Tea is not much drank by the natives, though more so than formerly. In English families, it is, as at home, an article of the first necessity; it sells here from 1 to 1½ dollar per lb. Coffee is 3½ reals per lb. Lump sugar, dear and scarce; that of Havannah and Brazils is used. Chocolate, from 2½ to 3 reals per lb.
Altogether, living in Buenos Ayres is much more expensive than in England, without its various comforts.
Here are wines of all sorts, “from humble Port to imperial Tokay,” and but little good. Port and Madeira are retailed at one dollar per bottle; champaigne, a dollar and a half. Of French and Spanish wines, there are great quantities. The cheapest and common drink is the wine of Catalonia, or, as it is denominated, Carlon wine, which is sold at from two to three reals per bottle, and is far from an unpleasant beverage. Not much wine is made in the country; that of Mendoza has a sweet taste, like our homemade wines.
Beer is only used as a bonne bouche. Bottled beer has not that relish to me, that the London draught porter has. Brandy, gin, and rum, are abundant. The latter arrives from the Brazils, Havannah, and Isle of France. The good old Jamaica rum is a scarce commodity. Caña, a sort of white brandy, from the Havannah, Brazils, and Spain, and called Spanish brandy, is much drank, and makes capital punch.
The vegetables of this country, to my thinking, are not very enticing. We miss the delicious flavour of the summer cabbage, large asparagus, and peas, that we have at home. A good salad, with cucumbers and onions, may be procured. Turnips are scarce and bad. Indian corn grows in abundance.
English potatoes are much sought after: the packet sailors have brought a great many;[22] and so eager were the English potatoe merchants to obtain them, that they quarrelled one with the other, and their disputes were referred to the Consulado, who must have imbibed strange opinions of the trading English. All efforts to raise potatoes on this soil have failed: they are small and insipid. An Englishman, Mr. Billinghurst, has been endeavouring, some years, to effect this object without success. Those grown at Monte Video are something better. In Peru, they are thought equal, if not superior, to our’s: but our islands appear to be their home.
The peaches in their season, from January to March, are excellent, and the consumption great, being esteemed healthy: they are sold in all parts—in the markets, shops, and hawked about the streets. From eight to ten can be purchased for a madio (three-pence English money). The strawberries, apples, pears, cherries, &c. are, for their quality, not worthy of notice. Grapes are tolerable. Oranges will not thrive in this climate; and the lemons are very inferior. Gooseberries, currants, and plums are unknown, except by name. After all the praises bestowed upon the fruits grown in tropical and warm climates, they cannot, in the gross, equal those of others. What have they to compensate for the green-gage, gooseberries, currants, strawberries, cherries, apples, pears, and plums of every description? Travellers must not believe all they hear in Europe; they will not find the fields and boughs, in South America, teeming with every species of fruit, free to those who choose to gather them.
In addition to those already noticed, this country produces very few OTHER ANIMAL OR VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS. Indeed, persons who wish to send presents to England are often at a loss what to forward, the country not producing any great variety, either in the animal or vegetable world.
The herds of cattle that exist in the Pampas are immense: of this we can form a tolerably correct estimate from annual exports. In one year a million of ox and cow hides were exported.