charges.

_Friday, September 15th_.--A violent storm of thunder and lightning,
apparently just above our heads, woke us at six o'clock this morning.
Torrents of rain followed, and continued to fall until we dropped our
anchor at Rosario, at 8.45 a.m., just as we were in the middle of
breakfast, in our cozy little stern cabin. Half an hour later we
landed, though the rain still came down in sheets, but the steamer was
now alongside the pier, and close carriages had been provided. A few
minutes' drive through ill-paved streets brought us to the Hotel
Universel, a handsome, spacious building, with marble courtyards, full
of trees, plants, and flowers, into which all the sitting-rooms open.
Above are galleries, round which the various bed-rooms are in like
manner ranged. It all looked nice and cool, and suitable for hot
weather, but it was certainly rather draughty and cheerless on such a
cold, pouring wet day, and all our efforts to make our large room, in
which there were four immense windows, at all comfortable, were vain.

Rosario, like Buenos Ayres, is built in squares. The streets are
generally well paved with black and white marble, but the roadways are
composed of little round stones, and are full of holes and
inequalities, so that, in crossing the road after heavy rain, one
steps from the _trottoir_ into a very slough of despond. The universal
tramway runs down the centre of every street.

After luncheon we made a fresh start for Carcaraña by a special train,
to which were attached two goods-vans, full of horses, and a carriage
truck, containing a most comfortable American carriage, in shape not
unlike a Victoria, only much lighter and with very high wheels. After
a short journey through a rich, flat, grass country, we arrived at