Note 85 — Chapter XII · BUENOS AYRES.

Many of the Buenos Ayrean houses, especially in the suburbs, consist of a square of building surrounding a Patio, or quadrangular court, paved with marble, and having either a fountain, or, more frequently, a draw-well, in the centre, and often pleasingly ornamented with flowers, shrubs and fruit. The mode and materials of building here, as in other parts of South America, are such as to obviate, in a great degree, the danger of fire. Stone or brick, iron, stucco, and tiles are the chief component parts of a house; little wood is employed, except for beams, and this is generally hard and heavy, especially in Brazil, and not readily combustible, as explained in a previous chapter. The floors, except in some houses built by foreigners, are not constructed of wood, but of glazed tiles, as in the South of Europe; the staircases being also of solid masonry. The population of Buenos Ayres had been constantly decreasing since the time Rosas introduced his reign of terror; but there is now a decided turn in the state of things in that respect. It may be simply classified into the white and coloured races; the latter constituting nearly a fourth of the whole, which is a smaller proportion than in any other town on the east side of South America. The slave-trade was prohibited in 1813, by a decree of the first constituent assembly, consequently any further supply of the negro-stock has ceased; and since then slavery has gradually become extinguished, not only in Buenos Ayres, but in all the provinces of La Plata, either by the slaves enrolling themselves as soldiers, or by their purchasing their freedom. The negroes now constitute, perhaps, the most useful and industrious class of the lower orders of the community.