144 BANDA ORIENTAL. [cuap. viIT. 
induced me ever to have called it level. The country is a series 
of undulations, in themselves perhaps not absolutely great, but, as 
compared to the plains of St. Fé, real mountains. From these 
inequalities there is an abundance of small rivulets, and the turf 
is green and luxuriant 
November 17th.—We crossed the Rozario, which was deep 
and rapid, and passing the village of Colla, arrived at mid-day 
at Colonia del Sacramiento. The distance is twenty leagues, 
through a country covered with fine grass, but poorly stocked 
with cattle or inhabitants. Iwas invited to sleep at Colonia, 
and to accompany on the following day a gentleman to his estan- 
cia, where there were some limestone rocks. The town is built 
on a stony promontory something in the same manner as at 
Monte Video. It is strongly fortified, but both fortifications 
and town suffered much in the Brazilian war. It is very an- 
cient; and the irregularity of the streets, and the surrounding 
groves of old orange and peach trees, gave it a pretty appear- 
ance. The church is a curious ruin; it was used as a powder- 
magazine, and was struck by lightning in one of the ten thousand 
thunder-storms of the Rio Plata. Two-thirds of the building 
were blown away to the very foundation; and the rest stands a 
shattered and curious monument of the united powers of light- 
ning and gunpowder. In the evening I wandered about the 
half-demolished walls of the town. It was the chief seat of the 
Brazilian war ;—a war most injurious to this country, not so 
much in its immediate effects, as in being the origin of a multi- 
tude of generals and all other grades of officers. More generals 
are numbered (but not paid) in the United Provinces of La 
Plata than in the United Kingdom of Great Britain. These 
gentlemen have learned to like power, and do not object to a 
little skirmishing. Hence there are many always on the watch 
to create disturbance and to overturn a government which as 
yet has never rested on any stable foundation. I noticed, how- 
ever, both here and in other places, a very general interest in 
the ensuing election for the President; and this appears a good 
sign for the prosperity of this little country. ‘The inhabitants 
do not require much education in their representatives ; I heard 
some men discussing the merits of those for Colonia; and it was 
said that, “ although they were not men of business, they could 
