38 MALDONADO. [CHAP. in. 



wake of the vessel, where a line of blue water was seen mingling 

 in little eddies, with the adjoining fluid. 



July %Qth. 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 attending 

 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 th"e 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 evident. It 

 possesses scarcely any trade ; the exports being confined to a few 

 hides and living cattle. The inhabitants are chiefly landowners, 

 together with a few shopkeepers and the necessary 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 orna- 

 mented 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 ? 



I staid ten weeks at Maldoiiado, in which time a nearly perfect 



