|| SOUTH AMERICA. S29 



greatest misfortune that could have happened. Such 

 is the people against whom the Portuguese and the 

 people of Buenos Ayres are at war.^ Possessing this 

 effective force at his command, he is enabled to set at 

 deSance the wishes of the sober and settled inhabi- 

 tants residing in villages, or cultivating the soil, who 

 are far from being satisfied with the prostration of all 

 law and government, excepting that which emanates 

 from the will of this despot. When it is said that the 



* I make the following extract from the report of Mr. Bland. 



"Nothing is easier, than to make a fine partisan soldier of a 

 gaucho; those of the plains of the Banda Oriental under Artigas, 

 and those of Salta, under Guemes, are proofs how readily those 

 peaceful herdsmen can be made terrible in war; they are a class 

 of people, who have a predisposition to an unrestrained roving life. 

 To lead them to independence, therefore, an enterprising, spirited 

 leader was all that was necessary. And if the gauchos of the 

 pampas, shall, like those of the Banda Oriental, find a bold leader 

 who shall inspire them with a resolution to insist on having their 

 voice heard through their lawful representatives, the city of Buenos 

 Ayres itself may then soon be, what Monte Video now is, a place 

 where commerce once was. The peace and commerce of Buenos 

 Ayres have a happy and continually improving effect upon the 

 neighboring inhabitants of the pampas. With such an example, 

 how misguided, how cruel was the policy which converted the city 

 of Santa Fee from a new and flourishing seat of commerce, exciting 

 industry, diffusing information, the arts of peace, and innumerable 

 benefit^ all around, into the strong hold of bands of hardy and war- 

 like gauchos. The evils of these distractions, and civil wars, as 

 regards the fruits, productions, and resources of the country are 

 obvious. It is acknowledged, that they have not merely prevented 

 the increase of husj^andry,?but have diminished its amount; many 

 fine chacaras, or grain farms, have been totally neglected or de- 

 str6yed. And the stocks of cattle, which furnish the great staple 

 commodities of all the plains, have been every where very much 

 diminished.** 



