CHAPTER XX

THE URUGUAYAN CAMPO 237

Formation of the land--A survey of the country--Features of the soil--Types of wild flowers--A land of hill, valley, and stream--The glamour of the distance--"The purple land"--Breezes of the Campo--An exhilarating country--The dearth of homesteads--The Uruguayan Gaucho-- His physique--The product of the blowy uplands--Matters of temperament--His comparative joviality--The Gaucho as worker, player, and fighter--The manipulation of feuds-- A comparison between Argentina and Uruguay--Warrior ancestors of the Gaucho--His sense of dignity and honour-- Conservative habits and customs--Costume and horse gear-- Strenuous _bailes_--Some homeric feats of dancing-- Stirring revelry--The Uruguayan landowner--Foreign elements in the land--Negro inhabitants of the Banda Oriental--The numerical status of the Africans in the north and in the south--Absence of a racial question--The slavery of former days--The employment of black troops in war--Lenient treatment of negro slaves--Harsh measures applied to aboriginal Indians--A lesson in human economy-- Testimony of a contemporary writer--Immigrant colonies.