Sports and Amusements.—Near the Recolator is a decent even road, where, on fine evening, are horse-races. The natives ride without saddle; and the animals have great spirit. Englishmen sometimes get up a race, the natives acting as jockeys.
Exercise on the water is not a popular amusement. The inhabitants have no taste for sailing-boats and rowing-matches: the river, it is true, has no very great inducement for aquatic sports.
A particular class of the people are very fond of cock-fighting, and will give thirty to forty dollars for a good English game-cock. The packet sailors have brought some out, and sold them well. The native game-cocks are good, but not equal in strength and courage to the English.
Greyhounds and foxhounds would come to a bad market, for neither climate nor country is adapted for hunting. My fox-hunting countrymen would be out of their element here: foxes there are none; but deer are plentiful. Athletic sports must be confined to countries more congenial to them.
The amateurs of shooting would be at home: birds abound so much as almost to destroy the pleasure of the sport. A short distance from town, there are lakes, with wild ducks, geese, swans, &c. In cold weather, and in other periods, flocks fly over the town, and alight near the beach. The black-necked swans are fine birds; and wild ducks, which are always an excellent dish at table, are much better than the tame ones: the market is well supplied with them. There are also excellent partridges, of a larger size than our’s; but there are no pheasants. English sportsmen, habited in the mode of their country, with fustian jacket, gun fastened to the horse, and the dogs behind, greatly enjoy this recreation: they bring to my recollection our sporting farmers of Gloucestershire and Norfolk, revived in South-America. The Frenchmen in this country are fond of the sport: they go out, dressed in French sporting costume, with cap and jacket, and on foot. I have observed that this amusement is, in a great measure, confined to foreigners; the natives take very little interest in it. The cockney sportmen of Buenos Ayres sometimes amuse themselves by shooting gulls on the beach.
The country affords little facility to follow fishing as a sport; and the fish found in the river, with a few exceptions, is not worth catching. They fish on horseback. Two horses are attached, one to each end of the net,—a man standing on their backs, in the manner of one of Astley’s equestrians; and they go so deeply in the water, that the horses are, at times, obliged to swim. I have expected to see the men thrown off. The net is then hauled to the shore; the fish that is fit for the market is taken out, and the rest thrown or given away. People don’t go out fishing at a distance, in boats. The sailors on board the vessels in the roads catch great quantities of fish, but they are of a very indifferent kind: one called the cat-fish is the most common.
Throwing the lasso is a favourite amusement of this country, and is performed by the natives with great dexterity. A man on horseback, holding the lasso (a rope looped at the end) rides amongst a herd of cattle, casting the rope towards the object he wishes to entrap; the first attempt almost always succeeds, and the animal is fast secured by the leg. They practice this lasso from boyhood: it is a formidable weapon, against a flying enemy.
An annual fair is held on some open ground, before the Recolator church, about two miles from the fort, and one mile north of the town. It commences on the 12th of October (the nativity of Nostra Señora del Pilar)
, and continues a week. The amusements are not very great: there are a few booths for eating and drinking, swings, two or three humourless clowns running about, and a military band. The national British and American flags are hoisted from houses and booths devoted to good cheer, rented for the occasion by individuals of those nations. At night, the country people dance till a late hour in the booths; they may be observed to perfection then. I wandered into several; and the Gaucho ladies and gentlemen behaved with the greatest politeness, offering me a seat, and entreating me to dance. The guitar was the music, with the usual accompaniments of singing, and snapping the fingers during the dance. On fine evenings a very elegant assemblage attend this fair, which is a promenade for the beauties of the city; but being held so near the equinox, the weather is generally unsettled. In 1822, a tremendous storm took place, one night of the fair, overwhelming booths, flags, and preparations; hundreds took refuge in the church. At the theatre (in which I happened to be during the storm), the dust filled the interior, obscuring the stage. The small stones and dust, rattling against the walls and windows, had the effect of what one might suppose of a shower of small shot.