Buenos Aires, the Marketplace

Hand-colored aquatint depicting the marketplace in Buenos Aires, featuring views of the Recova (the meat market), carts, fish and poultry sellers, passersby, and customers walking away with their purchases. The author describes the market  as follows:

Between the beef-market and the fort stand the fish-carts. Vegetables and fruit are sold in front of the spirit-houses, and under the south piazza. A double line is formed from the north to the south angle by the dealers in poultry, eggs, &c.; and in the peach season, a range of carts stands between them and the piazza; under which, however, in wet weather, all who have not carts seek a sheltered station.

Ladies never go to market; gentlemen sometimes take the trouble; but in general it is left to a servant, or rather a confidential slave. Two of these are seen in the foreground with their provision for the day, of which two articles are remarkable — partridges and armadillos.