Chapter XIII: The Central Provinces (2)

At those times couriers occasionally pass it swimming, or holding by the tails of their horses, which they drive before them. All carriage intercourse is for the time impossible, and the ordinary traffic between Salta and the lower provinces is therefore as matter of course suspended during the rainy season. To obviate so serious an inconvenience, in the time of the Old Spaniards, a survey was made of this part of the river, and a plan was proposed to the government for throwing a bridge over a rocky pass, which, if executed, would have enabled carts as well as passengers to cross it high and dry at any season. The materials were at hand, and the estimate of the whole expense so small that it was difficult to find an objection to it; on the contrary, it was unanimously approved; but, as nothing is done in a hurry in these countries, it was, like many other most notable projects, postponed, "_hasta mejor oportunidad_," till better times, which, unfortunately for the people of Salta, have never yet arrived.

Ten or twelve leagues below the pass, the river De las Piedras, the last affluent of any consequence, falls in; thence the course of the river is easterly inclining south, as far as Pitos, the frontier fort of Salta in that direction. In the flat saline country through which it afterwards runs, its waters imbibe a brackish taste, from which it takes the name of the Salado, or the salt river, which it preserves the whole way to its junction with the Paranã, near Santa Fé. I have before stated that this river is believed to be navigable as high as Matara, in the latitude of Santiago del Estero.

The Vermejo, the most important of all the affluents of the Paraguay, is formed by two considerable streams, which may be generally called the rivers of Jujuy and Tarija, from those two departments which they respectively drain. At their sources they are at no great distance from each other, but descending from opposite sides of a snow-capped range, the buttresses of which branch out far and wide to the south and east, they are soon hurried away in totally different directions; each, however, finally sweeping round the base of the stupendous platform above, describes, after a long course, the segment of a circle, which is rendered all but complete by the junction of their waters at a point about sixteen leagues below Oran, whence they flow together south in one mighty and navigable stream the whole way to the Paranã. The name of Vermejo, or the red river, is derived from the occasional discoloration of the waters by the red alluvial soil which is washed into them during the periodical floods.

With respect to the many minor streams which fall into the rivers of Jujuy and Tarija, they are for the most part mere mountain torrents of little importance, except as adding to their waters, which finally become navigable below Oran.

The Jujuy river rises near the Abra de Cortaderas, about three leagues from Colorados, one of the most elevated points passed by the traveller on the road to Potosi: from thence the lofty peak of Chorolque beyond Tupiza, in the north, and the snowy ranges of Atacama, in the north-west, are distinctly visible. The channel of the river in its descent from this elevated region, the whole way to Jujuy, is little more than a succession of precipitous ravines, occasionally swelling into basins, highly interesting to the geologist, as exhibiting on all sides evidences of the tremendous convulsions which at some remote period must have torn and shaken this part of the continent to its very foundations. The road to Potosi winds along it, but it would seem to be a region only suited to the wild llamas, alpacas, and vicuñas, which range in countless herds over the snowy ranges above, looking down with apparent surprise on the casual traveller, who wends his toilsome way through these rugged defiles. The favourite food of these animals is the ichú, a very coarse grass, which is only found at an elevation little short of that of perpetual snow. At Jujuy the river turns eastward through a more open and habitable region, which skirts the southern base of these mountain ranges, and about twenty leagues beyond receives the Siancas, or Lavayen, its most important tributary, which rises in the heights of San Lorenzo, to the north-west of the town of Salta:--it is afterwards joined by the Ledesma and three or four other minor streams, before it falls into the Tarija river, as before stated, below Oran.

The course of the Tarija, in the first instance, is nearly as precipitous as that of the Jujuy, running through broken mountainous passes; but when it trends to the south, and receives the Pescado (which separates the departments of Oran and Tarija), and shortly after the Senta, it opens into wide and extensive valleys, traversed by many streams, which, running down into the main river, irrigate the rich lands along its shores, and unite with the warmth of a tropical climate to form one of the most fertile districts in the world.

These are the principal rivers of this province. Its productions are as various as its physical features. In the west the mines of the Cerro de Acay and San Antonio de los Cobres, have been at times worked with considerable success; and in the still more elevated districts bordering upon Atacama, the natives of Cochinoca, the Rinconada, Cerillos, Santa Catalina, and Rosario, employ themselves in collecting considerable quantities of gold from the alluvial deposits after heavy rains.

It is in those cold regions that the alpacas and vicuñas are found:--the guanaco also abounds there, and the beautiful little chinchilla, thousands of dozens of the skins of which are yearly collected and sent down to Buenos Ayres for exportation to Europe.

In the same part of the province, not far south of La Rinconada, are extensive plains of salt, called the Salinas of Casabindo, to which the natives of the adjoining districts resort when the salt is hard and dry, and cut out large blocks of it with hatchets, which they load upon their llamas and asses, and carry to Salta and Jujuy, and other parts of the province:--there, also, they collect, in the same manner, the snow which is used in those towns for making ices in the summer season. The eyes of travellers obliged to traverse these inhospitable wilds are said to be as much affected by the glare of the sun reflected from these fields of salt, as from the snow-capped mountains which bound them. Casabindo is about forty-five leagues east from Atacama, the intermediate distance being all Cordillera, and is situated upon the desolate road from Salta, which is appropriately called _El Despoblado_.[63]

In the valleys, further south, of Colalao, San Carlos, Calchaqui, and Cachi, watered by the streams which afterwards fall into the Salado, as already described, large quantities of corn and maize are grown, with which the rest of the province is chiefly supplied: the vine is also extensively cultivated there, from which a good deal of an ordinary wine is yearly made and drunk in those parts for want of better.

It was from their rich pastures, however, watered by the mountain streams, that the Salteños in former times derived their principal profits. Before the revolution, and when the upper provinces, which now form the separate state of Bolivia, were part of the Vice-Royalty of Buenos Ayres, a great trade was carried on by the people of Salta in mules, 50,000 or 60,000 of which were annually sold there for the service of the carriers of Peru:--these mules were chiefly bred in the provinces of Santa Fé and Cordova, and sent to Salta when two or three years old, where, after being kept for a season or two in the rich grazing grounds of that province, they were considered strong enough for the work expected of them in the severer climate of the Andes. A periodical fair was held in the neighbourhood of Salta, to which the purchasers from Peru repaired, and bought the animals in droves at the rate of fourteen or sixteen dollars each (five or six more if broken in), about a third of which was clear profit to the Salteños, who bought them of the Cordova and Santa Fecino breeders at a price seldom above ten dollars. These that reached Lima were worth double the price paid for them at Salta. A tax, called _sisa_, of three quarters of a dollar on each mule, was levied by the government, the annual amount of which was destined to the maintenance of the forts upon the frontier, kept up as defences against the encroachments of the Indians of the Chaco.

The struggle for independence stopped this traffic, for the upper provinces and the greater part of Peru being in possession of the Royalists to the last, all intercourse with Salta was cut off for many years, nor has there been any sufficient encouragement to renew it since the restoration of peace. Peru, however, must have mules, and it does not appear that she is likely to be supplied with them from any other quarter in sufficient numbers.

Proceeding eastward, through the valleys of Campo Santo, and those watered by the Lavayen and its affluents, to Oran, and throughout all that department, a tropical vegetation is found in all its natural luxuriance.[64] Forests of noble trees stud the banks of the rivers, and extend far down the shores of the Vermejo, valuable not only as timber, but as producing fruits which may be said to supply the place of bread and wine to the natives:--such, amongst others, is the algaroba tree, a sort of acacia, from the fruit of which, a large bean growing in clusters of pods, mixed with maize, the Indians make cakes; and, by fermentation, produce their chicha, a strong intoxicating spirit in very general use. The quinaquina, the palm-tree, and the plant from which the famous maté, or Paraguay tea, is made, are equally indigenous there, and many others, as yet only known to us by their Indian names, which it would be useless to recapitulate.

The cactus, bearing the cochineal insect, and the aloe are found in every direction:--from the macerated fibres of the latter, the Indians of the Chaco make yarn and ropes, which are found less liable to rot in water than hemp:--their fishing-nets are made of this material, and a variety of bags and pouches, for which there is always a demand amongst their more civilised neighbours: these articles are variously dyed in indelible colours, prepared also by the Indians. There is no doubt that this plant, which grows as commonly in most parts of South America as the thistle with us, might be turned, here as elsewhere, to very considerable account for many useful purposes. I have seen not only beautiful rope, but very good coarse cloth manufactured from it; indeed I have now in my possession some paintings done in Peru upon a canvass made from it, which could not be distinguished from any coarse linen of European make.[65]

At Buenos Ayres, where the hedgerows are generally formed of the common aloe, I had an opportunity of trying various experiments with it, and had some cordage made from it of beautiful texture and whiteness by some sailors from one of his Majesty's ships. I also tried my hand at making pulqué, after seeing Mr. Ward's account of the manner in which it is made in Mexico; but, though we obtained an abundance of the liquor, following the process described by him of taking out the stem as soon as it began to shoot, and collecting the sap as it accumulated in the socket or basin beneath, it was never sufficiently palatable to our tastes to be drinkable; but this probably was from our want of experience in the mode of preparing it: however, I have no doubt that consumers enough might be found of this or any other such beverage amongst a people who can drink so filthy a preparation as the chicha, the liquor in common use amongst the natives of the united provinces,--one of the ingredients of which is said to be maize chewed by old Indian women.[66]

In some of those saline and arid districts, where no other fresh water is to be found, there grows a species of the aloe, well known to the natives, from which, on being tapped by an incision made in one of the thickest leaves, a clear stream will spurt out sufficient to allay the traveller's thirst.

In many parts of Oran is found the celebrated cuca, or coca, plant (_Erythroxylon Peruviana_), sometimes called _El Arbol del hambre y de la sed_,--"The tree of hunger and thirst;" to the natives more necessary than bread. Hungry or weary, with some leaves of coca to chew, mixed with a little lime or alkali of his own preparation, the Peruvian Indian seems to care for no other sustenance:--he never swallows it, but is perpetually chewing it, as the Asiatics do the beetle-nut: give him but his bag full of this, and at most a little dried maize besides, and he will undertake the hardest labour in the mines, and, as a courier, perform the most astonishing journeys on foot, frequently travelling a hundred leagues across the snowy and desolate regions of the Cordillera.

In surveying countries like these, still in their natural state, it is impossible not to be struck at every step with the infinite and wonderful variety of the works of the Almighty, and with the manifest evidences they uniformly display of an unceasing and beneficent provision for all the wants of His creatures, in every clime and under all circumstances.

In the valleys watered by the Jujuy and its tributaries, as in many other parts of the republic, the indigo grows wild, and the sugar-cane and tobacco are extensively cultivated, the two latter being produced in sufficient quantity not only for the consumption of the whole of the province of Salta, but for exportation to the rest of the upper provinces, and occasionally to Chile. Cotton, also, is grown there in considerable quantities, and of a quality which would be prized in the markets of Europe,--as indeed would be nearly all the valuable productions of this highly-favoured region.

Although in this, as in every other part of the republic, the want of population may be considered as the great drawback to the full development of its natural resources, the Salteños, and especially those in the eastern districts of the province, obtain assistance to a considerable extent in the cultivation of their lands from the Indians of the Mataco nation, who live upon the shores of the Vermejo, below the junction of the Jujuy. These Indians, now an independent people, acknowledging no other authority than that of their own Caciques, were in former times reduced, in a certain degree, to civilised habits by the Jesuits, the fruits of whose influence are still perceptible in their occasional intercourse with their Christian neighbours, amongst whom they repair at the seasons of sowing and harvest to barter their service in labour in exchange for articles of clothing, and beads and baubles for their women. They are very industrious, and in the allotment of work will undertake double the daily task of the Creoles:--the payment they receive for a month's work is from ten to fifteen yards of very coarse cloth or baize, the cost of which at Salta may be about a quarter of a Spanish dollar, or about a shilling a yard:--with this and their food they are perfectly content, and, at a similar rate, any number of them might be induced to leave their own haunts periodically to work in the sugar and tobacco plantations of the Spaniards. I was told by an Englishman, long resident at Oran, that many hundreds of them are yearly engaged at the rate above stated to get in the crops in the vicinity of that place.

When to this low rate at which productive labour may be obtained, we add the existence, now indisputably established, of an uninterrupted navigation the whole way from Oran to the Paranã, and thence to Buenos Ayres, it is impossible not to be struck with the very great natural advantages possessed by this province, and with the very small degree of energy apparently requisite on the part of the natives to turn them to the fullest account. It is their own fault alone if the sugars and tobacco, the cotton, the indigo, and cochineal of Oran, do not vie with those of Brazil and Columbia in the markets of Europe. Let the people of these countries open their eyes to the importance of their own resources, and let them not imagine that they themselves are incapable of calling them into action:--unfortunately, such a feeling is one of those curses to the country engendered by the old colonial system of Spain, and which has the effect, to a lamentable extent, of counteracting that spirit of self-confidence and exertion which, on every account, is called for on the part of the inhabitants of these countries under their new political condition. It is this feeling which has led them to turn their eyes to the formation of companies in Europe as the best mode of bringing their fertile lands into notice and cultivation,--an erroneous notion which cannot too soon be set right. I do not say that in the temperate climate of Buenos Ayres European labourers may not be employed to advantage; but when it becomes a question of sending them into the tropical regions in the heart of the continent, whether as agricultural labourers or miners, I am satisfied that the experiment would only end in utter disappointment to all parties. In the first place, it should be borne in mind that, to ensure in Europe any sale for the productions of so remote a country, the cost of their cultivation must be extremely low, as it appears to be at present; but what labourer from Europe would be satisfied with anything like even double the ordinary remuneration for daily labour in that part of the world? Supposing him, however, to be conveyed thither, and to be contented, for a time, with the abundance of the necessaries of life around him, what does he know of the culture of tropical productions, the chances being that he never saw a sugar-cane or a cotton plant in the whole course of his life? But, what is of more consequence, how long will his physical powers last in a climate, the heat of which will be almost insufferable to him, and in which the very indulgence of his own ordinary habits will soon undermine his constitution and destroy all his energies? Of the hundreds of Beresford's and Whitelock's men, who remained in the country after the evacuation of Buenos Ayres by the British forces, how very few were afterwards to be met with who were not sunk to the lowest scale of misery and moral degradation!

In tropical climates I am satisfied that Europeans will never be able to compete in amount of daily labour with the natives: on the contrary, wherever the trial has been made, the Indian labourer has been found capable of enduring an infinitely greater degree of bodily exertion than the most robust European. It is hardly credible, indeed, what these people will go through. In the mines especially, where the amount of their daily work, and the loads they are capable of sustaining, have excited the astonishment of every one who has paid the slightest attention to the subject. The stoutest of the Cornish miners who accompanied Captain Head in his visit to the mine of San Pedro Nolasco, was scarcely able to walk with a load of ore which one of the natives had with apparent ease brought out of the mine upon his shoulders, whilst two others of the party who attempted to lift it were altogether unable to do so, and exclaimed that it would break their backs.

In these observations I allude of course to the labouring class,--I speak of hands not heads, for I fully agree in the necessity of introducing improvements in the cultivation of the native products,--which improvements will assuredly be best introduced by foreigners qualified by experience in other countries to superintend and direct those processes, both of cultivation and after preparation, which may be requisite to ensure their immediate sale in the foreign markets for which they are destined. Such persons, perhaps, would be best sought for in the East or West Indies or Brazil; and, no doubt, they would not only benefit themselves but their employers by introducing into these new countries the results of their practical experience elsewhere. It is to foreigners, also, that the natives must look to instruct them in the use of steam-vessels, upon which, after all, the future advancement of these remote countries in wealth and civilisation will so mainly depend.

I will only add to the observations which I have already made upon this subject, my conviction that if the governments of Buenos Ayres, Santa Fé, and Corrientes would but unite in a sincere determination to give a fair trial to the experiment, men would be found at Buenos Ayres who would desire no better than to be employed on such a service:--as to any opposition Dr. Francia might offer to it, it is not worth a moment's consideration.[67] Give an English midshipman, of sufficient experience, an armed steamer and a picked crew, either of his own countrymen or North Americans, to whom he might add some of the excellent sailors of Paraguay, and I am quite sure he would carry a cargo from Buenos Ayres up the Vermejo in perfect safety to Oran, despite of Dr. Francia or any such bugbear. This, however, is an object which must have the cordial support and co-operation of the ruling powers. If they shut their eyes to the importance of its success, it would be labour thrown away for any individual to volunteer the attempt.

The government of Buenos Ayres, as the authorities charged with the general interests of the Republic, from their habitual intercourse with the people of other countries, ought to be fully able to appreciate the immense benefits which steam-navigation has produced elsewhere, and how greatly it has tended to promote the prosperity and civilisation of other nations. It is in their power to extend those blessings to their own countrymen in the heart of the South American continent, and to produce a really United Confederation of the Provinces, instead of that which is now little more than nominal, from the vast distances which intervene, and operate as a bar to almost any intercourse between them.

With the establishment of steam-navigation, distance will cease to be distance, and the upper provinces will find a cheap and ready vent for an abundance of productions which are now not worth the heavy expenses of sending down by land-carriage to Buenos Ayres.

It is a grave question, deserving the most serious attention of those to whom the government of these countries is at present intrusted, and in the early solution of which, perhaps, their future political destinies are involved to an extent far beyond the comprehension of any casual observer.

FOOTNOTES:

[59] This latitude is the mean of four observations taken by M. de Souillac (in 1784) one of the astronomers attached to the commission for determining the boundary.

[60] Since this was written I have met with a gentleman who had seen the original drawings of _three_ masses, with their respective measurements; which drawings, he understood, were made by the persons sent in quest of this iron by the government of Buenos Ayres when my specimen was brought down.

[61] Luccock, in his Travels in Brazil, speaks of a very singular metallic formation which he met with in the province of Minas Geraes, not far from Villarica. He says (page 490), "A hill on our left now presented a wonderful object; it was one entire mass of iron, so perfectly free from any mixture of common soil as to produce no vegetation whatever, but was covered with a complete coating of rust or oxide of iron. The hill is so lofty and steep that its top was not accessible; but from its more elevated parts nodules of corroded metal had rolled down, and greatly embarrassed the road: at the foot of the mountain the soil is red clay mixed with ponderous brown dust. As we advanced the metal seemed to become less pure, until, after an extant of two leagues and a-half, it altogether vanished, and was succeeded by the common clayey land, &c. I had often heard of this immense mass of metal, but none of the reports had presented any adequate picture of it to the imagination. The very core of the hill, as far as we could judge, appeared to consist of vast blocks of iron, in tables; and it is so free from alloy as to produce when smelted ninety-five per cent. of pure metal."

[62] As mining labour was imposed as an obligation upon the Indians by the conquerors, so it came to be looked upon as the occupation of a caste, and of a caste looked down upon by all who boasted of the slightest admixture of European blood in their veins.

[63] The "Uninhabited Region."

[64] When Soria descended the Vermejo in 1826, it was deemed a good opportunity to send a collection of specimens of the various woods of these region to Buenos Ayres that they might be examined and more properly described, and he told me he had no less than seventy-three different species with him, the whole of which were taken from him by Dr. Francia, in Paraguay, with everything else on board his vessel.

[65] In 1834 a series of trials was made at Toulon in order to ascertain the comparative strength of cables made of hemp and of the aloe (brought from Algiers), which resulted greatly in favour of the latter. Of cables of equal size, that made from the aloe raised a weight of 2000 kilogrammes, that of hemp a weight of only 400.

[66] Pulqué is described by Mr. Ward as the favourite beverage of the lower classes in some parts of Mexico. The aloe plant, from which it is prepared, is cultivated for the purpose in extensive plantations; and so great is the consumption of it, that before the revolution the revenue derived from a very small municipal duty levied upon it at the gates of the towns averaged 600,000 hard dollars a-year, and in 1793 amounted to 817,739, or about 170,000_l._ sterling.--See Ward's 'Mexico,' vol. i. p. 55.

[67] A small iron steamer, which might be had for 25,000_l._ or 30,000_l._, would be quite sufficient to begin with.