At the theatre door, on performance nights, several handsome carriages are now to be seen, with lighted lamps and well-dressed servants, belonging to English and other families. When I arrived, in 1820, scarcely one was in existence. Were a Spaniard to revisit this place, after an absence of a few years, he would feel surprised at the alteration; the rigid fasts of the church laid aside for innocent enjoyments, the hum of business greeting his ear, and European strangers every where meeting his eye. Old Spain’s ancient dominion of Buenos Ayres is gone for ever: a few of the old school may yet cling to the mother country; but the grand mass of the people, especially the younger branches, are decidedly patriots.
An amateur performance took place, on the 21st February, 1825, for the benefit of the widows and orphans of those who had fallen in the revolutionary wars. It was a full house, and profitable—the reverse of Silvester Daggerwood’s. Orders are not admitted to the Buenos Ayres theatre. The play was Virginius; and the different parts were sustained by gentlemen of the city, in a style so creditable, as to put to the blush the regular actors.
A North-American Frenchman, named Stanislaus, last from the Havannah, has given several exhibitions at the theatre upon galvanism, slight-of-hand, &c. aided by machinery, the best I have seen of the sort. His performance was more than upon a par with our English professors. The natives declared, he must have dealings with the devil; or how could he transport handkerchiefs from the pockets of individuals in the theatre to the lofty towers of the Cabildo, in the Plaza? and this, they asserted, he had done. Stanislaus was rewarded with good houses. His pronunciation of the Spanish language excited bursts of laughter; it was a mixture of Spanish, French, and English.
A Lecture on Astronomy was attempted; but it did not meet with the success it merited, either from a want of taste for this instructive science, or that the audience conceived the theatre an improper place. The lecturer reading his part, diminished the effect.
An Englishman (Bradley) has a Circus, which is sometimes open on Sunday afternoons, and on saints’ days. Bradley is a decent horseman and clown; but he has to contend with many disadvantages.
British Residents.—Before entering into a detail of the manners and customs of the native or Spanish part of the population, I shall take some notice of the various FOREIGNERS who have become residents in this city. Of these the most numerous are the English: I have heard, that the province of Buenos Ayres contains, of men, women, and children, 3500 British individuals, according to a census taken in 1822.
The British merchants are a respectable body in Buenos Ayres: the commerce of the country is chiefly in their hands; and, taking the clerks, servants, and others employed in their barraccas, or hide warehouses, as well as in their houses, the numbers are very imposing. Most houses have a Spanish clerk, who (as well as his English brethren) generally boards and lodges in the house.