40 MALDONADO. [chap in. 



Juhi 2Q)th. — "We ancliored at IMonte Video. The Beafyle wa.-^ 

 employed in surveying the extreme southern and eastern coastsj 

 of America, south of the Plata, during the two succeed ini:: years. 

 To prevent useless rej)etilions, I will extnict those parrs of my 

 journal which refer to the same distiicts, without always attend- 

 ing- to the order in which we visited them. 



JMaldonado is situated on the northern bank of tlie Plata, 

 and not verv far from the mouth of the estuarv. It is a most 

 quiet, forlorn, little town; built, as is universally the casein 

 these countries, with the streets running at light angles to each 

 other, and having in the middle a large plaza or square, whicli, 

 from its size, renders the scantiness of the population more evi- 

 dent. It possesses scarcely any trade ; the exports being con- 

 fined to a few hides and living cattle. The inhabitants are chiifly 

 landowners, together with a few shopkeepers and the neces* 

 sar}' tradesmen, such as blacksmiths and carpenters, who do nearly 

 all the business for a circuit of fifty miles round. The town is 

 separated from the river by a band of sand-hillocks, about a mile 

 broad : it is surrounded, on all other sides, by an open slightly- 

 undulating coimtry, covered by one uniform layer of fine green 

 turf, on which countless herds of cattle, sheep, and horses graze. 

 There is very little land cultivated even close to the town. A 

 i^iw hedges, made of cacti and agave, mark out where some wheat 

 or Indian corn has been planted. The features of the ccmntry 

 are very similar along the whole northern bank of the Plata. 

 The only difference is, that here the granitic hills are a little 

 bolder. The scenery is very uninteresting ; there is scarcely a 

 house, an enclosed piece of ground, or even a tree, to give it an 

 air of cheerfulness. Yet, after being imprisoned for some time 

 in a ship, there is a charm in the unconfined feeling of walking 

 over boundless plains of turf. Moreover, if your view is limited 

 to a small space, many objects possess beauty. Some of the 

 smaller birds are brilliantly coloured ; and the bright green 

 sward, browsed short by the cattle, is ornamented by dwarf 

 flowers, among which a plant, looking like the daisy, claimed 

 the place of an old friend. What would a florist say to whole 

 tracts so thickly covered by the Verbena melindres, as, even at a 

 distance, to appear of the most gaudy scarlet ? 



I staid ten weeks at Maldonado, in which time a nearly perfect 



