_E n& raved fy S,> An Sartor Phil 
 
LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE 
 
 REPUBLIC IN THE DAYS OF 
 
 THE TYRANTS; 
 
 OR, 
 
 CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM. 
 
 FROM THE SPANISH OF 
 
 DOMINGO F. SARMIENTO, LL.D., 
 
 MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY FROM THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC TO THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OE THE AUTHOE, 
 BY MRS. HORACE MANN. 
 
 First American from the third Spanish Edition. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 PUBLISHED BY KURD AND HOUGHTON. 
 
 1868. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by 
 
 MART MANN, 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. 
 
S3/ 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 SINCE the translation of this work by Colonel Sar- 
 miento was begun, the tide of events has carried its 
 author to the proudest position before his country 
 which any man since San Martin, the hero of its 
 independence and of the independence of some of its 
 sister Republics, has ever occupied. It is true that cir- 
 cumstances of even a trivial nature, and still more fre- 
 quently of a corrupt nature, often bring a man to the 
 chieftainship of his country, whether the office is elec- 
 tive or otherwise ; but in this instance such circum- 
 stances have been singularly wanting. Colonel Sarmif 
 ento, after an absence of seven years from his coun-^ 
 try, without any political party, without any pledges of 
 policy given or required, without any of the machinery 
 that is generally used to set in motion such important 
 measures, has by an almost unanimous movement been 
 made the candidate par excellence for the Presidency! 
 of the Argentine Republic, and the returns are already 
 
 99*7 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 known from the province of Buenos Ayres, which 
 contains one third of the population of the whole 
 Republic, and is by far the wealthiest, most cultivated, 1 
 and most influential part of it. In this province his 
 election has been complete and unanimous, and the A 
 voice of many other provinces has long been heard 
 through their daily organs, so that doubtless before 
 these pages see the light, the favorable result will be 
 confirmed. Colonel Sarmiento has resisted all the 
 entreaties of his friends to return to his country to aid . 
 the interests of his election. He has chosen to wait 
 until elected by the unbiassed will of his countrymen, 
 and for wise as well as self-respecting reasons. All 
 who have followed the golden thread of his life through ' 
 the chaotic changes that have harassed the life of the 
 Republic, so determined to be free and progressive, in 
 spite of all the temporary reactions of the barbaric 
 element which has its seat in the peculiar composition 
 of its society, feel with him that it is only by apprecia- 
 tion of his motives, sympathy with his aims,' and confi- 
 dence in his ability to save them from the present 
 threatened anarchy, that he can have any assurance 
 of doing good from the high position now assigned 
 him. He has never flattered his countrymen ; he has 
 always recognized the barbarian tendencies which have 
 so often overpowered the equally persistent but vitally * 
 permanent influences of civilization, and he has been 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 equally assiduous in his endeavors to arouse them from 
 the apathy inherent, as it were, in a Spanish and at 
 the same time priest-ridden community ; but even 
 Cordova, the " city of priests," anchored in conserva- 
 tism by the very character of its extraordinary univer- 
 sity culture, looks to him now as the only salvation for 
 the nation. 
 
 Although a man of decided military ability, as has 
 been proved at various times when patriotism has called 
 him into the field, Colonel Sarmiento is eminently a 
 man of peace, and during a long exile of twenty years, 
 as well as in his subsequent brilliant career as Chief of 
 the Department of Schools, Senator, Minister of State, 
 and Governor of his native province, in his diplomatic 
 missions to Chili, Peru, and the United States, has had 
 but one watchword : " The Education of the People." 
 To his countrymen he is the very ideal type of the 
 SCHOOLMASTER, which he has eVer considered his 
 proudest title. 
 
 By persistently keeping this idea uppermost, and op- 
 posing it to all the adverse tendencies of -a community 
 that could make money enough without it, and con- 
 stantly predicting the disasters that would from time to 
 time overwhelm it if this element' of freedom were not 
 cherished as the very ark of its liberties, he 1 made an 
 impression which in the hour of peril ripened quickly 
 into a conviction, and to use an oft-repeated expression 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 of the daily journals of the present period in South 
 America, " his name surged spontaneously from the 
 lips of his countrymen, and was shouted across the 
 Cordilleras and the pampas from either border, from 
 the eastern provinces intelligently, from the western 
 as a cry of hope born of despair and terror, and from 
 the interior where his 'beneficent labors have already 
 borne fruit and given birth to unlimited hopes of the 
 future." It is characteristic of that imaginative and 
 
 poetical people to be powerfully swayed by a daring 
 
 ( 
 
 spirit, and a man must have self-reliance to kindle 
 them. Colonel Sarmiento's self-reliance is founded in 
 the nature of the principles he advocates ; and his per- 
 sonal courage in opposing every form of tyranny and 
 barbarism, united with a self-respect which has pre- 
 vented him from ever asking for an office or a public 
 favor, now commands an appreciation which perhaps 
 his countrymen would be incapable of rendering under 
 a less powerful intellectual stimulus than that given by 
 their present danger. 
 
 The stucjy of education also led him to the study of 
 legislation at home and abroad, and in those -two paths 
 he has been of incalculable benefit to his country, not 
 only convincing its most advanced men that public 
 education is the only basis of a republic, but aiding 
 them essentially in modeling their government upon 
 that of the United States, which is their prototype, and 
 
PREFACE. vii 
 
 to which they now look, rather than to Europe, for 
 light and knowledge. 
 
 Colonel Sarmiento, in this work offered to the 
 English and American public, gives no intimation of 
 his personal relations with the tyrants, but as his whole 
 life and much of the life of the Republic is connected 
 with these relations, it is proposed to give a short ac- 
 count of its many " dramatic situations," incurred, by 
 his love and utterance of truth. These will be better 
 understood after than before the perusal of the main 
 work. A complete life of Colonel Sarmiento,- with all 
 its interesting romantic and historical episodes, would 
 fill two such volumes, but it is hoped that enough has 
 been left untouched by the iron rules of publication to 
 make him known, and to show that his present un- 
 sought triumph is one that a truly great man may be 
 proud of. Constantly, from his earliest entrance into 
 life, sacrificing all personal considerations, rather than 
 swerve one io*ta from his principles, or deny himself the 
 frank utterance of his convictions, he has proved con- 
 clusively to those who 'have studied his career, that, 
 he is incapable of any mere personal ambition, though 
 no one appreciates better the sympathy of his fellow- 
 men. 
 
 It is the cultivated cities of the Argentine Republic, 
 where Europeans find themselves at home in all that 
 constitutes civilized society, and where the high culture 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 of_th_fe.JSLis painfully contrasted with the utter want 4 
 of it in the body of the people, that constitute its 
 difference from the other South American Republics, 
 Chili^ jexceptfid^^in which certain influences have 
 brought about certain elements of progress, Colonel 
 Sarmiento being the chief of these favorable influences. 
 If the chances of elections, or in this case rather the 
 brute prowess of the reactionary chieftains, has defeated 
 his election (which took place on the 12th of April), 
 he will return to his country and take his seat in the 
 Senate, to which he has of late been again chosen. 
 He hopes by his influence in either position to increase 
 the importance of his country's relations with the * 
 United States, whose great ideas he wishes to see 
 planted in that hemisphere. The sources of informa- "* 
 tion from which the details of his life have been gath* 
 ered, are two or three small biographies, written in 
 Chili, Peru, and Geneva ; a short memoir in Rhode 
 Island, the public documents of the Argentine Repub- 
 lic, the " Journal of the Sessions of the Legislature," 
 the " Journal of the Constitutional Convention," and 
 many periodical works, all containing remarkable 
 speeches upon various subjects. The reports of the 
 Chilian government on " Popular Education " may be 
 added to these, and a little book entitled " Recollec- 
 tions of a Province," which is partly an autobiography 
 written in 1850, while still in exile, under peculiar 
 
PREFACE. 1*X 
 
 circumstances best described in his own preface to it. 
 |J T shall give as copious extracts from this little book as 
 my space will allow, for it is impossible, as I have 
 proved by repeated efforts, to convey the same im- 
 pression by any method of condensation within the 
 reach of a compiler, which is the only character in 
 which I have the presumption to call myself Colonel 
 Sarmiento's biographer, a task which even his coun- 
 trymen are too modest to assume at this moment of so 
 much importance to their interests. My own interest 
 in the subject has risen both from a personal one that 
 grew out of his peculiar relations with my husband, 
 in whose name Colonel Sarmiento introduced the boon 
 of Common School Education into Chili and the Argen- 
 tine Republic, making the name of Horace Mann a 
 household word with all whom he imbued with his 
 own views upon that sujbject, and from a deep inter- 
 est in the nation whose highest aspirations rather than 
 whose actual condition he represents. I wish the.re- 
 fore to place before the public, the series of pictures 
 that give it a marked individuality, and that have in* 
 the course of a few years made" me cognizant of its 
 history, so obscured to the general eye by the repeated 
 reactions it has suffered since the days of its hardly- 
 won independence. 
 
 The work called originally " Civilization and Bar- 
 barism," but in the American translation entitled 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 " Life in the Argentine Republic," was written in 
 Chili, during the author's exile, in order to make 
 known there the policy of Rosas. It found its way to 
 France, and was so favorably received in the " Revue 
 des deux Mondes," that the influence reacted upon his 
 own country, as well as gave to European publicists 
 an explanation of the struggle in the Argentine Re- 
 public. A work called " Rosas and the Questions of 
 the La Plata," and many other European publications, 
 were based upon its data and its standpoint. Rosas 
 felt that it gave a mortal blow to his policy, yet during 
 five years of anathemas hurled at the author by the 
 ".Gaceta Mercantil," which was his organ, the- book 
 was not named. All the author's books were pro- 
 scribed, but the name of this one carefully suppressed, 
 yet no book was more sought or more read in the Re- 
 public. It was handed about secretly, hidden away in 
 drawers, and read at every man's peril. 
 
 The " Revue des deux Mondes " says of it : " During 
 his residence in Santiago, which preceded his travels in 
 Europe, Senor Sarmiento published this work full of 
 attraction and novelty, instructive as history, interest- 
 ing as a romance, brilliant with imagery and coloring. 
 ' Civilization and Barbarism ' is not only one of those 
 rare testimonials which come to us of the intellectual 
 life of South America, but it is an invaluable docu- 
 ment. Doubtless passion dictated many of its vigor- 
 
PREFACE. . x i 
 
 ous pages, but even when exalted by passion, there, 
 is internal evidence of a fund of impartiality which 
 cannot fail to be recognized, and by whose light true 
 characteristics are given to persons, and a natural 
 coloring to events. . . . It is no less interesting 
 to analyze South % than North America. This can only 
 be done by the philosopher, the traveller, the poet, the 
 historian, the painter of manners and customs, the pub- 
 licist. Senor Sarmiento has succeeded in realizing this 
 object in this work, which he has published in Chili, 
 and which proves that* if civilization has enemies in 
 those regions it also has eloquent champions." 
 
 This work and other productions of his pen, secured 
 to Senor Sarmiento in Europe, which he subsequently 
 visited, the acquaintance of many prominent men : M., 
 Guizot, M. Thiers, Cobden, then ambassador in Spain, 
 Alexander Dumas, Gil de Zarate, Breton de los Her- 
 reros, Ventina de la Vega, Aribou, and other literary 
 Spaniards ; Baron Humboldt, and many others. Pope 
 Pius IX., then in the meridian of his glory, sent for 
 him as cousin of the Bishops Cuyo, Oro, and Sarmi- 
 ento, whom he had known in South America. All 
 institutions of education were thrown open to his study 
 in the portions of Europe which he visited, and to .so 
 well-prepared a mind, everything was full of signifi- 
 cance, even failures, both educational and political. 
 Dr. Wappaus; Professor of Geography and Statistics in 
 
xii PREFACE. 
 
 the University of Gottingen, afterwards translated and 
 published in German Senor Sarmiento's " Memoir 
 upon German Emigration to the La Plata," and ac- 
 companied it with one hundred and sixty-nine pages of 
 notes and comments of his own. 
 
 When R. W. Emerson read the book, he told 
 Colonel Sarmiento that if he would write thus for our 
 public, he would be read ; and Mr. Longfellow sug- 
 gested writing a romantic poem called the " Red 
 Ribbon," which might be made as striking though it 
 is to be hoped an even more exceptional picture of the 
 peculiar customs of the country than the native poet 
 Echevarria's " Captive," so descriptive of gaucho life. 
 
 Buenos Ayres was founded in 1535, by Don Pedro 
 Mendoza, and in 1536 Don Juan de Aloyas, the lieu- 
 tenant of Mendoza, ascended the Parana and the 
 Paraguay, which Sebastian Cabot had visited in 1530, 
 and founded the city of Asonoption in memory of a 
 victory gained over the Indians. This city, now the 
 capital of Paraguay, was then the capital of the Span- 
 ish possessions in La Plata. In 1537, while Mendoza 
 was absent in Spain, Buenos Ayres was reduced to 
 the last extremity by the Querandi Indians. The 
 Timbues (Indians) destroyed it entirely in 1539. It 
 was rehabilitated in J542, again destroyed in 1559. 
 ~ In 1580, Juan de Garay, lieutenant of the Governor 
 
PREFACE. xiii 
 
 of Paraguay, descended the river from Asomption, 
 and on the llth of June planted the Spanish flag on 
 the old site. He endeavored to people this city with 
 Gruarani Indians, massacred the Querandis who had 
 revolted against him, and died in 1584. Don Francisco 
 de Zarate, chevalier of the Order of Santiago, and 
 governor of Buenos Ayres, confirmed the foundation 
 of the city by an act of the 10th of February, 1594, 
 and began to construct the fortifications which are now 
 seen on the bank of the river. In 1620, the govern- 
 ment of Asomption was reduced in Paraguay^ and 
 Buenos Ayres became the chief city of the second 
 government established in La Plata. In 1629, a 
 royal decree united into a single viceroyalty the 
 hitherto separate governments of Buenos Ayres, of 
 Asomption, and the provinces of Charcas, Potosi, and 
 Cochabamba. In 1640, the Portuguese carried their 
 arms into the La Plata, but after many contests, 
 stretching over many years, a treaty was made in 
 1785, by which the domain came into the possession 
 of Spain definitively. 
 
 Until the eighteenth century there ^was but one 
 viceroyalty in South America, that of Peru, which 
 extended from the western to the eastern shore, but 
 on account of the inconveniences of so large v a ter- 
 ritory, Spain created another in New Grenada in 
 1718, a capi.tancy in Caraccas in 1734, another in 
 
xiv PREFACE. 
 
 Chili at the same time, and the viceroyalty of Buenos 
 Ayres, including the provinces of Upper Peru. 
 
 The viceroy was the representative of the King 
 and his court, and he maintained the pomp and luxury 
 of the court of Madrid. The viceroyalty united the 
 civil and military power with no other counterpoise 
 than the distant dependency of the Council of the 
 Indies, and the near but indirect inspection of the 
 audiencia, a court of appeal for all cases not exceed- 
 ing 10,000 dollars in gold. The viceroy was ex 
 officio its president. His sanction, assisted by an as- 
 sessor, was necessary to promulgate any sentence. 
 
 The salary of the viceroyalty, GQjfiQQ dollars in 
 gold in Mexico and Peru, and 40,000 in Buenos 
 Ayres and New Grenada, sufficed to sustain the li^x- 
 ury prescribed by the royal ordinances. It generally 
 lasted five years, and was then obliged to render an 
 account of its administration, and the viceroy pre- 
 sented himself in person to answer to any charges 
 made against him. Other high functionaries were 
 obliged to do the same. The members of the audi- 
 encia were not paid ; they must be natives of Spain, 
 and could not form marriage ties in South America ; 
 they were even recommended not to contract intimate 
 social relations with the residents of the country ; but 
 an exception was made in favor of Creoles. The 
 officials of this body were a regent, three auditors, 
 
PREFACE. XV 
 
 and two fiscals, and they took command of everything 
 but of declaring war. 
 
 The functions of subdelegates (corregidores) were 
 the same as in the peninsula. The institution of 
 municipalities was the best guarantee against abuses, 
 and these are still existent and of great import. 
 Although the individuals of these corporations wre 
 not elected popularly, they were considered by the 
 people as their own representatives. 
 
 The ecclesiastical hierarchy formed another part of 
 the colonial system. Ten viceroys in succession occu- 
 pied Buenos Ayres from 1777 to 1806. The Marquis 
 of Sobremonte was the King's representative in 1806, 
 when the English invaded La Plata. . The viceroy 
 abandoned the capital on the 27th of June that year, 
 leaving it to the occupation of General Beresford, and 
 fled to Cordova, where he obliged the people to re- 
 ceive him with all the pomp due to his rank. The 
 Governor of Montevideo, Ruiz Huidobro, and the 
 cabildo * and population of that city, prepared to re- 
 conquer Buenos Ayres. While the expedition was in 
 
 1 The cabildo was a popular assembly with officials answering to 
 mayors and aldermen ; their attributes and prerogatives were very great, 
 especially after the downfall of the viceroyalty. This form of govern- 
 ment was originally taken from the peninsular government, with the idea 
 of opposing a barrier to the exactions of the territorial lords. Rivadavia, 
 when President in 1825, suppressed this body and substituted for it the 
 municipality which still exists. 
 
XVI PREFACE. 
 
 preparation, Santiago Liniers, captain of a vessel, a 
 Frenchman in the employ of Spain, arrived at Monte- 
 video with the same purpose. The forces were con- 
 fided to his command, and he retook Buenos Ayres on 
 the 14th pf August. The next day the principal 
 inhabitants formed themselves into a junta which 
 invested Liniers with the command, and created civic 
 forces to defend the territory which was threatened 
 with a new invasion. Sobremonte was obliged to 
 bend before the will of the people. He confirmed 
 Liniers in the military command, delegated his politi- 
 cal and administrative powers to 4 the audiencia, and 
 retired to Montevideo. 
 
 In 1807, Sir Samuel Auchmuchty with five thou- 
 sand English soldiers, took Montevideo by assault. 
 The cabildo and the civic corps demanded the im- 
 prisonment of Sobremonte, and the audiencia, after 
 resisting for a time, yielded to the will of the people, 
 and took part in a second junta which decreed the 
 arrest of the viceroy and the seizure of his papers. 
 
 Another English force under General Whitlocke, 
 laid siege to Buenos Ayres, but was beaten in the 
 streets of the city on the 3d of July, capitulated, and 
 was obliged to evacuate the whole territory of La 
 Plata. The court of Spain confirmed Liniers in the , 
 post of viceroy, and nominated Don Francesco Javier 
 Elio governor per interim of Montevideo. 
 
PREFACE. xvji 
 
 But from the time Sobromente was deposed, the 
 prestige of the viceroyalty was lost, never to be 
 restored. At this period arose two rival parties, the 
 European and the American. Ferdinand VII. was 
 at that time dethroned ; and this trouble in Spain, 
 added to the ideas suggested by the French revolution, 
 increased the difficulties in South America. The 1st of 
 January, 1809, a conspiracy, supported by the Euro- 
 peans, presented themselves in the public square of 
 Buenos Ayres, and demanded the deposition of the 
 viceroy and the establishment of a governmental junta 
 for the whole viceroyalty. This met with opposition, 
 of course, but the idea of independence had taken 
 possession of the people, and the result was that a 
 junta was formed, and three persons were put in 
 power. After the fall of this junta, and the establish- 
 ment of other similar ones, the government was placed 
 in 1814, in the hands of a single person, called. Su- 
 preme Director of the United Provinces of the La 
 Plata. From the beginning of this supreme directory, 
 especially after the return of Ferdinand VII. to the 
 throne, there was supposed to be a strong tendency in 
 Buenos Ayres towards submitting to the royal author- 
 ity. But if this desire had existed in any force among 
 those who directed affairs, or guided public opinion, no 
 opportunity or pretext could have offered more favor- 
 able to it than the incessant solicitations and proposi- 
 
xviii PREFACE. 
 
 tions of the Princess Carlota, who asked to reign 
 there independently, but which in effect were always 
 utterly powerless in Buenos Ayres. General Alvear, 
 appointed Director in 1815, had already made sub- 
 mission to the King, but this reaction caused a revolu- 
 tion in April, at the head of which stood the cabildo. 
 fn& assembly was dissolved, and the Director dis- 
 placeol and exiled. On the 24th of March, 1816, a 
 general congress opened its sessfons at Tucuman. It 
 declared the independence of the provinces on the 9th 
 of July, since observed in the Republic as the 4th of 
 July in North America, and Don Juan Martin Puyrre- 
 don was appointed Director. He assumed the power 
 on the 29th of July. Three years after, General 
 Jlondeau was appointed Director in Puyrredon's 
 place. 1 
 
 i When Colonel Sarmiento was in France, in 1867, at the awarding of 
 prizes in the Exposition, the Argentine Minister to France, who is the 
 son-in-law of General San Martin, the most remarkable Argentine hero 
 of independence, gave an official banquet to the legation, on which occa- 
 sion Colonel Sarmiento had the pleasure of relating an historic fact, until 
 then unknown, namely : that General San Martin, by his counsels to the 
 Congress of Tucuman in 1816, at which time Independence was declared, 
 was the moving spirit of that act of the Congress, for which the Deputies 
 were not at that time prepared. To Colonel Sarmiento, also, the public is 
 indebted for the details of the famous interview between San Martin and 
 Bolivar in Guayaquil, which resulted in San Martin's noble self-abnega- 
 tion and renunciation, not only of his place in the activity of that period, 
 but in the lifelong misunderstanding of his contemporaries, all of which 
 Colonel Sarmiento took from the lips of the grand old man when he 
 
PREFACE. xix 
 
 In the mean time, the province of Montevideo had 
 rebelled, and the place had been ta^en by General 
 Alvear on the 23d of June, 1814. General Artigas, 
 one of the country commandants, who cooperated in 
 the siege, had early given tokens of insubordination, 
 and General Alvear undertook to pursue him with the, 
 forces that had occupied Montevideo. Master of the 
 Banda Oriental, and of all its resources, Artigafc dis- 
 played his resentment towards Buenos Ayres. He 
 not only took the Oriental province from the Argen- 
 tine community, but his personal influence and that of- 
 his system, extended over Corrientes, Entrerios, Santa;' 
 Fe*, and Cordova. No treaties were accepted by 
 ' either side. One of the effects of his influence was 
 the invasion of the province of Buenos Ayres by the 
 troops of Santa F6 and Entrerios, and in February 
 1820, the Director Rondeau was beaten at La Canada 
 de Cepeda. The conquerors entered Buenos Ayres 
 with their troops, dissolved the Congress and the Di- 
 rectory, and reduced its power to Buenos Ayres alone. 
 Some authors, in speaking of the revolution of 1810, 
 have attributed to the landed proprietors considered as 
 a class, an influence, an ambition, and political views 
 which never had an existence. They declared them- 
 
 visited him in his self-imposed exile at Grandbourg in France, in 1846. 
 Party passions had obscured the subject till that revelation was made 
 from so authentic a source. 
 
xx PREFACE. 
 
 selves for their country, as many other classes did, 
 purely from a sentiment of patriotism, and nothing 
 more. During the first ten years of the revolution, 
 when the existence of the Federal and Unitario par- 
 * ties was an old story, the rural districts of most of 
 the provinces, and that of Buenos Ayres particularly, 
 'were indifferent and even strangers to those questions 
 and those parties. That multitude of changes in the 
 -government which Jook place in the cities in favor of 
 one or the other party, were of no importance or 
 interest in the campagna. It was not till 1815 that it 
 was called upon to give its opinion, conjointly with 
 that of the city, not only upon the validity of a gov- 
 ernment, but even upon the proposed reform of a 
 provisory State, which was never realized. The rural 
 districts never made a movement which revealed ^ 
 political ideaj and they never misunderstood^ any gov- 
 ernment. It is true that the gauchos, a peculiar race 
 of men that is seen in the pampas, and holds a middle 
 place between the European and the aboriginal inhab- 
 itant, followed certain partisans of that epoch, but it 
 was because those partisans were the immediate au- 
 thority which they recognized ; they followed them 
 from personal affection and from the habit of obe- 
 dience, but from no political conviction, nor from any 
 desire to make any system prevail for their interest as 
 a class. The chieftainship (caudillage) did not ap- 
 
PREFACE. XXI 
 
 pear till 1829. The rural districts, passively obedient, 
 knew neither " Unitarian ism " nor " Federalism." If 
 the Congress of 1826 had proclaimed a federation, the 
 chiefs that then represented the federation would ha.ve 
 cried unity ; the opposition was against men, not 
 against things, which were but a pretext. 
 
 In 1820, in the absence of the Governor of the 
 Province, Don Manuel Dorrego, who had offended and 
 gone to fight the Governor of Sante Fe, Don Martin 
 Rodriguez was put in his place. The cabildo pro- 
 tested against this ; the city was thrown into agita- 
 tion, and Rodriguez had to flee to the country. He 
 -returned to the city with Juan Manuel Rosas, com- 
 mander of the militia or country forces, called the 
 Colorados (or red soldiers) of La Conchas a man of 
 a Buenos Ayres family, but who, rejecting education, 
 had gone into the country to enjoy more license for his 
 vices than the customs of the city would allow. By 
 the help of Rosas, Rodriguez was reestablished. Hap- 
 pily, Rodriguez chose Rivadavia for his prime minis- 
 ter, and the country appeared to breathe a free br&ath 
 under the wise and enlightened administration of this 
 truly great man. 
 
 When the Revolution of Independence began, the 
 grand fractions of the viceroyalty, now its separate 
 States, proposed to separate and form private govern- 
 ments. When the struggle with Spain ended, this was 
 
xxii PREFACE. 
 
 effected. Rivadavia, who was the chief of the Uni- 
 tarios, began by introducing into Buenos Ayres the 
 complete system of a Republic for this province alone, 
 with legislature, government, revenues, etc., like the 
 North American States, and advised the other prov- 
 inces to do the same, each for itself. This was Uni- 
 tarianism. The foundations of federal system were 
 thus unconsciously laid by the Unitarios themselves, 
 though at that time they opposed federation. What 
 Rivadavia wished at that moment was to give to the 
 actual governments regular form ; but he, San Martin 
 and Bolivar, had the same horror of the idea of federa- 
 tion that the French had in the time of the Girondines. 
 Rodriguez was succeeded in 1824 by General Don 
 Juan Gregorio las Heras. Under his administration a 
 general Congress was convoked, which created a gen- 
 eral government under a President, independent of the 
 government of Buenos Ayres. The seat of both the 
 provincial and general governments was the city of 
 Buenos Ayres, and grave inconveniences were the 
 consequence. The provincial government and its rep- 
 resentatives were dissolved, and Rivadavia was made 
 ..President-General on the 8th of February, 1826. He 
 kept that office but one year. The opposition to him 
 * in Congress was in the majority, and he resigned. Dr. 
 Dt>n, Vicente Lopez was put in his place. When Con- 
 gress dissolved, the representatives, the majority of 
 
PREFACE. xxiii 
 
 whom were Federals, nominated Don Manuel Dorrego, 
 who began to rule in August, 1827. He was driven out 
 by Juan Lavalle in December of this year. Dorrego 
 fled to the country, but was beaten and shot by La- 
 valle. Rosas, partisan of Dorrego, fled to Santa F, 
 from whence he returned with Lopez, jts governor. 
 Lavalle was beaten by Lopez^ at the^Puente del Mar- 
 ques, in 1828. Don J. Jose* Viemont was appointed 
 Governor, and in 1829 was succeeded by Rosas. The 
 Unitari9 forces, who, with their leaders, had emigrated 
 from Buenos Ayres, occupied the Province of Cor- 
 doba, under the orders of General Paz, who was 
 caught by a lasso at the head of his army, and thus 
 made prisoner. Facundo Quiroga triumphed over 
 Castillo, another Unitario chief, and this was the Occa- 
 sion of his appearing on the general scene of ^action. 
 He was the most celebrated of all those chiefs, repre- 
 senting no party, but a gaucho of gauchos ; his char- 
 acteristics brought him an influence, baleful though it 
 was, which made him aspire to the first place in the 
 Republic. Rosas, whose most distinguishing traits 
 were his atrocious cruelty and malice, was jealous of 
 him, and caused his assassination at Barranca-yaco. 
 All the accomplices of the crime were subsequently ar- 
 rested and executed. Lopez died soon after under cir- 
 cumstances that pointed almost unmistakably to poison. 
 Cullen, Governor of Santa Fe*, who had bathed his 
 
XXIV PREFACE. 
 
 hands in the conspiracy against Quiroga, and who had 
 letters in his possession that would have compromised 
 Rosas, was shot by Rosas' order at the Arroyo del 
 Medio, a little river between the Provinces of Buenos 
 Ayres and Santa Fe, to which place he was trans- 
 ported for that purpose. The character of Rosas was 
 as stupidly misunderstood abroad, at the time of his 
 supremacy, as that of Lopez of Paraguay at the pres- 
 ent time. Wheg. he was appointed Governor by the 
 Congress, he was crowned by the women ; the city 
 x was illuminated, bands of music paraded, the people 
 were in a state of exultation, and the universal cry 
 was " Death to the Unitarios ! " On the 18th day 
 of the same month the House of Representatives, " in 
 order to reward the worthy citizen, Don Juan Manuel 
 Rosas, and his country companions, for having stifled 
 the scandalous military insurrection of the lst_of De- 
 cember, 1828," voted for a law declaring all publica- 
 tions printed since the 1st of December, 1828, against 
 the former governor, Dorrego, or Colonel Rosas, or 
 'the provincial governors and respectable patriots who 
 had served the cause of order, to be infamous libels, 
 and ^graceful to public morals and honor. It also 
 declared him " the restorer of the laws and insti- 
 tutions of the Province of Buenos Ayres. The 
 rank of Brigadier-General of this province shall be 
 given him, and the legislature charges itself with 
 
PREFACE. - XXV . 
 
 making him known in this character throughout ^he 
 Republic. He shall be decorated with a sword and a 
 golden medal ornamented with the symbols of law, 
 justice, and courage ; the medal shall be garnished 
 
 N 
 
 with brilliants on one side, and shall have a crown of 
 laurels and an olive branch as an emblem of gratitude, 
 with these words : Buenos Ayres to the Restorer of the 
 Laws. The reverse shall have his bust in cement, with . 
 utensils of agriculture and trophies of war, and the 
 device : He cultivated his fields and defended his coun- 
 try." 
 
 But their hopes were sadly disappointed. For more 
 than twenty years he held them in abject terror, such 
 as Colonel Sarmiento has described. The rigor of his 
 rule deceived the world, which gives the meed to'suc- 
 cess rather than to merit. When Celonel Sarmiento 
 visited the United States in 1847, and saw the work-' 
 ing of federal institutions, his views of government 
 underwent a great change. He had been a Unitario 
 from education, and antagonism of ideas to Rosas 'and 
 the caudilloS) or country chiefs, and 'from 1827 had 
 taken arms against the Federal party, which was iden- 
 tified with them. Forty years of separation of the 
 provinces, during which each had had its own govern- 
 ment, had broken every national tie, and they could 
 not easily unite under a federal government, such as ^ t 
 the caudillos had proposed in opposition to Rivadavia. 
 
- XXVI * PREFACE. 
 
 * Rosas had continued to triumph over all the forces 
 "which the Republic had united to free itself from his 
 
 "horrible tyranny, and the Unitario chiefs and emigrants 
 . were driven into Montevideo, where Rosas besieged 
 them*. In 1848, while still in Chili, Colonel Sarmiento 
 i established a periodical called " The Cronica," and ad- 
 ; vocated a federal government, like that of the United 
 , Stales, as the only means of continuing the Republic. 
 In this manner he could attract the provinces to 
 their party, accepting the federation, which existed, in 
 fact. After he had established that semi-annual peri- 
 odical, he founded another weekly one, called " Sud 
 Amercia," which lasted till 1850, in which he unfolded 
 the constituent principles of federation, and promoted 
 the free navigation of the rivers in order to give sea- 
 ports to the provinces. Another object of it was to 
 encourage emigration. His .endeavors were crowned 
 with the most complete success. In 1850, he wrote a 
 - pamphlet proposing a Congress, and preparing the way 
 to fp^m a union and alliance of the Unitario chiefs and 
 the Federal caudillos. This pamphlet was called " Ar- 
 , giropolis," and his plan was to found another capital 
 in the island of Martin Crarcia. This pamphlet was 
 very effective, and ruined Rosas among his own sup- 
 porters. Bompland, the celebrated naturalist, the com- 
 panion of Humboldt, presented himself before Urquiza, 
 the principal chieftain under Rosas, and refused o'bedi- 
 
PREFACE. XXVn 
 
 ence to the latter, and proposed a federaL constitution 
 and the alliance of the Unitarios, who had collected for 
 mutual defense at Montevideo. This plan was ac- 
 cepted. Colonel Sarmiento, the present President 
 Mitre*, and General Paunero, now candidate for the 
 Vice-Presidency, left Chili 'and went to Buenos Ayres, 
 round Cape Horn, to join Urquiza. They conquered 
 Rosas at Caseros. Thus the Unitarian party itself 
 agreed to give the country a federal constitution. 
 Colonel Sarmiento began the movement alone, but 
 was finally joined by his friends. But General Ur- 
 quiza proved incapable, through his ignorance and his 
 gaucho habits, of comprehending the significance of 
 the thing he had done himself, and endeavored to con- 
 tinue the old arbitrary rule. The biographical sketch 
 in this volume recounts the self-banishment of Colonel 
 Sarmiento at this time, and his subsequent return and 
 labors in the Province of Buenos Ayres in a private 
 capacity. Buenos Ayres succeeded in resisting Ur- 
 quiza at this time, and constituted itself again v a 
 separate State while Urquiza governed the provinces. 
 When Colonel Sarmiento was elected Deputy to the 
 legislature of Buenos Ayres, before his release from 
 Chili in 1855, he refused the office, and addressed a 
 letter to the electors, reproaching them for having 
 separated from the Republic. He was then appointed 
 
 w 
 
 Deputy from Tucuman, and refused that also, because 
 
XXV111 PREFACE. 
 
 Tucuman had constituted itself independent of Buenos 
 Ayres. When he went to Buenos Ayres in 1856, all 
 his efforts and writings had for their object the Union. 
 His oration at that time over the ashes of Rivadavia, 
 which he gave at the request of the municipality when 
 they we^e received from Europe at the port of Buenos 
 Ayres, was an appeal to the national sentiment for 
 this Union. In 1859, the Convention, called at the in- 
 stigation of himself and friends, met at Buenos Ayres 
 to amend the Constitution, and Colonel Sarmiento pro- 
 posed such amendments as made it resemble that of 
 the United States, and in the National Convention was 
 chiefly instrumental in ratifying these and bringing 
 about the Union which now exists. 
 
 When Governor of San Juan, he labored to amend 
 the State government, but was opposed by his Uni- 
 tario friends,, who feared that he would give the prov- 
 inces loo much power. The disastrous history of 
 the last few years has proved that he was in the right, 
 and his countrymen, by the light of the conflagration 
 of civil war, have at last seen that he was their best 
 guide, and *the only prominent man that has clearly 
 mastered the situation. Their wild cry of agony now 
 summons him to their aid. 
 4 MARY MANN. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PHYSICAL CONTENTS OF THE REPUBLIC. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Physical Conditions 3, 4 
 
 Rivers without Commerce 5 
 
 An Unbroken Country 7 
 
 The Rule of the Strongest 9 
 
 Native Indolence 11 
 
 Civilization by Cities 13 
 
 American Bedouins .15 
 
 Social Aspects 17 
 
 Religious Aspects . .19 
 
 Gaucho Traits 21 
 
 Sources of Wealth > 23 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ORIGINALITY AND PECULIARITIES OF THE PEOPLE. 
 
 Poetic Character 25-29 
 
 Musical Character . . . . . . . . . 29-31 
 
 Rastreador, the Track-Finder 32-35 
 
 Baqueano, or Path-Finder 35-39 
 
 The Gaucho Outlaw . . ' . 39-41 
 
 The Cantor, or Minstrel . . 41-45 
 
 * - 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ASSOCIATION. 
 
 Pastoral Society 47 
 
 The Gaucho's Knife 49, 
 
 A Centaur Sovereignty . 51 
 
 The Country Commandant . 53 
 
 The Montonera . ..... ... 55 
 
XXX CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE REVOLUTION OF 1810. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Beginning of the Revolution .57 
 
 The Middle Party 59 
 
 The Montonera's Savagery . . 61 
 
 The Violent Death of Cities 63 
 
 Rioja 64-66 
 
 San Juan . 67-70 
 
 The Rodriguez 71 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 LIFE OF FACUNDO QUIROGA. 
 
 His Infancy and Youth 73 
 
 The Tiger 75 
 
 Quiroga's Education 77 
 
 Habits of Life 79 
 
 The Gaucho's Revenge ' 81 
 
 Rebellious ^Spirit 82 
 
 Domestic Character 83 
 
 Facundo in Prison 85 
 
 Characteristics 87 
 
 Facundo as a Diviner 89 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 LA RIOJA. 
 
 Feud between Ocampos and Davilas 93 
 
 Facundo as Commandant 97 
 
 Davila made Governor . 99 
 
 Blanco made Governor . 101 
 
 Facundo as Financier ......... 103 
 
 Facundo's Avarice 105 
 
 Mining Fever 107 
 
 Gambling 109 
 
 Consequences of Facundo's Government Ill 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SOCIAL LIFE. 
 
 Transition Period 113 
 
 Cordova 114-120 
 
 Buenos Ayres 121-127 
 
 Unitarios 128 
 
CONTENTS. XXXI 
 
 PAOE 
 
 The Two Parties. Progress and Reaction 129 
 
 Consolidation Inevitable 131 
 
 Facundo's Individuality 132 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 EXPERIMENTS. 
 
 Congress 134 
 
 Colonel Madrid's Mission 135 
 
 Significance of the Color " Red " ....... 137 
 
 Effects of Freedom of Thought . . ... . . 139 
 
 The Red Ribbon .141 
 
 Facundo and the Federals 143 
 
 Toleration ..144 
 
 The Black Flag 145 
 
 The Catholic Party and Religion 147 
 
 An Easy Way of Paying Debts . 149 
 
 Rivadavia Resigns 151 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 CIVIL, WAR. TABLADA. 
 
 Dorrego and the Unitarios 153-155 
 
 The Execution of Dorrego by Lavalle 157 
 
 The Coming Campaign 159 
 
 Battle of Tablada 160 
 
 Tablada and Cordova 161 
 
 General Paz 163 
 
 Liberal Element in Cordova 165 
 
 Treaty of Lopez of Santa Fe 167 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 CIVIL WAR. 
 
 The Murderer Barcena 169 
 
 The Story of Severa Villafane 171 
 
 Ransoms 173 
 
 Terror 174 
 
 A Spark of Humanity 175 
 
 Oncativo 177 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 SOCIAL WAR. 
 
 Chacon 179 
 
 Buenos Ayres in 1840 . . 181 
 
XXXll CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Capture qf Rio Quarto . .183 
 
 Castillo's Blunders 185 
 
 Castillo's Civilizing Work 187 
 
 Introduction of the Silk-Worm 189 
 
 Facundo at his Old Ways . . .191 
 
 Death of Villafane 192 
 
 Navarro ............ 193 
 
 Villafane , 195 
 
 Facundo's Discipline 197 
 
 Terror a Power 199 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 SOCIAL WAR. 
 
 Ciudadela . . .201 
 
 Tucuman 202 
 
 Facundo's Cruelty 209 
 
 Tyranny 211 
 
 River Navigation 213 
 
 Persecution . . . . . . . . . . . 214 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 BARRANCA- YACO ! ! ! 
 
 Idea of Government . . . . . . . ' . . .216 
 
 Rosas Governor of Buenos Ayres 219 
 
 Rosas and Facundo 221 
 
 Facundo at Buenos Ayres . 223 
 
 Facundo's New Plans 225 
 
 Facundo's Secret Opposition to Rosas 227 
 
 Facundo's Presentiments 229 
 
 Facundo's Obstinacy . . . . . . . . . 231 
 
 Facundo's Individuality 233 
 
 Facundo's Death 234 
 
 Santos Perez ........... 235 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 FRIAR JOSE FELIX ALDAO, BRIGADIER-GENERAL AND GOVERNOR. 
 
 Lieutenant Jose" Aldao . . 237 
 
 The Catholic Party and Religioa 239 
 
 Aldao Captain under San Martin 241 
 
 Aldao at Mendoza . 243 
 
 The Aldao Triumvirate . 245 
 
CONTENTS. XXX111 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Future Destiny of the Republic 247 
 
 Barcala, the Educated Slave 249 
 
 Facundo's Palace 251 
 
 Tablada 253 
 
 El Filar 255 
 
 Aldao and Facundo 259 
 
 Petition of Mendoza ,261 
 
 General Paz Lassoed 261 
 
 Card-playing 263 
 
 Rodriguez the Soldier .265 
 
 Brizuela 266 
 
 Acha 267 
 
 Rodeo del Medio 269 
 
 Aldao's Harem 271 
 
 Death of Aldao 273 
 
 What Mendoza gained from Aldao's Government .... 274 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR. 
 
 Genealogy 276 
 
 Don Jose" de Oro 277 
 
 Preface to the Recollections of a Province 279 
 
 The History of my Mother 280 
 
 Vision of his Mother's Death 281 
 
 Don Jose" Castro 284 
 
 Characteristics of " My Mother " 285 
 
 "My Father" 287 
 
 The Fiesta of St. Peter 289 
 
 The Paternal Hearth 290 
 
 The Homestead . 291 
 
 Home Influences 293 
 
 La Toribia and Na Cleme 294 
 
 Colonial Life .295 
 
 Works of Art ; 297 
 
 The Sentence of Saints and Fig-tree 299 
 
 Changes 300 
 
 Early Education 301 
 
 Boyish Tastes 303 
 
 War of 1810 305 
 
 School of La Patria 306 
 
 Don Ignacio Rodriguez ......... 307 
 
 Don Antonio Aberastain 309 
 
XXXIV CONTEXTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Sarmiento School - . . . . 309-314 
 
 Education after leaving School 315 
 
 Readings 317 
 
 Public Life 318-321 
 
 Heroic Enthusiasm . . . . . . . . . . 321 
 
 Perils of Civil War 322 
 
 _ The Mastery of Languages 323 
 
 Mayorflomo of Copiapo Mines ........ 324 
 
 A Community of Students 325 
 
 Progress of Mind 326 
 
 'LaZonda 327 
 
 Political Difficulties 328 
 
 Interview with Benavides 329 
 
 Second Summons from Benavides 330 
 
 , Reasoning with an Ignorant Tyrant .' 331 
 
 Official Force in San Juan 332 
 
 Arrest by Benavides ; 333 
 
 Seventeenth of November 333 
 
 Face to Face with Death 335 
 
 In Prison 337 
 
 , Exile 339 
 
 Literary Labor in Chili 340, 341 
 
 Rout of La Madrid's Army 343 
 
 Fugitives in the Mountains 344, 345 
 
 Second Exile 345 
 
 ' Resumption of Literary Labors in Chili 346 
 
 Normal School in Chili 347, 348 
 
 Editor of Periodicals 349 
 
 Trials in Chili 350-352 
 
 Biographies 352 
 
 ^European Tour ' 353 
 
 Interview with Cobden 354-357 
 
 Acquaintance with Mr. Horace Mann 357 
 
 jLa Cronica and other Writings 358 
 
 Return to Buenos Ayres and Conquest over Rosas .... 359 
 
 Voluntary Exile to Chili 359 
 
 More Literary Labors 360 
 
 Residence in Buenos Ayres 360 
 
 Letter to Juana Manso 361 
 
 Senator 362 
 
 Cepeda 363 
 
 Eighth of November 364 
 
 Conventions to Reform Constitution Debates of Congress . . 365 
 
CONTENTS. XXXV 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Minister and Chief of Staff Eight Years of Educational Labor . 367 
 
 Educational Works 368 
 
 Political and Moral Influence 369 
 
 Land Surveys 371 
 
 Chivilcoi 372 
 
 Isles of the Parana 373,374 
 
 Railroad from San Fernando to Buenos Ayres 375 
 
 Benavides, Rosas, Urquiza ........ 375 
 
 Virasero Death of Dr. Aberastain 376 
 
 Battle of Pavon Reception at San Juan 377 
 
 Made Governor of San Juan 378 
 
 Sarmiento School 379 
 
 Mining Interests 380, 381 
 
 ElChacho 382 
 
 Clavero 384 
 
 Diplomatic Missions 385> 
 
 Admiral Pinzon Chincha Islands 386 
 
 Disinterested Political Action 387 
 
 South American Congress 387 
 
 Remarkable Predictions 388, 389 
 
 Writings in North America 389, 390 
 
 Ambas Americas 391 
 
 La Seiiora Juana Manso 392 
 
 French Exposition 393 
 
 Men of South America 393 
 
 Appreciation by his Countrymen 395 
 
 Appendix 297 
 
LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PHYSICAL ASPECT OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC, AND 
 THE FORMS OF CHARACTER, HABITS, AND IDEAS INDUCED 
 BY IT. 
 
 " The extent of the Pampas is so prodigious that they are hounded on the north 
 by groves of palm-trees and on the south by eternal snows." Head. 
 
 THE Continent of America ends at the south in a 
 point, with the Strait of Magellan at its southern ex- 
 tremity. Upon the west, the Chilian Andes run par- 
 allel to the coast at a short distance from the Pacific. 
 Between that range of mountains and the Atlantic is 
 a country whose boundary follows the River Plata up 
 the course of the Uruguay into the interior, which was 
 formerly known as the United Provinces of the River 
 Plata, but where blood is still shed to determine 
 whether its name shall be the Argentine Republic or 
 the Argentine Confederation. On the north lie Para- 
 guay, the Gran Chaco, and Bolivia, its assumed boun- 
 daries. 
 
 The vast tract which occupies its extremities is alto- 
 gether uninhabited, and possesses navigable rivers as 
 yet unfurrowed even by a frail canoe. Its own extent 
 1 
 
2 LIFE IX THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 is the evil from which the Argentine Republic suffers ; 
 the desert encompasses it on every side and penetrates 
 its ver^ heart ; wastes containing no human dwelling, 
 (are, generally speaking, the unmistakable bounda- 
 ries between its several provinces. Immensity is the 
 universal characteristic^. Jthfi-couiiiry,;. the plains, the 
 woods, the rivers, are all immense ; and the horizon 
 is always undefined, always lost in haze and delicate 
 vapors which forbid the eye to mark the point in the 
 distant perspective, where the land ends and the sky 
 begins. On the south and on the north are savages 
 ,ever on the watch, who take advantage of the moonlight 
 nights to fall like packs of hyenas upon the herds in 
 their pastures, and upon the defenseless settlements. 
 When the solitary caravan of wagons, as it sluggishly 
 traverses, the pampas, halts for a short period of rest, the 
 men in cnarge of it, grouped around their scanty fire, 
 turn their eyes mechanically toward the south upon the 
 faintest whisper of the wind among the dry grass, and 
 gaze into the deep darkness of the night, in search of 
 the sinister visages of the savage horde, which, at any 
 moment, approaching unperceived, may surprise them. 
 If no sound reaches their ears, if their sight fails to 
 pierce the gloomy veil which covers the silent wilder- 
 ness, they direct their eyes, before entirely dismissing 
 their apprehensions, to the ears of any horse standing 
 within the firelight, to see if they are pricked up or 
 turned carelessly backwards. Then they resume their 
 interrupted conversation, or put into their mouths the 
 half-scorched pieces of dried beef on which they subsist. 
 When not fearful of the approach of the savage, the 
 
PHYSICAL CONDITIONS. 3 
 
 plainsman has equal cause to dread the keen eyes of the 
 tiger, or the viper beneath his feet. This constantjnjse- 
 ^^yjjLJjfe outsit t-hg- towns, .in my opinion, stamps 
 upon the Argentine character a certain stojcaj^esig- 
 natkm to death by violence, which is regarded as one 
 of the inevitable probabilities of existence. Perhaps 
 this is the reason why they inflict death or submit to it 
 with so much indifference, and why such events make 
 no deep or lasting impression upon the survivors. 
 
 The inhabited portion of this country a country 
 unusually favored by nature, and embracing all varie- 
 ties of climates may be divided into three sections""^ 
 possessing distinct characteristics, which cause differ- ' I 
 ences of character among the inhabitants, growing out / 
 of the necessity of their adapting themselves to x the , 
 physical conditions which surround them. , 
 
 In the__northj an extensive forest, reaching to the 
 Chaco, covers with its impenetrable mass of boughs a 
 space whose extent would seem incredible if there could 
 be any marvel too great for the colossal types of Nature 
 in America. 
 
 In the centraLzone, lying parallel to the former, the 
 plain and the forest long contend with each other for 
 the possession of the soil ; the trees prevail for some 
 distance, but gradually dwindle into stunted and thorny 
 bushes, only reappearing in belts of forest along the 
 banks of the streams, until finally in the south, the vic- 
 tory remains with the plain, which displays its smooth, 
 velvet-like surface unbounded and unbroken. It is the 
 image of the sea upon the land ; the earth as it appears 
 upon the map the earth yet waiting for the command 
 
4 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 to bring forth every herb yielding seed after its kind. 
 We may indicate, as a noteworthy feature in the con- 
 figuration of this country, the aggregation of navigable^, 
 rivers, which come together in the east, from all points K 
 of the horizon, to form the Plata by their union, and 
 thus worthily to present their mighty tribute to the 
 Ocean, which receives it, not without visible marks of 
 disturbance and respect. But these immense canals, 
 excavated by the careful hand of Nature, introduce no 
 change into the national customs. The sons of the 
 Spanish adventurers who colonized the country hate 
 to travel by water, feeling themselves imprisoned when 
 within the narrow limits of a boat or a pinnace. When 
 their path is crossed by a great river, they strip them- 
 selves unconcernedly, prepare their horses for swim- 
 ming, anH plunging in, make for some island visibledn 
 the distance, where horse and horseman take breath, 
 and by thus continuing their course from isle to isle, 
 finally effect their crossing. 
 
 Thus is the greatest blessing which Providence 
 .bestows upon any people disdained by the Argentine 
 gaucho, who regards it rather as an obstacle opposed 
 jgJlJg_T"nv'ftmft"t-s, tlianjas_ the most powerful means of 
 jfoftilitating them ; thus the fountain of national growth,^, 
 the origin of the early celebrity of Egypt, the cause of 
 Holland's greatness, and of the rapid development of 
 North America, the navigation of rivers, or the use of 
 canals, remains a latent power, unappreciated by the 
 inhabitants of the banks of the Bermejo, Pilcomayo^ 
 Parana, and Paraguay. A few small vessels, manned 
 by Italians and adventurers, sail up stream from the 
 
RIVERS WITHOUT COMMERCE. 5 
 
 Plata, but after ascending a few leagues, even this 
 navigation entirely ceases. The instinct of the sailor, 
 which the Saxon colonists of the north possess in so 
 high a degree, was not bestowed upon the Spaniard. 
 Another spirit is needed to stir these arteries in which, 
 a nation's life-blood now lies stagnant. Of all these 
 rivers which should bear civilization, power, and wealth, 
 to the most hidden recesses of the continent, and make 
 of Santa Fe, Entre Rios, Corrientes, Cordova, Saltas, 
 Tucuman, and Jujui, rich and populous states, the 
 Plata alone, which at last unites them all, bestows its 
 benefits upon the inhabitants of its banks. At its 
 mouth stand two cities, Montevideo and Buenos Ayres, 
 which at present reap alternately the advantages of 
 their enviable position. Buenos Ayres is dpstin^d to 
 be some day the most gigantic c^ty of either'America. 
 Under a benignant climate, mistress of the navigation 
 of a hundred rivers flowing past her feet, covering a 
 vast area, and surrounded by inland provinces which 
 know no other outlet for their products, she would ere 
 
 / now have become the Babylon of America, if the spirit 
 
 of the Pampa had not breathed upon her, and left un- 
 developed the rich offerings which the rivers and prov- 
 inces should unceasingly bring. She is the pnly city 
 in the vast Argentine territory which is in communica- 
 tion with European nations ; she alone can avail her- 
 self of the advantages of foreign commerce ; she alone 
 has power and revenue. Vainly have the provinces 
 
 ^ asked to receive through her, civilization, industry, and , 
 European population ; a senseless coldnial policy made ~ 
 herMeaf to these cries. But the provinces had their 
 revenge when they sent to her in Rosas the climax of 
 their own barbarism. 
 
6 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 Heavily enough have those who uttered it, paid for 
 the saying, " The Argentine Republic ends at the 
 Arroyo del Medio." It now reaches from the Andes 
 to the sea, while barbarism and violence have sunk 
 Buenos Ayres below the level of the provinces. We 
 ought not to complain of Buenos Ayres that she is 
 great and will be greater, for this is her destiny. This 
 would be to complain of Providence and call upon it 
 to alter physical outlines. This being impossible, let 
 us accept as well done what has been done by the 
 Master's hand. Let us rather blame the ignorance of 
 that brutal power which makes the gifts lavished by 
 Nature upon an erring people of no avail for itself or 
 fdr the provinces. Buenos Ayres, instead of sending 
 to the interior, light, wealth, and prosperity, sends only 
 chains, exterminating hordes, and petty subaltern ty- 
 rants. She, too, takes her revenge for the evil inflicted 
 upon her by the provinces when they prepared for her 
 a^Rpsas ! 
 
 I have indicated the circumstance that the position 
 of Buenos Ayres favors monopoly, in order to show 
 that the configuration of the country so tends to cen- 
 tr^lization and consolidation, that even if Rosas had 
 uttered his cry of " Confederation or Death ! " in good 
 faith, he would have ended with the consolidated sys- 
 tem which is now established. Our desire, however, 
 should be for union in civilization, and in liberty^ while 
 there has been given us only union in barbarism and 
 in slavery. But a time will come when business will 
 take its legitimate course. What it now concerns <us * 
 to know is, that the progress o civilization must culmi- 
 nate only in Buenos Ayres ; the pampa is a very bad 
 
AN UNBROKEN COUNTRY. 7 
 
 - medium of transmission and distribution through the 
 provinces, and we are now about to see what is the 
 result of this condition of things. 
 
 But above all the peculiarities of special portions of 
 the country, there predominates one general, uniform, 
 and constant character. Whether the soil is covered 
 with the luxuriant and colossal vegetation of the tropics, 
 or stunted, thorny, and unsightly shrubs bear witness 
 to the scanty moisture which sustains them ; or whether 
 finally the pam'pa displays its open and monotonous 
 level, the surface of the country is generally flat and 
 unbroken the mountain groups of San Luis and 
 Cordova in the centre, and some projecting spurs of the 
 Andes toward the north, being scarcely an mjerrup- 
 tion to this boundless continuity. 
 
 We have, in this fact, a new element calculated to 
 -| consolidate the nation which is hereafter to occupy 
 these great solitudes, for it is well known that moun- 
 tains and other natural obstacles interposed between 
 different districts, keep up the isolation and the primi- 
 tive peculiarities of their inhabitants. North America 
 is destined to be a federation, not so much because its 
 first settlements were independent of each other, as on 
 account of the length of its Atlantic coast, and the 
 various routes to the interior afforded by the St. Law- 
 rence in the north, the Mississippi in the south, and the 
 immense system of canals in the centre. The Argen- 
 tine Republic is " one and indivisible." 
 
 Many philosophers have also thought that plains pre- y 
 pare the way for despotism, just as mountains f 
 strongholds for the struggles of liberty. The bou 
 plain which permits the unobstructed passage of 
 
8 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 and weighty wagons by routes upon which the hand 
 of man has only been required to cut away a few trees 
 and thickets, and -which extend from Salta to Buenos 
 Ayres, and thence to Mendoza, a distance of more than 
 seven hundred leagues, constitutes one of the most 
 noteworthy features of the internal conformation of the 
 Republic. The exertions of the individual, aided by 
 what rude nature has done already, suffice to provide 
 ways and means of communication ; if art shall offer 
 its assistance, if the forces of society shall attempt to 
 supply the strength lacking in the individual, the co- 
 lossal dimensions of the work will repel the most enter- 
 prising, and insufficiency of labor will be an obstacle. 
 Thus in the matter of roads, untamed nature will long 
 have control, and the action of civilization will con- 
 tinue weak and inoperative. 
 
 "Moreover, these outstretched plains impart to the 
 life of the interior a certain Asiatic coloring, which we 
 may even call very decided. I have often mechani- 
 cally saluted the moon, as it rose calmly and brightly, 
 
 V with these words of Volney in his description of the 
 Ruins : " La pleine lune a 1'Orient s'e'le'vait sur un 
 fo.nd bleu&tre aux plaines rives de 1'Euphrate." There 
 
 > is something in the wilds of the Argentine territory 
 which brings to mind the wilds of Asia ; the imagina- 
 tion discovers a likeness between the pampa and the 
 plains lying between the Euphrates and the Tigris ; 
 some affinity between the lonely line of wagons which 
 crosses our wastes, arriving at Buenos Ayres after a 
 
 ' . journey lasting for months, and the caravan of camels 
 
 * which takes its way toward Bagdad or Smyrna. The 
 wagons which make such journeys among us, consti- 
 

 THE RULE OF THE STRONGEST. 9 
 
 tute, so to speak, squadrons of little barks, the crews of 
 which have a peculiar dress, dialect, and set of customs, 
 which distinguish them from . their fellow-countrymen, 
 g'ust as the sailor differs from the landsman. The head 
 of each party is a military leader, like the chief of an 
 Asiatic caravan ; this position can be filled only by a 
 man of iron will, and daring to the verge of rashness, 
 that he may hold in check the audacity and turbulence 
 of the land pirates who are to be directed and ruled 
 by himself alone, for no help can be summoned in the 
 desert. On the least symptom of insubordination, the 
 captain raises his iron chicote, and delivers upon thq 
 mutineer blows which make contusions and wounds ; 
 if the resistance is prolonged, before resorting to his 
 pistols, the help of which he generally scorns, he leaps 
 from his horse, grasps his formidable knife, and quickly 
 reestablishes his authority by his superior skill in 
 handling it. If any one loses his life under such disci- 
 pline, the leader is not answerable for the assassination, 
 which is regarded as an exercise of legitimate authprity. 
 From these characteristics arises in the life of the 
 Argentine people the reign of brute force, the suprem- 
 acy of the strongest, the absolute and irresponsible 
 authority of rulers, the administration of justice with- 
 out formalities or discussion. The caravan of wagons 
 is provided, moreover, with one or two guns to each 
 wagon, and sometimes the leading one has a small 
 piece of artillery on a swivel. If the train is attacked 
 by the savages, the wagons are tied together in a ring, 
 and a successful resistance is almost always opposed to 
 the blood-thirsty and rapacious plunder of the assail- 
 ants. Defenseless droves of pack-mules often fall into 
 
10 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 the hands of these American Bedouins, and muleteers 
 rarely escape with their lives. ' In these long journeys, 
 the 'lower classes of the Argentine population acquire 
 the habit of living far from society, of struggling single- 
 "faanded with nature, of disregarding privation, and of 
 depending for protection against the dangers ever im- 
 minent upon no other resources than personal strength 
 and skill. > 
 
 The people who inhabit these extensive districts, 
 belong to two different races, the Spanish and the 
 nativej the combinations of which form a series of-im- 
 psrceptible gradations. The pure Spanish race pre- 
 dominates in the rural districts of Cordova and San 
 Luis, where it is common to 'meet young shepherdesses 
 fair and rosy, and as beautiful as the belles of a capital 
 could wish to be. In Santiago del Estero, the bulk of 
 the rural population still speaks the Quichua. .dialect, 
 which plainly shows its Indian origin. The country 
 people of Corrientes use a very pretty Spanish dialect. 
 " Dame, general, una chiripa," said his soldiers to La- 
 valle. The Andalusian soldier may still be recog- 
 nized in the rural districts of Buenos Ayres ; and in 
 the city foreign surnames are the most numerous. The 
 negro race, by this time nearly extinct (except in 
 Buenos Ayres), has left, in its zambos and mulattoes, 
 
 ;a lin-k which connects civilized man with the denizen 
 of the woods. This race mostly inhabiting cities, has 
 a tendency to become civilized, and possesses talent and 
 the finest instincts of progress. 
 
 With these reservations, a homogeneous whole has 
 
 resulted from the fusion of the three above-named 
 
 . families. It is characterized by love of idleness and 
 
NATIVE INDOLENCE. 11 
 
 incapacity for industry, except when education and the 
 exigencies of a social position succeed in spurring it out 
 of its customary pace. To a great extent, this unfor- 
 tunate result is owing to the incorporation of the native 
 tribes, effected, by the process of colonization. The 
 American- aborigine^ live in idleness, and show them- 
 selves incapable, even under compulsion, of hard and 
 protracted labor. This suggested the idea of introdu- 
 cing negroes into America, which has produced such 
 fatal results. But the Spanish race has not shown 
 itself more energetic than the aborigines, when it has 
 been left to its own instincts in the wilds of America. 
 Pity and shame are excited by the comparison of one 
 of the Gtrmanj>r Scotch colonies in the southern part 
 of Buenos Ayres and some towns of the interior of the 
 Argentine Republic ; in the former the cottages, are 
 painted, the front-yards always neatly kept and adorned 
 with flowers and pretty shrubs ; the furniture simple 
 but complete ; copper or tin utensils always bright and 
 clean ; nicely curtained beds ; and the occupants of ^he 
 dwelling are always industriously at work. Some such 
 families have retired to enjoy the conveniences of city* 
 life, with great fortunes gained by their previous labors 
 in milking their cows, and making butter and cheese. 
 The towjX-jnhabited by natives _of the country, pre- 
 sents a picture entirely the reverse. There., dirty and 
 fagged-eliildiien live, with a menagerie of dogs ; there, 
 men lie about in utter idleness ; neglect and poverty 
 prevail everywhere ; a table and some baskets are the 
 only furniture of wretched huts remarkable * for their 
 general aspect of barbarism and carelessness. 
 
 This wretched manner of life of a people already on 
 
12 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 the decrease, and belonging to the pastoral districts, 
 doubtless gave rise to the words which spite and the 
 humiliation of the English arms drew from Sir Walter 
 
 . Scott: " The vast plains of Buenos Ayres," he says, 
 *' are inhabited only by Christian savages known as v 
 Guachos " (gauchos, he should have said), " whose 
 furniture, is chiefly composed of horses' skulls, whose 
 food is raw beef and water, and whose favorite pastime 
 is running horses to death. Unfortunately," adds the 
 good foreigner, " they prefer their national independ- 
 ence to our cottons and muslins." 1 
 
 - It would be well to ask England to say at a venture 
 how many yards of linen and pieces of muslin she 
 wouM give to own these plains of Buenos Ayres I 
 
 Upon the boundless expanse above described stan4 
 scattered here and there fourteen cities, each the capi- 
 tal of a province. The obvious method of arranging 
 their names would be to classify them according to 
 their geographical position : Buenos Ayres, Santa Fe* r 
 Entfe Rios, and Corrientes, on the banks of the Para- 
 na ; Mendoza, San Juan, Rioja, Catamarca, Tucuman, 
 Salta, and Jujui, being on a line nearly parallel to the 
 Chilian Andes ; with Santiago, San Luis, and Cor- 
 dova, in the centre. But this manner of enumerating 
 the Argentine towns has no connection with any of the 
 social results which I have in view. A classification 
 adapted to my purpose must originate in the ways of 
 
 .life pursued by the country people, for it is this which 
 determines their character and spirit. I have stated 
 above that the proximity of the rivers makes no differ- v 
 
 _ence in this respect, because the extent to which they 
 
 , ! Life, of Napoleon Bonaparte, vol. ii., chap. 1. 
 
CIVILIZATION BY CITIES. 15 
 
 . are navigated is so trifling as to be without in/niding 
 upon the people. Vre-* 
 
 All the Argentine provinces, except San Juan.ane 
 Mehdoza, depend on the products of pastoral _lifej . 
 Tucuman avails itself of agriculture also, and Buenos 
 Ayres, besides raising millions of cattle and sheep, de- 
 votes itself to the numerous and diversified occupations 
 of civilized life. 
 
 The Argentina cities, like almost all the cities of 
 
 , South America, have an appearance of regularity. 
 Their streets are laid out at right angles, and their 
 
 ^population scattered over a wide surface, except in 
 Cordova, which occupies a narrow and confined posi- - 
 tion, and presents all the appearance of a European 
 city, the resemblance being increased by the multitude 
 of towers and domes attached to its numerous and 
 magnificent churches. All civilization, whether native, 
 Spanish, or European, centres in the cities, where are 
 to be found the manufactories, the shops, the schools 
 and colleges, and other characteristics of civilized na- 
 tions. Elegance oLstyle, articles of luxury, dress-coats, 
 and frock-coats, with other European garments, oc- 
 cupy their appropriate place in these towns. I mention 
 these small matters designedly. It is sometimes the 
 case that the only city of a pastoral province is its cap- 
 ital, and occasionally the land is uncultivated up to its 
 very streets. The encircling desert besets such cities 
 at a greater or less distance, and bears heavily upon 
 them, and they are thus small oases of civilization sur-" 
 rounded by an un tilled plain, hundreds of square miles 
 in extent, the surface of which is but rarely interrupted 
 by any settlement of consequence. 
 
.iFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 , cities of Buenos Ay res and Cordova haxe suc- 
 *ed better than the others in establishing about them 
 subordinate towns to serve as new foci of civilization 
 and municipal interests ; a fact Which deserves notice. ( 
 The inhabitanj^_of_the city wear the European dre.ss, 
 live in a civilized manner, and possess laws, ideas of 
 progress, means of instruction, some municipal organi- 
 zation, regular forms of government, etc. Beyond tHe t 
 precincts of the city everything assumes a new aspect; 
 the country people wear a different dress, which I will 
 call South American, as it is common to all districts ; - 
 their habits of life are different, their wants' peculiar 
 and limited. The people composing these two distinct 
 forms of society, do not seem to belong to the same , 
 nation. Moreover, the countryman, far from attempt- 
 ing to imitate the customs of the city, rejects with dis- * 
 dain its luxury and refinement ; and it is unsafe for the 
 costume of the city people, their coats, their cloaks, 
 their saddles, or anything European, to show them- 
 selves in the country. Everything civilized which the , 
 city contains is blockaded there, proscribed beyond its 
 , limits-; and any one who should dare to appear in the 
 rural districts in a frock-coat, for example, or mounted 
 on an English saddle, would bring ridicule and brutal 
 assaults upon himself. 
 
 'The whole remaining population inhabit the open 
 country, which, whether wooded or destitute of the 
 larger plants, is generally level, and almost everywhere 
 occupied by pastures, in some places of such abun- 
 dance- and exceH"ence7^that the grass of an artificial 
 meadow would not surpass them. Mendoza, and 
 especially San Juan, are exceptions to this general 
 
AMERICAN BEDOUINS., ' 15 
 
 absence of tilled fields, the people here depending * 
 chiefly .on the products of agriculture. Everywhere 
 else, pasturage being plenty, the means of subsistence 
 of the inhabitants for we cannot call it their occu- 
 pation is stock-rajsnvg. Pastoral-life reminds us of ^ 7 
 the Asiatic plains, which imagination covers with 
 Kalmuck, Cossack, or Arab tents. The primitive life 
 7 of nations a life essentially barbarous and unpro- 
 
 / Digressive the life of Abraham, which is that of the 
 Bedouin of to-day, prevails in the Argentine plains, 
 although modified in a peculiar manner by civilization. 
 
 , The Arab tribe which wanders through the wilds of . 
 Asia, is united under the rule of one of its elders or of 
 a warrior chief; society exists, although not fixed in 
 any determined locality. Its religious opinions, im- * 
 memorial traditions, unchanging customs, and its sen- 
 timent of respect for the aged, make altogether a code ^ 
 . of laws and a form of government which preserves 
 morality, as it is there understood, as well as order and 
 the association of the tribe. But progress is ippossi- 
 
 ^ ble, because there can be no progress without perma- . 
 /nent possession of the soil, or without cities, which are - 
 the means of developing the capacity of man for the 
 processes of industry, and which enable him to extend 
 his acquisitions. 
 
 Nomad tribes do not exist in the Argentine plaini ; 
 the stock-raiser is a proprietor, living upon his own 
 land ; but this condition renders association impossible, 
 and tends to scatter separate families over an immense ^ 
 extent of surface. Imagine an expanse of two thou- 
 sand square leagues, inhabited throughout, but where 
 the dwellings are usually four or even eight leagues * 
 
16 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 apart, and two leagues, at least, separate the nearest 
 neighbors. The production of movable property is not 
 impossible, the enjoyments of luxury are not wholly 
 incompatible with this isolation ; wealth can raise a 
 superb edifice in the desert. But the incentive is. 
 wanting ; no example is near ; the inducements for 
 making a great display which exist in a city, are not 
 known in that isolation and solitude. Inevitable pri- 
 vations justify natural indolence ; a dearth of all the 
 amenities of life induces all the externals of barbarism. 
 Society has altogether disappeared. There is but the 
 isolated self-concentrated feudal family. Since there is 
 no collected society, no government is possible ; there 
 is neither municipal nor executive power, and civil 
 justice has no means of reaching criminals. I doubt 
 if the modern world presents any other form of associ- 
 ation so monstrous as this. It is the exact opposite of 
 the Roman municipality, where all the population were 
 assembled within an inclosed space, and went from it 
 to cultivate the surrounding fields. The consequence 
 of this was a strong social organization, the good results 
 of which have prepared the way for modern civiliza- 
 tion. The Argentine system resembles the old Slavo- 
 nic Sloboda, with the difference that the latter was 
 agricultural, and therefore more susceptible of govern- 
 ment, while the dispersion of the population was not 
 so great as in South America. It differs from the 
 nomad tribes in admitting of no social reunion, and in 
 a permanent occupation of the soil. Lastly, it has 
 something in common with the feudal system of the 
 Middle Ages, when the barons lived in their strong-, 
 holds, and thence made war on the cities, and laid 
 
SOCIAL ASPECTS. 17 
 
 waste the country in the vicinity ; but the baron and 
 the feudal castle are wanting. If power starts up in 
 the country, it lasts only for a moment, and is demo- 
 cratic ; it is not inherited, nor can it maintain itself, 
 for want of mountains and strong positions. It follows 
 from this, that even the savage tribe of the pampas is 
 better organized for moral development than are our 
 country districts. 
 
 But the remarkable feature of this society, viewed 
 in its social aspect, is its affinity to the life of the an- 
 cients ::::r toThe life of the Spartans or Romans ; but 
 again a radical dissimilarity appears when the. subject 
 is considered from another side. The free citizen of 
 Sparta or of Rome threw upon his slaves the weight 
 of material life, the care of providing for his subsist- 
 ence, while he lived, free from such cares, in the forum 
 or in the public place of assembly, exclusively occupied 
 with the interests of the State peace, war, and party 
 contests. The stock-raiser has his share of the same 
 advantages, and his herds fulfill the degrading office .of 
 the ancient Helot. Their spontaneous multiplication 
 constitutes and indefinitely augments his fortune ; the 
 help of man is superfluous ; his labor, his intelligence, . 
 his time, are not needed to the preservation and in- 
 crease of the means of life. But though he needs none 
 of these forces for the supply of his physical wants, he 
 is unable to make use of them, when thus saved, as 
 the Roman did. He has no city, no municipality, no 
 intimate associations, and thus the basis of all social 
 development is wanting. As the land-owners are not 
 brought together, they have no public wants' to satisfy ; 
 in a word, there is no res publica. 
 
18 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 NTINl 
 
 Moral progress, tid the cultivation of the intellect, 
 are here not only neglected, as in/ the Arab or Tartar 
 tribe, but impossible. Where can a school be placed, 
 for the instruction of children living ten leagues apart 
 in all directions ? Thus, consequently, civilization can 
 in no way be brought about. Barbarism is the normal 
 
 'condition, 1 and it is fortunate if domestic customs pre- 
 serve a small germ of morality. Religion feels the 
 consequences of this want of social organization. The 
 offices of the pastor are nominal, the pulpit has no 
 Audience, the Driest flees from the deserted chapel, or 
 allows his character to deteriorate in inactivity and 
 solitude. Vice, simony, and the prevalent barbarism 
 penetrate his cell, and change his moral superiority 
 
 t into the means of gratifying his avarice or ambition, 
 and he ends by becoming a party leader. I once wit- 
 nessed a scene of rural life worthy of the primitive 
 ages of the world, which preceded the institution of 
 the priesthood. In 1838 I happened to be in the 
 Sierra de San Luis, at the house of a proprietor whose 
 
 'two favorite occupations were saying prayers and 
 gambling. He had built a chapel where he used to 
 pray through the rosary on Sunday afternoons, to 
 supply the want of a priest, and of the public divine 
 service of which the place had been destitute for many 
 years. It was a Homeric picture : the sun declining 
 to the west'; the sheep returning to the fold, and rend- 
 ing the air with their confused bleatings ; the service 
 conducted by the master of the house, a man of sixty, 
 
 1 In 1826, during a year's residence at the Sierra de San Luis, I taught 
 the art of reading to six young people of good families, the youngest of 
 whom was twenty-two years old. 
 
KELIGIOUS ASPECTS. 19 
 
 % 
 
 with a noble countenance, in which the pure European 
 race was evident in the white skin, blue eyes, and wide 
 and open forehead ; while the o^sponses were made 
 by a dozen women and some young men, whose imper- 
 fectly broken horses were fastened near the door of the 
 chapel. After finishing the rosary, he fervently offered 
 up his own petitions. I never heard a voice fuller of 
 pious feeling, nor a prayer of purer warmth, of firmer 
 faith, of greater beauty, or better adapted to the cir- 
 cumstances, than that which he uttered. In this 
 prayer he besought God to grant rain for the fields, 
 fruitfulness for the herds and flocks, peace for the Re- 
 public, and safety for all wayfarers. I readily shed 
 tears, and wept even with sobs, for the religious senti- 
 ment had been awakened in my soul to intensity, arid 
 like an unknown sensation, for I never witnessed a 
 more religious scene. I seemed to be living in the 
 times of Abraham, in his presence, in that of God, and ' 
 of the nature which reveals Him. The voice of that 
 sincere and pure-minded man made all my nerves vi- 
 brate, and penetrated to my inmost soul. 
 
 To this, that is, to natural religion, is all religion 
 reduced in the pastoral districts. Christianity exists, 
 like the Spanish idioms, as a tradition which is perpet- 
 uated, but corrupted ; colored by gross superstitions 
 and unaided by instruction, rites, or convictions. It is 
 the case" in almost all the districts which are remote 
 from the cities, that when traders from San Juan or 
 Mendoza arrive there, three or four children, some 
 months or a year old, are presented to them for bap- 
 tism, confidence being felt that their good education 
 will enable them to administer the rite in a valid man- 
 
20 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 ner ; and on the arrival of a priest, young men old 
 enough to break a colt, present themselves to him to 
 be anointed and have baptism sub conditione adminis- 
 -tered to them. 
 
 In the absence of all the means of civilization and 
 , progress, which can only be developed among men 
 'collected into societies of many individuals, the educa- , 
 tion of the country people is as follows: The women look 
 after the house, get the meals ready, shear the sheep, 
 milk the cows, make the cheese, and weave the coarse 
 cloth used for garments. All domestic occupations are r ^ 
 performed by women ; on them rests the burden of all 
 the labor, and it is an exceptional favor when some of 
 the men' undertake the cultivation of a little maize, 
 bread not being in use as an ordinary article of diet. 
 The boys exercise their strength and amuse themselves 
 by gaining skill in the use of the lasso and the bolas, 
 with which they constantly harass and pursue the 
 calves and goats. When they can ride, which is as" 
 soon as they have learned to walk, they perform some 
 small services on horseback. When they become 
 stronger, they race over the country, falling off their 
 horses and getting up again, tumbling on purpose into 
 rabbit 1 burrows, scrambling over precipices, and prac-, 
 ticing feats of horsemanship. On reaching puberty, 
 they take to breaking wild colts, and death is the least ' 
 penalty that awaits them if their strength or courage 
 fails them for a moment. With early manhood comes 
 complete independence and idleness. ., 
 
 * Now begins the public life of the gaucho, as I may 
 say, since his education is by this time at an end,, * 
 
 1 Viscachas. 
 
< GAUCHO TRAITS. 
 
 mplants 
 
 These men, Spaniards only in their language ;sibility 
 the confused religious notions preserved among ion, it 7 
 must, be seen, before a right estimate can be made of" 
 the indomitable and haughty character which grows 
 out of this struggle of isolated man with untamed . 
 nature, of the rational being with the brute. It is 
 necessary to see their visages bristling with beards, . 
 their countenances as grave and serious as those of the 
 Arabs of Asia, to appreciate the pitying scorn with' 
 which they look upon the sedentary denizen of the 
 city, who may have read many books, but who cannot 
 overthrow and slay a fierce bull, who could not pro- 
 vide himself with a horse from the pampas, who has 
 never met a tiger alone, and received him with a dag- 
 ger in one hand and a poncho rolled up in the other, 
 to be thrust into the animal's mouth, while he trans- 
 fixes his heart with his dagger. 
 
 This habit of triumphing over resistance, of con^ 
 stantly showing a superiority to Nature, of defying and 
 subduing her, prodigiously develops the consciousness 
 of individual consequence and superior prowess. The / 
 Argentine people of every class, civilized and ignorant 
 alike, have a high opinion of their national importance/ 
 All the other people of South America throw this 
 vanity of theirs in their teeth, and take offense at their 
 presumption and arrogance. I believe the charge not , 
 to be wholly unfounded, but I do not object to the 
 trait. Alas, for the nation without faith in itself! 
 Great things were not made for such a people. To ^ 
 what 'extent may not the independence of that part of 
 America be due to the arrogance of these Argentine - 
 gaudhos, -who have never seen anything beneath the 
 
LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. < 
 
 perior to themselves in wisdom or in power? 
 European is in their eyes the most contemptible 
 or all men, for a horse 'gets the better of him in a 
 couple of plunges. 1 
 
 If the origin of this national vanity -among the lower 
 classes is despicable, it has none the less on that ac- 
 couijt some noble results ; as the water of a river is no 
 less pure for tlje mire and pollution of its sources. Im- 
 placable is the hatred which these people feel for men 
 of refinement, whose garments, manners, and customs, 
 they regard with invincible repugnance. Such is the 
 material of the Argentine soldiery, and it may easily be 
 imagined what valor and endurance in war are the con- 
 sequences of the habits described above. We may 
 add that these soldiers have been used to slaughtering 
 cattle from their childhood, and that this act of neces- 
 sary cruelty makes them familiar with bloodshed, and 
 hardens their hearts against the groans of their vic- 
 tims. 
 
 Country life, then, has developed all the physical 
 but none of the intellectual powers of the gaucho. 
 His moral character is of the quality to be expected 
 from his habit of triumphing over the obstacles and the 
 forces of nature ; it is strong, haughty, and energetic. 
 Without instruction, and indeed without need of any, 
 without means of support as without wants, he is happy 
 in the midst of his poverty and privations, which are 
 not such to one who never knew nor wished for greater 
 pleasures than are his already. Thus if the disorgani- 
 
 , ! General Mansilla said, in a public meeting during the French block- 
 ade, " What have we to apprehend from those Europeans, who are not 
 equal to one night's gallop? " and the vast plebeian audience drowned 
 the speaker's voice with thunders of applause. 
 
SOURCES OF WEALTH. 
 
 zation of society among the gauchos deeply implants 
 barbarism in their natures, through the impossibility 
 and uselessness of moral and intellectual education, it , 
 has, too, its attractive side to him. The gaucho does not 
 labor ; he finds his food and raiment ready to his hand. 
 If he is a proprietor, his own flocks yield him both ; if 
 he possesses nothing himself, he finds them in the house 
 of a patron or a relation. The necessary care of the 
 herds is reduced to excursions and pleasure parties ; 
 the branding, which is like the harvesting of farmers, 
 is a festival^ the arrival of which is received with trans- 
 
 ~~poffs of joy, being the occasion of the assembling of 
 all the men for twenty leagues around, and the oppor- 
 tunity for displaying incredible skill with the lasso. 
 The gaucho arrives at the spot on his best steed, riding 
 at a slow and measured pace ; he halts at a little dis- 
 tance and puts his leg over his horse's neck to enjoy 
 the sight leisurely. If enthusiasm seizes him, he slowly 
 dismounts, uncoils his lasso, and flings it at some bull, 
 passing like a flash of lightning forty paces from him ; 
 ' he catches him by one hoof, as he intended, and quietly 
 
 v coils his leather cord again. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 ORIGINALITY AND PECULIARITIES OF THE ARGENTINE 
 PEOPLE. 
 
 " Ainsi que 1' ocean, les Steppes remplessent 1'esprit du sentiment de 1'infini." 
 Humboldt. 
 
 " Like the ocean, the Pampas fill the mind with the impression of the in- 
 finite." Humboldt. 
 
 IF from the conditions of pastoral life, such as colo- 
 nization and neglect have constituted it, rise serious 
 obstacles in the way of creating any political organiza-'' 
 tion, and much more for the introduction of European 
 civilization and institutions, as well as their natural 
 results, wealth, and liberty, it cannot be denied, on the 
 other hand, that this state of things has its poetic 
 side, and possesses aspects worthy of the pen of the 
 romancer. If any form of national literature shall 
 appear in these new American societies, it must result 
 from the description of the mighty scenes of nature, 
 and still more from the illustration of the struggle 
 between European civilization and native barbarism, 
 between mind and matter a struggle of imposing 
 magnitude in South America, and which suggests 
 scenes so peculiar, so characteristic, and so far outside 
 the circle of ideas in which the European mind has 
 been educated, that their dramatic relations would be 
 unrecognized machinery, except in the country in 
 which they are found. 
 
POETIC CHARACTER. 25 
 
 The only North American novelist who has gained 
 a European reputation is Fenimore Cooper, and he 
 succeeded in doing so by removing the scene of the 
 events he described from the settled portion of the 
 country to the border land between civilized life and 
 that of the savage, the theatre of the war for the pos- 
 session of the soil waged against each other, by the 
 native tribes and the Saxon race. 
 
 It was in this manner that our young poet Eche- 
 varria succeeded in attracting the attention of the 
 literary world of Spain by his poem entitled " The 
 Captive." The subjects of " Dido and Argea " which 
 his predecessors the Varelas had treated with classic 
 art and poetic fire, but without success and ineffect- 
 ively, because they added nothing to the stock of 
 European ideas, were abandoned by this Argentine 
 bard, who turned his eyes to the desert. In its 
 immeasurable and boundless spaces, in its wastes 
 traversed by wandering savages, in the distant belt 
 of flame which the traveller sees approaching when a 
 fire has broken out upon the plains, he found the in- 
 spiration derived by the imagination from the sight of 
 such natural scenery as is solemn, imposing, unusual, 
 and mysterious ; and from this the echo of his verses 
 resounded, and was applauded even in the Spanish 
 Peninsula. 
 
 A fact which explains many of the social phenom- 
 ena of nations deserves a passing notice. The natural 
 peculiarities of any region give rise to customs and 
 practices of a corresponding peculiarity, so that where 
 the same circumstances reappear, we find the same 
 means of controlling them invented by different nations. 
 
26 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 Thus, in my opinion, is to be explained the use of bows 
 and arrows among all savage nations, whatever may be 
 their race, their origin, and their geographical position. 
 When I came to the passage in Cooper's " Last of the 
 Mohicans," where Hawkeye and Uncas lose the trail 
 of the Mingos in a brook, I said to myself: "They 
 will dam up the brook." When the trapper in " The 
 Prairie " waits in irresolute anxiety while the fire is 
 threatening him and his companions, an Argentine 
 would have recommended the same plan which the 
 trapper finally proposes, that of clearing a space for 
 immediate protection, and setting a new fire, so as to 
 be able to retire upon the ground over which it had 
 passed beyond the reach of the approaching flames. 
 Such is the practice of those who cross the pampa 
 when they are in danger from fires in the grass. 
 
 When the fugitives in " The Prairie " arrive at a 
 river, and Cooper describes the mysterious way in which 
 the Pawnee gathers together the buffalo's hide, " he is 
 making a pelota" said I to myself, " it is a pity there 
 is no woman to tow it," for among us it is the women 
 who tow pelotas across rivers with lassos held between 
 their teeth. The way in which a buffalo's head is 
 roasted in the desert is the same which we use for 
 cooking J a cow's head or a loin of veal. I omit many 
 other facts which prove the truth that analogies in the 
 soil bring with them analogous customs, resources, 
 and expedients. This explains our finding in Cooper's 
 works accounts of practices and customs which seem 
 plagiarized from the pampa ; thus, too, we find repro- 
 duced among American herdsmen, the serious coun- 
 
 1 Batear. 
 
POETIC CHARACTER. 27 
 
 tenance, the hospitality, and the very garments of the 
 Arab. 
 
 The country consequently derives a fund of poetry 
 from its natural circumstances and the special customs 
 resulting from them. To arouse the poetic sense 
 (which, like religious feeling, is a faculty of the human 
 mind), we need the sight of beauty, of terrible power, 
 of immensity of extent, of something vague and in- 
 comprehensible ; for the fables of the imagination, the 
 ideal world, begin only where the actual and the com- 
 monplace end. 
 
 Now, I inquire, what impressions must be made 
 upon the inhabitant of the Argentine Republic by the 
 simple act of fixing his eyes upon the horizon, and see- 
 ing nothing ? for the deeper his gaze sinks into that 
 shifting, hazy, undefined horizon, the further it with- 
 draws from him, the more it fascinates and confuses 
 him, and plunges him in contemplation and doubt. 
 What is the end of that world which he vainly seeks 
 to penetrate ? He knows not ! What is there be- 
 yond wjiat he sees? The wilderness, danger, the 
 savage, death ! Here is poetry already ; he who 
 moves among such scenes is assailed by fantastic 
 doubts and fears, by dreams which possess his waking 
 hours. 
 
 Hence it follows that the disposition and nature of 
 the Argentine people are poetic. How can such feel- 
 ings fail to exist, when a black storm-cloud rises, no 
 one knows whence, in the midst of a calm, pleasant 
 afternoon, and spreads over the sky before a word can 
 be uttered ? The traveller shudders as the crashing 
 thunder announces the tempest, and holds his breath 
 
28 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 in the fear of bringing upon himself one of the thousand 
 bolts which flash around him. The light is followed 
 by thick darkness ; death is on every side ; a fearful 
 and irresistible power has instantaneously driven the 
 soul back upon itself, and made it feel its nothingness 
 in the midst of angry nature ; made it feel God him- 
 self in the terrible magnificence of his works. What 
 more coloring could the brush of fancy need ? Masses 
 of darkness which obscure the sun ; masses of tremu- 
 lous livid light which shine through the darkness for an 
 instant and bring to view far distant portions of the 
 pampa, across which suddenly dart vivid lightnings, 
 symbols of irresistible power. These images must 
 remain deeply engraved on the soul. When the storm 
 passes by, it leaves the gaucho sad, thoughtful, and 
 serious, and the alternation of light and darkness con- 
 tinues in his imagination, as the disk of the sun long 
 remains upon the retina after we have been looking at 
 it fixedly. 
 
 Ask the gaucho, " Whom does the lightning prefer to 
 ^kill ? " and he will lead you into a world of moral and 
 religious fancies, mingled with ill-understood facts of 
 nature, and with superstitious and vulgar traditions. 
 We may add that if it is certain that the electric fluid 
 enters into the economy of human life and is the same 
 as the so-called nervous fluid, the excitement of which 
 rouses the passions and kindles enthusiasm, imagina- 
 tive exertion ought to be well suited to the temper of 
 a people living under an atmosphere so highly charged 
 with electricity that one's clothes sparkle when rubbed, 
 like a cat's fur stroked the wrong way. 
 
POETIC CHARACTER. 29 
 
 How can he be otherwise than a poet who witnesses 
 these impressive scenes ? 
 
 " Jira en vano, reconcentra 
 Su inmensidad, i no encuentra 
 La vista en su vivo anhelo 
 Do fijar su fugaz vuelo, 
 Como 'el pajaro en la mar. 
 Doquier campo i heredades 
 Del ave i bruto guaridas; 
 Doquier cielo i soledades 
 De Dios solo conocidas, 
 Que 1 solo puede sondear." Echevarria. 
 
 Or he who thus sees Nature in her gala dress ? 
 
 " De las entranas de America 
 Dos raudales se desatan; 
 El Parana, faz de perlas, 
 I el Uruguai, faz de nacar. 
 Los dos entre bosques corren 
 
 entre floridas barrancas, 
 Como dos grandes espejos 
 Entre marcos de esmeraldas. 
 Saludanlos en su paso 
 
 La melancolica pava, 
 El picaflor i jilguero, 
 El zorzal i la torcaza. 
 Como ante reyes se inclinan 
 Ante ellos seibos i palmas, 
 
 1 le arrojan flor del aire, 
 Aroma i flor de naranja. 
 
 Luego en el Guazii se encuentran 
 
 I reuniendo sus aguas, 
 
 Mezclando nacar i perlas, 
 
 Se derraman en el Plata." Dominguez. 
 
 But this is cultivated poetry, the poetry of the city. > 
 There is another poetry which echoes over the solitary 
 plains the popular, natural, and irregular poetry of 
 the gaucho. 
 
 Mftsic, too, is found among our people. It is a 
 ^.national taste recognized by all our neighbors. When 
 
30 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 an Argentine is first introduced to a Christian family, 
 they at once invite him to the piano, or hand him a 
 guitar, and if he excuses himself on the ground that 
 "hlflloes not know how to play, they express wonder 
 and incredulity, saying, " An Argentine, and not 
 understand music ! " This general supposition bears 
 witness to our national habits. It is the fact, that the 
 young city people of the better classes, play the piano, 
 flute, violin, or guitar: the half-breeds devote themselves 
 almost wholly to music, and many skillful composers 
 and players have sprung up among them. Guitars are 
 constantly heard at the shop-doors on summer even- 
 ings ; and late in the night, one's sleep is pleasantly 
 disturbed by serenades and peripatetic concerts. 
 
 The country people have songs peculiar to them- 
 selves. The " Ariste," prevalent among the people of 
 the northern districts, is a fugue melody expressive 
 of lamentation, such as Rousseau considers natural to 
 man in his primitive state of barbarism. 
 
 The " Vidalita " is a popular song with a chorus, 
 accompanied by the guitar and tabor, in the refrain of 
 which the bystanders join, and the number and volume 
 of the voices increase. I suppose this melody origi- 
 nated with the aborigines, for I once heard it at an 
 Indian festival at Copiapo, held to celebrate Candle- 
 mas. As a religious song it must be very old, and the 
 Indians of Chili can hardly have adopted it from the 
 Spaniards of the Argentine Republic. 
 
 The " Vidalita " is the popular measure for songs 
 about the topics of the day, or for warlike odes ; the 
 gauchos compose the words which they sing, and trust 
 to the associations which the song arouses, to make 
 
MUSICAL CHARACTER. 31 
 
 them understood v by the people. Thus, then, amidst 
 the rudeness of the national customs, two arts which 
 embellish civilized life and give vent to many generous 
 passions, are honored and favored, even by the lowest 
 classes, who exercise their uncultured genius in lyrical 
 and poetic composition. 
 
 In 1840, Echevarria, then a young man, lived some 
 months in the country, where the fame of his verses 
 upon the pampa had already preceded him ; the gau- 
 chos surrounded him with respect and affection, and 
 when a new-comer showed symptoms of the scorn he 
 felt for the little minstrel, 1 some one whispered, " He 
 is a poet," and that word dispelled every prejudice. 
 
 It is well known that the guitar is the popular in- 
 strument of the Spanish race ; it is also common in 
 South America. The majo or troubadour, the type of 
 a large class of Spaniards, is still found there, and in 
 Buenos Ayres especially. He is discoverable in the 
 gaucho of the country, and in the townsman of the 
 same class. The cielito^ the dance of the pampas, is 
 animated by the same spirit as the Spanish jaleo, the 
 dance of Andalusia ; the dancer makes castanets of his 
 fingers ; all his movements disclose the majo ; the action 
 of his shoulders, his gestures, all his ways, from that in 
 which he puts on his hat, to his style of spitting through 
 his teeth, all are of the pure Andalusian type. 
 
 From these general customs and tastes are developed 
 remarkable peculiarities, which will hereafter embellish 
 the national dramas and romances, and give them an 
 original shade of color. I propose at present only to 
 notice a few of these special developments, in order to 
 
 1 Cajeteija, little musical box. 
 
32 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 complete the idea of the customs of the country, and 
 so to explain subsequently the nature, causes, and 
 effects of its civil wars. 
 
 / t^^ 
 
 THE RASTREADOR. ^ fr/X 
 
 The most conspicuous and extraordinary of the oc- 
 cupations to be described, is that of the Rastreador, or 
 JracJ&rfmder. All the gauchos of the interior are Ras- 
 treadores. In such extensive plains, where paths and 
 lines of travel cross each other in all directions, and 
 where the pastures in which the herds feed are un- 
 fenced, it is necessary often to follow the tracks of an 
 animal, and to distinguish them among a thousand 
 others, and to know whether it was going at an easy 
 or a rapid pace, at liberty or led, laden or carrying no 
 weight. 
 
 This is a generally understood branch of household 
 knowledge. I once happened to turn out of a by-way 
 into the Buenos Ay res road, and my guide, following 
 the usual practice, cast a look at the ground. " There 
 was a very nice little Moorish mule in that train," 
 said he, directly. " D. N. Zapata's it was she is 
 good for the saddle, and it is very plain she was sad- 
 dled this time ; they went by yesterday." The man 
 was travelling from the Sierra de San Luis, while the 
 train had passed on its way from Buenos Ayres, and 
 it was a year since he had seen the Moorish mule, 
 whose track was mixed up with those of a whole train 
 in a path two feet wide. And this seemingly in- 
 credible tale only illustrates the common degree of 
 skill ; the guide was a mere herdsman, and no pro- 
 fessional Rastreador. 
 
THE RASTREADOR. 33 
 
 The Rastreador proper is a grave, circumspect per- 
 sonage, whose declarations are considered conclusive 
 evidence in the inferior courts. Consciousness of the 
 knowledge he possesses, gives him a certain reserved 
 and mysterious dignity. Every one treats him with 
 respect ; the poor man because he fears to offend one 
 who might injure him by a slander or an accusation ; 
 and the proprietor because of the possible value of his 
 testimony. A theft has been committed during the 
 night ; no one knows anything of it ; the victims of it 
 hasten to look for one of the robber's footprints, and on 
 finding it, they cover it with something to keep the 
 wind from disturbing it. They then send for the Rasr 
 treador, who detects the track and follows it, only occa- 
 sionally looking at the ground as if his eyes saw in full 
 relief the footsteps invisible to others. He follows the 
 course of the streets, crosses gardens, enters a house, 
 and pointing to a man whom he finds there, says, 
 coldly, " That is he ! " The crime is proved, and the 
 criminal seldom denies the charge. In his estimation, 
 even more than in that of the judge, the Rastreador's 
 deposition is a positive demonstration ; it would be 
 ridiculous and absurd to dispute it. The culprit ac- 
 cordingly yields to a witness whom he regards as the 
 finger of God pointing him out. I have had some 
 acquaintance myself with Calibar, who has practiced 
 his profession for forty consecutive years in one prov- 
 ince. He is now about eighty years old, and of vener- 
 able and dignified appearance, though bowed down by 
 age. When his fabulous reputation is mentioned to 
 him, he replies, " I am good for nothing now ; there 
 are the boys." The " boys," who have studied under 
 
 3 
 
84 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 so famous a master, are his sons. The story is that 
 his best horse-trappings were once stolen while he was 
 absent on a. journey to Buenos Ayres. His wife cov- 
 ered one of the thief's footprints with a tray. Two 
 months afterwards Calibar returned, looked at the foot- 
 print, which by that time had become blurred, and 
 could not have been made out by other eyes, after 
 which he spoke no more of the circumstance. A year 
 and a half later, Calibar might have been seen walking 
 through a street in the outskirts of the town with his 
 eyes on the ground. He turned into a house, where 
 he found his trappings, by that time blackened by use 
 and nearly worn out. He had come upon the trail of 
 the thief nearly two years after the robbery. 
 
 In 1830, a criminal under sentence of death 'having 
 escaped from prison, Calibar was employed to search 
 for him. The unhappy man, aware that he would be 
 tracked, had taken all the precautions suggested to 
 him by the image of the scaffold, but they were taken 
 in vain. Perhaps they only assured his destruction ; 
 for as Calibar's reputation was hazarded, his jealous 
 self-esteem made him ardent in accomplishing a task 
 which would demonstrate the wonderful sharpness of 
 his sight, though it insured the destruction of another 
 man. The fugitive had left as few traces as the nature 
 of the ground would permit ; he had crossed whole 
 squares on tiptoe ; afterwards he had leaped upon low 
 walls ; he had turned back after crossing one place ; 
 but Calibar followed without losing the trail. If he 
 missed the way for a moment, he found it again, ex- 
 claiming, " Where are you ? " Finally, the trail 
 entered a water-course in the suburbs, in which the 
 
THE BAQUEANO. 35 
 
 fugitive had sought to elude the Rastreador. In vain ! 
 Calibar went along the bank without uneasiness or 
 hesitation. At last he stops, examines some plants, 
 and says, " He came out here ; there are no footprints, 
 but these drops of water on the herbage are the sign ! " 
 On coming to a vineyard, Calibar reconnoitered the 
 Sfc^mud walls around it, and said, " He is in there." The 
 party of soldiers looked till they were tired, and came 
 back to report the failure of the search. " He has not 
 come out," was the only answer of the Rastreador, 
 who would not even take the trouble to make a second 
 investigation. In fact, he had not come out, but he 
 * ^ was taken and executed the next day. 
 
 In 1831, some political prisoners were planning an 
 escape ; all was ready, and outside help had been se- 
 cured. On the point of making the attempt, " What 
 shall be done about Calibar ? " said one. " To be 
 sure, Calibar ! " said the others, in dismay. Their 
 relations prevailed upon Calibar to be ill for four full 
 days after the escape, which was thus without difficulty 
 effected. 
 
 What a mystery is this of the Rastreador ! What 
 microscopic power is developed in the visual organs of 
 these men ! How sublime a creature is that which 
 God made in his image and likeness ! 
 
 THE BAQUEANO, OR PATH-FINDER. 
 
 Next to the Rastreador comes the Baqueanp, a per- 
 sonage of distinction, and one who controls the fate of 
 individuals and of provinces. The Baqueano is a 
 grave and reserved gaucho, who knows every span of 
 twenty thousand square leagues of plain, wood, and 
 
36 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 mountain ! He is the most thorough topographer, the < 
 only map which a general consults in directing the 
 movements of his campaign. The Baqueano is always 
 at his side. Modest and mute as a garden-wall, he is* 
 in possession of every secret of the campaign ; the 
 fate of the army, the issue of a battle, the conquest of 
 a province, all depend upon him. The Baqueano 
 almost always discharges his duty with fidelity, but. 
 the general does not place full confidence in him. 
 
 Conceive the situation of a commander condemned 
 to be attended by a traitor, from whom he has to 
 obtain the information without which he cannot suc- 
 ceed. A Baqueano finds a little path crossing the 
 road which he is following ; he knows to what distant 
 watering-place it leads. If he finds a thousand such 
 paths, some of them even a hundred leagues apart, he 
 is acquainted with each, and knows whence it comes 
 and whither it goes. He knows the hidden fords of a 
 hundred rivers and streams, above or below the ordi- 
 nary places of crossing. He can point out a convenient 
 path through a hundred distinct and extensive swamps. 
 In the deepest darkness of the night, surrounded 
 by boundless plains or by forests, while his companions 
 rare astray and at a loss, he rides round them inspect- 
 ing the trees ; if there are none, he dismounts and 
 stoops to examine the shrubs, and satisfies himself ef 
 his points of compass. He then mounts, and reassures 
 his party by saying, " We are in a straight line from 
 such a place, so many leagues from the houses ; we 
 must travel southwards." And he sets out in the direc- 
 tion he has indicated, without uneasiness, without 
 hurrying to confirm his judgment by arriving at the 
 
THE BAQUEANO. 37 
 
 town, and without answering the objections suggested 
 to the others by fear or bewilderment. 
 
 If even this is insufficient, or if he finds himself upon 
 the pampa in impenetrable darkness, he pulls up herbs 
 from different places, smells their roots and the earth 
 about them, chews their foliage, and by often repeating 
 A this proceeding, assures himself of the neighborhood of 
 7 some lake or stream, either of salt or of fresh water, 
 of which he avails himself, upon finding it, to set him- 
 self exactly right. It is said that General Rosas knows 
 the pasturage of every estate in the south ofBuenos v " 
 Ayres by its taste. 
 
 If the Baqueano belongs to the pampa, where no 
 roads exist, and a traveller asks him to show the way 
 straight to a place fifty leagues off, he pauses a moment, 
 reconnoitres the horizon, examines the ground, fixes 
 his eyes upon some point, and gallops off straight as 
 an arrow, until he changes his course for reasons known 
 only to himself, and keeps up his gallop day and night 
 till he arrives at the place named. 
 
 The Baqueano also announces the approach of the 
 enemy ; that is, that they are within ten leagues ; and 
 he also detects the direction in which they are approach- 
 ing by means of the movements of the ostriches, deer, 
 and guanacos, which fly in certain directions. At 
 shorter distances he notices the clouds of dust, and es- 
 timates the number of the hostile force by their density. 
 " They have two thousand men," he says ; " five hun- 
 dred," "two hundred;" and the commander acts 
 upon this assumption, which is almost always infallible. 
 If the condors and crows are wheeling in circles through 
 the air, he can tell whether there are troops hidden 
 
38 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 thereabouts, or whether a recently abandoned camp, 
 or simply a dead animal is the attractive object. The 
 Baqueano knows how far one place is from another, 
 the number of days and hours which the journey re- 
 quires, and besides, some unknown by-way through 
 which the passage may be' made in half the time, so as 
 to end in a surprise ; and expeditions for the surprise 
 of towns fifty leagues away are thus undertaken, and 
 generally with success, by parties of peasants. This 
 may be thought an exaggeration. No ! General Ri- 
 vera, of the Banda Oriental, is a simple Baqueano, who 
 knows every tree that grows anywhere in the Republic 
 of Uruguay. The Brazilians would not have occupied 
 that country if he had not aided them ; nor, but for 
 him, would the Argentines have set it free. 
 
 This man, at once general and Baqueano, over- 
 powered Oribe, who was supported by Rosas, after a 
 contest of three years ; and at the present da}% were 
 he in the field against it, the whole power of Buenos 
 Ayres, with its numerous armies, which are spread all 
 over Uruguay, might gradually fade away by means of 
 a surprise to-day, by a post cut off to-morrow, by some 
 victory which he could turn to his own advantage bv 
 his knowledge of some route to the enemy's rear, or 
 by some other unnoticed or trifling circumstance. 
 
 General Rivera began his study of the ground in 
 1804, when making war upon the government as an 
 outlaw ; afterwards he waged war upon the outlaws as 
 a government officer ; next, upon the king as a patriot ; 
 and -later upon the patriots as a peasant; upon the 
 Argentines as a Brazilian chieftain ; and upon the 
 Brazilians, as an Argentine general ; upon Lavalleja, 
 
THE GAUCHO OUTLAW. 39 
 
 as President ; upon President Oribe, as a proscribed 
 chieftain ; and, finally, upon Rosas, the ally of Oribe, 
 as a general of Uruguay ; in all which positions he has 
 had abundance of time to learn something of the art 
 of the Baqueano. 
 
 THE GAUCHO OUTLAW. 
 
 The example of this type of character, to be found 
 in certain places, is an outlaw, a squatter, a kind o^ 
 misanthrope. He is Cooper's Hawkeye or Trapper, 
 with all the knowledge of the wilderness possessed by 
 the latter ; and with all his aversion to the settlements 
 of the whites, but without his natural jnorality or his 
 friendly relations with the savages. The name of 
 gaucho outlaw is not applied to him wholly as an un- 
 complimentary epithet. The law has been for many 
 years in pursuit of him. His name is dreaded 
 spoken under the breath, but not in hate, and almost 
 respectfully. He is a mysterious personage ; his abode 
 is the pampa ; his lodgings are the thistle fields ; he 
 lives on partridges and hedgehogs, and whenever he is 
 disposed to regale himself upon a tongue, he lassos a 
 cow, throws her without assistance, kills her, takes his 
 favorite morsel, and leaves the rest for the carrion - 
 birds. The gaucho outlaw will make his appearance 
 in a place just left by soldiers, will talk in a friendly 
 way with the admiring group of good gauchos around 
 him ; provide himself with tobacco, yerba mate", which 
 makes a refreshing beverage, and if he discovers the 
 soldiers, he mounts his horse quietly and directs his 
 steps leisurely to the wilderness, not even deigning to 
 look back. He is seldom pursued ; that would be 
 
40 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC, 
 
 killing horses to ho purpose, for the beast of the gaucho 
 outlaw is a bay courser, as noted in his own way as 
 his master. If he ever happens to fall unawares into 
 the hands of the soldiers, he sets upon the densest masses 
 of his assailants, and breaks through them, with the 
 help of a few slashes left by his knife upon the faces 
 or bodies of his opponents ; and lying along the ridge 
 of his horse's back to avoid the bullets sent after him, 
 he hastens towards the wilderness, until, having left 
 his pursuers at a convenient distance, he pulls up and 
 travels at his ease. The poets of the vicinity add this 
 new exploit to the biography of the desert hero, and 
 his renown flies through all the vast region around. 
 Sometimes he appears before the scene of a rustic fes- 
 tival with a young woman whom he has carried off', 
 and takes a place in the dance with his partner, goes 
 through the figures of the cielito, and disappears, un- 
 noticed. Another day he brings the girl he has 
 seduced, to the house of her offended family, sets her 
 down from his horse's croup, and reckless of the 
 parents' curses by which he is followed, quietly betakes 
 himself to his boundless abode. 
 
 This white-skinned savage, at war with society and 
 proscribed by the laws, is no more depraved at heart 
 /than the inhabitants of the settlements. The reckless 
 outlaw who attacks a whole troop, does no harm to the 
 traveller. The gaucho outlaw is no bandit, or high- 
 wayman ; murderous assaults do not suit his temper, 
 as robbery would not suit the character of the churri- 
 ador (sheep-stealer). , To be sure, he steals ; but this is 
 his profession, his trade, his science. He steals horses. 
 He arrives, for instance, at the camp of a train from the 
 
THE CANTOR. 
 
 interior ; its master offers to buy of him a horse of som> 
 unusual color, of a particular shape and quality, with 
 a white star on the shoulder. The gaucho collects his 
 thoughts, considers a moment, and replies, after a 
 short silence : " There is no such horse alive." What 
 thoughts have been passing through the gaucho's 
 mind ? In that moment his memory has traversed a 
 thousand estates upon the pampa ; has seen and ex- 
 amined every horse in the province, with its marks, 
 color, and special traits, and he has convinced himself 
 that not one of them has a star on its shoulder ; some 
 have one on their foreheads, others have white spots on 
 their haunches. Is this power of memory amazing ? 
 No ! Napoleon knew two hundred thousand soldiers by 
 name, and remembered, when he saw any one of them, 
 all the facts relating to him. Therefore, if nothing im- 
 possible is required of him, the gaucho will deliver 
 upon a designated day and spot, just such a horse as 
 has been asked for, and with no less punctuality if he 
 has been paid in advance. His honor is as sensitive 
 upon this point as that of a gambler about his debts. 
 
 Sometimes he travels to the country about Cordova 
 or Santa Fe*. Then he may be seen crossing the 
 pampa behind a small body of horses ; if any one meets 
 him, he follows his course without approaching the new 
 comer unless he is requested to do so. 
 
 THE CANTOR (THE MINSTREL). 
 
 And now we have the idealization of this life of 
 resistance, civilization, barbarism, and danger. The 
 gaucho Cantor corresponds to the singer, bard, or trou- 
 badour of the Middle Ages, and moves in the same 
 
LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 .enes, amidst the struggles of the cities with provin- 
 cial feudalism, between the life which is passing away 
 and the new life gradually arising. The Cantor -goes 
 from one settlement to another "de tapera en galpon," 
 singing the deeds of the heroes of the pampa whom the 
 law persecutes, the lament of the widow whose sons 
 have been taken off by the Indians in a recent raid, 
 the defeat and death of the brave Ranch, the final 
 overthrow of Facundo Quiroga, and the fate of Santos 
 Perez. 
 
 The Cantor is performing in his simple way the 
 same labor of recording customs, history, and biogra- 
 phy, which was performed by the mediaeval bard, and 
 his verses would hereafter be collected as documents 
 and authorities for the future historian, but that there 
 stands beside him another more cultivated form of soci- 
 ety with a knowledge of events superior to that dis- 
 played by this less favored chronicler in his artless 
 rhapsodies. Two distinct forms of civilization meet 
 upon a common ground in the Argentine Republic : 
 one, still in its infancy, which, ignorant of that so far 
 above it, goes on repeating the crude efforts of the 
 Middle Ages ; the other, disregarding what lies at its 
 feet, while it strives to realize in itself the latest results 
 of European civilization ; the nineteenth and twelfth 
 centuries dwell together one inside the cities, the 
 other without them. 
 
 The Cantor has no fixed abode ; he lodges where 
 night surprises him ; his fortune consists in his verses 
 and in his voice. Wherever the wild mazes of the 
 cielito are threaded, wherever there is a glass of wine 
 to drink, the Cantor has his place and his particular 
 
THE CANTOR. 43 
 
 part in the festival. The Argentine gaucho only 
 drinks when excited by music and verse, 1 and every 
 grocery has its guitar ready for the hands of the Cantor 
 who perceives from afar where the help of his "gay 
 science " is needed, by the group of horses about the 
 door. 
 
 The Cantor intersperses his heroic songs with the 
 tale of his own exploits. Unluckily his profession of 
 Argentine bard does not shield him from the law. He 
 can tell of a couple of stabs he has dealt, of one or two 
 misfortunes (homicides !) of his, and of some horse or 
 girl he has carried off. 
 
 In 1840, a Cantor was sitting on the ground, cross- 
 legged, on the banks of the majestic Parana, in the 
 midst of a group of gauchos whom he was keeping in 
 eager suspense by the long and animated tale of his 
 labors and adventures. He had already related the 
 abduction of his love, with the difficulties overcome on 
 the occasion ; also his misfortune and the dispute that 
 led to it; and was relating his encounter with the 
 soldiery, and the stabs with which he defended himself, 
 when the noisy advance and the shouts of a body of 
 troops made him aware that this time he was sur- 
 
 1 Without wandering from our subject, we may here call to mind the 
 noteworthy resemblance between the Argentines and the Arabs. In Al- 
 giers, Oran, Mascara, and the desert encampments, I constantly saw the 
 Arabs collected in coffee-shops strong drink being forbidden them, 
 closely crowded about the singer, or more usually two singers, who ac- 
 company themselves with guitars in a duet, and recite national songs of 
 a mournful character like our tristes before mentioned. The Arabian 
 bridle is of plaited leather thongs, continued into a whip-lash like ours; 
 the bit which we use is that of the Arabs, and many of our customs show 
 the intercourse of our ancestors with the Moors of Andalusia. I have met 
 some Arabs whom I could have sworn I had seen in my own country. 
 
44 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 rounded. The troops had, in fact> closed up in the 
 form of a horseshoe, open towards the Parana, the 
 steep banks of which rose twenty yards above the water. 
 The Cantor, undismayed by the outcry, was mounted 
 in an instant, and after casting a searching look at the 
 ring of soldiers and their ready pieces, he wheeled his 
 horse towards the river's bank, covered the animal's 
 eyes with his poncho, and drove his spurs into him. 
 A few moments after, the horse, freed from his bit so 
 that he could swim more easily, emerged from the 
 depths of the Parana, the minstrel holding him by the 
 tail, and looking back to the scene on shore which he 
 had quitted, as composedly as if he had been in an 
 eight-oared boat. Some shots fired by the troops did 
 not hinder him from arriving safe and sound at the 
 first island in sight. 
 
 To conclude, the original poetry of the minstrel is 
 clumsy, monotonous, and irregular, when he resigns 
 himself to the inspiration of the moment. It is occu- 
 pied rather with narration than with the expression of 
 feeling, and is replete with imagery relating to the 
 open country, to the horse, and to the scenes of the 
 wilderness, which makes it metaphorical and grandiose. 
 When he is describing his own exploits or those of 
 some renowned evil-doer, he resembles the Neapolitan 
 improvisatore, his style being unfettered, commonly 
 prosaic, but occasionally rising to the poetic level for 
 some moments, to sink again into dull and scarcely 
 metrical recitation. The Cantor possesses, moreover, 
 a repertory of popular poems in octosyllabic lines vari- 
 ously combined into stanzas of five lines, of ten, or of 
 eight. Among them are many compositions of merit 
 which show some inspiration and feeling. 
 
THE CANTOR. 45 
 
 To these original types might be added many others 
 of equal peculiarity, but they would not, like the 
 former, illustrate the national customs, a knowledge of 
 which is necessary for the right comprehension of our 
 political personages and of the primitive and Ameri- 
 can nature of the bloody strife which distracts the 
 Argentine Republic. In the course of this narrative 
 the reader will himself discover where are to be met 
 the Track-viewer, Path-finder, Gaucho-outlaw, and 
 Minstrel. He will see in the chieftains whose fame 
 has passed the Argentine frontiers, and even in those 
 who have filled the world with the horror of their 
 names, the vivid reflection of the internal condition, 
 customs, and organization of the country. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 ASSOCIATION. 
 
 "The gaucho lives on privations, but his luxury is freedom. Proud of an 
 unrestricted independence, his feelings, though wild as his life, are yet noble and 
 good.". Head. 
 
 LA PULPERIA (THE COUNTRY STORE). 
 
 \ IN the first chapter we left the Argentine rustic, at 
 the moment of his arrival at maturity, in the possession 
 of such a character as had resulted from the natural 
 circumstances about him, and from his want of any 
 true society. We have seen that he is a man inde- 
 pendent of every want, under no control, with no 
 notion of government, all regular and systematic order 
 being wholly impossible among such people. With 
 these habits of heedlessness and independence he 
 enters on another step of rural life, which, common- 
 place as it is, is the starting-point of all the great 
 events which we are shortly to describe. 
 
 It is to be remembered that I am speaking of the 
 essentially pastoral part of the people, and that I 
 select for consideration only their fundamental charac- 
 teristics, neglecting the accidental modifications they 
 receive, the partial effects of which will be indicated 
 separately. I am speaking of the combination of 
 landed proprietaries which cover the surface of a 
 province, four leagues, more or less, being occupied by 
 each. 
 
PASTORAL SOCIETY. 
 
 The society of the agricultural districts is also much 
 subdivided and dispersed, but on a smaller scale. One 
 laborer assists another, and the implements of tillage, 
 the numerous tools, stores, and animals employed, the 
 variety of products and the various arts which agri- 
 culture calls to its aid, establish necessary relations 
 between the inhabitants of a valley and make it indis- 
 pensable for them to have a rudiment of a town to 
 serve as a centre. Moreover, the cares and occupa- 
 tions of a^ncjilture^rjeo^uire such, a number of hands 
 that idleness becomes impossible, and the men of an 
 estate are compelled to remain within its limits. The 
 exact contrary takes place in the singular society we 
 are describing. The bounds of ownership are un- 
 marked ; the more numerous the flocks and herds the 
 fewer hands_^,ra-rquired ; upon the women devolve 
 all the domestic duties and manufactures ; the men are 
 left without occupations, pleasures, ideas, or the neces- 
 sity of application. Home life is wearisome and even 
 repulsive to them. They need, then, factitious society 
 to remedy this radical want of association. Their 
 early acquired habit of riding gives them an additional 
 incentive to leave their houses. 
 
 It is the children's business to drive the horses to 
 the corral before the sun has quite risen ; and all the 
 men, even the lads, saddle their horses, even when 
 they have no object in view. The horse is an integral 
 part of the Argentine rustic; it is for him what the 
 cravat is to an inhabitant of the city. In 1841, El 
 Chacho, a chieftain of the Llanos, emigrated to Chili. 
 "How are you getting on, friend?" somebody asked 
 him. " How should I be getting on ? " returned he, in 
 
LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 .ones of distress and melancholy. " Bound to Chili, 
 and on foot ! " Only an Argentine gaucho can appre- 
 ciate all the misfortune and distress which these two 
 phrases express. 
 
 \ Here again we have the life of the Arab or Tartar. 
 The following words of Victor Hugo might have been 
 written in the pampas : 
 
 " He cannot fight on foot ; he and his horse are but one per- 
 son. He lives on horseback ; he trades, buys, and sells on horse- 
 back ; drinks, eats, sleeps, and dreams on horseback." Le Rhin. 
 
 The men then set forth without exactly knowing 
 where they are going. A turn around the herds, a 
 visit to a breeding-pen or to the haunt of a favorite 
 horse, takes up a small part of the day ; the rest is 
 consumed in a rendezvous at a tavern or grocery store. 
 There assemble inhabitants of the neighboring par- 
 ishes ; there are given and received bits of information 
 about animals that have gone astray ; the traces of the 
 cattle are described upon the ground ; intelligence of 
 ,the hunting-ground of the tiger or of the place where 
 the tiger's tracks have been seen, is communicated. 
 There, in short, is the Cantor ; there the men frater- 
 nize while the glass goes round at the expense of those 
 who have the means as well as the disposition to pay 
 for it. 
 
 In a life so void of emotion, gambling exercises the 
 enervated mind, and liquor arouses the dormant imagi- 
 nation. This accidental reunion becomes by its daily 
 ' repetition a society more contracted than that from 
 which each of its individual members came; yet in 
 this assembly, without public aim, without social inter- 
 est, are first formed the elements of those characters 
 
THE GAUCHO'S KNIFE. 49 
 
 which are to appear later on the political stage. We 
 shall see how. The gaucho esteems_skilj_in_. horseman- 
 ship and physical strength, and especially courage, 
 above all other things, as we have said before. This 
 meeting, this daily club, is a real Olympic circus where 
 each man's merit is tested and assayed. 
 
 The 1 gaucho is always armed with the knife in- 
 herited from the Spaniard. More fully even than in 
 Spain is here realized that peninsular peculiarity, that 
 cry, characteristic of Saragossa war to the knife. 
 The knife, besides being a weapon, is a tool used for 
 all purposes ; without it, life cannot go on. It is like 
 the elephant's trunk, arm, hand, finger, and all. The 
 gaucho boasts of his valor like a trooper, and every 
 little while his knife glitters through the air in circles, 
 upon the least provocation, or with none at all, for the 
 simple purpose of comparing a stranger's prowess with 
 his own ; he plays at stabbing as he would play at 
 dice. So deeply and intimately have these pugnacious 
 habits entered the life of the Argentine gaucho that 
 custom has created a code of honor and a fencing 
 system which protect life. The rowdy of other lands 
 takes to his knife for the purpose of killing, and he 
 kills ; the Argentine gaucho unsheathes his to fight, 
 and he only wounds. To attempt the life of his 
 adversary he must be very drunk, or his instincts must 
 be really wicked, or his rancor very deep. His aim is 
 only to mark his opponent, to give him a slash in the 
 face, to leave an indelible token upon him. The 
 numerous scars to be seen upon these gauchos, accord- 
 ingly, are seldom deep. A fight is begun, then, for the 
 sake of shining, for the glory of victory, for the love 
 
50 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 of fame. A close ring is made around the combatants, 
 and excited and eager eyes follow the glitter of the 
 knives which do not cease to move. When blood 
 flows in torrents the spectators feel obliged to stop the 
 fight. If a misfortune has resulted, the sympathies are 
 with the survivor; the best horse is available for his 
 escape to a distant place where he is received with 
 respect or pity. If the law overtakes him he often 
 shows fight, and if he rushes through soldiers and 
 escapes, he has from that time a wide-spread renown. 
 Time passes, the judge in place has been succeeded by 
 another, and he may again show himself in the town- 
 ship without further molestation : he has a full dis- 
 charge. 
 
 Homicide is but' a misfortune, unless the deed has 
 been so often repeated that the perpetrator has gained 
 the reputation of an assassin. The landed proprietor, 
 Don Juan Manuel Rosas, before being a public man, 
 had made his residence a sort of asylum for homicides 
 without ever extending his protection to robbers ; a 
 preference which would easily be explained by his 
 character of gaucho proprietor, if his subsequent con- 
 duct had not disclosed affinities with evil which have 
 filled the world with terror. 
 
 With respect to equestrian sports, it will suffice to 
 point out one of the many which are practiced, that the 
 reader may judge what daring is required of those who 
 engage in them. A gaucho rides at full speed before 
 his comrades. One of them flings a set of bolas at 
 him so as to shackle the horse in the midst of his 
 career. Issuing from the whirlwind of dust raised by 
 his fall, appears the rider at a run, followed by the 
 
A CENTAUR SOVEREIGNTY. 5tf 
 
 horse, the latter carried on by the impulse of his inter- 
 rupted career according to the laws of physics. In 
 this pastime, life is staked, and sometimes lost. 
 
 Will it be believed that these displays of valor or 
 skill and boldness in horsemanship are the basis of the 
 great exploits which have filled the Argentine Repub- 
 lic with their name and changed the face of the coun- 
 try ? Nothing is more certain, however. I do not 
 mean to assert that assassination and crime have always 
 been a ladder by which men have risen. Thousands 
 of daring men have remained in the position of obscure 
 bandits ; but those who owe their position to such deeds 
 are to be counted by larger numbers than hundreds. 
 In all despotic societies, great natural gifts tend to lose 
 themselves in crime ; the Roman genius which could 
 conquer the world is to-day the terror of the Pontine 
 Marshes, and the Spanish Zumalacarreguis and Minas 
 are to be met by hundreds in Sierra Morena. Man's 
 need of developing his strength, capacity, and ambition, 
 requires him, upon the failure of legitimate means, to 
 frame a world, with its own morality and laws, where 
 he shows complacently that he was born to be a Napo- 
 leon or a Caesar. 
 
 In this society, then, where mental culture is useless 
 or impossible, where no municipal affairs exist, where, 
 as there is no public, the public good is a meaningless 
 word, the man of unusual gifts, striving to exert his 
 faculties, takes with that design the means and the 
 paths which are at hand. The gaucho will be a male- 
 factor or a military chief, according to the course which 
 things are taking at the moment when he attains 
 celebrity. 
 
02 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 Such, customs need vigorous methods of repression, 
 and to restrain hardened men, judges still more hard- 
 ened are required. What I said at the outset, of the 
 captain of the freight-carts, is exactly applicable to the 
 country justice. He wants bravery more than any- 
 thing else ; the terror of his name is more powerful 
 than the punishments he inflicts. The justice is .natu- 
 rally some one of former notoriety recalled to orderly 
 life by old age and his family ties. Of course, the law 
 he administers is altogether arbitrary ; his conscience 
 or his passions determine it, and his decrees are final. 
 Sometimes justices officiate during their whole lives, 
 and are remembered with respect. But the conscious- 
 ness of these methods of administration and the arbi- 
 trary nature of the attendant penalties, produce among 
 the people ideas of judicial authority which will have 
 their effects hereafter. The justice secures obedience . 
 Jby his reputation for formidable boldness, by his force 
 of character, his informal decisions, his decree, the 
 announcement " such are my commands," and the 
 forms of punishment which he invents himself. From 
 this disorder, perhaps long since inevitable, it follows 
 that the military commander who reaches distinction 
 during rebellions possesses a sway, undisputed and un- 
 questioned by his followers, equal to the wide and terri- 
 ble power now only to be found among the nations of 
 Asia. - The Argentine chieftain is a Mohammed who 
 might change the prevailing religion, if such were his 
 whim, and contrive another. He has power in all its 
 forms ; his injustice is a misfortune for his victim, but 
 no abuse on his part ; for he may be unjust, still 
 more, he must be unjust, for he has been a lawless 
 man all his life. 
 
THE COUNTRY COMMANDANT. 53 
 
 These remarks are also applicable to the country 
 commandant. This personage is of more importance 
 than the former, and requires in a higher degree the 
 combination of the reputation and antecedents which 
 distinguish him. Far from being lessened, the evil is 
 even aggravated by an additional circumstance. The 
 title of country commandant is conferred by the rulers 
 of the cities ; but as the city is destitute of power, 
 influence, and supporters in the country, the adminis- 
 tration lays hold of the men it most fears, and confers 
 this office upon them in order to retain their obedi- 
 ence a well known procedure of all weak govern- 
 ments, which put off the evil of the moment only to 
 allow it to appear later in colossal dimensions. Thus 
 the Papal government has dealings with banditti, to 
 whom it gives offices in Rome, encouraging brigand- 
 age by this means, and making its continuance certain ; 
 thus did the Sultan grant Mehemet Ali the rank of 
 Pacha of Egypt, having afterwards to purchase the 
 continuance of his own reign by recognizing his vas- 
 sal's title to an hereditary throne. It is singular that 
 all the chieftains of the Argentine revolutionary move- 
 ment were country commandants : Lopez and Ibarra, 
 Artigas and Guemes, Facundo and Rosas. This is 
 the constant starting-point of ambition. When Rosas v 
 had made himself master of the city, he exterminated 
 all the commandants to whom he owed his elevation, 
 intrusting with this influential position commonplace 
 men, who could only follow the path he had traced. 
 Pajarito, Celarragan, Arbolito, Pancho el nato, Molina, 
 were among the commandants of whom Rosas cleared 
 the country. 
 
54 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 I assign so much importance to these lesser points, 
 because they will . serve to explain all our social^ phe- 
 nomena, and the revolution which has been taking v 
 place in the Argentine Republic. The features of this 
 revolution are distorted because described in words 
 from the political dictionary, which disguise and hide 
 them by the mistaken ideas they call up. In the same 
 way that of the Spaniards gave familiar European 
 names to the new animals they encountered upon land- 
 ing in America ; saluting with the terrible name of 
 .lion, which calls up the notion of the magnanimity 
 and strength of the king of beasts, a wretched cat ' 
 called the puma, which runs at the sight of the dogs, 
 and naming the jaguar of our woods the tiger. Evi- 
 dence will soon be brought to show the firm and in- 
 destructible nature of the foundations upon which I 
 assert the civil war to be based, however unstable and 
 ignoble they may appear. The life of the Argentine 
 country people as I have exhibited it is not a mere 
 accident ; it is the order of things, a characteristic, 
 normal, and in my judgment unparalleled system of 
 association, and in itself affords a full explanation of 
 our revolution. 
 
 Before 1810, two distinct, rival, and incompatible 
 forms of society, two differing kinds of civilization ex- 
 isted in the Argentine Republic : one being Spanish, 
 European, and cultivated, the other barbarous, Amer- 
 ican, and almost wholly of native growth. The revo- 
 lution which occurred in the cities acted only as the 
 cause, the impulse, which set these two distinct forms 
 A of national existence face to face, and gave occasion 
 for a contest between them, to be ended, after lasting 
 many years, by the absorption of one into the other. " 
 
MONTONERAS. 57 
 
 I have pointed out the normal form of association, 
 qr want of association, of the country people, a form 
 worse, a thousand times, ^than that of the nomad tribe. 
 I have described the artificial associations formed in 
 idleness, and the sources of fame among the gauchos 
 bravery, daring, violence, and opposition to regular 
 law, to the civil law, that is, of the city. These 
 phenomena of social organization existed in 1810, and 
 still exist, modified in many points, slowly changing in 
 others, and yet untouched in several more. These 
 foci, about which were gathered the brave, ignorant, 
 free, and unemployed peasantry, were found by thou- 
 sands through the country. The revolution of 1810 
 carried everywhere commotion and the sound of arms. 
 .Public. Jife, previously wanting in this Arabico-Roman 
 society, made its appearance in all the taverns, and the 
 revolutionary movement finally brought about provin- 
 cial, warlike associations, called montoneras, legitimate 
 offspring of the tavern and the field, hostile to the city 
 and to the army of revolutionary patriots. As events 
 succeed each other, we shall see the pro vincial_ mon- 
 toneras headed by their chiefs ; the final triumph, in 
 Facundo Quiroga, of the country over the cities 
 throughout the land ; and by their subjugation in 
 spirit, government, and civilization, the final formation 
 of the eentral consolidated despotic government' of the 
 landed proprietor, Don Juan Manuel Rosas, who applied 
 the knife of the gaucho to the culture of Buenos Ayres, 
 and destroyed the work of centuries of civilization, 
 law, and liberty. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE REVOLUTION OF 1810. 
 
 " When the battle opens, the Tartar utters a terrible cry, closes, vanishes, and 
 returns like a flash of lightning." Victor Hugo. 
 
 I HAVE been obliged to traverse the whole of the 
 route hitherto pursued, in order to reach the point at 
 which our drama begins. It is needless to consider at 
 length the character, object, and end, of the Revolu- 
 tion of Independence. 
 
 They were the same throughout America, and sprang 
 from the same source, namely, the progress of Euro- 
 pean ideas. South America pursued that course be- 
 cause all other nations were pursuing it. Books, events, 
 
 > and the impulses given by these, induced South Amer- 
 ica to take part in the movement imparted to France 
 by North American demands for liberty, and to Spain 
 by her own and by French writers. But what my 
 object requires me to notice, is, that the revolution 
 except in its external symbolic independence of the 
 
 "king was interesting and intelligible only to the 
 Argentine cities, but foreign and unmeaning to the 
 rural districts. Books, ideas, municipal spirit, courts, 
 laws, statutes, education, all the points of contact and 
 union existing between us and the people of Europe, 
 were to be found in the cities, where there was a basis 
 of organization, incomplete and comparatively evil," 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. 57 
 
 perhaps, for the very reason it was incomplete, and had 
 not attained the elevation which it felt itself capable of 
 reaching, but it entered into the revolution with enthu- 
 siasm. Outside the cities, the revolution was a problem r 
 atical affair, and so far as shaking off the king's author- 
 ity was shaking off judical authority, it was acceptable. 
 The pastoral districts could only regard the question 
 from this point of view. Liberty^ responsibility of 
 power, and all the questions which the revolution was 
 ta-*ehne, were foreign to their mode of life and to their 
 needs. But they derived this advantage from the 
 revolution, that it tended to confer an object and an 
 occupation upon the excess of vital force, the presence 
 of which among them has been pointed out, and was. 
 to add a broader base of union than that to which ' 
 throughout the country districts the men daily resorted. v 
 These Spartan constitutions, that warlike nature hith- 
 erto ill-satisfied by the free use of the dagger, that . 
 Roman-like idleness which could only be exchanged 
 for the activity of a battle-field, that utter impatience 
 of judicial control, were all to have at last a fit sphere 
 of action in the world. 
 
 Revolutionary movements then began in Buenos 
 Ayres, and the call met with a decided response from 
 all the interior cities. The pastoral districts became 
 unsettled and joined in the movement. Tolerably dis- 
 ciplined armies were raised in Buenos Ayres to be sent 
 to Upper Peru and Montevideo, where the Spanish 
 forces under General Vigodet were stationed'. Gen- 
 eral Rondeau laid siege to Montevideo with a disci- 
 plined army, and Artigas, a noted chieftain, took parjt 
 in the siege with some thousands of gauchos. Artigas 
 
LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 had been a formidable outlaw till 1804, when the civil 
 authorities of Buenos Ayres succeeded in bringing him 
 over and inducing him to undertake the duties of 
 country commandant, as a supporter of the same au- 
 thorities upon whom he had, till then, made war. If 
 the reader has not forgotten the baqueano, and the 
 general requisites of a country commandant, he will 
 readily understand the character and feelings of Arti- 
 gas. After a time, Artigas and his gauchos withdrew 
 from General Rondeau, and began to make war upon 
 him. 
 
 The latter's position was the same as Oribe's when 
 he conducted the siege of Montevideo while taking care 
 of another enemy at his rear. The only difference 
 - between the cases is that Artigas was hostile at once 
 ,to patriats and royalists. It is not my purpose to de- 
 termine with precision the causes or pretexts which 
 occasioned this rupture, and I am as little disposed to 
 apply to it any designation from the language of poli-' 
 tics, for none such would be appropriate. When a 
 nation engages in a revolution, it is begun by the con- 
 flict of two opposing interests, the__ry^lu^naEy and 
 the conservative ; among us the names of patriots and 
 royalists were applied to the corresponding parties. It 
 is natural for the victors, after their triumph, to sepa- 
 rate into moderate and extreme factions, one set wish- 
 ing to carry out all the consequences of the revolution, 
 while their opponents seek to restrain it within certain 
 bounds. It is also characteristic of revolutions for the 
 originally conquered party to renew its organization, 
 and to. find a means of success in the dissensions of its 
 conquerors. But when one of the parties called to 
 
THE MIDDLE PARTY. 59 
 
 the aid of a revolution, immediately loses its connection 
 with the others, forms a third entity, and shows hos- 
 tility indiscriminately to both combatants (royalists 
 and patriots), this detached party is heterogeneous, 
 not having been conscious of existence until that time, 
 the revolution having served to develop it and make 
 it known. 
 
 This was the element set in motion by the renowned 
 Artigas. It was a blind tool, but a tool full of life and 
 of instincts hostile to European civilization and to all 
 regular organization ; opposed to monarchy as to re- 
 publicanism, because both came from the city and pos- 
 sessed already order and reverence for authority. 
 This tool was employed by the various parties, prin- 
 cipally by that least revolutionary, in the civilized 
 cities, until in the course of time the very men who 
 had summoned it to their aid, yielded to it ; and with 
 them fell the city, its ideas, its literature, its colleges, 
 its tribunals, its civilization ! 
 
 This spontaneous movement of the pastoral districts 
 was so ingenuous in its first manifestations, so full of 
 genius and expression in its spirit and tendencies, that 
 its adoption and baptism by the parties of the cities, 
 with the political names which divided them, makes 
 the sincerity of the latter appear in the most unfavor- 
 able light. The force which supported Artigas in 
 Entre Rios, did the same for Lopez in Santa Fe*, for 
 Ibarra in Santiago, for Facundo in the Llanos. Its 
 essence was individual action ; its exclusive weapon, 
 the horse ; its stage, the vast pampas. The Bedouin 
 hordes which in our day disturb the Algerian frontier 
 by their war-cries and depredations, gives an exact idea 
 
60 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 of the Argentine montonera, which has been made 
 use of by men of sagacity, as well as by noted despera- 
 does. In Africa, at the present day, there exists the 
 
 same struggle between civilization and barbarism ; the 
 
 t goom and the montonera are distinguished by the same 
 characters, the same spirit, the same undisciplined 
 strategy. Immense masses of horsemen wander in 
 
 " each case over the wilderness, offering battle to the 
 disciplined forces of the cities, if they feel themselves 
 the stronger party ; dispersing in all directions like 
 clouds of Cossacks, if the fight is even, to unite again 
 
 ; and fall unexpectedly upon their sleeping foes, snatch 
 away their horses, and kill their laggards and advanced 
 ^parties. Ever at hand, but too much scattered to be 
 successfully attacked, impotent in battle, but powerful 
 and invincible in an extensive region, they finally 
 decimate and* overpower an organized force by means 
 of skirmishes, surprises, fatigues, and privations. 
 
 The montonera, as it appeared under the command 
 of Artigas in the early days of the Republic, already 
 showed that character of brutal ferocity and the prom- 
 ise of a reign of terror, which it was reserved for the 
 
 / immortal bandit, the Buenos Ayres land-owner, to 
 convert into a legislative system applied to a civilized 
 society, and to present to the contemplation of Europe, 
 to the shame and disgrace of America. Rosas invent- 
 ed nothing ; his talent was only that of copying his 
 predecessors and combining the brutal instincts of the 
 ignorant masses into a coolly planned system. 
 
 The thongs made of Colonel Maciel's skin, and by 
 command of Rosas converted into a pair of manacles, 
 have been actually seen by foreign officials, an outrage 
 
THE MONTONEKA'S SAVAGERY. 63 
 
 not without its precedent, under the rule of Artigas 
 and the other barbarous and Tartaric chiefs of the 
 time. The montonera of Artigas waistcoated its ene- 
 mies ; that is, sewed them up in an envelope of raw 
 hide, and left them in the fields in this condition. 
 
 The reader may imagine all the horrors of this slow 
 death, and this horrible punishment was repeated in 
 1836, in the case of a colonel in the army. The in- ' 
 fliction of death by cutting the throat with a knife 
 instead of by shooting, is the result of the butcherly 
 instinct which led Rosas to encourage cruelty, to give 
 -executions a more barbarous form which he thought 
 would give pleasure to the assassins; in other words, 
 he changed the legal punishments recognized by civil 
 society, for others which he called American, and in 
 the name of which he invited his fellow-Americans to 
 come forward in his defense when the sufferings -of 
 Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay invoked the aid of the 
 European powers to assist in their liberation from the 
 cannibal, who was even then overrunning them with > 
 his sanguinary hordes. It is impossible to maintain the 
 calmness needed to investigate historic truth when we 
 'are forced to remember at every step that America 
 and Europe have been so long successfully deluded by 
 a system of assassination and cruelty, scarcely tolerated v 
 in the African provinces of Ashantee or Dahomey. 
 
 Such is the character presented by the montonera 
 from its first appearance ; a singular kind of warfare 
 and civil polity, unprecedented except among the tribes 
 of the Asiatic plains, and not to be confounded with 
 the habits, ideas, and customs of the Argentine cities, 
 which were, like all South American cities, a continua- 
 
UK!. 
 
 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPDB 
 
 don of European civilization, and especially that of 
 Spain. 
 
 The only explanation of the montonera is to be dis- 
 covered by the examination of the society from which 
 it proceeded. Artigas, the baqueano and outlaw, at 
 war with the authorities of the city, but bought over 
 as provincial commandant and chief of equestrian bands, 
 presents a type reproduced with little change in each 
 provincial commandant who came to be a partisan 
 leader. Like all civil wars in which deep differences 
 of education, belief, and motives divide the parties 
 engaged in them, the internal warfare of the Argen- 
 tine Republic was long and obstinate, until one of the 
 elements of the strife was victorious. The Argentine 
 Revolutionary War was twofold: 1st, a civilized war- 
 fare of the cities against Spain ; 2d, a war against the 
 \ cities on the part of the country chieftains with the 
 view of shaking off all political subjection and satisfy- 
 ing their hatred of civilization. The cities overcame 
 the Spaniards, and were in their turn overcome by the 
 country districts. This is the explanation of the 
 Argentine Revolution, the first shot of which was fired 
 in 1810, and the last is still to be heard. 
 
 I will not enter into all the details of this contest. 
 The struggle was of various duration in different places ; 
 some cities yielded at first, others later. The life of 
 Facundo Quiroga will afford us an opportunity of dis- 
 playing this strife in all its naked deformity. What I 
 have now to notice is that the triumph of these chiefs 
 involved the disappearance of all civil order, even as 
 it existed among the Spaniards. In some places it 
 has totally disappeared ; in others only in part, but it 
 
THE VIOLENT DEATH OF CITIES. 63 
 
 is clearly on its way to destruction. The mass of men 
 
 are incapable of distinctly comparing one epoch with 
 another ; the present moment is the only one embraced 
 by their observation ; and for this reason no one has 
 
 yet observed this destruction and decadence of the 
 cities ; just as the visible progress of the people of the 
 interior to total barbarism escapes notice. Buenos 
 Ayres has so many of the elements of European civili- 
 zation that it will end by educating Rosas and repress- 
 ing his bloody and barbarous instincts. The high 
 position which he occupies, his relations with European 
 governments, the necessity of respecting strangers and 
 of denying through the press the atrocities he has com- 
 mitted, in order to escape universal reprobation, all 
 
 ' combine to check his outrages, a perceptible advan- 
 tage. 
 
 Four cities have already been annihilated by the 
 rule of the partisan supporters of Rosas : Santa Fe\ 
 Santiago del Estero, San Luis, and La Rioja. Santa 
 FC*, situated at the junction of the Parana and another 
 navigable river, the mouth of which is close by the 
 town, is one of the most favored spots of South Amer- 
 ica, and yet contains less than two thousand souls; 
 San Luis, the capital of a province with a population 
 of fifty thousand, in which it is the only city, contains 
 less than fifteen hundred. 
 
 To make the ruin and decadence of civilization and 
 the rapid progress of barbarism perceptible to the read- 
 er, I must select two cities one already annihilated, 
 the other insensibly proceeding towards barbarism 
 La Rioja and San Juan. LaJRipja was formerly a 
 city of some account, but its own sons would fail to 
 
64 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 recognize it in its present condition. When the revo- 
 lution of 1810 began, it contained a large number of 
 capitalists, and men of note, who have figured in a 
 distinguished manner in arms, at the bar, on the bench, 
 or in the pulpit. From Rioja came Dr. Castro Barros, 
 deputy to the Congress of Tucuman, and a celebrated 
 divine ; General Davila, who freed Copiapo from the 
 Spanish power in 1817 ; Gabriel Ocampo, one of the 
 most noted members of the Argentine bar ; and a 
 large number of advocates of the families Ocampo, 
 Davila, and Garcia, at present scattered over the Chil- 
 ian territory, as well as various priests of much learn- 
 ing, among whom is Dr. Gordillo, actual curate of 
 Huasco. 
 
 ; The ability of a province to produce in a 7 given 
 fcpoch so many eminent and illustrious men, proves the 
 diffusion of learning among a greater number of indi- 
 viduals, and that it was respected and desired. If such 
 was the case in the early days of the revolution, what 
 an increase of enlightenment, wealth, and population, 
 might we not expect to find now, if a fearful retro-j 
 gression towards barbarism had not checked the devel| 
 opment of that unfortunate people ! What Chilian 
 city, however insignificant, is there, in which no prog- 
 ress has been made during a period of ten years, in 
 enlightenment, wealth, and elegance, even if we include 
 among these such as have been destroyed by earth- 
 quakes ? 
 
 Let us now look at the condition of La Rioja, as 
 exhibited by the answers given to one of the many in- 
 quiries I have instituted for the purpose of gaining a 
 thorough knowledge of the facts on which I base my 
 
RIOJA. 65 
 
 theories. These are the statements of a reliable per- 
 son, who was unacquainted with my object in investi- 
 gating his memory of matters which must have been 
 fresh in his mind, for it was only four months before 
 that he left Rioja. 1 
 
 1. What is about the actual amount of the popula- 
 tion of Rioja city ? 
 
 Ans. About fifteen hundred souls. It is said that 
 only fifteen adult males reside in the city. 
 
 2. How many persons of note live in it ? 
 Ans. Six or eight in the city. 
 
 3. How many lawyers' offices are open there ? 
 Ans. None. 
 
 4. How many men wear dress-coats ? 
 Ans. None. 
 
 5. How many young men from La Rioja are study- 
 ing at Cordova or Buenos Ayres ? 
 
 Ans. I know of only one. 
 
 6. How many schools are there, and how many 
 children attend them ? 
 
 Ans. None. 
 
 7. Are there any public charitable institutions ? 
 
 Ans. None, nor any means for the simplest instruc- 
 tion. The only Franciscan ecclesiastic of the place has 
 given instruction to some children. 
 
 8. How many of the churches are in ruins ? 
 
 . Ans. Five ; the Matriz is the only one at all ser- 
 viceable. 
 
 9. Are new houses building ? 
 
 1 Dr. Don Manuel Ignacio Castro Barros, canon of the Cordova Ca- 
 thedral. 
 
 5 
 
66 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC.. 
 
 / 
 
 Ans. Not one, nor are people making any of 'the 
 needed repairs. 
 
 10. Are the existing houses going to ruins ? 
 
 Ans. Almost all, owing to the frequency with .which 
 the streets are flooded. 
 
 11. How many priests in orders are there ? 
 
 Ans. Only two young men in the city : one is a 
 secular curate, the other an ecclesiastic of Catamarca. 
 There are four others in the province. 
 
 12. Are there any fortunes of fifty thousand dol- 
 lars ? and how many of twenty thousand ? 
 
 Ans. ^"one ; all the people are extremely poor. 
 
 13. Has the population increased or diminished ? 
 Ans. It has diminished by more than one half. 
 
 14. Is there any feeling of terror prevalent among 
 the people ? 
 
 Ans. A very strong one ; there is a fear of uttering 
 even harmless words. 
 
 15. Is the money coined of full value ? 
 Ans. That of the province is debased. 
 
 These facts speak with all their sad and fearful 
 severity. The only example of so rapid a decline 
 towards barbarism is presented by the history of the 
 Mohammedan conquests of Greece. And this happens 
 in America, and in the ^flJejte^njtlxjiejQtury, and is the 
 work of but twenty years ! 
 
 What is true of La Rioja is equally so of Santa F, 
 San Luis, and Santiago del Estero, which have become 
 skeletons of cities, decrepit and devastated, mere apolo- 
 gies for towns. In San Luis there has been but one 
 priest for ten years past, and for the same period it has 
 contained no school, nor any person who wears a dress- : 
 
 r 
 
SAN JUAN. 67 
 
 coat. But let us 'judge by San Juan the fate of the 
 cities which have escaped destruction, but in which 
 barbarism is insensibly increasing. 
 
 San Juan is an exclusively agricultural and com- 
 mercial province. Its want of open country has long 
 kept it free from the rule of the provincial chieftains. 
 Whatever party was in power, its governor and offi- 
 cials were tak.enJc.Qin the educated part of its population 
 until 1833, when Facundo Quiroga placed a man of 
 the lowef class in possession of the government. This 
 person, unable to avoid the influence of the civilized 
 usages, went over to the party of culture and yielded 
 to their dictations, until he was overthrown by Bri- 
 zuela, chief of La Rioja. Brizuela was succeeded by 
 General Benavides, whose power has lasted nine years, 
 and has come to seem rather his own property than a 
 magistracy held for a term. San Juan has grown in 
 population, owing to the progress^oilagriculture there, 
 and to the emigrants driven by hunger and wretched- 
 1 ness from La Rioja and San Luis, and its buildings 
 have sensibly increased in number ; facts which prove 
 the natural wealth of the region, and the progress that 
 might be made under a government which cared to 
 foster education and culture, the sola methods of ele- 
 vating a nation. 
 
 The despotism of Benavides is mild and pacific, so 
 that men's minds are kept quiet and calm. He is the 
 only subordinate of Rosas who has not reveled in 
 blood ; but this does not lessen the tendency to bar- 
 barism inherent in the ^resent system. 
 f All the courts are held by men destitute of the slight- 
 eat knowledge of law, worthless in every sense. There 
 
68 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 J 
 is no military man who has served in regular armies 
 
 outside the Republic. 1 Is it credible that such an in- 
 ferior position is naturally that of a city of the interior ? 
 No', the past proves the contrary. Twenty years ago 
 San Juan was one of the most civilized towns of the 
 interior ; and what must be the decline and prostration 
 of a South American city which has to look back 
 twenty years for its time of prosperity ! 
 
 ' In 1831 two hundred heads of families, youths, edu- 
 cated men, advocates, soldiers, and other of its citizens, 
 emigrated to Chili, Copiapo, Coquimbo, Valparaiso ; 
 and other parts of that Republic are still full of these 
 noble victims of proscription, among whom are capital- 
 ists, intelligent miners, merchants, farmers, lawyers, 
 and physicians. As at the Babylonian dispersion, none 
 of them have yet been able to return to see the prom- 
 ised land. A second set of emigrants left the city in 
 1840, never to return. ' 
 
 San Juan had been, before these days, rich enough 
 in distinguished men to give to the celebrated Congress 
 of Tucuman a President of the capacity and rank of 
 Dr. Laprida, who was afterwards assassinated by the 
 Aldaos ; a prior to the Recoleta Dominica of Chili, in 
 the person of the distinguished sage and patriot Oro, 
 
 1 From 1845, when this book was written, to the present date, a salutary 
 reaction occurred in the province of San Juan. It now contains one male 
 and one female academy, and the Honorable House of Representatives has 
 just proclaimed primary education for both sexes a public institution of 
 the province. More than twenty youths are studying in Buenos Ayres, 
 Cordova, and Chili, for the professions of law or medicine. Music and 
 drawing have become quite frequent accomplishments for both sexes, and 
 the artisans and other grades of society dress by preference in civilized 
 costume, which is a sign of a satisfactory direction of the public mind to 
 the improvement of its condition. 
 
SAN JUAN. H9 
 
 afterwards Bishop of San Juan. An illustrious patriot, 
 Don Ignacio de fa Rosa, who, in conjunction with San 
 Martin, prepared the expedition to aid Chili, and who 
 scattered through his country the seeds of the equality 
 of classes promised by the Revolution, was also a citi- 
 zen of San Juan ; as were a minister of the govern- 
 ment of Rivadavia, Dr. Carril ; a minister of the Argen- 
 Jtine Legation, Don Domingo Oro, whose diplomatic 
 talents are yet insufficiently appreciated ; a deputy to 
 the Congress of 1826, the enlightened priest Vera ; a 
 deputy to the convention of Santa FC*, in the presbyter 
 Oro, an orator of note ; one to that of Cordova, Don 
 Rudecindo Rojo, as eminent for his talents and genius 
 for industrial pursuits as for his great learning ; and, 
 among others, General Rojo, a soldier in the army, 
 who saved two provinces by suppressing conspiracies, 
 which he did solely by his quiet determination of char- 
 acter, and of whom General Paz, a competent judge of 
 such matters, said, that he bade fair to be one of the 
 first generals of the Republic. San Juan then possessed 
 a theatre and a permanent company of actors. 
 
 There are still in existence the remains of six or 
 seven private libraries, which comprised the most valu- 
 ableTbboks of the eighteenth century, and translations 
 of the best Greek and Latin works. I had no other 
 instruction up to 1836 than that afforded me by these 
 rich, though partially destroyed libraries. San Juan 
 had so many illustrious men in 1825 that the House of 
 Representatives contained six noted orators. Let the 
 wretched peasants who now 1 disgrace the House of 
 Representatives of San Juan, within which have been 
 
 1 1845. 
 
70 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC.* . 
 
 heard such eloquent speeches and such elevated senti- 
 ments, turn from the record of those times and flee 
 abashed at the profanation of that august sanctuary by 
 their diatribes ! 
 
 The judicial chairs and the administrative offices 
 were then occupied by educated men, and a sufficient i 
 number remained to plead the causes of others. 
 
 The elegance of manners, the refinement of cus- 
 toms, the cultivation of literature, the great commer- 
 cial interests, the public spirit which animated the 
 people, all announced to foreigners the existence o 
 a society of culture advancing rapidly to the attainment 
 of a distinguished rank, and justified the following esti- 
 mate of San Juan given to America and Europe 
 through the London press : 
 
 " They are showing the strongest inclination to advance in 
 civilization, and this city is regarded at present as only second 
 to Buenos Ayres in the progress of social reform. Various insti- 
 tutions lately established in Buenos Ayres have been adopted at 
 San Juan on a scale proportionate to its size, and the people have 
 made extraordinary progress in ecclesiastical reform, incorporat- 
 ing all the monastic orders with the secular clergy, and suppress- 
 ing the convents of the latter." 
 
 t 
 
 But the state of primary education will give the be^t 
 
 idea of the culture of the period we are considering., 
 No portion of the Argentine Republic has been more 
 distinguished by its anxiety for the diffusion of knowl- 
 edge than San Juan, nor have more complete results 
 been obtained elsewhere. The government, not satis- 
 fied with the capacity of the men of the- province for 
 the fulfillment of so important a duty, sent in 1815 for 
 a person uniting competent learning and high morals 
 
THE RODRIGUEZ. 71 
 
 from Buenos Ayres. Some gentlemen of the name of t 
 'Rodriguez accordingly came to San Juan. These were 
 three brothers worthy of ranking with the first families 
 of the - country, with whom they became connected, 
 such was their merit, and such were the many excel- 
 lent qualities they possessed. My present profession 
 as superintendent of primary education, and my study 
 of such subjects, enable me to say that if ever any 
 parallel to the celebrated Dutch schools described by .- 
 M. Cousin, occurred in Spanish America, it was in the 
 school of San Juan. The moral and religious instruc- 
 tion was perhaps superior to the elementary teaching 
 given there ; and to this cause I attribute the small 
 number of crimes committed in San Juan, and the 
 moderate conduct of Benavides himself, who like most 
 of the present citizens of San Juan, was educated in 
 that famous school, where the pupils were indoctrinated 
 into the precepts of morality with special care. 
 
 If these pages reach the hands of Don Ignacio and 
 Don Roque Rodriguez, I trust they will accept this 
 feeble homage, due, as I believe, to the eminent ser- 
 vice done to the culture and morality of a whole city, 
 in connection with their late brother, Don Jose*. 1 
 
 Such is the history of the Argentine cities. They 
 can all claim past glory, civilization, and distinction. 
 For the present they are borne down to the level of 
 barbarism, and this barbarism of the interior has suc- 
 ceeded in penetrating even to the streets of Buenos 
 Ayres. 
 
 1 A detailed account of the system and organization of this public edu- 
 cational establishment will be found in Popular Education, a special work 
 devoted to that subject, and the fruit of my journey to Europe and the 
 United States, undertaken by order of the Chilian government. 
 
72 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 From 1810 to 1840 the provinces which contained 
 such civilized cities, were yet sufficiently barbarous to , 
 destroy by their propensities the colossal work of the 
 Revglution of Independence ! Now tha,t nothing is 
 left of what men, enlightenment, and institutions they 
 once held, what will become of them ? Ignorance 
 and its consequence, poverty, are waiting like^carrioh 
 birds for the last gasp of the cities of the interior to 
 devour their prey, and to convert them into fields and 
 pastures. Buenos Ayres may again become what it 
 Vas ; for there European civilization has such strength" 
 that it must maintain itself in spite of the brutality of 
 *the government. Bat what can the provinces depend 
 "upon ? Two centuries will not suffice for their restor- 
 >tion to the path they have abandoned, if the present 
 generation shall educate their children in the barbarism 
 which they have reached. Are we now asked for what 
 we are contending? We are contending for the res- 
 toration of their former life, and the promise of im- 
 * provenaent to the cities. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 * 
 
 LIFE OF JUAN FACUNDO QUIROGA. 
 
 " Moreover these traits belong to the original character of the human race. The 
 man of nature who has not yet learned to restrain or disguise his passions, displays 
 them in all their energy, and gives himself up to their impetuosity." Alex. His- 
 tory of the Ottoman Empire. 
 
 HIS INFANCY AND YOUTH. 
 
 BETWEEN the cities of San Luis and San Juan, lies 
 an extensive desert, called the Travesia, a word which 
 signifies want of water. The aspect of that waste is 
 mostly gloomy and unpromising, and the traveller com- 
 ing from the east does not fail to provide his chifles 
 with a sufficient quantity of water at the last cistern 
 which he passes as he approaches it. This Travesia 
 once witnessed the following strange scene. The con- 
 sequences of some of the encounters with knives 
 so common among our gauchos had driven one of 
 them in haste from the city of San Luis and forced 
 him to escape to the Travesia on foot, and with his 
 riding gear on his shoulder, in order to avoid the 
 pursuit of the law. Two comrades were to join 
 him as soon as they could steal horses for all three. 
 Hunger and thirst were not the only dangers which at 
 that time awaited him in the desert ; a tiger that had 
 already tasted human flesh had been following the track 
 of those who crossed it for a year, and more than eight 
 persons had already been the victims of this preference. 
 
74 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 In these regions, where man must contend with this 
 animal for dominion over nature, the former sometimes 
 falls a victim, upon which the tiger begins to acquire a 
 preference for the taste of human flesh, and when it has 
 once devoted itself to this novel form of chase, the pur- 
 suit of mankind, it gets the name of man-eater. The 
 provincial justice nearest the scene of his depredations 
 calls out the huntsmen of his district, who join, under 
 his authority and guidance, in the pursuit of the beast, 
 which seldom escapes the consequences of its outlawry. 
 When our fugitive had proceeded some six leagues, 
 he thought he heard the distant roar of the animal, and 
 a shudder ran through him. The roar of the tiger resem- 
 bles the screech of the hog, but is prolonged, sharp, and 
 piercing, and even when there is no occasion for fear, 
 causes an involuntary tremor of the nerves as if the flesh 
 shuddered consciously at the menace of death. The 
 roaring was heard clearer and nearer. The tiger was al- 
 ready upon the trail of the man, who saw no refuge but 
 a small carob-tree at a great distance. He had to 
 quicken his pace, and finally to run, for the roars behind 
 him began to follow each other more rapidly, and each 
 was clearer and more ringing than the last. At length, 
 flinging his riding gear to one side of the path, the gaucho 
 turned to the tree which he had noticed, and in spite of 
 the weakness of its trunk, happily quite a tall one, he 
 succeeded in clambering to its top, and keeping him- 
 self half concealed among its boughs which oscillated 
 violently. Thence he could see the swift approach of 
 the tiger, sniffing the soil and roaring more frequently 
 in proportion to its increasing perception of the near- 
 ness of its prey. Passing beyond the spot where our 
 
THE TIGER. 75 
 
 traveller had left the path, it lost the track, and becom- 
 ing enraged, rapidly circled about until it discovered 
 the riding gear, which it dashed to fragments by a 
 single blow. Still more furious from this failure, it re- 
 sumed its search for the trail, and at last found out the 
 direction in which it led. It soon discerned its prey, 
 under whose weight the slight tree was swaying like a 
 reed upon the summit of which a bird has alighted. The 
 tiger now sprang forward, and in the twinkling of an 
 eye, its monstrous fore-paws were resting on the slender 
 trunk two yards from the ground, and were imparting 
 to the tree a convulsive trembling calculated to act 
 upon the nerves of the gaucho, whose position was far 
 from secure. The beast exerted its strength in an 
 ineffectual leap ; it circled around the tree, measuring 
 the elevation with eyes reddened by the thirst for 
 blood, and at length, roaring with rage, it crouched 
 down, beating the ground frantically with its tail, its 
 eyes fixed on its prey, its parched mouth half open. 
 This horrible scene had lasted for nearly two mortal 
 hours ; the gaucho's constrained attitude, and the fear- 
 ful fascination exercised over him by the fixed and 
 bloodthirsty stare of the tiger, which irresistibly at- 
 tracted and retained his own glances, had begun to di- 
 minish his strength, and he already perceived that the 
 moment was at hand when his exhausted body would 
 fall into the capacious mouth of his pursuer. But at 
 this moment the distant sound of the feet of horses on a 
 rapid gallop gave him hope of rescue. His friends had 
 indeed seen the tiger's foot-prints, and were hastening 
 on, though without hope of saving him. The scattered 
 fragments of the saddle directed them to the scene of 
 
76 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 action, and it was the work of a moment for them to 
 reach it, to uncoil their lassoes, and to fling them over 
 the tiger, now blinded by rage. The beast, drawn in 
 opposite directions by the two lassos, could not evade 
 the swift stabs by which its destined victim took his re- 
 venge for his prolonged torments. " On that occasion 
 I knew what it was to be afraid," was the expression 
 of Don Juan Facundo Quiroga, as he related this inci- 
 dent to a group of officers. 
 
 He too was called " the tiger of the Llanos," a title 
 which did not ill befit him. There are, in fact, as is 
 proved by phrenology and comparative anatomy, rela- 
 tions between external forms and moral qualities, be- 
 tween the countenance of a man and that of some ani- 
 mal whose disposition resembles his own. Facundo, as 
 he was long called in the interior, or, General Don 
 Facundo Quiroga, as he afterwards became, when society 
 had received him into its bosom and victory had crowned 
 him with laurels, was a stoutly built man of low 
 stature, whose short neck and broad shoulders supported 
 a well-shaped head, covered with a profusion of black 
 and closely curling hair. His somewhat oval face was 
 half buried in this mass of hair and an equally thick 
 black, curly beard, rising to his cheek-bones, which by 
 their prominence evinced a firm and tenacious will. 
 His black and fiery eyes, shadowed by thick eyebrows, 
 occasioned an involuntary sense of terror in those on 
 whom they chanced to fall, for Facundo's glance was 
 never direct, whether from habit or intention. With 
 the design of making himself always formidable, he al- 
 ways kept his head bent down, to look at one from under 
 his eyebrows, like the AH Pacha of Monovoisin. 
 
QUIROGA'S EDUCATION. 77 
 
 image of Quiroga is recalled to me by the Cain repre- 
 sented by the famous Ravel troupe, setting aside the ar- 
 tistic and statuesque attitudes, which do not correspond 
 to his. To conclude, his features were regular, and 
 the pale olive of his complexion harmonized well with 
 the dense shadows which surrounded it. 
 
 The formation of his head showed, notwithstanding 
 this shaggy covering, the peculiar organization of a man 
 born to rule. Quiroga possessed those natural qualities 
 which converted the student of Brienne into the genius 
 of France, and the obscure Mameluke who fought with 
 the French at the Pyramids, into the Viceroy of Egypt. 
 Such natures develop according to the society in which 
 they originate, and are either noble leaders who hold 
 the highest place in history, ever forwarding the prog- 
 ress of civilization, or the cruel and vicious tyrants 
 who become the scourges of their race and time. 
 ~ Facundo Quiroga was the son of an inhabitant 
 of San Juan, who had settled in the Llanos of La 
 Rioja, and there had accpiij^d--a -fortune^ in- -pastoral 
 pursuits. In 1779, Facundo was sent to his father's 
 native province to receive the limitedLedupation, con- 
 sisting only of the arts of reading and writing, which 
 he could acquire in its schools. After a man has come 
 to employ the hundred trumpets of fame with the noise 
 of his deeds, curiosity or the spirit of investigation is 
 carried to such an extent as to scent out the insignificant 
 history of the child, in order to connect it with the biog- 
 raphy of the hero ; and it is not seldom that the rudi- 
 ments of the traits characteristic of the historical per- 
 sonage are met amid fables invented by flattery. The 
 young Alcibiades is said to have lain down at full 
 
78 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 length upon the pavement of the street where he was 
 playing, in order to insist that the driver of an ap- 
 proaching vehicle should yield the way to avoid run- 
 ning over him. Napoleon is reported to have ruled 
 over his fellow-students, and to have entrenched him- 
 self in his study to resist an apprehended insult. Many 
 anecdotes are now in circulation relating to Facundo, 
 many of which reveal his true nature. In the house 
 where he lodged, he could never be induced to take his 
 s^at at the family table ; in school he was haughty, re- 
 se^yed, and unsocial ; he never joined the other boys 
 except to head their rebellious proceedings or to beat 
 them. The master, tired of contending with so un- 
 tamable a disposition, on one occasion provided himself 
 with a new and stiff strap, and said to the frightened 
 boys, as he showed it to them, " This is to be made 
 supple upon Facundo." Facundo, then eleven years 
 old, heard this threat, and the next day he tested its 
 value. Without having learned his lesson, he asked 
 the head-master to hear it himself, because, as he said, 
 the^ assistant was unfriendly to him. The master com- 
 plied with the request. Facundo made one mistake, 
 then two, three, and four ; upon which the master used 
 his strap upon him. Facundo, who had calculated every- 
 thing, down to the weakness of the chair in which the 
 master was seated, gave him a buffet, upset him on his 
 back, and, taking to the street in the confusion created 
 by this scene, hid himself among some wild vines where 
 they could not get him out for three days. Was not 
 such a boy the embryo chieftain who would afterwards 
 defy society at large ? 
 
 In early manhood his character took a more decided 
 
HABITS OF LIFE. 79 
 
 cast, constantly becoming more gloomy, imperious, 
 and wild. From the age of fifteen years he was irresist- 
 ibly controlled by the passion for_garoblmg, as is often 
 the case with such natures, which need strong excite- 
 ment to awaken their dormant energies. This made 
 him notorious in the city, and intolerable in the house 
 which afforded him its hospitality ; and finally under 
 this influence, by a shot fired atone George Pena, he. 
 shed the first rill of blood which went to make up tile 
 wide torrent that marked his way through life. 
 
 On his becoming an adult, the thread of his life dis- 
 appears in an intricate labyrinth of bouts and broils 
 among the people of the surrounding region. Some- 
 times lying hid, always pursued, he passed his time in 
 gambliDg, working as a common laborer, domineering 
 over everybody around him, and distributing his stabs 
 among them. 
 
 On the Godoy farm in San Juan are shown to thfs 
 day mud-walls of Quiroga's treading ; there are 
 others in Fiambola, in La Rioja, made by him. He* 
 himself pointed out others in Mendoza, in the very 
 place where one afternoon he had twenty-six of the 
 officers who surrendered at Chacon dragged from their 
 houses and shot to avenge Villifane. He also showed 
 some monuments of his wandering life of labor in the v 
 country districts of Buenos Ayes. What motives in- 
 duced this man, brought up in a respectable family, 
 son of a man of means and creditable life, to descend 
 to a hireling's position, and moreover to select the dull- 
 est and most brutish kind of work, needing only bodily 
 strength and endurance ? Was it because the labor of 
 building these mud-walls is recompensed with double 
 
80 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 wages, and that he was in haste to get together a little 
 money ? 
 
 The most connected account of this obscure and 
 roaming part of his life that I can procure is as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 Towards 1806, he went to Chili with a consign- 
 ment of grain on his parent's account. This he gam- 
 bled away, as well as the animals, which had brought 
 /it, and the family slaves who had accompanied him. 
 
 He often took to San Juan and Mendoza droves of 
 the stock on his father's estate, and these always shared 
 the same fate ; for with Facundo, gambling was a fierce 
 and burning passion which aroused the deepest instincts 
 of his nature. These successive gains and losses of his 
 must have worn out his father's generosity, for at last 
 he broke off all amicable relations with his family. 
 
 When he had become the terror of the Republic, he 
 was once asked by one of his parasites, " What was 
 the largest bet you ever made in your life, General ? " 
 " Seventy dollars," replied Quiroga, carelessly, and 
 yet he had just won two hundred dollars at one stake. 
 He afterwards explained that once when a young man, 
 having only seventy dollars, he had lost them all at one 
 throw. But this fact has its characteristic history. 
 Facundo had been at work for a year as a laborer 
 upon the farm of a lady, situated in the Plumerillo, 
 and had made himself conspicuous by his punctuality 
 in going to work, and by the influence and authority ) 
 which he exercised over the other laborers. When 
 they wanted a holiday to get drunk in, they used to 
 apply to Facundo, who informed the lady, and gave 
 her his word, which was always fulfilled, to have all 
 
THE GAUCHO'S REVENGE. 81 
 
 the men at work the next day. On this account the 
 laborers called him the father. At the end of a year 
 of steady work, Facundo asked for his wages, which 
 amounted to seventy dollars, and mounted his horse 
 without knowing where he was bound, but seeing a 
 collection of people at a grocery store, he alighted, and 
 reaching over the group around the card-dealer, bet 
 his seventy dollars on one card. He lost them, and 
 remounting, went on his way, careless in what direc- 
 tion, until after a little time a justice, Toledo by name, 
 who happened to be passing, stopped him to ask for his 
 passport. Facundo rode up as if about to give it to 
 him, pretended to be feeling for something in his pocket, 
 and stretched the justice on the ground with a stab. 
 Was he taking his revenge upon the judge for his 
 recent loss at play ? or was it his purpose to satisfy the 
 irritation against civil authority natural to a gaucho 
 outlaw, and increase, by this new deed, the splendor 
 of his rising fame ? Both are true explanations. This 
 mode of revenging himself for misfortunes upon what- 
 ever first offered itself, had many examples in his life. 
 When he was addressed as General, and had colonels 
 at his orders, he had two hundred lashes given one of 
 them in his house at San Juan, for having, as he said, 
 cheated at play. He ordered two hundred lashes to 
 be given to a young man for having allowed himself a 
 jest at a time when jests were not to his taste ; and 
 two hundred lashes was the penalty inflicted on a 
 woman in Mendoza for having said to him as he 
 passed, " Farewell, General," when he was going off 
 in a rage at not having succeeded in intimidating a 
 
82 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 neighbor of his, who was as peaceable and judicious as 
 Facundo was rash and gaucho-like. 
 
 Facundo reappears later in Buenos Ayres, where 
 he was enrolled in 1810 as a recruit in the regiment of ) 
 Arribeiios, which was commanded by General Ocampo, 
 a native of his own province, and afterwards president 
 of Charcas. The glorious career of arms opened before 
 him with the first rays of the sun of May ; and doubt- 
 less, endowed with such capacity as his, and with his de- 
 structive and sanguinary instincts, Facundo, could he 
 have been disciplined to submit to civil authority and 
 ennobled in the sublimity of the object of the strife, 
 might some day have returned from Peru, Chili, or 
 Bolivia, as a General of the Argentine Republic, like 
 so many other brave gauchos who began their careers 
 in the humble position of a private soldier. But 
 Quiroga's rebellious spirit could not endure the yoke 
 of discipline, the order of the barrack, or the delay of 
 promotion. He felt his destiny to be to rule, to rise at 
 a single leap, to create for himself, without assistance, 
 and in spite of a hostile and civilized society, a career 
 of his own, combining bravery and crime, government 
 and disorganization. He was subsequently recruited 
 into the army of the Andes, and enrolled in the 
 Mounted Grenadiers. A lieutenant named Garcia , 
 took him for an assistant, and very soon desertion left, 
 a vacant place in those glorious files. Quiroga, like . 
 Rosas, like all the vipers that have thriven under the 
 shade of their country's laurels, made himself notori- -. 
 ous in after-life by his hatred for the soldiers of Inde- 
 pendence, among whom both the men above named 
 made horrible slaughter. 
 
DOMESTIC CHARACTER. 83 
 
 Facundo, after desertingjrom_iienos Ayres, set out 
 for the interior with three comrades. A squad of 
 soldiery overtook him ; he faced the pursuers and 
 engaged in a real battle with them, which remained 
 undecided for awhile, until, after having killed four or 
 five men, he was at liberty to continue his journey, 
 constantly cutting his way through detachments of 
 troops which here and there opposed his progress, until 
 he arrived at San Luis. He was, at a later day, to 
 traverse the same route with a handful of men, to dis- 
 perse armies instead of detachments, and proceed to 
 the famous citadel of Tucuman to blot out the last 
 remains of Republicanism and civil order. 
 
 Facundo now reappears in the Llanos, at his father's 
 house. At this period occurred an event which is well 
 attested. Yet one of the writers whose manuscripts I 
 am using, replies to an inquiry about the matter, "that 
 to the extent of his knowledge Quiroga never attempted 
 forcibly to deprive his parents of money," and I could 
 wish to adopt this statement, irreconcilable as it is with 
 unvarying tradition and general consent. The con- 
 trary is shocking to relate. It is said that on his 
 father's refusal to give him a sum of money which he 
 had demanded, he watched for the time when both 
 parents were taking an afternoon nap to fasten the 
 door of the room they occupied, and to set iire to the 
 straw roof, which was the usual covering of the build- 
 ings of the Llanos ! l 
 
 But what is certain in the matter is that his father 
 
 1 The author afterwards learned that Facundo related this story to a 
 company of ladies, and one of his own early acquaintances testified to his 
 having given his father a blow on one occasion. 
 
84 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 once requested the governor of La Rioja to arrest him 
 in order to check his excesses, and that Facundo, be- 
 fore taking flight from the Llanos, went to the city of 
 La Rioja, \where that official was to be found at the 
 time, and coming upon him by surprise, gave him a 
 blow, saying as he did so, " You have sent, sir, to 
 have me arrested. There, have me arrested now ! " 
 On which he 'mounted his horse and set off for the 
 open country at a gallop. At the end of a year he 
 again showed himself at his father's house, threw him- 
 self at the feet of the old man whom he had used so 
 ill, and succeeded amid the sobs of both, and the son's 
 assurances of his reform in reply to the father's recrim- 
 inati6ns, in reestablishing peace, although on a very 
 uncertain basis. 
 
 But no change occurred in his character and dis- 
 orderly habits ; races, gambling parties, and expedi- 
 tions into the country were the occasions of new acts 
 of violence, stabbings, and assaults on his part, until 
 he at length made himself intolerable to all, and ren- 
 dered his own position very unsafe. Then a great 
 thought which he announced without shame, got hold 
 of his mind. The deserter from the Arribenos regi- 
 ment, the mounted grenadier who refused to make him- 
 self immortal at Chacabuco or Maipu, determined to 
 join the montonera of Ramirez, the offshoot from that 
 led by Artigas,. whose renown for crime and hatred for 
 the cities on which it was making war, had reached 
 the Llanos, and held the provincial government" in 
 dread. Facundo set forth to join those buccaneers of 
 the pampa. But perhaps the knowledge of his charaC* 
 ter, and of the importance of the aid which he would 
 
FACUNDO IN PRISON. 85 
 
 give to the destroyers, alarmed his fellow provincials, 
 for they informed the authorities of San Luis, through 
 which he was to pass, of his infernal design. Dupuis, 
 then (1818) governor, arrested him, and for sometime 
 he remained unnoticed among the criminals confined 
 in the prison. This prison of San Luis, however, was 
 to be the first step in his ascent to the elevation which 
 he subsequently attained. San Martin had sent to 
 San Luis a great number of Spanish officers of all ranks/ 
 from among the prisoners taken in Chili. Irritated by 
 their humiliations and sufferings, or thinking it possible 
 that the Spanish forces might be assembled again, this 
 party of prisoners rose one day and opened the door? 
 of the cells of the common criminals, to obtain theii 
 aid in a general escape. Facundo was one of these 
 criminals, and as soon as he found himself free from 
 prison, he seized an iron bar of his fetters, split the 
 skull of the very Spaniard who had released him, and 
 passing through the group of insurgents, left a wide 
 path strewn with the dead. Some say that the weapon 
 he employed was a bayonet, and that only three men 
 were killed by it. Quiroga, however, always talked of 
 the iron bar of the fetters, and of fourteen dead men. 
 This^may be one of the fictions with which the poetic 
 imagination of the people adorns the types of brute 
 force they so much admire ; perhaps the tale of the 
 iron -bar is an Argentine version of the jaw-bone of 
 Samson, the Hebrew Hercules. But Facundo looked 
 upon it as a crown of glory, in accordance with his 
 i 'idea of excellence, and whether by bar or bayonet, he- 
 succeeded, aided by other soldiers and prisoners whom 
 y hls example encouraged, in suppressing the insurrec- 
 
86 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 tion and reconciling society to himself by this act of 
 bravery, and placing himself under his country's pro- 
 tection. Thus his name spread everywhere, ennobled' 
 and cleansed, though with blood, from the stains whicb 
 had tarnished it. 
 
 Facundo returned to La Rioja covered with glory, 
 his country's creditor ; and with testimonials of his 
 conduct, to show in the Llanos, among gauchos, the 
 new titles which justified the terror his name began to 
 inspire ; for there is something imposing, something 
 which subjugates and controls others in the man who 
 is rewarded for the assassination of fourteen men at 
 one time. 
 
 Something still remains to be noticed of the previ- 
 ous character and temper of this pillar of the Confed- 
 eration. An illiterate man, one of Quiroga's compan- 
 ions in childhood and youth, who has supplied me with 
 many of the above facts, sends me the following curi- 
 ous statements in a manuscript describing Quiroga's 
 early years : " His public career was not preceded 
 by the practice of theft ; he never committed robbery 
 even in his most pressing necessities. He was not only 
 fond of fighting, but would pay for an opportunity, or 
 for a chance to insult the most renowned champion in* 
 any company. He had a great aversion to respectable 
 men. He never drank. He was very reserved from 
 his youth, and desired to inspire others with awe as 
 well as with fear, for which purpose he gave his confi- 
 dants to understand that he had' the gift of prophecy, 
 in short was a soothsayer. He treated all connected 
 with him as slaves. He never went to confession, prayed, 
 or heard mass ; I saw him once at mass after he be- 
 
CHARACTERISTICS. 89 
 
 came a general. He said of himself that he behind 
 in nothing." The frankness with which these wora. 
 are written, prove their truth. 
 
 And here ends the private life of Quiroga, in which 
 I have omitted a long series of deeds which only show 
 his evil nature, his bad education, and his fierce and 
 bloody instincts. The facts stated appear to me to 
 sum up the whole public life of Quiroga. I see in them 
 
 ' J the great man, the man of genius, in spite of himself 
 and unknown to himself; a Caesar, Tamerlane, or 
 Mohammed. The fault is not his that thus he was born. 
 In order to contend with, rule, and control the .power 
 
 .of J;he city, and the judicial authority, he is willingjx) 
 descend to anything. If he is offered a place in the 
 army, he disdains it, because his impatience cannot 
 wait for promotion. Such a position demands submis- 
 sion, and places fetters upon individual independence ; 
 the soldier's coat oppresses his body, and military tac- 
 tics control his steps, all of which are insufferable ! 
 His equestrian life, a life of danger and of strong ex- 
 citements, has steeled his spirit and hardened his heart. 
 He feels an unconquerable and instinctive hatred for 
 the laws which have pursued him, for the judges who 
 have condemned him, and for the whole society and 
 organism from which he has felt himself withdrawn 
 from his childhood, and which regards him with suspi- 
 cion and contempt. With these remarks is connected 
 by imperceptible links the motto of this chapter, tfc He 
 is the natural man, as yet unused either to repress or 
 disguise his passions ; he does not restrain their energy, 
 but gives free rein to their impetuosity. This is the 
 character of the human race." And thus it appears 
 
LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC, f / 
 
 + ' 
 rural districts of the Argentine Republic. Fa- 
 
 i-ando is a type of primitive barbarism. He recognized 1 
 no form of subjection. His rage was that of a wild 
 beast. The locks of his crisp black hair, which fell in 
 meshes over his brow and eyes, resembled the snakes 
 of Medusa's head. Anger made his voice hoarse, and 
 turned his glances into dragons. In a fit of passion he 
 kicked out the brains of a man with whom he had 
 quarreled at play. He tore off both the ears of a 
 woman he had lived with, and had promised to marry, 
 upon her asking him for thirty dollars for the celebra- 
 tion of the wedding ; and laid open his son John's 
 head with an axe, because he could not make him hold 
 his tongue. He violently beat a beautiful young lady 
 at Tucuman, whom he had failed either to seduce or 
 to subdue, and exhibited in all his actions a low and 
 brutal yet not a stupid nature, or one wholly without 
 lofty aims. Incapable of commanding noble admir-a/ 
 tion, he delighted in exciting fear j* and this pleasure 
 was exclusive and dominant with him to the arranging 
 all his actions so as to produce terror in those around 
 him, whether it was society in general, the victim on 
 his way to execution, or his own wife and children. 
 Wanting ability to manage the machinery of civil gov- v 
 eminent, he substituted terror for patriotism and self- 
 sacrifice. Destitute of learning, he surrounded himself 
 with mysteries, and pretended to a foreknowledge of 
 events which gave him prestige and reputation among 
 the commonalty, supporting his claims by an air of 
 impenetrability, by natural sagacity, an uncommon . > 
 power of observation, and the advantage he derived , - 
 from vulgar credulity. 
 
FACUNDO AS A DIVINER. 89 
 
 'jL\ 
 
 The repertory of anecdotes relating to Quiroga, and 
 ^ with which the popular memory is replete, is inexhaust- 
 ible ; his sayings, his expedients, bear the stamp of an 
 originality which gives them a certain Eastern aspect, 
 a certain tint of Solomonic wisdom in the conception of 
 the vulgar. Indeed, how does Solomon's advice for 
 discovering the true mother of the disputed child differ 
 I from Facundo's method of detecting a thief in the fol- 
 
 L lowing instances : 
 
 *% An article had been stolen from a band, and all 
 endeavors to discover the thief had proved fruitless. 
 Quiroga drew up the troops and gave orders for the 
 cutting of as many small wands of equal length as there 
 were soldiers ; then, having had these wands distrib- 
 uted one to each man, he said in a confident voice, 
 " The man whose wand will be longer than the others 
 to-morrow morning is the thief." Next day the troops 
 was again paraded, and Quiroga proceeded to inspect 
 the >,wands. There was one whose wand was, not 
 longer -but shorter than the others. " Wretch ! " cried 
 Facundo, in a voice which overpowered the man with 
 dismay, "it is thou ! " And so it was ; the culprit's 
 confusion was proof of the fact. The expedient was 
 a simple one ; the credulous gaucho, fearing that his 
 wand would really grow, had cut off a piece of it. ^ut 
 to avail>one's self of such means, a man must be supe- 
 rior in intellect to those about him, and must at least 
 have some knowledge of human nature. 
 
 Some portions of a soldier's accoutrements having 
 been stolen and all inquiries having failed to detect the 
 thief, Quiroga had the troops paraded and marched 
 past him as he stood with crossed arms and a fixed, 
 piercing, and terrible gaze. He had previously said, 
 
90 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 " I know the man," with an air of assurance not to 
 be questioned. The review began ; many men had 
 passed, and Quiroga still remained motionless, like the 
 statue of Jupiter Tonans or the God of the Last Judg- 
 ment. All at once he descended upon one man, and 
 said in a curt and dry voice, " Where is the saddle ? " 
 " Yonder, sir," replied the other, pointing, to a thicket. 
 " Ho ! four fusileers ! " cried Quiroga. What revela- 
 tion was this ? that of terror and guilt made to a man 
 of sagacity. 
 
 On another occasion, when a gaucho was answering 
 to charges of theft which had been brought against 
 him, Facundo interrupted him with the words, " This 
 rogue has begun to lie. Ho, there ! a hundred lashes ! " 
 When the criminal had been taken away, Quiroga said 
 to some one present, " Look you, my master, when a 
 gaucho moves his foot while talking, it is a sign he is 
 telling lies." The lashes extorted from the gaucho the 
 confession that he had stolen a yoke of oxen. 
 
 At another time he was in need of a man of resolu- 
 tion and boldness to whom he could intrust a danger- 
 ous mission. When a man was brought to him for 
 this purpose, Quiroga was writing ; he raised his head 
 after the man's presence had been repeatedly an- 
 nounced, looked at him and returned to his writing 
 with the remark, " Pooh ! that is a wretched creature. 
 I want a brave man and a venturesome one ! " It 
 turned out to be true that the fellow was actually good 
 for nothing. 
 
 Hundreds of such stories of Facundo's life, which 
 show the man of superior ability, served effectually to 
 give him a mysterious fame among the vulgar, who 
 even attribute superior powers to him. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 LA RIOJA. 
 
 " The sides of the mountain enlarge and assume an aspect at once more grand 
 and more barren. By little and little, the scanty vegetation languishes and dies ; 
 and mosses disappear, and a red burning hue succeeds." Roussee's Palestine. 
 
 THE COUNTRY COMMANDANT. 
 
 IN a document dating as far back as 1560, I have 
 seen recorded the name of Mendoza of the valley of 
 La Rioja. But La Rioja proper is an Argentine prov- 
 ince lying north of San Juan, from which it is separ- 
 ated by several strips of desert, although these are 
 broken by some inhabited valleys. Its western portion 
 is intersected in parallel lines by spurs branching off 
 from the Andes and including in their valleys los Pue- 
 blos and Little Chili, as it was called by the Chilian 
 miners, who frequented the rich and renowned mines 
 of Famatina. 
 
 Further to the east stretches a sandy, barren, and 
 sun-scorched plain, at the northern extremity of which, 
 and near a mountain covered to its summit with rank and 
 lofty vegetation, lies the skeleton of La Rioja, a lonely 
 city with no suburbs, and withered away, as it were, 
 like Jerusalem at the foot of the Mount of Olives. This 
 sandy plain is bounded, far towards the south, by the 
 Colorados, mountains of hardened clay, whose regular 
 outlines take the most picturesque and fantastic forms ; 
 
f d2 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 sometimes resembling a smooth wall with projecting bas- 
 tions ; sometimes suggesting to the eye massive towers 
 and the battlements of ruined castles. Lastly, in the 
 southeast and surrounded by extensive wastes, lie the 
 Llanos, a broken and hilly region, in spite of its name, 
 forming an oasis of pasturage which formerly main- 
 tained thousands of flocks. 
 
 The general aspect of the country is desolate, its 
 climate torrid, its soil parched and destitute of running 
 streams. Reservoirs called represas are constructed by 
 the peasantry to collect rain-water for the supply of 
 their animals. I have always been disposed to think 
 that the general aspect of Palestine resembles that of 
 La Rioja, in the reddish or ochreous tints of the soil, 
 the dryness of some regions and their cisterns ; also the 
 orange-trees, vines, and fig-trees bearing exquisite and 
 enormous fruits, which are raised along the* course of 
 some turbid and confined Jordan. There is a strange 
 combination of mountain and plain, fruitfulness and 
 aridity, parched and bristling heights, and hills covered 
 with dark green forests as lofty as the cedars of Leba^ 
 non. 
 
 What chiefly brings these reminiscences of the East 
 before my imagination is the truly patriarchal appear- 
 ance of the country people of La Rioja. Thanks to 
 caprices of fashion, there is now nothing unusual in 
 seeing men with full beards, according to the immemo- 
 rial practice of Eastern nations ; but yet this fact would 
 -not wholly prevent the surprise naturally occasioned 
 by the sight of a Spanish-speaking population among 
 whom full beards, frequently descending to the chest, 
 are, and always have been worn ; a populatio of mel- 
 
FEUD BETWEEN OCAMPOS AND DAVILAS. 93 
 
 ancholy, silent, sedate, and crafty demeanor ; of Arabic 
 aj)pearance, riding upon asses, and sometimes clothed 
 in goat-skins, like the hermit of En-gedi. There are 
 places where the people live exclusively on wild honey 
 and the fruit of the carob-tree, as St. John did on lo- 
 custs in the desert. The Llanista himself is alone un- 
 conscious of being the most unfortunate, wretched, and 
 barbarous of mortals, and thanks to this ignorance, he 
 lives contentedly and happily when hunger does not 
 trouble him. 
 
 I have already said that there are in Rioja some red- 
 dish mountains which bear at a distance a resem- 
 blance to towers and feudal castles in ruins ; and still 
 other medieval characteristics are mingled with the 
 Oriental resemblances above referred to, for in Rioja 
 there has been a contest of a century between two 
 hostile families, whose enmity, rank, and celebrity find 
 an accurate parallel among the Ursini, Colonnas, and 
 Medici of Italian feuds. The whole history, .of_. the 
 civilized inhabitants of La Rioja is that of the conten- 
 tions of the Ocampos and Davilas. These families, 
 alike ancient, rich, and noble, long strove with each 
 other for supremacy, and, even long before the Revo- 
 lution of Independence, had divided the population 
 into parties like those of the Guelphs and Ghibellines. 
 A great number of the members of these two families 
 have distinguished themselves in arms, at the bar, and 
 in industrial pursuits ; for the Davilas and the Ocampos 
 were ever attempting to surpass each other by every 
 method of acquiring power recognized by civilization. 
 The extinction of this hereditary animosity was often 
 an object of the policy of the patriots of Buenos Ayres. 
 
94 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 The two families were induced by the logic of Lautaro 
 to unite an Ocampo with a lady of the Davila family in 
 order to promote a reconciliation. All know that such 
 was the Italian practice ; but on this occasion the Romeo 
 and Juliet were more fortunate. Towards 1817 the 
 government of Buenos Ayres, also with the view of 
 ending the hostility of these families, sent the province 
 a governor from without, Barnachea by name, who fell 
 ere long under the influence of the Ddvila party, de- 
 pendent upon the support of Don Prudencio Quiroga, a 
 man much beloved by the inhabitants of the Llanos 
 where he lived ; he had been summoned to the city and 
 appointed Treasurer and Alcalde. The rural districts 
 were just beginning, although in a legitimate and noble 
 manner, in Don Prudencio Quiroga, Facundo's father, 
 to come into play as a political element among the civil 
 parties. The Llanos I have stated, consist of a hilly oasis 
 of pasture land in the midst of an extensive desert (tra- 
 vesia) ; their inhabitants, exclusively shepherds, lead 
 that patriarchal and primitive life which its isolation 
 preserves in all its purity and hostility to the cities. 
 Hospitality is in that region a duty of general obliga- 
 tion. The laborer defends his master from all kinds of 
 danger, even at the risk of his own life. These customs 
 will of themselves furnish a partial explanation of the 
 phenomena we are to witness. 
 
 After the event that occurred in his favor at San 
 Luis, Facundo made his appearance on the Llanos in- 
 vested with the prestige of his recent exploit, and for- 
 tified with a recommendation from the government. 
 The parties dividing La Rioja were not slow to solicit 
 the adhesion of a man regarded by all with the respect 
 
1 ALDAO AND CORRO. 95 
 
 and dread always felt for deeds of unusual daring. 
 The Ocampos, who came into power in 1820, gave him 
 the title of Sergeant Major of the Militia of the Llanos, 
 with the influence and authority of Commandant. 
 
 The beginring of his public career starts from this 
 moment. The pastoral and barbaric element of La 
 Rioja, the same with that third . force which appears 
 with Artigas at the siege of Montevideo, is now to pre- 
 sent itself at La Rioja with Quiroga, upon whom one 
 of the parties of the city had called for support. The 
 moment of such an action is a solemn and critical 
 one in the history of all the pastoral states ^ of the 
 Argentine Republic ; in each there comes a day when a 
 man of audacity is made country commandant either 
 because he is already dreaded, or because foreign aid 
 is needed. Such a man is a Grecian horse like that 
 which the Trojans made haste to bring into the city. 
 - At this time occurred at San Juan the unfortunate 
 insurrection of the first regiment of the Andes, which 
 had returned from Chili for reorganization. Francisco 
 Aldao and Corro, foiled in the objects of the rebellion, 
 undertook a calamitous retreat towards the north to 
 join Giiemes, a partisan chieftain of Salta. General 
 Ocampo, Governor of La Rioja, took measures to bar 
 their passage, and for that purpose called out all the 
 forces of the province and made ready for a battle. 
 Facundo was at hand with his Llanistas [men of the 
 plains]. The action began, and a few minutes were 
 enough to show that the First Regiment had, by rebel- 
 lion, lost none of their ancient lustre on fields of battle. 
 Corro and Aldao moved upon the city, and their scat- 
 , tered antagonists betook themselves for reorganization 
 
96 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 to the Llanos, where they could await the arrival pf 
 the troops from San Juan and Mendoza who were in: 
 pursuit of the fugitives. Facundo meanwhile, aban- 
 doning the point of reunion, fell upon the rear-guard 
 of the victors, skirmishing with and harassing them, 
 and killing or capturing their stragglers. Facundo was 
 the only man endowed with a life of his own, waiting" 
 for no orders, wholly influenced by the motive power 
 'within himself. He had felt himself called to action, 
 and waited for no impulse from without. Yet more ; 
 he spoke scornfully of the government and of the 
 General, and declared his intention of overthrowing 
 it and acting henceforward as his judgment might dic- 
 tate. It is said that a council of the chief officers of 
 the army urged upon General Ocampo his arrest, trial, 
 and execution ; but the General declined, perhaps less 
 from moderation than from a feeling that Quiroga was 
 now less a subordinate officer than a formidable ally. 
 
 A definite agreement between Aldao and the gov- 
 ernment decided that the former should return to San 
 Luis, it not being his wish to follow Corro, and the 
 government engaging to provide means for his passage 
 through its territory by a route across the Llanos. 
 Facundo was charged with the performance of this 
 part of the stipulation, and returned with Aldao to the 
 Llanos. Quiroga by this time was conscious of his 
 power ; and when he turned his back on La Rioja, he 
 might have taken leave of it with the saying, " Woe 
 to thee, O city ! Verily I say unto thee that yet a 
 little while, and there shall not be left of thee one stone 
 upon another." 
 
 Aldao, upon his arrival at the Llanos, offered Qui- 
 
FACUNDO AS COMMANDANT. 97 
 
 roga, with whose discontent he had become acquainted, 
 A a hundred drilled soldiers, to enable him to make him- 
 self master of La Rioja, in exchange for his aid in fu- 
 ture enterprises. Quiroga eagerly assented, set out for . 
 ' the city, took ?t, captured the officers of the government, 
 sent them confessors, and orders to prepare themselves 
 for death. What object had he in this revolution? 
 None. Feeling himself powerful and stretching out 
 his arms, he overthrew the city. Is it his fault ? 
 
 Old Chilian patriots doubtless still remember the 
 prowess of Sergeant Araya of the Mounted Grenadiers ; 
 for among those veterans the halo of glory frequently 
 rested upon the common soldier. The priest Men- 
 ses has informed me that, after the rout of Cancha Ra- 
 yada, Sergeant Araya and seven grenadiers went to 
 Mendoza. It was heart-breaking to the patriots to see 
 the bravest soldiers of their army passing and repass- 
 "ing the Andes while Las Heras still had forces at his 
 command to face the Spaniards. The detention of 
 Sergeant Araya was projected ; but a difficulty pre- 
 sented itself. Who was to approach him ? A detach- 
 ment of seventy militia-men was at hand ; but all the 
 soldiers knew that the fugitive was Sergeant Araya, and 
 they would have been a thousand times more ready to 
 attack the Spaniards than this lion of the grenadiers. 
 Upon this, Don Jose* Maria Mene*ses, alone and un- 
 armed, followed and overtook Araya, and, intercepting 
 him on his way, reminded him of his past glories and 
 of the disgrace of an. objectless flight. Araya was 
 not deaf to this appeal, and yielded unresistingly to 
 the entreaties and commands of the good neighbor. 
 He then became enthusiastic, hastened to stop other 
 
98 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 squads of grenadiers who had preceded him in flight, 
 and his diligence and reputation enabled him to join the 
 army again with seventy comrades in arms, who cleared 
 their laurels at Maipu of the momentary stain which 
 had rested on them. 
 
 This Sergeant Araya and a man named Lorca, alsp- 
 known in Chili by his bravery, commanded the force , 
 placed by Aldao under Facundo's orders. The pris- 
 oners at La Rioja who were under sentence of death,' 
 among them Dr. Don Gabriel Ocampo, a former min- 
 ister of government, entreated Lorca to protect them 
 by his intercession. Facundo, feeling yet insecure in 
 his momentary elevation, consented to grant their 
 lives ; but this limit set to his power made him aware 
 that he must have full control of this veteran force, in 
 order to avoid future opposition. 
 
 Returning to the Llanos, he came to an understand- - 
 ing with Araya, and in pursuance of their agreement, 
 they fell upon the rest of Aldao's force by surprise, and 
 Facundo then found himself at the head of four hun- 
 dred regulars, from whose ranks were afterwards drawn 
 the officers of his first armies. 
 
 Remembering that Don Nicholas Davila was in exile 
 at'Tucuman, he summoned him to take charge of the 
 annoying details of the government of La Rioja, himself 
 retaining the real supremacy, which followed him to the 
 Llanos. The breach between him and men like the 
 Ocampos and Davilas was too wide, and the change 
 from their government to his, too sudden, to be effected 
 at a blow ; the spirit of the city was still too powerful for 
 that of the country to control openly ; a Doctor of Laws 
 was still thought to make a better government official 
 than any laborer. But all this was afterwards changed. 
 
DAVILA MADE GOVERNOR. 99 
 
 Davila undertook the government under Facundo, 
 and for the time all occasion for trouble seemed over. 
 The possessions and estates of the Davilas were situ- 
 ated near Chilecito, and there, consequently, in the 
 kinsmen and friends of the family, was concentrated 
 the physical and moral force likely to sustain the new 
 governor. As the population of Chilecito increased 
 with the profitable working of the mines, and as large 
 fortunes had been amassed there, the government es- 
 tablished a provincial bank in this small town, to which ' 
 it transferred its residence, either to carry out the un- 
 dertaking or to withdraw itself from the Llanos and 
 the disagreeable subjection in which Quiroga was dis- 
 posed to keep that region. Before long, Davila pro- 
 ceeded from these purely defensive measures to more 
 decided action. Availing himself of Facundo's tempo- 
 rary absence at San Juan, he laid plans with Captain 
 Araya to have him arrested on his return. Facundo 
 learned what awaited him, and, secretly entering the 
 Llanos, had Araya assassinated. The government v^hose 
 authority had been thus contemptuously defied, sum- 
 moned him to answer to the charge of assassination. 
 Ridiculous parody ! But there was no other means of 
 appealing to arms and of kindling civil war between 
 the government and Qiiiroga, between the city and the 
 Llanos. Facundo, in his turn, sent commissioners to the 
 Representative Assembly, to request the deposition of 
 Davila. The Assembly had urgently called upon the 
 governor to invade the Llanos and with the support of 
 all the citizens, to disarm Quiroga. The members had 
 a local interest in the matter, which was the transfer df 
 the bank to the city of La Rioja ; but as Davila per- 
 
100 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 sisted in residing at Chilecito, the Assembly yielded 
 to Facundo's solicitations and declared Davila deposed. 
 Governor Davila had assembled many of Aldao's 
 soldiers under the command of Don Miguel Davila. 
 He had a good supply of military equipments, many 
 adherents desirous of preserving the province from the 
 rule of the chieftain who was strengthening himself in, 
 the Llanos, and also several regular officers to lead 
 his troops. Preparations for war were begun, then, 
 with equal zeal, in Chilecito and in the Llanos. Ru- 
 mors of these unhappy events reached San Juan and, 
 Mendbza, the government of which sent a commis- 
 sion to attempt to make an arrangement between the 
 belligerents, who, by that time, were on the point of 
 actual conflict. Corbalan, the same now serving in 
 Rosas' ordnance corps, visited Quiroga's camp to at- 
 .tempt the mediation for which he had been sent, and 
 which the chieftain accepted ; he next went to the op- 
 posing camp, where he met the same cordial reception ; 
 and finally returned to the camp of Quiroga to arrange 
 the exact terms of agreement, but Quiroga, leaving 
 him there, marched hastily against his enemy, whose 
 forces he easily routed and dispersed, owing to the 
 .negligence into which the deluded envoy's assurances 
 had caused them to fall. Don Miguel Davila, collect- 
 ing some of his men, resolutely attacked Quiroga, and 
 succeeded in wounding him in one thigh before being 
 himself disabled by a shot in the wrist ; he was after- 
 wards surrounded and killed by Quiroga's soldiers. A 
 fact very characteristic of the gaucho spirit is connected 
 with this incident. A soldier takes pleasure in show- 
 ing his wounds ; the gaucho hides such as he has re- 
 
BLANCO MADE GOVERNOR. 101 
 
 ceived in close combat, and avoids having their exist-! 
 ence known, because they attest a want of skill on his 
 part. Facundo, faithful to these notions of honor, never 
 mentioned the wound which Davila had given him. 
 
 Here ends the history of the Ocampos and Davilas, 
 and with it that of La Rioja. What follows is the his- 
 tory of Quiroga. 
 
 That day of evil omen corresponds to April of 1835 
 in the history of Buenos Ayres when its country com- t 
 mandant, its desert hero, made himself master of the city. 
 
 I ought not to omit, since it is to Quiroga's honor, a 
 curious fact which (1823) occurred at this time. The 
 feeblest gleam of light is not to be disregarded in the 
 blackness of that night. 
 
 Facundo, upon his triumphant entry into La Rioja, 
 stopped the ringing of the bells, and after sending a mes- 
 sage of condolence to the widow of the slain General, 
 directed his ashes to be honored with a stately funeral. 
 He appointed for governor one Blanco, a Spaniard of 
 low rank, and with him began the new order of affairs 
 which was to realize the best ideal of government, as 
 conceived by Facundo Quiroga ; for, in his long career 
 among the various cities which he conquered, he never 
 took upon himself the charge of organizing goyern- 
 v ments; he always left that task to others. 
 
 The moment of the grasp of power over the destinies 
 of a commonwealth by a vigorous hand is ever an im- ' 
 portant one and deserves attention. Old institutions 
 are strengthened, or give place to others, newer and 
 more productive of good results, or better adapted to 
 prevailing ideas. From such a focus often diverge the 
 threads which, as time weaves them together, change 
 the web of history. 
 
102 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 It is otherwise when the prevailing force is one for- 
 eign to civilization, when an Attila obtains possession 
 of Rome, or a Tamerlane traverses the plains of Asia ; 
 old forms remain, but the hand of philosophy would 
 afterwards vainly remove them with the view of find- 
 ing beneath them plants which had gained vigor from 
 the human blood given them for nourishment. Fa- 
 cundo, a man imbued with the genius of barbarism, 
 gets control of his country ; the traditions of govern- 
 ment disappear, established forms deteriorate, the law 
 is a plaything in vile hands ; and nothing is maintained, 
 nothing established, amid the destruction thus accom- 
 plished by the trampling feet of horses. Freedom 
 from restraint, occupation, and care, is the supreme 
 good of the gaucho. If La Rioja had contained statues, 
 as it contained doctors, they would have had horses tied 
 to them, but they would have served no other purpose. 
 
 Facundo wanted to have means at his command, and, 
 as he was incapable of creating a revenue system, he re- 
 sorted to the ordinary proceeding of dull or weak govern- 
 ments ; but in this case the monopoly bears the stamp 
 of South American pastoral life, spoliation, and violence. 
 The tithes of La Rioja were, at this time farmed out at 
 ten thousand piastres a year ; this was the average rate. 
 Facundo made his appearance at the board, and his pres- 
 ence overawed the shepherds. " I offer two thousand 
 piastres a year," said he, " and one more than the best 
 bid." The committee repeated the proposal three 
 times ; no one made a bid ; all present left, one by one, 
 reading in Quiroga's sinister glance that it was the last 
 one he would allow. The next year he contented him- 
 self with sending to the board the following note : 
 
FACUNDO AS FINANCIER. 103 
 
 -" I give two thousand dollars and one more than the best bid. 
 
 " FACUNDO QUIROGA." 
 
 The third year the ceremony of adjudication was 
 omitted, and in 1831, Quiroga again sent to La Rioja 
 the sum of two thousand dollars, his estimate for the 
 tithes. 
 
 But to make his tithes bring in a hundred for one, 
 another step was required, and, after the second year, 
 Facundo refused to receive the tribute of animals oth- 
 erwise than by giving his mark among the proprietors, 
 so that they might brand with it the animals set apart 
 for the tithe and keep them on the place until he called 
 for them. The creatures multiplied, their number was 
 constantly .augmented by new tithes, and, after ten 
 years, it might be reckoned that half the stock of a 
 whole pastoral province belonged to the commanding 
 general of the forces, and bore his mark. 
 
 It was the immemorial custom in La Rioja that the 
 estrays, or the animals that were not marked at a cer- 
 tain age, should become the lawful property of the treas- 
 ury, which sent its agents to collect these gleanings, and 
 derived no contemptible revenue from them, but the 
 annoyance to the proprietors was intolerable. Fa- 
 cundo demanded the adjudication to himself of these 
 animals, to meet the expenses he had incurred for the 
 invasion of the city ; expenses which were reducible 
 to the summons of irregular forces, who assembled, 
 mounted on horses of their own, and lived constantly 
 on what came in their way. Already the proprietor 
 of herds which brought him six thousand bullocks 
 a year, he sent his agents to supply the city markets, 
 and woe to any competitor who should appear ! This 
 
104 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 business of supplying meat for the markets was one 
 which he carried on wherever he ruled, in San Juan, 
 Mendoza, or Tucuman ; and he was always careful to 
 secure the monopoly of it by proclamation or simple 
 notification. It is with shame and disgust that I men- 
 tion these disgraceful transactions, but the truth must be 
 told. \ 
 
 The general's first order, after a bloody battle which 
 had laid a city open to him, was that no one should 
 supply the markets with meat ! In Tucuman he learned 
 that a resident of the place was killing cattle in his 
 house, in spite of this order. The general of the army 
 of the An^es, the conqueror of the Citadel, thought 
 the investigation of so dreadful a crime should be en- 
 trusted only to himself. He went in person, and 
 knocked lustily at the door of the house, which refused 
 to yield, and which the inmates, taken by surprise, did 
 not open. A kick from the illustrious general broke 
 it 'in, and exposed to his view a dead ox, whose hide 
 was in process of removal by the master of the house, 
 who also fell dead in his turn at the terrible sight of 
 the offended general ! l 
 
 1 In consequence of the present law, the government of the province has 
 obtained the assent of His Excellencj 1 - General Don Juan Facundo Quiroga, 
 to the following stipulations, agreeably to his note of September 14, 1833. 
 
 1. That he will make good to the Most Excellent Government of Buenos 
 Ay res the sum invested by it in the said property. 
 
 2. That he will supply the province without incumbrance to the revenue, 
 with five thousand pesos, to meet the difficulty of filling its contingent ; 
 three thousand pesos in cash and the remainder in the produce of live 
 stock: for the payment of which only the members of the trade of butcher- 
 ing shall be responsible. 
 
 3. That he is to have the exclusive right of supplying the markets, sell- 
 ing to the public at the rate of five reals the arroba of meat, which now 
 
FACUNDO'S AVARICE. 
 
 I do not intentionally dwell upon these ti. 
 many I omit ! How many misdeeds I pass 
 silence which are fully proved and known to all l 
 I am writing the history of government by barbarian 
 and I am forced to state its methods. 
 
 Mehemet Ali, who became master of Egypt by 
 means identical with those of Facundo, delivers him- 
 self up to a rapacity unexampled even in Turkey ; 
 he establishes monopolies in every occupation and turns 
 them to his own profit ; but Mehemet Ali, though he^ 
 springs from a barbarous nation, rises above liis con- 
 dition so far as to wish to acquire European civiliza- 
 tion for himself and for the people he qppresses. Fa- 
 cundo, on the contrary, not only rejects all recognized 
 civilization, but destroys and disorganizes. Facundo, 
 who does not govern, because any government implies 
 labor for others' good, gives himself up to the instincts 
 of an immoderate and unscrupulous avarice. Selfish- 
 ness is the foundation of almost all the great characters 
 of history; selfishness is the chief spring of all great 
 deeds. Quiroga had this political gift in an eminent 
 degree and made everything around him contribute to 
 his advantage; wealth, power, authority, all centred iri 
 him ; whatever he could not acquire, polish, learn- 
 ing, true respectability, he hated and persecuted in 
 all those who possessed them. 
 
 costs six, and is of bad quality; and to the state at three reals without 
 raising the current price of the article. 
 
 4. That his cattle are to be slaughtered gratis, from the 18th of the pres- 
 ent month to the 10th of January inclusive, and to have pasture at the pub- 
 lic expense for two reals a month for every head he shall provide from the 
 1st of October next. Ruiz. VICENTO ATIEKZO. 
 
 Official Register of the Province, of San Juan. 
 
 SAN JUAN, September 13, 1833. 
 
^ THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 ility to the respectable classes and to the 
 jilt of the cities was every day more percepti- 
 .nd the governor of La Rioja, whom he had him- 
 >i appointed, finally was forced, by daily annoyances, 
 to resign his place. One day, Quiroga, feeling in- 
 clined to pleasantry, was amusing himself with a young 
 man as a cat sports with a frightened mouse ; he liked 
 to play at killing ; the terror of the victim was so 
 ludicrous, tfilit the executioner was highly diverted, and 
 laughed immoderately, contrary to his habit. He must 
 have sympathy in his mirth, and he at once ordered 
 the general l to be beat throughout the city of Rioja, 
 which called out the citizens under arms. Facundo, 
 who had given -the summons for diversion's sake, drew 
 up the inhabitants in the principal square at eleven 
 o'clock, at night, dismissed the populace and retained 
 only the well-to-do householders and the young men 
 who still had some appearance of culture. All night 
 he kept them marching and countermarching, halting, 
 forming line, marching by front or by flank. It was 
 like a drill-sergeant teaching recruits, and the sergeant's 
 stick travelled over the heads of the stupid, and the 
 chests of those who were out of line ; " What would 
 you have ? this is the way to teach ! " Morning came, 
 and the pallor, weariness, and exhaustion of the re- 
 cruits showed what a night they had passed. Their 
 instructor finally sent them to rest, and extended his 
 generosity to the purchase and distribution of pastry, 
 each recipient made in haste to eat his share, for that 
 was part of the sport. 
 
 Lessons of such a kind are not lost upon cities, and 
 
 1 A certain call to arms. 
 
MINING FEVER. 107 
 
 the skillful politician who has raised similar proceedings 
 to a system in Buenos Ayres, has refined upon them 
 and made them wonderfully effective. For example : 
 during the periods between 1835 and 1840 almost the 
 whole population of Buenos Ayres has passed through 
 the prisons. Sometimes a hundred and fifty citizens 
 would be imprisoned for two or three months, to be 
 then replaced by two hundred who would be kept, per- 
 haps half the year. Wherefore? What "had they 
 done ? What had they said ? Idiots ! Do you not 
 see that this is good discipline for the city ? Do you 
 not remember the saying of Rosas to Quiroga, that no 
 republic could be established because the people were 
 not prepared for it ! .This is his way of teaching the 
 city how to obey ; he will finish his work, and in 1844, 
 he will be able to show the world a people with but 
 one thought, one opinion, one voice, and thafa bound- 
 less enthusiasm for the person and will of Rosas ! Then, 
 indeed, they will be ready for a republic ! 
 
 But we will return to La Rioja. A feverish ex- 
 citement on the subject of investments in the mines of 
 the new States of Spanish America had arisen in Eng- 
 land ; powerful companies were proposing to draw 
 profit from those of Mexico and Peru ; and Rivadavia, 
 who was then residing in London, urged speculators 
 to invest their capital in the Argentine Republic. The 
 mines of Famatina offered an opening for a great enter- 
 prise. At the same time, speculators from Buenos 
 Ayres obtained the exclusive right to work these mines, 
 meaning to sell it for ah enormous sum to the English 
 companies. These two speculations, one started in 
 England and the other in Buenos Ayres, conflicted 
 
108 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC- 
 
 with each other, and were irreconcilable. Finally, a 
 bargain was made with another English house, which 
 was to supply funds, and in fact, sent out English super- 
 intendents and miners. Later, a speculation was got 
 up to establish a bank at La Rioja, which was to be 
 sold at a high price to the national government when 
 it should be organized. On being solicited, Facundo 
 took a large number of shares, making payment with 
 tile Jesuits' College, which had been assigned to him, 
 on his demand, in payment of his salary as general. A 
 party of Buenos Ayres stockholders came to La Rioja 
 to carry out the project, and soon asked to be presented 
 to Quiroga, whose name had begun to exercise every- 
 where a mysterious and terrific power. Facundo 
 received them in his lodgings, in very fine silk stock- 
 ings, ill-made pantaloons, and a common linen poncho. 
 The grotesque appearance of this figure was not pro- 
 vocative of any smiles from the elegant citizens of 
 Buenos Ayres. They were too sagacious not to read 
 the riddle. The man before them meant to humiliate 
 his polished guests, and show them what account he 
 made of their European dresses. 
 
 ' The administrative system established in his province 
 Wa's finally completed by exorbitant duties on the ex- 
 portation of cattle which did not belong to him. But 
 in addition to these direct methods of acquiring wealth, 
 he had one which embraced his whole public career, 
 gambling ! He had a rage for play as some men have 
 for strong drink, and others for tobacco. His mind, 
 though a powerful one, had not the capacity of embra- 
 cing a large sphere of ideas, and stood in need of this 
 factitious occupation, in which a passion of the soul is 
 
GAMBLING. 109 
 
 in constant exercise, as it is crossed, appeased, pro- 
 voked, excited, and kept upon the rack. I have always 
 thought that the passion for gambling was some useful 
 faculty that organized society has perverted or left in 
 inaction. The will, self-control, and steadfastness which 
 it requires, are the same which advance the fortunes- krf. 
 the enterprising merchant, the banker, and the con- 
 queror who plays for empires with battles. Facundo '" 
 had habitually gambled since his childhood ; play had 
 been the only pleasure, the only relaxation of his life. 
 But what an agreeable partner he must be who con- 
 trols the terrors and the lives of the whole party ! 'Kb 
 one can conceive such a state of things without having 
 had it before his eyes for twenty years. Facundo 
 played unfairly, say his enemies. I do riot believe the 
 charge, for cheating at play was unnecessary in his 
 case, and he had been known to pursue to the death, 
 others who were guilty of it. But he played with un- 
 limited means ; he never let any one carry from the 
 table the money he used for stakes ; the game could 
 not be stopped till he chose ; he would play forty hours 
 or more at a. time ; he feared no one, and if* his fellow 
 gamblers annoyed him, he could have them whipped 
 or shot at pleasure. This was the secret of his good 
 luck. Few men ever won much money from him, al- 
 though, at some periods of the game, heaps of coin 
 lost by him lay upon the table ; the game would go on," 
 for the winner did not dare to rise, and in the end he 
 would have nothing but the glory of reckoning that his 
 winnings, afterwards lost, had once been so large. 
 
 Gambling, then, was to Quiroga a system of plunder \ 
 as well as a favorite amusement. No one in La Rioja 
 
110 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 received money from him, no one possessed any, with- 
 out being at once invited to a game, or, in other words, 
 to leave his funds in the chieftain's hands. Most of the 
 tradesmen of La Rioja failed and vanished, their money 
 having taken up its quarters in the general's purse ; 
 and it was not for want of lessons in prudence from 
 him. A young man had won four thousand dollars 
 from Facundo, and Facundo declined to play longer. 
 His opponent thought that a snare was in readiness 
 for him, and that his life was in danger. Facundo 
 repeated that he had finished playing ; the stupid fel- 
 low insisted on another game, and Facundo, complying 
 with the demand, won the four thousand dollars from 
 the other, who then received two hundred lashes for 
 his uncivil pertinacity. 
 
 I am weary of reading the accounts of infamous acts 
 in which all the manuscripts I am consulting agree. 
 I . suppress them out of respect to my vanity as an 
 author, and to the literary pretensions of my work. 
 By saying more I should make my pictures appear too 
 highly colored, coarse, and repulsive. 
 
 This terminates one period of the life of the country 
 commandant after he had abolished and suppressed the 
 city. Hitherto Facundo was what Rosas was in his 
 own domain, although not so far degraded before reach- 
 ing power, either by gambling or by the brutal gratifi- - 
 Nation of various passions. But he is to enter upon a 
 new sphere, and we are soon to follow him over the 
 whole Republic and seek him on battle fields. 
 
 What consequences to La Rioja were occasioned by 
 the destruction of all civil order? Reasonings and 
 discussions are here out of place. A visit to the scene 
 
CONSEQUENCES OF FACUNDO'S GOVERNMENT. Ill 
 
 of these occurrences will be sufficient to answer the 
 query. The Llanos of La Rioja are now deserted ; 
 their population has emigrated to San Juan ; the cis- 
 terns are dry which once gave drink to thousands of 
 flocks. Those Llanos which fed those flocks twenty 
 years ago, are now the home of the tiger who has re- 
 conquered his former empire, and of a few families of 
 beggars who live upon the fruit of the carob-tree. This 
 is the retribution the Llanos have suffered for the evils 
 which they let loose upon the Republic. " Woe to ye, 
 Bethsaida and Chorazin ! Verily I say unto you, that 
 the lot of Sodom and Gomorrah was more tolerable 
 than that which was reserved for you ! " 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SOCIAL LIFE. 
 
 11 Society in the Middle Ages was composed of the wrecks of a thousand other 
 societies. All the forms of liberty and servitude were found in it ; the monarchical 
 liberty of the king, the individual liberty of the priest, the privileged liberty of kings, 
 the representative liberty of the nation, Roman slavery, barbarian serfage, and the 
 servitude of escheatage (aubane)." Chateaubriand. 
 
 is now in possession of La Rioja, its um- 
 pire and absolute master ; no other voice is heard 
 there, no other interest than his exists there. As there 
 is no literature, there are no opposing opinions. La 
 .Rioja is a military machine which will move as it is 
 moved. Thus far, however, Facundo has done noth- 
 ing new ;"Dr. Francia, Ibarra, Lopez, and Bustos, had 
 done the same ; and Guemes and Araos had attempted 
 it in the North ; that is, to destroy all existing rights 
 for the purpose of strengthening their own. But be- 
 yond La Rioja lay an agitated world of ideas and of 
 contradictory interests, whence came to Quiroga's resi- 
 dence in the Llanos the distant sounds of the contro- 
 versies of the press and of political parties. Again 
 his rise to pwer was necessarily attended by the spread 
 of the clamor resulting from his-overthrow of the edi- 
 fice of civilization, and by his becoming an object of 
 attention to the neighboring commonwealths. His 
 name had passed the frontiers of La Rioja ; Rivadavia 
 was inviting him to assist in the organization of the 
 Republic ; Bustos and Lopez wished him to oppose it ; 
 
TRANSITION PERIOD. 113 
 
 the government of San Juan complacently reckoned 
 him among its friends, and strangers came to the Llanos 
 to pay him their respects and to ask support in behalf 
 of one party or another. 
 
 At that time the Argentine Republic presented an 
 animated and interesting picture. All interests, all 
 ideas, all passions, met together to create agitation and 
 tumult. Here, was a chief who would have nought 
 to do with the rest of the Republic ; there, a commu- 
 nity whose only desire was to emerge from its isolation ; 
 yonder, a government engaged in bringing Europe over 
 to America ; elsewhere, another to which the very name 
 of civilization was odious ; the Holy Tribunal of the' 
 Inquisition was reviving in some places ; in others, lib- 
 erty of conscience was proclaimed the first of humdii 
 rights ; the cry of one party was for confederation ; of 
 others for a central government ; while each different 
 combination was backed by strong and unconquerable 
 passions. I must clear up the chaos a little, to show 
 the role which it fell to Quiroga to enact, and the 
 great work he was to bring to pass. In order to de- 
 pict the provincial commandant who took possession of 
 the city and annulled its constitution, I have found it 
 necessary to describe the face of nature in the Argen- 
 tine Republic, with the habits induced and the forms 
 of character developed by it. And to describe Quiroga 
 extending his power beyond his own province and pro- 
 claiming a principle, an idea, and carrying it every- 
 where at the point of the bayonet, I must likewise 
 sketch the geographical distributions of the ideas and 
 interests which were agitated in the cities. With this 
 object, it is requisite for me to examine two cities un- 
 
' 114 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 der the sway of opposite ideas. These cities are Cor- 
 dova and Buenos Ayres, as they existed in 1825, and 
 previously. 
 
 CORDOVA. 
 
 Cordova, though somewhat in the grave old Spanish 
 style, is the most charming city in South America in 
 its first aspect. It is situated in a hollow formed in an 
 elevated region called the Altos. So closely are its 
 
 /symmetrical buildings crowded together for want of 
 space, that it may be said to be folded back upon itself^ 
 The sky is remarkably clear, the winter season dry and 
 bracing, the summers hot and stormy. Towards the 
 east it has a promenade of singular beauty, the capri- 
 cious outlines of which strike the eye with magical 
 effect. It consists of a square pond surrounded by^a 
 very broad walk, shaded by ancient willow-trees of 
 colossal size. Each side is of the length of a cuadra, 1 
 and the inclosure is of wrought iron grating, with^ 
 enormous doors in the centre of each of the four sides, 
 so that the promenade is an enchanted prison, within 
 which its inmates circulate around a beautiful temple 
 of Greek architecture. In the chief square stands the 
 
 ' magnificent cathedral, of Gothic construction, with its 
 immense dome carved in arabesques, the only model 
 of mediaeval architecture, so far as I know, existing in 
 South America. Another square is occupied by the 
 church and convent of the Society of Jesus, in the 
 presbytery of which is a trap-door communicating with 
 excavations which extend to some distance below the 
 
 i Eighty-five yards in Montevideo, one hundred and twenty-seven in 
 >Buenos Avres. 
 
CORDOVA. 
 
 city, which are at present but imperfectly explore- 
 dungeons have also been discovered where the Socie -j 
 buried its criminals alive. If any one wishes to be- 
 come acquainted with monuments of the Middle Ages, 
 and to examine into the power and the constitution of 
 that celebrated religious order above referred to, Cor- 
 dova is the place where one of its greatest central 
 establishments was situated. 
 
 In every square of that compact city stands a superb 
 convent, a monastery, or a house for unprofessional 
 nuns, or for the performance of specific religious exer- 
 cises. In former times every family included a priest, 
 a monk, a nun, or a chorister ; the poorer classes con- 
 tenting themselves with having among them a hermit, 
 a lay brother, a sacristan, or an acolyte. 
 
 Each convent or monastery possessed a set of ad- 
 joining out-buildings, where lived and multiplied eight 
 hundred slaves of the Order, negroes, zamboes, mulat- 
 toes, and quadroons, with blue eyes, fair and waving 
 hair, limbs as polished as marble, genuine Circassians 
 ' adorned with every grace, but showing their African 
 origin by their teeth, serving for bait to the passions 
 of man, all for the greater honor and profit of the con- 
 vent to which these houris belonged. 1 
 
 . Here is also the celebrated University of Cordova, 
 founded as long ago as the year 1613, and in whose 
 gloomy cloisters eight generations of medicine and 
 divinity, both branches of law, illustrious writers, 
 commentators, and scholars have passed their youth. 
 Let us hear the description given by the celebrated 
 Dean Funes of the course of instruction and the spirit 
 
 1 A similar order of things exists to this day in the city of Havana. 
 
LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 'this famous university, which has for tw6 centuries 
 provided a great part of South America with theologians 
 and doctors. " The course of theology lasted for five 
 years and a half. Theology had come to share in the * 
 corruption of philosophy. The Aristotelian philosophy 
 applied to theology had resulted in a mixture of the 
 profane with the spiritual. Mere human reasonings, 
 deceptive subtleties and sophisms, frivolous and mis- 
 placed inquiries such were the conditions under which* * 
 the ruling taste of these schools had been formed." 
 If you would look a little deeper into the spirit of lib- 
 erty likely to be the result of such teaching, listen a 
 little longer to Dean Funes : " This university wa, 
 ".originated and established wholly by Jesuits, who 
 founded it in their college of the city of Cordova, 
 called Maximo." Very distinguished advocates have k 
 proceeded from this institution, but no man of letters- 
 who has not also been educated at Buenos Ayres with 
 modern books. 
 
 This learned city has never yet had a public theatre, 
 nor become acquainted with the opera. It is still with- 
 out journals, and typography is a branch of industry 
 which has failed to take root in it. The spirit of Cor- 
 dova up to 1829 was monastic and scholastic ; the con- 
 versation of its society always turned on processions, 
 the saints' days, university examinations, taking the 
 vail, and reception of the doctor's " tassels." 
 
 How far these circumstances tended to influence the 
 temper of a population occupied with such ideas for 
 two centuries, cannot be determined ; but some influ- 
 ence they must have had, as is plain at a glance. The 
 inhabitant of Cordova does not look beyond his own 
 
CORDOVA. 117 ' 
 
 horizon ; that horizon is four blocks distant from his 
 own. When he takes his afternoon stroll, instead of 
 going and returning thpough a spacious avenue of 
 poplars as long as the Paseo of Santiago, which expands 
 and animates the mind, he follows an artificial lake of 
 motionless and lifeless water, in the centre of which 
 stands a structure of magnificent proportions, immov- 
 able and stationary. The city is a cloister surrounded v 
 by ravines; the promenade is a cloister with iron grates ; 
 every square of houses has a cloister of nuns or friars } 
 the colleges are cloisters; the jurisprudence taught 
 there, the theology, all the mediseval scholastic learn- v 
 ing of the place, is a mental cloister within which 
 the intellect is walled up and fortified against every 
 departure from text and commentary. Cordova knows 
 not that aught besides Cordova exists on earth ; it has, 
 indeed, heard that there is such a place as Buenos 
 Ayres, but if it believes this, which it does not always, 
 it asks : " Has it a university ? but it must be an 
 affair of yesterday. How many convents has it ? Has 
 it such a promenade as this ? If not, it amounts to 
 nothing." 
 
 " Whose work on jurisprudence do you study ? " 
 inquired the grave Doctor Gijena, of a young man from 
 Buenos Ayres. 
 
 " Bentham's." 
 
 " Whose, sir, do you say ? Little Bentham's ? " 1 in- 
 dicating with his finger the size of the duodecimo in 
 which Bentham's work is published. ..." That 
 wretched little Bentham's ! There is more sense in 
 one of my writings than in all those wind-bags. What 
 a university, and what contemptible doctors ! " 
 
 1 Benthancito, the termination expressing derision. 
 
118 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 " And you," said the other, " whose book do you 
 study? What!" 
 
 " Cardinal Lucques." 
 
 " What say you, sir ? seventeen folio volumes ? " 
 
 It is a fact that as a traveller approaches Cordova, 
 he looks along the horizon without discovering the 
 sanctimonious and mysterious city, the city which 
 wears the doctor's cap and tassels. At last his guide 
 says, " Look there, it is down there among the bushes." 
 And in reality, as he fixes his gaze upon the ground 
 at a short distance in advance, there appear one, two, 
 three, ten crosses, followed by domes and towers, be- 
 longing to the many churches which adorn this Pom- 
 peii of 'mediaeval Spain. 
 
 \ To conclude, the mechanics shared the spirit of the 
 upper classes : a master-shoemaker put on the airs of 
 a doctor in shoemaking, and would level a Latin apho- 
 rism at a man as he gravely took his measure ; the ergo 
 of the scholar might be heard in the kitchens, and 
 every dispute between a couple of porters took the 
 sound and shape of philosophical demonstrations. We 
 may add, that throughout the revolution, Cordova was 
 the asylum of all fugitive Spaniards. What impression 
 would the revolution of 1810 be likely to make upon a, 
 population educated by Jesuits, and secluded thus by 
 nature, by teaching, and by art ? 
 
 Had revolutionary ideas, such as are found in Rous- 
 seau, Mably, and Voltaire, happened to spread over the 
 pampas and descend into this Spanish catacomb, if 
 we may so speak, what response would they have 
 been likely to find from those brains disciplined by the 
 Aristotelian system to reject all new ideas, those 
 
CORDOVA. ' 119 
 
 intellects which, like their own promenade, had an im- 
 movable idea in their centre, unapproachaWe through 
 a stagnant lake ? 
 
 Toward 1816 the illustrious and liberal Dean Funes 
 succeeded in introducing into the ancient university of 
 the city the studies previously so much contemned : 
 mathematics, living languages, public law, physics, 
 drawing, and music. From that time the youth of 
 Cordova began to direct their ideas into new channels 
 which, ere long, led them to consequences of which'' 
 we will speak hereafter. At present, I am describing^*- 
 the old traditional spirit of the place, which was thfe 
 dominant one. 
 
 The Revolution of 1810 found the ears of Cordova' 
 closed to it at the very time when all the provinces ^ 
 were at once responding to the cry of "To arms-! 
 Liberty ! " It was in Cordova that Liniers began to 
 raise armies to put down the revolution in Buenos Ayrjes. 
 It was to Cordova that the Junta sent one of its mem- 
 bers and its troops to decapitate Spain. It was Cor- 
 dova, which, offended by this outrage, and looking for 
 vengeance and reparation, wrote, with the learned 
 hand of the University, and in the idiom of the 
 breviary and the commentators, that celebrated acros- 
 tic l which pointed out to those who passed the spot the 
 tomb of the first royalists who were sacrificed upon the 
 altars of the state. 
 
 In 1820, a force stationed in Arequete revolted, and 
 General Bustos, its leader, abandoning the banners of 
 
 i C L A M R 
 
 2. & 1 I Z 
 
 M I I 
 
120 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 his country, established himself quietly at Cordova, 
 which congratulated itself for having thus robbed the 
 nation of one of its armies. Bustos created an irre- 
 sponsible colonial government, introduced court eti-^ 
 quette and the perennial torpor of Spain, and thus 
 prepared, Cordova entered upon the year 1828, when 
 the question before the country was the organization 
 of the Republic and the establishment of the revolu- / 
 tionary system with all its consequences. 1 
 
 1 On going over the pages of this first historical essay, the author regrets 
 certain defects which cannot be expunged without recasting the whole 
 work, for it would thus be impossible to preserve the thread of the ideas. 
 The heat of the early years of exile, the impossibility of verifying details 
 in such circumstances, and the prejudices of party feeling, have left some 
 indelible traces. The description of Cordova is stained with this capital 
 vice, and the author would willingly expunge it, if it did not contain a 
 certain malicious exaggeration which make striking the contrast of the 
 modern spirit which characterized Buenos Ayres in 1825. 
 
 But the author owes to the friendly frankness of Dr. Alsina, corrections 
 upon this and several other points, which as a point of honor as well as 
 an excuse, he submits to the examination of the reader, thus making every 
 possible reparation for error without destroying the spirit of the original 
 text. 
 
 " I seem to see," he says in these notes, " a capital defect in this book, 
 that of exaggeration, independent of a certain vivacity, if not in the ideas, 
 in their allocution. If you do not propose to write a romance or an epic, 
 but a veritable history, political, social, and military, your rule must be not 
 to depart from rigid historical exactness, and exaggeration is inconsistent 
 with this. You show & penchant for systems, and in social science, systems 
 do not constitute the best means of arriving at the truth. When the mind 
 is occupied with a previous idea, and proposes to make that triumph in its 
 demonstration of it, it exposes itself to original errors without being 
 aware of it. Then instead of proceeding analytically, instead of examin- 
 ing each fact in itself, to see what can be deduced from it, and from these 
 collected deductions and observations, to bring out a general deduction or 
 result, instead of proceeding thus, a writer uses synthesis, that is to say, he 
 poses a certain leading idea, reviews whatever facts present themselves, not 
 to examine them philosophically and in detail, but to make them prove his 
 favorite idea, and to construct by their means the edifice of his sj'stem. 
 The natural result of this is, that when he meets with a fact which sup- 
 portg his idea, he exaggerates and amplifies it, and when he finds another 
 
BUENOS AYRES. 121 
 
 BUENOS AYRES. 
 
 Let us now turn our attention to Buenos Ayres. Its 
 first struggle was with the aborigines by whom it was / 
 
 which does not square well with his system, or which contradicts it, he 
 presents only one aspect of it, disfigures it, or interprets it in his own 
 way; hence forced analogies and applications, inexact or partial judgments 
 of men or events, and the generalizations with which a writer deduces a 
 rule or a doctrine from an individual, and often accidental fact, perhaps 
 insignificant in itself. All this is a necessity of systems. It is necessary 
 to sacrifice a great deal to them. You propose to show the active strug- 
 gle between civilization and barbarism, a struggle where germs began 
 to move toward development long years ago, and which during years 
 blindly excited the struggle between country and city, in which by a 
 necessary law and almost by fatality, the latter triumphed, and ought to 
 have triumphed. I think there may be truth at the bottom of this idea, 
 although it has not any in my humble opinion. 
 
 " You treat with undeserved harshness that poor city of Cordora. You 
 do not cite facts that justify your general assertion, made so strongly and 
 severely. To recall the crime of Bustos in 1820 would be inopportune, 
 that crime proves something else, but not that. That Leniers and other 
 distinguished men, almost all Spaniards, acted like Spaniards in 1810, 
 is not astonishing, and their rencontre at Cordova should not be imputed 
 to a love of royalty in the people any more than the appearance of that 
 kind of acrostic which you copy, and which might have been the work of 
 an individual, should be imputed to the same thing. These proofs go out 
 of the limits of the circumspection of history to justify an accusation so 
 positive and so general. There were families of the Spanish party there as 
 in all the provinces, without excluding that of Buenos Ayres, and this was 
 natural. After it was delivered from Liniers and his associates, what fact 
 reveals the opposition or dissent of Cordova to the revolution? What 
 does Cordova do less than any other of the provinces where the Spanish 
 armies did not go? What more have the others done than Cordova? It 
 received with decision the first patriotic army, and contributed what it 
 could to it. From 1810 it furnished many soldiers; from 1810 it furnished 
 many men and young men who became excellent officers; it gave Valey, 
 who died gloriously at Desaguadero; also Leeva, Bustos, Julian, and Jos 
 Maria Paz, J. G. Echevarria, who died for liberty in 1831, as you say further 
 on ; it gave my client Colonel Rojas, who made his debut at Dehesa, and 
 others whose names I do not now remember. Cordova sent its deputies to 
 the first Junta, and has since sent them to all the national bodies. In 
 what other way would you have a province take part in the revolution ? 
 In what manner have others taken part in it? 
 
 14 ALSINA." 
 
122 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 swept from the face of the earth. It recovered itself 
 more than once, until in 1620 it figured in the Spanish 
 dominions sufficiently to be erected into a district 
 governed by a Captain-general, and to be separated 
 from Paraguay, under whose government it had pre- 
 viously existed. In 1777, Buenos Ayres had already . 
 become very conspicuous, so much so, indeed, that it 
 was "necessary to remould the administrative geogra- 
 phy of the colonies, and to make Buenos Ayres the 
 chief section. A viceroyal government was express- 
 ly created for it. 
 
 In 1800, the attention of English speculators was 
 turned to South America, and especially attracted to 
 Buenos Ayres by its river, and its probable future. In 
 1810, Buenos Ayres was filled with partisans of the i 
 revolution, bitterly hostile to anything originating in 
 Spain or any part of Europe. A germ of progress, then, 
 was still alive west of the La Plata. The Spanish colo- 
 nies cared nothing for commerce or navigation. The 
 'Rio de la Plata was of small importance to them. The 
 Spanish disdained it and its banks. As time went on, 
 the river proved to have deposited its sediment of wealth 
 upon those banks, but very little of Spanish spirit or 
 Spanish modes of government. Commercial activity 
 had brought thither the spirit and the general ideas of 
 Europe ; the vessels which frequented the waters of the 
 port brought books from all quarters, and news of all 
 the political events of the world. It is to be observed 
 that Spain had no other commercial city upon the 
 Atlantic coast. The war with England hastened the 
 emancipation of men's minds and awakened among them 
 a sense of their own importance as a state. Buenos 
 
BUENOS AYRES. 123 
 
 Ayres was like a child, which, having conquered a giant,/ 
 fondly deems itself a hero, and is ready to undertake 
 greater adventures. The Social Contract flew from hand x 
 to hand. Mably and Raynal were the oracles of the T 
 press ; Robespierre and the Convention the approved 
 models. Buenos Ayres thought itself a continuation of< 
 Europe, and if it did not frankly confess that its spirit 
 and tendencies were French and North American, it " 
 denied its Spanish origin on the ground that the Span- 
 ish Government had patronized it only after it was full 
 grown. The revolution brought with it armies and 
 glory, triumphs and reverses, revolts and seditions. But 
 Buenos Ayres, amidst all these fluctuations, displayed 
 the revolutionary energy with which it is endowed. Bo- 
 livar was everything ; Venezuela was but the pedestal 
 for that colossal figure. Buenos Ayres was a whole 
 city of revolutionists Belgrano, Rondeau, San Martin, 
 Alvear ; and the hundred generals in command of its 
 armies were its instruments ; its arms, not its head nor 
 its trunk. It cannot be said in the Argentine Republic 
 that such a general was the liberator of the country ; 
 but only that the Assembly, Directory, Congress, or 
 government of such or such a period, sent a given gen- 
 eral to do this thing or that. Communication with all 
 the, European nations was ever, even from the outset, 
 more complete here than in any other part of Spanish 
 America ; and now, in ten years' time (but only, be it 
 understood, in Buenos Ayres), there comes to pass ^ 
 radical replacement of the Spanish by the European 
 spirit. We have only to take a list of the residents in 
 and about Buenos Ayres to see how many natives of* 
 the country bear English, French, German, or Italian 
 
124 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 surnames. The organization of society, in accordance 
 with the new ideas with which it was impregnated, 
 began in 1820 ; and the movement continued until 
 Rivadavia was placed at the head of the government. 
 Hitherto Rodriguez and Las Heras had been laying 
 the usual foundations of free governments. Amnesty 
 laws, individual security, respect for property, the re- 
 sponsibility of civil authority, equilibrium of powers, 
 public education, everything, in fine, was in peaceful 
 course of establishment when Rivadavia came from 
 Europe, brought Europe as it were, but Europe was 
 yet undervalued. Buenos Ayres and that means, of 
 course, the Argentine Republic was to realize what 
 republican France could not realize, what the English 
 aristocracy did not even wish for, what despotic Europe 
 wanted still less. This was not an illusion of Riva- 
 davia's ; it was the general thought of the city, its 
 spirit, and its tendency. 
 
 Parties were divided, not by ideas essentially opposed 
 to each other, but by the greater or less extent of their 
 aims. And how else could it have been with a people 
 which in only fourteen years had given England a 
 lesson, overrun half the continent, equipped ten armies, 
 fought a hundred pitched battles, been everywhere 
 victorious, taken part in all events, set at nought all 
 traditions, tested all theories, ventured upon everything 
 and succeeded in everything ; which was still vigorous, 
 growing rich, progressing in civilization ? What was 
 to ensue, when the basis of government, the political 
 creeds received from Europe, were vitiated by errors, 
 absurd and deceptive theories, and unsound principles ? 
 for the native politicians who were as yet without any 
 
BUENOS AYRES. 125 
 
 definite knowledge of political organization, could not 
 be expected to know more than the great men of l 
 Europe. I desire to call attention to the significance 
 of this fact. The study of constitutions, races, and ' 
 creeds, in short, history, has now diffused a certain 
 amount of practical knowledge which warns us against 
 the glitter of theories based upon a priori conceptions ; - 
 but previous to 1820, nothing of that had transpired in 
 jthe European world. France was roused into insur- 
 rection by the paradoxes of the Social Contract ; Buenos 
 Ayres was similarly roused ; Montesquieu designated 
 three powers, and immediately we had three ; Benja- 
 min Constant and Bentham annulled power ; here they 
 declared it originally null; Say and Smith preached 
 free-trade ; " commercial liberty," we repeated ; 
 Buenos Ayres confessed and believed all that the 
 learned world of Europe believed and confessed. Not 
 till after the revolution of 1830 in France, and its in- 
 complete results, did the Social Sciences take a new 
 direction and illusions begin to be dispelled. From 
 that time European books began to come to us, which 
 demonstrated that Voltaire had not much reason, and 
 that Rousseau was a sophist, and Mably and Raynal 
 anarchists ; that there were no three powers, nor any 
 Social Contract, etc. From that time we learned some- 
 thing of races, of tendencies, of national habits, of his- N 
 torical antecedents. Tocqueville revealed to us for the 
 first time the secret of North America ; Sismondi laid 
 bare the emptiness of constitutions ; Thierry, Michelet, 
 and Guizot, gave us the spirit of history ; the revolu- 
 tion of 1830, all the hollowness of the constitutionalism 
 of Benjamin Constant ; the Spanish revolution, all that 
 
126 LfFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 ' 5s incomplete and behindhand in our own race. Of 
 what then were Rivadavia and Buenos Ayres accused ? 
 Of not knowing more than the European savans who 
 were their guides ? On the other side, how was it 
 possible not to embrace with ardor the general ideas of 
 a people who had contributed so much and so well to 
 make the revolution general ? How bridle the imagina- 
 tions of the inhabitants of an illimitable plain bordered 
 by a river whose opposite bank could not be seen a 
 step from Europe, not knowing even its own traditions, 
 , ' indeed without having them in reality ; a new, sud- 
 denly improvised people, which from the very^ cradle 
 . had heard itself called great ? 
 
 Thus elevated, and hitherto flattered by fortune, 
 Buenos Ayres set about making a constitution for 
 itself and the Republic, just as it had undertaken to ," 
 liberate itself and all South America : that is, eagerly, 
 uncompromisingly, and without regard to obstacles. 
 Rivadavia was the personification of this poetical, Uto- 
 pian spirit which prevailed. He therefore continued 
 the work of Las Heras upon the large scale necessary 
 for a great American State a republic. He brought 
 over from Europe men of learning for the press and for 
 the professor's chair, colonies for the deserts, ships for 
 the rivers, freedom for all creeds, credit and the nation- 
 p\ bank to encourage trade, and all the great social 
 theories of the day for the formation of his government. 
 ^In a word, he brought a second Europe, which was to 
 be established in America, and to accomplish in ten 
 years what elsewhere had required centuries. Nor was 
 this project altogether chimerical; all his administrative 
 creations still exist, except those which the barbarism of ~ 
 
BUENOS AYRES. 127 
 
 Rosas found in its way. Freedom of conscience^advo 
 cated by the chief clergy of Buenos Ayres, has not been 
 repressed; the European population is scattered ori- 
 farms throughout the country, and takes arms of its 
 own accord to resist the only obstacle in the way of the 
 wealth offered by the soil. The rivers only need to be 
 freed from governmental restrictions to become naviga- 
 ble, and the national bank, then firmly established, has 
 saved the people from the poverty to which the tyrant 
 would have brought them. And, above all, however 
 fanciful and impracticable that great system of govern- 
 ment may have been, it was at least easy and endura- 
 ble .for the people ; and, notwithstanding the assertions 
 of misinformed men, Rivadavia never shed a drop of 
 blood, nor destroyed the property of any one ; but * 
 voluntarily descended from the Presidency to poverty 
 and exile. Rosas, by whom he was so calumniated; 
 might easily have been drowned in the blood of his 
 own victims ; and the forty millions of dollars from the 
 national treasury, with the fifty millions from private 
 fortunes which were consumed in ten years of tfie long- 
 war provoked by his brutalities, would have been em- 
 ployed by the "fool the dreamer Rivadavia," iij 
 building canals, cities, and useful public buildings. 
 Then let this man, who died for his country, have the 
 glory of representing the highest aspirations of Euro- 
 pean civilization, and leave to his adversaries that of 
 displaying South American barbarism in its most odious 
 light. For Rosas and Rivadavia are the two extremes 
 
 O -____-,_ . . - 
 
 of the Argentine Republic, connecting it with savages 
 through the pampas, and with Europe through the f 
 River La Plata. * * 
 
128 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 y 
 
 I am not making the eulogy, but the apotheosis of 
 Rivadavia and his party, which has ceased to exist as 
 a pohtical element of the Argentine Republic, though 
 Rosas persists in calling his present enemies " Unita- 
 rios" The old union party, like that of the Giron- 
 dists, disbanded many years ago ; but with all its im- 
 possibilities and fanciful illusions it had much that was 
 noble and great to which the succeeding generation 
 should do justice. Many "of those 4nen are still among 
 1 us, though no longer as an organized party ; they are 
 ; the remains of the Argentine Republic, as noble and 
 as venerable as those of Napoleon's empire. These 
 Unitarips of th^year 1825 form a distinct class of 
 -men, recognized by their manners, tone of voice, and 
 opinions. A Unitario would be known among a thou- 
 sand by his stately bearing, his somewhat haughty 
 manner of speaking, and his positive gestures ; on the 
 eve of a battle he will pause to discuss a question logi- 
 cally, or to establish some new legal formality ; for 
 legal formulas are the outward worship which he offers 
 to his idols the Constitution and individual rights. 
 His religion is the future of the Republic, whose image, 
 sublime and colossal, is ever before him, covered with 
 the mantleiof its past glory. Never was there a genera- 
 tion so enterprising, so gifted with reasoning and de- 
 ductive powers, and so wanting in practical common 
 sense. A Unitario will not believe in the evident 
 success of his enemies. He has such faith in the great- 
 ness of his cause, that neither exile, nor poverty, nor 
 lapse of years can weaken his enthusiasm ; and in 
 calmness of mind and in energy of soul he is infinitely 
 superior to the present generation. These men also 
 

 THE TWO PARTIES. 129 
 
 excel us in ceremonious politeness and refinement of 
 manner ; for conventionalities are more and more 'dis- . 
 regarded among us as democracy progresses, and it 'is- 
 now difficult to realize the culture and refinement of 
 society in Buenos Ayres before 1828. Europeans who 
 went there found themselves, as it were,,still in Europe, 
 in the saloons of Paris ; nothing was wanting, not even * 
 the insolence of the Parisian tlegant, which was wefr 
 imitated by the same class of young men in Btoenos 
 Ayres. 
 
 I have been particular in mentioning these little 
 things in order to give an idea of the period when the 
 Republic was in the process of formation, and of its 
 different elements struggling for precedence. On one 
 side Cordova, Spanish in education, in literature, and 
 ' in religion, conservative and strongly opposed to all 
 innovations ; and on the other, Buenos Ayres, revolu- 
 tionary by nature, ready for any change and progress. 
 
 These were the types of the two parties that divided 
 every city ; and I doubt if there is another such phe- 
 nomenon in America ; that is, two parties*, conserva- 
 tive and revolutionary, retrograde and progressive, 
 each represented by a city having its own peculiar 
 form of civilization, and receiving opinions from entirely 
 different sources : Cordova, from Spain, the Councils, 
 the Commentators, the Digest ; Buenos Ayres, from 
 Bentham, Rousseau, Montesquieu, and French litera- 
 ture in general. 
 
 -To these elements of antagonism must be added 
 another not less important, namely, the want of any 
 national bond after the provinces became independent' 
 of Spain. When government authority is removech 
 
130 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC, 
 
 i 
 
 from one centre to another, time is necessary for its 
 firm establishment. 
 
 The " Republican " recently declared that " govern- 
 ment is no more than a compact between the governors -- 
 and the governed." Evidently there are still many 
 Unitarios among us ! Government is in reality founded 
 upon, the unpremeditated consent which a nation gives to 
 a permanent fact. Where there is deliberation, there 
 is no authority. This transition state is calledji_cpn- 
 fedefatkm. Out of each revolution and consequent- 
 change of government, different nations derive their * 
 ideas and modes of confederation. 
 
 I will explain myself. When Ferdinand VII. was 
 driven from Spain, government that permanent fact 
 ceased to exist ; and Spain was formed into provin- 
 cial assemblies which denied the authority of those who 
 governed in the name of the king. This was the 
 Spanish Confederation. When the news reached*" 
 America, the South American provinces revolted from 
 Spain, and being divided into sections, formed the 
 South American Confederation. From Buenos Ayres 
 came at the end of the contest, four states, Bolivia, 
 Paraguay, Banda Oriental, and the Argentine Repub- t 
 lie.; these formed the Confederation of the Viceroy ally. 
 Finally, the Argentine Republic was divided, not as 
 formerly into districts, but according to its cities, and 
 so became a confederation of cities. 
 , It is not that the word confederation signifies sepa- 
 ration, but that when separation has already taken 
 place, it expresses the union of the different parts. The 
 Argentine Republic was at this crisis social, and many 
 persons of note in the cities believed that, for mere 
 
CONSOLIDATION INEVITABLE. 131 
 
 convenience, or whenever an individual or a commu- 
 nity felt no respect for the nominal government, a new 
 confederation might be formed. Here then was another 
 apple of discord in the Republic, and the two parties, 
 after having been called " Royalists " and " Patriots," 
 " Congresistas " and " Kxecutivistas," "T^onseTva:- 
 tives," and "Liberals," now bore the names of " Fed- 
 s erales " and " Unitarios." 1 Perhaps, to finish the list, 
 I should give the name bestowed upon the latter party 
 by Don Juan Manuel Rosas, that is, " salvajes inmundos 
 Ifnitarios" 
 
 But the Argentine Republic is so situated geograph- 
 ically, that it is destined to a consolidation, whatever 
 Rosas may say to the contrary. Its continuous plain, 
 its rivers confined to one outlet, and therefore to one 
 port, force it inevitably to be "one. and indivisible" 
 Rivadavia, who well understood the necessities of the 
 country, advised the provinces to unite under a common 
 constitution, and to make a national port of Buenos 
 Ayres. Aguero, his supporter in Congress, said to tjie 
 citizens of Buenos Ayres, " Let us voluntarily -give to 
 the provinces what, sooner or later, they will claim by 
 force." The prophecy failed in one respect ; the prov- 
 inces did not claim the port of Buenos Ayres by force 
 of arms, but by force of the barbarism which they sent 
 upon her in Facundo and Rosas. Buenos Ayres feels 
 all the effects of the barbarism, while the port has been 
 of no use to the provinces. 
 
 I have been obliged to explain all these antecedents 
 
 r 1 Federahs, those who held to a confederation of the old provinces, or a. 
 union of states. Unitarios, those who advocated a consolidated central 
 government. 
 
132 LIFE/IN THE 'ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 in order to continue the life of Juan Facundo Quiroga ; 
 
 for, though it seems ridiculous to say it, Facundo was* 
 
 the riv~al of Rivadavia. Everything disconnected with 
 
 these men was of little importance, and left no imptres- 
 
 ^ sion. There were in the Republic two parties : one 
 
 in Buenos Ayres, supported by the "Liberals in the 
 
 provinces ; the other originating in the provinces an& 
 
 supported by the provincial commanders who had ob-, 
 
 tained possession of cities. One of these powers .was 
 
 < civilized, constitutional, European ; the other barba 
 
 -., rous, arbitrary, South American. 
 
 , These two parties had reached their full develop- 
 ment, and only needed a word to begin the contest ;^ 
 , one, as the revolutionary party, was already called 
 a Unj|ftario," the opposite party assumed the name of 
 " FedeTalT' "without well understanding it. 
 
 But that barbarian party or power was scattered 
 
 X^\ throughout the Republic, in the provinces, and in the 
 
 Indian territories, and a strong arm was needed to 
 
 establish it firmly in a compact form, and Quiroga 
 
 offered his for the work. 
 
 Though the Argentine gaucho has some qualities 
 common to all shepherds, he has strong local attach- 
 ments. Whether he belongs in Buenos Ayres, Santa 
 FC*, Cordova, or the Llanos, all his aspirations are con- 
 fined to his own province ; and he is an enemy or a 
 I stranger to all the others. These provinces are like 
 different tribes ready to make war upon one another. 
 Lopez, as governor of Santa Fe", cared nothing for what 
 \ was passing around him, except occasionally when 
 obliged to drive out troublesome intruders from his 
 territory. But as these provinces had points of 
 
FACUNDO'S INDIVIDUALITY.^ 133 
 
 tact, nothing could prevent them from finally joining 
 in A common interest, thus bringing about that consol- 
 idation which they had so struggled against. "^ - 
 
 As I have already said, Quiroga's wandering lifk in 
 youth gave rise to his future ambition ; for, though a 
 gaucho, he was troubled with no local attachment. He 
 was 'born in Rioja, but educated in San Juan, and lived 
 afterwards both in Mendoza and Buenos Ayresr He 1 
 was acquainted with the whole Republic, and his ajn- 
 bition had no narrow limits. Master of Rioja, he f 
 delighted to present himsslf clothed with authority in 
 that town, where he had learned to read ; in another 
 city, which was the scene of his boyish escapadas ; and, 
 in another still, where he had distinguished himself by 
 his prison exploit. If it was for his interest to leave a 
 province, he was not detained by his affections ; and, ' 
 unlike Lopez or Ibarra, who only cared to defend their 
 own possessions, he was fond of attacking his neighbor's 
 territory and taking it into his own hands. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 EXPERIMENTS. 
 
 How long are the days now ? for to-morrow I wish to gallop ten leagues over a 
 field sown with corpses. SkaJcespeare. 
 
 THE political condition of the Republic was such as 
 we have described in 1825, when the governor of Bue- 
 nos Ayres 1 invited the provinces to unite in a congress 
 and assume the form of a general government. This 
 idea was everywhere favorably received, either because 
 every military commander expected to be made gover- 
 nor of his own province, or because the glory of Bue- 
 A nos Ayres dazzled all eyes. The governor of Buenos 
 Ayres has been blamed for proposing this question, the 
 -solution of which was to be so unfortunate for himself 
 ^and for the civilization of the country. 
 
 Facundo, in behalf of La Rioja, eagerly accepted 
 the, invitation, perhaps on account of the sympathy 
 which all highly gifted minds have for good plans I 
 
 In 1825 the Republic prepared for the Brazilian 
 war by calling upon each province to raise a regiment 
 fpr the army. Colonel Madrid went to Tucuman for 
 this purpose, and im^tfent to obtain the reluctant 
 recruits and other necessaries for his company, did not 
 hesitate to set aside the slow authorities and to take 
 things into his own hands in order to expedite the 
 1 Rivadavia. 
 
COLONEL MADRID. 135 
 
 necessary decrees. This act of subversion placed the 
 governor of Buenos Ayres in a very delicate position ; 
 for there was already some distrust among the govern- 
 ments, arising from provincial jealousies, and the com- 
 ing of Colonel Madrid from Buenos Ayres, and his 
 interference with provincial authorities, were regarded 
 as acts instigated by the governor himself. 
 
 To remove this suspicion, Facundo was sent to Tu- 
 cuman for the purpose of reestablishing the local 
 authorities. Madrid explained to the governor the 
 real motive certainly a very insufficient one whicji 
 had actuated him, and professed sincere devotion to^ 
 the cause. But it was too late, Facundo was already 
 on his way, and he could only prepare to resist him., 
 Madrid had at his disposal a company which was pass- 
 ing through Salta ; but not wishing to aggravate the 
 charges already made against him, contented himself 
 with fifty guns and as many swords; enough, as he 
 thought, to meet the invading force. 
 
 This Colonel Madrid belonged to a class t>f men 
 essentially Argentine by birth and spirit. At the age 
 of fourteen he began to fight the Spaniards, and the 
 stories of his romantic valor are numerous and often 
 .incredible. He was said to have been in a hundred 
 and fifty encounters, his sword always bearing marks 
 of much service ; the very smell of powder and neigh- 
 ing of the horses so excited him, that cavalry, artillery, 
 infantry, everything that came in his way, fell before 
 his mad energy. Besides his love of fighting, he had 
 the gift of the Argentine cantor, and animated his 
 soldiers with war-songs, such as have already been 
 described. Unfortunately, he was not a well-balanced 
 
136 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 general, such as Napoleon liked ; his bravery predom- 
 inated over the other qualities desirable in a general in 
 the proportion of a hundred to one, a fact well 
 proved by the event at Tucuman. Though able to call 
 in a sufficient force, he persisted in giving battle with 
 only a handful of men, accompanied by Colonel Dias- 
 velez, who was not less brave than himself. Facundo 
 had with him two hundred of infantry and his own 
 Red Cavalry ; Madrid had fifty-foot soldiers and a few 
 squadrons of militia. At the beginning of the contest, 
 Facundo and his cavalry were routed, and he himself 
 did not return to the field of battle until all was over. 
 Meanwhile the body of infantry stood firm ; Madrid 
 ordered his men to charge upon them, but not being 
 obeyed, he actually rushed upon them alone. He was 
 thrown from his horse, but, recovering himself, charged 
 about him, slaying on the right, on the left, and before 
 him, until horse and horseman fell pierced with balls 
 and bayonets, and victory was decided in favor of the 
 infantry. 
 
 Facundo now came back to recover his black flag 
 which had been lost, and found his victory gained, and 
 Madrid dead, actually dead. His equipments were 
 there, sword, horse, and all, but his body could 
 not be recognized among the stripped and mutilated 
 corpses that lay upon the field. Colonel Diasvelez, 
 who was a prisoner, said that his ally had a bayonet 
 wound in his leg, and no body was found with such a 
 wound. 
 
 Madrid had dragged himself under some bushes 
 where his aid found him raving deliriously about the 
 battle ; and at the sound of approaching footsteps, he 
 
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE COLOR "RED." 137 
 
 cried, u I do not surrender ! " Never until then had 
 Colonel Madrid surrendered. 
 
 This was the famous fight at Tala, the first exploit 
 of Quiroga beyond the limits of his province. He had 
 conquered " the bravest of the brave," and kept his 
 sword as a trophy of the victory. Will he stop there ? 
 But let us see the force which sustained itself against 
 the colonel of the 13th regiment, who overthrew a 
 government to equip his company. Facundo raised at 
 Tala a flag which was not Argentine, but of his own' X 
 invention; namely, a black ground with a skull and 
 cross-bones in the centre. This was the flag which he 
 had lost early in the engagement, and which he in- 
 tended to recover, as he said to his routed soldiers, 
 even at the mouth of hell. Terror, death, hell, were 
 represented on the banner and in the proclamations of 
 this general of the Llanos. 
 
 And there was still another revelation of the Arab- 
 Tartar spirit of that power which was to destroy the 
 cities. The Argentine colors are blue and white ; the 
 clear sky of a fair day, and the bright light of the disk 
 of the sun : " peace and justice for all." In our hatred of 
 tyranny and violence, we reject on our national flag war- 
 like devices. Two hands, as a sign of union, support 
 the Phrygian cap of Liberty. " The United Cities " 
 says this symbol, " will sustain their acquired liberty." 
 The sun begins to illumine the background of this 
 device, while the darkness of night is disappearing. 
 The armies of the Republic, which were to spread over 
 the whole country to enforce the coming of that 
 promised light, wear a uniform of dark blue. But 
 now, in the very heart of the Republic, the color red 
 
138 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 appears on the national banners, in the dress of the 
 soldiers, and in the cockade which every native Argen- 
 > tine must wear under pain of death. Let us look up 
 x the significance of the color red. I have before me a 
 picture of all the national flags of the world. In civ- 
 ilized Europe there is but one in which this color 
 prevails, notwithstanding the barbaric origin of its ban- 
 tiers. The red ones are : Algiers, a red flag with skull 
 f and cross-bones ; Tunis, a red flag ; Mongolia, the 
 same ; Turkey, a red flag with a crescent ; Morocco ; 
 Japan, red with the exterminating knife ; Siam has 
 the same. 
 
 I remember that travellers in the interior of Africa 
 provide themselves with red cloth for the negro princes. 
 " The king of Elve," say the brothers Lander, " wore 
 a Spanish coat of red cloth and pantaloons of the same 
 color." 
 
 I remember that the presents sent by the govern- 
 ment of Chili to the caciques of Aranco, were red 
 cloaks and coats, because savages liked this color 
 especially. 
 
 The royal robes of the barbarian kings of Europe 
 were always red. The royal edict of Genoa declared 
 that the senators must wear a red toga, and especially 
 in pronouncing judgment on criminals, that they 
 might inspire the prisoners with terror. 
 
 Until within the last century it was the custom in 
 all the countries of Europe for the executioner to be 
 dressed in red. The armies of Rosas wore a red uni-\ 
 form ; his likeness is stamped on a red ribbon. 
 
 What remarkable connection is there between these 
 facts ? Is it chance that Algiers, Tunis, Japan, Turkey, 
 
EFFECTS OF FREEDOM OF THOUGHT. 139 
 
 Siam, the Africans, the savages, the Roman Neros, the 
 barbarian kings, the hangmen, and Rosas, should be 
 clothed in a color now proscribed by Christian and, 
 civilized communities? No, it is because p rjed_is_the- 
 symbol of violence, blood, and barbarisjn^- If not, why ' 
 "This antagonism ? 
 
 The Argentine revolution of independence was sym- 
 bolized by two blue stripes and one white one ; signi- 
 fying, justice, peace, justice. 
 
 The amendment made by Facundo and approved'tyy 
 Rosas, was a red band, signifying terror, blood, barba- 
 rism. 
 
 In all ages this significance has been given to the 
 color purple or red ; study the history of those nations,, 
 who have hoisted this color, and you will always' find 
 a Rosas and a Facundo terror, barbarism, and blood 
 always prevailing. In Morocco, the emperor has the 
 singular prerogative of killing criminals with his own 
 hand. Each phase of civilization is expressed in its 
 garments, and every style of apparel is indicative of an 
 entire system of ideas. Why do we wear beards at 
 the present day ? Because of the researches recently 
 made in medieval history ; the direction given to 
 romantic literature is reflected in the fashions of the 
 day. And why are these constantly changing ? Be- 
 cause of the freedom of thought in Europe ; let 
 thought be stationary, enslaved, and the costume will 
 remain unchanged. Thus in Asia, where men live 
 under such governments as that of Rosas, the same 
 style of dress has been worn since the time of Abra- 
 ham. 
 
 And still further ; every form of civilization has had 
 
140 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 its style of apparel, and every revolution of institutions 
 has produced a change of costume. The Roman civil- 
 ization had one style of dress ; the Middle Ages an- 
 other ; the frock-coat was not worn in Europe until after 
 the revival of letters. It is ever the most civilized na- 
 tion that imposes its fashions on the rest of the world. 
 All Christian nations now wear the coat, and when the 
 Sultan of Turkey, Abdul-Medjid, desired to introduce 
 European civilization into his dominions, he laid aside ' 
 the turban and caftan for the frock-coat, pantaloons, and 
 cravat. 
 
 The Argentine people know the violent opposition 
 to civilized costume made by both Rosas and Facundo. 
 One night, in the year 1840, a couple of mazorqueros l 
 were dodging around the streets of Buenos Ayres in 
 pursuit of a man who wore a coat, and at last he was 
 seized by the throat, when he exclaimed, " I am Simon 
 Pereira ! " " Pardon, sir," said the men, " but you 
 expose yourself by wearing this coat." " That is just , 
 why I wear it ; who else wears a coat ? I do it to be 
 known at^ distance." 
 
 This Simon was the purveyor and agent of Rosas. 
 But to finish the illustration of the spirit of the civil 
 war by its symbols, I must refer to the history of the 
 " red ribbon " of quite extensive notoriety. 
 
 In 1820, Rosas appeared in Buenos Ayres with his , 
 Colorado^ de las Conchas. 2 Twenty years afterwards, 
 he colored the whole city with red ; houses, doors, 
 paper-hangings, tapestry, etc. ; but finally he conse- 
 crated the color to official purposes, and made it a test 
 of loyalty to the state. 
 
 1 Mazwqueros, agents of Rosas, employed in cases of secret vengeance. 
 
 2 A company of provincial militia, dressed in red. 
 
THE RED RIBBON. 143 
 
 The history of the red ribbon is rather singular, /of 
 first it was adopted only by party enthusiasts ; then it 
 was ordered that every one should wear it as a proof i 
 of unanimity of opinion. If there was no intentional 
 disobedience, but in changing the dress the badge was 
 forgotten, the police came to the assistance of memory. 
 Mazorqueros were stationed in all the streets, and par- 
 ticularly at the doors of the churches, and when the 
 ladies came out, slashes with a cowhide were distrib- 
 uted without mercy. There were yet stricter regula- 
 tions. If the ribbon was carelessly tied : " Stripes ! 
 the fellow must be a Unitario." If the ribbon was 
 too short : " Stripes for the Unitario ! " And if a 
 man did not wear it at all, he was put to death for con- 
 tempt of the laws. The care of the governor for the 
 public education did not stop here. It was not enough 
 to be a Federal and to wear the red ribbon ; the 
 likeness of the illustrious Restaurador must be stamped 
 upon it, with the motto, " Death to the dirty^ savages, 
 Unitarios," and it must be worn near the heart in token 
 of deep love. It might be thought that the work of 
 debasing a cultivated people and destroying all per- 
 sonal dignity, was now ended. But they were not y^t 
 sufficiently disciplined. One morning a ridiculous 
 figure painted on paper, with a streamer of red ribbon 
 half a yard long, appeared at the corner of a street in 
 Buenos Ayres. . The first person who saw it rushed 
 back, terrified, and gave the alarm. Immediately 
 every one hurried to the shops and soon appeared 
 wearing half a yard of ribbon. A few days after, a 
 slight alteration in the ribbon or the painted figure was 
 followed by the same result. If any ladies happened 
 
LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 lts forget the red knots prescribed for them instead of 
 the ribbon, the police would most likely furnish them, 
 one gratis of melted tar ! Thus was uniformity of 
 
 opinion secured, and not a person was to be found who 
 was not a Federal, or did not imagine himself one. 
 It frequently happened that some one coming out of 
 his house found the end of the street swept, and in less 
 than a half hour the whole street was swept, the im- 
 pression having become general that there was a police 
 order to that effect. 
 
 One day a grocer put out a small flag to attract 
 customers ; the example was followed from house to 
 house, from street to street, until banners floated over 
 the whole city ; and the officials thought that some 
 great news had come, unknown to them. And this 
 was the people who once forced eleven thousand Eng- 
 lish to surrender in the streets, and who afterward sent 
 five armies against the Spaniards ! 
 
 he fact is, that terror is a mental disease which 
 attacks a people like cholera, small-pox, or scarlet fever.' 
 Every one is liable to the contagion, and when the in- 
 oculation has been going on for ten years, it is doubtful 
 if even the vaccinated escape. Do not laugh then at 
 the sight of so much degradation. Remember that you 
 are Spaniards, and that the Inquisition educated Spain ! 
 We bear this disease in our blood. 
 
 Let us now resume the thread of our history. Fa- 
 cundo entered Tucuman in triumph, where he passed 
 several days without committing any remarkable acts 
 of violence, and without imposing taxes ; for the con- 
 stitutional course of Rivadavia had given the people an 
 amount of knowledge which could not at once be ig- 
 
 ^hve 
 attac 
 
{ FACUNDO AND THE FEDERALS. 143 
 
 nored. Facundo then returned to Rioja, inimical tof 
 the Presidency, though not knowing what motive to^ 
 give for this opposition, for he could not have explained 
 it to himself. 
 
 " I am not a Federal," he always said, " I am not 
 such a fool." " Do you know," he said once, to Don 
 Dalmacio Velez, " why I went to war ? For this," 
 showing, as he spoke, an ounce of gold. This was not 
 true. 
 
 At other times he said, " Carril, governor of San 
 Juan, treated me very badly in paying no attention to 
 my recommendation of Carita, and for this I put my- v 
 self in opposition to the Congress." This also was 
 false. His enemies said, that he owned many shares in 
 the bank, and proposed to sell them to the national 
 government for three hundred thousand dollars. Riva- 
 davia rejected this proposition as a scandalous theft, 
 and from that time Facundo enlisted among his ene- 
 mies. This was true as a fact, but it was not his motive.' 
 It was believed that he yielded to the suggestions of 
 Bustos and Ibarra in joining the opposition party ; bu$* 
 there is a document which proves the contrary. In a 
 letter which he wrote in 1832 to General Madrid, he 
 said, " When I was invited by those two low fellows, 
 Bustos and Ibarra, I did not consider them capable of 
 making a successful opposition to that despot, President 
 Don Bemadino Rivadavia, and refused to join them ; 
 but having been informed by Colonel Manuel del Cas- 
 tillo, aide-de-camp of Bustos, that you were engaged in 
 this affair, and much interested in it, I did not hesitate 
 a moment in deciding to join unconditionally ; counting 
 
 upon your sword alone for success What 
 
 was my misfortune," etc. 
 
144 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 So he considered it a fool's part to be a Federal ! 
 
 . Was it necessary then to be as ignorant as a country 
 commandant to know what form of government was 
 'most suitable for the Republic ? Was the least edu- 
 cated man most capable of judging of difficult political 
 questions ? Were such thinkers as Lopez, Ibarra, and 
 Facundo, with their great historical, social, geographi- 
 cal, philosophical, and legal information to solve the 
 problem of the proper organization for a state ? Ah ! 
 
 ' let us lay aside the vain words that have deceived so 
 many. Facundo turned against the government by 
 which he was sent to Tucuman, for the same reason 
 that he turned against Aldao who sent him to Rioja. 
 He found himself with the power and the will for ac- ^ 
 tion ; and, impelled by a blind, vague instinct, he 
 obeyed it. He was commander of a company, a , 
 g audio-outlaw, an enemy of civil justice, of civil order, 
 of educated men, of savans, of the frock-coat, in a word, * 
 of the city. He was ordained for the destruction of -*- 
 these by Providence, and must needs fulfill his mission. 
 At this time a singular question arose to complicate 
 affairs. In Buenos Ay res, the seaport and residence of/ 
 
 / sixteen thousand foreigners, the governor granted these 
 foreigners liberty of conscience ; and the higher clergy 
 approved of and sustained this law. Convents of dif- 
 ferent orders had been already suppressed, and the 
 priests provided for. In Buenos Ayres this matter 
 gave no trouble, for all were agreed upon necessity ofj 
 toleration. The question of liberty of conscience is in 
 South America a question of political economy, foiv it 
 implies European emigration and population. This \ 
 was so fully recognized in Buenos Ayres that even 
 
' . THE BLACK FLAG. 
 
 Rosas did not dare to revoke the law of freedom ; and 
 that thing must be impossible, indeed, which Rosas, 
 would not attempt. 
 
 r In the provinces, however, this was a question*^/ 
 / religion, of salvation, and of eternal damnation. Imag- 
 / ine how it would be considered in Cordova ! In Cor- 
 jdova, an inquisition was established. In San Juan, 
 there was a Catholic insurrection, so called to distin- 
 guish its party from the Liberalistas, their enemies'. 
 This revolution having been suppressed in San Jqan, 
 they found one day that Facundo was at the gates 'of 
 the city with a black flag, bearing a red cross, and the 
 device " RELIGION OR DEATH ! " 
 - As the reader will remember, I have quoted from a 
 manuscript that Facundo never went to confession, nor 
 heard mass, nor prayed, and that he himself said he 
 believed in nothing. And yet party spirit led a cele- 
 brated preacher to call him one sent by God, to induce 
 many to follow his banner. When the eyes of this 
 same priest were opened, and he withdrew from the 
 wicked crusade which he had preached, Facundo said 
 he was only sorry that he did not have him at hand to 
 
 give him six hundred lashes. 
 
 On his arrival at San Juan, the chief men of the 
 city, the magistrates who had not fled, and the priests 
 grateful for this divine aid, went out to meet him, 
 forming two long files in the streets. Facundo passed 
 through without looking at them. They followed at a 
 distance, mortified, and exchanging glances in their 
 common humiliation, until they reached a clover pas- 
 ture, which this shepherd-general, this modern hicso, 
 chose for his quarters, and preferred to the fine edifices 
 10 
 
.-o LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 .of the city. A negress, who had nursed him in his 
 \~infancy, came to see her boy Facundo. He seated her 
 by his side and conversed affectionately with her, 
 while the priests and dignitaries of the city stood un- 
 accosted, the chief not even deigning to dismiss them. 
 
 The Catholics must have been somewhat doubtful 
 of the importance and divinity of the aid which came 
 to them in such an unexpected form. A few days 
 after, learning that the Cur6 of the Conception was 
 in favor of free worship, Facundo caused him to be 
 arrested, thrown into prison, and sentenced to death. 
 My Chilian readers must know that there were in San 
 Juan at this time, priests, cure's, and monks, who be- 
 lieved in freedom of conscience, and belonged to the , 
 party of the President. Among others the presbyter^ 
 Centeno, well-known in Santiago, together with sixi 
 others, was very zealous in the ecclesiastical reform. 
 But something must be done in the cause of religion, to* 
 justify the device of the flag. With this laudable aim, 
 Facundo wrote to a priest of his party, asking his ad-** 
 vice about the resolution he had formed to shoot all the 
 city authorities for not having decreed the restitution -* 
 of the secular revenues of the clergy. 
 
 The good priest, who had not foreseen the conse- 
 quences of arming crime in the name of God, felt some 
 scruple about such a mode of reparation, and advisecl 
 that the officials should be commanded to make the 
 necessary decrees. 
 
 Was there any real question of religion in the Argen- 
 tine Republic ? I should deny it utterly if I did not ( 
 know that the more barbarous and irreligious a people , 
 is, the more liable it is to prejudice and fanaticism. 
 
THE CATHOLIC PARTY AND RELIGION. 147 
 
 But the masses did not move of their own accord, 
 and it is plain that those who adopted this device, Fa- . 
 cundo, Lopez, Bustos, etc., were completely indiffer-' 
 ent. The religious wars of the fifteenth century in 
 Europe were maintained on both sides by sincere 
 believers, fanatical and devoted even to martyrdom, 
 without political aims, and without ambition. The 
 Puritans read the Bible at the moment of going into 
 battle, prayed, and observed fasts and penances. Tfie 
 spirit of a party is evidently sincere, when after tri- 
 umph it accomplishes all and even more than it prom- 
 ised before the contest. When this result is wanting, 
 there is a deception in terms. When the so-called 
 Catholic party had triumphed in the Argentine Repub- 
 lic, what did it do for religion or the interests of the 
 priesthood ? 
 
 As far as I know, it only drove out the Jesuits, ' 
 beheaded four respectable priests in Santos Lugare's, 
 after having flayed their heads and hands, and carried 
 in procession the host and the portrait of Rosas side by 
 side, under a canopy. Did the Liberal party ever com- 
 mit such horrible profanations ? 
 
 But enough of this. While at San Juan, Facundo 
 occupied his time in gambling ; leaving to the author- * 
 ities the care of providing him with the sums necessary 
 to defray the expenses incurred in the defense of re- 
 ligion. All the time that he remained there he livei 
 in a tent on the clover field, ostentatiously dressed fn 
 the chiripd, an intentional insult to a city where mast 
 of the inhabitants used English saddles, and wnere / ' 
 the barbarous dress and habits of the gaucl^os were 
 especially disliked, San Juan being an exclusive!^ 
 agricultural province. 
 
148 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 One more campaign against General Madrid at 
 Tucuman, completed the debut of this new emir of 
 shepherds. General Madrid had resumed the govern-\ 
 ment of Tucuman, sustained by the whole province, 
 and Facundo thought it .his duty to dislodge him. 
 There was a new expedition, a new battle, and a new 
 victory. I omit the details with the exception of one 
 characteristic' anecdote. Madrid had in the battle of 
 Rincon one hundred and ten infantry ; and when the 
 combat ended, there were sixty dead, while of the 
 remaining fifty all except one were wounded. On the 
 following day Madrid declared himself again ready for 
 battle, but Quiroga sent one of his aides to say that 
 the action would begin by shooting the fifty prisoners 
 already kneeling to receive their fate. Madrid aban- 
 doned all further attempt at resistance. 
 
 In these three expeditions, in which Facundo tested 
 his power, there was no unusual effusion of blood and 
 but few outrages. It is true that in Tucuman he seized 
 upon some flocks and hides, and imposed heavy taxes 
 upon them, but as yet there was no cowhiding of the 
 citizens, no outrages upon the women ; there were the 
 evils of conquest, but none of its horrors. The pas- 
 toral system had not yet developed that brutality and 
 entire absence of restraint which afterwards character- 
 ized it. 
 
 What part had the legitimate governor of Rioja 
 in these expeditions ? The government only existed 
 nominally ; all the real power was in the hands of 
 the "Provincial Commander." Blanco resigned the . \ 
 office, overwhelmed with humiliations; and Aguero 
 assumed the government. One day, however, Qui- 
 
AN EASY WAY OF PAYING DEBTS. 149 
 
 roga rode up to his door and said to him, " Sir, I 
 came to inform you that I have encamped with my 
 escort two miles from here." It is hardly necessary to 
 say that Aguero resigned. A new governor was now 
 to be chosen, and at the petition of the people, Qui- 
 roga condescended to nominate Galvan, who accepted . 
 the office, but was assaulted the same night by a troop 
 of soldiers, and fled. Quiroga enjoyed the adventurfc 
 excessively. It is well to mention that the assembly 
 of representatives was composed of men who did not" 
 know how to read. 
 
 Facundo needed money for his first expedition to 
 Tucuman, and demanded of the treasurer of the bank 
 eight thousand dollars on account of his shares for 
 which he had never paid. In Tucuman, he demanded 
 twenty-five thousand dollars to pay his soldiers, who 
 received none of it ; and some time after sent a bill of 
 eighteen thousand dollars to Dorr ego to pay the cost 
 of the expedition made by order of the governor of 
 Buenos Ayres. Dorrego did not hesitate to satisfy so 
 just a demand. This sum was shared with Moral, the 
 governor of Rioja, who had suggested the idea. Six 
 years after, in Mendoza, he gave this same Moral seven 
 fmndred lashes for his ingratitude. While Blanco 
 was governor, there was a dispute about a game of 
 /cards, and Facundo, seizing his opposer by the hair, 
 shook him until his neck was broken. The body was 
 buried, and the man declared to have died a natural 
 death. 
 
 When about to leave Tucuman, he sent a party of 
 soldiers to the house of one Sarate, who was shot at 
 his own door and left for his widow to bury ; the victim 
 
150 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 was a man of property and a peaceable citizen, but 
 well known for his bravery and contempt of Quiroga. 
 On his return from the expedition, Facundo happened 
 to meet with Gutierrez, ex-governor of Catamarca, 
 whom he persuaded to go and live at Rioja. There 
 they were quite intimate for some time, but seeing 
 Gutierrez surrounded one day by some gaucho friends, 
 Facundo had him arrested and sentenced to death, to 
 the terror of all Rioja, for Gutierrez was much re- 
 spected, and had gained the affections of every one. 
 The presbyter, Dr. Colina, and several other clergy- 
 men of high standing, petitioned that the miserable man 
 might at least have time to arrange his affairs and con- 
 fess his sins. " I see," answered Facundo, " that he 
 ha^s many partisans here. Ho! there! .Take these men 
 to prison and let them be shot instead of Gutierrez." 
 They attempted to flee, and two escaped; one lost his life, 
 and the others were imprisoned ; but Facundo laughed 
 loudly when he heard the adventure, and ordered them 
 to be set at liberty. Such scenes as this were frequent 
 between the priests and their aid " sent by God" 
 
 In San Juan he had a negro dressed up as a priest, 
 and made him walk through the streets. In Cordova, 
 he refused to receive any one except Dr. Castro Bar- 
 ros, with whom he had an account to arrange. In 
 Mendoza, he walked to the place of execution by the 
 side of a priest whom he had condemned to death ; he 
 did the same with the cur6 of Alguia and the prior of 
 Tucurnan. It is true that in these cases he did not go, 
 so far as to have the sentence actually executed, bjnt 
 it was a great terror and humiliation to the clergy- 
 men ; yet in spite of all this, the old people and bigots 
 
. 
 
 RIVADAVIA RESIGNS. 
 
 still offered prayers to heaven for the success of his 
 arms. 
 
 But the story of Gutierrez is not quite ended yet. 
 Fifteen days later he received a sentence of exile, and 
 an escort was to conduct him beyond the boundaries. 
 The party having encamped for the night, a fire was 
 made to cook supper, and while Gutierrez was stooping 
 to blow the scarcely lighted sticks, the chief official 
 struck him on the head with a staff, and blows from 
 others followed, until his brains were literally knocked . 
 out. 
 
 These were some of the events which took place in 
 Facundo's first attempt at union in the Republic, for 
 these were but attempts ; the time had not yet come 
 for the alliance of the pastoral powers by which the 
 Republic was to be reorganized. Rosas was already 
 famous in the province of Buenos Ayres, though he 
 bore no titles as yet ; nevertheless he was busy in his 
 own cause. The constitution proposed by Congress 
 was rejected wherever the provincial commanders had 
 any influence. When the government deputy pre- 
 sented himself in Santiago del Estero, in his official 
 dress, Ibarra received him in shirt-sleeves and chiripd. 
 VRivadavia resigned the presidency because the prov- 
 inces were opposed to him, " but barbaris.m.-WJll_soon 
 be dowri ugonjis," he added, after his farewell, fie - 
 did well to resign. Rivadavia's mission was to present 
 before us the constitutionalism of Benjamin Constant' 
 with all its empty words, its deceptions, and absu^jdi* 
 ties. Rjvadavia did not know that when the civiliza- 
 tion and liberty of a people are in question, a ruler -haj 
 great responsibilities both to God and future genera* 
 
^52 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 tions ; and that there is neither charity nor compassion 
 in abandoning a nation for thirty years to the devasta- 
 tion of the first ruthless sword that offers. Communi- 
 ties in their infancy are like children who foresee 
 nothing and understand nothing, and need men of 
 knowledge and foresight to guide them. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 CIVIL WAR. TABLADA, A CITY. 
 
 There is a fourth element coming ; they are the barbarians, new hordes who 
 come to throw themselves upon the old society with complete freshness of manners, 
 soul and spirit, and who have as yet done nothing, but are ready to receive every- 
 thing with the aptitude of the most suave and naive ignorance. Cherminier. 
 
 THE presidency had -fallen amid the hissings and 
 rejoicings of its enemies. Dorrego, the able leader 
 of the opposition in Buenos Ayres, was the friend of 
 the governors of the interior, who were his abettors 
 and supporters in the Provincial Congress in which he 
 was triumphant. Victory was no longer with the Re- 
 public in its foreign wars ; and, though its arms had 
 met with no disasters in Brazil, the necessity for peace 
 was everywhere felt. The opposition of the provincial 
 leaders had weakened the army by destroying regi- 
 ments, or refusing to furnish recruits. An apparent 
 tranquillity reigned in the interior, but the earth trem- 
 bled ; strange rumors were afloat. The newspapers 
 of Buenos Ayres were filled with gloomy prophecies. 
 Threats came alike from the government and the oppo- 
 sition. The administration of Dorrego began to show a 
 want of strength, because the party of the city, called 
 Federal, which had established it, had not the power to 
 sustain itself with honor after the fall of the presidency. 
 , The new administration, far from resolving any of the 
 
154 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 questions which divided the Republic, showed, on the 
 contrary, all the weakness o Federalism. Dorrego '' 
 was essentially Buenos Ayrean in his sympathies, and . t 
 had little regard for the fate of the provinces. He had , 
 promised the provincial leaders and communities to da* 
 all he could to favor the interests of the former and , 
 to insure the rights of the latter ; but, having once 
 obtained the government, he said to his immediate ' 
 friends, " What is it to us if the petty tyrants carry - 
 things with a high hand ? What are the four thousand"" 
 dollars' salary to Lopez, or the eighteen thousand to 
 Quiroga, to us who control the seaport, and a custom- 
 house that brings us in a million and a half, which that 
 stupid Rivadavia wished to convert into national rev- 
 enue ? " Let us not forget that the motto of egotism is - 
 always " Each for himself." Dorrego and his party 
 did not foresee that the provinces would come some day 
 to punish Buenos Ayres for having refused them its 
 civilizing influence ; and that, because of the indiffer- 
 ence to their ignorance and barbarism, this very igno- 
 rance and barbarism would penetrate into the streets of 
 Buenos Ayres and take up its quarters even in the fort. 
 But Dorrego might have seen it, if he or his party 
 had had better eyes. Here were the provinces at the 
 gates of the city, only waiting an occasion to invade it. 
 From the time of the fall of the presidency the de- 
 crees of the civil authorities could not be enforced - 
 beyond the suburbs of the city. Dorrego had em- 
 ployed, as an instrument of opposition, this outside 
 resistance ; and, when his party triumphed, he be,- 
 stowed upon his ally beyond the walls the title of corn- 
 man der-in-chief of the provinces. What logic of the 
 
DORREGO AND THE UNITARIOS. 155 
 
 sword is it that makes the rank of commander-in-chief 
 of the provinces a necessary step in the elevation of a 
 military leader ? Where this rank does not exist, as 
 was then the case in Buenos Ayres, it is created ex- 
 pressly ; as if, before letting the wolf into the fold, 'it 
 was necessary to expose him to general observation. 
 
 Dorrego afterward found that the provincial com- 
 mander, who had caused the presidency to totter, arid 
 had contributed so powerfully to overthrow it, was a 
 lever perpetually applied to the government ; and that 
 when Rivadavia had fallen, and Dorrego was in his 
 place, the lever still continued its action. Dorrego and 
 Rosas were -face to face, each watching and threatening 
 the other. Dorrego's friends recall his favorite phrase, 
 " The gaucho-rogue ! Let him be as troublesome as 
 Jie -pleases ; and when he is least expecting it, I will 
 shoot him." This was just what the Ocampos said 
 when they first felt Quiroga's heavy arm upon them. 
 
 Indifferent to the people of the interior, not in high 
 favor with the Federal party of the city, and already in 
 antagonism with the provincial power which he had 
 called to his aid, Dorrego, who had obtained the 
 government through parliamentary opposition, now 
 tried to win the Unitarios, whom he had conquered ; 
 but parties have neither charity nor foresight. "The 
 Unitarios laughed in their sleeves, and said among 
 themselves, u He totters, let him fall." The Unitarios 
 did not understand that with Dorrego would fall those 
 who might have interposed between them and the 
 provinces ; or that the monster whom they feared was 
 not seeking Dorrego, but the city, the civil institutions, 
 of which they themselves were the exponents. 
 
156 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 Things were in this condition when peace was con- 
 cluded 'with Brazil, and the first division of the army, 
 commanded by Lavalle, was disbanded. Dorrego 
 ; knew well the spirit of these veterans of the War of 
 Independence, who, covered with wounds, and grown 
 gray in the service, had obtained only the rank of 
 colonels, majors, or captains ; two or three, perhaps, 
 becoming generals ; while in the interior of the Re- 
 public, without ever having passed the frontiers, were 
 dozens of leaders, who, in four years, had been raised 
 from the rank of gaucho-outlaws to that of command- 
 ers ; from commanders to generals, and from generals 
 to absolute masters of provinces. Need we look for 
 any other motive for the implacable hatred of the 
 ? veterans for these men ? What had they to anticipate, 
 now that the new order of things had taken from them 
 thk hope of entering the capital of Brazil as conquer- 
 ors ? 
 
 On the 1st of December, two companies of regulars 
 were drawn up in Victoria Square. Governor Dorrego 
 had fled to the country, and the Unitarios filled the air 
 with shouts of triumph. A few days afterward, seven 
 hundred cuirassiers, commanded by general officers, 
 went out through Peru Street toward the pampas to 
 meet several thousand gauchos and Indians, together 
 with a few soldiers, commanded by Dorrego. For a 
 moment the field of Navarro was covered with the 
 dead, and the following day an officer, now in the 
 service of Chili, brought in Dorrego as prisoner. An 
 hour later, the body of Dorrego lay pierced with 
 balls. The officer who had ordered his execution an- 
 nounced it to the city in the following terms : 
 
THE EXECUTION OF DORREGO. 157 
 
 " I have the honor of informing the deputy-governor that Colo- 
 nel Manuel Dorrego has just been shot by my order, in front of 
 the regiments which compose this division. History will judge 
 impartially whether Senor Dorrego should have lived or died ; or 
 whether in sacrificing him for the peace of a city, brought to 
 grief by him, I could have had any other motive than that of the 
 public good. Let the people of Buenos Ayres be persuaded that 
 the death of Colonel Dorrego is the greatest sacrifice that I could 
 make for them. 
 
 " I salute, Seiior, the minister with all due consideration. 
 
 " JUAN LAVALLE." 
 
 Was Lavalle wrong? It is needless to add another 
 affirmative in support of those who, after seeing the 
 consequences, assumed the easy task of criticizing his 
 motives. If an evil exists, it is in tilings not in persons. 
 When Cassar was assassinated, he re-lived more terrible 
 than ever in Octavius. Lavalle did not then know 
 that in killing the body he could not kill the spirit ; and 
 that political personages take their character and ex- 
 istence from the ideas, interests, and ends of the party 
 they represent. If Lavalle had shot Rosas instead of 
 Dorrego, perhaps he would have saved the world from 
 a great scandal, humanity from a great opprobrium, and 
 the Republic from much blood and many tears ; but, 
 even if Rosas had been shot, the provinces would still 
 have had representatives ; and there would have been 
 only the change of one historical picture for another. 
 But what people pretend to ignore to-day, is, that not- 
 withstanding the purely personal responsibility of the 
 deed, as far as Lavalle is concerned the death of Dor- 
 rego was a necessary consequence of the prevailing 
 ideas of v the time ; and that by this act the soldier who 
 was brave enough to defy history, only accomplished 
 
s 
 
 158 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 the avowed wish of the citizens. What had interfered 
 with the proclamation of the Constitution of 1826 but 
 the hostility of Ibarra, Lopez, Bustos, Quiroga, Ortiz, 
 and the Aldaos, each of whom ruled a province, and 
 some of whom influenced the others ? Now, what 
 would appear so reasonable at that time, and to those 
 .men who reasoned a priori, as to get rid of what they 
 considered the only obstacle to the desired organization 
 
 the Republic ? " 
 
 These political errors which belonged to the time 
 rather than to the men, are yet worthy of considera- 
 tion, for upon them depend the explanation of many 
 social phenomena. Lavalle in shooting Dorrego, just 
 'as he would have shot Bustos, Lopez, Facundo, and 
 others of that class, only fulfilled the requirements of 
 his time and party. Even in 1834 there were still 
 men in France who believed that if they could get rid 
 of Louis Philippe, the French Republic would revive 
 in all the greatness and glory of the past ! Perhaps 
 also the death of Dorrego was one of those fated events 
 which form the nucleus of history, without which it 
 would be incomplete and unmeaning. Civil war had 
 been long threatening the Republic. Rivadavia had 
 foreseen it with all its horrors ; Facundo had uncon- 
 sciously kept his hordes on the slopes of the Andes in 
 waiting for this event ; and Rosas' private life had 
 been a ten years' preparation towards the same end. , 
 Dorrego was in the way of all parties : of the Unitarios, 
 for they despised him ; of the provincial leaders, for he 
 had proved useless to them ; and in that of Rosas, be- "' 
 cause he was impatient of keeping under the shadow of 
 the city parties, and eager to obtain the government, - 
 
THE COMING CAMPAIGN. JL<, 
 
 or in other words, to become what he was not, and- 
 could never be, that is, a Federal, in the strict sense of 
 the term. He represented the third social element, ' 
 which from Artigas to Facundo .had been eagr to 
 show itself without disguise, and to measure its strength 
 with that of European civilization. If Dorrego had 
 not died, it does not follow that the craving thirst of 
 Facundo would have been quieted, or that Rosas would 
 have failed to represent the provinces in the struggle 
 - which had begun long before 1820. No, Lavalle only 
 lighted the match which was to fire the mine long ago 
 prepared by both Unitarios and Federals. 
 
 From this moment there was nothing for the timid 
 but to stop their ears and shut their eyes. All others 
 everywhere rushed to arms ; the tread of horsemen was 
 heard over the pampas, and the cannon's black mouth 
 was seen at the gates of the cities. 
 
 We must now leave Buenos Ayres to see what is 
 passing in the other provinces. It must be mentioned, 
 by the way, that Lopez, having been beaten in several 
 encounters, sued in vain for reasonable terms of peace ; 
 and that Rosas had serious thoughts of going over to 
 the side of Brazil. Lavalle refused to share in any of 
 the transactions, and was soon put down ; here was the i 
 true Unitario disdain of the gaucho, and faith in the 
 final triumph of the " city." If Lavalle had adopted 
 another line of conduct and kept the seaport in thq 
 hands of the citizens, might not the cruel Pampas Gov- 
 ernment have been prevented ? 
 
 Facundo was in his element. A campaign was about 
 to begin ; expresses rushed to and fro ; the feudal system 
 of independence was to become a confederation of war. 
 
j.00 LIFE IK THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 Everything was put in requisition for the corning cam- 
 paign, and it was found unnecessary to go to the banks . 
 of the La Plata for a good battle-field. General Paz, s * 
 with eight hundred veterans, had gone to Cordova, 
 fought and conquered Bustos, and taken possession of 
 the city, which was but a step from the Llanos, and 
 within reach of the cries from the " montoneras " of the 
 Sierra Cordova. 
 
 Facundo hastened his preparations ; he longed for a 
 personal encounter with a one-armed general who could 
 not manage a lance or flourish a sword. What could 
 Paz hope for in an encounter with the conqueror of 
 Colonel Madrid ? Facundo was to be joined by Don 
 Felix Aldao, a friar general from Mendoza, with a 
 regiment of trained auxiliaries equipped entirely in 
 red ; and without waiting for a force of seven hun- 
 dred regulars from San Juan, he set out for Cordova 
 with four thousand men, eager to measure arms with 
 the cuirassiers of the second division and their officers. 
 
 The battle of Tablada is so well known that details 
 are" unnecessary. It has been brilliantly described in 
 the " Revue des deux Mondes ; " but there is one fact 
 jvorth remembering. Facundo attacked the city with 
 all his army, and was repulsed for a day and night by 
 one hundred young clerks, thirty mechanics, and seven 
 sick soldiers, from behind slight breastworks defended 
 by only four pieces of artillery. And it was only when 
 he announced his intention of burning the beautiful 
 city, that they consented to surrender the place. Know- 
 ing that Paz was approaching, he left his infantry as 
 useless, and went out to meet him with a cavalry force 
 at least three times as large as the army of his oppo- 
 
TABLADA AND CORDOVA. 161 
 
 nent ; then came hard fighting, and the cavalry charged 
 again and again, but in vain. That mass of horsemen, 
 .though surrounding the eight hundred veterans, were 
 driven back every moment, and compelled to return to 
 the charge. The lance of Quiroga forcing back his 
 own retreating men, caused as much terror in the rear 
 of his army as the guns and swords of the enemy in 
 front. But all was in vain ; it was like the raging 
 billows of the sea beating against a rough, motionless 
 rock ; sometimes, indeed, it is engulfed by the angry 
 waves, but its black summit presently reappears firm 
 and unshaken. Of the eight hundred auxiliaries only 
 sixty survived, and of the six hundred red cavalry, not 
 a third were living ; the numerous other companies 
 lost all discipline, and fled in every direction. Facundo 
 retreated to the city, and the next day lay with his 
 guns and infantry like a tiger in ambush : but all was 
 soon over, and fifteen hundred dead bodies proved how 
 obstinate the contest had been on both sides. 
 
 'The battles of Tablada and Cordov_a_were trials of 
 strength between the provincial and city forces under 
 their great leaders, Facundo and Paz, worthy repre- 
 sentatives of the two powers which were struggling for 
 dominion in the Republic. Facundo, ignorant, barba- / 
 rous, for the greater part of his life an outlaw, and fa- . 
 mous only for his acts of desperation ; brave to rash- 
 ness, endowed with herculean strength, always upon 
 his horse, which he managed skillfully through terrpr\ . 
 and violence, knowing no other power than that bf 
 brute force, had no faith but in his horse, and dependent 
 for success upon bravery, the lance, and the terrrole 
 charges of his cavalry. In all the Argentine Republic % 
 11 
 
162 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 there was not a more perfect specimen of the " gauclio 
 malo" 
 
 PaZjOn the contrary, was a true son of the city, and 
 representative of the power of civilization. Lavalle, 
 Madrid, and others like them, were native Argentines ; 
 
 'cavalry officers, as brilliant as Murat, perhaps, but the 
 
 , cuirass and epaulets could not hide the gaucho nature* 
 But Paz was a European soldier, and only believed in 
 
 . (bravery as subordinate to tactics, strategy, and disci- 
 pline. He hardly knew how to ride, and having only 
 
 'one hand, could not use a lance. A very large army 
 was unwieldy and troublesome to him ; what he liked, 
 was a small number of soldiers thoroughly disciplined. 
 A regiment of his training was sure to be perfect of its 
 kind, and could he have selected his own battle-fields, 
 the fate of the Republic would have been secure. He 
 was in spirit a European soldier, even to the arms he 
 used ; he was an artillery officer, and therefore math- 
 ematical and scientific. A battle was a problem which 
 he could solve by equations, and foretell the unknown 
 quantity that is, the victory. General Paz was not 
 a genius, but an able officer, who employed science 
 where others made use of brute force ; in a word, he 
 was the representative of European civilization, which 
 was in a fair way to die out in our country. Unfortu- 
 nate General Paz ! Honor be to thee in thy repeated 
 disasters ! With thee are the household gods of the 
 Republic ! Destiny has not yet decided between thee 
 and Rosas, between the cities and the pampas, be- 
 tween the blue stripe and the red ribbon ! Thou hast 
 the only quality of mind that in the end conquers brute 
 force, the quality in which lay the power of the old 
 
GENERAL PAZ. ? 163 
 
 martyrs ! Thou hast faith. Faith has saved thee, and 
 in thee is the only hope of the Republic. 
 
 There is certainly a destiny about this man. He* 
 alone, in the ill-advised revolution of the first of De- 
 cernber, was able to justify it 'by victory. Taken t at ^ 
 <^last from the head of his army by the irresistible power 
 of the gaucho, he was kept ten years in prison, Rosas, . 
 even, not daring to kill him, as if a guardian angel 
 watched over his life. He escaped almost miracu- 
 lously one stormy night, and through the rough waters 
 of the La Plata, reached the eastern bank. Repulsed at 
 one place, and disappointed at another, he at last 
 obtained command of the few remaining forces of a 
 province which had seen three armies successively 
 destroyed. From such remnants he again gathered 
 with much care and patience means of resistance, and 
 when the armies of Rosas had triumphed everywhere, 
 and carried terror throughout the Republic, the one- 
 armed general called aloud from the marshes of Cagu- 
 azu, " The Republic still lives ! " Afterwards, de- 
 spoiled of his laurels by those he had served, and igno- 
 miniously taken from the head of his army, he sought 
 refuge among his enemies in Entre Rios, where the 
 very elements seemed to protect him, and even the 
 gauchos of the forest Montiel did not have it in their 
 hearts to kill the one-armed man who harmed no one. 
 .At last he reached Montevideo, and learned that Ri- 
 bera had been defeated, probably because he was not 
 there to take the enemy in his own snares. The whole 
 city was in consternation, and hurried to the poor 
 lodging of the fugitive to beg for advice and comfort. 
 ." If I can only have twenty days, they will not take 
 
364 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 the city," was the only answer, given, not with enthu- 
 siasm, but with mathematical certainty. Oribe gave . 
 Paz all he asked for, and three years have passed since 
 that day of terror at Montevideo. When he had 
 secured the place well, and accustomed the garrison' to 
 fight daily as a matter of course, he went to Brazil and 
 remained longer than was agreeable to his friends, and 
 when Rosas was hoping to hear of him in the hands of 
 the imperial police, he learned that he was at Cor- 
 rientes training six thousand men ; that he had formed 
 an alliance with Paraguay, and also that Brazil had 
 invited France and England to take part in the con- 
 test ; so that the question between the provinces and 
 the cities had now become a struggle between the 
 one-armed, scientific Paz and the gaucho barbarian 
 Rosas ; between the Pampas on one side and Para- 
 guay, Uruguay, Brazil, England, and France on the ^ 
 other. 
 
 It was especially to the honor of General Paz that 
 even the enemies he had fought with neither hated nor > 
 feared him personally. The " Gaceta "- of Rosas, so 
 prodigal of its calumniations, never succeeded in abus- 
 ing him thoroughly, a proof that he inspired his very' 
 detractors with respect. Many of the followers of Rosas 
 in their hearts admired Paz, and the old Federals never 
 forgot that he had always protected them from the fury x ' 
 of the old Unitarios. Who knows if Providence, which , 
 holds in its hand the fate of nations, has not preserved'' 
 this man through many dangers to aid in the recon- 
 struction of the Republic under laws which permit 
 liberty without license, and do not need to be enforced 
 by violence. Paz is a provincial by birth, a guarantee 
 
LIBERAL ELEMENT IN CORDOVA. ". .-165 
 
 that he would never sacrifice the provinces to Buenes 
 Ay res and the port, as Rosas has done to obtain mill- - 
 ions while he impoverishes the people of the interior ; 
 just what the Federals had accused the Congress of 1826 
 of wishing to do. 
 
 The conquest of Tablada was the beginning of a 
 new era for the city of Cordova, which, until then, 
 according to the message of General Paz to the pro- 
 vincial representatives, " had occupied the lowest place 
 among the Argentine cities, constantly opposing effort 
 towards the construction of a jconstifeutioiL- for the 
 nation, or for its own province, either under the rule 
 of Federals or Unitarios." 
 
 However, Cordova, like all the Argentine cities, con- 
 tained its liberal element, but kept under until then by 
 an absolute and conservative government like that of - 
 
 JBustos. From the moment that Paz entered the city, 
 this element appeared openly, and showed how much it 
 had strengthened during nine years of that Spanish 
 government. 
 
 I have before described Cordova as antagonistic in 
 spirit to Buenos Ayres ; there is one circumstance in 
 favor of its future development. The inhabitants have 
 the greatest possible respect for learning, an effect pro- 
 duced by the university of two centuries standing. 
 The love of learning presupposes a certain degree of 
 civilization, so that notwithstanding the conservative 
 nature and direction of the studies, there must be in 
 
 v Cordova a large number in favor of progressive* cul- 
 ture and intelligence. This respect for learning, ex- 
 
 - tends even to the lower classes of society, and Jthis 
 explains why the masses embraced the revolution with 
 
166 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 an ardor which ten years have not abated, and which 
 has furnished many victims for the vengeance of the 
 Ma*orqueros. 
 
 Paz brought with him an interpreter who should 
 explain his ideas and objects to the common people 
 Barcala, the negro colonel, who had so gloriously dis- 
 tinguished himself in Brazil, and was on an equality 
 with the chief officers of the army : Barcala the freed- 
 man, who had devoted himself to the task of interest- 
 ing the working classes in a revolution which regarded 
 neither color nor class in rewarding true merit. This 
 Barcala was, as far as possible, to make the change of 
 ideas and aims popular among the citizens ; and he 
 succeeded beyond the most sanguine expectations. 
 jThe middle classes of Cordova were from that time in 
 favor of civil order and progressive civilization. 
 
 The young men of Cordova were distinguished in 
 the war for their disinterested devotion to the cause'; 
 many fell on the field of battle, or under the knife of 
 the assassin, and still more were condemned to the 
 pains of exile. In the battles of San Juan, the bodies 
 of Cordovian " doctors " lay piled in the streets, ob- 
 structing the artillery that they were carrying against 
 the enemy. 
 
 On the other hand, the clergy, who had encouraged 
 the opposition to Congress and the constitution, had 
 had time to measure the abyss to which civilization 
 would be brought by such defenders of the faith as 
 Facundo, Lopez, etc., and did not hesitate to declare 
 in favor of General Paz. 
 
 Thus the " doctors " and young men, the clergy as 
 well as the masses, were now of one opinion, and ready 
 
TREATY WITH LOPEZ OF SANTA FE. 167 
 
 to uphold the principles implied in the new order of ' 
 things ; and Paz could at once begin to reorganize the 
 province and to establish friendly relations with others. 
 A treaty was confirmed with Lopez of Santa Fe*, who * , 
 was induced, by Don Domingo de Oro 1 to join Paz. 2 ,/ 
 Salta and Tucuman had already submitted, and only 
 the western provinces remained hostile. 
 
 1 Domingo de Oro was a noble patriot, wh<J opposed Rosas at the cost \ 
 of everything that makes life dear. 
 
 2 General Paz, late Vice-President of the Argentine Republic, died of 
 cholera within this year. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 CIVIL WAR. 
 
 WHAT has become of Facundo in the mean time ? 
 At Tablada he had lost everything, arms, officers, 
 men, reputation ; everything except rage and valor. 
 Moral, governor of Rioja, taken aback by the news 
 of this unlooked-for disaster, availed himself of a 
 slight excuse for leaving the city, and from Sanogasta 
 sent Quiroga a despatch offering him what assistance 
 the province could afford. Before the expedition the 
 friendship between this nominal governor and the all- 
 powerful commander had somewhat cooled. Quiroga 
 thought he had not had the full number of armed men 
 that he considered due him from the result of the 
 census, in addition to the troops already in the 
 province, and which had come from Tucuman, San 
 Juan, Catamarca, etc. And another circumstance 
 strengthened the suspicions with which Quiroga re- 
 garded the governor. Sanogasta was the manorial 
 residence of the Dorias Davilas, the enemies of the 
 commander ; and the governor, foreseeing what the 
 suspicions of Facundo would deduce from the date of 
 the despatch, dated it from Uanchin, a place about 
 four leagues distant. But Quiroga knew that Moral 
 was in Sanogasta, and all his doubts were confirmed. 
 Fontanel and Barcena, two of Facundo's odious in- 
 
; THE MURDERER BARCENA. 169 
 
 struments, were sent out with a party to scour the 
 country for the purpose of impressing as many men 
 as they could find, but the inhabitants took care to 
 escape, so that they were not veiy successful in their 
 day's hunt, and returned with only eleven persons 
 who were shot upon the spot. Don Inocencio Moral, 
 an uncle of the governor, with his two sons, one 
 only fourteen years of age, were among the victims 
 of that day. There was also among them a Don 
 Mariano Pasos, who had once before incurred the 
 anger of Quiroga. When he was starting on one of 
 his previous expeditions, this man, seeing the disor- 
 derly troops, had said to a fellow-merchant, " What 
 men for fighting ! " Quiroga hearing it, had the two 
 criticizers brought before him ; one was tied to a post 
 and received two hundred lashes, while the other stood 
 by awaiting his share. The latter, however, was 
 spared when his turn came, and afterwards became 
 the governor of Rioja and a great friend of Quiroga. 
 
 Meanwhile, Governor Moral, knowing what he 
 might expect, fled from the province, but he was 
 eventually caught, and received seven hundred lashes 
 for his ingratitude, for it was he who had shared the 
 eighteen thousand dollars extorted from Dorrego. 
 
 That Barcena before mentioned was ordered to 
 assassinate the commissioner of the English mining 
 company ; and I heard from himself the details of this 
 atrocious murder, which he committed in his own 
 house, desiring his wife and children to stand out of 
 the way of the balls and sword-cuts. 
 
 Barcena accompanied Oribe in his expedition to Cor- 
 dova ; and during a ball given in honor of the triumph 
 
170 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 over Lavalle, threw the bloody heads of three young 
 men into the hall where their families were dancing. 
 This Barcena was the leader of the band of Mazorque- 
 ros which went with the army sent to Cordova in per- 
 secution of Lavalle, a regularly organized band, each 
 Mazorquero wearing at his side a knife with a blade 
 curved like a small cimeter, which was invented by 
 Rosas himself for the purpose of beheading men dex- 
 terously. 
 
 Wftat motive could Quiroga have had for these atro<- 
 cities ? He is said to have told Oro at Mendoza that his 
 only object was to inspire terror. And again, during 
 the continual assassinations of wretched peasants, on 
 his way to the head-quarters at Atiles, one of the Vit- 
 lafanes said to him in a tone of fear and compassion, 
 "Is it not enough, General?" "Don't be a fool," 
 Quiroga answered ; " how else can I establish my 
 power ! " This was his one method, terror with the 
 citizen, that he might fly and leave his fortune ; terror 
 with the gaucho, to make him support a cause in which 
 he had no personal interest. With him terror took the 
 place of administrative power, enthusiasm, tactics, 
 everything. And it cannot be denied that terror, as a 
 means of government, produces much larger results 
 than patriotism or liberty. Russia has made use of it* 
 from the time of Ivan, and has conquered the most 
 barbarous nations ; the bandits of the forest obey thte - 
 chief, wielding this power which controls the fiercest 
 natures. It is true that it degrades men, impoverishes,^ 
 them, and takes from them all elasticity of mind, but 
 it extorts more from a state in one day than it would 
 have given in ten years ; and what does the rest matter 
 
 * 
 
THE STORY OF SEVERA. 171 
 
 to the Czar of Russia, the bandit chief, or the Argen- 
 tine commander ? 
 
 Facundo ordered all the inhabitants of Rioja to emi^ 
 grate to the Llanos under pain of death, and the order 
 was literally obeyed. It is hard to find a motive for 
 this useless emigration. Quiroga was not apt to fear, 
 yet he might have feared at the moment ; for the Uni- 
 tarios were raising an army in Mendoza to take po^- 
 session of the government ; Tucuman and Salta were 
 on the north ; and on the east, Cordova, Tablada, and 
 General Paz ; he was, therefore, pretty well sur- 
 rounded, and a general hunt might very well have 
 brought the Tiger of the Llanos at bay. These terror- 
 ists do have their moments of fear : Rosas cried like 
 a child when he heard of the rebellion at Chascomus, 
 and eleven huge trunks were packed with his effects 
 ready to fly an hour before news came of the victory 
 of Alvarez. But woe to the people when such mo- 
 ments have passed ! Then follow September massacres, 
 and pyramids of human heads arise in the squares ! 
 
 Notwithstanding the order of Facundo, two persons 
 remained in Rioja a young girl and a priest. The 
 story of Severa Villafane is a pitiful romance ; a fairy 
 tale in which the loveliest princess is a wandering fugi- 
 tive, sometimes disguised as a shepherdess, sometimes 
 begging a morsel of bread, or for protection from a 
 frightful giant, a cruel Bluebeard. Severa had the 
 misfortune to excite the lust of the tyrant, and made 
 superhuman efforts to escape his persecution. It was 
 not only virtue resisting seduction, but the unconquer- 
 able repugnance of a delicate woman who detests those 
 coarse types of brute force. A beautiful woman will 
 
172 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 sometimes barter something of her honor for something 
 of the glory which surrounds a celebrated man ; not 
 for the glory which depends on the debasement of 
 others for its brilliancy, but the glory which was the 
 cause of Madame de Maintenon's frailty, or the literary 
 glory to which Madame Roland and other such women 
 are said to have sacrificed their reputations. For 
 whole years Severa resisted. At one time she came 
 near being poisoned by her tiger ; at another, Quiroga, 
 in a fit of desperation, tried to poison himself with 
 opium. Once she escaped with difficulty from the 
 hands of some of his creatures, and again she was sur- 
 prised by Quiroga in her own court-yard, where he 
 seized her by the arm, beat her with his fist until she 
 was covered with blood, then threw her upon the 
 ground and kicked in her skull with the heel of his 
 boot. And was there no one to protect this poor girl, 
 no relatives, no friends ! One might well think so ; 
 yet she belonged to the first families of Rioja ; Gen- 
 eral Villafane was her uncle, she had brothers who 
 witnessed the outrages ; and there was a cur who 
 shut the doors against her when she sought a refuge in 
 the sanctuary. Finally, Severa fled to Catamarca and 
 went into a convent ; two years afterwards, when 
 Facundo was passing through that place, he forced his 
 way into the convent, and ordered the nuns into his 
 presence ; at the sight of him one nun uttered a cry 
 and fell senseless upon the floor it was Severa. 
 
 But we must return to the encampment at Atiles, 
 where an army was preparing for the purpose of recov- 
 ering the reputation lost at Tablada. Two Unitarios 
 of San Juan had fallen into the hands of the tyrant : 
 
RANSOMS. 173 
 
 a young Chilian by the name of Castro y Calvo, and 
 Alexandro Carril. Quiroga asked the latter how 
 much he would give for his life. 
 
 " Twenty-five thousand dollars," he answered, tremb- 
 ling. 
 
 " And you, sir," asked Quiroga, of the other, " how 
 much will you give ? " 
 
 "I can only give four thousand," said Castro. "I 
 am only a merchant and have no property." 
 
 They sent to San Juan for the money, and behold 
 thirty thousand dollars collected for the war at a very 
 small cost. While waiting for the money, Facundo 
 lodged them under a carob-tree, and employed them 
 in making cartridges, paying them two reals a day for 
 their work. 
 
 The governor of San Juan, hearing of the efforts 
 made by the family of Carril to collect this ransom, 
 took advantage of the knowledge. As governor of the 
 city he could not exactly shoot his own citizens, though 
 an independent Federal, and neither did he have the 
 power to extort money from the Unitarios. But he 
 ordered all the political prisoners in the gaols to be 
 sent to the camp at Atiles to join the army. The 
 mothers and wives understood what fate they were to 
 expect, and first one, and then another and another, 
 succeeded in scraping together the sums necessary to 
 keep back their sons and husbands from the den of the 
 Tiger. Thus Quiroga governed in San Juan merely 
 by the terror of his name. 
 
 When the brothers Aldao were all powerful in Men- 
 doza, and had not left in Rioja one man, old or young, 
 married or single, who was able to carry arms, Facundo 
 
174 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 transported his head-quarters to San Juan, where there 
 were still many wealthy Unitarios. There he soon 
 ordered six hundred lashes to a citizen noted for his 
 influence, talent, and wealth, and walked himself by 
 the side of the cart which carried his expiring victim 
 through the streets ; for Facundo was very careful 
 about this part of his administration ; and not at all 
 like Rosas, who, from his private room where he was 
 taking his mats, sent Mazorqueros to execute the atroci- 
 ties afterward charged upon the federal enthusiasm of 
 the people. Not thinking this example sufficient, Fa- 
 cundo seized upon an old man, whom he accused or 
 scarcely troubled himself to accuse of having served 
 as a guide to some fugitives, and had him shot without 
 permitting him to speak a word ; for this heaven-sent 
 defender of the faith cared very little whether his vic- 
 tims confessed or not. 
 
 Public opinion being thus prepared, there were no 
 sacrifices the city of San Juan was not ready to make 
 for the defense of the Confederation ; contributions 
 were given in without remonstrance, and arms ap- 
 peared as if by magic. The Aldaos triumphed in the 
 incapacity of the Unitarios to violate the treaty of Pilar, 
 and then Quiroga left for Mendoza. There no addi- 
 tional terror was needed, for the daily executions 
 ordered by the monk Aldao had paralyzed the city ; but 
 Facundo thought it necessary to justify the terror car- 
 ried everywhere by his name. Some young men of 
 San Juan had been made prisoners, and these, at least, 
 belonged to him. He asked one of them how many 
 guns he could furnish by the end of four days ; the 
 young man answered that if he might have time to 
 
A SPARK OF HUMANITY. 175 
 
 send to Chili for them, he would do all he could. 
 Quiroga repeated, " How many can you furnish now ? " 
 
 44 None," was the answer ; and the next moment his 
 body was taken away to be buried, six others soon fol- 
 lowing. The same question was put orally or in 
 writing to the prisoners from Mendoza, and the answers 
 were more or less satisfactory. Among these was a 
 General Alvarado, who was brought before Facundo. 
 
 " Sit down, General," he said. " How soon can you 
 deliver six thousand dollars for your ransom ? " 
 
 " Sir, I cannot bring it at all ; I have no money." 
 
 " But you have friends who would not let you be 
 shot," said Quiroga. 
 
 " No, sir ; I have none. I was only passing through 
 the province when I was induced by the public wish to 
 take charge of the government." 
 
 " Where would you like to go ? " continued Qui- 
 roga, after a moment of silence. 
 
 44 Wherever you may order, sir." 
 
 44 What do you think of San Juan ? " 
 
 44 Just as you please, sir." 
 
 44 How much money do you need ? " 
 
 44 None, I thank you, sir." 
 
 Facundo went to a desk and opening a bag of gold, 
 said, 44 Take what you need, General." 
 
 44 Thanks, sir, nothing." 
 
 An hour later the carriage of General Alvarado was 
 at his door with his baggage in it, and also General 
 Villafane, who conducted him to San Juan, and on his 
 arrival there, gave him a hundred ounces of gold from 
 General Quiroga, begging him not to refuse it. 
 
 This would seem to prove that Quiroga's heart was 
 
176 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 not entirely dead to noble impressions. Alvarado was 
 an old soldier, a grave and prudent general, who had 
 given him no trouble. He afterward said of him, 
 " That Alvarado is a good soldier, but he doesn't un- 
 derstand our warfare." 
 
 At San Juan they brought before him a Frenchman 
 named Barreau, who had written about him as only a 
 Frenchman can write. Facundo asked him if he was 
 the author of the abusive articles, and was answered in 
 the affirmative. 
 
 u Then what do you expect ? " 
 
 "Death, sir;" said the man; but Quiroga threw him 
 % a purse, saying, " There, take that, and go somewhere 
 ' else to be hung." 
 
 At Tucuman, Quiroga one day lay stretched on a 
 bench, when an Andalusian came up and asked for the 
 General. 
 
 " He is in there," said Quiroga ; " what do you 
 want with him ? " 
 
 "I have come to pay the four hundred dollars' con- 
 tribution he has charged upon me, the fellow gets 
 his living easy." 
 
 " Do you know the General, friend ? " 
 
 " No, and I don't want to know him, the rogue ! " 
 
 " Come in and take a drink," said Quiroga, but at 
 that moment an aide came up, and began : " Gen- 
 eral ." 
 
 44 General ! " cried the man, opening his eyes, " so 
 you are the General ! Ah, General," he contin- 
 ued, falling on his knees, "I am a poor devil, you 
 wouldn't be the ruin of me, the money is all ready, 
 General, come, don't be angry, now ! " 
 
ONCATIVO. 177 
 
 Facundo burst into a loud laugh, told the man to 
 make himself easy, and giving him back the contribu- 
 tion, only took two hundred of it as a loan, which he 
 afterwards faithfully repaid. Two years after this, a 
 paralyzed beggar called out to him in the streets of 
 Buenos Ayres, 
 
 " Good-bye, General, I am the Andalusian of Tucu- 
 man, and I'm paralyzed." Facundo gave him six 
 dollars. 
 
 These things prove the theory, which the modern 
 drama has exhibited with so much brilliancy, namely, 
 that in the darkest characters of history there will 
 always be found a ray of light, however totally if, 
 seems sometimes to vanish. . ( 
 
 But let us resume the course of public events. After ' 
 the solemn inauguration of terror in Mendoza, Facundo '- 
 retired to Retamo, whither the Aldao brothers had car- 
 ried a contribution of a hundred thousand dollars ex- 
 torted from the Unitarios. There they gambled day 
 and night, playing for enormous stakes, until Facundo 
 had won the hundred thousand dollars. 
 
 A year passed in preparations for the war, and at 
 the end of 1830 a new and formidable army, composed 
 of divisions recruited in Rioja, San Juan, Mendoza, and 
 San Luis, marched against Cordova. General Paz, 
 desirous of avoiding bloodshed, though sure of winning 
 new laurels should an engagement take place, sent 
 Major Pawnero, an officer of prudence, energy, and 
 sagacity, to meet Quiroga with proposals of peace, and 
 even of alliance. It might be thought that Quiroga 
 would be disposed to accept any reasonable opportu- 
 nity for adjustment ; but the intervention of the Bue- 
 
 12 
 
178 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 nos Ayres commission, which had no other object than 
 to prevent any adjustment, and his own pride and pre- 
 sumption on finding himself at the head of a more pow- 
 erful and better disciplined army than the first, made 
 him reject the peace proposals of the more modest 
 General Paz. Facundo had this time arranged some- 
 thing like a plan for the campaign. Communications 
 established in the- Sierra de Cordova had excited the 
 pastoral population to rebellion ; General Villafane ap- 
 proached on the north with the division from Cata- 
 marca, while Facundo came up from the south. It was 
 not very difficult for General Paz to see through the 
 designs of Quiroga, and to disappoint them. One night 
 the army disappeared from the immediate neighborhood 
 of Cordova, no one knew where ; it had been seen by 
 many persons, but in different places at the same time. 
 If there has ever been in America anything like the 
 complicated strategy of Bonaparte's campaigns in Italy, 
 it was when Paz made forty companies cross the Sierra 
 de Cordova and take a position where they would 
 inevitably intercept all fugitives from a regular battle. 
 The Montonera, paralyzed, surrounded on all sides, fell 
 into the net which had been spread for it. It is not 
 necessary to give the particulars of that memorable 
 battle. General Paz, in his despatch, gave the num- 
 ber of his loss as seventy, for appearance sake, but in 
 fact, he had only lost twelve men in a contest with 
 eight thousand men, and twenty pieces of artillery. A 
 simple maneuvre had defeated the valiant Quiroga; 
 and the army which had cost so many tears and hor- 
 rors of all kinds, only served to show Facundo's bad 
 management, and to give to Paz several thousand use-, 
 less prisoners. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 SOCIAL WAR. 
 
 " A horse, a horse ! my kingdom for a horse. " Shakespeare. 
 
 CHACON. 
 
 FACUNDO, the gaucho outlaw of the Llanos, did not 
 return to the country this time, but went directly to 
 Buenos Ayres, and it was this unexpected step that 
 prevented him from falling into the hands of his pur- 
 suers. He saw that he could do nothing more in the 
 provinces, and for this once he could not even stop to 
 harass the peasantry on his way, for his conquerors 
 were ready to come to their defense from all directions. 
 
 Important advantages were secured by this battle of 
 Oncativo or Laguna Larga. Cordova, Mendoza, San^ 
 Juan, San Luis, La Rioja, Catamarca, Tucuman, Salta, 
 and Jujui, were now free from the rule of the country 
 commandants. The unity of the Republic, which Riva- 
 davia had hoped to 
 
 means, seemed now about to be effected by means of 
 arms, at least in this portion of it ; and General Paz 
 called a congress of deputies from these provinces to 
 consider what form of constitution would be desirable. 
 Lavalle had been less fortunate in Buenos Ayres, and x 
 Rosas, who was destined to play such a terrible part 
 in Argentine history, had already begun to influence \ 
 public affairs, and to rule the city. The Republic was 
 
ISO LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 now, therefore, divided into two parts : one in the in- 
 terior, which desired Buenos Ay res for the capital of 
 the union ; the other in Buenos Ayres, which made a 
 pretense of not wishing this city to be the capital, that 
 vit might separate itself from European civilization and 
 civiLorder. 
 
 Another fact had been disclosed by this battle, 
 namely, that the Montonera had lost its primitive . 
 .-strength, and that civilized armies could compete with 
 it successfully. It is a significant fact in Argentine 
 history, that, as time passes, the pastoral bands lose 
 their early vigor. Facundo was already obliged to 
 - spur them on with terror, and they were but a dull, 
 disorderly set, opposed to troops disciplined and guided 
 iby rules of strategy and art. In Buenos Ayres, how- 
 ever, the result was different. Lavalle, notwithstand-/ 
 ing his bravery, which had been sufficiently proved at 
 'Puente Marquez, and his large number of regular 
 troops, yielded at the end of the campaign, shut up as 
 he was in the city by thousands of gauchos collected 
 by Rosas and Lopez. By a treaty which was to all 
 purpose a capitulation, he gave up his authority, and 
 Rosas entered Buenos Ayres. I believe that only 
 through an unfortunate mistake of his, Lavalle lost the 
 victory. He had been famous for the success of his 
 cavalry -charges ; at the defeat of Toreta or Moquegua, 
 I do not remember which, Lavalle made forty charges 
 during the day to protect the retreating army, and I 
 doubt if the cavalry of Murat ever did as much. But 
 unfortunately, Lavalle, remembering in 1839 that the 
 Montenera had conquered him in 1830, abandoned his x 
 military education and adopted the Montonera system. 
 
BUENOS AYRES. 181 
 
 v- 
 
 He equipped four thousand horse, and went into the ^ 
 streets of Buenos Ayres at the same time that Rosas 
 . who had conquered him in 1830, gave up his cavalry, 
 in spite of native instincts, and finished the campaign 
 with infantry and artillery. They exchanged parts':"' 
 the gaucho assumed the military uniform, and the 
 soldier the poncho ; the former triumphed, the latter 
 died pierced by a ball from the Montonera. A hard 4 
 lesson ! If Lavalle had made the campaign of 1840", 
 according to military rules, we should now, on the , 
 * banks of the Plata, be preparing for steam navigation 
 on the rivers, and distributing farms to European emi- 
 grants. Paz was the first citizen general who triumphed 
 over the pastoral or provincial element ; because he 
 brought to bear against it all the resources of European 
 military art, directed by a mathematical head. 
 
 The labors of Paz in Cordova had been to such pur- , 
 pose that after two years Facundo found it impossible 
 to reestablish his influence in the provinces ; it, was 
 only the civilized, the refined city of Buenos Ayres' 
 that offered an asylum for his barbarism. 
 
 The journals of Cordova at that time gave the Euro- 
 pean news, the sessions of the French assembly ; the . 
 likenesses of Casimir Perier, Lamartine, Chateaubri- 
 and, served as models in the school of design. Such 
 was the interest of Cordova in European affairs. And 
 at this very time the " Mercantile Gazette " was assum- 
 ing the semi-barbarous tone that henceforth character- 
 ized the Argentine press. 
 
 Facundo fled to Buenos Ayres, not without shoo ting . t 
 two of his own officers for trying to maintain order 
 among his followers. He never belied his theory of 
 
1,82 UFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 terror, it was his talisman, his palladium. He would 
 sacrifice everything rather than this weapon. 
 
 On arriving at the city, he presented himself at the 
 court of Rosas ; there he happened to meet General 
 Guido, the most courteous and ceremonious of the 
 geruerals who have made their way in the world by 
 compliments in the antechamber ; he offered one of his 
 very best to Quiroga, who replied surlily, " Am I a 
 clog, for you to laugh at ? You people here sent a nice 
 set of doctors (Cavia and Cernadas) to get me into 
 trouble with General Paz. Paz beat me according to 
 rule." He often regretted not having listened to the 
 proposals of Major Pawnero. 
 
 Facundo soon merged in the crowd of the great city, 
 'and was only occasionally heard of at the gaming-table. 
 'General Mancilla once threatened to throw a candle- 
 stick at his head, saying, " Do you think you are still 
 in the provinces ? " His gaucho dress at first attracted 
 much attention the poncho, and the long beard which 
 he had sworn never to cut until he had wiped out the 
 disgrace of the defeat at Tablada ; but after a little 
 while he was scarcely noticed. 
 
 ' A great expedition against Cordova was then in prep- 
 aration, and six thousand men from Buenos Ayres and 
 Santa Fd had enlisted for the enterprise. Lopez was 
 the commander-in-chief, with Balcarce, Enrique Mar- 
 tinez, and other officers under him. Facundo under- 
 took a desperate attack upon Rioja or Mendoza. He 
 received for the purpose two hundred criminals from 
 the prisons, collecting in addition sixty men in the 
 citv, and with this company began his march. 
 
 At Pavon, Rosas was collecting his red cavalry^ 
 
CAPTURE OF RIO QUARTO. 183 
 
 \ 
 
 Lopez of Santa F6 was also there, and Facundo stopped 
 to wait for the other leaders. Here, therefore, were 
 the three famous provincial leaders met together on the 
 pampas : Lopez, the pupil and successor of Artigas ^ 
 Facundo, the barbarian of the interior ; and Rosas, the 
 bloodhound, who had been in training, but was now 
 about to begin the hunt on his own account. The old 
 classics would have compared them to the triumvirate 
 Lepidus, Mark Anthony, and Octavius, who divicjed 
 the empire among themselves, a comparison quite per- 
 fect even in respect to the baseness and cruelty of the 
 Argentine Octavius. The three leaders were now in'. 
 their element, and refreshed themselves with a bit pf 
 true gaucho life ; scouring the pampas daily, and mak- 
 ing trials of skill in racing, lassoing horses, and fighto-. ' 
 ing; in all of which Rosas was usually victorious. He 
 one day invited Lopez to have a bout, but Lopez said, 
 " No, comrade, you are too rough for me." And in 
 fact he had left them pretty well covered with cuts and 
 bruises. 
 
 Quiroga crossed the pampas by the same road by 
 which, twenty years before, he had fled as an outlaw 
 from Buenos Ayres. At the city of Rio Quarto he 
 met with an obstinate resistance, was delayed three 
 days by the marshes which served as a defense to the 
 garrison, and was about to retreat when a traitor came 
 to him with the information that they had no more 
 cartridges. Thanks to this timely revelation, Facundo 
 took the place without difficulty. 
 
 At Rio Quinto he had to contend with the brave 
 Pringles, the veteran of the war of independence, who 
 on one occasion, when he was met by the Spaniards 
 
184 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 in a narrow pass, spurred his horse into the sea, with 
 the cry, " Viva la Patria !" This same Pringles, whom 
 the viceroy Pezuela had loaded with presents, and for 
 whom San Martin had struck off the singular medal, 
 " Honor to the vanquished of Chancai" was now to die 
 by the hands of Quiroga's convicts. 
 
 rExcited by this unhoped-for triumph, Facundo ad- 
 vanced upon San Luis, where little resistance was 
 offered. Beyond this the road branched off into three, 
 and Quiroga considered which to take. The one to 
 the right led to the Llanos, the theatre of his early 
 deeds, the cradle of his power ; in this direction there 
 were no forces superior to his own, but neither had he 
 any resources there to fall back upon. The middle 
 road led to San Juan, where there were a thousand 
 men in arms, but unable to resist a charge of cavalry 
 with Quiroga's terrible lance at its head. Finally, the 
 road to the left led to Mendoza, where the real forces 
 were under command of General Videla Castillo. 
 There was a battalion of eight hundred trained men, 
 commanded by Colonel Barcala ; a squadron of cui- 
 rassiers, under command of Lieutenant- Colonel Che- 
 naut, and also some militia-men, and pickets of cui- 
 rassiers of the Guard. Facundo had with him only 
 three hundred undisciplined men, and was not in very 
 good health himself. Which road should he take ? He 
 chose the road to Mendoza, came, saw, and con- 
 quered. But how was this possible ; was there cow- 
 ardice or treachery ? Neither. An unwise imitation 
 of European strategy ; an error in tactics in part, ' 
 and in part an Argentine prejudice, caused the shame- 
 ful loss of this battle. Yidela Castillo knew that 
 
CASTILLO'S BLUNDERS. 185 
 
 Quiroga was approaching, but did not believe, as no 
 other general would have believed, that he would attack 
 Mendoza ; he therefore sent to the Lakes his veteran 
 troops, who, with some other detachments from San 
 Juan under the command of Major Castro, formed a 
 force strong enough to resist an attack, and to force 
 Quiroga to take the road to the Llanos. So far it was 
 all right. But Quiroga did march upon Mendoza, and 
 the whole army went out to meet him. In the place 
 called Chacon there is an open field in which the army 
 left its rear guard ; but soon after, hearing the firing 
 of a company in retreat, General Castillo ordered the 
 army to fall back hastily, in order to occupy the level 
 field of Chacon. This was a double error ; in the first 
 place, because a retreat at the approach of a formidable 
 enemy paralyzes inexperienced soldiers, who do not 
 understand the cause of the movement ; and secondly, 
 because the rougher and more broken the ground, the 
 better it would have been for fighting Quiroga, who 
 only had with him a small body of infantry. What 
 could he have done in such a field against six hundred 
 infantry with a formidable battery of artillery in front ? 
 But unfortunately the officers were all native Argen- 
 tines, who were devoted to horses ; for them there 
 would be no glory except in a victory won by the 
 sword, and therefore they thought an open field for 
 cavalry charges was absolutely necessary ; this is the 
 .mistake in Argentine strategy. 
 
 The battle began, and a squadron of militia was 
 ordered to charge, another Argentine mistake is this 
 of beginning the fight with a charge of cavalry, a mis- 
 take which has lost to the Republic a hundred battles. 
 
186 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 And in addition to this error there was a misapplica- 
 tion of the European art of warfare. In Europe, 
 where the masses of the troops are in column, and 
 where the battle-field includes several towns or ham- 
 lets, the picked troops are kept in reserve until needed. 
 In 'South America, a pitched battle generally takes 
 place in an open field, the troops are not numerous, 
 and the heat of the contest lasts but a short time, so 
 that it is always desirable to rush in at once with the 
 best men. In the present case, a cavalry charge was 
 the worst possible beginning, but if it must needs be, 
 it should at least have been made by the best troops,, 
 in order to rout at once the three hundred men who ' " 
 made up both army and reserve of the enemy. In- 
 stead of this, the old routine was followed : ordering to 
 the front a large number of awkward militia, each man 
 afraid of wounding himself with his own lance, and 
 when the order to charge was given, they stood stock 
 still, then fell back, and being charged upon by the 
 enemy, gave way and embarrassed the best troops be- 
 " hind. In a moment all was confusion, and the battle 
 lost ; and Facundo passed on in triumph to Mendoza,^ 
 without caring for the generals, infantry, and guns, 
 which he left to his rear guard. This was the result ": 
 of the battle of Chacon, which left exposed the flank 
 of the army of Cordova at the moment it was about 
 to march upon Buenos Ayres. Quiroga's inconceiva- 
 bje audacity was crowned with the most complete suc- 
 cess. It was useless to try to drive him from Mendoza ; 
 terror and the prestige of victory gave him means of 
 resistance, while defeat had left his enemies discour- 
 aged. He would only have hastened to San Juan, 
 
CASTILLO'S CIVILIZING WORK. 187' 
 
 > 
 where arms and money were to be had, and com- 
 
 smenced a useless and interminable war. The generajs, ^ 
 therefore, went to Cordova, and the infantry and offi- 
 cers of Mendoza came to terms the next day. -*The ~~ 
 Unitarios of San Juan emigrated to Coquimbo, to tne ' , 
 number of two hundred, and Quiroga remained, hi 
 peaceful possession of Cuyo and Rioja. These two - 
 cities had never suffered from all the evils Quiroga ha$l 
 hitherto brought upon them, as they did now from the 
 interruption of business caused by such a large emigra- 
 tion of the wealthiest inhabitants. 
 But I must especially remark upon the still greater 
 harm done to the spirit of civilization. Considering < 
 the inland situation of Mendoza, it had been a highly 
 civilized city, with a spirit of enterprise and progress 
 greater than any city of the Republic ; it was the-JBar- 
 celona of the interior. The spirit of progress had 
 attained its height under the administration of Videla 
 Castillo. Two forts had been built towards the seuth ' ., 
 with the double advantage of extending the boundary 
 ries of the province, and of securing it permanently 
 from the savages. The swamps had been drained, the 
 city ornamented, societies of agriculture, industry,*"" 
 mines, and of public education had been formed, and 
 directed by intelligent, enthusiastic, and enterprising 
 men ; a manufactory of woollen and flax had been v 
 established which furnished clothing for the troops, 
 and an armory for the making of swords, cuirasses, 
 lances, and bayonets, with none of the work imported . 
 except some parts of the cannon. A French chemist, 
 by the name of Charron, had put up a machine for 
 moulding bullets, and types for the printing-press, and 
 
188 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 investigated the metals of the province. It is impos-'' 
 sible to conceive of a more rapid development. These 
 things would not have attracted so much attention in 
 
 o 
 
 Chili or Buenos Ayres, but in an inland province with 
 only the aid of native workmen, the progress was pro- 
 digious, and in ten years it might have been one of the 
 most remarkable places in the country ; but Facundo's . 
 army crushed this promising civilization, and the monk * 
 Alclao passed his plough over it and watered the earth 
 with blood for ten years. What could remain ? < 
 
 But the progress of ideas was not entirely stopped ^ 
 with the occupation of Quiroga ; the members of the 
 mining society, who emigrated to Chili, there gave 
 themselves up to the study of chemistry, mineralogy, 
 and metallurgy. Godoi Cruz, Correa, Villanueva, 
 Doncel, and many others, looked up all books treating 
 of the subject, and made a large collection of different N 
 -metals from all parts of South America ; they also ex- 
 aim/ied the Chilian archives for information about the 
 mines of Uspallata, and with much labor succeeded in 
 establishing modes of operation by which these mines 
 have become profitable, notwithstanding the scarcity 
 of metal. From that time dates the new and profitable 
 working of the mines of Mendoza. The Argentine 
 miners, not satisfied with these results, scattered them- 
 selves throughout Chili, which afforded a rich field for 
 the experiments of their science, and they have accom- 
 plished much at Copiapo and other places by the intro- 
 duction of new machinery and tools. 
 
 Godoi Cruz had another object in his researches : 
 he endeavored, by introducing the cultivation of the^ 
 white mulberry, to solve the problem of the possible 
 
INTRODUCTION OF THE SILKWORM. 189 
 
 * x 
 
 future of San Juan and Mendoza, which depends upon 
 the discovery of some production of great value, yet of 
 jsmall compass. Silk answers this condition, imposed u 
 upon these inland cities by their great distance from 
 the seaports, and the high price of transportation. 
 Godoi, not satisfied with publishing at Santiago a long 
 and complete treatise on the cultivation of the mul- 
 berry, and the care of the silkworm and cochineal, had 
 it distributed through the provinces free of cost, kept 
 -the question of the mulberry constantly before the pub- 
 lic for ten years, urging its cultivation, and setting forth 
 its advantages, while he carried on a correspondence ^ 
 with Europe, learning the current prices, and sending 
 over specimens of the silk he had himself obtained, thus 
 discovering the failings or excellences in quality, and ^ 
 .also the best methods of spinning. The results of - 
 this great, patriotic labor, were all that he could hope 
 fbr ; now there are already some thousands of mul- 
 /t)erry-trees, and the silk gathered by the quintal Was 
 spun, twisted, dyed, and sold in Buenos Ayres and 
 Santiago, for f;he European market, at the rate of six , 
 or seven dollars a pound ; for the silk of Mendoza ' 
 was as glossy as that of the best quality in Spain or ^ 
 Italy. 
 
 The old man finally returned to his native place to 
 rejoice in the sight of a whole city succeeding in a 
 profitable change of employment, hoping that he might 
 live to see a caravan depart for Buenos Ayres, bearing 
 the valuable production which made the wealth of 
 China for so many years, and for precedence in which 
 the manufactories of Lyons, Barcelona, Paris, and all 
 
190 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 Italy still dispute. 1 Mendoza preceded all Spanish* 
 America in developing this useful branch of industry. 
 
 Have Facundo or Rosas ever done the least thing for 
 the public good, or been interested in any useful object ? 
 No. From them come nothing but blood and crimes, * 
 I have given .these details at length, because in the 
 midst of horrors such as I am obliged to describe, it is T 
 comforting to pause on the few progressive impulses 
 which revive again and again after being apparently 
 crushed by savage barbarians. Civilization will, how-j: 
 ever feeble its present resistance, one day resume its 
 place. There is a new world about to unfold itself,' 
 and it only awaits some fortunate general to put aside' 
 the iron heel which has so long crushed it. Besides, 
 history should not be considered merely a tissue of 
 crimes, and for this reason it is desirable to bring be- 
 fore the mind of a subjugated people a remembrance of 
 past epochs. If they desire for their posterity a better 
 record than they themselves have, let them not hope 
 for it because the cannibal, of Buenos Ayres is just now 
 tired of shedding blood, and permits exiles to return 
 ,to their homes. This fact is of no import in the prog- 
 ress of a people. The great evil to be dreaded is a 
 government which fears the influence of thoughtful 
 and enlightened men, and must either exile or kill 
 them. This evil results from a system which gives 
 one man such absolute power that there can be no lib- 
 erty of thought or action, no public spirit the desire 
 <>f self-preservation outweighing all interest for others. 
 
 1 The final result did not justify these flattering expectations. The 
 cultivation of silk died out in Mendoza for want of encouragement. 
 
FACUNDO AT HIS OLD WAYS. 191 
 
 Every one for himself, and the executioner for- all 
 without discrimination, this is the resume of the life 
 and government of an enslaved people. 
 
 Facundo, once more master of Mendoza, adopted his 
 old methods of raising money and soldiers. One even- 
 ing his agents were all over the city arresting the. 
 officers who had capitulated at Chacon ; for what pur- 
 pose it was not known, but the officers felt no great 
 fear, confiding as they did in the good faith of the 
 treaty. Nevertheless, a number of priests were also 
 brought in and ordered to hear the confessions of the 
 officers, who were then placed in a line and shot, one 
 after another, under the direction of Facundo ; the ex- 
 ecution lasting about an hour. He afterwards gave as 
 an excuse for this horrible violation of faith, that the 
 Unitarios had killed General Villafane. There was 
 some foundation for the charge, but the revenge was 
 monstrous. At another time he said, " Paz shot nine 
 of my officers, but I have shot ninety-six of his." Paz, 
 however, was not responsible for that deed, which he 
 deeply lamented, and which was also an act of retalia- 
 tion. 
 
 But the system of giving no quarter, so tenaciously 
 followed by Rosas, and the constant violation of all 
 customary forms, treaties, capitulations, etc., are the 
 result of causes not depending on the personal charac- 
 ter of the provincial leaders. Acknowledgment of 
 individual rights which lessons the horrors of war, is 
 the result of centuries of civilization, and was not to be 
 expected among the semi-barbarians of the pampas^ 
 The savage kills his prisoner, and respects no compact 
 when he has occasion to violate it. v 
 
192 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 The death of Villafane had happened in Chili, and 
 had already been avenged " eye for eye, tooth for 
 tooth," in accordance with the lex talionis. The per- 
 petrator of this deed was a remarkable specimen of the 
 class of men I have been endeavoring to describe, and 
 is therefore worthy of mention. Among the San Juan 
 emigrants who went to Coquimbo, there was a Major 
 NiivajT&_from the army of General Paz. This man, 
 who came of a distinguished family of San Juan, was 
 small in size, with a thin, flexible body, and celebrated 
 in the army for a rash courage. At the age of eighteen 
 he mounted guard as lieutenant of militia on the night 
 when (in 1820) the battalions of the first division of 
 the army of the Andes revolted, and, forming in four 
 companies before the guard-house, ordered the city 
 militia to surrender. Navarro alone remained in the 
 guard-house, and defended the entrance ; and then, 
 holding one hand over three wounds in his thigh, cov- 
 ering with the other arm five wounds in his breast, 
 and blinded by the blood streaming from his head, 
 made his way home, where he was six months recov- 
 ering his strength ; a cure altogether unhoped for and 
 well-nigh miraculous. Thrown out of his place by the 
 disbanding of the militia, he devoted himself to trade, 
 but a trade accompanied with dangers and adventures. 
 At first he was engaged in introducing contraband 
 goods into Cordova ; afterwards he carried on a trade 
 with the Indians, and finally married the daughter of 
 a cacique, lived with her faithfully, took part in the 
 wars of the savages, and accustomed himself to eat raw 
 meat, until, in the course of three years, he became a 
 thorough savage. While there he heard that the war 
 
NAVARRO. 193 
 
 with Brazil was about to commence, and leaving' his 
 beloved savages, entered the army with his old rank of 
 lieutenant, where his bravery was so conspicuous that 
 he soon became a captain and brevet major, and one of 
 Lavalle's chosen men. At Marquez the whole army 
 was astonished at his daring. After these expeditions 
 he remained at Buenos Ayres with Lavalle's other 
 officers, Arbolito, Pancho el nate, and other chiefs, 
 who displayed their bravery in coffee-houses and hotels. 
 The animosity against the officers of the army became 
 greater every day, and on one occasion they were 
 drinking to the death of Lavalle, when Navarro heard 
 them, and stepping up, poured out a glass and drank, 
 saying in a loud voice, " To the health of Lavalle." A 
 duel followed on the spot, and Navarro, who killed his 
 man, fled from the city, and overtook the army before 
 it reached Cordova. Before re entering the service, he 
 went in the interior to see his family, and learned with 
 regret the death of his wife* Taking leave of his 
 friends, he went back to the army accompanied by two 
 young men his cousin and nephew. 
 
 In the battle of Chacon he got a shot in his breast 
 which burned off his beard, and blackened his face with 
 powder; and in this condition he emigrated to Co- 
 q. limbo, still accompanied by his young relatives ; but 
 every day he felt a strong desire to go back, and could 
 hardly be prevented from doing so. " I am a true 
 son of the army," he would say, " and war is my ele- 
 ment ; the first drop of blood shed in the civil war was 
 from my veins ; and from them should come the last." 
 At other times he said, "I cannot go a step farther; I 
 am getting farther and farther from the epaulets of a 
 
 13 
 
194 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 general. What would my friends say if they knew that 
 Major Navarro was treading a foreign soil without a 
 squad behind him ? " 
 
 The day they crossed the boundary ridge, there was 
 quite a pathetic scene. They were obliged to give up 
 their arms, and the Indians could not conceive of a 
 country where one was not permitted to go about lance 
 in hand. Navarro explained in their own language, 
 while two great tears rolled down his cheeks ; they 
 then laid their arms upon the ground, with much emo- 
 tion, and even after starting on, went back and rode 
 slowly around them as if bidding them farewell. 
 
 It was in this state of mind that Major Navarro 
 passed into Chili, and took up his lodging at Guanda, 
 a place situated at the beginning of the road which 
 leads to the cordillera. There he learned that General 
 Villafane was going back to join Facundo, and openly 
 announced his intention of killing him. The emigrants, 
 who knew what these words meant coming from Na- 
 varro, left the neighborhood, after trying in vain to 
 dissuade him from his purpose. Villafane was warned 
 beforehand, and asked protection from the public au- 
 thorities, who gave him some militia, by whom he was 
 abandoned as soon as they learned what was the trou- 
 ble. But Villafane was well armed, and accompanied 
 by six natives of Rioja. Just as he was passing through 
 Guanda, Navarro appeared before him, with only a 
 brook between them, gravely declared his intention, 
 and then returned quietly into the house where he was 
 breakfasting. That night Villafane was so imprudent 
 as to lodge at Tilo, a place only about four leagues off. 
 In 'the night Navarro armed himself and took with him 
 
Y 
 
 VILLAFAtfE. 195 
 
 a company of nine men, whom he left at a convenient 
 place near Tilo. He then approached by moonlight, 
 entered the court-yard, and called out to Villafane, who 
 was sleeping with his men in the corridor, " Villafane, 
 arise ! those who have enemies should not sleep." Vil- 
 lafane seized his lance, but Navarro attacking him with 
 his sword, ran him through the body. He then fired 
 off a pistol, the signal agreed upon with his companions, 
 who came up and falling upon Villafane's men, killed 
 or dispersed them. They then took horses and equip- 
 ments and set out for the Argentine Republic to join 
 the army. Mistaking the road, they found themselves 
 after a while at Rio Quarto, where they encountered 
 Colonel Echevarria, who was pursued by enemies. Na- 
 varro hastened to his aid, and the horse of his friend 
 falling at that moment, begged him to get up behind 
 himself; but Echevarria would not consent, and Na- 
 varro, determined not to fly without him, dismounted, 
 shot his own horse, and both men soon shared the same 
 fate. It was three years before his family knew what 
 had become of him, the story being told by the men 
 who had killed him, and who, by way of proof, dug up 
 the skeletons of the two friends. 
 
 During Major Navarro's short absence, events had 
 taken place which entirely changed the condition of 
 public affairs. The famous capture of General Paz^ 
 who was caught at the head of his army by a lasso, 
 decided the fate of the Republic. It may be said that 
 the constitution failed to be established at that time 
 through a singular accident ; for Paz with an army of*" 
 four thousand trained men, and a wisely arranged plair 
 of operations, was sure of conquering the army of Bue- 
 
196 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 nos Ay res. Those who have since seen him triumph- 
 ing in every direction, can judge if he was very pre- 
 suming to take this conquest for granted. We might 
 chime in with the moralists who so often attribute the 
 fall of empires to the merest accidents ; but if it was 
 an accident to catch a great general with a lasso, it 
 was not accidental that the men who did it should have 
 used such means, being as they were of true gaucho 
 nature, though converted into a political element. 
 
 Facundo, having so cruelly revenged the death of 
 General Villafane, marched upon San Juan to prepare f 
 an expedition against Tucuman, where the army had / 
 retired after the loss of its general had destroyed all 
 hope of accomplishing anything. On his arrival, all 
 the Federal citizens went out to receive him as they ! 
 had done in 1827 ; but Facundo was not fond of repe- 
 titions. He therefore sent one company in advance of 
 the assembled citizens, and another behind them ; then 
 entered the city himself by a different route, leaving 
 his officious hosts prisoners in the street, where they 
 passed the whole day and night, lying down among 
 the horses' feet if overpowered with sleep. 
 
 When he reached the public square, he stopped his 
 carriage, put an end to the noise of the bells, and or- 
 dered all the furniture of the house provided for him 
 by the city, to be thrown into the street, carpets, cur- 
 tains, chairs, tables, mirrors, all heaped in confusion 
 in the middle of the square ; nor would he go in until 
 sure that nothing remained but the bare walls, a little 
 table, a single chair, and a bed. While this was going 
 on, he called a child who was passing by his carriage, 
 and asked him what his name was, and when he an- 
 
FACUNDO'S DISCIPLINE. 197 
 
 swered " Roza," said, " Your father, Don Ignacio 
 Roza, was a great man ; give my compliments to your 
 mother." 
 
 The next day a bench was prepared for the shooting 
 of his usual victims. Who were they to be this time? 
 The Unitarios had fled in great numbers, and many 
 timid people not Unitarios. But Facundo began ,to 
 impose contributions upon the women whose husbands, 
 fathers, or brothers were absent, and the results were 
 quite satisfactory, and accompanied by the usual cir- 
 cumstances, sobs and cries of women threatened 
 with the lash, some actually whipped, two or three 
 men shot, one lady compelled to cook for the soldiers, 
 and other nameless outrages. There was one especial 
 day of horror to be remembered ; it was when Facundo 
 was about to depart for Tucuman ; the divisions were 
 filing off one after another, and the muleteers were 
 taking care of the baggage, when a mule broke loose, 
 and in trying to get away ran into the church of Santa 
 Anna. Facundo ordered them to catch it ; the mule- 
 teer went in for this purpose, and at the same moment 
 an officer, by command of Quiroga, entered on horse- 
 back, tied both man and mule, and brought them bound 
 together, the unfortunate muleteer suifering from the 
 kicks of the animal. Just then it appeared that some- 
 thing was not quite ready for the departure, and Fa- 
 cundo ordered the negligent authorities before him. 
 His Excellency the Governor and Captain General of 
 the Province received a buffet, the chief of police nar- 
 rowly escaped a bullet as he ran, and all reached their 
 offices as quickly as possible to give the neglected 
 orders. 
 
198 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 I 
 A little later, Facundo, seeing an officer strike two ' 
 
 soldiers who were fighting, with the flat of his sword, 
 called him up and attacked him with his lance ; the 
 officer used his own for the defense of his life, and 
 presently disarmed Quiroga, whose lance he Jhen 
 picked up and returned respectfully. Quiroga again 
 attacked him ; there was another encounter, and. he 
 was again disarmed. He then called six men, had the 
 officer seized, and stretched across the window-frame 
 with his hands and feet tied fast, and ran him through 
 with a lance again and again, until life was entirely 
 extinct. His rage was without bounds ; General Hu- 
 idobro, his second, was also threatened with his lance, 
 and prepared to defend his life. 
 
 And yet Facundo was not cruel or blood-thirsty in 
 comparison with other barbarians ; he was only a bar- 
 barian, who did not know how to restrain his passions, 
 and these once aroused were without limit, without 
 restraint; he was a terrorist who, on entering a city, 
 shoots one, and perhaps lashes another, but for *a 
 . reason. The person shot is blind, or paralyzed ; the 
 unhappy victim of the lash is a respectable citizen, a 
 young man of one of the first families. His brutalities 
 to women come from a want of delicacy ; the humilia- 
 tions imposed upon the citizens from the coarse desire 
 to ill-treat and to mortify the self-respect of those by 
 whom he feels himself to be despised. It is the same 
 motive which makes terror a means of government. 
 What would Rosas have done without it in a society 
 like that of Buenos Ayres ? How else could he have 
 commanded from an intelligent people that respect 
 which they never willingly show for persons who are 
 
TERROR A POWER. - 199 
 
 in themselves low and contemptible ? It is incredible' 
 what an accumulation of atrocities is necessary to per- 
 vert a people, and nobody knows the amount of close < 
 observation and sagacity employed by Don Manuel 
 Rosas in order to subject the city to that magical influ- * 
 ence which destroyed in six years all knowledge of the 
 just and the good ; which broke the bravest spirits and . 
 put them under the yoke. 
 
 Terror in France in 1793 was an effect and not a x 
 means. Robespierre did not guillotine nobles and 
 priests to create a reputation, nor to elevate himself 
 upon the heaps of the slain. He was a stern man, who 
 believed that he must remove from France all her 
 aristocratic members to insure the object of the rebel- 
 lion. " Our names," said Dan ton, " will be execrated 
 by posterity, but we shall have saved the Republic." 
 With us, terror is a method of government invented to 
 crush out knowledge, and force men to recognize as a 
 thinking head, the feet which are upon their necks ; it 
 is the compensation an ignorant man in power takes 
 for the contempt which he knows his insignificance 
 inspires in a people infinitely superior to him. This is 
 why we have in our times a repetition of the extrava- 
 gances of Caligula, who caused himself to be wor- 
 shipped as a god, and associated his horse with him in 
 the government. Caligula knew that he was the very* 
 lowest of those Romans whom he nevertheless held 
 under his foot. Rosas caused his sacred likeness to be 
 placed in the churches, and borne through the streets* . 
 on a car, to which were harnessed officers and evn 
 ladies, for the purpose of giving celebrity to his name. 
 But Facundo was only cruel when in a passion. His. 
 
200 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 deliberate acts were limited to shooting or lashing a 
 man. Rosas, on the contrary, was never in a passion. 
 He made his plans in his closet, and gave his orders to 
 his emissaries. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 SOCIAL WAR. 
 
 " Les habitarits de Tucuman finissent leurs journees par reunions champltres, ou, 
 a 1'ombre de beaux arbres, ils improvisent, au son d'une guitare rustique, des chants 
 alternatifs dans le genre de ceux que Th6ocrite et Virgile ont embellis. Tout, jusqu' 
 aux prenoms grecs, rappelle au voyageur etonne 1'antique Arcadie." Malte-Brun. 
 
 CIUDADELA. 
 
 THE expedition departed, and the people of San Juan 
 breathed once more as if awakening from a horrible 
 nightmare. Facundo displayed in this campaign a 
 spirit of order and a rapidity of march which showed 
 how much he had learned from past disasters. In 
 twenty-four days he passed over with his army about 
 three hundred leagues ; so that he came near surprising 
 some squadrons of the enemy which only became aware 
 of his approach when he took up his quarters at Ciuda- 
 dela, an old encampment of the patriot armies under 
 Belgrano. It would be inconceivable how such an 
 army as that commanded by Madrid, at Tucuman, 
 with brave officers and experienced soldiers, could be 
 conquered, if moral causes and prejudices against strat- 
 egy did not solve the enigma. 
 
 General Madrid, commander-in-chief, had under him 
 Colonel Lopez, a provincial leader from Tucuman, who 
 was personally opposed to him ; and, besides that, a 
 retreat demoralizes troops. General Madrid was not the 
 man to govern inferior officers. The army went into 
 
202 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 battle half-federal and half-montonero in spirit, while 
 that of Facundo had the unity produced by terror andi 
 obedience to a leader who is not a cause but a person,! 
 and who on this account overcomes free-will and de- 
 stroys individuality. Rosas triumphed over his enemies 
 by that power, which made all his satellites passive in- 
 struments and blind executors of his supreme will. 
 
 The evening before the battle, Colonel Balmaceda 
 asked of the general-in-chief permission to make the 
 first charge. If it had been allowable for a battle to 
 begin with a cavalry charge, or for an inferior officer 
 to take the liberty of suggesting it, the battle would 
 have been gained ; for nothing in Brazil or the Argen- 
 tine Republic had ever been able to withstand the 
 charges of the second regiment of cuirassiers. The 
 General acceded to the demand of the commander of 
 the second ; but Colonel Lopez declared that this would 
 take away some of his best men ; for to him the select 
 troops had been given in charge, which, according to 
 rule, form the reserve ; therefore the general-in-chief, 
 not having sufficient authority to stop these disputes, 
 sent back to the reserve the invincible battalion, and 
 the brave officer commanding it. 
 
 Facundo deployed his men at such a distance as to 
 shelter them from the infantry commanded by Barcala, 
 and to weaken the effect of eight pieces of artillery 
 directed by the intelligent Arengreen. Could Quiroga 
 have foreseen what his enemies were first doing ? In a 
 previous battle he had shot his own victorious officer 
 for not pursuing with an inferior force the defeated 
 enemy. 
 
 From one end to the other of Quiroga's line the 
 
TUCUMAN. 203 
 
 soldiers trembled with terror, not of the enemy, butu 
 of their chief, who walked up and down behind the 
 line, brandishing his lance. They could only hope to 
 escape from this oppressive terror by throwing them- 
 selves upon the enemy. They rushed forward, broke 
 the line of bayonets merely to put something between 
 them and the image of Facundo, which pursued them 
 like a phantom. Thus on one side reigned terror, and 
 on the other anarchy. At the first attempt to charge, 
 the cavalry of Madrid gave way, the reserve followed, 
 and there only remained five officers, with the artillery, 
 whose discharges became fainter and fainter, and the 
 infantry, which rushed to a hand-in-hand fight with 
 the enemy. But why say more ? The victor should 
 give the details of a battle. 
 
 Consternation reigned in Tucuman ; immense num- 
 bers emigrated, for this was Facundo's third visit. The 
 following day a contribution was levied. Quiroga, 
 knowing that there were valuables hidden in a church, 
 questioned the sacristan, who, being a silly fellow, an- 
 swered with a laugh, for which he was shot on the 
 spot. The chests of the general were soon filled with 
 gold ; therefore it is not strange that the guardian of 
 San Francisco and the priest Colombres, were the next 
 victims of the lash. Facundo then visited the prison- 
 ers, counted out the officers, and retired to rest after 
 his fatigue, leaving orders for them to be shot. 
 
 Tucuman is a tropical country, where Nature has 
 displayed its greatest pomp ; it is the Eden of Amer- 
 ica, and without a rival on the surface of the earth. 
 Imagine the Andes covered with a most luxuriant 
 vegetation, from which escape twelve rivers at equal 
 
204 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 distances, flowing parallel to each other, until they 
 converge and form a navigable stream, which reaches 
 to the heart of South America. The country watered 
 by these branches comprises more than fifty leagues. 
 Primeval forests cover the surface, and unite the gor- 
 geousness of India with the beauties of Greece. 
 
 The walnut interlaces its long branches with the 
 mahogany and ebony ; the cedar and the classic laurel 
 grow side by side, and beneath these the myrtle con- 
 secrated to Venus ; still leaving space for the fragrant 
 spikenard and the white lily. 
 
 A belt of odoriferous cedar allows a passage through 
 the forest, which is everywhere else impassable because 
 of the thick and thorny rose-bushes. The old trunks 
 are covered with various species of flowering mosses, 
 and the bindweed and other vines festoon and entwine 
 all these different trees. 
 
 Over all this vegetation, which defies the brush of 
 fancy in combination and richness of coloring, fly myri- 
 ads of golden butterflies, brilliant humming-birds, green 
 parrots, blue magpies, and orange-colored toucans. The 
 sound of these noisy birds greets one all day long like 
 the roar of a cataract. 
 
 Major Andrews, an English traveller, who has de- 
 voted many pages to the description of these beauties, 
 relates that he used to go out every morning to enjoy 
 the sight of this magnificent vegetation, and that he 
 often penetrated far into the thick, aromatic forests, so 
 enraptured that only after his return home did he know 
 that his clothes were torn, and his face scratched and 
 bleeding. The city is surrounded for many leagues 
 by a forest of orange-trees, rounded to about the same 
 
TUCUMAN. 205 
 
 height, so as to form a vast canopy supported by millions 
 of smooth columns. The rays of the torrid sun have 
 never shone upon the scenes which are enacted under 
 this immense roof. The young girls of Tucuman pass 
 the Sundays there, each group choosing a convenient 
 place. According to the season, they gather fruit or 
 scatter blossoms under the feet of the dancers, who are 
 intoxicated with the rich perfume and the melodious 
 sounds of the guitar. Perhaps one might believe this 
 description to be taken from the " Thousand and One 
 Nights," or other Eastern fairy tale ; but I cannot half 
 describe the voluptuous beauty of these damsels, daugh- 
 ters of the tropics, as they recline for their siesta beneath 
 the shade of the myrtles and laurels, enjoying such 
 odors as would bring asphyxia upon one unaccustomed 
 to the atmosphere. 
 
 Facundo went into one of these recesses formed by 
 shady branches, perhaps to consider what he should do 
 to the poor city fallen into his hands, like a squirrel 
 into the paw of a lion. Presently a deputation of 
 young girls, radiant with youth and beauty, approached 
 the place where Facundo was lying upon his poncho. 
 The bravest and most eager led the way, hesitating 
 from time to time. Those who followed urged her 
 forward; then all paused, seized with fear. They 
 glanced at one another for encouragement ; then, ad- 
 vancing timidly, stood before him. Facundo received 
 them kindly, made them sit down around him, and 
 asked the object of their visit. They came to beg for 
 the lives of the officers who were to be shot. Sobs, 
 smiles, all the little fascinations of women were put 
 in requisition to obtain their charitable end. Facundo 
 
206 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 seemed deeply interested, and smiled benignantly ; he 
 wished to hear from each one, of their families, their 
 homes, a thousand details which seemed to please him ; 
 and thus passed an hour of expectation and hope. At 
 last he said to them, with the greatest complacency, 
 " Do you hear those guns ? It is too late : they are 
 
 v, shot." -A cry of horror arose, like that which escapes 
 from a flock of doves pursued by a falcon. They had 
 indeed been shot and how ? Thirty-three officers, 
 from the rank of colonel upwards, received the fatal 
 balls* entirely naked. Two brothers, sons of one of the 
 first families of Buenos Ayers, embraced each other at 
 the last moment, so that the body of one prevented the 
 ball from reaching the other. The latter cried, " I am 
 saved." A mistake, unfortunate one ! How much he 
 would have given to live. While confessing, he had 
 taken a ring from his mouth, where it was concealed, 
 and had charged the priest to give it to his betrothed ; 
 
 /.who, on receiving it, lost her reason, and never again 
 recovered it. 
 
 The cavalry took charge of the corpses, and dragged 
 them to the cemetery ; so that bits of brain, arms, and 
 legs remained on the square of Tucuman, and served 
 as food for the dogs. How many victories are thus 
 tarnished ! 
 
 Don Juan Manuel Rosas had killed in the same 
 manner and almost at the same time, at St. Nicholas 
 de los Arroyos, twenty-eight officers, not to speak of 
 more than a hundred assassinations. If anything can 
 
 ' add to these horrors, it is the fate of Colonel Arraya, 
 the father of eight children, and a prisoner, witk three 
 
 lance wounds in his shoulder. He was forced to enter 
 

 TUCUMAN. 207 
 
 Tucuman on foot, naked, bleeding, and loaded with 
 eight guns. Exhausted with fatigue, a bed was allowed 
 him in a private house. At the hour appointed for 
 his execution, which was to take place on the public 
 square, some musketeers forced their way into the 
 house and pierced him with balls in his bed ; leaving 
 him to die in the flames of the burning sheets. 
 
 Colonel Barcala, the celebrated negro, was the only 
 chief saved from this butchery. He was the ruling 
 spirit of Cordova and Mendoza, and the civic guard 
 idolized him. He was an instrument that they migh^ 
 preserve for the future. 
 
 On the following day a process was commenced 
 throughout the city, called sequestration. It consisted 
 in placing sentinels at the doors of all the shops, ware- 
 houses, leather and tobacco stores, tanneries, indeed 
 everywhere, for there were no Federals. Federalism 
 is a plant which grew there only after the soil was " 
 three times watered with blood by Quiroga, and once ; 
 more by Oribe. Now it is said there are some Federals, 
 as is proved by their ribbon, upon which is written, 
 " Death to the savage Unitarios." 
 
 All movable property^^iML thejflocksjiid herds, were 
 claimed by Facundo. Two hundred and fifty carts^ 
 each loaded with sixteen beeves, were sent to Buenos 
 Ayres. The European goods were gathered to be 
 sold at auction by the commanders. Everything was " 
 offered for a low price. Facundo himself sold shirts,, 
 women's skirts, and children's clothes, unfolding and 
 showing them to the crowd; any bid was received ;> 
 the sale was soon finished ; the affair was a success, 
 the crowd was dense. 
 
208 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 After a few days, however, purchasers were scarce, 
 and embroidered handkerchiefs were offered in vain 
 for four reales there was nobody to buy. What had 
 happened ? Did the people repent ? Not at all ; but 
 there was no longer any money in circulation. The 
 contributions on one hand, sequestration on the other, 
 the auction finally, had taken the last medio in the 
 province. If indeed a few still remained in the hands 
 of the officials, the gaming-table emptied their purses. 
 Leather bags filled with money were piled in front of 
 the general's house, and remained there all night un- 
 guarded ; for the passers-by did not even dare to look 
 at them. 
 
 And yet the city had not been abandoned to pillage, 
 nor had the soldiers had that immense booty. Quiro- 
 ga used to say to his friends in Buenos Ayres that he 
 never permitted his men to pillage, because of the im- 
 morality of the thing. A farmer once complained to 
 him that some soldiers had stolen his fruit, and order- 
 ing the regiment before him, he discovered the guilty 
 ones, who each received six hundred lashes ; the terri- 
 fied old man begged that the victims might be spared, 
 and was threatened with a share of the punishment. 
 This is the gaucho nature : he kills because his leader 
 commands him to kill, and does not steal because he is 
 not commanded to steal. It might seem strange that' 
 these men should not rebel and throw off the dominion 
 'of one who gave them nothing in exchange for their 
 valor or their lives, did we not know from Don Juan 
 Manuel Rosas how much terror can do, not only with 
 the poor gaucho, but with the illustrious general and 
 the proud, wealthy citizen. As I have already said,' 
 terror produces greater results than patriotism. 
 
FACUNDO'S CRUELTY. 209 
 
 A colonel of the army of Chili, Don Manuel Grego- 
 rio Quiroga, Federal ex-governor of San Juan, and, at 
 that time, a major-general in Quiroga's army, perceived 
 that this booty of half a million was destined for the 
 general alone, who would not hesitate to box the ears 
 of an officer for keeping a few reales from the sale of a 
 handkerchief. He therefore conceived the idea of ob- 
 taining his pay by abstracting several valuable rings 
 from the general stock. But Facundo found out the 
 theft, and had him tied to a post to be publicly humili- 
 ated ; and when the army returned to San Juan, the 
 major-general went on foot over almost impassable 
 ground yoked with a bull. The companion of the bull 
 expired at Catamarca without attracting any notice.. 
 At another time Facundo, having found out that a 
 young man by the name of Rodriguez, of high standing 
 in Tucuman, had received letters from the exiles, had 
 him arrested, conducted him to the square himself, 
 tied him up, and ordered him to receive six hundred 
 lashes. But the soldiers did not administer the pun- 
 ishment skillfully enough, and Quiroga took the leather 
 straps used for the purpose, and swinging them through 
 the air with his mighty arm, gave fifty lashes by way 
 of example. At the end of the performance he him- 
 self poured salt water over the back, and picked off the 
 bits of skin from the wounds. This done, he went 
 home and read the intercepted letters, in which were 
 messages from husbands to wives, charges not to be 
 uneasy about them, together with receipted bills for 
 merchants, etc., but not a word of politics. Quiroga 
 then asked for Rodriguez, but hearing that he was 
 dying, sat <Jown to cards, and won immense sums. Don 
 14 
 
210 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 Francisco Reto, and Don N. Lugones, were heard 
 murmuring at the horrors they witnessed, and each 
 received three hundred lashes, with an order to walk 
 home through the streets naked, their hands over their 
 heads, and their backs dripping blood ; armed soldiers 
 following at a little distance to see the sentence duly 
 executed. To what a degree of indifference men may 
 be brought by an infamous tyrant against whom there' 
 is no appeal, was shown by Don Lugones, who, turning 
 to his companion in punishment, said, " Hand over a 
 cigar, and let's have a smoke." 
 
 Dysentery prevailed at that time in Tucuman, and 
 the physicians said there was no remedy for it, that it 
 came from mental causes, from terror, a disease for 
 which no remedy has yet been found in Buenos Ayres. 
 One day Facundo presented himself before the house 
 of a young widow who had taken his fancy, and asked 
 some children who were playing at the door, where 
 the lady was ; one of the boys answered that she was 
 not in. " Go tell her I am here," said Quiroga. 
 "What is your name ?" asked the boy, who, when the 
 .other replied, " I am Facundo Quiroga," fell down 
 senseless, and has only recently recovered his reason. 
 
 A young girl having excited his admiration, he pro- 
 posed to take her to San Juan. It can be imagined 
 how the poor girl received this proposition from a ti- 
 ger. Stammeringly she said that she could not ; that 
 
 her father . Facundo went to the father, and the 
 
 miserable man, trying to conceal his horror, took cour- 
 age to say that perhaps he tyould abandon his daughter, 
 and she would be unprotected. Facundo declared that 
 he should have no cause for that objection ; and the 
 
TYRANNY. 211 
 
 unhappy father, still hoping to put him off or to gain 
 time, proposed that a paper should be drawn up and 
 signed ; but Facundo immediately wrote and signed 
 the required document, and passed it to the other for 
 his signature. At the last moment the father asserted 
 himself in the man, and he cried, "Kill me! but I will 
 not sign.'' " Ah, old rascal ! " cried Facundo, leaving 
 the house in a rage. 
 
 Quiroga, the champion of the provinces, as he called 
 himself, was barbarou^ avaricious^. lustful, and gave 
 himself up to his passions without restraint ; his suc- 
 cessor did not rob cities, nor outrage women ; he had 
 only one passion, the thirst for human blood and des- 
 ..pjoiism, Instead, he knew how to use words and forms 
 
 which satisfy the indifferent, such as : the savages, the 
 bloodthirsty creatures ; perfidious, wretched Unitarios ; 
 the perfidious minister of Brazil ; the dirty money of- 
 France; the iniquitous claims of England; words 
 thus sufficing to cover the longest and most frightful 
 series of crimes that the nineteenth century has wit- 
 nessed. Rosas ! Rosas ! I bow before thy mighty wis- 
 dom. Thou art as great as the Plata, as the Andes ! 
 Thou alone hast discovered how contemptible are the 
 liberties, the knowledge, and the pride of mankind: 
 Trample upon them all; let all the governments of the 
 civilized world honor thee, the more insolent thou art. 
 Abuse them ! thou wilt always find dogs to snatch up 
 the spoils thrown to them ! 
 
 In Tucuman, Salta, and Jujui, a great, progressive, 
 industrial movement was interrupted by the invasion 
 of Quiroga. Dr. Colombres, whom Facundo loaded 
 with manacles, had introduced and encouraged the 
 
212 -i LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 t 
 cultivation of sugar-cane, for which the climate is so 
 
 well adapted. He had bought plants from Havana, 
 sent agents to the mills of Brazil to study the processes 
 and apparatus ; succeeded in distilling the molasses ; 
 and did not rest until ten mills were established and in 
 successful operation. But this was scarcely accom- 
 plished when Facundo turned his horses into the fields 
 of cane, and destroyed the mills. 
 
 An agricultural society was already publishing its 
 proceedings, and preparing to attempt the cultivation 
 of indigo and cochineal. At Salta, looms and workmen 
 had been brought from Europe for weaving woolen 
 goods, cloth, carpets, etc., all of which had turned out 
 profitably. But what particularly occupied the atten- 
 tion of those cities was the navigation of the Bermejo, 
 the great stream which flows between the two prov- 
 inces, unites with the Parana, and thus provides an 
 outlet for the valuable productions of that tropical 
 country. The future prosperity of those beautiful 
 provinces depended upon turning their streams to the 
 uses of commerce ; from poor inland cities, with small 
 populations, their capitals might in ten years be con- 
 verted into great centres of civilization and wealth, if, 
 under the protection of an able government, their in-* 
 habitants could devote themselves to removing the 
 slight obstacles in the way of their progress. Nor are 
 these chimerical dreams of a possible but distant future/ 
 In North America, not only hundreds of large, pop- 
 ulous cities, but even whole States have sprung up 
 throughout the region watered by the Mississippi and 
 its branches, in less than ten years. And the Missis- 
 sippi is not more available for commerce, than the 
 
KIVER-NAVIGATION. 213 
 
 Parana ; nor do the Ohio, Illinois, or Arkansas water a 
 larger or richer territory than tjje Pilcomayq, BermejT), 
 Paraguay, and so many other great rivers which desig- 
 nate the path to be taken by the people who shall here--- 
 after inhabit the Argentine Republic. Rivadavia con- 
 sidered the navigation of the inland rivers of the great- 
 est importance ; an association was formed at Salta and 
 Buenos Ayres with a capital of half a million dollars *" 
 for this purpose, and Sala had made his voyage and 
 published a map of the river. How much time Ijas 
 since been lost from 1825 to 1845 ! And how long will 
 it still be before God shall destroy the monster of the 
 pampas ? 
 
 For Rosas, in so obstinately opposing the free naviga- 
 tion of rivers, in pretending to fear European intrusion, 
 in keeping up the hostility of the inland cities and leav- 
 ing them to their own resources, does not simply obey 
 the instinctive prejudice against foreigners, nor even * 
 the impulse of the ignorant native of the port who, 
 possessing the seaport and the general custom-house, : 
 of the Republic, does not care for the development of 
 civilization and wealth of the whole nation, or see that 
 this would fill the harbor with ships bearing the prod- < 
 ucts of the interior, and the custom-house with mer- 
 chandise. He follows, rather, the natural instinct of* 
 the gaucho of the pampas,* who has a horror of water, * 
 a contempt for ships, and knows no greater delight 
 than riding a good horse. What does he care for J 
 mulberry-trees, sugar, indigo, the navigation of rivers, * 
 European immigration, or anything beyond the narrow x 
 circle of ideas in which he has lived ? What cjoes he* 
 care for the progress of the interior when he hfinself A 
 
214 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 is in the midst of wealth, possessing a custom-house 
 which brings in two millions a year without any trouhje 
 on his part ? 
 
 Salta, Jujui, Tucuman, Santa Fe, Corrientes, and; 
 Entre Ri6s, would now rival Buenos Ayres if the in- 
 dustrial movement so eagerly begun, could have con- 
 tinued. As it is, some of its results remain : Tucumari 
 now has large sugar-presses, and distilleries, which 
 would bring great wealth if the products could be 
 carried with less expense to the coast and exchanged 
 in Buenos Ayres for merchandise. Kut no evils are 
 eternal, and a day must come when the eyes of this 
 people will be opened, who are now denied all liberty 
 of progress, and are deprived of all capable and intelli- 
 gent men, who could carry on the great work, and bring 
 about in a few years the prosperity for which Nature 
 has destined this now stationary, impoverished, devagj- 
 tated country. Why are such men persecuted? Brave, 
 enterprising men, who employed their lives in various 
 social improvements, encouraging public education, 
 introducing the cultivation of the mulberry and the 
 sugar-cane, exploring the water-courses, with only the 
 national interest at heart, and desiring no other reward 
 than the satisfaction of serving their fellow-citizens ! 
 Why do we not see again arising the spirit of European 
 civilization which, however feeble, did once exist in the 
 Argentine Republic ? Why has the present govern- 
 ment more truly Unitarios in spirit than ever Riva- 
 davia intended never given a thought to the investi- 
 gation of the inexhaustible and yet untouched resources 
 of a favored soil ? Why has not even a twentieth part 
 of the millions employed in a fratricidal war been used 
 
PERSECUTION. 215 
 
 to educate the people or to facilitate trade ? A^hat .has 
 been given to this people in exchange for its sacrifices 
 and sufferings ? A red rag ! This is the extent of the 
 government's care of them for fifteen years ; this is the 
 only measure of the national administration ; the only 
 relation between master and slave, the mark upon the 
 cattle ! 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 BARRANCA. YACO ! ! ! 
 
 "The fire which burnt Albania so long was at last extinguished. All the red 
 blood has flowed, and the tears of our children have been wiped away. Now we 
 hold the cord of federation and friendship." CoWen's History of the Six Nations. 
 
 ^ THE conqueror of Ciudedala had driven the last sup- 
 porters of the Unitario system beyond the confines of 
 the Republic. The guns were hushed, and the tramp 
 of cavalry was no longer heard on the pampas. Fa- 
 cundo returned to San Juan, and disbanded his army; 
 btit he restored the nominal value of what money he 
 had taken from San Juan by the spoils of Tucuman. 
 What more was there to do ? Peace was then the 
 normal condition of the Republic, as war had been 
 before. 
 
 The conquests of Quiroga had destroyed all feeling 
 of independence in the provinces, all regularity of ad- 
 ministration. Liberty had ceased, and Quiroga's name 
 took the place of law. In this portion of the Republic 
 all leaders were united in one, and Jujui, Salta, Cata- 
 marca, Tucuman, Rioja, San Juan, and Mendoza, re- 
 mained under the sole influence of Quiroga. In a 
 .word, the Federals had disappeared as well as the Uni- 
 tarios, and the most complete unity existed in the per- 
 son of the conqueror. Thus the undivided organiza- 
 tion of the Republic which Rivadavia had attempted, 
 
IDEA OF GOVERNMENT. 217 
 
 j 
 
 and which had occasioned the contest, was realized inf 
 the interior at least, unless we can admit the existence 
 of a confederation of cities which have lost all free will, 
 and are at the mercy of a single leader. But in spite 
 of the misapplication of common terms, the facts are 
 too plain to be d9ubted. Facundo even spoke con- 
 temptuously of the much talked-of Confederation ; pro- 
 posed to his friends that they should choose a provin- 
 cial for President of the Republic, and suggested Dr. 
 Jose* Santos Ortez, ex-governor of San Luis, his own, 
 friend and secretary. " He is not a rough gaucho like 
 myself," he said, "but a scholar and an honest man^ 
 the man who knows how to do justice to his enemies, 
 is worthy of confidence." 
 
 Thus it appears that Quiroga, after routing the Uni- 
 tarios, went back to the old idea he entertained before 
 . the struggle the advocacy of a presidency and the. 
 necessity of putting in order the affairs of the Repub- % 
 lie. Yet some doubts troubled him. " Now, general," 
 some one said to him, " the nation will be governed by 
 Federal principles." " Hum," he answered, shaking 
 Bis head, " there are still some obstacles in the way," 
 and he added, with a significant look, " our friends 
 below (Buenos Ayres) do not wish for a constitution." 
 When communications from Buenos Ayres came, and 
 journals which gave the promotions of various officers 
 who had commanded in the useless army of Cordova, 
 Quiroga said to General Huidobro, " You see they 
 have no titles to bestow upon my officers after all we 
 have done here ; we should belong to the port, to get 
 anything." Knowing that Lopez was in possession of' 
 his Arabian horse, and did not send it to him, he was 
 
21,8 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 very angry, and exclaimed, " Ah, gaucho-stealer of 
 cows, you will pay dearly for the pleasure of being 
 well mounted ! " And he continued his threats and 
 abuse until his friends were alarmed at his indiscretion. 
 What did Quiroga intend to do now ? He was gov- 
 
 , ernor of no province, and had no army under his com- 
 mand ; nothing remained to him but his arms and the 
 terror of his name. On his way to Bioja he had left 
 
 ' hidden in the woods all the guns, swords, and lances 
 which he had collected in the eight cities he had over-, 
 run, numbering more than twelve thousand. He de- 
 posited in the city twenty-six pieces of artillery, with 
 plenty of baggage and ammunition, and moreover he 
 had sixteen hundred fine horses at pasture in the 
 ravines of Cuyo. K-ioja was the cradle of his power, 
 the very centre of his influence in the provinces ; at a 
 signal its arsenal would equip twelve thousand men 
 for war. Some may incline to doubt these facts, but 
 even as late as 1841 arms were dug up that had been 
 concealed at that time. In 1830 General Madrid took 
 possession of a treasure of thirty thousand dollars be- 
 longing to Quiroga, and soon after it was said that 
 ^ fifteen more had been found. Quiroga wrote to him 
 charging him with having taken thirty-nine thousand 
 dollars ; and doubtless much more had been buried 
 oefore the battle at Oncativo, during the time when 
 so -many cities were despoiled. As to the real amount 
 concealed in those two parcels, Madrid afterwards 
 thought that Quiroga gave it rightly, for the discoverer 
 of the last parcel, having been taken prisoner, offered 
 
 ten thousand dollars for his life, and when this was not 
 accepted, committed suicide by cutting his throat. 
 
ROSAS GOVERNOR OF BUEXOS AYRES. 2-19 
 
 Thus the interior had now a chief; he who had 
 conquered at Oncativo, and who had in Buenos Ayres ~ 
 only been entrusted with a few .hundred convicts, was 
 now the second, if not the first in power. To make 
 the division of the Republic into two parts more decided; 
 the provinces bordering on the Plata had made a league 
 or confederation by which their liberties and independ- 
 ence were mutually assured; though a certain kind of 
 feudalism still existed in the persons of Lopez of Santa . 
 F, Ferre*, and Rosas, leaders sprung from the people 
 whom they governed. Rosas had already begun to 
 influence public affairs very decidedly. After the 
 victory over Lavalle, he was made governor of Buenos 
 Ayres, and until 1832 filled the office as well as any 
 other would have dxme. I must not omit a significant 
 fact. From the first, Rosas demanded to be invested 
 with absolute power, but was strongly opposed by his 
 partisans in the city. By persuasions and deceptions 
 he succeeded in obtaining it during the war of Cordo- 
 va, and when that was ended, he was eagerly desired 
 to give up this unlimited power. The city of Bueno~s 
 Ayres did not then imagine that it could exist as an 
 absolute government, whatever the principles of its' 
 political parties might be. Rosas, however, resisted, 
 gently but ably. "It is not that I wish to make use' 
 of such power," he said, " but, as my secretary, Gar- * 
 cia Zuiliga, says, the schoolmaster must hold his whip 
 in hand that his authority may be respected." He 
 considered this comparison entirely appropriate, and* 
 repeated it frequently, the citizens were the childreta, *, 
 the governor, man and master. 
 
 Rosas was obliged to yield ; but the ex-governor had 
 
220 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 no intention of becoming a mere citizen ; the labor and 
 patience of many years were about to bring their re- 
 ward. During his legal term of service he learned all 
 the entrances to the ckadel, and all the ill-fortified 
 
 'points ; and if he then left the government, it was only 
 jto take it by assault from the outside, without any 
 constitutional restrictions, without being fettered by 
 responsibility to any one. He laid down the truncheon 
 to take up first the sword, and afterward the battle-axe. 
 Not long before he resigned the government, a great 
 
 expedition, led by himself, was prepared to extend and 
 protect the southern boundaries of the province which 
 were exposed to frequent invasions of the savages^ 
 Everything was arranged on a large scale : an army 
 composed of three divisions was to form a line of four 
 hundred leagues, from Buenos Ayres to Mendoza. 
 Quiroga was to command the forces of the interior, 
 while Rosas, with his division, followed the Atlantifc 
 coast. The magnificence and utility of the enterprise 
 concealed from the eyes of the people the political 
 manoeuvre hidden under this plausible pretext. For' 
 what could be more desirable than to secure the south- 
 ern frontier by making a large river the boundary 
 between it and the Indians, and protecting it with a 
 line of forts ; a very practicable design, which had 
 already been clearly marked out in the voyage of Cruz 
 from the city of Conception, in Chili. 
 
 But Rosas had no idea of engaging in any enterprise | 
 
 > which tended only toward the good of the Republic. 
 His troops marched as far as Rio Colorado, moving 
 slowly, and making observations on the soil, climate, 
 and pther Circumstances of the country through which 
 
ROSAS AND FACUNDO. 221 ' 
 
 they passed. They destroyed some Indian huts, and f 
 took a few poor prisoners ; and this was all that was 
 effected by the great expedition, which left the frontier 
 as defenseless as it had been before, and is still. The 
 divisions of Mendoza and San Luis returned equally 
 unsuccessful from the deserts of the south. Rosas 
 then raised for the first time his red flag, like that of 
 Algiers, and assumed the title of Hero of the Desert, in 
 addition to that already acquired, of Restorer of the 
 Laws those same laws which he was now about to , 
 destroy. 
 
 1 Facundo, too keen to be deceived as to the object of 
 the expedition, remained at San Juaif until the divis- 
 ions of the interior returned. The division commanded * 
 by Huidobro, which had been in the desert opposite 
 San Luis, marched towards Cordova, and its approach 
 put a stop to a rebellion headed by the Castillos, the 
 object of which was to take the government from the 
 Reinafes who were under the influence of Lopez. This 
 rebellion was evidently gotten up at the instigation of 
 Facundo; its leaders were from San Juan, the residence > 
 of Quiroga, and their supporters were his well-known 
 partisans. The journals of the time, however, say 
 nothing about Facundo's connection with that move- 
 ment ; and when Huidobro retired to his provincial ^ 
 home, and Arridondo, with other leaders of the -re- 
 bellion, was shot, there was nothing more to be said or ^ 
 done ; for the war about to begin between the two 
 parties of the Republic, between the two leaders who 
 were contending for supremacy, was to be a^war of 
 ambuscades, snares, and treachery. It was a silent* . 
 combat ; not a trial of strength between armies, but 
 
222 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 between audacity on one side, and skill and cunning on 
 the other. This struggle Jbet ween ^|roga_and__ Rosas 
 is but little understood, though it lasted five years. 
 Each -lifted and despised the other, and neither lost 
 sight of the other for a moment, for each felt that his 
 life and success depended on the result of this terrible 
 game. 
 
 Perhaps it will be well to make a political chart of 
 the Republic from 1822, that the reader may better 
 .comprehend the following operations. 
 
 ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. ' i 
 
 Region of the Andes. Borders of the Plata. 
 
 UNITY UNDER THE INFLUENCE 
 
 OF QUIROGA. 
 
 Jujui, Rioja, 
 
 SaJta, San Juan, 
 
 Tucuman, Mendoza, 
 
 Catamarca, San Luis. 
 
 CONFEDERATION UNDER THE 
 LEAGUE_OE THE PLATA. 
 
 Corrientes, Ferre. 
 
 Entre Rios, ) 
 Santa Fe, > Lopez. 
 Cordova, ) 
 Buenos Ayres, Rosas. 
 
 FEUDAL FACTION. 
 Santiago del Estero, Ibarra. 
 
 Lopez, of Santa Fe*, extended his influence by means 
 of Echague, a creature of his, and over Cordova through 
 the Reinafe*s. Ferre*, a man of independent spirit, kept 
 Corrientes out of the struggle until 1839. Under the 
 rule of Beron de Astrada, that province turned against 
 Rosas, who, with his increase of power, had regarded 
 the League as of no effect. This same Ferre* was led 
 by his narrow provincial spirit to denounce Lavalle as 
 a deserter in 1840, for having crossed the Parana with 
 the army of Corrientes ; and after the battle of Chaa- 
 guazu he took the victorious army from General Paz, 
 
FACUNDO AT BUENOS AYRRS. . 223 
 
 thus losing the important advantages which might" have* 
 been secured by that victory. Ferre* in these proceed- 
 ings and others, was actuated by the spirit of provin- 
 cial independence which had grown up during the war 
 with Spain. Thus the same feeling which had thrown 
 Corrientes into opposition to the Unitario constitution 
 in 1826, made it in 1838 oppose Rosas 3 who was at- 
 tempting a centralization of power. Thence came 
 Ferre's mistakes, an4 the misfortunes which followed 
 the battle of Chaaguazu, making it of no use to the 
 Republic, the general, or the province itself; for if the- 
 rest of the Republic should be consolidated under 
 Rosas, Corrientes could not maintain its feudal and 
 federal independence. 
 
 The southern expedition being ended, or rather 
 stopped, for it had neither plan nor end, Facundo 
 marched to Buenos Ayres with Barcala and his chosen 
 band, and entered the city without taking the trouble 
 to announce his arrival. Such neglect of ordinary 
 forms might be commented upon were it not entirely, 
 characteristic. What brought Quiroga to Buenos 
 Ayres at this time ? Was it another invasion like that 
 of Mendoza in the very stronghold of his rival ? Or 
 did this barbarian at last desire to live amidst the luxu- 
 ries of civilization ? It is probable that all these causes 
 urged Facundo to his ill-advised journey to Bunos 
 Ayres. Power instructs, and Quiroga had all the high 
 qualities of mind which enable a man to adapt himself 
 to any new position, whatever it may be. He estab- 
 lished himself in Buenos Ayres, and was soon sur- 
 rounded by the principal men of the place ; he bought 
 shares in the public funds to the amount of six hundred 
 
224 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 thousand dollars : played for various stakes ; spoke ' s 
 contemptuously of Rosas ; declared himself a Unitariq 
 among Unitarios, and talked continually about the con^/ 
 stitution. His past life, his barbarous deeds, little 
 .known at Buenos Ayres, were explained and excused 
 , by the desire of conquest, and the necessity of self- 
 preservation. His present conduct was temperate, his 
 manner dignified and imposing, though he still wore 
 the chaqueta, the striped poncho, and long hair and* 
 beard. 
 
 During his residence at Buenos Ayres, Quiroga made 
 some trials of his personal strength. As he was walk- 
 ing, wrapped up as usual in his poncho, he [saw a man 
 with his knife drawn, refusing to yield to a policeman ; 
 and seizing the fellow, disarmed him, and carried him 
 to the station ; he had not given the policeman his 
 name, but was recognized at the station by an officer, 
 and next day the papers all related the story. He 
 heard one day that an apothecary had spoken contemp- 
 tuously of his barbarity in the provinces, and went to 
 his office to inquire about it, but this time was not very 
 successful ; the physician, nothing daunted, told him 
 that he would not be able to ill-treat people in Buenos 
 Ayres as he had done in the provinces, and the story 
 was circulated with great satisfaction in the city. Yet 
 this Buenos Ayres, so proud of its institutions, was, 
 before the end of a year, to be treated with greater 
 barbarity than the interior had ever received at the 
 hands of Quiroga. The police once went to Quiroga's 
 house in search of him, and he overcame his first im- 
 pulse to defend himself, feeling that there was a greater 
 power than his, and that he might at any time be im- 
 
 
FACUNDO'S NEW PLANS. 225 
 
 prisoned should he take his defense into his own hands. 
 Qniroga's sons were in the best schools, and he made 
 them wear the European dress ; and when one of them 
 insisted on leaving his studies for the army, he was 
 placed by his father in one of the regiments as drum- 
 mer, until he should repent of his folly. 
 
 Quiroga used to declare that the only writers gopd 
 for anything were the Varelas, who had abused him so 
 much, and that the only honest men in the Republic 
 were Rivadavia and Paz. To the Unitarios he said 
 that he only wanted a secretary like Dr. Ocampo, a 
 politician who could write out a constitution, and he* 
 would march with it to San Luis, and thencejshow if 
 to the whole Republic at the point of a lance. Quiroga 
 represented himself as the leader of a new attempt to 
 organize the Republic, and he might be said to have 
 conspired openly had he done more than talk. His 
 natural habit of idleness, and of expecting everything 
 from terror, and perhaps the novelty of surrounding 
 circumstances, prevented him from acting with energy, 
 and at last put him in the power of his rival. There 
 is no proof that Quiroga proposed any immediate action, 
 unless it be found in his understanding with the gov- 
 ernors of the interior, and his indiscreet words, repeated 
 by both parties, though the Unitarios did not dare to 
 trust their cause to such hands, and the Federals looked 
 upon him as a deserter from their ranks. 
 
 While he thus gave himself up to dangerous indo-* 
 lence, the serpent which was to crush him in its folds, 
 drew nearer and nearer. In tjie year 1833, Rosas, 
 while nominally occupied with the great expedition, 
 kept his army in the south, and narrowly watched 
 
 15 
 
226 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 Buenos Ayres and the progress of Balcarce's govern- 
 'ment. The province of Buenos Ayres soon presented - 
 a most singular spectacle. Imagine what would hap- 
 pen if a large comet should approach the earth : first 
 a general disturbance, then deep, far-off rumblings, 
 then oscillations of the earth attracted from its orbit, 
 then" a mighty convulsion followed by the upheaval of 
 mountains, and finally the deluge and chaos that have . 
 preceded the successive creations on our globe. Such 
 "was the influence exerted by Rosas in 1834. The gov- 
 ernment of Buenos Ayres became more and more 
 restricted, more embarrassed in' its movement, more 
 dependent on the "hero of the desert." Every commu- 
 nication from him was a reproach to the governor, ex- 
 orbitant requisitions for the army or some unprece- 
 dented demand. Soon the civil authorities lost all 
 influence over the country population, and complaint 
 was made to Rosas, who 4 was supposed to control the 
 peasantry ; but in a short time the same disregard of 
 authority spread rapidly over the city itself, until it 
 became no uncommon thing for armed men to ride 
 through the .streets, now and then firing upon the citi- 
 zens. This ^disorganization of society increased daily, 
 and it was not difficult to trace an influence from the 
 camp of Rosas to the country districts, from these 
 to the suburbs of the city, and thence to a certain class_ 
 of men within the city. The government of Balcarce > 
 succumbed to this power from without, and the parti- 
 sans of Rosas worked hard to open the way for him, 
 bu^ the Federal party of the city made constant oppo- 
 sition/ The chamber of representatives assembled in 
 the midst of the confusion caused by the resignation 
 
FAfcUNDO'S SECRET OPPOSITION TO ROSAS. 227 
 
 of Bal</arce, and chose General Viamont governor, 
 who readily accepted the office. 
 
 F$*r a short time order seemed to be reestablished?,' 
 and the city once more breathed freely, but soon the 
 sarne confusion began again, and the same outrages 
 w ere committed in the streets. It is impossible to 
 describe the state of constant alarm in which the peo- 
 ple lived during two years of this strange and syste- 
 matic persecution. Frequently, without any apparent 
 cause, people were seen running through the streets, 
 the noise of closing doors was heard from house to 
 house ; some whisper had passed around some ope 
 had observed a suspicious looking group of men, or 
 the clatter of hoofs had been heard. 
 
 On one of these occasions Quiroga was passing by 
 a street, and seeing well-dressed men running without 
 knowing for what, he looked contemptuously at a group 
 of armed ruffians, and said, " It would not have been 
 so, had 1 been here." 
 
 " And what would you have done, general ?" asked 
 his companion, " you have no influence over these 
 people." 
 
 Quiroga raised his head, and with flashing eyes, an- 
 swered, " Look you, if I should go into the street, and 
 say to the first man I met, ' Follow me,' would he not 
 follow ? " 
 
 There was such an overpowering energy in Quiroga's 
 words, and his figure was so imposing, that they rarely 
 failed to impress strongly. 
 
 General Viamont resigned at last, because he saw 
 that he could not govern ; that there was a powerful 
 hand holding the reins of the administration ; aijd no' 
 
228 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLICS": 1 
 
 one could be found to succeed him, none dared' accept 
 the office. After awhile, however, Dr. Maz^ was 
 placed at the head of the government, and as lie 4 - was 
 the old master and friend of Rosas, it was hoped thr.t a 
 remedy had been found for the evil. A vain hopi 
 for the distress increased rather than diminished. An -^ 
 chorena petitioned the governor to repress the social 
 disorders, knowing that this was not in his power, that 
 the police force would not obey ; that the real power 
 came from without. 
 
 General Guido and Dr. Alcorta, in the chamber of 
 representatives, earnestly protested against the violent 
 commotion in which the city was kept, but the evil still 
 increased, and to aggravate it, Rosas, from his camp, 
 reproached the governor with the disorders which he 
 himself had fomented. Finally a committee of repre-, I 
 sentatives went to offer him the government, saying I 
 that he alone could put an end to the suffering which I 
 they had endured for two years. But Rosas refused, I 
 and then there were new commissions, and new per- I 
 suasions, until Rosas consented to do the people the I 
 favor of governing them, on condition that the legal 
 term of three years should be extended to five years, 
 and that the " highest public power " should be given' 
 him ; an expression invented by himself, he alone un- 
 derstanding its meaning. 
 
 s ' In the midst of these arrangements between Rosas 
 and the city of Buenos Ayres, news came of a difficulty 
 between the governors of Salta, Tucuman, and Santi- 
 ago del Estero, which might result in war. Five years 
 had passed since the Unitarios disappeared from the 
 political world, and two since the city Federals had lost 
 
ACUNDO'S PRESENTIMENTS. 229 
 
 their irfliu-'nre in tlie government, but had courage to 
 exact conditions which made capitulation tolerable.. 
 \Vhi 1e ^ 1( * k dty" surrendered at discretion, with its 
 j ns titutions, its liberties, etc., Rosas was carrying ,oA 
 CP mplicated machinations outside. He was evidently 
 jii communication with Lopez of Santa FC*, and there 
 was even a conference between the two leaders. The 
 ^^Hmment of Cordova was under the influence of 
 .Lopez, who had placed the Reinafds at its head. Fa-^ 
 lUmdo was now invited to go and use his influence to 
 ttle the difficulties which had arisen in the northern* 
 art of the Republic, no one else being chosen to aid 
 im in this mission of peace. He refused at first, then 
 esitated, and finally accepted. 
 
 It was on 'the 18th of December, in 1835, that Fa- 
 do took leave of the city, saying to his friends, " If 
 succeed, you will see me again, if not, farewell for- 
 er." At the last moment this intrepid man was 
 iled by dark presentiments ; it will be remembered 
 at something similar happened to Napoleon when he 
 s leaving the Tuilleries for Waterloo. 
 He had scarcely made half a day's journey when a 
 Buddy brook stopped his carriage. The travelling at- 
 ^idant came up and tried to get it over ; new horses 
 Bre.put in, and every effort made to move the car- 
 Hge, but in vain, and Quiroga falling into a rage, 
 ^Bered the man himself to be harnessed to the vehi-r 
 cle. 1 1 is brutality and terrorism appeared again as 
 'soon as he found himself without the city. This first 
 Ktacle being overcome, he went on across the pampas, 
 ^rays travelling until two o'clock in the night, and 
 again at four. He was accompanied by Dr. 
 
230 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 Qrtez, his secretary, and a well-known youn^r man 
 who had been prevented from continuing the jo, irnev 
 in his own carriage by the loss of a wheel soon ^fter 
 starting. 
 
 At every post Facundo eagerly asked how long ft 
 was since a courier from Buenos Ayres had passed . 
 the usual answer was, " about an hour," after which 
 he called hurriedly for horses, and drove on rapidly. 
 Their comfort was not increased by the rain, which 
 fell in torrents two or three days. On entering the 
 province of Santa Fe*, Quiroga's anxiety increased, and 
 it became absolute agony when, on reaching the post 
 at Pa von, he found that the post-master was absent, 
 and that there were no horses to be had immediately. 
 His companions saw no cause for this mood, and were 
 astonished to find this man who was a terror to the 
 whole Republic, a prey to what seemed groundless 
 fears. 
 
 When the carriage once more started, he muttered 
 in a low tone to himself, " If I only get beyond the 
 boundaries of Santa Fd, it is enough." 
 
 At last they arrived at Cordova, at half-past nine at 
 night, just an hour after the courier from Buenos 
 Ayres, who had preceded them all the way. One of 
 the Remafe"s hastened to the post-station where Fa- 
 cundo still sat in his carriage calling for horses, and 
 greeting him respectfully, invited him to pass the night 
 in the city where the governor had already prepared 
 for his reception. But to each renewed offer of hos- 
 pitality, Quiroga only answered by a call for horses, 
 until Reinafe* retired mortified, and Facundo set out 
 again at twelve o'clock at night. 
 
FACUNDO'S OBSTINACY. 231 
 
 Meanwhile the city of Cordova was filled with mys- 
 terious rumors ; the friends of the young man who had 
 by chance come with Quiroga, and who stopped at 
 Cordova, his native place, went to see him in crowds^ 
 seeming to be much astonished at finding him alive* 
 They informed him that he had a narrow escape ; that 
 Quiroga was to have been assassinated at a certain 
 place ; that the assassins were engaged and the pistols 
 purchased ; but he had escaped them by his haste, for 
 the courier had scarcely arrived and announced his 
 coming, when he appeared himself, frustrating all their 
 plans. Never was such a thing undertaken with so 
 little secrecy ; the whole city knew all the particulars^ 
 of the 'crime intended by the government, and Quiro- 
 ga's assassination was the only subject of conversation. 
 
 Quiroga arrived at his destination, settled the diffi- 
 culties between the hostile governors, and started back 
 to Cordova, in spite of the reiterated entreaties of the 
 governors of Santiago and Tucuman, who offered him 
 a large escort, and advised him to return by way of 
 Cuyo. It would seem that some avenging spirit made 
 him obstinately persist in defying his enemies, without 
 escort, and without any means of defense, when he 
 might have gone by the Cuyo road, disinterred his 
 immense deposit of arms at Rioja, and armed the eight 
 provinces which were under his influence. He knew 
 all ; had received repeated intimations in Santiago 
 del Estero ; he knew the danger he had escaped by 
 his rapid progress ; knew the greater one which awaited 
 him, for his enemies had not given up their design. 
 " To Cordova ! " he cried to the postilion, as if Cor- 
 dova was to be the end of his journey. 
 
232 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 Before they reached the post-station of Ojo del Agua, 
 a young man came out of the woods into the road, and 
 asked at the carriage for Dr. Ortez, who got out and 
 heard from the young man, that Santos Perez with a 
 military company was stationed near a place called 
 Barranca-Yacco ; that as the carriage passed they were 
 to fire into it from both sides, and afterwards kill the 
 postilions ; no one was to escape ; the orders were 
 ' positive. The young man, who had formerly been 
 befriended by Ortez, now came to save him, and had a 
 horse ready at a little distance for him to ride. The 
 secretary, astounded by this news, told Quiroga what 
 4ie had heard and urged him to save himself. Facundo 
 questioned the young man again, and thanked him for 
 the information, but told him he might make himself 
 easy, adding in a loud voice, " The man is not born 
 who will kill Quiroga ; at a word from me to-morrow, 
 that whole company will put itself under my command, 
 and escort me to Cordova." 
 
 These words of Quiroga, which I have but recently 
 learned, explain why he so strangely persisted in de- 
 fying death. Pride and faith in the terror of his name, j 
 urged him on to the fatal catastrophe. I had already 
 so accounted for it in my own mind, before I had the 
 confirmation of his words. 
 
 The night which the travellers passed at the post- 
 statioh of Ojo del Agua, was one of great agony to the 
 unhappy secretary, who was going to a certain death 
 without the half-savage valor and rashness which in- 
 spired Quiroga ; death never seems more terrible than 
 when imposed by the senseless bravado of a friend, and 
 when there would be no dishonor in avoiding it. Dr. 
 
FACUNDO'S INDIVIDUALITY. 233 
 
 Ortez took the post-master aside and asked him about 
 the report he had heard, promising not to abuse his 
 confidence ; he was told that Santos Perez had been 
 there with his company of thirty men not an hour be- 
 fore, and they were then stationed at the appointed 
 place, fully armed ; that all who accompanied Quiroga 
 were to be killed, as Perez himself had said. This 
 corroboration of the information before received did 
 not alter the determination of Quiroga, who, after 
 taking a cup of chocolate, as usual, slept profoundly ; 
 unlike Ortez who lay awake thinking of his wife and 
 children whom he would see no more, and only because 
 he could not incur the charge of disloyalty to his friend, 
 a friend more to be feared than many enemies. At 
 midnight, his agony becoming insupportable, he got 
 up with a faint hope of receiving some comfort from 
 the post-master. But the man could only repeat what 
 he had already told, and showed unfeigned anxiety 
 himself, for, as he said, the two postilions he was 
 obliged to provide would have to share the same fate. 
 Ortez then aroused Quiroga, and made one more at- 
 tempt to dissuade him from his purpose, saying that he 
 could not accompany him if he persisted. Quiroga 
 laughed at his fears, and gave him to understand that 
 his own anger would be more dangerous than anything 
 he could meet at Barranca- Yacco ; so that the unfor- 
 tunate man could only submit. Quiroga then called 
 his strong negro servant and set him to cleaning some 
 arms ; this was all he could be induced to do in the 
 way of precaution. 
 
 Daylight came at last, and the carriage started, ac- 
 companied by two postillions, one of whom was a mere 
 
234 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE -REPUBLIC. 
 
 lad and nephew of one of the company which lay in 
 wait for them ; two couriers who accidentally joined 
 the party, and the negro who went on horseback. 
 They soon reached the fatal spot, two discharges were 
 
 .fired into the carriages from each side of the road, but ,. 
 without wounding any one ; then the soldiers rushing 
 up sword in hand, disabled the horses in a moment, 
 and cut to pieces the driver and couriers. Quiroga 
 meanwhile put his head out of the window and said to 
 the commander of the company, " What is all this ? " 
 
 Sis only answer was a ball through his head. Santos 
 ^Perez then passed his sword several times through the 
 body, and when the butchery was completed, had the 
 carriage filled with dead bodies, and dragged into the 
 woods, with the murdered postilion still on his seat. 
 The young lad alone was alive, and Perez seeing him, 
 asked who he was. His sergeant replied, that the boy 
 was a nephew of his, and that he would answer for 
 him with his life. Without a word, Perez walked up 
 to the sergeant, shot him through the heart, and then 
 seizing the boy by the arm, threw him on the ground 
 and cut his throat in spite of his childish cries for 
 mercy. Yet in after life the death cries of this lad be- 
 came a pursuing torment to him, and sounded in his 
 ears, sleeping or waking, wherever he might be. Fa- 
 cundo had said of all the deeds he had committed, but 
 one remorse troubled him, which was for the death of 
 the twenty-six officers shot at Mendoza. 
 
 This Santos Perez was a gaucho-outlaw, celebrated N 
 in all the Sierra and city of Cordova for the many 
 murders he had committed, for his bold audacity and 
 extraordinary adventures. While General Paz was 
 
SANTOS PEREZ. 235 
 
 at Cordova this man had gathered about him a large 
 band of the most lawless men, and occupied one of the 
 wild mountain districts. With higher ideas, he would- 
 have been equal to Quiroga, as it was, he was only his 
 assassin. He was very tall, had a pale, handsome face, 
 with a curly black beard. 
 
 Perez was long pursued as a criminal by the govern- 
 ment, and more than four hundred men were sent out 
 to look for him. Once he narrowly escaped being 
 poisoned by Reinaf ; at another time a party sent to 
 take him was commanded by an old friend of his, who 
 sent for him under pretense of having something to 
 say to him. Perez went down to him, saying, " Here 
 I am, what is wanted ? " and when the captain hesi- 
 tated a moment with embarrassment, he turned on his 
 heel, saying contemptuously, " I knew you wanted to 
 betray me, and only came to make sure of itj "* and 
 before they could seize him, he had disappeared. After 
 numerous escapes of this kind, he was at last delivered 
 up to justice through a woman's revenge. He had 
 beaten his mistress one night, and when he had fallen 
 asleep, she went out and told some policemen where 
 he was, having first removed his pistols from beside his 
 pillow. Being suddenly awakened, and seeing him- 
 self surrounded by armed men, he reached out his 
 arm, and then said, quietly, " I surrender, they have 
 taken my pistols." 
 
 An immense crowd assembled in the streets when 
 he was carried into Buenos Ayres, and showered upon 
 him every kind of abusive epithet, but he only held 
 his head the higher, and murmured disdainfully, " If I 
 but had my knife." He was followed with execrations 
 
236 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 as he walked to the scaffold, and his gigantic form, 
 like that of Danton, towered above the crowd around 
 him. 
 
 The government of Buenos Ayres gave great solem- 
 nity to the execution of Quiroga's assassins ; the blood- 
 stained, ball-pierced carriage was long exposed to pub- 
 lic view, and lithographs of Quiroga, and of those 
 executed on the scaffold, were distributed among the 
 people. But the impartial historian will one day ex- 
 pose the real instigator of the assassination. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 t^ 
 
 FRIAR JOS FELIX ALDAO, BRIGADIER-GENERAL AND 
 GOVERNOR. 
 
 ON the 4th of February, 1817, the following inci- 1 
 dent happened in a deep, narrow valley of the Andes, 
 through which the river Aconcagua rushes from rock " 
 to rock in its sudden descent. It was near sunset as 
 the vanguard of the division, commanded by ColoneL 
 Las Heras, marched silently down the mountain to- 
 wards Chili, by the rough, rocky road leading through" 
 Uspallata. The fort, known by the name of "La 
 Guardia Vieja," was visible far down in the valley, and 
 had the appearance of being entirely unoccupied, but 
 a detachment of Spanish soldiers was concealed within, 
 watching the approach of the insurgents, and prepared 
 for a combat. Presently two discharges were fired 
 from the fortifications ; a company of the eleventh 
 rebel regiment immediately advanced, firing, from the 
 bank of the river to within twelve paces of the fort, 
 while another defiled along the mountain side to pre- 
 vent all possibility of the escape of the Spaniards. A 
 moment afterwards they carried the walls at the point 
 of the bayonet, and wherever the contest was mosA 
 desperate, were seen flashing the swords of thirty 
 grenadiers, under Lieutenant Jose* Aldao. Among 
 these was a strange figure dressed in white, like some 
 
238 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 phantom, and dealing blow after blow with wild feroc- 
 ity^ -This was the chaplain of the division, whoy 
 
 carried away by excitement, had obeyed the order t6 
 charge, which, when given to the conquerors of San 
 Lorenzo, was sure to be followed by a battle in which 
 no quarter was given. 
 
 When the victorious vanguard returned to the forti- 
 fied encampment occupied by Las Heras and the rest -r 
 of the division, the commander saw by the blood-stains^ 
 on the scapulary of the chaplain, that he had been in- 
 creasing the number of the dead instead of comforting 
 the dying, and signified to him that he would do better j/ 
 to keep to his breviary and leave the sword to warriors. 
 The hot-tempered chaplain could ill-brook this reproof, 
 and turned hastily away with flashing eyes and com- 
 pressed lips. On dismounting at his lodgings, he 
 grasped the sword still hanging at his side, saying to 
 Jiimself, " We shall see." Thus was formed an irrev- 
 ocable resolution. That evening's combat had re- 
 vealed his natural instincts in all their strength, proving 
 how little fitted he was for a profession requiring mild- 
 ness and brotherly love ; he had felt the pleasure in 
 shedding blood which is natural to those who have the 
 organ of destructiveness strongly developed ; war at- , 
 tracted him irresistibly ; he wished to rid himself of 
 the troublesome gown he wore, and to win the laurels 
 of the soldier in place of the symbol of humiliation and^ 
 penitence ; he therefore determined that he would Jbje- 
 no longer a priest, but a soldier, as were Jose* and 
 Francisco, his brothers. The fear of scandal would 
 not deter him, for he could cite many examples in his " 
 favor; the celebrated engineer Beltran, who had lighted . 
 
THE CATHOLIC PARTY AND RELIGION. 239 
 
 with resinous torches the dangerous passes of the Andes, 
 and who afterwards prepared at Santiago congreve' 
 rockets to be thrown into the forts of Callao, was also 
 a priest who had laid aside the gown, finding that he 
 was able to serve his country more effectually than the 
 church. In all parts of America, especially in Mexico,, 
 priests and monks had led the insurgents, taking ad- 
 vantage of the influence which their priestly office 
 gave them over the common people. However, the 
 chaplain Aldao was not troubled with a scrupulous/^ 
 conscience, and would not have been deterred from 
 his resolution even without the excuse of such exam- 
 ples. He belonged to a poor, but honorable family of 
 Mendoza, and had shown from his infancy such willful- 
 ness and disregard of authority, that his parents edu- > 
 cated him for the priesthood, in the hope that its 
 solemn duties would reform his evil tendencies; a fataj 
 mistake, for his novitiate was, like his childhood, a 
 continued course of violence and immorality. Not- 
 withstanding this, he received sacred orders in Chili/ 
 in 1806, under the episcopacy of Meran, and the pat- 
 ronage of the reverend father Velasquez, who assisted 
 him at his first mass at Santiago, and who was greatly 
 scandalized at seeing the newly made priest after the 
 battle of Chacabuco in military costume, and with the 
 martial bearing of a soldier. " Thou wilt repent of 
 this," cried the good priest, in his horror at this profa- 
 nation ; but unfortunately for the Argentine people 
 the prophecy was not fulfilled, for the apostate, though, 
 ^unmourned, died a natural death, and with the honors ' 
 of a victorious general. 
 
240 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 Colonel Las Heras, in his official report of the battle 
 of La Guardia Vieja, made favorable mention of the 
 priest, for capturing two officers, which, according to 
 military rule, gives a claim to promotion ; and conse- 
 quently, the priest who had made his first experiment 
 in fighting at Guardia Vieja, appeared at the battle of 
 Chacabuco in the uniform of a lieutenant of grenadiers, 
 and won a soldier's laurels. Though he could never 
 rid himself of his priestly title, he soon proved in his 
 new career that he did not wear the sword in vain, 
 and became renowned as a formidable warrior and an 
 implacable enemy ; known to the army and the public 
 generally, as " El fraile,'' or the monk. 
 '- I will mention one of the many remarkable deeds 
 performed by him at that time. In the pursuit after 
 the Jbattle of Maipu, a Spanish grenadier of gigantic 
 ^tature was cutting his way through the surrounding 
 
 - enemies, and with each blow of his mighty sworcf 
 stretching a lifeless body on the ground ; the brave 
 Lavalle attempted to approach him, but felt his eager 
 valor cool whenever the confusion of the struggle 
 brought them together. Aldao, seeing this, made his 
 way up to the giant, and, instead of falling with the 
 many other victims, beat aside the terrible sword and 
 passed his own again and again through the body of 
 the huge Spaniard, amidst the loud acclamations of his 
 party. 
 
 J But whatever honorable deeds in arms the recreant 
 priest may have accomplished, his conduct would at' 
 
 " any other time, or in any other circumstances, have 
 covered him with opprobrium. Freed from the re- 
 straint hitherto imposed upon his inclinations by the 
 
CAPTAIN UNDER SAN MARTIN. 241 
 
 priestly office, eager for pleasure, and perhaps impelled 
 to excesses by the necessity for excitement in which 
 men often seek to drown any possible remorse for a 
 wrong step in life, the monk henceforth became famous 
 for his disorderly habits ; his private life being devoted 
 to intoxication, cards, and women. But perhaps ever? 
 these vices would have been forgiven, had they nqt 
 outlasted the first excitement of unrestrained y4>uth, x 
 and followed him to the end of his life. He abused 
 even the large indulgence with which his companions 
 in- arms regarded his conduct, and though his* com- 
 manders were very willing to make use of his courage, 
 they took care to send him to a distance whenever ijp 
 was possible to do so with advantage. Whatever differ- 
 ences of opinion there may be among men, all feel -a 
 repugnance at seeing a priest stained with blood, and ' 
 given over to intoxication and vice. 
 
 Aldao had the rank of captain in the army which 
 left Valparaiso under command of San Martin, to de- 
 liver Peru from the Spanish dominion. In that coun- 
 try, where the main body of Spanish forces was sta- 
 tioned, the insurgent army needed auxiliaries to harass 
 the enemy on all sides, and act as reserve forces. For 
 this purpose bands of guerrillas were organized in the 
 mountains, which kept the royalists in continual alarm. 
 These bands required bold, fearless commanders, who 
 would risk everything to attain their ends, and who 
 shrank from nothing, not even pillage and assassination; 
 After taking part in the contests at Lacca and Pasco^> 
 Captain Aldao was sent to raise one of these bancte arid'- 
 to act on his own responsibility, as circumstances should 
 suggest. . His own master, and within reach of no 
 
 16 
 
242 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 higher authority than himself, it can easily be con- 
 ceived that his violence and unrestrained passions found| 
 .plenty of victims among a timid people quite incapable 
 of resistance. A characteristic incident soon happened. 
 Aldao had determined to defend with his troop of 
 Indians the bridge of Iscuchaca, but at the approach of 
 a detachment of Spaniards, more than a thousand na- 
 tives fled, thus losing their advantageous position, and 
 without resistance delivering to the enemy an impor- 
 tant post. Their furious leader, unable to prevent 
 their flight, fell upon them as upon a flock of sheep, 
 and did not cease slaying until a large heap of dead 
 and wounded had fallen under the repeated strokes of 
 his sword. However bloody might have been a con- 
 test at the bridge, and however deadly the fire of the 
 Spaniards, fewer Indians would have fallen than thus 
 lay on the ground, the victims of one man's anger. 
 
 The circumstances which occasioned the disbanding 
 of San Martin's army, made it unnecessary for Aldao to 
 remain longer in the mountains, and with the rank ofi, 
 lieutenant-colonel, he went to Lima, where fortune! 
 favored him at cards, until he had gained a large for- 
 tune, and then he left for Pasto. He there met a 
 beautiful young girl of respectable family, with whom 
 he became violently enamored, and who returned his 
 passion. This was no passing fancy, but a deep, last- 
 ing feeling on both sides, only strengthened by the 
 impossibility of a lawful union, which would ever be 
 prevented by his priestly vows. Fortunately for him, 
 she was unselfish enough to consent to be the mistress 
 of a soldier whose epaulets could not conceal the stain 
 of apostasy, and, leaving friends and country, she fled 
 
ALDAO AT MENDOZA. 243 
 
 with him where the humiliation of her social position 
 would be less known. 
 
 Aklao established himself at San Felipe, capital of 
 the province of Aconcagua, where he became a mer- 
 chant, and lived respectably ; but the unfortunate pair 
 were condemned to suffer the inevitable consequences 
 of their false position, and the church which he ha'cj 
 repudiated, would not quietly see him in the arms of 
 another mistress. The cure Espinosa threatened - f to 
 send him to Santiago to the tender mercies of the 
 order he had abandonee}, and finally forced him to re- 
 move to Mendoza, his native place, and carry there the 
 scandal of his unlawful union. The church is ever 
 bitter against those who have left her for social ppsi- \ 
 tions. If the monk Aldao could have married lawfully, - 
 perhaps his passions might have been moderated by the 
 pleasures of home, and he might have been saved from 
 the crimes of his after-life. 
 
 On recrossing the Andes, his reflections must have 
 been strange, and anything but pleasant, for the moun- 
 tain ridge which separated two provinces, was also a 
 dividing line between the two phases of his existence : 
 on one side he had been the chaplain, the Dominican 
 friar; on the other, he \Yas the Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Felix Aldao, with an unwedded wife at his side. The 
 people of Mendoza, who had been accustomed to see 
 him with gown and rosary, would now see him; with . 
 sword and epaulets, and women and children would"' 
 point mockingly at " the Fraile," a name w r hich came 
 to be a more painful wound than any received in bat- 
 tie. He avoided society, and secretly nourished a sort 
 of hatred for all mankind, which was the more bitter' 
 because suppressed. 
 
244 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 On his arrival at Mendoza, in 1824, he took a farm 
 at a little distance from the city, where he labored with 
 commendable industry and intelligence, and where the 
 only drawback to his happiness was the remembrance 
 of the detested tie which still bound him to the church. 
 In this retirement Aldao might have lived quietly to T 
 the end of his days, but unfortunately for himself and 
 his country, echoes of arms and civil war once more * 
 resounded throughout the land, and he was drawn into" v 
 that public life from which he was to escape only "by ^ 
 (Jeath, loaded with crimes and pursued by endless 
 maledictions. 
 
 .The elements of destruction existing in the Argent 
 tjne Republic were then in motion, and were soon to I 
 . develop the cruel and despotic government which now 
 crushes it. The brilliant but artificial government 
 1 established by Rivadavia at Buenos Ayres, fascinated J 
 its immediate supporters, but provoked jealousies and 
 opposition in the interior ; divers ambitions were de- 
 veloping : the Caudillos 1 were soon to appear ; parties 
 were just forming ; the envy excited by a rich, power- 
 ful city in her poorer neighbors, clamored for a con- 
 federation ; Spanish prejudices caused many men to 
 oppose all reform ; the presidential government seemed 
 to many a foreign domination ; all was chaos ; the 
 clouds preceding the hurricane gathered darkly on the 
 horizon, and as the terror of birds indicates a coming 
 storm, so the general uneasiness of men's minds signi- - 
 fied that some mighty commotion was at hand. 
 
 STiddenly the storm burst upon San Juan with the 
 cry of " Viva la Religion ! " The government of Car-\ 
 
 1 Country Chiefs.!. 
 
THE ALDAO TRIUMVIRATE. 245 
 
 ril was overthrown, and in less than twenty-four hours' 
 a fiddler had become a general, a lame cobbler was 
 making laws, and a clown deciding the fate of a coun- 
 try. One Maradona, a pretended old nobleman, was 
 fouijd to give some show of decency to the plebeian 
 mob; and, unfortunately, deluded priests, believing "it 
 to' be a question of religion, placed the cross at the? 
 head of this insurrection, the beginning of the long'' 
 series of crimes which brought the Republic to its 
 present condition of barbarism. Two hundred citizens, 
 fled to Mendoza, and besought aid from the brave, 
 soldiers who had returned from Chili and^eru, Felix 
 Aldao among the rest. He hesitated, and asked him- 
 self why he should leave the asylum in which both his 
 glory and /his shame were hidden; but finally cofi- 
 sented, and under the command of his brother Jose, 
 inarched to San Juan at the head of a company which 
 
 . obtained an easy victory over the plebeian crowd, with* 
 out a leader or officers capable of directing its enthu- 
 siasm* *y 
 s The Aldao brothers returned to Mendoza covered, 
 with laurels, and provided by their friends with money 
 obtained by exorbitant contributions imposed upon 
 . tjieir enemies. But the Aldaos had acquired in the 
 expedition something more than fame and money, 
 the knowledge of their own power, and formed* a 
 brotherly league for the purpose of obtaining their 
 ends. All three were colonels, all brave, intelligent, 
 
 . and capable. 
 
 This triumvirate has exercised a most pernicious 
 influence in the Argentine Republic, never yet ftilly 
 appreciated. After reconquering Chili, San Martin 
 
246 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 > 
 
 sent the 'first regiment of the Andes to San Juan with 
 orders t6 raise a company of dragoons, anol then to join 
 the army which was to invade Peru. But Jose and 
 Francisco Aldao with other rebels, executed a military 
 maneuver which deprived the army of this expected aid. 
 
 ''Most of the officers were assassinated, and the two_ 
 
 - regiments, not having succeeded in occupying Men? 
 doza, where Colonel Alvarado and other forces of the" 
 army were stationed, attempted a disastrous retreat to 
 
 ^Tucuman, and dispersed with the shame of having 
 deserted their banners. 
 
 The stragglers of the disbanded regiments, in pass- 
 
 'ing through Rioja, met with a mar^already conspicuous 
 in the provincial rebellions, and whose name was des- 
 tined to become terrible in Argentine history. This 
 gaucho with keen black eyes, and a pale face, almost 
 'covered with a thick, curly black beard, obtained from 
 the deserters their arms. The dream of years was 
 realized ; Facundo^Quiroga was in possession of arms^ 
 and provincial barbarism, the brutal pgs&ions. of the 
 multitude, plebeian ambitions and prejudices, the thirst 
 for blood and pillage, had at last their partisan, their 
 gaucho hero, their spirit personified. Facundo Quiro- 
 ga had. arms, and men would not be wanting ; one cry 
 from him resounding from forest to plain, would bring 
 about him a thousand mounted gauchos. 
 
 Ah ! when will an impartial history of the Argentine 
 Republic be written? And when will its people be able, 
 without fear of a tyrant, to read the terrible drama of 
 the revolution, the well-intentioned and brilliant, 
 but chimerical government of Rivadavia ; the power 
 
 jand brutal deeds of Facundo Quiroga; and the admin- 
 
FUTURE DESTINY ,OF THE REPUBLIC. 247 
 
 istration of Rosas, the great tyrant of the nineteenth 
 century, who unconsciously revived the spirit of the 
 Middle Ages, and the doctrine of equality armed with 
 the knife of Danton and Robespierre. Had the de- 
 fense of Montevideo gloriously ended the revolutionary 
 period, we should have an epic poem in place of his- 
 tory, and in forty years should have passed through all 
 the changes and elaborations which have been devel- 
 oped in Europe only with the lapse of many centuries. 
 That we have made for ourselves a military reputation, 
 witness Brazil, Chili, Peru, Bolivia, and the Indians to 
 the south of us ; our victorious arms have been carried .- 
 to the farthest extent of the continent. We have had* 
 our institutions, and contests of ideas and principles, i 
 And our future destiny is foretold in our numerous 
 rivers, the boundless pasturage of our plains, our im- 
 mense forests, and a climate favorable to the produc- 
 tions of the whole world. If we lack an intelligent^ 
 population, let the people of Europe once feel that there 
 is permanent peace and freedom in our country, and "'i 
 multitudes of emigrants would find their way to a land 
 where success is sure. No, we are not lowest among 
 Aniericans. Something is to result from this chaos ;. 
 either something surpassing the government of the' 
 United States of North America, or something a thou- 
 ;sand times worse than that of Russia, the Darkr Ages 
 returned, or political institutions superior to any yet 
 known. 
 
 Jose* and Francisco, after bringino; disorder into the 
 
 JP 
 
 army which was to invade Peru, and exciting revolts* 
 in the interior, were taken prisoners and carried- to 
 Lima, where they would have received punishment 
 
248 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 for their misdeeds, had not the monk, chief of the 
 'mountain guerrillas, appeared and interceded for thefn 
 with San Martin, urging as a consideration his own 
 past Cervices. Francisco, after the battle of Agacucho, ' 
 in which he served under Bolivar, returned to Chili, 
 where he was engaged by Rivadavia's agents to go to \ 
 Mendoza and organize a force to dislodge Facundo 
 Quiroga, who had taken possession of San Juan. For . 
 Quiroga, having heard something of the agitation among 
 the Catholics, lost no time in raising a black flag with a 
 red cross upon it, and the words, " Religion or Death ! " 
 though it is very certain that he did nothing for the 
 benefit of religion anywhere, and equally true that 
 violence and death constantly followed his footsteps. 
 It is singular to see how these restless Caudillos looked 
 ;for some pretense to disguise their vague, undefined 
 , ambition. 
 
 A letter addressed to Quiroga by one of his parti- 
 sans contains this statement : " We can't do anything 
 more with 4 Religion or Death,' general, it no longer 
 makes an impression ; confederation is the word for us 
 now ; let us have a Constitution, and we will carry it 
 at the point of the bayonet." Yet Quiroga was assas- 
 sinated while endeavoring to pursuade the Unitarios to 
 join him for the purpose of destroying Rosas and the 
 Federals. 
 
 Francisco Aldao arrived at Mendoza with ten thou- 
 sand dollars, which he had received beforehand for the 
 enter-prise against Quiroga ; but a consultation with 
 his brothers caused him to change his mind, and keep- " 
 ing the money, he joined with them in forming the 
 military trio from which Mendoza suffered so many 
 
BARCALA. 249 
 
 outrages. From this moment the Aldaos labored se- 
 cretly for the attainment of their own ends, the field 
 being open to all unprincipled ambitions. They re- 
 ceived an order to raise a regiment for the army a 
 Brazil, and accepted it, with the intention of using tnp, 
 men for their own purpose. 
 
 Their ambition, however, met with an obstacle in 
 the person of a Creole negro. This slave, who earl;^ 
 showed the talent not unfrequent in descendants of the 
 African race, had been carefully educated by his own- 
 ers, and was in condition to m^te use of his natural 
 endowments when occasion required. He began his 
 career as his master's assistant, and was rapidly pro- 
 moted, until he became commander of a battalion, 
 which brought him in contact with the chief politicians 
 of the time. Barcala was not only one of the most 
 distinguished characters of the revolution, but his rep- 
 utation was untarnished, and this could be said of very 
 few in those lawless days. He was a man of refined 
 manners, tastes, and ideas, and his success was owing 
 to his own merit. He never forgot his color and origin. 
 He acquired his fame in history through his rare talent 
 f6r organization, and the gift which he possessed, in a 
 high degree of conveying ideas to the masses; the 
 lower classes were transformed by the magic of his 
 pdwer ; and the officers and soldiers of his training 
 were remarkable for their good behavior, decent dr^ss, 
 intelligence, and love of liberty. It was long before* 
 the impression made by Barcala in Mendoza was 
 effaced ; and in the revolution of 1840, against Rosas, 
 a large battalion of infantry in Cordova still bore his 
 name upon their banner, and resisted Rosas to the last. 
 
250 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 He had been in Cordova in 1830, and had inspired its 
 artisans and laborers with the love of liberty and equal- 
 ality, in the broadest sense of these terms ; and, though 
 he was now dead, his ideas remained in the hearts of 
 the people. 
 
 Obscure men who rise to power through the chances 
 of social revolutions, never fail to persecute in others 
 the intelligence and knowledge which they have not 
 themselves ; when the ignorant rule, civilization is 
 brought down to their own level, and woe to those who . 
 rise above it, be it ever so little. In France, in 1793, 
 the sovereign people guillotined those who could read 
 and write as aristocrats; in the Argentine Republic, 
 men of culture were called savages, and had their 
 throats cut, and though the name seems mere irony, it 
 is something more when applied by the assassin, knife 
 in hand. The Caudillos of the interior rid their prov- 
 inces of all lawyers, doctors, and men of letters ; and 
 Rosas pursued them even within the walls of the uni- v 
 versity and private schools. Those who were allowed. . 
 to remain were such persons as could be useful in 
 getting up a repetition of the government of Philip Hi, 
 of Spain, and of the Inquisition. 
 
 Barcala felt himself to be a gentleman, and united 'a 
 spotless reputation to great professional knowledge, and 
 a talent for strategy which placed him among officers 
 of the first rank. He made himself famous 'in the 
 army of Brazil, and Paz and other officers of note re- 
 garded him with a respect amounting to veneration. 
 Quiroga, who shot all the officers made prisoners at 
 Ciudadela, spared him the only one who had fought 
 until the last of his men were surrounded, and retreat 
 
FACUNDO'S PALACE. 
 
 was impossible. When offered his life on condition v, 
 serving under Quiroga, lie accepted only .with the 
 understanding that he was not to fight against his own 
 party ; and in him Quiroga gained a whole army. 
 
 Such was the man whom the Aldaos wished to put jf 
 out of their way ; not a very difficult undertaking, since 
 Lavalle, the Aldaos, and Barcala himself were to unite 
 in, an expedition to overthrow Albin Gutierrez, who 
 had declared against the national government. Bar- 
 cala and Lavalle marched to join the army against the 
 empire, and the Aldaos remained to oppress the peo- 
 ple, and give themselves up to the pleasures of dissipa- 
 tion. 
 
 The triumvirate had made use of all parties, and had 
 served all parties in order to rid themselves of influen- 
 tial men. The revolution in favor of the national 
 
 : government having succeeded, they joined with Quiro- 
 ga for the purpose of destroying it. The Constitution 
 
 ' arranged by the- Congress of 1826, was offered for* 
 acceptance to the provinces. The agents of this Con- 
 gress were received in a rather singular manner by 
 Quiroga in behalf of San Juan, which he then occupied. . 
 
 , Two or three hides, stretched over lances stuck down 
 in the middle of a clover field, formed a tent to protect" 
 this caliph of the faithful this divinely commissioned 
 helper from the rays of the sun ; here Facundo was V 
 lying upon a black cloak, dressed in a crimson chiripa^ 
 red cloth mantle, and untanned boots. 
 
 Dr. Zavaleta, Dean of the Cathedral, and agent of 
 Congress, was received in this palace, and stood em- ** 
 barrassed in the presence of the commander, who nei- 
 ther moved nor looked at him, until he stammered a few 
 
IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 , ords about his mission. Facundo then stretched out 
 his hand, received the paper containing the Constitu- 
 tion, and wrote in the corner in scarcely legible char- 
 acters, "Despachado" and there was an end of the 
 matter. 1 
 
 In Mendoza the result was no better. The agent 
 from Congress pathetically expatiated upon the evils 
 existing in the Republic, conjured all patriots to unite 
 under a constitution which would insure universal 
 order and harmony of government ; but there was a 
 threefold ambition to satisfy, so he made his touching 
 speech with tears in his eyes in vain, and returned 
 without having accomplished anything. The Consti- 
 tution met with the same reception everywhere ; not 
 from the people, who were allowed no voice in the 
 matter, but from the Caudilk>s,~whG <iesipe<i-ttrretain for 
 Jthemselyes entire liberty of action. The Constitution 
 would have restrained them, whereas they required* an 
 open field for their ambitions, and pretexts for war, 
 i confederation, anything to disguise the uni- 
 
 versal ambition TFus the national government fell, 
 ! and the celebrated Dorrego assumed the government 
 I of Buenos Ayres. The old Unitarios could not under- ' 
 / stand that Dorrego, with all his ambition and his in- 
 trigues, was nevertheless the only person who might 
 have organized the Republic under a parliamentary 
 form, and prevented it from being brought by Rosas 
 under the rule of a cruel despotism which was to 
 destroy all civilization and prosperity. Dorrego owed 
 
 1 Subsequent information makes it certain that this scene was but a 
 myth of the time, the only fact being that Facundo thus disposed of the ^ 
 Constitution sent to him. 
 
TABLAPA. 2-03 
 
 his elevation to the parliamentary chamber and the 
 press of the opposition party, and he would never have 
 destroyed the powers which had defeated the formep 
 presidency ; but all were overthrown when the gaucho 
 of 'the pampas came into power, who understood little, 
 and cared less for liberty and individual rights. It 
 was his way to accomplish his ends by cutting men's 
 throats ; and on this principle the Republic is now gov- 
 erned. 
 
 The 1st of December, 1828, and the fatal victory of 
 Navarro, taught the Caudillos their own power, and 
 one and all prepared for the struggle the Aldaos in 
 Mendoza, and Facundo in the Llanos. A regiment of 
 auxiliaries was put in training at Mendoza under com- 
 mand of the monk-colonel, whose fame was not yet so 
 great as that of his brothers. As soldiers of the War of 
 
 Independence, they knew what discipline can accom- 
 plish, and {he auxiliaries, thoroughly equipped and 
 trained, occupied the right wing in the famous Jbattle 
 
 . of Tablada, in which eight hundred- veterans of the 
 national army, commanded by the able General Paz, 
 left three thousand enemies dead, after a two. days' 
 fight. Of the regiment of auxiliaries, sixty-five sur- 
 vived, with their colonel, who was wounded in the side. 
 While this monk-colonel was confined at San Luis, 
 by his wound, he amused himself by reading atheisti- 
 cal books, an apparently insignificant fact, yet it 
 
 ^would seem to prove that there was a struggle still 
 going on in his conscience, of which he would fain have 
 relieved himself. Quiroga, after the defeat, fled to the 
 
 - Llanos ; Aldao naturally went back to his brothers. 
 But many changes had taken place in his absence : a 
 
254 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 division from San Juan marching to Cordova, revolted 
 on the way, and joined the Unitarios, who were san- 
 guine of success, but unskilled in the art of war. The 
 two Aldaos then r t t Mendoza, pursued them, and aftejr 
 a few marches and countermarches, conquered them 
 without firing a shot. 
 
 On returning to Mendoza, the victorious troops, 
 hearing of the victory at Tablada, revolted and threw- 
 the power into the hands of the liberal party, which 
 showed no more prudence than it had done at San 
 Juan. These mistaken men persisted in immediately 
 establishing their long-desired constitutional forms, re- 
 spect for life being their great maxim, and parliaments 
 ary discussion their means of action. Their enemies 
 took advantage of this infatuation to ridicule them, and 
 to endeavor again to overthrow their plans, while a 
 magnificent system of government was maturing under 
 the direction of General Albarado. 
 
 The brothers Jos and Francisco were planning 
 within their prison walls their reestablishment in power^; 
 while the monk presented himself in the neighborhood^ 
 and with sixty men and the use of skillful intrigues, - 
 opened a campaign against a government dependent 
 upon a fanatical people, two thousand men under arms, 
 and a man of reputation at its head. The prisoners 
 soon escaped, and the discussion of terms of conciliation 
 by the feeble government, gave time and resources to 
 the Aldaos. The die was cast, and the fate of Mendoza 
 was ( decided. A month was sufficient for the army to 
 be nemmed in, and even fired upon in the streets. 
 
 Facundo Quiroga sent several hundred gauchos from 
 Rioja to aid the three colonels of Mendoza, who had. 
 
EL PILAR. 255 
 
 assembled a considerable number of mountaineers. The v 
 government troops were exasperated at the inactivity 
 in which they were kept by Albarado, and rebelled, 
 insisting upon being led to battle. Finally the very 
 sufferings of those who had felt the power of the Al- 
 daos aroused them, and they went out to seek their 
 enemies. In " el Pilar," of sad memory, they found 
 themselves surrounded, not having taken a good posi- 
 tion. In the evening twenty thousand shots were fired, 
 and 'a hundred cannonades were discharged by the 
 surrounded troops, and the next day the firing contin- 
 ued until twelve o'clock, yet they had not made their 
 way out. The Aldaos knew that the ammunition was 
 exhausted, and entrenched their men behind breast- 
 w.orks. Messages from Quiroga urged them to make 
 no treaty, and to promise nothing. " We must," said 
 he, "have as many enemies as possible to extort money 
 from." But the people of Mendoza, hearing the inces- 
 sant firing for two days, thought that by this time few 
 survivors could remain, and the bereaved women ran 
 through the streets entreating the priests and other 
 influential persons to separate the combatants. A 
 committee of priests approached the battle-field, se- 
 lected neutral ground for a treaty, and it was agreed 
 that all should submit to a government chosen by the 
 people. The Aldaos must have laughed at the sim- 
 plicity of their enemies, who were already conquered 
 ' and prisoners, and yet maintained the proud bearing^ 
 of free citizens. But Providence did not permit the 
 farce to be enacted to the end, for it was to finish witk 
 a tragedy which filled even the actors with horror. 
 It was about half-past three in the afternoon when 
 
256 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 the treaty was completed ; the soldiers stacked their 
 arms, officers collected in groups congratulating them- 
 selves upon getting out of the difficulty so easily. 
 Francisco Aldao came into the enemy's camp, where 
 he was cordially received, and in the lively conversa- 
 tion which arose, many a jest was exchanged by men 
 who had formerly been friends. At this moment an 
 emissary from the monk presented himself, and de- 
 manded unconditional surrender, under pain of death. 
 Cries of indignation burst from all sides, and Francisco 
 was loaded with the most bitter reproaches, but he said 
 with quiet dignity, " Sirs, there is nothing in all this ; 
 Felix has just dined, that is all." And he repeated 
 these w'ords with a peculiar emphasis, at the same time 
 sending an aide to inform Felix that he was there, and* 
 that the slightest manifestation on his part would be a. 
 violation of the treaty. 
 
 The alarm spread rapidly, however, the cry of trea- 
 son arose throughout the camp, and the officers were 
 in vain calling upon the men to form, when six cannon- 
 balls were fired directly into the group in the midst of 
 which Francisco Aldao stood. If the cannonade had . 
 been a moment later, Jose* Aldao also would have been 
 there, for he was just on the point of starting, when he 
 was surprised by the discharge, and exclaimed, " That 
 is the work of Felix, he is drunk I " This was but 
 too true, the monk was intoxicated, according to his" 
 usual afternoon custom ; only a few days before they " 
 had been obliged to keep him in bed to save him from 
 some gaucho enemies while in this condition. 
 
 Confusion prevailed everywhere, and reached its 
 height at the approach of the Auxiliaries of Don Felix, 
 
FILAR. 257 
 
 and the Blues from San Juan. A moment after the 
 monk himself came into the camp, and seeing a dead 
 body lying upon a cannon wrapped in a cloak, a vague 
 presentiment induced him to command the face to be 
 uncovered ; even then the fumes of the wine prevented 
 him from recognizing it, and his attendants tried to 
 make him withdraw, before he should perceive that it 
 was his brother ; but he again demanded sternly, 
 " Who is it ? " At the same instant he recognized 
 Francisco, and struck his head violently with his fist, 
 as if awakening out of a dream. Woe to the con- 
 quered ! The carnage commenced, and he cried with 
 a hoarse voice to his men, " Slay ! slay them ! " while 
 he killed the defenseless prisoners about him. The 
 officers were all cut down or left wounded and muti- 
 lated, without arms, without hands. Day closed before 
 the butchery ceased, and the troops returned to the 
 city, but every shot which broke the silence of the 
 night, announced an assassination or the breaking open 
 of some door. When the following day dawned, the 
 -pillage was still going on, and the sunlight revealed 
 -the outrages of the night. 
 
 The actors in this frightful tragedy were themselves 
 stunned with the horror of their own work, and the 
 monk became aware of all that he had done, and the 
 death of his brother whom he had sacrificed. But he 
 was not a man to show his remorse, and if he felt any 
 he sought to stifle it by delivering himself up to intoxi- 
 cation and still further outrages. Thus the evil pro-** 
 pensities which had been for a time under restraint,- 
 broke forth again ; and revenge for his brother's death 
 was an excuse for every excess. He had caused all 
 
 17 
 
258 LIFE IF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 the officers to be put to death on that uncontested bat- 
 tle-field ; the next day he ordered the execution of all 
 the sergeants, and on the next the corporals. Every 
 time he became intoxicated his thirst for blood returned 
 with redoubled fury, and there are still persons alive 
 who heard him give orders for various assassinations, 
 with minute directions as to the manner in which they 
 were to be accomplished ; that at such a spot, at such 
 an hour, the legs of a certain victim were to be cut off; 
 in another case the tongue was to be cut out, and in 
 another the face was to be so mutilated as not to be 
 recognized. Such deeds of barbarity were then un- 
 heard of and surpassed all imagination, but now they 
 are common enough, and Buenos Ayres, Tucuman, 
 Cordova, and Mendoza, have become familiar with still 
 greater atrocities. Terror had then paralyzed the peo- 
 ple, and when Quiroga arrived, he found it easy to 
 obtain all the money he desired. There is still in ex- 
 istence an order which he drew upon the government 
 for the payment of his gaming debts ; for wherever he 
 went the silence imposed by the terror of his name was 
 only disturbed by rumors of punishments and execu- 
 tions for the purpose of obtaining means to carry on 
 his games at the card-table. Mendoza remained under 
 this evil influence, and a large army was prepared to 
 resist General Paz. 
 
 During the monk's rage for blood, his wife or mis- 
 tress saved the lives of many victims. His brother 
 Jose*, more considerate and more humane than himself, 
 also tried to appease his fury, but with each evening 
 came intoxication and unpremeditated outrages. From 
 this time Aldao lived in a state of continual alarm, em- 
 
ALDAO AND FACUNDO. 259 
 
 bittered by that horror of himself which was the only 
 punishment he received in this world ; for while his 
 less criminal brother Jose* was assassinated, he died a 
 natural death, feared and obeyed to the last. But 
 Providence works in secret and he will surely meet 
 his deserts. - 
 
 A new army commenced another campaign against ' 
 General Paz. Aldao had filled up the vacancies in his x 
 company of auxiliaries, and Facundo had gathered an 
 undisciplined crowd of four or five thousand men. 
 Aldao was accompanied by Don Jose* Santos Ortiz v 
 who was intrusted with the mission of trying to induce - 
 Quiroga to join with Paz in carrying on the war with 
 Buenos Ay res, and it seems that Quiroga came near 
 accepting the propositi6n. Paz on his part sent Major 
 Pawnero, 1 a young man whose intelligence equaled his '- 
 bravery, to make proposals of peace to Quiroga. But 
 Quiroga's pride urged him to wipe out the mortifica- 
 tion of his defeat at Tablado. The battle of Laguna ; 
 Larga taught Quiroga that his heavy cavalry charges 
 could not be always relied upon ; a simple maneuver of v 
 the infantry on the other side decided the victory, and 
 Quiroga fled to Buenos Ayres, leaving on the field his ' 
 infantry, artillery, and baggage. During the pursuit 
 of the fugitives, a stout man whose weight had ex- 
 hausted his horse, was overtaken and thrown down by 
 a lance. A soldier was about to make an end of him, 
 when he cried, " Do not kill me, it is important to the" 
 nation that I should be taken alive to General Paz. I 
 am General Aldao." 
 
 An officer took charge of him as far as Cordova, 
 
 1 Now candidate for the Vice-Presidency of the Republic, 1868. (ED.) ( 
 
260 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 where a humiliating reception awaited him. Some 
 officers from Mendoza, carried away by their desire ] 
 for revenge, made him enter the town mounted upon a 
 wretched animal, exposed to the insults of the people. 
 " Wretch ! " they shouted, " thou hast brought de- 
 struction upon thy country ! " "I have also brought 
 it much glory," replied the prisoner, with dignity, for 
 the insults of his enemies had restored all his courage. 
 He was then carried to prison, where he might reflect 
 upon his past deeds in silence and solitude, and the 
 retrospection became so intolerable that he excited the 
 contempt of his jailers by his terror and childish exhib- 
 itions of alarm. He implored every one who came 
 near him to tell him if anything was said about his , 
 death, and the ordinary noises about the prison filled 
 J him with fears, until at last he could no longer sleep ^ 
 at night, and never ceased his suspicious watch upon 
 his jailers. Some priests undertook to reconcile him ' 
 with the church, and whether through fear, or real 
 repentance, he eagerly acceded to their propositions. 
 One day while listening to Don Jose* Santos Ortiz, he ' 
 happened to look at a sentinel before his door, who 
 knowing the terror he was constantly in, maliciously 
 passed his hand across his own throat with a significant 
 motion, and Aldao throwing the breviary from him, 
 cried, " They will kill me to-day ! they will kill me ! " 
 His companion tried in vain to tranquillize him, by 
 representing that he would have to be tried and legally 
 condemned before he could be executed ; he only be- 
 came the more agitated, saying, " Ah, you have not 
 done what I have done ! " The soldier who had been 
 famous for his bold, reckless audacity, did not dare to 
 
PETITION OF MENDOZA. 261 
 
 look death in the face, and showed the cowardice of a 
 child. 
 
 In the mean time the people of Mendoza had again 
 thrown off the yoke of the tyrants. Don Jose Aldao, 
 unfortunately for himself, conceived the idea of escajv 
 ing to the south, and trusting in the faith of the In- 
 dians ; but the perfidious savages, having invited him 
 and all his principal officers to a consultation, surrounded 
 them ; and though Don Jose succeeded in killing their 
 chief, he and his friends, to the number of thirty, were 
 all slain. 
 
 The people of Mendoza whom the monk Aldao had 
 so terribly wronged, petitioned General Paz to deliver ' 
 him up to them and I mean the people in the larg- 
 est sense of the word, for all had suffered by him more 
 or less, and the craving for revenge seemed to be a, 
 disease which seized upon the whole community. No - / 
 punishment could be invented severe enough for him ; . 
 but at least a gallows should be erected for him in the 
 field of Pilar, and it should be high enough for all the 
 city to see him expire in the midst of their execrations. 
 One committee after another was sent to Cordova to 
 press their claim to the prisoner, as one connected in a 
 peculiar manner with Mendoza, but General Paz was 
 deaf to all these entreaties, and for the time there was 
 still a chance that Aldao might some day escape from 
 his prison. 
 
 The war recommenced about this time, and an 
 accident which only an Argentine can understand, 
 took General Paz from the head of his army. Having 'i 
 drawn up his men in a close column, he rode forward 
 to a small eminence to reconnoitre, when, seeing a 
 
262 ,.LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 company of mountaineers coming out of the woods 
 hard by, he^supposed them to be some of his own troops 
 whom he had disguised as gauchos, and commanded an 
 aide to go and give them the necessary orders. The 
 aide obeyed unwillingly, being somewhat suspicious of 
 the new comers, and as he neared them was instantly 
 shot, while at the same moment Paz was caught in a 
 lasso, thrown from his horse, and was instantly in the 
 hancls of his enemies. The army, deprived of the com- 
 mander whose presence always insured victory, re-* 
 treated to Tucuman, and sent into the city for fhe 
 prisoners. 
 
 A squadron of cuirassiers had formed in the square 
 at Cordova, fti front of the state-prisons, from one of 
 which came frightful groans, breaking the silence of the 
 night, and exciting the compassion even of the oldest 
 veterans. The prisoner of Laguna Larga, the soldier 
 of the War of Independence, was on his knees, under 
 the influence of unmanly fear, groaning and sobbing 
 in the belief that these nocturnal preparations were for 
 his death ; the officer who went in search of him found 
 him with a wafer, which he had consecrated, and held 
 in both hands as a protection against his executioners. 
 The prisoner, in his hour of need, had resumed his 
 priestly offices, and the theologians of the university 
 of Cordova had a long discussion upon the efficacy of 
 the consecration of the wafer as performed by him. 
 Being quieted with much difficulty, the miserable man , 
 followed the army to Tucuman, and after the defeat at 
 Ciudadela, he accompanied the fugitives to Bolivia, ; 
 where they set him at liberty. Here ends one of the 
 most eventful periods in the life of Don Felix, the only 
 one of the trio then alive. 
 
CAKD-PLAYING. 263 
 
 I 
 
 The battle of Ciudadela left the Republic once more 
 at peace after the long previous struggle.. The' men 
 who had been in favor of confederation had triumphed ' 
 everywhere, from Buenos Ayres to Tucuman, and were 
 now about i;o establish their form of government and 
 to reconstruct the Republic. But instead of this, Fa- 
 cundo established a card-table in every city he visited ; 
 and with six hundred thousand dollars obtained by the 
 year's conquests, went to Buenos Ayres to become the 
 victim of another commander more >*6tute than him- 
 self, who had determined to dispose of any man in the 
 country who could in any way be his i^yal. The same 
 indifference to the real interests of the people was man- i 
 ifested everywhere, and this state of things continued } 
 until 1840, though within the ten years Rosas estab- 
 lished his power over the caudillos of tha interior^ while 
 allowing them a nominal authority. The cities hopfed 
 than Facundo would reconstruct the Republic -^a vain 
 'hope. They are now hoping that Rosas will be merci- 
 ful to them if he succeeds in getting rid of hisjenemies. 
 
 Don Felix returned to Mendoza in 1832, and on his 
 way through Rioja had an interview with Facundo, who 
 had with him the noble Barcala. Aldao's first words 
 were, " When are you going to shoot that negro ? " 
 Quiroga frowned and seemed ill-pleased ; in fact he 
 showed a haughty contempt for the monk, and wrote 
 to the officers at Mendoza not to admit him into the 
 army. But when Aldao presented himself, his per- 
 sonal influence was still too strong to be resisted, and 
 the governor received him with offers of assistance, and 
 bestowed upon him the title of commander-general o 
 the frontier. He accepted the office, demanding at the 
 
264 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 j 
 
 same time that his salary should be paid from the date 
 of his imprisonment at Tablado ; he was evidently de- 
 termined to secure for himself a comfortable and per- 
 manent establishment the condition of the country 
 seeming to promise peace and quiet for the present. 
 
 He took up his quarters in one of the southern forts, 
 
 provided himself with a body-guard, and sent for a 
 
 coarse, ignorant woman, by the name of Dolores, with 
 
 whom he had become enamored in Rioja. Mendoza 
 
 had for some time witnessed the jealous rivalry of his 
 
 ; Lima mistress and this Dolores, and the latter being 
 
 . finally victorious, her rival went back to Chili, leaving 
 
 two illegitimate children. An unfortunate influence 
 
 v _ - * 
 
 for the people was this utter disregard of morality 
 
 vice in its most repugnant forms, an apostate priest, 
 
 unchaste women, illegitimate, .children, whose illegal 
 
 / birth was 7lso~sacreligious. Aldao omitted no cares for 
 
 / his personal safety, and his body-guard never left him 
 
 for a moment, not even when he sat at the card-table ; 
 
 ""and the fort from hall to cellar was on,e constant scene 
 
 ' of ^dissipation. Excitement became more and more 
 
 necessary to him, and when he visited the city he 
 
 ordered preparations for card playing as if it were a 
 
 regular part of public affairs. It is impossible to give 
 
 an idea of the degradation into which this man had 
 
 fallen, his debasing pleasures and entire forge tfulness 
 
 / of business. It is true that neither the Aldaos nor 
 
 \ Quiroga ever really governed ; they left to others the 
 
 labors of the administration, while they reserved for 
 
 themselves all the power. 
 
 Don Felix now governed Mendoza, through nominal 
 governors who dared not displease him in anything; 
 
RODRIGUEZ. 265 
 
 and his most casual remark uttered in his own fort, was 
 enough to affect the government, and often became an 
 absolute law. And this lasted for ten years, until con- 
 stant intoxication brought his life to an end* 
 
 In 1832, Rosas prepared an expedition to the south, 
 and invited the caudillos of the interior to cooperate 
 with him for the protection of their respective frontiers, 
 hoping by this means to make the pretext of an attack 
 on the Indians cover an extensive military combination 
 which he meant to use for his own elevation to power. 
 Don Felix induced one tribe to attack another tribe, 
 and deliver them prisoners to his troops ; both tribes, 
 however, united while on the way, and after putting to 
 death sixty of the Mendoza soldiers, fled to the deserj.. 
 Aldao followed and exterminated them, and this was-* 
 all that was accomplished by the famous expedition ; 
 but Aldao made by it a valuable acquisition. Among 
 the soldiers of his division was one Rodriguez, a man of 
 great bravery, whom he took under his especial pro- 
 tection, and promoted to the command of a squadron. , 
 The monk was then becoming stout, incapable of ac-* 
 tion, and given up to intoxication, so that he would 
 have been unable to sustain his power and reputation 
 but for this Rodriguez, who, by proxy, still maintained 
 the terror of his name. 
 
 Rosas having obtained absolute powej in 1833, care- 
 fully studied the capacities of the various caudillos of 
 the interior, that he might quietly bring them under 
 submission ; and this conquest of the provinces is one 
 of the greatest acts of diplomacy accomplished by him. 
 Soon afterwards he won over the auxiliaries of San 
 Juan ; had Quiroga put to death ; got rid of his own 
 
266 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 tools, the Remaps ; deposed Cullen, of Santa Fe*,ancf 
 then had him shot ; and made Benavides governor of 
 Ban Juan in place of Yanzon. Barcala, the virtuous 
 Barcala, was shot by the monk, who was now in the 
 pay of Rosas. Brizuela, of Rioja, unrivaled for his bru- 
 
 'tality, was kept in command, notwithstanding the zeal 
 of Benavides, his neighbor. Ibarra had quietly gov- 
 erned Santiago del Estero for eighteen years. In short, 
 ^ everything was arranged for the decline of the Repub- 
 lic into barbarism, when the despotic power of Rosas 
 would be confirmed. Unfortunately there was no 
 connected plan of resistance, no union, no leaders. 
 Rosas had forbidden the passage of couriers throughout 
 the interior, and the general want of confidence made 
 > any agreement between the cities impossible. The 
 rebellion broke out, and the provinces joined in it one 
 t > after another, but in the end were all forced to yield, 
 paralyzed by the horrors of unheard-of outrages. Never 
 was a revolution more universal or more ineffectual. 
 
 ^ Rosas would have lost his cause but for the weakness 
 of his enemies. 
 
 Aldao together with Benavides now started on a 
 campaign against Brizuela, who, unfortunately for the 
 honor of their cause, had joined the patriots. It is 
 hardly to be believed that a man in his position should 
 make such a brute of himself as to remain intoxicated 
 for six months at a time, without once seeing the light 
 of day, or being for a moment in condition to receive 
 the ambassadors from the different governors, or even 
 Lavalle himself, who waited several days in vain for 
 an audience. And Aldao behaved in the same way at 
 San Luis, only not quite to the same extent. 
 
ACHA. 267, 
 
 The appearance of a small force commanded by the 
 brave young Alvarez, caused the division of Benavides 
 to disperse ; while the monk retreated, and by a rapid 
 march reached Mendoza in time to put down the re- 
 bellion of the 4th of November. The people looked 
 for nothing else than a repetition of the slaughter of 
 1829, but Aldao contented himself with some persecu- 
 tion and imposition of taxes. His rage for shedding 
 blood seemed to have ceased, and from this time no 
 such wholesale murders would have taken place in 
 Mendoza but for his disciples, who had profited but too 
 well by his former example. 
 
 Aldao again joined Benavides, and with hjm con- 
 quered Brizuela, both of them then taking up quarters 
 in Kioja, in order to intercept the army under Madrid, 
 which was approaching from the north. 
 
 >^ One day the news came to San Juan that a division 
 from Tucuman was near at hand, and eight hundreds 
 "tnen went out to meet them, but were repulsed. Then 
 Acha, the immortal Acha, went with a handful of men 
 to meet the united forces of Benavides, Aldao, and 
 Lucero, amounting in all to twenty-five hundred men, 
 with four pieces of artillery ; and this battle of Angaco 
 is the one glorious event amidst the errors, failures, J 
 and defeats of that period. 
 
 Acha's men were only about four hundred} little 
 disciplined, and unacquainted with the country, bufrto 
 make up for these disadvantages, he had with him $ 
 number of truly patriotic young men of high standing, 
 in the army, and their enthusiasm gave to the little 
 company the strength of double their number. As tne 
 troops of the enemy quietly took their position, Acha 
 
268 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 stood playing with a little switch, and with a smile 
 "which was habitual with him, pointed to the enemy 
 and cried, " Rascals ! now for real work ! " The 
 battle commenced, and a deadly firing was kept up 
 for five long hours, the infantry of Benavides being 
 within three yards of Acha's company ; for Aldao had 
 fled, leaving his companion to take care of himself. 
 The young Alvarez, who was seriously wounded early 
 in the contest, left a vacancy which could not be filled ; 
 and presently, when the men became discouraged and 
 .wavered in their resistance, he had his wound hastily 
 bandaged and returned to his place, animating his 
 soldiers by his eager enthusiasm, till they rushed again 
 into the fight with redoubled ardor. As evening came 
 on, all order seemed lost, and each man fought on his 
 own account ; little groups of cavalry, of ten, twelve, 
 or twenty men, charged upon the enemy from all 
 directions, and at last when the noise lessened some- 
 what, and the smoke of the powder cleared away, Acha 
 found, not without some surprise, that he had won the 
 :day. With his usual smile, he congratulated his weary 
 soldiers, saying, " Did I not say there would be some 
 work worth seeing ? " It is a pity that this remarkable 
 man should have somewhat lessened his reputation by 
 a foolish carelessness, which at last cost him his life. 
 On the other hand, Benavides gained his reputation by 
 an act of bravery which would have done honor to any 
 general in the army. 
 
 The victory of Angaco might have been the means 
 of saving the Republic, had Acha done justice to the 
 Bravery and self-possession of his enemy. Benavides, 
 thus conquered by a handful of men, returned to San 
 
RODEO DEL MEDIO. 269 
 
 Juan without showing the least discouragement, though 
 his best officers had fallen, and all his stores were -at 
 the mercy of his victorious rival. He was retreating 
 without haste to Mendoza, when he met a small rein- 
 forcement, and with this aid, little as it was, he con- 
 ceived the possibility of a triumph, and determined to ' 
 take immediate advantage of circumstances. Hastily 
 returning, therefore, he attacked his unsuspecting con- 
 querors, and after three days of vain resistance, took 
 Acha himself prisoner, thus recovering all that he had 
 lost, and winning as great renown as the battle of 
 Angaco had given to his prisoner. When Madrid hajl 
 been deprived of his vanguard, of the recruits which _J.. 
 San Juan might have furnished, and of the chivalrouV 
 Acha, a host within himself, it was easy to strength- 
 en the forces of Rosas under command of Pacheco. The 
 battle of Rodeo del Medio was a corollary of the tri- 
 umph at San Juan, and entirely owing to Benavides. - 
 As to Aldao, his cowardly flight from the field of. 
 Angaco, had placed him in a humiliating position ; all 
 his former military fame seemed to have been trans- 
 ferred to Benavides, and in his own province he was 
 regarded with open contempt. He made a journey to 
 Buenos Ayres for the purpose of complaining to his 
 master, and was rewarded by a magnificent reception. 
 But this was followed by no attention from Rosas ; he 'S 
 waited many months without obtaining an interview,^ 
 and was then obliged to return to his own territory, 
 which the army of Rosas had in the meantime despoiled 
 of all implements of war. Henceforth Aldao had no 
 other power than that obtained through Rodriguez and ' 
 his band ; this, however, was enough to enable him to 
 
270 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 rule Mendoza, which had learned by years of oppression 
 to submit to him. Eosas had placed all real power in 
 
 J the hands of Benavides, whose prudence as well as 
 
 bravery enabled him to keep it'. The rivalry between 
 
 these two commanders was encouraged by Rosas, as it 
 
 insured his own safety. < 
 
 Here ends the public career of Don Felix Aldao-; * 
 
 the rest of his life was only the gradual decay of a 
 
 - F constitution broken by dissipation and the hardships of 
 war, and to the end he was pursued by the scourge of 
 his own conscience and the maledictions of the people. 
 His harem had been increased by the acquisition of 
 new mistresses ; and the immoralities and scandal of 
 his private life formed the common topic of conversa- 
 tion, where the shameful rivalry of these degraded 
 women was openly exposed ; and they not only taunted 
 each other with their degradation, but laid violent hands 
 on one another in the streets. And this state of things 
 was the more abominable because the administration 
 of the government was affected by it. Neither justice 
 nor safety even was to be expected for those who 
 should happen to offend the reigning favorite of the 
 monk, and it was quickly known when a change of 
 
 , dynasty had taken place in the seraglio. Ladies of the 
 first families suffered outrageous punishments for not 
 treating these women with respect. One young girl 
 
 , was seated on a mule and whipped through the streets 
 for speaking slightingly of one of the mistresses ; and 
 the principal inhabitants of Mendoza were compelled 
 to meet them at a ball, where the young men strove 
 for the honor of dancing with the coarse creature Do- 
 lores, who was the favorite at that time. On the death 
 
ALDAO'S HAREM. 271 
 
 of one of the illegitimate children, Montero, the chief 
 of the police, made the anouncement publicly, inviting 
 the citizens to attend the funeral, and the principal men 
 of the place bore the coffin, which was richly decorated 
 and accompanied by the chief magistrates, who walked ' 
 ^before and behind it, while a military procession fol- 
 lowed. 
 
 When Acha and Benavides were fighting at San 
 Juan, Montero conducted Dolores to the barracks at 
 Mendoza, where she aided him in arousing the enthu- * 
 siasm of the troops destined: to march, by showing them 
 Aldao's children, and calling upon them to support and 
 aid their general. What a loss this general was to 
 Rosas ! Montero only could supply his place. Rosas 
 needed just such men to maintain quiet in the prov- 
 inces.' All the governors had some peculiar qualities c 
 by which they served the ends of the man whose tools 
 they were. Brizuela was a sponge with vast capacity 
 for imbibing brandy, a sort of wine-bottle, who governed 
 admirably in Rioja. Some left the people to take care 
 of themselves while they got up cock-fights and races ; 
 others shut up "the government offices and passed/ 
 months without making a decree or using any admin-' 
 istrative forms whatever ; others let things slicTe on 
 easily, tolerating everything, but an intelligent lawyer 
 or judge. They all involuntarily agreed upon one 
 point, the gradual disappearance of the public roads. 
 Highwaymen became numerous, schools were closed, 
 trade languished, the administration of justice was 
 given up to stupid or ignorant men, the press was nlled 
 with nothing but fulsome praises of the " Restorator ; "^ 
 manners were fast declining towards barbarism, learn- 
 
272- * LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. v . . ' 
 
 ing was despised, talent persecuted, and ignorance 1 be- 
 .*came a title to honor. And these governors did well 
 .in acting thus if they desired to remain, in favor, for 
 whoever showed any- real capacity, or any interest in. 
 promoting the public welfare, was soon put out of the 
 way. The Dictator had arisen to power through the \ * 
 barbarism of the people; and the poverty and ignorance 
 of the provinces secured him from all dangerous oppo-. r ' 
 sition. The best governed of the cities scarcely per- 
 ceived the gradual decline, for despotism, even under 
 its most favorable circumstances, is for a people what 
 phthisis is for the body ; the patient feels no pain, eats, 
 , steeps, and enjoys himself without care ; it is only'the. 
 physician who sees death surely approaching. Rosas 
 assumed for himself the care of thinking for all ; he 
 must be the head, and the governors of the provinces 
 the arms, hands, and feet, to execute his will ; each 
 , member to be used, according to its capacity, for any^ 
 .'thing but thought in behalf of the Republic : the con- 
 struction of the government was to be his own work. - 
 
 The life of Felix Aldao was now drawing to a close. 
 For a year before his death he was troubled with a - 
 cancer on his face, which eat into his nose and eyes, 
 until he became partially blind ; while the odor was so- 
 offensive that his companions at the card-table could * 
 hardly endure it. His temper did not improve with ] 
 sickness, and he became so suspicious of the physicians* 
 who attended him that they were obliged to flee, feel- 
 ing that their lives were in danger. During this year 
 of illness no one dared to propose a temporary gov- 
 ernor, for those unfortunate people had come to believe 
 that the government belonged of right to the caudillos, 
 
DEATH OF ALDAO. "273 
 
 arid that it would be treason to question their capabil- 
 ity, even when ill. Aldao governed Mendoza to the' 
 last, and that without attending to anything but his 
 own health. As his death approached, he would 'not 
 remain alono for a moment, tormented as he was by 
 the terrors of his imagination, and a number of the 
 citizens were obliged to take turns in watching with 
 him. One night he sprang from his bed and rushed in 
 among them with a pair of pistols in his hands. They 
 without waiting to see that the wretched creature was a 
 prey to his own fears, and not attacking them, fled out 
 of the house ancf the town, and could with difficulty be 
 induced to return the next day. And these were the 
 citizens of the Argentine Republic who had offended 
 other states by their arrogant pride ! These we^e the 
 people who had irritated Bolivar by their overbearing 
 manners ! And now they stumbled over one another 
 in their haste to run away from a sick monk ! 
 . At length, after months of acute suffering, the can- 1 
 cer caused the bursting of a vein, and -the hemorrhage 
 continued until -he expired on the 18th of January 
 in retribution perhaps for the blood of the people which 
 had flowed without stint at his command. Some say 
 that he went back to the church and died penitent, 
 leaving a large part of his wealth to the Dominican 
 order, to which he had belonged. According to the 
 obituary notices he made Rosas his testamentary exec- 
 utor; as the Roman proconsuls, dying in the provinces 
 of the empire, used to leave their wealth to the em- 
 peror, together with the government of the provinces. 
 These two contradictory statements prove at least one 
 thing, that at his death there was still a question whether 
 18 
 
274 LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 he was a monk or a general, but that matters little to 
 him now. With the money acquired by oppressing 
 the people of Mendoza, he left a home for each of his 
 three families. 
 
 With so much that was bad, this man must have had 
 some good qualities, for he had friends whose affection 
 was never weakened by absence or death, and no one 
 who inspired such devotion could be wholly bad. He 
 was also beloved by his soldiers, many of whom re- 
 mained with him for years. He was in the habit of 
 sending large supplies of grain to the poor people south 
 of Mendoza ; and whenever he learned of the arrival 
 of the Chilian families who frequently emigrated to 
 Mendoza, he supplied them with provisions until they 
 could establish themselves. And, lastly, those who 
 saw him intimately, say that he was extravagantly 
 fond of his children, whose caresses were his greatest 
 pleasure. 
 
 The family of Aldao is now represented by the 
 acknowledged children of three women, some other 
 natural children, and the legitimate offspring of his 
 brother Don Jose\ All the Aldaos had met with a 
 tragic end, though that of Felix was the least so. All 
 Mendoza followed his body to the church within which 
 he was buried. That evening the Almeda was crowded 
 with persons of both sexes ; until then, this promenade, 
 the scene of much bloodshed when Pacheco was there, 
 had been entirely unfrequented. 
 
 The only benefit which Mendoza received during 
 the rule of this governor, was the settlement of its 
 southern frontier by emigrants from Chili, who col- 
 lected iu villages under the protection of the fort of 
 
CONCLUSION. 275 
 
 San Carlos, the habitation of Aldao, who always en- 
 ,couraged this emigration. 
 
 Mendoza is now without a governor ; it remains to 
 be seen who will obtain possession of it. When Rosas 
 heard that the monk was about to die, he sent a sister 
 of his with her husband, who was physician and also 
 secretary for Aldao. After his death, when the choice 
 of a new governor was discussed, Rodriguez w r as in 
 favor of the secretary, but the people preferred a native 
 of the city. 
 
 I have now concluded my self-imposed task, with 
 the fear of not having been sufficiently impartial ; yet 
 it is my misfortune if the facts are not strictly correct. 
 I have carefully consulted both his friends and ene- 
 mies, and the old soldiers who were with him at the 
 beginning of his career. I have thrown aside all that 
 seemed doubtful, and endeavored to moderate every- 
 thing that was exaggerated. For the rest, the life of 
 such a man, who took part in so many political changes, 
 should be brought before the public by a more power- 
 ful pen than mine. The biography of these tools of a 
 ruler, shows what means he employs, and the end at 
 which he aims. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 DON DOMINGO F. SARMIENTO was born in 1811, the 
 year after the Argentine Republic had achieved its 
 \ independence of Spain, at San Juan, the capital of the 
 province of that name, lying on the eastern skirts of 
 the Andes. He was descended from two distinguished 
 families that figured in the colonization, the Sarmien- 
 tos and the Albarracines. The latter were descended 
 from a Saracen chief, Al Ben Razin, who, in the mid- 
 dle of the twelfth century, conquered and gave name 
 to a city, and founded a family which afterwards be- 
 came Christian. 
 
 In 1846, Colonel Sarmiento went to see Arab life in 
 the interior of Algiers ; he found his family name fa- 
 miliar to the ears of the people, and was himself taken 
 for an Arab, and told that he could easily be mistaken 
 for one of the faithful. He was so ambitious as to 
 emulate them in the wearing of their national garment, 
 the bornoz ; and in the exhilaration of the ride into the 
 interior, under the Arab escort that the French com- 
 mander had furnished him with, boasted that he could 
 ride to the pyramids without halting. They took him 
 at his word, and though the pyramids were not the goal 
 sought, the feat nearly cost him his life ; but the vigor- 
 ous habits of his youth saved him. When he found 
 himself in the tent of a Saracen chief, and looked about 
 
GENEALOGY. 
 
 him to see the characteristic marks of Arab life, he was \ 
 struck with amazement to find himself in the midst of 
 surroundings so precisely like those of his native wild 
 plains, that the conviction was brought forcibly home 
 to him, that the gauchos of South America and the 
 Arabs of Africa were one and the same people. It \ 
 was a disheartening thought to him that he saw in ! 
 these people one explanation of the difficulty of civil- 
 izing the engrafted population of those Spanish colo- 
 nies, of which they were evidently the fountain-head, 
 distilled through the Catholicism of Spain, and where, 
 though they had perhaps lost the tradition of their f 
 origin, they had not lost the elements of vis-inertia, 
 and repulsion to civilizing influences. 
 
 The Albarracines had the name of remarkable abil- 
 ities, which had been transmitted from generation to 
 generation, and in South America several distin- 
 guished writers were known among the Dominican 
 friars that abounded in the family. Prelates and bish- 
 ops, historians and logical writers were of the number, 
 and they intermarried with a family of Oros, also of 
 remarkable intellectual ability. The Oros, cousins of 
 his mother, who were curates and friars of education, 
 always had open house and hearts for the young 
 Sarmiento, and their society helped to cultivate the 
 faculties of the brilliant boy, in whom culminated the 
 power of literary expression that had always marked 
 the family. One of these able men, Don Jose* de Oro, 
 a clergyman, had much influence in the formation of 
 his character. He had been chaplain of a regiment in 
 San Martin's army. 
 
 After some patriotic efforts for his country in the 
 
278 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 wars against the Spaniards in Chili, he had left society 
 and retired to the mountainous region of Sari Luis, where 
 his nephew, then a boy, followed him, and spent three 
 years in the closest intellectual and affectionate inti- 
 macy, studying Latin, and listening to the historical 
 and literary reminiscences of the holy man, who fed 
 the active and open mind of the precocious boy with 
 precious principles and a good store of miscellaneous 
 [knowledge. History and the polity of governments 
 f grew to be the passion of the young Sarmiento's soul. 
 ^Fhe appearance of Facundo Quiroga and his hordes 
 in his native province and city had made a profound 
 impression upon him, and with the disastrous history 
 of the colonization and of the internal wars of his own 
 country as a point of departure, and the influence of 
 his uncle's keen and vigorous intellect and free and 
 
 O 
 
 generous views, he was prepared for that remarkable 
 career which has separated him from the body of his 
 contemporaries in letters, in politics, in the consecration 
 of his life. 
 
 But I will not anticipate. The earlier domestic his- 
 tory of his life was a still more remarkable preparation. 
 
 It is striking to see ho\y great natures will mould even 
 the most adverse circumstances. One can conceive of 
 no circumstances more adverse to the growth of fine 
 character than the isolated, provincial life of a Spanish 
 colony, ruled by ecclesiastical domination, exercised 
 over an uneducated mass like the remote descendants 
 of Spaniards who have been cut off for two or three 
 generations from means of improvement, and even 
 from the knowledge of the world's progress. Yet here 
 we find noble natures ready to respond to noble teach- 
 ings. 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OF A PROVINCE. 279 
 
 Dofia Paula Albarracine was the daughter of Don 
 Cornelio Albarracine, who once owned half the valley 
 of La Zonda, and troops of carts and mules, but died 
 after being bedridden for twelve years, leaving to his 
 fifteen children an inheritance of poverty and various 
 portions of wild land. But I leave the son to describe 
 his own mother. 
 
 PREFACE TO "THE RECOLLECTIONS OF A PROVINCE." 
 
 " THE following pages are purely confidential, addressed 
 to a hundred persons only, and dictated by personal con- 
 siderations. 
 
 " In a letter written to a friend of my childhood, in 1832, 
 I had the indiscretion to call Facundo Quiroga a bandit. 
 All Argentines, both in Europe and America, now agree 
 that it was a just epithet, but at that time my letter was 
 shown to a bad priest, who was President of a Chamber of 
 Representatives. It was read in full session, a sentence 
 was decreed against me, and they had the meanness to 
 put it into the hands of the offended one, who, meaner still 
 than his flatterers, insulted my mother, calling her oppro- 
 brious names, and assured her that he should kill me when 
 he pleased, and wherever I could be found. This event, 
 which made it forever impossible for me to return to my 
 country if God did not dispose events differently from what 
 man purposed to do, was repeated sixteen years later with 
 consequences apparently still more alarming. In May, 
 1843, I wrote another letter to an old benefactor, in which 
 I committed the indiscretion (for which I honor myself,) 
 of characterizing and judging the government of Rosas, 
 according to the dictates of my conscience, and this letter^ 
 like that of 1832, was sent to the very man upon whom the 
 judgment was pronounced. All my countrymen know what 
 
280 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 followed. The government of Buenos Ayres published the 
 letter, made a requisition for me upon the government of 
 Chili, and sent the diplomatic note and the letter with a 
 circular to the confederate governors. The governor of 
 Chili answered, Rosas replied, the circulars were repeated, 
 the answers of the governors of the interior were received ; 
 the system of 'giving publicity to all those meannesses 
 which disgrace the human race more than they can any 
 government, was continued, and apparently the farce will 
 go on without its being possible for any one to foresee the 
 denouement. The presses of all the neighboring countries 
 have reproduced the publications of the government of 
 Buenos Ayres, and in those thirty or more official notes, 
 the name of D. F. Sarmiento has always been accompanied 
 with the epithets, * infamous, unclean, vile, savage,' with va- 
 riations such as, * traitor, madman, contemptible, arrogant} 
 etc. I am thus characterized by men who do not know 
 me, before people who hear my name for the first time. 
 The desire of every good man not to be despised, the as- 
 piration of a patriot to preserve the esteem of his fellow 
 citizens, have induced me to publish this little book, which 
 I abandon to its fate. It is difficult to speak of one's self, 
 one's own good qualities, without exciting contempt and 
 attracting criticism, sometimes with good reason ; but it is 
 more difficult to consent to dishonor, and to let even one's 
 own modesty conspire to one's injury, and I have not hesi- 
 tated a moment which to choose between these opposite 
 extremes." 
 
 THE HISTORY OF MY MOTHER. 
 
 " I feel an oppression of the heart when I approach the 
 facts I am now to record. The mother is to the man the 
 personification of Providence ; is the living earth to which 
 the heart clings as roots to the soil. All who have written 
 
"MY MOTHER." 281 
 
 of their family, have spoken with tenderness of their 
 mother. St. Augustine lauded his so highly, that the 
 Church placed her at his side upon the altars. Lamartine 
 has said so much of his mother in his ' Confidences,' that 
 human nature has been enriched with one of the most 
 beautiful types of the mother known to history ; a mother 
 adorable in the beauty of her countenance, and endowed 
 with a heart which seems to be an unfathomable abyss of 
 goodness, love, and enthusiasm, to say nothing of gifts of 
 supreme intelligence which created the soul of Lamartine, 
 that last offshoot of the old aristocratic society which was 
 transfigured under the maternal wing into the angel of 
 peace, destined to announce to unquiet Europe the advent 
 of the Republic. 
 
 " To the affections of the heart, there is no mother equal 
 to the one who has presided over our own fate, but when 
 pages like Lamartine's have been read, all mothers do not 
 leave such an image sculptured upon the mind ; mine 
 however, God knows, is worthy the honors of apotheosis, 
 and I should not have written these pages if the vigor of 
 her mind had riot inspired me to vindicate myself against 
 the injustice of fate in these last years of her laborious life. 
 
 "My poor mother! On the night when I descended 
 from Vesuvius, the fever of the emotions I had felt during 
 the day gave me a horrible nightmare instead of the sleep 
 which my agitated limbs needed. The flames of the vol- 
 cano, and the darkness of the abyss, mingled I know not 
 what of absurd in the terrified imagination, and on waking 
 from those distracting dreams, one idea alone possessed 
 me, tenacious and persistent as a real fact : my mother 
 was dead ! I wrote that night to my family ; a fortnight 
 after I bought a requiem mass in Rome, that the pensionists 
 of Santa Rosa, my pupils, might sing it in her honor ; and 
 I made a vow, which I persevered in while I was under the 
 
282 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH- 
 
 influence of those sad impressions, to present myself in my 
 country at some future day, and to say to Rosas and Bena- 
 vides, and all my enemies (hangmen), 'You have had a 
 mother ; I come to honor the memory of mine ; make a 
 pause then in the brutalities of your policy ; profane not 
 an act of filial piety. Let me tell all men who this poor 
 mother was that no longer exists ; ' and as God lives, I 
 would have fulfilled it as I have fulfilled so many other 
 good vows, and as I will fulfill many others that I have made. 
 Happily, I have her here at my side, and she instructs 
 me in the events of other times unknown to me, forgotten 
 by all. At seventy-six years of age my mother has crossed 
 the Cordillera of the Andes to bid farewell to her son be- 
 fore descending to the tomb. This act alone may give an 
 idea of the moral energy of her character. Each family is 
 a poem, Lamartine has said, and mine is a sad, a luminous, 
 and a useful one, like those distant paper lanterns of the 
 hamlets, which serve to point the way to those who go 
 astray in the fields. 
 
 '* My mother preserves scarcely any traces of a severe 
 and modest beauty, at this advanced age. Her lofty stat- 
 ure, her pronounced and bony form, her prominent cheek- 
 bones, the sign of decision and energy, are all the features 
 of her exterior that deserve notice, unless it may be the 
 prominent inequalities of her brow, so unusual in her sex. 
 She knew how to read and write in her youth, but lost 
 this facility from disuse in her old age. Her intellect has 
 been little cultivated, and is destitute of all adornment, but 
 so penetrating, that after listening to a class in grammar 
 which I was instructing, while combing her fleeces of wool 
 in the evening, she resolved all the difficulties which had 
 puzzled her daughters, giving the definitions of nouns and 
 verbs, tenses, and other accidents of speech, with rare sa- 
 gacity and exactness. Apart from this, her soul, her con- 
 
DON JOSE CASTUO. 283 
 
 science were educated to a degree of elevation which the 
 loftiest knowledge could not attain by itself. I have been 
 able to study this rare moral beauty, by seeing its opera- 
 tion in circumstances so difficult, so diverse, and so oft- 
 repeated, without ever belying itself or losing its freshness 
 and purity, or temporizing with circumstances, which with 
 others would have sanctified the conceptions made so often 
 in daily life ; that here I would trace the genealogy of these 
 moral ideas which were the healthy atmosphere my soul 
 breathed while it was unfolding its powers at the domestic 
 hearth. 
 
 " I firmly believe in the transmission of moral aptitude 
 through the organization. I believe in the infusion of the 
 spirit of one man, into the spirit of another, by means of 
 speech and example. Those perverse mortals who rule 
 nations, infect the atmosphere with the breath of their 
 souls, and reproduce their own vices and defects. There 
 are nations who reveal the characters of those who rule 
 over them in all their acts; and the moral life of cultivated 
 and free nations, their monuments and their instruction, 
 preserve the maxims of great master-minds, and would 
 not have arrived at their actual degree of perfection, if a 
 particle of the spirit of Christ, for example, had not been 
 introduced by teaching and preaching into each one of 
 them, improving their moral natures. I wished to know 
 then who had educated my mother, and from her conver- 
 sation, from citations of the sayings of others, and from her 
 general reminiscences, I have made out almost the whole 
 history of a man of God, whose memory lives in San Juan, 
 and whose doctrine is perpetuated more or less pure in 
 the hearts of our mothers. 
 
 " I am suspicious that this holy man knew his- eighteenth 
 
 century, its Rosseau, its Feijoo, 1 and its philosophers as 
 
 1 Feijoo, whose real name was Benedict Jerom, was a Spanish Benedic- 
 
284 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 well as he did the Holy Scriptures. Don Jose Castro had 
 scarcely been named curate, when he wielded the lash of 
 his censure and prohibition upon all the brutal practices 
 of the Church, such as flagellations which inflamed the 
 back with merciless whips, fanatics harnesssed with bridles 
 who walked on four feet, even penitent arm crossings on 
 Holy Week, and processions of the Saints, and mummeries 
 which made their grimaces before the Holy Sacrament. He 
 used his influence also to put to flight the belief in fairies, 
 ghosts, jack-o'-lanterns, and various creations of other 
 religious faiths interpolated into our own in all Christian 
 nations. To this end he used not only ridicule, but from 
 the cathedral made patient and scientific explanations of 
 the natural phenomena which gave rise to these errors. 
 His criticisms also upon the affairs of life, and popular 
 criticisms made without that grossness of censure which is 
 common in ordinary preachers, worked so much more 
 salutary effects since they came accompanied by ridicule so 
 full of wit as to raise a general laugh in the church, he 
 himself laughing till his eyes would fill with tears, adding 
 new sallies, till the immense concourse of people, attracted 
 by the delicious mirth of this comedy, relieved their hearts 
 of every trace of ill-humor, and till the priest, having tran- 
 quilized all minds, would say, wiping his face, ' Come, 
 children, we have laughed enough ; now lend me your at- 
 tention. By the sign of the holy cross,' etc., and then came 
 the text of the lesson of the day, followed by a stream of 
 serene and placid light, moral, practical, easily-understood 
 commentaries, applicable to all the exigencies of life. . . . 
 My mother's religion is the most genuine version of the 
 
 tine monk, who attempted by his writings and example to correct and 
 reform the vitiated religion and superstitious notions of his countrymen. 
 This unusual boldness against the prejudices of the times proved very offen- 
 sive to the Church, and the author was with difficulty saved from the horrors 
 of the Inquisition. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS OF " MY MOTHER." 285 
 
 religious idea of Don Jose Castro, and I will appeal to the 
 practice of her whole life to explain that religious reform 
 founded in an obscure province, where it is preserved in 
 many privileged souls. 
 
 . . . " My mother has few seasons of devotion, but 
 those she has reveal the affinities of her mind to certain 
 illusions, if I may so express myself ; for instance, to her 
 relation to the saints in heaven. The Virgin de Dolores is 
 her mother of God. St. Joseph the carpenter, is her Holy 
 Patron Saint, and St. Domingo and St. Vincent Ferras, 
 Dominican friars, bound by many ties to the affections of 
 the family, her order of priesthood. God himself, through 
 all the vicissitudes of her anxious life, has been the true 
 Holy One of her devotion under the invocation of Provi- 
 dence. In this character God entered into all the acts of 
 that laborious life, and was present every day seeing her 
 contests with indigence, and witnessing her accomplish- 
 ment of her duties. Providence rescued her from all her 
 troubles by visible manifestations authenticated to her. 
 . . . Sometimes she would call the whole family to- 
 gether, when she would give utterance to a supplication 
 full of unction and fervor, a true prayer to God, the purest 
 emanation of a soul which overflowed with thanksgiving 
 for the smallest benefits vouchsafed to her ; for it must be 
 said, the Divine beneficence was very scantily meted out 
 to her. I have never seen this profound faith in Provi- 
 dence belie itself for one moment, but ever ward off 
 despair, moderate anxiety, and give to suffering and misery 
 the august character of a holy virtue, practiced with the 
 resignation of a martyr, who does not protest, who does 
 not complain, but hopes always, feeling himself consciously 
 sustained, supported, approved. I know no more religions 
 soul, and yet I have seen no other Christian woman more 
 regardless of religious ceremonies. 
 
286 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 " The curate Castro counseled the mothers not to com- 
 promise the decorum of their social position, by going in 
 shabby guise into the street to attend mass, it being proper 
 for a family to present itself always in public with that 
 apparel and decency required by its rank ; and this pre- 
 cept my mother followed in her days of extreme poverty, 
 w^h the modesty and dignity that always characterized her 
 actions. These lessons of profound wisdom were a small 
 part of that seed sown by the holy man, and fructified by 
 the common sense and the moral sentiment upon which it 
 fell in the heart of my mother. 
 
 " When a woman of twenty-three years she undertook a 
 work not so much beyond her strength as beyond the usual 
 conceptions of an unmarried maiden. The year before, 
 there had been a great dearth of anascotes, (a kind of wool- 
 en stuff that resembles serge, much used for the garments 
 of the religious orders,) and from the proceeds of her 
 weaving, my mother had amassed a small sum of money. 
 With that, and two peons of her aunts, the Irrazavales, she 
 laid the foundations of the house she was to occupy on 
 forming a new family. As these scanty earnings were 
 hardly sufficient for so costly a work, she established her 
 loom under one of the fig-trees which she had inherited in 
 her portion of land, and from there, while throwing her 
 shuttle, she assisted the workmen and their peons in build- 
 ing the little dwelling ; sold the cloth she had made in the 
 week on Saturdays, and paid the workmen with the fruit 
 of her labor. In those times an industrious woman and 
 all were so, even those born and reared in opulence 
 could depend upon herself to provide for her necessities. 
 Commerce had not pushed its products into the interior of 
 America, nor had European manufactures cheapened pro- 
 ductions then as now. A yard of unbleached linen cloth 
 was then worth eight reals for the first quality, five for the 
 
" MY FATHER." 287 
 
 ordinary quality, and four for a yard of anascote, the thread 
 being thrown in. My mother wove twelve yards per week, 
 which was the pattern for the dress of a friar, and received 
 six dollars on Saturday, not without trespassing upon the 
 night, to fill the quills with thread for the work of the fol- 
 lowing day. . . . The branches of industry carried on 
 by my mother are so numerous and so various, that their 
 enumeration would fatigue the memory with names which 
 now signify nothing. . . 
 
 "My family has preserved the reputation of industrial 
 omniscience until my day, and the habit of laboring with 
 her hands is an integral part of my mother's existence. 
 We heard her exclaim at Aconcagua, in 1842, ' This is 
 the first time in my life that I have sat down with folded 
 hands ! ' And at seventy-six years of her age, it has been 
 necessary, in order to prevent her falling into a decline, to 
 invent occupations adapted to her impaired vision, among 
 which are delicate handiwork for ornaments of ladies' 
 dresses, and other superfluities. 
 
 " When her home was finished, she married Don Jose 
 Clemente Sarmiento, my father, a genteel young man of 
 a family which had fallen into decay like her own, and 
 brought to him as a dowry, the chain of privations and 
 miseries in which she passed long years of her life. My 
 father was a man endowed with a thousand good qualities, 
 which balanced others that without being evil, looked in 
 another direction. Like my mother, he had been educated 
 in the rude labors of that epoch, a workman on the pater- 
 nal farm of La Bebida, a mule-driver in the carrier-trains. 
 He was beautiful in countenance, and with an irresistible 
 passion for the pleasures of youth, deficient in that me- 
 chanical constancy which makes fortunes. Inspired by the 
 new ideas which had come in with the Revolution, he had 
 an unconquerable hatred for material labor, unintellectu- 
 
288 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 ally and rudely as he had been educated. I heard him 
 say to the Presbyter Torres, speaking of me, ' O, no ! my 
 son shall never take a spade in his hand ! ' And the edu- 
 cation he gave me showed that it was a fixed idea that had 
 its birth in his profoundly mistaken views of life. In the 
 bosom of poverty, he reared me an hidalgo, and my hands 
 exercised no other forces than those required by my plays 
 and pastimes. My father had one hand made useless by 
 a callus he had acquired in labor. 
 
 " When the Revolution of Independence came, his ex- 
 citable imagination made him waste, in services lent to 
 his country, the small acquisitions he had made. After 
 seeing in 1812 the miseries of Belgrano's army, -he re- 
 turned to San Juan, and undertook to make a collection 
 for the Mother Country, as he was accustomed to call it, 
 which proved quite abundant, and by the suggestion of 
 jealous enemies was denounced to the Municipality as an 
 act of spoliation. When the authorities inquired into the 
 subject, they were so well satisfied, that he was charged 
 with carrying his patriotic offering to the army in person, 
 and this event gave him ever after the sobriquet of 
 * Mother Country,' which, in his old age in Chili, was the 
 origin of a calumny designed to injure his son. 
 
 "In 1817, he accompanied San Martin to Chili as an 
 officer of militia in the mechanical service of the army, 
 and from the field of battle of Chacabuco, he was dis- 
 patched to San Juan to carry the plausible news * of the 
 triumph of the patriots. San Martin remembered him 
 well in 1847 , 2 and was much pleased to learn that I was 
 his son. 
 
 " With these antecedents, my father passed his whole 
 life in beginning speculations whose products were scat- 
 
 1 This news, true at the moment apparently, proved to be a fallacy. 
 
 2 In 1847 Colonel Sanniento sought out San Martin in his French re- 
 treat. 
 
THE FIESTA OF ST. PETER. 289 
 
 tered in badly counseled moments. He worked with te- 
 nacity, and fell into discouragement ; he again essayed his 
 forces and struggled against every disadvantage, dissipating 
 his energies in long journeys to other provinces, till after 
 my arrival at manhood ; and from that time he followed the 
 fate of his son into camps, into banishment and emigration, 
 watching over me like a guardian angel to avert if possible 
 the dangers that threatened me. 
 
 " From this evil destiny of my father and the want of 
 a persistent plan of action, the maintenance of the family 
 fell, from the earliest period after marriage, upon the 
 shoulders of my mother, my father only aiding her fruitful 
 labors by occasional cooperation ; and under the pressure 
 of the want in which we were nurtured, I ever saw the 
 shining light of that equanimity of mind, of that resigna- 
 tion armed with all the industrial means which she pos- 
 jsessed, and of that confidence in Providence which was 
 the best resource of her energetic soul against discourage- 
 ment and despair. Winters came which the previous au- 
 tumn had presaged would be scanty in the provision of the 
 roots and dried fruits which were to meet the expenses, 
 and like the pilot of an abandoned ship she prepared with 
 solemn tranquillity to meet the storm. When the day of 
 destitution came, her soul had braced itself to resignation 
 by assiduous labor to meet the trial. She had wealthy re- 
 lations ; the parish curates were her brothers, but those 
 brothers were ignorant of her sufferings. It would have 
 derogated from the sanctity of the poverty which she 
 combated with her labor, to have mitigated it by foreign 
 intervention ; it would have been asking quarter in those 
 death-combats with her evil star. 
 
 " The fiesta of St. Peter was always celebrated by a 
 splendid banquet given by our uncle the curate, and he 
 knew the rights and the desire of the children of the 
 
 19 
 
290 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 family to participate in the festivities. Many times the 
 curate asked, ' Why did I not see Domingo ? ' And to this 
 day he supposes that it was obedience to my mother's or- 
 ders, instead of poverty, which prevented our attendance. 
 " I must mention one more characteristic anecdote of my 
 mother. She had a friend of her infancy from whom 
 death separated her at the age of sixty. The two friends 
 had always continued to visit each other, consecrating one 
 whole day to the delight of fusing their families into one, 
 and the same friendship has united the daughters of both. 
 Her friend enjoyed the bounties of wealth, but on the day 
 that my mother passed with her, our own servant went into 
 the friend's kitchen to prepare all the food which we were to 
 consume during the day, the protest of twenty years against 
 the practice having never in the least changed my mother's 
 firm and unalterable resolution, in order that the ineffable 
 pleasure of seeing her friend should not be marred by the 
 possible suspicion that she wished even for a day to lay 
 aside the duty of sustaining her family, or to turn her face 
 away from the inequalities of fortune. Thus was practised 
 at the humble hearth of the family of which I made a part, 
 the noble virtue of poverty. Happy are the poor who have 
 had such a mother ! " 
 
 " THE PATERNAL HEARTH." 
 
 "My mother's house, the fruit of her industry, whose sun- 
 burnt bricks and mud-walls might be computed in yards of 
 linen, woven by her own hands to pay for its construction, 
 has received in the course of the last few years some addi- 
 tions which confound it with other dwellings of a certain 
 moderate rank. Its original form, however, is that to 
 which the poetry of the heart clings, the indelible image 
 which presents itself pertinaciously to my mind when I 
 remember infant pleasures and pastimes, the hours of 
 
THE HOMESTEAD. 291 
 
 recreation after returning from school, the various places 
 where whole hours and weeks were passed in ineffable 
 beatitude, making mud saints to be worshipped when com- 
 pleted ; or armies of soldiers of the same paste, to feed my 
 pride by the exercise of so much power. 
 
 " Towards the southern part of the little territory of thir- 
 ty yards by forty, was the habitation of the family, divided 
 into two apartments, one serving as a dormitory for our 
 parents, and the large one for the hall of reception, with its 
 lofty dais and cushions, remnant of the tradition of the 
 Arab divan, preserved by the Spanish people. Two tables 
 of the indestructible carob-tree (algarroba), which had 
 passed down from hand to hand since the time when there 
 was no other wood in San Juan but the carob-trees of the 
 fields, and a few chairs of various structure, flanked the 
 hall, while two great pictures in oil of San Domingo and 
 San Vicente Ferrar, adorned the otherwise bare walls ; 
 pictures shockingly painted, but most devoutly kept as 
 heir-looms on account of their Dominican habit. At a 
 short distance from the entrance door, the patriarchal fig- 
 tree raised its deep green canopy, which even in my child- 
 hood shaded my mother's loom, whose strokes, and the 
 noise of whose wheels, pedals, and shuttles, always waked 
 us before sunrise, announcing that a new day had begun, 
 and with it the necessity of providing for its wants by 
 labor. Some branches of the fig-tree rubbed gently against 
 the walls of the house, and heated by the reflection of the 
 sun's rays, it anticipated the usual season, offering its mel- 
 low contribution of early figs to augment the rejoicing of 
 the family on the 23d of November, my father's birthday. 
 I linger with pleasure over these details, for saints and 
 fig-tree were, at a later day, personages of a family drama 
 in which colonial ideas struggled violently with more mod- 
 ern ones. Other industrial resources had their place on 
 
292 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 the narrow territory of twenty yards not occupied by the 
 family mansion. Three orange- trees shed their fruit in 
 autumn, their shade always. Under a corpulent peach- 
 tree was a little pool of water for the solace of three or 
 four geese, which multiplying, gave their contribution to 
 the complicated and limited system of revenue, upon which 
 reposed the existence of the family ; and as all these means 
 were insufficient, there was a garden of esculents of the 
 size of a scapulary, surrounded by a paling, to shelter it 
 from the voracity of the goslings, and which produced such 
 vegetables as enter into South American cookery, the whole 
 sparkling and illuminated by groups of common flowers, a 
 mulberry-colored rose-bush, and various other flowering 
 shrubs. This was a sample of the exquisite economy of 
 land in a Spanish colonial family, and also of the inex- 
 haustible productions which the country people of Europe 
 know how to extract from it. The manure of the fowls and 
 the horse which my father rode, passed daily into use, to 
 give new vigor to that little spot of land which never 
 wearied of yielding its varied and luxuriant growths, and 
 when I wished to suggest to my mother some views of 
 rural economy culled from books, I was deservedly treated 
 as a pedant in the presence of that science of culture, 
 which was the favorite pleasure and occupation of her long 
 life. Now, at seventy-six years of age, if she escapes us 
 from within our dwelling, she is sure to be found propping 
 up some drooping plants, responding to our objections 
 with the violence of feeling that possesses her on seeing 
 them so maltreated. 
 
 " Yet in that Noah's ark there was some little corner 
 where were steeped and prepared the colors with which 
 she dyed her webs, and a vat of bran, from whence issued 
 every week a fair proportion of exquisitely white starch. 
 In prosperous times was added to these the manufacture of 
 
HOME INFLUENCES. 293 
 
 candles made by the hand, some attempt at baking bread, 
 which always resulted in failure, and a thousand rural 
 operations, which it would be superfluous to enumerate. 
 Such varied occupations were not without method, begin- 
 ning in the morning with feeding the goslings, gathering the 
 vegetables before they were wilted by the sun, and then 
 establishing herself at her loom, which for long years was 
 her chief occupation. I have in my possession the shuttle 
 of algarroba, polished and blackened by years, which she 
 had inherited from her mother, who received it from her 
 grandmother, a humble relic of colonial life, embracing a 
 period of about two hundred years, during which noble 
 hands had thrown it almost unweariedly ; and although one 
 of my sisters has inherited from my mother the habit and 
 the necessity of weaving, my -covetousness has prevailed, 
 and I am still the depository of this family jewel. It is a 
 pity that I can never be rich and powerful enough to im- 
 itate that Persian king who continued to use the clay pot- 
 tery which had served him in childhood, in order that he 
 might not grow proud and despise poverty. 
 
 " Such was the domestic hearth near which I grew, and it 
 is impossible that there should not be left, on a loyal nature, 
 indelible impressions of morality, of industry, and of vir- 
 tue, received in that sublime school in which the most 
 laborious industry, the purest morality, dignity maintained 
 in the midst of poverty, constancy, and resignation, divided 
 all the hours. My sisters enjoyed the deserved reputation 
 of being the most diligent and efficient girls in the whole 
 province, and whatever feminine occupation required con- 
 summate skill, was always commended to these supreme 
 artificers who could do everything which required patience 
 and dexterity and very little money." 
 
 To complete this picture the author brings into 
 
294 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 view two accessory personages, " La Toribia," a Zamba 
 domestic, " the key of the house, the right arm of her 
 mistress, the bonne who brought us all up, the cook, 
 the messenger, the huckstress, the washer and ironer, 
 the maid of all work. She died young, nor was her 
 place ever filled, either in the domestic economy or in 
 the heart of my mother, for they were two friends, 
 mistress and maid, two fellow-laborers who discussed 
 together the means of maintaining the family, wrangled, 
 disputed, dissented, and each one then followed her 
 own opinion, both leading to the same end." The 
 other personage was " Na Cleme, the pauper that 
 hung upon the family, for my mother, like the Rigo- 
 leta of Sue, who never hoarded anything, had her 
 poor also, whom she helped to live by her scraps." 
 But the family servant and the family pauper, sup- 
 posed by some to be a witch, and apparently of that 
 opinion herself, must be banished from our pages, 
 although the beneficent relations of the mother to them 
 add another trait to a noble portraiture. 
 
 " Our habitation remained as I have described it, until 
 the day when my two elder sisters arrived at the marriage- 
 able age, when an interior revolution began which cost two 
 years of debate, and showers of tears to my mother, on 
 finding herself conquered by a new world of ideas, habits, 
 and tastes, which were not those of the colonial existence, 
 of which she was the last and most finished type. The 
 first symptoms of those social revolutions operated by 
 human intelligence in the great foci of civilization are very 
 common and pass unperceived ; they extend through the 
 common people, insinuate themselves into ideas, and infil- 
 trate into the customs. The eighteenth century had glittered 
 
COLONIAL LIFE. 295 
 
 over France, and undermined the ancient traditions, cooled 
 off faith, and excited hatred and contempt for things 
 hitherto venerated. Its political theories had overturned 
 governments, unbound Spanish America, and opened its 
 colonies to new customs and new habits of life. The time 
 was coming when the industrious life of American women 
 was to be looked upon disdainfully, and with an evil eye ; 
 when French fashions were to prevail, and an anxiety for 
 display in the multiplication and distribution of luxuries 
 were to take possession of the domestic circle, when the 
 dining-hour must be delayed from twelve o'clock to two or 
 even four in the afternoon. Who does not know some of 
 those good old people of the ancient stamp, who live, proud 
 of their opulence, in an unencumbered apartment, fur- 
 nished with four dusty leather chairs, the floor covered 
 with spent cigars, and the table ornamented solely with an 
 enormous inkstand, whose goose-quills, or perchance, con- 
 dor-quills, are crystallized with dried ink. This was the 
 general aspect, the family picture of colonial life. It is 
 described in the novels of Scott and Dumas, and living 
 proofs of it are still seen in Spain and in South America, 
 the last of the old peoples who have been called upon to re- 
 juvenate themselves. These ideas of regeneration and per- 
 sonal improvement, this impiety of the eighteenth century, 
 entered, who would believe it, into the heads of my two 
 elder sisters. Scarcely arrived at the age when woman 
 feels that her existence is bound to society, which is the 
 end and object of this existence, they began to aspire to 
 new ideas of beauty, of taste, of comfort, which the at- 
 mosphere diffused by the revolution had wafted to them. 
 The walls of the common sitting-room were smoothed and 
 whitened anew ; a thing to which no reasonable opposition 
 could be offered, but the mania extended to the destruction 
 of the raised dais that occupied one side of the hall, with 
 
296 .BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 its' carpet and its cushions, a divan as I said before, which 
 came down to us from our Arabic ancestors, a privileged 
 spot on which women alone were permitted to sit, and in 
 whose spacious circumference, reclining upon ottomans, 
 the visitors and hosts carried on their lively chit-chat, that 
 indescribable medley of womanly talk. 
 
 " Why has the poetical dais been allowed to disappear 
 from our houses, so convenient for sitting, so adequate 
 for feminine repose, to substitute in its place, chairs, in 
 which one by one or in rows, like soldiers in platoons, 
 the eye reviews the company in our modern saloons ? 
 But that dais expressed that man might not publicly 
 approach the young ladies, talk freely, and mix, freely 
 with them, as our modern customs permit, and it was 
 therefore repudiated by themselves, as easily as it had 
 been formerly accepted as a privilege. The dais then 
 yielded its place in the house to the more modern fashion 
 of chairs, notwithstanding the feeble resistance of my 
 mother, who enjoyed sitting upon one extreme of it in the 
 morning to take her cup of mate, with her brazier and 
 boiler of water on the lower step before her, or to reel her 
 cottons or to fill her quills over night for the web of the 
 following day. Not being accustomed to work upon a 
 high seat, she was obliged to adopt the use of a carpet to 
 supply the loss of the dais, which she lamented many long 
 years. 
 
 " My sisters' spirit of innovation at last attacked sacred 
 objects. I protest that I did not take part in this sacrilege 
 which the poor little things committed, in obedience to the 
 spirit of the time. Those two saints, so grand, so ancient, 
 Santo Domingo and San Vicente Ferrar, decidedly marred 
 the walls. If my mother could but consent that they 
 should be taken down, and put into a sleeping-room, the 
 little house would take a new aspect of modern and ele- 
 
WORKS OF ART. 297 
 
 gant refinement, for it was -under the seducing form of 
 good taste, that this iconoclastic impiety of the eighteenth 
 century found its way into the house. Ah, what wounds 
 that error dealt upon the bosom of Spanish America! 
 The South American Colonies had been founded at an 
 epoch when the Spanish fine arts showed proudly to 
 Europe the pencils of Murillo, Velasquez, and Sambrano, 
 as well as the swords of the Duke of Alva, the great 
 captain, and of Cortez. The possession of Flanders 
 added to its products those of Flemish engraving, which, 
 painted in rough lineaments and crude colors the religious 
 scenes which were the foundation of the national poetry. 
 Murillo, in his early years, made innumerable virgins and 
 saints for South America ; the second-rate painters sent it 
 whole lives of saints for the convents, the passion of Jesus 
 Christ in immense galleries of pictures, and Flemish en- 
 graving, as now French lithography, put within reach of 
 moderate fortunes the history of the Prodigal Son, and 
 virgins and saints of as many types as the calendar fur- 
 nishes. The walls of our ancestors' and fathers' apart- 
 ments were tapestried with these images, and not rarely 
 the practiced eye of an artist could discover some line of 
 a master-hand in the midst of all this rubbis^h. But the 
 revolution pointed its finger against the religious emblems. 
 Ignorant and blind in its antipathies, it averted its eyes 
 from painting which was Spanish, colonial, ancient, and 
 irreconcilable with the new ideas. Devout families hid 
 their pictures of the saints, not to show the bad taste of 
 preserving them ; and in San Juan, and other places, there 
 were those who used the canvas for trowsers for their 
 slaves. What treasures of art must have been lost by 
 these stupid profanations in which all South America was 
 an accomplice, for there was a period at which everywhere 
 at once prevailed the fatal demolition of that luxuriant 
 
298 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 vegetation of the past artistic glory of Spain ! European 
 travellers, who passed through South America twenty years 
 ago, collected at very low prices inestimable works of the 
 best masters, which they found cast aside as useless lumber 
 covered with dust and cobwebs ; and when the day of the 
 resurrection of the arts came to South America, when the 
 bandage fell from the eyes of the people, the churches, 
 the rising museums, and the amateurs found from time to 
 time some picture of Murillo to expose to view, asking 
 pardon for the injustice of which it had been the victim, 
 now restored to public consideration, and to the lofty 
 position which corresponded to its merits. 
 
 " The strife went on, therefore, between my poor mother, 
 who loved her two Dominican saints as members of her 
 family, and my young sisters who sacrificed the laws of 
 the house to good appearances and the prejudices of the 
 times. Every day, at all hours, under every pretext, the 
 debate was renewed, some threatening glance was cast at 
 the saints, as if to say, "you must leave your places 
 vacant ; " while my mother contemplated them with tender 
 looks, exclaiming, " Poor saints ! how badly they treat you 
 when you harm no one ! " But by this continuous battery, 
 the ear became accustomed to the reproach, resistance was 
 weaker every day, for if they were looked upon as indis- 
 pensable objects of religion, it was not necessary that they 
 should be in the parlor ; the sleeping apartment was a 
 much more appropriate place of worship, where their bless- 
 ing could be invoked upon the very bed. As a family 
 legacy, they were subject to the same arguments, while as 
 an ornament they were in the worst taste ; and from one 
 concession to another, my mother's mind relented little by 
 little, and one morning when her resistance would go no 
 further than the wringing of her hands, when the guardian 
 
THE SENTENCE OF SAINTS AND FIG-TREE. 299 
 
 of that fortress returned from mass, her eyes expanded to 
 see the bare walls where the great black patches had been 
 before. My saints were then removed to the sleeping 
 apartment, and to judge by their faces the change made 
 no great impression upon them. My mother knelt weep- 
 ing before them to ask their pardon by her prayers, 
 remained out of humor and querulous all day, sad the 
 following day, but resigned the next, till at last time and 
 habit brought the balm which makes bearable the greatest 
 misfortunes. This signal victory gave new animation to 
 the spirit of reform, and after the divan and the saints, in 
 an evil hour, the threatening glance fell upon the fig-tree 
 that stood in the middle of the court-yard, discolored and 
 knotty, by dint of dryness and old age. The matter being 
 looked upon in this aspect, the fig-tree was condemned in 
 the public conception : it sinned against all the rules of 
 decorum and decency ; but with my mother it was an eco- 
 nomical question which affected her, as well as one which 
 deeply affected her heart. Ah ! would that the maturity 
 of my own heart could have been anticipated and brought 
 to her aid, but selfishness made me indifferent to her feel- 
 ings, or weakly inclined me in her favor for the sake of 
 the early figs ! They wished to separate her from that 
 beloved companion in the flower of its life and strength. 
 Ripe age wreathes associations around everything which 
 surrounds us ; the domestic hearth is a living being ; a 
 tree which we have seen planted, grow, and arrive at 
 maturity, is a person endowed with life, which has acquired 
 rights to existence that it reads in our hearts, and can 
 accuse us as ingrates, and would leave remorse in the con- 
 science if we should sacrifice without a legitimate reason. 
 The sentence of the old fig-tree was discussed for two 
 years, and its champion, wearied with the struggle, aban- 
 doned it to its fate ; but on making the preparations for its 
 
300 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 execution, the sentiments which had been outraged in her 
 heart, glowed with new force, and she obstinately refused 
 to permit the destruction of that witness and companion of 
 her labors. One day, however, when the revocation of the 
 permission had lost all its prestige, the blows of the hatchet 
 upon the venerable trunk of the tree, and the rustling of 
 the leaves shaken by the shock, the last sighs of the victim, 
 were heard through the house. It was a sad, sad moment, 
 a scene of mourning and repentance. The blows of the 
 fig-slaying hatchet 1 also shook the heart of my mother ; 
 the tears rushed to her eyes, as the sap of the tree to the 
 wound, and her sobs responded to the trembling of the 
 leaves. Every new blow brought a new burst of grief, and 
 my sister and I, repenting too late for having given such 
 acute pain, burst into weeping, the only reparation now 
 possible. The suspension of the work of destruction was 
 ordered, as the family prepared to rush into the yard, and 
 put a stop to the painful re-percussions of the hatchet upon 
 my mother's heart. Two hours afterwards, the fig-tree lay 
 prostrate upon the ground, displaying its hoary head as 
 the fading leaves showed the knotty frame-work of that 
 structure, which for so many years had lent its aid to the 
 protection and sustenance of the family. 
 
 " After these great reforms, the humble habitation went 
 on slowly and painfully enlarging itself. It fell to me to 
 have the happiness of introducing one substantial change. 
 On the border of our little homestead spot was a piece of 
 ground my father had purchased in a moment of compara- 
 tive ease. I was an apprentice in a small commercial 
 establishment when sixteen years old. My first plans and 
 economies had for their object the fencing in of this lot of 
 territory, that it might be made productive to the family, 
 and place it beyond the reach of indigence, although it 
 
 1 The Spanish word is higuericida, the fig-i-cidal. 
 
 
EARLY EDUCATION. 301 
 
 could not make it pass out of the limits of poverty. My 
 mother now had at her disposal a theatre worthy of her 
 agricultural knowledge ; to the decrepid fig-tree succeeded 
 in her affections a hundred young trees, whose growth her 
 maternal eye fostered. Hours of every day were conse- 
 crated to this plant and to that vine, upon which the family 
 was in future to depend, for a portion of its sustenance. 
 
 " When I had accomplished this work, I could say in my 
 joy at having produced such a result, / saw that it was 
 good, and I was happy." 
 
 "MY EDUCATION. 
 
 " In a school, the details of which I have mentioned else- 
 where, 1 and where I entered at five years of age, I remained 
 nine years without having missed a single day, under any 
 pretext, for my mother was there to see that I should fulfill 
 my duty of punctuality, under the penalty of her indescrib- 
 able severity. At five years of age, I read fluently, in a 
 loud voice, with intonations and emphasis that only a com- 
 plete comprehension of the subject could give, and so un- 
 common was this early skill at that period, that I was 
 carried from house to house to display my reading, reaping 
 a great harvest of cakes, embraces, and encomiums, which 
 filled me with vanity." 
 
 In a letter to his uncle, 2 the illustrious Bishop of 
 Cuyo, written after seeing Pompeii, our author de- 
 scribes himself again with much liveliness. 
 
 " I want your highness to do an act of justice in San 
 Juan, seizing by the ear our cousin M. It was your illus- 
 trious highness who, when curate, put a little book into my 
 hand, remarking to some one at the same time I have 
 
 1 In a work upon Popular Education. 
 
 2 Taken from Travels in Europe, Africa, and America, in 1846-7. 
 
302 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 not forgotten it, because I have not forgotten you that 
 at the age of four years I had the reputation of being the 
 most troublesome and vociferous reader you had ever seen. 
 The crude notions which I acquired by my habits of early 
 reading, wandered a long time in my mind, like the clouds 
 in space when they meet with no point of support to form 
 a nucleus, till some little book which accident placed in 
 my hands came to fill a vacuum, or some other, later, to 
 explain a passage not well understood. I had many his- 
 torical notions at that age, when the generality of children 
 are thinking only of their plays ; and now that I have vis- 
 ited Rome I have been able to recognize at first sight, by 
 the image engraven in my memory from the earliest child- 
 hood, in which I passed hours poring over a Roman 
 Guide Book, and which was the first book I owned, the 
 monuments I met with. I do not know how nor when I 
 read an account of the ruins of Pompeii, but not being 
 able to keep to myself the novelty and wonder it excited, 
 I attacked people in the street to tell them the portentous 
 story. I told it thus to our cousin M., and instead of stand- 
 ing with open mouth as I had promised, he burst into a 
 fit of laughter ; and whenever he saw me where people 
 were assembled, he made me tell the story of Pompeii for 
 the general diversion. I have now seen that Pompeii which 
 so preoccupied my childhood, and it reminds me of the 
 incredulity of M." 
 
 From this digression we return to his little book. 
 
 " Apart from a natural faculty of comprehending what I 
 read, I had a secret background of images of which the 
 public was ignorant. My poor father, ignorant himself, 
 but solicitous that his children should not be so, sharpened 
 at home this rising thirst for knowledge, and made me 
 read, without pity for my tender years, the ' Critical His- 
 
BOYISH TASTES. 303 
 
 tory of Spain,' in four volumes, the ' Desiderio and Electo,' 
 and other abominable books which I never turned to again, 
 but which left in my mind confused ideas of history, alle- 
 gories, fables, countries, and proper names. I owe thus to 
 my father that love of reading which has been the constant 
 occupation of my life, and although he could not give me 
 an education because of his poverty, he gave me by his pa- 
 ternal solicitude the powerful instrument by which I have 
 supplied the want through my own efforts, thus fulfilling 
 the most constant and earnest of his wishes. 
 
 " I never knew how to spin a top, to bat a ball, to fly a 
 kite, or had any inclination for such boyish sports. At 
 school I learned how to copy the knaves from cards, and 
 afterwards made a copy of San Martin on horseback, from 
 the paper lantern of a grocer, and from acquisition to ac- 
 quisition, I succeeded, after ten years of perseverance, in 
 divining all the secrets of making caricatures. In a family 
 visit on one occasion, at the house of Dona Barbara Icaste, 
 I occupied the day in copying the face of a San Jeronimo, 
 and that type once acquired, I reproduced it distinctly in 
 the faces of all ages and sexes. My teacher, weary of 
 correcting me in this pastime, concluded by resigning him- 
 self to it, and respecting the instinctive mania. When I 
 had an opportunity to be instructed in drawing, the will 
 to perfect myself in it was unfortunately wanting. But later 
 in life I spread through my province a taste for that graphic 
 art, and under my direction or inspiration were formed half 
 a dozen artists, which San Juan now possesses. But that 
 taste was converted in my youth into one for sculpture, 
 which took two different forms, and I made saints and 
 soldiers, the two great objects of my childish fancy. 
 
 " My mother raised me with the persuasion that I should 
 be a clergyman, and the curate of San Juan, in imitation 
 of my uncle ; and my father had visions for me of military 
 
304 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 jackets, gold lace, sabres, and other accoutrements to 
 match. Through my mother, I was to follow colonial vo- 
 cations ; through my father, the ideas and preoccupations of 
 that revolutionary epoch were infiltrated into me ; and 
 obeying these contradictory impulses, I passed my leisure 
 hours in beatific contemplation of my mud saints, duly 
 painted, leaving them in turn quiet in their niches to give 
 battle in front of the house between two armies which my 
 neighbors and I had been preparing for perhaps a month 
 before by a large hoarding of wax balls, in order to thin 
 out the bedaubed files of shapeless puppet soldiers. 
 
 " I should not relate these trifles if they had not, later in 
 life, taken colossal forms and prefigured one of those re- 
 membered events which even at this day make me palpi- 
 tate with glory and vanity. ... In regard to my sacer- 
 dotal vocation, I assisted when a boy of thirteen at a pious 
 chapel in the house of the humpbacked Rodriguez, capable 
 of holding twenty persons, and endowed with a sacristy, bel- 
 fry, arid other requisites, with candlesticks, thuribles, and 
 musical bells made by Don Javier Jofre's negro, Rufino, 
 and of which we made an enormous consumption in peal- 
 ings and processions. The chapel was consecrated to our 
 family patron, St. Domingo, I administering for two 
 years the august dignity of Provincial of the order of 
 Preachers, by acclamation of the chapter, and to the great 
 edification of the devotees. The friars of the convent of 
 St. Domingo came to hear me sing the mass in which I 
 parodied my uncle, the curate, who sang very well, and I, 
 being his acolyte, watched all the mechanism of the mass, 
 not forgetting to mark the page in the missal in which 
 were the gospel and epistle of the day, in order to repro- 
 duce them in perfection in my private mass. 
 
 " On Sunday afternoons, the Provincial transformed him- 
 self into the general-in-chief of an army of boys, and woe 
 
WAR OF 1810. 305 
 
 to those who dared to make front to that rain of stones 
 which issued from the bosom of my phalanx." 
 
 I omit the details of the boyish battle our auto- 
 biographer describes, in which he showed the determi- 
 nation and pluck which have characterized all his 
 maturer acts. I omit it (his later ones were under- 
 taken in better causes), fearing the publication of it 
 might not receive his sanction, though he amused him- 
 self and his " hundred friends " with the relation ; all 
 the personages engaged in it being probably well 
 known to them. 
 
 " This ends what I call the colonial history of my family. 
 What follows, is the slow and painful transition from one 
 mode of life to another, the life of the rising Republic, the 
 struggle of parties, civil war, proscription, and banishment. 
 To the family history succeeds as atmosphere and theatre 
 of action, the history of my native country. I succeed to 
 my progenitors, and I believe that by following my foot- 
 steps as those of another in that path, the curioso may linger 
 over the events which form the general picture, incidents 
 of the country known to all, objects of general interest, by 
 the examination of which, the items of my biography, val- 
 ueless for themselves, will serve as a thread of connection ; 
 for in my life, so destitute of aid, so full of contrarieties, 
 and yet so persevering in its aspiration for all that is noble 
 and elevated, may be seen depicted that unhappy South 
 America, agitating itself in its condition of nothingness, 
 making supreme efforts to unfold its wings, lacerating itself 
 at every attempt against the iron bars of the prison in 
 which it is chained. 
 
 " Strange emotions must indeed have agitated the souls 
 of our fathers in 1810. The twilight perspective of a new 
 
306 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 epoch, liberty, independence new words then must 
 have made their fibres tremble deliciously, powerfully ex- 
 cited their imaginations, and sent the blood rushing wildly 
 through their hearts. That year, what anxiety, what hap- 
 piness, what enthusiasm ! There is a story of a king, who 
 trembled like an aspen at the sight of a naked dagger, the 
 effect of his mother's emotions when she carried him under 
 her bosom, and in whose arms a man was stabbed. I was 
 born in 1811, the ninth month after the 25th of May, and 
 my father had thrown himself into the revolution, and my 
 mother was agitated every day by the momentary news of 
 the progress of the insurrection. Before I could speak 
 plainly, they began to familiarize my eyes and my tongue 
 with the alphabet, such was the eagerness with which the 
 colonials who already felt themselves to be citizens fell to 
 educating their children, as may be seen by the decrees of 
 the gubernatorial junta and the other governments of that 
 epoch. 
 
 " Full of this holy spirit, the government of San Juan, 
 sent, in 1816, for some men from Buenos Ay res, worthy 
 by their education and moral character to be teachers in 
 Prussia, and on the opening of the school of La Patria, I 
 passed immediately into the troop of four hundred children 
 of all ages and conditions, who were eager to receive the 
 only solid instruction which has been given amongst us in 
 primary schools. The memory of Don Ignacio, and Don 
 Jose Jenaro Rodriguez, still awaits the reparation due to 
 their immense, their holy services; and I must not die 
 until my country has fulfilled that sacred duty. The sen- 
 timent of equality was developed in our hearts by the 
 epithet of Senor, which we were obliged to give each other 
 without regard to condition or race ; and by the morality 
 of manners, stimulated by the example of the master ; the 
 oral lessons, and the punishments which were only severe 
 
DON IGNACIO RODRIGUEZ. 307 
 
 and humiliating when inflicted for crimes. . . . When 
 a pupil of the reading school, an elevated seat was con- 
 structed at the end of the hall, a sort of throne accessible 
 by steps, and I was placed upon it with the name of ' FIRST 
 CITIZEN.' Don Ignacio Rodriguez, who is still living, can 
 tell if the seat was made for me. A youth named Domin- 
 go Moron succeeded me in that honorable place, and it 
 afterwards fell into disuse. This circumstance and the 
 consequent publicity acquired from that time, the praises 
 of which I was always the object and the witness, must 
 have contributed to give to my manners a character of 
 fatuity of which I was not made aware until much later in 
 life. From a child, I believed in my talents, as a rich 
 man does in his money, or a soldier in his warlike deeds. 
 Every one said so, and in nine years of school-life, there 
 were not a dozen out of two thousand children who were 
 before me in their capacity to learn, notwithstanding that 
 at last I hated the school, as well as grammar, algebra, 
 and arithmetic. My school morality also must have be- 
 come slack by this eternal school-life, for I remember that 
 I finally fell into disfavor with the master. . . . 
 
 " It is a deserved tribute to my mother to say that we 
 were brought up in a holy horror of falsehood. I was 
 always distinguished in school for exemplary veracity, and 
 the masters rewarded it by proposing me as a model to 
 others, praising me, and quoting me with encomiums, so 
 that the purpose of being always truthful was deepened 
 more and more in me ; a purpose which has formed the 
 foundation of my character, and to which all the acts of 
 my life have testified. 
 
 " My school apprenticeship was concluded by one of those 
 acts of injustice so frequent, from which I have guarded 
 myself carefully whenever I have been in similar circum- 
 stances. Don Bernardino Rivadavia (then President), 
 
308 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 that unfortunate educator whose well-chosen plans were 
 trampled under foot by the horses of Quiroga, Lopez, 
 Rosas, and all the chiefs of the barbarous reaction move- 
 ment, summoned from each province six youths of known 
 talents to be educated by the nation, in order that when 
 their studies were concluded, they might return to their 
 respective cities, to assume scientific professions and give 
 lustre to their country. He asked that they should be 
 from decent but poor families, and Don Ignacio Rodriguez 
 came to my father to tell him that my name headed the 
 list of chosen children whom the nation was about to take 
 under its wing. But the covetousness of the rich inter- 
 fered : lots were drawn ; all the city went to the register- 
 ing, and a list of candidates was made out, and the election 
 was made by ballot. Fortune was not the patron of my 
 family, and I was not one of the six favored ones. What 
 a day of sadness to my parents was that on which the fatal 
 notice came to them ! My mother wept in silence ! My 
 father buried his face in his hands. 
 
 " But the fate that had been unjust to me, was not so to 
 the province, although it knew not how to take advantage, 
 in later days, of the riches that were in preparation for it. 
 The lot fell to Antonio Aberastain, as poor a boy as my- 
 self, endowed with remarkable talents, an iron application 
 to study, and a moral sentiment which has made him a 
 shining example to this day. No one knows better than I 
 the depths of his character : we were friends from infancy ; 
 I, his protege" in the adult school, when in 1836, we both 
 arrived in San Juan, he from Buenos Ayres, I from Chili ; 
 he began to lend me the support of his influence, to raise 
 me in his arms every time the malicious envy of the village 
 overwhelmed me with a wave of disfavor or jealousy, every 
 time that the leveller vulgarity persisted in reducing me to 
 the common herd. Supreme Judge of Doctor Alzadas, 
 
DON ANTONIO ABERASTAIN. 309 
 
 he was always there defending me against the rich young 
 men who wished to throw obstacles in my path. I have 
 owed to this good man, even the marrow of my bones. 
 He was full of energy without the appearance of it, humble 
 even to self-annihilation. To him, and to another man in 
 Chili, I owed still later my own self-estimation, by the 
 proofs they lavished upon me of theirs, both serving and 
 upholding me more than a fortune could have done. The 
 esteem of the good acts as galvanism. A glance of benev- 
 olence from them can say to Lazarus, ' Arise and walk ! ' 
 I have never loved any one as I loved Aberastain ; no 
 man has left deeper traces of respect and admiration upon 
 my heart. 
 
 " After he left San Juan, the Supreme Tribunal of Jus- 
 tice was administered by men without professional educa- 
 tion, and often so unfit, poor fellows, that they would have 
 been stupid mule-drivers. Ultimately the honorable House 
 of Representatives declared that even in default of San- 
 juanino advocates, no foreigner could be a judge, that is to 
 say, no individual of another confederate province, and this 
 legislative act shows the perversion of mind into which 
 these people have fallen." l 
 
 On the occasion of laying the corner-stone of the 
 "Sarmiento School" in San Juan, in 1864, a splen- 
 did edifice built within the walls of an abandoned 
 church, partly erected many years before, Colonel 
 Sarmiento thus speaks of the influence of school-days 
 upon his life. 
 
 1 In his biography of his friend, he relates that such was the common 
 feeling of respect for Aberastain among his fellow-pupils in childhood, such 
 his almost morbid conscientiousness, that he went by the soubriquet of 
 " God-the-Father." We can hardly appreciate this Spanish custom of 
 nicknaming, as we call it. In those communities, half the people are 
 known by some fancy name growing out of personal or accidental or char- 
 acteristic qualities. 
 
310 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 " The inspiration to consecrate myself to the education 
 v of the people, came to me here in my youth. My labor of 
 thirty years, that of serving the countries where I resided 
 with schools, turns now to its point of departure, to the very 
 simple idea of the importance of primary school education 
 over all other education, to insure the happiness of nations. 
 If I had been born in Buenos Ayres, or Cordova, or in 
 Santiago de Chili, the primary education of this part of the 
 country would not have arrived at this point when all are 
 striving for that end. I should have been preoccupied 
 with the brilliant university, and should have aspired to 
 its honors. But I was born and educated amidst the peo- 
 ple of a province where there was no other education than 
 that of the public school, and the ' Escuela de la Patria ' 
 was one of the first order, without a rival in any private 
 one, conducted by a man so respected by the people and 
 the government, that at that time the schoolmaster was 
 looked upon as one of the first magistrates of the province. 
 Observe, then, by what singular circumstances the school, 
 as an institution, was destined to acquire in my mind that 
 supreme importance which I have never ceased to give it ; 
 and how, at the close of my travels, I found in the United 
 States that the school occupied the same place as in San 
 Juan, and brought forth like results. The truth is, that the 
 first ideas in the child's mind keep the same relative posi- 
 tion always, and however slightly they meet with confirma- 
 tion, grow and develop, and determine the career in life. 
 If I should express all my thoughts, I should say that the 
 School of La Patria, in San Juan, associated in my mind 
 with the recollections of the only form of education with 
 which I was acquainted, went forth with me from this prov- 
 ince, and accompanied me in all my wanderings. In Chili 
 it took the form of normal schools ; in Europe I connected 
 it with the study of legislation ; in the United States with 
 
SARMIENTO SCHOOL IN SAN JUAN. 311 
 
 the spectacle of its wonderful results, of its temple school- 
 houses, and of the prominent place it holds among the 
 institutions of that country. In Buenos Ayres I repro- 
 duced it as a seed sown in propitious ground, and I return 
 to do the same to-day in San Juan, by reestablishing the 
 School of La Patria, completed as an educational institu- 
 tion, and also as a democratic one, and I bring to it all the 
 acquisitions made in my long and various travels. No lon- 
 ger confined to three halls that contained in all but three 
 hundred pupils, we have here an edifice that will ena- 
 ble us to throw off the swaddling-clothes of infancy. To- 
 day we lay the stone which consecrates to education these 
 beginnings of an unfinished temple. And that you may 
 see how advanced ideas have grown, I will repeat to you 
 what I have replied to those who have wished this edifice 
 kept to its first destination, and who yet abandoned it to 
 sterility and destruction. 
 
 " At the corner of the next block, thirty steps from here, 
 thirty years ago, I was a merchant's clerk, and here pur- 
 sued my solitary studies. Even at that time, I saw that a 
 spacious school-house might be erected within these walls, 
 and with your assistance I now realize my thought after 
 the delay of so many years. 1 
 
 " Observe another class of ideas and events that deserve 
 to be recorded. If the School of La Patria inspired me 
 with this high estimation of primary education which has 
 distinguished me from the generality of the men of my 
 epoch, in my country, its excellence did not come of itself* 
 nor from the advanced condition of the provinces. It was 
 due to a respected family from Buenos Ayres whose head 
 
 1 The citizens of San Juan, of all classes, contributed to the erection of 
 the Sarmiento School, some by the produce of their farms and other 
 labors, the ladies by theatrical exhibitions, concerts, fairs, and many 
 liberal men by their money. It was erected within the ruins of an aban- 
 doned church. 
 
I 
 312 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 was Don Ignacio Firmen Rodriguez, of venerated memory 
 among Sanjuaninos, and whose image is to-day recalled to 
 you by the foundation of a new school, the continuation of 
 his work. I was asked at Buenos Ayres how it was possi- 
 ble that in the year 1818, so near our middle ages, we had 
 schools and masters so advanced. This question was also 
 put to me during my travels in America and Europe, after 
 I found in Chili and even in Buenos Ayres itself, less 
 advanced public schools than I had left here in my child- 
 hood, schools to be compared only with those of Germany 
 and the United States. 
 
 " My master explained it to me in the last years of his 
 life, feeling unwilling to accept all the eulogies with which 
 my gratitude and my admiration sought to make his merits 
 known. His explanation was that he had read Scotch trea- 
 tises upon instruction, and had conformed himself to their 
 principles. In fact, primary education in Scotland has 
 been far superior to that of England, and this was proved 
 
 from early times by its institutions and science 
 
 D. Ignacio, for thus he was always called, read, wrote, and 
 ciphered perfectly. He dictated and sent to the press in 
 Buenos Ayres, a grammar, an orthography, and a treatise 
 upon arithmetic. Later, he taught algebra and some geog- 
 raphy. 
 
 " One year I saw a book upon his table, which showed 
 that he did not yet know Latin, and proposed to learn it. 
 
 " He was religious, which appeared less in ceremonies 
 than in precepts, and explanations of the catechism, and 
 especially in the frequent inculcation of the principles of 
 morality. 
 
 " His special quality as a master was to. inspire re- 
 spect, and I ought to say that all education is vain in the 
 presence of a deficiency of this quality as is the case in the 
 generality of masters. To-day, for instance, there is not a 
 
SCHOOL OF LA PATRIA. 313 
 
 single master in San Juan who possesses this primary 
 qualification of his profession. 
 
 " In the absence of D. Ignacio, his influence, his shadow, 
 I may say, presided "over the school. A dull murmur of 
 conversation might be heard ; but it did not come to be 
 noisy, and never rose to a shout ; as soon as he was seen 
 to pass by the window, that suppressed murmur began to 
 subside and became silence, and this silence was never dis- 
 turbed by any one in his presence ; there was no necessity 
 of calling to order, to which our masters recur in vain. I 
 preserve still the almost religious impression of this respect 
 which he inspired in us all, without exception, a respect 
 which we saw at home was mixed with love, and which 
 accompanied us to adult years, although many of his 
 pupils have occupied stations more exalted as to social 
 position than his own. 
 
 " The sphere of his instruction Jwas not very extensive, 
 but as we only learn by having our intelligence developed, 
 his mode of teaching went straight to the object, and what- 
 ever he taught we learned well, because he cultivated the 
 thinking powers from the beginning. In San Juan there 
 were fine readers taught by a new and easy method, long 
 before they could be found in Chili, and the Sanjuaninos 
 of those times were better spellers than there are to-day 
 among the cultivated youth of Buenos Ay res. 1 At first he 
 tried the system of emulation ; his pupils were Cartha- 
 genians and Romans ; but later he modified this system by 
 giving to each pupil one opponent who always ended by 
 being his best friend. At last he adopted Lancaster's 
 method. But the system which he used to perfection was 
 that of simultaneous recitation. 
 
 " He tried every system of punishments during the 
 
 1 The Spanish language has been very much adulterated in South 
 America. Ed. 
 
314 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 nine years that I was his pupil, according as his views 
 improved, but he never deprived himself of the resource 
 of corporal chastisement, in cases where he deemed it 
 necessary. 
 
 " A thousand qualities distinguished this man from the 
 generality of teachers, and established his superiority. 
 Most of his teaching was oral, especially in grammar and 
 arithmetic, and was reasoned out and duly exemplified. 
 
 " D. Ignacio has gone to his grave, but his spirit is en- 
 shrined in the hearts of a people who preserve the tra- 
 ditions of popular education. His pupils have diffused it, 
 and San Juan and Buenos Ayres, by their improvements in 
 education, testify to the service of the Rodriguez family of 
 blessed memory. 
 
 " I have digressed into these details, although by so doing 
 I have detained you too long, in order to rouse you to a 
 great and noble effort. San Juan was the first Argentine 
 province, as I have shown you, which after the revolution 
 of independence elevated primary education to the highest 
 grade of perfection possible at that epoch. From San 
 Juan went forth the impulse which in these later days has 
 stimulated two republics. San Juan owes it to herself to 
 reestablish the fame of her ancient school, and permit me 
 to say, that it is the duty of my country and my compatri- 
 ots to aid me in the full development of a system of com- 
 mon school education which shall put the seal upon the 
 work of thirty years of my life." 
 
 " In regard to my education," he continues, " it may be 
 said that fate intervened to dog my steps. I next went to 
 the seminary of Loreto in Cordova, but was obliged to, 
 return without entering, for the revolution of Carita left me 
 without a Latin teacher. In 1825, I began to study 
 mathematics and surveying under M. Barreau, engineer 
 of that province. Together we drew up the plan of the 
 
EDUCATION. 315 
 
 streets of Roji, Desemparados, and Santa Barbara, and 
 from there round to the Pueblo Rajo, and T alone, my 
 teacher having abandoned me, that of the Cathedral Santa 
 Lucia and Legua. That same year I went to San Luis to 
 continue with the clergyman Oro the education which the 
 revolution of 1824 had interrupted. A year later I was 
 summoned by the government to be sent to the College of 
 the Moral Sciences, and arrived at San Juan, after having 
 once refused to go, at the moment when the lancers of 
 Facundo Quiroga appeared from the dusty wood, fluttering 
 their sinister banners through the streets. The next year 
 I entered a commercial house as a timid apprentice, I, 
 who had been educated by the presbyter Oro, in solitude 
 which so develops the imagination, dreaming of con- 
 gresses, war, glory, liberty, in short, of the Republic. I 
 was sad for many days, and, like Franklin, whom his 
 parents destined for a soap-boiler, but who was des- 
 tined to rob the heavens of their lightnings, and tyrants of 
 their sceptres, I ' took an aversion to the road that leads to 
 fortune.' In my musings, in hours of idleness, I returned 
 to the fields of San Luis, where I wandered through the 
 woods with my Latin grammar in my hand studying mas- 
 cula sunt maribus, and interrupting the repetition by throw- 
 ing stones at the birds. I missed that sonorous voice 
 which had for two whole years sounded in my ears, placid, 
 friendly, moving my heart-strings, calling out my senti- 
 ments, elevating my mind. The reminiscences of that 
 oral shower which fell every day upon my soul, presented 
 themselves like the pictures of a book whose significance 
 we comprehend by the action of the figures. Peoples, 
 history, geography, religion, morals, politics, all these were 
 annotated as in an index, but I missed the book, which 
 gave the details, and I was alone in the world in the midst 
 of parcels of condiments and pieces of chintz, which I 
 
316 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 was to measure out by the yard to those who came to 
 buy them. But there must be books, I said, which treat 
 specially of all things and teach them to children, and if 
 one understands what he reads, he can learn them without 
 the assistance of a master, and I rushed to seek those 
 books, and in that remote province, in that hour of taking 
 my resolution, I found what I sought, such as I had con- 
 ceived it, prepared by exiled patriots who wished well to 
 America, and who had foreseen from London this necessity 
 of South America to educate itself, and responding to my 
 importunities had sent me the catechisms of Akermann 
 which Don Tomas Rojo had introduced into San Juan. 
 4 1 have found it,' I could exclaim like Archimedes, for I 
 had foreseen, sought and found those catechisms which 
 later in the year 1829, I gave to Don Saturnino Laspiar 
 for the education of his children. 1 There was ancient 
 history, and that Persia, and that Egypt, those Pyramids, 
 and that Nile, of which the clergyman Oro had told me. 
 I studied the history of Greece by heart, and then that of 
 Rome, feeling myself to be successively Leonidas and 
 Brutus, Aristides, Camillus, Harmodius, and Epaminon- 
 das ; and this while I was selling herbs and sugar, and 
 making grimaces to those who came to draw me from my 
 newly-discovered world where I wished to live. In the 
 mornings after sweeping the shop, I read, and as a certain 
 Senora passed by on her way from church, and her eyes 
 always fell, day after day, month after month, upon that 
 boy, immovable, insensible to every disturbance, his eyes 
 fixed upon a book, one day, shaking her head, she said 
 to her family, ' That lad cannot be good if those books 
 were good he would not read them so eagerly ! ' 
 
 " From that time 1 read every book that fell into my 
 
 1 These were some young men whom the youthful Sarmiento taught to 
 read, though much older than himself, and the sons of a wealthy man. 
 
READINGS. 317 
 
 hands, without arrangement, with no other guide than the 
 chance which brought them to me, or the knowledge I had 
 acquired of their existence in the scanty libraries of San 
 Juan. The first was the ' Life of Cicero ' by Middleton, 
 with very fine plates, and in that book I lived a long time 
 with the Romans. If I had then had half the means of 
 doing it, I should have studied law to make myself an 
 advocate and defend causes like that distinguished orator 
 who was the object of my passionate love. The second 
 was the ' Life of Franklin,' and no book has ever done me 
 more good. The ' Life of Franklin ' was to me what 
 ' Plutarch's Lives ' were to Rousseau, Henry IV., Madame 
 Roland, and so many others. I felt myself to be Frank- 
 lin, and why not ? I was very poor like him, I studied 
 like him, and following in his footsteps, I might one day 
 come, like him, to be a doctor ad honor em ! and to make 
 myself a place in letters and American politics. The 
 ' Life of Franklin ' should be in every primary school. 
 His example is so inspiring, the career he ran so glorious, 
 that there would not be a boy at all well-inclined who 
 would not try to be a little Franklin, through that noble 
 tendency of the human mind to imitate models of perfec- 
 tion that commend themselves to it. Holy aspirations of 
 the young soul for the beautiful and the perfect ! Where 
 among our books is the type, the practical possible model, 
 which shall guide them ? Our preachers propose to us the 
 saints of heaven, that we may imitate their ascetic virtues 
 and scourgings, but however well-intentioned a boy may 
 be, he soon renounces the pretension to perform miracles, 
 for the simple reason that those who counsel him to try it, 
 do not perform any themselves." 
 
 It was at this time that he read the Bible with his 
 uncle the presbyter Albarracin, Paley's " Natural 
 
318 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 Theology and Evidences of Christianity," " The True 
 Idea of the Holy See," and " Feijoo " (a Catholic 
 writer who tried to reason away many of the super- 
 stitious observances of the Church, and came very 
 near falling into the hands of the Inquisition for so 
 doing). This completed that eminently religious and 
 raisonne*e education which had come to him from the 
 cradle, transmitted from his mother to the schoolmas- 
 ter, from his mentor Oro to the Presbyter Albarracin. 
 
 PUBLIC LIFE. 
 
 " At sixteen I entered prison, and came out of it with 
 political opinions diametrically opposed to those of Silvio 
 Pellico, to whom prisons taught the moral of resignation 
 and self-annihilation. From the time ' My Prisons ' fell 
 into my hands, I was inspired with a horror of that doc- 
 trine of moral discouragement which it went forth to 
 preach through the world, and which was so acceptable to 
 kings, who felt that they were threatened by the energy of 
 their people. How would the human race have advanced, 
 if in order to comprehend the interests of their country, 
 men needed to have spiritual exercises in the dungeons 
 of Spielberg, the Bastille, and Santos Lugares ? Woe to 
 the world if the Czar of Russia, the Emperor of Austria, or 
 the tyrant Rosas could teach morality to mankind ! Silvio 
 Pellico's book is the death of the soul, the morality of dun- 
 geons, the slow poison of degradation of mind. He and 
 his book have happily passed away, and the world has gone 
 on in spite of the cripples, paralytics, and valetudinarians 
 whom political struggles have left. 
 
 "I was a shopkeeper by profession in 1827, and I do not 
 remember whether I was also Cicero, Franklin, or The- 
 mistocles (it depends upon what book I was reading at the 
 
EARLY PUBLIC LIFE. 319 
 
 time of the catastrophe), but I was told for the third time 
 to close my shop and mount guard in the character of en- 
 sign of militia, to which rank I had of late been promoted. 
 I was very much opposed to that guard, and over my own 
 signature I complained of the service, and used the expres- 
 sion, * with which we are oppressed.' I was at once re- 
 lieved of the guard, and summoned into the presence of 
 the colonel of the army of Chili, Don Manuel Quiroga, 
 then Governor of San Juan, who at the moment was taking 
 his ease, seated in the court-yard of the Government House. 
 This circumstance and my extreme youth (sixteen), natu- 
 rally authorized the Governor, on speaking to me, to keep 
 his seat, and keep on his hat. But it was the first time I 
 had presented myself before one in authority. I was young, 
 ignorant of life, haughty by education, and perhaps by my 
 daily contact with Caesar, Cicero, and other favorite person- 
 ages, and as the Governor did not answer my respectful 
 salute, before answering his question, * Is this your signa- 
 ture, sir ? ' I hurriedly lifted my hat, intentionally put it 
 on again, and answered resolutely, ' Yes, sir.' 
 
 " The dumb scene that followed would have perplexed 
 the spectator, doubting which was the chief and which the 
 subaltern, who were defying each other by their glances, 
 the eyes of each wide open and fixed upon each other ; the 
 Governor endeavoring to make me cast down mine by the 
 flashes of anger that gleamed from his own, and I with 
 mine fixed unwinking, to make him understand that his 
 rage was aimed at a soul fortified against all intimidation. 
 I conquered, and in a transport of anger, he called an aide- 
 de-camp and sent me to prison. 
 
 " Friends flew to see me, among them Laspuir, now min- 
 ister, who was very fond of me ; he advised me to do what 
 he had always done, yield before difficulties. My father 
 came soon, and after I had told him the story, he said, 
 
320 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 * You have done a foolish thing, but it is done ; now bear 
 the consequences with courage.' The affair was followed 
 up. I was asked if I had heard the government complained 
 of. I answered, ' Yes, by many.' When asked for names, 
 I said, ' Those who had spoken in my presence had not 
 authorized me to communicate their opinions to the au- 
 thorities.' They insisted ; I persisted ; they threatened 
 me ; I held my tongue ; they abandoned the cause, and I 
 was set at liberty. 
 
 " I was initiated thus by the authorities themselves into 
 the party questions of the city ; into questions which divided 
 the Republic, and it was not in Rome or in Greece that I 
 was to seek for liberty and country, but there, in San Juan, 
 in the horizon where the events opened that were prepar- 
 ing in the last days of Rivadavia's presidency. . . . 
 
 " At the fiesta of Pueblo Viejo, I fired a sky-rocket at 
 the hoofs of a group of horses, and Colonel Quiroga, then 
 ex-governor, came out from among the horsemen to mal- 
 treat me, attributing to malice prepense what was only a 
 piece of folly. We had a wordy dispute, he on horseback, 
 I on foot. He had a train of fifty horsemen, and I fixed 
 my eyes upon him and his spirited horse to avoid being 
 trampled upon, when I felt something touch me behind in 
 a disagreeable and significant manner. I put my hand be- 
 hind me, and touched the barrel of a pistol, which was 
 left in my hand. I was also at that instant the Lead of a 
 phalanx, which had gathered in my defense. The Federal 
 party, headed by Quiroga Carril, was on the point of a 
 hand-to-hand encounter with the Unitario party, whom I 
 served unconsciously at that moment. The ex-governor 
 rode off, confounded by the mocking laughter he heard, 
 and perhaps astonished at being a second time worsted in 
 the presence of a boy who did not arrogantly give him 
 provocation, nor timidly yield when once embarked in a 
 
HEROIC ENTHUSIASM. 321 
 
 bad undertaking. The next day I was a Unitario ; a month 
 later I knew the party questions in their very essence, knew 
 their personages and their views, for from that moment I 
 entered upon the voluminous study of opposing principles. 
 " When the war broke out, I gave into the hands of my 
 aunt, Dona Angela, the shop I had in charge, enlisted with 
 the troops which had risen in insurrection against Facundo 
 Quiroga in the Quijadas, made the campaign of Jachel, 
 found myself in the encounter at Tafin, escaped being 
 taken prisoner with the carts and horses which I had pre- 
 viously taken in the Posito, under the order of Don Javier 
 Angulo, fled with my father to Mendoza, where the very 
 troops which had conquered us in San Juan had risen 
 against the Aldaos, and shortly after was nominated adju- 
 tant." 
 
 He was subsequently an approved instructor of re- 
 cruits, then second director of the Military Academy, 
 to which office he was assigned for his knowledge of 
 cavalry maneuvers and tactics, due to his peculiar hab- 
 its of study. The campaign of Mendoza, which ended 
 in the horrible tragedy of Pilar, brought on by the bad 
 faith of Aldao, was to him the poetry, the idealization, 
 the realization of his readings. He was only eighteen, 
 a beardless youth, unknown to the world, but he lived 
 in an ecstasy of enthusiasm, ready at any moment to 
 be a hero, to sacrifice himself, or to die, in order to 
 obtain the smallest result in the cause for which he 
 fought, which was liberty to all as well as to himself. 
 He describes himself as fighting with " demoniac " 
 zeal, the first in pursuit of guerillas, regardless of 
 danger ; indeed, so beside himself, that at last his 
 
 superior officer took away his rifle, as one takes a noisy 
 21 
 
322 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 trumpet from children, till they learn to do what they 
 are bid. 
 
 These combats were in the streets of the city, and 
 the conquerors in one were now prisoners in another. 
 His father followed him everywhere like a tutelar 
 angel, but was often unable to restrain his fanaticism. 
 Indeed, on one occasion, when the noble Leprida most 
 affectionately and earnestly, but in vain, endeavored to 
 withdraw him from the combat, the illustrious Lep- 
 rida, President of that Congress of Tucuman, which 
 declared the independence of Spanish rule, and before 
 whom the most eminent men of the Republic bowed 
 their heads, as before one of the fathers of their coun- 
 try, and who perished in that terrible massacre, he also 
 obliged his father to flee without him, who lingering 
 too long on the road, almost beside himself with anxiety 
 and shame for having preserved his own life by flight, 
 was at last taken prisoner and carried to San Juan, 
 where he escaped being shot only by a ransom of two 
 thousand dollars. The young Sarmiento escaped many 
 perils at that time that of being shot by the order of 
 his own government, from which he was saved by 
 a noble foe, who carried him and other enthusiastic 
 youths who were brought prisoners to him, to the shel- 
 ter of his own roof, where he protected them at the 
 risk of his own life ; the peril of being shot in the 
 barracks by three assassins instigated by Aldao, be- 
 side that of innumerable skirmishes and engagements. 
 He says human nature never showed itself more un- 
 worthy to him than in that treacherous attack of the 
 drunken friar, Aldao, upon a group of sixty officers, 
 who had assembled after a truce had been agreed upon. 
 
THE MASTERY OF LANGUAGES. 323 
 
 It was at that time that two hundred persons fell vic- 
 tims to the atrocities of Aldao, among whom were 
 twenty of Sarmiento's own friends. But such is the 
 elasticity of youth, that while a prisoner in his own 
 house in Mendoza, to escape Aldao, an opportunity 
 offering to study French with a soldier of Napoleon, 
 who did not know Spanish nor the grammar of his own 
 language, in six weeks from the beginning he had made 
 such progress as to have translated twelve volumes. 
 
 He kept his books upon the dining-table (it was the 
 sight of a French library in the place that had awak- 
 ened his zeal), removed them at meal times, extin- 
 guished his candle at two in the morning, or when the 
 reading absorbed him entirely, passed two or three 
 days in succession, seated, with his dictionary by his 
 side. Fourteen years afterward, on visiting France, 
 he learned to pronounce the language. 
 
 It was after these events that with his family and 
 those of the most prominent citizens of San Juan, he 
 emigrated to Chili, to escape the fearful tyranny de- 
 scribed in the work now published. At first he kept 
 school in Los Andes, then was a shopkeeper in Pocuro, 
 with a small capital provided by his family, afterwards 
 a commercial clerk in Valparaiso, then majordomo of 
 mines in Copiapo. While in Valparaiso, earning an 
 ounce a month, he paid half of it to Rickard, the Eng- 
 lish professor, and two reals a week to the watchman 
 of the ward, to wake him at two in the morning for his 
 English studies. Saturday nights he passed without 
 sleep, to eke out the leisure of Sunday. After he had 
 taken lessons six weeks, Rickard told him that he only 
 wanted the pronunciation, which he did not acquire, 
 however, till very lately. 
 
324 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 While majordomo of the Copiapo mines, he translated 
 a volume a day of the sixty volumes of Sir Walter Scott's 
 works, beside some other books. His reading in Val- 
 paraiso was very extensive, and these readings, enriched 
 by several languages, spread out before him all the 
 great discussions of philosophical, political, moral, and 
 religious ideas, and to use his own expression, " opened 
 the pores of his intelligence to imbibe them." When 
 the labor of the mining day was over, he met, in a 
 certain kitchen where they partook of refreshment, 
 other Argentine majordomos, foremen, and laborers, 
 exiles like himself, to discuss politics, and in the even- 
 ings assembled at the house of another, the only one 
 who had a family establishment there, thus keeping up 
 their habits of civilized life. At these reunions, in his 
 miner's dress, which consisted of doublet and hose, 
 striped drawers, a red cap, and a broad sash, from 
 which depended a purse capable of holding twenty-five 
 pounds of sugar, but in which he always kept several 
 bundles of tobacco, a dress he had assumed partly from 
 fancy and partly from economy, he was always the 
 oracle to which all appealed for points of history, geog- 
 raphy, or other book learning. Anecdotes are told of 
 the astonishment of strangers at the little learned miner, 
 who was supposed to be only a peon who had strayed 
 into the company. Once, for want of the book, he 
 recited a whole pamphlet he had written upon a plan 
 for planting a colony on the Colorado River, and made 
 converts too for he was from his youth always elo- 
 quent upon the point of cultivating the soil. In the 
 proper place we shall speak of his success in later life 
 in showing to his countrymen the advantages of agri- 
 
A COMMUNITY OF STUDENTS. 325 
 
 culture over cattle-growing. While at Copiapo it was 
 his habit to entertain the miners by drawings of birds 
 and animals, and he taught French to others, for those 
 who knew less than himself were always objects of in- 
 terest to him. 
 
 In 1836, he returned to San Juan, ill with a cerebral 
 attack, destitute of resources, scarcely known to any 
 one, for few old friends had yet returned from exile. 
 A complicated operation in arithmetic, which the in- 
 competent government needed, brought him again into 
 notice, and after suffering many privations, he gradu- 
 ally took his place again with Cortinez, Aberastain, 
 Quiroga Rosas, and Rodriguez, men of mark and edu- 
 cation, worthy to figure in any part of South America. 
 Together they founded a college for young ladies, in aid 
 of which project he had written a forcible appeal for 
 the education of women, and of which he was made 
 director and another for men, which was not allowed 
 to succeed. The college for ladies lasted but two years, 
 but left its mark upon the society of San Juan. A 
 dramatic society and many public amusements that 
 tended to cultivate and improve manners, were among 
 the improvements made by these young men, stimu- 
 lated by the undying zeal and executive ability of Sar- 
 miento. Here, in the library of Quiroga Rosas, he 
 found Villemain, and Schlegel ; in literature, Jouffroi, 
 Lermennier, Guizot, Cousin ; in philosophy, Tocque- 
 ville, and Pedro Leroux ; the " Encyclopedic Review," 
 as synthesis of all opinions, Charles Didier, and a hun- 
 dred other authors, whom ' he devoured with avidity. 
 For two years these books furnished material for im- 
 passioned discussions between the friends, and in this 
 
326 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 school of philosophy, as he considered it, they talked 
 over the new doctrines, attacked, defended, resisted, 
 and were at last more or less conquered by them. 
 Here his own mind, hitherto but a reflecting mirror of 
 the ideas of others, began to move and march on. He 
 now began to think clearly for himself on all subjects. 
 
 " The European mind," as he expresses it, " began to 
 transfuse itself into the American mind, and I began to 
 apply to the different circumstances of the two theatres of 
 action the results at which I arrived. 
 
 "It was in 1837 that I learned Italian, in company with 
 young Rawson, 1 whose talents had then begun to show them- 
 selves strikingly. Several years afterward, when editing 
 the * Mercurio ' in Santiago de Chili, I familiarized myself 
 with Portuguese, which is very easy. In Paris, still later, 
 I shut myself up fifteen days with a German grammar and 
 dictionary, and translated six pages to the satisfaction of 
 an intelligent man who gave me lessons, that supreme 
 effort leaving me an incomplete scholar, although I thought 
 I had caught the structure of that rebellious idiom. 
 
 " I taught French to many persons for the sake of spread- 
 ing good reading among them ; and to sundry of my friends 
 I taught it without giving them lessons. To put them in 
 the path which I had trodden, I said, ' You must not fail 
 to study I am coming.' And when I saw their self-love 
 fairly piqued, I gave them a few lessons upon the way to 
 study for themselves. 
 
 " In all these efforts I always had in full activity the 
 organ of instruction, and which was more cultivated in me 
 than any other ; educated by the living speech of the 
 presbyter Oro, and the curate Albarracin, and always 
 seeking the society of well-informed men, then and after- 
 
 i Late Secretary of State in the Republic. 
 
"LA ZONDA." 327 
 
 wards my friends. Aberastain, Penero, Lopez, Alberdi, 
 Gutierrez, Oro, Tejedor, Fragueiro, Montt, and many oth- 
 ers, contributed, without knowing it, to develop my mind, 
 transmitting their ideas to me, and giving me an opportu- 
 nity to unfold my own as the complement to theirs. 
 
 " How are ideas formed ? I believe that in the mind of 
 one who studies, it happens as in those inundations of riv- 
 ers where the waters deposit little by little the particular 
 solids washed down by them, and with which they fertilize 
 the adjacent territory." 
 
 With the aid of the old friends whom he found in 
 San Juan, he founded at this time a periodical called 
 " La Zonda," which criticized village manners,, pro- 
 moted the 'spirit of enthusiasm, and would have been 
 of incalculable benefit, if the government, which the 
 periodical did not attack, had not felt a horrible appre- 
 hension of the light it was sending abroad. 
 
 " Out of this came my second imprisonment," he says, 
 " for refusing to pay twenty-six dollars, of which in viola- 
 tion of the laws and decrees in force, the government pro- 
 posed to rob me. Don Antonio Benavides (Governor), 
 and Don Antonio Maradona (Minister), jointly and in 
 solidum owe me twenty-six dollars every day that impends, 
 and they shall pay me, as God lives, one or the other of 
 them, sooner or later, the latter rather than the former, 
 because a minister is put in his place to give counsel to 
 the governor, who does not know so well the laws of his 
 country, too self-willed to be restrained by laws, those frail 
 barriers to his caprice, but which are insuperable through 
 the respect their direct agents deserve among cultivated 
 men. The governor of San Juan, wishing to free the prov- 
 ince from the serious evils which might be brought upon 
 it by the publication of a periodical which was edited by 
 
328 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 four men of letters competent to the task that is, not 
 wishing any one to examine his acts or enlighten public 
 opinion, sent me word that the second number of 'La 
 Zonda ' was worth twelve dollars. I ordered the printer 
 to draw so many dollars, and ' La Zonda ' died of that 
 suffocation." 
 
 One day he received a summons to appear before 
 the governor, who asked him if he had obeyed the 
 order to pay twenty-six dollars for the last number of 
 " La Zonda." He replied that it was an illegal de- 
 mand, and that he had had no official notice to pay it, 
 for the messenger by whom it was sent, the printer, 
 was not a legal messenger, and the law provided that 
 no money should be required of writers, the publishers 
 having the benefit of sales, in order to encourage pub- 
 lications. Finding him resolute in his refusal, Bena- 
 vides threw him into prison. His friends visited him 
 and advised him to yield the point, in order to save the 
 college of which he was director. The aide-de-camp 
 came to receive the money, and received a warrant 
 against a merchant, accompanied by his own signature, 
 by which Sarmiento was to recover in due time, in 
 view of the law which was violated to his injury, the 
 sum of which 'he was despoiled, with damages. Thus 
 ended this affair, but he says, 
 
 " My situation in San Juan became more and more 
 thorny every day, as the political horizon became more and 
 more charged with threatening clouds. Without any plan 
 of life, without influence, repelling the idea of conspiracy, 
 in coffee-houses, and assemblies, as well as in the presence 
 of Benavides, I spoke my convictions with all the sincerity 
 of my nature, and the suspicions of the government closed 
 
INTERVIEW WITH BENAVIDES. 329 
 
 around me on every side like a cloud of flies buzzing in 
 my ears. 
 
 "In 1839 an incident complicated the situation. The 
 friar Aldao was defeated, and his instantaneous arrival in 
 San Juan was announced. The few men who opposed the 
 government feared for their lives. Dr. Aberastain was the 
 only one who would not flee. I prevailed upon him to go, 
 I begged him to go, and he yielded to my request. I 
 was the only one who knew Aldao well. I alone had been 
 in Mendoza the spectator of atrocities of which two 
 hundred unhappy persons, twenty of whom were my 
 friends and companions, had been the victims. When they 
 spoke to me of preparing for the intended flight, I gave 
 reasons of convenience and duty which obliged me to 
 remain in San Juan, to which they could but give assent. 
 Aldao did not come, but the fears of the government and 
 the rage of the new and hitherto unknown men into 
 whose hands it had put arms, were concentrated upon 
 me. 
 
 " At that time I made a supreme effort. I saw Mara- 
 dona the ex-minister, the representatives of Sala, and as 
 many men as could influence the mind of Benavides, in 
 order that they might restrain him, if possible, from the 
 abyss into which I saw him rushing despotism, chieftain- 
 ship, the overthrow of all the foundations on which society 
 reposes. The growing tyrant sent for me. 
 
 *" ' I know that you are conspiring, Don Domingo.' 
 " ' It is false, sir ; I do not conspire.' 
 " ' You are influencing the Representatives.' 
 " Ah ! that is another thing ; your Excellency sees that 
 there is no conspiracy. I have my right to apply to the 
 magistrates and the representatives of the people, to prevent 
 the calamities which your Excellency is preparing for the 
 country. Your Excellency is alone, isolated, obstinate in 
 
330 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 carrying out your plan, and I am interested, that those who 
 can and ought to do it, should restrain you in time.' 
 
 " ' Don Domingo, you will force me to take measures.' 
 
 " ' And what matters it ? ' 
 
 " * Severe ones.' 
 
 11 ' And what matters it ? ' 
 
 " * You do not understand what I mean/ 
 
 " ( Yes, I understand to shoot me, and what matters 
 it?' 
 
 " Benavides looked at me as if fascinated ; and I protest 
 that he could not see on my countenance any sign of 
 boasting. I was inspired at that moment by the spirit of 
 God. I was the representative of the rights of all, which 
 were about to be trampled on. I saw in the countenance 
 of Benavides symptoms of appreciation, of compassion, 
 of respect, and I wished to respond to this movement of 
 his soul. 
 
 " ' Sir,' I said, ' do not defile yourself with crime. 
 When you can tolerate me no longer, banish me to Chili ; 
 in the mean time, remember that I must labor to restrain 
 you, if possible, from the precipice over which ambition 
 and unbridled passion are hurrying you,' and then I took 
 my leave. 
 
 " Some days afterwards I was again summoned to the 
 Governor's house. 
 
 " ' I have been convinced that you have received letters 
 from Salta and the encampment of Brinuela.' 
 
 " ' Yes, sir ; and I was preparing to bring them to you/ 
 
 " ' I knew the papers had arrived, but I was ignorant,' 
 he added angrily, 'that you wished to show them to 
 me.' 
 
 "'I had not made a fair copy of the representation I 
 had made, with which to accompany them. Your Excel- 
 lency has both now.' 
 
REASONING WITH AN IGNORANT TYRANT. 331 
 
 " * These proclamations are printed here.' 
 
 " ' You are mistaken, sir, they were printed in Salta.' 
 
 " ' There ! do not deceive me.' 
 
 " * 1 never deceive, sir. I repeat that they were printed 
 in Salta. The press of San Juan has not this small capital ; 
 this other type, that ' 
 
 " Benavides insisted, sent for Galaburri the printer, and 
 was convinced of his error. 
 
 " ' Give me this paper.' 
 
 " ' I will read it to you, sir ; it is in manuscript.' 
 
 " < Read it, then.' 
 
 " I was silent. 
 
 " Eead it.' 
 
 " ' Will your Excellency send away the Chief of Police, 
 in whom I do not wish to place confidence.' 
 
 " And when he had gone out, while Benavides threw 
 glances upon me that threatened death, as if I ought to 
 pay for his bad education, which made him a third party, I 
 read my factum in a clear expressive voice, pausing upon 
 each conception that I wished to make salient, giving force 
 to those ideas which I wished to make penetrate my audi- 
 tor. When I had finished reading, which had put me into 
 a state of exaltation, I raised my eyes, and read in the 
 countenance of the chief indifference ! Not one single 
 idea had penetrated his soul, nor had a suspicion arisen in 
 it. His will and his ambition were a cuirass which de- 
 fended his heart and his intellect. 
 
 " Benavides is a cold man ; and to this San Juan owes hav- 
 ing been less abused than the other provinces. He has an 
 excellent heart, and is tolerant ; envy has little part in his 
 mind ; he is patient and tenacious. Afterwards I reflected 
 that reason is impotent in a certain state of culture ; its 
 edges are blunted and slip over those smooth and hardened 
 surfaces. Like the generality of men in our countries, he 
 
332 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 has no clear consciousness of law or of justice. I have 
 heard him say, candidly, that the province would never do 
 well till it had no lawyers, that his comrade Ibarra lived 
 tranquilly, and governed well, because he alone, in two 
 cases out of three, decided all causes. Rosas has his best 
 support in Benavides ; it is the force of inertia in exercise, 
 calling everything to be quiet and dead, without violence 
 and without parade. The province of San Juan is, with 
 the exception of La Rioja, San Luis, and some other cities, 
 one that has fallen lowest, because Benavides has im- 
 pressed upon it his materialism, his inertia, his abandon- 
 ment of all that constitutes public life, which is just what 
 despotism requires. The people eat, they sleep, they talk, 
 they laugh if they can, and keep quiet, that in twenty 
 years hence, their sons may walk on four feet. 
 
 " Benavides had no minister then ; all the Federals 
 avoided him, and he alone, with the aid of his troops, car- 
 ried on his insane designs. Thus men in power, take the 
 name of the people to call themselves governments, after 
 they have degraded and abused them ! He had made one 
 Espinosa, a drunken Tucuman, though a valiant fellow, chief 
 of his forces ; and one Herrera, a Chilian bandit, taken out 
 of prison, and a comic actor whom I had hissed in the 
 theatre, were called into the service, the latter as captain ; 
 the Indian Saavedra, an assassin and highwayman, was 
 another. Juan Fernandez, a young man of good family who 
 had voluntarily descended into the rabble where he passed 
 his time in intoxication and gambling, the most despicable 
 and despised creature then in San Juan, was his aide-de- 
 camp. An Italian impostor, corrupt, clownish, and igno- 
 rant, was made mayor. Under the orders of these chiefs, 
 the scoriae of society, many obscure young men of good 
 intentions, but ignorant and from the lowest orders of soci- 
 ety, had been called into the service. Some of them, 
 
ARRESTED BY BENAVIDES. 333 
 
 even from that bad school, turned out good members 
 of society, however. Finally, I was summoned a fourth 
 time to the government house. This time I was prepared. 
 I knew that a terrible blow was to be inflicted, and that I 
 was the appointed victim. It was Sunday, and I had taken 
 leave of some friends at home half in jest and half in 
 earnest, and written down that my life was in danger. I 
 obeyed the summons, however, taking with me a servant 
 who could give information of my imprisonment should 
 that event occur. I met on the way one of my friends, 
 and resisted his prayers and supplications that I would not 
 present myself. 
 
 " They are going to arrest you ; everything is prepared.' 
 
 " ' Let me alone ; Benavides has sent for me by an 
 aide-de-camp, and I should be ashamed not to answer the 
 call/ 
 
 " They arrested me ! And at oration, when the guard 
 presented itself that was to take me to the prison, the 
 noise of swords made my nerves thrill ; there was a hum- 
 ming in my ears, and I was afraid ! Death, which I be- 
 lieved my doom at that moment, looked to me sad, dis- 
 graceful, guilty ; and 1 had not the courage to accept it in 
 that character. Nothing happened then, however, except 
 that I was fastened into my dungeon with shackles. The 
 days passed, and the mind habituated itself to conquer its 
 anxieties and disenchantment, as the eyes habituated them- 
 selves to the darkness. I was a passive victim, and except 
 my family, no one seemed to care for my fate. My cause 
 was no one's but my own. I suffered because I had been 
 indiscreet, because I had desired to attack the evil without 
 possessing the means to attack it ; to material facts I op- 
 posed protests, and solitary abnegation, and the facts took 
 their own course in spite of me. 
 
 " On the night of the 17th of November, at two in the 
 
334 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 morning, a group of horsemen parading in front of the 
 prison, cried out, ' Death to the Unitarios.' So without 
 antecedents was that cry, so coldly and composedly did it 
 proceed out of the mouths of those who pronounced it, 
 that it was evident that it was a thing arranged and agreed 
 upon dispassionately. I understood perfectly that there 
 was some design on foot. At four o'clock the same thing 
 was repeated. I was awake, writing some foolish thing 
 which kept me entertained. At dawn, an Andalusian was 
 brought into the prison who pretended to be drunk, and in 
 the midst of repartees and laughable jokes, designed to 
 distract the attention of the sentinels, in passing me, mak- 
 ing an evolution round another prisoner who was with me, 
 he let fall short phrases ' They are going to assassinate 
 
 them. The troops are coming into the square . The 
 
 commandant Espinosa is going to lance Senor Sar- 
 
 miento ! Save yourself if you can ! ' 
 
 " This time I was equal to the situation. I sent home a 
 boy, wrote to the bishop that he must not be frightened, 
 and that he must try by his presence to save me ; but the 
 poor old man did just the contrary ; he was frightened, 
 and his legs would not hold him up. The troops came 
 and formed in the square ; the boy who stood at the door 
 of the dungeon in the character of a telegraph, communi- 
 cated to me all the movements. Some cries were heard 
 in the square, and there was much running of horses. I 
 saw the lance of Espinosa pass by. There was a moment 
 of silence, and soon eighty officers collected in a group 
 near the prison, crying, ' Bring down the prisoners ! ' The 
 officer of the guard came to me and ordered me to go out. 
 
 " ' By whose order ? ' 
 
 " ' By Commandant Espinosa's.' 
 
 " ' I do not obey.' 
 
 " He then passed on to the next cell, and brought out 
 
FACE TO FACE WITH DEATH. 335 
 
 Oro and exhibited him. But on seeing him they cried, 
 fc Come down ! Not he ! Sarmiento ! ' 
 
 " 4 Go then,' I said to myself, * there is no way of getting 
 excused here.' I went out and was saluted with a hur- 
 rah of threats and insults by men who did not know me, 
 with the exception of two who had reason to detest 
 me. 
 
 " i Come down ! Come down ! Crucify him.' 
 
 " ' I do not obey ! You have no right to send for me." 
 
 " ' Officer of the guard, strike him down with your 
 sword ! ' 
 
 " ' Go down,' said the latter to me with his sword up- 
 lifted. 
 
 ** ' I do not obey,' I said, taking hold of the iron railing. 
 
 " ' Go down ! ' and he struck me with his sword. 
 
 " ' I do not obey,' I repeated quietly. 
 
 " ' Give him the edge ! ' cried Espinosa, foaming with 
 rage. ' If he stays up there, I will pierce him with my 
 lance, Mr. officer of the guard.' 
 
 " ' Go down, sir, for God's sake,' said the good official in 
 a low voice, ashamed, in spite of himself, and half weep- 
 ing ; while he discharged blows upon me with his sword. 
 * I shall give you the edge, indeed I shall.' 
 
 " < Do what you please,' I said. * I do not obey.' 
 
 " Some cries of alarm from two windows in the square 
 from voices which were known to me, on seeing that sword 
 rise and fall, had disturbed me a little. But I wished to 
 die as I had lived, as I had sworn to live, without even 
 willfully consenting to violence. Besides, I must humbly 
 confess that I had a little stratagem in reserve. I had 
 ascertained that Benavides was not in the square, and this 
 datum had enabled me rapidly to arrange my plan of de- 
 fense. The railing of the City Hall steps was really my 
 table of safety. * The troops have come to the square,' I 
 
336 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 said to myself. ' Now Benavides has a part in this affair, 
 but he is not here, in order to refer this outrage to the 
 Federal enthusiasm, as Rosas called the assassination of 
 Mana. which he denounced as ' an atrocious license in a 
 moment of profound and immense popular irritation.' 
 The prison is in a straight line, a square and a half from 
 Benavides' house. Sound runs so many leagues a minute, 
 and to go two hundred and twenty-five yards required only 
 a second of time. In vain would the Governor have 
 wished to wash his hands of that anonymous outrage, for 
 here was I in a high and respectable place to send the 
 crime to its source and origin. The servants of Benavides' 
 house, one of his scribes, and his aide-de-camp, ran on see- 
 ing the sword glisten as it revolved in the air over my 
 head, and one after another, as they ran into the house, 
 shrieked, ' Sir ! sir ! they are killing Don Domingo ! ' I 
 had then caught my cunning gaucho in his own net. 
 Either he confessed himself an accomplice, or he would 
 send the order to leave me in peace. Benavides had not 
 courage at that time to take that responsibility ; my blood 
 would have been distilling over his heart drop by drop all 
 the rest of his life ! 
 
 "When the furies who cried 'come down/ were con- 
 vinced that I would not die under the hoofs of the horses, 
 it being my pleasure to do that in a decent and clean 
 place, ten or twelve rushed up the steps, and catching me 
 in their arms, carried me down, at the moment when a 
 dozen hussars whom Espinosa had sent for to despatch 
 me, had arrived at the spot. But Espenosa wished to see 
 my face and to terrify me. The comic actor whom I 
 hissed in the theatre, made captain of the Confederacy, 
 held his sword at my breast with his eyes fixed on 
 Espinosa, ready at a signal to thrust it into me. The 
 commandant whirled his lance and pricked me on my side, 
 
IN PRISON. 337 
 
 uttering blasphemies. I kept my countenance composed, 
 stereotyped, just as I wished it to look after death. Espi- 
 nosa pricked harder, but my countenance remained impassi- 
 ble, if I might judge by the rage it inspired him with, for 
 recovering his lance, he gave me a horrible thrust. The 
 blade was half a yard long and the width of a hand, and I 
 preserved for many a day the scar which was left on my 
 wrist by my effort in wresting it out of my side. Then 
 the brute prepared to satiate his mocking rage. I, in- 
 spired by the sentiment of self-preservation, and calcu- 
 lating that it was time for Benavides' aide-de-camp to 
 arrive, raised my hand over my head and said imperiously, 
 ' Listen ! Commandant,' and as he lent his attention, I 
 turned round, thrust myself under the gallery to get round 
 the other side of the horses, and as I arrived at the end 
 they fell upon me. I warded off a cloud of bayonets with 
 both hands, and at that moment the Governor's aide arrived 
 with orders to suspend the farce, consenting only that they 
 should shave me, as they had done to many others. If he 
 had not permitted some punishment, Espinosa would have 
 wholly lost the dominion of his passions, and I should not 
 have had sufficient coolness to pull off the mask under 
 which Benavides wished to hide himself. They put me 
 into the lowest dungeon, and then occurred a scene 
 which doubled the terror of the people : my mother and 
 two of my sisters defied the guards, ascended the steps ; 
 they were seen to go in and out of the empty cells, then 
 descended like a vision, and rushed to the house of Bena- 
 vides to demand the son, the brother ! 0, the agonies 
 that despotism inflicts ! 
 
 " What passed next many know, but it was not I who 
 
 supplicated or gave satisfaction ! for on no day of that 
 
 trial did I belie the severity of my principles nor did my 
 
 spirit flag again. One thing in regard to this event I will 
 
 22 
 
338 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH, 
 
 record here for the benefit of those who despair of due 
 punishment being meted out to crimes committed with 
 impunity ten years ago. The perpetrators of that bloody 
 farce, all without one exception, have died a bloody death. 
 A fatal ball struck Espinosa at Angaco. Acha, coming 
 suddenly into the street one dark night, fired a few shots 
 out of mere wantonness into the square, and the comic 
 actor, who hoped for Espinosa's signal to stab me, fell 
 dead from his horse ; the Indian Saavedra, who had given 
 me a thrust, was assassinated. And the crippled gaucho 
 Fernandez, who wallowed in drunkenness and dissipation, 
 if he yet lives, it is to show who was the Governor's adju- 
 tant in those days of madness and infamy. Like my 
 mother, I believe in Providence ; and Barcena, Gaetan, 
 Salomon, and all the Mashorqueros (thugs) assassinated by 
 each other, or sentenced by him who had put the dagger 
 into their hands, devoured by remorse, desperation, deli- 
 rium, and the contempt of men, tormented by epilepsy or 
 wasted by consumption, have made me hope yet for 
 the end which will adjust all things. Rosas is already in 
 despair ! His body is a skeleton, trembling and disjointed. 
 The venom of his soul is corroding the vase which holds it, 
 and you will soon hear it crack, that his putrescent exist- 
 ence may give place to the rehabilitation of morality and 
 justice, and to the sentiments of humanity compromised 
 for so many years. Woe, then, to those who have not re- 
 pented of their crimes! The greatest punishment that 
 can be inflicted upon them is to live, and I wish to inflict 
 upon all, without exception, this punishment. 
 
 " My residence of four years in San Juan and this is the 
 only epoch of my adult life that I have resided in my own 
 country was a continuous and obstinate combat. I, like 
 others, wished to elevate myself, and the least concession 
 on my part would have opened to me the door to the 
 
EXILE. 339 
 
 administration of Benavides, and to a place in his army. He 
 desired it, and in the beginning had a great esteem for 
 me ; but I wished to rise in the world without sinning 
 against morality or committing crimes against liberty and 
 civilization. Public balls, societies, masquerades, theatres, 
 I was always at the head of; to the growing ignorance I 
 opposed colleges ; to the crime of governing without law 
 or justice I replied with a periodical ; against the attempt 
 to suppress such a publication illegally, I gave my person 
 to the prison ; against the holding of extraordinary powers 
 I advocated by speech and writing the right of petitioning 
 the representatives in order to make them fulfill their 
 duty ; to intimidation I opposed firmness and contempt ; to 
 the knife of the 18th of November, an impassible counte- 
 nance, and patience under mocking impositions and igno- 
 ble deceit. Everything that is evil has been said of me, 
 and some evil has been believed of me in San Juan ; but 
 no one has ever doubted my honor or my patriotism, and 
 I appeal for the truth of this to the testimony of those 
 who have chosen to call themselves my enemies. I lived 
 honorably, making an efficient workman by means of some 
 rudiments of practical geometry and the art of drawing 
 up plans which I acquired in my childhood. Forced by 
 want of lawyers, I defended some causes ; and when Dr. 
 Aberastain was supreme judge of Alzada, and my intimate 
 friend, I lost before his tribunal the two most important 
 ones. If this does not testify to my legal capacity, it at 
 least shows the incorruptibility of the judge." 
 
 The next day, on passing through the baths of 
 Zonda into exile, ancf turning his back upon all the 
 comforts and pleasures of life, he wrote with a piece 
 of charcoal, with the hand covered with the scars of 
 his late encounter, that noble protest which he quotes 
 in the prologue to " Civilization and Barbarism " 
 
340 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 " On ne tue pas Us idSes ! " 
 
 An English writer says of this : 
 
 " Let those acquainted with Senor Sarmiento say whether 
 he has fulfilled his mission. There is in these few words 
 a satire which tells volumes. It brands his enemies with 
 ignorance, at the same time that it is extremely ludicrous 
 and cutting. It is not too much to say that less interest- 
 ing anecdotes than this have appeared in Disraeli's ' Curi- 
 osities of Literature/ " * 
 
 Again he emigrated to Chili, thought seriously of 
 establishing himself there, and had the intention of 
 opening a college, but one of his compatriots dissuaded 
 him from it, and facilitated his writing for the periodic 
 press. By way of experiment, he sent from Santiago to 
 the only journal of Chili, the " Valparaiso Mercury," an 
 anonymous article signed " A Lieutenant of Artillery," 
 upon the battle of Chacabuco, which attracted notice 
 in literary and political society by its freshness of style 
 and elevation of thought. 
 
 A mutual jealousy of each other's glory has always 
 prevailed among the States of South America, occa- 
 sioned by their efforts to establish themselves as dis- 
 tinct nations, with more definite limits than any 
 previously suggested by their geography or by the 
 history of their war for independence. This jealousy 
 has often led to the perversion of history, and, at the 
 time we are considering, Chili had well-nigh erased 
 from her records the glorious * name of San Martin, 
 and thrust into the background the share of the Ar- 
 gentines in the battles of Chacabuco and Maypo, which 
 decided the establishment of Chilian independence. 
 
 1 River Plate Magazine, No. 3, page 151. 
 
LITERARY LABOR IN CHILI. 341 
 
 The above-mentioned article upon the first of these 
 battles, followed by another upon the second, roused 
 the generous sentiments of the people by its pathos, 
 and earnestly appealed to the justice of the generation 
 then in full enjoyment of the fruits of the great deeds 
 whose contemporaries had of necessity received wounds 
 as well as gifts from the rough hands of war. So 
 timely was this appeal in behalf of a just claim to 
 renown obscured by prejudice and malice, that it gained 
 for its author, hitherto without a name, in two senses, 
 a position in the unfamiliar theatre in which he had 
 thus appeared, and for General San Martin the rank 
 and pay of Captain-General that very year, and sub- 
 sequently the tokens of gratitude due from a nation to 
 its liberators, visible to-day in the equestrian statue 
 erected to his memory in the finest boulevard of San- 
 tiago, facing the Andes and surrounded by the poplars 
 which he himself had planted. 
 
 The party which was in the Chilian government at 
 this time asked through one of the secretaries the con- 
 currence of Sefior Sarmiento at the approaching elec- 
 tion. The first words Don Manuel Montt 1 said to him, 
 were, "Ideas, sir, have no country." From that 
 moment they understood each other. I wish I had 
 space to delineate the character of Don Manuel Montt. 
 " My meeting him in the path of my life," says Senor 
 Sarmiento, in speaking of this gentleman, " gave a new 
 phase to my existence, and if it attains any noble ends, 
 I shall owe it to his aid opportunely tendered." 
 
 By request he took the editorship of the " Mercu- 
 rio," which he successfully carried through the politi- 
 cal campaign of that year, and he also founded and 
 
 1 Then Minister of State in Chili. 
 
342 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 edited the " Nacional " in Santiago. Of course, such 
 vigorous articles as he wrote upon all subjects provoked 
 opposition. Even South American apathy was stung 
 into repartee, and he needed all the steadiness and 
 calmness of his friend Montt to enable him to bear the 
 abuse that the " Revista Catolica " and the " Semi- 
 nario " heaped upon him, but out of this strife came 
 many improvements. 
 
 In 1841, at the end of the electoral campaign which 
 secured the triumph of their candidate, he took leave 
 of Don Manuel Montt and the editorship of the " Mer- 
 curio " and the " Nacional," to return to fight the battles 
 of his country. Montt opposed his intention, assuring 
 him that there was no safety there for him ; that the 
 situation of Colonel La Madrid, who was bravely op- 
 posing Rosas, was very critical. But, for that very 
 reason, Senor Sarmiento's resolution was irrevocable. 
 He was determined to offer the aid of his arm in that 
 cause, and furnished with a warm letter of introduc- 
 tion to La Madrid from the Argentine Commission in 
 Chili, who well knew the value of his assistance, and 
 accompanied by three other compatriots, he set out on 
 foot to surmount the Andes and join the General at 
 Mendoza. After the fearful passage of the mountain 
 summits was effected, through the peculiar and re- 
 peated dangers incident to such regions, on descending 
 the eastern side, his rencontre with his countrymen was 
 as distressing as unexpected. He and his little party 
 saw afar off, like blots upon the interminable wastes of 
 snow, groups of fleeing soldiers, and looking at each 
 other in dismay, they could only exclaim, " Routed!" 
 and seen from afar by the fugitives, the latter repeated 
 the word " routed," across the snows. 
 
ROUT OF LA MADRID'S ARMY. 343 
 
 At the foot of the Vacas, a lofty summit, they found, 
 in a small hut, the first detachment from Mendoza, and 
 other squads arrived from time to time during the day 
 from the battle-ground of La Cienega del Media, find- 
 ing no shelter but that of the rocks, and no food but 
 what each one had brought for himself. Toward night 
 came the rear-guard with La Madrid himself, accom- 
 panied by Alvarez and the other chiefs. Many others 
 having been decapitated at Uspellata, among whom 
 were the Commandant Sagrana and six other chiefs. 
 Hundreds had taken refuge in the mountains, and of 
 these, many were youths of the first families of Bue- 
 nos Ayres and the northern Argentine Provinces, who 
 had volunteered with patriotic enthusiasm to resist the 
 tyrant Rosas. Not a moment was to be lost if he 
 would save the lives of his countrymen. Senor Sar- 
 miento and his companions, without waiting to take 
 rest, retraced their steps over the giant heights to 
 Aconcagua. 
 
 At Los Andes, the first town on the other side of the 
 mountains, Senor Sarmiento established himself in the 
 house of a friend, and for twelve hours, with another 
 friend for his secretary, brought into requisition his 
 executive abilities, so often tested in his adventurous 
 life. That very afternoon he sought, contracted for, 
 and despatched twelve mountain laborers to the aid 
 of the exhausted fugitives, purchased, collected, and 
 despatched six loads of substantial comforts, sent an 
 express to the Argentine Commission at Santiago to 
 put them in motion ; wrote to Don Manuel Montt, the 
 minister, asking for government aid, physicians, and 
 other help ; a letter to certain friends that they might 
 
344 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 appeal to public charity ; one to the director of the 
 theatre, to give an entertainment for their benefit, and 
 an article to the " Mercuric " of Valparaiso to alarm 
 the whole country and awake compassion. When the 
 assistance he had so quickly collected was on the way, 
 and the various couriers despatched with the letters, 
 and his purse emptied to the last maravedi, he was 
 obliged to seek repose, for he had run down the moun- 
 tains from Los Ojos de Agua to Los Andes without rest- 
 ing from his previous ascent. Within two days he 
 received replies from General las Heras and his friends 
 Gana, Zapata, and Quiroga Rosas, which do honor to 
 themselves as well as to him. In three days sufficient 
 food, medicines, physicians, etc., etc., for a thousand 
 men, were on their way over the giant heights. 
 
 The danger of the transit was increased by threats 
 of an approaching storm. Those conversant with the 
 Andes knew by the heavy clouds, always more danger- 
 ous than the frozen snows, and on this day, unusually 
 dark and lowering, that it would be of more than ordi- 
 nary violence. It was easy after the first day to calculate 
 how many out of the thousand would be frozen before 
 succor could reach them. The sublime but heart- 
 rending spectacle of the gently falling snow that 
 covered every rock and quenched every fire that was 
 kindled, chilled the hopes of the relieving party, but 
 no one turned back. After three days of suffering, 
 seven of the fugitives had perished, and many others 
 had lost their limbs by frost before the physicians got 
 to the foot of the Cordilleras. An Argentine artist 
 has immortalized upon canvas the scene in which the 
 first Chilian broke the snow on arriving at the spot. 
 
FUGITIVES IN THE MOUNTAINS. 345 
 
 The heat and shelter of the hut had saved three hun- 
 dred, a leaning rock had sheltered another hundred, 
 and their ponchos, by confining the warmth to their 
 bodies, had saved the rest. But they were nearly 
 starved. Among the refugees was the famous El 
 Chacho, who had succeeded Facundo Quiroga in the 
 chieftainship of the peasantry. He had thrown him- 
 self on the side of General La Madrid against Rosas, 
 but had contributed not a little to the loss of the battle 
 by his rashness and want of discipline. He did not 
 know, when his life was then saved by the aid of Senor 
 Sarmiento, that twenty years later he and his hordes 
 would be annihilated by that same deliverer. Like 
 other peasant chiefs, El Chacho, who mingled in all 
 the disputes of the country, sometimes took one side, 
 sometimes the other, and was now a dangerouse nemy, 
 and now a dangerous friend, according as his caprices 
 led him. Senor Sarmiento somewhere likens this chief- 
 tain to the Radies of Arabia, who receive from every 
 new government some privilege or post, said govern- 
 ment shutting its eyes to the risk of treachery should 
 self-interest interpose its claims. 
 
 Senor Sarmiento was thus thrown back upon Chili, 
 and his first reception in Santiago was a sad chill 
 over a doubly exiled heart. He was charged through 
 the press with having complained of the hardness of 
 some of the people while he eulogized the generosity 
 of others to his unfortunate countrymen, and then of 
 improper use of the scanty funds he had collected for 
 their necessities. The man who made the charge was 
 not a compatriot, nor had he contributed, nor did he 
 know how the money was appropriated, and must have 
 
346 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 invented the slander with what Mr. Sarmiento called 
 the " most exquisite evil intention." General Las 
 Heras answered the charge and vindicated him, " but 
 for a long time," he says, " I was frightened by that 
 gratuitous and spontaneous act of depravity, and frozen 
 by it as if a jar of cold water had been poured over 
 me." 
 
 He soon resumed the editorship of the " Mercurio," 
 and one of the most active, most agitated, and most 
 fruitful phases of his life fruitful to himself and to 
 others ensued. Every interest of society responded 
 to his touch. 
 
 He endeavored to organize primary instruction for 
 the people an idea that had never dawned upon the 
 Chilian mind. 
 
 The proposition for a popular tax for education was 
 well received, but there was no thought of any other 
 appropriation of it than to educate the upper classes 
 with it ! Senor Sarmiento put the new idea into actual 
 operation for the people. The newspaper he established 
 was the first ever edited in Santiago, the residence of 
 learned and literary Chilians. He wrote the first 
 spelling-book in which the correct sounds of the Span- 
 ish alphabet were given, and which was afterwards 
 printed in the United States and illustrated with vig- 
 nettes ; banished from the schools such books as u The 
 Temporal and Eternal," " The Pains of Hell," and 
 others of a similar character, fit only to mislead the 
 minds of youth and imbue them with false ideas, and 
 replaced them with " The Life of Jesus Christ," " Mo- 
 rality in Deed and Life," " The Conscience of a Child," 
 " The Life of Franklin," " The Why, or the Science 
 
NORMAL SCHOOL IN CHILI. 347 
 
 of Things," etc., etc. He presented to the university 
 of Chili the first paper upon orthography that ever saw 
 the light in Spanish America, where the language had 
 become sadly corrupted ; founded the " Monitor for 
 Schools," a large periodical in which he treated in a 
 masterly manner the most difficult questions upon 
 popular education, stimulating the teachers and de- 
 fending them against arbitrary acts and stupid decrees. 
 This periodical he wished to call by a more compre- 
 hensive title, which should commend it to the perusal 
 of all classes, of literary men as well as of school- 
 masters, but this was thought too pretentious by the 
 government, in whose name everything was done, with- 
 out rendering any credit to the real author of books 
 or measures, because indeed he was a foreigner ! Not 
 till long after he left the country, when the editorship 
 of this valuable work was resumed after an interval of 
 many years, was his name ever publicly mentioned in 
 connection with it. This tardy recognition saved the 
 credit of the country, but Senor Sarmiento did not 
 have its aid in the difficult days when he made bricks 
 without straw. 
 
 It was at this period, 1842, that he founded the first 
 Normal School that was opened on this side the Atlan- 
 tic. For three years he directed it in person, and it is 
 remarkable to observe, that unaided and alone he 
 thought out and put in practice all those methods of 
 instruction most approved by advanced minds at the 
 present day. Indeed, it was living instruction such as 
 we can hardly boast in our days of text books, when 
 the mine from which the teaching is done is not always 
 in the mind of the teacher. Senor Sarmiento had few 
 
348 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 text-books, nor did he need them. Everything he 
 taught was practically illustrated and embellished from 
 the vast stores of his varied acquirements. 
 
 Don Jose Suarez, his Chilian biographer, describes 
 his methods of instruction minutely. He dwells much 
 upon his moral influence, which was of the noblest kind. 
 He says of him in this relation : 
 
 " Sarmiento always treated us as friends, inspiring us 
 with that respectful confidence which makes a superior so 
 dear. He was always ready to favor us and to help us in 
 our misfortunes ; he often despoiled himself of his own 
 garments to give them to his pupils, the greater part of 
 whom were poor. He often invited us to accompany him 
 in his afternoon walks in order to give us importance in 
 the eyes of others, and to comfort our hearts by encour- 
 agement. It was my happiness often to accompany him to 
 the Convent of la Dominica, and to other places. He 
 always gave us his arm in these walks. When he returned 
 from Europe in 1847, he who traces these remembrances, 
 on the occasion of visiting him at his place of residence, 
 was presented with all the etiquette of fashion, and as if 
 he were a distinguished man, to the Minister of the In- 
 terior, Don Manuel Montt, who had come to welcome him 
 home. In our career of schoolmaster, we do not remem- 
 ber that the hand of so distinguished a Chilian ever 
 touched our humble one as on that occasion. We had 
 previously been presented to the Seiior General Las- 
 Heras, Dr. Ocampo, and other Argentines of importance, 
 who visited Sarmiento. He treated his pupils thus, not 
 because we were individually worthy of the honor, but to 
 give importance to our profession, then humiliated, calum- 
 niated, and despised. 1 But he himself, in spite of his 
 
 1 Not ten years before the foundation of the Normal School, the Cour 
 
EDITOR OF PERIODICALS. 349 
 
 learning and his influential relatives, was called by the 
 disdainful epithets of cleric and schoolmaster, and was in- 
 sulted every day to his face by the supercilious Chilians, 
 my compatriots ! " 
 
 Don Jose* is partially right in saying this. In 
 1843 he founded and edited the periodical called " El 
 Progreso," the first paper that had ever been printed 
 in Santiago de Chili, the residence of learned Chilians. 
 He also edited the "Argentine Herald," in behalf of 
 his countrymen, unjustly abused by Rosas. Envy, 
 jealousy, hatred, prejudice, and ill-will were his por- 
 tion for a long time, growing out of his active effort 
 to ameliorate evils. Rival papers heaped abuses upon 
 him; he was sensitive to blame; his patriotic heart 
 was doubly sore with the repeated and apparently in- 
 curable miseries of his country ; the word foreigner, 
 when applied to him, was a dagger in a heart like his 
 that was ready to toil for his adopted country as if it 
 were his own. The impetuosity of his nature was not 
 yet softened even into apparent concession to a present 
 evil. He was unceremonious in speaking the truth, 
 and the truth is the sharpest of swords to the evil 
 disposed or the apathetic. There was no peace for 
 any one in his sphere who stood in the way of the re- 
 forms which he felt to be vital to the very existence of 
 civilized society, certainly to the continuance of free 
 governments in those unhappy countries. He did not 
 make personal attacks, but the strife of pens waxed 
 
 of Santiago had condemned a robber who had stolen the candelabra of the 
 Virgin in the Church of San Merced, "to serve as a schoolmaster in 
 Copiapo for the term of three years," as they would have condemned him 
 to be whipped or to labor in the Penitentiary. 
 
350 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 hot, and such was the exasperation of his mind that 
 one day, as he describes it, 
 
 " It touched upon delirium ; I was frantic, demented, 
 and conceived the sublime idea of castigating all Chili ; 
 declaring it ungrateful, infamous, vile. I wrote I know 
 not what diatribe, put my name to it, and carried it to the 
 press of ' el Progreso,' giving it directly into the hands of 
 the compositors. I then returned home in silence, loaded 
 my pistols, and awaited the explosion of the mine I had 
 laid for my own destruction, but I felt avenged, and satis- 
 fied that I had achieved a great act of justice. Nations, I 
 said to myself, may be criminal, and are so at times, and 
 there is no judge who can punish them adequately but 
 their own tyrants or their own writers. I complained of 
 the President, of Montt, of the Viales, in order that no 
 one should escape my justice ; and to the writers and the 
 public in general I told horrible, humiliating truths, enough 
 to rouse the indignation of a whole city, till beside itself 
 with anger it should demand the head of the audacious 
 one who could so insult it. 
 
 " From this certain danger I was saved by the kindness 
 of Don Jacobo Vial, to whom the frightened compositors 
 had shown my manuscript. Don Antonio came to my 
 house looking very sad, and spoke to me in the gentle and 
 compassionate voice with which one is wont to address a 
 lunatic. No sign of displeasure or of resentment appeared 
 in his countenance. 
 
 " l Don Domingo,' he said, < the printers have shown me 
 the article you left with them this morning.' 
 
 " ' I hear -you.' 
 
 " * Have you considered the consequences ? ' 
 
 " Perfectly,' looking at my pistols. 
 
 " ' It is useless.' 
 
 " * I know it ; leave me in peace ! ' 
 
TRIALS IN CHILI. 351 
 
 " ' Has Lopez seen it ? ' 
 
 " * No.' 
 
 " Don Antonio took his hat and went to Lopez and to 
 the minister, to advise Don Manuel Montt of what I had 
 done. Lopez came and made me consent that he should 
 see the article, and erase some words. This was at three 
 in the afternoon ; at twelve that night, Don Antonio 
 brought me a note from Lopez in which he told me that 
 he had given up erasing words, for this was making con- 
 cessions ; that if I insisted upon publishing the article in 
 spite of the disapprobation of my friends, I should immedi- 
 ately take a post-chaise and escape to Valparaiso. 
 
 " Lopez, with his usual sagacity, had touched the chord 
 that would make me yield. First, he did not oppose me 
 arbitrarily, because that will not answer with the demented. 
 Secondly, he disapproved of me, and that made an im- 
 pression. Thirdly, he showed me that it would be weak- 
 ness to soften my phrases, and he knew I would not 
 consent to show weakness. Fourth, he pointed out to 
 me what way to flee, and this humbled me. No. I did 
 not understand the thing thus ; if I wounded them to the 
 death I would stay and take the consequences. 
 
 " The pillow came to bring me its counsels, if not slum- 
 ber. Very early the next day the minister sent for me ; 
 he spoke to me of indifferent things, of the Normal 
 School, of I know not what common topics. At last he 
 circumspectly touched the wound, enforcing himself by 
 applying the balsam and pointing out to me how many 
 persons esteemed me and treated me with distinction in 
 compensation for these vulgar injuries which had no evil 
 consequences. I replied ; was very exalted in my reply, 
 then paused, and at the moment when I was about to lose 
 all the respect due to the minister and the friend, the door 
 was opened by Don Miguel de la Barra, who either by 
 
352 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 accident or intention, arrived at the precise moment to 
 prevent a scandal. 
 
 " Thus that Chili which I wished to dress in state's pris- 
 on garments (ensambenitar), to display its crimes more 
 surely to the public gaze, showed me at the very moment 
 virtues worthy of respect, a delicacy and infinite toleration, 
 and proofs of sympathy and appreciation which made the 
 suicide I had prepared for myself wholly unjustifiable. 
 From that time the public and the writer understood each 
 other reciprocally. That learnt to be tolerant, and to do 
 justice to good intentions, and I habituated myself to look 
 at it as a necessary part of my existence, and neither to 
 fear its anger nor to provoke it. I am now unanimously 
 acknowledged to be a good and loyal Chilian. But woe to 
 him who persisted in calling me a. foreigner ! It was safer 
 for him to emigrate to California." 
 
 In 1845 he wrote the lives of the Presbyter Bal- 
 maceda, of Colonel Pereira, of the Senator Gauda- 
 rillas, of Facundo Quiroga (three editions of the latter 
 were published, and though proscribed by Rosas, to- 
 gether with his other works, was largely read in the 
 Republic), the life of the priest Castro y Barros, and 
 of General San Martin. At this epoch he united with 
 the celebrated Garcia del Rivera, in the editorship of 
 the " Museum of both Americas." 
 
 Don Manuel Montt saved Senor Sarmiento more 
 than once from rash acts. When he gave up the edi- 
 torship of the " Progreso " the first time, because he 
 could not bear the criticisms upon it, he said to him in 
 his quiet, commanding way, " You must write a book 
 upon what you wish, and confound them ; " thus restor- 
 ing him to his own self-reliance. When he thought of 
 
EUROPEAN TOUR. 353 
 
 going to Bolivar, under whom he had been promised 
 place, Montt decidedly opposed it; he told him it 
 would look like a defeat (for he had again resigned 
 the post of public writer to escape persecution) ; he 
 said Bolivar's cause was like a game of cards " and 
 did you not think of going to Europe ? " The Euro- 
 pean expedition was decided upon, and when he took 
 leave of his friend, the latter said to him, " You will 
 return to your own country according to present ap- 
 pearances ; if you ever wish to return to Chili, you 
 shall take any place you wish. Undeceive yourself; 
 these enmities which trouble you are wholly upon the 
 surface. No one despises you, many esteem you." 
 
 "Such a statesman," to use the words of Seiior Sar- 
 miento, in speaking of this true and appreciative friend,, 
 whose words on their first meeting were, " Sir, ideas 
 are of no country," "-can, like Deucalion, make men 
 out of stones. In Europe his letters followed me every ^ 
 where, even more constantly than those of my own 
 family, and in every one was a suggestion of some 
 point to be studied, or a hope that I should do such or 
 such a thing, which hope was a sure indication that I 
 would do it." 
 
 Colonel Sanniento's " Travels in Europe, Algiers, 
 and America," are full of lively pictures of all that is 
 most interesting and instructive to observe in other 
 lands. He studied not only education, but legislation, 
 and all the nations he visited seemed to yield up to his 
 well-prepared inspection the secret of their being for 
 evil or for good. In France he saw and conversed 
 with Thiers, Guizot, and Humboldt, and was made a 
 member of the Historical Society. He visited Spain 
 
 23 
 
354 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 at the moment when the Duke of Montpensier entered 
 Madrid to marry the Infanta. The Spanish nation 
 were averse to this marriage, and though they treated 
 the Duke with courtesy and offered him no insult, it 
 was easy to see their want of sympathy. The ancient 
 splendors of the national customs were invoked to cover 
 this wound to their national pride. Royal bull-fights, 
 which always take the Spanish people off their feet, 
 were instituted with the most gorgeous displays, and 
 the spectacles brought out all the Argentine poetry and 
 the native brilliancy of our author's pen. 
 
 Senor Sarmiento's insight into the sorrows and evils 
 of Spain was undoubtedly such as few travellers were 
 prepared to exercise, and he saw very plainly that the 
 Spain of to-day was the Spain of three centuries ago. 
 More interesting to him than all the remains and the 
 momentary resuscitation of ancient splendor, was his 
 interview with Cobden in Barcelona, which he must 
 describe in his own words, for the impulse it gave to 
 his life and labors was very great, giving him a method 
 which he has since used with great effect to breathe 
 the breath of life into the apathetic children of the 
 Spanish colony, that incubus upon the souls of men. 
 
 COBDEN. 
 
 " Barcelona. Here I have had the felicity of being pre- 
 sented to Cobden, the great English agitator, and I assure 
 you that after Napoleon there is' no man I so much wished 
 to see. You know the long struggle of the league against 
 the corn-laws in England, a glorious struggle of ratiocina- 
 tion, discussion, speech, and will, which unrooted the Eng- 
 lish aristocracy, sapping at the base its power over the land, 
 
INTERVIEW WITH COBDEN. 355 
 
 which it possesses by the right of primogeniture, and leav- 
 ing it alive, that it may bleed to death by degrees, make 
 itself one with the people, and yield its power without vio- 
 lence when its weakened hands can no longer manage it. 
 Since the days of Jesus Christ, this simple method of prop- 
 agating a doctrine by the mere use of speech, had not been 
 put in practice. The Catholics who came after Christ 
 continued preaching, it is true, but from time to time they 
 burned their opponents, and the wars of religion have inun- 
 dated the earth with blood. The principles of liberty had 
 not till now gone forth from that sad soil, liberty and the 
 guillotine, emancipation of the people and conquest. Cob- 
 den rehabilitated ancient preaching, the apostleship with- 
 out the martyrdom. Some millions of pounds sterling, 
 collected by subscription, supported that war of words for 
 eight years. Nine million tracts did those batteries of 
 logic and argument throw out in 1843, alone, and some two 
 thousand meetings as sham-fights, and sixteen monster- 
 meetings, field battles that threw into the shade by the 
 brilliancy of their results the useless ones of Jena, Auster- 
 litz, and Marengo, ended in delivering up the keys of the 
 English parliament to Cobden, who dictated from that 
 Kremlin to the aristocracy the capitulation which suffered 
 it to remain with its baggage, ammunition, flags, and posi- 
 tions, provided it would let as much wheat enter England 
 as the people needed for bread. With Cobden began a 
 new era for the world ; the word again made itself flesh, 
 producing of itself alone the greatest effects, and henceforth 
 when men wish to know if it is possible to destroy an 
 abuse protected by power, defended by riches, rank, and 
 corruption, when they ask if there is any hope of over- 
 throwing such abuse by means of persevering efforts and 
 sacrifices, the name of Cobden will be remembered, and 
 the wortf will be undertaken. 
 
356 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 "You imagine Cobden a lively, caustic O'Connell, an 
 enthusiast, ardent in politics, rapid, startling in reply? 
 How you deceive yourself, my poor Victorino ! He is per- 
 fectly simple, fastidious like an Englishman, calm as an 
 axiom, cold, vulgar, if I may so express it, like all great 
 truths. We were friends in two hours ; we talked alone 
 almost all night; he related to me his adventures, his 
 struggles ; he showed me his mode of action, the strategy 
 of his speech, the little stories with which it was necessary 
 to entertain the people that they might not go to sleep as 
 they listened to him. He lamented the almost insupera- 
 ble difficulty which the masses offer by their incapacity 
 of comprehending and their prejudices. He gave me a 
 card by which I could find him in Manchester, and we did 
 not separate till we reached the door of my hotel, I over- 
 whelmed with happiness, humbled by such greatness and 
 such simplicity, meditating upon means so noble and re- 
 sults so gigantic. I did not sleep that night. I was in a 
 fever. It seemed to me that war was about to become 
 ridiculous when that system of aggregation of wills and 
 juxtaposition of masses could be so generalized and put 
 into practice to destroy abuses, governments, laws, and 
 institutions. 
 
 "What more simple thing! To-day we are two, to- 
 morrow four, next year a thousand, publicly united in the 
 same design. The government will resist ? It is because 
 we are not many, because many more remain in favor of 
 the abuse. Then let the preaching come on, and the 
 pamphlets, the daily papers, the association, the league. 
 The Government and the Chambers know the day and the 
 hour in which they are conquered, and yield ! Go and 
 plant such a beautiful system in America ! 
 
 " Cobden had destroyed, or attacked before commencing 
 his specific work, all the great principles on which the 
 
SENOR SARMIENTO IN EUROPE. 357 
 
 science of the government reposed. The European equi- 
 librium (balance of power), declared him a maniac, thus to 
 perplex the ministers by mixing up foreign affairs with 
 theirs. The colonies were the only means of furnishing 
 employment to the younger sons of the lords. The com- 
 mercial balance was the resume of ignorance in political 
 economy, and politics, with all its pretensions of science, 
 was the charlatanism of dunces and blackguards ; protec- 
 tion of natural industry an innocent means of stealing 
 money on the wing, ruining the consumer, and turning the 
 protected manufacturer into the street. For all these 
 truths, hitherto considered fundamental, he substituted good 
 sense, the common sense of all men, more fit to judge than 
 the interested science of lords and ministers." 
 
 In Spain, Seiior Sarmiento was made a member of 
 the Literary Society of Professors, and published in 
 Madrid a paper against the projected expedition of 
 General Flores, whose object it was to found a mon- 
 archy in South America, of which the natural son of 
 Queen Christina was to be the head. This document 
 opened many eyes by its exhaustive investigation of 
 the subject. The expedition was given up. 
 
 In England, Senor Sarmiento found the English 
 reprint of Mr. Mann's Report of his educational tour 
 in Europe. He came to the United States after his 
 own more extended one, sought out Mr. Mann, and 
 become acquainted, through his aid, with the common^ 
 school system of Massachusetts, which on his return to 
 Chili he introduced there with great effect. He em- 
 bodied his observations upon education in Europe and 
 America in a noble work on "Popular Education." 
 
 When in Paris he had studied the art of silk-culture 
 
358 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 under the elder Mundo, the first authority in the 
 world, and on his return to Chili he founded the 
 "American Silk-growing Society," for whose use he 
 introduced at his own expense the best machines and 
 other utensils, seeds, and books known in Europe. 
 
 In 1849 he began the publication of " La Cronica," a 
 periodical which contains the only authentic collection 
 of documents in South America upon the subject of 
 immigration, a cause which he had industriously pro- 
 moted since 1839, when his attention first became fixed 
 upon its advantages. On each one of the topics he 
 treated, a law was proposed, and even Rosas established 
 a periodical in Mendoza to combat it. Rosas could 
 hardly have been punished more effectually for his ill- 
 treatment of Senor Sarmiento than he unceasingly was 
 by the liberal views of government and the intense activ- 
 ity of that patriotic gentleman. It was at this time that 
 the grateful letter he wrote to his old friend and deliv- 
 erer Ramirez, grateful for past services and confident 
 of continued friendship, but which contained his char- 
 acterization of Rosas, was shown by that apostate friend 
 to the tyrant, thus perpetuating his banishment indefi- 
 nitely. 
 
 In 1850 he wrote " Argiropolis, or the Capital of the 
 Confederate States," in which he proposed a new capi- 
 tal instead of Buenos Ayres ; and the " Recollections 
 of a Province." 
 
 In 1851 he published the " South America," another 
 periodical, and his " Travels ; " also a " Memorial of 
 German Emigration," which was reviewed and highly 
 commended by Dr. Wappaus, professor of geography 
 and statistics in the University of Gottingen. 
 
RESIDENCE IN BUENOS AYRES. 359 
 BUENOS AYRES. 
 
 Thus prepared, and matured by study, experience, 
 travels in foreign lands, and years of beneficent action 
 in a true cosmopolitan spirit, he left Chili in 1851 with 
 the present President, Colonel Mitre, and the present 
 General Paunero, to incorporate himself in the army 
 of General Urquiza, who was about to open the cam- 
 paign against Rosas. The battle of Caseros, which 
 disposed of Rosas, took place on the third of February, 
 1852, and Seiior, now Colonel Sarmiento, had the 
 pleasure of writing a description of it upon the tyrant's 
 own table with the tyrant's own pen. Six days after, 
 he left Urquiza's army, for he saw that that old 
 servant of Rosas meant no good to the country, but 
 purposed to make himself a tyrant in Rosas' place. 
 Durque* had been made President, who fell in with 
 Urquiza's plans. The event proved that his prophecy 
 was right, though Urquiza was not wholly successful. 
 
 He left a note for Urquiza, in which he told him it 
 was his profound conviction that he was entering upon 
 a thorny path, dissipating sooner or later, but not less 
 fatally, the glory which for a moment had hung round 
 his name. 
 
 Colonel Sarmiento returned to Chili, this time a 
 voluntary exile. He went by way of Rio Janeiro, 
 and passed a few weeks in close intimacy with its 
 enlightened Emperor, who had read and admired his 
 works and received him with much distinction. The 
 Emperor had made an alliance with the Republic, to 
 which he had formerly been opposed, and wished to 
 converse with Colonel Sarmiento upon its status and 
 its prospects. 
 
360 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 In October, 1852, he wrote a pamphlet upon San 
 Juan, its men, and its acts in the regeneration of the 
 Republic ; the restoration of Benavides and the 
 peoples' conduct towards him. When elected by San 
 Juan Deputy to the National Congress, which office 
 he declined, he published a letter to General Urcjuiza 
 giving his reasons, and subsequently a pamphlet en- 
 titled " Convention of Sanatuolas de los Arreyos," in 
 which he treats of the condition of the government in 
 the Republic and the reactionary policy of Buenos 
 Ay res. In 1853 he began to publish the second vol- 
 ume of " The Cronica," a political and literary peri- 
 odical, and also his " Commentary on the Constitu- 
 tion of the Argentine Republic," with numerous 
 documents illustrative of the text. In the following 
 year he published a letter to the electors of Buenos 
 Ayres, who had chosen him for their deputy, an ap- 
 pointment which he did not accept. 
 
 He finally took up his residence in Buenos Ayres as 
 a private citizen. In that year he was nominated Dep- 
 uty to Congress from Tucuman, but did not accept 
 the nomination for some political reasons. In 1857 he 
 solicited and obtained the direction of the department 
 of schools, and was also made Councillor of the Muni- 
 cipality of Buenos Ayres, Durque* being still President. 
 The difficulties which he encountered in carrying out 
 his purpose of introducing the North American system 
 of common schools into Buenos Ayres as a starting- 
 point, are described in a very graphic and lively man- 
 ner in a letter to the Senora Juana Manso, too long for 
 insertion here. Three ministries went out, which 
 made the acceptance of his bill the sine qua non of 
 
CHIEF OF DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOLS. 361 
 
 their acceptance of the ministry, but after waiting and 
 working a year in the most indefatigable and perse- 
 vering manner, and allowing himself to be the subject 
 of much abuse, he succeeded in setting the matter in 
 operation, in the midst of intestine political difficulties 
 of various kinds, invasion by the Indians, attempts at 
 usurpation, and capture of the city by warlike and 
 ambitious chiefs, and various modes of opposition to his 
 views. A resolution had been offered to appropriate 
 600 dollars in gold to set in motion all the schools of 
 Buenos Ayres I He succeeded at last in obtaining 
 $127,000, and erected a splendid building called the 
 Model School, which was afterwards emulated in an- 
 other parish of the city. Monsieur Banvard, the 
 architect of school-houses in France, said there was not 
 in all France such architecture, such apparatus, and 
 such luxury of appliances consecrated to the educa- 
 tion of the people. The furniture and apparatus were 
 procured in the United States. In 1860, when he 
 left Buenos Ayres, there were 17,279 children in the 
 schools. The Senora Manso had written him in 1864, 
 that since his departure the number had decreased by 
 five thousand. To this he replies, that by the natural 
 increase the number should then have been 35,000, 
 instead of 12,450, as she reports : 
 
 " I assure you," he says, " that the revelation of so sad a 
 fact has killed me, and I am tempted to leave behind me 
 useless honors of position, and present myself again to the 
 provincial government of Buenos Ayres, saying to it, 
 * Give me the department of schools this is all the 
 future of the Republic/ . . . <The United States, 
 with their schools from the beginning, as a basis, have 
 
362 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 accomplished doubtless, in one century, what all humanity 
 has been doing and undoing in six thousand years of 
 history ! THE SOVEREIGN PEOPLE ! 
 
 " I bid you adieu sadly. Write, combat, resist. Agitate 
 the waves of a dead sea, whose surface tends to become 
 hardened with the crust of impurities which escape from 
 its depths, the Spanish colony, the tradition of Rosas, cows, 
 cows, cows ! Men, people, nation, republic, future ! 
 
 " They write me from San Juan that on the twenty-fifth 
 of May, if not before, they shall open the Sarmiento School, 
 a continuation and reflection of the impulse given in Bue- 
 nos Ayres. It is a monumental structure which would be 
 considered a good one in Boston or New York, capacious 
 enough to hold 1,700 children. But I much fear that it is 
 a body without a soul. The provinces take their inspira- 
 tion from the capitals. When they throw stones at the 
 elections in Buenos Ayres, it is Ion ton to stab each other 
 in Rosario. When the attendance of children in the 
 schools diminishes in cultivated Buenos Ayres, in a whole 
 Buenos Ayres, as they say in the provinces, the children in 
 the mountains will be born dumb so as not to learn to 
 spell." 
 
 In 1858, after the Model School-house was finished 
 and opened, and while enthusiasm was at its height 
 about the schools, Senor Sarmiento was elected Sen- 
 ator of the State and Province of Buenos Ayres. He 
 then proposed in his seat that the lands which Rosas 
 had usurped, worth a million dollars, should be devoted 
 to the erection of school-houses throughout the prov- 
 ince, and a line of splendid structures is now seen 
 stretching out into the pampas. While Senator, he 
 also proposed many other bills which finally received 
 the sanction of law. One was a sentence of impeach- 
 
CHIEF OF THE ARMY OF RESERVE. 363 
 
 ment against Rosas. Another was the adoption of the 
 metrical system of weights and measures ; also, a law 
 of election by ballots, like that of New York and 
 Maine, voters being previously registered. The adop- 
 tion of the Commercial Code, which he brought up 
 three successive years till he was successful ; a law to 
 punish printed slanders against individuals, and the 
 law which transformed the district of Chivilcoi from 
 barren pampas to a paradise of cultivated farms, were 
 others. 
 
 It was in 1859, as we learn from the " Diario of the 
 Sessions of Buenos Ayres, 1860," that General Ur- 
 quiza, then general-in-chief of the army of Buenos 
 Ayres, made another attempt to usurp the govern- 
 ment. Colonel Sarmiento had been made chief-of- 
 staff of the army of reserve. Urquiza was resisted 
 at Cepada, where, however, he gained a partial vic- 
 tory, the citizens losing their infantry and artillery. 
 But they fled back to the city to defend it, for em- 
 boldened by apparent success, Urquiza had dared to 
 besiege it. He was kept at bay, however, and still 
 holding the city in terror, listened to proposals for a 
 treaty which had been made to the government in 
 1858 by Colonel Sarmiento and others, ex-officially. 
 These were for two conventions, one to be held at 
 Buenos Ayres to make amendments to the Constitu- 
 tion, and also a national convention, at which said 
 amendments should be discussed and either ratified or 
 rejected. Urquiza now accepted them on three con- 
 ditions. One of these was to reincorporate into the 
 army all the soldiers who had been dismissed from it 
 for whatever cause. This included the creatures of 
 
364 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 Rosas ; another was that the actual governor, Dr. 
 Alsini, should be deposed. The force in the city was 
 sufficient to defend it, but there was a panic, and the 
 estancieros (landed proprietors) and cattle-growers 
 feared it would be lost ; some intriguers were in the 
 legislature, and taking advantage of the panic, they 
 wished to depose the governor to please Urquiza, whom 
 they feared. 
 
 Colonel Sarmiento, who was still Senator, was absent 
 from his seat at the moment, visiting one of the forts. 
 He entered the antechamber of the Senate just as it 
 had sent the requisition to the Governor to resign. He 
 demanded the floor, but the President of the Senate 
 did not grant it ; he persisted in demanding it, and the 
 sixth time, in spite of much opposition and exclama- 
 tions, such as, " we are all agreed," he obtained it. 
 He then said that he did not propose to them to revoke 
 what they had done ; it was too late for that, and 
 might endanger the situation in the presence of the 
 enemy, but he wished his name to be recorded as pro- 
 testing against the act, which he designated as a crime ; 
 and he also proposed that the assembly that had de- 
 stroyed the executive power should nominate another, 
 and not leave them without a government. The latter 
 was assented to, but the former was objected to as 
 against the rules. It was put to a vote, and eight joined 
 him in the protest. When the votes were counted, 
 eleven voted for it, and that being a majority, their 
 honor was saved, and the eighth of November is ever 
 remembered as a nefarious day. In the afternoon they 
 saw their error. 
 
 The result of the treaty was the meeting of both 
 
DEBATES OF CONGRESS. 365 
 
 conventions. Colonel Sarmiento had much influence 
 in both, and was largely instrumental in bringing about 
 the desired results, one of which was to incorporate the 
 province of Buenos Ayres into the Confederacy. He 
 also made a speech in this Convention of Buenos 
 Ayres, in opposition to the proposition to have a state 
 religion, and perfect practical toleration was declared 
 to every form of opinion. There are now, thanks to 
 him, as many Protestant as Catholic churches. This 
 was agreeable to the instincts of Buenos Ayres, which 
 had always manifested a liberal spirit in this respect. 
 It needed only the word of a master-spirit to settle the 
 question forever. The speech was printed at the 
 time. 
 
 The debates of this deliberative assembly have been 
 published, and from the elevation of the ideas expressed 
 in them, and from their matter as a model of parlia- 
 mentary tactics, they bear a character which has 
 gained for them the reputation of being the most 
 important documents of the kind extant. Colonel 
 Sarmiento took the most important part in them. It 
 has been said by his friends and biographers, that the 
 most able of his speeches were made in secret session. 
 It was ever his aim to moderate the spirit of reform, 
 while he was the rock upon which were shattered the 
 attempts of a wavering majority to resist every change. 
 The general tendency of his propositions was to assim- 
 ilate the Argentine Constitution to that of the United 
 States. 
 
 Although in other respects an innovator, he dreaded 
 the introduction of any variation from the original, for 
 fear, as he said, " that a stream of blood might escape 
 
366 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 through any opening left in the machinery of govern- 
 ment by the omission of some wheel, the purpose of 
 which, through inexperience, had not been appreci- 
 ated." This doctrine was maintained in all his writ- 
 ings and speeches, and any departure from it in 
 practice has been attended by the same penalties that 
 attached to what he calls " French novelties," current 
 in all parts of South America. 
 
 This debate, marked by the conflict of such opposite 
 parties, ideas, and interests, was closed with the procla- 
 mation of the Union by Colonel Sarmiento, as a mem- 
 ber of the Convention, under the endeared name of the 
 United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata. The measure 
 was ratified by acclamation, all members of the Con- 
 vention, including the President, rising to their feet, 
 an example followed by the throng of spectators, 
 under the enthusiasm awakened by this sublime move- 
 ment of generous self-sacrifice. If it is borne in mind 
 that the subsequent Convention of Santa Fe* was 
 divided by passions even more highly inflamed, that it 
 ended with a similar scene of acclamation, and that its 
 proceedings are allowed to have been influenced to a 
 still greater degree by the counsels of Colonel Sar- 
 miento, it will certainly be admitted that his invariable 
 ardor in the support of his principles must have been 
 regulated by kindly feeling and by an unusual power 
 of carrying a required point and exercising, at the same 
 time, a conciliatory influence upon opposing minds. 
 
 In the interval between these two Conventions, 
 occurred another scene of so noble a character, as to 
 compensate for many others which have disfigured the 
 history of the same period by the hatred and violence 
 
SENATOR, MINISTER, CHIEF OF STAFF. 367 
 
 displayed in them. This occasion presented the spec- 
 tacle of the reconciliation of enemies whose inveterate 
 hostility had been exercised both by the strife of re- 
 proaches and recriminations in the press, and by actual 
 warfare in the field. On the day of which we speak, 
 the multitude of a hundred thousand souls assembled 
 upon the Mole of Buenos Ayres, was traversed by the 
 government carriage containing Generals Urquiza and 
 Mitre, President Durque*, and Colonel Sarmiento, in 
 his capacity of minister, to which place he had been 
 elevated,. these men, the principal antagonists in the 
 long contest which had lately ceased, cordially embraced 
 each other in the presence of the people and deposited 
 their former hatred upon the altar of the common in- 
 terests of their country. No more touching or human- 
 izing scene was ever witnessed by any people, nor has 
 the reconciliation of political enemies ever been more 
 sincere. Yet they were again to meet upon the field 
 of battle only a year later, impelled by a current of 
 events which it was not granted them to control, and 
 by the errors committed by each of the hostile parties. 
 The next eight years after this victory was achieved 
 over apathy and ignorance, and after General Urquiza 
 had retired to Entre Rios, his native province, were 
 very eventful to the Republic, and the changes wrought 
 and the improvements made, were due in the largest 
 measure to the energy of Colonel Sarmiento. His va- 
 rious writings upon education, the report to the Chilian 
 government upon the results of his mission to Europe 
 and North America, his reports upon the state of pub- 
 lic instruction in Buenos Ayres, the educational census 
 taken in Chili, San Juan, and Buenos Ayres, his able 
 
368 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 work on popular education, and a series of occasional 
 pamphlets upon similar topics, were but the heralds of 
 deeds in which the spirit was to be embodied. While 
 holding in succession the offices of senator, minister, 
 and chief of staff, he founded and edited the " Annals 
 of Education," with the object of disseminating in- 
 formation and exciting interest in his measures for the 
 education of the people. He induced some of the 
 best men in the city to take the personal supervision of 
 the schools, and he regarded as his most important 
 work, great as was his reputation as a writer, his 
 " Progressive Method of Reading," which the govern- 
 ment had stereotyped with vignettes in the United 
 States. In Tucuman, Salta, and La Rioja, the symbol 
 of a crossed pen and sword is employed in memory of 
 him. 
 
 But his influence and his activity were by no 
 means confined to educational labors, unless his prac- 
 tical illustrations of beneficent legislation may be 
 looked upon as the highest branch of it. The tendency 
 of the public administration bore the marks of his 
 ripe age, and of the official training he had undergone 
 in Chili in the service of a government accused of 
 erring on the side of an excessive exercise of its 
 authority by the people of countries which are ever 
 wavering between the Scylla of despotism and the 
 Chary bdis of anarchy. He somewhere quotes Mr. 
 Webster's speech before the Supreme Court of Rhode 
 Island, in the case of Dorr, condemned to perpetual 
 imprisonment for his share in the insurrection of Rhode 
 Island. Mr. Webster says, 
 
POLITICAL INFLUENCE. 369 
 
 " Is it not obvious enough, that men cannot get together 
 and count themselves, and say they are so many hundreds 
 and so many thousands, and judge of their own qualifica- 
 tions, and call themselves the people, and set up a govern- 
 ment ? Why, another set of men, forty miles off on the 
 same day, with the same propriety, with as good qualifica- 
 tions, and in as large numbers, may meet and set up an- 
 other government ; one may meet at Newport and another 
 at Chepachet, and both may call themselves the people. 
 What is this but anarchy ? What liberty is there here but 
 a tumultuary, tempestuous, violent, stormy liberty, a sort 
 of South American liberty, without power except in its 
 spasms, a liberty supported by arms to-day, cnished by 
 arms to-morrow ? Is that our liberty ? " 
 
 And holding up these forcible words Colonel Sar- 
 miento adds, * 
 
 " If the liberal party in South America which has been 
 overthrown by more than one tyrant, beholds itself in this 
 terrible mirror, will it not turn away its face from the un- 
 sightly image ? " 
 
 Both in Chili and in Buenos Ayres, Colonel Sar- 
 miento has been noted, even by his adversaries, for his 
 inclination to limit the injurious extension attempted 
 to be given to the rights of the people. On his first 
 appearance in the Chilian press, when he had it in his 
 power to choose between the political parties of the 
 country, both of which solicited his support, he decided 
 in favor of that which proposed, while applying liberal 
 ideas to public action, to aim at the stability of the 
 power which was to represent them. Twenty years 
 have since elapsed, and no tyrant has appeared in 
 
 24 
 
370 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 Chili, although the doings of the government have not 
 always been justifiable. 
 
 He followed the same course in the Argentine Re- 
 public. On the one hand he opposed the mutilated 
 confederation that excluded Buenos Ayres, which was 
 but a disguise for the old method of arbitrary rule by 
 partisan leaders, and on the other he inclined to the 
 incorporation of this estate, although the people were 
 yet unfamiliar with the use of the liberties it had 
 gained. 
 
 His influence in the city became in innumerable 
 ways very conspicuous. When he entered upon his 
 duties as Senator, the galleries, which had been accus- 
 tomed to control the debates by hisses and applauses, de- 
 signed to produce disturbance, and disorderly conduct, 
 covered the amphitheatre with pasquinades against the 
 new Senator. Three years later, the same area was the 
 scene of the heated debates of the Provincial Conven- 
 tion, assembled to propose reforms in the Federal Con- 
 stitution, those remarkable debates already alluded 
 to. The reader will look in vain for an instance of 
 applause, still less of disorder, on the part of the listen- 
 ers to these speeches, the excitement attending^ which 
 was confined to the Convention itself. The eager mul- 
 titude of spectators held their breath to listen to the 
 debate ; and the fifty members of the Convention, ani- 
 mated as were their contests with each other, were 
 treated with a religious respect which made them seem 
 true Patres Conscripti. To what was this change 
 due? Simply to the influence of one man, who through 
 the press, by spoken discourses, and by legal measures, 
 had taught the persons who were present at the ses- 
 
THE WEIGHT OF HIS VOICE. 371 
 
 sions of the legislature that they were not the people, 
 and that it was ruinous to the Republic for them to 
 taint the atmosphere of absolute liberty, which the 
 representative of the people should breathe, by express- 
 ing their own crude opinions in the sanctuary of the 
 law. On the withdrawal of that salutary and restrain- 
 ing influence, it is reported that Buenos Ayres became 
 again the theatre of that tumultuous and stormy liberty 
 of which Webster spoke, and which gives other nations 
 such cause for scandal. It was the same spirit which 
 impelled him on more than half a dozen occasions, to 
 maintain from his place in the Senate the rights of the 
 executive authority against the encroachments of the 
 legislature ; and to one governor, who had summoned 
 to his audience-chamber the leaders of various factions, 
 in order to advise with them upon the nomination of a 
 minister, he said, as appears from subsequent speeches 
 in the Senate, the following prophetic words: "In less 
 than a year we shall have to go and pick up from the 
 rubbish of the streets the fragments of the executive 
 power which our governors are throwing away, one 
 after the other, for want of courage enough to perform 
 their duties." 
 
 A year had not elapsed, when, in the presence of 
 the enemy, on November 8, 1859, tkis same governor 
 was deposed by the coalition in the legislature already 
 described, which was led astray by the fear of some, 
 the ill-will of others, and perhaps the treason of a very 
 small number. 
 
 While member of a senatorial commission, Colonel 
 Sarmiento proposed a new law for the regulation of 
 elections, designed to cure the constantly recurring 
 
372 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 defects of the one then in operation, as well as to close 
 the door against the shameless frauds, and to punish 
 the violence prevalent at the elections of Buenos 
 Ayres, by furnishing definitions of these illegal actions. 
 Buenos Ayres would have spared itself many days of 
 disgrace and disturbance by the prompt passage of this 
 law, which was agreed to by the Senate, but owing to 
 its very perfection, was indefinitely postponed in the 
 House of Representatives, an evidence of oversight in 
 not making the legal use of rights the basis of liberty, 
 which that body had afterwards reason to deplore. 
 
 In every form this far-seeing patriot had warred 
 against the nomadic life of the cattle-grower, which 
 was an insurmountable barrier to the improvement of 
 the rural districts. After two years' discussion he suc- 
 ceeded in getting permission from the government to 
 survey and lay out in small farms, in the North Ameri- 
 can mode, an extensive tract which was in possession of 
 squatters, and these farms he sold cheaply, in part to 
 the squatters themselves, and in part to emigrants from 
 other lands. He personally superintended laying out 
 the squares with broad streets, and planting them 
 with trees, which grow as if by magic on the rich 
 pampa lands whose native growth is only rich grass, 
 that feeds countless herds of cattle without any labor 
 to the owners. This survey was made in Chivilcoi in 
 1858, and last year, a railroad was completed to it 
 from Buenos Ayres. On the occasion of opening the 
 station, many persons accompanied the Governor to 
 witness the ceremony, and all were amazed beyond 
 expression to see the spectacle. It was a Chicago in 
 the desert, as Colonel Sarmiento has expressed it. For 
 
CHIVILCOI. 373 
 
 the first time within the life of one man, was a region 
 in South America so transformed. It contained a 
 church which Colonel Sarmiento had dedicated, a beau- 
 tiful public school-house, for the front of which he had 
 induced a native artist to carve a marble group of 
 Christ blessing the children, and which was raised to 
 its place on the same festival, with an eloquent address; 
 a bank of discount ; various private schools, and a fine 
 railroad station. Where the industrial movement is 
 most conspicuous, at this railroad station, the only 
 square called for a living man bears the name of Sar- 
 miento. The 25th of May (the anniversary of their 
 successful battle against Spanish rule), the 9th of July 
 (their independence day), Washington, and Lincoln ; 
 Moreno and Belgrave (generals of the war of inde- 
 pendence) ; Florencio Varela, the first martyr assassi- 
 nated by Rosas, and Echevarria, the poet, give names 
 to the other squares. 
 
 At the three days' banquet of the festival, the name 
 of Sarmiento was toasted from one end of the long 
 tables to the other, by the representatives of every 
 public interest, each of which he had fostered ; and 
 subsequently thousands poured out to see with their 
 own eyes how a little enterprise could make the desert 
 blossom as the rose. In a land where cows were the 
 chief object of interest, milk could not be supplied for 
 the cities or even for the country, and the art of butter- 
 making was lost ! To this day it is imported, and is 
 one of the most expensive articles of luxury. Cereals 
 and vegetables are now brought to Buenos Ayres from 
 Chivilcoi, as well as from the Isles of the Parana, a 
 South American Venice, which by Colonel Sarmiento's 
 
374 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 means have been redeemed from the waters and made 
 the source of millions of revenue to the owners. 
 
 Thirty-nine individuals possessed the lands of Chi- 
 vilcoi in 1858 ; now twenty thousand happy, prosperous 
 farming people occupy the country, and enjoy all the 
 conveniences of civilized life. There are no immense 
 fortunes made, but great riches are distributed to all, 
 and are increasing rapidly and wonderfully. 
 
 The cultivation of the Isles of the Parana, another 
 enterprise of our author, resulted as brilliantly as the 
 surveying of land in Chivilcoi. He often escaped from 
 the burning debates of the Chambers, the press, and the 
 schools, to the enchanting region at the mouth of the 
 Parana, which is a delta of thirty miles by twenty, of 
 islands, of a fertility unexampled perhaps in the world. 
 In sailing up those channels bordered with the most 
 luxuriant natural vegetation, he saw with the eye of a 
 San Juan agriculturist, that if redeemed from the wa- 
 ters, they might become a source of immense wealth 
 to the province. It did not take long for a brilliant 
 thought to come to a white heat in his mind, and se- 
 curing to himself from government the right to take 
 possession of them, he seized his most romantic pen, 
 and began to kindle the public with descriptions of 
 their beauty, and of their immense agricultural future, 
 if they could be cultivated judiciously already a rural 
 Venice whose canals Nature had supplied. By hun- 
 dreds people put their hands to the work of clearing 
 the rubbish, planting trees on the borders of the chan- 
 nels, etc. Dr. Francia, the tyrant of Paraguay, spent 
 four hundred thousand francs in the enterprise. Not 
 only Colonel Sarmiento, but all the persons interested, 
 
ISLES OF THE PARANA. 375 
 
 lived in a state of ecstasy, navigating their boats from 
 island to island, enjoying the primitive and unsurpassed 
 scenery, and scattering seed on the earth just snatched 
 from the dominion of the waters. They had what he 
 describes as a " frantic vegetation," for the territory 
 was inundated every fifteen days, though only for a 
 few hours at a time, so that everything that was planted 
 was choked by the natural grasses, stimulated by the 
 cultivation to unwonted growth. The result to those 
 engaged in the undertaking was utter ruin at the end 
 of two years. But at the end of five years, the aspect 
 of the canals was one of magical beauty; they were 
 planted with poplar-trees for leagues and leagues, and 
 barques of all descriptions were navigating them, re- 
 ceiving the showers of peaches that fell from the trees 
 for miles together. Finding the spot so humid, he con- 
 summated his labors by sending a courier to Chili for 
 a species of osier for basket-making, and presented a 
 twig to every planter. Now, millions of money are 
 made by it, and they have cause to remember the speech 
 which he made on the occasion, prophesying the riches 
 that would accrue from this development of their in- 
 dustry, but which was then made the subject of ridi- 
 cule. There is perhaps no place in the world so pic- 
 turesque or of such dreamlike beauty as these channels 
 bordered with trees. They are the delight of all the 
 dwellers upon the River La Plata. 
 
 After immense opposition, Colonel Sarmiento suc- 
 ceeded in carrying a railroad from San Fernando, on 
 the mainland opposite the islands, to Buenos Ayres, 
 by which fruits, vegetables, and timber, are transported 
 to its markets. As a reward for his labors, he enjoys 
 
376 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 the life-right of a perpetual seat in the railroad trains, 
 while thousands are enriching themselves with the 
 fruits of his enterprise. 
 
 One disgraceful feature of the recent mutilated 
 Confederation was the perpetuation in the provinces of 
 the rule of irresponsible and irremovable chieftains. 
 Benavides, for sixteen years a supporter of Rosas, went 
 on as a supporter of Urquiza, after the fight of Caseros. 
 To suppress insurrections among the people, Urquiza 
 had to interfere by force in 1852, not to secure to San 
 Juan " a republican form of government " in accord- 
 ance with the Federal constitution, but violently to 
 impose upon it the rule of its old master. In 1857 he 
 made an unsuccessful attempt to reestablish him again ; 
 and he interfered in 1858 to punish the community for 
 the death of Benavides, who had been taken prisoner, 
 and had lost his life in an affray occasioned by an 
 attempt to rescue him. 
 
 Instead of avoiding direct conflict with this obstinate 
 resistance, the national government, which Urquiza 
 actually controlled, sent a governor to San Juan, who 
 had been previously known only by his violent conduct 
 and his vices, to serve as a sort of executioner. The 
 result which might have been expected, soon followed 
 in a terrible outbreak, during which the band of out- 
 siders sent to torment the people perished at their 
 hands. 
 
 Colonel Sarmiento, then Minister of State at Buenos 
 Ayres, was informed of the first symptoms of this out- 
 break by a message sent him by his friend, th'e irre- 
 proachable and venerable Dr. Aberastain, and he 
 availed himself of the information to urge with earnest- 
 
THE OLD CONFLICT. 377 
 
 ness upon the President and upon General Urquiza the 
 importance of saving the Republic from a day of mourn- 
 ing, by removing Virasoro, their recent gubernatorial 
 appointee. 
 
 On the 16th of November, they published a joint 
 letter, signed also by the Governor of Buenos Ayres, 
 which at last gained what had been so anxiously so- 
 licited ; but on the very day that President Durque* re- 
 voked the appointment, Virasoro fell in a frightful con- 
 flict with the rebellious people. 
 
 A commission was despatched to San Juan, for the 
 purpose of pacifying the disturbance, but while on its 
 way, the old hostility of faction poisoned the minds of 
 its members, and under the influence of General Ur- 
 quiza, then living apart on his own estates, who tam- 
 pered with the forces that passed by his residence, it 
 became the instrument of a bloody revenge. Among 
 other victims, Dr. Aberastain, who had been made 
 governor after the fall of Virasoro, was cruelly and 
 uselessly sacrificed in a horrible massacre, among hun- 
 dreds of other victims, by that very Saa, who within a 
 year has again headed an insurrection in the western 
 provinces. 
 
 Everything was again thrown into confusion, and on 
 the receipt of the news, Colonel Sarmiento withdrew 
 from the ministry, as his continuance in office would 
 have misled the public as to the nature of the resolu- 
 tions forced upon the government of Buenos Ayres, for 
 circumstances made it seem the personal interest of the 
 minister that this war should be made, while in fact 
 the contest which he fain would have averted, had 
 already become inevitable. At this time he also re- 
 
378 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 fused the embassy to the United States, because he 
 would not receive from the hands of the President the 
 bribe of $14,000 with which he tempted him to with- 
 draw his resignation. 
 
 The battle of Favon terminated these unhappy con- 
 sequences of an evil which a conciliatory policy had 
 failed to subdue. Urquiza was routed, the national 
 government was dissolved, and as it was expedient for 
 an army to be sent into the interior, to secure and in- 
 crease the results of the victory, Colonel Sarmiento was 
 made commander-in-chief and official representative of 
 the political views of his party. A pamphlet written 
 by him describes this campaign, which began with the 
 rout of a force entrenched behind the Carcarana. 
 
 In pursuance of the operations of the war, and hav- 
 ing captured two pieces of artillery from San Juan at 
 San Luis, he was the first to reach the city of Mendoza, 
 on January 1, 1862, attended by the victorious troops 
 of Buenos Ayres. Proceeding at once to San Juan, 
 he met with the reception to be looked for from the 
 people of his birthplace upon their release from so 
 long a series of disasters endured in behalf of a cause 
 whose triumph had demanded a sacrifice of which 
 they were the victims, as well as the generous sympa- 
 thy thus awakened in Buenos Ayres ; for it is posi- 
 tively known that it was the odium of the San Juan 
 massacres that solved the difficulties previously insu- 
 perable either by political combinations, treaties, or 
 battles. On January 11, he celebrated, as governor 
 of the province, an office to which the general voice 
 had called him, the obsequies of the illustrious men 
 who had fallen in those massacres, and thenceforward 
 
SARMIENTO SCHOOL. 379 
 
 zealously availed himself of the means just placed in 
 his hands to abate the evil effects of so many years of 
 confusion. 
 
 The many years he had spent in connection with the 
 Chilian administration, at that time farther advanced 
 in the path of progress than any other to be found in 
 South America, his many travels, his steady devotion 
 to public life, all made him worthy of a wider field of 
 usefulness than that afforded by an interior province. 
 But the moral importance of a community which had 
 undergone such trials, and the liberal instincts it had 
 always shown, were enough to make amends for its 
 scanty population in lending importance to his labors. 
 An era of tranquillity in the interior followed the storms 
 of the past, while new sources of disturbance made 
 their appearance in the capital. 
 
 He availed himself rather of the deference with 
 which he was regarded, than of his official power, to 
 render acceptable various reforms in administration 
 and in the collection of revenue, setting on foot, also, 
 some public works, while the people, but for him, 
 would have been disinclined to any changes. A 
 Topographical Department, entrusted to European 
 engineers, was employed in the work of mapping and 
 surveying the country, a work required by a method 
 of agriculture dependent on canals for irrigation. The 
 map of the province has since been lithographed. 
 
 Public education, as was to be expected, received a 
 great impulse, in the foundation of a college for ad- 
 vanced studies, the nucleus of a future university ; a 
 high school for children of each sex, and primary 
 schools in each ward, parish, or department. Upon the 
 
380 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 foundation^ of an abandoned church in the city, the 
 building devoted to educational purposes was at once 
 begun, of which former mention was made. The fol- 
 lowing public enterprises also deserve notice : a normal 
 farm, for the promotion and improvement of agricultur- 
 al art ; a large cemetery which was urgently required 
 by public decency, the old one being overcrowded ; a 
 public promenade, shaded by groups of trees, with iron 
 benches beneath them ; numerous repairs of existing 
 structures ; the paving of two leagues of streets ; the 
 construction of bridges of quarried marble over the 
 canals, etc. ; and the opening of straight roads thirty 
 yards wide between the departments, to facilitate the 
 wagon traffic. 
 
 He endeavored to bring back the refinements of 
 cultivated society to a province so remote and which 
 had been so exposed to conditions detrimental to prog- 
 ress, by the observance of public ceremonies and fes- 
 tivities on such occasions as the laying of corner-stones 
 of new buildings, at the opening of various new works, 
 and by military parades, all photographed at the time, 
 in all of which were employed the forms, ornaments, 
 and symbols used for such purposes by all civilized 
 nations. The halcyon days of his short rule must 
 have seemed after their late misfortunes like a dream 
 of the night. 
 
 In his first addresses to the provincial legislature, he 
 proposed the development of the mining interest ; for 
 San Juan, an oasis in the desert of the Travesias, as 
 the barren region around the province is called, is full 
 of mining wealth. Three years had passed in fruitless 
 endeavors to extract the silver which showed itself in 
 numerous localities throughout the province. 
 
MINING INTERESTS. 381 
 
 Mr. Rickard was sent for from Chili, and, after an 
 examination of the principal mining districts, he made 
 a report of them favorable enough to encourage the 
 formation of a mining company, with a capital of a 
 hundred thousand dollars in gold ; and when the stock 
 was subscribed for, he went to England for materials, 
 machinery, and workmen, stopping at Buenos Ayres 
 to obtain more subscriptions and assistance from the 
 government. No more fortunate choice of an agent 
 could have been made. Mr. Rickard not only fulfilled 
 all the objects of his expedition, but enlisted English 
 capital in the enterprise, by publishing his " Mining 
 Journey across the Andes," which made the public 
 familiar with the name of the new mining district and 
 other public works (trabajos publicos). A Review was 
 established at the same time to keep the public in- 
 formed of the results of the undertaking. 
 
 If the richness and permanence of these mines, and 
 the skillful method of working them which have been 
 adopted, answer the well-grounded hopes which have 
 been formed of them, it is supposed that their shares 
 will soon be quoted at the London Exchange, and the 
 " Mining Journal " will inform the world of their pro- 
 ducts. Facing the central chain of the Andes, five 
 thousand feet above the sea-level, in the beautiful and 
 cultivated valley of Colingasta, enhancing the grandeur 
 of one of the most superb views among the mountains, 
 arise the columns of smoke emitted from the lofty 
 chimney of the Smelting and Amalgamating Works 
 of the San Juan Mining Company, situated near the 
 mines of Fontal and of Castano, which are connected 
 with the plain by a cart-road, and offer an inexhaus- 
 
382 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 tible stock of metallic wealth to English capital and 
 metallurgical science. Mr. Rickard has bought up all 
 the stock in order to extend the enterprise by the 
 introduction of more capital. 
 
 It will soon be known whether these mineral dis- 
 tricts, with their thousands of argentiferous veins, can 
 rival the mines of Mexico or Potosi in richness and 
 productiveness. 
 
 But all this fair promise of peace and progress was 
 disturbed and saddened from the outset by the incur- 
 sions of banditti which distracted the neighboring 
 provinces, and were carried even to the gates of San 
 Juan, which thus found itself threatened with ruin 
 while it was intent upon paving its streets and making 
 bridges and roads. On January 1, 1863, a letter 
 conveying the compliments of the season was sent to 
 the Governor of San Juan by one of the ministers of 
 the general government, containing the expression, 
 " We are sailing over a sea of flowers." Another min- 
 ister stated on March 22, " We have never enjoyed 
 a period of greater good fortune ; at peace, as we are, 
 with all the world, and on friendly terms with Urquiza 
 and El Chacho." These dreams of a government 
 
 D 
 
 which, owing to its location at one extremity and in 
 the most civilized part of the Republic, had fallen into 
 a false security, were dispelled by the fight of La 
 Punta del Agua, which happened ten days later, on 
 the 2d of April. On this occasion, no political pre- 
 text was assigned for their plundering inroads by the 
 troops of horsemen coming from the open country of 
 La Rioja, San Luis, and Cprdova, and headed by El 
 Chacho, a leader who had been used to making war on 
 
THE CAPTURE OF EL CHACHO. 383 
 
 the towns with impunity under all the successive gov- 
 ernments, for thirty years past. The national govern- 
 ment entrusted to the Governor of San Juan the 
 suppression of these disturbances, assigning to the duty 
 the National Guard of San Juan and Mendoza, a battal- 
 ion of regulars, and the First Regiment of the Line, 
 commanded by Colonel Sanders, who was famous for 
 having received up to that time fifty-one wounds from 
 knife, bullet, lance, rapier, and sword. 
 
 Governor Sarmiento received his appointment to 
 the direction of these military operations on the 8th of 
 April. He had been informed on the 6th of an inva- 
 sion of Mendoza by adventurers crossing from Chili in 
 his rear. This intelligence, and the outbreak of insur- 
 rection in all directions, made the instructions he had 
 received useless and inapplicable, and forced him to 
 rely upon the inspiration of the moment, and to act as 
 the facts of the case required. 
 
 Seventeen military expeditions were successively 
 despatched from San Juan, towards the south, east, 
 and north. The conflict of April 2 in San Luis was 
 followed by several others : one in Mendoza, April 13 ; 
 one in La Rioja, May 21 ; one in the Playas de Cor- 
 dova, June 29 ; one in the Chanar, between the last- 
 named provinces, July 8 ; one in the Bajo Hondo, 
 between San Juan and La Rioja, August 14, and a 
 final and decisive engagement at Causete, near the 
 gate of the city of San Juan, on October 29. The 
 Argentine montonera, although everywhere beaten, 
 continually reappeared, unexpectedly threatening the 
 place they supposed to be weakest, and mocking the 
 vigilance of the armies in pursuit of them. 
 
384 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 Eight hours after his entrance into the rural depart- 
 ments of San Juan, El Chacho had been routed and 
 was in flight towards the desert, trusting to that and to 
 the speed of his horses for his safety ; but this time he 
 failed to find in it the security which had enabled him 
 to laugh at the pursuit of regular troops for thirty 
 years. The author of " Civilization and Barbarism," 
 who has given us so lively a description of the warfare 
 of the pampas, had, in this instance, departed from his 
 ordinary course, and pursued the brigand with such 
 energy as to surprise him in his last fastness, where he 
 was seized and executed. 
 
 The want of space forbids the insertion of the story 
 of his capture, which did credit to the skill and military 
 tactics of the commander. 
 
 While governor of San Juan, upon the invasion of 
 the province, he twice placed it in a state of siege 
 under a proclamation of martial law. This course was 
 unjustly and imprudently disapproved by the national 
 government, and singular to relate, the two persons 
 suspected of dealings with the insurgents, who were 
 released from imprisonment by the national authorities, 
 met the melancholy fate of obscure deaths in inglorious 
 combats such as too often occur in those unhappy 
 countries, domestic broils involving whole hecatombs 
 of lives. 
 
 Upon the capture, arms in hand, of Clavero, one of 
 the ringleaders of the insurrection of Mendoza, a place 
 subjected by the President himself to the control of 
 Governor Sarmiento, commander-in-chief, he was 
 tried before a council of war and condemned to death. 
 The sentence, according to rule, was referred to the 
 
DIPLOMATIC MISSIONS. 385 
 
 commander-in-chief. Governor Sarmiento felt con- 
 vinced that he judged aright in sanctioning it, but the 
 national government, ignorant till long after of the 
 actual occurrences connected with this series of ope- 
 rations, failed to do justice to the director of this com- 
 plicated and obstinate warfare, until information was 
 received of the decisive affair at Cause te. Clavero 
 was set at liberty. At this day, government sees its 
 mistake. In speaking of this transaction, Colonel 
 Sarmiento again quotes Webster in his able speech 
 about martial law and its occasional necessity, and in 
 his u Life of Abraham Lincoln," dwells with much 
 force upon that statesman's action in circumstances not 
 wholly unlike those in which he then took part. He 
 wrote several articles at the time upon the question of 
 state rights which arose out of all these circumstances, 
 which were afterwards published in the " Nacional " at 
 Buenos Ayres, and still later reproduced in a pamphlet 
 entitled " The State of Siege according to Dr. Raw- 
 son," who was Secretary of State. 1 
 
 The future of San Juan became secure upon the dis- 
 appearance of El Chacho, who had plundered it more 
 than once during his residence in the neighborhood 
 and since the organization of its mining wealth had set 
 it on the road to wealth. 
 
 The National Government again applied to Congress 
 for authority to appoint the Governor of San Juan to 
 the diplomatic mission to the United States. 
 
 i At this moment, 1868, a change of cabinet has thrown Dr. Rawson out 
 of this position, and Colonel Sarmiento has been appointed Secretary of 
 State by the present administration, but he declines to take the place in 
 this last hour of its existence. 
 25 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 After resigning his office of Governor, with the view 
 of accepting this appointment, he went to Chili to 
 execute a similar mission, for he was made ambassador 
 both to that country and to Peru at the same time. 
 
 He took occasion, while at Valparaiso, to protest 
 against the unprecedented conduct of Admiral Pinzon 
 in seizing the Chincha Islands. This protest was 
 couched in concise language, which clearly indicated, 
 however, how the principles of international law had 
 in this instance been trampled under foot. A still 
 greater sensation was occasioned in Chili and in Peru 
 by his address to the President of the Chilian Repub- 
 lic upon presenting his credentials, due, perhaps, to the 
 expressive phrases in which this discourse recalled the 
 glories of the War of Independence against Spain, 
 the common glory of Peru, Chili, and the United 
 Provinces. 
 
 Colonel Sarmiento's resignation of the government of 
 .San Juan, gives occasion for the remark that his prin- 
 ciples have made themselves manifest throughout his 
 public career by the repeated withdrawal from situa- 
 tions of personal advantage whenever his retention of 
 them would have interfered with a public interest or a 
 sound political principle. 
 
 When sixteen years old, he had quitted the manage- 
 ment of a prosperous establishment to join an army 
 which took the field against Facundo Quiroga ; in 1842 
 he gave up the high position won in Chili by his writ- 
 ings, to attach himself to another Argentine army. In 
 1851 he did the same, to join the final war against 
 Rosas. After being disappointed in the ability and 
 disposition of General Urquiza, the commander of the 
 
DISINTERESTED POLITICAL ACTION. 387 
 
 expedition against Rosas, to give a settled or a better 
 government, he alone of all his countrymen withdrew 
 entirely from the scene of operations, as has been be- 
 fore mentioned, in order neither to countenance by his 
 presence the evil rule he foresaw, nor to attempt a 
 forcible resistance to it. 
 
 In 1856 he had twice declined a seat in the Congress, 
 because he could not take it consistently with his princi- 
 ples, preferring to establish himself in Buenos Ayres 
 without any public office, and contend alone against the 
 then mutilated confederation. In 1861 he refused the 
 embassy to the United States for kindred reasons, and 
 again withdrew from the ministry on learning the news 
 of the violent proceedings at San Juan and the conse- 
 quent death of his friend, Dr. Aberastain. 
 
 Before his departure from the Argentine Republic, 
 the attention of the world had been called to the 
 United States and its public men by our civil war, and 
 by European attempts to introduce monarchy into 
 Mexico. He still watches the political struggle with 
 the deepest interest and the eye of a philosopher 
 and a legislator, from whom we may learn much. A 
 letter addressed of late to Senator Sumner on the 
 occasion of the suspension of the Department of Edu- 
 cation, may well put to shame the backwardness of our 
 National Congress in reference to that cause whose 
 neglected claims are the strongest possible comment 
 upon the superficial education of our people. 1 
 
 From Chili he went to Peru. During his stay in 
 Lima he was invited by the plenipotentiaries sent to 
 the South American Congress, to which he had never 
 
 1 See Appendix. 
 
388 BTOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 been accredited by his government, to take part in 
 its deliberations, and give it the benefit of his knowl- 
 edge. He assisted in drawing up the treaties of alli- 
 ance agreed to by the accredited plenipotentiaries, and 
 did much to couch the alliance in such terms as would 
 least impair the sovereignty of each State. 
 
 The Chilian press has preserved the memory of sev- 
 eral remarkable predictions of Colonel Sarmiento in 
 respect to the consequences of political conditions whose 
 significance his sagacity enabled him to penetrate with 
 remarkable insight, as the events proved. 
 
 In September, 1847, he assured Senor Carbello, the 
 Chilian Minister Plenipotentiary at Washington, of the 
 close approach of the French Revolution which took 
 place in February, 1848, at which latter time he had 
 returned from his travels, and was again in Chili, 
 whence he wrote, in March, before any tidings could 
 have reached Chili, inquiring for the details of an 
 event that he was confident had happened. His pre- 
 diction of the present condition of the United States, 
 published last winter in " The Commonwealth," de- 
 served to stand side by side with those prophecies which 
 Mr. Sumner collected in his striking article in u The 
 Atlantic." At that time he traversed the United States 
 from end to end, saw its growing prosperity with a 
 fresh eye, fresh from the apathy of South America 
 and Spain ; fresh from the complicated conditions of 
 the most advanced countries of Europe, where he had 
 detected the clogs in the machinery of despotic and 
 indeed of all monarchical or personal governments. He 
 also detected the flaws in our country, and saw where 
 liberty was travestied by the continued existence of 
 
REMARKABLE PREDICTIONS. 889 
 
 slavery, but looking through all these obstacles he 
 confidently predicted that in twenty years this would 
 be the Great Republic of the world, and command the 
 respect of all nations, possessing vitality enough to 
 cure its own internal sores. It is still more remarka- 
 ble to find a passage in his travels wherein, speaking 
 of the division of the religious world into sects, he 
 recognizes the principles of Roger Williams into whose 
 spirit he intelligently enters, and prophesies that 
 America is a land where eventually all sects will be 
 merged in a pure practice of Christianity which shall 
 repudiate all discordant forms and- show the spectacle 
 of a religious nation in which only the principles of 
 Christianity shall be recognized without its forms. 
 
 Perhaps the most remarkable instance of his fore- 
 sight was his celebrated letter to General Urquiza in 
 1860, in which he told him that a year later he should 
 require him to answer for the consequences of that 
 invasion of San Juan which ended in the death of Dr. 
 Aberastain. In 1861, and as it happened on the same 
 day of the same month, while moving on San Juan 
 with an army, he addressed a letter from Villanueva 
 to General Urquiza, who had been just defeated at 
 Pavon, to remind him of his former letter which had 
 been justified by the event. 
 
 During his late residence in the United States, Col- 
 onel Sarmiento has given all his leisure time to the 
 subject of education and to the preparation of papers 
 descriptive of American industry and American prog- 
 ress, and of valuable works, to send home to his 
 country. 
 
 An able " Life of Lincoln," compiled from the best 
 
390 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 authorities then known, and made up largely of his 
 best and most effective speeches, taken as far back as 
 the debates upon the Mexican war, and prefaced by a 
 very instructive Introduction, he has printed and sent 
 to South America, offering it "in unlimited quantities " 
 if they will but read it. The skill with which he made 
 prominent in it, topics upon which South America 
 needed instruction, was very marked. The burst of 
 sympathy which followed in the Argentine Republic, 
 the death of our beloved President, was quite touching, 
 and has been but little known and appreciated here. 
 They too observed public mourning for the event, and 
 their hearts were opened to receive the instruction his 
 life and death afforded. Indeed the interest with 
 which they watch our career is very worthy of note, 
 and the noble speech and defense of our country made 
 by Hector Florence Varela, one of the most accom- 
 plished of their citizens, at the Peace Congress in 
 Geneva in 1867, a speech for which General Dix sent 
 him an official note of thanks, 1 show how intelligent is 
 their appreciation. 
 
 His book entitled " The Schools the Basis of the 
 Prosperity of the United States," is a large work, con- 
 taining a mine of information and wisdom. Many of 
 its papers are descriptive of South American wants, to 
 which the remedy is pointed out in others upon North 
 American prosperity. This book is highly spoken of 
 by Mr. Laboulaye, as well as by the best patriots and 
 literary men of South America w r ho have had the good 
 fortune to read it ; but an edition of a thousand copies, 
 
 1 The speech and the note have been published in the April number 
 of the Boston Radical. 
 
AMBAS AMERICAS. 391 
 
 which Colonel Sarmiento sent home for distribution, 
 was stored in the government house, which shortly 
 after was burnt down with all its treasures, books, and 
 archives. Only a few individuals, who knew the 
 edition was there, and insisted upon having copies, ob- 
 tained the books. The catastrophe seems almost sym- 
 bolic of the disasters that ever and anon befall the 
 devoted Republic, which from time to time rises 
 phoenix-like from its own ashes, and after having 
 vainly fluttered its wings for a flight into the empy- 
 rean, falls back to earth with broken pinion. May it 
 prove of immortal vigor in the end, like the patriot 
 educator, who never tires of scattering the good seed 
 broadcast, sure that in the nature of things it is inde- 
 structible ; that a little vegetation will first spring up 
 and cover the naked rock, disintegrating the surface by 
 striking its slender roots, and this will make a richer 
 bed for the next seed to fall upon, till at last the desert 
 shall blossom as the rose. What undying faith in prin- 
 ciples is needed to keep alive even such indomitable 
 energies ! 
 
 When Colonel Sarmiento was in Europe in 1847, he 
 was solicited to make the u Revue des Deux Mondes " 
 answer to its name by his own contributions to it. He 
 did not accept the offer, but the last publication he has 
 undertaken is a Review of his own called " Ambas 
 Americas," or " The Two Americas," in which he 
 purposes to embody all the current educational litera- 
 ture and improvements of the time. He has sent 
 home a large edition of the first number to be dis- 
 tributed not only in his own Republic but in the sister 
 Republics. Many of these are hardly yet acquainted 
 
392 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 with the movement set on foot in Chili and the Argen- 
 
 o 
 
 tine Republic thirty years ago. In such portions of 
 the country, the education of the people as a people has 
 never yet been contemplated, and this very able Review 
 will give the first intimation of such a plan to many of 
 them. He hopes for assistance from this country to 
 enrich his work. 
 
 His able coadjutor, La Senora Juana Manso, inspired 
 by his example, still continues in her able editorship of 
 the " Common-School Annals," founded many years 
 since by Colonel Sarmiento. She is resolved that 
 her compatriots shall not want for the best theories 
 upon every branch of the subject. In one of her last 
 issues, speaking of this last effort of Colonel Sarmiento, 
 she joyfully exclaims, " the giant is on his feet again ! " 
 Like Antaeus, of old, when he falls to the earth, he 
 rebounds from it with new motives for exertion, and 
 apparently with new powers of execution. The foun- 
 dation and execution of the " Ambas Americas " was 
 the first effort which Colonel Sarmiento made after 
 hearing of the death of his noble and only son in the 
 Paraguayan war. The thought of what the sixty 
 thousand children of the Republic needed drew him 
 out of his deep sadness for that immeasurable and irrep- 
 arable loss, for his son was a young man of the finest 
 promise, spoken of by his eulogists as the " hope of the 
 nation," the " coming man," the " idol of society," and 
 young as he was (but twenty-one), " the intelligent 
 and pure patriot " to whose future career the most 
 experienced men of his country looked with expecta- 
 tion and confidence. He was educated by his father 
 from earliest infancy, and was just about to graduate at 
 
MEN OF SOUTH AMERICA. 393 
 
 the University of Buenos Ayres, when the call to 
 fight for liberty and his country snatched him from his 
 studies. The motives of the allies in that war were 
 not conquest, for they mutually agreed not to occupy 
 Paraguay, but simply to dethrone the tyrant and 
 restore the country to its enslaved people. 1 The mo- 
 tive of young Captain Sarmiento and his Lieutenant 
 Paz who fell on the same field of battle, and were 
 brought home and buried together in the tomb of the 
 martyred Varela, by request of his sons, was as pure 
 as those which actuated our noblest young men to fight 
 for the liberty of all) as well as in defense of their 
 country. 
 
 At the instance of his government, which consisted 
 of his personal as well as political friends, who thought 
 his mind might be temporarily diverted from his sor- 
 rows by a change of scene, Colonel Sarmiento visited 
 the French Exposition in 1867, and was present at the 
 awarding of medals to his countrymen for their supe- 
 rior wools. 
 
 Such are the principal events in the life of a states- 
 man of South America, of which we have known so 
 little. Perhaps they have many more men of merit, 
 for in his works we meet the names of many who have 
 been distinguished, and of whom he speaks in terms of 
 high respect, such as the Generals of the War of In- 
 dependence, Puyrredon, San Martin, and Las Heras, 
 statesmen like Don Manuel Montt, ex-president of 
 Chili, the celebrated litterateur Bello, the virtuous 
 
 1 It is not clearly understood in this country that the object of Lopez, 
 tyrant of Paraguay, was not to found or defend a republic, but to found an 
 empire extending over Entrerios, Corxientes, and Uruguay. 
 
394 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 Aberastain, "a Cato assassinated in another Utica," 
 Dr. Velez, the author of the " Codes of Law," of which 
 M. Laboulaye says it is the most advanced work on 
 that subject in the world, with many other personages 
 too numerous to name and of whom nothing is known 
 here. But none of them have had the opportunity, 
 like the subject of this sketch, to acquire that knowl- 
 edge which, when well directed, serves to change 
 radically the condition of a nation. Even the circum- 
 stance of not having received that kind of education 
 which is given in universities may have served to pre- 
 serve his mind free from those leading-strings of 
 national tradition which often becomes a second nature 
 in the individual, destroying all originality and perpet- 
 uating errors of opinion. A man who has contended 
 with barbarism in South America, and has studied the 
 sources of the development of other nations, during 
 residence therein, must have acquired by practice and 
 by comparison, rich materials for thought, and a fund 
 of ideas of no common order. That of diffusing edu- 
 cation among the people, from which nothing has dis- 
 tracted him for thirty years, neither war nor exile, the 
 poverty of his private life, nor the seductions of exalted 
 position, has given a special character to his life. The 
 present minister of the government of Buenos Ayres, 
 speaking of education, in his report to the legislature of 
 this year, says, " We cannot speak of education without 
 naming Colonel Sarmiento ; " and this saying will be 
 often repeated in different parts of South America, for 
 his new Review, the " Ambas Americas," a work spe- 
 cially designed to impart to the southern hemisphere 
 the knowledge and the ideas that have been acquired in 
 
APPRECIATION BY HIS COUNTRYMEN. 395 
 
 the northern, will spread the knowledge of his charac- 
 ter and efforts, as well as of his great theme, Popular 
 Education. 
 
 It may be said of him in reference to the subject 
 of education, as was said of a contemporary by Plu- 
 tarch, " He is more than an echo of Socrates in 
 the practice of morality, he is even a disciple." Who 
 like him has during a long life pursued the one aim of 
 saving a nation from decay by proposing to rouse the 
 dormant moral sentiments of the human soul ? 
 
 Will his example be followed in his own country ? 
 He has had so little encouragement in his laborious 
 career that it had been feared few would be found to 
 follow him in a path so bristling with difficulties, but 
 the present sympathy of his countrymen, whom a great 
 calamity has waked from their long apathy, inspires 
 better hopes. 
 
 It is but justice to do so much honor to his country, 
 as to say, that by what we have seen of the corre- 
 spondence of " Ambas Americas," and through the 
 political articles of the New York papers, it is evident 
 that there are everywhere some who appreciate the 
 true value of his labors, and there is a party there that 
 understands how much it might be benefited by put- 
 ting the reins of government into such able and 
 experienced hands. " It is like the judgment of pos- 
 terity," one letter says, " this opinion that is held to-day 
 of the same ideas and efforts which ten years ago met 
 with such resistance." 
 
 In countries so little experienced in republican prac- 
 tices as South America must be, the material facts of 
 an election are not always the expression of the most 
 
396 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 dominant opinion of the best minds, but rather of the 
 accidental influences of the moment. It is therefore 
 doubtful whether Colonel Sarmiento, being so far from 
 the theatre of party movements, can effectually serve 
 his country otherwise than by his advice or his writ- 
 ings, but that they are now esteemed worthy of con- 
 sideration there, is a powerful stimulus to his persever- 
 ance in his life-long work. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 New York. 
 To MR. SENATOR SUMNER, 
 
 HONORABLE SIR, Encouraged by the distinction with which you have 
 been kind enough to favor me, I take the liberty of submitting to your 
 enlightened consideration a few observations upon a subject which will 
 soon be brought before the Senate, and in whose favorable selection not 
 only the United States, but republican principles everywhere, and the civ- 
 ilization of the popular masses are deeply interested. I have heard that 
 the discontinuance of the National Department of Education has been re- 
 solved upon, and if the measure is definitely carried, such action will in 
 my judgment produce a deplorable reaction against the growing interest 
 inspired of late by universal education. 
 
 For statesmen like yourself, my suggestions would have little value, if I 
 should pretend to propose new plans upon subjects on which North Amer- 
 icans are so far in advance of other nations. But it may be of some use 
 to know the impressions made upon other peoples, and my feelings in this 
 special case would be, as it were, the expression of their common aspira- 
 tions. I can speak for South America, where twenty or thirty millions of 
 human beings are agitated by a chaos of revolutions, which conduce to 
 nothing, btcause certain elements of government are wanting, and I have 
 recently visited Europe, where I conversed with eminent men upon the 
 salutary moral influence which the United States are beginning to exer- 
 cise. 
 
 When Europe recovered from its surprise and wonder at the happy issue 
 of the past civil war, and at the triumph of republican institutions, 
 among all the causes incomprehensible at a distance, which had brought 
 about this result, it discerned one alone clearly, and that was that behind 
 Lincoln, Congress, and Grant, was a people that could read and write. 
 
 The Republic now presents itself to those who do not despair of liberty 
 in the world, with the school as the basis of its Constitution. To the 
 political economist, the North American School, which creates the producer, 
 is a sufficient explanation of the prodigious development of wealth ; and 
 
398 APPENDIX. 
 
 in view of the governments themselves, the sudden appearance of the 
 United States and of Prussia as great nations, is closely allied to their sys- 
 tems of universal education. England and France have showed of late 
 that they have profited by the lesson, taking more interest than formerly 
 in the diffusion of education. This is the clear influence exercised by 
 American institutions in their most acceptable forms. 
 
 Mr. Laboulaye, the distinguished French professor who has done so 
 much to make North American institutions known in Europe, not long 
 ago presented to the workmen of Lyons the portraiture of Horace Mann 
 as the only man comparable to Washington in the part which he took in 
 the definitive and enduring organization of American democracy. But in 
 the greater part of the world to-day, if the influence and efficacy of North 
 American institutions of education are known by their results, very few if 
 any have an idea of their mode of operation, or of their organization. In 
 England, reports, data, and ideas are frequently sought from the United 
 States, and I am acquainted with the fact that the ex-minister Ratazzi, 
 desiring to organize a vast system of education in Italy, lamented that he 
 had not within reach the precise documents which could explain the sys- 
 tems that have given such happy results in the United States, the only 
 country which can serve as a guide in this respect. The speech of the 
 Hon. Mr. Garfield in the House of Representatives in favor of the creation 
 of the National Department of Education, has been reproduced in the 
 presses of South America as a stimulus toward adopting the same measure, 
 and another of Professor Wickersham, of Pennsylvania, has had the same 
 currency in France and South America. 
 
 If the United States, then, owe an account to the human race of their 
 own experience and progress in certain respects which are important to the 
 well-being and improvement of mankind, just as they received from Eng- 
 land and from human thought many of the principal benefits of govern- 
 ment, a means of transmitting the knowledge would hereby have been 
 established, and the National Department of Education would have fulfilled 
 that useful function, beside the special object for which it was created. It 
 would have come to be, as it were, the Department of International and 
 Foreign Educational Relations, and its reports and data would, when col- 
 lected, have been a fountain of information, not only for the Southern 
 States, but other nations, for even if a Report of Massachusetts or New 
 York Schools can be obtained in Europe, such documents, by their purely 
 provincial character, are wanting in the authority which the seal of the 
 United States would give to those of a National Department. The great 
 inequality with which education is actually distributed in the United 
 States, and which it was the confessed object of the said Department to 
 regulate, would have given an opportunity to see the work of diffusion, 
 and the application of means, as well as the desired results. 
 
 With some diffidence, I will venture to make one observation wij,h re- 
 
APPENDIX. 399 
 
 spect to the United States themselves. The greatest antagonism between 
 the Southern States and the Northern, has come, in my judgment, from the 
 Southern following the same plan as that of ancient society in Europe and 
 South America, and the Northern advancing in new and peculiar paths. 
 The system of education in the South, limited to universities and colleges, 
 was that of England, France, Spain, Italy, and the South America of to- 
 day, leaving the majority of the people without intellectual preparation and 
 development. The visible sign of the advanced North American system 
 of government is the Common School, and if ever the South shows the same 
 visible siyn, its regeneration will be secured. 
 
 For the Republicans of Eurdpe and South America, the North Americans 
 have added a new organism of government in the COMMON SCHOOL, thus 
 solving a grave difficulty which the ancient Republics could not solve. 
 The North American Republic is a government which under a written Con- 
 stitution is carried on by written speech. Athens, Rome, Venice, Florence, 
 were republican cities (or city republics) governing byword of mouth from 
 the Forum. Washington is only the desk on which the laws are written 
 and where the reasons are given for the law, which on the following day 
 the people in California, Chicago, or Richmond, read written. Hence the 
 Republic to-day is in extension indefinitely dilatable, as the people gov- 
 ern from their residence, be it in Egypt, in Capua, or in Greece, because 
 they can read that which is sent to them written. If, then, Republican in- 
 stitutions are to be diffused throughout the world, patriots, instead of mak- 
 ing revolutions, would begin by founding common schools, in imitation of 
 the United States, as the cement of the future Constitutions. If Protest- 
 antism, by requiring the Christian to know how to read, in order to put 
 into his hands the Bible, has so much aided by this means alone, the devel- 
 opment and improvement of the human race, the SCHOOL of the American 
 Republic will make useless the ancient aristocracies and the modern repres- 
 sive governments, by suppressing the popular incapacity and its legitimate 
 fruits revolutions. 
 
 You will understand why, with these ideas and hopes, I deplore the sup- 
 pression of the Rational Department of Education, which proposes to be a 
 guide at home and abroad to the laggards of the South in the United States, 
 and would have been a Pharos to the other nations, in the new path marked 
 out by the North. So persuaded was I of the beneficent influence which this 
 department was destined to execute, that I attended the meetings of Su- 
 perintendents of Schools in Washington and Indianopolis to add my voice 
 to it, and established a Spanish Educational Review * in order to make known 
 at large in South America the important data which this public office would 
 furnish. If the preservation of the National Department of Education 
 does not interest you much for practical results in the South, which have 
 not yet been put to the proof, I think you cannot be indifferent to the ad- 
 1 Ambas Americas. 
 
400 APPENDIX. 
 
 vantage that other nations would reap from its labors nations as my own 
 in the dark upon the mode of operation of the American Common School 
 system. May the hope of benefiting millions, and of ameliorating the 
 condition of the human race everywhere, induce you to rekindle and keep 
 forever burning the torch which is to diffuse that light. 
 
 I have the honor to subscribe myself, etc., 
 
 D. F. SARMIENTO. 
 
ERRATA. 
 
 Page 30th, line 1st, for Christian read Chilian. 
 " " line 16th, for Ariste read Triste. 
 
 " 130th, line 2d from below, for crisis social read social crisis. 
 
 " 136th, line 9th, for fifty-foot soldiers read fifty foot-soldiers. 
 
 " 248th, line 4th, for Agacucho read Ayacucho. 
 
 " 255th, line 1st, for mountaineers read montoneros. 
 
 " 262d, line 1st, for mountaineers read montoneros. 
 
 " 264th, line 17th, for sacreligious read sacrilegious. 
 
 " 276th, lines 4th and 5th from below, for pyramids read efesertf o/ 
 
 Page 284th, line 13th, for cathedral read pulpit. 
 
 " 308th, line 1st from below, strike out Doctor. 
 
 " 321st. line 8th, for Jachel read Jackal. 
 
 " 322d, lines 6th and 8th, for Leprida read Laprida. 
 
 " 323d, lines 3d and 8th from below, for Rickard read Richard. 
 
 " 327th, lines 12th and 13th from below, for Antonio read Nazario. 
 
 " 330th, line 7th from below, for Brinuela read Brizuela. 
 
 " 343d, line 9th, for Uspellata read Huspellata. 
 
 " " line 10th, for Sagrana read Lagrano. 
 
 " 345th, line 15th from below, for -ftaeftoj read Kadies. 
 
 " 353d, lines 1st and 5th, for Bolivar read Bolivia. 
 
 " for under whom read where. 
 
 " 359th, line 16th from below, for Durque read Durqui. 
 
 " 360th, line 8th, for Sanatuolas read /Sara Nicolas. 
 
 " " " from below, for Durque read Durqui. 
 
 " 367th, line 9th, for Durque read Durqui. 
 
 " 373d, line 15th, for Belgrave read Belgrano. 
 
 " 374th, line 3d from below, for Dr. Francia, the tyi-ant of Paraguay 
 spent, read /Vow* France were sent. 
 Page 374th, line 2d from below, for zw read to foster. 
 
 " 378th, line 16th, for Commander-in-chief 'read CUtf -of -staff. 
 ' 585th, line 1st, for Ccmmander-in-chieJ' read Prtsident. 
 
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