MENDOZA
From Dr. A. R. Davila, proprietor of _La Prensa_, South America's
largest newspaper, I received a letter of introduction to one of
Mendoza's best known and wealthiest men, Dr. Juan Carlos Serú, a lawyer
and country proprietor, who resides in a fine residence at 1055 Avenida
San Martin. I went to see him to pay my respects and from him obtained
some valuable information.
Up to the present time viticulture has been the staple industry of the
Province of Mendoza, the landscape being covered with vineyards as far
as the eye can see. This business has been on such an increase that it
has now reached its climax for Mendoza wines have not been exported out
of the country to any extent. With the opening up of Neuquen Territory,
which is likewise adapted to the growing of grapes, the market will be
more than flooded and there will not be much future in the business
unless there should be a large export trade. Steps have already been
taken to introduce Mendoza wines into Brazil which have so far met with
success. Since the European war, the price of grapes has dropped and
many of the small proprietors have been forced to the wall. The large
ones and old established firms have managed to reap the profits. The
value of the vineyards all depends on their proximity to a railroad
or to the city of Mendoza. Dr. Serú owns seventy hectares of vineyard
two stations distant from San Rafael, a wine producing district in the
southern part of the province, which he values at three thousand pesos
paper to the hectare; this would bring the value of a vineyard at the
height of its production to approximately $512.40 an acre.
One of the largest _bodegas_ (wineries) is that of Tomba y Sella in
Godoy Cruz, a suburb of Mendoza. It was originally a private concern
owned by Antonio Tomba. A scrap among the heirs caused a division
and it is now a stock company with Domingo Tomba as president and
the largest shareholder. The wine is kept in cement casks. The most
famous bodega, although not one of the largest, is that named Trapiche,
owned by the Benégas Brothers, situated about three miles southwest of
Mendoza. It has agencies in Buenos Aires, Rosario, Córdoba, Tucumán,
Bahia Blanca, and in Paraná. One of the brothers lives in Buenos Aires
where he conducts show rooms and a sales agency at 420 Calle Florida,
while the others live in Mendoza, supervising the manufacturing end.
I went to their bodega with Mr. Serú and was shown through the whole
institution by the manager. The vineyard comprises 538 acres. The
winery at the time of my visit was about filled and has the following
capacity:
_Casks_ _Liters_ _Total liters_
4 100,000 400,000
2 40,000 80,000
20 30,000 600,000
60 20,000 1,200,000
44 10,000 440,000
30 8,000 240,000
20 5,000 100,000
--- ------- ---------
180 213,000 3,060,000
To this must be added 9000 barrels of 200 liters, total 1,800,000
liters, which brings the grand total to 4,860,000 liters capacity.
These 9000 barrels mostly contain a brand of red wine named Reserva
which sells for $51.24 a barrel. The wine sold in the bottle is 7/10
of a liter for it takes 280 bottles to fill the barrel. Perkeo of
Heidelberg surely would have had a high old time if turned loose in the
Trapiche wine cellars. Seven-tenths bottle of ordinary Reservada which
retails in Mendoza at ninety-seven cents is selling now in Italy among
the Mendocino Italians, who have returned home on account of the war,
at $1.76. The Benégas Brothers manufacture seventeen brands of wine
and two brands of unfermented grape beverage. The manager, who showed
me around, must have thought I had a saintly countenance, for when I
left the institution, instead of handing me some wine to sample, he
poured out for me a tumbler of grape juice. I do not want the readers
of this book to draw the conclusion from this that I left Mendoza
without refreshing myself with some of the real article. The Tomba
is the largest of all the bodegas, and there are many larger than the
Trapiche; the Barra Quero being one of them.
Not only do the Benégas Brothers manufacture wine and grape juice, but
they have lately installed a cold-storage system at their plant for the
preservation of grapes which are sent to Buenos Aires and other parts
of the country to be eaten in the élite restaurants and in the homes
of the wealthy. One kilogram (2⅕ pounds) of table grapes from their
vineyards retails in Buenos Aires from 56 cts. to $2.14 according to
their quality.
Dr. Serú, seeing the results obtained from viticulture in this province
was one of the first men to conceive the idea of growing fruit for
canning as has been done in California. On his estate near San Rafael,
he had some canned which he sent to Buenos Aires to compete with some
articles from California. His product was found to be superior and
to-day he has one of the best fruit _fincas_ in the republic. Gath y
Chaves, the great department firm which has branches in every large
town in the republic have decided to accept, for their trade, no
other brands than his. This is a big feather in his cap because Gath
y Chaves is the largest firm of its kind in South America. Dr. Serú is
now endeavoring to get North American capital interested in Mendocino
lands for he is of the opinion that fruit will eventually supersede
viticulture. Fruit lands average about $51.24 an acre; orchards of
plums, apricots, peaches, and pears, six years old, will cost the
purchaser $683.20 an acre. These figures are nearly exact regarding
their present worth (1917), and if anybody who reads this book goes to
Mendoza, not knowing conditions there, they should not be bluffed by
other figures as these are nearly correct, they having been given to me
by viticulturists and fruit growers of repute.
Mendoza has been hit rather hardly in the question of labor for three
thousand Italians alone have emigrated from the province to return home
on account of the European war. Business is now at its lowest ebb, but
of all the provinces of the republic, it has undoubtedly the brightest
future. It is going to be a great granary, and wheat is going to play
an important part in its exports. Everything is grown by irrigation,
and it has been found that grain grown this way there doesn't rot or
soften as it does in other districts under similar conditions. Under
ordinary conditions, the wheat yield in Mendoza is fifty-two bushels
to the acre; that of the whole republic is only twenty-three. A man on
an experimental farm grew ten acres that averaged seventy-six bushels
to the acre; figures that I had hitherto thought impossible. There is
no flour mill in the province; neither is there one in the neighboring
province San Juan. Sr. Emilio Vogt, manager of the Molino del Rio de
la Plata, the largest flour mill in Argentina, which has a capital of
$14,945,000, tells me that a flour mill either in Tucumán or in Mendoza
would be a profitable investment. One with a daily capacity of 30 tons
would cost 300,000 pesos ($138,100.00). It would need 200,000 pesos
($85,400.00) extra for working capital, bringing the total to 500,000
pesos ($223,500.00). He says he would guarantee a mill like this to
make forty per cent. annually on the original investment. It would
have all it could do to supply Mendoza city alone. Vogt says that in
the flour business in Argentina, everything depends on the freight.
The grain belt at the present time is midway between Buenos Aires and
Mendoza. Wheat is shipped to Buenos Aires to be ground and the flour
then shipped back over the same rails and beyond to Mendoza. This cuts
a big hole in the profits. Since Mendoza is destined to be a great
wheat country, the grain won't have to be shipped far to the mill if
one is established there.
The city of Mendoza according to the census of 1916 had 59,117 human
inhabitants. Its neighbor, Godoy Cruz had a population of 16,021.
The canine population of both of these cities outnumbers that of the
human in a proportion of at least three to one. Only two dogs out of
this vast number are of any consequence and they are on exhibit in the
zoölogical gardens. The other dogs are not worth the powder to blow
them up.
With the exception of Buenos Aires, Mendoza is undoubtedly the finest
city in Argentina and is the liveliest of the provincial capitals. It
is a beautiful place with many broad avenues bordered by symmetrical
rows of sycamore, plane, and linden trees. All the streets of the
newer part of the town are well paved with rectangular cobble stones.
Between the road and the sidewalk are ditches paved with round polished
stones and spanned by bridges under which rivulets of muddy water flow.
I have been told that in this respect, Mendoza bears a similarity to
Guatemala. The sidewalks are paved with tile of various somber colors
and designs. The residences are mostly one story in height built of a
brownish brick or of adobe and stuccoed. The town presents an extremely
verdant and refreshing appearance largely due to the murmuring of the
running water that is everywhere.
The Plaza San Martin, the principal one, though to me not as charming
as the Plaza Pringles in San Luis, is the finest in the republic. In
its center is a large equestrian statue of the guerrero, San Martin,
looking towards the Andes. From its center, eight walks, the tile
paving of which cost the city forty thousand dollars, radiate, the four
center ones containing little islands of flowers. The corners of this
plaza which are sunk about two feet below the level of the street are
round. In this neighborhood much of the activity of the city centers
for here are the Grand Hotel, Hotel Bauer, the cathedral, the Spanish
Bank of the River Plate; the Bank of the Province of Mendoza (a huge
building in construction); the Bank of the Argentine Nation and the
Municipal Theater. Nearby is the post office.
* * * * *
There is another plaza, that of Independencia, which is still in
an embryo state. It contains four city squares and when finished is
expected to be a masterpiece. Work of grading is now in progress but it
is being done so slowly that I conjecture the year 1920 may not witness
its completion. In the meantime horses graze on the tall grass and
alfalfa that will be eventually dug up to be planted to trees and lawn.
This is supposed to be the exact geographical center of New Mendoza and
on it faces the capitol and governor's residence. Both these edifices
are but one story in height; the former covering an entire block.
[Illustration: Statue of San Martin, Mendoza]
The city is divided into nearly equal parts by a broad avenue, that of
San Martin, formerly the Alameda which runs north and south.
* * * * *
These two parts are called by the distinctive names of Mendoza which
is the western section and Old Mendoza, the eastern one. Old Mendoza,
which I think contains the greatest population is in the form of a
trapezoid, while the new city is that of a square. The old city was the
part that existed before the earthquake of 1861. It was nearly totally
destroyed and has been rebuilt again. The best to do inhabitants
instead of repairing their ruined homes, laid out plans for a new and
better city with wide streets and spacious parks. It is this new part
that to-day is the most important. Old Mendoza with its one-story,
primitive adobe buildings, in some respects resembles San José de
Costa Rica, although it is not nearly as fine and clean a city. Its
streets are treeless and most of them are never paved. The poor element
lives here. The old plaza with its dirt walks, which was formerly the
center of the city, is a full mile from that of San Martin. The ancient
crumbling unstuccoed adobe pile which was the pristine city hall is
now an almshouse. There are no residences in Mendoza which can be
termed palatial, that of my acquaintance, Dr. Serú being the best. It
is a two-story structure on the wide and shadeless Avenida San Martin,
hemmed in on both sides by shops. The residence of Domingo Tomba at
Godoy Cruz is the finest house in the province, but it is in a poor
location, on the busy and dusty plaza of that small city.
[Illustration: Avenida San Martin, Mendoza]
Regarding the earthquake in Mendoza, "Until 1861," writes Dr. Martin
de Moussy, "the Province of Mendoza was not aware of the terrors of
an earthquake. The violent shocks that had at different times agitated
the Chilean provinces seemed to lose their intensity on going over the
chain of the Andes. The inhabitants only knew slight tremblings of
the earth previous to then. March 20, 1861, one of the most violent
earthquakes ever recorded destroyed in a few seconds the city of
Mendoza and buried one-half of its inhabitants under its ruins."
At 8:30 P.M. that night, the town was totally destroyed by one of
the most violent earthquakes ever experienced. The sky was perfectly
clear; the atmosphere quiet; the greater part of its inhabitants at
home, although some of them were enjoying a walk in the Alameda and
on the plaza. Suddenly a subterranean noise was heard, and at the
same moment before there was time to escape, all the public buildings
and private houses were falling in with a tremendous crash. The walls
fell outward and all sides of the rooms and the roofs came down in
the center so that the inhabitants, both those who were inside the
houses and those who were on the streets were all buried beneath the
débris. The movement was first undulatory from northwest to southeast
and afterwards seemed to come from below upwards. Its violence was so
great that in the gardens many people fell down. In the Church of San
Augustin, where mass was being held, only one person escaped alive. He
was a drunken man asleep in the vestibule. The pillars fell in such
a way that he was uninjured. Fire started by broken lamps and from
kitchen braziers. The débris of the earthquake clogged the canals and
started a flood. Food ran short and the stench of the corpses which
could not be taken from the ruins was awful. The fire raged ten days.
When everything was normal again, it was estimated that at least ten
thousand people perished. The _Almanaque del Mensajero_ gives the total
number of victims at fifteen thousand. The shocks were continued at
frequent intervals until the end of May. There was a suggestion to
rebuild the city on some granite hills known as Las Tortugas but old
ties and affections pervaded so a new city was built directly west
of the Alameda which is now the Avenida San Martin. The ruins of the
churches of San Francisco and San Augustin should be visited.
The Parque Oeste (West Park) which its name indicates is in the western
part of the city. It is built on a scarcely perceptible general slope,
and to my idea out-rivals that of Palermo in Buenos Aires, it being
more natural and rustic. It is not yet entirely completed, but that
part of it which is, nearly attains a perfection. It is spacious and
its broad avenues, cross lawns planted to trees indigenous to the
country. There is a fine music pavilion and a zoölogical garden there.
Westward from this park and past the hospital in the course of
construction, a broad road bordered by year-old Carolina poplar trees
takes one to the mile distant Cerrito de la Gloria a 1300 foot hill
which rises abruptly from the desert Pampa. Its eastern slope is
planted to eucalyptus, various generi of cactus, pepperberry, and other
trees and shrubs. Dependent on water which is forced through a conduit
to the top of a hill, they have in the three years of their existence
here attained a marvelous growth on what was formerly a barren waste.
Serpentine automobile roads with no balustrades coil upwards around
the hill. It would be no place for a joy ride. A driver in very sober
senses drove off the road in broad daylight in August, 1915. The only
occupant of the victoria beside himself was a young girl. They both
saved their lives by jumping but both the horses rolled over into the
ravine and were killed.
[Illustration: Monument to the Army of the Andes, Mendoza]
The summit of this hill is crowned by a gigantic monument of
granite and of bronze erected in 1914 by the Argentine Republic in
commemoration of the Army of the Andes which crossed that giant barrier
and defeated the Spaniards at Maipu and at Chacabuco in Chile. It was
unveiled on the centennial day on which the army left Mendoza. The
monument is a Goddess of Victory looking northward. (It was northward
through Villavicencio that San Martin's army went.) The granite
pedestal formed from three huge blocks of massive rock has embedded in
it a bronze bas relief, depicting the cavalry, artillery, and infantry
of that time with the famous general and his officers and also a
reception given to the liberators after their victory. On top of the
bas relief is shown the number of men comprising the conquering army,
classified as follows:
_Superior Officers_ _Officers_ _Soldiers_
Artillery 4 16 241
Infantry 9 124 2,795
Cavalry 4 55 742
Militia 1,200
Engineers 120
Total 5310 men including 212 officers. There were 9191 mules and 1600
horses. The names of the heroes dear to the Argentine and Chilean
public are engraved on one bronze plate in order as follows:
San Martin
O'Higgins
Las Heras
de la Plaza
Conde
Cramer
Alvardo
Zapiola
Beltran
de la Quintana
Condarco
Cabot
Paroisien
Freire
Mansilla
Zentena
Arcos
Martinez
Guiraldez
Lavalle
As to hotels, Mendoza can boast of none that are first-class according
to the standard of those of the average European or North American city
of its size, although the Jewish hotel of Emilio Lévy which tries to
be international and neutral (but which is not), is the best. It is
named Grand Hotel San Martin but in colloquial conversation the suffix
San Martin is usually left out. Lévy is an Alsatian Jew as well as are
his immediate entourage of hirelings and some of the printed sheets
of German atrocities in this European conflagration that his clerks
distribute on the dining-room tables and in the corridor are evidence
to show the wandering Briton or Frenchman that his money is solicited
even though he may receive kosher food for it in return. The rooms are
large and clean, most of them opening on to a patio as is the custom
of the hotels in provincial Argentina. The food is good but I am sorry
to say that it is lacking in quantity as well as in variety. Three
years ago, while I was in Mendoza, this same hotel set a fine meal and
a large one but one must take into consideration that the greater the
variety of food as well as the quantity, the greater is the cost, and
Jews are always out for the money. The Apulian bartender knows how to
draw a nice schuper of Quilmes beer, but I am told that the barman of
the Hotel Bauer across the plaza on the Calle General Necochea keeps
his draught beer better. The only serious objection I have to the Grand
Hotel is its middle class Yiddish clientele of all nationalities who
stare rudely at the other guests and while eating, wave their forks and
knives as they loudly explain some anecdote.
The Hotel Bauer, patronized by Teutons, runs largely to café and
barroom which are the only departments of this institution in evidence
from the street. The dining room and the bedrooms are in the rear, but
the bedrooms are small. The Hotel Italia is "free and easy." They have
a regular rate but if a person brings a woman companion to his room who
is not his wife or of any consanguinity, he is charged double.
Mendoza is no smokers' paradise. Cigars dry up in the dry atmosphere
and become as crisp and brittle as tinder and as dry as powder. As to
amusements, there are none save a few cinematograph shows and a bagnio
named Petit Eden. One of these moving picture shows was showing films
of the Willard-Johnson fight. It was such an attraction that the place
was jammed. I had seen no moving pictures of the fight as yet, although
I wanted to, as I had witnessed the genuine article in Havana. I was
dumbfounded at the finale after the twenty-sixth round to see my visage
conspicuous in the foreground displayed upon the white canvas, as I did
not know that I had been within range of the camera while at the fight
in Havana.
The Province of Mendoza is rich in mineral springs due to the volcanic
Andes. The most famous of these springs is that of Villavicencio
about sixty miles northwest of the capital in the fastnesses of the
mountains. It was through here that San Martin marched his army on his
way to Chile. He came out at the point where the railroad now lies at
the farm of Uspallata. The Mendoza agents of the Argentine Brewery have
bought the spring and transport its waters in bulk to Mendoza where
they bottle it.
To the north of the Province of Mendoza lies the Province of San Juan
with an area of 33,715 square miles. It together with Mendoza and San
Luis, formerly formed the Province of Cuyo which belonged to that part
of the Spanish dependencies that were governed from Santiago, Chile. In
character, San Juan is much like Mendoza although it has less fertile
lands. This is due to the fact that while Mendoza has three rivers
which serve to irrigate it, San Juan has but one. San Juan is noted for
the superior quality of its figs which here thrive to perfection. Its
capital city is also named San Juan. It is ninety-eight miles north of
the city of Mendoza and is reached by the Buenos Aires Pacific Railway
which here has its terminus. It is a small town of 14,595 inhabitants
with shady streets and of ancient appearance. Most of its houses are of
adobe. It is also the seat of the bishopric of Cuyó. The bishop is José
Américo Orzali who has held this post since 1912.
Leaving Mendoza westward, the narrow gauge Transandine Railway runs
parallel to the canal of the Mendoza River and crosses it twice.
Several kilometers out, the snow-capped peaks of the Andes are
visible, among them Aconcagua, South America's highest mountain and
extinct volcano in Argentina near the Chilean line. This great height
of twenty-four thousand feet was first ascended by E. A. Fitz Gerald
after several efforts, but since then it has been scaled several times,
there being guides at Puente del Inca to take mountain climbers to the
summit.
[Illustration: Waiting for the Train at Cacheuta]
Twenty miles from Mendoza, we enter the defile of the Mendoza River,
and are in the midst of the Andes. I left the train at Cacheuta,
where at that thermal resort, I put in forty-eight hours. There are
hot springs at Cacheuta and a small establishment was built as they
were found to contain qualities beneficial for rheumatism and kindred
ailments. The trade of the place increased until it became necessary
to drill holes into the ravine bottom to pump the hot water out for
baths. The patient is apt to get worse for the first five days after
the beginning of this treatment, but then gets better and improves
until the course is completed. The Gran Hotel Cacheuta is a sumptuous
and luxurious affair built on the style of which we are erroneously
led to believe is Cliff Dweller architecture like the Hotel El Tovar
at the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. I was not long there before I
found out that the main attraction of Cacheuta was not the baths but
instead roulette and nickel-in-the-slot machines. The first mentioned
game was in full swing; a separate building was given over to that
form of joy producer. Chips cost a peso apiece, except for the three
dozen, red and black, and odd and even, where a five-peso chip must be
thrown on the green cloth. Little girls not more than twelve years old
watch their beplumed and besapphired mammas win or lose. Long-robed
priests wander back and forth, occasionally placing a bet where their
holy inclination tells them to; vermouth glass in hand, they are seen
in the barroom to walk up to the products of Mills and of Caille and
to the tune of a twenty-centavo piece watch for their luck. In the way
of scenery and other attractions besides the bath there is nothing at
Cacheuta to divert one's time. It is a society place for gambling and
a place for rest for the tired business man. It is wonderful, however,
to see what man has done in a place not favored by nature. The barren
mountains obscure the view in all directions; the sandy soil can
bear no vegetation. Here and there are to be seen the corrugated iron
huts of the railroad workmen in front of whose doors their numerous
brown-skinned offspring are playing. Through the whole scene runs the
turbulent Mendoza River, muddy with silt and sand.
[Illustration: On the Terrace at Cacheuta]
Not far above Cacheuta is Potrerillos, where it is pleasant to see a
speck of green. Steers graze in alfalfa fields enclosed by tall poplar
trees. A stock company was formed to bore a tunnel two kilometres
through the mountains to the plain, deviate the stream from its
course by running it through this tunnel and which once through, would
irrigate new lands. As it would also render waste the lands now under
cultivation, the wine growers and agriculturists served an injunction
on this company stopping them in their undertaking. The tunnel is
completed, but it is a hundred to one shot nothing will ever come of it
for the company tried to steal the river.
[Illustration: Thermal Establishment at Cacheuta]
[Illustration: One of the Diversions at Cacheuta that is Neither
Bathing nor Gambling]
The whole trip to Santiago over the Andes so often described is one
of great scenic beauty on the Chilean side where the descent is very
abrupt and where one can look down the whole length of the valley
of the Aconcagua River which is cultivated where nature will allow.
That on the Argentina side is grand with the giant peaks in the
neighborhood, and also awe-inspiring, but it is apt to be tedious.
The last stop of importance in Argentina is Puente del Inca, where
there is a thermal establishment and electrical works. Here there is
a natural bridge under which the Mendoza River flows and which gives
the place its name. High up on the mountain side are curious groups
of rocks which from the valley appear like people praying. They are
named the Penitentes. The crest of the Andes is pierced by a tunnel at
an altitude of 10,364 feet. This tunnel is 9848 feet long, 5460 feet
of it being in Argentina and the remaining 4388 feet being in Chile.
It takes eight minutes to run through it on the train. In the winter
time when snow blocks the passes so it is impossible for trains to
run, travelers between Argentina and Chile ride through this tunnel on
horseback. About 1500 feet above the tunnel at the summit of the Cumbre
there is a statue of Christ the Redeemer (Cristo Redentor), seen by me
on several occasions as I have crossed the mountains on horseback. It
was designed by the Argentine sculptor Matteo Alonso. It is of bronze
and is over twenty-nine feet in height. It was unveiled at a mass said
on the top of the Cumbre in March, 1904, as a monument of perpetual
peace between Argentina and Chile in the presence of the presidents of
the two republics. There had been a scrap over the boundary question
and both countries were on the verge of war. It was a case of one being
afraid and the other dare not, Chile probably holding the pole. Chile
was unable to obtain a loan and therefore war was averted. The image
of Christ with his arms extended is looking southward and the boundary
line of the two countries runs through His center. Since the traffic on
the Cumbre has greatly lessened on account of the tunnel, this bronze
Christ has fallen into neglect. Storms have knocked the cross out of
his hands, and in many ways have damaged it. The Chilean mozos who
cross the Andes to work in the electrical works at Puente del Inca, use
this statue as a target when they pass by it and when I saw it, it was
quite pock-marked with the bullets from their revolvers. One hundred
meters north and one hundred metres south of the statue are two iron
poles named "itos" which demark the boundary.
[Illustration: Steps at Cacheuta Leading from the Railroad Station to
the Hotel]
The poor travelers still go over the Cumbre. They hire mules for fifty
pesos Chileno apiece ($4.90) at Los Andes, leaving there early in the
morning long before daybreak and arriving at the Argentine station of
Las Cuevas in the afternoon in time to catch the afternoon train to
Mendoza.
At Santa Rosa de los Andes down the valley of the Aconcagua at an
altitude of 2698 feet, we changed trains for here we reached the broad
gauge of the Chilean State Railways. It is a pleasure to be able to
travel again in clean and comfortable cars. Those of Argentina are
terrible; they are dirty, old, and worn. The toilets are dirty and the
lavatories are generally lacking in towels. In Chile are Pullman cars
of American manufacture; the locomotives are local, or are made in
Germany. I came from Cacheuta on the special car sent by the Argentine
Government to convey the special ambassadors and envoys with their
distinguished guests to the inauguration ceremonies and installation
of the new President of Chile, Sr. Luis Sanfuentes, who succeeded
Sr. Ramon Barros Luco, whose term expired December 23, 1915. This
party included Romulo S. Naón, special ambassador, Colonel Carlos
S. Martinez, military attaché, Captain José Moneta, naval attaché,
Sr. Iriondo de Irigoyen and Sr. Albert d'Alkaine, secretaries to the
Embassy and myself. Brazil was represented by Senhor Luis Martins
de Souza Dantas, special ambassador. Portugal sent her minister
to Argentina, Colonel Botelho, a very quiet miniature old man and
his military attaché, Colonel Martin de Lima, a middle-aged small
gentleman. At Los Andes, we were met by the welcome committee of the
Chilean government, its units being the pick of the land politically,
socially, and from rank in military and naval affairs. After being
photographed and presented with flowers by comely maidens dressed in
white, who came to greet us and who sang a song especially composed for
our honor, we were escorted to a private train where we were dined and
wined on the way to Santiago.