The States of the River Plate: their industries and commerce, etc

Preface

TO THE SECOND EDITION. With natural trepidation, yet not without some de gree of confidence, I comply with the requests of several friends, and adopt the suggestions of more than one of the leading British reviewers, in presenting to the public a second edition of ' The States of the Eiver Plate,' with additional descriptive and other matter, and a second Book comprising three treatises, viz. 1. Circumstances of colonization and physical condition as determining the character of the populations and affecting political and social institutions. 2. Historical sketch and personal experiences. 3. Political and industrial development and social modifications, resulting from immigration and improved means of locomotion, &c.

PREFACE.

TO THE SECOND EDITION. VI I send the book forth with some hesitation, for my ability may have proved unequal to my will, and the scantiness of the time which pressing out-door avocations has left to me at irregular intervals may have interfered with the well ordering of the matter, as it has necessarily interfered with its completeness and amplitude. But my confidence is grounded on the conviction that the consideration extended to my first essay will be accorded also to the present volume, inasmuch as my aim has been to furnish accurate and useful information on matters and events of general and special interest. To the accomplishment of this task I have taken nothing on trust, relying only on actual experience and on my knowledge of the conditions, circumstances, and events treated of, briefly to state facts and draw deductions. Buenos Aybes, 1867.

PREFACE.

TO THE FIRST EDITION. The author of this work presents it to the public, not as the production of a traveller, or with any preten sion to the detail, interesting or amusing, which usually makes up works descriptive of foreign countries. He presents himself as a plain thinker on subjects of material interest connected with the country in which he has resided or been in relation with for, more or less, twenty-four years, and in which there are settled a very large number of British subjects and their families, towards which there is a continuous stream of emigrants from Europe, a large portion of whom — especially those possessing small or moderate capitals — entertain most erroneous ideas of the country, its industries, and the work that is before them ; between which and Great Britain there are very important commercial relations, a

PREFACE.

TO THE FIRST EDITION. and in which there is a very large British capital invested. His object in writing this work has been truthfully and intelligibly to describe the country, its resources, and climate, with a view to its industries — pointing out various channels for the advantageous employment of capital, fields for labour, and its remuneration, and to usher in the dawn of a more advanced and more sound system of working those industries, by explaining the principles which should regulate the practice of parties engaged, or about to engage, in them ; and he claims from the ' lettered ' public that consideration which they may fairly accord to a writer whose daily avocations are the practice of the industries of which he treats. Buenos Atkes, 1866. C 0 N T E N T S.

Book I. Part

I. PAGE General Observations ........ 3 Description of a Scene at the Saladeros .... 9 Aspect of Campo and Camp-fires 13 Burning of Prairies . . . . . . . . 17 The Life of a Flock-Master or Shepherd .... 26 Dust-Storm 28 Thunder-Storm 30 Sheep 31 Cattle ........... 34 The Events on a Cattle Estancia 38 Marking 38 Hunting Wild-Cattle 40 The Horse of the Pampas . . . . . . . 49 Sports of Horsemen 56 Racing 58 Tilting at the Ring 59

Historical Sketch and Personal Experiences . . . 257

Part II

Political and Individual Development and Social Modifications, RESULTING FROM IMMIGRATION AND IMPROVED LOCO. motive Facilities, &c 313 .Appendix

BOOK I. INDUSTRIES AND COMMERCE.

B P A E T I. GENERAL. The countries of the Eiver Plate or Eio de la Plata are those of the Banda Oriental or Eepublic of the Uruguay, a small State on the northern bank of the Estuary or Eio de la Plata, whose chief city and port is Montevideo ; and the Argentine Eepublic, on the southern bank, extending south, west, and north, and comprising fourteen provinces, viz. Buenos Ayres, Santa Fe, Cordoba, Mendoza, San Juan, Santiago, Tucuman, Salta, Eioja, Catamarca, San Luis, Jujuy, Entre-Eios, and Corrientes ; its chief city and port being Buenos Ayres. The Banda Oriental lies on the southern limits of, and is bounded by, the Brazilian Empire ; its eastern coast is washed by the Southern Atlantic, its southern shores by the Eiver Elate, and its western by the magnificent Eiver Uruguay — a semicircle of sea-board and navigable rivers.

The Argentine Eepublic extends south to the Indian territory and Patagonia, north to Bolivia and Paraguay ; and is bounded to the west, in its whole length, by the Cordillera. The Ocean, the Eiver Plate, and the magnificent Eivers Parana^ and Uruguay constitute its other boundaries, the Parana separating two of its provinces — Entre-Eios and Corrientes — from the rest ; the Eiver Uruguay separating the Argentine province of Entre-Eios from the Banda Oriental. These territories comprise a c2 range of temperate climate, from a temperature border ing on cold to the south, to the tropical towards the north ; with an extensive sea-board, and an internal and arterial system of rivers counted among the finest in the world. A very extensive commerce is carried on between these countries and the various nations of Europe, North America, and the Brazils, while a very large and impor tant interior or coasting trade extends over hundreds of miles of river coast in the La Plata, Parana, and Uruguay, where the great depth of water admits of vessels of con siderable burthen and draft, the Parana being navigable for over a thousand miles.

Numerous vessels course these rivers, carrying passengers and goods ; and their number is constantly augmented by steamers built here or brought from England or the United States. The foreign commerce consists in imports of the staple productions of the various countries of Europe and Ame rica, of England, France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Italy, United States, Canada, and Brazil, comprising cotton, woollen and silk goods, hardware, iron, wines, spirits, oils and fruits, lumber, tar, naval stores, sugar, rice, flour, furniture, jewellery, &c. &c. The exports are chiefly of animal products, of which, in due course, I propose specially to treat. Minerals and vegetable products are also exported. The delicious and salubrious climate, the extreme fertility of the soil, the wide range and capabilities of production, and the unsurpassed adaptability of these countries for stock breeding, as well as the extent of their river system, render them eminently favourable per se to receive an European emigration, and offer many oppor tunities for the advantageous investment of European capital.

GENERAL. — MONTEVIDEO. 5 The natural richness and extent of their resources, the facilities of water transit, and the paramount desire for progress which animates the influential portion of the population, their commercial tendencies, the unfeigned welcome aud protection extended to foreign settlers, and the full recognition of the advantages derived from immi gration and foreign enterprise are in themselves guarantees both to settlers and individual or Stock Exchange investments. Moreover, the recognition and thorough com prehension on the part of the governing classes, of the importance and policy of national good faith, is a feature which must necessarily weigh with capitalists, and pro duce its fruits in the development of the incalculable resources of the country. Land and stock are to be had at comparatively low figures, and constitute advantageous investments for in dividuals and companies.

Eailways, steam navigation, canalisation, mining and other undertakings, worthily claim the attention of the Stock Exchange. Wages are high, and employment far in excess of the supply of labour. These, accompanied as they are by cheap beef, are the greatest inducements that can be offered to the industrious classes. Montevideo, the capital of the Banda Oriental (or Ee public of the Uruguay), is situated near the mouth of the Eiver Plate. It is a well-built city, on a rocky promon tory, forming one side of the bay, and offering a safe and commodious harbour, capable of containing several hun dred vessels. The population of the city, which, from the water, displays a very imposing and handsome view, is estimated at 60,000 souls, comprising people of almost every nationality in Europe, the United States, and Brazils, the foreign element, in which the Italian portion predo minates, considerably outnumbering the natives.

The commerce is large and increasing. There is a noble hospital, a cathedral and other churches ; there is also an English Brotestant church. Forts com mand the entrance of the bay from the mainland and an island in the bay ; and there are several moles and jetties, a custom-house, lighthouse, and other public buildings. The country of the Banda Oriental is undulating, with spurs of hill ranges here and there. It is well wooded in some parts, but the timber is of no great size. It is remarkably well watered : through the heart of the country flows the Eio Negro, into which innumerable tributaries empty themselves, as seen on the map. This river and its affluents stand to the country in a relation not unlike that of the arterial system in the human frame, a main trunk with ramifications extending everywhere, vivifying and fertilising.

The face of the country, as I have said, is undulating. Eocks and boulders crop out of the higher parts, and rich soil, luxuriant herbage, and broad stretches of wood land descend to and in parts follow the courses of the rivers and brooks. On the borders of the Eio Negro and its tributaries, great quantities of sarsaparilla grow, with which the waters are more or less impregnated. Certain points of these rivers are, in consequence, visited by invalids. II. BUENOS AYRES Buenos Ayres is a large and handsome city, the streets intersecting each other at right angles, equidistant, and forming blocks of houses of about 140 yards square. The GENERAL. — BUENOS AYRES. 7 extension of the city during the past few years, and the number of magnificent houses built, many of them meriting the denomination of palaces, may well astonish the spec tator.

It possesses several large and handsome theatres, an opera-house, concert-hall, club-houses, exchange, custom-house, and other public buildings : the cathedral is a large and handsome building, with a noble com posite facade, and there are many large and solidly built churches. The population is estimated at 200,000 souls, and as it comprises representatives of almost every civilised nation in the world — about half its population is foreign — there is a perfect babel of tongues. English, French, German, Itahan, Portuguese, salute the ear at every step : every where may be seen foreign banks, commercial houses, shops, wholesale and retail general stores. Every trade and calling is pursued with perfect liberty by foreigners of every denomination. Many ship-building yards exist, where steamers and other vessels for the river-trade are built ; and there are an English church, Scotch Presby terian, American and German churches ; an Irish Eoman Catholic chaplain and several assistants ; the British hospital, a large and well-regulated establishment ; the Itahan hospital, a remarkably handsome building ; an Irish hospital ; the convent and schools of English and Irish sisters of mercy ; British newsroom ; library ; English daily newspapers ; a cricket club, and a race course.

There are three lines of railways in the province of Buenos Ayres, gradually extending farther and farther into the country — one to the north, taking the line of the principal northern traffic, and the others to the west and south — all opening up the most important trading districts in their respective directions. Another railway — the Central Argentine — is in course of construction, not in the province of Buenos Ayres, but with its terminus in the province of Santa Fe, at a port called Eosario, and taking its line through the province of Cordoba to the city of the same name, the focus of com munication with the northern and north-west provinces. The importance of this line of railway cannot be over estimated. At Eosario, several fines of steamers from Buenos Ayres call, touching en route at several ports on both banks of the Parana above and below Eosario.

Each of the several ports is a distinct centre of trade, to which goods are shipped from Buenos Ayres, and the produce of these districts is forwarded to be shipped per steam or river craft to Buenos Ayres or Monte video. The port of Buenos Ayres is an open roadstead, with inner and outer roads, divided by a sand-bank, or bar, with good anchorage in both. The vessels are discharged by, and loaded from lighters, which land and receive cargo at moles or jetties, or are beached, and their cargoes taken from or to them in high-wheeled carts, or at wharfs on the banks of a small river, the ' Eiachuelo,' in the vicinity of which are situated the chief ' Saladeros,' killing and salting establishments for hides, tallow melting, &c. ; also barracas, or warehouses. Eiver craft, with produce from the several ports of the Eivers Parana and Uruguay, frequently lie alongside or discharge their cargoes at once on board the foreign vessels in the roadsteads.

The articles of export, both from Montevideo and Buenos Ayres, are chiefly animal products — hides, dry and salted, jerked beef, bones, horns, tallow, hair, wool, skins, ostrich feathers, &c. Tobacco and some other vegetable products are also exported, but in comparatively insignifi cant quantities; also copper and other minerals. This GENERAL. — BUENOS AYRES. class of products will doubtless form a comparatively larger proportion of the exports than at present, when the communication with the interior provinces is established by means of the railway now in course of construction, and by the canalisation of rivers which flow thence to the Parana. The scene at the ' Saladeros,' in the killing season, is strange indeed to European eyes. Herds of fine semi wild cattle, consisting of several hundred head, are driven in from the country by mounted herdsmen, looking as wild as the cattle they drive — the affrighted annuals bellowing and making desperate attempts to break away as they approach the pens — the mounted herdsmen swinging their lassos and dashing at the cattle on flank and rear, to close them into a compact phalanx, so as to force the foremost on.

If there is the slightest break in the mass, from an inequality of pressure, through which an animal or two can contrive to turn, there is a wheel and a stampede : and then away go the gaucho drivers, as if fleeing before the galloping, maddened herd ; but, with their fleet horses, crossing and recrossing in front and on the sides, they gradually close up the ranks, succeed in turning the cattle again, and so work them till they get them into the pens (corrals) of tall hard wood posts, six to eight inches in diameter, by eight or ten feet high, ranged alongside each other, and bound together by cross bars securely lashed. Occasionally, indeed frequently, a knot of two, three, or half a dozen animals will break away from the lot, and then away go the skirmishers with lassoes whirling in the air, at headlong gallop to come up with the runaway beasts.

As it would be a vain attempt to turn them, the lasso is thrown, the noose goes over the animal's horns, the well-trained horse answers to the rein, and galloping to one side, comes suddenly to a stop ; the animal is swung round, a second lasso is thrown by another horseman ; one takes one side, the other the other; the enraged beast rushes to and fro, but he is checked by the lassos ; and so, by the dragging of the lasso-men and his own mad rushes, he is worked on to the remainder of the herd. At other times, he is hamstrung -by a third person, and left until, the herd being penned, they return to kill and skin him. The process of penning the cattle being in due course achieved, the slaughter commences, and the operation is effected as follows : — To the corral or pen, there is a narrow neck, eight to ten feet long, closed with cross bars at the end, the lower bar being sufficiently high to admit a low truck to be run under it, in and out, with its burthen ; the top bar consists of a roller.

By this neck there is a stage, on which stands the lasso-man ; the truck being run in, the lasso-man takes the noose and coils of the lasso, and, swinging it, throws it over the horns of one of the animals ; a horseman outside has the end of the lasso attached to the saddle (recado) of his horse : the signal is given as soon as the lasso is cast, the horseman moves rapidly on ; the lasso running on the roller bar draws the animal into the neck of the pen and on to the truck, bringing the horns ' taut ' against the roller bar. The slaughterer stands on the stage, knife in hand : as soon as the animal is in the position required, he introduces his knife behind the horns, and divides the spinal marrow at its junction with the head. The animal instantly collapses ; the lasso is loosed from it, and the truck is run out on a tramway which occupies the centre of a flagged platform, under a shed, along which, on each side, are ranged the flayers.

The dead annuals are cast off the truck to the flayers GENERAL. — BUENOS AYRES. in turn. The hide, being taken off, is doubled up and taken to the salting-house, where it is stretched on the pile of hides, and salt cast over it with shovels ; mean while, the carcase of the animal is cut up and carried to another salting-house, where the meat is sliced into thin flakes and laid in a pile, with salt. The fat and the bones, with that portion of the meat which is unsuitable or cannot be conveniently cut into flakes, goes to the vats, and is steamed to extract grease and tallow. When the beef has lain in salt a sufficient time, it is taken out and hung on rails (tendales) in the open air to dry ; thence it is removed and built into large piles, square or round (in the open air), and covered with tar paulins until ready for shipment.

The meat thus prepared is known as 'jerked beef,' and is chiefly shipped to, and consumed in, the Brazils or Havannah. The business of preparing hides, tallow, and beef, is one of the most important carried on in the province of Buenos Ayres, Entre-Eios, and Santa Fe, and in the Eepublic of the Uruguay. The hides of the animals slaughtered for the consump tion of the town or country are nearly all staked and dried. At the ' Saladeros,' mares in large numbers are slaugh tered, the hides salted, and the carcases steamed for grease. The tallow and grease having been drawn off, the refuse matter — bones and beef fibre — is removed; the shank, shin, and other large bones are picked out for shipment ; and the smaller bones and beef fibre are used as fuel for the furnaces of the steaming apparatus, to the extent required, the remainder being made into large heaps and burned.

The ash from this and from the furnaces is the bone-ash of commerce. The manes and tails of mares, and the tails of cattle, furnish hair, &c, for shipment. The hoofs and horns are likewise shipped. The killing grounds for the supply of beef to the towns present an animated and singular scene : — A large open space, with lines of pens, or ' corrales,' into which the cattle of the different dealers are drawn. The butchers purchase and select the animals they require out of the pens ; all are mounted on well-trained horses. To take out the selected animal, a lasso-man enters, throws his lasso, and darts out of the corral, half dragging, half chased, by the bellowing animal, while others keep back the rest of the cattle. Another and another is selected, lassoed, and drawn out : away they go with the lasso-men, the animal either rushing after them or on some of the groups, and followed by other horsemen at full speed, until they come near enough to throw the second lasso, which is cast over the horns or on the hind legs, and the two, taking contrary directions, bring the animal to a stand or throw it over.

One of the men dismounts ; the horse, knowing his work, keeps the lasso ' taut,' while the man approaches the animal, and, according to its position, either hamstrings it as a preliminary, or at once 'piths' it, by introducing the knife behind the horns. The flaying then commences, care being taken that the carcase remains on the hide, on which it is cut up, so that the meat is not soiled. There are three or four flayers to each animal — sometimes as many as sixty or eighty animals undergoing the operation of flaying and cutting up at the same time. These flayers, wild-looking fellows, dressed or half-dressed in various bright colours, scarlet predominating; the gaily capari soned horses of the butchers, many of them glistening with silver trappings ; rude carts, ruder-looking drivers, and various coloured horses ; the background of pens, still half full of cattle, all contributing colour and artistic GENERAL. — URUGUAY. 13 grouping, make up, if not a pleasingly picturesque and gay scene, at least, illuminated by the oblique rays of the morning sun, a very sparkling and brilliant one, and altogether novel to Europeans.

The ' emissaries ' of the sausage-makers, dogs and swine, serve as the scavengers, aided by clouds of gulls and hawks, while the snow-white and grey plumage of the swooping whirling thousands of the winged inhabitants of the Pampas, ever moving in the sunlight, adds not a little to the brightness and singularity of the effect. III. The aspect of the country or ' campo ' of Buenos Ayres, and its geological character, is wholly different from that of the Eepublic of the Uruguay, or Banda Oriental. The province of Buenos Ayres, excepting far away south, where there is a spur, or high range, is one vast level plain — a rich alluvial soil without wood — except here and there, where one or two trees, or a small planta tion, mark the site of an ' estancia ' house, or a ' puesto ' or station. A solitary ' ombii ' tree, with its enormous trunk and great arms, its dark green and dense foliage, affords, here and there, shade to a group of cattle or horses, or to the weary traveller ; otherwise the plain is clothed in rich herbage, watered by sluggish streams, shallow lakes and pools, and covered with vast herds of cattle, horses, and flocks of sheep.

I cannot conceive anything more exhilarating than a gallop across the plains of Buenos Ayres on a bright, clear morning, or in the cool of the afternoon or evening ; a cloudless sky of deep azure, an atmosphere marvellously light and pure communicating a sense of indescrib- RIVEll PLATE. able buoyancy and pleasurable existence — a soft breeze flowing, as it were, over the vast plain, boundless as an ocean — contribute to engender an irresistible feeling of joyous freedom. One of the effects of the climacteric influences on residents in the plain is to render them comparatively independent of what in England are called comforts. Men seem to revel in mere existence ; hfe is pleasurable to them for itself, and this frequently renders them careless of accessories and prone to take things easily, often too much so.

As it is easy to live, and wants are few, there is a disposition to eschew exertion. The sense of the expanse doubtless contributes to this ; there is no obstacle, all is open and wide ; resistance stimulates to exertion, and something within reach is needed to excite action and develop energy. When the plain fades away in the far distance, and the long vista presents no objects but such as are insignificant in relation to the expanse, a con sciousness of impotence is engendered, tending to produce a disinclination to effort. In the ' campo,' the horse is man's companion and re source, the one thing that leads him to motion, which carries him through space and shortens it. No one is a foot in the plain ; from comparative infancy to old age, every one rides; all work is done on horseback, and only with the stimulus of the animal movement is energy awakened.

The ' campo ' — a plain — has its own peculiar beauties and aspects, varying with the season. The unbroken carpet of short green herbage of the winter is changed to vast sheets of colour in the spring. Luxuriant grasses, tangled clover (spotted medick), with its broad leaf of rich green and black spot, are intermixed over vast tracts with the young variegated-leaved thistle, remarkable by GENERAL. — URUGUAY'. its large green and white foliage ; a little later on, the wild flowers mingle with the tall grasses or overtop them, forming immense sheets of colour. Acres upon acres are brilliant with scarlet vervain, gorgeous in the light, or purple or white verbena. Leagues of a rich purple flower, the ' flor morada ' (a plantain), change to bright rose as the setting sun casts its warm oblique light upon it.

The tall ' biznaga ' may be seen, with its head of clustered white florets ; the branching many-flowered camomile, and numberless others, white, pink, yellow, &c. From these broad lines or sheets of colour, we enter on the great thistle camps. There are two varieties of thistle, the one annual, tall, variegated, broad-leaved, known in the garden in England, and growing in this country to the height of eight or ten feet, in dense array, impenetrable except in the cattle track. These beds of thistle extend leagues and leagues, and at the time of flowering, as far as the eye can reach, present an almost unbroken sheet of rose-purple flowers. In some districts, a day's ride along a road or track, on either side of which stretches this forest of thistles, leaves the traveller still with the same forest stretching to the horizon.

Thousands of cattle browse unseen amongst the thistles, working tracks through them, feeding on them and the grasses which grow up with them. On the lower lands and edges of pools, the thistles do not grow. About midsummer they seed, wither, and fall, a heavy rain and a stiff breeze quickly knocking them down, while the soft stem breaks up under the action of the sun and rain. The cattle and sheep grow fat as they feed on the oleaginous seed and withering leaves. In the autumn, other grasses, distinct in variety, which spring up and cover the ground, obliterate almost all trace of the fallen thistles. In the autumn and winter the thistle seed germinates, and the tender leaves of the plants, with the various grasses, are fed on by the cattle and sheep. The other variety of thistle has a life of several years ; this variety is in fact the wild artichoke, and has the same colour and foliage as the cultivated plant : the stem is stout and hard, and makes excellent fuel.

This also occupies large tracts of country ; the cattle, horses and sheep feed on the young leaves, and, by breaking down the plant with their hoofs, reach the heart, which is palatable ; they also bite off the thistle head and feed upon the seed. There are other tracts of country which, lying low, produce a coarse reedy herbage and Pampa grass, which, growing tall and spreading, affords shelter for whole herds of deer, numberless partridges, large and small ; and in the marshy ground and pools, congregate myriads of wild ducks, plovers, cranes, spoonbills, flamingos, geese, swans, wild turkeys, and snipe in the season. The tracts of land covered by the tall sedgy grasses are called ' pajonales ; ' such portions of them as do not lie too low are converted into excellent pasture lands by burning ; on a clear dry winter's day they can be fired with ease, and without danger.

I have seen a ' pajonal ' fired, and aided in firing it in fifty different parts, of a winter's morning — the flames rising to a con siderable height, and travelling with the course of the wind until some break is reached or some green patch restrains them. These fires will sometimes continue through the night, producing a singular effect. In the summer time, on the great thistle beds, when the light dry stems are like so much touchwood, there is great danger of sire ; from time to time much damage is done by the accidental igniting of the dry annual thistles. GENERAL. — CAMPO FIRES. These ' campo ' sires are often very serious affairs. The dry thistles standing or leaning over, intersecting each other at different angles — the long dry grass and trefoil, laid and entangled, extending over leagues of plain heated by the sun — are ripe for conflagration.

A careless fellow strikes a light for his cigar, and heedlessly throws down the match, or drops the live ash or the end of his cigar, and instantly the grass ignites, and, if there is a breeze, as instantaneously starts into a blaze, which, spreading right and left, soon acquires the breadth of hundreds or thousands of yards, as it sweeps onward, crackling and roaring. Terrified cattle, mares and sheep, fly before it, or are driven by affrighted shepherds and herdsmen, enveloped in cursing waves of smoke : sometimes many are encircled and lapped in the flame. As it sweeps onward, here and there a taller blaze leaps up, and in a few minutes sinks ; denser masses of smoke then roll up, and interfolding, chase each other to the clouds as some thatched ' puesto ' is consumed.