JadMimaAcj) yihcc^ UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES 1.0S ANGELES LIBRARY '/r CHINA TO PERU CHINA TO PERU OVER THE ANDES A JOURNEY THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA Lady (HOWARD) VINCENT AUTHORESS OP " 40,000 MILES OVER LAND AND WATEB, " NEWFOUNDLAND TO COCHIN CHINA," ETC. WITH REPORTS AND LETTERS ON BRITISH INTERESTS IN BRAZIL, ARGENTINA, CHILI, PERU, PANAMA AND VENEZUELA i By Sir HOWARD VINCENT, M.P. WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & COxMPANY Lunited ija, Paternoster Row, E.C. [Ali rights resenet/] 145830 TO THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL SHEFFIELD THIS ACCOUNT OF OUR THIRD WORLD JOURNEY IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED PREFACE. '' Let observation with extensive view, Survey Mankind from China to Peru." So wrote Samuel Johnson, and it has been my keenest desire and my good fortune to act upon the injunction. " Forty Thousand Miles over Land and Water " told of the impressions made upon me in the United States of America, Australasia, and the vast Empire of India. "Newfoundland to Cochin China" detailed my experiences in the Dominion of Canada, amid the fascinating Japanese, and around the Walls of the Forbidden City at Peking. This volume speaks of a third journey, whereof the furthermost point completed our " survey of mankind from China to Peru." At the request of many friends and for our warm-hearted constituents, the people of Central Sheffield, these records are printed and published. Ethel Gwendoline Vincent. I, Grosvenor Square. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. TAGE Over the South Atlantic i CHAPTER II. The Haven of Brazil in Revolution . . . 12 CHAPTER III. Up the Plate to Buenos Ayres .... 28 CHAPTER IV. The Camp of .'\rgentina 55 CHAPTER V. Across the Andes 87 CHAPTER VI. Chili and the Chilians 122 CHAPTER VII. The Nitrate-fields and the Desert Shore . . 145 CHAPTER VIII. Peru, and Five Miles towards Heaven . . .167 CHAPTER IX. To the Archipelago of Occident . . . .198 Contents. APPENDIX. I.__To THE Land of Revolutions II. — British South America Won and Lost III.— The Paris of the West . IV. — Argentine Politics . V. — Argentine Travelling in 1827 VI.— Over the Cordillera VII.— The English of the Pacific VIII.— The Nitrate Fields of Chili IX.— Peru and the Peruvians X. — Venezuela and Englan[> XL— The West Indies XI I. — British Interests in Brazil XIII.— British Commercial Interests in Argen TINA XIV. — British Trade in Chili . XV.— British Interests in Peru XVI.— The Panama Canal . Index PAGE 233- 240 244 250 252 •56 261 267 272 277 283 291 302 309 318 3^7 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGB St. Vincent, Cape de Verd Islands 2 Pernambuco 6 Corcorado and the Sugar Loaf 22 Plaza Libertad— Buenos Ayres 40 Rosario de Santa F6 68 Posada on the Andes 102 Road over the Andes between the Argentine Republic and Chili no Santiago de Chili 124 Bridge on the Valparaiso and Santiago Railway . -134 The Esplanade, Valparaiso 136 Nitrate Works 156 Scene on the Oroya Railroad 178 Monte Meiggs, Summit of Oroya Railway .... 184 Panama Canal Company's Hospital ..... 200 Panama Canal Works 318 View of the Panama Canal - 322 CHINA TO PERU, CHAPTER I. OVER THE SOUTH ATLANTIC. A LITTLE green bay surrounded by olive- covered slopes, with the white and buff town of Vigo lying above it, gives the comfort of shelter, after a dreary day of tossing in the Bay of Biscay^ for all on board the Royal Mail Steamer Thames. We embark a goodly number of emigrants^ who come out in flat-bottomed lighters, sitting enthroned amongst their household gods, and getting wet through, ere a lucky jump lands them on the gang- way. The next morning we are steaming merrily up the Tagus, past the bar and lighthouse and the Tower of Belem, and Lisbon lies white and smiling in the sunshine, its white and pink houses terraced one above each other, high up on the hill. We take a run up to Cintra ; beautiful Cintra, with its green valley, amid the barren mountains, filled with splendid Spanish oak and chestnut trees, its overhanging gardens gay with every tropical creeper ; where the fuchsias grow in bushes and the magnolias flower on full-sized trees. Such a view too over many B 2 China to Peru. bare brown ranges, out to the ocean, whilst always immediately above us is the grey parapet of the ancient Moorish fortress, running up and down, to right and left, on the high-most peak. On the evening of the second day after leaving Lisbon, we could just distinguish, on a cloudy moon- light night, the pale shadowy outline of the great rock peak of Teneriffe, rising out of a translucent grey range of mountains on the Island of Grand Canary. To port, Las Palmas, another island of the Canary group, is marked by a single lighthouse. Four days afterwards we are up at six o'clock to see the morning mists roll away from St. Antonio and St. Vincent, two of the islands of the Cape de Verd group. Weird and fantastic are the volcanic peaked rocks of the mountain ranges — now rising in conical needle peaks, now massed like craggy castles or opening out into deep craters. Abundant rain must have fallen lately, for St. Vincent is not the bare and barren island so oft depicted, but shows a pale green vegetation, very fresh and sparse, but which, mixed with the bright chrome and madder tints of the volcanic strata, gives to it a curious and not unattractive character. It reminds us much of Aden, possessing, like that place, a varied grandeur of its own, produced by Nature trying to make a play of colour with the sparsest materials. Lying in the absolute centre of the Bay of Porto Grande is the most curious freak of creation : a little pinnacled rock island, tapering to a natural peak, which in its turn is crowned by a white lighthouse. The base is completely hollowed out by the action of the continuous swell of the South Atlantic breakers. Over the South Atlantic. 3 forming a black cavernous circle around, which is broken into perpetually by clouds of foam and spray. This bears the commonplace name of Bird Island^ and looks as if it had just been placed there on pur- pose to carry the dazzling white lighthouse, with its steep zigzag path and final approach by a balustrade and stone steps, whose faithful light guides the ships to a safe anchorage. There are the red-roofed cluster of houses, with the large white building of the Brazilian Submarine Telegraph Station, which makes up the whole of the town. We land to find a iow clean paved streets, peopled chiefly by negroes and negresses, and pro- ceed to the telegraph station. About forty clerks, under the care of Mr. Lloyd, live here, and transact the business of the electric current, joining South America with Europe. Cable messages pass through the operating room we visit in every language, but as codes are chiefly used it must be dull work, hour after hour, writing off meaningless words from the ceaseless click, click of the instrument. The only amusement of these exiled clerks is cricket, and their chief excitement as to whether incoming vessels will stay long enough to enable them to get up an oppo- sition team for a match. St. Vincent belongs to the Portuguese, and one cannot help regretting that it is not one of England's possessions, as forming an in- valuable coaling station. We may, however, take comfort in the fact that all the ships in harbour this morning, with the exception of a Portuguese gun- boat, carry the Union Jack, showing, as always, the complete supremacy of England on the seas in all parts of the globe. B 2 4 China to Peru. Sunday in the Doldrums ! with the most awful heat. Some Httle amusement may be extracted from the manner in which passengers, at the extremity of endurance, lie panting on the deck, and for once our unpleasant Portuguese and Brazilian passengers are somewhat subdued. Everything but most absolutely necessary clothing is discarded, and everybody gasps and perspires during this loss of our hitherto pleasant companion, the north-east trade wind. This true ex- perience of the tropics is succeeded by the day of tropical downpour, which is generally found just north or south of the equator, where the different wind-currents meet. The following day we crossed the line about mid- day ; but with a cool breeze on the port side it is difficult to believe we are on the equator. With the picking up of the south-east trade wind in another day, the extremes of temperature are over. A word about the Royal Mail steamer Thames. She is a splendid vessel of 6000 tons, and commanded by Captain Hicks, the best captain that in our many sea voyages we have sailed under. She is very com- fortable in all respects but one. The largest part of the passengers are Portuguese and Brazilians, indeed they appear always to support the line, and to use it more than the English. Suffice it to say that their manners, habits and customs do not harmonize with ours, and indeed appear to us repellent. The con- tents of the cruet are poured over the food, or you may sec several raw eggs broken into a tumbler, with wine and Worcester sauce added impartially thereto. Add this drawback to an unfair proportion of chil- dren and a greatly overcrowded ship, and our Over the Sotctk Atlantic. 5 month^s sojourn on the Thames is otherwise like any other long sea voyage. A scudding white-crested breeze^ with a bright sun chasing shadows across the green island of Fernando Noronha, the Convict Settlement of the Brazils, is the next point of interest. The island has a most curious natural phenomenon. From the green hills that slope gently upwards from the centre of the island springs an horizontal basaltic pyramid, 1000 feet high. In the far distance it resembles a steeple, but as you come nearer it appears to be a great mass of rock, balanced on, and shelving outwards, so as to overhang, the mountain on to which it is accidentally thrown. We clearly distinguish the pink and red houses of the penal settlement, with their broad thatched roofs, the red prison where they are con- fined at night, the road running through the centre of the town, and the white stone house, probably the Governor's, about half-way up on an open space. The further end of the island is covered with forest, and at its extremity is an archway, cleanly cut through the rock, called the " Hole in the Wall," and through which we get a glimpse far out to sea. On the beautiful yellow beach the sapphire waves, crested with foam, roll continuously in. Fernando Noronha is four and a half miles long, with a population of 2000, out of which 200 are women convicts. It is garrisoned by a company of Brazilian soldiers, commanded by a major, who acts as governor. The island seems too pretty and at- tractive a spot for a penal population, and efforts are being made to persuade the Brazilian Government to form a quarantine station here for the northern ports. 6 China to Peru^ " Land on the starboard bow! " calls out the look- out, in the customary monotonous yet melodious pitchy in place of the usual " All's well," that echoes through every hour of the night, as the bells strike, and here is our first view of the green-blue line of the great continent of South America, our first view of the coast of Brazil, which forms one-fifth part of this same continent, and again one-fifteenth part of the whole world. Pernambuco, the Recife of the natives, and the second largest city in Brazil, is coming into view, and soon we are opposite the bold green-clad height of Olinda, with its verandahed houses scattered amongst palm-groves. Well may its appearance have caused Decarte Coelleo, as he explored the coast to exclaim in Portuguese : " O linda stuaceo para se funda una villia." " Oh ! beautiful site for a town.' Exclamation immortalized as being used in part, to furnish the name of this pretty suburb. Pernambuco, with its houses all white and red- roofed, lying among groves of tufted palms, seems to rise out of the ocean. Brilliantly shines the sun in tropical clearness. The sea is the usual perfect ultra- marine of this South Atlantic, with never a trace of the green of the North Atlantic in its unfathomable depths. Creamy-white is the foam that girdles the reef, thrown high in mid-air from off that wonderful natural breakwater. Truly may Pernambuco be called the Brazilian Venice, with its many intersecting streams, and its quiet lagoon lying inside the bar. This Recife (the native name for reef) is a mighty coral reef which extends along nearly the Over the South At /antic. 7 whole extent of the northern coast of Brazil. For five miles from Pernambuco, it continues without a break, and is laid so exactly straight and even that it resembles a breakwater of concrete. There is one opening opposite the town, and vessels of no great draught can pass the bar, and anchor alongside the wharf. From our deck it appears as if the spray- dashed on to the wharf itself, but in reality there is a green lagoon, between the reef and the dock. At low water the reef is exposed and seems formed of a hard, dark brown rock which, when broken up, resembles yellow sandstone containing imbedded bivalves. A coralline reef it must have been, constructed labori- ously during perhaps, hundreds of years, by the patient, industrious hives of submarine life, and when deserted by them, has become filled up with sand and shells. Our yellow quarantine flag flies mast high. Some forty passengers, all packed and ready to land, await with feverish eagerness the result of much signalling from the shore, whilst the remainder discuss the pros- pects of landing ; for Pernambuco is exposed to the fury of the great Atlantic rollers, and a jump into a boat as it is carried swiftly by the ^gangway on the crest of the wave, or even being lowered in a basket, is as nothing compared to the soaking with spray as you cross the bar. Therefore is opinion divided as to the prudence of landing. A boat is sent off from shore. All watch it dash- ing on the heights of the rollers, and then ploughing into their troughs. The doctor stands, papers in hand, on the gangway ; but when the green flag comes within speaking distance, a polite little official stands up and 8 China to Peru. delivers himself of a fiat of quarantine. No mails are to be received or delivered, no cargo disembarked, no passengers landed, our clean bill of health not even inspected, but an unreasoning arbitrary order for the ship to proceed to Isla Grande, 1200 miles down the coast, and the nearest and only quarantine station for this vast seaboard of Brazil. Blank disappointment, utter dismay, is depicted upon the countenances of all, as we turn away from the bulwarks, but we feel the greatest commiseration for those who have nearly, so very nearly reached home, and to whom it means a journey at their own expense of 1200 miles, quarantine and fumigation at a lazaretto, and a tedious return by a coasting steamer. Worse even is the case of the second-class passengers and steerage. Many will have paid away their bottom dollar in passage-money, and here they will be landed in a strange country, far from their destination, without means for return. Quarantine is the curse of the European inhabitants of South America, and the Government with its arbitrary orders delays the development of trade and progress in the country. With sad little groups scattered about the decks, discussing the situation and picturing worse future evils, the anchor is quickly weighed and once more wc are ploughing our way through the brilliant blue waves. The " might have been's ^' of life ! Yesterday we should have touched at Maceio, the capital of the Province of Alagoas, a thriving town with a large trade in sugar and cotton. To-day we should have cast anchor in the Bay of All Saints' before Bahia Over the South Atlantic. 9 " a gulf formed by nature for the emporium of the Universe." Out here in South America we are constantly on the track of the ancient Spanish mariners, the dis- coverers of the New World. It was from Bahia that Americus Vespucius, in 1 503, carried home from the newly discovered country a cargo of the dye wood, which when cut in pieces resembled *' brazas " or *' coals of fire," from which circumstance it was called Brazil wood, indirectly giving the name of Brazil to the country. We should like to have landed at Bahia, on the four mile long Praya, or beach, of the old town and business quarter. Thence ascended to the newer and more habitable quarter of the town on the hill by a steam lift. We should like to have seen the negresses, the finest in South America, and the fattest, who are thus described by an American author : " The women who hawk fish or pine-apples in the streets, are marvels of physical development and grace. They are as straight as palms, and as lithe as willows, and they walk like Greek goddesses. With purple, pink, or blue waists cut low in the neck, they display arms of the finest modelling, and a development of mascle and sinew and an erect and queenly car- riage, which must be the envy and despair of the Brazilian ladies of the highest rank.^' We missed, too, taking on board the luscious pineapples, and pipless oranges for which Bahia is celebrated. But, alas ! we are steaming on past all these Brazilian ports, until on a cloudy Sunday morning, slowly Cape Frio loomed up before our eyes, a stately mountain of rock, the beginning of a range of sixty lo CJiina to Peru. miles, which ends abruptly at the entrance of Rio Harbour. Here we are, sailing straight past the haven where we would be. The mountains open out. The entrance guarded by the twin islands of Pai and Mai is seen, the Sugar-loaf, Corcovado, Tijuca, recede before us. Another sixty miles and we are anchored at our quarantine retreat, at Ilha Grande. Painfully intense is the long wait before the launch sets off from the pier, appallingly long seem the lengthy and deliberate turnings over of the ship's papers, and the parleyings between the doctor and health officer. Experience has made us nervous. We crane over the ship's side to catch the first inti- mation of our fate. It comes. Glad news. A day's fumigation on the morrow, and we may return to Rio on the day after. Early next morning we are turned out of our berths, and the health officers come off and order all the mattresses and bedding to be thrown into a barge and borne off to the fumigating buildings we see lying low in a sandy cove. Soon comes an all-pervading smell of carbolic, from a watering-can which sprinkles dis- infecting fluid freely, leaving a little puddle of the same in each cabin, whilst fore and aft from the steer- age rise columns of suli)hurous fumes. We escape ashore in the afternoon. Now Ilha Grande is very far from being the desolate quarantine station you might suppose. It is a very pretty peaked island, tropically covered and fringed with palms, with the pink lazaretto nestling by the water's edge. A ramble round the white sands of the beach, where the waves lazily wash ashore shells and seaweed, up and down the hillside, entrances us with visions of Over the South Atlantic. 1 1 Tropical America. There are the sword-Hke leaves of the banyans clustering under the cocoa palms, tall clusters of white belled datura growing beside the glossy leaved bushes of the coffee plant, all covered with its exquisite white starred blossom, giant cacti, clinging and growing upon the rocks of the sea-shore, orchids nestling on the branches of trees, and every specie of tropical fern and creeper grow in this luxuri- ant isle. The lazaretto and adjoining buildings form quite an imposing square on the landing-stage. The former is very large and really well-furnished, and they show the apartments where the late Emperor and Empress performed their quarantine in common with their humbler subjects. The expense of building was over 60,000/., and the maintenance of such a large estab- lishment must be costly in proportion. Yet when we remember the deathly scourge of yellow fever, which yearly claims its hundreds of victims, we can scarcely wonder at their precautions to refuse admittance to an equally deadly enemy, cholera. But a very few weeks ago an Italian steamer came into port with 120 cases on board and sixty deaths to report. At II p.m. we are still waiting for our bedding to return, and it is a ludicrous sight soon afterwards to see all the passengers turning over piles of mattresses and pillows in search of their own. When secured we find them emitting a strong perfume of sanitas and wet through, for it is raining diligently. CHAPTER II. THE HAVEN OF BRAZIL IN REVOLUTION. Torrents of rain usher in the morning of our return to Rio de Janeiro, and continue whilst we retrace our course. Soon we see the sleeping outline of the " Gavia" or "Look Out," which forms the extremity of the Tijuca range of mountains. Now we are under the towering summit of the Corcovado, such a perpendicular peak of rock, but the umbrella on its summit tells us that ; from the other side, facing the harbour, a railway renders it accessible. Lastly, from amid the mist and spray, slowly emerges the great Sugar Loaf. The similitude from the entrance is absolute. The Sugar Cone is rounded and graduated to perfection. With the waves sullenly booming round the base, this unscalable mass of rock, without chink, jut, or cavity on its entire surface rising up immediately at the point of entrance, forms a fitting introduction to the most beautiful harbour of the world. It inclines slightly over, leaning towards the sea and from in- side, a green shoulder projecting from halfway up joins it to the peninsula. Two flat little islands, called Pai and Mai (father The Haven of Brazil in Revalution. 13 and mother in Portuguese) guard the entrance, and threading our way between them we are passing within a stone's throw of the battlemented Fort of Santa Cruz, mounting a triple row of a hundred guns. The tiny islet of Lage, with another fortress, lies as nearly as possible midway between Santa Cruz and the Sugar Loaf, completing a perfect defence to the entry of the harbour. Villegaignon another island fortress and naval depot, is a little further to the left, and, see, it flies the white or rebel flag, having gone over to the enemy but yesterday. Little did we imagine that two hours later, all these same forts would be booming forth smoke and fire, and that the whole sea would be surging with a hail of shot. How describe the harbour now we are well inside it .-• We seem to see an intricate panoramic suc- cession of wooded mountain peaks, many of them terraced with brightly coloured houses undulating round the curves of the bay, and a little condensed as they touch the water's edge. Sydney Harbour is perhaps more beautiful and is certainly larger, but Rio is the grandest. The town proper of Rio is difficult to distinguish, so numerous and far extend- ing are its suburbs. Numberless green islands stud the deep blue of the harbour, whilst the fluted tops of the Organ Mountains form a completing circle to the further edge of the bay. Now the sun gleams forth lighting up the spires and towers of Rio, and bringing out the brilliant green of the tropical vegetation. The political situation, however, detracts from the interest of the harbour, for now we see that all the 14 China to Peru. shipping is collected at the head of the bay opposite to Nichteroy, the capital of the province, possessing the arsenal, and that the men-of-war of all the European powers are anchored near. There is the British cruiser Siriiis, and two gunboats, the Beagle and Racer. The first is commanded by Captain Lang, who performed for the Chinese navy what Gordon did for their army. One French man-of- war, two Italian, two German, and two United States, are all near together. The rebel fleet with top-masts lowered, and decks cleared for action, lies in different parts of the bay. Over there is the Aquidaban, the flagship of Admiral Custodio de Mello, the leader of the Naval Rebellion. Its deck is crowded with people. On anchoring confusion reigned supreme on board, but we were extricated by courteous letters from Mr. (now Sir Hugh) Wyndham, the British minister, and Captain Lang, who had sent a steam launch from the Sirius to convey us ashore, and in a few minutes we were on our way thither in his genial company. There to the left is the Ilha das Cobras with the red cross flag hoisted on the Marine Hospital. It is also the site of the Naval Cadet College, commanded by that admirable man, Saldanha da Gama, and it is mainly owing to his good influence that up to now the cadets have maintained an attitude of neutrality. Thus Ilha das Cobras and another adjoining island, also remain neutral, and their partisanship is eagerly desired and sought by both parties. We land at the Naval Arsenal, near the Custom House, remembering that it was from here that the late and last Emperor, l^edro II., was taken on board The Haven of Brazil in Revolution. 15 the gunboat, at dead of night, and last set foot in Brazil. A few days ago the Government attempted to seize Ilha das Cobras, so the Aquidaban anchored at the buoy we see about 200 yards away, and com- menced to bombard the lower part of the town which contains the business quarter. The steeple of the Church of the Pescadores was knocked down, and the shell exploded in the room of a house below, which we afterwards saw with the wall blown out. We land and take a " bond " (or tramcar) through the Rua Primo de Marco, past the Hospital of the Misericordia lying by the harbour shore, until we reach a steep street where we get out. A climb up some winding steps brings us to the house and garden of Mr. Mendes, the well-known purveyor to the British Navy, under the familiar name of " Portuguese Joe." Mr. Wyndham, unable to get a room in any hotel, is lodged for the present here. All the Legations are situated at Petropolis, Rio being too unhealthy as a place of residence. We are assured that the hotels in the lower part of the town are unsafe, and whilst they telephone for rooms at the Hotel International at St. Thereza, we are put in possession of the political situation. On the morning of September 6th, Rio awoke to find that the navy under Admiral Custodio de Mello had rebelled against the military dictatorship of General Floriano Peixoto. All the officers hap- pened by a curious coincidence to be ashore that night, and by morning Mello was in possession of twelve vessels of war, five torpedo boats, five coasting gteamers, and two steam launches, twenty-four vessels 1 6 Chijia to Peru. in all. The arsenal at Nichteroy was bombarded, and Mello issued a manifesto. Being in possession of the harbour, he was able to cut off supplies and all communication by water. On Wednesday there were signs that the city was to be bombarded by the rebels. Suddenly at ten o'clock, firing commenced. It was the signal for a stampede of women and children, and a general exodus to the mountains. It is estimated that one-third of the population left the town. The banks and places of business were closed. Few casualties were reported, but the press censorship is so rigorous, that the newspapers are a perfect blank as to current events. Once or twice the bombardment was renewed, and some shots and shells fell in the lower town, one unfortunately killing a young English clerk standing on the balcony of a restaurant. Gossip says that he was one of four clerks who came out together from England last October. Three died of yellow fever within three months of landing, and now the fourth has met with a violent death. On September 25th the fleet notified their inten- tion of bombarding the city. Mr. Wyndham issued a manifesto to the English to leave Rio as quickly as possible. The same notice was issued by the other ministers to warn their countrymen, and it was arranged that in case of necessity, the Europeans were to assemble on the Palace Square to be taken off to the various men-of-war. Two rockets from the town, answered by one from the cruiser, were to be the signal for landing some 700 bluejackets from the united fleet. All the European powers are working harmoniously together, with the strange The Haven of Brazil m Revolution. ly exception of Germany, who holds completely aloof, perhaps because the French Admiral happens to be the " doyen " of the fleet on this occasion, and they do not choose to work under him. The intervention of the foreign Powers, headed by Mr. Wyndham, served to avert the destruction of the city. The Government consented to dismount the guns on the heights just above the lower town, on condition that Admiral Mello undertook not to bombard the city. The desertion of Villegaignon, one of the three forts in the harbour, on the previous day, has been one of the severest blows yet received by the Government. Such is the position of affairs. We find Rio in a state of siege, and yet the apathy of the people is astounding. They assemble on a good vantage-point to watch the firing, as if it had been a sham battle. Partisanship does not run high, but as many arrests have been made, men fear for their opinions. We gather that the rebels are gaining ground. The National Guard has been called out, but comprising as they do the worst elements of the town, more is to be feared from their excesses perhaps than from the landing of the rebels. A strange incident happened the other day. A boat flying the British flag was seen at the customary anchorage of the Aqiiidaban (foreign launches and boats have been allowed to land when bearing the flags of their nationalities). On investigation by the British flag- ship, it turned out that an American named Boynton and an Englishman were preparing with a torpedo to blow up the Brazilian ironclad ; the former averring that he had been offered a large sum of C 1 8 China to Peru. money, 10,000 dollars of which had already been advanced, if he succeeded in blowing up the centre vessel of the mutineers. They were taken prisoners to their respective cruisers. Rumours being current of a bombardment between the forts this afternoon — indeed they appear only to be waiting for two sailing vessels to clear out of the way — we hasten to take the " bond " to the funicular railway. In a few minutes this lifts us far on our way up the mountain. Another bond, drawn by four mules, drags us up the steep, winding mountain road. The views over the harbour are superb ; the vegeta- tion, with its glowing, tropical colouring, enchanting ; but — boom ! boom ! we hear the thunder of the cannon, and we can think of nothing else until, with a final tumble and scramble, the mules land us under the walls of the hotel, on the heights of Santa Thercza. What a sight meets us as we reach the terrace ! Great columns of smoke puff out from Santa Cruz, as one after another her guns open fire on the now rebel fortress of Villegaignon. A flash of fire, a volume of smoke, and then a reverberating boom that shakes the ground, even at this height and distance, under our feet. Now the fort of Lagc, appearing only a tiny speck on the blue waters of the harbour, joins in and contributes the thunder of its guns to the bombardment ; and a masked battery on the penin- sula of San Juan occasionally sounds forth, as shown by the column of smoke that rises from this green spot. But the rebels answer gamely, Villegaignon pours a storm of shot around Santa Cruz and Lage, and the Aquidaban with the other war vessels open fire. The Haven of Brazil in Revolntion. 19 Rumble, rumble, as of distant thunder ! flash, flash ! boom, boom ! as the artillery thunders forth mur- derously on all sides. All the intermediate sea around Santa Cruz and Lage is agitated by a hail- storm of shot. Frequently a shell falls, sending up a column of spray into mid-air. What was that ? A great flash of fire, succeeded by a cloud of smoke, rises out of Villegaignon. We imagine a shell has burst inside the fort. But we heard afterwards that a Whitworth gun had exploded, killing one man by cutting his body into three pieces, and wounding seven others. Then a shell burst just short of Santa Cruz, with a great flash of flame and smoke, succeeded by a fountain of water over the place where it fell into the sea. We see a ship sailing gaily in under full canvas, past Pai and Mai, towards the entrance of the harbour. They must be astonished at the boom of cannon, but as they may have been sailing for thirty days out from England, and know nothing of the revolution, probably they imagine it is some national festival of rejoicing. Whiz ! — a shell went very near their mast and fell a few yards off. They begin to think something is wrong, and soon come to anchor. For two hours does this vigorous bombarding pro- ceed, and then clouds descend in heavy rains, and early darkness sets in. The firing dwindles and dies away. What has been the result ? Nothing gained on either side. They say a few shots landed in Santa Cruz, one in Lage, and some bullets hit the heavily armoured side of the Aquidaban. We had seen with astonishment that the shot and shell fell promiscuously short — in fact so bad was the aim that c 2 20 China to Peru. we almost concluded that it was done on purpose. Thus ended without damage another of the series of pantomimic conflicts. We find a very damp room and beds in a dipendance of the hotel, which is crowded with refugees ; but we think ourselves fortunate to be safely encamped on the heights of Santa Thereza, beyond the range of the stray bullets of these incom- petent gunners. From our beautiful mountain we take a bond the next morning, winding down the hillside. The white stone aqueduct made by the Jesuits, who were some of the first settlers in Brazil, and whose good work for the country is constantly present, bears us company for some way. Around us is a jungle of dense tropical growth of gigantic palms, bright-green banyan trees, eucalyptus, flowering bushes with bright, waxy leaves, wreathed with ropes of creepers, all mingling together in dusky confusion. Maiden- hair fern grows freely in the crevices of the walls of the overhanging gardens, with their gaudy hedges of crotons, whilst the views over the harbour, lying serene and bright in the clear morning air, are simply indescribable. For between fifty and sixty miles its beautiful contour indents the coast, with numberless islands of vivid green jewelling its placid surface, whilst the Sugarloaf stands ever in sentinel watch at the harbour entrance, and the Tijuca range forms a magnificent background of brightest emerald-green. Our enthusiastic delight over this panorama of beauty ends with the funicular railway, which brings us quickly down to the lower town, past the roofs of many houses. One minute we are on the mountain- The Haven of Brazil in Revohttion. 2 1 side, looking down far below ; the next we are landed in the street. A " bond " takes us to the centre of the town. The term " bond " applied to the tram- ways comes from the English company who started them, giving bonds or coupons. There is little choice of locomotion in Rio, for carriages are scarce and the only alternative is the regular old-fashioned French tilbury, lined with crimson plush, and holding but one person besides the driver. The streets are so badly paved, and formidable holes and pools of water so frequent, that a bond is the preferable mode of travelling, and patronized by all classes. They are all drawn by mules, who, with bullocks of far-branch- ing horns, are the only draught animals. These mules are fine animals; sleek, strong, and wiry, looking ridiculously small to draw the large open tramcar, but they go a great pace, and keep on their legs in a wonderful manner, picking their way on the uneven cobble-stones. The whip used is a flat leather thong, which comes down with a resounding thwack on the mule's back. The bond is stopped by a " tschut," a noise peculiar to Brazilian lips. There is nothing to see in the town. All the beauty of Rio lies in the wondrous setting of the harbour, and the pretty surrounding suburbs. The streets are very narrow, winding, and overhung with the broad eaves of the roofs and tiers of balconies, rendering them sunless and cheerless. Yet many of the houses have a good appearance, from the marble- veined stone, sparkling with mica and quartz, of which they are built, and which bears a resemblance to alabaster. The fretwork of the iron railings and gateways is attractive, and they have imported from 2 2 CJiina to Pern. Portugal the pretty custom of tiling with blue and yellow porcelain the lower storey of the dwellings. Squalid as are the houses of the smaller streets, they are redeemed by a certain picturesqueness of oriental colouring. These are some of the tints we see : grass- green, sky-blue, heliotrope, pale pink, chocolate, dark brown, yellow, and carmine. Rua Primo de Marco seems to be the busiest com- mercial street, which we reach by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Opposite is the palace of the late Emperor, looking on to Palace Square, with the allegorical fountain representing the four principal rivers of Brazil — the Amazon, the Parana, the Madeira, and the San Francisco. To this palace Dom Pedro hurried from Petropolis, where he per- manently resided, on the news of the first breaking out of the revolution on November 14th, 1889. It was here that, after a sleepless night, surrounded by the Empress, the Crown Princess Isabel, and the Conde d'Eu, he resigned the throne, to be hurried from the palace the same night and placed on board a gunboat. So ended the revolution of the " Three Glorious Days." We are beholding the sequence to the Emperor's abdication in the civil war in progress. Numberless kiosks, hung with painted poles, facilitate the sale of lottery tickets, which are used for all purposes, including that of collecting money for charitable objects. A mixture of races is seen in the Brazilians with their small persons, sallow faces, and brown eyes ; Portuguese, who are of finer and stronger build ; and the emancipated negro slaves, and the negresses, with their turbaned heads and flat-footed, swinging gait. The Haven of Bi'azil in Revolution. 23 We turn into the Rua Ouvidor, the principal street of Rio. It is a narrow alley, dark from the meeting balconies overhead, where no traffic is permitted. This is perhaps as well, for in other similar streets the bonds come so close to the pavement that it is as well to step into a doorw ay as they pass. The coup d'ml of the Ouvidor, with the narrow vista obscured by the overlapping flags, is original. Chief among the flags is the Brazilian ensign, green with a white centre, whereon is depicted a blue globe with celestial stars. Each constellation represents a province of Brazil, whilst across all is inscribed the motto, " Ordem e Progresso," "Order and Progress " It is a satirical comment on the present condition of the country. The Ouvidor is the Bond Street of Rio. The shops are full of Parisian goods, and hundreds use it in the evening as a favourite lounge. Times are unsettled now, and we see the Ouvidor somewhat deserted. The afternoon finds us on our way out to Botofogo, a rich suburb extending for five miles to the Botanical Gardens. We see some of the palaces of the merchant princes, for Botofogo shares with Gloria, Larangeiras, and Thereza, the popularity of these breezy suburbs, with their pretty views over the harbour. It is a lovely drive, for to the left we draw near to the leaning Sugarloaf, whilst Corcovado is hanging immediately over our heads, on the right. We pass gardens full of flaming blossoms, orange, red, and purple. The alamanders grow on bushes, the poinsettias spread their scarlet petals along the dead branches of their trees, flaming salvias and spreading oleanders grow to the dimensions of huge shrubs. 24 China to Pent. while the hibiscus, single and double, is in full bloom. Trails of purple bougainvillia cover the moss- grown walls, and the orange-trees are weighed down with their golden fruit. Yet the Brazilians seem to prize our simple English flowers the most, for in those gardens that are most carefully tended we see our own familiar roses, carnations, asters, pansies, and even a few small autumn dahlias. They look so tender and delicate, beside the large and flaming blossoms of a tropical country. The Botanical Gardens lie at the foot of the Tijuca Mountains, That magnificent avenue of palms, the finest in the world, grows here. Fifty palms form a lateral avenue ; they are intersected in the centre by a double avenue, running longitudinally, of fifty more palms on either side. Each rises from, a neat glass plot, throwing a perfectly straight, unnotched grey stem high in the sky, ending in a fringed cluster of palm-leaves. The perspective of these avenues is perfect, their fringed tops, in ever-diminishing height, seeming to meet together and descend in a vanishing line together. Since the deposition of the Emperor the gardens have fallen into bad order, and are now dismal and uncared for. Rain has recently fallen, and we find Rio pleasantly cool and damp ; but Nature has been too lavish, and these mountains that encircle the town shut out the breezes, and in the hot weather leave it a prey to stifling heat, which brings disease in its train. Yearly the population of 400,000 is ravaged by fever, and it is truly said, "Yellow Jack is the Emperor of Death, for whose downfall and per- manent exile Rio dc Janeiro despairingly hopes." The Haven of Brazil in Revolution. 25 A disturbed night. At midnight we are awakened by the booming of cannon. The search-light, which sweeps the harbour incessantly at dark, has dis- covered that the Marilio Bias is cruising outside and attempting an entrance. Notwithstanding the firing, she manages to slip by the forts without injury, and gain entrance into the harbour. At 6 a.m., having first assured ourselves that the Peak was clear, we prepared to ascend the Corcovado. But ere we had finishing dressing, down came the clouds, the mist even covering the harbour. Still we persevered, and joined the mountain railway at a midway station. This train shirks nothing. Up the steepest grades we go, the engine pushing from behind. The line is cut through the tangle of tropical growth, and as we rise quickly upwards, we are constantly looking down into the prettiest valleys and getting lovely peeps over the harbour. The sun gives forth a pale gleam, and we are hopeful, for this ascent gives quite the finest viewof the whole of Rio ; indeed it is difficult to understand its topography without seeing the panorama of Corcovado. The railway can go no further than Paneiras and the hotel platform, for the rebels have seized so much of the coal supplies that fuel is running short. Nothing daunted, we commenced to walk, and after getting very hot and tired, the clouds came down and damped our clothes and our ardour, and we descended, sadly and dispirited, to the town. To-day is a national holiday. They are celebrating the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, and all the offices are closed and the streets hung with flags. We had luncheon with Mr. Wyndham at 26 China to Peru. the fashionable restaurant in the Ouvidor, the " Londres," where the cuisine is French. On the table are alabaster vases filled with flowers made of feathers, a fashionable industry in Brazil. They are clever imitations, but too gaudy to be pretty. More worth buying are the green beetles and dragon-flies that make up into pretty pins and brooches. We usually connect Brazil with the nuts bearing that name. Strange that all through the country you never see a Brazilian nut on the table. They are used only for export, and the rectangular shape arises from the way several nuts are packed together inside a pod. On going down to the Arsenal wharf to embark for the Thames, we find the landing-stage has been fortified with iron plates, trusses of hay, and sand- bags, whilst a Maxim gun is being wheeled into position by some soldiers. Steaming safely under the protection of the British flag of the Sirius's launch, we reach the Thmnes. There is great excitement on board. The rebel launches guard the ship, whilst some officers parley with Captain Hicks. It appears that we have as passengers some sixty deserters from the rebels, who are being sent by the Government to man one of the war vessels at Rio Grande do Sul. Admiral Mello demands their surrender with their firearms, refusing the Thames a passage outwards. Their luggage is being searched, but after some delay and consultation Captain Lang orders the Thames to proceed, and signals to the men-of-war, " Stand by ; English mail going out." We get up steam and proceed forth, passing right under the stern of the Aqicidaba7i, The Haven of Brazil in Revolution. 27 Slowly we steam past, but not a shot is fired. On past Villegaignon and Lage we go, where we can see no damage from the bombardment. Opposite Santa Cruz we hang out a board inscribed with the pass- word of the day, " Dino," but the look-out is so bad that we have passed ere they discover us, and give a tardy salute. With the Sugarloaf and Corcovado wreathed in mist, we sail past twin Pai and Mai, out into the open ocean. CHAPTER III. UP THE TLATE TO BUENOS AYRES. It is the weary story oft repeated of quarantine all down the coast. We feel sadly impatient with this fresh disappointment and delay. The colour of the ocean has undergone a change. It is muddy and torpid from the volume of water pouring down from the River Plate at the rate of fifty-two million cubic feet per minute. We halt at Flores, a little rock-bound island, the quarantine station. Here we learn our fate, and that there is no landing at Monte Video. We put ashore several boat- loads of passengers, to join 270 others who are per- forming their penance. Then they have the impudence to send off and say that it is raining too heavily for them to disembark any more, and we are kept anchored for the night. Thus it is ever, one more wearisome delay upon another. We proceed to Monte Video, the capital of Uruguay, the Oriental State as it is always named, being to the eastward of Argentina. The people delight in being called " Orientals," and some of the oldest Spanish blood is in their veins. They are chiefly an agricultural and pastoral people, so the name seems misapplied. up the Plate to Buenos Ay res. 29 Monte Video has no port. Intended by nature to become one of the most considerable commercial capitals of South America, for lack of safe anchorage it languishes. The current is extremely dangerous. We lie out in the open roadstead^ which is exposed to the full fury of the " pampero " as it blows off the mouth of the Plate. In ancient time there were so many sandbanks that the sailors named it Boca de Infernus ; and so it seemed to us this morning, for with a fresh breeze, the yellow, muddy waters of the Plate foamed into billows, and the lighters that came alongside rolled and pitched desperately, leaning to every angle of the compass. Even safely anchored as we are, the ship rolls and lurches, shuddering from stem to stern as we occasionally bump on a sandbank. The horrors of landing in the launch alongside, reconcile us somewhat to our missing a visit to Monte Video. Across this troubled expanse of water lay the long- drawn line of the town, with the turret of the cathe- dral a dominating point. But the most prominent object to the left is the green Cerro or Mount, which gives its name to Montevideo. Rising to 500 feet, it bears on its summit an old Spanish fort, from the centre of which springs a lighthouse, with a revolving light, visible twelve miles out to sea. The afternoon wears on. The wind blows, the waves rage around, and everything that comes out to us is under water the whole time. The lighters rocking wildly alongside receive our cargo of sacks of coffee. Then a sad accident happens. A little girl of six, looking out of a port-hole in the steerage, is caught in the rigging of a lighter and falls into it. 3© China to Peru. The latter has sprung a leak and threatens to sink ; they hasten to shore, and only some hours afterwards we learn that the child's neck was broken by the fall, and that she was killed on the spot. If the Republic of Uruguay is not very familiar to us at home, at least it produces two well-known household commodities, Paysandu ox-tongues are exported from Paysandu, one of the principal ports on the River Plate ; and at Fray Bentos, many miles further up, is the Saladero, or beef saltery, which manufactures Liebig's essence of beef. A little voyage of only 120 miles across the estuary of the River Plate brings us opposite to La Plata. It is hard to believe that this wide sea is only the mouth of a river. But so it is. For four weary days are we kept stationary at this anchorage opposite La Plata, surrounded by a large number of other vessels, our companions in mis- fortune. Daily does the health officer call in on us, on his round of inspection. We watch the launch visiting first one vessel and then the other. Our turn comes. It is always the heart-sickening answer, " To-morrow, perhaps." The weather is cold and cheerless ; a great process of cleaning up the ship commences, and day after day of blankness rolls by until, on the morning of a certain Friday, we feel sure that our release is at hand, and that the eight days^ quarantine from Rio de Janeiro have elapsed. We are all packed and waiting. The launch and health officer begin the usual visitation. But hour succeeds hour. " He cometh not/' is the despairing cry of all on board, and we sit down in spiritless despair for yet another dull day of inaction on board. up the Plate to Buenos Ay res. 3 1 We are just commencing dinner that evening, when a gentleman comes up the saloon and speaks to the captain. The good news spreads like wildfire. It is the doctor, and we know that we have pratique. The Argentine Government are doubtless right to impose a strict quarantine against arrivals from Brazil. Yellow fever is an epidemic that would spread quickly in their insanitary towns, but a ship's clean bill of health might avail something in shorten- ing the period of detention, and a sailing-ship sixty or eighty days out from England, and that has not touched at any intermediate ports, might be given free pratique at once. Reason and judgment should prevail against red-tapeism. At least we have been saved the horrors of Martin Garcia, the quarantine island ; the French mail is just landing her passengers there. Very early the next morning we are inside the long breakwater with its fringe of rustling willows and reeds, whispering in the still morning air, and passing the docks of Ensenada. The low, swampy ground is covered with great clumps of pampas grass. Soon the Thames is turning, with the help of two valiant little steam-tugs, in a narrow basin, and safely docked at La Plata. These docks are a great en- gineering work, and were built by a Dutchman, Mr. Wardrop, costing 3,000,000/. Whilst the confusion of passing the luggage through the Custom House progressed, we had time to take the train to La Plata, about three miles distant. The country was intensely flat, and inter- sected by dykes and swamps covered with coarse grass. The train, after passing through the street in 2^ China io Peru, the centre of the city, landed us at a magnificent terminus, a typical introduction to this deserted town. La Plata is a city of paper. Founded in 1882, during the years of the boom, when the docks then being constructed would connect it with Ensenada, La Plata was designed by its founders to be a great com- mercial port, the capital of the province, and the rival of Buenos Ayres, the national metropolis. Magnificent public buildings rose quickly to order, boulevards were laid out in wide blocks, and sites set apart for the Provincial Assembly, the City Hall, Museum, etc. It was designed to be like Washington, a city of " magnificent distances." Land speculators operated largely and found a fertile field for their nefarious dealings. In a year or two the census numbered 30,000 inhabitants. But they soon tired of the quiet life, and longed for the pleasures of the capital. The exodus began. Now La Plata is a city of the departed. The streets we see are grass- grown and deserted. Rows of carriages stand await- ing a fare, but none ply in the streets. The trams even are empty, and were it not for the law obliging provincial employees to reside here, it would be a city of the dead. We see the wide Plaza, with the scrubby palm avenue that connects the local Parliament Buildings on the one side, with the Government House on the other. This latter with its magnificent Corinthian columns is half finished, one wing being minus windows and its outer veneer of stucco. A tramway takes us past the police barracks, and towards a great triumphal arch which leads nowhere. Then among the groves of eucalyptus-trees we pass the museum, up the Plate to Buenos Ay res. 2>2) the only thing worth seeing, and so forth again on to the dreary plain and back to the docks. La Plata, placed down on a swamp^ vast and treeless, sheltered only by the eucalyptus which have grown up quickly since the foundation of the city, was without a raison-d'etre, and doomed to a speedy death. We see it senile and decaying. Yet is it interesting. The abstract was so grandiloquent, the concrete is so infinitely dismal. We return to Ensenada at the same time as the special train, which brings glad hosts of friends to greet our passengers. This is a great Argentine custom, the greeting and bidding farewell to travellers, and the railway-stations are always crowded with groups of these affectionate friends. Very amusing and "sentimental," as an American lady said to me, were some of these welcomings ; for the Argentines are a very affectionate race, and if their women are not remarkable for their intellectual qualities, at least they are very fond and devoted mothers. You also see here, what you never would in England, married sons and daughters living under the parental roof, and not seeking a house of their own on marriage. Our Custom House inspection, thanks to the courtesy of the officials, was purely nominal, and we were soon in the train going up to Buenos Ayres. South America looks very untidy. That is our first impression of the country as we pass through a large, flat expanse of land, almost bare save for a luxuriant crop of large-leaved, rank thistles, on which many cattle preparing for export are feeding. Now we run through a large estan9ia, with the pretty house hidden among some woods of eucalyptus. D 34 China to Peru. These trees make such a curiously even wood or forest, planted in regular lines, and with nothing but grey stems visible below, with no undergrowth or bramble to break their even ranks. We become at once acquainted with a leading feature of life on an estan9ia. I refer to the bleaching and rotten carcases that lay strewn in all directions. Where they fall, there they lie, the skin only being thought worth preserving, and all the pampa of South America is strewn with these ghastly objects. We are de- lighted to see another distinctive feature of this southern hemisphere in a flock of ostriches, flapping their wings and striding away from the train This little journey of two hours, intensely ugly as it is, is characteristic of the Argentine Republic. The deadly level monotony of the country, the utter flatness, is typical of the whole. The untidy fences, the shanties roofed with corrugated zinc, the parched earth, the rank growth of thistles, the large herds of cattle, are metaphorical of the whole of Argentina. We approach Buenos Ayres through the most un- savoury portion of the city, the Boca, where, in the most wretched " conventillos," or wooden houses raised on posts, gather together the lowest of the Italian immigrants. The streets are full of holes, covered with green slime, squalid and festering with disease, a very hotbed of crime. The tower of the church of San Domingo is passed, where hang the flags of the English regiments, dark memory of a great national reverse. Then the docks of Buenos Ayres, with its sea of rigging crowded together in the narrow channel of the little stream of Richuelo, come in sight. There are sailing vessels from every up the Plate to Bueiios Ayres. Jo port of the world, busy lading barrels of sugar, or dried hides, which lie stacked high on the docks ; and some day when the Government have finished the great excavation works of the new docks, from this little stream the largest vessels will be able to come up and anchor before the wharves of the city. We arrive at the Central Station, and, thanks to the kindly help of Mr. Green, the courteous agent for the Royal Mail Company, we find ourselves in a few minutes at the Royal Hotel. This hotel marks a new departure in the social status of the city ; for hitherto, as we had been warned, the indifferent comforts of the Grand and the Provenye were all that the traveller could expect. Henceforth Buenos Ayres has a first-rate hotel, newly furnished from Paris, and well equipped in every way. The American system of an inclusive charge, generally varying from six to ten dollars a day, is general. Buenos Ayres is the most important town in the southern hemisphere. It surpasses Rio de Janeiro, Melbourne, and Sydney in population. It is the Paris of South America — the first thing that strikes you, however, are the tramways — the number of trams, and their noise. The pavements are very narrow, barely room for two abreast ; and the tramcars usurp some of this space, the horses touching the curb as they stumble along in the gutter. A horn dangles from a string in front of the driver, and at every cross street the sound of this penny trumpet re-echoes, or even the more ambitious notes of the bugle recall a hunting morning at home. Again, you may liken it to the cat-calls of a Punch and Judy show, or the braying of an ass. Night is made hideous by it, D 2 36 China to Peru. and, awake or asleep, this noise in the streets below is perpetual and harassing. The second thing that calls for notice is the paving of the streets with large, uneven cobble-stones, full of holes, and seamed with tram-lines. On all sides you have the most painful spectacle of horses falling, slipping, and recovering themselves on the greasy stones. Driving is a penance, with the carriage-wheels being constantly wrenched against the tram-lines, and the relentless jolting over ill-laid blocks. The horses are small and mean-looking. Excellent as they are for hard work, the drooping head and flopping ears of the native horse make him a peculiarly ugly-looking animal. It is a sign of the cheapness of horseflesh that all hired carriages have a pair ; in fact, a vehicle drawn by a single horse is almost unknown. A policeman is posted at every transverse crossing. His neat uniform of blue cloth, with cape and white spats, is very smart ; whilst standing near him, hobbled, is his horse, ready for him to mount, in pur- suit of justice. He is provided with a whistle, and every quarterof an hour all through the night it sounds, and is answered by the man at the next point, and so on all through the city. If he receives no answer from his comrade, he mounts his horse and gallops to the next point to see if anything is wrong. Thus all through the night, the citizens who lie awake, are constantly reassured of the presence of these watching guardians. Buenos Ayres is a typical American city, laid out in the wearisome regularity of the chess-board. Each block — called a manzana — is 140 yards by 140, on each of its four sides, and contains about 100 up the Plate to Btienos Ayres. 2>7 houses. These blocks are intersected with another street about every 150 yards. Thus the geography of the city is simple, though occasionally you forget the inordinate length of a street, and find you have further to go than you like, for many of the streets contain 1300 or 1400 numbers. Rivadavia, the central artery, is several miles in length, and has over 7000 numbers. We find many national events com- memorated in the names of the streets, such as Calle 25 Mayo, the day of independence from the Spanish yoke. Every South American city thus honours the 25th of May. Or again, great generals, such as Belgrano, General Lavalle, and Rivadavia, give their names to a Calle. Were the streets wider and the houses higher, Buenos Ayres would be a handsome city. As it is, even the best quarters of the town have a mean and cramped appearance. The houses are only one story high, with a flat roof called the " azotea." The windows are on a level with the pavement, and guarded by iron railings, and shuttered, which gives rather a grim, dull appearance to the dwellings. Many of the houses and public buildings have a handsome exterior, as they appear to be built of massive blocks of stone and granite. Pleasing de- lusion ! for here is a half-finished building of rough brick and mortar, and it awaits the veneer of stucco that completes the illusion. The old Spanish custom is universal of the houses being built round a "patio." Very pleasant and cool look these pretty patios, of which we catch passing glimpses through the light filagree grille that guards them from the streetj with their tesselated marble pavements in blue 14 58 38 China to Peru. and black, their palms and flowering shrubs clustered round a splashing fountain. We were amused to see that the Buenos Ayreans ensure a fresh supply of milk, by having the cow, with its calf, brought to the door. Thus you con- stantly saw a cow being milked under the house- holder's supervision. Another feature in the dairy supply are the gauchos, with long, flowing ponchos, riding in from camp on the roughest horses. At- tached to the saddle are leathern receptacles, covered with cow-hide, some small, others large, arranged in tiers. The smaller tins contain the cream and the larger the milk, and the former is made into butter and churned as the animal jogs along. A sheep's skin covers the saddle and cans to prevent the sun from turning the cream, and the gaucho rides atop, with his legs dangling forward over the horse's neck. We attended church on Sunday morning. There was a poor congregation ; but the English, from the absence of the usual Saturday half-holiday, adopt the custom of the Catholic country, and spend Sunday in amusement. Mrs. Pakcnham, the wife of our Minister, took us out to the Polo Club at Bclgrano. Buenos Ayres has many suburbs, the chief of which are Flores, Belgrano, and Quilmes, and here most of the foreigners reside in pretty quintas, or villas. It was a long drive of six or seven miles through the Avenida General Alvear, and beginning with some of the palatial residences of the elite of Spanish society. These splendid houses, with their portc- cocJicrcs and recessed balconies, their pretty gardens full of palms and banksia roses, command a view over the River Plate. Formerly they were the scene of up the Plate to Bitenos Ayres. 39 many magnificent entertainments, but since the boom and subsequent crash they arc given over to a quiet solitude. There is scarcely any entertaining done now, and retrenchment and economy are the order of to-day. Buenos Ayres has awakened from its mad revel of profligacy, when foreign money poured in plentifully, and great public works gave opportunity for jobbery. It is wiser and sadder, and healthier times are coming, when public confidence will be restored. In every city we came upon the remnants of this great boom, in the shape of magni- ficent public buildings, half finished, and falling into decay. On all sides we heard of the semi ruin of the great Spanish and Argentine families. We had left England with the same tale of ruin and disaster to all interested in South American stocks ringing in our ears, only to find a repetition of it in another hemisphere. The pretty gardens of the Recoleta lead us into the broad, dusty avenue, lined with casuerina-trees, which extends for a dreary length past the Penitentiary, the Waterworks, and the park of Palermo, towards Belgrano. There are the two racecourses, and the " barranca," or high cliff, where several pretty houses are in possession of one of the few elevations around Buenos Ayres. It is a dusty, untidy-looking bit of country, and Belgrano, when we reach it, looks somewhat dull, with its rows of barred and shuttered windows, ill-paved streets, and clouds of dust, en- livened only by a few pretty quintas and their rose- laden gardens. The polo-ground and its pavilion, are situated amid most dreary surroundings of half-finished houses and 40 China to Peru. broken-down palings. The native horses seem to make most excellent polo ponies, and we witnessed a very fast game, Hurlingham is another polo and cricket ground, an hour away from the city. Alto- gether Buenos Ayres, with 4000 English residents, seems to show decidedly sporting tendencies with its twenty-four athletic clubs, which include eight cricket, five football, two polo, six rowing, one tennis, and a hunt and a kennel club. The most enthusiastic traveller would find it difficult to discover much to see in the city. Plaza Victoria, with its single circular row of palms around the square, is the civic centre, and contains all the characteristic extravagant work of Juarez Celman. Here is the Government Palace, the Capitol, the Law Courts, the Cabildo, the Bolsa, where, amid scenes as feverish as those in Wall Street, fortunes were made and lost in the palmy years of 1888 to 1890. The Cathedral and Bishop's Palace occupy the best part of one side. The imposing facade of the cathedral was given by General Rosas, " a tyrant who needed to do something for religion to atone for his crimes against liberty." The portico is upheld by twelve Corinthian columns, and represents Joseph em- bracing his brothers, in commemoration of the re- union of Buenos Ayres with the other Argentine provinces. But the coup-d'oeil of even all these fine colonnaded buildings, with their Grecian capitals and recessed balconies, is quite spoilt by the intervals of unfinished houses, or flat-roofed, dingy shops, whilst the centre of the square is bare and unattractive, notwithstanding its two patriotic monuments. up the Plate to Buenos Ayres. 4 1 Every Englishman must soon turn his steps to- wards the church of San Domingo, rising from a marble platform, with its right-hand tower thickly embedded with cannon-balls. It contains a sad sight for us. On each of the six pillars of the nave is a handsomely carved gold frame. Within it, pro- tected by glass, an ancient flag, not an emblem of the Church, not a record of the march of Christianity ; but a monument of the defeat of the English in 1807. In the'year preceding. General Beresford, with the 71st Highlanders, a battalion of Marines and a i^"^ gunners, had taken possession of Buenos Ayres. The expedition was planned . by Captain Sir Home Popham upon his own responsibility. The Spanish Viceroy fled at the approach of the English, and 40,000 people surrendered on June 27th, 1806, to 1000 British infantry, with 16 horsemen, 2 howitzers, and 6 field-guns. A million sterling of treasure was despatched to London, and received with popular rejoicing. The idea of Pitt was to repair the loss of the United States of America, by the acquisition of the far richer Southern Continent. Had it been realized how different would have been the lot of these politically distracted Republics ! Strong reinforce- ments were prepared. Merchant fleets set sail for the new El Dorado. They left England triumphant. They returned despondent. Beresford the Brave had done all that was humanly possible to maintain his position. He had conciliated the inhabitants, paid for all his supplies, 42 China to Peru. guaranteed the freedom of religion. Had he declared his mission to be the expulsion of the Spaniards, and the establishment of South American independence, he might have won the people over completely. But he had no instructions. By degrees the weakness of his position became apparent. By the help of a French soldier of fortune — Captain Liniers, after- wards styled the Reconqueror — Spaniard combined with Argentine, and surrounded him on all sides. Beresford was compelled to surrender. The relieving force was under the ill-fated com- mand of General Whitelocke, of reputed bar-sinister royal. He was either knave or fool — perhaps both. He had an army of 12,000 men and the support of a large naval force; but after criminal delay he marched on Buenos Ayres on July 5th, 1807. Only raw levies were opposed to him, but his defeat was signal ; he surrendered at discretion. These flags in San Domingo are the trophies of the re- conquest. They consist of the King's and the regimental colours of the 71st Highlanders ; a red ensign of the Royal Marines, the " R.M.B." conspicuous in the centre, and the legend, "Ubique per mare, per terram" ; a Union Jack and a plain red ensign, said to have belonged to H.M.S. Diadem; a red flag with a Death's head and crossbones thereon. One of the prisoners of the 71st, whose brave deeds in America and Hindostan, in Africa and the Peninsula, at Waterloo and Sevastopol, are not diminished by their action at Buenos Ajres, wrote with charcoal on the wall of his cell the following doggerel Spanish epitaph : — up the Plate to Buenos Ayres. 43 " Aqui yace el fomoso Regimento nombrado del Ingles 71. Jamais vencido de enemigo alguno, Que en lides nil. Salio luciniento. Aqui yace postrado su ardmento A la fuerza y valor de unos soldados, Que sin brillo, sin lustre y desertrados, Abaturon su orgullo en un momento Llora la Inglaterra esta disgracia, Serviendo de escarimento a su osadia Al saher sucumbieron por and acea Cerca de dos nil bomberes que mania Intentar dominar su ineficacia Del Argentine el brio y valentia." Which may be paraphrased : — " Here lies the famous Regiment numbered 71st by the Engh'sh — the hero of a thousand fights, never vanquished by a foe — its ardour laid low by the valour of a few soldiers, without tradition or ex- perience. In a moment they lowered its pride. But let this misfortune be to England a warning that Argentine, the brilliant, is not to be overcome by some 2000 men." It is said that once since that sad day, the Argen- tine Government was disposed to restore the colours to her present Majesty in proof of amity and good will, but that the British Minister replied, " that when we wanted them, we would come and take them." There is probably no truth in this, for although our diplomatic representation in South America may not be brilliant^ it is not discourte- ous. The rumour probably arose from a Chilian gentleman having written in 18S2 to H.R.H. the Duke of Cambridge offering to restore a standard of the 71st, taken by his grandfather at 44 China to Peril. Buenos Ayres in 1806, The letter being referred to the Argentine capital, gave rise to a municipal com- mission, which, after full investigation into all the facts, declared that no other flags were taken save those in San Domingo, and a banner in the Cathedral, and that no Chilian troops came to the succour of the Argentines. On the other hand it was probable that in the popular enthusiasm over the Reconquest, which is still celebrated on many a street, flags were made, as souvenirs, in imitation of the captured ensigns. The Recoleta, the great cemetery of Buenos Ayres, lies on a bluff, surrounded by a pretty garden. It presents a strange spectacle. The coffins are not buried^ but each is placed in a separate temple of its own. Thus you walk through broad, palm-bordered avenues, where a strange medley of marble memorials are thickly crowded together. Some have a canopy supported on columns, with a life-sized statue of the deceased seated beneath. In others you descend into a cool marble grotto inside the vault, where a bust of the departed crowns the altar. There are obelisks, pyramids, and rock-hewn caves without number. But the most favourite way is to enshrine the coflin in the marble altar-piece, leaving a space where it is visible among the candles, crucifixes, and tawdry decorations of artificial flowers and bead wreaths. The doors are often left open, and it is customary for relations to come and tend the decora- tions. Some again have vaults, seventy feet deep, with sliding doors, and you can look down and see the compartments, some quite full and others awaiting their occupants. up the Plate to Bitenos Ayres. 45 Many of the chapels contain a family, and it is touch- ing to see the babies' coffins and those of children of all ages, buried with their parents. A placard announces that this sepulchre is to let. Possibly the relations have omitted to pay the rent, in which case the occu- pant is unceremoniously turned out and sent to the common cemetery ; for only the rich can afford to be buried here, the price of a vault in perpetuity being about 2000/. Those who cannot afford the luxury of a chapel must be placed in the thick wall divided into niches, where the door is sealed with a marble tablet with the name of the de- ceased. The big bell of the neighbouring church of the Recoleta tolls ceaselessly, and the barbaric pomp of the funerals is very impressive, with their enormous retinue of mourning friends. But the near contact with death around and above ground is oppressive, and with a shudder we emerge through the gloomy portals, where the sable bier in the adjoining sala awaits the next comer, to mingle with the gay throng of carriages wending their way to- wards the park of Palermo. The Mendicants' Asylum occupies the old convent of the Bethlemite friars, on this same bluff. Forty years ago the few poor persons there were in Buenos Ayres made their rounds every Saturday on horse- back, wearing a police medal, and soliciting alms, being sent away sometimes with the formula, " Pardon me, brother, for giving you nothing," Now they are gathered into this poor-asylum under the care of the Sisters of Charity. We drove one afternoon to see " Celman's Folly," and arrived at a building rich in Rococo encaustic 46 CJiina to Peru. tiling, resplendent in blue and brown and yellow Doulton ware, wrought into pilasters, rising tier above tier into a magnificent pile. We thought at least that it was the city hall or some great public building. What was our surprise to learn that all this splendour contains only a vast series of water-tanks, raised in separate stories, each huge tank occupying one side of the building ! As we ascended, the sound of many waters reached our ears, tons of water pouring from the topmost cistern and filtering down to the lowest. These waterworks cost the shareholders 6,000,000/., over 100,000/. of which was squandered in this ridicu- lous palace of pipes. The water supply is obtained from La Plata. The drainage also flows into the river some way distant. There is some idea that in certain tides and winds they get inter- mixed. At the " Frontone " or ball-court in the Calle Cordova, we witnessed the national game of " Pelota." It is a most graceful pastime, the *' cesta " or long basket scoop receiving the ball with a skilful swoop, and then shooting it out again to a great height. It requires much dexter- ous skill to play well. The "frontone" resembles our racket or fives court, and the four players are called a quinetta, and play up to forty points. The excitement and shouting is intense in the betting-ring below, bets being offered on each volley and frequently on each stroke, if the volley is long sustained. A Spanish team receives an enormous sum to come out here, and a pro- fessional player will make perhaps 2000/. for the up the Plate to Buenos Ayres. 4 7 season, whilst it is no uncommon thing for the stakes to amount to 3,000,000/. in one year. It seemed to us that the strain on the wrist, where the cesta is attached by the winding round and round of a leather strap, must be trying. It would be a charming novelty to introduce into England, now that the day of lawn-tennis is waning. The size and space occupied by the frontone, however, is a difficulty, though small courts are constantly found in the grounds of Spanish houses. A lovely afternoon found us on our way out to Flores, where are the prettiest quintas (or villas) of the Spanish and English merchants. We left the town at the commencement of Calle Rivadavia, and after going out into the country some six miles, still found ourselves in the same street and at No. 7000 odd ! Very pretty are these villas, built in bungalow style, everybody choosing what appears best to his taste, be it Gothic, Corinthian, or Moorish, castellated or crenellated, arched or square, with balconies, terraces, and marble steps ; each surrounded by a garden full of palms, and with such voluptuous hedges of roses, whilst pale-yellow tea roses form creepers of tropical growth on the walls and balustrades, and fountains play into a basin of gold-fish. The variety is infinite and pleasing. For several miles this suburb of Flores extends into the country, with its double row of quintas. Returning we visited the post-office, which, though the only one for the whole city, is in a curious dirty, rambling building, situated quite out of the centre of the town, and surrounded by a fretwork of poor streets. Next we came upon " Tattersall's," which, 48 China to Peru. borrowing its name from the great Knightsbridge emporium, fulfils much the same functions out here, only the sale of stock is included in its programme. All the great sales of thoroughbreds and stock from the well-known estan9ias are held here, and only last week the great yearly " ramate " of Captain Kemmis' yearlings took place, though the prices realized were rather disappointing compared to better times. We ended up the afternoon with our usual stroll in the Calle Florida, that fashionable Regent Street of Buenos Ayres, with its Parisian shops and large crowd oi fldneurs, whilst smart carriages with their gaily clad occupants gallop past on their way to Palermo. One evening we .paid a visit to General Bartolom6 Mitre, an old and revered servant of the Republic, who has taken part in many campaigns, and filled the office of President. Full of years and honours, he passes his declining days in the seclusion of his library, translating Dante's " Inferno '' into Spanish. With pardonable pride he took us up to his wonder- ful library, and showed us the i5,cxx) volumes, catalogued and classified, of every work and book published on the American continents. North and South. Adjoining and opening into his house are the offices and printing-press of the Nagion^ of which General Mitre is the able and fair-minded proprietor and editor. Our social functions included a ball at Comte and Comtesse de Sena, in their palatial residence, when we were introduced to the elite of Argentine society and portenas, as the ladies born in Buenos Ayres are up tJic Plate to Buenos Ayres. 49 called. The senoras, with their clear complexion and lustrous black eyes, their Parisian toilettes and gleaming diamonds, seemed to us beautiful and bril- liant. Many of them had had English governesses and spoke English well, the others French, We regretted to see that the English and Spanish society are quite apart. There is no social intercourse between the two nationalities, no interchange of courtesy. The English residents lose much that is pleasant thereby, though it is possible that the older families of the Republic may not care to be associated with our representatives, who are all intimately en- gaged with commerce. One must, however, allow that this is generally the case with the English colony abroad; we are too narrow-minded and prejudiced to associate cordially with other nationalities. Another night we visited the Opera in Calle St, Martin, and heard a good performance of Donizetti's " Favorita." The opera season is over, and the ladies attend in morning dress, but earlier in the year full dress is compulsory. The house presents a much more brilliant spectacle than our Covent Garden, from the division between the boxes being merely a low balustrade ; thus the coup-d'ml of the house is greatly enhanced. They have excellent opera com- panies, French, Italian, and Spanish performing during the season, A luncheon given us by Mr. Wclby, the delightful and popular First Secretary to the British Legation, at the Cafe Paris, made us acquainted with that fashionable restaurant, the rendezvous of the principal men of business for the mid-day dejeuner. The darkness of the Cafe is redeemed by the ex- E 50 China to Peru. cellence of its juicy beefsteaks, its delicious asparagus, strawberries, and fresh cream from the quinta. Buenos Ayres supports two racecourses, one at Palermo, the other at Belgrano, called the Hippo- drome. It was to this latter course that, on a lovely Sunday morning, we were driving in Scnor Manuel Ouintana's (son of the Minister of the Interior) smart victoria. The Derby of the year, the great inter- national race with Monte Video and the Oriental Republic, was about to be run. The stand was gay with fluttering flags, and a vast crowd of some 8000 persons were present. We were conducted to a box above the space reserved for the Jockey Club, with a view over the pretty course, bordered with weeping willows, and with the carriages grouped on the ground on the other side of the railings. The paddock and weighing-rooms were excellent. We only missed the lawn in front of the stand, in place of the dusty space that took its place, to make it like Ascot. The colours were as varied and prettily combined as in England. The jockeys are all Argentine ; English ones are never successful. It is whispered that jealousy is the reason, and not want of skill, and that an English jockey is always hustled in the race. There are no bookmakers. The betting is all through the Pari Mutuel, and in the large circular pavilion, with its separate giuchet for each horse. One hundred and ninety-six thousand tickets were taken at this one meeting. The State charges a percentage on the winnings, and the Jockey Club or owners of the race- course do the same ; thus the two clubs are always well in funds. The horses parade round, and up and down a long time before each race. This enables up the Plate to Buenos Ay res. 5 r people to judge the favourites, and a last rush to the Pari Mutual then takes place. The boxes, with their low divisions, were full of smart ladies dressed in lightest summer attire forming a mass of brilliant colour. In this clear atmosphere pale vivid colours seem appropriate, and I often wondered at the daring shades of magnolia, orange, and pink that were worn with great effect by their fair owners. Two former Presidents, General Roca and Dr. Pellegrini, were conversing in a box below us, and we saw and were introduced to many well-known people. Then the Jockey Club served a magnificent luncheon in a private room in the stand. The interest was gathering up, and excitement became in- tense as the hour for the big race drew near. Some 300 Montevideans had come over expressly to witness the race, and how they shouted for their favourite as slowly but surely it was beaten, and Buenos Ayres, the Argentine champion, won easily. The en- thusiasm was enormous, and an ovation was ac- corded to horse and jockey as he was led through the crowd. Of all the things that surprise you as you land in this South American capital, perhaps the park at Palermo is the most startling. Here, between the hours of five and seven each evening, but more par- ticularly on Thursdays and Sundays, you will find hundreds of smart equipages, in a quadruple rank, going at foot's pace round and round the oval en- closure of the park precincts. Prettily laid out, it has an historical interest, having belonged to the great tyrant Rosas. The carriages are mostly closed or have the hood up. Ideas of propriety and the E 2 52 China to Pent. duenna hover over society, and the belles are hidden behind glass panels. Moreover, these Hispano- Argentine ladies never walk in the streets. Their lives are very dull, as they scarcely read or work, and their greatest pleasure is the daily airing in the Park, where they can display the lavish extravagance of their costumes and the cosmetics of their faces. It is no exaggeration to say that all are alike painted and powdered freely, from the highest ladies to the gri- sette. This procession of smart broughams, landaus, victorias, phaetons, and buggies, with liveried servants and splendid horses with cruel bearing-reins, does not betoken hard times. But here all is on the surface. They may not be paid for. What matter } The Argentine would rather live meanly at home than not make his outward parade. A few horsemen mingle in the throng returning from the Rotten Row, where it is curious to see the riders ambling or "pacing" along in place of a trot or gallop. It looks a somewhat effeminate motion to us, but this is the natural gait of the horse, and he must be trained to other paces. Now the gay throng turns homeward through the Boulevard Santa Fe, and you would think life de- pended upon getting home first, for the coachmen race with each other at full speed — indeed, they refuse a place where it is forbidden. Paris has two great imitations, the one in the PZast, the other in the West — Bucharest and Buenos Ayres. It is rare to find two cities so far distant, yet so resembling one another. Both are largely given up to pleasure. In both every available cent is spent on outward show. In both P>ench shops and restaurants up the Plate to Buenos Ay res. 53 fill the streets. In both French habits and customs are imitated in exaggeration. The resemblance is complete. Buenos Ayres is a most pleasure-loving city. The Opera is always crowded, and the attendance at twenty-six theatres averages 3000 per evening, or one in every 180 of the population. The restaurants re- main open all nighty and tram-cars scarcely cease running. It is also a very cosmopolitan city, with its mixed nationalities of Brazilians, Spanish, Italians, Argentines, Germans, French, and Basques. The latter perform the domestic duties for the residents, whilst the Italians, whose immigration is enormous and successful, are the masons, the bricklayers, the gardeners, and day-labourers of the Republic. There are 700,000 Italians in the country, a good seventh of whom remain in the capital. Their children will be- come Argentines, Spain will give place to Italy. The Germans, hard-working and industrious, number some 5000 ; the Frenchmen have 9000, employed chiefly in shops and restaurants ; England is repre- sented by some 5000 residents, but the working men who have come out have done badly. On every hand we hear this fact confirmed. The haute coinmerce of the country, the banking business, the great import and export houses, the large financial firms, the landed interest, is mainly in English hands, but they make no permanent home in the River Plate. Their eyes are ever cast towards their native shore, and their fixed idea is to return home so soon as their fortune is assured. The Ger- mans are more prominent in Ic petit commerce. If a profit, however small, is to be made in a transaction, 54 China to Peru. they will work hard to earn it. The French settle in the country. They are sympathetic to the foibles of the Argentines. Hospitality and kindness had been showered upon us during our stay, and we left Buenos Ayres full of regrets, and full of gratitude to our kind hosts and hostesses. CHAPTER IV. THE CAMP OF ARGENTINA. It was one of those perfect spring days, when we feel it a pleasure to exist, for our excursion to the Estan^ia San Martin, belonging to an Argentine gentleman, Senor Vincente de Casares. An hour in the train on the Sud Ferril Carril, passing through an abso- lutely flat country, occupied by many quintas and estan9ias, gave us our first impression of the " Camp." It is a curious expression this, signifying the country, and it takes a little time to habituate oneself to '* living or going into camp " simply meaning to live or go into the country. On arrival at the Station Vincente Casares we found a break and a magnificent four-in-hand team of blacks awaiting us, but our first view of the latter was some- what untoward, for the leaders were standing on their hind-legs and fighting vigorously with their feet. After some trouble they and their harness were dis- entangled, and we proceeded along the road, a typical camp one. Space is not valuable, so the track is enormously wide, and barely indicated by some crooked railings. Road it cannot be called, for it is composed of the virgin soil of loose earth, now in dry weather a cloud of dust, rising in a monsoon behind 56 China to Peru. us. In wet weather it becomes a morass, with lakes and ruts. The horses are never shod, nor do they have their hoofs pared. It is unnecessary, for the road is only their native earth. Magnificent iron gates, lead us through a rich crop of alfalfa or lucerne to the pretty house, with a deeply recessed piazza leading into the surrounding rooms. Radiating from all sides of the house are grand avenues of eucalyptus, with far-reaching vistas. They flourish and grow rapidly, and are thus valuable in this treeless country. Just behind the piazza is an archway of willows, in the purest, freshest green. These weeping willows are found all over South America ; they form a pretty and uncommon vege- tation. Just now in the spring of the year they are rejuvenated and clothed in tender virgin green of brightest tint. The garden, with its fountains play- ing, its fawns and lions of bronze, was full of palms, gueldre roses, great red-headed poppies, and borders of cloves and pink. We thought San Martin a charming place, and would willingly have passed a month there. The San Martin Estan9ia comprises something over thirty leagues, a league being three square miles in extent, or equal to about 6000 English acres. Over 6000 head of cattle arc reared on this vast estate. But you soon grow accustomed to large figures in camp life, and deal in thousands where in England we should speak of fifties. The mayor domo, as the agent or estate manager of an estan9ia is designated, did the honours for M. Casares, who sent us a telegram of regret that he was accidentally prevented from coming himself. The Camp of Argentina. 57 The brilliant sunshine and pleasant breeze, the glories of a spring day, are enhanced by the ex- hilaration of this delicious climate. Overhead is a deep-blue sky, paling to a translucent grey tinge on the sweeping line of the horizon, always a noticeable feature in this flat pampa country. Birds are build- ing their long, conical nests, amongst the budding branches of the trees, and on every gate and post are plastered their mud hives. The ptero, re- sembling our plover, wheels circling round, uttering its wild, piercing cry. Owls sit and blink in the sun, beside the earth holes of the bizacha or prairie dog. The short grass is just putting forth a new growth. We drive over the breezy uplands to inspect the herds of cattle. There are magnifi- cent Durhams, Herefords, and black and white Dutch cows grazing with their calves. Their enormous size, broad backs, and weight of flesh would delight the judges of fat cattle at the Islington Agricultural Show, and I doubt finer animals being there exhibited than we were now seeing. All the paddocks were covered with great clumps of thistles ; but' they are not like our ugly wayside weed, the favourite food of the donkey, but have beautiful silver leaves, long and drooping and grace- fully scolloped. Their fertile growth is an indication of good land. During seasons of drought the cattle feed on them, as they retain the moisture, and even during the driest periods a little green grass is generally found under their spreading leaves. During the months of January and February the thistles attain to a height of six or seven feet, and present 58 China to Peru. a very handsome appearance with their glow of purple blossom. Then we drive across to the Central Dairy. We have noticed the various little buildings, scattered at far distances on the horizon. They are the milking- sheds, which collect and forward the milk to their great receiving centre, and we see the rough country carts, drawn by a troika of shaggy horses, containing the milk-cans, continually driving up before the platform. Here their contents are emptied into a great tank. I don't think that on any English dairy farm we should see a veritable corrugated zinc tank full of milk, the contents being passed through a pipe to the bell-shaped separator in the centre of the building. Here it was wonderful to see the milk pouring out of one tap and the cream from the other. The churn, the butter squeezer, and the separator are all worked by machinery ; the churn- handle pumped vigorously up and down, and the wooden roller revolved round the circular board, pressing and squeezing out the butter-milk from great yellow-coloured masses of butter, by in- visible means. The inside of this dairy was some- what sloppy and untidy, and I must say that in this wholesale process one missed the clean tiles, the well- scoured milk-pans, and the irreproachable cleanliness of an English or Danish dairy. Sufficient butter and milk are sent away from St. Martin to supply a shop in the Calle Florida. A drive a little further on brought us to a col- lection of ranchos and the sheep-pens ; the shearing for the year is, however, finished. These ranchos are very rough huts built of mud bricks, with earth The Camp oj Argentina. 59 floors. Sometimes, indeed, they are made of wattles, plastered over with earth, and form but a frail pro- tection on these exposed plains. Another paddock contained some of the valuable blood-mares and their foals. A single guanaco was feeding amongst them. We returned to wander round the farm buildings. One was surprised to see how rough was the stabling, vvith mud floors and matchboard partitions, where some exceedingly valuable mares and stallions were lodged. It was pleasant to rest awhile amid the groves of eucalyptus, with the drowsy humming of insects, the singing of birds, and splashing of the fountain mingling together in the noonday heat, whilst luncheon was preparing. This turned out to be a native feast, beginning with " Tuchero," a favourite Spanish dish, and a staple dish in the domestic economy of South America. It consists of slices of mutton boiled until dry and stringy, and served up with salad cabbage and turnips. The piece de resistance lay in the sheep, which we had watched, under the charge of a peon, being roasted whole in an adjoining grove. Cut open and ex- tended across a spit, the carcase slowly revolved over a "small fire of sticks. It was now produced, hacked up into unknowable portions. Pale-green strawberries, quite ripe but of this unusual colour, cream thick and rich from the dairy, with asparagus large, succulent, and jucy, and such as we in England never see or taste, completed this rural repast. A last treat was reserved for us. Don Vincente Casares is celebrated for his stud, and no estan^ia in the Argentine boasts finer horses than were now 6o China to Peru. produced. Gaily caparisoned with white and scarlet pad-cloths, decked with prize rosettes, led each by his particular stable peon, they pirouetted and pranced round and round the gravel drive. There was the bright chestnut thoroughbred, winner of a flat race a week ago ; there were Clydesdales, and roadsters, and thoroughbred hacks and racers, as fine as any stud in England could produce, and we never tired of watching these magnificent animals trotting and capering round, now pawing the air with their fore-feet, now showing a clean pair of heels. A great deal of trouble has lately been taken by leading estanyieros to improve the blood stock, and large sums have been expended in bringing over valuable sires from England. Ormonde, who was bought for 15,000/., is only an instance of this deter- mination. South America is already beginning to show the results of this improvement in breeding, and where horses can be reared so cheaply, the time will come when they will be largely exported to England. Already we were told, that a horse which will fetch 20/. in England, pa}'s his expenses and leaves a margin of profit for the owner. An ordinary criollo horse can be bought for a sum varying from i/. to 3/. Hence it is that even the poorest colonist or settler, the shepherd, the farm labourer, the wandering gaucho, all possess a horse. All ride in this country, and no man thinks of walking. The saddle is his home, and the horse his faithful companion. We returned to Buenos Ayres to make our final departure west on the following day. • A last rattle over the Jioles and ruts of the capital brought us to the Once dc Setiembrc Station at The Catnp of Argentina. 6i 6.30 a.m. The two trains per day on all the lines, leave, the one very early in the morning, the other late at night. We are to travel in regal luxury, for Mr. Bou- wer, the Metropolitan agent, and Mr. Craik, the manager of the Central Argentine Railway, have combined to do all in their power for our comfort, and have given us the use of a private car. We find ourselves in a long telescope coach, consisting of a sitting-room furnished with sofas, armchairs, writing-table, and looking-glasses, whilst the passage leads to two bedrooms, with hanging cupboards and every luxury, including a bath-room. The kitchen is at the further end. Domingo, the car attendant, is quite a character. He is an excellent cook, and overwhelms us with the number of meals and courses that he is only too anxious to serve, and insisting, contrives to get his own way. Attached to the end of the train we can enjoy our platform, with its uninterrupted vista of the twin rails, unwinding them- selves in parallel and diminishing lines, across the great waste. This is the pampa of South America. Imagine a great barren plain of burnt, brown pasture, monotonous as the ocean, without a ridge or hillock or rise, reaching to the horizon ; a plain thus extending, without break or change, right from the Atlantic seaboard of Argentina to the foothills of the Andes. More cultivated and populated with men and cattle, it resembles closely the prairie of America. It has its counterpart also in the prairie of Canada. Like those great lone lands it has a peculiar fascina- tion of its own, acquired from the extreme even monotony of the stretch, ending in a yellow circular 62 China to Peru. line sweeping around the horizon and joining on to the pale, transparent sky-line, fading gradually together into space. It is a fascination, appreciated in some measure perhaps by those dwelling near the Downs at home. Yes, the pampa exercises a great enchantment. During the four or five days during which we traversed its wide belt, the feeling of being drawn more and more into sympathy with the rich and boundless " park " increased. The first thing you notice about the pampa is the extraordinary stillness, broken only by the sound of the wind rushing through the dried liganeous grasses, producing a harsh, rustling sound. There is no bird life, if you except the hawks and falcons circling high in the air, watch- ing for their prey. There are no flowers on the pampa, and in this it differs from the prairies of the northern hemisphere and the veldt of the Cape. I found a few scarlet and purple verbenas growing between the lines, and a little meadowsorrel and larkspur flourishing on the rank grass along the rails, but these were the only sign of the blossoming of spring. Oft we are delighted with constant visions of mirage floating in the distance, when the hot air quivers and dances, picturing blue lakes and green islets with cattle standing knee-deep in water, tantalizing delusion in a " barren and dry land where no water is." A perpetual source of interest are tiie vast herds of cattle, sheep and horses, feeding now near the line, or anon appearing as specks in the far distance. One thousand sheep will be counted in a single flock, or five hundred liead of cattle in a herd. The horses are The Camp of Argentina. 63 always seen to be in groups. They follow the lead of the tingling bell of the maddrina, an ancient mare, who leads and guides the " tropilla " in their aimless wanderings over the plain. Occasionally some picturesque figure of a galloping gaucho, with flying poncho, lasso in hand, will come in sight, rounding up a tropilla, and sending them flying before him ; but generally these vast herds apparently roam where they will, A melancholy source of interest are the skeletons, thickly strewn through the camp. Where the grass is most arid and parched, there they lie thickest, or in the gulleys where the water should be, and where they have come down to drink, and die for lack of it. Where they die there they lie. In pathetic attitudes, with heads upturned and limbs outstretched, their whitened skeletons are bleaching in the sun. It is terrible to see them in their dift"erent stages of decay, with the flesh blackening and entrails protruding; but genernlly the birds of prey do their work quickly, and nothing but the vertebrae and skull remain after two or three days. Meat is so cheap that the skin only is worth saving from ofl" the carcase. Now we see the skeletons of many sheep. They lie thickest along by the railing which marked the old road, and where the grass is perhaps a little better. The drought has been terrible throughout the country, lasting for three years. Cattle have died by thou- sands. In many places the ground is quite bare, with not a single blade of grass. The water-gulleys are dried up ; only the thistles seem to thrive. They are large and abundant everywhere. It is true that in the pampa there is little indeed to 64 China to Pent,. be imagined, not even a sense of vastness. Darwin, touching on this point in his "Journal of a Naturalist," truly says : " At sea, a person's eye being six feet above the surface of the water, his horizon is two miles and four-fifths distant. In like manner, the more level the plain, the more nearly does the horizon approach within these narrow limits ; and this, in my opinion, entirely destroys the grandeur which one would have imagined that a vast plain would have possessed." This is so, and yet, though the distance is not great, that clear circumference circling round our little coach, holds a mystery. What is beyond ? Whither leads it ? A question asked all through life. A question never answered here below. You ascend a mountain— how big the world looks. You descend and travel on the plain — how small it is, circum- scribed by this yellow line of grass. Now and again we pass a solitary graveyard by the line, roughly fenced in^ where the gaucho, lonely in life, is left lonely in death. Once we saw a {ev