16 MENDOZA. 



mud and chopped straw, sucli as is used for making adobes — a style of building that gives a 

 very dull appearance to the place. Nearly all of the houses have window-sashes, though very 

 few have glass. The government house — which, however, is a private one rented for the pur- 

 pose — has, I think, but one window glazed, and in other respects has about it an air of most 

 republican simplicity. Indeed, the same may be said of the whole place not only in regard to 

 the appearance of the building, but also of the manners of the people. Judging from what I 

 saw, there is very little offensive pretension to superiority on the part of those in authority, or 

 well to do in worldly goods ; and the aristocracy of dress has not progressed so far as to make 

 a respectable woman ashamed to be seen in calico. There is, therefore, a greater feeling of 

 equality than is usual in so large a community. 



Mercantile business is generally conducted on small capital ; and as living is cheap, any 

 industrious man may maintain his position and support his family at a very small cost. I 

 visited in one or two houses which had fronts of about sixty feet on two streets, and gardens and 

 out-houses, covering near half a square ; yet their rents were only five dollars a month, and the 

 wages of cooks and men-servants are only about a like sum. 



The salaries of public officers are very small, and there does not appear to be the same facility 

 for them to accumulate fortunes by dishonest means, as in some other parts of South America. 

 The people appear to have but little, or want but little ; and notwithstanding they have recently 

 been embroiled in civil wars, all party feeling seems to be extinct, and in its place they have 

 adopted the harmless idea that Mendoza is a. great city, and, from its geographical position, 

 destined soon to asteni.sh the world ; under which belief they get along as peaceably and happily 

 as could be desired even in Utopia. 



The government is rejjresentative, but is administered at present rather by traditionary laws 

 than by any well established constitution. Since the downfall of Rosas a general call has been 

 made for deputies from the several provinces of the Argentine Confederation, and they are now 

 waiting for these to form a constitution and code of laws. 



In the formation of laws and enactments relating to the province, the governor has, as in 

 Chile, the initiative; or, in other words, he proposes to the provincial congress such as he deems 

 necessary, and instances of laws originating with the congress are exceedingly rare. Of the 

 health of the city I could learn but little. It was very common to hear people talk of the prev- 

 alence of pulmonary diseases ; but an intelligent English physician, of long practice in the 

 country, informed me that it was their custom to call everything consumption which they did 

 not vmderstand, and that consumjrtion was almost entirely unknown — the place being in reality 

 so healthy, that invalids repaired there for the benefit of its pure air. 



Goitre in its ugliest form is very common. It is said that in some parts of Europe this dis- 

 ease grows very symmetrically in the middle of the throat, and is considered an ornament, as 

 it serves to display fine laces and jewels. In Mendoza it is quite the contrary, being generally 

 knotty and on one side ; and not unfrequently there are two — one on each side of the throat • 

 but even in this case the symmetry is sjioiled by one being higher than the other. There can 

 be but little doubt that it is produced by the use of the water of the Eio de Mendoza, or rather 

 of the Sanjon, which comes from the Mendoza, five leagues to the southward, as the disease is 

 almost wholly confined to the lower classes, who are unable to pay for the spring-water brought 

 in on mules. A few leagues distant, where the water of the Tunuyan is used, it is said never to 

 originate.* 



The principal cereal produce of the province is wheat, which grows well and is of good 

 quality. Indian corn is also raised without difliculty, but not in large quantities ; so also are 

 grapes, peaches, melons, figs, and olives. Indeed, the want of a market is the great obstacle to 

 agriculture. Flax grows readily, and is cultivated in small quantities ; but the great source 

 of revenue is the alfalfa, or clover of the country. Large numbers of cattle and horses are driven 



• Doctor Day — the English physician previously referred to — assured me that he had known an incipient case of goitre in a 

 n<*wl\-linrii irifniif. 



