46 



MALDONADO. 



1832-3. 



limited to a small space, many objects possess beauty. Some 

 of the smaller birds are brilliantly coloured ; and the bright 

 green sward, browsed short by the cattle, is ornamented 

 by dwarf flowers, among which a plant, looking like the 

 daisy, claimed the place of an old friend. What would a 

 florist say to whole tracts so thickly covered by the Verbena 

 melindres, as, even at a distance, to appear of the most gaudy 

 scarlet ? 



I staid ten weeks at Maldonado, in which time a nearly 

 perfect collection of the animals, birds, and reptiles, was 

 procured. Before making any observations respecting them, 

 I will give an account of a little excursion I made as far as the 

 river Polanco, which is about seventy miles distant, in a north- 

 erly direction. I may mention, as a proof how cheap every 

 thing is in this country, that I paid only two dollars a day, or 

 eight shillings, for two men, together with a troop of about 

 a dozen riding-horses. My companions were well armed 

 with pistols and sabres ; a precaution which I thought rather 

 unnecessary ; but the first piece of news we heard was, that, 

 the day before, a traveller from Monte Video had been found 

 dead on the road, with his throat cut. This happened close 

 to a cross, the record of a former murder. 



On the first night we slept at a retired little country- 

 house ; and there I soon found out, that I possessed two or 

 three articles, especially a pocket compass, which created 

 unbounded astonishment. In every house I was asked to 

 show the compass, and by its aid, together with a map, to 

 point out the direction of various places. It excited the 

 liveliest admiration that I, a perfect stranger, should know 

 the road (for direction and road are synonymous in this open 

 country) to places where I had never been. At one house 

 a young woman, who was ill in bed, sent to entreat me to 

 come and show her the compass. If their surprise was great, 

 mine was greater, to find such ignorance among people who 

 possessed their thousands of cattle, and "estancias^^ of great 

 extent. It can only be accounted for by the circumstance 

 that this retired part of the country is seldom visited by 



