BUENOS AYRES. 



55 



the streets, and round the suburbs, to inspect 

 the principal city and capital of the Banda 

 Oriental. This state separates Brazil from 

 the river Plata, and is about as large as France, 

 with a population, exclusive of Indians (who 

 are migratory and uncertain), not exceeding 

 100,000 souls, counting the inhabitants both 

 of town and country. By the last census there 

 were only 30,000 returned, but the numbers 

 have more than trebled since. 



M. Isabel, a French traveller of some re- 

 search, calculates the population of the Banda 

 to be above 70,000 ; giving seven or eight in- 

 habitants to every square league, and com- 

 puting the superficies of the republic at 12,000 

 leagues. In this vast territory the humidity 

 of the soil, which is watered by numerous 

 rivers, is corrected by the Pampero, a re- 

 markably dry wind. Its climate is proverbially 



