BUENOS AYRES.--THE PROVINCE AND CITY.
For a whole month I was obliged to remain by the vessel, awaiting the
arrival of the orders that were to set me free. During this period, to
prepare the vessel for a long stay, the lighter spars were sent down,
the flying jib-boom sent in, sails unbent, &c. The tides in the River
Plata are governed by the wind, and have no regularity in rising; the
current of the river is at the rate of three miles per hour. Vessels
drawing above eleven feet of water remain in the outer roads, while
smaller craft can approach within two or three miles of the city;
all of these discharge and receive their cargoes by the assistance
of lighters, generally schooner-rigged, and principally manned by
foreigners,--chiefly French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese.
At last, about the 20th of February, a Boston vessel entered the river,
bringing letters from home, and I was gratified by the information from
the captain, that, after seeing the American consul, who had received
orders to discharge me from duty, I should be at liberty to depart on
my long pedestrian journey. I went ashore at the earliest opportunity,
and at once called upon Colonel Joseph Graham, the American consul,
who received me with great kindness, but condemned my intention of
crossing, alone, so wild a country, with the people and language
of which I had no acquaintance; he, however, furnished me with the
necessary papers of protection, together with letters of introduction
to various persons in the interior. During my stay in the consul’s
office Dr. Henry Kennedy, a young North American physician, came in,
and although a stranger to me, presented me, after a few minutes’
conversation, with a letter of introduction to Mr. G--n, a resident of
Rosario. This act of kindness towards a stranger proved the generous
character of Dr. Kennedy, and it is with a feeling of gratitude that I
recall his name here. I was now my own master, and at once went about
the city in search of information relative to crossing the country.
The consul and one or two other parties had given me the names of
persons to whom I was to apply for the necessary information to guide
me in my journey. I was surprised, however, to find that the foreign
merchants knew so little of the interior; for, after several days’
inquiry, the principal fact that I learned was, that to cross the
pampas on foot it would be necessary to accompany one of the troops of
carts that carried merchandise to the other provinces, as otherwise I
would find it impossible to obtain food or to follow the right trail.
One of my informants was a stout little Irish gentleman, who quoted a
message sent to Sir Woodbine Parish, by a gentleman who crossed the
country several years before; and as his description is almost true of
the Buenos Ayrean, or southern road across the pampas, I will present
it here. He said, “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;
second, that of grass, where you meet with deer, ostriches, and the
screaming, horned plover; third, the region of swamps and morasses,
only fit for frogs; fourth, that of stones and ravines, where I
expected every moment to be upset; and, last, that of ashes and thorny
shrubs, the refuge of the tarantula and binchuco, or giant-bug.
“And now,” continued the little Irishman, “I ask leave to put you a
question. How many days can you conveniently go without water?”
“Two or three, perhaps,” I replied.
“Well, then, you will never last to cross the plains,” was his
encouraging answer; “for, mark you, a merchant of this city crossed
last summer, and went without water for _twenty-one days_. I think you
had better return to America, and give up travelling for information.”
Such were the stories--some true, and many, like that of the Irishman,
utterly fabulous--that were told me by the different individuals upon
whom I called during my short stay in Buenos Ayres. In the course of
my inquiries I learned that a train of wagons would shortly leave
Rosario, a small town upon the River Paraná, about two hundred miles
north of Buenos Ayres, for Mendoza, a town situated at the base of the
Andes, and I resolved to visit the place in time to catch the caravan.
A steamboat plied between the city of Buenos Ayres and Rosario, but as
it was not to sail for a fortnight, I had ample time for surveying the
adjacent country, and even for making a flying visit across the Plata
to the Banda Oriental.
The State of Buenos Ayres usually monopolizes the attention of visitors
to the region which is known as the Argentine Confederation, on account
of her favorable situation on the seaboard, her possession of the
only maritime port in the vast confederacy, and the predominating
influence which these advantages have secured to her in peace as well
as in war. The state contains an area of fifty-two thousand square
miles, and is, consequently, but little larger than the State of New
York. Her population, according to an estimate formed some ten years
since, amounted to some three hundred and twenty thousand souls; of
whom one hundred and twenty thousand are inhabitants of the city, while
the remainder are sparsely distributed over the extensive plains that
commence a few miles from the coast, and, running inland, stretch
across and far beyond the limits of the state. The population of the
city itself is composed of a great variety of types and colors, among
which, however, the whites are rapidly predominating; as every year
introduces new blood from Europe and North America, while parties
interested are doing their best, in connection with the government,
to divert a portion of the Irish immigration from the United Slates
towards their own province. The government furnishes immigrants with
land free of charge, but an extortionate price is not unfrequently
paid, in the end, for a farm.
The study of the mixed races which inhabit, not only this province,
but also the entire region between the Paraná and the Cordillera, has
as yet received but little attention from the student of ethnology.
The lines of demarcation, however, between race and race, are clear
and distinct; and the future ethnographer of this region will have no
difficulty in tracing the population, through its intermediate stages
of gauchos, zambas, mestizos, etc., to its origin with the immigration
from Old Spain and other European countries, and to the aboriginal and
negro stocks.
Throughout the state the soil is richly alluvial to a depth of two or
more feet, beneath which lies a stratum of clay, differing in kind
and quality according to its location. Thus strata of white, yellow,
and red clays have been discovered in different regions of the same
province, furnishing the population with abundant material for the
manufacture of tiles, bricks, and innumerable articles of pottery.
For nearly two hundred miles west of the La Plata, the soil produces a
luxuriant growth of herbage, which is choked, however, in many places,
by extensive _forests_ of gigantic thistles, which grow to such a
height that men, passing through them on horseback, are hidden by the
lofty stems. So heavy is this growth that, at times, the thistle fields
are impassable to man, and serve to the wild animals of the pampas as
an undisturbed lair. These thistles are fired, from time to time, by
the gauchos; after the ground that they covered has been burnt over,
a fine sweet crop of grass starts up, upon which the cattle feed
luxuriantly.
A native author, of eminent accuracy, who has carefully studied the
statistics and resources of the province of Buenos Ayres, has published
the following estimate of the value of real estate and other property
in the country, in 1855:--
_State of Buenos Ayres, its Extent, Value, &c_
Fifty-two thousand miles of uncultivated
lands, at $1000 per square mile, $52,000,000
Six million head of cattle, at $6 per head, 36,000,000
Three million mares, at $1 per head, 3,000,000
Five million sheep, at $1 per head, 5,000,000
Half a million swine, at $1 per head, 500,000
Houses, &c., in the country, 10,000,000
------------
Total value, $106,500,000
The following statement, derived from the Buenos Ayres Custom House,
for the first six months of 1854, may serve as a means of estimating
the number of horned cattle in the state:--
Hides exported in six months, 1854, 759,968
Deduct quantity received from the provinces, 121,166
---------
Total exports of Buenos Ayres hides, in six
months, 638,802
---------
Add a corresponding six months’ exports
for balance of the year, 638,802
---------
Estimated export for 1854, 1,277,604
The following were some of the agricultural productions of Buenos Ayres
in 1854, as computed by Señor Maezo:--
Wheat, 200,000 fanezas.
Maize and barley, 70,000 ”
Potatoes, 60,000 ”
The _faneza_ is nearly equal to four English imperial bushels, or to
2218.192 cubic inches.
Of late years the value of provisions, hides, tallow, and horns has
been greatly enhanced.
I am informed that under the government of General Rosas, the price of
beef was fixed by law at fifteen cents per arroba (twenty-five pounds),
and that the severest punishment was inflicted for any attempt to evade
or infringe upon the regulation. The price of beef during my stay in
the province was never less than sixty cents per arroba.
Frequent revolutions have naturally hindered, in a very great degree,
the development of the resources of this province. Since 1810-11 it
has been subjected to continual and sudden changes of government: at
one moment, as it were, attempting to form the cornerstone of a vast
confederation, in a short time the scene of the wildest anarchy, and
soon prostrate under one of the most grinding despotisms that the
nineteenth century has beheld.
Buenos Ayres, the richest and most powerful of the provinces of La
Plata, holds herself aloof from the remainder, preferring a state of
isolation, through dislike for President Urquiza, to joining with
her sister states in laying the foundation of a strong and permanent
confederacy. Her import and export duties, together with port charges,
stamps, direct taxes, &c., constitute a considerable revenue; and
these resources would, undoubtedly, give her a powerful influence over
the other states should she finally become a part of the Argentine
Confederation. Though a coolness, almost amounting to ill-will,
is manifested by the people of Buenos Ayres towards those of the
neighborhood provinces, a treaty has been lately signed by the two
governments, in which each promises aid and assistance to the other in
case of attack from a neighboring or foreign power. It is evident, from
their careful movements, that all the La Plata states stand in dread of
their grasping and powerful neighbor--the empire of Brazil.
The city of Buenos Ayres is laid out in the usual Spanish-American
manner--in squares, measuring one hundred and fifty yards upon a side;
the streets, of course, cross each other at right angles, and run due
north and south, east and west. They are regular throughout, but are
very roughly paved. With some exceptions the dwellings are of but
one story in height, and are built of brick, overlaid with a white
plaster, which gives them a very neat appearance; but the heavy iron
gratings with which every window is protected detract not a little from
the beauty of the dwellings; and a stranger unaccustomed to Spanish
architecture may readily, at the first sight of these forbidding
gratings, believe himself among the prisons of the city. The roofs are
covered with oval or square tiles.
Buenos Ayres is rich in public institutions. Her theatres and places
of public resort are eight in number, besides the governor’s mansion,
the House of Representatives, and the Casa de Justicia, or Hall of
Justice. Besides these may be enumerated the Tribunal of Commerce, the
Inspection of Arms, the Artillery Arsenal, the Ecclesiastical Seminary,
the Museum of Natural History, Public Library, Custom House, Mint,
Bank, and Jail.
The treatment of the inmates of the latter institution secures for
them a degree of comfort far less than that which is reached in our own
reformatory institutions.
In addition to the public buildings enumerated above, there are also
suites of rooms occupied by the Ecclesiastical Court, the General
Archives, Topographical Department, Statistical Department, Medical
Academy, Historical Institute, etc.
The citizens of Buenos Ayres have well provided for the unfortunate.
Besides granting licenses to mendicants, and allowing them to go from
door to door _on horseback_, the municipality has established an asylum
for orphans and a foundling hospital.
Besides the cathedral, there are thirteen Catholic churches, two
monasteries, and three convents. There are two hospitals, one for
males, the other for females; but these institutions have neither the
conveniences nor skilful physicians which those of more enlightened
or longer established countries possess. There are also three foreign
hospitals, supported by the English, French, and Italian governments.
The _plazas_, or public squares, are nine or ten in number; one of
them is overlooked by the lofty cathedral and by the Casa de Justicia,
and contains a monument, erected in commemoration of past events of
national importance, and especially of the Declaration of Independence
from the mother country.
Many improvements have been made in the city in late years, chief among
which is the new brick seawall, of considerable height, protecting the
town from damage by high tides of the river.
From this wall, projecting into the stream, there was in process of
construction at the time of my arrival a mole or wharf, of great
length, which has since been completed, enabling small vessels and
lighters to discharge their cargoes unassisted by the clumsy carts that
formerly were the sole means of communication with the shore. The piles
that support this wharf are pointed with iron, a precaution rendered
necessary by the peculiarly hard formation of the river bed at this
locality.
As the soil is impregnated with nitrate of potash, the well and other
water is rendered unfit for table use. The wealthier citizens have deep
cisterns at their residences, in which rain water is preserved; but the
poorer classes have no other beverage than the river water, which is
carried around the city in barrels, upon horses and mules, and retailed
at a moderate price.
Slavery, which existed in these regions in a mild form until 1813,
was, during that year, abolished by law. The system never assumed, in
point of fact, that form which existed in our own republic, but was so
lenient that the slaves were treated rather as children, or favorite
servants, than as merely so much property.
Its gradual extinction set in many years before the period of
legislation upon the subject. During the struggle for independence, the
slave frequently fought side by side with his master, and manifested an
equal anxiety with him to be liberated from the dominion of Spain. In
consideration of services rendered during these patriotic struggles,
and from a conviction that the system was far from beneficial to a
newly-organized republic, the slaves were emancipated, and their
descendants now form a valuable and active class, retaining little of
the indolence usually ascribed to the unfortunate races from which they
sprung.
During the ascendency of Rosas, the negro population was devotedly
attached to Doña Mañuelita, his celebrated daughter, and their
influence with her was almost boundless. It is related that in 1840,
while an attack by Lavalle was momentarily expected, a young man from
the town of San Juan was in Buenos Ayres, and was forbidden, under
pain of death, to leave the city. An aged negress, who had, in former
years, been in the service of his family, happened to recognize him,
and learned his anxiety to depart. “All right, my friend!” she said; “I
will go at once, and get you a passport.” “Impossible!” exclaimed the
young man. “Not at all,” replied the negress. “La Señorita Mañuelita
will not deny it to me.”
In a quarter of an hour she brought a passport, signed by Rosas,
enjoining his mercenaries to oppose no hinderance to the bearer’s
departure.
Thus gained over by petty favors from the all-powerful dictator, the
negroes formed a corps of zealous spies and adherents of Rosas, whose
secret observations were carried on in the very midst of the families
whom he suspected. They also formed a brigade of excellent troops, on
whose fidelity he was able to rely at all times.
Don Domingo F. Sarmiento, from one of whose works the above anecdote
is derived, is one of the most enlightened patriots and philosophers
of South America. He is a native of San Juan, a town in the interior
of the Confederation, but has travelled extensively in Europe and the
United States, and was for many years a resident of Chili, whither
he was banished by Rosas in 1840. He has done much by his writings to
advance a practical knowledge both of the principles of agriculture
and of education in his native country, and is earnestly endeavoring
to secure the cooperation of the government and legislature of Buenos
Ayres in the advancement of those sciences. He desires to see some
portion of the European emigration diverted from the United States to
Buenos Ayres, the government of which province, indeed, offers land
freely to all who will settle in the interior; and he has recently
published, among other valuable works, a treatise on agriculture and
education, entitled “_Plan combinado de Educacion comun, Silvicultura
e Industria Pastoril_,” especially designed for the province of Buenos
Ayres. He is also translating into Spanish the writings of Adams,
Jefferson, and others of our early statesmen, which we may hope will
enlighten the Spanish republics of South America on a subject that they
seem at best to very imperfectly understand.
A word concerning the currency of this province, and I will dismiss it
from the reader’s attention. Rosas, before he was driven from power,
established a paper currency, which, being of small nominal value, was
intended to supply the place of coin. These bills were struck off with
the value of from one to several hundred _pesos_ stamped upon them. But
their value fluctuated to such an extent, that while at one time one
Spanish dollar could purchase twenty _pesos_, a few weeks later not
eight could be obtained with the same sum. At the present time a _peso_
is valued at four or five cents of our money.
It is said that the president, having put this currency into
circulation, realized thousands of dollars from it by monopolizing
the money market, and causing the paper to rise or depreciate at his
pleasure. I have seen a four-_real_ piece coined by him, or by order
of his government (which amounted to the same thing), with these words
stamped upon it: “Eterno Rosas” (Eternal Rosas). This man was, in every
sense of the word, a tyrant--cool, calculating, and selfish; possessed
of a degree of cunning and penetration, that aided him in discovering
his most secret enemies. Ruthless in the execution of his designs, he
spared neither age nor sex; even the venerable mayor, his earliest
friend, his more than father, was murdered in cold blood by a party
of _masorgueros_ (men of the Masorca, or club, a band of butchers and
assassins, on whom Rosas relied for the perpetuation of his reign of
terror), at the bidding of their atrocious chief.
In a work published at Montevideo, in 1845, by Don José Rivera Indarte,
a native of Buenos Ayres, he gives the following estimate of the
numbers who died through the hatred or caprice of Rosas: Poisoned, 4;
executed with the sword, 3765; shot, 1393; assassinated, 722,--total,
5884. Add this to the numbers slain in battle, and those executed by
military orders, at a moderate computation 16,520, we have 22,404
victims. If we deduct from this--allowing some latitude for the
prejudices of Señor Indarte--one third for exaggeration, we still have
14,936,--a fearful aggregate of victims to the ambition of a Gaucho
chief.
But his career has ended; the exiled patriots have returned from Brazil
and Chili, and in place of his there exists another, and, it is to be
hoped, a better, government. He was at one time the absolute ruler of
his country; and his long and cruel reign has left an effect upon its
inhabitants which many years of wise legislation alone can eradicate.