view is limited to a small space, many objects possess beauty. Some of
the smaller birds are brilliantly coloured; and the bright green sward,
browsed short by the cattle, is ornamented by dwarf flowers, 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 liveliest 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
place; but the better informed well knew that London and North America
were separate countries close together, and that England was a large
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