[550] de aquél, i.e., del Congreso.
[551] la larga noche de la anarquía. The period of internecine struggles, from the expulsion of the Spaniards till the downfall of Rosas and the subsequent adoption of the Federal Constitution.
[552] el tercero del sur. On rainy days the streets of Buenos Aires were turned into veritable brooks, which were named numerically, first, second, third, etc.
[553] D. Juan María Gutiérrez. Cf. Biographical Notes, p. liii.
[554] se reducía. The verb is in the singular because the subjects, la mesa y el mantenimiento, are taken to be one and the same thing.
[555] En toda la línea del norte, All along the northern boundary.
[556] prebostes de la Hermandad. The Santa Hermandad was a police institution founded in the fifteenth century in Spain, and carried over into her colonies. Its purpose was to keep the highways and the country clear of robbers. A preboste was an officer of the Hermandad; he exercised both judicial and police powers.
[557] revolucionaria. The term revolutionary, after the French Revolution, was synonymous with progressive.
[558] brazos aptos, men suited for the task.
[559] hacían que apenas hubiese una que otra calle, malísimamente empedrada, were the cause of there being only a few paved streets, and very poorly paved at that.