be marked and envied beings for the rest of purple and gold on the Cydnus, excited of their lives; in the divans, the baths, more surprise than will follow the first the promenades of the city-the words of steamboat on the Orontes-the herald to the fair hadjés will be received as oracles, the admiring people of a new era in their and companies will hang as greedily upon condition, in knowledge, in comfort, in them, and even more so, than their lords faith! The general diffusion of instrucon those of the Arab story-tellers, for they tion among a people, from whom it has will have the charm of truth. No gain- been so long and so utterly withheld, will saying or skepticism can be feared from be the gradual but certain result of the other ladies, who have never strayed from rapid facilities of intercourse with Engthe banks of the Bosphorus, or heard land and America; the great valley of more awful sounds than the murmur of its the Orontes, from the vicinity of Damaswaves, or their own fountains. cus to that of Aleppo, is full of modern as The Mahometans, from the tomb of well as ancient interest; there are severtheir prophet-halting on the ruins of An-al large and wealthy towns, where manutioch, presented a mournful comment on factures might be introduced, and a reguthe decline of the power and glory of this lar commercial intercourse established; world, as well as on that of the pure and the cultivation of some districts is excelearliest church of God. The two great-lent, and most are capable of it; but the est of the apostles preached, Ignatius taught, and offered himself as a martyr in Antioch; and great was the prosperity and the joy, during many ages, of its Christian people. And now-the lofty minarets of the mosques were seen above the broken walls of the ancient city; there are some remains of a church, said to be that of Chrysostom; there are tombs also, beneath the shade of the trees, but they do not contain the ashes of the early Christians; the stone shaft carved, and turban, show them to be the sepulchres of the Turks. The valley of the Orontes is very partially cultivated, save in the immediate vicinity of the river; the range of Mount Amanus, the Amana of scripture, rises boldly beyond; far to the right, at a few hours' distance, is the path in this mountain, through which Darius marched his mighty army from the plains of Assyria to the coasts of Cilicia, a few days before the battle of Issus. To the course of the Orontes new interest is now imparted by the enterprise of Colonel Chesney, who begins his overland communication with India at Suadeah, where this ancient river falls into the sea. From this first footstep on the lonely shore, covered with the ruins of Seleucia, what a career of industry, intelligence, and prosperity, may be expected to arise! Steam navigation and railroads will traverse the silent plains and the famous but forsaken rivers; not Cleopatra in her bark people are a prey to indolence and apathy; they want a new stimulus. And this stimulus will be felt when new sources of trade, of enjoyment, of energy, shall be opened to them. The improvements and changes introduced by the conqueror, Ibrahim Pacha, may benefit his coffers, not his subjects. Railroads and steamcarriages will be the greatest blessings to these rich and beautiful countries; on their rapid wheels devolve greater changes than on the march of armies. From Suadeah to the Euphrates, and down its waters to the Persian gulf, will no longer be the painful and interminable journey that most undertake from necessity, few for pleasure; in a few years, the traveller, instead of creeping on a camel at three miles an hour, wasted by sun and wind, may find himself rolling along the plains of Babylon with the speed of thought, while mounds, towers, and tumuli, vanish by, like things seen in a dream; the man of science, who lingers among the dim ruins, the merchant who tarries to buy and sell, may no longer dread the plundering Kurd or Bedouin, when his country's flag heaves in sight far over the plain, on that ancient river Euphrates, as daringly as when "Her march was on the mountain wave, Her home was on the deep." The commercial caravans, it is evident, afford the great means of interchanging commodities between countries which would otherwise be cut off from nearly all commercial intercourse. The caravans of THE PAMPAS OF BUENOS AYRES. A 345 Egypt bring to Cairo ostrich feathers, THE PAMPAS OF BUENOS AYRES. gum, gold-dust, and ivory, from Abyssinia and the countries beyond it; while those of Arabia exchange the spices, coffee, perfumes, and muslin of Hindostan. By means of caravans, an interchange of commodities is kept up between China and central Asia; and at the fair of Nijnei Novgorod, tea, brought originally to Kiachta by caravans which perform a land journey of seventy or ninety days, is distributed throughout the Russian empire. When deserts are to be crossed, the only possible means of transit is by land; but the extension of this mode of transport to the capital of the Russian empire, indicates truly the childhood of Russian civilization. But Asia and Africa are the indigenous countries of camels and caravans, which are the means of advancing and promoting the business, and even the higher interests of life. Without commerce the inhabitants of many parts of Asia and Africa would be condemned to a state of existence deprived of almost every enjoyment; but the camel, which has been most bountifully bestowed upon these arid regions, has facilitated men's intercourse with one another, though the state of these countries has rendered it necessary for merchants and traders to consort with each other in large companies for mutual protection, just as in time of war fleets of merchantmen proceed under convoy. The caravans which travel from the coasts of Egypt, Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco, to Timbuctoo, the great mart of central Africa, are represented as being eighteen weeks in proceeding from the border of the desert. They meet caravans from places in the interior which have never been reached by Europeans. The goods displayed in the markets of Thibet, and those which come from the remotest recesses of Africa, are thus exchanged. The African caravans, it is said, carry coal through the desert. In the year 1254, the caravan of the mother of Moslem b'Illah, the last of the Abbasides, was composed of 120,000 camels; but the Syrian caravan, which is now the largest, did not number more than 15,000 camels in 1814, according to Burckhardt. LL that tract of country south of the Parana river, and of latitude 33 south, extending west of the Andes, goes by the name of the Pambpas, and is a level country, formed apparently by the washings of the great tributaries of the La Plata, without a stone, or rock, or a hill, more than a gentle elevation of a few feet, so level that a carriage can go over the fields in any direction, and without a single tree or bush. It is one immense meadow, covered with luxuriant grass, mingled in the spring time, with a thousand varieties of beautiful flowers. The winter's night is rarely so cold as to form ice of the thickness of glass, and snow is never seen. The thermometer is never below thirty, or above ninety. This plain is but partly settled. A line drawn north and south, one hundred and fifty miles west of Buenos Ayres, and from the Parana river, to three hundred miles south of that city, embraces the portion of the country under civilized rule. Over the rest rove the Pampa Indians, who go as far south as Patagonia, in summer, and who come north in winter. Clothed generally in skins, eating horseflesh, and robbing and murdering wherever opportunity offers, they are the nearest kin to brutes, of any race of Indians that exist on the American continent. The settled part is divided into estates, generally containing two to five square leagues of land. A league contains 5,700 acres, on which the principal business is raising cattle, sheep, and horses. Each land-owner has a peculiar brand, which is registered at the office in the city, and all animals with that brand are his property. The owners drive together all the animals once a year, and brand the young; and when they are sold, they are branded again, or countermarked, and then marked with the mark of the new owner. The animals are driven up to pens, generally near the centre of the estate, every night, and they soon get into the habit of eating away from their the hide is taken off, the beef cut from the bones and hung up to drain, preparatory to salting, and the tallow all taken out, all within five minutes. The hides are salted and shipped, principally to England; the beef is salted and then dried, and shipped in bulk to Brazil and Cuba: the bones, horns, and hoofs, are shipped to Europe; and the hair from the tails, for mattresses, and the sinews of the legs, for glue, are exported to the United States. About 600,000 cattle are annually killed for the beef, which is cured for export, and about 200,000 are killed and the beef either steamed out for the fat, or thrown away. The export of hides from Buenos Ayres is 1,200,000 per annum. Those for the United States are the lighter kinds, that come from the interior states of the Argentine confederation. The richest cattle-owners are Nicholas Anchorena and his brother Thomas, who sell 70,000 each year, and have about 300,000, and 50,000 horses. There are several who own over 100,000, and the country remaining tranquil and in peace, the number would rapidly increase. The other states of the confederation are not so settled, but have about 3,500,000 cattle; and the republic of Uruguay and the southern part of Brazil (Rio Grande) have 5,000,000 more, making in the country near the La Plata, 13,500,000. The export of hides to Europe and the United States is about 2,500,000 annually. sleeping ground until noon, and then turning their steps toward home. One square league will support ten thousand animals, although it is rare that so many are put within that space. The calculations early last year, were, that in the state of Buenos Ayres there were 5,000,000 cattle, 4,000,000 sheep, and 1,000,000 horses. Cattle are worth about three and a half silver dollars each, when selected for market. The owner sells a drove. All the animals are driven together, and all the neighbors are invited to the frolic of separating cattle for market. A most exciting frolic it is, for the cattle are not tame, and it is not very safe to approach them, except on horseback. About twenty tame working cattle are stationed about half a mile from the herd. The purchaser points out an animal to be taken out, and three horsemen dash in among them; the animal runs, and the horsemen manage to get on each side of, and behind him. A race begins; the riders, shouting like madmen, so manage as to bring the animal to the spot where the tame oxen are quietly grazing, when, reining in their horses, he darts ahead, and finding he is no longer pursued, stops, evidently astonished at the operation. In this way, twenty or thirty men will select a large number in a day. Sometimes a "novillo" or steer will give them a chase of three or four miles before they can bring him to the right spot. The drove selected, the head driver gets a certificate from the justice of peace that he has examined the marks, and that the cattle are sold by the true owners, with which he starts for town, sometimes 150 or 200 miles, travelling very slowly, and sleep-burn brick with, in former times, is true. ing on the grass near them. Great care must be taken that they do not mix with herds as they pass along, as there are no fences or ditches to separate one's land from his neighbor's. Arriving at the outskirts of the city of Buenos Ayres, they pass to the great salting establishments, where they are driven into a pen. A lasso or noose is thrown over the horns, and by a windlass the animal is drawn up to a post, where a man stands, and with a sharp-pointed knife pierces the spine, back of the horns -the animal drops upon a rail truck, and is drawn off to the skinning ground, where Sheep have been much neglected until within fifteen years past. Formerly they were considered as worth but a few cents each, and the story of their being used to The common wool is now worth, when washed, about six cents the pound. Within fifteen years many persons have turned their attention to importing fine sheep, and crossing them with the sheep of the Pampas. Over ten thousand full blood merino sheep have been brought to the country, from Germany and the United States. The pure blood sheep born in the country, and taken care of, deteriorate very little in the fineness of the wool, and some of the sheep that are crossed three quarters, or seven eighths full blood, produce very fine wool. The largest sheep estate is that of Mr. Sheridan, an Irish gentle THE PAMPAS OF BUENOS AYRES. 347 man, where there will be one hundred | Buenos Ayres the past season 20,000,000 pounds of wool, of which two thirds went to the United States. This was not all the product of that state, as part of it came from Cordova, Entre Rios, and the republic of Uruguay. and fifty thousand sheared this year, all of them from one half to full blood merino. This estate is about fifty miles south of Buenos Ayres, contains seven league square of land, and is called, "Estancia de los Saiones," or " Estate of the Saxonies" it being devoted entirely to the raising of sheep, which are divided generally into flocks of 3,000 to 5,000 each. A man or boy on horseback, always accompanies them. They require but little care, beyond letting them out of the pen, and driving them back, every day in the year. The soil of the Pampas is impregnated with saltpetre, and the water is brackish. To this is attributed the absence of foot rot and other diseases among sheep. The shearing season commences the middle of October, the shearing being mostly done by women. Some of them will shear fifteen, and even twenty sheep in a day. The level nature of the country and the absence of running water, make it impossible to wash the wool on the sheep's back. It is rolled up as sheared, and with considerable dirt, put into carts, which take it to town, where it is valued and shipped. The greatest drawback to the producing of wool on the Pampas, is the small burr which adheres to the wool. It Horses of the Pampas are a small race, originally from Spain. They are most excellent saddle-horses, and have great bottom, but are not of sufficient weight for carts or carriages. They have increased to such an extent, as to be of little value except for the hide. Horses are the principal munition of war, and all are subject to be taken by the government. An army marches with three horses for each soldier, and the Argentine government have a reserve of 90,000. All battles on the Pampas are decided by the cavalry and light artillery, which is equal to any in the world; and the success of the Argentines in all their wars, may be ascribed to this cause. Every estate has one hundred horses and mares to every one thousand cattle, and in some parts the proportion is larger. Formerly, government allowed horses to be killed and the carcasses steamed, by which process, at times, fifty pounds of oil is extracted, which is shipped to the United States, and there sold as neat's foot oil. Fearing that the stock of horses would decrease, this has been prohibited, and horses are of little value; a flock of them, with mares and colts, not being worth more than seventy-five cents each. Tamed and broken for the saddle, they are worth three to five dollars. Fancy ones bring fancy prices, and occasionally a horse will sell as high as one hundred dollars, but it is very rare. Like the cattle, they are all branded, which gives strangers a very disagreeable impression at first. is the seed of a species of clover, of which the sheep are very fond, and in some parts of the country there is so much of it, as to render the wool of little value. A small shrub that grows two or three feet high, produces a burr as large as a marble, which is easily taken out. The manes and tails of horses feeding among this, are frequently an enormous mass of burr of many pounds weight. The common wool of the country is generally washed after shearing, it being of little importance to keep the fleeces entire. The wool wash- Wheat and corn are now raised, suffied at Buenos Ayres has a harsh, crispy cient for the consumption of the country, feeling, arising from the water. The and at times they are exported. The farSouthdown sheep are hardiest, and in- mers keep the cattle from their fields by crease the fastest. Don Faustino Xeme- boys on horseback, driving them away— nes has 60,000, on his estate, twenty as fences and ditches are rare. There miles from the city, but generally the are immense quantities of thistles, which proprietors have crossed with Saxony. in spring shoot up to six or eight feet. The wool from Cordova, one of the interior states of the confederation, is free from burr, and a much cleaner kind than the Pampas wool. There was exported from The sun dries the stalks, and they are used for fires in the country. Many of the estates have squares of peach-trees, which are cut down every four years. |