English potatoes are much sought after: the packet sailors have brought a great many;[22] and so eager were the English potatoe merchants to obtain them, that they quarrelled one with the other, and their disputes were referred to the Consulado, who must have imbibed strange opinions of the trading English. All efforts to raise potatoes on this soil have failed: they are small and insipid. An Englishman, Mr. Billinghurst, has been endeavouring, some years, to effect this object without success. Those grown at Monte Video are something better. In Peru, they are thought equal, if not superior, to our's: but our islands appear to be their home. [22] The packet sailors are allowed a portion of trade; and the most profitable of their imports have been potatoes and game-cocks. These packet sailors are complete pedlars. The peaches in their season, from January to March, are excellent, and the consumption great, being esteemed healthy: they are sold in all parts--in the markets, shops, and hawked about the streets. From eight to ten can be purchased for a _madio_ (three-pence English money). The strawberries, apples, pears, cherries, &c. are, for their quality, not worthy of notice. Grapes are tolerable. Oranges will not thrive in this climate; and the lemons are very inferior. Gooseberries, currants, and plums are unknown, except by name. After all the praises bestowed upon the fruits grown in tropical and warm climates, they cannot, in the gross, equal those of others. What have they to compensate for the green-gage, gooseberries, currants, strawberries, cherries, apples, pears, and plums of every description? Travellers must not believe all they hear in Europe; they will not find the fields and boughs, in South America, teeming with every species of fruit, free to those who choose to gather them. * * * * * In addition to those already noticed, this country produces very few OTHER ANIMAL OR VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS. Indeed, persons who wish to send presents to England are often at a loss what to forward, the country not producing any great variety, either in the animal or vegetable world. The herds of cattle that exist in the Pampas are immense: of this we can form a tolerably correct estimate from annual exports. In one year a million of ox and cow hides were exported. Mules are numerous and cheap; they cost from two to four dollars each. There is a traffic in them, but not very great, to the Isle of France and West Indies. The expense of provender and fitting for such a freight, and the numbers that die during a voyage, lessen the profits considerably; and vessels will not venture upon each troublesome shipmates when any thing else offers.