Richard Francis Burton

“ However good for navigation, a strong south-wester about Rozario makes the Parana very dangerous. The gale
FROM ROZARIO TO CORKIENTRS. 251
meeting at an angle the swift, deep current raises an angry sea ; at niglit the breeze bites, and the cold high wind makes the cloudy sky feel as if there were " snow in the air." And so there is, the snow of the distant Patagonian Andes to the south-west : the nearest place where that meteor can be seen is the Sierra de Cordoba, called the " Argentine Alps," and not " Alps" at all. ”

“ The citizens complain that Paraguayan tobacco and mate, the best of their kind, are no longer to be had.
Towards sunset we repair to the river side and watch the fishermen ; here they can always throw in a line and find it weighted with at least 2 lbs. After dinner we visit our " tertuliano," Dr. Charles F. Newkirk, who owns the only wooden chalet in Corrientes — without him the soiree would have been unpassable. A Canadian-born Briton, he had been fined for practising without licence ; now, however, he is en regie, and he makes money despite all the rival mata- sanos or carabins. ”

“ You run down the northern railway, twenty-one miles long, to the Tiger's foul stream, where certain wealthy citizens have built handsome country houses, and where dwarf docks, shipbuilding yards, a railway station, workhouses and offices are beginning to procreate a town. ”

“ The barranca or bluff-face is tunnelled by the parrot, and monte somewhat resembling our oak coppices clothes the sloping base that rests upon the wave. The left bank, low, flooded, and peculiarly dull- looking, is still Entre Rios, the Mesopotamia of Argentine- land.
The history and topography of Rozario have been so well and so frequently described, that I may without the imputation of idleness shirk the task. The main interest of the settlement is its prodigious growth. In 1850 it was a miserable hamlet of mud-huts sheltering 600 souls ”

“ It is in this region an indigenous species, and the people do not ferment it to chicha. Oranges, here valuable, because apparently the staple produce and export of the land, are plentiful, sweet, and good without a '^ hand's turn being done to them. The tree takes about eight years to grow, after which it is worth, now that everything is exceptionally expensive, one silver dollar per annum. The Paraguayans make orange wine, but it is too sweet and luscious for human nature's daily drink. And neither Correntinos nor Paraguayans have learned to preserve the fruit, which at once decays. ”

“ The land opposite La Paz will be laid out in colonies to connect with those of Santa Fe, on the very edge of the dangerous Chaco. Its nearest neighbour would be the Swiss colony La Esperanza, the most northerly of the three; the others being San Carlos and San Geronimo, echelonnes to the west. These agi'icolo- military colonies will be found most useful against the raids of Chaco Indians. All, I repeat, should be fighting men, and they should be assisted in extending the frontier and in freeing the land, without sentimentality, from the wolfish savages that infest it. ”

“ On a cliff projecting into the stream is the pretty quinta of Dr. Vidal, with its thatched roof, and white walls, and orange avenue leading to the door. Beyond it is the Brazilian military hospital, occupying the saladero formerly owned by Messrs. Stock and Hughes, of Buenos Aires. Turning the broken point, exposing a tanning establishment and a timber-yard, we pass towards the little bay fronting the north. The water is here forty- five fathoms deep, and
FROM ROZARIO TO CORRIENTES. 269
the anchor of our floating hotel is liable to drag. ”

“ All the ground described forms the Paraguayan position.
In April, 1865, the first Brazilian naval division steamed up towards Corrientes ; at that season the water was so low that an attack upon Paraguay was deemed impracticable. Admiral Tamandare was wasting his time at Buenos Aires and Montevideo, imitating the only part of Nelson's career which caused his friends to blush. The fleet was entrusted to the Commandante Gomensoro, and afterwards to Vice- Admiral Barroso, and it anchored almost in sight of Cor- rientes, and close to the Chaco or western bank of the river. ”

“ To call him a countryman of Hamlet would be grossly to insult him. It is remarkable that whereas in Europe most men born abroad — for instance, English boys in France, and vice versa — tenaciously cling to the nationality of their parents, the reverse is the case throughout the western hemisphere. I presume the reason is that to Youth a world with a Future is far more sympathetic than one with a Past. M. Prytz has been Brazilian Consul at Corrientes for the last three years ”

“ It is suggestive to see the mighty river so populous, thus illustrating what it will be two centuries hence, when the sounds of war shall have died away from its banks, and the sights from its memory. ”

“ We find in the choking nionte a luxuriance of castor-shrub ; a tangle of sarsa- parilla ; yellow dhatura with gigantic trumpets ; the cylin- drical cactus, here, as at Buenos Aires, a gnarled tree ; the monster aloes ; the tuna, and the edible tunita (the Mexican tenoch) , which awaits an improved breed of the indigenous cochineal. A few cotton plants linger about the bush. Messrs. Robertson found the Corrientes pro- vince well fitted for the shrub ; but the industry has never been exploited. ”

“ These gunboats often singly engaged the whole fleet. It is a feature of considerable naval interest, and well adapted to defend or to attack the inner water communications of a country like Paraguay. The Paraguayan fleet was placed upon command of Captain Mesa, with Captain Cabral as second. Consciousness of inferiority suggested to General Bruguez an accompaniment of flying batteries to ply along the beach below the barranca to the north of the Riachuelo, and boarding parties, consisting of 500 picked men, were sent on board the ships. ”

“ We therefore go well in, fronting the Custom House and arsenal, the Colegio, or Government House, the tall towered Cabildo, and other big buildings that emerge from a mass of vile huts parted by foul streets, and nestling under glorious trees, palms and oranges. The general appearance is more like a Hindu town, say Calicut, than a Christian city.
On my return I spent a week with a couple of ac- quaintances at Corrientes, and perhaps you will like to hear something of life in a country capital of an Argentine Province. ”

“ After heavy rains some thorough- fares are cascades and others are pools : both gradually pass from a stifi" \dscid mud to a state of ^' hardbake,^' and lastly to a mobile black dust, which dirties the hands like the atmosphere of a railway. Carts cannot progress with- out the tallest of wheels, and three horses in a kind of unicorn. There is no gas above Rozario, nor are the streets bombees. As in the older French towns, they de- cline towards a central gutter, and only the happy water- slope of the town prevents the horrors of Lima and Mexico. ”

“ The principal divisions known are the Nationals, who look to consolidation and a capital at Buenos Aires ; the Provincials, or pure localists, who desire conciliation and a district Columbia ; and the Federals, or Rosas men, malcontents opposed to the two others, and agreeing with the Blancos of Monte Video. The old feud between pastoral province and city is well nigh extinct. President Sarmiento has well de- scribed it in his " Civilization and Barbarism," and has illustrated it by an admirable sketch of the " gaucho malo," General D. Juan Eacundo Quiroga. ”

“ Six leagues above Goya, near a long point, the Rincon de Soto, also called de los Sotos (of the Fools) , is the large Saladero, formerly belonging to Mr. Samuel Lafone, of Montevideo, and afterwards to a Buenos Aires Company. We know it by its tall chimneys ; the better houses are whitewashed, the huts are of wattle and dab with dull sloping thatches, and the place of business has a zinc roof. ”

“ It is mortifying to find how ungenial and even ofi*ensive, after the perfect courtesy of Argentine and Brazilian, are not a few of one^s countrymen. Perhaps it is often merely the roughness of ignorance that never saw society beyond shop or engine-house, but common sense should teach a man how to receive a visit without, for instance, turning the visitor from his door. The only exception to the rule of Central Argentine Railway incivility was Mr. Woods, Chief "Resident Engineer. ”

“ Over the lines of riverine trees we see the hamlet, a streak of white houses crowning the ridge, and sprinkled over the hill side amidst clumps of tropical forest and black blocks of orange trees, dotted like a tall tea plantation. This " Norfolk Island of Corrientes'^ began its career in 1826 as a settlement of convicts, sent by General Ferre. Here the Brazilian fleet running down the river suffered severely from the flying batteries of the Paraguayan General Bruguez ”

“ The extraneous matter is brought down from the upper stream, and forms many a " bank of patience.^^ These features will become very common above Bella Vista.
The Bajada, or landing-place of Parana city, is the usual gap in the tall cliff fronting a willow- grown islet, off which the current is at times a four-knot. The bush-crowned barranca shows lines of semi-fossilized strata, not the muddy alluvium of Pampasia. Near the water calcareous marls and clays alternate with hard shell-limestone, and higher up the cliff-face are two " calheiras^' — holes which supply white nodular calcaire. ”

“ All the montures are poor and many are hammer-headed — the horsemanship is better than the horse. The felt or straw head-covering alone distinguishes these people from the wild Indians of the Gran Chaco, who are paddled over every morning by their squaws in canoes, which they easily manage despite the current. ”

“ I. The City of Rozario is declared Capital of the Republic, comprising the territory between the Arroyos Saladillo and Luduena, on the River Parana, with a league of inland depth.
"Art. 2. All public properties and establishments within the federalized territory become national property.
" Art. 3. The Executive shall have two years to prepare the necessary buildings for the national authorities, the latter meanwhile residing in the City of Buenos Aires. ”

“ The hacienda (in Bolivia hata, and in the Brazil fazenda) is an estate for cattle breeding and grazing exclusively, unless otherwise specified, as hacienda detrigo (wheat) , de mineral or de bemficio (mining) . The quinta is a suburban villa, a small farm, or a country house. The chacra is a grain or vegetable-growing farm. ”

“ After their victory at Riachuelo (June 11, 1865) the Brazilian squadron again proceeded up stream and attempted to pass Corrientes, then in the hands of the enemy. General Bruguez, the Paraguayan leader, made the usual plan to capture or destroy it. Marching suddenly from Bella Vista with several thousand men and guns, variously stated to be thirty-five or fifty, he commanded the enemy's fleet off* Bella Vista. The invader ran the gauntlet about six miles down stream, when Bruguez, by another forced march, again placed his flying batteries on the lower river. ”