SOUTH AMERICA. 



mt 



matic figures, one at each corner, representing justice, 

 science, liberty and America; the whole enclosed with 

 a light railing. 



The shops, or stores, as far as I observed, in my 

 perambulation through the city, are all on a very small 

 scale, and make no shew as in our towns. There are 

 but few signs, and those belong chiefly to foreigners; 

 such as sastre, botero^ sapatero, 8^c, de Londres; tay- 

 lor, bootmaker, shoemaker, from London. The greater 

 part of the trades which are now flourishing here, 

 particularly hatters, blacksmiths, and many others that 

 I might enumerate, have been established since the 

 revolution; the journeymen mechanics are chiefly half 

 Indians and mulattoes. The wages of an American 

 or English journeyman, are higher than in any part 

 of the world: fifteen hundred, or two thousand dol- 

 lars per annum, I am told are very commonly given. 

 There are other squares through the town, besides 

 the one already mentioned, in which markets are held. 

 There are also large yards, or corrals, which belong 

 to the city, and are hired to individuals for the pur- 

 pose of confining droves of cattle. I observed seve- 

 ral large wood yards, in which there were immense 

 piles of peach limbs, tied into bundles or fagots, toge- 

 with timber and firewood brought from Paraguay, or 

 the Brazils. 



In receding from the river towards the country, the 

 streets wear a much more mean appearance; being 

 very dirty, and apparently much neglected, while the 

 houses seldom exceed one story in height, and built of 

 brick scarcely half burnt. In walking from the fropt 

 streets, we seemed to be transferred, at once, to some 

 half civilized village, a thousand miles in the interior. 



