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

by Sir Woodbine Parish

But it is not absolutely necessary to go through the fatigue of riding on horseback across the pampas, and, for those disposed to consult their ease, an admirable sort of carriage may be had at Buenos Ayres, called a galera, in appearance more resembling a London omnibus than any other carriage I ever saw; it is swung upon hide ropes, and is of light though very strong construction; and in this the journey as far as Mendoza may be performed in fourteen or fifteen days without difficulty. At the same time that Captain Head started to ride on horseback across the pampas, another friend of mine, with four or five persons in his suite, who was desirous to combine as much comfort as possible with such an undertaking, left Buenos Ayres in the sort of carriage I have described; he had besides with him a cart on two wheels, for the conveyance of baggage, bedding, cooking utensils, &c., and much such a supply of stock as people would lay in for a voyage by sea of two or three weeks' duration. On reaching Mendoza, he sent me an account of his journey, from which I extract the following, for the benefit of those disposed to follow his example:—

"Mendoza, December, 1825.

"We reached this place on the morning of the eighteenth day from our leaving Buenos Ayres. H—d, who started on horseback at the same time, did it in nine, but with so much fatigue as to be obliged to lie up for some days afterwards to recruit. We might easily have done it in our carriage in fourteen or fifteen, for we galloped nearly the whole way, as he did, but for the tiresome stoppages we were continually obliged to make in order to repair our cart; these kept us half a day at one place, one day at another, and two whole ones at San Luis. Though you laughed, as well you might, at our set-out, and at the appearance of our galera and caratillo, stuffed with my manifold preparations for personal comfort, I can truly say, now the expedition is over, that of all carriage contrivances the galera is infinitely the best calculated for an excursion across the pampas; ours was remarkably easy over the roughest roads, capable of resisting all injury from them, and its high wheels well adapted for preventing our sinking in the quagmires, whilst it formed a comfortable bedroom at night. Of the caratillo I cannot speak favourably:—from its construction it was not suited to keep pace with the galera; two galeras would be better, especially if there were ladies of the party, in which case one might be fitted especially for their convenience, with couches for sleeping, &c. The pies and provisions might be stowed away in lockers, as the sailors would call them, made for the purpose; and the more good things in the shape of eatables and drinkables you can get into them the better, unless you have the stomach of an ostrich to digest what the gauchos offer you. The filth of the post-houses is beyond description, dirt and vermin of every kind in them, and no accommodation of any sort for the traveller; even our peons preferred sleeping in the open air, and you would not suspect them of being over nice; I never in my life saw such a set of wild devils.

"The country is more uninteresting than any I ever travelled over, in any quarter of the globe. I should divide it into five regions:—first, that of thistles, inhabited by owls and biscachas; secondly, that of grass, where you meet with deer and ostriches, and the screaming horned plover; thirdly, the region of swamps and bogs, only fit for frogs; fourthly, that of stones and ravines, where I expected every moment to be upset; and, lastly, that of ashes and thorny shrubs, the refuge of the tarantula and binchuco, or giant bug.

Its geological aspect differed somewhat from what I expected. I should say that, to the north and south of Mendoza, there have been volcanoes, the eruptions from which have covered the country (perhaps the bed of a sea) with ashes as far as San Luis: the peculiar soil so formed, combined with the effects of climate and the salt lakes, may perhaps account for the particular species of thorny plants which are undescribed and confined to this region. The mountain streams, overflowing the saline lakes, are the origin of the vast swamps between San Luis and the Rio Quarto; and the decomposed granite and gneiss from the Sierra de Cordova, gives rise to the difference in the soil, and to its elevation along the Rio Tercero."

MENDOZA.

The province of Mendoza occupies a space of something more than 150 miles from north to south, along the eastern side of the Cordillera of the Andes, and nearly an equal distance from east to west, measured from the Desaguadero to the central ridge of the Andes. The northern boundary is formed by a line passing east and west through the post station of Chañar, about eighteen miles north of the city, which divides it from the jurisdiction of San Juan. To the south the nominal frontier line is the river Diamante, although lands beyond that river have been purchased from the Indians, which are likely, perhaps, to become some of the most valuable of the province, especially for the purposes of cattle breeding, for which those in the vicinity of Mendoza are not suitable.

The river Desaguadero is the divisional line between the provinces of San Luis and Mendoza:—this river is the drain of a singular chain of lakes known by the name of Guanacache, formed by the confluence of the river Mendoza, which runs into them from the south, and the San Juan river, which, after passing the town or city so called, is discharged into them from the north. The Desaguadero, after receiving these rivers, runs first in an easterly direction, and afterwards south, into a vast lake called the Bevedero, below the town of San Luis:—a portion, also, of the waters of the river Tunuyan are lost in the same great sack-like lake, which thus becomes the reservoir of the greater part of the streams which issue from the Andes between the thirty-first and the thirty-fourth degree of latitude. It is said that in old times the Tunuyan also, like the rivers of Mendoza and San Juan, had no other outlet, but that river, at a later period, opened for itself a new channel, and though a portion of its waters are still carried into the Bevedero, the greater part of them turn off to the south before reaching it in a stream called the Rio Nuevo by Bauza, and the Desaguadero by Cruz,[71] which runs in that direction a considerable distance, till the Diamante and Chadi-leubú rivers join it, and together they form another great inland water without any outlet, called the Urré-lauquen, or Bitter Lake, from its extreme saltness, as described in chapter eight. The account of this lake given to Cruz by the Indians who accompanied him in his journey across that part of the Pampas in 1806, has been verified of late years by General Aldao, who personally examined it in an expedition which he commanded against the savages in 1833, when he rode round it, and ascertained that it had no outlet.