cowed Unitarios, and were the chief danger then
threatening him. "We had an excellent opportunity to form an idea of his
character, as he appeared to throw off all restraint while with us. But
the commodore informed us that, as soon as he laid business matters
before him, Rosas was a different person; he was calm and measured in
manner and language." The ladies of the family were amiable, intelligent
and hospitable; but, like all the women of Buenos Ayres at that time,
were perforce ardent Federalists and detesters of the "savage
Unitarios." Farragut mentions an incident occurring at an official
festivity in honor of Rosas, which shows the savagery that lay close
under the surface of the Argentine character at that time, and easily
found revolting expression in the constant civil strife and in the
uncontrolled rule of the dictator. "In the ball-room was a picture which
would have disgraced even barbarian society. It was a full-sized figure
representing a Federal soldier, with a Unitarian lying on the ground,
the Federal pressing his knees between the victim's shoulders, whose
head was pulled back with the left hand, and the throat cut from ear to
ear, while the executioner exultingly held aloft a bloody knife and
seemed to be claiming the applause of the spectators. I am sure I do not
err in saying that every one of our party felt an involuntary shudder
come over him when his eye fell upon this tableau; nor did we afterward
recover our spirits, everything in the way of gayety on our part during
the night was forced and unnatural."

It is a matter of some, though minor, interest to note that Farragut has
occasion at this time to mention Garibaldi, in connection with the wars
then waging. The Italian patriot, whose name was then far from having
the celebrity it has since attained, had for some time been engaged on
the popular side in revolutionary struggles in the southern provinces of
Brazil. Thence he had passed into Uruguay, and become a teacher of
mathematics in Montevideo. Rosas had the ambition to bring into the
Argentine confederation all the provinces which once formed the
viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres, of which Uruguay was one; and, finding a
pretext in the civil dissensions of the latter, had opened hostilities
as the ally of one party in the State. Garibaldi, who began life as a
seaman, had command of the Uruguayan naval forces, and in that capacity
undertook to carry stores to Corrientes, an important point far