[95] A present probably from the English admiral of that name.
[96] Speaking of the descent of the river, at a terrific pace, by the Alecto, Commander M’Kinnon, in his work ‘Steam Warfare on the Parana,’ to which reference has already been made, says:—There was only one person in South America who had either the nerve, knowledge, or ability to do it. It is natural to suppose that this person must have been a native of the country, brought up on the river, and who had spent a long and active life in getting such a thorough and precise knowledge. With pride do I say it, this was not the case. The pilot was a brother officer, Captain B. J. Sullivan, who coolly stood on the paddle-box, and conned the vessel by a motion of his hand to the quarter-master. The whole of the river, up to Corrientes, is now surveyed by the above-mentioned officer, and better known, by his means, in London, than at Rosas’ capital, Buenos Ayres.
[97] The author on whom we have so frequently drawn for facts and illustrations, seems to attach greater moment to Corrientes, speaking of which he says, ‘There is more of a military authority combined with usual duties of a Captain of the Port in South America than is exercised by our Harbour Master, giving him some of the powers of a commandant. The existence of regularly organized ports of entry for foreign vessels so far up the river (and there are others much higher up the Parana and Paraguay) is not generally known. It has been the not unnatural, but injurious, policy of the government of Buenos Ayres (Rosas) to seek to monopolise the trade of the states of La Plata, and to prevent direct intercourse between the other maritime, or rather fluvial, provinces and foreign countries. Europeans have been in the habit of looking on Buenos Ayres and Monte Video as the sole ports fitted for foreign commerce in the states of La Plata, whereas there is no doubt that the best ports are in the river Parana itself, which affords excellent positions for depôts of produce, and for loading or discharging vessels. Many such ports exist on the banks, not only of the Parana, but of the rivers Uruguay and Paraguay. In the Parana there is deep water, generally from five to twenty, and sometimes forty, fathoms, with good anchorage. The current runs three or four knots, often more, when floods increase the large body of water coming down from the river Paraguay and the numerous smaller rivers which empty themselves into the Parana from various quarters, and are swollen by the melting snow of the Andes. The soil about Corrientes is sandy: trees thrive, but there is more brushwood than timber. The inhabitants, having hitherto had but little intercourse with the rest of the world, are naturally ignorant respecting Europe and its usages. Many of them know but little Spanish, using the Indian dialect, the ‘Guarani,’ which prevails more or less throughout all this part of the interior of South America, including Paraguay, Bolivia, and Brazil. Of their little knowledge of things considered as the everyday comforts or necessaries of life in other countries, an eye-witness related a somewhat amusing proof. ‘An old Scotchman, who had been settled at Corrientes for the greater part of his life, begged some coal from a British war-steamer on her way up. His sole object in making the request was to be enabled to vindicate his reputation for veracity. It seems that he had often told them that in England they had a kind of black stone that could be used as fuel, an assertion which was scouted as absurd and incredible, and he was considered as a Scotch Munchausen. He obtained the coal, however, and on the day fixed for the experiment half the town assembled, and, seated in a large circle, with their cigarritos in their mouths, watched the smoke arising from the coal with silent incredulity. It did not readily ignite, so the Dons began to shrug their shoulders and intimate their contempt for the whole affair; but when the fire blazed up, a total change came over them, and it was highly amusing to witness the enthusiastic delight they evinced, shouting energetically, vivaing, &c.’ He adds, speaking of the Corrientines, ‘As a race, the men of this country seem much finer in stature and appearance than the women, who are generally small, fair, and delicate, and it is said that further in the interior and in Paraguay they are still more fair and northern looking.’ Some travellers assert that what they call their religion is often little else than superstition, and that their morality is far from strict, but this may be a false impression, adopted on slight grounds. In dress they are perfectly innocent of any superfluity, for which the great heat is a valid reason. But whatever are their shortcomings resulting from their isolated position, they are most hospitable and kind towards strangers. ‘Travelling through the country one is well received at every house one rides up to; refreshment is always promptly offered, especially water melons, which are particularly grateful in these climates. Payment when offered is almost invariably declined, and never demanded.’ In consequence of the gradual filling up of the Parana by alluvial deposits towards the Delta at its mouth, the navigation is much better higher up in the river than where it spreads into many small channels, emptying themselves into the upper part of the River Plate; still a vessel drawing sixteen or seventeen feet of water can go over all the passes when the river is moderately high; although during the prevalence of certain winds from the north and west there is less water, and near the island of Martin Garcia generally not more on the banks than fourteen feet. Thus from Colonia to the Bajada, and further up to the pass of San Juan, without any extraordinary rise in the water, a large vessel can ascend. From San Juan to Corrientes there is only a depth of thirteen feet on the worst passes, and about the same depth may be had all the way to Assumption, watching opportunity. There are neither ‘snags’ nor ‘sawyers’ [trunks of trees carried down by the current and fixed in the bottom, very dangerous in the Mississippi and other great rivers of North America, where they are known by these names], rocks, nor other obstructions, but steamers may go at full speed up or down by keeping the right channel. In the broad parts the stream runs at the rate of about three, and in the narrow channels, four knots, or even more.’
[98] I have since ascertained that not only did Mr. Hopkins and his party arrive safely at Assumption, but that the vessel had returned to Buenos Ayres, and was going up again—a proof how easily the river can be navigated. Mr. Hopkins was received with great cordiality by General Lopez, and in return for the present of an American carriage, had given to him a large quantity of maté, with a grant of valuable land on the banks of the river, near Assumption. He has been appointed, I hear, United States consul to Paraguay, and thus infinitely increased his means of effecting the results I confidently venture to anticipate at his hands.
[99] The description of this magnificent and important river, by the authors of ‘Letters from Paraguay,’ is too accurate and graphic to be omitted here, viz.:—The Paraná, having its source in the southern part of the Brazilian province of Goyaz, flows down from latitude 81 degrees south, still increased, as it runs, by numerous tributary springs. It is uninterrupted in its course by any obstacle to navigation, except by that formidable one, called the Salto Grande, (the Great Waterfall, literally, the Great Leap,) which in latitude 24 degrees, with a noise and tumult, heard many miles off, dashes its foaming mass of water over rocks, precipices, and chasms, of the most stupendous character. Resuming after this its placid course, the wide and glassy Paraná, richly wooded on both sides, and navigable by small vessels, pours down its salubrious waters impregnated with sarsaparilla, till, at Corrientes, it forms its junction with the River Paraguay. From that point the two rivers joined, go under the name of the one river, Paraná, the latter being, sometimes, though erroneously, below this, considered the parent stream. The Paraná discharges itself into the River Plate, by several mouths; by that of the Paraná Guazú, at which point the waters of the Uruguay also fall in: of the Paraná Miní, lower down; and of the Paraná de las Palmas, still near to Buenos Ayres. Thus formed, the Rio de la Plata pours its accumulated waters into the Atlantic; and although its mouth at the two opposite capes of Santa Maria and San Antonio is one hundred and fifty miles wide, it does no more than correspond to the grandeur of the inland navigation. From its source, in Matto Grosso, latitude 14 degrees south, till its confluence with the Paraná at Corrientes, the River Paraguay has already run a course of 1,200 miles; from Corrientes to Buenos Ayres, the distance measured by both these streams under the one name of the Paraná is 740; while from Buenos Ayres to Cape St. Antonio and Maria, the combined waters of the Paraguay, Paraná, and Uruguay, united under the one name of River Plate, run a farther distance of 200; making a total course of 2,150 miles, including the windings, which are often of a very sweeping kind. Of this immense tract of water, fifteen hundred miles are navigable by vessels drawing ten feet. The river abounds with fish from its mouth to its source. The pexerey (king’s fish), the dorado, mullet, pacū (a sort of turbot), and many others, are found in it; its banks are for the most part richly studded with wood; its various islands are adorned with beautiful shrubs, evergreens, creepers, &c.; the woods abound with game, and the adjacent country teems with cattle. The waters are highly salubrious; the soil all along the banks of the river, with the exception of the Great Chaco, is rich and fertile in the highest degree. But notwithstanding all these advantages—notwithstanding that the country has been for three hundred years in the possession of a civilized European nation—after I had galloped two hundred and eighty leagues, I did not see above four or five small towns. Not more than a like number of vessels were to be descried on my route, while at every fifteen miles distance a miserable hut, with its half-dozen inhabitants, was alone interposed to relieve the monotony of the scene. The secret of all the silence, solitude, and abandonment of Nature to herself, which I saw and lamented, is of course to be traced to the inadequate means which have hitherto been used to provide even a semblance of the population necessary to cover a country of such vast fertility and extent.
[100] Mr. McCann is in error in stating the population of this town at 8,000; and his general description of it would apply more to Rosario, probably owing to some error in his notes afterwards, when describing the two towns.
[101] ‘I will mention a few of the uses to which I have seen hides applied. The hammocks in which the people sleep were hides cut, like a puzzle, to spread out as so much net-work, neat, cool, and pleasant. The milk from cows was collected and emptied into a hide spread out on sticks in the shape of a large bucket or tub, capable of holding from sixteen to twenty gallons. The houses and carts were covered with hides; a hide-spout conveyed water off roofs. The tanpits were hides spread out like the milk tub before mentioned, containing other hides under tanning process. Everything connected with horse furniture was supplied by hides. The beams and supports of houses were lashed by hide thongs. The doors and windows, and, frequently, the very walls, were hides laced together; in short, everything almost was hides.’—Mackinnon.
[102] Rosario is most favourably situated for carrying on a large trade, which promises soon to locate itself here. Already there is an English branch establishment here, and a resident English consul has been appointed.
[103] The capital of the province of Corrientes, of which our sketch is taken from the deck of a man-of-war, is not a large place. Its population has been variously estimated at 3,000, 6,000, and 8,000 inhabitants. This difference is partly accounted for by the fluctuations incident to the military system by which they have too long been oppressed. In fact, subjection to martial law has hitherto been, not the exceptional, but the normal state of these countries. A traveller visiting one of these towns while the greater part of its male inhabitants are absent on military service as volunteers, would have a very different impression as to the number of its population from that which he would receive during a time of peace, and in the commercial and busy season. Moreover, a great many of the wives and children of these men follow, as best they may, the march of the troops, so that whole districts are thus nearly depopulated by these frequent drains of their inhabitants. The ‘Gauchos,’ as the country people are called, are naturally a good-natured, hardy, and courageous race. The demoralization and recklessness consequent on their being forcibly taken from useful and peaceful occupations to swell the ranks of some ambitious ‘caudillo’ or chieftain, have of course produced much evil, inuring them to scenes of violence, bloodshed, and injustice. It is true that they are called out and armed for the loudly-proclaimed purpose of defending ‘la libertad, la patria,’ &c., and appeals to the feelings of independence, honour, virtue, and all the high-sounding words of the sonorous language of Spain are employed by those who want their services. Here, as too generally in Spanish America, their feelings of patriotism have been so frequently invoked either to defend or attack some individual or party, that it is only surprising their characters are not more perverted, and that the moral devastation should not keep pace with that which has so long physically blighted these naturally fine provinces. The resources of these states have been wasted in order to maintain a military force much too large in proportion to their population, and it has been employed either in aggression on neighbouring countries, or for the intimidation or coercion of the provinces themselves, to support the personal policy of the executive. Thus their great capabilities of production have not been developed, and industrial improvement has been completely checked. The evils of such a system are even more injuriously felt in these vast and thinly inhabited regions than they might be in countries differently circumstanced.
The wealth of Corrientes consists chiefly in vast herds of cattle, sheep, and horses. The pasturage of the province is remarkably fine: its exports are hides, tallow, wool, hair, and some agricultural produce. The trade which might arise with the countries in the interior, through which these mighty rivers flow, were the navigation open, is beyond calculation, and its profits would soon enable the States of La Plata to pay with ease their foreign and domestic creditors, and to raise funds for internal improvements. During the few months that the navigation of the Parana was kept open in 1845-6, two convoys, (under the admirable arrangements adopted by the distinguished officer who commanded H.M. squadron in the Parana, Commodore Sir Charles Hotham), one consisting of upwards of one hundred vessels, laden with produce, the other of more than seventy, came down that river and the Paraguay with very little loss or damage, after having exchanged the cargoes of European or North American merchandise that they brought up for the goods with which the different depôts at Corrientes and other places were overflowing, to the value of some millions of hard dollars. It is true that an accumulation of produce at the ports of the river then existed, caused by the interdiction of the navigation by the governing power of one of the banks of the river. But as it is the manifest interest of the different states whose natural outlet is by the River Plate and its confluents,—the Parana and Uruguay,—that internal navigation should be free, or placed, for instance, on a similar footing to that of the Rhine, it is to be hoped that before very long the governments most interested in this question, those of La Plata especially, will awaken to a sense of the vast interest they have in opening these great channels of inter-communication to the commerce of the world.