FROM MONTEVIDEO TO THE NORTHERN FRONTIER
--_continued_
A remarkable transformation in Nature--The Valley of Eden--The
gateway of the garden--An abrupt descent--From bare plain to
sub-tropical forest--Picturesque scenery--Eden station--Some
curiosities of nomenclature--Beggary as a profession--The charity
of the Latin lands--The cliffs of the valley--Varied aspects of
the vegetation--The everlasting sweet pea--Some characteristics
of the mountains--A land of tobacco--Negro
cultivators--Appearance and dwellings of the colonial
population--Some ethics of climate and customs--Tacuarembo--A
centre of importance--A picturesque town--Scenes at the
station--Some specimens of local humanity--A dandy of the
Campo--The northern landscape--The African population--Nature and
the hut--The tunnel of Bañada de Rocha--Paso del Cerro--On the
Brazilian border--Rivera--A frontier town--Santa Ana--The
Brazilian sister township--A comparison between the two--View
from a neighbouring hill--The rival claims to beauty of the
Uruguayan and Brazilian towns.
Tambores has been left behind, and the train is speeding once again
through the undulations and table-lands of the pastures. Although the
new-comer is unaware of the fact, the climax of the journey is drawing
near, and one of the most remarkable transformations in Nature is
about to reveal itself with the suddenness of a pantomimic
stage-shifting.
That the stranger to the land should remain unaware of what lies
before him is not surprising. The rolling downs have encompassed him
in unbroken sequence from the moment that the outermost suburb of
Montevideo was left behind. They are about him now, sinking and rising
until their smooth green sweeps upwards in long waves against the blue
horizon. Never was a fresher, blowier country, with its every inch
open and bare to the sunlight and breeze. It is difficult to imagine
such a land rubbing shoulders with a landscape less frank and
guileless. Its only fitting boundaries are white cliffs, and, beyond
them, the wide ocean.
Yet if Nature aspired to human ideals of consistency the hills would
go hopping to many a queer tune. After all, it is best to leave it to
arrange its surprises in its own way. The first symptom of a coming
change is afforded by the appearance of a growth that has remained a
stranger to the landscape until now. Rock plants, with thick, heavy,
silver leaves and snowy blossoms rise up thickly of a sudden to whiten
the ground. Then without warning the train is speeding downwards
through the rock walls of a cutting that seems to have opened out from
the ground at the call of an Open Sesame steam-whistle. Two or three
hundred yards of a steep descent that makes a precipice out of the
stone side on either hand, then a rapid widening of the barrier to the
view--and the thing is done! The train has entered the Valley of Eden.
Just as Adam in his fig-leaf gasped in dismay at his eviction from the
garden, so does the modern traveller in boots and buttons exclaim in
surprise as he passes through the stone gateway of this later Eden.
The two or three hundred yards have made an incredible memory of the
open downland. In its place are rugged cliffs to right and left, at
the base of which dense sub-tropical forest sends its waves upwards to
cling to the stone sides as far as they may.
In the centre of the valley is a stream that goes rippling over its
rocky bed, overhung with a curtain of flowering trees that hold
strange nests within their branches, and the festoons of the lianas
that plunge thickly downwards towards the earth. The scene, in fact,
holds all the enthusiastic variety of the sub-tropics. Nothing is
wanting to the picture. The rock, leaves, flowers, palms, and the
vivid patches of smooth green by the edge of the stream have as
accessories the turkey-buzzards and black vultures carving their lazy
circles above, and the brilliant host of butterflies beneath that
float airily to and fro as though to outflash even the wonderful
feathers of the local woodpecker.
The train, as though itself entirely taken aback by these new aspects
of Nature, has been proceeding at little beyond human walking pace.
Now it has drawn up by the side of a modest building and a few
surrounding huts that are almost smothered in the verdure. Eden
station! The sight of the place is far less incongruous than the
sound. As a matter of fact the valley itself is well named. No spot
could better endow with its glamour the simple life that endures until
the inevitable boredom leads to the death of innocence. Nevertheless,
the railway company should reserve special accommodation for the
garden. Let the traveller proceed to Margate or Southend as he likes.
But a third-class ticket to Eden! The thing is inconceivable, yet it
is done every day.
The advent of the train, however, affords a harvest to at least one
inhabitant of this secluded and fair corner. An aged negro, who was
undoubtedly born a slave across the Brazilian frontier, is slowly
hobbling the length of the train collecting toll from the passengers
as he goes. In South America are two professions that stand apart from
all the rest. Failing the status of a millionaire, become a beggar by
all means! As regards a profitable occupation, not one of the
intermediate walks of life can equal the extremes at the social poles.
That of politician is perhaps nearest akin to both; but,
intrinsically, the phrase is transitory, since a rapid absorption at
one end or the other is practically inevitable.
The aged negro is collecting his dues with grave complacency. A
general dealer in receipts, his profits are by no means restricted to
mere cash. Business in centavos is amazingly brisk; but so are the
transactions in cigarettes, cigars, fruit, and morsels of food. Ere
the train starts the benignity has grown deep upon the old man's face.
When the place is lonely and still once more he will totter back to
his tiny reed hut, with its insignificant patch of maize, and will
smoke, and eat, and drink, in senile enjoyment of the lengthy holiday
that separates his tri-weekly half-hours of work. He may thank the God
of beggars that he was born in a Latin land.
The train is moving onwards once again, and the bold grey cliffs and
bluffs recede as the valley widens. Although the first full beauty of
the scene has lost by the expansion, the wealth of colour remains. The
forest trees for the most part are flecked with brilliant yellow,
while the surface of the swamps that now cover the centre of the
valley are thickly spangled with the pure white of their own broad
blossoms.
[Illustration: OXEN DRAWING RAILWAY COACH.]
[Illustration: BEFORE THE FAIR: TACUAREMBÓ.
To face p. 186.]
But an attempt to describe the various growths would be the task of a
botanist. One alone must be described for its striking propensities if
for nothing beyond. In all directions are bushes of glowing mauve
flower--or, at least, so they appear at the first glimpse to the eye.
The sight is not a little amazing, since many of the shrubs, a dozen
feet in height, are covered from top to bottom with an unbroken coat
of petals. A nearer inspection solves the mystery some while after.
The flower itself is a parasite, an everlasting sweet pea, that goes
the length of concealing from sight the bush on which it depends.
In the meanwhile the valley has widened until the well-defined cliffs
that hemmed in its beginning have disappeared altogether. But the
country remains entirely distinct from the open Campo that preceded
the gate of Eden. There is pasture here, it is true, but it is pasture
broken and intersected by woodland, river courses, ravines, and
mountains. It is curious to remark that among the latter, although
many are bold and lofty, there is not a peak to be met with. In
obedience to what appears to be a hard-and-fast law of the hills, the
top of each is shorn evenly across, leaving a flat and level summit.
The country is one of tobacco now as well as of maize, and the aspect
of the cultivators coincides to a great extent with the popular
notions of the _mise en scène_ of the tobacco-fields. The population
of the tiny mud huts that decorate the land is almost entirely negro,
and the inevitable piccaninny is much in evidence, having apparently
escaped in shoals from the London music-hall stage. The costume of the
younger boys, however, would scarcely pass muster in a more
conventional neighbourhood. The sole garment of many of the younger
ones consists of a shirt, and a very frayed one at that--a costume
that is eminently suitable to the palm-tree, but criminal beneath the
oak.
The next halt is at a place of importance, one of the chief features,
in fact, of the Far North. Tacuarembo numbers a population of almost
eight thousand, which, although the figure may not impress the outer
world, renders the spot something of an urban giant in the
neighbourhood. As though to compensate for its lack of imposing
buildings, Tacuarembo is exceedingly picturesque. With its avenues of
tall trees, and its houses peering everywhere from beneath the shade
of an unusual richness of vegetation, the place is sufficiently
delightful and striking in its own fashion.
The station itself gives the keynote to the aspects of the place.
Within half a dozen yards of where the white steam goes hissing
upwards from the engine the green young peaches hang in thick clusters
from their branches. To their side is a hedge of blossoming roses that
continues until the flowery architecture changes abruptly to a wall of
golden honeysuckle. At the rear of this, surrounding the outer yard of
the place, are poplars and eucalyptus, while the heavy scent of the
purple paraiso-tree overpowers the fainter colours of the mimosa.
A dozen or so of the local "coches" are waiting in the shade of all
these and in that of the vines that clamber upwards by their side.
They are crude affairs, whose lack of paint and polish is more than
counteracted by the dictatorial attitudes of the brigand-like drivers
who lounge at ease upon the boxes. It must be admitted that the
manners of these latter are far less formidable than their appearance.
Indeed, they smile far more graciously than the corresponding
metropolitan tyrants of South America as they drive off one by one,
bearing away their patrons beneath the shady avenues.
The majority of folk, however, remain for some while to chat together,
since in these parts the railway station is an accepted centre of
sociability. The queer medley of the crowd possesses its own charm. A
group of officers in dark uniforms and red kepis rub shoulders with
Gauchos and peones in dark clothes and black or blue _bombachos_.
Beyond is a knot of women in the homely and loose costume of the
district, bare-headed, and with hair drawn tightly back to be wound
into a plain knot at the back of the head. An elaborate dandy, dressed
ostentatiously in the favourite black from head to foot, is extracting
a few centavos from the pockets of his shining velvet waistcoat with
which to endow a couple of dissolute-looking beggars who have drawn
near.
Although the jet-black faces of the negroes and the browner tints of
the half-castes are much in evidence, the countenances of the true
Uruguayans remain remarkably fair and fresh. Indeed, the features of
many are unusually handsome, and curiously untouched by the stress of
heat and climate.
Perhaps the most striking of all in the neighbourhood is the tall
figure of one who has detached himself from a group of friends, and is
walking toward where a line of tethered horses is waiting. Like the
other who has been distributing alms to the beggar, he is clad from
head to foot in black. Nevertheless, the aspects of the two are as
different as night and day. The one is a walker of the streets, this
latter a true lord of the Campo. Unmistakably a landed proprietor of
no little consideration, his costume affects the Gaucho to a marked
degree. With scarf wound negligently round his neck, loose jacket, and
broad bombachos, the spotless black of the finest material is finished
off by the light boots of the man whose life is spent in the saddle.
In his hand the _rebenque_--the inevitable riding-whip--glistens with
its silver carving, a work of art.
None could deny the coquetry of his appearance; but this is the stern
coquetry of the warrior and hunter, as a glance at his grave, rather
hawklike features will confirm. A strikingly handsome figure of a
man, he stalks with assured tread, raising his sombrero with a simple
gesture to acquaintances, until he reaches the spot where the line of
horses are tethered. His mount is a magnificent bay, whose leathers
and bridle are silvered as thickly as they may be and yet remain
flexible, while the saddle and stirrups are heavily coated with the
same material. He has swung himself into the saddle now, and is riding
away, forcing his horse with consummate ease into a series of curvets
and caracoles that evoke admiration even from the numerous
professional centaurs in the crowd. But the rider never once looks
back as he swings away in the shade of the trees. The romantic figure
is either unconscious of admiration or too accustomed to the tribute
to be concerned. In any case, he is a product of the land, a veritable
paladin.
To the north of Tacuarembo are grass hills overshadowed by the
inevitable tall table-lands. Where the rock juts out from the side of
these the fronds of many varieties of fern sprout thickly, and by
their sides are clumps of evening primrose, everlasting pea, and a
wealth of far more brilliant blossoms of the tropical order. In the
hollows the vegetation of the wooded streams grows ever more
luxurious, and here the flowers star the banks in the wildest riot of
profusion.
Seeing that it is springtime, all this is as it should be. But there
cannot be many parts of the world whose inhabitants are permitted such
a striking reminder of the season as is the case just here. In the
neighbourhood of one of these enchanting streams is a very humble mud
hut. Its dwellers are pure Africans, and they are just without,
enjoying a sun-bath with all the zest of the race.
But the interest of this particular spot is not concerned with them at
all; it is centred upon the modest homestead itself. The mud walls
have responded in an amazing fashion to the call of the year. Not
content with a background of lichen and moss, they have flung out
lengthy streamers of fern, from amidst which peer shyly the blossoms
of various plants. Obedient to the impulse of spring, each of the four
sides has garbed itself thus. In less exuberant parts the effect would
be strained for with toil and achieved with triumph. But here the
black inhabitants regard their eloquent house as a matter of course.
Just after leaving the small station of Bañada de Rocha is a tunnel.
This fact may appear totally unworthy of mention--anywhere else but
within the countries bordering on the River Plate. Here a tunnel is an
object to be paused at, and to be inspected with not a little
curiosity. Although it is possible that some minor burrowings may
exist, to the best of my belief the three republics of Argentina,
Uruguay, and Paraguay can count no more than two regular tunnels
between them. The wonderful shaft bored through the heart of the Andes
is one--the other is before us here at Bañada de Rocha. As the only
specimen of its kind in Uruguay, therefore, it is not without
distinction, and is worthy of at least a passing remark.
After passing through the tunnel the line drops down into a fairly
wide plain, hemmed in by numerous low ranges of the inevitable
flat-topped hills, while a few elevations of the same curious nature
dot the country in the nearer neighbourhood of the track. In a short
while, however, the more broken country has surged up all about once
again, bearing upon its surface quaint rocky projections, some shaped
exactly as tables, others in the form of sugar-loaves, while yet
others resemble giant mushrooms sprouting cumbrously from the soil.
Ere reaching the station of Paso del Cerro a great grove of
carolina-trees rises majestically, and in the grateful shadow of the
branches a long line of bullock-wagons, each vehicle loaded with the
wool for which the region is noted, goes winding its way towards the
station in the stolid fashion of such processions. Paso del Cerro is
delightfully situated, facing as it does a range of hills whose
surface is dotted with ranches that appear picturesque enough in the
distance. Beyond this point lofty cliffs of rock soar aloft, pressing
near to the line. In the nooks and crannies of the great walls are
dwarf trees of fantastic shapes that make pleasant breaks here and
there in the bare rock of the surface.
A little farther on the colour of the soil begins to undergo a
transformation, and soon the red sandstone--the colour that is typical
of the same, as well as the more northern, latitudes in the
surrounding republics--is stretching everywhere to join with the green
in dominating the landscape. A few more wayside stations, and then
Rivera and the Brazilian frontier are drawing near, while the mountain
ranges that mark the Brazilian territory are already in sight.
Rivera is a town of no little local importance, small though its
extent may be as it nestles in a hollow in the midst of the hills. The
soft pink of its buildings and the red of its roads and hillsides
contrast delightfully with the green foliage and brilliant flowers
with which the spot is so liberally endowed. Rivera, moreover, is a
place that can lay claim to some quite notable characteristics of its
own. It possesses, for instance, a magnificent avenue, the Sarandi,
that stretches for over a mile, shaded by trees for all its length,
from off the central portion of which lies the pretty little plaza.
[Illustration: FRONTIER STONE AT RIVERA.]
[Illustration: TUNNEL AT BAÑADA DE ROCHA.
To face p. 192.]
The best view of both the town and of the surrounding country is to
be obtained from the solitary hill near by that marks the boundary
between the two republics, and that bears upon its summit an old and
battered boundary-stone. Viewed from here the panorama is fascinating.
To the north, and immediately below, lies Santa Ana, the Brazilian
sister-township of Rivera, that sends out its buildings almost to join
walls with those of the Uruguayan. Santa Ana itself presents a
picturesque enough prospect with its white houses and luxuriant
gardens, its wide, unpaved, shadeless streets, its rambling barracks,
and its red-bricked bullring. As a background to this bright, sunlit
picture, and one that throws it into strong relief, rise range upon
range of the dark hills with their shaven summits, starting up
abruptly in the first instance from the confines of the town itself,
and fading away gradually into the misty distance of the province of
Rio Grande. Skirting the base of the hill to the east is a short
avenue devoid of buildings that serves as the frontier line, and marks
with no little emphasis where one town ends and the other begins. The
significance of the spot is accentuated by the sight of the
sentry-boxes of the frontier guards and custom officials. To the
south, reclining in its own hollow, lies Rivera, with its shady
avenues and its conspicuous round-towered church.
The aspects of the two towns are curiously different, considering the
fact that from their absolute propinquity they form to all intents and
purposes a single city. In the first place the difference in the tint
of each is marked. The general colour of the Rivera houses is red,
while that of Santa Ana is pure white. The distinction is merely the
result of differing national customs. The houses of both places are
constructed of precisely similar stone, but the Brazilian prefers to
face his walls with plaster. _Autres pays, autres moeurs_; but it is
seldom that the contrast may be viewed from so near at hand. The
architecture, moreover, of the Santa Ana buildings is of a much
squarer and older design than that of those in the Uruguayan town. The
former city, as a matter of fact, is considerably more ancient than
the latter, to which not only the growing timber but the buildings as
well bear witness. In Santa Ana the trees, although not nearly so
numerous, have attained to far grander proportions than has been the
case with those across the border.
If one should not judge humanity from outward appearance, the
procedure is even less wise in dealing with a collection of human
habitations. Feminine powder and rouge are as mere toys in the matter
of guile compared with the alluring scenic effect that a city is
capable of producing by means of bricks and mortar. Judged from the
summit of the hill without, Santa Ana presents an even more inviting
appearance than that of Rivera. Once within the walls the aspects of
the situation alter abruptly. Santa Ana possesses one spot of beauty,
it is true. Its luxuriant and shady plaza where the date-palms
flourish is an oasis of delight set in the midst of sordid
surroundings and dusty heat. With this exception, it must be admitted
that the place is shadeless, dirty, and evil-smelling.
The streets of Rivera, on the contrary, are clean, well paved, and
sheltered from the rays of the sun by the innumerable green branches
that stretch so pleasantly above. The townsfolk, moreover, differ less
from those of Montevideo than might be imagined, although the heat of
the climate has been responsible for a rather sallower and swarthier
type.