to show his
loyalty to the autocratic Governor, was obliged to wear a rosette or
band of red.

This wearing of the red naturally became the custom. It was the result
of no special decree, but the unwritten law was not to be denied.
Indeed, did any rash inhabitant of Buenos Aires refrain from obeying it,
the result of his independence was that he betrayed himself an open
enemy of the Dictator, and he met with the inevitable punishment for
this, which was in any case imprisonment, and possibly death. The
blood-like hue, moreover, was encouraged not only in dress, but in
general decorations, and even in the walls of houses, and every other
object in which it could be employed.

The executions during the twenty and odd years which Rosas held office
amounted to many thousands. The melancholy total, indeed, would
assuredly have been still further increased had not the majority of the
more intellectual and of the more important colonial families fled
across the frontiers and taken refuge either in Chile or in Uruguay.

The character of Rosas was strangely complex. It must not be supposed
that he was nothing beyond a mere brigand and tyrant, who busied himself
with executions and plunder, to the exclusion of all other occupations.
He was, indeed, in many respects a man experienced in the ways of the
broader world, and was able, after his particular fashion, to hold his
own with European diplomats and others of the kind.

The great naturalist, Darwin, for instance, when on his visit to the
Argentine Provinces, was brought into contact with Rosas, and admits
that he was very struck with the personality of the leader, who in
conversation was "enthusiastic, sensible, and very grave. His gravity,"
he continues, "is carried to a high pitch." General Rosas, as a matter
of fact, appears to have possessed the happy knack of impressing
favourably almost everyone whom he met, and the explanation of his
policy, when recorded from his own lips, was wont to ring very
differently from that given by his opponents. It is probable enough that
in many respects his views were truly patriotic. His methods, on the
other hand, were callous to an altogether inhuman point. It is, in any
case, quite certain that the value he placed on life was altogether
infinitesimal.

As time went on the power of Rosas steadily increased, and the rival
chieftains one by one withdrew from the contest or met with their death
in one of the wars of the age. Garibald