40 MALDONADO. [CHAP. in. 



July 2Qth. We anchored at Monte Video. The Beagle was 

 employed in surveying the extreme southern and eastern coasts 

 of America, south of the Plata, during the two succeeding years. 

 To prevent useless repetitions, I will extract those parts of my 

 journal which refer to the same districts, without always attend- 

 ing to the order in which we visited them. 



MALDONADO is situated on the northern bank of the Plata, 

 and not very far from the mouth of the estuary. It is a most 

 quiet, forlorn, little town ; built, as is universally the case in 

 these countries, with the streets running at right angles to each 

 other, and having in the middle a large plaza or square, which, 

 from its size, renders the scantiness of the population more evi- 

 dent. It possesses scarcely any trade ; the exports being con- 

 fined to a few hides and living cattle. The inhabitants are chiefly 

 landowners, together with a few shopkeepers and the neces- 

 sary tradesmen, such as blacksmiths and carpenters, who do nearly 

 all the business for a circuit of fifty miles round. The town is 

 separated from the river by a band of sand-hillocks, about a mile 

 broad : it is surrounded, on all other sides, by an open slightly- 

 undulating country, covered by one uniform layer of fine green 

 turf, on which countless herds of cattle, sheep, and horses graze. 

 There is very little land cultivated even close to the town. A 

 few hedges, made of cacti and agave, mark out where some wheat 

 or Indian corn has been planted. The features of the country 

 are very similar along the whole northern bank of the Plata. 

 The only difference is, that here the granitic hills are a little 

 bolder. The scenery is very uninteresting ; there is scarcely a 

 house, an enclosed piece of ground, or even a tree, to give it an 

 air of cheerfulness. Yet, after being imprisoned for some time 

 in a ship, there is a charm in the unconfined feeling of walking 

 over boundless plains of turf. Moreover, if your view is limited 

 to a small space, many objects possess beauty. Some of the 

 smaller birds are brilliantly coloured ; and the bright green 

 sward, browsed short by the cattle, is ornamented by dwarf 

 flowers, among which a plant, looking like the daisy, claimed 

 the place of an old friend. What would a florist say to whole 

 tracts so thickly covered by the Verbena melindres, as, even at a 

 distance, to appear of the most gaudy scarlet ? 



T staid ten weeks at Maldonado, in which time a nearly perfect 



