Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/163



NATIVES AND FOREIGNERS. 133

At present, however, they are like Hindus, divided into a score of castes which cannot co-operate. But a time shall come when the Gauchada, the Jacquerie, will die an unna- tural death, after the fashion of Kilkenny cats. In parts of the country there are four women to one man, and yet, mar- vellous to record, polygamy â€” or, if you prefer the term, patriarchal marriage, has not been made the law of the land. Presently this little Uruguay â€” this true key of the vast and wealthy Platine valley â€” which belongs geographically, if not politically, to the Brazil ; which has twice been held by the Empire, and which has indirectly caused the present war, must come to its manifest destiny. It is rich in metals. Petroleum and coal suitable for gas-making have lately been found about Maldonado and the Department of Minas, thus prolonging the coal-field and completing the maritime system from the mouth of the La Plata to that of the Amazons â€” amazing wealth stored up for those to be. Finally, it is the only spot where the vast Empire of the Southern Cross â€” one-third of the whole Columbian con- tinent â€” is easily vulnerable. At present the people of the Brazil, though generally credited with the far-seeing Ma- chiavellian policy which the last generation of Europe attributed to the purely egotistical and commercial views of England, does not pay much attention to the Banda Oriental. But in time it must, and the sensible foreigner will, if not his own master, prefer Imperial to Republican rule.

You have doubtless gathered from these pages that I do not think highly of present Uruguay as an emigration ground for Englishmen â€” for emigrants who somewhat respect life and property, whose laws are more or less executed, and whose faith in the stability of their constitu- tion is a creed. It is, however, very difficult to give you anything like a clear idea of the state of things in the Banda.