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Show 168 BANDA ORIENTAih Nov. 1833. Buenos Ayres, and thence following up the Uruguay, t~ the village of Mercedes on the Rio Negro (one of the ~any.r1vers of this name in South America), and from thts pomt to return direct to Monte Video. We slept at the house of my guide at Canelones. In the morning .we rose earl~ in t?e hopes of being able to ride a good d1stance ; but 1t was. a vain attempt, for all the rivers were flooded. We passed m boats the streams of Canelones, St. Lucia, and San Jose, and thus lost much time. On a former excursion I crossed the Lucia, near its mouth, and I was surprised to observe how easily our horses, although not used to swim, passed over a width of at least six hundred yards. On mentioning this at Monte Video I was told that a vessel containing some mountebanks and their horses, being wrecked in the Plata, one horse swam seven miles to the shore. In the course of the day I was amused by the dexterity with which a Gaucho forced a restive horse to swim a river. He stripped off his clothes, and jumping on its back, rode into the water till it was out of its depth; then slipping off over the crupper, he caught hold of the tail, and as often as the horse turned round, the man frightened it back, by splashing water in its face. As soon as the horse touched the bottom on the other side, the man pulled himself on, and was firmly seated, bridle in hand, before the horse gained the bank. A naked man, on a naked horse, is a fine spectacle ; I had no idea how well the two animals suited each other. The tail of a horse is a very useful appendage ; I have passed a river in a boat with four people in it, which was ferried across in the same way as the Gaucho. If a man and horse have to cross a broad river, the best plan is for the man to catch hold of the pummel or mane, and help himself with the other arm. We slept, and staid the following day at the post of Cufre. In the evening the postman or letter-carrier arrived. He was a day after his time, owing to the Rio Rozario being :flooded. It would not, however, be of much consequence ; for, although he had passed through some of the principal Nov. 1833. COJ. .. ONIA DEL SACRAMIENTO. 169 towns in Banda Oriental, his luggage consisted of two letters. The view from the house was pleasing; an undulating green surface, with distant glimpses of the Plata. I find I look at this province with very different eyes, from what I did upon ·my first arrival. I recollect I then thought it singularly level; but now, after galloping over the Pampas, my only surprise is, what could have induced me ever to have called it level. The country is a series of undulations, in themselves perhaps not absolutely great, but as compared to the plains of St. Fe, real mountains. From these inequalities, there is an abundance of small rivulets, and the turf is green and luxuriant. NOVEMBER 17TH.-We crossed the Rozario, which was deep and rapid, and passing the village of Colla, arrived at mid-day at Colonia del Sacramiento. The distance is twenty le3-ooues, through a country covered with fine grass, but poorly stocked with cattle or inhabitants. I was invited to sleep at Colonia, and to accompany on the following day a gentleman to his estancia, where there were some limestone rocks. The town is built on a stony promontory something in the same manner as at Monte Video. It is strongly fortified ; but both fortifications and town suffered much from the Brazilian war. It is very ancient; and the irregularity of the streets, and the surrounding groves of old orange and peach trees gave it a pretty appearance. The church is a curious ruin ; it was used as a powder-magazine, and was struck by lightning in one of the ten thousand thunderstorms of the Rio Plata. Two-thirds of the building were blown away to the very foundation ; and the rest stands a shattered and curious monument, of the united powers of lightning and gunpowder. In the evening I wandered about the half-demolished walls of the town. It was the chief seat of the Brazilian war ;-a war most injurious to this country, not so much in its immediate effects, as in being the origin of a multitude of generals and all other grades of officers. More generals are numbered (but not paid) in the United Provinces of la Plata, than in the United Kingdom of Great |