Men, in South America BY J. O. P. BLAND ILLUSTRATED JLONDON WILLIAM HEINEMANW IN THE SHADE OF THE BIG PARALSO Frontispiece. CONTENTS CHAP - PAGE I. INTRODUCTORY ...., . x II. OUTWARD BOUND, . ., . .13 III. RIO AND PETROPOLIS -...., 41 IV. POLITICS EN PASSANT ...... 60 V, IN AND ABOUT SAO PAULO ..... 68 VI. BUENOS AIRES ....... 93 vii. UP THE PARANA A GLIMPSE OF THE CHACO AUSTRAL 117 VIII. THE DELECTABLE CITY OF ASUN9ION . . .141 IX. ASUNCION TO MONTEVIDEO OVERLAND . . 166 x. URUGUAY SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE ART OF GOVERNMENT . . . . . .185 XI. CHIEFLY ABOUT WOMAN ..... 2O2 XII. MONTEVIDEO . . . . . .217 XIII. ESTANCIA LIFE IN URUGUAY .... 234 XIV. THE SON OF THE SOIL ..... 258 XV. TRIBES ON OUR FRONTIERS 285 INDEX . . . - . . . . 3IZ LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Facin IN THE SHADE OF THE BIG PARAISO . Frontispiece SUNSET OVER RIO BAY ...... 40 IN RIO HARBOUR ....... 48 A TURCO PEDLAR ....... 64 A HAWKER OF BRUSHES AND BROOMS, RIO ... 64 RUFFO, THE SHEEP-SHEARER ...... 64 A PEDLAR OF TIN AND IRON WARE . . . .64 A PICNIC IN THE WOODS . - . - .76 THE PLAZA CONGRESS, BUENOS AIRES .... 96 A CARNE CON CUERRO ARGENTINA . 1 1 6 CORRIENTES ARGENTINA SEEN FROM THE RIVER . . 126 THE WHARF AT ASUNCION, PARAGUAY . . . .142 THE CIO Y HALL, ASUNCION ...... I4 2 CROSSING A, RIVER IN THE DRY SEASON, URUGUAY . . 1 66 VIEW NEAR COLONIA, URUGUAY ..... l86 A MODEL EStlANCIA HORSES AT PASTURE, c CANTA FIERO 212 A MODEL ESTANCIA A RIVERSIDE POTRERO, CANTA FIERO 212 A MODEL ESTANCIA HEREFORD CATTLE AT CANTA FIERO 234 THE ESTANCIA UP-TO-DATE I f LOS CORALES, RAFAELO, SANTA FE, ARGENTINA . 2 34 A LAGUNA OF THE MACIEL 2 4 viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Facing page LOADING THE WOOL CLIP ...... 244 THE CAPATAZ . . . . . . ..250 BENITA ......... 250 LUNCHEON TIME AT THE BRETE . 260 PLOUGHING UP ESPARTILLO 5 CAMP . 260 A LAGUNA ON THE SAN SALVADOR . 266 GAUCHOS AT DRABBLE STATION, CENTRAL URUGUAY . 280 PANTALEON A PEON ...... 280 -..., 288 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY HAVING regard to the present parlous price of paper and to the patience of much-suffering readers, the perpetration of yet another book on South America might appear at the outset to call for some explanation, if not for apology. The list of books published under this heading in recent years is indeed so formidable that the world may well be weary of it. From the library catalogue point of view, the subject might well seem to have been exhausted, every part of the continent having been ransacked and described, all its words and works recorded. Yet, how few there be amongst all these works as some of us know to our cost that properly and worthily inculcate the profitable exercise of travel, or that appeal to and justify the wandering instinct of rational man Say what you will, the great majority of them are so dreadfully infected with stodgy commercialism, so monumentally useful, that their general effect upon the mind unless it be the mind of a bagman can only be compared to a surfeit of suet pudding. Here and there only, rari nantes, amidst all these dreary volumes, will you find the sort of company for which the Lord of Montaigne looked alas, how oft in vain in all his journeyings that rare chance and seld-seene fortune, but of exceeding solace and inestimable worth to wit, an honest man, of singular experience, of a sound judgment and of manners conformable to yours, which company a man must seek with discretion and with great heed obtaine, before he wander from home ay, even in B 2 MEN, MANNERS AND MORALS the spirit...