Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/182

 LETTEE Y.

A DAY AT BUENOS AIRES â€” THE OLD ENGAGEMENT KEPT.

Buenos Aires, Sunday, August 16, 1868. My dear Z ,

We prepare to land, and of all self-styled civilized landing-places this at the '^^ Athens of South America" is perhaps the worst. Vile in fine weatherâ€” what must be the abomination when Pampero the storm-blast is out! The wind seems always to blow inwards, and summer shows a worse river than winter; while with rare intervals the air is ever wet, damp, and depressing.

From the " CanaF' or outer roads, distant four or five miles, where the larger steamers, including the mails, ride in summer, and whence disembarking is at times almost im- possible for a week, you must, as a rule, touch ground at your own expense. There are ^'^ Vaporcitos"^ or little steamers, the Jacare and the Baby, which come, or which come not, as they list. They are never, as they should be, under the control of any great foreign company. The usual landing process is at present composed of three several steps. First you drop with bag and baggage from the ship ladder into a lighter, or into one of the sailing craft which â€” manned by foreigners, Italians, or worst of all, English â€” await to devour you. Here, as at Monte Video, the water is far too dangerous for gigs or wherries. After an involuntary douche caused by the least capful of wind, you are transferred, as the boat grounds, to a cart painted blood-red, whose pitiful team of half-drowned