1G4 



RIO PARANA. 



Oct. 1833. 



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. 



18th and IQth. — We continued slowly to sail down the 

 noble stream : the current helped us but little. Azara has 

 estimated that even near the sources between latitudes 

 16° 24' and 22° 57', the river has only a fall of one foot for 

 each mile of latitude ; lower down, this must be much 

 diminished. It is stated that a rise of seven feet at Buenos 

 Ayres can be perceived sixty leagues up the course of the 

 Parana. We met, during our descent, very few vessels. 

 One of the best gifts of nature seems here wilfully thrown 

 away, in so grand a channel of communication being left 

 unoccupied. A river in which ships might navigate from a 

 temperate country as surprisingly abundant in certain pro- 

 ductions 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 occupied its shores ! Till the death of Francia, the 

 Dictator of Paraguay, these two countries must remain dis- 

 tinct, 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 



