FARTHER EXPLORATIONS. 263 itable business when the transportation does not exceed seventy-five leagues. The same cause, distance and transportation, operates upon the mines of tin. When tin is high, they are worked to a considerable extent; when it is low, the works are in a great measure suspended. Those which are now worked are chiefly situated in the vicinity of Oran, between that and Sucre. The most productive silver mines are also in the region of Sucre, or properly of Potosi. One establishment near there produced $360,000 in the year 1856. But the cost of machinery, brought from abroad over the Andes on mules, is so immense that most of the mines are worked in the most primitive manner; and, consequently, only those which are very rich afford a remunerative business. As an illustration I will state that a company that has recently introduced European machinery is now working over a second time the substance from which the silver had been previously extracted, and doing so at great profit. If facilities were afforded for the introduction of improved machinery, I have no doubt that it would immensely increase the production." CHAPTER XV. Visit to the President.-Boat-cruise up the Riachuelo.-Victoria Regia or Mais del Agua.-Orange Groves.-The Plow.-Posta Contaro.-San Cosmi.-Ytati. -Hacienda Yrisbugua.-Race with an Ostrich.-Breaking a Horse.-Troubles at Asuncion.-Visit to the President.-Consultation with Mr. Hopkins.-Return to the Government-house.-Last Interview with his Excellency.-The Permit. -Correspondence with Mr. Falcon.-Council at Head-quarters.-Americans on board, descending the River.-The Navy heaves in Sight.-Passing the Admiral.-The President's Indignation and the Seminario.-The Treaty.-Mr. Falcon's extraordinary Letter.-False Charges in the President's Message.-The French Colony.-The Brazilian Squadron.-Outrage committed upon the Water Witch. What our Policy with South American States should be. I Now remained at Asuncion merely to make all necessary arrangements for the alterations of the Pilcomayo, and to bring up a fair copy of parts of the work of the expedition, to be sent to the Navy Department. The latter duty was assigned to Lieutenants Murdaugh and Henry, and the former to Engineers Stump and Taylor, who furnished a plan for the proposed changes. Lieutenant Welsh had been suffering from a severe attack of neuralgia, aggravated by exposure in the Vermejo; and his general health was so much impaired that I felt reluctantly obliged to dispense with his services, and gave him orders to return home. I then determined to proceed to Corrientes, with the view of examining the northern and western parts of the province, and 264 VISIT TO THE PRESIDENT. to obtain the aid of a machinist for some repairs needed by the Water Witch. I was going to a state for which the President of Paraguay had no friendly feelings; but in my visit of leave the manner of his Excellency was not only civil, but actually approached to cordiality. He desired me to call upon the government, without reserve, for any aid needed in the reconstruction of the small steamer, and to remember that my requests would always meet with a favorable reception. So entirely did he relax from his usual reserve on this occasion, that he accompanied me to the door, and taking my hand, expressed himself kindly for my success and speedy return. Arriving at Corrientes, I called on Governor Pujol, who met frankly my request to visit the interior of the province, and said he would have orders issued from the postal department to afford every assistance. In the Argentine States, as in Paraguay, postas (post-houses) are established at distances of one, two, or three leagues throughout the country, and a sufficient number of extra horses are kept at them to meet any emergency that may occur. The traveler will always find his movements expedited by adding a few pennies to the usual charge per league; for the master of the post has generally some good animals, his private property, while those of the government are often so much broken down that I was compelled, at times, to turn my horse upon the road, and procure another from the nearest house. Wishing to see the country adjacent to the river during the rainy season, and with the hope of adding something new to our collections, I determined to make a little boat-cruise up the Riachuelo, a small stream that rises in the interior and empties into the Parana nine miles below Corrientes. I was fortunate in obtaining some rare birds, and in seeing-what alone would have repaid for a longer journey-the "queen of the nymphæaceæ" upon its native waters. Extensive shallow lagoons, pure and limpid, were gemmed with islands of the "Victoria Regia," or "mais del agua” (corn of the water), as it is called in the country; for it is not only the queen of the floral tribes, but ministers to the necessities of man. Its seeds, which are about the size of large buck-shot, consist of a thin shell inclosing a white mealy substance. They are gathered by the Corrientinos and pounded into meal, from which they make excellent and nutritious bread. I procured a quantity, and sent them carefully sealed to the Navy Department. THE VICTORIA REGIA. 265 I did not perhaps see the "regia" in all its glory, for the season of full flower, May and June, had passed; but it was still budding and blooming in sufficient perfection to delight the eye. A plant, with some of its native soil and water, was placed in a cask, but with all my care it died. What infinite study is found in its leaves those great pages of Nature's book! I never wearied in examining their mechanism. Here, spreading over the lagoons, they looked as if they would bear the weight of men, and were covered at all times after dawn with myriads of water-fowl, gleaning the "corn," unless anticipated by the natives. The description given of this plant by Mr. Schomburgk, its discoverer, while exploring the river Berbice in 1837, renders unnecessary any description from me of the "mais del agua" of the Riachuelo of Corrientes. The regia of the former is of superior size to that of the latter place.* I frequently left the boat and walked over the neighboring country. The soil is a rich dark loam, covered with fine grass. The sod had in many places perhaps never been turned, but where attempts at cultivation had been made, the product of corn and tobacco was excellent. The orange-groves were generally neglected. I must except, however, a superb orchard of six thousand trees, one half of which, too young for bearing, were growing vigorously, while three thousand were bending under the weight of their golden fruit, and yielded an income, I was told, of $2500 per annum. These oranges are inferior to those of Paraguay. Indeed, those grown on the Parana, east of the capital, are not so fine as the fruit of the opposite shores. .... * Schomburgk says: "The leaf, on its surface, is of a bright green, in form orbiculate, with this exception, opposite its axis, where it is slightly bent in: its diameter measured from five to six feet: around the margin extended a rim about three to five inches high: on the inside light green, like the surface of the leaf; on the outside, like the leaf's lower part, of a bright crimson.' The stem of the flower is an inch thick near the calyx, and is studded with sharp elastic prickles about three quarters of an inch in length. . . . . The diameter of the calyx is twelve or thirteen inches: on it rests the magnificent flower, which, when fully developed, covers completely the calyx with its hundred petals. When it first opens, it is white, with pink in the middle, which spreads over the whole flower the more it advances in age, and it is generally found the next day of a pink color; as if to enhance its beauty, it is sweet-scented; and, like others of its tribe, it possesses a fleshy disk, and petals and stamens pass gradually into each other, and many petaloid leaves may be observed which have vestiges of an anther." 1 The color of those I saw was very much the same on both sides, a light green; and the size four feet in diameter. 266 A FRENCH AGRICULTURIST. Civil wars have so desolated this part of the province and so diminished the cattle that now the orange-groves form the principal source of income to landed proprietors. They require little attention, and a ready sale is afforded by the fruit-vessels that ply up and down the river. As the best estancias are generally owned by wealthy individuals residing at the capital, their only buildings are the rude dwellings of the capitazes or herdsmen. At these or in some abandoned hut we generally slept, spending the days in seeking ornithological or botanical specimens, and taking our meals wherever chance found us. In our wanderings we came to the land of an industrious French immigrant, who, with a large family, had established himself on the Parana. He was breaking up his ground with a modern plow after the most approved system; and, from the appearance of the rich, dark soil, his labors were probably well remunerated by the return crops. From this farm we passed to that of a native, who was standing lazily looking on, while a boy with a fine yoke of oxen and a wooden plow, probably such as was used in the days of the Conquest, was scratching the surface of a piece of ground about fifty yards square. "Did you see my neighbor plowing?" asked the Corrientino. "Yes." He broke into a long, loud laugh. "What a plow! Ha! ha! na! that fool of a Frenchman! He's crazy, sir! Why, sir, he is opening the ground as wide as the streets of the capital !" The Frenchman's crops will, I presume, prove an unanswerable argument upon the merits of the two plows, and turn the laugh against his neighbor. The Riachuelo did not extend far into the interior; but in following its course I was enabled to see a part of the province south of the capital, much better adapted to agriculture than that bordering the Parana, east of it. Population is alone wanting here, as in all parts of the Confederation. What homes these expanded plains and the delicious climate offer to immigrants! What a percentage on labor and capital might be drawn from these fertile wastes! We returned to Corrientes; and with our saddle-bags (alforjas) packed with tea, sugar, bread, and a little caña, recommended as "cooling in summer and warming in winter," were soon equipped for a longer journey in the interior. Upon a fine September morning, the doctor and myself. mount SAN COSMI.—YTATI. 267 ing our rather sorry horses, started eastward, seeking science and adventure. Our first stopping-place was Posta Contaro, about twenty miles from the capital, where we were kindly welcomed, refreshed with supper of "asado" and mandioca, and, after cigars, made quite members of the family by having our hammocks slung up in the same room with the master of the post, his wife, three other women, and five children; one of these an infant, who entertained us during the night with solos and snatches of song that indicated good lungs. These poor people did their best to accommodate us, for this little adobe house had but one room, with a couple of benches, two chairs, and a rickety table for its furniture. Surrounding it was an inclosure with a few rows of corn, mandioca, and tobacco. The following day we reached San Cosmi, and, by the activity of the Juiz de Paz, were assigned an empty room, which was transformed into a cheery, comfortable apartment by the thoughtful kindness of a lady, Señora Casales, to whom we had letters of introduction. Two cots, tables, and chairs soon made their appearance, followed by what we could not have expected, meals at stated hours. These consisted of beef, bread, chickens, eggs, and, what was really a luxury, snowy table-linen with plates, knives and forks, all temptingly clean. The hospitality of this place was repeated wherever we traveled in the Argentine States, and never limited but by the means of our entertainers. San Cosmi has about four hundred inhabitants, with a plaza, around which stand the church and the best dwellings. The latter are generally adobe houses of one story, either tiled or thatched. From a hedge in this neighborhood I procured the silk of a small black spider, long, exquisitely fine, and yet so strong that, as I wound it upon a card, the branches of the hedge would bend without breaking the web. Our next ride was to Ytati, a village of several hundred inhabitants, twenty miles from San Cosmi, and in the immediate vicinage of the Parana, of which it commands an extended view. We went first to the house of the Juiz de Paz, whose pretty young wife received us with all the tact and ease innate to the women of that country, however humble their position. She chatted without embarrassment, and, probably discovering from our hungry faces that we had fasted for twelve hours, soon busied herself earnestly in preparing a supper which, to my surprise, comprised not only beef, chickens, and honey, but cow's milk and tea. The |