Inscribed by the artist in ink, as title: one of eight loose items in Fanshawe's West Indies, North American and Borneo scrapbook (ZBA4855). This view from seaward into the River Plate off Montevideo was made during Fanshawe's stay there when commanding the 'Daphne' in 1849, en route for the Pacific from Rio de Janeiro to the Falkland Islands. 'Daphne' - which may be the vessel shown sailing in on the far left - arrived on 18 February and left on 9 May, having gone about 100 miles up the Plate to find good fresh water. The reason they were there so long, with other British and French ships, was in consequence of the ongoing six-year siege of the city by President Oribe of Uruguay. He had been turned out of office by Rivera's revolt but with Argentine help had regained most of the country, other than Montevideo. British and French forces were helping hold the town - where the French had landed sailors as a garrison, replacing a similar British force - to protect their considerable interests and population there during negotiation of a settlement. 'Daphne' anchored about four miles from the town and Fanshawe found his stay dull, observing in a letter to his wife on 22 February that 'Montevideo, which has evidently been a handsome specimen of a Spanish town, is now in a melancholy state of decay both in its materiel and personnel, and handsome suburbs which were rising up about it have come to a sudden stop at the first storeys' (Fanshawe [1904] p.165). Shipping is shown here in the distance off the town, probably with the French flagship in the centre: the cathedral and fortress lie on heights to the right and there is a tower on high ground on the south side of the river.

While informative, this is rather a dull drawing in terms of colour and overall impression. Fanshawe apparently thought so too, since he did not include it in his main souvenir album of those recording his Pacific commission (PAI4604) and its loose survival shows that he was selective in compiling that. Were it included, it would have been placed between one of Rio (PAI4608) and the first of several of the Falkland Islands (PAI4609). [PvdM 2/11]