10S2 



ANNUAL REGISTER, ISOor. 



was a composifion of four herbs, 

 which the Spaniards had vainly en- 

 deavoif r. d to propagate in the dis- 

 trict ol La Plata, but nrver could 

 succeed in rearing ; they being con- 



which is often the case when the pam- 

 pero has blown any long^^r time than 

 ordinary, by which means the wa- 

 ters have been driven with greater 

 violence towards the sea, and therte- 



stantly f) '<:»royed, uhert alitiut three by prevented from dispensing their 

 inches hie;h from the ground, by the favours among the more remote gar- 

 ans. which infest all the plantations den grounds — it is rather trouble. 

 in this province in siicli numbers as 

 sometimes to cover and destroy al- 

 most every plant and shrub in a 

 space of several miles in extent : so 

 cautious is Providence in bestowing 



some to be got at ; they therefore 

 hasten to take advantage of any 

 swell in the river, and fill the reser- 

 voir at once. These water reposi- 

 tories have likewise an opening, 



its blessings without a proportionate about two feet and a half wide, in 



share of evils. the wall that surrounds them. This 



" The soil here is light and sandy, aperture is secured by a door let 



but extremely rich and productive ; into grooves, on each side, to draw 



owing, in some measure, to the up and down at pleasure : when the 



overflowing of the river during the water is low, they raise this door, 



rainy season, which, in much the and the gardener goes inside, where, 



same manner as the Nile in Egypt, descending the steps that lead to the 



leaves a nutritious slime on the bottom, he stands as on the brink 



earth : there is, therefore, no great of a well, and draws as much as he 



labour requisite on the part of (he has occasion for. The water here 



proprietor to prepare the ground for is beautitully clear and sparkling ; 



the reception of any kind of seed but its coldness, when drank, is apt 



that he «'shos to cultivate; and to bring on dysenteries and other 



matters are so confrlvpd, that every dangerous diseases, such as I expc- 



paiden is refreshed l)y water from rienced while at Monte Video : for 



the Plata, let in or out by a kind of though I am now thirty leagues 



sluice made of osiers woven very higher up the Plata, its good and 



strong and thick, which open like bad q'lalities are the same, and even 



our flood-gates used in the inland na- at tliis distance from the sea it is be- 

 vigation. 1 he water thus admitted, 

 is sent in smaller channels round the 

 parterres ; and most commonly a 

 quantity of it is retained in a large 

 basin or reservoir, of which there is 

 one in every extensive garden. The 

 reservoir attached to our convent is 

 formed of bricks, strongly cemented, 

 and surrounded with a wall about 

 five feet high, with steps on the out- 

 side up to the margin, and down 

 likewise on the inside to the bottom, 



whirh in ours is about twenty feet ed part of the creation, and even 



below the surface of the earth, there what is deficient in size she has 



When this supply is very low — amply compensated for in variety 



and 



tween seven and eight leagues across. 

 You may guess from hence of what 

 an amazing size tliis river must be. 



" But nature, in these regions, 

 as well as in North America, seems 

 to have worked upon a most gigantic 

 scale when engaged in their forma- 

 tion, and to have studied well how 

 the component parts could best be 

 rendered worthy the immensity of 

 the whole. She has played the nig- 

 gard stepdame only with the feather- 



