VISIT TO GENERAL URQUIZA. 199
can keep them. Near the entrance are kennelled " tigers/' that is to say spotted ounces opposed to the concolor puma or lion. We send in our names with due ceremony, and we are at once invited to enter the main gate. On the right is the chapel, with Italian font, poor European pic- tures, gold and silver ornaments, rich Barcelona dresses, and " Cortado^' embroidery exceptionally fine. The left steeple is the Froveduria, storehouse, grocery, groggery, and body-guard house.
I shall say little about the palace, upon which a dozen pens have exercised themselves. Dr. Victorica, a connexion of D. Justo, who had kindly preceded the party, placed us under the charge of the Sargento Mor, D. Carlos Calvo ; state rooms in the inner court were found for us, and, after a few minutes, we were summoned to an interview. This was an unusual attention, some visitors having been kept waiting for a week. The owner met us at the entrance of a long narrow saloon, garnished with the usual sofas and chairs ; the only remarkable part was the ceiling, divided by woodwork into compartments of mirrors, below which hung a Saint Andrew's Cross of tinted fly-paper. I made my compliments, expressing in all sincerity my pleasure at seeing a name so well known thi'oughout the civilized world : D. Justo received this little tribute with a bow and a smile, welcomed and shook hands with the whole party, and seated us near him upon the settee, opposite his full- length portrait, which painters persist in making too grim.
I was curious to see and narrowly observed this latest specimen of the feudal chief, a man whose history is that of the Argentine Confederation, when he was Protector of the Provinces — that is to say, Provisional Director of the Commonwealth; and who as early as 1853 (July 10) had in the name of his country signed with England and France
