In the beginning of the last century this province was covered with cattle, in spite of the devastation which the Indian and the ounce had made amongst them. The conquerors, persuaded that such a profusion of cattle never would have an end, commenced by carrying on a destruction amongst them resembling that of the tiger and the wolf in the sheepfold. This havoc was principally directed against the calves, and generally one did not suffice for the dinner of two comrades; probably they both wished to eat the tongue, and to make a greater certainty of it they killed a second calf, rather than divide the first. There were men who killed an animal in the morning in order to breakfast on broiled kidneys; and, not to be incommoded by carrying any part of the meat for dinner, performed the same operation by killing the best they could discover for dinner. There was no banquet without veal only a few days old. Don Joaquim Vianna, governor of Monte Video, hearing of this destruction of the cattle, and informed of the cause, issued an order, about the year 1650, with a heavy penalty attached to its transgression, that no more calves or cows should be killed, excepting such cows as were barren; and that no bulls or oxen should be slaughtered for their skins, excepting those of five years of age and upwards. In the vice-royalty of the Marquis de Lavradio, some good arrangements were made in the northern part of the province; but all were not under their influence, in consequence of the widely spreading districts, to many of which they did not extend. Two small portions of the cattle of this province are appropriated, one to the consumption of the country, and the other to the slaughter-house of the metropolis; but the far greatest proportion is manufactured into jirked-beef, which is salted without bones, dried in the sun, and exported to the principal ports in the Brazil; but, from the desultory warfare carried on near the river Plate, it has recently become very scarce, and _bacalhao_, or salt fish, brought by British ships to the ports of Brazil, has become a substitute at many places. In 1802, there were yet only amongst the subjects of the faithful crown, five hundred and thirty-nine proprietors of land, judicially marked out amongst the breeders of cattle, denominated _fazendeiros_, or farmers, and _lavradores_, or husbandmen, which latter breed only what is necessary for their own service and consumption; they possess generally about two square leagues of land: but those of the first order have eight or ten square leagues, and some even more. The greatest proportion of the cattle are breeding cows. In a plain or field of three leagues are usually bred four or five thousand head, and proportionably more or less, according to the quality of the land, or attention of the breeder. The pasturage is not, however, generally good, the soil being, as before mentioned, of a sandy nature.