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From Rio Janeiro Madame Pfeiffer sailed in an English ship, the John Renwick, on the 9th of December, bound for Valparaiso in Chili. She kept to the south, touching at Santos, where the voyagers celebrated New- Year's Day, and reaching the mouth of the Rio Plata on the 11th of January. In these latitudes the Southern Cross is the most conspicuous object in the heavens.
On the withdrawal of the Spaniards, in 1865, he became a bandit on the Haitian border and practised horse stealing on a large scale. Later he obtained a position in the Puerto Plata custom-house and took a more and more prominent part in the civil disturbances of his country, until he became well known as a politician and a revolutionist.
The "Beagle" arrived here on the 24th of August, and a week afterwards sailed for the Plata. With Captain Fitz Roy's consent I was left behind, to travel by land to Buenos Ayres. I will here add some observations, which were made during this visit and on a previous occasion, when the "Beagle" was employed in surveying the harbour.
In the course of their expedition they asserted that they had penetrated six hundred leagues to the eastwards of La Plata, through a champaign country of very easy access, and tolerably abounding in provisions and water.
Had the stern of the ship been fixed, and the forepart broken off, I am persuaded I might have made a good voyage; for by what I found in those two chests I had room to suppose the ship had a great deal of wealth on board; and, if I may guess from the course she steered, she must have been bound from Buenos Ayres, or the Rio de la Plata, in the south part of America, beyond the Brazils to the Havannah, in the Gulf of Mexico, and so perhaps to Spain.
Some charges equally frivolous were made against Monjaraz, the deputy-governor, not worth mentioning; but these processes were not insisted in, and no fines or other punishment were inflicted. Soon after the viceroy was settled in his government, he sent Altamirano, judge in the court of chancery at Lima, to supersede Martin de Robles in the government of the city of La Plata.
The shad is a common fish in the Plata and the best to eat of all its fishes, resembling the salmon in its rich flavour, and is eagerly watched for when it comes up from the sea by the Buenos Ayres fishermen, just as our fishermen watch for mackerel on our coasts.
A little below the estuary of the La Plata, once thought to be an arm of the sea opening into the Pacific, the flotilla anchored at Port Desire. Here they obtained an ample supply of penguins for the crews of the five vessels a bird which did not make a very delicious meal.
Only a few foundation walls near the ocean shore, and the old fort, remain from former days. The old fort is situated on the point of land partly enclosing Puerto Plata harbor and is surrounded on three sides by buildings of the present fort. It is a large round whitewashed structure having the appearance of a huge cheesebox; its walls are of enormous thickness and it is now used as a jail.
The genus Furnarius contains several species, all small birds, living on the ground, and inhabiting open dry countries. In structure they cannot be compared to any European form. Ornithologists have generally included them among the creepers, although opposed to that family in every habit. The best known species is the common oven-bird of La Plata, the Casara or housemaker of the Spaniards.
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