THE SOUTH AMERICAN SERIES URUGUAY _BY THE SAME AUTHOR_ ARGENTINA, PAST AND PRESENT. PORTUGAL: ITS LAND AND PEOPLE. MADEIRA OLD AND NEW. MODERN ARGENTINA. ETC., ETC. [Illustration: CATHEDRAL: MONTEVIDEO. Frontispiece.] URUGUAY BY W. H. KOEBEL AUTHOR OF "ARGENTINA, PAST AND PRESENT," "PORTUGAL: ITS LAND AND PEOPLE," ETC. WITH A MAP AND 55 ILLUSTRATIONS T. FISHER UNWIN LONDON LEIPSIC ADELPHI TERRACE INSELSTRASSE 20 MCMXI (_All rights reserved._) INTRODUCTORY NOTE The author has to tender his cordial thanks for the extreme courtesy and for the invaluable assistance rendered during his stay in the country by the Uruguayan officials, and by the British Minister Plenipotentiary, Mr. J. R. Kennedy. He is desirous of expressing the obligations under which he has been placed by Mr. C. E. R. Rowland, British Consul at Montevideo, for general assistance and information on the seal fisheries; Señor José H. Figueira, for the description of the aboriginal tribes; Señor Ramos Montero, for the commercial technicalities of the pastoral industry; and Mr. V. Hinde, for the paper on the British railways in Uruguay. Thanks are due to a number of British residents, both in Montevideo and the Campo, greater than it is possible to enumerate individually. The author would more especially acknowledge the courtesy of Messrs. Stapledon, W. J. Maclean, H. Hall-Hall, C. W. Baine, Temple, R. Booth, Piria, Adams, R. B. Harwar, L. L. Mercer, Warren, and J. Storm. Mr. R. A. Bennett, who accompanied the author for the purpose of photography, displayed an unremitting zeal that must be gratefully recognised. He is responsible for much of the information on Mercedes, the Swiss colony, and the frontier town of Rivera. CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE SURVEY 27