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Aimé Bonpland and Merinomania in Southern South America*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Stephen Bell
Stephen Bell*
Affiliation:
McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
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Extract

As an integrating theme in the biological or ecological expansion of Europe, merino sheep were so important that one authority on their dispersal sees the nineteenth century standing as “the century of the Merino.” Merinos produce a wool of distinctive quality, one long appreciated for providing warmth without excessive weight. Guarded for centuries by Spanish monopoly, the breed's status as something of a prize outside Spain began to change in 1808 with the Napoleonic invasion of the Iberian peninsula. By around 1820, a major new phase in merino dispersal was underway with its adaptation to some of the vast grassland ecosystems in the Europeanizing peripheries. The breed was of critical importance to the settlement and development of Australia. It was also highly important in other parts of the southern hemisphere, including in the transformation of existing cattle cultures on the great grassland regions of the Río de la Plata. Here the merino formed the leading edge of rural modernization, offering real potential for ground-up development.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 51 , Issue 3 , January 1995 , pp. 301 - 323
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1995

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Footnotes

*

I wish to thank the referees for their helpful comments. This article forms part of a research program on Bonpland's South American career supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

References

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3 Bonpland’s connection with Latin America is interesting enough to have been granted considerable space in Eduardo Galeano’s recent narration of New World history; see Memory of Fire, vol. 2, Faces and Mash (New York, 1988), pp. 84–85, 87–93, 135–36, 182. It is clear that Bonpland still needs a comprehensive biography examining his career in its own terms, rather than as an appendage to Humboldt. There is a good bibliographical essay on Bonpland in Barreto, Abeillard, Bibliografia sulriograndense: a contribuição portuguesa e estrangeira para o conhecimento e a integração do Rio Grande do Sul, vol. 1 (Rio de Janeiro, 1973), pp. 174–82.Google Scholar The best work remains Hamy, E.T., Aimé Bonpland, médecin et naturaliste, explorateur de l’Amérique du Sud. Sa vie, son oeuvre, sa correspondence (Paris, 1906).Google Scholar Alicia Lourteig has provided some useful insights into character in her “Aimé Bonpland,” Bonplandia (Corrientes) 3 (October 1977), especially pp. 270–82.

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26 João Pedro Gay, “Notices résumées sur le naturaliste Mr. Aimé Bonpland,” São Borja, 21 June 1867, Biblioteca Nacional, Rio de Janeiro (hereafter cited as BN), manuscripts, 1–4, 3, 19.

27 Within the considerable literature on Banks, see especially Carter, Harold B., Sir Joseph Banks, 1743–1820 (London, 1988).Google Scholar

28 See Bourde, André J., Agronomie et agronomes en France au XVIIIe siècle, 3 vols. (Paris, 1967),Google Scholar especially vol. 3, pp. 1532–33, 1541– 44, 1590–91.

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32 A letter from Bonpland discussing flock management at Malmaison has survived, as well as another including brief mention of a tour of inspection of merino flocks in the Hautes-Alpes, Bonpland to Empress Joséphine, Malmaison, 24 April 1809 and Bonpland to Madame Gallocheau, Malmaison, 24 July 1813, printed in Hamy, , Aimé Bonpland, pp. 25–26, 56–58.Google Scholar

33 On Bonpland’s links with Rivadavia, see Schulz, Wilhelm, Aimé Bonpland, Alexander von Humboldts Begleiter auf der Amerikareise 1799–1804: Sein Leben und Wirken, besonders nach 1817 in Argentinien (Mainz, 1960), p. 15 Google Scholar; Hamy, Aime Bonpland, p. xxxix. Herbert Gibson speculated that Rivadavia was drawn into the merino vs. Southdown debate while resident in London, “The Evolution of Live-stock Breeding in the Argentine, p. 66.

34 The vast scope of Banks’ interest in the fine wool question is readily conveyed in Carter, Harold B., ed., The Sheep and Wool Correspondence of Sir Joseph Banks, 1781–1820 (London, 1979).Google Scholar

35 For example, in Paris both the Académie des Sciences and the Institut de France actively supported the fine wool issue. Alexandre-Henri Tessier to Joseph Banks, Paris, 7 March 1813, British Library, Add. MS. 8100.

36 Schulz, , Aimé Bonpland, Alexander von Humboldts Begleiter, pp. 17–22.Google Scholar A British engineer and scientist who saw Bonpland in 1819 described him as living “under great excitement in consequence of the execution of two of his companions.” John Miers, “On the History of the ‘Maté’ Plant and the different Species of Ilex employed in the Preparation of the ‘Yerba de Maté,’ or Paraguay Tea,” The Annals and Magazine of Natural History, third ser., 8 (1861), 225. The general politics of this period are well summarized in Rock, , Argentina, 1516–1987, pp. 92–94.Google Scholar

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38 Bonpland to Humboldt, Buenos Aires, 7 May 1832, printed in Hamy, , Aimé Bonpland, pp. 82–83.Google Scholar

39 Montoya, , La ganaderia y la industria de salazon de carnes, p. 116.Google Scholar

40 Bonpland to Humboldt, Buenos Aires, 2 March 1837, printed in Hamy, , Aimé Bonpland, pp. 121–24.Google Scholar The botany-merino link shows up yet again in the Delessert family history. Étienne Delessert (1735–1816), who started the family bank in the 1770s at Paris, founded a company near the end of the eighteenth century to import merino sheep to France. His eldest son Benjamin (1773–1847) showed a serious interest in natural science, collecting a very rich herbarium. Dictionnaire de biographie française, vol. 10 (Paris, 1965), pp. 804–07. From South America, Bonpland’s contacts were with another son François (1780–1868). Bonpland turned to François for help in Paris in relation to the administration of his pension. He also appears to have used the agency of the Delessert bank for transmitting some of his correspondence.

41 Part of Bonpland’s September 1837 request for land is printed in Gomez, Felix Maria, Amado Bonpland (Corrientes, 1958), pp. 26–27.Google Scholar

42 On Ferré’s political character, see Whigham, Thomas, The Politics of River Trade: Tradition and Development in the Upper Plata, 1780–1870 (Albuquerque, 1991), pp. 46–48.Google Scholar

43 There is a brief description of thė Santa Ana property in Bonpland to François Delessert, Montevideo, 26 December 1853, printed in Hamy, , Aimé Bonpland, p. 177.Google Scholar

44 This paragraph is based on data in Whigham, , The Politics of River Trade, p. 205.Google Scholar

45 Ibid., p. 55; Lynch, John, Argentine Dictator: Juan Manuel de Rosas, 1829–1852 (Oxford, 1981), pp. 174, 193, 202.Google Scholar

46 The first attempt at an official sheep count in the 1850s gave a figure of approximately 360,000 but this was based on seriously incomplete returns, Relatório apresentado à Assembléia Legislativa, em 5–11–1860, pelo presidente Joaquim Antão F. Ledo; na la. sessão da 9a legislatura, p. 59. The actual number of sheep in Rio Grande do Sul was probably between 500,000 and 1,000,000.

47 de Saint-Hilaire, Auguste, Viagem ao Rio Grande do Sul, 1820–1821, de Azeredo Penna, Leonam, trans., (São Paulo, 1974), p. 49,Google Scholar originally published as Voyage à Rio Grande do Sul, Brésil (Orléans, 1887); Dreys, Nicolau, Noticía descritiva da província do Rio Grande de São Pedro do Sul (Rio de Janeiro, 1961, orig. Rio de Janeiro, 1839), pp. 141–42.Google Scholar

48 Gonçalves Chaves, Antônio José, Memórias ecônomo-políticas sobre a administração pública do Brasil (Porto Alegre, 1978, orig. Rio de Janeiro, 1822, 1823), pp. 203–04;Google Scholar see also the perceptive comments on sheep neglect in Kerst, Samuel Gottfried, “Die brasilische Provinz Rio Grande do Sul. Ein Beitrag zur Länderkunde,” Neues Magazin der neuesten Reisebeschreibungen (Berlin) 47 (1832), 87–88.Google Scholar

49 “Informe do visconde de São Leopoldo, sem indicação de destinatário, sobre a criação de gado na Província do Rio Grande do Sul [Rio de Janeiro, 1842],” art. 34, BN, manuscripts, II–36, 1, 18. The visconde de São Leopoldo had worked in Lisbon as a translator of studies from English and French in a literary establishment designed to educate Brazilian landowners. See Porto, Aurélio, preface to Anais da província de S. Pedro by Fernandes Pinheiro, José Feliciano, de São Leopoldo, visconde (Rio de Janeiro, 1946), vii, [xviii]-xix;Google Scholar Galloway, J.H., “Agricultural Reform and the Enlightenment in Late Colonial Brazil,” Agricultural History 53 (1979), 774–75.Google Scholar

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51 This interest eventually led to a specialized literature in English. Mccoll, John, The Republic of Uruguay, Monte Video, geographical, social and political. To which is appended. Life in the River Plate. A Manual for Emigrants (London, 1862);Google Scholar Murray, Rev. J.H., Travels in Uruguay, South America; Together with an Account of the Present State of Sheep-farming and Emigration to that Country (London, 1871).Google Scholar Based on his field observations, the famous naturalist W.H. Hudson later provided a scathing fictional portrait of a Captain Cloudsley Wriothesley and his companions, who were attempting to transplant elements of an English country life to their sheep farms in Uruguay; The Purple Land: Being the Narrative of one Richard Lamb’s Adventures in the Banda Orientát, in South America, as told by Himself (London, 1929), pp. 59–76.

52 The whole district around this estate took its name, later including a colony, town and município. The size of the estate is noted in Bonpland to Alfred Demersay, Porto Alegre, 10 June 1849, printed in Hamy, , Aimé Bonpland, pp. 146–49.Google Scholar

53 See Spalding, Walter, A Revolução Farroupilha: história popular do grande decênio, seguida das efeméridades principais de 1835–1845, fariamente documentadas, second ed. (São Paulo, 1980), especially pp. 21–22.Google Scholar

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55 Bonpland to Alfred Demersay, Porto Alegre, 10 June 1849, printed in Hamy, , Aimé Bonpland, pp. 146–49.Google Scholar

56 This sheep correspondence is made Up of ten letters written from São Borja, BN, manuscripts, I–2, 3, 36.

57 Bonpland to Chaves, 24 June 1848, BN.

58 Bonpland to Chaves, 9 October 1848, BN.

59 Bonpland, Aimé, Journal voyage de Sn. Borja a La Cierra y a Porto Alegre, transcription of the original manuscripts, notes and corrections by Alicia Lourteig (Porto Alegre & Paris, 1978), p. 3.Google Scholar This work is based on MSS 208 and 209 of the Bibliothèque Centrale du Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris.

60 Ibid., pp. 18–21, 34.

61 Bonpland to Chaves, BN, manuscripts, incomplete undated MS.

62 Bonpland’s reference to Sweden probably indicates familiarity with eighteenth-century sheep improvement literature. The first work of substance on fine-wooled sheep was Alströmer, Clas, Tal, Om Den Fin-Ulliga Far-Afveln (Stockholm, 1770),Google Scholar which appeared in an incomplete French translation as early as 1772; see Carter, , The Sheep and Wool Correspondence of Sir Joseph Banks, pp. 560, 580.Google Scholar

63 Isabelle, Arsène, Emigração e colonização, De Oliveira, Belfort, trans., (Rio de Janeiro, 1950), pp. 65–66,Google Scholar originally published as Emigration et colonisation dans la province Brésilienne de Rio-Grande du sud, la Republique Orientale de l’Uruguay et tout le bassin de la Plata (Montevideo, 1850).

64 Bonpland, , Journal voyage de Sn. Borja a La Cierra, p. 135.Google Scholar

65 Ibid., p. 121.

66 Relatório apresentado à Assembléia Legislativa em 2–10–1854 pelo presidente Cansansão Sinimbú; la sessão da 6a legislátura, p. 45; Carvalho, , Nobiliário sul-riograndense, p. 175.Google Scholar

67 The sketchy biographical details stem from his elevation to the Brazilian nobility in 1876 as the barão de Irapuá, ibid., p. 120.

68 Bonpland, , Journal voyage de Sn. Borja a La Cierra, p. 79.Google Scholar

69 Domínguez, Juan A., “Urquiza y Bonpland. Antecedentes históricos. La disentería en el Ejército Grande en formación, en 1850,” Trabajos del Instituto de Botánica y Farmacología (Buenos Aires) 59 (October 1938), 1–19.Google Scholar

70 See Macchi, Manuel E., El ovino en la Argentina. Acción de Urquiza. Intento de desarrollismo. Fábrica textil e inmigración catalana (Buenos Aires, 1974), especially pp. 33–56.Google Scholar

71 Rock, , Argentina, 1516–1987, p. 112.Google Scholar

72 Bonpland, , Journal voyage de Sn. Borja a La Cierra, pp. 84–86 Google Scholar.

73 “Nouvelles géographiques,” Bulletin de la Société de Géographie, fourth ser., 1 (January 1851), 86–87.

74 Bonpland to Chaves, Montevideo, 12 August 1850, BN.

75 Bonpland to Humboldt, Montevideo, 25 December 1853 and Restauración [Paso de los Libres], 2 October 1854, printed in Hamy, , Aimé Bonpland, pp. 169–75, 188–90.Google Scholar

76 Bonpland showed some real affection for Corrientes, as can be seen for example in an 1840 letter to the botanist Charles-François Brisseau de Mirbel: “The government of Corrientes likes the French; it protects the sciences and the arts, and neglects nothing for the improvement of agriculture.” Bonpland to Mirbel, Montevideo, 17 May 1840, printed in ibid., pp. 138–41, quotation p. 139.

77 There are references to the Santa Ana flock and to repairing animal losses in Bonpland to Frederico A. de Vasconcellos Ferreira Cabrai, Montevideo, 10 December 1853; Bonpland to Humboldt, Montevideo, 25 December 1853, Montevideo, 2 September 1855 and Corrientes, 7 June 1857, printed in ibid., pp. 166–75, 198–201, 212–16.

78 Duelos to Sinimbu, 22 July 1853, AHRGS. Bonpland was familiar with Duelos’ efforts; see his Journal voyage de Sn. Borja a La Cierra, pp. 66, 120, 131, 132.

79 For a fuller discussion of the provincial sheep experiment, see Bell, Stephen, “Ranching in the Campanha of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, 1850–1920: An Historical Geography of Uneven Development” (Ph.D. diss., University of Toronto, 1991), especially pp. 212–17.Google Scholar

80 Brown, , Letters from a Texas Sheep Ranch, pp. 140–41.Google Scholar

81 See Macchi, , El ovino en la Argentina, especially pp. 41–42, 105–36.Google Scholar

82 Montoya, , La ganaderia y la industria de salazon de carnes, p. 14.Google Scholar

83 One of the few references to grasslands in Bonpland’s correspondence describes those around Buenos Aires as “sterile.” Bonpland to Humboldt, Buenos Aires, 12 July 1832, printed in Hamy, , Aimé Bonpland, p. 86.Google Scholar

84 A visit to Alegrete in September 1839; see Lourteig, , “Aimé Bonpland,” p. 291.Google Scholar

85 See Bell, , “Ranching in the Campanha,” pp. 234–36.Google Scholar