Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/126



96 MONTE VIDEO.

Monte Video and Maldonado. The colonists were mostly Canarians and Andalusians^ a tall and handsome^ brave and adventurous race^ hard-working and not readily conquered. The Montevidians^ as opposed to the Orientals^ are still called " Canarios/^ and their pretty women^ I regret to say, '^ Sapatos rastrados " â€” slipshods. There is much small but malignant jealousy between them and their rivals the Portenos_, more classically termed Bonaerenses_, and qualified by the smaller city as " Zaraziras/^ or wearers of striped clothes â€” once servile gear. In 1751 a Lieutenant-Governor was appointed to Monte Video, which_, till then, had obeyed the commands of Buenos Aires, and from that date the progress of the place has been rapid and regular.

The protoplasm, the original expression of all these new Iberian settlements from Monte Video to Asuncion is a cell, the Plaza, a central hollow square. It dwarfed by its- vastness the surrounding of mean dwellings, amongst which were the Communal, such as the church or chapel, in those times also Cemetery ; the Cabildo, a town-house above and common jail below, replaced in 1825 by the "Municipality;-'^ the barracks or police-office, and perhaps the theatre. Presently cool shady trees were planted round it, and brick or stone -paved bands of walk were run along and athwart it, the rest remaining weedy or muddy. After the " glorious days,^^ a solitary pillar â€” a built-up obelisk or some other such unarchitectural, unornamental monument, with or without railing, was erected about the middle region, in memory of something or somebody, more or less memorial. Often the centrepiece is capped by Liberty, a lass of Amazonian sem- blance and proportions, in foolscap or Phrygian bonnet, and bathing-house drapery, armed with shield and spear, or as at Monte Video, directing at your breast â€” O Gringo ! â€” a sword, with the gesture of a knife thrust. At the corners of the pedestal, around the column base, will stand busts in