Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/188



158 A DAY AT BUENOS AIRES.

creep towards the eastward^, diverting deep water further from the shore ; and in this case, as in many others, unless engineering science can bring the rivers of the future close to existing harbours, Bahia Blanca will become the port of the Buenos Aires that is to be.

As we land we remark a great change from the City of the Past to that of the Present. Instead of the sturdy, rock-like historic fort, " Santa Trinidad de Buenos Ayres," which still appears in Sir Woodbine Parishes second edition, there is a new Custom-house of two stories, white- washed, semicircular, and arched like casemates. Behind it, separated by a kind of stone-revetted moat, is a square, yellow, two-storied box â€” not " very handsome and com- modious^^ â€” with a broad verandah, denoting the Government House. Wilcocke (1807) shows in his plan " the Fort^' and the Parade or Paseo. Parish also sketches the increase of growth in his day, and now it is â€” for South America â€” enor- mous, and ever-progressing. The population is generally set down at 200,000. Mr. Coghlan, however, easily reduced it to about half that total, and even to less."^ He adopted a simple process which may be found useful in lands where the census can hardly be reliable. After counting the cuadras, say 500, he ascertained the areaâ€” three and a-half square miles â€” and compared it, by way of maximum, with that of the most crowded part of London â€” about 30,000 per square mile â€” from which of course, subtraction must be made. He was, however, astonished at the general ex- penditure, at the consumption of the inhabitants, and at the


 * Mr. Coghlan's computation is as follows : â€”

Part of the city of which the census has been completed 73,000

Remaining part estimated at 14,000

Barracas 6,000

Boca 3,000

96,000