288 A WEEK AT CORRIENTES.
at whose door loll men in fancy uniforms, and the Gefe Politico isj as everywhere in Argentine-land, more arbitrary than the Prefet of the Seine. Yet a revolver at night is as necessary as shoes ; and if an unknown ask you for a light, you stick your cigar in the barrel and politely offer it to him without offence being given or taken. Dr. Newkirk, during my stay, was set to work upon a cut frontal artery and a stab in the belly. Peterkin having once been stopped by two men, took the hint, and upon a second trial let fly and winged the bird. He easily got away before the drowsy sereno was aroused by the report.
This province has long been connected with the name of Bonpland, who died aged eighty-four at his estancia in the Misiones, near Mercedes, 50 leagues from this city. Four square leagues had been made over to him by the Provincial Government when President Puyol ruled. The latter also ap- pointed him Director to the Agricultural Colony of Sta. Ana, and " Chief of the Museum of Natural Products, Corrientes Province."^ He lived his last years, died, and was buried, at La Restauracion ; and his herbarium of 3000 plants, col- lected between 1816 and 1854, was left to the public, and disappeared. The old Republican seems to have been a poor-spirited soul, who would voluntarily have returned to his prison quarters. The Messrs. Robertson, who must have known the truth, tell a romantic tale of the devoted wife and her desperate adventures to procure the liberation of a fond husband. " Madame Bonpland ^^ is a *^^ china â– '^ woman with a large family, and she never left her native province.
In 1811, the young Republic, after defeating General Belgrano, occupied Corrientes, the " vanguard of Paraguay."^ She repeated the process in 1849, with the view of securing a free transit for her arms and ammunition. Corrientes city was also the theatre of action in the early part of the present war. On 17th April, 1865, five Paraguayan steamers ran
