In worldly matters the
people see its power, and in spiritual matters they believe it.
If the priest has heard of Peter's answer to Simon - "Thy money perish
with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be
purchased with money" - he keeps it to himself. How can he live if he
deceives not? Strange indeed is the thought that, three hundred years
before the caravels of Portuguese conquerors ever sailed these
waters, the law of the Indian ruler of that very part of the country
read: "Judges who receive bribes from their clients are to be considered
as thieves meriting death." And a clause in the Sacred Book read:
"He who kills another condemns his own self." Has the interior of
South America gone forward or backward since then? Was the adoration
of the Sun more civilizing than the worship of the Virgin?
When we got down into Argentine waters I began to feel cold, and
donned an overcoat. Thinking it strange that I should feel thus in
the latitude which had in former times been so agreeable, I
investigated, and found the thermometer 85 degrees Fah. in the shade.
After Corumba that was cold.
PART V.
URUGUAY
[Illustration]
THE LONE TRAIL.
And sometimes it leads to the desert and the tongue swells
out of the mouth,
And you stagger blind to the mirage, to die in the mocking
drouth.
And sometimes it leads to the mountain, to the light of the
lone camp-fire,
And you gnaw your belt in the anguish of the hunger-goaded
desire.
- Robert W. Service.
The Republic of Uruguay has 72,210 square miles of territory, and is
the smallest of the ten countries of South America. Its population is
only 1,103,000, but the Liebig Company, "which manufactures beef tea
for the world, owns nearly a million acres of land in Uruguay. On its
enormous ranches over 6,000,000 head of cattle have passed through
its hands in the fifty years of its existence." [Footnote: Clark.
"Continent of Opportunity."]
The republic seems well governed, but, as in all Spanish-American
countries, the ideas of right and wrong are strange. While taking
part in a religious procession, President Borda was assassinated in
1897. A man was seen to deliberately walk up and shoot him. The Chief
Executive fell mortally wounded. This cool murderer was condemned to
two years' imprisonment for insulting the President.
In 1900, President Arredondo was assassinated, but the murderer was
acquitted on the ground that "he was interpreting the feelings of the
people."
Uruguay is a progressive republic, with more than a thousand miles of
railway. On these lines the coaches are very palatial.
