Chapter XV: Homeward Bound (4)

The market of Rio is a fine large building, to the north of the
principal square. It is well supplied with fish; but the price
is always very high, as the fishermen have a sort of monopoly,
and will only bring a certain quantity to market, in order
to keep it up. The best fish is the garoupa; immense prawns
(camaroes) are very plentiful. Strangers are often told, as a
joke, that these are kept in pits, and fed with the dead bodies
of slaves thrown in from time to time; and I have known people
who would never touch them on that account. Parrots, monkeys,
&c., are very common, and a few game birds. Occasionally,
large lizards of two or three feet in length are brought to
market, and they are said to be excellent eating. Deer are
sometimes killed in the woods; but I have never seen them in
the market, though there is a small animal, called the paca,
to be had, the flesh of which is very good. Fruit is supplied
in great abundance. Oranges and bananas are to be had all
the year. The oranges were superior to anything I had before
tasted, and excel the Maltese. They are said to be better in
Bahia, and better still in Pernambuco; so it appears that the
hotter the climate, the more suitable it is to this fruit, as
the Maltese and the Egyptian are certainly far superior to
those of Portugal and Sicily. The banana (_Musa paradisaica_,
called ‘plantano’ by the Spaniards, and ‘plantain’ in the West
Indies,) is a most nutritious fruit; but few people like it at
first, as the taste is rather sickly and insipid. There are
a variety of sorts, which bear fruit of different sizes, but
the short thick one is the best. It is very nutritious and
productive; and it is said that forty square feet, planted
with bananas, will support a man for a year. The plant itself
is very handsome, and the great leaves, ten or twelve feet
in length, and two in breadth, make a splendid feature in
the landscape of the tropics. Each plant bears one bunch of
fruit, after which it should be cut down, when suckers spring
up in all directions from the root, so that it is a vegetable
more suited for idle people than even the potato, as it does
not require planting, and the fruit can be eaten without the
trouble of cooking it. The fruta do Conde, or chirimoya of the
Spaniard, and custard-apple of the West Indies, is delicious,
but varies a good deal in quality. The maricuja, Spanish
granadilla, the fruit of the passion-flower, is very good.
It is about as large as a swan’s egg, with a pulp and seeds
like a gooseberry. The alligator or avocada pear, the mammon,
papaw, or mammy apple, are common fruits, not so good as those
before-named. Pine-apples are common enough, but not very good.

[54] The Brazil government have adopted measures to introduce immigrants to supply the place of slaves, they have established some large colonies from Germany, France, and Portugal, principally by private speculation and by the government; and those colonies of private individuals are the surest guarantee for the abolition of the slave trade, because those parties are now interested by the larger profit they derive from free labour, in keeping this system instead of the other, especially in coffee. They are greatly prized for their steady industry, peaceable disposition, and easy adaptation of themselves to the manners and usages of the people among whom they come to reside. As is the case in Australia, and in most parts of North America, they are very general favourites with the inhabitants of all classes, and, on the whole, are preferred probably to any other Europeans. The number of German immigrants now in Brazil may be considered as amounting to somewhere about 15,000; and to these considerable additions are still being made from the large importations which are now daily taking place from the Old World. They bear coffee labour pretty well, but most of them are employed in the province of Rio Janeiro and Rio Grande; the government is very solicitous to treat them as well as possible, and it has established those colonies in the provinces which are best for it, more like the climate of Europe; the provinces of Rio Grande and St. Catherine are the coldest provinces in the country. They imported, besides those Germans, a great many Portuguese, a different set of people altogether. They are from Madeira, and from all parts of Portugal, and from their islands; they generally arrive in greater numbers than the Germans. Very few Chinese have been tried. The white natives of Brazil do not work much upon the sugar and coffee plantations; they only serve like what we call headmen, superintendents; not in any other way. The Germans are contracted with and brought to Brazil; the Portuguese come on their own account; they do not contract them in Portugal; they come of themselves by hundreds; they generally get employment about the towns, about the gin shops, and gin taverns, and small businesses. For particulars of this kind, see the Report on Slave Trade Treaties. It is calculated that the sugar crop this year, 1854, will be about 30,000 tons less than the last.

[55] Yesterday an experiment was tried with a locomotive steam-engine on the rails of a finished portion of the road from Mauá to the Estrella mountain. Our ‘Weekly Correspondent’ sent us last night the following communication respecting this trip:—Whilst the political world was agitated this morning, and the sword of Damocles, ceasing its oscillations for a moment, fell on the ministry, myself, and some other curiosity seekers, amongst whom were noticed the ministers of England and of Austria, risked ourselves in a trial of the first steam-carriage that travelled over the first railway in Brazil. We crossed the bay in a vessel, also moved by Fulton’s agency, and in two hours (the steamer was of small power) we arrived at Mauá. The first part only of the pier for disembarking being laid, we climbed up by the aid of ropes, and threaded our way amongst a succession of loose and insecure planks to the shore, at the risk of taking a mud-bath. A few paces distant we saw a single, graceful-looking locomotive, with the certificate of the year of its birth and the name of its worthy papa engraved on the central wheels. The letters, in yellow metal, were as follows: ‘Wm. Fairbairn & Son, 1853. Manchester.’ The proper carriage was not yet attached; they substituted for it a rough waggon, used for the conveyance of materials, and without further delay we squatted ourselves at the bottom of this impromptu vehicle. Suddenly a prolonged and roaring shriek, a whistle with the force of 50 sopranos, screamed through the air, deafening the hearers, and causing us to raise our hands to our ears. It was the signal for departure; the warning to those who might be on the line to guard against a mortal blow; an announcement made by a tube attached to the locomotive itself. Swifter than an arrow, than the flight of a swallow, the locomotive threaded the rails, swung about, ran, flew, devoured space, and, passing through fields, barren wastes, and affrighted animals, it stopped at last breathless, at the point where the road does not yet afford a safe passage. The space traversed was a mile and three quarters, and the time occupied in the transit four minutes. It is just that we should here record the names of Messrs. Trever and Bragg; the first, for having had the boldness to undertake the enterprise, the other, for executing, with zeal and skill, the respective works. Mr. Hadfield, who also went on this excursion, appeared greatly delighted. One of his dreams for many years past has been the application of railroads and steam in this empire. Being amongst us as the representative of a company which undertook the line of steamers from Liverpool, towards the establishment of which he greatly contributed, he could see his dreams realized, as our Latin masters would say, terrâ marique. Whether it was George Stephenson or Trevithick, as the English assert, the Brothers Sequin, according to the French, or Oliver Evans, as the Americans pretend,—whoever was the inventor of locomotives, what is certain is, that humanity has taken a gigantic stride since that acquisition. The Peace Congress ought to commemorate in annual session so prodigious an invention, which can, more than half-a-dozen pompous discourses, cement the bonds of union of nations, bring nations together into one family, and develop commerce, that most powerful element of peace and greatness. What a brilliant future for Brazil do we see in the wheels of that locomotive! Happy those amongst us who may have long lives—they will pass by great cities, by great rural establishments, recollecting that on their sites were swamps and forests. Oh! if the existence of man was not so short; if, at least, we could return to this world invisible shadows, wandering in our native country, how small we should find ourselves, comparing our past, that is, our present of to-day, with the progress made by the generation then before us. But human beings are like the workmen who assist each other in raising an edifice: each age deposits its stone towards the completion of the great work. Our first stone has been laid on the plain of Mauá. The edifice is already commenced; let us not be discouraged; and if death should overtake us in the midst of the work, here are our generations to continue it. Peace, in the meantime, and eternal rest to the poor Mauar race. The invisible power has come to replace their services, with the first-fruits and benefits of which a bright morning succeeds to a dark and ugly night. May the material improvements of the country come, and with them peace and industry; and, to commence the sooner the better, let us have the roads of Minas and San Paulo.

[56] Exports of staple productions of Rio Janeiro, the result of slave labour, during 1851: coffee, 2,037,305 bags, value, 4,756,794_l._; sugar, 12,832 cases, value, 234,980_l._; rosewood, 36,813 planks, value, 82,000_l._ In addition to these, other articles of produce, such as hides, horns, rice, tobacco, tapioca, rum, &c., were exported, the value of which may be estimated at 264,000_l._, making the total value of produce shipped in that year 5,337,074_l._ Exports of the staple productions of Rio Janeiro, the result of slave labour, during 1852: coffee, 1,906,336 bags, value, 4,265,800_l._; sugar, 13,960 cases, value, 160,000_l._; rosewood, 25,500 planks, value, 55,000_l._ The value of the other articles cannot be correctly ascertained, but may be estimated at about 290,000_l._, making the total value of produce exported in that year 4,770,800_l._ Rio Janeiro, February 24th, 1853. J. J. C. WESTWOOD, Acting Consul.

[57] Steamers running from Brazil to the United States, starting, say, from Rio, touching at Bahia, Pernambuco, Maranham, Pará, and one or more of the most important of the West India Islands, would prove a lucrative undertaking. The importance of this line of steamers to those interested in the trade between the two countries must impress itself upon all who are conversant with the trade carried on; but although a considerable amount of freight may be relied on, the passenger traffic will probably be far more important. Besides the Americans and others interested in this trade, many English and Brazilians intending to travel from South America to Europe, and vice versa, would go _viâ_ the United States, some for business purposes, and many to visit that country. Another very important object would also be attained, viz. the completion of the communication between all the large maritime towns of Brazil and the capital of the Empire, by efficient steam-ships. At present the communication, from Pernambuco to Pará, is carried on by small steamers belonging to a native company, which is subsidised by the government, and the reason given for the continuation of the subsidy was, that, although English steam companies now put some of the northern ports in rapid communication with the capital, those beyond Pernambuco still relied solely on these small steamers. Although the trade between the West Indies and Brazil is unimportant, these countries are at present so thoroughly devoid of means of intercommunication that advantages could not fail to be derived by the establishment of this line. At present, a person wishing to leave a Brazilian port for the West Indies will generally find that he must go _viâ_ England or the United States, and this even from the most northern ports. The importance of such an undertaking to Brazil would be immense, and I have no doubt that the Brazilian government would be fully alive to the advantages they would derive from it, and that they would be ready to grant a liberal amount for mails, &c.—_Contributed._

[58] A Monte Videan writer in the City article of the _Times_ on the 17th of last month, has the following remarks, at once explanatory of the condition of the government of the Banda Oriental, and of Brazilian relations to it, and of the feelings prevailing in the Uruguay as to the tendency it is desired that such relationship should assume:—

By a decree of the Provisional Government, Berro, the
ex-Minister of Giro, having been detected in fomenting the
civil war, has been outlawed. Any person is authorized to
kill him. This decree does not meet with the approbation of
the people, but in these countries public opinion has little
influence with governments. Brazil, it is said, has been
offered the protectorate of this republic, and refused it;
but she will use force, if necessary, to exact the fulfilment
of treaties; and it is generally believed here that the Banda
Oriental will soon be occupied by troops from the empire, to
restore and maintain order and support any constitutionally
established government. This news is as generally agreeable
as it is credited. The respectable portion of the Orientals
are convinced the country cannot be governed without foreign
aid, and the numerous foreigners residing here, of course,
rejoice in the prospect of peace and order. The Government
has authorized its agent in Paris to contract a loan of
12,000,000 duros, at 70 per cent., interest payable half-yearly
at the rate of 6 per cent. on the nominal capital; also to
grant a privilege for ten years to a company (with a capital
of 3,000,000 duros) of a bank of issue and discount on the
principles of the Bank of France; and, lastly, to concede
lands to an association which undertakes to despatch several
thousands of emigrant agricultural families to this republic.
These three projects are connected with each other. If Brazil
maintains order in the country for a few years, no doubt the
immigration scheme would be as beneficial to the immigrants as
to the republic.

[59] Brazil has long been diplomatically represented in this country by M. Sergio Teixeira de Macedo, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, 5, Mansfield-street, Portland-place, a gentleman whose high breeding, varied intelligence, and conciliatory manner towards all who have business at the Legation have rendered him deservedly popular, both with the _corps diplomatique_ and the public. He writes and speaks English with ease and accuracy, and having married an English lady (lately deceased) of rare accomplishments, by whom he has had a numerous family, he is necessarily almost as familiar with the manners and usages of society amongst us as a native. His staff consists of J. T. do Amaral, Esq., secretary of legation, and Chevaliers H. C. d’Albuquerque, J. A. da Silva Maya, A. de P. Lopes Gama, H. de T. M. de Montezuma, and J. P. d’Andrada, attachés. The Brazilian consul-general is Admiral Grenfell, Liverpool, who has distinguished himself in the Brazilian service, and whose biography will be found in a subsequent page; vice-consul, L. A. da Costa, Esq., 14, Cooper’s-row, Tower-hill, London. A Brazilian vice-consul has lately been appointed at the Bahama Islands, in the person of Mr. George W. G. Robins, of Nassau, a gentleman who has already filled many honorary posts there with much distinction, and is qualified in every way to secure to the imperial flag the same respect that attaches to those of France, Spain, the United States, &c., in that thriving British dependency. England is represented in Brazil by Mr. H. F. Howard, who was attached to the mission at Munich in 1828, appointed paid attaché at Berlin in 1832, secretary of legation at the Hague in 1845, and in 1846 at Berlin, where he was several times chargé d’affaires. He was appointed envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary at Rio Janeiro in 1853, with a salary of 4000_l._, and 500_l._ per annum for house-rent. His secretary of legation is the Hon. W. G. Jerningham, who was attached to the missions at Munich and Berlin in 1834, to the embassy at Vienna in 1836, appointed paid attaché at the Hague in 1839, and to his present post, with a salary of 550_l._ per year, in 1850. The British consuls are—at Rio Janeiro, where he had previously been vice-consul, Mr. J. J. C. Westwood, 800_l._; at Bahia, Mr. J. Morgan, who was attached to the legation at Rio Janeiro as translator in 1845, appointed consul at Rio Grande in 1847, and transferred to Bahia, where his salary is 800_l._ per annum, in 1852; vice-consul at Bahia, Mr. J. Wetherell; at Pernambuco, Mr. H. A. Cowper, formerly consul at Pará, 500_l._; at Maranham, Mr. H. W. Ovenden, 300_l._; at Pará, Mr. S. Vines, 450_l._; at Paraiba, Mr. B. M. Power, 400_l._; at Rio Grande do Sul, the Hon. H. P. Vereker, who was appointed to a clerkship under the Commissioners of Railways in 1848, a clerkship in the Board of Trade in 1851, and to his present post, with 800_l._ per annum, in 1852; and at St. Catherine’s, Mr. R. Callander, 500_l._ These salaries are all exclusive of fees, which, in many instances, are very considerable, emoluments frequently arising from commissions on Australian gold dust left at Brazilian ports for shipment to Europe; but that source of gain is far more lucrative on the west than on the east coast of South America, and hence the increasing pecuniary importance of consular appointments in the Chilian and Peruvian ports.

[60] This was one of the most appalling disasters ever known at sea, and the sensation it produced exceeded, perhaps, that occasioned by any similar incident since the memorable destruction of the Kent East Indiaman. The Ocean Monarch American emigrant ship left Liverpool, bound for Boston, August 24th, 1848, having 396 passengers on board. She had not advanced far into the Irish Channel, being within six miles of Great Ormshead, Lancashire, when she took fire, and in a few hours was burnt to the water’s edge. The Brazilian steam-frigate Alfonso happened to be out on a trial trip at the time, with the Prince and Princess de Joinville and the Duke and Duchess de Aumale on board, who witnessed the catastrophe, and aided in rescuing and comforting the sufferers with exceeding humanity. They, with the crews and passengers of the Alfonso and the yacht Queen of the Ocean, so effectually rendered their heroic and unwearied services as to save 156 persons from their dreadful situation, and 62 others escaped by various means. But the rest, 178 in number, perished in the flames or the sea. The conduct of the New York sailor, Jerom, on this occasion, was scarcely less distinguished for bravery and self-sacrifice than that of the black sailor, Simon, at the wreck of the Pernambucana, as described at page 132.

[61] A writer in the 8th edition of the _Encyclopædia Britannica_, now publishing, says, ‘Nearly all the branches of this noble stream are navigable to a great distance from their junction with the main trunk; and, collectively, the whole affords an extent of water communication unparalleled in any other part of the globe. What adds to this advantage is, that as the wind and the current are always opposed to each other, a vessel can make her way either up or down with great facility, by availing herself of her sails in the one case, and committing herself to the force of the current in the other.’

[62] Mr. Edwards, in his ‘Voyage up the Amazon,’ before alluded to, says, that Pará contains an area of 950,000 square miles, nearly half the area of the United States, and all its territories. Its soil is everywhere of exhaustless fertility, and but an exceedingly small portion of it is unfitted for cultivation. The noblest rivers of the world open communication with its remotest parts, and lie spread like a net-work over its surface.… There is scarcely a product raised in the two countries in which Brazil could not undersell the United States in every market of the world were it not for the export-tax. Its cotton and rice, even during the past year, have been shipped from Pará to New York; its tobacco is preferable to the best Virginian, and can be raised in inexhaustible quantities.… Sooner or later, the Amazon must be the channel of a vast commerce, and Pará must be, from the advantages of its situation, one of the largest cities in the world.—_Edwards’s Voyage up the Amazon._

The value of the exports from Pará in 1848 was about £148,720, of which one-fourth was taken by the United States, a like quantity by Portugal, one-fifth by France, one-sixth by Great Britain, and the remainder by the Hanseatic towns, Belgium, Genoa, and Denmark. The value of foreign goods imported in the same year was about £147,322, principally from the United States, Great Britain, Portugal, and France. The increase in the trade of this port will be seen by comparing the preceding statement with the exports and imports of 1851. In that year the value of the former was about £356,200, and that of the latter about £273,067. Proportionately with the aggregate increase, the American and British shares of the trade had slightly advanced; while the French share had declined to one-eighth, and the Portuguese had diminished more than one-half. The trade with Genoa had ceased; but that with Sweden, which had declined since 1846, showed very promising signs of a revival. The principal articles of export from Pará are caoutchouc and cocoa, the mean yearly value of the trade in the former being about £138,000, and of the latter, £67,725. Among the articles of export in which a lesser trade is carried on may be enumerated rice, piasaba rope, annatto, sarsaparilla, hides, nuts, sugar, isinglass, and cotton.

[63] Every one whom I conversed with on the subject of the Amazon advocates with earnestness the free navigation of the river, and says that they will never thrive until the river is thrown open to all, and foreigners are invited to settle on its banks. I think that they are sincere, for they have quite intelligence enough to see that they will be benefited by calling out the resources of the country.—_Herndon._

[64] Piasaba is a species of palm from the bark of which is made nearly all the rope used upon the Amazon. The appearance of the rope made from it is similar to that of the East India coir. The fibres of the bark are brought down the rivers Negro and Branco, and made into ropes at Barra.

[65] The Brazilian nutmeg is the fruit of a large tree that grows abundantly in the low moist lands between the rivers Negro and Yapurá, above Barcellos, a village on the first named river. The fruit is round, and has a hard shell, containing two seeds, which are ligneous and aromatic, but not equal in flavour to the Ceylon nutmeg; though this may be owing to the want of cultivation.

[66] Since my departure from the banks of the Orinoco and the Amazon, a new era unfolds itself in the social state of the nations of the West. The fury of civil discussions will be succeeded by the blessings of peace and a freer development of the arts of industry. The bifurcation of the Orinoco, the isthmus of Tuamini, so easy to pass over by an artificial canal, will fix the attention of commercial Europe. The Cassiquiari—as broad as the Rhine, and the course of which is one hundred and eighty miles in length—will no longer form in vain a navigable canal between two basins of rivers, which have a surface of 190,000 square leagues. The grain of New Grenada will be carried to the banks of the Rio Negro; boats will descend from the sources of the Napo and the Ucayali, from the Andes of Quito and upper Peru, to the mouths of the Orinoco—a distance which equals that from Timbuctoo to Marseilles. A country nine or ten times larger than Spain, and enriched with the most varied productions, is navigable in every direction by the medium of the natural canal of the Cassiquiari and the bifurcation of the rivers. This phenomenon, which one day will be so important for the political connexions of nations, unquestionably deserves to be carefully examined.—_Humboldt._

[67] Bolivia has but one sea-port on the Pacific, that is Cobija, an open roadstead and a miserable village, at the head of the great desert of Atacama. The land transportation between this port and the agricultural districts of the republic is too rough, too tedious, and too expensive ever to admit of its becoming a commercial emporium. The direction in which Bolivia looks for an outlet to a market for her produce, is along her navigable water-courses that empty into the Amazon, and then down that stream to the sea.—_Maury’s Valley of the Amazon._

[68] Vast, many, and great, doubtless, are the varieties of climates, soils, and productions within such a range. The importance to the world of settlement, cultivation, and commerce in the Valley of the Amazon cannot be over-estimated. With the climates of India, and of all the habitable portions of the earth, piled one above the other in quick succession, tillage and good husbandry here would transfer the productions of the East to this magnificent river-basin, and place them within a few days’ easy sail of Europe and the United States. Only a few miles back we had first entered the famous mining districts of Peru. A large portion of the silver which constitutes the circulation of the world was dug from the range of mountains upon which we were standing, and most of it came from that slope of them which is drained off into the Amazon. Is it possible for commerce and navigation up and down this majestic water-course and its beautiful tributaries to turn back this stream of silver from its western course to the Pacific, and conduct it, with steamers, down the Amazon to the United States, there to balance the stream of gold with which we are likely to be flooded from California and Australia?—_Herndon’s Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon._

[69] On the subject of climate, I refer to the annexed chapter by my valued friend, Dr. Dundas, who has kindly complied with my solicitation to enrich this volume with a contribution in which he has epitomised, for popular use, and in a most simple form, some of the results of his great professional experience and scientific research; and I am sure I only anticipate the verdict of the reader, whether medical or otherwise, in declaring the annexed pages to be as completely exhaustive of the subject treated of as any reasonable limits of a work of this nature would possibly admit.

[70] Mr. Wallace, in his ‘Travels on the Amazon and the Rio Negro,’ observes—‘In the districts we passed through, sugar, cotton, coffee, and rice might be grown in any quantity, and of the finest quality. The navigation is always safe and uninterrupted, and the whole country is so intersected by igaripès and rivers that every estate has water carriage for its productions. But the indolent disposition of the people, and the scarcity of labour, will prevent the capabilities of this fine country from being developed till European or North American colonies are formed. There is no country where people can produce for themselves so many of the necessaries and luxuries of life.… And then what advantages there are in a country where there is no stoppage of agricultural operations during winter, but where crops may be had, and poultry be reared, all the year round; where the least possible amount of clothing is the most comfortable, and where a hundred little necessaries of a cold region are altogether superfluous.

[71] Its capacities for trade and commerce are inconceivably great. Its industrial future is the most dazzling; and to the touch of steam, settlement, and cultivation, this rolling stream and its magnificent water-shed would start up into a display of industrial results that would make the Valley of the Amazon one of the most enchanting regions on the face of the earth. From its mountains you may dig silver, iron, coal, copper, quicksilver, zinc, and tin; from the sands of its tributaries you may wash gold, diamonds, and precious stones; from its forests you may gather drugs of virtues the most rare, spices of aroma the most exquisite, gums and resins of the most useful properties, dyes of hues the most brilliant, with cabinet and building woods of the finest polish and most enduring texture. Its climate is an everlasting summer, and its harvest perennial.—_Herndon._

[72] Comte-rendu de l’Académie des Sciences de Juillet, 1843, and Les Mémoires des Savants étrangers de 1843.

[73] Within the last few years this censure does not so strongly apply.

[74] Since the above lines were written, we have had later intelligence (14th January, 1854,) from Brazil, stating the important fact that the disease had totally disappeared from all the seaports of the empire.

[75] By late accounts from Pernambuco we notice the death of Anna Vieira, aged 150.

[76] Since the above was written, we have learned incidentally that a letter exists from a near relative of the late Sir William Ouseley, who took a great interest in genealogical studies, and had traced the Ouseley family to a high antiquity, in which the writer, after relating how he had been foiled in endeavouring to trace a particular ancestor, adds, ‘I have proved our descent lineally from the Carlovingian, Merovingian, and Capetian monarchs of France, the Saxon and Norman kings of England, and the ancient kings of Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. I think that is enough in all conscience, in addition to nineteen of King John’s twenty-five barons.’

[77] Gold (coined or in bullion,) is admitted duty free; wrought gold and silver at an ad valorem duty of 5 per cent.; wools and furs, 10 per cent.; raw and sewing silk, 12 per cent.; woollen, flax, cotton, hardware, and paper manufactures, 15 per cent.; clothes, boots and shoes, saddlery, sugar, coffee, tobacco, tea, olive oil, and generally all edibles, 20 per cent.; spirituous liquors, 25 per cent.; wheat and Indian corn, small fixed duties. By chapter 2nd, relating to maritime exports, horse skins are charged with a duty of one dollar each; sheep skins, three dollars a dozen; other skins 4 per cent. on their marketable value; salt tongues four reals a dozen; tallow 12 reals an arroba; hair and wool, two dollars an arroba; horns, 4 per cent. on their value. All other products of the province of Buenos Ayres, and in general all the fruits and production of the Argentine provinces, duty free. The introduction landwards of foreign merchandise is prohibited. The tariff is subject to annual revision.

[78] _The Trade of London with the River Plate_ has materially increased during the last few years, and is very different now from what it was twenty years ago. Then vessels used to be a long time on the berth, or were partly loaded with manufactured goods, and afterwards filled up with coals, or called at the Cape de Verds to load salt, as the remainder of their cargo; whereas, now they are despatched with full cargoes of manufactured goods every two or three weeks. This marked improvement arises partly from the comparative tranquillity of the River Plate provinces, and the greater wants of the people, and partly from the more expeditious and commercial mode of carriage in this country, by means of which considerable parcels of goods from the manufacturing districts are now forwarded to London for shipment by the vessels regularly despatched by Messrs. Martin and Scott, the London and River Plate ship-brokers, who afford merchants every facility in shipping by their vessels, the expenses of goods thus forwarded never exceeding and, in many cases, being very considerably less, by this than by any other route whatever. The number of vessels despatched from London within the last four years has been about 60, averaging 15 ships, aggregating 2,745 tons’ register, or 4,423 tons of actual storeage, shipped annually. Of this number, 37 were British and 23 foreign, chiefly of the Danish flag; 25 of these vessels were sent to Buenos Ayres direct, 12 to Monte Video direct, and 23 to Monte Video and Buenos Ayres, the restrictions formerly existing between Monte Video and Buenos Ayres, so that no vessel touching at the one port could discharge at the other, having been abolished since the deposition of Rosas. The goods shipped from London are coals, when required for ballast, iron, zinc, and other metals, paint, oil, anchors and chains, hardware, hollow ware, tools and agricultural implements, earthenware, rope, beer, &c. There are also considerable shipments of linen, cotton, and woollen goods, hosiery, haberdashery, together with a considerable quantity of millinery, silks, and fancy goods, wines, spirits, furniture, toys, and pianos. Of these goods, anchors and chains, tools and agricultural implements, earthenware, and cotton goods are, for the most part, sent up specially from the inland manufacturing districts for shipment. The produce of the River Plate arriving in London is very considerable, and consists of salted and dry ox and cow-hides, horse-hides, tallow, mares’ grease, bone-ash, animal manure, wool, hair, horns, and bones. There is also, occasionally, a small quantity of Paraguay tobacco, ostrich and vulture feathers, nutria, chinchilla, and other skins. These remarks apply in an increased degree to Liverpool, between which port and the Plate the commercial intercourse is infinitely greater than between London and the Plate, the imports and exports being necessarily much the same as to quality. The trade between Liverpool and the ports of Buenos Ayres and Monte Video for 1853 collectively amounted to 64 vessels, consisting of 11,850 tons.

[79] Sir William Gore Ouseley was the British Minister here referred to. It is alike foreign to the purposes of this volume, and to the wishes of the writer, to express any opinion on the policy pursued by England, in the affairs of the Plate, at the period mentioned; but he deems it the merest justice to the reputation of the diplomatist just named for sagaciously judging of ‘coming events’ by the ‘shadows cast before,’ to record a fact familiar to every one who has sojourned, for ever so brief a period, in the River Plate, viz., that the inhabitants of all classes, without exception, native or foreign, are as unanimous now in their approving remembrance of his conduct, as they were at the time it elicited their spontaneous applause in an enduring and complimentary form. Not less than 800 native Monte Videans, embracing the elite of the whole community[A] not actually in the interest of the enemy, tendered their grateful thanks for his efforts to preserve the national independence—efforts which, had they not been thwarted in quarters where the utmost assistance should have been accorded, would have secured that object, while avoiding years of war and bloodshed, and saving some millions of property lost to the commerce of the world by a continuance of the disturbances by Rosas. His exertions for the promotion of commerce formed the most marked item of eulogium in the address from the French[B] inhabitants, and is particularly deserving of being dwelt upon, now that the mercantile course of action he recommended so strenuously, as to the opening of the rivers, has been ratified in respect to Paraguay, whither he sent our recent Plenipotentiary there no less than eight years ago, as we shall see when we come to speak of that country. Of the sense entertained of his merits by the English at Monte Video, their address,[C] subjoined below, is sufficiently explanatory; but something still more significant is the circumstance that, though Sir William was a party to the unfortunate loan by British capitalists, and though it has been hitherto found impossible to obtain payment thereof, principal or interest, in any form, no word of censure is vented against him; for it is felt that the loan was a wise and prudent measure at the time, and that had the spirit in which it was entered into on both sides been carried out in the sense then understood, as it readily might have been, but for shortsightedness at home, the lenders would have been paid with at least as much regularity as the French government, who continued their assistance long after England had backed out of the engagement, to the same effect. And, undoubtedly, the French government have every right to be paid; for, without their continuous aid Monte Video must have fallen, and Rosas would at this moment have been Dictator of the whole Argentine Confederation, of which the Uruguay, and probably Paraguay also, would have been component parts. It is further felt that even after the untoward turn affairs have taken, as regards the original engagement about the loan, the interest might readily be continued to be paid, were the customs’ receipts administered in the judicious mode initiated when Sir William obtained the money for the government, viz., by a committee, composed chiefly of foreign merchants, who collected the dues with so small an expense that there was always a considerable surplus; whereas in native hands the aggregate received barely paid the cost of collection. It is gratifying to find, even at the twelfth hour, years after misrepresentations to the contrary had effected their momentary object in causing the recall of Sir William from an arena where the cajolery and the bullying of Rosas were rendered alike abortive by the tact and vigour of the British Minister, that these truths are now recognized, not merely by the Anglo South American public, but by the English authorities at home, whose _esprit de corps_ renders them ever reluctant to admit that an injustice can be committed against a servant of the Crown, and still more reluctant to make any reparation for it.[D] On the accession of the Derby administration, one of the first acts of the Foreign Minister, Lord Malmesbury, who, in common with the Imperial ruler of France, had devoted a great deal of consideration to questions of South American commercial policy, was to despatch Sir C. Hotham on a mission for the completion of the work in which that gallant officer had been previously engaged at the instance of Sir William; and the noble lord, rightly feeling how much was due to the originator of the same design, obtained the Order of the Bath for the late minister to the Plate, expressly on the ground of the services he had rendered to his country and to humanity during his mission there, and which are specially alluded to in the addresses presented to him, as quoted in the foregoing page. Though the present administration do not, or at least did not, appear to attach the same importance as their predecessors to the recent South American commercial treaties, it is understood that they have not failed to express their appreciation of the pioneer in the path of progress in that direction; and that they have admitted that a very hasty, and consequently very erroneous, judgment had been passed on his political conduct in the Plate. Why that judgment should have been hasty, why it should have been formed on the representations of those whose policy and whose patron, (the Dictator,) have since been swept away, and are now only mentioned to be derided, is a secret which it would require the penetrative perseverance of Mr. Urquhart himself to detect. But it is, at least, satisfactory to know that the _amende_ has been made as liberally as it is in the nature of the official genus to do these things; and that a gentleman in whose family the diplomatic faculty may be said to be hereditary,[E] and with whom we have reason to hope it will not terminate,[F] has been authoritatively pronounced to have proved himself worthy of his antecedents. It is, however, more immediately in reference to his services to commerce that his name is introduced here; for it is impossible to allude to the late South American treaties of ’53 without feeling that Sir W. Gore Ouseley’s labours of ’46 in that cause place him in the same relation to what has been accomplished by Lord Malmesbury and Sir C. Hotham as the inquiries of the Import Duties’ Committee placed Mr. Hume in respect to the Free-trade achievements of Messrs. Cobden and Bright.

[A] Senor. Los infrascriptos Ciudadanos naturales de la Republica Oriental del Uruguay sienten la necesidad de manifestar a V. E. el altisimo aprecio en que tienen la lealtad de su caracter, y los muchos y relevantes servicios que V. E. en el desempeno de las funciones que le habia confiado el Gobierno de S. M. su Augusta Soberana, ha prestado a la causa de la Independencia de nuestra Patria. La guerra que devasta el suelo en que hemos nacido es, en todo rigor, de parte de los Orientales, una lucha de defensa legitima y de Independencia—lucha que no hemos provocado, y en cuyo termino no buscamos ni apetecemos mas que la conservacion de la situacion en que nos coloco el pacto celebrado en 1828 entre el Imperio del Brazil y la Republica Argentina—que nos esta reconocida por todas las Naciones, y virtual, pero solemnemente garantida por la Inglaterra y la Francia. Ciertos de la eficacia de esta garantia y del interes politico y comercial que tienen esas dos grandes potencias en el mantenimiento de la Nacionalidad Oriental,—con todas sus consecuencias, y en que no que—de absorvida por un Poder anti-social y repulsivo de toda idea civilizadora, los Orientales procuraron su apoyo y una alianza justa y decorosa. El principio en que esta alianza se basaba era honroso, y los fines, a mas de honrosos civilizadores y fecundos en resultados beneficos, para la paz externa de estas regiones, y para la paz interior de nuestro pais que deseamos, con toda la fuerza de que somos capaces, teniendo por mira unica, que reconciliada la familia Oriental a que pertenecemos, fuera de toda coaccion e influencia estrana, pueda elegir en libertad, y en la forma consagrada en sus leyes, un Gobierno suyo, que la rija con suecion a la Constitucion y a los intereses Orientales. Los dos Agentes encargados en 1845 por la Inglaterra y la Francia de dar apoyo a la nacionalidad Oriental volviendo la paz a nuestros hogares, y los Senores Almirantes Inglefield y Lainé, que han tenido el mando de las fuerzas interventoras, han desempenado mision tan noble del modo mas cordial, mas conforme al pensamiento esplicitamente declarado por sus Gobiernos al pensamiento y al deseo del nuestro, y de todos los buenos Orientales; por lo que reconocemos deberles sincera y profunda gratitud. Permitanos V.E. consagrar en esta carta, respecto de su persona, la espresion de ese sentimiento; que agreguemos a ella la de los votos que hacemos por sus prosperidades—y le pidamos conserve siempre la memoria de nuestra Patria y la de los Ciudadanos que interpretes, sin dudaen, este acto, de la sociedad en que viven—tenemos el honor de ofrecer a V.E. el homenage del respeto, de la adhesion y de la amistad que le profesamos y con que somos. De V.E. affmos Servidores.

[TRANSLATION]

_Sir,—The undersigned native citizens of the Oriental Republic
of Uruguay feel the necessity of manifesting to your Excellency
the very great esteem in which they hold the loyalty of your
character, and the many high services that your Excellency,
in the discharge of the functions confided to you by the
Government of Her Majesty, your august Sovereign, has lent
to the cause of the independence of our country. The war
which desolates our native soil is strictly, on the part
of the Orientals, a struggle of legitimate defence and of
independence—a struggle which we have not provoked, and in
the result of which we neither seek nor desire more than the
preservation of the position in which we were placed by the
compact celebrated in 1828, between the Empire of Brazil and
the Argentine Republic—a position recognized by all nations,
and virtually, but solemnly, guaranteed by England and
France. Certain of the efficacy of this guarantee, and of the
political and commercial interest of these two great Powers
in the maintenance of the Oriented Nationality, with all its
consequences, and in its not being crushed by an anti-social
power, repelling every idea of civilization, the Orientals
sought their aid, and a just and proper alliance. The principle
on which this alliance was based was honourable, and its
objects, besides being honourable, were civilizing and fertile
in beneficial results for the external peace of these regions,
and for the internal peace of our country, which we desire with
all the strength we possess, having for sole object, that the
Oriental family to which we belong being reconciled, it may,
without foreign coercion or influence, elect, freely, and in
the mode consecrated by its laws, its own government, which
shall rule it in conformity with the constitution and the
Oriental interests. The two agents charged in 1845, by England
and France, to give aid to the Oriental nationality and restore
peace to our hearths, and the Admirals Englefield and Lainé,
who had command of the intervening forces, have discharged so
noble a mission in the manner most cordial, most in conformity
with the intentions explicitly declared by their governments,
and with the thoughts and desire of ours, and of all good
Orientals; for which we acknowledge that we owe them sincere
and profound gratitude. We beg your Excellency will permit us
to record in this letter, as regards yourself personally, the
expression of this sentiment; let us add that of the wishes
we entertain for your prosperity, and we beg you always to
preserve a recollection of our country and that of those
citizens, who, faithful interpreters of the feelings of the
country in which they live, have the honour of offering to your
Excellency the homage of the respect, adhesion and friendship
which we possess, and with which we are,—your Excellency’s most
faithful servants, &c., &c._

[B] Monsieur le Ministre Plénipotentiaire. Les soussignés, residants Français à Montevideo, ont appris avec une sincere affliction votre prochain départ pour l’Angleterre. Les preuves réitérées de votre bienveillance pour nous, le parfait accord qui a tonjours régné entre vous et Monsieur le Baron Deffaudis, votre générosité envers nos com patriotes malheureux, la noblesse de votre caractère, votre constante sollicitude à défendre les intérèts généraux du commerce, peuvent vous avoir attiré l’animosité des ennemis de l’intervention et de l’humanite; mais ils vous ont acquis la reconnaissance des populations civilisées des deux rives de la Plate. Daignez done, Monsieur le Ministre Plénipotentiaire, accepter le tribut de nos regrets les plus sinceres; croire que votre souvenir nous sera toujours cher, et agréer l’hommage des sentiments respectueux avec lesquels nous avons l’honneur d’être, Monsieur le Ministre Plénipotentiaire, vos très-obeissants serviteurs.

[C] Address of the British residents and merchants to the British minister to the states of La Plata.—We, the undersigned, British merchants and residents of Monte Video, having learned with sorrow, that your Excellency is on the eve of retiring from the position you have held amongst us, with so much credit to yourself and benefit to our country, beg leave to express our sense of admiration at the enlightened and impartial conduct, just views, and penetrating judgment which have distinguished you throughout your arduous career, during the intervention of the British and French governments in the River Plate. We gladly bear witness to the firmness, justice, and humanity, which characterized your proceedings, amidst the numerous difficulties and afflicting scenes which have often surrounded you; and we have beheld with unmixed satisfaction the constant harmony that has prevailed between your Excellency and your respected colleague, Baron Deffaudis, which as well as your individual efforts, has so greatly promoted concord and unanimity among all classes of both nations, and foreigners, in Monte Video. Impressed with a deep sense of obligation for your invariable attention to the interests of British subjects, and for your watchful care over their persons and property, whenever endangered, and also for the kindness and urbanity which have marked your personal intercourse with us, we cannot permit your Excellency to leave these shores without receiving our heartfelt thanks and grateful acknowledgments. With a just appreciation of the merits of your Excellency in your official capacity, and an affectionate regard for your private character, we beg you will accept our sincere wishes for the future health and happiness of yourself and family. We have the honour to be, &c. (Signed by 85 British residents.)

[D] This, however, is more apparent than real. Though the Earl of Derby, speaking on the Address to the Throne, the opening night of the present session, pleasantly twitted Ministers with their omission in the Royal Speech of all allusion to Sir C. Hotham’s Paraguayan mission, and with consequent indifference to its objects, it must not be inferred that the Aberdeen Cabinet is in the least degree insensible to the importance of securing such benefits to our commerce as the Malmesbury Treaty seeks to accomplish, though there may be some discrepancy of opinion as to the extent that treaty succeeded in such direction. Seven years ago, Lord Aberdeen, then foreign secretary in the Peel Administration, in his instructions to Sir William G. Ouseley, then minister at Buenos Ayres, for his guidance in the joint intervention by England and France between Buenos Ayres and Monte Video, said:—‘The war in which the Argentine arms are at present engaged, is waged against a state, the independence of which England is virtually bound to uphold.’ Lord Aberdeen instructed his minister, ‘to open up the great arteries of the South-American continent to the free circulation of commerce, would be not only a vast benefit to the trade of Europe, but a practical, and perhaps the best, security for the preservation of peace in South America.’

[E] So long ago as the reign of Elizabeth, Sir John Ouseley, of Courteen-hall, Northamptonshire, a distinguished military officer, in obedience to the orders of the Earl of Essex, then commanding in Portugal, went ambassador to the Emperor of Morocco, and subsequently fell at the siege of Breda, in 1624. The uncle of Sir William and father of the present baronet (Rev. Sir F. Arthur Gore Ouseley, to whom the Duke of Wellington, the Duke of York, and Marchioness of Salisbury, stood sponsors), was the celebrated ambassador to Persia, of which country he obtained the Order of the Lion and the Sun, and subsequently the Grand Cross of the Imperial Russian Order of St. Alexander Newski, when he was appointed plenipotentiary to St. Petersburgh. His brother, Sir William, (father of the late minister to the Plate), accompanied him to Persia, was the well-known historian of that mission, as already stated, and author of many learned Oriental works, in recognition of whose merits he received the Order of Knighthood.

[F] The eldest son of Sir William, Mr. W. Charles Ouseley, accompanied the expedition of the blockading squadron up the Parana river; and, inheriting his father’s faculty of pictorial delineation, as evinced in the ‘South American Sketches,’ contributed to that magnificent volume two subjects, taken at Corrientes, which will be found copied in the chapter devoted to that country; but, owing to haste on the part of our artist, the copy affords an imperfect idea of the original. Mr. W. C. Ouseley likewise accompanied Sir C. Hotham, as attaché, during the recent mission to Paraguay, and returned with his Excellency in the autumn of 1853.