The timber sea-wall was built to a level of 16 feet above low water, and the stone sea-wall to 19 feet.  Originally there were built three sheds in the South Basin, three sheds and two warehouses in Dock No. 1, two warehouses and two sheds in Dock No. 2, five warehouses in Dock No. 3, and four warehouses in Dock No. 4, the total capacity of these sheds and warehouses being 525,510 cubic metres, and the floor area 192,800 square metres.  Since then, several warehouses have been built, and some burnt down.  The total cost of the harbour works as contracted for by Ed. Madero was $35,000,000 gold, or, say, about L7,000,000.  This includes the South Basin, Dock No. 1, Dock No. 2, Dock No. 3, Dock No. 4, North Basin, North Channel, Graving Docks, machinery, etc.

The following statement shows the total tonnage that passed through the port of Buenos Aires in 1880, 1890, 1900, and 1909, and clearly shows the advance made in the last 30 years.

These figures include steamers and sailing-vessels, and local as well as foreign trade.

1880 ... ... ... 644,750 tons 1890 ... ... ... 4,507,096 tons 1900 ... ... ... 8,047,010 tons 1909 ... ... ... 16,993,973 tons

In 1909 we find that 2,008 steamers and 137 sailing-vessels entered the port of Buenos Aires from foreign shores with a tonnage of 5,193,542, and 1,978 steamers and 129 sailing-vessels left the port for foreign shores with a tonnage of 5,174,114; out of these, British boats lead with 2,242 steamers and 37 sailing-vessels, or, say, 53-1/2 per cent, of the total.

JUST MY LUCK!

I really have had rather bad luck.  As you know, I was wrecked on my way out from the Old Country.  The good ship “Southern Cross” met her fate on a rock in Vigo Bay, and my luggage met its fate at the same time.  This was something of a blow, but I expected to be treated a little more kindly by fate when once my destination was reached; I would be a stranger in a new country, and fate is proverbially kind to tyros of every sort.

R.M.S.P.  “Danube,” which carried the shipwrecked passengers of the “Southern Cross” from Vigo to Buenos Aires, arrived at the Argentine capital towards the end of January.  At the conclusion of my journey, one of my fellow-passengers, to whom I was saying good-bye, gave me this sound piece of advice:  “Take care of yourself, and the country will take care of you.”  I don’t suppose I can have taken care of myself, for within two months I was down with typhoid fever.  This is how fate treats strangers in a new country.

You know that I had the good fortune, shortly after my arrival, to find employment with the Santa Fe Land Company, and immediately on my falling ill, the Manager of the estancia sent me to bed, and reduced me to a milk diet.  Two days later he himself took me down to the Buenos Aires British Hospital, and it is to this fact, and to the sensible treatment which I received in camp, that I in great measure owe my quick recovery.  The journey to Buenos Aires was made as comfortable as possible.  Even so, however, I must have been slightly delirious, for I remember thinking that everybody in the train was wearing a pink shirt without either coat or waistcoat.  This must surely have been a delusion.