finished, handsome building, very well kept up both externally and
internally, and religious observances and masses are very frequent. The
Clubs of Buenos Ayres hold a conspicuous place in connection with
politics, and they occasionally afford opportunities for beauty and
fashion to meet at the balls held in them. The Progreso occupies the
first rank, the La Plata the second, and latterly a Club called Del
Parque has been established. I was up the country when the Progreso ball
was held, and missed the invitation, as well as that for the Temple, but
attended the ball of the La Plata, where 500 or 600 ladies and gentlemen
were collected; a very gay and cheerful meeting, where all appeared to
feel at home and enjoy themselves. South American society has the charm
of being free from the stiffness and formality which exists in
aristocratic society at home. The ladies, however, add great elegance of
dress to their personal graces, which are very considerable, and they
dance with great ease. With reference to the female population of Buenos
Ayres, the _fêtes_ held on the anniversary of Independence (25th of May)
present an excellent opportunity for seeing them to advantage out of
doors. The weather was fine, and the Plaza Victoria, as well as the
leading streets, was filled with well dressed ladies, particularly at
night to see the fireworks. The ladies go about very freely, those who
keep carriages, or can afford to hire them, generally driving a short
way out of town when they are not visiting their friends. Society in
Buenos Ayres is decidedly of the free and easy, friendly style, and
characterised by much hospitality. The democratic element in the
constitution naturally stirs up a good deal of political feeling, but I
do not find this to affect the private relations of life so much as
might be expected. Party spirit runs high, and the “young Republicans”
especially are very bitter towards those who differ from them; but of
late years political animosity has not been stained in the Argentine
Confederation with crimes such as those which have prevailed at Monte
Video. The continuance of the Paraguayan war and the Alliance with
Brazil have lately been the great bone of contention, and shows itself
on the eve of the election of a new president, on the result of which
the future peace of the country may more or less depend.
I looked over the Museum, where many fine antediluvian specimens found
in this country are preserved, together with a variety of curiosities in
natural history, animals, birds, &c, the whole being under the
superintendence of Dr. Burmeister, who is a very superior man, and I
believe remains there more from his love of natural history than for the
remuneration attached to the office. He has travelled much over the
South American Continent.
Numerous fine hospitals exist in Buenos Ayres, both native and foreign,
and the English one, which I visited in company with Mr. Boyd, chairman
of the committee, and the Rev. Mr. Ford, is a very good establishment,
well deserving of support by the British community and by our own
Government. The hospital was formerly an old quinta, and is beautifully
situated at the east end of the city, overlooking the river, the Boca,
Barracas, and the country round as far as the eye can reach. It has been
greatly enlarged, forming three sides of a square, the fourth comprising
a neat fever ward, run up last year for cholera patients, and it proved
of very great utility. The wards, on both the ground floor and upper
story, are kept very clean, and Dr. Reid, the medical attendant, resides
on the premises, having occupied his position for six years. The
building and ground are the property of the hospital and have much
increased in value, but the difficulty is in meeting the annual
expenses, which can only be done by voluntary subscriptions. What is
required to keep up the establishment properly is a small tonnage rate
on British ships, and inasmuch as sailors derive the chief benefit from
the hospital, I cannot see why this should not be done. The expenses
attendant on such an institution in a foreign country are considerable,
if it is to be kept in a state of efficiency. Formerly there was a
tonnage rate of this kind levied on British shipping, which may have led
to some abuse, and been done away with from some “ignorant impatience of
taxation,” but there is no valid reason why shipping should not
contribute to the support of hospitals, from which, as I have already
observed, it derives the greatest amount of benefit, and without which
sailors would be exposed to great hardships.
One of the disadvantages of the Spanish system of building their towns
and cities in square blocks is that it creates a sameness in the
streets, and narrows the approaches to them, leaving no scope for great
leading thoroughfares, so that there is a constant turning of corners,
and but for the names being pretty generally posted up it would be
difficult for strangers to find their way. In reply to inquiries as to
any particular house or locality, you are generally told that it is so
many squares off, so that taking the right bearing or departure you can
easily find out what you want. Then the houses are legibly numbered,
which, combined with their plan of municipal taxation, ought to render a
correct census easy, but there seems to be some strong objection to
“numbering the people,” which I cannot account for, and to this day no
one is able to tell you the population of Buenos Ayres with any
certainty; some calculations only giving 100,000, others 150,000, and
even as high as 200,000. I believe the last to be a great exaggeration;
probably the mean of 150,000 is nearest the mark. Again, the extension
of the city by squares leads to the closing up of places for which a
greater space should be left. As an instance, the English burial ground
was quite in the country when first made, but the city is fast
encroaching upon it, and notice has lately been given to have it
removed, against which a strong feeling exists, as the ground was
purchased, and is the property of foreigners; so the only plan to be
adopted, if any alteration is made at all, will be to close the ground
to future interments, the municipality giving a piece of land a mile or
two further out. This, again, has its inconveniences, as the streets
leading to the present burial ground are almost unapproachable in bad
weather, and beyond their limits it would be still more so. I visited
the English burial ground, which is pretty well kept up, but the huge
square family vaults are very unsightly, and will be rendered useless in
case the burial ground is removed to another quarter.
The great native burial place called Recoleta, adjoining a church of
that name, is full of monuments of all kinds, some on a most elaborate
and costly scale,—little temples, in fact, where the dead are laid on
shelves, visible through glass doors. The cholera visitation compelled
further addition to be made to the ground, which is in a very rough,
disordered state, where medical students would have full scope if they
were at a loss for subjects.
Altogether the municipal regulations of the city are very defective. An
effort is now being made to obtain an adequate supply of water, and some
works are in course of erection on the shore in the front of the
Recoleta, on the plan of Mr. Coghlan, an engineer, who has been long
resident at Buenos Ayres. The works will supply a number of fountains in
the city, but no project is yet on foot to carry the water into private
houses, which are supplied from their own patios, where there is
generally a well or large tank underground which collects the rain
water. A number of plans are before the Government for draining the
city, one of the most urgent and imperative of wants, and without which
it is impossible to maintain the public health. It is no wonder the
cholera has made such ravages, and every one dreads a revival of it, or
the appearance of some other scourge during the next hot season. These
mysterious visitations are warnings to large populations that they
cannot violate sanitary laws with impunity, and force lethargic
municipal bodies into action. No city could be more easily drained and
sewered than Buenos Ayres, but it requires a large outlay of money,
which the Government can ill afford at present; and I believe the
municipal and provincial taxes are already at their maximum.
House rent is very high, and with the exception of meat, all the
necessaries are dear. Luxuries are especially high priced. One is
forcibly reminded of our old watchmen by the prevailing practice in
South America of having what they call serenos, who go round calling the
hour, some of them with most sepulchral voices, and they are about as
useful as our “Charlies” were, only they are armed with a sword, and
apt, I believe, at times to resort to it very improperly. In other
respects the system of police appears to be pretty good, and considering
the mixed and heterogenous population, with many bad characters about,
there are less disturbances in Buenos Ayres than I expected, though, as
a matter of course, many complaints are made as to the deficiency of
police regulations. I was about the streets and suburbs of the city at
various hours of the night and never met with the least molestation.
The city is well lighted with gas, only it is stated that the present
works are inadequate to the supply, and another company is about to be
formed. The charge for gas is extravagant; I am told about 24s. per
thousand feet, and as a matter of course the shares are at a very high
premium.
One of the most thriving occupations in the city appears to be the hire
of carriages and horses. There are numerous large establishments of this
kind as well as for the building of carriages; the latter as a rule are
handsome and commodious. There are regular stands in the open squares,
and cars are in attendance at the railway stations. For some time I
could not make out what a great clatter of horses coming through the
city about daylight meant; it sounded like a troop of cavalry, but I
afterwards found it was the hired horses going to water at the river;
indeed, horses are almost amphibious here in consequence of doing so
much work in the river carts, and one day I saw an omnibus brought down
on the shore to be washed and cleaned, rather a novel performance.
River storms are not of common occurrence, but they occasionally take
place with great violence. It had been hot and oppressive before, but it
came on to blow heavily on Sunday night, and next morning the river had
risen some 12 feet, the waves dashing on the beach in a most alarming
manner, and the whole of the low ground between the city and the Boca
was under water, with part of the Boca Railway washed away, as well as a
portion of the Northern line, interrupting, of course, the traffic on
both. It was a curious sight to see the waves dashing through the willow
trees which are planted along the shore, and for a time suspending
washing operations. Many houses on the low ground were invaded, and the
wooden ones built along the Boca, on piles, looked like great bathing
machines. The iron seats placed on the shore beneath the willows were
knocked over and covered with seaweed. The storm lasted two or three
days, during which no communication could be had with vessels either in
the inner or outer roads, and steamers were compelled to run for the
Tigre to land their passengers; also lighters with cargo—the whole
forming a scene of much excitement and putting an entire stop to
business. It delayed the departure of our steamer several days. After
the gale subsided we had some fine sunny days, and the river fell as
rapidly as it had risen. This gale was not what is termed a pampero,
being from the south-east, beating on the shore. A pampero frequently
follows after it from the south-west, or off the shore, causing the
river to fall again.
The changes of climate here are sudden and said to be unhealthy. During
the two months I was in the river until the occurrence of the gale
nothing could be more delicious than the weather—cool, with bright
sunshine and any amount of exercise agreeable. The nights were
occasionally frosty, with ice in the mornings in some places. Dust
storms are terrible things during the summer, but happily are rare, and
generally the forerunners of a pampero, accompanied by heavy rain, which
refreshes the thirsty soil. Droughts are serious afflictions to the
sheep and cattle, which often perish from their effects. Water is the
great desideratum for the campo, and without it the prospects of the
estanciero are blighted. As I have said before, the Banda Oriental is
less subject to drought, being more undulated and better watered, but
the pampas, or plains of Buenos Ayres, grow a more nutritive grass and
rear finer sheep and cattle.
During my stay at Buenos Ayres the Provincial Chambers met, as well as
the National Chambers, and I attended a sitting of the latter, where an
unusual excitement prevailed owing to a motion put on the books as to
the retirement of President Mitre from office, and whether or not this
would put an end to the alliance entered into for carrying on the war
with Paraguay. The building is small, exactly like a theatre minus the
stage, and was crowded to excess by strangers, the pit, or lower part
only, being used for the business of the Senate. There was so much
demonstration from the galleries as to promise a stormy meeting, but
when the speeches began the speakers were patiently listened to, with
occasional cheers by their respective supporters, at which the President
rang his bell. Dr. Quintana and others maintained that their views were
correct, and that the retirement of President Mitre would put an end to
the alliance. The Government, represented by Senor Elizalde, Minister
for Foreign Affairs, maintained the contrary, and defended his
colleagues with considerable acumen and ability, the result being that
nothing was got by the motion and things remained in _statu quo_. The
custom is for members to speak sitting upon their benches, which greatly
detracts from their oratory, and must be very inconvenient, as you can
only hear a voice, and are puzzled sometimes to know where it comes
from. On another occasion, when the Senate was in committee with
explanations going on, half-a-dozen members would be addressing or
interrogating the Minister at the same time, which appeared very absurd,
as well as unfair, it being impossible to reply to more than one at a
time, or at all events to collect the observations of half-a-dozen
members speaking in the same breath. Senor Elizalde, however, defended
his position with much coolness and ability, and was assisted by his
colleague, Dr. Costa, Minister for Education, &c. The audience became so
troublesome on another occasion that the Senators decided to meet with
closed doors, having only reporters present, rather a trial to
democratic forbearance, but it did not seem to produce any sensation out
of doors. As in our own Parliament, a great loss of time is caused by
the professional speech makers, and the business of legislation retarded
accordingly, as they only sit in the day in these countries. Whether or
not such an arrangement would suit in St. Stephen's is another matter.
Outside, and apart from public sittings, no doubt a deal of intrigue and
jobbery takes place in South American assemblies, as in other countries,
but I think on the whole their legislation is fair and conducted with
moderation. There is not the same value in “loaves and fishes” to
operate with, nor the same amount of honour and reward to look forward
to as in England; besides, the members of Government out here are very
poorly paid, so they are obliged to look to their professions, mostly as
lawyers, unless they happen to possess private fortunes. Republicanism
is not endowed with more gratitude than Royalty, and deserving men who
have faithfully and zealously served their country are too often left in
the “cold shade,” and forgotten in both cases. The Provincial Assembly
meet in another part of the city, where all the provincial business is
carried on. It was formerly the town residence and head-quarters of
Rozas, from which many a bloody mandate has been issued. The
municipality occupy large premises in the Plaza, attached to the old
Spanish cabildo, or prison, on which the date of 1722 is still to be
seen.
PROGRESS OF STEAM NAVIGATION ON LA PLATA.
If there is one subject more than another on which I am entitled to
express an opinion it is that of steam navigation on the great South
American rivers, and especially as regards the fluvial waters of the La
Plata. In my book, published in 1854, pages 314 to 316, occur the
following remarks:—
These are sentiments, however, which the reader may naturally think
are not very pertinent to a purpose like the present, and not
exactly in keeping with an occasion expressly connected with the
commercial opening-up of those streams by the instrumentality of
English enterprise, in a form so indicative of progress as steam.
So, too, thought the writer after a moment's rumination of the “cud
of sweet and bitter fancy;” for he reflected that these magnificent
regions, first discovered by Cabot—English, born and bred, though of
Venetian parentage—had stagnated, not under the rule of that “good
olde and famuse man,” but under the rule of those in whose service
he had found out a river which might, indeed, have proved worthy of
the name the avaricious Spaniards had bestowed upon it—La Plata, the
River of Silver—had they been imbued with a particle of the spirit
which has converted “icy Labrador,” the first territory discovered
by the same glorious adventurer, into a comparatively industrial
paradise. I augured, I hope with no unjustifiable audacity, that now
the descendants of Cabot and of his companions had been brought into
direct relationship with the people of the Parana, something would
be done to render that “Mississippi of the South” not altogether
unworthy of some slight social and political comparison with the
Northern “Father of Waters” before many generations should roll by;
and I deemed it a not altogether impossible contingency that the
younger members of our crew might live to cast anchor in certain
riverine ports hereabouts, amid a forest of masts and funnels
belonging to all the maritime states in the world, not one of which
countries but may find produce of some kind or other profitably
suitable to its markets on these fertile shores.
I will leave it to my readers, acquainted with what is going on at the
present time, to say whether my views were too sanguine. It may be said
that the war in Paraguay has hastened the development of steam
navigation up the rivers, which is true enough, but at the same time I
am satisfied that without this war there would have been steady
progress, particularly had the policy of the despotic ruler of Paraguay
been in a pacific direction, encouraging, instead of throwing every
difficulty in the way of free transit to the country lying beyond
Paraguay, and into the interior of Matto Grosso. The exigences of a war
of the nature carried on for the last three years, where the troops,
ammunition, and supplies of all kinds had to be sent forward by steam,
would naturally create active employment for steamers, and it has tended
to familiarise navigators with every nook and corner, sand bank, or
other impediment that may have existed unknown to any of them. The war
at an end, steamers will be organised to run to the different towns and
stations, in response to the requirements of traffic, as well as to
facilitate postal communications, so much needed in those countries; and
Rosario, being the terminus of the great Central Railway, must of
necessity become the rendezvous of all river steamers ascending the
Parana, the Uruguay having already a pretty good organisation in this
respect. In a country so widespread, and so dependent on internal
communication by rivers, steam is now a primary necessity, and therefore
it may fairly be assumed that this will be one of the first objects of
the Government, as well as of the Central Argentine Railway Company; the
latter to facilitate traffic to and from their line, and to regulate the
departure of their trains, a matter of much moment to travellers. It may
in truth be said that steam navigation on the waters of La Plata and its
affluents is only in its infancy, dating from the commencement of the
Paraguayan war. One of the great requirements of civilised life is rapid
intercourse, not only for persons, but for correspondence, and the task
of arranging the latter is one that must be strongly pressed on the
Government by commercial bodies, who are so much interested in the
question. Brazil sets an example in this respect that other Governments
ought to follow. In process of time telegraphic wires will doubtless be
added to steam facilities, and probably be carried across the Andes to
join the West Coast line to Panama, in connection with the great
Atlantic cable to England.
When I remember the sensation created by the little “Argentina,” and her
trip to Rosario in 1853, I must say the progress of events has indeed
been rapid. To this day the “Argentina” is remembered at Buenos Ayres
and Monte Video, and her subsequent loss was regarded as a serious
calamity.
I subjoin in the Appendix some particulars showing the increase of steam
tonnage in these waters, which will be interesting to those who
contemplate visiting the regions of the La Plata.
In connection with the up-river steam traffic, the Northern Railway to
the Tigre is a great facility, as passengers can walk on board the
steamers without encountering the often disagreeable boating at Buenos
Ayres, and the passage through what is called the Capitan is very
pleasant, but if the railway was extended a few hundred yards further,
to the bank of the River Lujan, it would be far more convenient as large
sized steamers would then resort there, as also vessels with cargo for
Buenos Ayres to be sent on by rail. The Tigre is so small and so shallow
that a few steamers block it up, but the Lujan is wide and deep, and it
might be made a valuable adjunct to the port of Buenos Ayres, at present
suffering so much for want of accommodation. In my general report on the
railways this subject will be again alluded to.
RAILWAYS IN THE RIVER PLATE.
There are two classes of railways in the Argentine Confederation,
inaugurated by Provincial and the National Governments respectively. I
will begin with the Province of Buenos Ayres, as the railroad system has
there acquired the greatest development. The first line established was
the Western, which has now reached the town of Chivilcoy, a distance of
100 miles from the city, and it is proposed to effect a further
extension to the frontier fort of Melincue. I need not repeat here the
details already given in reference to this enterprise.
Next in importance comes the Great Southern Railway, seventy-one miles
in length, which was made by an English Company, under a Government
guarantee of 7 per cent. on £700,000, but the capital actually raised
was £750,000, the contractors taking £50,000 in unguaranteed stock on
certain conditions as to their participation in dividend. The
expenditure has been further increased to nearly £800,000, owing to
additional disbursements for goods stations and for increased rolling
stock. The line was opened throughout in Dec. 1865, and the traffic has
gone on steadily augmenting with improved receipts, the result of the
first year showing a net profit of nearly three per cent.; the second
year a fraction over five per cent.; and the present year promises fair
to reach the seven per cent. guaranteed by the Government, when it will
be self-sustaining and free of all the drawbacks necessarily incidental
to a condition of dependence on State aid. This enterprise has a
prosperous future before it. The great question which remains to be
decided has relation to an extension of the line further south, or in a
south-westerly direction, so as to intercept the large amount of traffic
which still comes forward by the ordinary bullock carts. One
disadvantage of the Southern Railway consists in its chief station at
the Plaza Constitucion being so far from the central points of the city,
which are only partially reached by a tramway, but this ought to be
extended, and even then it will be difficult to meet the requirements of
passenger traffic. The following particulars are taken from a private
letter sent home after a very pleasant trip over the line, accompanied
by the Local Committee and Manager:—