302 



A VOYAGE TO 



dreary appearance. On the land side, we seemed to 

 look over the city, which covers an extent of ground 

 nearly as great as Philadelphia, with quintas up and 

 down the river, whose variety of fruit trees, with here 

 and there a Lombardy poplar intermixed, exhibited a 

 very lively and pleasing appearance; while to the 

 westward, at the distance of a few miles, there seems 

 to be a boundless waste of pampas, or gVassy plains, 

 without a tree or shrub. The whole population of the 

 country is not greater than in the city. In fact, the 

 real limits of the province are exceedingly circum- 

 scribed. About forty miles north of this, is a large 

 village called Luxan, at which the road branches oif, 

 for Cordova and Mendoza, there commences a line of 

 presidios, extending southerly across the Salado to the 

 river Colorada, which marks the southern boundary 

 of the province. This line of posts was originally es- 

 tablished for the purpose of protecting the settlements 

 from the incursions of the wild pampas Indians, who 

 were then a most dangerous and formidable ene- 

 my. But of late years, they have ceased to be dread- 

 ed, and their incursions have only for their object, 

 stealing cattle and horses. While I am upon this 

 subject, I will say something as to the manner in 

 which the population is distributed in this country, in- 

 tending to enlarge on the subject on some future occa- 

 sion. 



Under the viceroyalty, a line of two hundred and 

 fifty miles north and south, and a hundred miles east 

 and west, would have included the whole population 

 of the province; but this was distributed in a manner 

 singularly unequal; some parts being as thickly inha- 

 bited as the neighborhood of Philadelphia, and the 



