  | Introduction | Pageiii. | | CHAPTER I. | | DIVISIONS AND PRESENT STATE OF THE REPUBLIC. | | Extent, Divisions, and General Government of the Provinces of La Plata. Jurisdiction of the old Viceroyalties:—Necessity of dividing and subdividing such vast Governments:—Embarrassments arising out of this necessity. The backwardness in the Political organization of these Provinces, common to all the new Republics of South America; and attributable to the same cause; the Colonial system of the Mother Country. Mistake in comparing the condition of the Creoles with that of the British Colonists of North America. Natural ascendency of Military Power in the new States. Their progress in the last twenty-five years compared with their previous condition | Page1 | | CHAPTER II. | | RIVER PLATE. | | The River Plate—why so called. Its immensity. Arrival off Buenos Ayres. Passengers carted on shore. Want of a better landing-place, for goods especially. Navigation of the River not so perilous as was supposed in former times | Page12 | | CHAPTER III. | | CITY OF BUENOS AYRES. | | First Impressions of Buenos Ayres. Date of the Foundation, and insignificance of the Colony for a long period. Contraband Trade carried on through it a grievance to the Mother Country. Erected into a distinct Viceroyalty in 1776, and its trade opened in consequence of the modified system adopted by Spain about the same time. The advantages of this to Buenos Ayres. | Page18 | | CHAPTER IV. | | POPULATION OF BUENOS AYRES. | | Statistics of the Population. Its great increase in the last fifty years. Castes into which it was formerly divided now disappearing. Numbers of Foreigners established there, especially British. Their influence on the habits of the Natives. The Ladies of Buenos Ayres; the Men and their occupations. | Page22 | | CHAPTER V. | | CITY OF BUENOS AYRES. | | Great extent of the City. Public Buildings. Inconvenient Arrangement and want of Comfort in the Dwellings of the Natives a few years ago. Prejudice against Chimneys. Subsequent Improvements introduced by Foreigners. Iron gratings at the windows necessary. Water scarce and dear. That of the River Plate excellent, and capable of being kept a very long time. Pavement of Buenos Ayres | Page36 | | CHAPTER VI. | | CLIMATE OF BUENOS AYRES AND ITS EFFECTS. | | Climate of Buenos Ayres, liable to sudden changes. Influence of the North Wind. Case of Garcia. Effects of a Pampero. Dust-Storms and Showers of Mud. The Natives free from Epidemics, but liable to peculiar affections from the state of the atmosphere. Lockjaw of very common occurrence. The Smallpox stopped by Vaccination. Introduced in 1805, and preserved by an individual. Its first introduction amongst the Native Indians by General Rosas. Cases of Longevity, of frequent occurrence | Page44 | | CHAPTER VII. | | HISTORY OF THE SPANISH SETTLEMENTS ON THE COAST OF PATAGONIA. | | Little known of Patagonia till the appearance of Falkner's work in 1774. It stimulates the Spanish Government to send out an expedition under Piedra in 1778, to form settlements upon the coast. He discovers the Bay of San Joseph's. Francisco Viedma forms a settlement on the River Negro. Antonio, his brother, explores the southern part of the coast, and forms another at San Julian's. His account of the Indians he found there. The New Settlements abandoned in 1783, with the exception of that on the River Negro. VillariÑo ascends that river, as far as the Cordillera opposite Valdivia. A dispute with the Araucanian Indians prevents his communication with the Spaniards of Chile, and obliges him to return. Piedra succeeds Viedma, attacks the Pampa Tribes, and is defeated. Don Ortiz de Rosas, father of the present Governor of Buenos Ayres, is taken prisoner by them, and succeeds in bringing about a general pacification. Subsequent neglect of the settlement on the Rio Negro. Its population in 1825, and coasting-trade with Buenos Ayres | Page58 | | CHAPTER VIII. | | SURVEYS AND DISCOVERIES IN THE INTERIOR. | | Malaspina. Surveys the Shores of the Rio de la Plata in 1789. Bauza maps the Road to Mendoza: De Souillac that to Cordova. Azara, and other Officers, in 1796, fix the positions of all the Forts and Towns in the Province of Buenos Ayres. Don Luis de la Cruz crosses the Pampas, from the frontiers of Conception in Chile to Buenos Ayres, in 1806. Attempt at a mew delineation of the Rivers of the Pampas from his Journal. His account of the Volcanic appearances along the Eastern Andes. Sulphur, Coal, and Salt found there, also Fossil Marine Remains. The Indians of Araucanian origin: Habits and Customs of the Pehuenches | Page96 | | CHAPTER IX. | | PROGRESS OF INLAND DISCOVERY. | | Ignorance of the Buenos Ayreans respecting the lands south of the Salado previously to their Independence. Colonel Garcia's expedition to the Salt Lakes in 1810. The Government of Buenos Ayres endeavours to bring about an arrangement with the Indians for a new boundary. Their warlike demonstrations render futile this attempt. March of an army to the Tandil, and erection of a Fort there. Some account of that part of the country. The coast as far as Bahia Blanca examined, and extension of the frontier-line as far as that point. The hostility of the Indians makes it necessary to carry the war into the heart of their Territories. General Rosas rescues from them 1500 Christian captives. Detachments of his army occupy the Choleechel, and follow the courses of the River Negro and of the Colorado till in sight of the Cordillera | Page117 | | CHAPTER X. | | GEOLOGY OF THE PAMPAS. | | Geological Features of the Southern compared with those of the Northern Shore of the Plata. The Pampa Formation, probably derived from the Alluvial Process now going on, as exhibited in the Beds of the Plata itself and other Rivers. Fossil remains of land Animals found in it, above Marine Shells. Such Shells where met with, and of what Species. Mr. Bland's Theory of the Upheaval of the Pampas from the Sea, founded on the Deposits of Salt in them:—The presence of such Salt may be otherwise accounted for. Account of the Discovery of the Gigantic Fossil remains sent to England by the Author.— | Page163 | | Additional Note on the Glyptodon, another fossil monster recently discovered in the Pampa formation | Page178b | <
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