475 186
--- ---

Great as this trade is, there is no reason why its future increase
should not be as rapid as its past. There are at present several
millions of cattle roving over the boundless pastures watered by the
Uruguay, the Rio Negro, the St. Lucia, and the two hundred arroyos or
rivulets which flow into them, and with a few years of peace, this
number would be doubled, or if it was found more profitable, flocks of
sheep might be introduced instead. The repeal of the duty on foreign
wool, by the Act of 1844, gives additional encouragement to the raising
of this kind of stock, and the reduction in the duty on foreign
provisions made by the tariff of 1842, would, if this country was at
peace, throw a considerable portion of the provision trade created by
that reduction of duty, and at present monopolized by the United States,
into Monte Video. Enormous quantities of meat are now wasted, which it
might be worth while to prepare for this market, in a way suited for the
English taste.

Pastoral countries, such as the territory of Uruguay, New South Wales,
Van Dieman's Land, and South Africa, have this great advantage over
arable countries that their resources can be developed much more
rapidly, with a much smaller amount of labour, and with much less
capital. This is one of the causes of the sudden rise of the trade with
Australia, and it is also a considerable cause of the rapid development
of the prosperity of Monte Video. Its power of producing hides, wool,
tallow, and provisions is unlimited, by any thing except the deficient
numbers of its population; and whilst on this subject, I may mention
that Monte Video is the only one of all the Republics formed out of the
ancient possessions of Spain which has been sufficiently well governed
to attract to its shores any considerable number of emigrants from
Europe. It will be seen from the following table extracted from the
books of the Custom House at Monte Video, that not less than 33,607
emigrants arrived in that port between November, 1835, and December,
1842:--

_Table made from the books at the Sala de Comercio of the
number of passengers who arrived at Monte Video from Nov.
1835 inclusive, to the end of 1842._

KEY:
A: Basques, from both sides of the Pyrenees.
B: Frenchmen.
C: Gallicians.
D: Catalanes.
E: Spaniards from Cadiz, &c.
F: Geno