408 APPENDIX. 



Francia. As a Frenchman he was not well received by Francia'a 

 successor, General Lopez the father ; for owing to the treatment 

 Bonpland had received in the country, Paraguay had been placed 

 publicly under a proscription by France, as well as by every other 

 civilised nation. 



From the French priest Gay, I learnt that Bonpland had been 

 suffering in health for a long time, and as nothing had been heard 

 of him for several weeks, he was supposed by many to be already 

 dead. I felt it therefore to be an imperative duty to make a personal 

 visit to the old hermit of Santa- Anna. 



I started on horseback on April 13 from Santa-Borja, accompanied 

 part of the way by the priest, and on the following day I reached 

 the little town of Itaqui, where I hired a chalana a river boat 

 and was conveyed a short way down the stream of the Uruguay. 



When I reached the town of Uruguay, I learnt from Kasten, a 

 merchant in the place, and a friend of Bonpland, that he was still 

 alive, but in very bad health. Herr Kasten politely accompanied 

 me across the river to the opposite town of Restauracion, where he 

 assisted me in making arrangements for my ride to Santa- 

 Anna. 



On the following morning a peao groom a dusky native of the 

 Pampas, remarkable for his taciturnity, presented himself at my 

 door in charge of two tall steeds, one of which I mounted. Without 

 uttering a word, he rode slowly before me until we were out of the 

 town, then pressing his great iron spurs into the sides of his 

 matungo, away we galloped for three German miles in a westerly 

 direction, at first through forests of palm, and afterwards along a 

 kind of high road. 



A complete Pampas-plain now spread out before us. One sea of 

 grass seemed to succeed another. Here and there was a miserable 

 mud cabin, always far away from the road. Scarcely did we meet 

 a horseman, scarcely the cart of a strolling pedlar. The solitary 

 riders exchanged a silent greeting as they galloped by. Cattle were 

 seen grazing both far and near, besides numbers of wild horses, 

 which on our approach fled hastily away. A herd of deer sprang 

 out of a swamp, where they had been feeding under the shade of 

 the mimosa, and rushed by with lightning speed, while the ungainly 

 ostrich, trotting like a horse, sped more leisurely across the grassy 

 plain. 



The second half of my morning's ride was accomplished through 

 a country in which the track was even less denned. Without a 

 word of explanation, my guide suddenly deviated from the path 

 and took a southerly direction, right across country, over the ocean- 

 like plain of grey-green herbage. After galloping at full speed for a 



