"Apropos of this, I am told that a circus company came to Buenos Ayres, years ago, when the place was the resort of the guachos, and gave a performance. Just as the show ended a group of guachos rode into the ring and completely outdid the circus men in every one of their tricks, besides several that were not down in the bills. The circus company sailed away for Valparaiso, but it had no better luck there than at Buenos Ayres. The Chilians are splendid horsemen, and defeated the professional performers at their own game. It was probably the same company we heard about at Lima.
"The Italian emigrants engage in building houses and in raising vegetables in the market-gardens surrounding the principal cities; those from Genoa have almost a monopoly of the boating business on the rivers, and they man the coasting ships and other craft. The Catalonian Spaniards are mostly wine-merchants; the Andalusians are shop-keepers and cigar dealers; and the Galicians are employed as domestics, porters, watchmen, and railway servants of the lower grades. Emigrants from the Basque provinces are the most numerous, next to the Italians, and their employments are similar to those of the Galicians, in addition to bricklaying, sheep-tending, and farm-work in general. The Irish are the sheep-farmers of the country, and it is said there are thirty millions of sheep in the Argentine Republic owned by Irish settlers. The English, Scotch, and Germans are generally occupied with commerce, though some of them have gone into cattle and sheep farming, like the Irish; the French are commercially inclined, some branches of trade being almost monopolized by them, and they assimilate with the native Argentines more readily than do the English and Germans. The aboriginal Araucanians generally retain their independence, leading a nomadic life, and keeping large herds of cattle and horses, which furnish their subsistence.
POST-STATION ON THE PAMPAS.
"There you have a picture of the population, which is as heterogeneous as that of the United States of North America, and has good promise for the future. The country is as diversified as the people; it consists of dense forests and vast pampas or plains, in which the herds of countless cattle and horses, and flocks of equally countless sheep, find a nutritious pasture. The pampas are far more extensive than the forests, and there are places where you may travel miles and miles without seeing a tree, or even a bush. Altogether, the Argentine Republic contains a million square miles of land between latitude 21° and 41° south, and from the Atlantic Ocean to the Andes, which separate it from Chili. The southern part of the territory is a vast desert; it is certainly a foolish quarrel between Chili and the republic, for the possession of this inhospitable region. The whole area in dispute is not worth the lives of the men who have died there while trying to hold on to it."
While Fred was writing the foregoing notes on the country, and Dr. Bronson and Frank were occupied with letters for home, Manuel was sent to engage passage on a steamer bound up the River Plate. Frank will tell us the story of the voyage.
A STEAMER ON THE RIVER PLATE.