We slept
at one of the great estancias of General Rosas. It was fortified,
and of such an extent, that arriving in the dark I thought it was a
town and fortress. In the morning we saw immense herds of cattle,
the general here having seventy-four square leagues of land.
Formerly nearly three hundred men were employed about this estate,
and they defied all the attacks of the Indians.
SEPTEMBER 19, 1833.
Passed the Guardia del Monte. This is a nice scattered little town,
with many gardens, full of peach and quince trees. The plain here
looked like that around Buenos Ayres; the turf being short and
bright green, with beds of clover and thistles, and with bizcacha
holes. I was very much struck with the marked change in the aspect
of the country after having crossed the Salado. From a coarse
herbage we passed on to a carpet of fine green verdure. I at first
attributed this to some change in the nature of the soil, but the
inhabitants assured me that here, as well as in Banda Oriental,
where there is as great a difference between the country around
Monte Video and the thinly-inhabited savannahs of Colonia, the
whole was to be attributed to the manuring and grazing of the
cattle.
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