THE VALLEY OF THE SALADO.

Southland Times, Issue 544, 20 August 1866, Page 3

THE VALLEY OF THE SALADO.

>.„■ .■Hi ,ty I "M'P"I The cotton famine had a bright aide, which it turned} and still continues to turn, towards the interests of literature. A new motive has arisen to inspire the adventurous spirits who explore the hidden or remote regions of the earth, and the search for cotton frequently re* suits in the acquisition of much that is otherwise interesting. That indispensable production of nature is found amid some of its most imposing scenes } in uttermost parts of the earth, where the conditions of human life are strongest, and the face of the bright world is most smiling and varied in its beauty. The vast importance of cotton is, of course, indisputable, but it is delightful to lose sight of it, in the interest of the new countries and the strange peoples which are the accidents of its discovery and utilisation. It is perhaps incorrect, technically considered, to apply the terms new and strange to the Argentine Republic and its inhabitants, but in reality it is permissible to suppose that they are very little known, and that one of the- chief attractions of Mr Hutchison's work,* descriptive of his journey through the valley of the _ Salado, in search of wild cotton, is its novelty. A more superb termination to an oceanvoyage than the embouchure of the Biver Plata— The sea-like Plata, to whose dread expanse, Continuous depth, and. wondrous length of course, Our floods are rills — is not to be found. The vast mouth of the great river "spreads itself for a hundred and fifty miles between the Capes Santa Maria and San Antonio, which are the advanced-guards of the splendid country which stretches away to the Cordilleras, and the long, lean strip beyond them, which is Chili. This great bay is a fitting junction to be formed with the ocean, by a river which, under several names, but in one continuous, voluminous, magnificent stream, flows through a course of eleven hundred and fifty miles. The grand scale on which Nature has formed her kingdom in the West makes itself felt, when the great ocean yields to the giant river, and the river in its turn gives to view the interminable plains, the lofty wooded mountains, the strange profuse vegetation, in unknown and colossal forms. With the map before us, on which Mr Hutchinson's route is traced, we follow his course up the stately river, past the picturesque islands, and the city of Buenos Ayres, to the ascent of the Parana. Eew travellers have made this journey ; and it is mostly in the pages of romances, of the dashing description, that we find information respecting the strange lands which border the plenteous waters, and the men who inhabit them. Extraordinary richness of natural productions, and swarming animal life, distinguish the South American provinces, and are especially characteristic of the vast, low, beautiful shores of the Parana, As the steamer flits along them, she passes innumerable estancias, the residences of wealthy farmers — she leaves behind her, gazing on the banks, vast flocks ef sheep, and troops of horses, and herds of cattle. The country is a huge expanse of undulating grass-land; the houses stand embowered in groves of) giant peach-trees; flocks of wild duck and snipe rise constantly in the air ; and the scarlet plumage of numerous groups of flamingoes flashes in the vivid sunshine. A sense of immense space, of interminable distance, dwells with the traveller, as he scans the vast prospect which is offered on the one side by the shores of the Province of Entre los Eios, or ' Between the Kivers,' and on the other by those of the Province of Buenos Ayres, the land of the Grentle Breezes.. Arrived at the great river-port of Eosario, the traveller has reached the Province of Santa Ec, which is watered by the Salado, and is the principal scene of his explorations. He takes leave of the proud Parana here, where the whole province is a flat plain, and where only in the neighborhood of the Salado is forest to be found. Eosario is the pious name of the capital of Santa Ec, a city whose history is like a fairy tale, whose growth, and the rapid increase of its trade and population, are unprecedented in the annals of Spariish American cities. The picturesque interest of the book does not consist in the history of the cities and their trade their buildings, their busy life, thp ; " progress, nor in the puzzlir., polit.-al problems for ever undergoing v.. Ati factory solution. It lies further aua», in the Chaco, in the haunts and habits of the Grauchos, in the wild camp-life, and in the corral. Mr Hutchinson, having received instructions ' to visit the Salado Valley, and .ascertain if many thousands of acres of cotton were growing wild there, as reported,' was informed, on°inquiry, that the Salado Valley was a wide expression, and would take him over a large extent of difficult and dangerous ground. Having ascertained that a considerable portion of his line of journey lay through the Indian territory of the Chaco, he° accepted an invitation to join the exploration-party of Don Estevan Earns y Kuberta, and started, in numerous and goodly company, in November, 1862. The expedition was imposing, and included a military escort of cavalry and infantry. . If it did not partake of the romance of some of the late explorations which have excited so much interest and admiration — if it had not the salient features of danger, difficulty, and solitude, it had certain characteristic attractions which marked and set it apart. It | had a predatory, pioneering air ; it had a semi-conquering, soldiering spirit about it ; it was like emigration on a comfortable scale, and without the lonely prospect of ultimate settling;' it was eminently South American in all its features; and it meant a progress through a country of wonderful richness and beauty, with a desirable commercial result in view, and just suflicient possibility of danger to counteract the prosaic certainty of dollars sl :

The expedition was eantluct^ tfo ta&w t&r? principles ; tha day*s pracsßs6gj were regulated by sound of trumpet, m$ the food cooked oaiop'f&shion. The camp* on the morning after the first hivouao* must have presented a strange and Btirring Bight to European eyesj for soldiers and peons were busily lassoing horses, driven from the pasture into the corral. A great feature in South American life is the abounding number of horses, the centaur* like qualities of the inhabitants, the immense utility of the horse, and thft picturesque manege to which he is subjected—picturesque, but not humane. The wild horses are very interesting to read about, and so are the no less wild Gtauchos who take and tame them ; but the former are the nobler brutes, and distance is indispensable in the case of the latter to any but the most unpleasing effect. Baptised savages, who speak a European tongue, however corrupted, are inharmonious objects considered aesthetically ; they do not ' tone in ' with any landscape ; they cannot be Fenimore Cooperised into congruity — they are merely dirty and degrading, mere brutal and deplorable facts, The Arab and*his steed retain somewhat of their aDcient poetry, in spite of Mr Palgrave and his fellow-iconoclasts; but the Graucho, under the candid and matter-of-fact handling of Mr Hutchison, retains little of the charm .of the wild horseman of the prairie, rele- . gated henceforth to the exclusive possession of ' Astley's.' The route was slow, not only by reason of the difficulties of the way, but because the observations taken in the interests of science and commerce were necessarilysure and close. We trace it on the map, through the winding valley of La Soledad, across the Arroyo San Antonio, and by the wide plains, marked here and there with traces of the fires made by the wandering Indians, The long line of the expedition wound on, encountering occasionally droves of wild horses, snorting with surprise and unaccustomed fear, and tossing their free manes in the air, wholly unsuspicious of the lurking lasso, and disdainful of their subjected brethren, slaves of the curb and the saddle. Swift ostriches hurry with ungainly spe,ed ahead of the track, and the gama or Chaco goat bounds incautiously within range of the treacherous rifle. Day succeeds to day, and unsheltered night to night; the undulating land stretches on, water becomes scarce ; and columns of smoke at night, before, behind, and around the expedition, are interrupted variously by its members, according to their degrees of courage, or their acquaintance with Indian customs. Some hold them to arise from prairie-fires, kindled to arrest the progress of the travellers ; others think they are telegraphic signals from one district to another, annouTicing the advance of supposed enemies. Scouts are soon sent forward in search of water, for the Salado is dry, and digging has become useless. Strange varieties of vegetation impress I themselves upon the attention of the scientific members of the expedition, arid Mr Hutchinson discovers that Mr Bates, the famous naturalist, to whom we owe the knowledge of the wonders of the river Amazon, is mistaken in supposing the ' saiiba,' or leaf-carrying ant, to be peculiar to tropical South America ; for there, eight degrees of latitude x outside the southern tropic of Capricorn, the travellers come upon the innumerable trackways, and the marvellous buildings of these microscopic architects.

*JBuenos Ay res and Argentine Q-lean-ings, by Thomas J. Hutchinßon. London: Edward Stanford. f (To be continued.)