We stopped for the night at Perqui, near the little village of Loreto, having made a day's ride of seventy miles.

A merry-making was on foot; the daughter of the post-master was gaily attired, and tuned up a rude harp, upon which she was to play for her expected guests to dance; but the master himself was in his cups, and declared he could give us no supper, for the flocks had not come up. A ride of seventy miles without dinner was no excuse for our not joining the dancers, for beaux were needed. I could not agree with him; so, drawing out a reserve of bread and a bottle of milk from our saddle-bags, we made a supper and retired to hide cots, with the heavens for a canopy.*

We were soon disturbed by an arrival, a tropa of ten carretas from Rosario, bound for Tucuman. This was a welcome event to the dancers; the tropero and his companions, fine dashing-looking fellows, were soon whirling in the waltz, caring neither for supper nor rest after a long day's travel. The passion of these people, both men and women, for the dance is marked. Within doors it supersedes all other amusements; and as every village and posta has its rude guitarist or harpist, and the only refresh* In traveling in La Plata I rarely slept in a house.

COST OF TRANSPORTATION.

359 ment, a sip of caña, is readily obtainable, to give a ball is with them but to collect a few neighbors.

From the tropero I learned that each of his ten wagons carried 180 arobas, for which the charge from Tucuman to Rosario was $1 25 the aroba; for the return trip, 75 cents for every wagon. Several relays of six oxen are required. He spoke of this season as one particularly severe for the animals on account of the scarcity of water, the unusual drought having dried up the pasturage. In these unwieldy wagons the produce of the upper states is carried to Rosario, and all foreign goods are, in return, thus forwarded to the interior. The time occupied in the trip, including halts and incidental delays, is from ten to twelve months.

The morning after the ball we were up before the sun. The master of the posta was quite sobered by a long sleep, and accepted gratefully an offer of yerba, for I traveled with a supply for our own use; and on this occasion a maté prepared by Cornelius was the only refreshment preparatory to a ride of eight leagues. Drunkenness is a rare vice in La Plata, although the native liquor, caña, is the most potent I have ever tasted; but the people in all parts of the basin and in every class of life eagerly seek a maté. No Chinaman sips his tea and no Turk his coffee with more enjoyment. After taking it in the morning, I could ride for nearly the whole day without food and without feeling troubled by hunger.

At midday we reached the town of Santiago del Estero, sixty miles, having changed horses but twice. We met on the road another tropa of twenty wagons, bound to Tucuman.

Eighteen miles from Santiago we again forded the Dulce, and found its waters as fresh and sweet as those of a mountain spring; depth, three feet; width, quarter of a mile; course, southwest.

We passed that morning, in our ride from Perqui, a country fertile and admirably diversified by wood and arable lands; the wheat-fields were fine, especially as we approached the river, where the yield is sixty almudes to one of seed.

The forests of quebracho and algorroba are large, and the mimosæ contribute almost as much to the comfort of man, in these western states, as the palm in other parts of the basin. One species of algorroba is unequaled as fuel, or as a material for charcoal; and the bark, foliage, and fruit of others enter into the domestic economy of every household. The fruits of the "blanca" and "negra" are much prized both for preserving and drying; in

360

TABLE OF DISTANCES.

the latter state they are not unlike dried peaches: and fresh from the tree, sell readily at thirty-seven to fifty cents the almude.

The following are the postas between Cordova and Santiago del Estero, with the distances established by the respective provinces on which is based the charge for horses and postillionsand the time occupied by us in the travel from one to the other. The charges are not uniformly the same in all the provinces. In some they are, for each saddle-horse, half a real-six and a quarter cents per league, and double this sum for a postillion and cargaro horse; while in others the charge for the latter is one and a half reals.

Santiago. Government House.-Trade and Population. —No Hotels.-Pair of Gloves. Visit to the Governor. - Don Taboado. - The Boat. - Quintas and Fruits.-Chills at Santiago.-The Pic-nic.-The Dulce.-Bed of the Salado.The Saladillo.-The Flor del aria.-The Ulua.-Luxuriant Foliage.-The Slevre. -Bees.-The Toisimi.-Yaña.-Moso Moso.-Mestiso Quilaya.—Cani.—Quella and Alframisqui.—The Eyrobaña.—Wax.—The Cochineal.-Lassoing a Mule.— Price of Mules.-Launching the Boat.-A Bivouac.-Arrival at Salvador.Banks of the Salado.-Birds.-Estancia Figarra.-"Que Animal.”—Arrival at Matara.-The Dance and the little Child.-The Priests.-Incursions of the Chaco Indians. List of Trees.-Quebracho.-Algorroba.-Vinal.—Quilin.—

Chaña.-Mistol.-Uiñay.-Tala.-Puna.-Gumi.-Quimel.-Cardon. SANTIAGO, the capital of the state, stands some half mile from the Dulce, in latitude 27° 46' 20" south, longitude 64° 22' 15" west,* and contains about five thousand inhabitants. It presented an aspect of decay. Deserted, dilapidated houses and silent streets only offered the pleasant enlivenment of business with the periodical arrival or departure of tropas. The public buildings are a government-house and three churches. One of the latter and many dwellings are built of tapiat in that district of country —a perishable material, from the strong impregnation of the soil with saltpetre. Buildings and inclosures of it were crumbling under the action of the elements, and yet a church in Santa Fé, constructed of this same material, looked as if it might stand for ages indeed it had become, by time and exposure, as hard as granite. The government house is a substantial brick structure, with spacious apartments, some of which were occupied as public offices: the reception-room was well furnished and hung with pictures, many of them portraits of distinguished men of the republic.

Six hundred and fifty miles from Rosario, and five hundred and ninety from Santa Fé-the outlets of this country upon the Parana―distracted by political factions, and devastated by the forays of Indians, it creates no astonishment to hear that Santiago has retrograded since the establishment of independence;

* Determined by meridional difference from Cordova, with pocket-chronometer rated at the latter place.

+ Enormous adobes, several feet in length by some two or three in thickness.

362

GOVERNOR TABOADO.

and yet it has a population of 50,000 souls, distinguished in La Plata as industrious and enterprising. As its resources are great, we may fairly conclude that it only awaits a development which it must receive under the Confederation and the administration of its present governor, Don Manuel Taboado, who is a man of integrity and energy. He was ill at the time I arrived; but my reception by Don Juan F. Borjas, the gobernador delegado (deputy governor), was marked by civility. Apartments, for there are no hotels in Santiago, were assigned us at the Government House, where, as the guest of the state, not only was every want anticipated by servants in constant attendance, but all the luxuries and comforts that the town afforded were unostentatiously supplied. I was afraid to attempt the purchase of the smallest article, for it was promptly furnished, and the money invariably returned. I sent Cornelius for a pair of gloves; he brought me some of ex'cellent quality, together with the money which I had given him. "But how is this? Why did you not pay for them?" I inquired.

"You can pay for nothing here, Sir," was the reply.

I called at the governor's private residence, and found him confined to his bed. It was quite unnecessary to explain the object of my visit to Santiago. He anticipated an exploration of the Salado with impatience, as a work the success of which would insure the prosperity of all the western states. I told him that a raft or boat of some kind was necessary.

"There is a skiff eighteen feet by three in the Rio Dulce. Will it answer your purpose?" he kindly suggested.

"But we are forty or fifty miles from the Salado."

"The boat shall be transported to the river by ox-cart, and I will follow with a military escort. If agreeable to you, my brother, General Antonio, will accompany you, for he speaks the Quichua, and may be useful in communicating with the people." Such were the encouraging offers of Governor Taboado.

While awaiting the return of the general, who was at his estancia, I accepted the hospitalities of several families of the city, and visited some of the really pretty quintas that dot its environs. Notwithstanding the severe drought of six month's duration, the alfalfa, or alfa, was most luxuriant; for the lands generally were well irrigated by the waters of the Dulce, which was conducted through them by a main and lateral canals. A quinta (country seat) of ten acres pays a low tax of two dollars per an