]36 BAXDA ORIENTAL. [CHAI-. viu. 



thence, following up the Uruguay, to the village of Mercedes on 

 the Rio Negro (one of the many rivers of this name in South 

 America), and from this point to return direct to Monte Video. 

 We slept at the house of my guide at Canelones. In the morning 

 we rose early, in the hopes of being able to ride a good distance ; 

 but it was a vain attempt, for all the rivers were flooded. We 

 passed in boats the streams of Canelones, St. Lucia, and San Jose, 

 and thus lost much time. On a former excursion I crossed the 

 Lucia near its mouth, and I was surprised to observe how easily 

 our horses, although not used to swim, passed over a width of at 

 least six hundred yards. On mentioning this at Monte Yideo, I 

 was told that a vessel containing some mountebanks and their 

 horses, being wrecked in the Plata, one horse swam seven miles to 

 the shore. In the course of the day I was amused by the dexterity 

 with which a Gaucho forced a restive horse to swim a river. He 

 stripped off his clothes, and jumping on its back, rode into the 

 water till it was out of its depth ; then slipping off over the crupper, 

 he caught hold of the tail, and as often as the horse turned round, 

 the man frightened it back by splashing water in its face. As soon 

 as the horse touched the bottom on the other side, the man pulled 

 himself on, and was firmly seated, bridle in hand, before the horso 

 gained the bank. A naked man on a naked horse is a fine spectacle ; 

 I had no idea how well the two animals suited each other. The 

 tail of a horse is a very useful appendage ; I have passed a river in 

 a boat with four people in it, which was ferried across in the same 

 way as the Gaucho. If a man and horse have to cross a broad 

 river, the best plan is for the man to catch hold of the pommel or 

 mane, and help himself with the other arm. 



AVc slept and stayed the following day at the post of Cufre. In 

 the evening the postman or letter-carrier arrived. He was a day 

 after his time, owing to the Bio Eozario being flooded. It would 

 not, however, be of much consequence ; for, although he had passed 

 through some of the principal towns in Banda Oriental, his luggage 

 consisted of two letters ! The view from the house was pleasing ; 

 an undulating green surface, with distant glimpses of the Plata. I 

 find that I look at this province with very different eyes from what 

 I did upon my first arrival. I recollect I then thought; it singu- 

 larly level ; but now, after galloping over the Pampas, my only 

 surprise is, what could have induced me ever to call it level. The 

 country is a series of undulations, in themselves perhaps not abso- 



