The house where we stayed with English friends was near the front, or
what was then the front, that part of the city which faced the Plata
river, a river which was like the sea, with no visible shore beyond;
and like the sea it was tidal, and differed only in its colour, which
was a muddy red instead of blue or green. The house was roomy, and
like most of the houses at that date had a large courtyard paved with
red tiles and planted with small lemon trees and flowering shrubs of
various kinds. The streets were straight and narrow, paved with round
boulder stones the size of a football, the pavements with brick or
flagstones, and so narrow they would hardly admit of more than two
persons walking abreast. Along the pavements on each side of the
street were rows of posts placed at a distance of ten yards apart.
These strange-looking rows of posts, which foreigners laughed to see,
were no doubt the remains of yet ruder times, when ropes of hide were
stretched along the side of the pavements to protect the foot-
passengers from runaway horses, wild cattle driven by wild men from
the plains, and other dangers of the narrow streets. As they were then
paved the streets must have been the noisiest in the world, on account
of the immense numbers of big springless carts in them.
Pages:
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119