12 DESCEIPTIVE OUTLINE 



I 



education. They have not the moral means of i 

 improving their country, or of being improved by I 

 it ; and oppressed by these and other disadvantages, 

 they naturally yield to habits of indolence and inac- | 

 tivity. The Town, or rather the secluded Village, j 

 in which they live, is generally the seat of govern- ; 

 ment of the province, and but too often affords : 

 a sad political picture. | 

 People who, although they are now free, were ! 

 brought up under the dark tyranny of the Spanish | 

 government, with the narrow prejudices which even j 

 in populous countries exist among the inhabitants ' 

 of small communities, and with little or no cduca- ; 

 tion, are called upon to elect a governor, and to i 

 establish a junta, to regulate the affairs of their 

 own province, and to send a deputy to a distant 

 national assembly at Buenos Aires. The conse- 

 quence (as I have witnessed) is what might na- 

 turally be expected. The election of the governor ; 

 is seldom unanimous, and he is scarcely seated 

 before he is overturned, in a manner which, to one 

 accustomed to governments on a larger scale, ap- \ 

 pears childish and ridiculous. ■ 

 In more than one province the governor is ex- 



