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and is walled entirely round. Its population amounts to betweenlo,000 

 and 20,000 souls. The harbour, although shoal, and quite open to 

 the pamperos, is the best in the Rio de la Plata ; it has a very soft 

 bottom of deep mud. When the wind continues for some time at 

 north-east, ships drawing twelve feet water are frequently a-ground 

 for several days, so that the harbour cannot be called a good one 

 for vessels above three hundred or four hundred tons. 



There are but few capital buildings ; the town in general consists 

 of houses of one story, paved with brick, and provided with very 

 poor conveniences. In the square is a cathedral, very handsome, 

 but awkwardly situated ; opposite to it, is an edifice divided into a 

 town-house or cabildo, and a prison. The streets, having no pave- 

 ment, are always either clouded with dust or loaded with mud, 

 as the weather happens to be dry or wet. In seasons of drought the 

 want of conduits for water is a serious inconvenience, the well, which 

 principally supplies the town, being two miles distant. 



Provisions here are cheap and in great abundance. Beef in par- 

 ticular is very plentiful, and, though rarely fat or fine, makes ex- 

 cellent soup. The best parts of the meat may, indeed, be called tole- 

 rable, but they are by no means tender. The pork is not eatable. 

 Such is the profusion of flesh-meat, that the vicinity for two miles 

 round, and even the purlieus of the town itself, present filthy 

 spectacles of bones and raw flesh at every step, which feed immense 

 flocks of sea-gulls, and in summer breed myriads of flies, to the 

 great annoyance of the inhabitants, who are obliged at table to have 

 a servant or two continually employed in fanning the dishes with 

 feathers, to drive away those troublesome intruders. 



Of the character of the inhabitants of Monte Video, I am perhaps 

 not qualified to speak impartially, having been treated with un- 

 merited harshness, deprived of my property, and repeatedly per- 

 secuted on the most groundless suspicion. These abuses, however, 

 are solely chargeable on the governor and on the persons imme- 

 diately under his influence; and I am bound in fairness to avow that 



