MISCELLANIES. 



523 



3. Mestizos, the offspring of 

 European and Indian |)aient8. 



4. Indians, almost all of whom 

 have some mixture of Spanish 

 blood. 



5. Brown mixtures of Africans 

 and Europeans. 



0. Mulattos of various degrees. 



All these races intermix with- 

 ' niu restraint, so that it is difficult 

 to define the minor gradations, or 

 to assign limits to the ever-multi- 

 plying' varieties. Few families are 

 entirely exempt from character- 

 istics of Indian origin, physical as 

 well as moral. It is well-known 

 that in tiie Spanish colonies little 

 regard is now paid to purity of 

 blood ', the various regulations for 

 preserving the races distinct have 

 gradually become obsolete. This 

 may be regarded as a momentary 

 evil ; but may it not be conducive 

 in the long-run to the good of 

 societ)', by concentrating the in- 

 terestsof the various classes, which, 

 in remaining separate might one 

 day endanger the stability of the 

 government, as has been the case 

 in the French colony of Si. Do- 

 mingo } 



In describing the orders of soci- 

 ety in Buenos Ayres, it is necessary 

 to premise that I mean to class 

 them, not by degrees of birth, 

 rank, or profession, but by the re- 

 lative estimation in which they 

 stand in point of property or pub- 

 lic usefulness. 



According to this scale, the first 

 which comes under consideration 

 is the commercial class. Every 

 person belonging to it, from the 

 huckster at the corner of the street, 

 to the opulent trader in his ware- 

 house, is dignified by the appella- 

 tion of merchant ; yet few individu- 

 als among them can lay just claim 



to that title, as they are wanting in 

 that practical knowledge so essen- 

 tial in commercial dealings. They 

 are averse to all speculation and 

 enterprise ; the common routine of 

 their business is, to send orders to 

 Spain for the articles they need, 

 and to sell by retail at an exorbi- 

 tant profit ; beyond this they have 

 hardly a single idea, and it has 

 been said that their great reason 

 for opposing a free trade with fo- 

 reign nations is a consciousness of 

 their own mercantile inexperience. 

 The more considerable houses are 

 almost all branches of some Eu- 

 ropean establishment ; few of the 

 Creoles have any regular trade. 

 Those among them however who 

 engiige in it are much more liberal 

 in their transactions than the old 

 Spaniards, and are observed to 

 make less rapid fortunes, for 

 their manly and independent cha- 

 racter makes them spurn a mi- 

 serable economy, and disdain to 

 assume that church-going hypo- 

 crisy whit h must be practised 

 twice or thrice a-day by those who 

 %vould enrich themselves through 

 the patronage of the opulent fami- 

 lies. Among the inferior trades- 

 men, those who gain most are the 

 pulperos, the warehousemen and 

 the shopkeepers. The pulperos 

 retail wine, brandy, candles, sau- 

 sages, salt, bread, spices, wood, 

 grease, brimstone, &c. Their 

 shops are generally lounging- 

 places for the idle and dissipated of 

 the community. In Buenos Ayres 

 there are about seven hundred of 

 them, each more or less in the in- 

 terest of some richer individual. 

 The warehousemen sell earthern 

 and glass ware, drugs, various arti- 

 cles of consumption, and some 

 goods of home raunufacture, whole- 

 gale 



