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BUENOS AYRES 409 the independence. The French Sisters of Char- ity have numerous institutes and schools, and the Irish Sisters of Mercy have a school and a hospital. The predominant religion is the Ro- man Catholic ; but all others are tolerated, and the ministers of some denominations are paid by the national government. There are two cemeteries, the Recoleta, and the English for Protestants ; two general hospitals, one for males, the other for females ; and also French, English, Italian, and Irish hospitals. The sani- tary institute is the first institution of its kind on the continent. By the payment of a yearly subscription of $12, any person can secure the right to enter the institution when sick, and remain there until cured. There are a lunatic asylum, an asylum for the poor, a foundling hospital established in 1779 by Jose Riglos and the viceroy Vertis, a female orphan school, and a deaf and dumb institute. The police force is imperfectly organized, and is composed of only 200 vigilantes. Several lines of horse cars traverse the city and suburbs. Besides the railways leading to interior points, there is almost daily communication by steamers with the various river ports, and stage coaches ply to the camp towns in the interior. Steamers run monthly to the Atlantic ports of Bahia Blanca and El Carmen. The shoals and quick- sands in the Plata render the approach to the city extremely difficult for ships of deep draft. Even those of 16 or 17 ft. must anchor from 6 to 9 m. from shore. Two piers of 1,300 and 1,900 ft. were built in 1855, one for passen- gers, and the other opposite the custom house for merchandise. Before that time passen- gers and freight were carried ashore by carts on wheels of immense diameter, which went out two or three cables' length to meet the boats. Even now carts cannot be entirely dispensed with, for at low water neither light- ers nor small boats can approach the piers. The returns of the statistical department give a total of 2,297 sailing vessels and 1,628 steam- ers, with an aggregate tonnage of 1,526,284, for the whole republic, four fifths belonging to the port of Buenos Ayres. During the year ending Sept. 30, 1870, the exports of ox hides salted and dried, horse hides, tallow, wool, sheepskins, and jerked beef, amounted to $39,294,690, against $27,320,000 in 1869. The imports, chiefly cotton, woollen, and linen fabrics, furniture, hardware, machinery of all kinds, wheat, coal, iron, wine, beer, boots and shoes, &c., were estimated at $40,000,000 for the year 1870. Although one of the staple exports is the raw material for boots and shoes, immense quantities of these articles are imported. The total exports to the United States in the same period reached $6,473,927 61 ; the total imports from the United States were only $2,087,999. The export duties on animal products amount annually to 3,000,000 silver dollars. The cam de moneda (mint), or bank of the province, is the headquarters of the paper money ; the Maua bank, established in 1858, was the first private bank in the city; the London and River Plate bank (1863) does a large business; the Argentine bank was more recently established, and there are also several private banking houses, one of which furnished a loan to the national government in June, 1871, engaging to discount $6,000,000 in national funds, at the rate of 7 per cent. The militia and national guard of Buenos Ayres number 19,867 men. Ten daily papers are published in the city : six in Spanish, and one each in English, French, German, and Italian. More than 40,000 immigrants land- ed at Buenos Ayres in 1871 ; and in March, 1872, 1,200 landed in a single day. The total number of immigrants in the latter year was about 45,000; and 100,000 were confidently expected for 1873. The provincial and na- tional governments have their seat together in Buenos Ayres. The municipal govern- ment is composed of 12 leading citizens and foreign residents. The city is divided into parishes, each having a justice of the peace. The mouth of the Plata was discovered in 1512, by Don Juan Diaz de Solis, and Buenos Ayres and several other colonies were founded as early as 1535 by Mendoza ; but the Indians having put the new colonists to flight, it was not till 1580 that the Spaniards under Don Juan de Garay took final possession of the present site of the city, and began to establish settlements, which were soon attached to the viceroyalty of Peru. In 1620 Buenos Ayres was erected into a bishopric ; a new govern- ment was formed, called the government of the Rio de la Plata, which continued depen- dent upon the viceroyalty of Peru till 1776, when the Plate provinces became the seat of a viceroyalty, of which Buenos Ayres was the capital. It fell into the hands of the British in 1806, but was soon retaken by the Span- iards ; and in a second attempt in 1807 to cap- ture the city, the English met with still less success. In 1810 began the war of indepen- dence, which after six years resulted in the formation of the Plate provinces into an inde- pendent state, July 9, 1816, Buenos Ayres still continuing to be the capital. The new con- federation was called the United Provinces of La Plata. But the exclusive policy of the capital soon induced discontent in the prov- inces, which demanded a federation instead of the central government of Buenos Ayres. A civil war broke out, ending in the formation of the Argentine Confederation in 1831. In the midst of these internal dissensions, the port of Buenos Ayres was blockaded by a Brazilian fleet ; but the blockade was raised in 1818 by the intervention of the British. The peace established in 1831 was of short duration ; civil strife soon again manifested itself, and was but temporarily checked by the accession of Rosas to the supreme power in 1835. The new governor soon involved the country in a foreign war, in the course of which the fleet of Buenos Ayres was seized by