172 Account of a Journey across the 



several species that were new to mc, especially of grass^ some 

 strong plants of Goodenia tubcr'osa, Barba del muerto, 2 sp., 

 and many things 1 did not know. While here, I entered my 

 60th year^ and falling into a sort of melancholy fit, at remem- 

 bering that I was now 9000 miles distant from my native 

 country, and at the present time surrounded with a class of 

 people more barbarous than the worst tribes of savages, men 

 who rejoice in the difficulties and dangers of others, nothing 

 affording them more delight than seeing a person fall from his 

 horse or attacked by an infuriated bull, events which here 

 very frequently happen ; — these being, I say, the prevailing 

 sentiments of my mind on the anniversary of my birth, my 

 fellow-traveller, a Dr. Mernoz, recommended as a cordial to 

 the spirits, a drop of wine ; so extracting the cork of, alas ! 

 my last bottle of Madeira, he and I sat down to enjoy it, 

 and soon drained the flask. 



13th. Having now completed crossing our last difficult 

 river in the way to Tucuman, a more pleasant tract of coun- 

 try opened upon us, consisting of gently undulated ground 

 with some fine varieties of trees and shrubs, principally oi Mi- 

 mosas. For 2 days, however, we travelled through a parched 

 district, where neither food nor water for the beast could be 

 procured. No cattle were to be seen between the Rio Pitam- 

 bella and San Jago, a distance of 26 leagues, except a few 

 goats, the kids of which we bought at about sixpence each. 



J 7th. At sunset halted on the summit of an elevated ridge, 

 about 1 league from San Jago, intending to enter the town 

 before the morning ; but a cloud of hail with a strong gale of 

 wind passing over us in the night, the cattle were so much 

 scattered by it among the dry forests in search of food, that 

 we could not collect them till sunset. On looking out of my 

 dusty den in the cart at sunrise, the air having been beauti- 

 fully cleared by the gale of the night, I beheld one of the most 

 subUmely grand sights that could be imagined ; the towering 

 summits of the snow-covered Andes, their sharp peaks of va- 

 rious forms, heights, and sizes, stretching up among the long 

 lines of light clouds that lazily hung in the atmosphere ; their 

 backs romantically variegated with black and white, the thin- 

 ner snowy mantle having been melted by tlie sun from the 



