Chapter XX: The Uruguayan Campo 237

Formation of the land--A survey of the country--Features
of the soil--Types of wild flowers--A land of hill,
valley, and stream--The glamour of the distance--"The
purple land"--Breezes of the Campo--An exhilarating
country--The dearth of homesteads--The Uruguayan Gaucho--
His physique--The product of the blowy uplands--Matters
of temperament--His comparative joviality--The Gaucho as
worker, player, and fighter--The manipulation of feuds--
A comparison between Argentina and Uruguay--Warrior
ancestors of the Gaucho--His sense of dignity and honour--
Conservative habits and customs--Costume and horse gear--
Strenuous _bailes_--Some homeric feats of dancing--
Stirring revelry--The Uruguayan landowner--Foreign
elements in the land--Negro inhabitants of the Banda
Oriental--The numerical status of the Africans in the
north and in the south--Absence of a racial question--The
slavery of former days--The employment of black troops in
war--Lenient treatment of negro slaves--Harsh measures
applied to aboriginal Indians--A lesson in human economy--
Testimony of a contemporary writer--Immigrant colonies.

CHAPTER XXI

ESTANCIA LIFE 246

Similarities between the farming routine of Uruguay
and of Argentina--The Banda Oriental a pastoral rather
than an agricultural land--Viticulture an asset in
Estancia affairs--Wheat, maize, and linseed--Scarcity
of alfalfa--Excellence of the natural pastures--The
possibilities of private agricultural colonisation--
Favourable outlook for grazing countries in general--
Lemco estancias--The estancia San Juan--A comprehensive
enterprise--Cattle, cereals, and viticulture--Stone
quarries--A Campo stretch--The cutting out of a
bullock--A Gaucho meal.