“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...

Rivera defeated and across the border in Brazil, Guarch left the Uruguayan capital and
proceeded to rent several tracts of land from Vázquez between Salto and Brazilian border.
From this position in the borderlands, Guarch began to serve as an important factional
middleman. He leveraged his connections to merchants in Montevideo like Vázquez along
with ties to Rivera to foster commercial relationships with the Brazilian ranching
community. When the initial power struggle in Rio Grande do Sul gradually deepened into a
full blown civil war in 1836, Guarch was well-placed to secure commercial linkages with the
rebellious ranchers just across the border.
To that end, Vázquez issued a power of attorney to Guarch in order to negotiate the
sale of his lands around Salto to Farrapos supporters seeking to move their herds across the
border to avoid the conflict. Guarch immediately traveled north, crossing the border into
Brazil. There, he met with Manoel José de Carvalho, a wealthy rancher with extensive lands
between Alegrete and Uruguaiana. The men negotiated the sale of 12 leagues of Vázquez’s
land. 26 Guarch consummated the deal with Carvalho in May of 1836. The men agreed for
Carvalho to purchase the property through two payments in 1837 and 1838, with the final
amount to be determined once the actual property boundaries were affixed through a formal
survey. The following year, Carvalho tendered the first payment of 14,000 silver patações, a
massive sum, for Vázquez’s tract. 27
26 Carvalho in fact operated one of the largest ranching operations in the region. At
the time of his death, Carvalho possessed the second largest estate in Alegrete for the period
between 1831 and 1870. Farinatti, "Confins Meridionais", 54.
27 APRGS. Alegrete. Tabelionato. Registros Diversos, Registro de hum recibo passado por D.
Fructuoso Rivera e D. Elias dos Reis a Manuel José de Carvalho (April 23, 1840), 83. Patações are the
Portuguese term for one of the “national” currencies from Argentina circulating throughout
the region – the patacón. These were originally silver dollars. Later there were paper bills that
in theory could be converted into an equivalent amount of specie.
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