The rest of the time on the Rio de la Plata was occupied with plans for the trip, and before they realized that the voyage was at an end they were anchored in front of Buenos Ayres.
While they are completing their preparations for the double journey to the great seaport of Chili, we will consider the routes they are about to travel.
We have already mentioned the steamers of the English company that perform a fortnightly service each way between Liverpool and the ports of the east and west coasts of South America. Their time-tables can be relied upon—the accidents of the ocean excepted—and their arrivals and departures are as closely arranged as those of the magnificent vessels traversing the Atlantic between New York and the ports of England and western Europe. The regular fortnightly steamer bound southward was due at Buenos Ayres two days after the return of our friends from their trip to Asuncion, and promptly at the designated date the smoke from her funnels made a dark streak on the horizon to the eastward.
MAP OF CHILI, ARGENTINE CONFEDERATION, AND URUGUAY.
All the steamers of this line do not call at Buenos Ayres; when they do not visit the port the service is performed by an extra steamer from Montevideo. There are German, French, and Italian steamers, which ply through the Strait of Magellan, performing a service similar to that of the English company, but they only run monthly, and their accommodations are inferior to those of the old established line. Besides, their departures are largely governed by the exigencies of freight, and a passenger is liable to be detained an indefinite number of hours, or even days, for the shipment or discharge of cargo.
At the time our friends were in South America the railway from the eastward was completed and in operation as far as Mendoza, within forty miles of the base of the mountains, while the line from Valparaiso was open to Santa Rosa, among the foot-hills of the Andes. Consequently Frank had in prospect a journey between Mendoza and Santa Rosa after the primitive manner of travelling in the Andes.[3]
