MR. HUTCHINSON'S ARGENTINE GLEANINGS.* WHEN a man writes a book

concerning a well-known country, we forget him to consider what he says, relying upon our own know- ledge to protect us from misrepresentation, or to help us in our criticism. But when a book concerns an exploration into un- known regions, or regions which ordinary men are at all events not expected to know, the mind's eye of the reader turns with a curious and inquisitive glance towards the name of the author, and first tries to analyze his claims to confidence. This premised, we have the honour to introduce to our readers the author of Buenos Ayres and Argentine Gleanings, with Extracts from a Diary of Salado Exploration in 1862 and 1863. It is Mr. Thomas J. Hutchinson, F.R.G.S., F.R.S.L., F.E.S. Mr. Hutchinson besides being a fellow of such excellent societies, is Her Britannic Ma- jesty's Consul for Rosario, Santa Fe. He is " Membre Titulaire de l'Institut d'Afrique." He is " Honorary and Corresponding Member of the Liverpool Literary and Philosophical Society." He is the author of the celebrated Narrative of Niger, Tshadda, and Binue Exploration. The Impressions of Western Africa were Mr. Hutchinson's impressions, and the Ten Years' Wanderings amongst the Ethiopians were the wanderings of Mr. Hutchinson. This enumeration of titles, distinctions, and achievements is not in this instance formal, it is substantial. These are Mr. Hutchinson's' credentials, and having heard them, our readers may, we think, safely fold their hands, twirl their thumbs and mustachios, and otherwise listen to what he has to say, as they do at learned societies, when learned men condescend to descant to them con- cerning human knowledge and its absence.

In 1862 Mr. Hutchinson sailed from the Mersey to the Rio de la Plata, and made the trip from Liverpool to Monte Video in the unusually short run of forty-four days. His chief object in writ- ing the book now before us is "to give a description of those parts of the Argentine Republic which he then visited, and to supply statistics as well as other details on the important subjects of immigration, sheep-farming, and cotton cultivation." Now this sounds sufficiently alarming to the non-emigrating, non- sheep-farming, non-cotton-cultivating mind. But we can assure our readers that although the book is full of statistics, the author has taken such care to put them at the fag end of his chapters, and so to let really interesting description preponderate, that we can recommend the volume even for drawing-room perusal. There are, it is true, certain chapters of more difficult digestion, that, for instance, on the "Sale and Rent of Land," on the "Con- stitution of the Argentine Republic," on "Sheep-Farming," &c., but these can be skipped by those who like. But we fancy even in these chapters the general reader will find much to interest him. Thus, for instance, in the chapter on " Sheep-Farming," the des- cription given of sheep-tending and camp life in the pampas is, though cursory, graphic and suggestive enough.

" Camp life in the pampas of South America bears no resemblance whatever to the Arcadian simplicity wherewith we have been accus- tomed in our younger days to associate sheep-tending. One of my earliest ideas of a shepherd was a venerable man, reclining sub tegmine fagi, a flageolet in his hand, and a staff with a crook at its end lying by his side, whilst he was piping music as his sheep wandered about. The chief enigma in that picture was the crook at the top of the stick of the use of which I still confess myself ignorant."

We have great pleasure in being able to enlighten Mr. Hut- chinson on this interesting point. The crook is still in use abroad, and it is employed, shall we say it ? simply to catch hold of the sheep by the hind leg.

"Our shepherds out here [he proceeds] are nearly always on horse- back, generally accompanied by a number of dogs ; often obliged to be out in the camp for many days consecutively without changing their clothes (which certainly have nothing of the mode patriarchal about them) sometimes endeavouring in the melee of rain, wind, lightning and thunder, to separate their own or their master's flock from that of their neighbour, and occasionally having no shelter save the corner'of a co-1, cheerless, rancho, without anything to eat or drink but the perpetual

• Bue, Ayres and Argentine Gleanings, with Extracts from a Diary of Salado IL'at „it• in 1862 and 1863. By Tbomas T. liutahinson, F.12.8.L , "°•"- Consul for Rosario, Banta Fe, spa . 'mate' and 'carnero.' Moreover, the knowledge which often dawns upon them of a morning, that the Temporal' which passed over on the previous night has destroyed a few hundred sheep, cannot be said Co add much to the comforts of a pastoral life."

Nevertheless it appears that sheep-farming, especiallyealhe pro- vinces of Buenos Ayres and Entre Rios, is not only profitable, but is rapidly encroaching on the beef and hide business. In the pro- vince of Corrientes sheep could be had for from four to six reels (1s. 6d. to 2s.) per animal. Some eight or ten years ago a flock of sheep could be bought in the province of Buenos Ayres at about a shilling a head. Now they cost six or seven. Mr. Hutchinson gives a table, which he got from Mr. John Greenaway, of Buenos Apes, which shows that a net profit of 8,0001. on a flock of 5,000 sheep may be realized in five years.

" The way in which young men without capital become sheep-owners is as follows :—A steady man gets charge of a flook of sheep on condi- tion that he is supported, and that one-fourth or third of the wool at the time of shearing, as well as one-third of produce in lambing season, be his remuneration. Sometimes (and more generally when he has any capital to advance) bis share is one-half of the quotients before expressed.. The herd of sheep being so partitioned, in regard of sexes, as to ensure a certain increase, it is ascertained that they doable their number in three years, sometimes in two."

It appears that good sheep-camps cannot be rented within forty leagues of Buenos Apes for less than 2501. per square league per annum, and a square league of good camp, containing 6,634 acres, ought to support from 18,000 to 20,000 sheep. And these are only a few of the main items in the statistics collected by Mr. Hutchinson.

Another chapter treats of emigration as vitally concerning the Argentine Republic, possessed as it is of such an enormous area of uncultivated soil. It appears that the estangieros, or owners of land in the interior, disliking the system of advancing wages to their own countrymen, are extremely anxious to obtain fresh European labour. Senor Don Jose Fries de Tucuman tokl. Mr. Hutchinson " that he would give 21. 5s. per month with food to any labourer he could get to the amount of twenty-five to thirty, paying their expenses of transport from Rosario, or even trona:- Buenos Ayres. The engagement should be for six years, at the end of which time he would give each man two acres of land as a' present, with as much more as he desired to have on very favourable. terms." This is a very remarkable passage, and we commend it td the attention of the Lancashire operative. There are no doubt difficulties on first starting in a strange land, but so little are these to be looked upon as formidable, that in the first four months of 1863 (the year in which Mr. Hutchinson wrote) the emigrants to Buenos Ayres (all belonging to the voluntary class) amounted to 2,647. Another most remarkable fact connected with the suc- cess of emigration to the Argentine Republic lies in the fact, for which of course we rely upon Mr. Hutchinson's authority, that out of the 300,000 inhabitants of the province of Buenos Apes, 120,000 belong to the emigration, half of them have come there within the last twelve years, and some of the Irish emigrants are now, as sheep farmers and estangieros, " the richest and most in- dependent men in the republic."

One of the principal objects of Mr. Hutchinson's journey through the Argentine territory was, as we have said, to discover the capa- bilities of the country for cotton cultivation. The information he has collected, part of which he communicated some time ago to the Manchester Cotton Supply Association, and to which he devotes two chapters and an appendix, is of very great interest. The result of his inquiry is on the whole, we think, decisive. We cannot enter into all the details, which he has accumulated, and which he states clearly enough, but with too little method and arrangement. But the result is summed up in this sentence :—

" We [Mr. Hutchinson is speaking, as British Consul, for the Argen- tine Repablic]—we have here an extent of land, the greater part of it virgin soil, more than eight times as large as the Cotton States of the North ; we have a river not inferior to the Mississippi in its navigability and length of course, and far superior in its healthfulness ; we have cheap labour to commence with, and finally, we have all these ad- vantages within many weeks' nearer sail of England than either India, Queensland, or Australia."

And all this virgin soil, extending over many thousands of square miles, lies in nearly the same latitude to the South as the cotton. lands of the United States to the North. No doubt the question. of labour is one of some intricacy. The governors, though anxiously favourable to the cultivation of cotton, seem to think that it must depend upon the " immigration " of suitable labourers. " The existing population," say they, " does not understand the modes operandi of cotton cultivation ; and, moreover, being brought up in the exciting work of gauchos, amongst horses, bullocks, and saladeros, it is to be feared there would be some difficulty in bringing them round to the tame labour of agricul- tural industry." To this Mr. Hutchinson answered,—" Begin, make a start, and let the English capitalist see what you can do with what you have got." Elsewhere he says, speaking of the cheapness and excellent quality of the labour, "I have seen half- a-dozen men at the house of Commandante Herrera, at Gramilla, toiling at a screw-press in packing wool from daybreak till sun- down, without any stoppage except at their mealtimes, and work- ing, too, with as much energy as cotton porters do in Liverpool." This labour, he adds, costs 441d. a day. If so, we must remark, it is diffi- cult to reconcile this picture with that which he draws of the anxiety of the Tucuman estanciero to obtain labour at 2/. 5s. a month, with food. Possibly the explanation may be that the estancieros would rather pay thrice the wages in order to get rid of the system of two months' wages in advance, without which no " peon" will accept even the highest pay. However this may be, the sum and sub- stance of Mr. Hutchinson's own conclusion is, that "the same labour which tends and shears sheep in the province of Buenos Ayres, cultivates corn in Cordova, sugar canes and tobacco in Tucuman, and varieties of agriculture at the colony of Esperanza ,—namely, that of Europeans—can be used all through the Argen- tine provinces for cotton cultivation. The quality of the Argen- tine cotton does not seem to be fairly ascertained. But the Manchester Cotton SupplyAssociation sent Mr. Hutchinson 15 cwt. of cotton seed, which he has distributed to every province in the republic, except Buenos Ayres, already supplied by Messrs. Mulhal I, of the Buenos Ayres Standard.

The volume is studied with curious facts and local touches, Of San Roque he writes, " What a concert we had here last night ! Whistling frogs, howling toads, a pattering noise like the turning of a lathe, no doubt made by some live thing, the railway-whistle cricket, the moaning of a bull, the buzzing of mosquitoes," all of which are sufficiently suggestive. Further on, in Santiago, " Wild pigs are very plentiful about here, and their flesh delicious," but the partridge has " a putrid taste, probably from the salt or salt- petre forming a constituent part of the fool on which they live."(?) They journey on, and pass a native cavalcade. " What a -beautiful subject for a painter would be the fancifully-dressed group of Santiaginians whom we are passing by at present, dressed in all colours of sombrero and poncho—blue, red, and yellow predominant—with their large bags of algarrobo over the horses' backs. One of the women observing Don Estevan Ram's black servant Jose, dropped the reins out of her hand, and gave a scream, crying out ' Elais, Elais !' (the devil, the devil !) then crossing herself devoutly, she repeated several times, ' Jesu Cristo, save nos.' No one laughed more heartily at the poor woman's innocence than Jose himself." There are no prisons in Santiago, and if any man, getting drunk, commits a breach of the peace, he is sent off for military drill to one of the military stations. These military stations Mr. Hutchinson calls or describes as a species of Agricola-military establishment. The soldiers receive no pay, but are allotted plots of ground to cultivate, the surplus produce of which they are allowed to sell, if they can prove to their commanding officer that they have enough for their family's winter store. This plan seems to succeed, for we are told that the soldiers are remarkable for their fidelity to their general. Not

being engineers, we cannot vouch for the possibility of the follow- . ing fact, but it is worth recording :—Some years ago General Taboada set same three thousand rebels whom he had conquered

to make a road of 360 miles (120 leagues). They accomplished it in eight days. In other words, eight men could make 220 yards of road a day. We wonder what sort of road it was!