164 ST. FE. 



of government is owing to his tyrannical habits ; 

 for tyranny seems as yet better adapted to these 

 countries than republicanism. The governor's fa- 

 vourite occupation is hunting Indians : a short time 

 since he slaughtered forty-eight, and sold the chil- 

 dren at the rate of three or four pounds apiece. 



October 5th. — We crossed the Parana to St. Fe 

 Bajada, a town on the opposite shore. The pass- 

 age took some hours, as the river here consisted 

 of a labyrinth of small streams, separated by low 

 wooded islands. I had a letter of introduction to 

 an old Catalonian Spaniard, who treated me with 

 the most uncommon hospitality. The Bajada is 

 the capital of Entre Rios. In 1825 the town con- 

 tained 6000 in]iabitants, and the province 30,000 ; 

 yet, few as the inhabitants are, no province has 

 suffered more from bloody and desperate revolu- 

 tions. They boast here of representatives, minis- 

 ters, a standing army, and governors : so it is no 

 wonder that they have their revolutions. At some 

 future day this must be one of the richest countries 

 of La Plata. The soil is varied and productive ; 

 and its almost insular form gives it two grand lines 

 of communication by the rivers Parana and Uruguay. 



I was delayed here five days and employed my- 

 self in examining the geology of the surrounding 

 country, which was very interesting. We here 

 see -at the bottom of the cliffs, beds containing 

 sharks' teeth and sea-shells of extinct species, pass- 

 ing above into an indurated marl, and from that 

 into the red clayey earth of the Pampas, with its 

 calcareous concretions and the bones of terrestrial 

 quadrupeds. This vertical section clearly tells us 

 of a large bay of pure salt-water, gradually en- 

 croached on, and at last converted into the bed of 

 a muddy estuary, into which floating carcasses 



