CHAPTER IX 



MONTEVIDEO AND THE RIVER PLATE 



"By the rushy-fringed bank, 

 Where grows the willow, and the osier dank, 

 My sliding chariot stays. " Milton. 



FOR two days we steamed southward at full speed. 

 Now and then during the first day we saw on the 

 western horizon the distant mountains which guard the 

 eastern coast of the Province of Santa Catharina in 

 Brazil. They were often lost among pale purple clouds, 

 which they so closely resembled that it was only pos- 

 sible to distinguish them by their serrated outlines. 

 During the second day we knew that the great Province 

 of Rio Grande do Sul lay on our starboard beam. Our 

 Captain, however, had plotted his course far off from 

 the coast, and we vainly searched for a glimpse of the 

 land. The shore is low like that of Uruguay and Argen- 

 tina, and it is only by keeping close to it that it becomes 

 visible from the deck of a steamer. The air grew 

 colder day by day. The wind was from the south and 

 seemed to have in it the tang of frost. The Captain 

 said: "If I were to hold away to the southeast at the 

 rate we are steaming it would not be very long before 

 I should be able to show you icebergs. ' 



On the morning of the third day after leaving Santos 

 we found that we were steering to the southwest, and 



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