among the latter 
 (besides the laws already noticed as to patents, the 
 rights of foreigners, etc.) the establishment of primary 
 schools in every vUlage of the country, — ^the adoption 
 of the Spanish Code of Commerce of 1829, — the sup- 
 pression of clerical fees and the substitution therefor 
 * See Appendix B. as to Misiones. 
 
 x3 
 
466 A SKETCH OF THE 
 
 of an allowance from tile public treasury, — ^the sup- 
 pression of burials in churches, and establishment of 
 cemeteries, — the creation of a State monopoly of yerba 
 to provide funds for public works, — and the abolition 
 of the last remnants of the Jesuits' Communistic sys- 
 tem among the Indians of Misiones : altogether, one 
 may say, a very fair amount of business done, whether 
 well or badly. The Commission of Congress gave its 
 complete approval to the conduct of the President, 
 and conferred upon him fuU authority to act as might 
 seem to him fitting in aU foreign questions. 
 
 "Foreign questions" meant in fact at this junc- 
 ture, for Paraguay, the dispute with Corrientes as to 
 Misiones ; and accordingly we find President Lopez, 
 on the 10th of June, 1849, issuing a manifesto for 
 the military occupation of so much of the territory 
 between the Parana and Uruguay as belonged to 
 Paraguay during the government of Velasco. The 
 details of this campaign will be found in one of 
 the numbers of the President's Gazette.* The Pa- 
 raguayan army seems to have been at first com- 
 manded by a " foreign chief," who was subsequently 
 deposed by General Lopez, the commander-in-chief, 
 mainly, it would seem, for having fomented revolu- 
 tion in Corrientes, by encouraging some Correntine 
 refugees to set up a so-called provisional govern- 
 ment. Two Paraguayan heroes appear to have been 
 killed, and two to have been taken prisoners in the 
 * 'Paraguayolndependieute,' No. 85, October 13, 1849. 
 
HISTORY OP PARAGUAY. 467 
 
 course of various skirmislies with Correntine soldiers 
 or brigands ; and two Paraguayan officers were shot 
 for having run away when in command of an ad- 
 vanced post. " A Paraguayan officer," says the Ga- 
 zette, in the old Francia style, not here out of place, 
 " must live persuaded that his wretched life will not 
 be saved by ffight." After this military promenade 
 over fifty leagues of frontier, effected without mfeet- 
 iag with any serious resistance. President Lopez seems 
 to have considered that enough had been done for 
 Paraguayan honour, and his minister Varela received 
 instructions to write to the Buenos Ayrean Govern- 
 ment, offering to treat on new bases, — ^for instance, 
 that of deferring the question of Paraguayan indepen- 
 dence till the meeting of the next General Congress 
 of the Argentine Confederation (16th of October, 
 1849) . Beyond an acknowledgment of its reception, 
 Eosas's government at first gave no answer to this 
 despatch, although succeeded on the part of Paraguay 
 by a relaxation on one or two points of the retaUatory 
 measures which it had been compelled to take against 
 Buenos Ayrean trade. But at the session of the 
 Provincial Representative Junta, composed of his 
 creatures, Rosas had himself invested with fall powers 
 over all the funds and resources of the province, until 
 he should have " rendered effective the reincorpora- 
 tion of the province of Paraguay with the Argentine 
 Confederation" (March, 1850). President Lopez thus 
 gained but little by his pacific move : a second mi- 
 
468 A SKETCH or THE 
 
 litary promenade of Paraguayan troops on the left 
 bank of the Parandwas the best retort which he could 
 make to this act of defiance. 
 
 Other boundary questions were meanwhile arising 
 with Brazil, whose province of Matogrosso borders on 
 Paraguay. The so-called Sugar-loaf Island was occu- 
 pied by Brazilian forces ; the President of Matogrosso, 
 with two war-launches and canoes, proceeded to recon- 
 noitre the left bank of the Paraguay and the river 
 Apa. The Paraguayan troops however, after vainly 
 summoning the Brazilians to evacuate Sugar-loaf 
 Island, expelled them by force after a conflict of three- 
 quarters of an hour. The Brazilian Government ia- 
 stantly sent orders that matters should be left in statu 
 quo until the boundary could be amicably settled. 
 
 It would have been indeed the height of folly in 
 Brazil to enter into warfare with Paraguay at the 
 very time when it was breaking with Buenos Ayres, 
 and the Brazilian minister in that city was asking for 
 his passports (September, 1850) ; accordingly we soon 
 find Brazil entering into an alliance offensive and de- 
 fensive with Paraguay, to last for six years.* 
 
 Rosas' s government however was itself tottering to 
 its faU. A coolness had grown up between Rosas and 
 the ablest of his Lieutenants, Urquiza, which broke 
 out in May, 1851, into open revolt on the part of the 
 latter. The truculent motto of the Argentine Con- 
 federation, " Death to the Savage Unitarians 1" was 
 
 * See ' Paraguayo Independiente,' No. 116, for September 4, 1852. 
 
HISTOKY OF PARAGUAY. 469 
 
 exchanged for one scarcely less truculent in sound, 
 but at all events less personal, " Death to the ene- 
 mies of national organization \" And on the plea of 
 Rosas's having gone out of his mind, Urquiza decreed 
 in the name of the people of Entre Rios, his province, 
 the resumption of their powers of territorial sove- 
 reignty, previoTisly delegated to the Governor of Bue- 
 nos Ayres. Entre Rios and Corrientes soon joined 
 in forming a special commission, one of the first acts 
 of which was to address to the President " of the Re- 
 public of Paraguay " (the independence of which was 
 thus at least provisionally recognized) an Envoy en- 
 trusted to negotiate a treaty or convention, and to re- 
 quest aid in troops and ships against Rosas. 
 
 President Lopez's recollections of past intermed- 
 dling with the internal concerns of the provinces 
 " below " {de abajo) were no doubt unfavourable. He 
 must have remembered how, some years before, when 
 Paraguayan troops had entered Corrientes, to co-ope- 
 rate with the Correntines against Rosas, the defection 
 of the Madariagas had left the former in the lurch, 
 and they had had to make the best of their way out 
 of the province. He had before him an old enemy, 
 the very chief by whom Joachim Madariaga had been 
 taken prisoner and won over, and whose conduct 
 towards Paraguay had hitherto been anything but 
 friendly. He knew well that the Paraguayan troops 
 were the only ones possessing any discipline in the 
 upper basin of " the rivers ;" and the somewhat unce- 
 
470 A SKETCH OF THE 
 
 remonious request for them seemed to show how much 
 the disposal of such forces was coveted. Paraguay 
 moreover could not hdp heiug flushed with some pride 
 at the late expulsion of the Brazilians from Sugar- 
 loaf Island, and the willingness of the Brazilian Go- 
 vernment to hush up the rehuff with a convention, 
 President Lopez received tJrquiza's advances in the 
 first instance with considerable coolness. "It was 
 only/' said the Government Gazette, " one enemy in 
 place of another;" and by way of defiance, the next 
 number of the 'Paraguayan Journal' recalled the 
 proceedings of Urquiza with the Madariagas, and other 
 events of the unlucky Corrientes campaign of 1846. 
 These recriminations seem however to have been sin- 
 gularly ill-timed on the part of the illustrious jour- 
 nalist of Paraguay, for by October in the same year 
 we find the 'Paraguayo Independiente' announcing 
 to its readers the conclusion of a treaty of oflen- 
 sive and defensive alliance between Brazil, Paraguay, 
 Uruguay, Entre Rios, and Corrientes, having for spe- 
 cial object the pacification of Banda Oriental. This 
 reconcihation between Lopez and Urquiza must no 
 doubt be attributed in great measure to the urgent 
 endeavours of Brazil, whose Emperor had lately con- 
 ferred on the President of Paraguay the Grand Cross 
 of the Order of Christ, and on his son General Lopez 
 the rank of Commander in the same Order, — but 
 partly also to the good sense of the Corrientes-Entre- 
 Rios Commission, which in spite of Paraguayan re- 
 
HISTORY OP PARAGUAY. 471 
 
 buffs had allowed ships to pass up the river, thus 
 tempting Paraguay with a foretaste of the commercial 
 blessings of a good understanding between " above " 
 and " below." Before however any active steps had 
 been taken by Paraguay for carrying out the alhanee, 
 its object had already been realized. Oribe's army 
 had deserted him (November, 1851) ; Monte Video at 
 last was free. In December Urquiza crossed with 
 29,645 men to the right bank of the Parana ; on the 
 3rd of February Rosas was overthrown. A few months 
 afterwards the long-pending dispute as to the inde- 
 pendence of Paraguay was formally settled by the 
 accrediting of an Argentine Envoy (Dr. Derqui) to 
 Assumption, by the conclusion of a treaty of alliance 
 between the Argentine Confederation and the Re- 
 public of Paraguay (15th of July, 1853), and by the 
 solemn recognition of Paraguayan sovereignty by the 
 Envoy (17th July), followed of course by mutual 
 cannon-firings, illuminations, fireworks, cathedral ser- 
 mons, and the rest : the more ferocious half of the 
 Paraguayan motto, "Independence or Death," was 
 henceforth to be omitted, and the wearing of the 
 national colours was no more to be obligatory. 
 
 It should be observed that the treaty between Pa- 
 raguay and the Argentine Confederation was one more 
 wisely moderate on the part of the former than fa- 
 vourable to its territorial greatness. Misiones,— the 
 object of so long a struggle,— the text for so many 
 learned disquisitions on the part of the President of 
 
473 A SKETCH OP THE 
 
 Paraguay, — was wholly given up, the Parana being 
 declared the boundary between the two States, and a 
 secure frontier being thus obtained in place of an in- 
 secure one. The island of Apipe was likewise given 
 up by Paraguay. Curiously enough, another clause 
 of the treaty, allowing to Paraguay the sovereignty 
 over both banks of the Paraguay river, gave rise to 
 a protest on the part of Bolivia. 
 
 This was speedily followed by the recognition of 
 Paraguayan independence by other Powers ; and by 
 the British Government, represented in the person 
 of his Excellency Sir Charles Hotham, on the 4th of 
 January, 1853. Sir Charles Hotham concluded also 
 a treaty with the President, opening the navigation of 
 the Paraguay to British ships up to Assumption, — 
 not further, on account of the unsettled state of the 
 boundaries between Paraguay and the states of Bo- 
 livia and Brazil. 
 
 This treaty (which will be found in the ' London 
 Gazette' for November 4th, 1853) provides against 
 the imposition by either country of any differential 
 duty, or exceptional prohibition on the importation 
 or exportation of any article being the growth, pro- 
 duce, or manufacture of the other • for the payment 
 of national rates of tonnage, light or harbour dues, 
 pilotage, salvage, and other local charges, within the 
 dominions of either party as respects the vessels of the 
 other ; and of the national rates of import or export 
 duties as respects the subjects or citizens of either ; 
 
HISTORY OF PARAGUAY. 473 
 
 for complete freedom of trade, subject to the national 
 law ; full protection for person and property, free dis- 
 posal of and succession to personal property ; exemp- 
 tion from compulsory military service, forced loans, 
 etc. In case of rupture between the two contractiag 
 parties, the subjects of either trading or employed 
 within the dominions of the other may either remain 
 there without molestation, or have leisure to wind up 
 and depart. Full liberty of conscience is assured to 
 them, and British subjects have the liberty " to exer- 
 cise in private and in their own dwellings, or within 
 the dwellings or offices of Her Britannic Majesty^s 
 Consuls or Vice-consuls, their religious rites, services, 
 and worship." The term of the treaty is six years 
 from the exchange of ratifications, or seven if not put 
 an end to by notice. 
 
 The same form of treaty, it was stated by Lord 
 Clarendon in the House of Lords (June 3, 1853), was 
 agreed toby the Representatives of France, the United 
 States, and Sardinia. 
 
 A fair promise seemed to have opened for Para- 
 guayan trade. But the renewed disturbances of the 
 Plate soon marred this prospect. It wUl have been 
 seen in the course of the present work how soon the 
 " magnanimous liberator " Urquiza found himself de- 
 nounced by the Buenos Ayreans as a tyrant, in scarcely 
 more measured langua:ge than that applied to Rosas 
 himself; how he withdrew once more to his own pro- 
 vince of Entre Rios, leaving Buenos Ayres to itself. 
 
474 A SKETCH OF THE 
 
 The formation of the new G ovemment was early noti- 
 fied to Paraguay, in the hope that Lopez would make 
 common cause with the Buenos Ayreans against Ur- 
 quiza. But the Government of Paraguay, whilst 
 expressing much satisfaction at the choice of Alsina 
 for Governor, and on the selection of his ministry 
 November 16, 1852), cautiously abstained from going 
 further than assuring Buenos Ayres of " the invariable 
 desire it entertained of preserving unimpaired the re- 
 lations which happily subsisted, and ought to subsist, 
 between communities united by the bonds of blood, 
 rehgion, and neighbourhood." And now Buenos 
 Ayres, refusing to recognize as legal any of Urqui- 
 za's acts, proceeded to deny the validity of his treaty 
 with Paraguay ; and Corrientes, always ready to levy 
 black-mail on all trade within its reach, imposed a 
 transit duty on Paraguayan imports and exports. To 
 escape from the exactions of the so-called Riverine 
 States, President Lopez, in sending his son Brigadier- 
 General Lopez as minister from Paraguay to exchange 
 the ratifications of the English treaty, commissioned 
 him, it would seem, to propose the conclusion of a 
 supplementary treaty, whereby the two States should 
 bind themselves to insist on, to establish, and keep 
 open to all flags, the navigation of the Lower Parana.* 
 The proposal was one which England could hardly be 
 expected to accept, and which was declined accord- 
 
 * See in the 'Examiner' newspaper for January 7, 1854, the 
 article "Eepublic of Paraguay." 
 
HISTORY OF PARAGUAY. 475 
 
 mgly ; but it must always be a subject of regret that 
 the reception of General Lopez and the Paraguayan 
 mission in this country is said to have been such as to 
 make these members of a rising nation, pre-eminent 
 for life and energy among the republics of the New 
 Worldj feel most deeply the ignorance and indifference 
 of the "nation boutiquiere" as respects all matters 
 out of the pale of our official and commercial routine. 
 And it is necessary to add, that the brilliant courtesy 
 of which they were subsequently the object in France, 
 offered in their minds a strong and painful contrast to 
 English indifference and superciliousness. 
 
 In the absence of authentic records, it is best to 
 close here this sketch of Paraguayan contemporary 
 history. Newspaper reports have since spoken of 
 differences between Paraguay and, first, the United 
 States, whose commercial steamers were the first to 
 ascend the waters of the Upper Parana, but a brig of 
 war fi'om which was, we believe, beaten off by the 
 Paraguayans; and next, Brazil, whose Charged' Affaires 
 was dismissed by President Lopez. In the spring of 
 1855, however, it was stated that the Envoy Pleni- 
 potentiary of Brazil, being also Admiral of a Brazilian 
 squadron which had ascended the rivers, had received 
 the required satisfaction, and that a treaty of naviga- 
 tion, commerce, and territorial limitation had been 
 concluded between Paraguay and Brazil, the ratifica- 
 tions to be exchanged within eight months. Later 
 intelligence from Monte Video again (4th December, 
 
476 LECTURE ON PAKAGUAY. 
 
 1855) brought the rumour of a treaty between Brazil 
 and Urquiza against Paraguay; and warlike stores 
 were certainly being shipped in large quantities from 
 Buenos Ayres for the '^inland Japan." 
 
 The following Summary of Mr. Mansfield's intended 
 Lecture, drawn out by himself in a circular form, may 
 here be inserted : — 
 
 MEMORANDA FOR LECTURE ON PAEAGHJAT. 
 
 SOUTH AMERICA. 
 General Qeogra/phy. 
 
 Andes ; Amazon ; La Plata ; Parana ; Uruguay ; Paraguay ; Pil- 
 eomayo ; Bennejo ; La Plata, one hundred and seventy miles wide 
 at mouth. 
 
 ^alse names. — Rio Jenero ; Rio Grande ; La Plata ; Monte Video; 
 Buenos Ayres. 
 
 General History. 
 In service of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain — 
 
 Columbus discovers Hayti and Cuba . 1492 
 
 „ „ Jamaica 1493 
 
 „ „ Coast of South America, Trinidad . . , 1498 
 
 In service of Emmanuel, King of Portugal, from Lisbon — 
 Vasco de Gama sailed to India round the Cape of Good Hope 1497 
 Pedro Alvarez de Cabral, sent out for India, carried by cur- 
 rents to Brazil 1499 
 
 Amerigo Vespucci, sent out to survey the country, published 
 on account of it ; hence name. 
 
 From Spain — 
 Juan Diaz de Solis, Grand Pilot of Castile, sent to continue 
 
LECTURE ON PARAGUAY. 477 
 
 A.D. 
 the survey of the Brazilian coast, and to seek a south- 
 west passage to East India 1515 
 
 Discovers Rio Janeiro, January 1516 
 
 Story of Portuguese going overland from Brazil to Parana. 
 
 PARAGUAY PROPER. 
 
 Fernando Magalhaens goes down to seek the South-west 
 Passage, enters La Plata, finds it a river, proceeds south, 
 
 and finds the Straits called after him 1519 
 
 Sebastian G-abot ; went out to trade with the Moluccas, but 
 
 enters La Plata 1526 
 
 Mendoza's expedition . .' 1534 
 
 Foundation of Buenos Ayres ; soon after destroyed. 
 
 Ayolas goes up the river and founds Assumption, 15th August 1537 
 
 Yrala selected Grovemor 1538 
 
 Alvarez Nunez Cabeza de Vaca sent out as Adelantado ; 
 
 marched overland 1540 
 
 Cabeza de Vaca sent home, and ultimately Yrala confirmed 
 
 in Government by King ; died in 1557 
 
 Buenos Ayres refounded, a colony from Assumption . . . 1580 
 Jesuits come to Tuouman, and thence to Assumption, now 
 
 a bishopric 1586 
 
 Jesuits expelled, July 22 1767 
 
 Buenos Ayres, first revolution 1810 
 
 Surrounded by rivers, — PUoomayo ; Bermejo; Cordillera of Mara- 
 caiu; Tebicuari; Salto Grande ; Itapua; situation of Assumption. 
 
 Climate. 
 Frodmctions. 
 Tobacco. Cotton. Mines of Yerba. Caraguata. Hides. Leather. 
 Dyes. Indigo. Cochineal. Sugar. Whetstones. Grapes and Pine 
 Apples. 
 
 Basques. Indians. Guaranis. Payaguas. Mbayas. Guaycurus. 
 Tobas. Fair and dark. Women industrious. 
 
478 LECTURE ON PARAGUAY. 
 
 Languages. 
 Giiarani. &uaxani-Paraguayan. Spanish (Government and richer 
 people), spoken above Oorrientes. 
 
 Habits. 
 Agricultural, quiet. On river, energetic. Market-place. Yerba 
 Mate. Gravity and gaiety. 
 
 Costwme. 
 Tipoi. Sailena. Manta, without shoes. Plaid, or Poncho. Chi- 
 ripa. Calzoncillos. Compare with Costunie of Gauchos. 
 
 Docile, imitative.' Only countiy on this side of South America 
 with an industrious peasantry. Probably a great people, likely to 
 become Protestant. Hitherto Government jealous. 
 
 Not likely to have immediate commerce with England. Steamers 
 necessary. The [steamer] sent down from United States condemned 
 at Pemambuco. 
 
 Vogaye wp Pa/ramd. 
 Leave Buenos Ayres, September 2. Storms on the river. Chaco. 
 
 Corrientes. 
 Ride to Assmwption. 
 
 Descent of Miver. 
 
479 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 A. (pp. 181, 229.) 
 
 THE HONET-WAip. 
 
 "The most remarkable entomological fact stated by 
 this writer (Azara) is the existence in Brazil and Para- 
 guay of a honey-gatbering wasp ! When the statement 
 appeared, it was supposed by LatreiUe and others that, 
 not being much versed in entomology, Azara had mis- 
 taken for an individual of the wasp family what was 
 in reality one of the Melvpona or Trigonia genus, com- 
 mon in South America. More recently however the re- 
 searches of M. de St. Hilaire have confirmed the accu- 
 racy of the Spaniard ; and it seems now an established 
 fact that the insect, provincially named Leeheguana, be- 
 longing to the genus Vespa (JPolistes of LatreiUe), pro- 
 duces honey of a very exceUent kind, which it stores up 
 in cells for use during the season of the repose of vege- 
 table Hfe, and which differs from that produced by the 
 bees only in being whoUy and completely soluble in alco- 
 hol, leaving no residue ; whereas bee-honey, when sub- 
 
480 APPENDIX. 
 
 jected to the same chemical process, deposits a crystal- 
 lized saccharine matter. . . . The nest* constructed by 
 this insect is formed of the same materials, and is of simi- 
 lar architecture with that of the European Vasp, viz., 
 of woody fibres reduced to a pulp of paste before being 
 used, and is of a conical shape. The insect produces 
 no wax." — TheNatwralist's Librwry : Entomology — Bees, 
 pp. 295, 296, 
 
 The honey- wasp is also evidently referred to in the fol- 
 lowing extract from Dobrizhofier's ' Account of the Abi- 
 pones,' respecting Paraguayan honey : — " Throughout the 
 whole of Paraguay you see none of those beehives the 
 keeping of which is so troublesome in Europe, because 
 the various species of bees deposit their excellent and 
 copious honey either ia hollow trees, in the caverns of 
 the earth, or in the open plain, especially in those terri- 
 tories vrhich enjoy a mild climate, and are near to flowery 
 plains. Honey difiers both in name and taste according 
 to the different bees that produce it, and the different 
 times and places in which it is produced. That which is 
 concealed underground the Abipones call Nahereh. In 
 some places it is rather acid, ia others very sweet. A 
 quantity sufficient to fill many jugs is often dug out of 
 one case. That which is taken at the beginning of spriag 
 from the tops of shrubs or high grass is called by the 
 Spania.rds Lechigucma. The materials of which the cells 
 of this honey consist are very like blotting-paper, and are 
 often of such extent and circumference that you can 
 hardly embrace them vnth both axms. The honeycombs 
 
 * A figure of the nest is here referred to in the work now quoted 
 from. 
 
APPENDIX. 481 
 
 whicli certain wasps build ia Europe are constructed in 
 much tlie same way. The excellence of the Lechiguana 
 honey you may ascribe to its being made of the first 
 spring flowers ; and if it remains untouched for some 
 months, and escapes the eyes and hands of passers-by, it 
 hardens of itself, like sugar, which it excels in sweetness ; 
 moreover it has no admixture of wax. Though various 
 kinds of honey are found under the earth and in the 
 plain, yet the principal storehouses of the bees are the 
 hollow trunks of lofty trees. The Spaniards of St. Jago 
 prefer to every other kind that found on the Cardones. 
 "With the G-uaranis, and all just estimaters, the first 
 place is given to the Hyrobcma, the sweetest and most 
 transparent of aU honey, which, when poured into a glass, 
 could not be distinguished from water. The same honey, 
 if found on the fragrant wood of the tree ylirapaye, is 
 then decidedly the best, and excels all other honey as the 
 sun does the lesser stars." — Ddbrizhoffer, Aocov/nt of the 
 Alipones, vol. i. pp. 419, 420. 
 
 B. (pp. 239, 464.) 
 THE MISIONES. 
 
 The question of the right to the Misiones territory wiU 
 be found treated of at length (from the Paraguayan point 
 of view> in a pamphlet of large size, entitled ' Discusion 
 de Limites territoriales y de la Independencia nacional 
 del Paraguay, entre el Paraguayo Independiente y la 
 Gaceta de Buenos Ayres* (Assumption, 1848). 
 
483 APPENDIX. 
 
 It appears that after the erection in 1620 of Buenos 
 Ayres into a separate hishopric and government from 
 that of Paraguay (which originally included the whole of 
 the present Argentine Confederation and a large part of 
 Bolivia), disputes arose as to the limits of civil and eccle- 
 siastical jurisdiction between the two provinces. A com- 
 promise was directed to be entered into between the two 
 bishops, which was drawn up in 1727, and which declared 
 that the jurisdiction of the See of Paraguay extended, as 
 well in political as in ecclesiastical matters (the whole 
 Misiones territory, be it remembered, was under Jesuit 
 rule), over the whole basin of the Parana, and that of the 
 See of Buenos Ayres over the whole basin of the Uru- 
 guay, such basin forming the division between the two 
 sees ; and that the districts of Candelaria, San Cosme, 
 and Santa Ana, the subject matter of the then difference, 
 were within the territory of Paraguay. 
 
 The division thus established assigned by far the 
 greater portion (nineteen-twentieths) of the Misiones to 
 Buenos Ayres. It subsisted tiU 1803, when the whole 
 of the Misiones were erected into a separate govern- 
 ment, independent both of Paraguay and Buenos Ayres, 
 under Don Bernardo de Belasco, who in 1806 was ap- 
 pointed Grovemor of Paraguay, retaining Misiones. He 
 was however the last of the Spanish governors ; Buenos 
 Ayres in 1810, and afterwards Paraguay, broke loose from 
 Spain, and on the 12th of October, 1811, a treaty was 
 concluded between the revolted provinces, indicating the 
 intention to form a federal imion, but reserving strictly 
 for Paraguay its independence from the decrees of any 
 general congress, unless confirmed by a general assembly 
 
APPENDIX. 483 
 
 of its own mhabitants ; leaving the boundaries of the 
 province of Paraguay expressly as they were then, and 
 charging the Government of that province with the keep- 
 ing of the department of Candelaria. 
 
 Paraguay certainly from that time remained in pos- 
 session of the disputed districts. But differences soon 
 arose between Paraguay and the Argentine Confedera- 
 tion, which came to a head under the government of 
 Eosas. These differences indeed at one time broke out 
 into actual hostilities, but eventually subsided again into 
 a war of words, carried on in messages of the Grovemor 
 of Buenos Ayres to his sham Assembly, and in arti- 
 cles by each despot in his newspaper, the ' Gazette' of 
 Buenos Ayres, — ^the ' Paraguayan Independent ' of As- 
 sumption. Hence the " Discussion" above referred to. 
 
 In this controversy — carried on certainly vnth very fair 
 ability on the Paraguayan side — -as to the title to a 
 wilderness, once peopled and fertile, it is curious to see 
 the struggle of each Government in turn, although both 
 aKke the products of insurrection, to evolve for itself 
 some basis of right, anterior to the mere fact of its ex- 
 istence. Paraguay, as we have seen, claims a portion of 
 the Misiones as part of its territory as an independent 
 EepubUc, on the ground that such portion was formerly 
 annexed to it when a provincial government of a Spanish 
 viceroyalty. Following, in fact, precisely the same line 
 of argument, Buenos Ayres claims Paraguay itself as a 
 necessary member of the Argentine Confederation, on the 
 ground that the body politic forming the viceroyalty of 
 Buenos Ayres, so far from falling to pieces with the fall 
 of the Spanish rule, remained constituted as before, and 
 
 y2 
 
484 APPENDIX. 
 
 organized its own government without breaking tte 
 xinion or altering the cohesion between its various con- 
 stituent members ; and seeks to lay down the indissolu- 
 bleness of an existing body poHtic as one of the maxims 
 of American public law. Hereupon of course Paraguay 
 declares that this is taking an effect for a cause, that the 
 free and sovereign will of the different peoples is the only 
 basis of American nationalities, — asks triumphantly how 
 Buenos Ayres, a member of the existing body politic of 
 the Spanish empire, coiild ever break that indissoluble 
 union, etc. ; not observing how any such sneer glances 
 back at its own claim to a part of Misiones, as united to 
 Paraguay under the Spanish rule. 
 
 In the year which followed this discussion (10th of 
 June, 1849), the President of Paraguay published a ma- 
 nifesto for the military occupation of the Paraguayan 
 territory between the Parana and the Uruguay ; and, on 
 whatever founded, the Paraguayan title seems to have 
 been admitted as a real one, since, as Mr. Mansfield's 
 letters show, the formal cession of Misiones hy Paraguay 
 was actually about to take place in 1852, the indepen- 
 dence of Paraguay having been previously officially re- 
 cognized by TJrquiza. 
 
APPENDIX. 485 
 
 C. (p. 356.) 
 
 THE GrRAS CHACO. 
 
 "To the royal jurisdictions of Buenos Ayres and Eio 
 de la Plata, of Tucuman and Assumption, must be added 
 a region named Chaco. Its length is 300 leagues, its 
 breadth 100. Tucuman, the region De las Charcas, Santa 
 Cruz de la Sierra, and the rivers De la Plata and Para- 
 guay, surround Chaco ; on both sides it is bounded by 
 the mountains which stretch from Cordoba to the Peru- 
 vian silver mines at the cities of Lipes and Potosi, thence 
 to Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and lastly to the lake Ma- 
 more, where they terminate. This territory, throughout 
 its whole extent, enjoys a salubrious climate, and a rich, 
 fertile soil. Here it gently swells iato pleasant hiUocks, 
 there sinks into fertile valleys, affording rich pasturage 
 to horses and cattle of all kinds. It is adorned with 
 woods, and a variety of excellent trees. On the Peru- 
 vian side, stones and rocks that seem to threaten the 
 skies, cover immense tracts of land. Towards the south 
 it is utterly destitute of stones, pebbles, or sand, though 
 you dig to the depth of fourteen feet. Incredible multi- 
 tudes of strange beasts, birds, amphibious animals, and 
 fishes present themselves to the eye. Besides lakes and 
 rivulets, the ground is watered by noble rivers, which 
 overflow the banks and inundate the sloping plains to 
 a great extent. The most considerable stream in 
 Chaco is the Eio Grrande, or Bermejo, which has its 
 source in the Peruvian mountains, and is increased by 
 the accession of many rivers, till it shortly becomes 
 
486 APPENDIX. 
 
 navigable for small ships. It flows down in a very deep 
 cliamiel, with the most rapid course ; washes the cities 
 of Gruadalcazar and Concepcion, long since devastated 
 by the savages, and at about thirty leagues' distance 
 from thence mingles its waters with the Paraguay, a 
 little before its junction with the Parana. The waters 
 of the Eio Grande, which abound in fish, are pronounced 
 by authors to be salubrious, especially to those who la- 
 bour under a dif&culty of urine, or any disease of the 
 bladder. The second place to this river is occupied by 
 the Pilcomayo, which also flows from the Peruvian moun- 
 tains. The distance between it and the Eio Grande is 
 reckoned at thirty leagues ; it is not navigable at all 
 times nor ia all places. Nearly eighty leagues from its 
 junction with the Paraguay, it splits into two arms, form- 
 ing an island of as many leagues in length. The first of 
 these rivers, which flows into the Paraguay, within sight 
 of Assumption, is called by the Guaranis Aaraguaay, or 
 the wise river ; possibly because the greatest sagacity is 
 requi^te to efiect its navigation. The whole island is 
 annually flooded, so that both branches of the river coa- 
 lescing into one channel, it must be attributed to fortune 
 Tather than to skiQ, if any pilot pass over the opposing 
 shallows and the meanders of its waters in safety. The 
 other area, which retains the name of Pilcomayo, unites 
 with the Paraguay at about the distance of nine leagues 
 to the south of Assumption. The waters of the Pilco- 
 mayo are, for the most part, extremely foul. The Eio 
 Salado derives its origin from the mountains of sait. In 
 sundry places it changes both its channel and its name. 
 At first it is called Eio Arias, presently Eio Passage, and 
 
APPENDIX. 487 
 
 afterwards, in the neighbourhood of the castle de Val 
 Buena, Eio Salado. Beyond the city of Santa I"e it as- 
 siunes the name of Coronda, and finally, under this name, 
 loses itself in the mighty waters of the Parana. For a 
 length of way its waters are not only sweet, but very 
 famous for their salubrity, which however tributary lakes 
 and rivers corrupt with such filth and saltness, that, for 
 the space of many leagues, the very beasts refuse to 
 touch it. 
 
 " It may be worth while to notice the origin of its salt- 
 ness. The neighbouring plains abound in the shrub 
 vid/riera, the ashes of which reduced to a calx are em- 
 ployed in the making of glass. The vidriera resembles 
 the juniper ; the berries are small and cylindrical, green, 
 nearly transparent, and joined one with another, being 
 in place both of boughs and leaves ; if I remember rightly, 
 it bears no fruit. The rain falling upon these shrubs 
 contracts a saltness, and, flowing down the countiry, com- 
 municates it to the lakes and streams, which enter rivers 
 sweet at their source, and miserably taint them. The 
 palm-tree (jOa/raMday) under which saltpetre is produced 
 has the same effect as the vidriera. But though the 
 waters of the Eio Salado be salt, they are pellucid, and in 
 the deepest parts the excellent fish, with which this river 
 a,bounds, are perceptible at the bottom. Its channel is 
 deep, and contained within narrow though lofty and pre- 
 cipitous banks, through which it quietly flows, unnavi- 
 gable except near Santa 'Ee. Between the Salado and 
 Dulce flows the rivulet Turugon, which, being girt with 
 woods, even in the driest weather affords plentiful and 
 sweet waters to the traveller, and is neither interrupted 
 
488 APPENDIX. 
 
 by shallows nor tainted with salt. It is not ia,r distant 
 from the little Indian town Salabina. The Eio Dulce, 
 which is the Nile of the territory of St. Jago, after pro- 
 ceeding a little southerly, overflows its banks, and is 
 finally received by the Lake of Gourds (Laguna de los 
 Porrongos) between Cordoba and Santa Pe. Not many 
 leagues distant is the White Lake (Laguna Blanca), where 
 the Indians and Spaniards affirm that howUngs, as of 
 bulls, are heard in the dead of night. The rivers and 
 streams of lesser water which belong to Chaco, are the 
 Centa, the Ocloyas, the Jujuy, the Sinancas, the Eio 
 Negro, the Eio Verde, the Atopehenra Lauate, the Eio 
 Eey or Tchimaye, the Malabrigo or Neboque Latel, the 
 Inespin or JSTaraheguem, the Eleya, etc. : who shall num- 
 ber them all, when they are almost innumerable, and often 
 unnamed ? Most of these, after a long drought, become 
 almost dry, a no uncommon occurrence in Chaco. Tou 
 may often travel many .leagues where not even a bird 
 could discover a drop of water. On the other hand, when 
 the sky is prodigal of its hoard, the brooks seem rivers, 
 and the rivers seas, whole plains being inundated. Du- 
 ring many journeys of many weeks, when we had to 
 contend with water, mud, and deep marshes, there was 
 not often a palm of dry land where we could rest at 
 night. The Spanish soldiers who were with me sometimes 
 ascended high trees, and perching there, like birds, en- 
 joyed some portion of rest during the night ; several of 
 them lighted a fire there to heat their water. But the 
 calamity was far more intolerable when we had to ride, 
 without resting, day or night, for many leagues, under a 
 burning sun, before we reached a situation where we 
 
APPENDIX. 489 
 
 could obtain water for ourselves and our horses. At other 
 places you might traverse immense plains without see- 
 ing a twig to light a fire with. "Wherever you turn, you 
 meet with an army of gnats, serpents, and noxious in- 
 sects, besides Hons, tigers, and other formidable wild 
 beasts. 
 
 " This is the face of the province called Chaco ; which 
 the Spanish soldiers look upon as a theatre of misery, 
 and the savages as their Palestine and Elysium. Hither 
 the Indians fled, when the Spaniards first laid the yoke 
 on the iuhabitaiuts of Peru. To escapethe dreadful hands, 
 nay the very sight of the Europeans, they betook them- 
 selves to the coverts of Chaco ; for there they had moun- 
 tains for observatories, trackless woods for fortifications, 
 rivers and marshes for ditches, and plantations of fruit- 
 trees for storehouses ; and there a numerous population 
 stUl eludes the attempts of the Spaniards. It appears 
 very probable that these lurkiag-places ia Chaco were 
 tenanted by indigenous tribes, prior to the arrival of the 
 Spaniards ; and if so, it is indubitable that the new arri- 
 vers joined themselves to the natives, in the hope of se- 
 curity. 
 
 " Several tribes formerly existed in Chaco, but of these 
 the names alone or very slender relics remain." — Dolriz- 
 hofer's Acooimt of the Alipones, vol. i. pp. 118-124. 
 
 [DobrizhoflPer, to whose pages we have before referred, 
 was a Styrian priest of the last century (1717-1791) who 
 was employed in the missions of Paraguay, and, return- 
 ing to his native country after the expulsion of his Order, 
 published in 1781 an account of the Abipones, an eques- 
 
 y3 
 
490 APPENDIX. 
 
 trian tribe, among whom he had resided for seven years. 
 The origiaal work is written in Latin ; the English trans- 
 lation, from which the extracts given in this volume are 
 " Hrawn, was pubUshed by Murray in 1812, in three vo- 
 lumes, 8vo. A work specially treating of the Chaco was 
 published at Buenos Ayres in 1833, and reprinted at 
 Montevideo in 1850 : ' Noticias Historicas y Deserip- 
 tivas sobre el gran pais del Chaco y Eio Bermejo, con 
 observaciones relativas a un plan de Navegacion y Colo- 
 nizacion que se propone per Jose Arenales, Teniente- 
 CoroneV de ArtiUeria, y Injeniero encargado del departa- 
 mento topograflco de Buenos Aires.'] 
 
 D. (p. 367.) 
 PAEAaUATAN WOODS. 
 
 (rBOM NOTES BY W. G. OTJSELKT, ESQ., MAECH 1853.) 
 
 1. Morosimwo, used for furniture, and very good for 
 building ships ; the tree-trunk not attaining more than 
 twelve to sixteen feet in height ; two feet diameter. " The 
 Paraguay mahogany, best furniture-wood of the country. 
 Two sorts, yellow and red." (c. b. m.) 
 
 2. Algarrolo, used in ship-buUding ; same size as last. 
 
 3. Tutaneo, similar to last in use and size. 
 
 4. Laurel, similar to No. 2. 
 
 5. Cedro, used for doors and furniture for decks of 
 ships ; large enough to make planks, twelve or twenty 
 yards long ; diameter three to five feet. 
 
APPENDIX. 491 
 
 6. Biraro, used for ship-decks, beams, or rafters for 
 houses, cart-wheels, etc. Size as No. 5. 
 
 7. Lapacho, a solid wood, used for knee-timber, etc., in 
 ship-building, for house-beams ; same length as No. 5, 
 but not so great diameter. 
 
 8. Oedronar, similar to No. 5. 
 
 9. Peterevi (Petarewu ?), used for masts of ships ; 
 sixty feet high without a branch. 
 
 10. Urundeu, used for beams of houses, pillars, and in 
 ship-buUding ; very durable, sixty feet in length ; three 
 feet diameter at thirty feet from ground. 
 
 11. Urundeu Para, used for furniture and beams ; 
 smaller than No. 10. 
 
 12. Tapariba Qwazu, for beams ; size as No. 7. 
 
 13. Tatayvmd (" Tatajuva "), for furniture, rafters, etc. 
 Somewhat smaller than No. 7. 
 
 14. Quebracho hlaneo, y Colorado, used for rafters and 
 sugar-presses, very solid ; height thirty to thirty-sis feet ; 
 diameter two feet. 
 
 15. Timbo, Yery large and thick ; used for making ca- 
 noes ; forty to sixty feet in height, seven feet in diame- 
 ter ; very light, but not porous. 
 
 16. Ghvayacan, use and size as No. 14. 
 
 17. Crwayavi, used for furniture, rafters, carts, etc., 
 twenty-four to thirty-five feet high, eighteen inches dia- 
 meter. 
 
 18. Qmrandi (^' Ki/randi"), for furniture and ships; 
 thirty-five feet high, two feet diameter ; beautiful yellow 
 colour ("fine grain"), 
 
 19. Palo de rasa, furniture, etc. ; thirty-six feet high, 
 two feet diameter. 
 
492 APPENDIX. 
 
 20. Palo santo, same as No. 19. 
 
 21. Hspma de Oorona, furniture, etc. ; twenty-five feet 
 high, two feet diameter. 
 
 22. Tatayvma guazw, similar to No. 13 in use and 
 size. 
 
 23. Gwpay, for furniture or rafters ; rather smaller than 
 No. 5 ; yields the Balsam of Copaiba. 
 
 24. Pals llanco, rafters and furniture ; size as last. 
 
 25. Lapacho crespo, as No. 7. 
 
 26. Nazare, furniture ; size as No. 20. 
 
 27. Curvpay, use and size as No. 10. 
 
 28. Cwv/payna, ditto, ditto. 
 
 29. Incienso amarillo, furniture or rafters ; yields the 
 perfume gum (incense) ; size as No. 7. 
 
 30. Incienso Colorado, furniture or rafters ; rather 
 smaller than last. 
 
 31. Incienso ilanco. 
 
 32. T'imbo Colorado. 
 
 33. Ibirapepe. 
 
 E. (p. 37.2.) 
 
 THE CATAKACT OF THE PARANA. 
 
 " I must now speak of the cataract of this river, which 
 is called by the Spaniards El Salto Grrande, and occurs 
 about the 24th degree of latitude and 35th degree of lon- 
 gitude, near the ruined city of Guayra. I myself never 
 saw it ; I shaU therefore describe this prodigy of nature 
 in the words of Father Diego Ean9onie, a Memiag, who 
 
APPENDIX. 493 
 
 gave a most accurate description of it in tte name of 
 the Jesuit Pather Nicolas Duran, then Provuicial of Pa- 
 raguay, ia the 'Annals of Paraguay,' dated Eome, ia the 
 year 1626. ' Amongst all the things,' says he, ' capable 
 of exciting admiration in these provinces, this Cataract 
 easily obtains the first place ; and indeed I know not 
 whether the whole terraqueous globe contains anything 
 more wonderful. The river precipitates itself, with the 
 utmost violence, down an immensely high rock, twelve 
 leagues in descent, and dashes, in its downward course, 
 against huge rocks of horrible form, from which the wa- 
 ters, being reverberated, leap up to a great height ; and 
 as the channel is in many places intersected, on account 
 of the exceeding roughness of the rocks, the waters are 
 separated into various paths, and then meet together 
 again, causing stupendous whirlpools. In other places 
 also, the waters, le.aping down, rush into the rocks them- 
 selves, and are concealed from the view ; then, after hav- 
 ing remained hidden for some time, again break forth, 
 as if they had sprung from various fountains, and swallow 
 up vast masses of rocks. Lastly, so great is the violence 
 of the waters in the descent of the stream, that, during 
 the whole course of twelve leagues, they are covered by 
 a perpetual foam, which, reflecting the rays of the sun, 
 dazzles the eyes of beholders with its brightness. Also 
 the sound of the water, falling down and dashing against 
 the rocks, may easily be heard a,t foux leagues' distance. 
 This rough descent being ended, the water seems in- 
 clined to rest on the bottom, in smooth ground ; for it 
 often stagnates there by day, but almost every hour a 
 loud noise arises, from some hidden cause, and the water 
 
494 APPENDIX. 
 
 leaps up to the height of many cubits. Tish of immense 
 size are seen there, and Father Antonio Euiz de Mon- 
 toya, then Missionary of the Guarani nation, in Guayra, 
 declares that he saw a fish as big as an ox, swimming 
 on the river, with only half his body above water. Nor 
 is this incredible ; for when I visited the Guarani Re- 
 ductions ' (he means the new colonies of Indians), ' they 
 wrote me word that an Indian had been swallowed by a 
 river-fish of this kind, and afterwards ejected whole on 
 to the bank.' " — Bohrizhoffer, Account of the Ahipones, 
 vol. i. pp. 185, 186. 
 
 F. (p. 378.) 
 
 THE PATAG-TJAS IN THE LAST CENTITRT. 
 
 " Besides the equestrian savages, who is ignorant of 
 the calamities brought upon the province by the barba- 
 rous Payag^as ? These atrocious pirates, infesting the 
 rivers Paraguay and Parana, had for many years been in 
 the habit of iuterceptiag Spanish vessels freighted with 
 wares for the port of Buenos Ayres, or conveying them 
 thence, and of massacring the crews. At length Raphael 
 de la Moneda, the royal Governor, repressed the auda- 
 city of these pirates, and, after repeated successful excur- 
 sions along the river, obliged them to crave a peace, of 
 which their liviag qidetly on the shore of the Paraguay 
 withiu sight of the city of Assumption was a princi- 
 pal condition. For many years they have kept to the 
 
APPENDIX. 495 
 
 convention ; but no persuasions of tte bishops, the go- 
 vernors, or the priests could ever prevail upon them to 
 embrace our religion. They are taU, and extremely mus- 
 cular. The frightful appearance which nature has given 
 them they increase with adscititious ornaments. In the 
 under lip, which is perforated, they fix a long tube, some- 
 times of wood, sometimes of shining copper, reaching 
 down to the breast. To the flap of one of their ears 
 they tie the wing of a huge vulture. Their hair is stained 
 with a purple juice, or vrith the blood of oxen. On their 
 neck, their arms, and the calves of their legs, they wear 
 strings of beads. They paint the whole body from head 
 to foot with a variety of colours. The females, of every 
 age, are decently covered with woollen garments woven 
 by themselves. The males think themselves handsomely 
 arrayed if they be elegantly painted ; and formerly fre- 
 quented both their own settlement, and the Spanish 
 city and houses, in a state of complete nakedness ; 
 which being considered ofiensive to Christian decency 
 by the Governor Eaphael de la Moneda, he provided 
 that a quantity of coarse cotton should be distributed 
 amongst the adult savages, vrith this edict, that if any 
 of them thenceforth entered the city naked, he should 
 be punished at the pillory in the market-place with fifty 
 strokes." — Dohrizhqffer, Account of the Ahipones, vol. i. 
 pp. 114, 115. 
 
496 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 a. (p. 380.) 
 
 " A few Payagwd Words, and some Account of the 
 Payagwds," by Chakles Blachpord Mansfield, 
 Esq., M.A., Clare Hall, Cambridge; with Re- 
 marks by fioBEET Gordon Latham, M.D. 
 
 A short list of Payagwa words, coUected by Mr. Mans- 
 field, supplies the text for a few words of comment. Mr. 
 Mansfield's communication is as follows : — 
 
 " The Payagwa words are written ui Ellis's Phonetic 
 character.* 
 
 Brother . . Yagowi. 
 
 Hand . . . Smmahyq. 
 
 Child .... Duqwdt. 
 
 Foot .... Sewo. 
 
 Father . . . Sralgw^. 
 
 Finger . . . Igutsdn. 
 
 Girl Ltugawdra. 
 
 Face .... Igwegogra. 
 
 Mother . . Yahssq,. 
 
 Leg Yehega! . 
 
 Sister. . . . Yagobs'ra. 
 
 Bow (for 
 
 Wife Elmhiri. 
 
 shooting) So6. 
 
 God Huaadm. 
 
 Truth . . . Sqc. 
 
 Water . . . Waadc. 
 
 Pretty . . . Lag^. 
 
 Bread . . . Hsyq. 
 
 Ugly 7lak. 
 
 One . . Pegaq. Two . . i 
 
 ^eraca!. Four . . Pegds. 
 
 " I have lost the word for 
 
 ' three.' 
 
 8 e Ra q o m a^ w, -8 5S'''7 
 
 eel foil alma no fool man foU now cAEd t/»ink. 
 b, d, f, g,.h, j, k, 1, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w, y, z. 
 
 fie, dOf fotf go, h&, eAge, Jnng, let, me, no, pie, roar, go, to, vie, w>e, yet, zed. 
 
 Strictly as a in German Marm. 
 
 As Romaic 7, rather stronger than g in Q-erman prediger. 
 
APPENDIX. 497 
 
 " The Payagwas, lite other South- American Indians, 
 have no numeral of their own higher than four. As spe- 
 cimens of the way in which they adopt foreign words, 
 take these :— They say, for 'five' Sincod^, and 'six' 
 SaAsshi'lea. These, of course, are the Spanish ' cineo ' 
 and ' seis,' with appendages. 
 
 " The only word in this list which has the least resem- 
 blance to the Gwarani language, which surrounds the 
 Payagwas, or rather bounds them on one side, while the 
 river bounds them on the other, is the word for ' one.' 
 The Gwarani word is Petae. This is obviously the same 
 word as the Payagwa equivalent. 
 
 " I do not pretend that these Payagwa words are spelt 
 exactly right. I believe I have given the symbols for 
 the distinct letters, to which the several sounds approxi- 
 mate ; but the pronunciation of these savages is so very 
 thick, accompanied with a sort of thrapatattle in the 
 throat, that it is not very easy to hear it into articulation, 
 still less to represent it. 
 
 " For instance, I am not quite sure that an ' L ' would 
 not represent the first letter of the word for ' eJiild' as 
 well as ' D.' I find that I had taken down the word for 
 ' Boy,' from one man, as ' Luqwdt.' I have no doubt 
 this was the same word, but my other impressions were 
 in favour of ' L.' 
 
 "I see, in Dobrizhofier's 'Account of the Abipones' 
 (English translation, 1822, vol. ii. p. 160), — a people not 
 of Paragway, in its modem sense, but of the Chaco on 
 the opposite side of the great barrier — the Paragway- 
 Parana, — that 'Laetafat' is the word for a 'son,' vnth 
 special phonetics about the letter f . I leave it to others 
 
498 APPENDIX. 
 
 to determitie whether or no the two words are cognate ; 
 I suppose they are." 
 
 Short as is the list of Payagua words, it is of impor- 
 tance, inasmuch as it is the only one known. In this fact 
 lies the justification of the attention bestowed upon it. 
 
 The present 'writer can lay before the Society little be- 
 yond the notice of the Payagua language in the, Mithri- 
 dates, as a kind of complement to the vocabulary under 
 notice. This (founded on the statements of Hervas and 
 Azara) is to the effect, that when the Spaniards con- 
 quered the country drained by the Eio Plata, the Paya- 
 gua were a powerful population occupant of the banks 
 of the Paraguay, and formidable for their fluviatUe piracy. 
 They fell into two divisions, — one fixed about 21° 5', the 
 other about 25° 17' S. lat. A portion of the Mbaya na^ 
 tion now occupies the more southern of the localities. Of 
 these Payaguas the native name was Gadigiie ; the others 
 calling themselves Magaoh. The collective name for the 
 two was Nayagua. Afterwards the northern branch was 
 known to the Spaniards as Sa/rigue, Za/rague, or Zaraguye, 
 the southern as Tactmbu. 
 
 trntU A.D. 1740 they were independent and formidable. 
 In that year, however, the Tacmihu fixed themselves at 
 Assumption, where, a.d. 1790, they were joined by the 
 Scmgues. A somewhat fuH notice of their manners and 
 warfare may be found in Southey's History of Brazil. 
 
 The chief language with which the Payagua is coter- 
 miuous is the Gruarani ; and the termination -agua (as in 
 Oma^Mfls, etc.) shows that it is to the &uarani language 
 that the name belongs. It is, probably, strange to the 
 
APPENDIX. 499 
 
 Payaguas themselves — if not now, originally. From the 
 Guarani however, the Payagua has always been sepa- 
 rated. The present vocabulary confirms this separation. 
 
 As has been already stated, it is the first of its kind ; 
 the Mithridates giving us no list of words at aU, but 
 only the following specimen of composition, with an Ita- 
 lian translation : — 
 
 " 1. Tarn clacegui leuachi colemi kidoga nahea y olgu 
 nidogo ; canaza hanauadake colemi panauki ; ham sahalda 
 kealeo iduteaea da canaza vaha acoda hichamja keanolha, 
 danedis da canaza vaha acoda yam kidoga hichamja kea- 
 nolha, yam valga. 
 
 " 2. Chagada y olgu didodegue, semelagas colemi ki- 
 doga leuachi, ham ligui teaea y Shoii leuachi acoda lolgu 
 idogu: yamne. 
 
 " 3. Chadaga nedis kidoga leuachi codogu, yam sebau 
 leuachi idoga keai mai yadan, satan Uguibi tagalinikini." 
 
 Italian translation. 
 
 " 1. Mi dolgo moltissimo de' miei peccati da tutto mio 
 cuore sopra tutte cose abominabUi, solamente per tuo 
 puro amore non guardando altra cosa, e non guardando 
 altra cosa il dolore del mio cuore, mio signore. 
 
 " 2. Suecedese io avessi un dolore somighante al dolore 
 de' santi e come per tuo amore rompevasi loro il-cuore 
 per commessi sbagU. 
 
 " 3. Suecedese ancora, che come essi si pentirono, io 
 ancora mi pentissi di aver sbagliato per non ritornare a 
 peccare." 
 
 Adelung remarks, that the translation being free there 
 is but little to be made out of the texts, and he contents 
 
500 APPENDIX. 
 
 himself witt the following indications, viz. that • leuacM 
 hidoga=:feelpam; ueaea^^hewrt ; ccmaea — ha/ncmahi^ 
 abominable things ; canaza vaha — keanolha = not seeing 
 imyihing else ; yam=.I ovmine ; valgas=^master ov lord. 
 
 Such are our data. It is hardly possible for any addi- 
 tion to them to be other than valuable ; indeed the fact 
 of the Payagua beiag stUl spoken in Assumption, is one 
 to which attention should be directed. 
 
 If we ask about the languages more immediately in 
 geographical contact with the Payagua, we shall find that 
 the displacement for the parts on the Paraguay river has 
 been so great as to make the reconstruction of the ori- 
 guial situs of the different tongues of the district a 
 matter of difficulty. Nevertheless, it is with the other 
 tongues of the neighbourhood that the Payagua should 
 most especially be compared. 
 
 Of these, — 
 
 a. The Quarani is, most probably, comparatively re- 
 cent, intrusive, and, to all appearances, belonging to a 
 different class. 
 
 h. The next nearest tongues are those of the Chaco ; 
 aU allied, more or less closely, to the Abiponian. These 
 are the Mbaya, or Guaycuru, in immediate contact with 
 the ITorthern Payagua, and, after them, the Mataguayos. 
 More distant still lie the tribes of the Central Chaco, 
 the Abiponians propei^, and furthest, on the frontier of 
 the Araucarian or ChUeno area, the Tobo and Mbocobi. 
 This ia a western and north-western direction. 
 
 c. Eastward lie the tribes of south-western Brazil, emi- 
 nently obscure, Cayapos, etc. UntU we get to the Puris, 
 Botocudos, etc., we get no vocabularies here. 
 
APPENDIX. 501 
 
 Now, as the Gaarani are intrusive, it is in the more 
 distant rather than the nearer languages that the Paya- 
 gua affinit ies are to be sought. Tet here our data are 
 insufficient. AH that can be said about the present Ust 
 is, that^ 
 
 1. The word for foot is like the Abiponian word for 
 hcmd, — isiJi. 
 
 2. The word for water is a common radical in many 
 South American languages. 
 
 3. The personal or possessive pronoun, for the first 
 person (Zor «iy), is the same in. Payagua and in Abipo- 
 nian ; as may be seen in Adelung's remarks on the spe- 
 cimen compared with Dobrizhoffer, where A^m'm=I. 
 
 Tor a single word this is important. 
 
 The writer concludes with remarking, that any future 
 additions to our Payagua data should be compared vrith 
 the Chaco class of tongues in the first, and with the 
 South Brazilian (Botocudo, Puri, etc.) in the second in- 
 stance. 
 
 The foUovying additional details as to the Payaguas 
 were given by Mr. Mansfield in a letter to the Secretary 
 of the Society.* 
 
 " The Payagwas are very queer fellows. They are a 
 kind of fixed Gripsies, in their relation to the other inhar 
 bitants. They live in Httle settlements, rows of huts, 
 chiefly, I believe, on the eastern shore of the river Para- 
 gway. They have two little lots of huts on the edge of 
 the river, close to — ^you may say m — ^the town of Asun- 
 cion. Two or three years ago, a number of Payagwas, 
 having been detected holding treacherous intercourse 
 * Already quoted in the Preface to this work. 
 
503 APPENDIX. 
 
 with the hostile tribes of the Chaco, on the other side of 
 the Paragway, were removed bodily — more than three 
 hundred of them — ^by orders of the President of the re- 
 public, to the borders of the river Caanyave, ia the inte- 
 rior of the country, where they were formed into a settle- 
 ment. They are utterly barbarous and uncivilized ; their 
 language is entirely distinct from G-warani ; at least, no 
 one but a very clever philologist could ever find out any 
 connection between these two tongues. It is a very 
 harsh noise, when spoken, full of clucks and clicks. 
 
 " The Payagwas are permitted, in consideration of 
 some services which they performed some time or other 
 for the Spaniards, in their early wars with the other In- 
 dians, to live undisturbed in Paragway. They are the 
 only wUd Indians seen in the civilized part of that coun- 
 try. There is deadly feud between the wUd Indians who 
 lord it over the western bank of the Paragway, and all 
 on the eastern bank, Payagwa, Grwarani, and Spaniard. 
 The Payagwas are an aquatic set ; very skilful in shoot- 
 ing fish with bows and arrows, and in paddling. They 
 earn a scanty liviag by canoe-work, and by selling little 
 knick-knacks which they make, and make both ends meet 
 by petty thieving. They are a miserable-looking set ; I 
 never knew man from woman at first sight. I have no 
 means of estimating their numbers, for I do not know 
 how many settlements they have. I suppose there are 
 about a hundred of them in Asuncion. Among these are 
 one or two fine, weU-built, men. They wear almost no 
 clothing,— I suppose none except what the Paragwayan 
 authorities compel them to wear. Their usual dress is a 
 shirt of dirty coarse cloth, reachiag about halfway be- 
 
APPENDIX. 503 
 
 tween the tip and the knee, with a hole for the head, 
 and one for each arm. They lounge about in an inde- 
 pendent sort of way, bringiag their bows and arrows and 
 baskets for sale. When I was there, the iaflux of fo- 
 reigners, of whom three steamerfuls came up after my 
 arrival, caused a demand for their productions as ' curi- 
 osities,' so of course they got them up in a good slop 
 style, just to sell. They have beautiful little hands, and 
 work very neatly with their fingers. They wear little 
 bits of cane through the lobes of their ears, with prettily 
 engraved patterns on them. I think they do not tattoo 
 themselves at aU. They tie up their hair in a bunch at 
 the top of the head, and shave the sides thereof over the 
 ears. They come to be christened as soon as they are 
 going to die. I was told that a Frenchman who was 
 there while I was, took a portrait of one in a camera by 
 photography, and that the other Payagwas put their 
 friend to death for it. I got their words from the fellows 
 who used to come into our house to sell things. They 
 can speak a little Spanish (and Gwarani of course), and 
 I would make one fellow repeat over and over his Paya- 
 gwa word, for a Spanish one I put to him, tiU I had 
 heard it into an articulate sound, and then wrote it 
 down; and then I made another do the same another 
 day, to check the first, and so on. I meant to have got 
 a real vocabulary from them; but my attention was 
 chiefly taken up with Grwarani and Spanish, both of 
 which I had to learn ; but I came away before I had 
 made much progress in the former, to which the latter 
 was my key. 
 
 " De AngeUs says, in a note in his ' Coleccion de Docu- 
 
504 APPENDIX. 
 
 mentos relatives a la Historia del Eio de la Plata' (vol. i. 
 p. 64, of Index to ' Argentina'), that the name of the 
 Payagwas is derived from the Grwarani words pm, ' to 
 hang,' and aguda, ' an oar,' meaning, to wit, that they, 
 aquatic creatures, 'Hve fastened to their oars.' " — From 
 Transaciions of ike Philological Society, Nov. 10, 1854. 
 
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 " One of the most-interesting works we ever read'' 
 
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 2. A Second Edition of Glaucus ; or, the Wonders of 
 
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 "The general remarks show the wide sympathy, the deep thought, and the rich 
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 3. Alexandria and Her Schools. Being Four Lectures delivered 
 
 at the Philosophical Institution, Edinburgh. With a Preface. 
 
 Crown 870. cloth, 5s. 
 
 Contents: — Preface of 24 pages. — Lecture I. Ptolemaic Era. — 
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 the Crescent. 
 
 " A series of brilliant biographical and literary sketches, interspersed with com- 
 ments of the closest modern,,or ratlier universal application." — Spectator. 
 
 •'A clear, rapid, accurate, and interesting sketch ought to enjoy a general 
 
 and an enduring popularity" — New Quarterly Beyiew. 
 
PUBLISHED BY MACMILLAN AKD CO. P- 
 
 MR. KINGSLEY'S WORKS. 
 
 4. The Heroes : Greek Fairy Tales for my Children. 
 
 With Eight Dlastrations drawn on -wood by the Author. 
 
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 " MR. KiNGSLET has imbued his narrative with a classical feeling, and throiott 
 
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 they read" — Mousing Post, Jan. 4, 1856. 
 
 5. A Second Hdition of " Westward Ho !" or the 
 
 Voyages and Adventures of Sir Arnicas Leigh, Knight, of Bor- 
 rough, in the County of Devon, in the reign of Her most 
 Glorious Majesty Queen Elizabeth. Rendered into modern 
 English. 3 vols, crown 8vo cloth, £l 11*. &d. 
 
 "Mk. KiJSGSLET has selected a good subject, and has written a good navel to 
 excellent purpose'' — The Times, Aug. 18, 1855. 
 
 " Noble and well-timed" — Spectator. 
 
 ' BY MACVEY NAPIER, ESQ., 
 
 Late Editor of the " Edinburgh Review," and of the " Encyclopeedia Britannica." 
 
 Lord Bacon and Sir Walter Raleigh. Critical and 
 
 Biographical Essays. Post Svo. cloth, Is. 6d. 
 
 "Both Essays exhibit a very remarkable combination of judgment and painstaking 
 research. . . . The Essay on Raleigh is likely to be more interesting to the 
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 " The Essay on. Bacon fills up an important chapter in thehistorg ofFklosophy.-. . 
 The Essay on Raleigh is by far the best Infe of that remarkable man that has 
 hitherto been published:'— Vws Eoohomist. 
 
 "IJie Article on Bacon is clear, accurate, convincing, complete. The Article on 
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 as of the other minor charges."— 'N outs BaiTisn Review. 
 
 BY J. E. B. MAYOR, M.A., 
 
 Fellow and Assistant Tutor of St. John's College, 
 
 Lives of Nicholas Perrar, of Clare Hall. 
 
 By his Brother John, and Dr. Jebb. Now first edited, with 
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 BY THE RIGHT REV. CHARLES PERRY, D.D., 
 
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 Five Sermons, Preached before the University of 
 
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 Crown Svo. cloth, 3*. Just ready. 
 
8-. NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS, 
 
 BY THE REV. G, E. LYNCH COTTON, M.A.., 
 
 ailtr of MarUorough College, formerly fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. 
 
 Sermons : Chiefly connected with Public Events, 1854. 
 
 Fcap. 8to. cloth, 3s. 
 
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 BY JOHN WILLIAM COLENSO, B.D., 
 
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 1 . Ten Weeks in Natal. A Journal of a First Tour of Visita- 
 
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 LORD ARTHUR HERVEY, M.A., 
 
 Rector of Ickworth-witlhHoringer. 
 
 1. The Genealogies of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
 
 Christ, as contained in the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke, 
 reconciled with each other and with the Genealogy" of the House 
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 claims." — Noncohpoemist. 
 " We commend LoED Heevey's book to our readers as a valuable storehouse cf 
 
 information on tJiis important subject, and as indicative of an approximation 
 
 towards a solution of the difficulties with which it is iejrf."— Jocknal OS 
 
 Saceed Liieeatvee. 
 
 2. The Inspiration of Holy Scripture. Five Sermons 
 
 Preached before the University in the month of December, 1855. 
 
 Svo. cloth, 3s. 6rf. 
 
PUBLISHED BY MACMILLAN AND CO. 9 
 
 BY ISAAC TAYLOR, ESQ., 
 
 Author of " The Natural History of Enthusiasm.'' 
 
 The Restoration of Belief. Crown Svo. cloth, 8^. 6(f. 
 
 Contents : — I. Christianity in relation to its Ancient and Modern 
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 the Gospels considered in their relation to the principal features of 
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 to the * Analogy' of Bniler in the literature of the last age, or to the ' Thoughts* 
 of Pascal in that of the age preceding" 
 
 NoE-TH British Uevie-w, Not. 1855* 
 
 BY GEORGE AUGUSTUS SELWYN, D.D., 
 
 Bishop df New Zealand, formerly Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. 
 
 A Third Edition 0/ The Work of Christ in the World, 
 
 I'our Sei'mons, Preached before tlie University of Cambridge on 
 the Four Sundays preceding Advent, in the Year of our Lord, 
 1854. Published for the benefit of the New Zealand Church 
 Pund. Crown Svo. 2s. 
 
 "Liberally conceived and elojueiUlg expressed." — Athen^tim, Feb. 10, 1855. 
 
 " We presume that few if any of -our readers will wiihhold from themselves the 
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 on the worlc which lies iefore us cdH' — CoLOKiAL Chukch Chuomicle. 
 
 " Only require an acknowledgment at our hands. They are, we are convinced, 
 in the possesion and in the hearts of all our readers," 
 
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 " We commend Bishop Selwyn's Four Sermons to our readers, as fine specimens of 
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 Chkistiait MoifiniT Speotatok, April, 1855. 
 
 " These are Missionary Sermons, in the truest and deepest sense" 
 
 NoKOONrOKMIST. 
 A3 
 
10 NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS, 
 
 BY THE REV. F, D. MAURICE, M.A., 
 
 Chaplain of Linciln's Inn. .\ 
 
 1. The Doctrine of Sacrifice deduced from the Scrip- 
 
 tures. . Is. 6i. 
 
 Contents : Dedicatory Letter — ^The Sacrifices- of Cain and Abel— 
 NoaVs Sacrifice— The Sacrifice of Abraham — Sacrifice of the Paas- 
 orer — The Legal Sacrifices — ^David's Sacrifieei — The Lamb before 
 the Foundation of the World — Christ's Sacrifice a Redemption — 
 Christ's Sacrifice a Deliverance from the Curse of the Law — The 
 Sacrifice of Christ a Propitiation — The, Sacrifice of Christ the Puri- 
 fication of the Conscience — Christ made Sin for us —Christ's Saoiifioe ' 
 the Peace-offering for Mankind — Christ's Sacrifice a Power to form 
 •us after his Likeness — Christ's Death a Victory over the Devil — 
 Christ the Advocate —Christ the High-priest — The Adoration of the 
 Lamb — The Word of God conquering by Sacrifice. 
 
 2. Learning and Working. The Religion of Rome, 
 
 and its influence on Modern Civilization. 
 
 In 1 vol. 5s. 
 
 Contents: Juvenile and Adult Learning — Learning and Leisure — 
 Learning and Money Worship incompatible — ^Learning the Minister 
 of Freedom and Order— The Studies in a Working College— The 
 Teachers 'in a Working College. • 
 
 Eome in its Youth — Eome" under Greek Teachers — Rome at the 
 beginning of the New World — The Influence of Rome and Germany 
 upon Modern Europe. 
 
 3. Lectures on the Ecclesiastical History of the First 
 
 and Second Centuries. 10s. M. 
 
 Contents : The Jewish Calling— The other Nations— The Sect Age of 
 the Jewish Commonwealth — The Kingdom of Heaven — The New 
 Society in Jerusalem— Samaria and Syria — The Churches in Gentile 
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 —Different Churches in the Second Century: Judffia, Samaria, 
 Syria— Asia Minor— Greece and Egypt — Italy and Gaul— Africa— 
 The Church and the Gods— The Church and the Emperors- The 
 Church and the Philosophers— The Church and the Sects. 
 
 4. Theological Essays. Second Edition. 10s. &i. 
 
 Contents : Charity— Sin— The Evil Spirit-The Sense of Righteous- 
 ness m Men, and their Discovery of a Redeemer— The Son of God 
 "l'5'®j^5"^™'''^'°"~'^''® Atonement— The Resurrection of the Son 
 of God from Death, the Grave, and Hell -Justification by Faith- 
 Regeneration— The Ascension of Christ— The Judgment Day— 
 Inspiration— The Personality and Teaching of the Holy Spii-it— The 
 Unity of the Church- The Trinity in Unity— Eternal Life and 
 Jiternal Death. 
 
PUBLISHED BY MACMILLAN AKD CO. 11 
 
 REV. P. D. MAURICE'S WORKS-contmued. 
 
 5. Patriarchs and Lawgivers of the Old Testament.- 
 
 Second Edition. 6j. 
 
 ConTENTS: The Creation of Mankind, and of the First Man— The 
 Fall and the Deluge — Noah and Abraham— Abraham and Isaac — 
 Esau and Jacob — The Dreams of Joseph — Joseph and his Brethren 
 — The Mission of Moses— The Miracles of Moses, and the Hardening 
 of Pharaoh — The Passover — The Kebellion of Korah— The Prophecy 
 of Balaam— Prosperity and Adversity— The Nation and the Church 
 — The Test of Prophecy and Miracle — Pentecost — Joshua and 
 St. John— The Book of Judges— Eli and Samuel. 
 
 6. Prophets and Kings of the Old Testanaent. 
 
 Second Edition. JQs. ^d. 
 
 Contents : The New Period in Jewish History — The Life of Saul — 
 David the Shepherd and the Outlaw — ^David the King — The Wise 
 King — The Rending of the Kingdom — The Calf-worship Denounced 
 — Ahab and Elijah — Elisha and Jeha— The Shepherd Prophet — 
 The Valley of Decision— The Unfaithful Wife— The Vision of the . 
 King — Isaiah and Ahaz — The Light in Darkness — The Proud City 
 Doomed — The suffering King and People — The Jew conquering the 
 Nations — The Village greater than the Cities — The Evil City saved 
 and destroyed— Mauasseh and Josiah, Zephaniah and Habakkuk — 
 Temptation the School of the Prophet — The Potter's Work — The 
 New Covenant — The Heavens opened to the Exile — The Valley of 
 Dry Bones — The New Temple. 
 
 7. The Unity of the New Testament. lis. 
 
 Contents : Subjects common to the Three Evangelists — Diiferences 
 of the Evangelists — Acts of the Apostles, Epistles of St. James, 
 St. Peter, and St. Paul. 
 
 8. Christmas Daj', and other Sermons. 10*. ^d. 
 
 Contents : Christmas Day — The Unbelief of the Galatians — Who did 
 Sin; this Man or his Parents? — The Flesh and the Spirit — The 
 Fools and the Wise — The Kingdom which cannot be moved — The 
 Race and tie Prize— The perfect SacriEce- The Sick Man's Prayer. 
 
 The Christian Covenant the Ground of National Education — 
 
 Christ in the Wilderness — Command these Stones to be made Bread 
 
 Cast Thyself down from hence— The Kingdoms of the World and 
 
 their Glory— The Alabaster Box of Ointment— The Prince of Suf- 
 ferers—The Universal Prayer— The Resurrection of the Spirit— 
 The Resurrection of the Body— The Responsibilities of. Medical 
 Students— Human Sorrow the best Evidence of Christianity— The 
 true Rest and Hope of Man— The Invisible Guide— The Feast of 
 Pentecost— Strength in Weakness— The Mustard' Tree— The Prin- 
 ciples and Method of Christian Civilization— The Hindrance to 
 Christian Missions. 
 
IS NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS, 
 
 BEV. F. D. MAURICE'S WORKS-continued. 
 
 9. On the Religions of the World. Third Edition. &s. 
 
 CoNTEiTTS : Mahometanism ; its Successes, Reasons assigned for them ; 
 Principle of the Faith — Hindooism; Character of the Faith, the 
 Brahmin, Worship of the pure Intelligence, the Popular Keaction, 
 Vishnu and Siva, Relations of the English Government to Hindooism, 
 — Buddhism ; its Origin and Difiusion, its various Forms ; the Lama- 
 Buddhism and its Rivals in China — The Old Persian Faith and its 
 Destruction — The Egyptian — The Greek — The Roman — The Gothic 
 —Why Judaism has not occupied a separate place in these Lectm'es 
 —The Relation betveeen Christianity and Hindooism generally com- 
 pared — How this Relation should be detected — The early Preach- 
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 10. On the Prayer-Book. Second Edition. Ss. M. 
 
 Contents; Introductory — The Confession — The Absolution — The 
 Lord's Prayer after Absolution — The Gloria Patria— The XCVth 
 Psalm — The Psalms— The First Lesson — The Second Lesson — The 
 Songs of the Church — The Creed— Ejaculations and Collects — The 
 Litany — The Commimion Service. 
 
 11. The Church a Pamily.. 4j. 6a. 
 
 Contents : The Servant and the Son— Nature and Grace — Repentance, 
 Baptism, the Gift of the Spirit — Nature, Law, Education— Confir- 
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 14. Law on the Pable of the Bees. 4j. 6d^ 
 
 The Word " Eternal " and the Punishment of the 
 
 Wicked. Third Edition. Is. 
 
 Eternal Life and Eternal Death, is. &d. 
 
 The Name Protestant, Three Letters to Mr. Palmer. Second 
 
 Edition. 3s. 
 
 Right and Wrong Methods of Supporting Pro- 
 testantism. Is. 
 
 The Duty of a Protestant in the Oxford Election. 
 
 1847. Is. 
 
PUBLISHED BY MACMILLAN AND CO. 13 
 
 REV. F. D. MAURICE'S WORKS-continued. 
 The Case of Queen's College, London, l*. Gd. 
 Plan of a Female College. M. 
 
 Death and Life. InMemoriamC.B.M. Is. 
 
 Administrative Reform. 3d. 
 
 BY JOHN McLEOD CAMPBELL, 
 The Nature of the Atonement, and its Relation to 
 
 Remission of Sins and Eternal Life. 8vo. cloth, 10«. 6d. 
 
 Co>-TBNTs: — Chap. I. The ends contemplated in the Atonement 
 awaken the espectation that we are to understand its nature. — 
 Chap. II. Teaching of Luther. — Chap. III. Calvinism as taught by 
 Dr. Owen and President Edwards. — Chap. IV. Calvinism as recently 
 modified. — Chap. V. Reason for not resting in the ooneeptiou of the 
 nature of the Atonement on which these systems proceed. — The 
 Atonement to be seen by its own light. — Chap. VI. Retrospective 
 aspect of the Atonement. — Chap. VII. Prospective aspect of the 
 Atonement. — Chap. VIII. Further illustration of the fixed and 
 necessary character of salvation as determining the nature of the 
 Atonement and the form of the grace of God to man. — Chap. IX. 
 The Intercession, which was an element in the Atonement, cou' 
 sidered as prayer. — Chap. S. The Atonement as illustrated by the 
 details of the sacred narrative. — Chap. XI. How we are to conceive 
 of the sufierings of Christ during that closing period of which suf- 
 fering was the distinctive character.— Chap. XII. The sufferings of 
 Christ, in which the Atonement was perfected, considered in their 
 relation, 1st, to His witnessing for God to men, and 2d, to his dealing 
 with God on behalf of men.— Chap. XIIL The death of Christ 
 contemnlated as his " tasting death," and " for every man ; " and the 
 light it 'sheds on His life, and on that fellowship in His life, through 
 being conformed to His death, to which we are called. — Chap. XIV. 
 Comparative commendation of the view now taken of the nature of 
 the Atonement as to 1, Light, 2, Unity and Simplicity, 3, A natural 
 relation to Christianity, and i, Harmony with the divine righteous- 
 
 neas. Chap. XV. That God is the Father of our spirits, the ultimate 
 
 trutii on Which Faith must here ultimately rest.— Chap. XVI. Con- 
 clusion. 
 
 BY WILLIAM NIND, M.A,, 
 
 fellow of St. Peter's College. 
 
 The German Lyrist ; or, Metrical Versions from the 
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14 NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS. 
 
 BY JOSEPH FRANCIS THRUPP, M.A., 
 
 Vicar of BcMTififfton, Cambridgeshire, late Fellow of Trinity College. 
 
 Antient Jerusalem. A New Investigation into the History, 
 Topography, and Plan of the City, Environs, and Temple. De- 
 signed principally to illustrate the records and propliecies of 
 Scripture. With Map and Plans. 8yo. cloth, 15^. 
 
 " ffe is calm and candid, and has a thorough acquaintance vnih all tliai has been 
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 " A well-directed and able endeavour to throw additional light vpon the history 
 and topography of the Holy City, Those who read it imtl find reason to he 
 grateful to the author^ — ^Literaut CnuRCiiMAPr. 
 
 BY W. J. BEAMONT, M.A, 
 
 Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, late Principal of the English College, Jerusalem. 
 
 Catherine, the Egyptian Slave in 1852. A Tale of 
 
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 Cbitio. 
 
 BY CHARLES MANSFIELD, M.A. 
 
 1. Letters from Brazil, Buenos Ayres, and Paraguay. 
 
 By tbe late Chakles Mansfieed, M.A., Clare Hall, Cambridge. 
 With a life by Chakles Kingslet, Rector of Bversley. Post Svo. 
 
 In the Press. 
 
 2. On the Constitution of Salts. Edited from the Author's 
 
 . MS. by N. H. S. Maskeltke, M.A., Wadham College, and 
 Reader in Mineralogy in the University of Oxford. In the Press. 
 
 BY THE HON. HENRY E. J. HOWARD, D.D., 
 
 Dean of Xichfietd. 
 
 The Book of Genesis, according to the Version of the 
 
 LXX. Translated into English, with Notices of its Omissions 
 
 and Insertions, and with Notes on tbe Passages in which it 
 
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 <i jS'^''""'!l ^V^'sh. student is mainly, if not entirely concerned."— QvA.-SiT)TAN. 
 
 We recommend to all who would enter successfully on the cultivation of the Saered 
 
 literature of the Old Testament, to begin with this Folume, and they will find 
 
 timr knowledge o/ both the Hebrew and Greek Scripture greatly increased as' 
 
 theyfollaw the_gmde thus prepared for them" 
 
 JornKii or Sacked Liteeatuee. 
 
PUBLISHED BY MACMILLAU AND CO. 15 
 
 BY J. LL. DAVIES, M.A., AND D. J. VAUGHAN, M.A., 
 
 Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge. 
 
 The Republic of Plato. Translated into English. 
 
 Crown 8vo. clotli, Is. 6d. 
 
 " We congraindaie the public on the appearance of a good^ hy which we mean 
 aiiieral and elegant, translation of the greatest of Plato^s dialogties" 
 
 Spectatok. 
 
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 advantages of improved criticism and refined scholarship, will he of great value 
 not only to those who are enabled to study the original, but to all who are 
 desirous of attaining a knowledge of the principles of the Platonic Philosophy; 
 or of revising their acquaintance with it. It is preceded by a very able critical 
 litiroduciion, and by a careful analysis." — EngIjISH EoiVlEW. 
 
 " A sottnd and scholarly vej-sion, in choice English." 
 
 Chetstian Uemembkancek. 
 
 " We recommend this volume to the attention of those who would gladly learn 
 something of the great founder of the Academy. They will gain an insight into 
 {he true nobility of his sentiments, the grandeur of Ms ideas, and tlie gorgeous- 
 ness of his descriptions, and more than this, they may hope- to rise from its 
 perused with a mind strengthened to m^et the philosophical scepticism of the 
 'present day." — ^English Journal of Education. 
 
 BY THE LATE HENRY MACKENZIE, B.A., 
 
 Scholar of Trinity College. 
 
 The Christian Clergy of the Krst Ten Centuries; 
 
 their Beneficial Influeace on European Progress. 
 
 Crown 8vo. cloth, 6s. Qid. 
 
 "Be has shown considerable research into f he History of the early Clergy, and 
 expresses himself with a facility and force which many an experienced writer- 
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 prejudice, and a conscientious endeavour to reach the truth, which convinces us 
 that an able and excellent man was lost to the world by the untimely death of 
 Heuet Mackenzie." — ^Athen^um, Jan. 12, 1856. 
 
 " We rarely meet with a prize-essay of so much general interest^' 
 
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 Brave Words to Brave Soldiers and Sailors. 
 
 Price 'id. or 10s. per 100, for disinkution. 
 "This small tract, which is designed for cireulaiion among English soldiers 
 engaged in active service, is liberal, genial, and encouraging . . , there will be 
 many in otir camp who would he glad to read «V,"— Examikek. 
 
16 NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS, 
 
 PEOSPECTUS OP A SERIES 
 
 OP 
 
 MANUALS FOR THEOLOGICAL STUDENTS 
 
 .NOW IN COURSE OF PUBLICATION. 
 
 It is now upwards of three years since the Prospectus of this Series was 
 first issued. !Fonr volumes have now been published, and several 
 others are in an advanced state. The reception which the volumes 
 already published have met with, has fully justified the antici- 
 pation with which the Publishers commenced the Series, and 
 warrants them in the belief, that their aim of supplying books 
 "concise, comprehensive, and accurate," "convenient for the 
 professional Student and interesting to the general reader," has 
 been not unsuccessfully fulfilled. 
 
 The following paragraphs appeared in the original Prospectus, and may 
 be here conveniently reproduced :— 
 
 " The Authors being Clergymen of the English Church, and the Series 
 being designed primarily for the use of Candidates for ofiice in 
 her Ministry, the books will seek to be in accordance with her 
 spirit and principles; and therefore, in treating of the opinions . 
 and principles of other communions, every effort will be made to 
 avoid acrimony or misrepresentation. 
 
 " It will be the aim of the writers throughout the Series to avoid all 
 dogmatic expression of doubtful or individual opinions." 
 
 THE FOUE rOLLOWING VOLUMES AEB NOW BEADT : — 
 
 1. A History of the Christian Church during the 
 Reformation. By CHARLES HARDWICK, M.A., Fellow 
 of St. Catharine's Hall, Cambridge, Divinity Lecturer of King's 
 College, and Christian Advocate in the University. 
 
 Crown 8vo. cloth, 10*. 6<i. Now ready. 
 
PUBLISHED BY MACMILLAN AND CO. 1? 
 
 THEOLOGICAL MANUALS-continued. 
 
 2. A History of the Christian Church from the Seventh 
 
 Century to the Reformation.- By the Rev. Charles Hakdwick, 
 M.A., Pellow of St. Catharine's Hall, Divinity Lecturer of Kiug's 
 College, and Christian Advocate in the University of Cambridge, 
 Author of "A History of the XXXIX Articles." With Four 
 Maps constructed for this Work by A. Keith Johnston. 
 
 Crown 8vo. cloth, 10*. ^i. 
 
 OPINIONS OS THE PRESS. 
 
 " TIlis forms one of a series of Theological Manuals which Messbs. Macmulait, 
 Cambridge, have in course of publication. If the other volumes of the series 
 are as welt and carefully written as this, theological students will have good 
 cause to thank them" — Clerical Journal, Sept. 22, 1853. 
 
 " It is full in references and authority, systematic and formal in division, with 
 enough of life in the style to cownteract the dryness inseparable from its brevity, 
 and exhibiting the results rather than the principles of investigation. Mr. 
 Hardwick is to be congratulated on the successful achievement of a difficult 
 task." — Christian Remembrancer, Oct. 1853. 
 
 "He has bestowed paiient and extensive reading on the collection of his materials ; 
 he has selected them with judgment, and Jie presejUs them in an equable and 
 compact style."— S^Y.CTi.TOB., Sept. 17, 1853. 
 
 " This book is one of a promised series of 'Theological Mahuals.' In one 
 respect, it may be taken as a sign of the times. It is a small unpretending 
 volume in appearance, but it is based on learning enough to have sufficed, half a 
 century since, for the ground of two or three quartos, or at least for several 
 portly octavos. For its purpose it is admirable, giving you a careful and intel- 
 ligent summary of events, and at the same time indicating the best sources of 
 information for the further guidance of the student. Among the authorities 
 thus referred to, we find the most modern as well as the most ancient, the con- 
 tinental as well as the English." — British Quarteeit, Nov. 1853. 
 
 "It is distinguished by the same diligent research and conscientious acknowledg- 
 ment of authorities which procured for Mr. Hardwick's ' History of tlie 
 Articles of Religion' such a favourable reception." 
 
 Notes and Queries, Oct. 8, 1853. 
 
 " To a good method and good materials Mr. Hardwick adds that great virtue, 
 a perfectly transparent style. We did not expect ioflndgreat literary qualities 
 in such a manual, but we have found them : we should he satisfied in this 
 respect with conciseness and intelligibility ; but while this book has both, it is 
 also elegant, highly finished, and higUy interesting." ^ , 
 
 ' '•':■•' NoNCONEORMisT, Not. 30, 1853. 
 
 "Js a manual for the student of Ecclesiastical History in the Middle jiges, we 
 inow no English work which can be compared to Mr. Hardwick s book. It 
 has two qreat merits, that it constantly refers the reader to the autlionties, both 
 original and critical, on which its statements are founded; and that it pre- 
 serves a just proportion in dealing with various subjects. ., -, „ , „ ir . 
 ■' ^ ^ Guardian, April 12, 1854. 
 
18 KEW BOOKS AITO K"EW EBITrOlTS, 
 
 THEOLOGICAL MANUALS-coutinued. 
 
 3. A History of the Book of Common Prayer, 
 
 together with a Eationale of the sereral Offices. By the Rev/ 
 EltANCis Procter, M.A., Vicar of Wittoiij Norfolk, aud late 
 Fellow of St. Catharine's Hall. Crown 8va eioth, 10^. M. 
 
 " Mr. Pii0CTEE.'a * History of the Book of Common Erayer ^ is hy far Hie led 
 
 commenicury. extant 'Not only do tlie pvesefti illustratiom embrace tlie 
 
 whole rcmge of original sources indicated by Mu. Paimeb,, hut Mr. Procter 
 compares the present Booh of Common Prayer with the Scotch and American 
 formal and he frequently sets aid in fiMthe Sarutn Offices. As a mcaiual of 
 extensive information^ historical and ritual^ imbued with sound Church princi- 
 pleSj we are entirely satisfied with Mr. Procter's importaM volume.^'* 
 
 Christian Remembrancer, April,- ]8o5. 
 
 " It is a resumS of aU that has been done in the way of investigation in reference to 
 the Prayer-Mo&k.^* — ATHENJii,uii, Feb., 17, 1855.. 
 
 " We can have little doubt thai Mr. Procter's History of our Idtn/rgy will soon 
 supersede the well-known work of Wkeatlt, and become a much-used hand- 
 hook beyond the circuits of the University for the more immediate use of which 
 it has been produced^ — Notes akd Queries, March, 1855. 
 
 " Although very decidedly anti-'Roman in its tone^ we gladly accept it as a substitute 
 for the dull and dreary dogmatism of Wheatlt. It presents^ in a popular amd 
 agreeable narrative^ the history of those vanations to which so much attention 
 has been directed dwing the late eventful controversies / attd while it contains a 
 very careful, learned and scholarlike. exposition of these changes, it also furmshxa 
 a most valuable commentary on the successive texts of the formularies themselves, 
 as they are exhibited either in the original editions, or in the useful manuals of 
 BuLLEY aM£?' Keeling." — Dublin Eevie"W" {Roman Caiholw), April, 1855. 
 
 " We can speak with just praise of this compendious but comprehensive volume. It 
 appears to he compiled with great care andjudgmenty and has prof/fed largely by 
 the accumulated materials collected by the learning and research of the lastfjty 
 years ^ It is a manual of great value to the studeni of Ecclesiastical History and 
 of almost equal interest to every admirer of the lAiurgy and Services of the 
 English Ghurch2^ — London Quarterly Revletv, April, 1855. 
 
 " It is indeed a complete and fairly -written history of the Liturgy ; and from the 
 dispassionate way in which disputed points are touched on, will prove to many 
 troubled consciences what ought to be knoum to them, viz, : — that they may^ 
 mthoutfearof compromising the pnnciples of evangelical truth, give their assent 
 and consent to the contents of the Book of Common Prayer. Mr. Procter has 
 done a great service to the Church by this admirable digest" 
 
 Church oi^ England Quarterly, April, 1855. 
 
PUBLISHED BY MACMILLAN AND CO. 19 
 
 THEOLOGICAL MANUALS-continued. 
 
 4. BROOKE FOSS WESTCOTT, M.A., 
 
 Assistant Master of Harrow School, formerly Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. 
 
 A General View of the History of the Canon of the 
 New Testament during the IIRST POUE CENTURIES. 
 
 Crown 870. clotli, 12s. 6d. 
 
 " TJie AutJior is one of those who are teaching us that it is possible to rifle the 
 storehouses of German theology, without hearing away the taint of their atmO' 
 sphere : and to recognise the value of their accumulated treasures, and even 
 track the vagaries of their theoretic ingenuity, without abandoning in the pursuit 
 the clear sight and sound feeling of English common sense .... ,Itis by far 
 the best and most complete booh of the kind; and we should be glad to see it 
 well piaffed on the lists of our examining^chaplains." — GuAKDIiN, Oct. 3, 18.56. 
 
 " Learned, dispassionate, discriminating, worthy of his subject and the present 
 state of Christian JMerature in relation to if!^ 
 
 BKITISH Q.DAP.TEiLLY, Oot. 3, 1855. 
 
 ^' To the student in Theology it will •prove an admirable Text-Booh ; and to all 
 others who have any curiosity on the subject it will be satisfactory as one of the 
 most useftd and instructive pieces of history which the records of the Church 
 supply." — ^Loudon Quakteeiy, Oct. 1855. 
 
 " The Author carries into the execution of his design a careful and painstaking 
 scholarship .... Considered as a list of Testimonials in favour of the canonical 
 writings, our Author's work deserves the praise of great diligence and manifest 
 conscientiousness" — National Eevie^ (Ukitakiadt), Oct. 1855. 
 
 " If the rest of the series of manuals, of which the present volume forms a pari, are 
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 of the plan." — LlTEHAUT Chukohmajs. 
 
 " There is nothing, so far as we know, resembling it in the English tongue . . .We 
 have here presented to us a striking and luminous view of a very broad and 
 comprehensive subject, marked throughout by rich- and copious erudition. 
 A volume which we consider a most valuable addition to tlie literature of 
 Bevelation. Scripture Expositors, of whatever name, will- acknowledge that they 
 have been laid under deep obligation by the work o/ Me. Westcoit." 
 
 Bkitish Bahitek, Jan. 4, 1856. 
 
 " The conception of the work, and the discrimination and learning with which itjs 
 executed, adapt it most .thoroughly to the present stale and forms of controversy 
 on the subject to which U relates."— i^OTSComo^wisi, Jan. 23, 1856. 
 
 FOB A LIST OB THOSE IH IMMEDIATE PKEPAKATIONj-SEE OVER PAGE. 
 
20 NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS, 
 
 t;|eo%iraI Pmmals. 
 
 THE FOLLOWING WORKS 01 THE SEEIES ARE IN PREPARATION. 
 
 jtin Introduction to the Study of the Old Testament, 
 with an outline of Scripture History. 
 
 Notes, Critical and Ewplanatory, on the Hebrew Text 
 of the Prophet ISAIAH. 
 
 An Introduction to the Study of the Gospels. 
 
 Epistles. 
 
 Notes, Critical and Ewplanatory, on the Greek Text 
 of the FOUR GOSPELS AND THE ACTS OP THE 
 APOSTLES. 
 
 Notes, Critical and Hxplanatory, on the Greek Text 
 of the CANONICAL EPISTLES AND THE APOCALYPSE. 
 
 A History of the Christian Church during TBffi PIRST 
 SIX CENTURIES. 
 
 A History of the Christian Church from the Beginning 
 of the XVIIth CENTURY TO THE PRESENT TIME. 
 
 An Historical Exposition of the Apostles , Nicene, 
 and Athmasian CREEDS. 
 
 An Exposition of the Articles of the Church of 
 
 England. 
 
 Others are in progress, and will be announced in due time. 
 
PUBLISHED BY MACMILLAN AND CO 21 
 
 THE JOURNAL 
 
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 CLASSICAL AND SACEED PHILOLOGY. 
 
 Nos I. to VI. price is. eacli. Vols. I. and II. in cloth, 12^. Gd. each. 
 
 This Journal has been established aa a medium of communication 
 between Scholars and others interested in Classical and Sacred 
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 proposed to continue the publication of three numbers, forming a 
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 contents of the first six numbers : — 
 
 On the Birds of Ai-iatophanes ; On Lucretius ; On St. Paul, and Philo 
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 Cubit ; On the probable Connexion of the Rhsetians and Etruscans 
 with the Thraoian Stock of Nations ; A Plea for Greek Accents ; 
 On a Passage in the Muratorian Canon ; On the Egyptian Month 
 Adrian ■ On the Date of the Composition of Herodotus'a History ; 
 Nicomachean Ethics, Book V. ; Eudemian Ethics, Book IV. ; 
 On Sophistical Rhetoric;' On >Eschylus Choeph. 278—296 (ed. 
 Dindorf ) ; On some Passages in Sophocles ; The Mission of Titus 
 to the Corinthians ; On the Origin and Meaning of Roman Names ; 
 On Latin Lexicography ; On the Borders of the Inheritance of, the 
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 Mr. Ellis's new Theory concerning the Route of Hannibal." 
 
 Besides the above, the Journal contains shorter articles under the 
 titles of "Adversaria" and ''Anecdota;" Copious Notices of New 
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 drawn up "Lists of New Books," English and Foreign, bearing on 
 the subjects to which the Journal is devoted. 
 
22 NEW BOOKS AOT) NEW EDITIONS, 
 
 CLASSICAL AND SACEED PHILOLOGY-continued. 
 
 As it has not been always practicable to issue the niiiribera at the 
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 WITH AN INDEX Oi" SUBJECTS AND OF AUTHORS. 
 
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 Amongst the 'Contributors will be found : — Professors Blackburn, 
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PUBLISHED BY MACMILLAN AND' CO. 23 
 
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