56 



VOYAGE TO 



healthy, and it is evident that the thinness 

 of the population must arise from political, 

 and not from natural causes, in a country 

 where health and nourishment never fail. 

 M. Isabel divides this territory into nine de- 

 partments, possessing three principal towns, 

 Monte Video, La Colonia, and Maldonado. 

 Fifteen small towns, and eight fiamlets, without 

 including estancias, or farms, and ranchos, or 

 cottages. Monte Video having a better port, 

 and not a worse government, bids fair to be- 

 come a city of greater trade and wealth than its 

 opposite rival, Buenos Ayres. The influence 

 of Rosas is already supreme at Buenos Ayres. 

 Under his controul the president and his minis- 

 ters have but a nominal authority; and, as is 

 usual in these cases, there is very little doubt 

 of his assuming, shortly, the presidency him- 

 self; but from what I have heard, he is not 



