Note 103 — Chapter XIII · UP THE PARANA.

The capital of the province of Corrientes, of which our sketch is taken from the deck of a man-of-war, is not a large place. Its population has been variously estimated at 3,000, 6,000, and 8,000 inhabitants. This difference is partly accounted for by the fluctuations incident to the military system by which they have too long been oppressed. In fact, subjection to martial law has hitherto been, not the exceptional, but the normal state of these countries. A traveller visiting one of these towns while the greater part of its male inhabitants are absent on military service as volunteers, would have a very different impression as to the number of its population from that which he would receive during a time of peace, and in the commercial and busy season. Moreover, a great many of the wives and children of these men follow, as best they may, the march of the troops, so that whole districts are thus nearly depopulated by these frequent drains of their inhabitants. The ‘Gauchos,’ as the country people are called, are naturally a good-natured, hardy, and courageous race. The demoralization and recklessness consequent on their being forcibly taken from useful and peaceful occupations to swell the ranks of some ambitious ‘caudillo’ or chieftain, have of course produced much evil, inuring them to scenes of violence, bloodshed, and injustice. It is true that they are called out and armed for the loudly-proclaimed purpose of defending ‘la libertad, la patria,’ &c., and appeals to the feelings of independence, honour, virtue, and all the high-sounding words of the sonorous language of Spain are employed by those who want their services. Here, as too generally in Spanish America, their feelings of patriotism have been so frequently invoked either to defend or attack some individual or party, that it is only surprising their characters are not more perverted, and that the moral devastation should not keep pace with that which has so long physically blighted these naturally fine provinces. The resources of these states have been wasted in order to maintain a military force much too large in proportion to their population, and it has been employed either in aggression on neighbouring countries, or for the intimidation or coercion of the provinces themselves, to support the personal policy of the executive. Thus their great capabilities of production have not been developed, and industrial improvement has been completely checked. The evils of such a system are even more injuriously felt in these vast and thinly inhabited regions than they might be in countries differently circumstanced.

The wealth of Corrientes consists chiefly in vast herds of cattle, sheep, and horses. The pasturage of the province is remarkably fine: its exports are hides, tallow, wool, hair, and some agricultural produce. The trade which might arise with the countries in the interior, through which these mighty rivers flow, were the navigation open, is beyond calculation, and its profits would soon enable the States of La Plata to pay with ease their foreign and domestic creditors, and to raise funds for internal improvements. During the few months that the navigation of the Parana was kept open in 1845-6, two convoys, (under the admirable arrangements adopted by the distinguished officer who commanded H.M. squadron in the Parana, Commodore Sir Charles Hotham), one consisting of upwards of one hundred vessels, laden with produce, the other of more than seventy, came down that river and the Paraguay with very little loss or damage, after having exchanged the cargoes of European or North American merchandise that they brought up for the goods with which the different depôts at Corrientes and other places were overflowing, to the value of some millions of hard dollars. It is true that an accumulation of produce at the ports of the river then existed, caused by the interdiction of the navigation by the governing power of one of the banks of the river. But as it is the manifest interest of the different states whose natural outlet is by the River Plate and its confluents,—the Parana and Uruguay,—that internal navigation should be free, or placed, for instance, on a similar footing to that of the Rhine, it is to be hoped that before very long the governments most interested in this question, those of La Plata especially, will awaken to a sense of the vast interest they have in opening these great channels of inter-communication to the commerce of the world.