Nothing can be more luxuriant than the vegetation in this province;

whilst the plains yield corn and maize, and rice and tobacco, in the

greatest abundance, the base and slopes of the mountain ranges in

the west are covered with noble trees in every variety, interspersed

with innumerable shrubs, and hung with the most beautiful parasitical

plants. Extensive groves also of aroma and orange-trees produce a

fragrance which adds to the delights of this favoured region. The

sugar-cane grows naturally in the low lands, and might be turned to

valuable account; the demand for it, however, at present, is not

sufficient to induce the country people to attend to it. Not so with

the tobacco-plant, which they cultivate and find a ready sale for in

all the adjoining provinces. The people are a well-disposed hardy race,

proud of their beautiful country, and always ready to take up arms in

defence of _La Patria_.

It was at Tucuman, in 1816, that a Congress of Deputies from the

several provinces solemnly declared their independency and separation

from Spain. From 1810 to that period the ruling authorities set up

had been avowedly merely provisional, and all their acts had been in

the King's name, the people vainly looking forward to the King's

restoration for a redress of their grievances. It is useless now to

say that if the Spanish government had treated them with kindness and

conciliatory measures, they would have found the colonies abounding

in the same loyal and affectionate feelings for the mother country of

which in other times they had repeatedly given such striking proofs.

The King was otherwise advised; and the natural consequence ensued,

that the South Americans, who had acquired a knowledge of their own

strength and importance, simultaneously with the conviction that they

had nothing to hope, and all to fear, from a return to the rule of

the mother country, declared themselves the arbiters of their own

destinies.

PROVINCE OF CATAMARCA.

Catamarca, divided from Tucuman by the sierras of Aconquija, is one of

those subordinate provinces which, like Rioja, owes its independence

rather to its insignificance and secluded situation than to any

pretensions which the people can have to govern themselves; properly

it should be a dependency of the government of Tucuman, to which the

Congress annexed it in 1814.

When I applied to the Governor for some general statistical information

as to the extent and resources of his province, he fairly confessed his

own ignorance and utter inability to answer my queries; much less was

it possible to obtain any satisfactory topographical data.

The inhabitants of the province are estimated at 30,000 to 35,000,

of which about 4000 reside in Catamarca. The valley so called, and

in which the greater part of this population is settled, runs from

north-west to south-east, extending from the confines of Atacama to

those of Rioja. On the eastern side it is separated from Tucuman first

by the sierras of Ancasti and Ambato, and more to the north by the

lofty chain of Aconquija: it is watered by a river which holds its

course through it (said to have been once a much more considerable

stream than at the present day), the waters of which are finally lost

in the low sandy plains of the province of Santiago.

The climate is sultry, and the people, at certain seasons, are very

subject to intermittent fevers. They produce corn and cattle enough

for their own subsistence, and supply the adjoining provinces largely

with their cotton, the quality of that of Catamarca being in higher

repute than their own, for their domestic manufactures: considerable

quantities of red pepper are also sent from thence to Buenos Ayres.

Catamarca, by the usual track, is about sixty leagues distant,

south-west, from Tucuman. In a MS. by Dean Funes, in my possession, he

places it in south latitude 28° 12´. The first Spanish settlement in

this part of the country was formed by Juan Perez de Zurita, in the

year 1558. He named it New England, and the principal town London, in

celebration of the nuptials of his sovereign King Philip with our Mary.

From thence, however, the Spaniards were shortly after expelled by the

native Indians, and, removing to the valley of Conando, founded the

town of Villagran. That district was subsequently abandoned from the

same cause,--the continual hostility of the natives; and the population

was finally settled in the valley of Catamarca.

The Calchaquis, who originally occupied those parts, were a warlike

race, whose dominion extended from the confines of Peru over all the

country lying between the ranges of the Cordillera on the west and

those of Aconquija on the east. They derived their name from the valley

of _Calchaqui_, which, in the Quichua language is strongly significant

of the fertility of the soil; and for a long period they defended

themselves against the Spaniards with an obstinate bravery, unequalled

perhaps in any other part of South America, excepting Araucania. The

history of those parts for the first century and a half, indeed,

is little more than an enumeration of their bloody wars with the

Spaniards, in which the latter were often defeated with serious loss,

their towns besieged and destroyed, and they themselves obliged to fly

before the brave defenders of the soil, whom they drove to desperation

by their wanton cruelties and oppressive treatment. Amongst other

instances of the outrageous and overbearing conduct of the conquerors

which are recorded, one may serve as a sample, which Funes relates of

Don Philip Albornos, who, being named Governor of Tucuman, some of

the Caciques of the Calchaquis, at the time on good terms with the

Spaniards, repaired to Tucuman to tender to him their customary tribute

upon his appointment. Upon their arrival, instead of the welcome they

expected, he wantonly ordered them to be publicly flogged, to have

their heads shaved, and so to be sent back whence they came. The

Calchaquis swore to be avenged: they secretly sent forth emissaries to

rouse all the people of their tribes, especially those of Andalgala,

of Famatina, of Copoyan, and Guandacol, who were known to be smarting

under the yoke of their new task-masters, for that part of the country

was nominally reduced to subjection by the Spaniards; and then, with an

overwhelming force, at one and the same time, fell upon Jujuy, Salta,

Tucuman, London, and La Rioja, carrying everywhere desolation, and

sparing not man, woman, nor child. Never were the Spaniards in those

parts reduced to such shifts; in vain they endeavoured to make peace,

the Indians would listen to no terms, and this war raged for ten years,

with great loss to the Spaniards, and the utter annihilation of many of

their settlements. Nor was it till a large force could be spared from

Peru that this formidable insurrection was put down.

The Spaniards, once masters again, retaliated as usual. Many tribes

were exterminated; others capitulated with their conquerors to abandon

altogether their native valleys, and were removed to a distance;

amongst others a people called the Quilmes, inhabiting a part of the

valley of Calchaqui, being reduced to about 200 families, after a long

resistance, were sent to Buenos Ayres, where the Governor settled them

a short distance from the city, at the place which still bears their

name.

The labours of the Jesuits, however, were eventually more successful

than all the military forces which were sent against the Calchaquis.

The indefatigable missionaries reduced one tribe after another to

a state of comparative civilization, and eventually removed the

greater part of them from their native soil to form the nucleus of

the Christian settlements which they were anxious to establish upon

their own plan on the shores of the Vermejo, amongst the Indians of

the Chaco. There they soon lost all importance, and the hostilities

of other Indian nations, and a dreadful epidemic which broke out

amongst them, in the year 1718, finally put an end to the existence

of a gallant people, who had not only signalized their name by their

successful wars against the Spaniards, but who, in times long before,

had maintained their independence in spite of all the efforts of the

dynasty of the Incas of Peru to reduce them to subjection.

SALTA

is the frontier province of the republic to the north; and follows in

geographical succession those of Tucuman and Catamarca, which bound it

to the south and west. The river Vermejo and its tributary, the river

of Tarija, constitute its limits to the east. It is divided into the

four departments of Salta, Jujuy, Oran, and Tarija; the latter of which

has been occupied by the Bolivians, apparently with a determination to

maintain possession of it. Deducting the population of that department,

the rest of the territory of Salta is estimated to contain nearly

60,000 souls. The city of Salta has between 8000 and 9000 inhabitants.

It was founded in 1582, by Don Philip de Lerma, Governor of Tucuman,

with a view to secure the communication between that province and Peru

from being cut off by the hostile Indians. Its latitude is said to be

24° 30´. Upon the whole it has a neat appearance, and boasts of its

cathedral and many churches. It is, however, badly situated in the

bottom of a valley, through which flow the rivers Arias and Silleta,

the latter of which has of late years abandoned its ancient bed, and

seems to threaten at no distant period to burst over the low marshy

grounds upon which the city stands. Shut in by the mountain ranges in

the neighbourhood, the atmosphere is at certain seasons charged with

miasma, giving rise to intermittent fevers and agues, which are very

general at those periods amongst the inhabitants.

The form of government in this province, as in all the rest, is based

upon the example of that of Buenos Ayres; consisting of a popular

assembly, which has the power of electing the Governor. But though

democratic in theory, it is far otherwise in practice: the lower orders

have not the smallest notion of the real meaning of a representative

form of government, and bow with submission to the dictates of a

patriarchal coterie of influential families, which, alternately

electing and elected, arrange the government amongst themselves very

much as suits their own convenience and interests. If any appeal to the

people is ever made, it is generally from the necessity of supporting

by a demonstration of brute force the pretensions of some particular

candidate for power.

Such are these governments in the infancy of society. One may serve

as a sample of the rest, although local circumstances may have given

rise to slight shades of difference in their appearance. Salta, as

a frontier province, during the struggle for independence, was much

exposed to the vicissitudes of the war; but this very circumstance

roused the energies of the people, and excited in them a spirit

of improvement which has placed them in advance of most of the

Upper Provinces. The establishment of a printing-press, from which

occasionally a newspaper is produced, and of schools, in which

reading, writing, and the first rules of arithmetic are taught, are

great steps compared with the state of things under the old regime. The

clergy, too, either from conviction, or the force of circumstances, are

daily becoming more tolerant, and opinions which in old times it would

have been heresy to think of, are now as freely discussed as at Buenos

Ayres, where religious toleration has become the law of the land.

From Buenos Ayres, Salta is distant 414 leagues, by the post road, and

so far the journey may be gone the whole way in a four-wheel carriage;

but beyond Salta this is no longer possible, and the traveller must

mount his mule to traverse the regions of the Cordillera, which there

may be said to begin in earnest, and the rugged and precipitous passes

through which are quite impracticable by any other mode of conveyance.

The Salteños boast that within their own territory they possess

every climate, from extreme heat to the most intense cold; and,

consequently, that they can rear almost every production of nature;

for although directly under the tropic, the mountain ranges rise in

some places to the height of perpetual snow, counteracting the sun's

influence more or less according to the elevation. Thus whilst in all

the department of Oran, in the east of the province, the tropical sun

has its full influence, under the same latitude in the west, in the

mountain districts of Rosario and Rinconada, the cold is intense. In

the intermediate valleys the climate is temperate and agreeable. It

is in these valleys that the population is chiefly located: they are

for the most part highly fertile, being watered by many small rivers

and streams, which, running eastward from the mountainous districts,

fall into the Salado and Vermejo, which have already been described as

the principal aqueducts of these Upper Provinces. Indeed it is in this

province that both these noble rivers may be said to have their origin,

of which I shall venture to give the following account, chiefly from

data published by Colonel Arenales, son of the late Governor of Salta,

and now at the head of the topographical department of Buenos Ayres.

As a general observation it may be stated that the tributaries of the

Salado all run south, whilst those of the Vermejo will be found to the

north of the city of Salta, as may be seen on reference to the map.

The sources of the Salado may be traced to the snowy ranges of Acay,

where the river Cachi rises, about fifty leagues' journey westward of

Salta, running nearly due south, for more than thirty leagues, through

the valleys, successively named Cachi, Calchaqui, Siclantas, and San

Carlos; during this course it is joined by three smaller rivers from

the west. Six or seven leagues from San Carlos, the river Santa Maria

falls into it from the south. This river rises in the province of

Catamarca, forty leagues off, running from south to north with little

variation. The road from Salta to Catamarca and La Rioja follows

its course. At the junction of the Santa Maria the Cachi changes

its direction from south-east to north-east, and takes the name of

Guachipas, from the town so called, by which it afterwards passes.

A little beyond that place the Silleta falls into it, about sixteen

leagues to the south of Salta. This river rises near the lake del Toro,

to the north-west of Salta, and is augmented by the Arias, from that

city, and by two or three other minor streams. Thence the Guachipas

turns again south, and, ten leagues below its junction with the

Silleta, crosses the high road from Buenos Ayres, where it is called

"El Pasage." In the summer season, when the waters are low, its breadth

may be here about 100 yards, and not being then more than three or

four feet deep, it may be safely forded; but at other seasons when the

waters rise, it becomes a very wide and formidable river, the passage

of which is rendered extremely dangerous, even to those best acquainted

with it, not only from its increased depth and rapidity, but from the

many large boulders and trunks of trees which are hurried down by the

stream with irresistible violence, and which carry everything before

them.

At those times couriers occasionally pass it swimming, or holding by

the tails of their horses, which they drive before them. All carriage

intercourse is for the time impossible, and the ordinary traffic

between Salta and the lower provinces is therefore as matter of

course suspended during the rainy season. To obviate so serious an

inconvenience, in the time of the Old Spaniards, a survey was made

of this part of the river, and a plan was proposed to the government

for throwing a bridge over a rocky pass, which, if executed, would

have enabled carts as well as passengers to cross it high and dry at

any season. The materials were at hand, and the estimate of the whole

expense so small that it was difficult to find an objection to it; on

the contrary, it was unanimously approved; but, as nothing is done

in a hurry in these countries, it was, like many other most notable

projects, postponed, "_hasta mejor oportunidad_," till better times,

which, unfortunately for the people of Salta, have never yet arrived.

Ten or twelve leagues below the pass, the river De las Piedras, the

last affluent of any consequence, falls in; thence the course of the

river is easterly inclining south, as far as Pitos, the frontier fort

of Salta in that direction. In the flat saline country through which

it afterwards runs, its waters imbibe a brackish taste, from which it

takes the name of the Salado, or the salt river, which it preserves the

whole way to its junction with the Paranã, near Santa Fé. I have before

stated that this river is believed to be navigable as high as Matara,

in the latitude of Santiago del Estero.

The Vermejo, the most important of all the affluents of the Paraguay,

is formed by two considerable streams, which may be generally called

the rivers of Jujuy and Tarija, from those two departments which they

respectively drain. At their sources they are at no great distance

from each other, but descending from opposite sides of a snow-capped

range, the buttresses of which branch out far and wide to the south and

east, they are soon hurried away in totally different directions; each,

however, finally sweeping round the base of the stupendous platform

above, describes, after a long course, the segment of a circle, which

is rendered all but complete by the junction of their waters at a

point about sixteen leagues below Oran, whence they flow together

south in one mighty and navigable stream the whole way to the Paranã.

The name of Vermejo, or the red river, is derived from the occasional

discoloration of the waters by the red alluvial soil which is washed

into them during the periodical floods.

With respect to the many minor streams which fall into the rivers of

Jujuy and Tarija, they are for the most part mere mountain torrents

of little importance, except as adding to their waters, which finally

become navigable below Oran.

The Jujuy river rises near the Abra de Cortaderas, about three leagues

from Colorados, one of the most elevated points passed by the traveller

on the road to Potosi: from thence the lofty peak of Chorolque

beyond Tupiza, in the north, and the snowy ranges of Atacama, in the

north-west, are distinctly visible. The channel of the river in its

descent from this elevated region, the whole way to Jujuy, is little

more than a succession of precipitous ravines, occasionally swelling

into basins, highly interesting to the geologist, as exhibiting on all

sides evidences of the tremendous convulsions which at some remote

period must have torn and shaken this part of the continent to its very

foundations. The road to Potosi winds along it, but it would seem to be

a region only suited to the wild llamas, alpacas, and vicuñas, which

range in countless herds over the snowy ranges above, looking down

with apparent surprise on the casual traveller, who wends his toilsome

way through these rugged defiles. The favourite food of these animals

is the ichú, a very coarse grass, which is only found at an elevation

little short of that of perpetual snow. At Jujuy the river turns

eastward through a more open and habitable region, which skirts the

southern base of these mountain ranges, and about twenty leagues beyond

receives the Siancas, or Lavayen, its most important tributary, which

rises in the heights of San Lorenzo, to the north-west of the town of

Salta:--it is afterwards joined by the Ledesma and three or four other

minor streams, before it falls into the Tarija river, as before stated,

below Oran.

The course of the Tarija, in the first instance, is nearly as

precipitous as that of the Jujuy, running through broken mountainous

passes; but when it trends to the south, and receives the Pescado

(which separates the departments of Oran and Tarija), and shortly

after the Senta, it opens into wide and extensive valleys, traversed

by many streams, which, running down into the main river, irrigate the

rich lands along its shores, and unite with the warmth of a tropical

climate to form one of the most fertile districts in the world.

These are the principal rivers of this province. Its productions are

as various as its physical features. In the west the mines of the

Cerro de Acay and San Antonio de los Cobres, have been at times worked

with considerable success; and in the still more elevated districts

bordering upon Atacama, the natives of Cochinoca, the Rinconada,

Cerillos, Santa Catalina, and Rosario, employ themselves in collecting

considerable quantities of gold from the alluvial deposits after heavy

rains.

It is in those cold regions that the alpacas and vicuñas are

found:--the guanaco also abounds there, and the beautiful little

chinchilla, thousands of dozens of the skins of which are yearly

collected and sent down to Buenos Ayres for exportation to Europe.

In the same part of the province, not far south of La Rinconada, are

extensive plains of salt, called the Salinas of Casabindo, to which

the natives of the adjoining districts resort when the salt is hard

and dry, and cut out large blocks of it with hatchets, which they load

upon their llamas and asses, and carry to Salta and Jujuy, and other

parts of the province:--there, also, they collect, in the same manner,

the snow which is used in those towns for making ices in the summer

season. The eyes of travellers obliged to traverse these inhospitable

wilds are said to be as much affected by the glare of the sun reflected

from these fields of salt, as from the snow-capped mountains which

bound them. Casabindo is about forty-five leagues east from Atacama,

the intermediate distance being all Cordillera, and is situated upon

the desolate road from Salta, which is appropriately called _El

Despoblado_.[63]

In the valleys, further south, of Colalao, San Carlos, Calchaqui, and

Cachi, watered by the streams which afterwards fall into the Salado, as

already described, large quantities of corn and maize are grown, with

which the rest of the province is chiefly supplied: the vine is also

extensively cultivated there, from which a good deal of an ordinary

wine is yearly made and drunk in those parts for want of better.

It was from their rich pastures, however, watered by the mountain

streams, that the Salteños in former times derived their principal

profits. Before the revolution, and when the upper provinces, which

now form the separate state of Bolivia, were part of the Vice-Royalty

of Buenos Ayres, a great trade was carried on by the people of Salta

in mules, 50,000 or 60,000 of which were annually sold there for the

service of the carriers of Peru:--these mules were chiefly bred in the

provinces of Santa Fé and Cordova, and sent to Salta when two or three

years old, where, after being kept for a season or two in the rich

grazing grounds of that province, they were considered strong enough

for the work expected of them in the severer climate of the Andes. A

periodical fair was held in the neighbourhood of Salta, to which the

purchasers from Peru repaired, and bought the animals in droves at the

rate of fourteen or sixteen dollars each (five or six more if broken

in), about a third of which was clear profit to the Salteños, who

bought them of the Cordova and Santa Fecino breeders at a price seldom

above ten dollars. These that reached Lima were worth double the price

paid for them at Salta. A tax, called _sisa_, of three quarters of a

dollar on each mule, was levied by the government, the annual amount of

which was destined to the maintenance of the forts upon the frontier,

kept up as defences against the encroachments of the Indians of the

Chaco.

The struggle for independence stopped this traffic, for the upper

provinces and the greater part of Peru being in possession of the

Royalists to the last, all intercourse with Salta was cut off for many

years, nor has there been any sufficient encouragement to renew it

since the restoration of peace. Peru, however, must have mules, and it

does not appear that she is likely to be supplied with them from any

other quarter in sufficient numbers.

Proceeding eastward, through the valleys of Campo Santo, and those

watered by the Lavayen and its affluents, to Oran, and throughout all

that department, a tropical vegetation is found in all its natural

luxuriance.[64] Forests of noble trees stud the banks of the rivers,

and extend far down the shores of the Vermejo, valuable not only

as timber, but as producing fruits which may be said to supply the

place of bread and wine to the natives:--such, amongst others, is the

algaroba tree, a sort of acacia, from the fruit of which, a large bean

growing in clusters of pods, mixed with maize, the Indians make cakes;

and, by fermentation, produce their chicha, a strong intoxicating

spirit in very general use. The quinaquina, the palm-tree, and the

plant from which the famous maté, or Paraguay tea, is made, are equally

indigenous there, and many others, as yet only known to us by their

Indian names, which it would be useless to recapitulate.

The cactus, bearing the cochineal insect, and the aloe are found in

every direction:--from the macerated fibres of the latter, the Indians

of the Chaco make yarn and ropes, which are found less liable to rot

in water than hemp:--their fishing-nets are made of this material, and

a variety of bags and pouches, for which there is always a demand

amongst their more civilised neighbours: these articles are variously

dyed in indelible colours, prepared also by the Indians. There is no

doubt that this plant, which grows as commonly in most parts of South

America as the thistle with us, might be turned, here as elsewhere, to

very considerable account for many useful purposes. I have seen not

only beautiful rope, but very good coarse cloth manufactured from it;

indeed I have now in my possession some paintings done in Peru upon a

canvass made from it, which could not be distinguished from any coarse

linen of European make.[65]

At Buenos Ayres, where the hedgerows are generally formed of the common

aloe, I had an opportunity of trying various experiments with it, and

had some cordage made from it of beautiful texture and whiteness by

some sailors from one of his Majesty's ships. I also tried my hand

at making pulqué, after seeing Mr. Ward's account of the manner in

which it is made in Mexico; but, though we obtained an abundance of

the liquor, following the process described by him of taking out

the stem as soon as it began to shoot, and collecting the sap as it

accumulated in the socket or basin beneath, it was never sufficiently

palatable to our tastes to be drinkable; but this probably was from

our want of experience in the mode of preparing it: however, I have no

doubt that consumers enough might be found of this or any other such

beverage amongst a people who can drink so filthy a preparation as the

chicha, the liquor in common use amongst the natives of the united

provinces,--one of the ingredients of which is said to be maize chewed

by old Indian women.[66]

In some of those saline and arid districts, where no other fresh water

is to be found, there grows a species of the aloe, well known to the

natives, from which, on being tapped by an incision made in one of the

thickest leaves, a clear stream will spurt out sufficient to allay the

traveller's thirst.

In many parts of Oran is found the celebrated cuca, or coca, plant

(_Erythroxylon Peruviana_), sometimes called _El Arbol del hambre y

de la sed_,--"The tree of hunger and thirst;" to the natives more

necessary than bread. Hungry or weary, with some leaves of coca to

chew, mixed with a little lime or alkali of his own preparation, the

Peruvian Indian seems to care for no other sustenance:--he never

swallows it, but is perpetually chewing it, as the Asiatics do the

beetle-nut: give him but his bag full of this, and at most a little

dried maize besides, and he will undertake the hardest labour in the

mines, and, as a courier, perform the most astonishing journeys on

foot, frequently travelling a hundred leagues across the snowy and

desolate regions of the Cordillera.

In surveying countries like these, still in their natural state, it

is impossible not to be struck at every step with the infinite and

wonderful variety of the works of the Almighty, and with the manifest

evidences they uniformly display of an unceasing and beneficent

provision for all the wants of His creatures, in every clime and under

all circumstances.

In the valleys watered by the Jujuy and its tributaries, as in many

other parts of the republic, the indigo grows wild, and the sugar-cane

and tobacco are extensively cultivated, the two latter being produced

in sufficient quantity not only for the consumption of the whole of

the province of Salta, but for exportation to the rest of the upper

provinces, and occasionally to Chile. Cotton, also, is grown there in

considerable quantities, and of a quality which would be prized in

the markets of Europe,--as indeed would be nearly all the valuable

productions of this highly-favoured region.

Although in this, as in every other part of the republic, the want

of population may be considered as the great drawback to the full

development of its natural resources, the Salteños, and especially

those in the eastern districts of the province, obtain assistance to a

considerable extent in the cultivation of their lands from the Indians

of the Mataco nation, who live upon the shores of the Vermejo, below

the junction of the Jujuy. These Indians, now an independent people,

acknowledging no other authority than that of their own Caciques, were

in former times reduced, in a certain degree, to civilised habits

by the Jesuits, the fruits of whose influence are still perceptible

in their occasional intercourse with their Christian neighbours,

amongst whom they repair at the seasons of sowing and harvest to

barter their service in labour in exchange for articles of clothing,

and beads and baubles for their women. They are very industrious, and

in the allotment of work will undertake double the daily task of the

Creoles:--the payment they receive for a month's work is from ten to

fifteen yards of very coarse cloth or baize, the cost of which at

Salta may be about a quarter of a Spanish dollar, or about a shilling

a yard:--with this and their food they are perfectly content, and, at

a similar rate, any number of them might be induced to leave their own

haunts periodically to work in the sugar and tobacco plantations of the

Spaniards. I was told by an Englishman, long resident at Oran, that

many hundreds of them are yearly engaged at the rate above stated to

get in the crops in the vicinity of that place.

When to this low rate at which productive labour may be obtained, we

add the existence, now indisputably established, of an uninterrupted

navigation the whole way from Oran to the Paranã, and thence to Buenos

Ayres, it is impossible not to be struck with the very great natural

advantages possessed by this province, and with the very small degree

of energy apparently requisite on the part of the natives to turn them

to the fullest account. It is their own fault alone if the sugars and

tobacco, the cotton, the indigo, and cochineal of Oran, do not vie

with those of Brazil and Columbia in the markets of Europe. Let the

people of these countries open their eyes to the importance of their

own resources, and let them not imagine that they themselves are

incapable of calling them into action:--unfortunately, such a feeling

is one of those curses to the country engendered by the old colonial

system of Spain, and which has the effect, to a lamentable extent, of

counteracting that spirit of self-confidence and exertion which, on

every account, is called for on the part of the inhabitants of these

countries under their new political condition. It is this feeling

which has led them to turn their eyes to the formation of companies in

Europe as the best mode of bringing their fertile lands into notice and

cultivation,--an erroneous notion which cannot too soon be set right.

I do not say that in the temperate climate of Buenos Ayres European

labourers may not be employed to advantage; but when it becomes a

question of sending them into the tropical regions in the heart of

the continent, whether as agricultural labourers or miners, I am

satisfied that the experiment would only end in utter disappointment to

all parties. In the first place, it should be borne in mind that, to

ensure in Europe any sale for the productions of so remote a country,

the cost of their cultivation must be extremely low, as it appears to

be at present; but what labourer from Europe would be satisfied with

anything like even double the ordinary remuneration for daily labour

in that part of the world? Supposing him, however, to be conveyed

thither, and to be contented, for a time, with the abundance of the

necessaries of life around him, what does he know of the culture of

tropical productions, the chances being that he never saw a sugar-cane

or a cotton plant in the whole course of his life? But, what is of

more consequence, how long will his physical powers last in a climate,

the heat of which will be almost insufferable to him, and in which

the very indulgence of his own ordinary habits will soon undermine

his constitution and destroy all his energies? Of the hundreds of

Beresford's and Whitelock's men, who remained in the country after the

evacuation of Buenos Ayres by the British forces, how very few were

afterwards to be met with who were not sunk to the lowest scale of

misery and moral degradation!

In tropical climates I am satisfied that Europeans will never be

able to compete in amount of daily labour with the natives: on the

contrary, wherever the trial has been made, the Indian labourer has

been found capable of enduring an infinitely greater degree of bodily

exertion than the most robust European. It is hardly credible, indeed,

what these people will go through. In the mines especially, where

the amount of their daily work, and the loads they are capable of

sustaining, have excited the astonishment of every one who has paid

the slightest attention to the subject. The stoutest of the Cornish

miners who accompanied Captain Head in his visit to the mine of San

Pedro Nolasco, was scarcely able to walk with a load of ore which one

of the natives had with apparent ease brought out of the mine upon his

shoulders, whilst two others of the party who attempted to lift it were

altogether unable to do so, and exclaimed that it would break their

backs.

In these observations I allude of course to the labouring class,--I

speak of hands not heads, for I fully agree in the necessity

of introducing improvements in the cultivation of the native

products,--which improvements will assuredly be best introduced by

foreigners qualified by experience in other countries to superintend

and direct those processes, both of cultivation and after preparation,

which may be requisite to ensure their immediate sale in the foreign

markets for which they are destined. Such persons, perhaps, would

be best sought for in the East or West Indies or Brazil; and, no

doubt, they would not only benefit themselves but their employers by

introducing into these new countries the results of their practical

experience elsewhere. It is to foreigners, also, that the natives must

look to instruct them in the use of steam-vessels, upon which, after

all, the future advancement of these remote countries in wealth and

civilisation will so mainly depend.

I will only add to the observations which I have already made upon

this subject, my conviction that if the governments of Buenos Ayres,

Santa Fé, and Corrientes would but unite in a sincere determination

to give a fair trial to the experiment, men would be found at Buenos

Ayres who would desire no better than to be employed on such a

service:--as to any opposition Dr. Francia might offer to it, it is

not worth a moment's consideration.[67] Give an English midshipman, of

sufficient experience, an armed steamer and a picked crew, either of

his own countrymen or North Americans, to whom he might add some of

the excellent sailors of Paraguay, and I am quite sure he would carry

a cargo from Buenos Ayres up the Vermejo in perfect safety to Oran,

despite of Dr. Francia or any such bugbear. This, however, is an object

which must have the cordial support and co-operation of the ruling

powers. If they shut their eyes to the importance of its success, it

would be labour thrown away for any individual to volunteer the attempt.

The government of Buenos Ayres, as the authorities charged with the

general interests of the Republic, from their habitual intercourse with

the people of other countries, ought to be fully able to appreciate the

immense benefits which steam-navigation has produced elsewhere, and how

greatly it has tended to promote the prosperity and civilisation of

other nations. It is in their power to extend those blessings to their

own countrymen in the heart of the South American continent, and to

produce a really United Confederation of the Provinces, instead of that

which is now little more than nominal, from the vast distances which

intervene, and operate as a bar to almost any intercourse between them.

With the establishment of steam-navigation, distance will cease to be

distance, and the upper provinces will find a cheap and ready vent for

an abundance of productions which are now not worth the heavy expenses

of sending down by land-carriage to Buenos Ayres.

It is a grave question, deserving the most serious attention of those

to whom the government of these countries is at present intrusted,

and in the early solution of which, perhaps, their future political

destinies are involved to an extent far beyond the comprehension of any

casual observer.

FOOTNOTES:

[59] This latitude is the mean of four observations taken by M. de

Souillac (in 1784) one of the astronomers attached to the commission

for determining the boundary.

[60] Since this was written I have met with a gentleman who had

seen the original drawings of _three_ masses, with their respective

measurements; which drawings, he understood, were made by the persons

sent in quest of this iron by the government of Buenos Ayres when my

specimen was brought down.

[61] Luccock, in his Travels in Brazil, speaks of a very singular

metallic formation which he met with in the province of Minas Geraes,

not far from Villarica. He says (page 490), "A hill on our left

now presented a wonderful object; it was one entire mass of iron,

so perfectly free from any mixture of common soil as to produce no

vegetation whatever, but was covered with a complete coating of rust

or oxide of iron. The hill is so lofty and steep that its top was not

accessible; but from its more elevated parts nodules of corroded metal

had rolled down, and greatly embarrassed the road: at the foot of the

mountain the soil is red clay mixed with ponderous brown dust. As we

advanced the metal seemed to become less pure, until, after an extant

of two leagues and a-half, it altogether vanished, and was succeeded by

the common clayey land, &c. I had often heard of this immense mass of

metal, but none of the reports had presented any adequate picture of

it to the imagination. The very core of the hill, as far as we could

judge, appeared to consist of vast blocks of iron, in tables; and it is

so free from alloy as to produce when smelted ninety-five per cent. of

pure metal."

[62] As mining labour was imposed as an obligation upon the Indians

by the conquerors, so it came to be looked upon as the occupation of

a caste, and of a caste looked down upon by all who boasted of the

slightest admixture of European blood in their veins.

[63] The "Uninhabited Region."

[64] When Soria descended the Vermejo in 1826, it was deemed a good

opportunity to send a collection of specimens of the various woods

of these region to Buenos Ayres that they might be examined and more

properly described, and he told me he had no less than seventy-three

different species with him, the whole of which were taken from him by

Dr. Francia, in Paraguay, with everything else on board his vessel.

[65] In 1834 a series of trials was made at Toulon in order to

ascertain the comparative strength of cables made of hemp and of the

aloe (brought from Algiers), which resulted greatly in favour of the

latter. Of cables of equal size, that made from the aloe raised a

weight of 2000 kilogrammes, that of hemp a weight of only 400.

[66] Pulqué is described by Mr. Ward as the favourite beverage of the

lower classes in some parts of Mexico. The aloe plant, from which it

is prepared, is cultivated for the purpose in extensive plantations;

and so great is the consumption of it, that before the revolution the

revenue derived from a very small municipal duty levied upon it at

the gates of the towns averaged 600,000 hard dollars a-year, and in

1793 amounted to 817,739, or about 170,000_l._ sterling.--See Ward's

'Mexico,' vol. i. p. 55.

[67] A small iron steamer, which might be had for 25,000_l._ or

30,000_l._, would be quite sufficient to begin with.

CHAPTER XIV.

PROVINCES OF CUYO.

The town of Cuyo formerly attached to Cordova. Value of the

old municipal institutions. SAN LUIS, wretched state of

the population. The miserable weakness of the Government,

exposes the whole southern frontier of the Republic to

the Indians. Aconcagua seen from the town. Mines of

Carolina. Account of a journey over the Pampas in a

carriage. MENDOZA, extent, rivers, artificial irrigation,

productions. Mines not worth working by English companies.

Ancient Peruvian road. City of Mendoza, and salubrity of

the Climate. SAN JUAN. The productions similar to those of

Mendoza, Wine, Brandy, and Corn. Quantity of Corn produced

yearly. Mines of Jachal. Character of the people. Passes

across the Andes. Dr. Gillies' account of an excursion by

those of the Planchon and Las Damas. Singular animal found

in the provinces of Cuyo named the Chlamyphorus, described

by Mr. Yarrell.

The towns of San Luis, San Juan, and Mendoza, with their several

jurisdictions, each of which is now considered a separate province, in

the time of the Viceroys were subject to the Intendency of Cordova.

In 1813, by a decree of the National Congress, they were separated

from that government, and formed into a distinct province, under the

denomination of the Province of Cuyo,[68] of which Mendoza was made

the capital; but in this, as in the other divisions of the republic

enacted about the same time, the bonds were too loosely knit to resist

the shocks of party struggles and domestic convulsions; and this

arrangement, though wisely planned, fell with the dissolution of the

Congress at Buenos Ayres which created it.

But for the cabildos and municipal institutions which still existed

in most of the principal towns of the interior when the metropolitan

government was dissolved, in 1820, I believe every semblance of a

legitimate authority would have ceased. They retained to a certain

extent powers not only for the preservation of the public peace, but

for the administration of justice; and although perhaps, under the

circumstances, they afforded facilities for the establishment of the

federal system in opposition to a more centralised form of government,

there is no doubt they saved the insulated towns in the interior from

worse consequences. Those institutions were by far the best part of the

colonial system planted by the mother country, and they were framed

upon principles of liberality and independence which formed a very

singular exception to her general colonial policy. I doubt whether

those which in most cases have been substituted for them have been

so wisely cast, or are so suitable to the state of society in those

countries. The people at large were habituated and attached to them,

and had they been retained, with some reforms adapting them to the new

order of things, they might have been made the very best foundations

for the new republican institutions of the country. But the truth was,

they were essentially too democratic for the military power which arose

out of the change; they succumbed to that, and the people, having no

real voice in their new governments, made no struggle to preserve them.

SAN LUIS.

Of all the petty governments of the interior that of San Luis is one of

the most wretched. The population, estimated at from 20,000 to 25,000

souls, is thinly scattered over the estancias, or cattle-farms, at very

long distances from each other, where they lead a life so far removed

from anything like civilised society, that it may be doubted if their

condition is really much better than that of the wild Indians, of whom

they live in such continual dread, and against whose fearful inroads

their miserable provincial authorities can afford them no efficient

protection. Their independence and weakness is a serious evil to the

whole republic, which is in consequence of it left defenceless on its

most assailable side. The provinces of Cordova, Santa Fé, and Buenos

Ayres, are obliged to maintain each a separate militia to protect

their frontiers thus left open to the savages; and the most important

of all the communications in the republic, the road from Buenos Ayres

to Mendoza, is constantly unsafe from the total absence of all means

on the part of the government of San Luis to make it otherwise. Every

year this state of things goes on the evil consequences become more

manifest; and, unless the ridiculous independence of some of these

insulated townships be put an end to by their re-annexation to

their old provincial capitals, not only must their own interests be

annihilated, but those of the republic at large must materially suffer.

It is idle to look for any improvement under the present system, which

can only lead to the diffusion of ignorance and moral degradation, if

the wretched population does not altogether disappear under it.

The straggling mud-built town of San Luis de la Punta, which gives its

name to the province, contains about 1500 inhabitants, all miserably

poor. Bauza places it in lat. 33° 17´ 30", long. 65° 46´ 30". It is

prettily situated on the western slope of one of a group of hills,

which appear to be the last knolls of the Sierra da Cordova. Dr.

Gillies gives it 2417 feet above the level of the sea, by barometrical

observation, a greater elevation than the traveller from the pampas

perhaps would imagine. There is, however, a splendid prospect from it;

the great saline lake of Bevedero glistening at a distance, and the

interminable plains stretching away to the south, covered with a rich

vegetation, brilliant with gaudy flowers, amongst which the bulbous

plants are strikingly conspicuous.[69]

Towards sunset, the Cordillera, capped with snow, is often visible,

though above 200 miles distant. It has been generally supposed to be

Tupungato which is thus seen; but Tupungato does not rise above the

limit of perpetual snow,[70] and is often entirely free from it; is

it not more likely therefore to be Aconcagua, which Captain Fitzroy

found to attain the enormous elevation of 23,200 feet, upwards of 2000

higher than the famous Chimborazo? The direct distance differs very

slightly of either from San Luis, Tupungato is 213, and Aconcagua 216

geographical miles from it; the latter being about 50 miles to the

north of the other.

The gold-mines of San Carolina are about sixty miles to the north of

San Luis, in the mountains; they have long since been filled with

water, and, as there are no capitalists or machinery to drain them,

they are no longer worked, but the people of the hamlet wash and sift

the alluvial soil collected at particular places (the lavaderos) in the

neighbourhood, and so collect every year a quantity of gold in dust

and small bean-like lumps, which they call _pepitas_. According to

the official returns in the King of Spain's time, the produce of one

year, on which duty was paid, was about 150 lbs. At present the people

take little trouble to collect more than is absolutely necessary to

enable them to purchase at San Luis the few articles of clothing and

horse-gear which they require; if anything, they are even worse off

than the gauchos upon the estancias. Captain Head paid them a flying

visit, and has described the wretched poverty in which he found them.

Originally, and before the erection of Buenos Ayres into a

Vice-Royalty, the province of Cuyo was subject to the government of

Chile, of which San Luis was at that time the frontier-town to the

eastward, and the place where the Captains-General in consequence first

received the honours due to them when they crossed the pampas from

Buenos Ayres to take possession of their government. It takes its name

from Don Luis de Loyola, a Governor of Chile, who founded it in the

year 1596.

By the post-road it is 226 leagues distant from Buenos Ayres, and 84

from Mendoza; and it is the only place that exceeds the description

of a straggling village throughout the whole distance. The road which

runs through it has been often described by those who have crossed

the pampas in the last twenty years, and they have left little to say

about it. By all accounts it seems to be a most uninteresting one;

and the grand object, therefore, is to get over it with the greatest

possible expedition. The more common mode of performing the journey is

on horseback; but this is necessarily attended with great fatigue, and

he must have an iron constitution who attempts it; but if he can live

upon meat yet warm with life, or barely toasted over a gaucho fire,

dispense with bread, drink brackish water, and sleep as a luxury upon

the ground in the open air, in spite of bugs as big as beetles, which

will suck him like vampires, his saddle for a pillow, and the sky for

his covering, and with such fare gallop a hundred miles a day, he may,

barring accidents, reach Mendoza in about ten days. He will find no

temptation to loiter on the way, though much to make him wish to reach

his journey's end.

There are post-houses, or stations, along the whole line of road,

where relays of horses may be had; wretched animals in general, to

all appearance, though the work they will sometimes do is almost

incredible, and that of course entirely upon green food; it is true

their gaucho riders never spare them, and their tremendous spurs,

reeking with blood when they dismount, but too cruelly indicate in

general the goad which has urged them on. Unlike the Arab or the

Cossack, the gaucho seems to have no kind feeling whatever for his

horse; the intrinsic value of the animal being of no importance, if he

drops on the way his rider cares not, he lassoes and mounts another

beast, and abandons the exhausted one to the condors and vultures,

always on the look-out for such a chance, and which will tear the flesh

from the poor brute's bones as soon as they find he has not strength

enough left to shake or kick them off. The mares lead a better life,

being kept entirely for breeding; and custom is so strong that no

consideration would induce a gaucho to mount one. The pampa Indians

have the same feeling, but they keep them for food as well as breeding;

mare's flesh by them is preferred to all other, indeed it is their

ordinary food.

But it is not absolutely necessary to go through the fatigue of riding

on horseback across the pampas, and, for those disposed to consult

their ease, an admirable sort of carriage may be had at Buenos Ayres,

called a galera, in appearance more resembling a London omnibus than

any other carriage I ever saw; it is swung upon hide ropes, and is

of light though very strong construction; and in this the journey as

far as Mendoza may be performed in fourteen or fifteen days without

difficulty. At the same time that Captain Head started to ride on

horseback across the pampas, another friend of mine, with four or five

persons in his suite, who was desirous to combine as much comfort

as possible with such an undertaking, left Buenos Ayres in the sort

of carriage I have described; he had besides with him a cart on two

wheels, for the conveyance of baggage, bedding, cooking utensils, &c.,

and much such a supply of _stock_ as people would lay in for a voyage

by sea of two or three weeks' duration. On reaching Mendoza, he sent me

an account of his journey, from which I extract the following, for the

benefit of those disposed to follow his example:--

_"Mendoza, December, 1825._

"We reached this place on the morning of the eighteenth day

from our leaving Buenos Ayres. H--d, who started on horseback

at the same time, did it in nine, but with so much fatigue as

to be obliged to lie up for some days afterwards to recruit.

We might easily have done it in our carriage in fourteen or

fifteen, for we galloped nearly the whole way, as he did, but

for the tiresome stoppages we were continually obliged to

make in order to repair our cart; these kept us half a day

at one place, one day at another, and two whole ones at San

Luis. Though you laughed, as well you might, at our set-out,

and at the appearance of our galera and caratillo, stuffed

with my manifold preparations for personal comfort, I can

truly say, now the expedition is over, that of all carriage

contrivances the galera is infinitely the best calculated for

an excursion across the pampas; ours was remarkably easy over

the roughest roads, capable of resisting all injury from them,

and its high wheels well adapted for preventing our sinking

in the quagmires, whilst it formed a comfortable bedroom at

night. Of the caratillo I cannot speak favourably:--from its

construction it was not suited to keep pace with the galera;

two galeras would be better, especially if there were ladies

of the party, in which case one might be fitted especially

for their convenience, with couches for sleeping, &c. The pies

and provisions might be stowed away in lockers, as the sailors

would call them, made for the purpose; and the more good things

in the shape of eatables and drinkables you can get into them

the better, unless you have the stomach of an ostrich to digest

what the gauchos offer you. The filth of the post-houses is

beyond description, dirt and vermin of every kind in them, and

no accommodation of any sort for the traveller; even our peons

preferred sleeping in the open air, and you would not suspect

them of being over nice; I never in my life saw such a set of

wild devils.

"The country is more uninteresting than any I ever travelled

over, in any quarter of the globe. I should divide it into

five regions:--first, that of thistles, inhabited by owls and

biscachas; secondly, that of grass, where you meet with deer

and ostriches, and the screaming horned plover; thirdly, the

region of swamps and bogs, only fit for frogs; fourthly, that

of stones and ravines, where I expected every moment to be

upset; and, lastly, that of ashes and thorny shrubs, the refuge

of the tarantula and binchuco, or giant bug.

Its geological aspect differed somewhat from what I expected.

I should say that, to the north and south of Mendoza, there

have been volcanoes, the eruptions from which have covered the

country (perhaps the bed of a sea) with ashes as far as San

Luis: the peculiar soil so formed, combined with the effects

of climate and the salt lakes, may perhaps account for the

particular species of thorny plants which are undescribed and

confined to this region. The mountain streams, overflowing the

saline lakes, are the origin of the vast swamps between San

Luis and the Rio Quarto; and the decomposed granite and gneiss

from the Sierra de Cordova, gives rise to the difference in the

soil, and to its elevation along the Rio Tercero."

MENDOZA.

The province of Mendoza occupies a space of something more than 150

miles from north to south, along the eastern side of the Cordillera of

the Andes, and nearly an equal distance from east to west, measured

from the Desaguadero to the central ridge of the Andes. The northern

boundary is formed by a line passing east and west through the post

station of Chañar, about eighteen miles north of the city, which

divides it from the jurisdiction of San Juan. To the south the nominal

frontier line is the river Diamante, although lands beyond that river

have been purchased from the Indians, which are likely, perhaps, to

become some of the most valuable of the province, especially for the

purposes of cattle breeding, for which those in the vicinity of Mendoza

are not suitable.

The river Desaguadero is the divisional line between the provinces of

San Luis and Mendoza:--this river is the drain of a singular chain of

lakes known by the name of Guanacache, formed by the confluence of the

river Mendoza, which runs into them from the south, and the San Juan

river, which, after passing the town or city so called, is discharged

into them from the north. The Desaguadero, after receiving these

rivers, runs first in an easterly direction, and afterwards south,

into a vast lake called the Bevedero, below the town of San Luis:--a

portion, also, of the waters of the river Tunuyan are lost in the same

great sack-like lake, which thus becomes the reservoir of the greater

part of the streams which issue from the Andes between the thirty-first

and the thirty-fourth degree of latitude. It is said that in old times

the Tunuyan also, like the rivers of Mendoza and San Juan, had no

other outlet, but that river, at a later period, opened for itself

a new channel, and though a portion of its waters are still carried

into the Bevedero, the greater part of them turn off to the south

before reaching it in a stream called the Rio Nuevo by Bauza, and the

Desaguadero by Cruz,[71] which runs in that direction a considerable

distance, till the Diamante and Chadi-leubú rivers join it, and

together they form another great inland water without any outlet,

called the Urré-lauquen, or Bitter Lake, from its extreme saltness, as

described in chapter eight. The account of this lake given to Cruz by

the Indians who accompanied him in his journey across that part of the

Pampas in 1806, has been verified of late years by General Aldao, who

personally examined it in an expedition which he commanded against the

savages in 1833, when he rode round it, and ascertained that it had no

outlet.

The river Tunuyan rises from the base of the mighty mountain of

Tupungato, and at first runs south through a wide and rich valley in

the Cordillera; passing eastward of the volcano of Maypú, or Peuquenes,

it afterwards finds its way through the eastern chain of the Andes by a

deep chasm or opening, which it seems to have burst for itself through

the mountains seven or eight miles below the Portillo Pass, and nearly

opposite to where the Maypú leaves the Cordillera on the western side:

thence its course through the plains is north, and afterwards eastward,

in the direction of the great lake Bevedero, as already stated.

It would seem as though Nature herself had expressly directed the

course of these rivers, viz., the Mendoza, Desaguadero, and Tunuyan,

in such a way as to facilitate to the inhabitants the means of

artificially irrigating their lands, which, from the quality of

the soil, and the rarity of rain, would be otherwise barren and

unproductive[72]:--as it is, the quantity of lands artificially watered

by ducts from the rivers Mendoza and Tunuyan is estimated at about

30,000 square leagues, and these lands, which are arid and barren when

not so watered, become, under regular irrigation, uncommonly rich and

fertile, yielding frequently, under a very rude and simple mode of

agriculture, more than a hundred-fold. Wheat, barley, and maiz are thus

grown; besides which there are extensive vineyards and orchards, and

grounds covered with lucern grass for the fattening of cattle,--all

regularly enclosed, and walled in with thick mud walls, called

_tapiales_.

The products of the province are wine, brandy, raisins, figs, wheat,

flour, hides, tallow, and soap, which last is made from a species of

barilla, which abounds in most parts of it:--a considerable portion of

these is exported to Chile and to the provinces of Cordova, San Luis,

and Buenos Ayres. The quantities so disposed of will be best understood

by the following official return of the exports for a single year:--

Account of Exports of Produce of Mendoza for other parts during the

year 1827.

+------------+------------+------------+------+-------+------+------+-------+

| | | |Corn | [73] | | | |

| | | |and | Dried |Hides.|Soap. |Tallow.|

| Where sent.| Brandy. | Wine. |Flour.|Fruits.| | | |

| +-----+------+-----+------+------+-------+------+------+-------+

| |Pipes.Loads.|Pipes.Loads.|Loads.|Loads. | No. |Loads.|Loads. |

+------------+-----+------+-----+------+------+-------+------+------+-------|

|Buenos Ayres| 336 | 2144 | 290| 3120 | 1098 | 520 | 670 | -- | -- |

|San Luis | -- | 70 | -- | 488 | 1634 | 85 | -- | 60 | -- |

|Cordova | -- | 95 | -- | 355 | 125 | 49 | -- | -- | -- |

|Santa Fé | -- | 81 | -- | 172 | 469 | 39 | -- | -- | -- |

|Chile | -- | 12 | -- | -- | -- | -- | 8700 | 571 | 88 |

+------------+-----+------+-----+------+------+-------+------+------+-------+

| | 336 | 2402 | 290| 4135 | 4452 | 693 | 9370 | 631 | 88 |

+------------+-----+------+-----+------+------+-------+------+------+-------+

In addition to these native products, the mineral riches of the province

are various and valuable. The silver mines of Uspallata have at times

been very productive, and in other parts of the same range veins, both

of silver and copper, are known to exist, though want of capital and

labourers has hitherto prevented their being opened. With respect to

the working of these mines by English companies, and in the English

manner, the best opinions seem to agree that it would not answer to

make the attempt.

Mr. Miers carefully examined the mines at Uspallata, and has given a

particular account of the mode in which they are worked by the natives,

and of the process resorted to for separating the silver from the ore.

At the time he visited them they were not yielding more than two marks

per caxon:[74] a very low average, upon which he has taken the trouble

to make calculations to show that the English mode of smelting can

never be brought into competition with the process of amalgamation as

practised in South America. He says,--"To ensure economical results

the aid alone of the people of the country, as well as the application

of their peculiar habits and management, must be resorted to: wherever

English improvements are attempted to supersede the old methods, such

trials would be attended with loss. "No one," he adds, "can doubt but

that in the barbarous mode of operation followed in Chile great loss of

product is occasioned; but when this loss is placed in competition with

the increased cost of labour, materials, and management necessary to

ensure a greater amount of produce, the inference is irresistible that

it is better to put up with this loss than to expend a sum of money

far beyond the value of what can be obtained by adopting the improved

methods used in countries where facilities abound which can hardly be

procured at any price in Chile and La Plata."

Captain Head, after seeing them, came to a similar conclusion: he

considered that, although they might yield a liberal return under the

more economical plan of employing native labourers properly directed,

and at the ordinary low rate of wages paid for such labour in that part

of the country; from the want of water, wood for fuel, and pasturage

for cattle throughout the region in which they are situated, they would

not repay the cost of working them by machinery, or by an English

establishment.

In all this part of the Cordillera is to be found an abundance of

limestone, gypsum, alum, mineral pitch, bituminous shales with

appearances of coal in many places, slates, and a variety of saline

deposits, amongst others common and Glauber salts.

The same metalliferous chain of the Andes extends, according to

Gillies, with little interruption, from Chile to Peru, and contains

the greater part of the gold and silver mines yet known on the

eastern ranges of the great Cordillera, including, besides those of

Uspallata, the mines of the province of San Juan, and further north

those of Famatina in La Rioja. It is separated from the central ridge

of the Andes by an extensive valley, or succession of valleys, running

northwards from Uspallata, through which it is said that an ancient

road of the Peruvians is to be traced at the present day nearly to

Potosi; a point well worth the attention of the antiquarian, and of

great interest, as connected with the state of civilization which the

aborigines had attained before their conquest by the Spaniards.

The population of the province of Mendoza is calculated to be from

35,000 to 40,000 souls, about a third of which is resident in the

city and its immediate vicinity. The executive power is vested in a

Governor, periodically chosen, as in the other provinces, by the Junta,

or Provincial Assembly.

A visible improvement has taken place in the condition of this

people in the last twenty years; for, although at so vast a distance

from the Capital, like Salta, its position as a frontier town has

given it some special advantages: it has led to communications with

foreigners, and to a traffic with Chile and with Buenos Ayres, which,

by teaching them the value of their own resources, has roused a sort of

commercial spirit amongst the inhabitants, and has stimulated them to

more industrious habits. The government has taken pains to establish

schools for the education, of all classes, and the setting up of a

printing press, from which has issued an occasional newspaper, has been

of great use, not only in opening the eyes of the people at large to

the proceedings of their own rulers, but in furnishing them with some

notion as to what is going on from time to time in other parts of the

world.

They are, in general, a healthy and well-conditioned race: descended

many of them from families originally sent from the Azores by the

Portuguese government to colonise Colonia del Sacramento on the

river Plate, and made prisoners and settled in those remote parts

by Cevallos, during the war which preceded the peace of 1777. It is

probably much owing to them that the cultivation of the vine has been

so extensively introduced in this part of the Republic.

The city of Mendoza, which, according to Bauza, is in south latitude

32° 52´, west longitude 69° 6´; at an elevation of 4891 feet above the

sea, and at the very foot of the Andes, is shut out from any view of

the great Cordillera by a dusky range of lower hills which intervene.

Its appearance is neat and cheerful: the houses, for the most part,

built of sunburnt bricks, plastered and whitewashed; and the streets

laid out at right angles, as usual in that part of the world. It boasts

of an Alameda, or public walk, said to equal anything of the kind

laid out, as yet, in South America:--it is nearly a mile long, neatly

kept, and shaded by rows of magnificent poplars:--there are seats and

pavilions at either end for the accommodation of the inhabitants, by

whom it is much frequented as a lounge, especially of an evening.

The climate is delightful and salubrious, and is remarkably beneficial

to persons suffering from pulmonary affections. The only ailment to

which the people seem more liable here than in the interior is the

goitre, which I suppose may be attributed to the same causes, whatever

they are, which seem to produce it in almost all alpine districts.

SAN JUAN.

The province of San Juan, which adjoins that of Mendoza, occupies the

space between the great Cordillera and the mountains of Cordova, as

far north as the Llaños, or plains, of La Rioja. It is said to contain

about 25,000 inhabitants, governed, at present, like those of Mendoza,

and occupied very much in the same manner, in the cultivation of their

vineyards and gardens, and in agricultural pursuits. Their exports of

brandies and wines to the other provinces are little short of those

from Mendoza, and the quantity of corn they annually grow has been

estimated at from 100,000 to 120,000 English bushels. The same lands

produce yearly crops under the process of artificial irrigation from

waters highly charged with alluvial matter. The ordinary crops are 50

for 1, in better lands 80 to 100, and in some, as at Augaco, about five

leagues to the north of the city of San Juan, they have been known to

yield 200 and 240. The price in the province is from one and a half

to two Spanish dollars for a fanega, equal there to about two and a

half English bushels. The wages of a day labourer are from five to six

dollars a month, besides his food, which may be worth a rial a day more.

In times of scarcity corn has been sent from San Juan to Buenos Ayres,

a distance of upwards of a thousand miles; but this can never answer

under ordinary circumstances, from the great expense attending the land

carriage. It is different with the wines and brandies, which, after all

charges, can be sold in most of the provinces of the interior, and even

at Buenos Ayres, at a fair profit. They are in general demand amongst

the lower orders, and, if pains were taken with them, might be very

much improved. I have had samples of as many as eight or ten different

qualities, all of them good, sound, strong-bodied wines, and only

requiring more care in their preparation for market.

In the northern part of this province, in the lower ranges of the

Cordillera, is the district of Jachal, in which are what are called the

Gold Mines:--they are, as far as I could learn, much in the same state

as those of La Carolina in the province of San Luis, already spoken of.

Their yearly produce was estimated, in 1825, at 80,000 dollars, the

greater part of which was sent to Chile to be coined at the mint of

Santiago. The accuracy of this calculation has been disputed, but, men

if true to its fullest extent, the amount is of no great consequence.

The situation of the city of San Juan is in latitude 31° 4´, according

to Molina. Mr. Arrowsmith has placed it in longitude 68° 57´ 30".

The climate is described as truly heavenly, and the people as a

well-disposed race, extremely anxious to improve both their moral and

political condition. In this they have had chiefly to struggle with

the countervailing influence of an ignorant, vicious, and bigoted

priesthood, which has been greatly opposed to all innovations:--the

political power, however, of this class of persons is fast on the wane

at San Juan, as in most other parts of the Republic.

PASSES OF THE ANDES.

I shall conclude this chapter with a list of the passes across the

Andes from the several provinces of this republic of which I have any

account: they are twelve in number:--

First.--The most northerly is a continuation of the road called

the Despoblado, which crosses the mountainous districts of the

north-western part of the province of Salta by the mines of Yngaguasi

to Atacama.

Second.--A pass from the province of La Rioja communicates with Guasco

and Copiapo in Chile.[75]

Third.--Another, further south, leads from the province of San Juan to

Coquimbo.

Fourth.--That called Los Patos on the north flank of the great mountain

of Aconcagua, descending into Chile by the valley of the Putaendo,

a small river which joins the larger one of Aconcagua in the plains

below, near the town of San Felipe. It was by this road that General

San Martin made his celebrated march over the Andes with the army of

Buenos Ayres in 1817, which led to the liberation of Chile from the

Spanish yoke.

Fifth.--The pass of the Cumbre by Uspallata, the road most usually

taken by travellers proceeding from Mendoza to Santiago de Chile, and

which has been very particularly described by several Englishmen, who

have gone that way. Of the published accounts that of Mr. Miers is,

perhaps, the best, as he had the most opportunities of making it so,

having crossed it no less than four times, once with his wife, who

was taken in labour upon the road. Lieutenant Brand's is particularly

interesting, from his having crossed at the season when the Cordillera

was covered with snow, which obliged him to proceed on foot a great

part of the way, and to encounter fearful risks, which he has very

graphically described. The whole distance from Mendoza to Santiago is

107 post leagues; and the highest part of the Andes crossed is (by

barometrical measurement), according to Dr. Gillies, 12,530 feet above

the sea:--Mr. Miers says about 600 feet less. From the commencement of

November to the end of May, occasionally a few weeks sooner or later,

this road is passable the whole distance on mules:--for the rest of

the year it is generally closed to all but foot-passengers, and the

crossing is then attended with considerable danger; many lives have

been lost in attempting it.

A striking object on this road is the splendid arch called the Inca's

Bridge, seventy-five feet over, which nature has thrown across a ravine

one hundred and fifty feet deep, through which runs the river of Las

Cuevas. There are natural hot springs about it, which some persons

suppose to have contributed to its formation:--it is evident, however,

that some infinitely more powerful agency has been at work, from the

appearance of beds of fossil shells there at an elevation of 8650 feet

above the level of the present sea.

Sixth.--About half way over, near the station called the Punta de las

Vacas, a road branches off to the valley of Tupungato, and afterwards

crosses the Cordillera to the north of the peak so called, descending

on the opposite side into Chile by the valley of the little river

Dehesa, from which it is called the Dehesa Pass: it is very little used.

Seventh.--South of the mountain of Tupungato is the Portillo Pass,

which falls into the valley of the river Maypú in Chile with the Rio

del Yeso. By many travellers it is preferred to the high road by

Uspallata, being the shorter way of the two by twenty leagues:--it is,

however, seldom open longer than from the beginning of January to the

end of April, the greater elevation of that part of the Cordillera

causing it to be longer blocked up by the snow.

The way to it from Mendoza runs southward, parallel to the mountains

as far as the estancia of Totoral, upon the north bank of the river

Tunuyan, distant about sixty-five miles from that city, and some

twenty from the base of the Cordillera:--thence the pass bears

west-south-west, distant about thirty-six miles; the breach in the

mountains through which the Tunuyan runs being plainly visible to the

south of it. This part of the Andes seems to consist of two great

parallel ridges running nearly north and south, and separated from each

other by the valley of the Tunuyan, the width of which is about twenty

miles, and its elevation above the sea, where crossed by the road,

about 7500 feet. Of the two ranges the eastern one is the highest,

being, where the road crosses it, 14,365 feet above the sea:--this

chain extends with little interruption from the river of Mendoza,

southwards, to the Diamante, a distance of about 140 miles:--the

western, or Chilian range, where crossed by the road, is not above

13,200 feet high.[76]

In this part of the Cordillera is situated the volcano of Peuquenes,

or Maypú, eruptions from which have been frequent since the great

earthquake which produced such disturbance in 1822:--they generally

consist of ashes and clouds of pumice-dust, which are carried by the

winds occasionally as far as Mendoza, a distance little short of 100

miles. In crossing from the eastern to the western side of the valley

of the Tunuyan travellers have, at first, the summit of the volcano

concealed from them, but about half way between that river and the pass

of Peuquenes there is a good view of it eight or nine miles distant to

the south:--the summit is generally covered with snow, and cannot be

much less than 15,000 feet above the sea. It is from the pumice-rock

found in this neighbourhood that the people of Mendoza make basins for

filtering the muddy water of their river.

Eighth.--To the south of this volcano is situated a pass called De la

Cruz de Piedra, which enters the Cordillera where a small stream, the

Aguanda, issues from it, about two leagues to the north of the fort of

San Juan:--it unites with the road by the Portillo pass on the opposite

side of the Andes in the valley of the Maypú.

Ninth.--Further south one little frequented unites the valleys of the

rivers Diamante and Cachapoal: this is previous to reaching the volcano

of Peteroa, beyond which are situated the passes of Las Damas and of

the Planchon.

Tenth.--Of these the Las Damas, or ladies' pass, enters the

Cordillera from Manantial in the valley of the river Atuel, and

descends by that of the Tinguiririca, which issues from the mountain

of San Fernando:--this was the pass which M. de Souillac, in 1805,

reported might, at a very small expense, be rendered passable for

wheel-carriages.[77]

Eleventh.--The road by the Planchon leads to Curico and Talca,

following the courses of the rivers Claro and Teno:--on neither of

these roads does the elevation exceed 11,000 feet, or the vegetation

ever cease.

The twelfth pass is that of Antuco, from which Cruz started in 1806

to cross the Pampas to Buenos Ayres:--the road by it to Conception in

Chile follows the valleys of the rivers Laxa and Biobio. To the south

of the volcano in the vicinity of this pass, which Cruz could not get

up, but which has since been ascended by M. Pæppig, a German naturalist

(who nearly lost his life in the attempt), lies a ridge called the

_Silla Velluda_, rising, according to his estimation, to the height of

17,000 feet, on the rugged sides of which, below the snow and glaciers,

are to be traced ranges of basaltic columns.

Of the most frequented of these passes, viz., those by Uspallata and

the Portillo, there are, as I have already said, several accounts

in print, but, as I know of no other Englishman except the late Dr.

Gillies who has examined those of Las Damas and the Planchon with any

attention, I shall here quote part of a letter which he wrote to me in

1827, giving an account of a short excursion he made by them in that

year; and I do so the rather because it also gives some account of the

intervening country, which has never, as far as I know, been described

by any one else:--

"About the middle of May I returned from an excursion of ten weeks

to the south which I had long meditated. After reaching the river

Diamante, the southern boundary of the province of Mendoza, I crossed

that river and ascended the Cerro del Diamante, and at every step

found ample evidence of its volcanic origin: the ascent was covered

with masses of lava, and near the summit with loose pumice. The upper

part of the mountain consists of a ridge elevated a little at each

of the extremities into a rounded form, on the north side of which,

a little below the summit, is a plateau about 400 yards in diameter,

which undoubtedly has been formerly the crater of a volcano. The whole

mountain appears to rest on an immense bed of pumice-stone. On the

steep banks of the Diamante opposite to it such strata are laid open

on both sides:--at one place on the south bank I traced one great mass

of pumice-rock, 100 feet long and 145 wide, the whole forming distinct

basaltic pillars.

"From this interesting spot we proceeded towards the mountains of

the Andes, and amongst the first low hills examined several springs

of petroleum, about which it is curious to observe the remains of a

variety of insects, birds, and animals, which, having got entangled

there, have been unable to extricate themselves:--so tenacious is this

substance that (as I was assured by an eye-witness) some years ago a

lion was found in the same situation, which had made fruitless attempts

to escape. Following the base of this lower range southward, after a

few leagues we reached the banks of the river Atuel, a copious stream

much larger than either the river of Mendoza or the Tunuyan:--its

bed, very unlike that of the Diamante, is very little lower than the

surrounding plains, which gradually slope off to the eastward for

twelve or fourteen leagues, as I had an opportunity afterwards of

observing.

"The north bank, where we crossed it, seems admirably adapted for an

agricultural settlement: it is there that the several roads diverge

across the Cordillera to San Fernando, Curico, and Talca, in Chile; and

to the south into the country of the Indians. We proceeded from thence

towards the Planchon, along a succession of valleys rich in pasturage,

but very bare of shrubbery: in several places we saw immense masses

of gypsum, and passed a mountain from which is obtained an aluminous

earth, much used in Chile as a pigment for dyeing. The pass of the

Planchon is along the north shoulder of a lofty mountain, apparently

composed of sonorous slaty strata. My barometer unfortunately got out

of order before I reached the highest elevation; but, as vegetation

extends to the top of the pass, it must be considerably lower than

the passes of the Portillo and of Uspallata, on both of which all

vegetation ceases long before reaching the higher points of the road.

The descent from the Planchon is very rough, and in many places

steep: at a distance of three leagues from the top we reached our

resting-place, surrounded by luxuriant vegetation, and thence descended

to Curico, along a valley with steep mountains on either side, and

through a continuous thicket of lofty trees and shrubs, amongst

which I may enumerate the Chilian cypress, the quillay, the canelo or

cinnamon-tree, the caustic laurel, a variety of myrtles, a beautiful

fascia, and others no less interesting.

"From Curico we went to Talca, a considerable town, and thence explored

the river Maule, with a view to its capabilities for navigation. We

returned by Curico to San Fernando, where we re-entered the Cordillera

by the valley of the Tinguiririca to ascend the pass of Las Damas:

the road was very similar to that we had previously descended from

the Planchon to Curico; but, being much less frequented, it was in

many places difficult and dangerous. In the upper part of this valley

we examined some hot springs, the temperature of which reached 170°

of Fahrenheit. Thence we were induced to devote two days to visit a

volcano,--which was described to us as being in an active state,--about

ten leagues distant: thither we proceeded by a most rugged and

dangerous path, and reached within half a league of the summit, when so

serious a snow-storm came on, that we had the mortification of being

forced to return without accomplishing our object; nor had we any time

to lose, for the snow had so completely obliterated all traces of the

way, that our guide was completely lost, and, but for the observations

I had taken with my compass, I know not how we should have got back

at all. On reaching our mules again, the weather was so unpromising

that we made all haste to recross the mountains, lest they should be

closed against us by the heavy snow which was falling; this we happily

accomplished, and three days brought us back again to the place where

we had first crossed the Atuel river. After visiting the extensive

saline lakes in that vicinity, from which the province is supplied with

salt, we bent our way back to Mendoza.

"In this journey I had an opportunity I had long desired of examining

on the Cordillera the plant from the root of which the natives of Chile

obtain their admirable red dye."

Dr. Gillies, the writer of this letter, passed many years at Mendoza,

where he recovered from a severe pulmonary affection, and was himself a

striking instance of the beneficial effects of the climate under such

circumstances. Botany was his favourite pursuit; but he did not confine

himself to this, and never lost an opportunity of collecting useful

information on every other point which fell under his notice.

His botanical acquisitions were, I believe, chiefly communicated to

Professor Hooker, of Glasgow, through whom they were occasionally made

known to the public. His collections of the ores of Uspallata and other

parts of the Cordillera were given to the College Museum at Edinburgh.

I am myself indebted to him for the best part of my information

respecting the provinces of Cuyo. It was through him I obtained,

amongst other curiosities from those parts, the very remarkable little

animal which is figured in the annexed plate, and which is now in

the collection of the Zoological Society of London. It has hitherto

been only found in the provinces of Cuyo, and even there but rarely:

it burrows in the ground, and in its habits somewhat resembles the

mole, lying dormant during the winter months; the natives call it the

Pichi-ciego. Dr. Harlan, of New York, was the first to give an account

of it, from an imperfect specimen sent to him from Mendoza; and he gave

it the name of _chlamyphorus truncatus_.

European naturalists, however, doubted its existence till the point was

settled beyond dispute by the arrival of my specimen, which fortunately

was perfect, and in an excellent state of preservation. At the request

of the council of the Zoological Society, Mr. Yarrell drew up a

particular account of its osteology, which was published in the third

volume of their Journal, and from which, with his permission, I extract

the following observations upon its comparative anatomy.

"From the representation of the skeleton and its different parts it

will be perceived that the _chlamyphorus truncatus_ has points of

resemblance to several other quadrupeds, but that it possesses also

upon each comparison many others in which it is totally different.

"It resembles the beaver (_castor fiber_) in the form and substance of

some of the bones of the limbs, in the flattened and dilated extremity

of the tail, and the elongation of the transverse processes of the

lower caudal vertebræ, but no further.

"It has much less resemblance to the mole (_talpa Europea_) than its

external form and subterranean habits would induce us to expect. In

the shortness and great strength of the legs, and in the articulation

of the claws to the first phalanges of the toes, it is similar; but

in the form of the bones of the anterior extremity, as well as in the

compressed claws, it is perfectly different; nor do the articulations

of the bones, nor the arrangement of the muscles, allow any of the

lateral motion so conspicuous in the mole; the hinder extremities of

the chlamyphorus are also much more powerful. It resembles the sloth

(_bradypus tridactylus_) in the form of the teeth and in the acute

descending process of the zygoma; but here all comparison with the

sloth ceases.

"The skeleton of the chlamyphorus will be found to resemble that of

the armadillo (_dasypi species plures_) more than any other known

quadruped. In the peculiar ossification of the cervical vertebræ, in

possessing the sesamoid bones of the feet, in the general form of all

the bones, except those of the pelvis, as well as in the nature of the

external covering, they are decidedly similar; they differ, however, in

the form and appendages of the head, in the composition and arrangement

of the coat of mail, and particularly in the posterior truncated

extremity and tail.

"There is a resemblance to be perceived in the form of some of the

bones of the chlamyphorus to those of the _orycteropus capensis_ and

_myrmecophaga jubata_, as might be expected in animals belonging to

the same order. To the _echidna_ and _ornithorhynchus_ it is also

similar in the form of the first bone of the sternum, and in the bony

articulations, as well as the dilated connecting plates, of the true

and false ribs. It becomes interesting to be able to establish even

small points of similarity between the most extraordinary quadrupeds of

New Holland and those of South America; that continent producing in the

various species of _didelphis_ other resemblances to the _marsupiata_.

In the form of the lower jaw, and in other points equally obvious,

the chlamyphorus exhibits characters to be found in some species of

_ruminantia_ and _pachydermata_.

"In conclusion I may remark that in the composition and arrangement of

its external covering, and in its very singular truncated extremity,

the chlamyphorus is peculiar and unique; and if a conjecture might be

hazarded, in the absence of any positive knowledge of the habits of

the animal, it is probable that it occasionally assumes an upright

position, for which the fattened posterior seems admirably adapted.

It is also unique in the form and various appendages of the head, and

most particularly in possessing an open pelvis, no instance of which,

as far as I am acquainted, has ever as yet occurred in any species of

mammalia."

Since Mr. Yarrell's observations Dr. Buckland, in his description of

the _megatherium_, has further pointed out the resemblances of the

chlamyphorus to that fossil monster.

[Illustration: CHLAMYPHORUS.

_2/3 the Natural Size._]

FOOTNOTES:

[68] The word _Cuyo_, according to Angelis, in the Araucanian language

signifies _arena_, or sand, which is the general character of the soil.

[69] The cactus, which is found in every variety throughout the

province of Cuyo, abounds in the neighbourhood of San Luis, and the

natives collect the cochineal from it, and make it into cakes, which

they use in dying their ponchos.

[70] Although from June to December it is either wholly or partially

covered with snow, I have seen it in the month of May wholly bare,

when only a few days before there had been heavy falls of snow on

the Cumbre, or central ridge, &c. I mention these facts to show that

Tupungato cannot attain a higher level than that assigned to the limit

of perpetual congelation, which in this latitude to about 15,000 feet,

though, from the known height of the Cumbre, and its supposed elevation

above the central ridge, I am disposed to conclude that its actual

elevation cannot be far short of 16,000 feet (Miers).

[71] Dr. Gillies says where the Diamante joins it, it is called the

Salado.

[72] In the more southern parts of the province, in the direction of

the Diamante, corn may be grown without the labour and expense of

artificial irrigation, the rains which fall there being sufficient to

render it unnecessary.

[73] The dried fruits of figs, peaches, apples, nuts, olives, &c.

Between 300 and 400 mules were sold for Chile in the same year. The

load or carga is equal to about 200 lbs.

[74] The mark is eight Spanish ounces, or seven ounces, three

pennyweights, fourteen grains, troy, English. The caxon is fifty

quintals, or 5000 lbs. of ore.

[75] According to Myen, a recent traveller, this part of the Cordillera

is not so elevated as more to the south:--he says it is passable at

several points of the province of Copiapo.

[76] These heights are given on the authority of Dr. Gillies.

[77] Zamudio, an officer in the service of Buenos Ayres, who examined

it the year before M. de Souillac, is said to have actually passed

it with a two-wheel cart. Dr. Gillies does not give so favourable an

account of its present state.

PART III.

TRADE AND PUBLIC DEBT.

CHAPTER XV.

TRADE.

Advantages of the situation of Buenos Ayres in a commercial

point of view. Amount of _Imports_ into Buenos Ayres in

peaceable times. From what Countries. Great proportion

of the whole British Manufactures. Articles introduced

from other parts of the World. The Trade checked by

the Brazilian War, and subsequent Civil Disturbances.

Recovering since 1831. Proportion of it taken off by

Monte Video since its independence. Comparative view

of _Exports_. Scarcity of Returns. Capabilities of the

Country. Advantage of encouraging Foreigners. The Wool

Trade becoming of importance owing to their exertions.

Other useful productions which may be cultivated in the

interior. Account of the origin and increase of the Horses

and Cattle in the Pampas.

In a commercial point of view we have only to look at the map to

be satisfied of the great importance of the geographical position

of Buenos Ayres. From the Amazons along a line of coast upwards of

2000 miles in extent, the River Plate affords the only means of

communicating with all those vast regions in the interior of the

continent comprised between the Andes and the mountainous districts

which bound Brazil to the west. Not only the provinces of the Argentine

Republic and of Paraguay, but the now independent states of Bolivia

and Peru, are as yet only accessible from the Atlantic through the Rio

de La Plata.

If there is but little intercourse between these states at present, it

must be ascribed to political causes alone, and to such confined and

restrictive notions as are, perhaps, to be expected from governments in

their infancy.

The people of Bolivia and the eastern districts of Peru, whose wants

from Europe were formerly supplied through Buenos Ayres, are now under

separate governments of their own, which seem anxious to display their

commercial as well as political independence of their old connexions by

endeavouring to force the trade through other channels more immediately

under their own control; but, however desirous those governments may

be, under present circumstances, to establish a direct intercourse with

Europe through their own ports in the Pacific, and however well adapted

those ports may be for the supply of the provinces upon the west coast

of America, there can be no doubt, so far as regards all those which

lie to the eastward of the Cordillera, that, whenever the intermediate

rivers shall be navigated by steam, for which they are so admirably

calculated, the people of those vast countries will be much more easily

supplied with all they want from Europe by inland water-carriage direct

from Buenos Ayres than by the present circuitous route round Cape Horn,

and the subsequent expensive conveyance by mules across the sandy

deserts of Atacama, and the precipitous passages of the Andes.

As these young states acquire some practical knowledge of their real

interests, and advance in the science of political economy, it may

be expected that they will naturally make such arrangements amongst

themselves for an interchange of commercial advantages as cannot but

prove to their mutual benefit. And what could be of more importance,

either to Buenos Ayres or Bolivia, or the back provinces of Brazil,

than the establishment of an internal communication with each other by

means of steam-navigation?

In the mean time, however, the trade of Buenos Ayres is limited to the

supply of the people of her own provinces. If I may so call those in

more immediate political connexion with her,--the _soi-disant_ republic

of the Rio de La Plata.

In order to show what may be the extent of that trade in times of peace

and domestic quiet, it is necessary to go some years back.

From 1821 to 1825 the Republic was in a state of comparative

tranquillity, and the government of Buenos Ayres in the hands of a

provincial administration, wise enough to see how mainly the prosperity

and importance of their country depended upon the fostering of its

trade, and the establishment of a commercial intercourse with the rest

of the world upon the most liberal principles. It was during that

interval of repose and prosperity that I first landed in Buenos Ayres,

and found all classes of the people rejoicing in the blessings of peace.

All the information which it was my duty to collect tended to show

the great commercial capabilities of the country, and the facilities

afforded by Buenos Ayres as an emporium for the trade with a very great

part of the population of the interior of South America.

From a variety of documentary evidence in confirmation of this, which

was furnished to me at the time, both by the British merchants and by

the local authorities, I shall in the first instance quote the returns

for the year 1822, as exhibiting the nature and amount of the trade of

Buenos Ayres under the circumstances of undisturbed peace to which I

have referred--that is, the trade of Buenos Ayres independently of the

supply of any part of Peru, Bolivia, or Paraguay.

And first, with regard to the import trade:--

From a return furnished by the custom-house at Buenos Ayres of all

their imports from foreign countries in the year 1822, it appears

that they amounted to 11,287,622 Spanish dollars, according to their

official valuation, which, generally speaking, may be considered to be

about twenty per cent. below the wholesale prices in the market.

This amount was computed to be made up from the several foreign

countries as under, viz:--

1st. From Great Britain to. the value of 5,730,952

2nd. " France 820,109

3rd. " the North of Europe--Holland,

Germany, Sweden, and

Denmark 552,187

4th. " Gibraltar, Spain, and Sicily 848,363

5th. " the United States 1,368,277

6th. " Brazil 1,418,768

7th. " China 165,267

8th. " the Havana 248,025

9th. " Chile and Peru 115,674

----------

Spanish Dollars 11,267,622

of which about 1,323,565 dollars were afterwards reshipped for ports on

the neighbouring coast of Brazil, Monte Video, Chile, and Peru.

The important proportion of the British trade in this statement is

very manifest; it amounts in fact to as much as the trade of all other

foreign countries with Buenos Ayres put together. Comparing it with

the importations in the most liberal period of the Spanish colonial

system, it is more than double the average value[78] of the whole

yearly imports into the Vice-Royalty, for the supply, not only of the

provinces immediately attached to Buenos Ayres, but of all Upper Peru

and Paraguay, containing a population numerically threefold that of the

present republic of the Provinces of La Plata.

At that period British cotton manufactures were unknown at Buenos

Ayres; silks from Spain, and French and German linens, alone were in

use, the high prices of which generally confined them to the rich, the

poorer classes being miserably clad in the coarse manufactures of the

interior. It is true that in some parts of Peru and Paraguay the native

manufactures were brought to some perfection, but it was by so tedious

a process, that if they reached any degree of fineness they were rather

articles of luxury and curiosity than of any advantage to the people

at large for their domestic purposes. But when the port opened, and

British manufactures became known, the low prices at which they were

sold at once occasioned a great and general demand for them, and this

has gone on yearly increasing, till, amongst the country population

especially, the manufactures of Great Britain are become articles of

primary necessity. The gaucho is everywhere clothed in them. Take his

whole equipment--examine everything about him--and what is there not

of raw hide that is not British? If his wife has a gown, ten to one it

is made at Manchester; the camp-kettle in which he cooks his food, the

earthenware he eats from, the knife, his poncho, spurs, bit, all are

imported from England.

I am tempted here to go further, and to ask, who enables him to

purchase those articles? who buys his master's hides, and enables that

master to employ and pay him? who but the foreign trader? Stop the

trade with foreign nations, and how long would it be ere the gaucho

would be reduced to the state of the Indian of the pampas, fed on his

beef and horse-flesh, and clothed in the skins of wild beasts? I put

the question to those people in Buenos Ayres, for there are still some

such there, who continue to look with jealousy on foreigners, and would

fain have the lower orders believe that the country has been ruined

since they were allowed freely to come amongst them.

To return, however, to our subject. By far the greatest part of the

British imports into Buenos Ayres consist of the plain and printed

calicoes and cloths, which, as I have just stated, are become of the

first necessity to the lower orders in this part of South America: the

cheaper we produce them, the more they will take; and thus it is that

every improvement in our machinery at home, which lowers the price of

these manufactures, tends to contribute (we hardly perhaps know how

much) to the comforts of the poorer classes in those remote countries.

In the sale of most of these articles no other foreign country can

compete with Great Britain, from the low cost of their production; and

as to any native manufactures, it would be idle to think of them in

a country as yet so scantily peopled, where every hand is wanted, and

may be turned to a tenfold better account, in augmenting its natural

resources and means of production, as yet so imperfectly developed.

Besides our cotton, linen, woollen, and silk manufactures, we also send

to Buenos Ayres considerable quantities of ironmongery and cutlery,

coarse and fine earthenware, glass, foreign brandies and wines, and a

variety of other articles, the nature and value of which, in detail,

is fully exhibited in the general return given in the Appendix of the

principal articles of British growth and manufacture which have been

exported from this country to the River Plate in all the several years

from 1830 to 1837 inclusive.

The total amount of the produce and manufactures of the United Kingdom

alone (exclusive of foreign and colonial produce), exported direct from

Great Britain to the River Plate to the last sixteen years, has been as

follows:--

Year. Declared Value. Observations.

1822 £981,047 }

1823 664,436 } Years of peace; average

1824 1,141,920 } £909,330.

1825 849,920 }

1826 371,117 } Buenos Ayres blockaded

1827 154,895 } by the Brazilians.

1828 312,389 }

1829 758,540 }

1830 632,172 }

1831 339,870 }

1832 660,151 }

1833 515,362 } Average from 1829 to

1834 831,564 } 1837, £643,291.

1835 658,525 }

1836 697,334 }

1837 696,104 }

To these amounts may be yearly added about £40,000 more for the value

of foreign and colonial produce sent direct from Great Britain.

This will give some idea of the general nature and amount of our direct

trade with the River Plate, and it will be evident how mainly Great

Britain contributes to all the essential wants, as well as domestic

comforts, of the people of that part of the world.

The trade of _France_ is different;--whilst we administer to the

real wants of the community, France sends them articles rather of

luxury than necessity, such as superfine cloths and linens, merinos,

cashmeres, silks and cambrics, lace, gloves, shoes, silk stockings,

looking-glasses, fans, combs, jewellery, and all sorts of made-up

finery.

In 1822 it has been shown that the imports into Buenos Ayres from

France were calculated to amount to 820,109 Spanish dollars, or about

164,022_l._ sterling. By official returns since published in the

latter country it appears that, from 1829 to 1836, the imports and

exports were as follow, calculated in English sterling, viz.:--

Exports from Imports from the

Year. France. River Plate.

1829 £184,732 £182,861

1830 69,378 155,838

1831 92,675 128,732

1832 187,486 186,100

1833 201,348 187,053

1834 154,219 234,116

1835 178,766 215,809

1836 231,373 198,787

From _Germany_ and _Holland_ the imports, generally speaking, are of

a more substantial kind again. German cloths and linens, and printed

cottons from the Rhine, were at one period introduced in considerable

quantities. A branch of the Rhenish Manufacturing Company was set up in

Buenos Ayres in 1824, for the sale particularly of the latter articles,

and the low prices at which, for a time, they were sold threatened to

interfere with the demand for similar goods of British manufacture; it

turned out, however, that the prices in question did not remunerate

the company, and the establishment, not answering, was broken up:--the

German printed cottons have been quite driven out of the field by

British goods of the same description.

From the _Netherlands_ arms, especially swords and pistols, are

brought; and _Holland_ sends gin, butter and cheese, and Westphalia

hams, for all which there is a large demand amongst the natives. This

trade is chiefly from Antwerp, which is the principal market for the

sale of the Buenos Ayrean hides on the continent.

The importations from the _Baltic_ consist of iron, cordage, canvas,

pitch and tar, and deals.

The _Mediterranean_ trade is principally in Sicilian and Spanish

produce, of which the most important items are the cheap red wines of

Sicily, the common wines of Catalonia, brandies, olive oil, maccaroni,

and dried fruits, and used to be chiefly carried on in British

shipping, and through British houses at Gibraltar:--latterly, however,

a great part of these importations have been in Sardinian vessels, from

twenty to thirty of which now visit Buenos Ayres annually, instead of

three or four, as was the case ten years ago; in amount this trade

is fully equal to that from France, or from the north of Europe. Had

Spain at an earlier period recognised the independence of the new

states, she, instead of foreigners, would undoubtedly have reaped the

advantages of this trade. Nor would this have been all: the habits of

the people, the customs they had been brought up in, not to speak of

international ties and connexions,--all would have most forcibly tended

to an active commercial intercourse between her _ci-devant_ colonies

and Spain, which would have been of vast importance to the latter:--as

it is, she has waited till those habits, and customs, and ties have

passed away, and till a new race has grown up destitute of those

kindred feelings which naturally animated the last generation, if not

hostile to her from the disastrous effects produced by her long and

obstinate refusal to recognise their political existence.

Spain must now take her chance in competing with other nations, with

the disadvantage of being the last in the field. The cheapness,

however, of her wines will always ensure a large demand for them,

especially the common red wines of Catalonia. There is also still some

demand for Spanish serges, and silks, and velvets, the sewing silks

of Murcia, and Spanish snuff; but, as most of these articles can be

imported from France of as good quality, and at lower prices, the sale

of them is very limited:--great quantities of paper also were formerly

introduced from Spain, but it is now brought from other countries,

especially from Genoa, of a quality which is preferred, and at lower

prices. The annual importation of Spanish and Sicilian wines is from

10,000 to 12,000 pipes, and about 1000 of brandy.

The trade with the _United States_ was long a very unnatural one, the

principal article of import from thence being flour, of which the

average importations for several years amounted to above 50,000 barrels.

It is not, perhaps, to be wondered at that the larger profits of

cattle-breeding should for a time have superseded the pursuits of

agriculture, but the inconvenience and evils of an habitual dependence

upon any foreign country, particularly upon one at such a distance

as North America, for the daily bread of a whole population, became

at last so manifest that the legislature found itself called upon

to interpose to put an end to it, and to pass such enactments as

were necessary to foster and protect the agricultural interests of

the native proprietors. The consequence has been that the province

of Buenos Ayres, which is capable of producing as good wheat as

any country in the world, has again commenced growing not only a

sufficiency for the consumption of its own population, but for

exportation; and in the last two or three years both flour and corn

have been articles of shipment from the River Plate, chiefly to Brazil.

If we except the flour, the principal articles of import from the

United States for several years were the coarse unbleached cloths of

their own manufacture, called "domestics," of which, for a time, very

large quantities were sent to the Spanish-American markets; indeed

the very low prices at which these goods were long sold brought them

into great demand in almost every part of the world where they were

admitted, although now, I believe, like the printed goods from Germany,

they can with difficulty compete with similar manufactures made at

Manchester. Their other imports into Buenos Ayres consist of spirits,

soap, sperm candles, dried and salted provisions, tobacco, furniture of

an ordinary though showy description, and deals.

From the returns laid before Congress it appears that the amount of the

direct trade between the United States and the river Plate from 1829 to

1836 was as follows, calculated at the rate of five dollars per pound

sterling:--

Exports from the Imports from

Year. United States. River Plate.

1829 £125,210 £182,422

1830 125,977 286,376

1831 131,956 185,620

1832 184,608 312,034

1833 139,945 275,423

1834 194,367 286,023

1835 141,783 175,723

1836 76,986 210,700

Besides their direct trade, the North Americans have at times found

a profitable employment for their shipping in carrying Buenos Ayrean

produce (jerk beef) to the Havana, and in the coasting trade between

Brazil and the River Plate, though the latter is now for the most part

taken out of their hands by the Brazilians themselves, who of late

years have become the carriers of their own produce.

This trade (with _Brazil_) has been even more disadvantageous to Buenos

Ayres than that with the United States. The only article of native

produce to any amount which Brazil takes from the River Plate is the

jerk beef; whilst there is hardly an article of Brazilian produce

sent there which might not be grown within the republic itself. The

tobacco, the sugars, the coffee, and the rice sent from thence,

might all be produced in any quantity in the northern provinces of La

Plata:--even the yerba-maté, or Paraguay tea, once so fruitful a source

of profit to the Vice-Royalty of Buenos Ayres, is now introduced from

the southern provinces of Brazil. It is true that Paraguay Proper,

where the greater part of it was grown, has been closed for some

years, but there is no reason why it should not have been cultivated

in Corrientes or the Missions with just as much success as in the

Brazilian province of Rio Grande:--as it is, owing to the inferior

method of preparing it, the Brazilian yerba-maté is not equal to that

of Paraguay, and its use is, in consequence, very much confined to the

lower orders, whilst the higher classes are imbibing a very general

taste for the teas of China as a substitute.

The imports from _China_, which appear in the account quoted at page

337, consisted of assorted cargoes of teas, silks, crapes, nankeens,

wearing-apparel, tortoise-shell for ladies' combs, earthenware,

matting, and a variety of minor articles, introduced principally on

British account, though under the American flag, in consequence of our

own restrictive regulations not allowing at that time the employment

of British shipping in such a speculation. Cargoes of a similar

description have since occasionally been introduced, but I believe it

has been found to answer better to import the articles into Buenos

Ayres as they may be wanted, either from the United States, or from

Rio de Janeiro, or from England, than to freight ships expressly to

introduce cargoes direct from China. A certain quantity of Chinese

goods will always find a ready sale in the Buenos Ayrean market.

The _Havana_ trade has been an important one to Buenos Ayres. Besides

large shipments of mules which are sent there, it takes off the

greatest portion of the jerk beef made in the country. It is used there

and in Brazil as an article of food for the slave population; and the

method of preparing it having of late years been greatly improved,

there is a constant and increasing demand for it. If permitted to be

equally imported into the British West India colonies it would probably

find a large sale amongst the same class of persons. I have been given

to understand that the best quality might be delivered there under

twopence a-pound, allowing for a moderate duty:--its wholesomeness may

be estimated from the fact that, during the prevalence of the cholera

a few years back at the Havana, it was observed there was a much less

mortality among the slaves fed upon jerk beef than on those plantations

where they were kept on other diet.

With respect to the trade with _Chile_ and _Peru_, it is of very

trifling importance, and, whenever it has been otherwise, has mainly

consisted of re-exports from Buenos Ayres of surplus stocks of European

goods, for the favourable sale of which there may have been an

occasional opening in the ports of the Pacific. There is no sale for

Buenos Ayrean produce on the western coast, since the stoppage of the

supply of yerba-maté, of which, in old times, an immense quantity was

sent across the Andes to Chile and Peru, and paid for in the precious

metals.

From 1821 to 1826 the trade between Buenos Ayres and foreign countries

underwent little change, but the breaking out of the war with Brazil

then interrupted it, and for nearly three years Buenos Ayres was

blockaded by the naval forces of the Emperor, during which time the

only foreign goods imported were by such few vessels, chiefly North

American, as broke the blockade:--hardly was that war concluded,

when the troops returning from the Banda Oriental, elated with their

successes against the Brazilians, revolted, overturned the government,

and threw the whole republic into confusion; in the long struggle

to put them down which ensued, the country population, taking part,

abandoned their industrious pursuits, amongst the consequences of

which were a loss and destruction of property infinitely greater and

more ruinous to the nation than all the waste and cost of the war with

Brazil. Public confidence was shaken to its foundation, and, although

it is true that, after a time, the constitutional authorities were

re-established, it was at an enormous sacrifice of public and private

wealth.

The commercial interests of the community were greatly depressed by

these events. When the blockade of the river was raised at the close

of 1828 there had been by no means such an influx of foreign goods

as might have been expected; and, when civil dissensions shortly

afterwards broke out, it was evident that the mercantile houses in

Buenos Ayres had suffered too severely from the consequences of the

war, and the ruinous depreciation of the currency, to encourage their

correspondents in Europe to recommence extensive speculations in a

country which, to all appearance, was destined to be sacrificed to the

passions of contending factions.

Whilst the republic was grievously suffering from these evils, the

results also of the newly constituted independence of the Banda

Oriental began to develop themselves in a manner very detrimental to

the interests of Buenos Ayres.

So long as Monte Video was in the hands of the Portuguese, its trade

was extremely insignificant; but no sooner was it freed from that

yoke than the people began to turn to account their local advantages,

and in a way which it soon became manifest would greatly interfere

with the trade of their old metropolis. In proportion as the domestic

embarrassments of Buenos Ayres increased, and led that government

to raise its duties on foreign trade, so the Monte Videans lowered

theirs, and offered advantages which were irresistible in the adjoining

provinces, where the duties levied by Buenos Ayres on foreign goods had

always been considered a grievance, and where there was no national

feeling strong enough to induce the petty authorities to forego their

own separate interests in order to aid in sustaining the honour and

credit of the capital.

Monte Video has in consequence become a sort of entrepôt for the

supply of those provinces, as well as of a portion of the neighbouring

Brazilian population in the Rio Grande; and to such an extent, that

the importations of foreign goods there were valued at no less than

3,000,000 in 1835, and had reached 3,500,000 hard dollars in 1836;

whilst the exports were nearly equal in amount, and now constitute an

important proportion of the returns in the general account of the trade

with the River Plate.

The amount of the imports into the port of Buenos Ayres has been

diminished in proportion. In 1837 they were barely equal to 7,000,000

hard dollars, according to the official valuation, being a falling off

of nearly a third from what they were before the war with Brazil.

Making allowances for this difference in its course, the foreign trade

with the River Plate has varied little in its general amount for the

last five years.

So far as regards the British trade, although there may appear to be

a diminution in the _value_ of our exports to the River Plate, as

compared with what they were in the years immediately preceding the

war between Buenos Ayres and Brazil, it will nevertheless be found

upon analysis that there has been a large increase in the _quantity_,

especially of our most important manufactures, viz., the cottons, the

_quantity_ of which now sent to the River Plate is double what it

was in 1825, though the total declared _value_ has only increased in

the proportion of from about 350,000_l._ to 400,000_l._, the apparent

discrepancy being accounted for by the greatly reduced rate at which

we can now afford to sell these goods; in the linens there is also an

increase; in the woollens there is, on the other hand, a slight falling

off; the silk goods sent out have varied very little in value, but

their amount was never of any importance.

The following is an account, taken from the custom-house returns, of

the average _quantities_ of these several descriptions of goods sent

to the River Plate in the four years from 1822 to 1825, inclusive,

compared with the last four years from 1834 to 1837, inclusive:--

Average Quantity Average Quantity

from 1822 to 1825, from 1834 to 1837,

inclusive. inclusive.

Cottons, yards 10,811,762 18,151,764

Linens, do. 996,467 1,176,941

Woollens {pieces 40,705 30,428

{yards 139,037 100,183

Silks, value £16,612 £15,047

Upon the whole, the River Plate has been decidedly the most important

of all the markets which have been opened to us for the sale of British

manufactures in Spanish America. It takes off a much larger quantity

of them than either Mexico, Columbia, or Peru; and although it would

appear on the face of the official returns that of late years an equal

or rather larger amount has been sent to Chile, the truth is, that a

considerable part of those shipments were in reality destined for the

southern ports of Peru, and the west coast of Mexico.

A comparative account of our exports to all those several countries

during the last nine years will be found with the other returns of

trade in the Appendix, and will show the relative and aggregate amount

of British produce and manufactures taken by the new states during that

period.

The average yearly value of them sent to the River Plate in the last

five years amounted to £680,000.

EXPORTS.

The nature of the _export-trade_ from Buenos Ayres may be generally

gathered from the following summary, or comparative valuation of the

exports from thence in 1822, 1825, 1829, and 1837; though, being taken

from the Buenos Ayrean custom-house accounts, some allowance must be

made for short manifests by the shippers, perhaps an addition of twenty

per cent. to the amount officially accounted for in each year. The

returns of specie and bullion exported are especially liable to this

observation.

Comparative Return and Valuation of the principal Articles Exported

from Buenos Ayres in the years 1822, 1825, 1829, and 1837.

+------------------------------+-----------------------------------+

| | 1822. |

| +------------------------+----------+

| |Quantity.| Price. | Value. |

| +---------+--------------+----------+

| | |Dollars. | Dollars. |

| | | | |

|Spanish Dollars | 474,633 | -- | 474,633 |

|Marks of Silver | 84,690 | at 8 | 677,520 |

|Gold (ounces) | 12,020 | 17 | 204,340 |

|Gold (uncoined) | -- | -- | -- |

|Copper (quintals of 100 lbs.) | 145 | 16 | 2,321 |

|Ox-hides | 590,372 | 4 |2,361,488 |

|Horse-hides | 421,566 | 1 | 421,566 |

|Jerk Beef (quintals) | 87,663 | 4 | 350,652 |

|Horns | 673,000 | 70 per mil.| 47,110 |

|Horsehair (arobes of 25 lbs.) | 38,137 | 3 | 114,411 |

|Sheeps' wool (arobes) | 33,417 | 1 | 33,417 |

|Chinchilla skins (dozens) | 9,077 | 4 | 36,308}|

|Nutria skins (dozens) | 9,914 | 3 | 29,742}|

|Tallow (arobes) | 69,400 | 2 | 124,800 |

|Bark (lbs.) | 5,824 | 1/2 | 2,912 |

|Cotton (arobes) | -- | -- | -- |

|Sheep-skins (dozens) | -- | -- | -- |

|Flour (fanegas) | -- | -- | -- |

|Corn (do.) | -- | -- | -- |

|Sundry Minor Articles | -- | -- | 118,780 |

|------------------------------+------------------------+----------+

|Totals {Value of Precious Metals 1,358,814} |5,000,000 |

| {" Native Produce 3,641,156} | |

+-------------------------------------------------------+----------+

+------------------------------+-------------------------------------+

| | 1825. |

| +---------+-----------------+---------+

| |Quantity.| Price. | Value. |

| +---------+-----------------+---------+

| | | Dollars. | Dollars.|

| | | | |

|Spanish Dollars |1,272,745| -- |1,272,745|

|Marks of Silver | 10,559|at 8 | 89,751|

|Gold (ounces) | 10,625| 17 | 180,625|

|Gold (uncoined) | --| -- | 6,000|

|Copper (quintals of 100 lbs.) | 175| 16 | 2,800|

|Ox-hides | 655,255| 5 |2,621,020|

|Horse-hides | 339,703| 1 | 339,703|

|Jerk Beef (quintals) | 130,361| 4 | 521,444|

|Horns |1,553,880|60 per mil. | 93,228|

|Horsehair (arobes of 25 lbs.) | 44,776| 3 | 134,028|

|Sheeps' wool (arobes) | --| -- | --|

|Chinchilla skins (dozens) | 35,670| 5 | 178,350|

|Nutria skins (dozens) | | | |

|Tallow (arobes) | 12,167|1-1/2 | 18,250|

|Bark (lbs.) | 5,879| 1/2 | 2,939|

|Cotton (arobes) | 2,000|2-1/2 | 5,000|

|Sheep-skins (dozens) | --| -- | --|

|Flour (fanegas) | --| -- | --|

|Corn (do.) | --| -- | --|

|Sundry Minor Articles | --| -- | 84,117|

|------------------------------+---------+-----------------+---------+

|Totals | Precious Metals 1,551,921}|5,550,000|

| | Native Produce 3,998,079}| |

+----------------------------------------------------------+---------+