27Q 



A VOYAGE TO 



still more tame and submissive by this change of life. 

 The storms of the revolution have, probably, occa- 

 sioned them but little uneasiness; they are, therefore, 

 very indifferent materials for revolutionary purposes. 

 I obtained, with difficulty, some answers to a few 

 questions which I put to Paraguay o, respecting the 

 navigation of the river. He said, that as the wind 

 blew a great part of the year up the Parana and Para- 

 guay, sloops used in its navigation, ascended with 

 <sails, that the voyage was long and tedious; it took 

 five or six weeks to go to Assumption, the capital of 

 Paraguay, about twelve hundred miles up, that there 

 were a great many islands in the river, covered with 

 wood, near which they sometimes stopped and anchor- 

 ed for the night, as they only navigated in the day 

 time. That the borders of the river from Buenos 

 Ayres to Corrientes, seven or eight hundred miles, 

 are very thinly inhabited, but that the soil is fertile, 

 and banks not subject to inundation. 



About day break we found ourselves in the outer 

 roads, about six miles from shore, where vessels of a 

 larger size are obliged to moor, as the water is too 

 shoal for them to approach nearer. A light fog 

 rising soon after, prevented us from having a clear 

 view of the city until after we had cast anchor among 

 the smaller vessels, about half a mile from land. 

 Phoebus at last lifted the curtain, and our impatient 

 eyes beheld the celebrated seat of liberty and inde- 

 pendence of the south. How different the thoughts 

 which rushed across my mind from those I expe- 

 rienced on approaching Rio Janeiro! There is no 

 king here — no hereditary nobility — the power of the 

 state is acknowledged to be in the people^ and in no 



