SOUTH AMERICA. 



285 



present director lives in a style of much greater sim- 

 plicity than any of his predecessors. 



If I were to stop here, however, I should not give a 

 faithful picture of the appearance to a stranger, of the 

 population of Buenos Ayres; the mixture of negroes 

 and mulattoes, is by no means remarkable, not as 

 great, perhaps, as in Baltimore, and the proportion of 

 military, such as we might have seen in one of our 

 towns during the last war, with the exception of the 

 black troops, which, in this city, constitute a principal 

 part of the regular force. But there are other figures 

 which enter into the picture, and give a different cast 

 to the whole from any thing I have seen. The modern 

 European and North American civilization, and I will 

 add South American, which differs but little from the 

 others, was set off by a strange mixture of antiquity, 

 and aboriginal rudeness. Buenos Ayres may very 

 justly be compared to the bust of a very beautiful 

 female, placed upon a pedestal of rude unshapen 

 stone. Great numbers of gauchos^^ and other country 

 people, are seen in the streets, and always on horse- 

 back; and as there prevails a universal passion for 

 riding, the number of horses is very great. The Eu- 

 ropean mode of caparisoning is occasionally seen, but 

 most usually, the bridle, saddle, &c. would be regard- 

 ed as curiosities by us. The stirrups of the gauchos 



* The gauchos of this province differ from those of the Banda 

 Oriental. The degree of civilization they possess, may be esti- 

 mated by the distance at which they live from the metropolis, and 

 the frequency of their intercourse with the people of the town. 

 The wild gaucho is almost a curiosity even here — '*The peace and 

 commerce of Buenos Ayres, have a happy and continually im~ 

 proving effect upon the neighboring inhabitants of the pampas.'* 

 Mr. Bland's report. 



