CHAPTER VIII.

Arrival at Rio de Janeiro Reach the Rio de la Plata - A Pampero Enormous width of the River Anchorage off Buenos Ayres - Landing there First impressions of the City Public Buildings Interior of the Houses Want of comfort Since improved by Foreigners-Water how obtained — Pavement of Granite from Martin Garcia — Quintas and Gardens Flowers and Fruits — The Agavé and Cactus - Humming Birds Case of one domesticated.

I ARRIVED at Rio de Janeiro in February, 1824, after a favourable passage of forty days from England in H.M.S." Cambridge." Much as I had heard and read of the beauties of that magnificent harbour, my expectations were more than realized. Nothing in Europe can compare with the splendid and varied scenery, clothed, as I saw it, in all the glories of that dense and wonderful vegetation only to be found in intertropical climes.

The heat, however, was at that season almost intolerable to one unaccustomed to it, and made me doubly anxious to reach my destination in the cooler regions of the Rio de la Plata; but our great eighty-gun ship was to go round Cape Horn, and required not only much refitting, but caulking also, which detained us three weeks longer before we could proceed on our voyage.

I would fain have embarked in a merchant vessel which sailed a few days after our arrival direct for Buenos Ayres, but every berth was occupied by other passengers, and happily for us it was so, for the first thing we heard on reaching Monte Video was that she had been totally wrecked on one of the islands at the entrance of the river, and many of the passengers lost in attempting to reach the main land upon a raft.

H

98

THE RIO DE LA PLATA.

PART II.

We had hardly cast anchor there ourselves when we were telegraphed by Sir Murray Maxwell, who was lying off the Mount in command of H.M.S. "Briton," to make all fast against a coming storm, of which the barometer, as experience had taught him, was giving timely notice. Dark clouds came flying fast before a strong southwesterly gale, which soon increased to little short of a hurricane, accompanied by the most terrific thunder and lightning. Our big ship drifted before it, and was not brought up till all her enormous chain cable was out, and she became immoveable in a mass of mud.

This was a pampero. For nearly 24 hours it raged without intermission; then the wind changed and all became still, and we were once more cheered by the sight of a bright blue sky; but the river, stirred up by the recent storm, might more properly have been called a yellow sea, from its turbid waters and vast extent.

At its entrance, between Cape St. Mary and Cape St. Antonio, its width is 170 miles; further up, from Santa Lucia near Monte Video, where we were lying, to the point of Las Piedras on the southern shore, it is 53 miles across-about double the distance from Dover to Calais; but for its positive freshness a stranger can hardly credit he is not still at sea. The depth, however, is in no proportion to the extent of this mighty mass of waters. Above Monte Video, except in the channel between the Ortiz and Chico banks, the soundings do not average 20 feet.

It was not deemed safe for H.M.S. "Cambridge," from her draught of water, to attempt to go higher, and we were in consequence obliged to embark at Monte Video on board a small schooner, employed as a sort of packet between that place and Buenos Ayres, and commanded by an Englishman, who was considered one of the best pilots for the river.

* The depth of the river, generally speaking, may be said very much to depend upon the wind. After any prevalence of northerly or westerly winds, it falls considerably, especially in the upper part of it above the Ortiz bank. On the

other hand, with a strong easterly or southerly wind, it will rise from six to sometimes twelve feet; then the weather is generally cool and pleasant, with a clear sky. Northerly winds bring rain.