54

ARRIVAL IN THE OUTER ROADS.

nutes together; up went the hatch, down came the rain, and, through the howling of the wind, the mild remonstrance of the patròn was heard, "Ah, Don Tomas! there you are again! Do me the favour-pray go below."

We were buffeted about during the whole night, our skipper tacking with no small skill from one point to another. At one time, on our calling out to know whereabouts we were, he answered, to our astonishment, that we were in the outer roads of Buenos Ayres-right among the shipping! He cleared us of this danger with his usual dexterity, perseveringly assisted by his man and his boy, and in an hour or two after we were again up the river, near the Isleria.

The long and tedious night,-of painful suffering to our friend Mr. Fair, of somewhat broken repose to Mr. E., of incessant labour and fatigue to our little crew, and of positive danger to us all,passed at length away, though at dawn the terrific gale had in no degree abated. It lulled, however, during the morning, when the rain fell in torrents more unbroken than before; and at last the contest between the two elements seemed gradually to waste the strength and fury of both. Under these cir

ARRIVAL IN THE OUTER ROADS.

55

cumstances, and being most desperately tired of the storm-tossed little Clyde, we gave the skipper positive orders to run us ashore wherever he most conveniently could, and this he effected towards mid-day on the open beach, opposite to a pretty little chacara, or farm, not far from the village of San Isidro, the farm-house standing romantically embowered among trees and shrubs on the barranca, or cliff, which at some distance from the shore here runs along the River Plate. A meadow ground intervenes, and the beach is formed of a quasi-rock, called tosca.

The pampero having blown the water off its widespreading shoals, towards the centre or bed of the river, we had a long way to walk over the rock, and wade through occasional pools, before we reached the beach. Mightily pleased were we all when we found ourselves on terra firma, and no time did we lose in hastening up the barranca, and making ourselves at home with the chacarero and his buxom wife. Mr. E., after surveying their nice whitewashed house, their orange trees in blossom, and their wide-spreading vine trained over a trellised walk; after clapping the farmer heartily on the back, and nodding repeatedly and smiling with

56

THE CHACARERO AND HIS SPOUSE.

an expression of the blandest affection to the wife, not being a great adept at Spanish ;-after doing all this he quietly drew a chair from the sala and placed it under the veranda, produced his segars, asked for a glass of water, of which he always drank copiously, and sat down as much at home as if he had been under his own paternal roof. Totally absorbed in the new scene around him, Mr. E. seemed to have banished from his thoughts every trace of the dangerous struggle in which we had just been engaged with the warring elements.

Our friend, wherever he sat down, was at once at home, and he never seemed to have the least desire to change his quarters. He showed no inclination to make the present case any exception to the general rule; and he was, perhaps, the more intent on evincing that he had made up his mind to remain where he was for the present, that he had overheard us conning over the best mode of getting him to town without delay, which was only to be done on horseback.

As he sent up, therefore, into the now placid air the curling smoke of his segar, he watched with no small anxiety our communings with the chacarero.

AN EQUESTRIAN FETE.

57

He fancied they boded him no good, and he, accordingly, thought it right to expound his own views.

"Well," said he, turning round to us, "we've had a rough time of it, but certainly we could not have landed at better quarters than these. I never saw a prettier place, and I am sure we shall all have better beds to-night than we had last night; and I think it would be very well to send a messenger immediately for a coach, so that we may set off comfortably in the morning."

In answer to this, we began by showing Mr. E. the impossibility of any coach travelling through the roads, rendered totally impassable by the torrents of rain which had fallen during the last twenty-four hours. The whole country was inundated, and on horseback alone could we hope to get to Buenos Ayres.

At first our worthy friend wholly repudiated the notion of his mounting a horse, and treated our proposal of his doing so as a mere joke; but we plied him very hard, and got him by degrees to look to the astounding reality of his travelling twelve miles on the back of a wild South American colt. The chacarero's wife, seeing our great anxiety to proceed, and perceiving the difficulty

58

A

THE EQUESTRIAN FETE.

which lay in the way, came opportunely, after an hour's argument on the subject, to strengthen our position. "Tell the gentleman," said she," that as he is afraid of a wild horse, he shall have mine, on which I go to mass and market, and which is as tame as a lamb and as easy as a feather bed." We redoubled our attack, and poor Mr. E., unable longer to oppose us, but evidently labouring under great trepidation of mind, consented at last to mount the lady's cavallo de misa, or tame churchgoing horse.

The house, as we have said, was situated on the front of the barranca, or cliff, and the horses were all saddled and drawn up before the verandah. It was with much difficulty we constrained our mirth on glancing at our agitated friend. To re-assure him, the farmer placed a chair at the side of his wife's horse, mounted, dismounted, walked under the gentle animal, lifted its legs, shoved it about, and showed that it was impassible to every feeling save one of quiet indolence. At length the chair was left for Mr. E. to mount, and the passive cob was pushed up to the side of it. Supported to the chair by Mr. Fair and the farmer, our antiequestrian companion stood there like a condemned