THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE 



51 



ers, among which a plant, looking like the daisy, claimed the 

 place of an old friend. What would a florist say to whole 

 tracts, so thickly covered by the Verbena melindres, as, even 

 at a distance, to appear of the most gaudy scarlet? 



I stayed ten weeks at Maldonado, in which time a nearly 

 perfect collection of the animals, birds, and reptiles, was 

 procured. Before making any observations respecting them, 

 I will give an account of a little excursion I made as far 

 as the river Polanco, which is about seventy miles distant, 

 in a northerly direction. I may mention, as a proof how 

 cheap everything is in this country, that I paid only two 

 dollars a day, or eight shillings, for two men, together with 

 a troop of about a dozen riding-horses. My companions 

 were well armed with pistols and sabres ; a precaution which 

 I thought rather unnecessary; but the first piece of news 

 we heard was, that, the day before, a traveller from Monte 

 Video had been found dead on the road, with his throat 

 cut. This happened close to a cross, the record of a former 

 murder. 



On the first night we slept at a retired little country- 

 house; and there I soon found out that I possessed two or 

 three articles, especially a pocket compass, which created 

 unbounded astonishment. In every house I was asked to 

 show the compass, and by its aid, together with a map, to 

 point out the direction of various places. It excited the live- 

 liest admiration that I, a perfect stranger, should know the 

 road (for direction and road are synonymous in this open 

 country) to places where I had never been. At one house 

 a young woman, who was ill in bed, sent to entreat me to 

 come and show her the compass. If their surprise was great, 

 mine was greater, to find such ignorance among people who 

 possessed their thousands of cattle, and " estancias " of great 

 extent. It can only be accounted for by the circumstance 

 that this retired part of the country is seldom visited by 

 foreigners. I was asked whether the earth or sun moved; 

 whether it was hotter or colder to the north; where Spain 

 was, and many other such questions. The greater number of 

 the inhabitants had an indistinct idea that England, London, 

 and North America, were different names for the same 

 places but the better informed well knew that London and 



