PROVINCE OF CORDOVA.
The province of Cordova, after that of Buenos Ayres, is the most important of the Union. According to a census taken in 1822-23, the population then amounted to something more than 85,000 souls, of which from 12,000 to 14,000 lived in the city.
It is ruled by a governor, who is elective by a provincial junta occasionally convoked, and whose power is almost arbitrary; he has the command of all the forces and militia of the province, and has the power of reversing, on appeal, all decisions of the tribunals.
It is bounded by the province of Santiago del Estero to the north, and Santa Fé to the east, and on the western side by the mountain-ranges generally known as the Sierra de Cordova. From these ranges descend many rivers and streams which irrigate and fertilise the plains below; amongst which may be enumerated the Rio San Miguel, the Tortoral, the Carnero, the Primero, Segundo, Tercero, Quarto, and Quinto: of these the Tercero is the only one which reaches the Paranã; all the rest are lost in the flat intervening plains. It has been ascertained that very little is requisite to render the Tercero navigable for boats from the Paranã to within about thirty leagues of the city, whereby a water communication might be opened, which would save much of the present expensive and tedious land carriage of the productions not only of Cordova, but of the provinces of Cuyo, to Buenos Ayres.
The perpetual irrigation of so many streams gives rise to a constant supply of excellent pasturage for cattle and sheep, the facility of rearing which may in some measure account for the preference evinced by the people for pastoral over agricultural pursuits. These habits occasion the country population to be much scattered: they congregate but little in the towns; and the principal places after the capital, Conception, Ranchos, and Carlotta, are at the best but wretched villages.
In travelling from Buenos Ayres after passing the post of Frayle Muerto on the river Tercero, the aspect of the country begins to change: it becomes undulated, and at last there is an end of the monotonous scenery of the Pampas, throughout which not a tree is to be seen save the solitary Umbú, standing like a giant land-mark in the boundless plain.
The traveler's eye is relieved by the appearance of woods and forests which become more dense as the Sierra is approached. The trees are for the most part varieties of the mimosa family, thickly set with thorns; and so marked is this peculiarity in those parts, that I recollect a gentleman from Cordova who came to Buenos Ayres whilst I was there, expressing something more than common surprise at finding that the greater part of the trees which grew in the gardens about the city, and which were probably chiefly of European origin, were not covered with thorns like those of his own province.
The palm-tree is scattered over the valleys in the northern part of the province, and on the road to Santiago del Estero; and it is the land of the aloe and cactus in every variety.
The city which gives its name to the province was founded by the conquerors of Tucuman in 1573; it is situated in lat. 31° 26´ 14",[59] long. from Ferro, 314° 36´ 45", in a pleasant valley upon the banks of the river Primero, sheltered from the north and south winds, which, in the more exposed parts of the province blowing alternately hot and cold, produce great and sudden variations in the atmosphere, very trying to the constitutions of the inhabitants.
By the post-road it is 172 leagues distant from Buenos Ayres.
It is related that for many years after its foundation, the inhabitants were subjected to much inconvenience from the occasional overflowings of a lake in the neighbouring hills, until an earthquake swallowed up its waters, and drained it apparently for ever. Much damage, however, is still done by the mountain-torrents which descend from the Sierra in the rainy season, and have made it necessary to build strong walls to save the city from being occasionally inundated.
Limestone and timber being to be had in the immediate neighbourhood, the houses are generally better built than in other towns in the interior.
Cordova contains many churches, and is the seat of a university, at which, in the time of the Old Spaniards, most of the better classes from all parts of the Vice-Royalty received their education: it was under the management of the Jesuits, to whom this city owes much of its importance. It was here they had their principal college (the Colegio Maximo); and they held large possessions in the neighbourhood, from whence they derived considerable revenues, the greater part of which were spent in the foundation and embellishment of the churches, and in other pious establishments. Here also they had a celebrated library, rich in manuscript records of their Missions and labours amongst the Indians, which upon their expulsion was sent to Buenos Ayres. The printed books formed the nucleus of the present public library in that city; but the greater part of the manuscripts, and amongst the rest an unpublished portion of Father Guevara's History, have never since been seen: they were probably, either sent to Spain or destroyed by Bucareli, who was charged with the expulsion of the Order; a duty which he fulfilled with a harshness and illiberality never to be forgotten in a country which owes all it possesses in the shape of civilization, to the indefatigable zeal and enlightened spirit of that community.
Out of their confiscated property the university of Buenos Ayres was subsequently founded; and being more conveniently situated for the rising generation, it has in proportion diminished the importance of that of Cordova, which, though still kept up, has dwindled to the scale of a provincial school.
From the year 1699 Cordova was also the residence of a bishop (removed from Tucuman), but the see has been vacant since the first years of the revolution.
The effects of the preponderating influence of the monastic establishments are still visible in the habits of the generality of the people; and though the ladies are not all nuns, their manners are a vast deal more reserved than those either of the capital or of the other principal provincial towns. As an instance of this, a fair lady of Buenos Ayres told me she had caused no little scandal whist on a visit to some of her Cordova relations, by insisting on dancing at a ball with a male partner, instead of with one of her own sex, an innovation which greatly horrified the mamas. Captain Andrews, too, has given a lively account of the alarm he unwittingly occasioned by a like breach of decorum in offering his arm to a young lady on going to dinner. These scruples, however, have I believe, since been much modified, and I am told that ladies and gentlemen now dance country-dances together at Cordova, much as they do in other parts of the world, in spite of the fears of the mamas and the frowns of the priests.
Living is very cheap and provisions abundant, the wants of the people few, and their hospitality unbounded; their kindness, indeed, to strangers, is spoken of by all who have been amongst them.
Cordova at present forms a sort of centre of communication between the Upper Provinces and Buenos Ayres. Its own produce, consisting chiefly of hides and wool, is all sent to the capital, whence it receives European manufactured goods in exchange.
If steam navigation were established on the Paranã between Buenos Ayres and Santa Fé, Cordova, as well as the provinces further north, would share in its advantages, and would be more easily supplied through Santa Fé, by the road which runs nearly in a direct line between the two cities; whilst the shorter line of communication thus opened between the provinces of Cuyo and those on the Paranã, passing necessarily through Cordova, would fully compensate to the people of that place for any loss they might sustain in consequence of the transit trade from Buenos Ayres to the Upper Provinces being turned in another direction.
The people of Cordova and Santa Fé would also once more have a joint interest in checking the inroads of the Indians from the Chaco, and by a better combination of their joint means might be enabled to protect their frontiers more effectually and perhaps at less expense than either province is now at for the maintenance of the militia which is requisite for its separate defence.
Cordova, owing to the miserable weakness of the adjoining governments of both Santa Fé and San Luis, is obliged at present to support a large armed force to protect her frontiers, not only from the savages of the Chaco, but from those of the Pampas.