is only since October, 1821, that the health boat has been regularly established. The enforcement of the quarantine laws, and the prevention of smuggling, were the reasons assigned for it; but there were probably other motives, one of which might be, to prevent the boats of British men-of-war from boarding vessels of their own nation before their visit boat. It would, however, be difficult, strictly to enforce the quarantine laws at Buenos Ayres. Vessels have frequently arrived at night, or in a fog, and the captains have come on shore without being visited, not being aware of the regulations.
The outer and inner roads are, in fact, open roadsteads; neither of them possessing good anchorage. A strong wind from the E. or S.E. blowing almost direct on land, is always dangerous; and vessels often drive. In the storm of the 21st August, 1820, in which sixty vessels of all descriptions were lost, the wind was at S.E. The winter season is much better for shipping than the summer; as in the latter, the wind blows fresh nearly every afternoon from the eastward. Good anchors and cables are very necessary in the river Plate; chain cables particularly.
In the outer roads, the average depth of water is 18 feet, in the inner roads, 18: at high tides, there is 25 feet in the outer, and 13 in the inner roads. A Pampero wind, blowing off the land from the W. or W.S.W. causes at times a very low river, leaving not more than 5 feet water in the inner, and 8 in the outer roads. The banks that divide the roads are then dry, and people ride on horseback upon them. This extreme low tide does not often happen. The brig Candidate, salt-laden from the Cape de Verds, was lost, on the 13th June, 1823, near the Ortiz bank, from an occurrence of this sort: the water having suddenly left her, she foundered at her anchors. The state of the tide sometimes causes great delay to vessels leaving the inner roads; days, and even a week, being lost at some periods.
Pilots, appointed and paid by the government, conduct vessels to and from the outer and inner roads: two of them are Englishmen, Lee and Robinson; the others are Portuguese and Creolian, who speak a little English. The charge for pilotage is about 10 dollars each way. Masters piloting their own vessels, which is now and then the case, do not thereby save the charges.
The port of Ensenada, situated 30 miles S.E. from Buenos Ayres, has good anchorage; and for vessels drawing much water, it is preferable to go thither. They incur more experience of lighterage, if they require to be hove down; but it is the only place appertaining to Buenos Ayres in which it can be done, and the charge is great. Ensenada is only a small, dull village. Mules are shipped with greater facility there, than at Buenos Ayres.
The Barraccas is a creek on the south of the town, in which schooners and small craft repair their defects.
The river Plate may well be called the “hell of navigators:” a survey of it was made by Captain Heywood, in H.M.S. Nereus, and his chart, though not exactly correct, is considered to be the best. Buoys have been lately placed by the government upon the Ortiz and Chico banks;[2] and they have long had in agitation, the building of a mole, a dock for shipping, and other extensive works. In addition to a French engineer, a Quaker gentleman, named Bevans, is engaged. He arrived from London, with his family, in October, 1822; but, for want of means, nothing of importance has yet been done. Raising moles and docks is no trifling undertaking, in a country so destitute of labourers. To remedy the latter defect, 200 Irishmen, it is said, are coming out under the care of Colonel O’Brien, one of San Martin’s officers. Mr. Bevans has been traveling about the country, for the purpose of collecting information of the requisites necessary for his undertaking: he has, however, to encounter many obstacles. A trifling tax on shipping would be cheerfully agreed to for an undertaking so important.
Several pilot boats cruise about the river Plate, from which pilots may be obtained.
In addition to the difficulty of large vessels getting up the river, an adequate freight cannot be procured for them in Buenos Ayres. The Lord Lynedoch, a ship of 550 tons, with a numerous crew of Lascars, remained sixteen months and at last took a cargo of mules to the Isle of France. Vessels of 150 to 200 tons burthen are the most likely to get employed.
Vessels discharge and take in their cargoes by means of lighters, called balandras. An English gentleman, Mr. Cope, has several in his employ, and does the chief part of the English and American business. Should there be the least swell upon the water, these lighters cannot lie alongside; it is only in fine weather that work can be performed.
Boat-hire is dear: to the outer roads, 8 dollars 4 reals, to the inner, in proportion. The boatmen are mostly Englishmen, strong, active fellows.
The landing-place, at what was once the mole, is very bad; heavy boats cannot get near. Carts are used to embark and disembark, for which there is no fixed charge; they get what they can, like our watermen at home. Those whose business leads them often afloat, find it a great tax, and some prefer riding on the backs of their sailors, to paying it. It is seldom there is water sufficient for boats to come close in, and they are at all times liable to damage, from the pieces of rock, wrecks, &c. near the shore.
Buenos Ayres, at the present period, may be said not to possess a navy; neither, indeed, is so expensive an establishment necessary. The captain of the port, Don Batista Azopardo, is an Italian by birth; he is said to be a well-meaning man. He commanded an armed vessel in the last war, and has been once or twice a prisoner to the English. There are likewise a number of marine officers in the service of Buenos Ayres. The Aranzazu, national brig of war, so long anchored in the outer roads, has a crew chiefly English; some of them are refractory seamen from the merchant vessels. The marines are black soldiers.
There are three regular packets which run between Buenos Ayres and Monte Video; the Pepa, Dolores, and Mosca, schooners. Seventeen dollars are charged for the passage each way, every thing being provided, except beds. This passage, which is about 150 miles, is sometimes made in 12 or 14 hours; at others, it takes several days. The favourite packet is the Pepa, an American-built schooner, with good accommodations, commanded by Campbell, an Englishman, who, from his skill and attention, is peculiarly fitted for such an employment.
The CLIMATE of Buenos Ayres, taken generally, is decidedly good, and more congenial to English habits than that most places abroad. Its salubrity, however, is overrated: a consumptive person must not think of coming here; many of that class have been obliged to fly to Mendoza and other climes, to escape the vicisitudes of this.
The spring months of September, October, November, and the autumn ones of April and May, are the most agreeable parts of the year. The thermometer, at those seasons, averages about 60; and we have repeated clear and bracing weather, intermingled, however, with inclement days.
The summer is not so hot as the latitude would denote. A sea breeze sets in, at times, towards the afternoon; but this is not regular. December and January are the hottest months. On some days of oppressive heat, the thermometer may average 80, and at others, the pleasing temperature of 70 and 75. In January, 1824, for nearly a week it was 96 in the shade: the oldest inhabitant never remembered such a continuance of heat. When the heat is at the greatest, a pampero suddenly comes, with its accompaniment of rain, thunder and lightning, and cools the air. These Pampero winds from the W. and W.S.W. with nothing to impede their progress across the extended Pampas, blow with great violence, raising clouds of dust, and obliging every one to close windows and doors. Being off the land, they are not dangerous to shipping; though vessels at the mouth of the river have been blown in sea hundreds of miles, by a Pampero. The thunder and lightning to an European is terrific: the lightning is often dangerous.
The dust, fleas, and musquitos, render the summer months very disagreeable. The fleas are a great annoyance, the houses being filled with them; the very dust breeds them; and they seem to have a great partiality for foreigners. I don’t observe that the natives heed them. They laugh at the English mode of washing the rooms to get rid of these vermin; their plan is, to strew the room with fennel, sweeping that and the fleas altogether
