Nov. 1833. COLONIA DEL SACRAMIENTO. 



169 



towns in Banda Oriental^ his luggage consisted of two letters. 

 The view from the house was pleasing ; an undulating green 

 surface, with distant glimpses of the Plata. I find I look at 

 this province with very different eyes, from what I did upon 

 my first arrival. I recollect I then thought it singularly 

 level ; but now, after galloping over the Pampas, my only 

 surprise is, what could have induced me ever to have called 

 it level. The country is a series of undulations, in them- 

 selves perhaps not absolutely great, but as compared to the 

 plains of St. Fe, 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 CoUa, 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. I was invited to 

 sleep at Colonia, and to accompany on the following day a 

 gentleman to his estancia, 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 for- 

 tified ; but both fortifications and town sufi'ered much from 

 the Brazilian war. It is very ancient ; and the irregularity 

 of the streets, and the surrounding groves of old orange and 

 peach trees gave it a pretty appearance. 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 

 lightning 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 multitude 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 



