Cíi. XV. SOUTH AMERICxi. 187 



TiiE city is surrounded by a spacious and pleasant 

 country, free from any obstruction to the sight ; and 

 fronj these delightful fields;, the inhabitants are fur- 

 nished with such a plenty of cattle, that there is no 

 place in America or Europe where meat is better or 

 cheaper. It is the usual custom to buy the hides of 

 the beast, the carcase being; in some measure a gra- 

 tuitous addition ; and the meat is always fat and very 

 palatable. The country to the W. S. and N. of 

 Buenos Ayres, lately abounded so greatly in cattle 

 and horses, that the whole cost consisted in taking 

 them ; and even then a horse was sold for a dollar of 

 that money, and the usual price of a beast, chosen 

 out of a h.'rd of two or three hundred, only four rials. 

 At present there is no scarcity, but they keep at a 

 greater distance, and are more difficult to be catched, 

 by reason of the prodigious havock made of them by 

 Spaniards and Portuguese, merely for the sake of 

 their hides ; the grand commerce of Buenos Ayres. 



All kinds of game and fish are also here in the 

 same plenty ; several sorts of the latter being caught 

 in the river running by it ; but the pexereyes are 

 very remarkable, some of them being half a yard or 

 more in length. Both the American and European 

 fruits come to full perfection, andaré in great |:lenty. 

 In a word, for the enjoyments of life, especially with 

 regard to the salubrity of the air, a finer country 

 cannot be imagined. 



This city is situated about seventy-seven leagues 

 from Cape Santa Maria, which lies on the N. coast 

 near the entrance of the river de ia Plata ; and its 

 little river not having water sufficient for ships of 

 burden to come up to Buenos Ayres, they anchor 

 in one of the two bays on the same coast. That, 

 farthest to the eastward is called Maldonado, and is 

 nine leagues from the above cape : the other bay is, 

 from a mountain near it, named MoiiterVideo, and is 

 about twenty leagues from it. 



