148 REVOLUTION AT BUENOS AYRES chap. 



colours. In the evening, the wind being not quite fair, as usual 

 we immediately moored, and the next day, as it blew rather 

 freshly, though with a favouring current, the master was much 

 too indolent to think of starting. At Bajada, he was described 

 to me as " hombre muy aflicto " — a man always miserable to get 

 on ; but certainly he bore all delays with admirable resignation. 

 He was an old Spaniard, and had been many years in this 

 country. He professed a great liking to the English, but 

 stoutly maintained that the battle of Trafalgar was merely won 

 by the Spanish captains having been all bought over ; and that 

 the only really gallant action on either side was performed by 

 the Spanish admiral. It struck me as rather characteristic, that 

 this man should prefer his countrymen being thought the worst 

 of traitors, rather than unskilful or cowardly. 



i^th and igth. — We continued slowly to sail down the 

 noble stream : the current helped us but little. We met, 

 during our descent, very few vessels. One of the best gifts of 

 nature, in so grand a channel of communication, seems here 

 wilfully thrown away — a river in which ships might navigate 

 from a temperate country, as surprisingly abundant in certain 

 productions as destitute of others, to another possessing a 

 tropical climate, and a soil which, according to the best of 

 judges, M. Bonpland, is perhaps unequalled in fertility in any 

 part of the world. How different would have been the aspect 

 of this river if English colonists had by good fortune first 

 sailed up the Plata ! What noble towns would now have occu- 

 pied its shores ! Till the death of Francia, the Dictator of 

 Paraguay, these two countries must remain distinct, as if placed 

 on opposite sides of the globe. And when the old bloody- 

 minded tyrant is gone to his long account, Paraguay will be 

 torn by revolutions, violent in proportion to the previous 

 unnatural calm. That country will have to learn, like every other 

 South American state, that a republic cannot succeed till it 

 contains a certain body of men imbued with the principles of 

 justice and honour. 



October 20th. — Being arrived at the mouth of the Parana, 

 and as I was very anxious to reach Buenos Ayres, I went on 

 shore at Las Conchas, with the intention of riding there. Upon 

 landing, I found to my great surprise that I was to a certain 

 degree a prisoner. A violent revolution having broken out, all 



