12 PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS: NARRATIVE. 



After a most delightful day spent on shore we went aboard the steamer 

 in the evening, and that night, under the direction of the company's pilot, 

 proceeded one hundred and fifty miles farther up the River Plate to Bue- 

 nos Aires, the capital of the Argentine Republic, the metropolis of South 

 America, and a city which Argentinians would have us believe is the Paris 

 of the New World. 



Early on the morning of the 26th of March we anchored in the harbor 

 of Buenos Aires, and here we had our first, but unfortunately not our last, 

 experience with the dilatory methods of the Argentinians. We waited 

 patiently hour after hour for the receiving and health officers. It was 

 twelve o'clock before these put in an appearance, and even then we were 

 somewhat fearful as to whether or not we should be allowed to enter, since, 

 for some unaccountable reason, the company's agent at Montevideo had 

 neglected, on our leaving that port the evening before, to return our New 

 York health certificate. If the health officer saw fit, we could be detained 

 until the latter was forwarded. The captain was in doubt regarding the 

 better course to pursue in the matter, when the ship's physician (who, by 

 the way, had been afflicted with seasickness throughout a considerable 

 portion of the voyage), a recently graduated Yankee medical student, 

 solved the problem by proposing that a bogus health certificate be substi- 

 tuted for the missing real one, since the inspector would doubtless not be 

 able to detect the fraud. This proved an excellent plan, and upon the 

 arrival of that officer, we were immediately received and allowed to enter. 

 We steamed slowly into the berth assigned us in the "Boca," which might 

 very appropriately be styled the "Erie Basin" of Buenos Aires. Here, 

 upon the presentation of our credentials to the customs officers, we were 

 very courteously treated and allowed to enter free all of our somewhat 

 voluminous equipment, including fire-arms, ammunition, alcohol, and 

 other articles ordinarily subject to a very high rate of duty. In each of 

 my subsequent trips to Buenos Aires I was accorded the same courteous 

 treatment at the hands of her customs officers. 



We were not long in attending to our luggage, when, after bidding 

 good-by to the captain, ship's officers, and our fellow-passengers, several 

 of whom we were to meet afterwards under more pleasant circumstances, 

 we hurried away, having engaged a hackman to drive us to the Hotel 

 "San Martin, situated in the midst of the business portion of the city, on 

 a street of the same name and not far distant from the Plaza Victoria. 



