COASTING ALONG PATAGONIA 29 



bags of Welsh coal, sacks of sugar from France, coffee 

 from Brazil, 250-pound bales of mate from Paraguay, 

 each bale done up in raw hides which had been shrunk 

 around the bundle and made it most compact, canned milk 

 and butter, and so on through a long list. Most of the 

 goods from Europe, going to Patagonia are transshipped 

 at this port as the harbor charges are so much lower than 

 at Buenos Aires. 



At night we were really headed south again, but bad 

 weather delayed us so it was some days before we reached 

 the port of San Antonio, chief town of the territory of 

 Rio Negro. We came in through a long narrow, crooked 

 channel, and anchored seven miles below the town, arriving 

 just as another ship finished completely loading up the 

 two lighters which are used to carry the cargo up to the 

 town at high tide. Then the next day was some saint's 

 day and a holiday, so it was two days before we began to 

 discharge our cargo. After more bad weather, during 

 which the boat made but three instead of eight knots as 

 she was supposed to do, we entered the fine Bahia Nueva. 

 The winds were contrary, so instead of going to our 

 port we put into Pyramides where we watched the 

 handling of cargo as it is done in almost every one of the 

 ports along the 1,000 miles of Patagonian coast. Our ship 

 carried a steam tug that fired up as we approached the 

 port. As soon as the anchor was down, this was passed 

 over the side and steamed away to find the harbor master 

 and make out the requisite papers. Meanwhile the two 

 lighters on the forward deck were lowered and the donkey 

 engine began to creak and groan in earnest, while the 

 miscellaneous collection of bags and boxes, and also our 

 railroad, were loaded into the lighters that were making 

 alternate trips to the shore. 



From the lighters everything was put onto the shoulders 

 of men who waded into the water up to the waist to receive 

 the freight. They carried it up and dropped it on the 



