A great waterway--The river compared with the Paraná-- Some questions of navigation--The lower stretch of the Uruguay--The stream from Montevideo upwards-- Montevideo--The docks--An imposing array of Mihanovich craft--Breadth of the river--Aspects of the banks--Various types of vessels--The materials of their cargoes--The meeting of sister steamers--The etiquette of salutations-- Fray Bentos--The Lemco factory and port--A notable spot-- The Paradise of the eater--The islands of the Uruguay-- Method of their birth and growth--The responsibility of leaves and branches--Uncertainty of island life--The effects of flood and current--Sub-tropical bergs--The vehicles of wild creatures--A jaguar visitation in Montevideo--Narrowing of the stream--Paysandú--The home of ox-tongues--The second commercial town of the Republic--Some features of the place--Variety of the landscape--The _Mesa de Artigas_--An historical table-land-- A monument to the national hero--Salto--A striking town-- Pleasant landscape--The Salto falls--The ending of the lower Uruguay--A rocky bed--Some minerals of Salto-- Alteration in the colour of the water--The beauty of the upper Uruguay. CHAPTER XX THE URUGUAYAN CAMPO 237 Formation of the land--A survey of the country--Features of the soil--Types of wild flowers--A land of hill, valley, and stream--The glamour of the distance--"The purple land"--Breezes of the Campo--An exhilarating country--The dearth of homesteads--The Uruguayan Gaucho-- His physique--The product of the blowy uplands--Matters of temperament--His comparative joviality--The Gaucho as worker, player, and fighter--The manipulation of feuds-- A comparison between Argentina and Uruguay--Warrior ancestors of the Gaucho--His sense of dignity and honour-- Conservative habits and customs--Costume and horse gear-- Strenuous _bailes_--Some homeric feats of dancing-- Stirring revelry--The Uruguayan landowner--Foreign elements in the land--Negro inhabitants of the Banda Oriental--The numerical status of the Africans in the north and in the south--Absence of a racial question--The slavery of former days--The employment of black troops in war--Lenient treatment of negro slaves--Harsh measures applied to aboriginal Indians--A lesson in human economy-- Testimony of a contemporary writer--Immigrant colonies. CHAPTER XXI ESTANCIA LIFE 246