Buenos Aires
Buenos
Aires was settled by Indians prior to the arrival of expedition ships
seeking safe harbor along South American shores. The city began developing
as a world-class seaport in 1536 when Pedro de Mendoza sailed into her
harbor and established a fort named "Puerto de Nuestra Señora de Santa
María del Buen Ayre".After the destruction of the city by the Indians (the Querandíes), on June 11th 1580, a second Spanish expedition lead by Juan de Garay arrived and settled near the previous fort. Garay founded the "Ciudad de la Santísima Trinidad" and the port of "Santa María del Buen Ayre," with the following motto that foresaw the destiny of the City:
Doors must be opened to land and the land must flourish, its fruit must be useful to the nation and to other nations of the world.
The port of Santa María de los Buenos Aires further developed in 1607
when the a wooden dock and many towers with armament were built at the
"Guardia del Riachuelo". Afterwards, other improvements were made
on the port premises, such as a mooring place at the "Bajo de las Catalinas."
Eventually the port was reserved exclusively for Spanish trade, and a
Customs Office created.
When Napoleon invaded the Iberian peninsula, King Fernando
VII allowed the trade of the colonies with other nations in order to
avoid the loss of commercial transactions.
After the revolution of May 25th 1810, Mariano Moreno, a visionary,
marked the mouth of the "riachuelo" (brook) with buoys, ordered
the repair of the docks, and afterwards the canalization and cleaning
of the river. On August 22nd 1821 a Port Development Act (Ley de Promoción
portuaria) was passed.
The first ships rounding the Horn for San Francisco's
gold fields used Buenos Aires as a stopping place for food and water.
By 1855 a passenger dock was opened at the "Bajo de la Merced,"
and, because the port of Buenos Aires was becoming so important, a Customs
House was built beside the old fort.
By 1880 the port had three jetties: the first one, for
Customs purposes, for the loading and unloading of goods; the second
in the "Bajo de La Merced," for the landing and boarding of passengers
and the third one, "de Las Catalinas," also for passengers, landing
them from barges to horse-driven carts that worked around the old "Hotel
de Inmigrantes." In fact, they weren't piers but breakwaters that
were only convenient to small or medium-sized ships, and those bigger
ones had to anchor far from the coast.
In 1882 Eduardo Madero, an important man involved in
commercial and port activities, with the support of General Roca, obtained
the authorization of the Congress to the Executive to build four locked
docks on the riversides. In 1886 the final drawings were approved and
on January 28th 1889 "Puerto Madero" was inaugurated with the
entry of the first ship in the southern dock.
Salt Lake Daily Tribune
June 6 1886
AUSTRALIA TO ENGLAND
Notes of Travel on the Long and Varied Journey.
SHORT STOP IN BRAZIL AND NEAR BY
Brazil and Its People—Filth and Odor of the Bay—Progress and Energy in Buenos Aires—The Uruguayan Lands—A Disappointing Quarantine
EDITOR TRIBUNE: It was one New Zealand's loveliest evenings as we left our comfortable hotel in Christchurch and boarded the train and in a half hour are on board the beautiful steamship "Tongariro" ready to sail from the port of Lyttelton.Buenos Aires became one of the most important ports in South America and by 1910, more than 32,000 ships transported 30,000 tons of grains per day.It was six o'clock in the evening of the 31st of December when we steamed out into the bay, and by shot from our cannon which echoed in the surrounding hills, bade farewell to the Land of the Maoris.
Until my arrival in New Zealand from Australia I had intended to return to the United States by the Pacific Mail Company via the Sandwich Islands, but the arrival of the first steamer of the two lines which now ply tri monthly from London to New Zealand via the Cape of Good Hope and return via Cape Horn, led me to change my mind. The "Tongariro," a magnificent ship of over 5000 tons displacement was to return to England and call en route at Rio de Janeiro for coal, and on a through ticket I had permission to break my journey there and see the only part of South America I had not previously visited.
Leaving New Zealand the last day, of 1833, we crossed the 180th meridian on New Year's Day, and as this is the place, going east, a day is added, we had two consecutive Happy New Years, and as it was leap year, 367 days in 1881.
The steamer was fitted up to carry 180 cabin passengers, and as we had but a dozen, the great ship seemed quite deserted as we started forth on our long trip across the South Pacific. Our cargo consisted of 14,000 carcasses of mutton frozen by cold air, 500 tons of butter, and 7000 bales of wool.
After twelve days we were In the vicinity of Cape Pillar, the western entrance to the Straits of Magellan, and were waiting for the dense fog to rise so as to enable us to enter the Straits.
We waited in vain, and great was our disappointment when the course was changed to the southward toward Cape Horn. We steamed along the coast of Tierra del Fuego, and when the fog lifted, were gazing at the snowy peaks of the mountains. We passed close by the black point of rock known as Cape Horn, and which I had first seen in 1877, and went through the Straits of Le two lines and shaped our course northward for Rio de Janeiro, arriving in sight of the entrance to the harbor after a voyage of 6850 miles in twenty days. We steamed past the island off the month and the fort at the entrance of the beautiful harbor and were soon at anchor in front of the capital and largest city of the Empire of Brazil.
The Empire of Brazil covers an area nearly us great as that of the United States, and contains a population of over 11,000,000. It Is composed of twenty States which act almost independently of the National Government. The people are a mixed race, very few being of pure Portuguese descent. Slavery still exists, though in 1870 all those thereafter born or arriving at the age of 60, were decreed free, but this decree is not cannot be carried out to the full extent on account of the inability of the National Government to carry its laws into effect. The language of the ruling classes Is Portuguese.
Rio de Janeiro has a population of over 300,000, and is built on a low plain bordering on the beautiful bay, near which rise abruptly many rocky peaks, presenting a bold and picturesque outline. We said good-bye to the captain and officers of the steamer, and took a sailboat for the custom-house wharf.
Though tho scenery about us was lovely, the odor of the waters of the bay was sickening, as the entrance is so narrow there is not current enough to carry the sewerage away from the vicinity of the town.
My trip by the "Tongariro" ended here, but the other passengers were to continue their journey to England. So until the steamer sailed we went together to see the sights of the city. We took the train which conveyed us to the suburbs, and to the Botanical Gardens, which is generally the most interesting sight to a stranger in a tropical clime. Here I saw the most beautiful double row of palms I ever beheld—all the same size and in regular order.
The town with its foul smells and narrow streets is not a place where foreigners would care to live; but an hour or hour or so by car, coach or cab brings us to some pretty hotel in some ravine in the hills by which run streams of clear water, and around which are tropical forests.
The hotels in most of the principal towns in South America are kept by Frenchmen and are generally good. During this my first visit to Rio, I
stopped at a hotel a couple of miles from town. The houses here, as well as in the Spanish American countries, are mostly built of stone or adobe, covered with cement and then painted or whitened and roofed with earthen tiles.As I said before, the language of the people is Portuguese, but I found the knowledge of French is general among the educated. The staple article of export from Rio is coffee.
As I had to visit this city again after my return from the south, I did not go into the country, but took passage for Montevideo by the Brazilian steamer "Rio Pardo." which called en route and stopped in day or two at each of the ports of of Southern Brazil. Fare to Montevideo 121,000 paper reis.
On the 3rd of February we left Rio, and next day we were at Santos, one of the great coffee exporting towns of the Empire, and which is connected with Rio by railway via San Paulo. Farther south, we called at the ports of Antonina, Paranagua, Santa Catarina and then arrived outside of, and crossed the bar, over which the surf was breaking and we came up to the wharf at the town of Rio Grande.
This is the most thriving place in the province of Rio Grande do sul, the southernmost State of the Empire. Here is really the only part of Brazil
suitable for European colonization. Nearly half the population are of German extraction and are chiefly engaged in cattle raising. This country is a level, fertile plain and has a temperate climate.The town is the cleanest and best laid out I saw in Brazil. We crossed the southern part of the large inland sea and up a river and stopped at Pelotas, another thriving town, and a few hours later we re pass Rio Grande on our way to the
River Platte. Most of tho freight discharged at
the port of Rio Grande do Sul was general merchandise from Europe, arid that taken aboard was dried or"jerked" beef, and barrels of "Mate" or Paraguayan tea.To our great delight we got rid of most of our Brazilian passengers, for we had never traveled with such unmannerly people. The steamer was very fine with electric lights and marble fittings to saloon and cabins, but between the class of passengers and Brazilian cooking, and the rolling and pitching of the vessel, it was not a pleasant trip.
On the afternoon of the 11th of February, 1884, we were at anchor in the river near the quarantine island fifteen miles from Montevideo. There being quarantine against Rio on account of the yellow fever, we all had to land here. Our baggage was overhauled and all soiled clothes sent to the so-called laundry to have the fever germs washed out. We were then scrutinized and shown to the hotel, or department of the hotel where we had to remain for three days, or if fever developed, for a much longer period.
We now had a chance to look about us on this "Isla de Flores," a name evidently given in ridicule of the small desert on which we were compelled to stay. For on this Island, across which we could throw a stone, not a flower, nothing but rocks and sand could be seen. The island is a source of revenue rather than expense to the Uruguayan
Government.At the hotel (I suppose we must so call it) it cost us for the poor poor accommodation and detestable food, as much as a suite of rooms at our best hotels. The classes were graded according to the ability of the passenger to pay, as first, second and third. What could third have been? Certainly it could only have placed us among the thousands of Italian immigrants instead of a few cabin passengers, for the food could not have been any poorer.
While there, a French and an English mail steamer arrived and the passengers were landed and put in a separate part of the hotel. After three days a small steamer came alongside the wharf and we were conveyed to Montevideo, the capital and metropolis of the Republic of Uruguay, a beautiful place of about 80,000 people, nicely laid out with fine buildings and pretty parks. The cathedral, facing the principal square, is one of the finest I have seen.
There are many steamers leaving every evening for Buenos Aires, and owing to the competition the accommodation is good and fares low. We leave in the evening, and during the night steam 110 miles, and at early morn are in the thriving city of Buenos Aires. This, the great port of the Argentine Republic, is the second port in America, ranking next to New York in the amount of its commerce. It is a city of 300,000 Inhabitants, the most populous of South America and by far the most progressive. The greater number of the people are of Spanish origin, though in the town itself, a quarter of the population is Italian, they being mostly engaged with the shipping.
The river is so shallow here that the large vessels anchor ten or fifteen miles away from the town, and goods therefrom have to be landed in lighters. Two large piers extend a mile out over the river from which passengers embark, and on which land docks are now in course of construction and already vessels of good size can come up to the town. Horse and mule cars manufactured in New York run through the principal streets. Here as in Santiago, Chili, the houses are very fine, and the "patios" or courtyards with their plants are carefully attended. The entrance to the patios are guarded by wrought iron gates of artistic design.Since the settlement of the boundary between Chili and the Argentine Republic, vast tracts of land for pasturage have been opened up in the
province of Patagonia, a district for the most part possessed of a good soil and a New England climate. The great Industry is sheep-raising. In the number of these animals the Argentine Republic ranks as first in the world, though they do not average as large, or of so fine a grade as in Australia and the United States.During my stay In the Republic, I accepted an invitation to spend a week on a sheep ranch called the "Estancia de TayTay," the property of an American firm of bankers at Buenos Aires.
This is called the model ranch of the country, and on it are 80,000 sheep. They are divided into about thirty flocks, under the care of shepherds, who live in huts on the different parts of the extensive ranch. Plenty of duck, plover and other wild fowl owl are to be found here, and after a couple of hours' shooting, we could easily fill our wagon box . . .
After a very pleasant visit, we take leave of our friends in Buenos Aires and embark on the Royal mail steamer "Nova" for Rio de Janeiro direct. During my previous visit I had seen all I wanted to of the town, so I at once betook myself to the mountains, to a place called Tijuca. Here, though but twelve miles from Rio, we were in a delightful climate, living in a wooded ravine in the hills, with falls and a river rushing over the rocks. From the top of a cliff beside us, we could look over the town of Rio, beautiful in the distance, as well as across the lovely bay . . . after ten days in this lovely retreat, we were notified that the steamer "Doric" from New Zealand was entering the harbor and would leave for England the same day . . . on our arrival at the port Funchal after thirteen days and 3904 miles sea travel, we were exasperated at the news of quarantine against Rio, and we were not allowed to land . . . we continued our way, and three days later sighted Cape Finisterre--the northwestern part of Spain. Two days more and we were again in England.
