vessels.

At San Pedro the steamer emerges from the Parana de las Palmas and
enters the main channel of the river. A notable locality a few leagues
above San Pedro is the Obligado, where the Parana becomes so narrow that
the channel lies within pistol-shot of the right bank. The Obligado is
interesting in an historical point of view as having been the scene in
1845 of a fierce engagement wherein the English and French fleets ran
the gauntlet of the Argentine batteries there, which attempted to
prevent their passage. One of the English vessels, under a withering
fire, cut a chain that barred the channel. A humorous sequel to this
brilliant feat of arms is this, that since that occurrence every French
sailor, and especially every deserter from the French merchant marine
who goes to La Plata, boasts that he "assisted" at the affair. He will
narrate all the details in the most bombastic manner to any pecuniarily
prosperous fellow-countryman who will listen to him, and will then close
with a proposition that he and his compatriot shall "take something."
The payment for the score naturally falls to the lot of the listener or
victim, and hence has arisen a saying among Frenchmen in La Plata:
"Distrust the gentleman who was at the combat of the Obligado."

Twenty-four hours after leaving Buenos Ayres the steamer stops at
Rosario, having previously passed the town of San Nicolas de los
Arragos, with its ten thousand inhabitants, its picturesque cathedral
flanked with a white tower on either side, its progressive tramways or
horse-cars, and its reputation for furnishing an excellent article of
hides, the province being celebrated for the quality of its cattle.

Rosario is the second port of the confederation. It stands a short
distance away from the river on a barranca or cliff. Passengers on
landing are conveyed in horse-cars to the town, which is laid out in
handsome streets and built up with charming and comfortable houses. The
barn-like church, of the "horrible Jesuit style," as M. Forgues calls it
(the heavy style of architecture common to nearly all the church
edifices of South America), is very ugly, and as to the "faithful
_elegantes_" who worshiped in it, our traveler did not deem them as
handsome as their sisters of Buenos Ayres. Much of Rosario's increasing
prosperity is owing to the railroad which connects it with the interior
town of Cordova to the west. This road also extends down the Parana to a
point about half