Buenos Ayres and the Provinces of the Rio de La Plata: Their Present State, Trade, and DebtParish, Woodbine, Sir
History
Buenos Ayres and the Provinces of the Rio de La Plata: Their Present State, Trade, and Debt
Parish, Woodbine, Sir
Argentina -- Description and travel; Argentina -- History
The city of Mendoza, which, according to Bauza, is in south latitude
32° 52´, west longitude 69° 6´; at an elevation of 4891 feet above the
sea, and at the very foot of the Andes, is shut out from any view of
the great Cordillera by a dusky range of lower hills which intervene.
Its appearance is neat and cheerful: the houses, for the most part,
built of sunburnt bricks, plastered and whitewashed; and the streets
laid out at right angles, as usual in that part of the world. It boasts
of an Alameda, or public walk, said to equal anything of the kind
laid out, as yet, in South America:--it is nearly a mile long, neatly
kept, and shaded by rows of magnificent poplars:--there are seats and
pavilions at either end for the accommodation of the inhabitants, by
whom it is much frequented as a lounge, especially of an evening.
The climate is delightful and salubrious, and is remarkably beneficial
to persons suffering from pulmonary affections. The only ailment to
which the people seem more liable here than in the interior is the
goitre, which I suppose may be attributed to the same causes, whatever
they are, which seem to produce it in almost all alpine districts.
SAN JUAN.
The province of San Juan, which adjoins that of Mendoza, occupies the
space between the great Cordillera and the mountains of Cordova, as
far north as the Llaños, or plains, of La Rioja. It is said to contain
about 25,000 inhabitants, governed, at present, like those of Mendoza,
and occupied very much in the same manner, in the cultivation of their
vineyards and gardens, and in agricultural pursuits. Their exports of
brandies and wines to the other provinces are little short of those
from Mendoza, and the quantity of corn they annually grow has been
estimated at from 100,000 to 120,000 English bushels. The same lands
produce yearly crops under the process of artificial irrigation from
waters highly charged with alluvial matter. The ordinary crops are 50
for 1, in better lands 80 to 100, and in some, as at Augaco, about five
leagues to the north of the city of San Juan, they have been known to
yield 200 and 240. The price in the province is from one and a half
to two Spanish dollars for a fanega, equal there to about two and a
half English bushels. The wages of a day labourer are from five to six
dollars a month, besides his food, which may be worth a rial a day more.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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