ACONCAGUA.
ACONCAGUA.
This marvellous country of Argentina is destined to be one of the great nations of the world. Nature is just, and in giving it a prodigious extent of flat fertile soil has more than compensated it for withholding the gift of abundant gold that has made the history of other portions of South America. With a climate that varies, as does that of Chile, from the tropical to the antarctic, with pasture and arable land unsurpassed in the world, and with facilities for transport by land and water enabling the fruits of the soil to be conveyed easily from remote districts to eager markets for them, no bounds can be set to the wealth that awaits enterprise in the country. As a highway, too, the possibilities of Argentina are immense. The connection of Buenos Aires by rail with Santiago and Valparaiso opens up a new and shorter route to New Zealand and Australia; whilst the rapidly progressing extension of the railway into Bolivia—another link, it is intended, of the line to run eventually from New York to Buenos Aires—will provide a new and welcome outlet for the treasures of her mines to Bolivia, a vast country without a port of its own.
The possession of a temperate climate has made the Argentine and Chile the two South American nations of most promise for the future, owing to the fact that both countries have attracted and assimilated a great admixture of the robust peoples of Europe. The immigrants have been to a large extent drawn from the countries where life is hard and the fare frugal; from North Italy, from Galicia and Russia; whilst in stern Patagonia the Scotsman and the Welshman find an environment after their own hearts. In the second generation the immigrants of all nations usually become sturdyArgentines, and this easy assimilation of new ethnological elements is one of the most striking signs of the energy of the nation as a whole, and the most promising fact as regards the future political stability of the country. That a composite race will result from this admixture, possessing much of the patient laboriousness of the Ligurian and the practical hardheadedness of the Teuton, to temper the keen vehemence of the Ibero-American, may be confidently hoped: and if such be the case the advantages that nature has showered upon the Argentine will be complete, and a splendid future for the country secure.
MARTIN HUME.
ARGENTINA
The attempt to present a bird's-eye view of Argentina may well be called presumptuous, for the country is larger than Russia in Europe and offers every variety of climate—"hot, cold, moist, and dry." Nor would the utmost industry of the traveller suffice to glean anything like complete information, for large tracts, owing to the inhospitality of nature or man, are unexplored, and both north and south he would be checked by impenetrable forests, or rugged barriers of rock, or by savage Indians who are saved from extinction by the inaccessibility of their habitations. Further, even as regards the settled parts of those districts which, however desolate, are practicable to the traveller, there is more to be learnt (and the conditions are ever changing) than could well be absorbed in a lifetime, for Argentina is not, like several South American countries, a mere gigantic mass of potential riches, but is rapidly assuming a leading position among the commercial states of the world. From Buenos Aires to Mendoza, from Bahia Blanca to Tucuman, are to be seen all the signs of wealth andprosperity, all the unmistakable portents of coming potency usually apparent in a new country that has emerged from the stage of childhood and weakness and feels the vigour of lusty youth in its veins, impelling it to take its place in the system of world politics.
If a single volume is all too short to represent Argentina in its manifold aspects, still less adequate is a single chapter to sketch its physical characteristics. In fact, its interest is at present more physical than moral, rather in its vast capacities for producing wealth and distributing it by means of magnificent waterways and ever-extending railroads, than in anything which Argentinians have done to ennoble life by arts or other services.
Before, however, proceeding to the study of a country the learner must endeavour to set before himself its principal geographical features, and as those of Argentina are well defined and comparatively simple they lend themselves to broad and clear classification. Geographically Argentina falls into four divisions. Firstly, Patagonia, which stretches from the Rio Colorado to Cape Horn. Secondly, the Andine region, which runs from the southern frontier of Bolivia right along the Chilian border. Thirdly, the Gran Chaco, which embraces the whole of the north of Argentina except the Andine strip. Fourthly, the Pampa, which comprises the central and best known region.
Patagonia received its name,patagon, or large paw, from the enormous footprints which the Spanish explorers remarked in the sand. Till recently it was almost aterra incognita, roamed by Indians and herds of guanacos, but of late years the beginnings of settlement have been made, and sheep-farming has become a considerable industry. The southern portion is cold and inclement all the year round, but in the north thesummers are hot. The country is well watered by six considerable rivers—the Negro, Chubut, Santa Cruz, Deseado, Coyly, and Gallegos—but scarcity of rain has caused it to be neglected by agriculturists. The whole of the plateau, indeed, has been called the Great Shingle Desert; it is of Tertiary formation, and the endless waste of sand and gravel was chiefly contributed by glacial action. This inhospitable desert is arranged in terraces which slope gently eastward, first from heights of 2,000 feet to 500, and then from this lower elevation to the sea-level.
In old days wonderful tales were told about the Patagonian giants—their enormous size, strength, and ferocity, but here it need only be said that the accounts were at least exaggerated. "In height, although very much above the average—some, indeed, reaching the height of 6 feet 4 inches, and all being broad and muscular—they have been greatly exaggerated, for, being very long in the body, they seem to tower above the European while sitting on horseback. They are short in the legs, and when standing on the ground do not on an average come over about 5 feet 11 inches."[3]
The Andine region, which in some of the South American States is the overwhelming characteristic, does not set a distinctive mark upon Argentina—essentially a plain country—but the western frontier of the Republic is guarded by a colossal range of mountains. These begin with Cerro de las Granadas in the extreme north, and extend beyond the Upper Colorado basin, where the Sierra Auco Mahinda of 16,000 feet is one of the most southerly of the important peaks. After this, although there is still a chain of moderate height, the mountains are not distinctively Andine. Thehighest of all the Argentine mountains is probably the Nevado de Famatina.
ANDINE PASS.
ANDINE PASS.
In general this region is excessively dry and the mountains are almost bare of vegetation. The annual rainfall at Mendoza is but 6 inches and at San Juan it is only 3.
The Gran Chaco may be taken as a rough denomination for the whole of the Republic lying north of the Pampa, excluding the Andine fringe. This is a land of luxuriant vegetation with a warm and moist climate and, as might be expected, the products vary greatly from those of the temperate plains. Rice and the sugar-cane, castor-oil, sesame, and the poppy are all cultivated, but this part of the country is as yet scantily populated and quite undeveloped; there are therefore few surplus products to export. It is a region of great beauty, and travellers praise the silent tropical nights, whose darkness is relieved by myriads of fireflies, the primeval forests, and the magnificent rivers. But it is mostly virgin land and in many parts is peopled by savage inhabitants who make travel dangerous.
A LONELY SCENE, SIERRA DE LA VENTANA.
A LONELY SCENE, SIERRA DE LA VENTANA.
The real Argentina is the Pampa; it is that vast and fertile champaign which makes the great Republic what she is, and to which she owes all her wealth and prosperity. Erroneous as is the popular idea that Argentina is merely a land of grassy steppes and rich cornfields, this is due to the fact that all except specialists have confined their travels to the Pampa. It extends from Cordoba to the Rios Negro or Colorado. In it are contained the great and growing towns, and from it these towns draw their prosperity. It is a country to delight the heart of the agriculturist. In many countries of South America the traveller passes through interminable jungles sparingly scattered with patches of cultivation where a few bony cattle scour for a livelihood. In the Pampa there is rich tilth and fine pasture; magnificent red and white beasts graze and fatten, standing knee-deep in the fresh grass, and sheep innumerable are raised. The dead level of the land is not quite unbroken, for south of the Plate estuary there are two small mountain ranges, the Tandil and Ventana. They never exceed 2,800 feet. In the east the rainfall is generally satisfactory, but it becomes scanty in the western districts. The winter is cold, the summer decidedly hot, but the climate is not intemperate, and might be called pleasant but for the fierce hot and cold winds which disturb enjoyment and are in some cases prejudicial to health. This brief summary must, for the present, suffice for the four regions; as we survey the country more in detail, we shall have opportunities of describing their characteristics more fully. It remains, however, to take a brief survey of several features which can better be described while we look at the country as a whole. The geology of Argentina greatly interested Darwin. He says:[4]"The geology of Patagonia is interesting. Differently from Europe, where the Tertiary formations appear to have accumulated in bays, here along hundreds of miles of coast we have one great deposit, including many Tertiary shells, all apparently extinct. The most common shell is a massive, gigantic oyster, sometimes even a foot in diameter. These beds are covered by others of a peculiar soft, white stone, including much gypsum, and resembling chalk, but really of a pumiceous nature. It is highly remarkable, from being composed, to at least one-tenth part of its bulk, of infusoria: Professor Ehrenberg has already ascertained in it thirty oceanic forms. This bed extends for 500 miles along the coast, and probably for a considerably greater distance. At Port St. Julian its thickness is more than 800 feet!These white beds are everywhere capped by a mass of gravel, forming probably one of the largest beds of shingle in the world: it certainly extends from near the Rio Colorado to between 600 and 700 nautical miles southward; at Santa Cruz (a river a little south of St. Julian) it reaches to the foot of the Cordillera; half-way up the river its thickness is more than 200 feet; it probably everywhere extends to this great chain, whence the well-rounded pebbles of porphyry have been derived: we may consider its average breadth as 200 miles, and its average thickness as about 50 feet. If this great bed of pebbles, without including the mud necessarily derived from their attrition, was piled into a mound, it would form a great mountain chain! When we consider that all these pebbles, countless as the grains of sand in the desert, have been derived from the slow-falling masses of rock on the old coast-lines and banks of rivers, and that these fragments have been dashed into smaller pieces, and that each of them has since been slowly rolled, rounded, and far transported, the mind is stupefied in thinking over the long, absolutely necessary lapse of years. Yet all this gravel has been transported, and probably rounded, subsequently to the deposition of the white beds, and long subsequently to the underlying beds with their Tertiary shells." His observations upon the Cordillera are equally noteworthy. He says:[5]"No one fact in the geology of South America interested me more than these terraces of rudely stratified shingle. They precisely resemble in composition the matter which the torrents in each valley would deposit if they were checked in their course by any cause, such as entering a lake or arm of the sea; but the torrents, instead of depositing matter, are now steadily at work wearing away both the solid rock and these alluvial deposits, along the wholeline of every main valley and side valley. It is impossible here to give the reasons, but I am convinced that the shingle terraces were accumulated during the gradual elevation of the Cordillera by the torrents delivering, at successive levels, their detritus on the beach-heads of long, narrow arms of the sea, first high up the valleys, then lower and lower down as the land slowly rose. If this be so, and I cannot doubt it, the grand and broken chain of the Cordillera, instead of having been suddenly thrown up, as was till lately the universal, and still is the common opinion of geologists, has been slowly upheaved in mass, in the same gradual manner as the coasts of the Atlantic and Pacific have risen within the recent period. A multitude of facts in the structure of the Cordillera, on this view, receive a simple explanation." His conclusion is: "Daily it is forced home on the mind of the geologist that nothing, not even the wind that blows, is so unstable as the level of the crust of this earth."
LA VENTANA.
LA VENTANA.
The geological character of Argentina is tolerably uniform. The surface is a coating of sandy soil, not usually more than 2 feet thick, which is alluvial and, from a geological point of view, quite modern. In the western districts it is usually bare of vegetation, but in the east it is covered with green herbage more or less thick. Underneath this superficial covering, however, lies the true geological formation, and this consists of argillaceous earth or mud of a reddish colour and interspersed with marly rock called by the inhabitants Tosca rock. It extends to latitude 38° or thereabouts, and is the famous Pampean formation, which Darwin calls Pampean mud. The thickness of this stratum varies considerably; it may average about 40 feet, and geologically it belongs to the Quaternary epoch, otherwise called Diluvian or Post-Pliocene. Its most remarkable feature is the enormous number of mammiferous remains whichare to be found embedded in this Pampean mud, and naturalists believe that it would be impossible to dig a deep trench in any direction without disinterring some of these extinct giants. Frequently perfect skeletons are discovered. These ossiferous remains are richest in the province of Buenos Aires and become somewhat less frequent in the north and west. Some observers have marvelled that such huge creatures in such vast numbers were ever able to find nourishment, but that question is not a serious difficulty, for the largest animals are by no means the most voracious, and doubtless, like elephants of to-day, their struggle for existence was not so much against hunger as against the depredations of other animals or natural catastrophes. A much greater puzzle is their disappearance. It has been suggested that they were killed off by the Glacial cold, but it is not obvious, as has been pointed out, why this visitation carried off the mastodons and spared the parrots and hummingbirds. Another theory, put forward by a savant named M. Bravard, opines that a vast simoon overwhelmed them, but such a belief, inadequate and full of difficulties, is refuted by the fact that most of the skeletons are mutilated. Had they been overwhelmed by sand storms, they would have been preserved in almost perfect condition. The notion of drought is also inadequate. Darwin remarks that it is absurd to suppose that the most terrible calamity of this sort could destroy every species from Patagonia to Behring Straits. It is impossible to suppose that prehistoric man hunted down and slew these great creatures. The simplest hypothesis and the one which surmounts the greatest number of difficulties is that a mighty deluge overwhelmed man and beast in common ruin. A great geologist"[6]says: "I argue that this destruction was caused by an invasion of the continent by water—a view which is completelyen rapportwith the facts presented by the great Pampean deposit, which was clearly laid down by water. How otherwise can we account for this complete destruction and the homogeneousness of the Pampas deposits containing bones? I find an evident proof of this in the immense number of bones and of entire animals whose numbers are greatest at the outlets of the valleys, as Mr. Darwin shows. He found the greatest number of the remains at Bahia Blanca, at Bajada, also on the coast, and on the affluents of the Rio Negro, also at the outlet of the valley. This proves that the animals were floated, and hence were chiefly carried to the coast."
But D'Orbigny seems to have erred in attempting to push his theory too far, for he insists that the great deluge not only destroyed the mammoths but at the same time created the Pampean plain. Nothing, however, can be more certain than that the lapse of countless ages was necessary to accumulate "the dust of continents to be." It is incredible that a great fragment of a continent was createdper saltum. Darwin believes (and, it appears, rightly), "that the Pampean formation was slowly accumulated at the mouth of the former estuary of the Plata and in the sea adjoining it."[7]As we shall see, when we come to deal with Patagonia, the country was once a lake or sea, and the water system of South America was very different from what it now is, nor is there any difficulty in believing that the stupendous volume of the Parana waters (then even mightier than now) was able to wash down an accumulation of mud capable of making the sea into dry land.
So much, then, for the Quaternary Pampean mud interlaced with the bones of giant animals.
The Patagonian plain, however, is, in appearance at any rate, a different and much older formation, namely the Tertiary, an extensive gravel bed which possibly extends under the whole Quaternary deposit of the Pampa. But exposures occur of both varieties of this formation,i.e., the Patagonian and the Guaraman, in the banks of the Parana and elsewhere. It is supposed to have been contributed chiefly by Glacial action.
THE RIVER URUGUAY.
THE RIVER URUGUAY.
The river system of Argentina, which is perhaps the most remarkable physical feature of the country, next demands our attention. All the Argentine rivers find their way into the Atlantic, but all are insignificant compared with the marvellous confluence of mighty streams in the Plate estuary. The Parana rises in far-away Brazilian mountains, and is already a noble stream when it reaches the north-eastern confines of Paraguay. Flowing southward it then, for more than 100 miles, serves as the boundary between Paraguay and Brazil, and from the point where it is joined by the Iguazu River it becomes an Argentine stream, and, inclining more and more to the west, it is now the boundary between Argentine and Paraguay. At Corrientes it unites with the Paraguay River and flows almost due south, running into the Plate estuary at the same point as the Uruguay. Few rivers can match the Parana in majesty; at Rosario it is 20 miles wide, and would give the impression of the broad sea were it not for the cluster of poplar-clad islands which intercept the view. In thus tracing the course of the Parana we have mentioned only a few of the innumerable streams of the system in which it takes the most conspicuous part; the waters drain the south of Brazil, the whole of Uruguay and Paraguay, the fertile districts of Argentina, and even portions of Bolivia. The Parana—the Nile of the West—debouches through fourteen channels; it has a drainagearea of 1,198,000 square miles, and the discharge of each twenty-four hours is sufficient to create a lake a mile square and 1,650 feet deep.[8]Subordinate to the Parana are several Argentine systems which deserve mention. The provinces of Corrientes and Entre Rios, called the Argentine Mesopotamia, are drained by the Corrientes, the Saranai, and the Gualeguay, which last falls eventually not into the Parana but the Pavon, a curious channel which runs parallel with the lower course of the great river for a considerable distance.
RIVER LANDING STAGE.
RIVER LANDING STAGE.
The northernmost part of the country is drained by the Pilcomayo and the Vermejo, which both fall into the Paraguay. The Vermejo has a course of 1,300 miles. The Salado meanders through the Gran Chaco, and is the only perennial river in that region. Owing to the western dryness and the curious contour of the Gran Chaco and the Pampa, many of the rivers are unable to make headway and find a channel to carry them to the sea. Thus the Rio Dulce which, with innumerable small tributaries, drains a large area round about Tucuman, ends in a morass named Porongos, which is connected in flood-time with the great lake of Mar Chiquita—Little Sea. In like manner the Mendoza river loses itself in arid country.
Having dealt with the giant, we now turn to the pygmies; for pygmies are the Patagonian and South Argentine streams in comparison with the Parana of the upper region. The Colorado basin presents a very curious phenomenon, in that it has lost the whole of its upper tributaries. One of these is the aforesaid errant Mendoza, which, with the Salado (the second river of that name) fail to reach the parent stream and end inthe Laguna Amarga, a group of salt lakes situated at no great distance from the Rio Colorado. It is certain that, like Central Asia, Patagonia has experienced an immense increase of aridity—probably in comparatively recent times. The Colorado proper is perennial, and when swollen by melting snows from the Andes it is as broad as the Thames at London Bridge.
AMONG THE CACTUS.
AMONG THE CACTUS.
South of the Colorado we have the Rio Negro. It runs a solitary course through the desert unaided by any tributaries. It is formed by two other streams, the Neuquen and the Rio Limaz, which has its source in the picturesque lake of Nahuelhuapi. Patagonia, it may be added, has numerous lakes, some of great beauty. Other solitary streams, wholly dependent upon the Andes, may be enumerated—the Chubut, the Desire, the Chico, the Santa Cruz, and the Gallegos. On these rivers Burmeister[9]confesses that his information is very imperfect. They are now somewhat better known, but they are still difficult to explore. His remarks upon the Rio de Santa Cruz, concerning which he had gathered more facts than the others, may be given. He says: "Near the ocean it has a breadth of from 5 to 10 English miles, and is bordered by terraces in flights which rise on either side to a height of 500 feet. The surface of these terraces is occupied by broad plains covered with dry pebbles, and among them grow stunted plants and thorny bushes. It is a savage and gloomy land. Further inland, near the source, basaltic rocks appear which approach close to the river, and its bed is strewn with their fragments, which are about the size of a man's head. Huge blocks of granite and palæologic schists are met with only in the neighbourhood of the Cordillera." Darwin made an adventurous voyage of 140 miles up this river in 1834, and describes it with his accustomed acuteness and accuracy.[10]
When we come to deal with Patagonia we shall have another opportunity of reverting to its scanty and little-known river system.
The climate of Argentina varies greatly, as might be expected in a country with a length of nearly 2,300 miles from north to south. In the provinces of Buenos Aires, Santa Fé, San Luis, Mendoza, parts of Cordoba, and parts of one or two adjoining provinces, the climate is temperate with mild winters and moderately hot summers, while in the north the climate is hot and moist. Towards the south the cold becomes more and more severe, and the winters last from May to the beginning of October. Snow frequently falls. In Buenos Aires the spring begins in September and lasts to mid-December, followed by summer, which extends into March. Autumn lasts till the end of May, and winter occupies the rest of the year. The following table will show that in the city of Buenos Aires itself the extremes are not rigorous:—
At 2 p.m.At 9 p.m.December77·666·8January82·071·2February80·768·9March81·169·0April72·059·9May61·355·0June59·752·5July55·247·0August60·851·7September67·256·0October67·159·6November75·462·8
The annual rainfall is about 34 inches. But the above table gives only the average temperature. The thermometer in Buenos Aires often rises as high as 100, and in the early mornings of June and July sometimes touches freezing-point. In Mendoza, Cordoba, and Tucuman, and many other places, the mercury frequently falls below 32, while in Patagonia the cold of winter is intense.
The following figures will give a rough idea of the general climate of the Republic:—
Mean Temperature.Maximum.Rainfall.Ushwiya (Fuegia)4281120 inchesBahia Blanca6010519 "Buenos Aires6410034 "San Luis6110324 "Rosario6310140 "Mendoza601006 "San Juan651083 "Cordoba6111126 "La Rioja6710912 "Catamarca6910910 "Santiago del Estero7011319 "Tucuman6810439 "Salta6310923 "
On the whole, the climate of Buenos Aires is good, and does not interfere with the comfort or pursuits of a healthy and vigorous man. Its worst feature is thesonda, or north wind, which blows tempestuously chiefly in the winter, and causes rapid fluctuations in the temperature. The winds from the north are always considered unhealthy. In the summer the heat is greatly aggravated by thepamperos—the strong winds from the south-west. But the general climate of the country is dry and invigorating.
It will be noticed that the rainfall is scanty. Unfortunately, nearly all the valuable parts of Argentina have barely sufficient rain, and Mendoza is almost rainless. Irrigation, therefore, is largely used, and when it is extended over the south many millions of additional acres will be brought under the plough. Droughts are by far the most formidable foe of the agriculturist. TheGran Secoof 1827-1832, during which period scarcely any rain fell in the Pampa, destroyed all the vegetation down to the thistles, and caused enormous loss.[11]It is feared that the dry area is extending; but it is fortunate that the magnificent rivers of Argentina would suffice to irrigate every part of the country, and even arid Patagonia has perennial streams. In general, it may be said that the climate of Argentina is far from disagreeable, and highly favourable to health and work.
Scanty beyond all belief is our information about the people of the River Plate before the coming of the Spaniards. Mexico and Peru had goodly hoards of gold and silver, and were therefore objects of eager curiosity to the invaders whose chroniclers deigned to inquire into the traditions and mythology of their subjects; but the Silvery River—the Rio Plata—washed no treasure regions, and the settlements in that part of the continent were despised and neglected. Accordingly anthropologists have been obliged to work backwards; they can only infer the character of the prehistoric races by examining their descendants and such scanty traces as have survived from ancient days. And they are able to glean very little.
The European belief[12]in a western land beyond the Pillars of Hercules was deep-rooted in classical antiquity. Beginning with a vague legend of a wonderful world in the west, it hardened into a semi-scientific hypothesis. The pseudo-Aristotle[13]seems to have been the first to treat this subject in a practical manner. He says: "Popular speech divides our inhabited world into islands and continents, but it ignores the fact that thewhole is but a single island surrounded by the sea named the Atlantic. It is probable that there are other lands far away, some of which are larger, some smaller, than the world we know." He conjectured that on the other side of the Atlantic there was a great Terra Australis corresponding to Africa. Strabo opined that it would be possible to make a westward voyage to India were it not for the immense extent of the Atlantic, and if circumstances had been favourable there would probably have been an early discovery of America. It is believed that the Carthaginians visited Madeira and the Canaries. But the two maritime nations, Greece and Carthage, fell before Rome, and the triumphs of Rome were on land. Roman poets and panegyrists often indulged in vague and magnificent predictions of nations both in the remotest East and the remotest West who should come under the sway of Rome, and Seneca's[14]language is particularly precise, but they found the ocean an insuperable barrier. With the downfall of the Empire and the influx of barbarians progress was checked, but it is certain that about a thousand years after the birth of Christ some hardy Norsemen reached Greenland, and it is even conjectured that they penetrated into North America. Then, in the later Middle Ages, as the trading spirit grew stronger and the demand for slaves increased, the Portuguese began to make voyages down the African coast. But discovery became no longer a mere profitable adventure, it was imperatively demanded as the salvation of Christendom from ruin, when the Turks obtained possession of Constantinople and the caravan routes. Unless the richIndian trade could be continued, two-thirds of the wealth of Europe would be destroyed, and thus the work of discovery was stimulated. The Portuguese found an easy route to India by way of the Cape of Good Hope; but the unsuccessful attempts to reach India by a western voyage brought even more fruit, and at last the great island in the Atlantic was discovered.
Anthropologists have found much difficulty in determining the origin of the various peoples who were found in the New World. The supposition now is that the human race migrated into the continent from Europe by way of Greenland and Labrador, and from Asia by way of the Behring Straits, and proof is afforded by the discovery in the Pampas of Argentina and many other places both of the long-headed Afro-European and the round-headed Asiatic skull. The Europeans were probably the first arrivals, and they appear early to have found their way into Argentina, whither they were afterwards followed by the Asiatics. It should be noticed that the whole primitive civilisation of South America was concentrated into a comparatively narrow strip of mountainous country between Chile and Colombia, but this imperfect civilisation probably came into existence in quite recent times.
The Spaniards themselves, doubtless relying on native, traditions, believed that the establishment of the Inca dominion was an event of no great antiquity.[15]But it appears certain that this itself was preceded by a civilisation of "white and bearded men" round about Lake Titicaca, and Prescott declines to hazard a conjecture as to the antiquity of South American civilisation. The long-headed race (its origin is uncertain) kept to the east, the round-headed (usually held to be Mongolian) kept to the west, and they met in Patagonia. However, some savants consider that all the American races are veritable aborigines and have no Asiatic or European origin, and although this theory seems hardly borne out by the little evidence we possess, there is no reason to question the belief of Ehrenreich and many others that the South American Indians have been so long isolated that they form a distinct type.
Evidence as to the date of their migration or the length of time they may have been settled in Argentina we have none, but there is a theory of considerable plausibility to the effect that there was a break in the continuity of the human race in South America. It has already been shown that the bones of huge extinct animals appear very frequently in Argentina; indeed, as Darwin remarks, "the whole area of the Pampas is one wide sepulchre for these extinct animals." Now, mingled with them have often been found human bones and the tools and weapons of man in his pleistocene stage. Near Buenos Aires,[16]for example, a discovery was made of bones of the mastodon, machairodus, and other extinct animals, and together with them were mingled human bones and tools in stone and bone. These facts help to strengthen the hypothesis that at a remote period of antiquity there occurred some gigantic natural cataclysm which swept away alike man and the vast animals with which he lived in these regions. Little as we know about the origin of South American man we can, of course, classify the races which are known to exist in South America or whichexisted when the Spaniards appeared.[17]The aborigines may be divided into three great races—the Ando-Peruvian, the Pampean, and the Brasilio-Guaranian. The Ando-Peruvian has three branches, known as the Peruvian proper, the Antisian, and the Araucanian. The Pampean likewise has three branches—the Pampean proper, the Chiquitean, the Moxean; while the Brasilio-Guaranian has no ramifications. The Peruvians, who do not concern us here, include, of course, the whole of the Inca race. The Antisians are so called because they lived in the mountains east of Cuzco, which the Incas called Antis (hence Andes), and they now inhabit the hot and moist forest-lands of Bolivia and Peru. They are, and always have been, savages, with clear olive complexions and slight, somewhat effeminate figures. The Tacana is their most important tribe. The Araucanians (who include the Fuegians) are more important for our purpose, and are a very hardy race, who fought for hundreds of years on equal terms with the Spaniards and were finally subdued rather by the subtle blight of civilisation than by arms. A Frenchman[18]who visited the River Plate in the middle of the eighteenth century describes them in the following terms: "The Indians who inhabit this part of America, north and south of the river de la Plata, are of that race called by the SpaniardsIndios bravos. They are middle-sized, very ugly, and afflicted with the itch. They are of a deep tawny colour, which they blacken still more by continually rubbing themselves with grease. They have no other dress than a great cloak of roe-deer skins hanging down to their heels, in which they wrap themselves up. These skins are very well dressed; they turn the hairy side inwards and paint the outside withvarious colours. The distinguishing mark of their cacique is a band or strap of leather, which is tied round his forehead; it is formed into a diadem or crown and adorned with plates of copper. Their arms are bows and arrows; and they likewise make use of nooses and of balls.... Sometimes they come in bodies of two or three hundred men, to carry off the cattle from the lands of the Spaniards or to attack the caravans of the travellers. They plunder and murder or carry them into slavery. This evil cannot be remedied; for how is it possible to conquer a nomadic nation in an immense uncultivated country, where it would be difficult even to find them? Besides, these Indians are brave and inured to hardships, and those times exist no longer when one Spaniard could put a thousand Indians to flight." D'Orbigny says that in character and religion the Araucanians have strong affinities to the Patagonians and Puelches, but physically they are very different, and they undoubtedly belong to the Peruvian or mountain race.
The Pampean race spread over the whole of modern Argentina and beyond. They include the Patagonians and Puelches of the south and many tribes, such as the Charruas, in the river regions of the north. These all belong to the branch of the Pampean proper.
The Chiquitean branch is of less importance, comprising the foreign Indians of Paraguay—the unfortunate people who were so cruelly harried by the Paulistas in the seventeenth century. The Moxeans are an interesting branch, but they do not properly belong to our subject, for they inhabit the unexplored forest tracts on the confines of Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil.
The Brasilio-Guaranian race is very extensive, spreading from the north of Argentina over the whole ofBrazil. They are a rude race, civilised by the Jesuits, but probably the paternal form of government was the highest to which they were adapted, and when their protectors departed they retrograded. Their physical characteristics are described as follows:[19]"The traits of the Guaranies can be distinguished at the first glance from those of the Pampean tribes; their head is round and not compressed sideways, nor does their forehead recede; it is, on the contrary, high, and its flatness in some of the tribes is due to artificial causes. Their face is almost circular, the nose short and rather large with nostrils far less open than those of the plain races. Their mouth is of moderate size, but slightly projecting; their lips are somewhat thin, their eyes small and expressive, ... their chin is round, very short, and it never advances as far as the line of the mouth; their cheekbones are not prominent in their youth, but in later life they project somewhat; their eyebrows are well arched and very narrow. Their hair is long, straight, coarse, and black, and their beard, among the tribes of Paraguay and the Missions, is reduced merely to a few short bristles, straight and scanty, growing on the chin and upper lip." The Guaranies were more important in the earlier days when both their subjection and protection were grave problems. Those who still live in their original state are to be found in the primitive forests of the north, where it is difficult to disturb them.
The religion of these rude tribes was tolerably uniform and, as might have been expected, was on a much lower grade than that of the Incas, who worshipped the invisible God Pachacamac, the creator of all things. In general they believed in Quecubu, an evil spirit, but (what is curious) they did not think it necessary topropitiate him in any way, nor, again, did they worship or supplicate the Creator of the world in which they had a shadowy belief. They believed that man was perfectly free in his actions and that neither good deeds nor evil deeds would affect the action either of the Creator or the evil spirit. This Epicurean apathy was tempered by a belief in a future life—the translation to a paradise of delight beyond the seas. Such ritual and religious observances as they had appear to have centred in their medicine-men, who interpreted dreams and omens and the like. If we consider their extreme barbarism, we may judge that their religion was singularly free from the taint of cruel rites and gross superstitions, but it seems to have been weak and cold. The majority of the tribes, even the most savage, have now nominally embraced Christianity.
It is thus possible to form some idea of the condition of the aborigines at the time of the appearance of the Spaniards, but to obtain any knowledge of the events in South America during the centuries immediately preceding that event is a flat impossibility, and it is probably safe to say that the veil will never be uplifted, for the relics we have are of prehistoric not of modern man. Nor, in all probability, do we lose much by our ignorance, for judging by the actual state of the inhabitants of the extra-Andine regions of South America, when the Spaniards found them, we may repeat the disparaging verdict of Thucydides upon ancient Greece—that looking back as far as we can we are inclined to believe that the ancients were not distinguished, either in war or in anything else.
The history of Argentina may be held to begin with the advent of the Spaniards.
Compared with Mexico and Peru the southern portions of the New World at first excited little interest, because they produced neither gold nor silver. Yet even here the discoverer was very early at work, and achievements less showy but on an almost equally grand scale have to be recorded. In 1515 Juan Diaz de Solis was sent out on a voyage of discovery by the King of Castile, who wished to counteract Portuguese influence on the east coast of South America, and Solis was the first European to sail up the River Plate, which he named after himself. But he trusted to the natives, who proved treacherous. They invited him to land, and when he had accepted their invitation they attacked and killed him and every man in the boat-crew, and afterwards roasted and devoured them in the sight of their companions. It was long before the Spaniards touched on that coast again, and the name of Solis had no permanence in the land which he discovered.
Some ten years later a more fortunate expedition was made by the Englishman Cabot. In the service of the King of Spain he left Seville with four ships, intending to make a search for the islands of Tarsis, Ophir, and Eastern Cathay by the newly discovered Straits of Magellan. The little fleet touched at Pernambuco and remained there for three months. The Spaniards still appear to have had a design to check the Portuguese inBrazil, but Cabot evidently found them too strong in that quarter, so, says Purchas,[20]"he thought good to busy himself in something that might be profitable; and entered the year 29 discovering the River of Plate, where he was almost three years; and not being seconded, with relation of that which he had found, returned to Castile, having gone many leagues up the River. He found plate or silver among the Indians of those countries, for in the wars which these Indians had with those of the kingdoms of Peru they took it, and from it is called the River of Plate, of which the country hath taken the name."
Here Purchas makes two mistakes. The discovery was not made in 1529, but several years earlier, and the river derived its name not from any metallic booty but from its silvery colour. Cabot went some distance up the Paraguay River, where he met with many adventures and lost many of his followers, and he made a serious endeavour to lay the foundations of Spanish power in Argentina, but the natives were unfriendly and he found the enterprise too formidable for his limited means. It is not surprising that he failed to secure the goodwill of the Indians. Cabot was a skilful and daring navigator and less ruthless than most of the Spanish adventurers, but he was rough in his methods and tainted by the prevailing inhumanity of the time. At San Vincente, for example, he bought fifty or sixty slaves of both sexes for the benefit of his partners in Seville. He had, in fact, disobeyed his instructions, which were to make for the Pacific, and when he returned to Seville in 1530 he was at once prosecuted and punished on various charges, though his disgrace was but temporary. His expedition has merely a geographical importance.
Charles V. had too many anxious concerns in Europeto take an active part in organising expeditions to the New World, and he found it convenient to commit the task to wealthy nobles. Pedro de Mendoza had enriched himself at the sack of Rome and had dreams of still greater wealth. Accordingly he obtained a grant of the whole country from the River Plate to the Straits of Magellan, with a salary of 2,000 ducats a year as Governor, a similar sum as an official allowance, and valuable privileges as to ransom and booty. In return, he engaged to take out an adequate force and to open up a land route from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In August, 1534, he set sail from Cadiz with eleven ships and 800 men. This was the largest expedition which had ever sailed from Europe to the New World. Mendoza seems to have been an enterprising leader, but his lack of experience brought many unnecessary hardships upon his followers. The fleet entered the River Plate in January, 1535, and Mendoza landed on the right bank and founded the city of Buenos Aires, "so named in regard of the freshness of the air, and the healthfulness of his men, during their abode there."[21]The Adelantado, or Governor, was eager to push up the great rivers and discover a land fabulously rich in gold, such as was then enriching many of his more fortunate countrymen. But still the difficulties were insuperable; the Indians were implacably hostile and cut off all foraging parties; the Spaniards had come with inadequate provisions and were frequently in danger of starvation. Many died of their privations, and the site of Buenos Aires was abandoned within a year of its foundation. Mendoza's lieutenants made many adventurous expeditions up the vast waterways and the ill-fated Azolas founded Asuncion in 1536.[22]But their deeds belongmore to the history of Spanish conquest than to Argentina proper. The estuary of the Plate was subject to sudden storms, and Mendoza, having lost eight ships and being thoroughly wearied by his misfortunes, decided to return home. On the voyage he fell ill and died, and of his large force not more than one hundred and fifty survived their privations and dangers. A highly interesting and important matter should here be mentioned. The Spaniards brought only thirty mares and seven stallions for breeding purposes, but a Portuguese mariner states thirty years later the country near the coast was full of horses.