Buenos Ayres and the Provinces of the Rio de La Plata / Their Present State, Trade, and Debt

by Sir Woodbine Parish

The routes in question have been very material to the laying down of the true courses of some of the many rivers which constitute the most important, though hitherto undescribed, features of that part of the continent:—and it is satisfactory to find that they are strikingly corroborative of the accounts, as far as they go, which I had already cited as given both by Villariño, by Don Luis de la Cruz, and our own countryman, Dr. Gillies.

Thus far I have spoken of my geographical materials:—they will be found embodied in the accompanying map of the Republic by Mr. John Arrowsmith, who has spared no time or labour in its construction. In this he has also availed himself of the invaluable recent survey of Captain FitzRoy, to give the whole of the line of coast upon the very best authority. In the interior the various routes, which appear now for the first time collected together, have been all re-protracted from the original sources of information, whilst a careful re-examination of the labours of the Boundary Commissioners and of other authenticated authorities has enabled him to correct many errors of position which had crept, I hardly know how, into the latest maps, not excepting those compiled in the topographical department of Buenos Ayres.

Upon the whole, although we have yet a vast deal to learn before any perfect map can be drawn of this extensive portion of the new continent, I trust that the present attempt will be regarded as no slight improvement upon our old geography of that part of the world[5].

I regret that I lost, during my residence at Buenos Ayres, the opportunity of making what too late I learnt would have been very acceptable additions to our zoological collections; but I never imagined that our public museums were so entirely destitute, as I found them upon my return, of specimens of the commonest objects of natural history, from a country with which we had been so many years in, I may say, almost daily intercourse. Mr. Darwin, and the officers of His Majesty's ship Beagle, have since done much to supply these deficiencies; but we still want, I believe, specimens of by far the greater part of the birds and beasts of which Azara gave us the description nearly forty years ago. The collections of some of the museums on the Continent are, I believe, much more complete; especially those of Paris, to judge from the accounts of the acquisitions made by M. Alcide d'Orbigny, the fruits of many years spent in those countries, to which he was sent in 1826, expressly, I believe, to collect information and specimens for the Museum of Natural History.

Instigated first by Dr. Buckland, I made those inquiries for fossil remains, the results of which I flatter myself have been of no common interest both to the geologist and comparative anatomist. The examination of the monstrous bones which I sent to this country, by the learned individuals who have taken the pains to describe them, assists us to unravel the fabulous traditions handed down by the aborigines respecting a race of Titans, whilst it proves indisputably that the vast alluvial plains in that part of the world, at some former period, the further history of which has not been revealed to us, were inhabited by herbivorous animals of most extraordinary dimensions, and of forms greatly differing from those of the genera now in existence.

To the account of the Megatherium, and other extinct animals, I am now enabled, by a delay which has unavoidably occurred in the publication of this volume, to insert the representation of another extinct monster, the Glyptodon, which has been very recently discovered at no great distance from the city of Buenos Ayres, apparently in a very perfect state, and which I trust ere long will be in England. Mr. Owen, of the College of Surgeons, has been good enough to draw up for me the description of it, which I have added in a note at the end of the tenth chapter.

It is, perhaps, not unworthy of a passing observation here, that, amongst all the remains of extinct animals which we have now obtained from the Pampas, most of which too seem to have been singularly provided with a structure for self-defence, no instance, I believe, has as yet been satisfactorily proved of the occurrence of any portion of a carnivorous animal.

It only remains for me to allude to the third and last part of my book, upon the trade and public debt of the provinces of La Plata; and of which I can only say that I have spared no inquiry to render it as correct as is compatible with so brief and general a notice. The accounts officially published by the Government of Buenos Ayres, and the papers laid before Parliament, have enabled me to complete the Returns of Trade to the close of 1837. They show that the River Plate to the British manufacturer has been the most important of all the markets opened to him by the emancipation of the Spanish Americans; and that the value of the British trade there alone exceeds the aggregate of all other foreign countries put together. Spain herself has not taken for many years past so large a quantity of British manufactured goods as, it appears, have been sent to the River Plate.