152 



CHARLES DARWIN 



The Uruguay, flowing through a granitic country, is much 

 clearer; and where the two channels unite at the head of 

 the Plata, the waters may for a long distance be distin- 

 guished by their black and red colours. In the evening, the 

 wind being not quite fair, as usual we immediately moored, 

 and the next day, as it blew rather freshly, though with a 

 favouring current, the master was much too indolent to think 

 of starting. At Bajada, he was described to me as " hombre 

 muy aflicto " — a man always miserable to get on ; but cer- 

 tainly he bore all delays with admirable resignation. He 

 was an old Spaniard, and had been many years in this 

 country. He professed a great liking to the English, but 

 stoutly maintained that the battle of Trafalgar was merely 

 won by the Spanish captains having been all bought over; 

 and that the only really gallant action on either side was 

 performed by the Spanish admiral. It struck me as rather 

 characteristic, that this man should prefer his countrymen 

 being thought the worst of traitors, rather than unskilful or 

 cowardly. 



18th and ipth. — We continued slowly to sail down the 

 noble stream: the current helped us but little. We met, 

 during our descent, very few vessels. One of the best gifts 

 of nature, in so grand a channel of communication, seems 

 here wilfully thrown away — a river in which ships might 

 navigate from a temperate country, as surprisingly abundant 

 in certain productions as destitute of others, to another pos- 

 sessing a tropical climate, and a soil which, according to 

 'the best of judges, M. Bonpland, is perhaps unequalled in 

 fertility in any part of the world. How different would 

 have been the aspect of this river if English colonists had 

 by good fortune first sailed up the Plata ! What noble town s 

 would now have occupied its shores! Till the death of 

 Francia, the Dictator of Paraguay, these two countries must 

 remain distinct, as if placed on opposite sides of the globe. 

 And when the old bloody-minded tyrant is gone to his long 

 account, Paraguay will be torn by revolutions, violent im 

 proportion to the previous unnatural calm. That country 

 will have to learn, like every other South American state, 

 that a republic cannot succeed till it contains a certain body 

 of men imbued with the principles of justice and honour. 



