SOUTH AMERICA. 



posed to serious inconvenience from the desertion of 

 their crews to join the privateers, which is as injurious 

 to commerce as it is demoralizing to the seamen. We 

 were fortunate in meeting a young man who was going 

 up in a small brig to Buenos Ayres, and who cheer- 

 fully consented to take us as passengers, otherwise, 

 it is probable, we should have been detained here 

 for some time.* 



On the evening of the twenty-sixth of February, we 

 got all our baggage on board, and embarked. Our 

 Argo would have caused uneasiness, even to Charou 

 and his ghosts; it was certainly much better suited 

 for crossing the river Styx, than the river La Plata. 

 She was a hermaphrodite brig called the Malacabada^ 

 or unfinished; the hand of time, however, had nearly 

 completed what had been left undone by the ship- 

 builder. The deck had not been swabbed for a year. 

 There had been putrid grain in the hold, which had 

 bred insects and vermin, and sent forth a most dis- 

 agreeable effluvia; the cabin, which was very small, 

 contained several women, who were going to Buenos 

 Ayres. The sails and rigging corresponded with the 

 rest; by way of ballast, she had several puncheons of 

 water in her hold, which kept a constant dashing and 

 splashing, to our great annoyance. Thus crowded to- 

 gether on deck, with scarcely room to turn round in 

 this crazy vessel, no one would have suspected that 

 the Malacabada carried a mission from the great re- 

 public of the north, to the rising republic of the south. 



* Captain Hickey arrived at Buenos Ayres several days before 

 us, and announced our coming. We afterwards learned, that it 

 had been in contemplation to send down a government vessel for 

 us, but we arrived before it was made ready to sail. 

 VOL. I. 34 



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