LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC.* THERE are two or three
points of view from which this book may be considered. It is, perhaps, unique as being the record, by a living eye-witness, of the most atrocious tyranny that has existed since the days of torture. The author of the book is also conspicuous for his resistance to such a system, for his attempts to reform the abuses which disfigured his native country, for his zealous efforts to promote education as the nurse of civilized life. Since the present translation was made, almost since it has been published, he has been elected President of the Argentine Republic, and has shown by his first acts that he is resolved to -carry through in the highest office those measures which he advocated iu a humbler station, in opposition, and in exile. But beyond this the book itself gives us wonderful pictures -of the ways and habits which prevail in the Pampas and on the Rio de In Plata, details which would seem impossible if they were mot so self-consistent, but which, if they were invented, would do -credit to the highest order of imaginative genius. In this light .Colonel Sarmiento's work is sure to be popular. Such a predic- tion is the more safe as Emerson has made it before us, and as Longfellow proposed to found a poem on one of the -episodes of the Argentine tyranny. The present translation, indeed, is rough, and there is much purely historical matter which will scarcely interest general readers. To judge from the spelling, we should say that Mrs. Horace Mann has naturalized an American -version. There is also an air of social science in her preface that scarcely harmonizes with the lawless brutality of which Colonel -Sarmiento had such painful experience. Still neither this contrast, nor the worse side of it, should keep any one from reading the book. If we thought these remarks of ours would have such an effect, we should have passed our pen through them the moment they were written.
Colonel Sarmiento's first three chapters contain a preliminary sketch of the country which was the scene of the events described in the rest of the volume. Not a word of this opening must be skipped. The characters of the Gaucho outlaw, the Gaucho minstrel, the path-finder, and the tracker would alone give the book -a singular value. The last of these characters is, perhaps, the most remarkable. From long study of foot-marks he is able not only to follow one particular track among many others that cross it, but to describe all the circumstances connected with it, whether the animal was going fast or slow, was loose or was being led, carried weight or was not laden. A herdsman who was acting as guide to Colonel Sarmiento identified in this way a Moorish mule which he had not seen for a year, and the foot-marks of which were mixed up with those of a whole train of others. The professional tracker is an unerring detective, and the way in which he follows the trace of criminals verges on the marvellous. "A theft has been committed duringthe night; no one knows anything of it; the victims hasten to look for one of the robber's footprints, and on finding it, they cover it with something to keep the wind from disturbing it. They then send for the Rastreador, who detects the track and
follows it, only occasionally looking at the ground as if his eyes •
•
Life in the Argentine Republic in the Days of The Tyrants. From the Spanish of Domingo F. Sarmiento. With a Biographical Sketch of the Author. By 31rii. Horace Mann. London: Low, Sou, and Marston. saw in full relief the footsteps invisible to others. He follows the course of the streets, crosses gardens, enters a house, and pointing to a man whom he finds there, says coldly, That is he.'" And the criminal does not even deny the charge. Next to the tracker comes the pathfinder, whose observation is not so subtle, but whose range is wider. He knows every inch of ground in twenty thousand square leagues of country, every path, however small and imperceptible, every secret ford by which a river may be crossed, every track across swamps which would seem to bar further pro- gress. If it is pitch dark he examines the lay of trees and shrubs, pulls up herbs and smells their roots or chews their leaves, so as to bring himself in course of time to some lake or stream of water by which he can set his bearings. So many generals have begun life in some such capacity as this, and have turned this minute know- ledge to good account, that we can hardly wonder at the author's statement that Roses knew the pasturage of every estate in the south of Buenos Ayres by its taste. It must be useful to a com- mander to be able to tell when the enemy's troops are ten leagues off, in what direction they are moving, and how many men they have with them. The pathfinder knows all this from the movements of animals, from the way in which condors wheel through the air, from the density of clouds of dust. The chief characteristic of the Gaucho outlaw is his knowledge of horses, which is mainly exer- cised in the profession of aborsestealer. But he must be a daring rider as well, and his hairbreadth 'scapes from the soldiers put his quickness and courage to a severe test. We read of one who com- bined the characters of outlaw and minstrel being hemmed in by some troops on the top of a steep river bank. He at once covered his horse's eyes with his poncho, drove in his spurs, and plunged
into the river.
Out of such materials as these, the chieftains, the generals, the dictators, the tyrants of the Argentine Republic have been natu- rally constructed. Don Juan Facundo Quiroga is the one of whom we hear most in this book, and though we have a sameness of barbarity in almost all his actions, there are some interesting points in his character. Our first introduction to him is in the desert which stretches between San Luis and San Juan. Facundo was escaping from the first of these cities on foot, carry- ing his riding gear, and expecting two comrades to join him as soon as they could steal horses for all three. While on his way through the desert he was pursued by a tiger, and had to take refuge at the top of a slight but tall tree, which could scarcely bear his weight, and was aluiost shaken down by the efforts of the tiger. His friends came up just in time to rescue lain, but it would have been well for Facundo's future victims if help had not arrived. We have no wish to enumerate his butcheries. It is enough to say, with the author of this book, that he was a type of primitive barbarism. Murders, massacres, flogging; outrages of every kind marked his course. One story represents him as an exaggeration of Colonel Kirke :—
" Facundo wont into one of these recesses formed by shady branches, perhaps to consider what he should do to the poor city fallen into his hands, like a squirrel into the paw of a lion. Presently a deputation of young girls, radiant with youth and beauty, approached the place where Facundo was lying upon his poncho. The bravest and most eager led the way, hesitating from time to time. Those who followed urged her forward ; then all paused, seized with fear. They glanced at one another for encouragement ; then, advancing timidly, stood before him. Facundo received them kindly, made then, hit down around him, and asked the object of their visit. They came to beg for the lives of the officers who were to be shot. Sobs, smiles, all the little fascinations of women were put in requisition to obtain their charitable end. Facundo seemed deeply interested, and smiled benignantly ; ho wished to hear from each One, of their families, their homes, a thousand details which seemed to please him ; and thus passed an hour of expectation and hope. At last he said to them, with the greatest complacency, Do you hear those guns ? It is too late ; they aro shot.'"
We might load our columns with similar details. Not Facundo only, but all his rivals and contemporaries, appear to have had the same object in view, that of striking terror. They cannot be said to have failed. Women and children fainted when Facundo spoke to them. One man who had dared to invade a monopoly which he claimed fell dead with fear on being detected. The cases in which he took the law into his own hands are more disgusting than those in which he presumed on his powers, but their moral is not so striking. After all, the savage is preferable to the tyrant. An occasional caprice redeemed Facundo's character from mere monstrosity. It is thought remarkable that lie once showed mercy to a general who had been taken prisoner, that he did not put to death a Frenchman who had written an abusive article upon him, that while levying large contributions from the people of Tucuman lie spared the pockets of one citizen who spoke disrespectfully of him to his face, mistaking him for a servant. There are many traits of an opposite cast to be put against these, and these can hardly be accepted as anything more than passing ebullitions of humanity. A certain rude ability, smacking more of the quick instinct of the savage than of the reasoning powers of culture, is shown in several of the incidents of Facundo's career. In these two it appears to most advantage :—
'An article had been stolen from a band, and all endeavours to dis- cover the thief had proved fruitless. Quiroga drew up the troops and gave orders for the cutting of as many small wands of equal length as there were soldiers ; then, having had these wands distributed one to each man, he said in a confident voice, 'The man whose wand will be longer than the others to-morrow morning is the thief.' Next day the troops were again paraded, and Quiroga proceeded to inspect the wands. There was one whose wand was, not longer, but shorter than the others. Wretch ! ' cried Facundo, in a voice which overpowered the man with dismay, it is thou! ' And so it was ; the culprit's confusion was proof of the fact. The expedient was a simple one; the credulous gaucho, fearing that his wand would really grow, had cut off a piece of it. But to avail one's self of such means, a man must be superior in intellect to those about him, and must at least have some knowledge of human nature On another occasion, when a gaucho was answering to charges of theft which had been brought against him, Fecund° inter- rupted him with the words, "Phis rogue has begun to lie. Ho, there! a hundred lashes!' When the criminal had been taken away, Quiroga said to some one present, 'Look you, my master, when a gaucho moves his foot while talking, it is a sign he is telling lies.' The lashes extorted from the gaucho the confession that he had stolen a yoke of oxen."
We have been told that in dealing with native witnesses in India it is always well to keep their feet in sight, as they are sure to shuffle them about uneasily when they begin to lie. Colonel Sar- miento, who has discovered such a close resemblance between his countrymen and the Arabs, whose knowledge of the Gauchos enabled him to divine all the expedients that would be employed by Cooper's Indians, may be grateful for this new point of contact. Whether it should lead us on to compare the tyrant of the Argen- tine Republic with the author of the massacre of Cawnpore is a more difficult question, and one which even the outspoken author of this book might be unwilling to answer.
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