The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-06-03

occasionally to walk over an impro- vised bridge of oars laid across. And
 when at last your trembling feet are safe on terra firma, you are so utterly 'unstrungr as to be glad of the en- forced delay in the custom house,
 where you must await the convenience lof petty officials to be searched as a possible smuggler; and you are ready to VOW that you will end your days in
 Montevideo. if getting out of it is as difficult matter as getting in. Natu- rally we had intended going direct from
 Patagonia and it's neighboring islands to the Argentine Republic, that coun- try lying next in regular course of travel around the southern continent. But when we came to purchase tickets
 for Buenos Ayres, it was discovered that not one of the many steamers making regular trips from the western side of South America to ports on the
 eastern side, call at the principal port lof Argentina. All of them discharge their passengers for Buenos Ayres at the Rio de la Plata, leaving them to make their own way across the mouth of that mighty river by one of the many local steamers that are constant ly plying to and fro. Therefore, being \ in Uruguay and having had quite enough of it's landing facilities to last a Lifetime, we have decided to see what
 ever is of interest in the small republic
 before doubling back on our course to te-ff ffes@ 1srtt
 La Banda Oriental" (the Eastern Strip, as this country is generally known among South Americans, was lonce a part of Argentina, the latter country being then called La Banda Occidental' (the Western Strip, both thames having reference to the dividing river-which, by the way, Is the Para Ina, the name Rio de la Plata belonging properly only to it's broad estuary. Next to the Amazon and the Mississip- lpi, it is the largest river on the western hemisphere, its mouth being one hun dred and twenty miles across, straight
 as line can be drawn between Monte- video and Buenos Ayres. When Sebas- titan Cabot christened it the ''River of Silver" Somewhere about the year 152O), 1t was by no means on account of the purity of it's coffee-colored water. but because, having stolen enormous quantities of treasure from the coast Indians, the unsuitable Spaniards be- lieved that by following up the course lof the stream they would find still rich
 CT regions in the interior. The river is salt twelve miles or more above Monti- vedio, and it's turbid yellow tide does not mix readily with the ocean, but may be distinctly traced away out into the Atlantic fully hundred miles.
 Uruguay, the old Indian name of the region, has been made the legalized ti- tie of this smallest of South American republics, and so incorporated in it's constitution; yet it's inhabitants are Icommonly spoken of by their South American neighbors as "Orientals"- with the accent very strong on the
 'tals." Though least in area. let mo-
 body imagine that Uruguay is of lesser | importance than the other southern re- Ipublics. On the contrary, though it
 has an area of only 73,fS5 square miles (being trifie larger than England), with a total population of three hun dred thousand, it is one of the richest and most prosperous. There is not an lacre of unproductive soil in it's whole
 extent, and hardy a pauper; and 1t Is the only country at least on this side 1 of the world-where American gold is
 at discount. Whereas in Mexico,
 Peru, Chili, Argentina, Brazil and all