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CHAP. XI. The Mouth of the River Plate, and Port of Buenos Ayres.

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THE RIVER PLATE REPUBLICS are three in number, viz. the Argentine Nation (or La Plata, properly so called), Uruguay or Banda Oriental, and Paraguay. These immense territories, formerly comprehended in the viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres under the Spanish regime, cover nearly 900,000 square miles, with a scanty population not exceeding three millions, or three inhabitants per square mile. The mineral and agricultural resources of these countries are perhaps equal to those of the United States, and the water system is almost unrivalled, the affluents of the Plate ramifying onehalf of the Continent. The climate is the healthiest on the face of the globe, the inhabitants are very friendly to foreigners, civil and religious liberty prevail in the fullest sense, and treaties of amity and commerce have been concluded with all the great Powers. Trade relations and new enterprises of importance have brought the River Plate into close contact with Great Britain and the London capitalists, and there are few countries which offer more inducements to English emigrants than these, or few foreign nations viewed with more respect, by Argentines, than Great Britain.

The ARGENTINE REPUBLIC is for the most part an unbroken plain, bounded on the North by Bolivia, on the West by the Cordillera of the Andes, on the South by Magellan's Straits, and on the East by Brazil, Banda Oriental, and the Atlantic. It is divided into fourteen provinces, some of which are little deserving of note, but others have attained a high degree of civilization.

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The Province of Buenos Ayres is nearly equal to all the rest collectively, in importance, wealth, and population, being moreover the great centre of foreign immigration. The city of the same name is the seat of the National and Provincial Governments, and one of the principal sea-ports of South America. In the refinement of its society, progressive spirit of the people, and activity of trade and industry, it yields to no other city in the Continent, and has earned the title of «Athens of South America.»> Entre Rios and Santa Fé have of late attracted much notice as sheep-farming countries. Cordoba, the heart of the interior, will soon receive a great impulse from the Central Argentine Railway. San Juan and Catamarca are remarkable for their mineral wealth. Mendoza, at the foot of the Cordillera, formerly the chief city of the Cuyo provinces, is hardly emerging from the ruins of the earthquake of 1861. Santiago and the other northern provinces have been hitherto so isolated as to be almost valueless, but the projected navigation of the Vermejo, and the opening of a highway through the Gran Chaco, will unite them with the river Paraná, the great artery of the Republic. The provinces called Litoral, from being adjacent to this river, have an immense advantage over the rest, possessing cheap freight and easy transit to Buenos, Ayres and the commercial world. The population of the Republic is usually set down at a million and a half souls, but is rather over than under that estimate. The established religion is Roman Catholic, and the language Spanish, from which nation the original settlers were descended.

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The REPUBLIC OF URUGUAY, or «Banda Oriental,» is separated from the last-mentioned country by the Rivers Plate and Uruguay: the La Plata, opposite Buenos Ayres, is twenty-eight miles wide. It is very different from the sister state, in being intersected with numerous chains of mountains, called here Cuchillas or Sierras. Its extent is 63,000 square miles, or larger than England by one-eighth. Many of the general features are similar to those of La Plata, the country being eminently adapted for sheep and cattle farming, and, moreover, free from Indian incursions. The capital, Montevideo, is favorably situated near the mouth of the Plate, and its commerce is almost equal to that of Buenos Ayres, from which port it is distant 120 miles. The next towns of importance are-Salto and Paysandú, on the River Uruguay; Canelones, Tacuarembó, and Minas, in the interior; Mercedes, on the Rio Negro; Colonia, abreast of Buenos Ayres and Maldonado, on the Atlantic. The country is thickly wooded in parts, and presents a beautifully diversified appearance. Of late years there has been an immense influx of immigrants, and several Buenos Ayrean land-owners also possess estancias on this side: the population was

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