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slow and tedious. The lime, when slaked, is measured, put into 

 sacks made of green hides, and sent in large carts, drawn by oxen, 

 principally to Colonia, Monte Video, and Buenos Ayres. 



Barriga Negra is distant about l60 miles north-east from Monte 

 Video, about 120 from Maldonado, and 90 from the townof Minas. 

 The country around it is mountainous, well watered, and not des- 

 titude of wood. The banks of the streams are thicklj'^ covered with 

 trees, rarely, however, of large size, for the creeping plants, inter- 

 weaving with the shoots, check their growth and form an impe- 

 netrable thicket. Here are numbers of great breeding estates, 

 many of which are stocked with from 60,000 to 200,000 head of 

 cattle. These are guarded principally by men from Paraguay called 

 Peons, who live in hovels built for the purpose at convenient dis- 

 tances. Ten thousand head are allotted to four or five Peons, whose 

 business it is to collect them every morning and evening, and once 

 or twice a month to drive them into pens where they are kept for a 

 night. The cattle by this mode of management are soon tamed ; a 

 ferocious or vicious beast I never saw among them. Breeding is alone 

 attended to ; neither butter nor cheese is made, and milk is scarcely 

 knoAvn as an article of food. The constant diet of the people, 

 morning, noon, and night, is beef, eaten almost always without 

 bread, and frequently without salt. This habitual subsistence on 

 strong food would probably engender diseases, were it not corrected 

 by copious draughts of an infusioi> of their favourite herb Matte, 

 which are frequently taken. 



The dwellings of the Peons are in general very wretched, the walls 

 being formed by a few upright posts interwoven with small branches 

 of trees, plastered with mud inside and out, and the roof thatched 

 with long grass and rushes. The door is also of wicker-work, 

 or, in its stead, a green hide stretched on sticks and removeable 

 at pleasure* The furniture of these poor hovels consists of a few 

 scalps of horses, which are made to serve for seats ; and of a 



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