It was a fair sample of the miserable economy and wretched policy of the colonial authorities, that a commercial city of such importance, and in which the traffic was daily increasing, should have been allowed so long to remain in such a state, with an inexhaustible supply of the best paving materials in the world within twenty or thirty miles of it, and of such easy water-carriage. The people however, were led to believe that the difficulties and impediments to such an improvement as the general paving of the city were next to insurmountable.
The Viceroy himself, the Marquis of Loreto, when the first notion of such a plan was started, gravely gave, amongst other reasons against it, the danger of the houses falling down from the shaking of their foundations, by the driving of heavy carts over a stone pavement so close to them, whilst another and still more weighty objection in his opinion was, the necessity it would entail upon the people to put iron tires to their cart-wheels, and to shoe their horses, which, he reminded them, would cost them more than the animals themselves. Fortunately, his immediate successors, Aredondo and Aviles, were not deterred by similar alarms. The former commenced the work with activity about the year 1795, with the aid of a subscription voluntarily raised by the inhabitants; and the latter carried it on to a much greater extent, levying a trifling duty upon the city for the purpose, which was readily submitted to, when, as the work advanced, the improvement became manifest. In later times, especially during the government of 1822-24, much more was done, and there are few of the principal streets which are not now more or less completed.
The granite is excellent, and was carefully examined in situ by Mr. Bevans, an English engineer, a few years ago, who reported that it was easy to be worked, and the supply inexhaustible. When the working of it is better understood by the natives, it will probably be brought into much more general use.
FOOTNOTES:
[15] Mr. Scarlet has given the best possible description of this plan, in comparing it to a chess-board:—the relative proportions are as nearly as possible four English acres to each square.
CHAPTER VI.
CLIMATE OF BUENOS AYRES, AND ITS EFFECTS.
Climate of Buenos Ayres, liable to sudden changes. Influence of the North Wind. Case of Garcia. Effects of a Pampero. Dust-Storms and Showers of Mud. The Natives free from Epidemics, but liable to peculiar affections from the state of the atmosphere. Lockjaw of very common occurrence. The Smallpox stopped by Vaccination. Introduced in 1805, and preserved by an individual. Its first introduction amongst the Native Indians by General Rosas. Cases of Longevity, of frequent occurrence.