The Buenos Aires and Pacific line across the continent from the Argentine capital to Valparaiso is a magnificent achievement in railway enterprise. Perhaps at no great distance of time the Pan-American railway will be completed and the traveller will be able to take the train at New York for Valparaiso and so to Buenos Aires, but as yet that line consists chiefly of missing links, and the Buenos Aires and Pacific Railway Company (which, curiously enough, happens to be English, not German), is the first in South America to join the oceans. To Mendoza the journey is easy and pleasant. The train leaves the Retiro station at Buenos Aires at 8 a.m. and reaches Mendoza early the next morning at about 5 a.m. The trains are extremely comfortable; the carriages are on the American plan and restaurant cars are attached; a reasonable amount of luggage is allowed. Only first and second (we should less logically say first and third) carriages are in use and the fares are high. They will doubtless be lowered when traffic increases; at present only three through trains are run a week. Compared with English trains they are not fast, but they are faster than the average of those of Continental Europe. Altogether the Buenos Aires and Pacific is a very fine line and under extremely efficient management.
The journey affords no feature of natural interest, for the country, covered with maize or grass, is extremely flat, but it is pleasant to see the evidences of wealth—noble cattle grazing in the fields, great flocks of sheep, and the heavy crops of grain. The general air of prosperity is the more pleasing to one who has recently passed through Brazil and seen there every sign of wretchedness. There are few towns of importance on the route; indeed, such as there are owe their consequence chiefly to the railway. This is the case with Mercedes, which was founded in 1856 as an outpost against the Indians, and their depredations were for a long time a bar to its prosperity. It is now a great railway junction. San Luis was a small village in 1788, and although it is now the capital of the Province, it has had an unfortunate history. Its sons fought valiantly for the independence of Chile and Peru, but during the civil wars, which were the result of the Rosas tyranny, its sufferings were far greater. Up till recently the female population far exceeded the male, and it was one of the poorest cities in Argentina. The situation is excellent; the town stands high with views of the snow-peaks of the Andes, and the country round about is well wooded. It may one day be a place of remarkable prosperity.
The train reaches Mendoza at an unconscionably early hour, and the cold and gloom prevent the formation of any impression about the beauties of the garden city. For South America, the Province and city of Mendoza are extremely ancient. It was in 1559 that Garcia de Mendoza, the Governor of Chile, sent Pedro Castillo with a small force to annex the district of Cuyo. This included not only Mendoza, but also the Provinces of San Juan and San Luis, and for more than two centuries it formed part of Chile, but the famous Decree of 1776 transferred it to the Viceroyalty of Buenos Aires. During the Revolution it was divided into three provinces. Mendoza, the town, which is as old as the Province, was in the early part of the nineteenth century a beautiful place, extremely prosperous, and its dolce far niente won the hearts of all who visited it.[140] But it was destroyed by one of the most terrible and devastating catastrophes that ever visited a community. It was the evening of Ash Wednesday, March 20, 1861, and the whole of Mendoza was at church. Suddenly a rumbling noise was heard, and in a moment the city was razed to the ground and thirteen thousand people destroyed. Barely two thousand escaped. One of the survivors was a gentleman named Don Jaime Albarracin, who has given a vivid account of the affair.[141] He tells how the weather had been sultry for some days. His family had gone to church and he was sitting at the window of his house talking to M. Bravard, the well-known French geologist, whose researches had led him to predict the destruction of Mendoza by earthquake. Don Jaime heard a crash and immediately found himself buried under the ruins of his house with a broken leg. Fires had broken out and raged all night within a short distance of him. All day long he remained there and for another night. "The horror of my situation was increased by a dreadful thirst; the very air I breathed was thick with dust and smoke. It seemed an interminable night. The second day I heard voices, and summoning all my strength, called out loudly for assistance. All was again silent for a couple of hours, till the afternoon, when I woke from a short sleep to hear footsteps quite close to me. The first man who approached me replied with a coarse insult when I begged him to lift the beam under which I lay. His comrades were no less inhuman, for they were one of the numerous gangs of banditti attracted like birds of prey to the scene of disaster. They had seen the flames afar off on the pampas, and came in scent of booty." Yet another night was passed, but on the following day he bribed a robber with his gold watch to lift him out of the debris, and finally he was taken to a hut. The fires continued to rage and they were followed by an unbearable smell from the decomposing carcases, and the survivors had to be carried away to farmhouses. The Governor perished, as also did the French scientist who made the all too accurate prediction. "So complete was the destruction, that when a new Governor was appointed a year later, and the site marked out for reconstruction, the Government could find no heirs or claimants on behalf of three-fourths of the families of the old city." The only vestige of old Mendoza that remains is the pillars of the Cathedral, to which is affixed the following tablet: "Ruinas del templo de San Augustin destruido por el terremoto del 20 de Marzo de 1861."
RIVER MENDOZA.
The people of Mendoza are still very nervous about earthquake shocks, which occur frequently, but there has been nothing serious since 1861.
It is for this reason that the new Mendoza was laid out with very wide streets and roomy squares and almost all the houses were built of wood. This spaciousness adds greatly to the attractiveness of the town and is a great relief after Buenos Aires. The town, thus covering a large area, appears to be more considerable than it in reality is, but it is rapidly growing, and its forty thousand population will probably soon be doubled. Land in the outskirts is rapidly rising in value, and great credit is due to the State of Mendoza, which is planning the extensions on a very handsome scale. At the west end a large park and zoological gardens are being made, and at sunset there is a beautiful prospect from their pleasant walks, which seem to be under the very shadow of the Andes. Their grim and jagged forms appear to be within an easy walk. But Mendoza itself is like a large park; conduits of clear water run on each side of the streets and their banks are lined with trees. The principal street, the Calle San Martin, is quite as rustic as the others, and it contains nearly all the shops which are large and good for a provincial town. There is an excellent English Club with a large membership, and as the climate of Mendoza is genial, the town is by no means a bad place of residence. The chief peculiarity of the climate is the almost complete absence of rain. Mendoza stands at an elevation of nearly 3,000 feet above the level of the sea, and is thus, as might have been expected, temperate. The thermometer rarely touches freezing-point, and seldom or never 100° F., but the rainfall is only a few inches yearly, and this rich district is entirely dependent for its fertility on irrigation. In the industrial chapters something is said about the wine-growing at Mendoza. Here it will be sufficient merely to mention the system which covers the uplands with vine and grain—an ancient system which was bequeathed to the present inhabitants by the Guarpes, the peaceful and industrious people who lived here before the Spaniards came. The Zanjon Canal passes from the river Mendoza, near Luxan, traverses through the city and joins the Tunuyan River, which in turn is united by another canal to the Desaguadero River, far away to the east. The canals and their branches are 1,100 miles in length, and they are said to irrigate a quarter of the Province. Much fruit is raised, also tobacco, and in 1835 the mulberry was introduced, so the silk industry flourishes. As far as its fruit and streams are concerned, Mendoza may compare with Damascus, and in every respect is the only Argentine city, except Cordoba, which possesses any old-world charm. It is an old Spanish City, and the people have the leisurely ways and open-air habits of their forefathers. From the nature of the case it cannot possess fine buildings, because, in case of another earthquake, the inhabitants desire light houses that will either resist the shock, or, if they fall, do the minimum of damage. But the Cathedral, though plain, is an imposing edifice, and it attracts very large congregations of men as well as women. The people of Mendoza are intensely religious. In Spanish towns the charms of the streets are quadrupled on Sundays and Holy Days, for they are full of pretty women in mantillas hurrying to church. Why the ladies do not always give this beautiful headdress preference over ugly imported hats is a mystery to the masculine mind.
Adjacent is the Province of San Juan, and the little capital of the same name is at no great distance and is reached by a railway. Founded by the same Pedro Castillo in 1561, it has few features of interest, but it has a considerable trade and very good wine is manufactured at or near it. A considerable part of the Province is a desert, but fortunately it possesses a useful river, the San Juan, by which parts are irrigated, and this work will doubtless be extended. According to trustworthy figures, the population of this Province decreased from 91,000 in 1883 to 84,251 in 1895. This was doubtless due to the commercial catastrophes of the early nineties.