FOOTNOTES:

MEGATHERIUM.Note: The Parts uncoloured are wanting.Scale of 3 feet 3/8 of an Inch to a foot.

MEGATHERIUM.

Note: The Parts uncoloured are wanting.

Scale of 3 feet 3/8 of an Inch to a foot.

FOOTNOTES:[46]With respectto the past, it is, I fear, useless to look for any very positive data as to the state of the river previously to the last century:—the only allusion to it which I can find is in the 'Argentina,' an historical poem by Barco Centenera, who went out in 1572 with the Adelantado Zarate, and who, speaking of its depth between Buenos Ayres and San Gabriel, off Colonia, on the opposite shore, says:—"De ancho nueve leguas ó mas tieneEl rio por aqui,y muy hondable.La nave hasta aqui segura vieneQue como el ancho mar es navigable."The river's here nine leagues or more,And very deep, twixt shore and shore;So far the navigation's free,As tho' twere on the open sea.Argentina, Canto II.And although, perhaps, a poet's authority to not the very best for a geological fact, I have the less hesitation in quoting his couplet, as it is, to a certain extent, corroborated by the circumstance that, amongst all the dangers and disasters recorded with so much minuteness by the historians of the first discoveries of those parts, there is no instance, that I am aware of, mentioned by them of a shipwreck in the river below San Gabriel, the port to which all vessels at that time directed their course after entering it:—from this I think any one who knows the dangers of the navigation of that part of the river now, will be disposed to infer that it really must have been in former times as Centenera describes it, much more free and safe than it is at the present day:—it is probable that the Ortiz bank especially has very much increased.[47]In the proportion of an ounce of litharge to a quart of oil.[48]The following comparative measurements of the bones of the megatherium and of an elephant eleven feet high, are furnished by Mr. Clift:—ELEPHANT.MEGATHERIUM.Ft.In.Ft.In.The expansion of the ossa ilia3851Breadth of the largest caudal vertebra0719Circumference of middle of femur1022Length of the os calcis07½15[49]Mr. Clift quotes a MS. memorandum in his possession, stating the measurement of the skeleton at Madrid to be, from the front of the nasal bones to the setting on of the tail, thirteen feet seven inches, and he is of opinion that, of the two, the specimen I brought home was the older and somewhat larger individual.

[46]With respectto the past, it is, I fear, useless to look for any very positive data as to the state of the river previously to the last century:—the only allusion to it which I can find is in the 'Argentina,' an historical poem by Barco Centenera, who went out in 1572 with the Adelantado Zarate, and who, speaking of its depth between Buenos Ayres and San Gabriel, off Colonia, on the opposite shore, says:—"De ancho nueve leguas ó mas tieneEl rio por aqui,y muy hondable.La nave hasta aqui segura vieneQue como el ancho mar es navigable."The river's here nine leagues or more,And very deep, twixt shore and shore;So far the navigation's free,As tho' twere on the open sea.Argentina, Canto II.And although, perhaps, a poet's authority to not the very best for a geological fact, I have the less hesitation in quoting his couplet, as it is, to a certain extent, corroborated by the circumstance that, amongst all the dangers and disasters recorded with so much minuteness by the historians of the first discoveries of those parts, there is no instance, that I am aware of, mentioned by them of a shipwreck in the river below San Gabriel, the port to which all vessels at that time directed their course after entering it:—from this I think any one who knows the dangers of the navigation of that part of the river now, will be disposed to infer that it really must have been in former times as Centenera describes it, much more free and safe than it is at the present day:—it is probable that the Ortiz bank especially has very much increased.

"De ancho nueve leguas ó mas tieneEl rio por aqui,y muy hondable.La nave hasta aqui segura vieneQue como el ancho mar es navigable."The river's here nine leagues or more,And very deep, twixt shore and shore;So far the navigation's free,As tho' twere on the open sea.

"De ancho nueve leguas ó mas tieneEl rio por aqui,y muy hondable.La nave hasta aqui segura vieneQue como el ancho mar es navigable."

The river's here nine leagues or more,And very deep, twixt shore and shore;So far the navigation's free,As tho' twere on the open sea.

Argentina, Canto II.

And although, perhaps, a poet's authority to not the very best for a geological fact, I have the less hesitation in quoting his couplet, as it is, to a certain extent, corroborated by the circumstance that, amongst all the dangers and disasters recorded with so much minuteness by the historians of the first discoveries of those parts, there is no instance, that I am aware of, mentioned by them of a shipwreck in the river below San Gabriel, the port to which all vessels at that time directed their course after entering it:—from this I think any one who knows the dangers of the navigation of that part of the river now, will be disposed to infer that it really must have been in former times as Centenera describes it, much more free and safe than it is at the present day:—it is probable that the Ortiz bank especially has very much increased.

[47]In the proportion of an ounce of litharge to a quart of oil.

[48]The following comparative measurements of the bones of the megatherium and of an elephant eleven feet high, are furnished by Mr. Clift:—ELEPHANT.MEGATHERIUM.Ft.In.Ft.In.The expansion of the ossa ilia3851Breadth of the largest caudal vertebra0719Circumference of middle of femur1022Length of the os calcis07½15

[48]The following comparative measurements of the bones of the megatherium and of an elephant eleven feet high, are furnished by Mr. Clift:—

[49]Mr. Clift quotes a MS. memorandum in his possession, stating the measurement of the skeleton at Madrid to be, from the front of the nasal bones to the setting on of the tail, thirteen feet seven inches, and he is of opinion that, of the two, the specimen I brought home was the older and somewhat larger individual.

Importance of the rivers of the United Provinces. The Paraguay and its tributaries. The Pilcomayo. The Vermejo. Soria's expedition down it from Oran, proving it navigable thence to Assumption. Periodical inundations of the Paranã, similar to those of the Nile. The Uruguay and its affluents. Surveys by the Commissioners appointed to determine the Boundaries laid down by the Treaty between Spain and Portugal of 1777. Original Maps obtained.

Before proceeding to give any account of the Upper Provinces, a brief description will perhaps here not be out of place of the great rivers which form so remarkable a feature in the physical geography of this part of the South American continent, and from the navigation of which by steam-vessels hereafter such important political consequences may be anticipated.

Of these, the Paraguay is the first. This river, which from Corrientes takes the name of Paranã, has its sources between south lat. 13° and 14°, in those ranges which, though of very trifling elevation themselves, appear to connect the lofty mountains of Peru and Brazil, and to constitute the water-shed of some of the principal rivers of South America. From their northern declivities descend some of the most important of the eastern affluents of the Madera, the Tapajos, and other great streams which emptythemselves into the Maranon, or Amazons; whilst, on the other hand, all those which pour down towards the south find their way into the bed of the wonderful river I am describing.

Many navigable streams join it from the eastward, as it passes through the rich Brazilian territories of Matto Grosso and Cuyabá. Its tributaries from the opposite side are, though perhaps more important, less numerous, the surface of the country being more level; of these the Jaurú is the first of any consequence, the sources of which are close to those of the Guaporé, which runs in the opposite direction into the Madera and Amazons. The short portage which intervenes between the heads of these rivers is all that breaks a continuous water-course from the mouths of the Amazons to that of the Plata, as will be seen on reference to the map. A little below the Jaurú commences a wide region of swamps called the lake or lakes of Xarayes; which, during the periodical inundations of the rivers that descend from the mountains to the north of Cuyabá, is flooded for a vast extent, the waters forming one great inland sea, to the depth of ten or twelve feet, extending between 200 and 300 miles east and west, and upwards of 100 from north to south. As the rainy season passes away, this mass of waters is finally carried off by the Paraguay, which even here, 1200 miles in a direct line from the sea, is navigable for vessels of 40 or 50 tons. The mouth of the Jaurú is in 16° 25´ long. 320° 10´ east of Ferro:—here amarble pyramid is erected to mark the boundary determined upon between the Spaniards and Portuguese by the treaty of 1750.

Quiroga, who accompanied Flores, the Spanish commissioner, to determine this point, in descending the Paraguay fixed the latitude of most of the numerous rivers which fall into it before its junction with the Paranã.[50]On the eastern side they afford the means of communication with the gold and diamond districts of Brazil, and lower down with those districts of Paraguay proper which abound in the finest timber, and produce the yerba maté, the article perhaps most in demand of all the rich productions of that favoured country.

From the west its most important affluents are the Pilcomayo and the Vermejo, which fall into it below Assumption:—both flow through a prodigious extent of country, having their sources in the rich districts of Upper Peru. The first passes not far from Potosi, and, after a thousand windings through the chaco, or desert, falls into the Paraguay by two branches, the one called the Araquay, in lat. 25° 21´ 29", according to an observation taken by Azara; the other, about nine leagues below it. M. de Angelis has I think clearly shown that the river to the north of Assumption, which Azara has laid down as the most northern branch of the Pilcomayo, is the Fogones of Quiroga.

In 1741 Father Castañares attempted an exploration of the Pilcomayo, in the expectation that it would facilitate a communication with the Jesuit missions in the province of Chiquitos; but after many hardships and difficulties, at the end of eighty-three days, he was obliged to give it up, from the river becoming too shallow for his canoes to pass on. In 1785 Azara attempted to ascend it by the Araquay, in a small vessel; but after proceeding about twenty leagues, was obliged to return, for the same reason,—want of water; although it was at the season of the floods, and the river was more than ordinarily full.

The Vermejo, on the contrary, which falls into the Paraguay still further down, has been more than once proved to afford a navigable communication with the province of Salta: First by Cornejo, in 1790; who, starting from the confluence of the rivers Centa and Tarija, reached the Paraguay in fifty-five days; the distance by the river being, according to his computation, no less than 407½ leagues. And more recently, in 1826, by Don Pablo Soria, the agent of some spirited individuals in Buenos Ayres, who about that time formed an association for the purpose of endeavouring to open a water-communication between the capital and the rich districts of the Upper Provinces. The vessel they built for the purpose was fifty-two feet long, and drew about two feet water; which, with but little more assistance than was necessary to keep in the mid-stream, was floated down from the neighbourhood of Oran by the current, and in fifty-seven days entered the Paraguay, without any other impediment than a feeble attempt on the part of some Indians, armed with bows and arrows, to annoy them as they passed through their lands.

Once in the Paraguay, the main object of the voyage was accomplished. Unfortunately, however, for the adventurers themselves, they were there seized upon by Dr. Francia, the despotic ruler of that country, who, worse than the savages, detained them for five years.[51]He also deprived them of their papers; and thus the details of a most interesting voyage were lost, although the great and highly important fact was established beyond dispute of the existence of a safe and navigable water-communication the whole way from Oran to Buenos Ayres; a result which must sooner or later be of immense consequence to the inhabitants of the Upper Provinces.

About thirty miles below the mouth of the Vermejo the Paraguay is joined from the east by the great river Paranã, which name it thence takes till it is finally lost in the Rio de la Plata. This river, rivalling in extent the Paraguay itself, rises in themountain-chains to the north-west of Rio de Janeiro, in latitude 21°. Turning first westward, and afterwards towards the south, it is increased by several large rivers, amongst which the most noted are the Paranaiba, the Tieté, the Paranapané, and the Curitava. On reaching the Guarani Missions, near Candelaria, in about lat. 27° 30´, it turns again westward, and runs with little deviation from that parallel till it falls into the Paraguay. Thence these two mighty rivers, mingling their waters flow on in one vast and uninterrupted stream, gradually increased by many rivers of minor importance, which join it from either side, till they finally empty themselves through a well-defined delta into the estuary of La Plata.

The extent of the practicable navigation on the two great branches of this mighty river varies with the geological formation of the countries through which they respectively pass.

The Paranã, whilst running through the mountainous districts of Brazil, is broken by many falls above the Guarani Missions, especially one called the Salto Grande, in lat. 24° 4´ 58" (as fixed by the officers of the Boundary Commission in 1788), where the river, which immediately before is nearly a league across, becomes suddenly confined by a rocky pass not more than sixty yards in width, through which it rushes with inconceivable fury, and forms a splendid cataract, between 50 and 60 feet high, dashing down with such thundering noisethat it is said to be heard at a distance of five or six leagues. For a hundred miles afterwards, as far as the mouth of the river Curitiba, in lat. 25° 41´, the river is nothing but a succession of falls and rapids.

The Paraguay, properly so called, on the contrary, may be passed up by vessels of some burthen the whole way[52]to the Jaurú, in latitude 16° 25´, presenting the extraordinary extent of an uninterrupted inland navigation of nearly nineteen degrees of latitude, calculating the straight distance north and south, throughout the whole of which there is not a rock or stone to impede the passage, the bottom being everywhere of clay or fine sand. The least depth of water is in the channels through the delta by which it discharges itself into the Plata, but in the passage called the Guazú (the great canal) there is seldom less than two and a half fathoms.

The upper part of the river is extremely picturesque, and its shores abound in all the varieties of an intertropical vegetation. The palms particularly are remarkable for the magnificence of their growth. Below the junction of the Paranã it is thickly studded with islands covered with wild orange-trees, and a variety of beautiful shrubs and parasitical plants, new to European eyes.

It has been remarked that there is a great resemblance in the periodical risings and inundations of the Paraguay and those of the Nile, and there iscertainly a striking analogy between the two rivers in many respects. Both rise in the torrid zone, nearly at the same distance from the equator, and both, though holding their courses towards opposite poles, disembogue by deltas in about the same latitude; both are navigable for very long distances, and both have their periodical risings, bursting over their natural bounds, and inundating immense tracts of country.

The Paranã begins to rise about the end of December, which is soon after the commencement of the rainy season in the countries situated between the tropic of Capricorn and the equator, and increases gradually till the month of April, when it begins to fall something more rapidly until the month of July. There is afterwards a second rising, called by the natives therepunte; but this, though regular, is of no great consequence, the river never overflowing its banks. It is probably occasioned by the swelling of the rivers from the winter rains in the temperate zone.

The extent of these periodical risings is, of course, in some degree, regulated by the quantity, more or less, of rain which may fall during the corresponding season; but, in general, the inundation takes place with great regularity, the waters rising gradually about twelve feet in the bed of the river in four months; this is the ordinary average of the increase of the river after its junction with the Paraguay; though above it, at Assumption,where the river is much confined, the rise is said to be sometimes as much as five or six fathoms.

The year 1812 was remarkable for the greatest flood in the memory of the natives. Vast quantities of cattle were carried away by it, and when the waters began to subside, and the islands which they had covered became again visible, the whole atmosphere for a time was poisoned by the effluvia from the innumerable carcases of skunks, capiguaras, tigers, and other wild beasts which had been drowned on them. On such occasions it frequently happens that the animals, to save themselves, swim off to the floating masses of canes and brushwood (called by the Spaniards "camelotes"), and are thus carried down the river, and landed in the vicinity of the towns and villages upon the coast. Many strange stories, are told of the unexpected visits of tigers so conveyed from their ordinary haunts to Buenos Ayres and Monte Video. One in my time was shot in my own grounds near Buenos Ayres, and some years before no less than four were landed in one night at Monte Video, to the great alarm of the inhabitants when they found them prowling about the streets in the morning. In the swampy region of Xarayes, where the inundation commences, the ants, which are in vast numbers there, have the sagacity to build their nests in the tops of the trees, far out of reach of the waters; and these nests are made of a kind of adhesive clay, so hard that nocement can be more durable or impervious to the weather.

During the inundation the river is exceedingly turbid, from the great quantity of vegetable substances and mud brought down by it:—the velocity of the stream in the higher and narrower parts of the river at first prevents their deposition, but as it approaches the lower lands, or pampas, where it overflows its bed, these substances are spread over the face of the land, forming a grey slimy soil, which, on the abatement of the waters, is found to increase vegetation in a surprising degree.

A calculation has been made by Colonel Monasterios, author of an excellent paper on this river, printed in the Statistical Register of Buenos Ayres for 1822, that no less than 4000 square leagues of country are annually covered by the waters during the periodical inundations of the Paranã.

From the almost uninterrupted level of the country which intervenes between the eastern ranges of the Cordillera and the Paraguay, many rivers which descend from them are either partially or entirely lost, after long and tortuous meanderings, in swamps and lakes, the waters of which are absorbed by evaporation during the heats of summer. This is strikingly exemplified in the river Pasages, or Salado, which, from the great extent of its course, and the many other streams it collects in its long course from the province of Salta to Santa Fé,would be a river of the first importance, were not the greater part of its waters lost in the level plains through which it runs. The Dulce, which, passing by Tucuman and Santiago, runs parallel to it, is lost in the great lake called the Porongos, in the pampas of the province of Santa Fé. The Primero and Segundo, which rise in the province of Cordova, disappear in the same plains. The Tercero, the most important river of that province, with difficulty finds its way during part of the year to the bed of the Carcaraña, which falls into the Paranã, near San Espiritu, below Santa Fé. The Quarto and the Quinto, and, still further south, the waters of the rivers from Mendoza and San Luis, are lost in the swamps and lakes which form so striking a feature in the maps of that part of the continent.

The Uruguay, which contributes with the Paranã to form the great estuary of La Plata, takes its name from the numerous falls and rapids which mark its course. The whole extent of its course is little less than 300 leagues. It rises in latitude 27° 30´, in the mountains on the coast of Brazil, opposite the island of St. Catharine's, and for a long distance runs nearly due west, receiving, besides many rivers of less importance, the Uruguay-Mini (or Little Uruguay) from the south, and the Pepiry-Guazú (or Great Pepiry) from the north. As it approaches the Paranã it changes its course, inclining southward through the beautiful territories of the oldJesuit Missions. Opposite to Yapeyú, the last of those establishments, it receives, in latitude 29° 30´, the Ybicuy, a considerable stream from the east. In 30° 12´ the Mirinay pours into it from the west a great part of the drainage of the great lake or swamp of Ybera. Its principal tributaries afterwards are the Gualeguaychú, from the province of Entre Rios, and the Negro, the largest river of the Banda Oriental, soon after the junction of which it falls into the Plata with the Paranã, in about 34° south latitude. Flowing through a country the geological formation of which totally differs from that through which the Paraguay takes its course, its navigation is broken by many reefs and falls, only passable when the waters are at their highest, during the periodical foods, or by portages in the dry season. Of these the Salto Grande and Chico (the great and small falls), a little below the 31° of latitude, are the first and worst impediments met with in ascending the river. The former consists of a rocky reef running like a wall across its bed, which at low water is at times crossed by the gauchos of the country on horseback, though during the floods it is passable in boats, by which, and canoes, the river is navigable without further danger as high up as the Missions.

Beautiful specimens of silicified wood and variegated pebbles are found in the upper parts of the bed of this river, of which I brought many to this country.

The Negro, which runs into it from the Banda Oriental, derives its name (the black river) from the sarsaparilla plant, which, at a particular season, rots upon its banks, and falls into the stream in such immense quantities as to discolour its waters, which are found to be highly medicinal, and much in request in consequence. The little village of Mercedes, near its mouth, has of late years been much resorted to by invalids from Buenos Ayres to drink these waters.

The river Paraguay, as high as the Jaurú, was carefully laid down after the treaty of 1750; and the Spanish officers appointed to determine the boundaries, in virtue of that subsequently signed in 1777, surveyed the Paranã as high as the Tieté, as well as the whole of the Uruguay, and determined the courses of all their most important affluents in the course of the eighteen years during which they were employed in laying down the southern division only of this survey. The results of their labours, which were only stopped by the renewal of war, may justly be ranked amongst the most beautiful and perfect geographical works ever produced. Copies of the whole existed at Buenos Ayres during my time in the hands of Colonel Cabrer, one of the officers originally attached to the commissioners; and the Government of Buenos Ayres were in treaty for the purchase of them for the use of the topographical department of the state, where, it is tobe hoped, they will not be buried in unprofitable obscurity.

When the war with Brazil for the Banda Oriental broke out, in 1826, Colonel Cabrer drew a MS. map from these materials for the use of General Alvear, the Buenos Ayrean Commander-in-chief, which he was afterwards kind enough to present to me. By a curious coincidence, about the same time, I obtained possession of one upon a large scale of the southern provinces of Brazil, drawn, by the Emperor's order, from the best data to be collected at Rio de Janeiro, for the Marquis of Barbacena, who commanded the Brazilian army, and lost it at the battle of Ituzaingo. They have, I believe, afforded Mr. Arrowsmith data for materially improving his last maps of that part of South America.

FOOTNOTES:[50]His positions will be found in the tables of fixed points given in the Appendix.[51]The following wording of Francia's decree upon first hearing of Soria's having arrived at Nembucú, within the jurisdiction of Paraguay, is a fair sample of his mode of doing business:—"Soria is a bold, insolent, and shameless fellow for having come here without any previous permission, by a river which he has no business upon, and by which he may return as he came, if he can, for downwards neither he nor his vessel shall pass."[52]Vessels of 300 tons burthen have been built above the city of Assumption, and floated down the river to Buenos Ayres.

[50]His positions will be found in the tables of fixed points given in the Appendix.

[51]The following wording of Francia's decree upon first hearing of Soria's having arrived at Nembucú, within the jurisdiction of Paraguay, is a fair sample of his mode of doing business:—"Soria is a bold, insolent, and shameless fellow for having come here without any previous permission, by a river which he has no business upon, and by which he may return as he came, if he can, for downwards neither he nor his vessel shall pass."

[52]Vessels of 300 tons burthen have been built above the city of Assumption, and floated down the river to Buenos Ayres.

De Garay foundsSanta Fé, and meets with Spaniards from Peru. His subsequent Deeds and Death. The Government of the Rio de la Plata separated from that of Paraguay, and Santa Fé annexed to Buenos Ayres. Its former prosperity, and great capabilities, especially for Steam Navigation.The Entre Rios—constituted a Province in 1814, its Extent, Government, and Population—chiefly a grazing Country.Corrientes—its valuable natural Productions—mistaken ideas of the people as to Foreign Trade. The Lake Ybera—Pigmies, Ants, Ant-Eaters, Locusts, and Beetles.The Missionsnow depopulated—their happy and flourishing state under the Jesuits.Paraguay—some Account of its former Prosperity and Trade, and the establishment of the tyrannical rule of Dr. Francia.

The first discoverers of La Plata, as has been already observed, fixed themselves in Paraguay, and established the seat of their government at Assumption, the capital of that province. In his way up the river, Sabastian Cabot built a fort, called Sancti-Espiritu, at the junction of the Carcarãna with the Paranã; Ayolas, a few years after, built another not far from it, to which he gave the name of CorpusChristi; but these, like Mendoza's settlement at Buenos Ayres, were very soon destroyed by the warlike nations which then inhabited the whole of the right bank of the river; and, for the first half-century, with their views solely fixed on making a nearer approach to Peru, the Spaniards concerned themselves but little about the conquest of the poorer lands they had left behind them. The ships, which during that time continued to arrive in the River Plate, with fresh adventurers from Spain, with an inland navigation before them, to Assumption, requiring as much time as the whole voyage out from Europe, were entirely dependent for the refreshments they required on the accidental good will of the natives. Once in the Paranã, if any accident befell them, for nearly a thousand miles there was not a single Christian port in which they could take refuge.

It was under these circumstances that Don Juan de Garay, a Biscayan hidalgo (in 1573), who had already greatly distinguished himself amongst his companions at arms in those parts, solicited and obtained permission to make a sally from Assumption, to endeavour to re-establish Cabot's fort at the mouth of the Carcarãna, and to found other settlements upon the right bank of the Paranã.

The whole force he could muster for this enterprise, when ready, consisted only of eighty men, a small party wherewith to attempt to seize upon lands defended by a numerous and warlike people,already elated by former victories over the Spaniards, though probably as large a one as his own means would allow him to equip; for in those days the whole charge of such undertakings devolved upon the projectors:—they were obliged to raise the means as they could, and their ultimate success of course were mainly depended upon the extent of their personal credit.

De Garay landed, in the first instance, with his followers, thirty or forty miles to the north of the river Salado, and, finding the natives disposed to be friendly, and the aspect of the country inviting, he determined there to make his first settlement, naming it Santa Fé de la Vera-Cruz.

The site originally fixed upon was where Cayestá now stands, upon an inferior branch of the Paranã; but, at a subsequent period, the Santa Fecinos removed lower down to the banks of the Salado.

Whilst part of his people were employed upon the works, De Garay embarked with the rest in a small brig which attended him, and descending the Paranã entered the Salado, and opened a communication with the natives established upon its banks. There an adventure attended him, which he little looked for. Just as he flattered himself he had established a friendly understanding with the Indians, their conduct was observed suddenly to change:—a great stir took place amongst them, and they began to betake themselves, to their arms, and to gather together in such numbers that the Spaniards, alarmed,and expecting to be attacked by them, were glad to get on board their little vessel, and make the best preparations they could for defence. From the mast-head fires were seen lighting in every direction, the well-known signal for war; and the man placed there to look out gave notice that the savages were pouring down towards them in vast numbers, not only by land, but by the river, in their canoes, apparently to attack them in their ship.

De Garay, pent up in a little creek, into which he had run his vessel, and believing his situation desperate, was exhorting his people at any rate to defend themselves to the last, when suddenly the man called out that he saw a cavalier, presently another, and another, and then several more, charging the Indians in their rear; nor was it long before they saw the whole host dispersed, routed, and flying before a party of horsemen. The Spaniards were as much astonished at this unlooked-for encounter as the Indians, nor could they imagine to whom they were thus indebted for their preservation at the moment they expected to have been overwhelmed without a chance of succour, though that they were some of their countrymen they could not doubt after seeing the horses.

The strangers were not long in making themselves known; they were soldiers from Tucuman, who, under their leader Cabrera, having founded the city of Cordova on the same day that De Garay had commenced his settlement at Santa Fé, were thenscouring the country to take possession of it as belonging to his jurisdiction; De Garay in vain resisted this pretension, and claimed it as belonging to Paraguay, in right of prior possession and settlement: the others insisting with a superior force, he had no alternative but to temporise, and submit himself to Cabrera's orders, trusting to the higher powers to order the matter differently.

Fortunately for the settlement of this question ere it led to more serious consequences, the Adelantado Zarate opportunely arrived from Spain with a grant from the King, explicitly including in his government all settlements, which might be founded on either shore of the river for the distance of 200 leagues: he not only confirmed De Garay in his command at Santa Fé but took him into such especial favour, that, dying soon afterwards, he left him guardian of his only daughter; she, by his advice, married Don Juan de Vera and Arragon, who in consequence succeeded to the Adelantasgo, which greatly increased the influence of De Garay, who was immediately appointed lieutenant over all the Rio de la Plata, and furnished with full authority to carry into effect his own plans for reducing the Indians to subjection upon its shores. Armed with these powers he conquered some of the most warlike of the native tribes, and established the fame and power of the Spaniards far and wide throughout all those regions:—the last of his deeds was the foundation, in 1580, of the present city of Buenos Ayres,as has been before stated. Alter passing three years in superintending the laying out of the future capital of all those provinces, upon his return to Assumption, going incautiously on shore one night to sleep, he was surprised and killed by the savages. Paraguay lost in him one of her wisest and most valiant captains, whose death was greatly lamented, by the poor especially, to whom his beneficence was unbounded.

The importance of the settlements he founded was soon apparent; and in 1620 they were formed into a government independent of that of Paraguay, under the name of the Government of La Plata; it comprised all south of the junction of the rivers Paranã and Paraguay. Santa Fé in consequence became a dependency of Buenos Ayres; an arrangement confirmed in every territorial settlement subsequently made by any competent authority.

In the domestic dissensions, however, which succeeded the establishment of the Independent Government at Buenos Ayres, Santa Fé took an active part, and disputed the right of the newly-constituted authorities to interfere in the nomination of the provincial administrations. Under these circumstances, in 1818, Lopez, a military officer who had particularly distinguished himself in his resistance to the Central Government upon this point, obtained the command of the province, in which he has ever since been continued. Various circumstances have concurred to leave him not only in undisturbed possession of this local authority, but to render him in later times a personage of some importance in the political history of the Republic. The jurisdiction he lays claim to for the soi-disant province of Santa Fé extends as far south as the Arroyo del Medio, to the west to the lakes of Porongos, and to the north as far as the lands of the Indians of the Gran-chaco, or Great Desert, against whom he has enough to do to defend himself.

In old times Santa Fé under the protection of the Central Government, which spared no expense in constructing forts and maintaining the forces requisite to keep the Indians in check, was the central point of communication not only between Buenos Ayres and Paraguay, but between Paraguay and the provinces of Cuyo and Tucuman: the wines and dried fruits of Mendoza and St. Juan were brought there to be carried up to Corrientes and Paraguay, which in return supplied the people of those provinces, as well as those of Chile and Peru, through the same channel, with all the yerba-maté they required, of which the annual consumption in those provinces alone was calculated at from 3,000,000 to 4,000,000 lbs.

Theestancieroswere amongst the richest in the Vice-Royalty; and their cattle-farms not only covered the territory of Santa Fé, but large tracts on the eastern shores of the river in the Entre Rios; from which they furnished by far the greater part of the 50,000 mules yearly sent to Salta for the service of Peru.

Their situation is now a very different one: the stoppage of the trade with Paraguay and Peru has reduced them to a wretched state of poverty; and their estrangement from the capital having left them without adequate means of defence, the savages have attacked them with impunity, laid waste the greater part of the province, and more than once threatened the town itself with annihilation.

The population has greatly diminished;—perhaps in the whole province there are not now more than 15,000 or 20,000 souls, a large proportion of which is of Guarani origin, the descendants of emigrants from the Jesuit missions in Paraguay, who abandoned them after the expulsion of their pastors in 1768.

This state of things is the more lamentable as Santa Fé might, under a different system, become one of the most important points of the Republic: once more under the decided protection of the Government of Buenos Ayres, not only might its own particular interests be vastly advanced, but the greatest benefits might result to the rest of the union.

Its situation offers striking facilities for carrying on a more active transit-trade between Buenos Ayres and the provinces north of Cordova. The river Salado, on which it stands, is known to be navigable for barges as high up as Matara, in the province of Santiago, and at no great distance from that city; if it were made use of there wouldbe a saving of upwards of 250 leagues of land-carriage in conveying goods from Buenos Ayres to Santiago; but, even if this should turn out not to be so practicable as it is said to be, a direct road is open from Santa Fé which, passing by the lakes of Porongos, skirts the river Dulce, and falls into the high road from Cordova a few posts south of the city of Santiago; which, at the lowest computation, would still be 100 leagues short of the over-land route now used from the capital to the Upper Provinces by way of Cordova.

In any part of the world such a saving of land-carriage would be a considerable object; but in a country where the roads are just as nature has made them, and where the only means of transport for heavy goods are the most unwieldy of primitive waggons, drawn by oxen—the slowest of all conveyances,—not to speak of its expense, and the risks, independently of the wear and tear necessarily attending it, it becomes of the greatest importance. That it has not hitherto been available, is owing to the difficulties attending the navigation of a large river, not only against the current, but against a prevalence of contrary winds, which have rendered the passage of the Paranã up to Santa Fé even more tedious and expensive than the long over-land journey. But the introduction of steam-boats would at once obviate this, and enable the people of Buenos Ayres to send their heaviest goods to Santa Fé by water-carriage in less time than a horse can now gallop overthe intervening country, for there is no reason in the world why the ordinary voyage thither should exceed at the utmost three days. I can hardly imagine a greater change in the prospects of a people than this would open to the Santa Fecinos.

There is, however, another point of view, of serious consequence to Buenos Ayres, in which for her own sake it concerns her to look to the advantages, if not to the necessity, of taking speedy measures to introduce steam-navigation upon the Paranã. Since the erection of the Banda Oriental into an independent state, the yearly imports into Monte Video have increased out of all ratio to the scanty population of that state:—it is very evident what becomes of the excess, and that not only the people on the eastern, but those on the western, shores of the Uruguay, are supplied through that channel. The government of Monte Video takes care so to regulate its duties as to make this a profitable trade:—whilst it cannot be denied that the inhabitants of Entre Rios and Santa Fé have quite as much right to traffic with their neighbours as those of Mendoza and Salta have to trade with Chile and Peru.

Buenos Ayres has already suffered a great loss of revenue in consequence, and this loss will yearly increase, to the great detriment of the national credit, for which she is responsible, and to the still further estrangement of the provinces from each other, unless she takes active means to counteract the evil:—those means are in her own hands. The introduction of steam-navigation, by establishing a cheaper communication between her own port and the Littorine provinces, will soon put an end to the profits of the over-land trade which is at present carried on through the Banda Oriental. It may, perhaps, be necessary, in the first instance, to grant some remission of the ordinary duties, in the shape of drawback or otherwise, upon goods reshipped for other parts of the republic in steamers, as well as upon all produce of the country received by the same conveyance in exchange:—but, whatever apparent sacrifice Buenos Ayres may make to promote this object, she may be assured she will be repaid a hundred-fold by the results.

If the confederation of these provinces is to be a real one, and for joint benefit, they must pull together, and help one another. They possess, in a singular degree, within themselves, the means of mutual aid and support, and, if properly applied, they can hardly fail to insure them a great increase of individual prosperity and national importance.

The reverse of the picture has been foretold in words which no man can gainsay:—"if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand."

The Entre Rios territory, bounded on three sides by the Paranã, and on the east by the river Uruguay, like Santa Fé, formed part of the intendency of Buenos Ayres till the year 1814, when the general government divided it into two distinct provinces, called the provinces of Entre Rios and Corrientes:—the separating line between them, for the present agreed upon, is that formed by the little river Guayquiraro, which falls into the Paranã in about latitude 30° 30´, and the Mocoreta, which runs in the opposite direction into the Uruguay.

The Villa del Paranã, or Bajada, opposite to Santa Fé, is, nominally, the capital town of Entre Rios;—which province is subdivided by the river Gualeguay into two departments, that of the Paranã and that of the Uruguay.

According to the Provisional Reglamento or Constitution drawn up in 1821, in imitation of that of Buenos Ayres, the governor should be chosen every two years by a provincial junta, composed of deputies from the several towns or villages, the principal of which, after the capital, are the Villa de la Concepcion on the Uruguay; and Nogoya, Gualeguay, and Gualeguaychú, on the rivers of the same name.

The population may be about 30,000 souls,—verymuch scattered,—and almost entirely occupied in the estancias or cattle-farms, in which the wealth of the province chiefly consists. Many of them belong to capitalists in Buenos Ayres:—they have the advantages of a never-failing supply of water, and of being safe from any inroads of the Indians,—the two great desiderata for such establishments in that part of the world,—whilst their proximity to Buenos Ayres ensures a ready sale for the produce.

These advantages made it a great cattle-country in the time of the Spaniards, but it was devastated and depopulated in the first years of the struggle for independence by the notorious Artigas and his followers, and became the scene of much bloodshed and confusion:—from that it had hardly begun to recover when the war, breaking out between the Republic and Brazil for the Banda Oriental, again made it the theatre, as a frontier province, of military operations, and unsettled the habits of the population. The years which have elapsed since the conclusion of that war have sufficed once more to cover the province with cattle, and there are gauchos enough to take care of them.

The population of the province of Corrientes in 1824 was estimated at from 35,000 to 40,000 inhabitants. It is ruled by a governor elected by a junta of deputies,—how they are chosen I know not. His official acts are countersigned by a secretary, and in law matters he is assisted by an officer termed the assessor,—a point of form common, I believe, to all the provincial administrations, and derived from the practice of the intendents in the time of the Spanish rule.

The city of Corrientes was begun in 1588, soon after De Garay founded his settlements at Santa Fé and Buenos Ayres. Its position is in latitude 27° 27´, at the junction of the rivers Paranã and Paraguay, and it may also be said of the Vermejo, the mouth of which is not more than ten leagues distant from it:—it affords, in consequence, every facility for an active commercial intercourse with the most remote parts of the republic. The natural productions in these latitudes are similar to those of Brazil, and cotton, tobacco, rice, sugar, indigo, and many other articles of the first demand in the markets of Europe, may be produced there in any quantity:—but the same difficulties to which I have already alluded, in speaking of the navigation of the Paranã, aggravated by increased distance, have hitherto prevented the people of Corrientes from profiting, as might have been expected, by these advantages, and have checked all inducement to industry; although they themselves, in their simplicity, ascribe the non-cultivation of their lands to different causes:—they think, with their neighbour Dr. Francia, that foreign ships might just as well go to them as to Buenos Ayres, and that they do not do so they ascribe to the policy of the metropolitan government, which they ungratefully reproach with refusing to throw open the navigation of the river to foreign trade in order to appropriate to their own purposes the revenue resulting from it,—regardless of the fact that the collection of those duties is the only means by which Buenos Ayres can ever expect to discharge either interest or capital of the heavy debts she has incurred in securing the independence, and in since upholding the honour and credit of the republic.

There can be no doubt that it will always be the true policy of the governors of Buenos Ayres to render those duties as light as possible, and especially to reduce, as far as they can, all charges upon the native produce from the provinces of the interior; but if they are to be placed, as they always have been, and from their geographical position always must be, in the vanguard of the republic, to bear the brunt of foreign wars, and all those expenses which must naturally arise out of their intercourse with other nations, they can never give up their right toavail themselves of the ordinary resources for meeting such exigencies which are placed within their reach.

If the expenses of the war with the mother country for their independence, and afterwards of that with Brazil for establishing that of the Banda Oriental, could be fairly apportioned amongst the population of the provinces, the people of Corrientes, as well as of all other parts of the interior, would soon see that the custom-house duties now levied at Buenos Ayres which affect them would go but little way to meet anything like the share of that national expenditure which might be justly charged against them.

It is, however, useless to enter into this discussion, when the truth is, that, whether Buenos Ayres chooses or not to declare the navigation of the Paranã free, the people of Corrientes may rest assured it will never answer to the shipping of foreign nations to avail themselves of it:—foreigners will purchase the productions of Corrientes and of Paraguay if placed within their reach at low prices, but they will not unnecessarily incur the risks and expenses of sending their own ships a thousand miles up a river against wind and tide, in quest of a cargo which may at all times be had in the seaports of Brazil.

Steam-communication will enable the Correntinos to compete with the Brazilians, and it is perhaps the only means by which they will be enabled tofind any sale for their produce at such a rate as will make it worth the while of foreigners to seek for it, even in the market of Buenos Ayres. They have every facility for establishing it,—navigable rivers communicating with the farthest extremes of the republic,—and an endless abundance of wood of every kind for fuel.

A remarkable physical feature in this province is the great lagoon of Ybera, extending in width about thirty leagues parallel to the course of the Paranã, from which it is supposed to derive its waters by some underground drainage, for no stream runs into it. Spreading far and wide to the south it occupies the enormous space of about a thousand square miles, and supplies four considerable rivers—the Mirinay, which runs into the Uruguay; and the Santa Lucia, the Bateles, and the Corrientes, which discharge themselves into the Paranã. It was Azara's opinion, from the general aspect of the country, that the Paranã itself at some former period took its course through this lake, and might again resume its ancient channel. At present it is hardly possible to explore any part of it from the prodigious quantity of aquatic plants and shrubs by which it is for the most part covered.

What a store of lacustrine deposits is here forming for the examination of future geologists!

Connected with this lake is the tradition, which has been handed down by early Spanish writers, of a nation ofpigmieswho were said to have lived inislands in the midst of it, a tale which the first discoverers, who were generally as ignorant as they were brave, seem to have as implicitly believed as that a race of giants once occupied other parts of the same continent.

Both tales are easily traceable to their true origin, and neither of them is without a plausible foundation.

The bones of extinct animals of monstrous size, so frequently met with, gave rise, as well they might, to the story of the giants. Thepigmiesare a race unfortunately not yet extinct, and are palpably theants, whose marvellous works (especially in the part of the country I am speaking of), vying with those of man himself, are no less calculated to have occasioned at first sight, amongst credulous people, the most far-fetched conjectures as to their origin. I have made some allusion, in speaking of the course of the river Paraguay, to their ingenious contrivances in the lakes of Xarayes (where also the pigmy tribes were said to have dwelt), but those are nothing compared to the works of the ants of Corrientes and Paraguay, where whole plains are said to be covered with their buildings of dome-like and conical forms, rising five and six feet and more in height, and formed of a cement hard as a rock, and impervious to the wet. Man's vanity might easily prompt him to mistake them for works of his own kind in miniature; but, all-presumptuous as he is, nothing he has ever yet constructed in all the plenitude of his power is comparable to the works of these little insects. The Pyramids of Egypt do not bear one half the relative proportion to his own size which the ordinary habitations of these ants do to theirs.

Their works under ground are no less extraordinary: Azara has described with his usual minuteness the various species which he fell in with. There is one amongst others which is winged, and the swarms of which are so prodigious, that he says he rode for three leagues continuously through one of them. This was in about the latitude of Santa Fé, where they particularly abound, and where the people catch them and eat them. The hind parts it seems are very fat, and they fry them into a sort of paste or omelette, or, mixed up with sugar, make sweetmeats of them.

They are a sad pest to the agriculturist and a great nuisance when they get inside the houses. At Buenos Ayres they are very troublesome: I tried myself every means in vain to get rid of them; their ingenuity always baffled us; no contrivance could keep anything in the shape of sweetmeats or dried fruits or such things out of their clutches; and as to the quantity of sugar they would carry off in a very short time, it was incredible: we thought to escape them by placing our stores upon tables, the legs of which were surrounded by water, but they threw straws and sticks into the water, and so made themselves bridges to cross by. If we hung them from the ceiling they climbed the walls and descended bythe ropes which suspended them. In our garden they committed terrible depredations; and in the summer-season it was always necessary to keep a couple of men constantly employed for the sole purpose of destroying their nests. We observed that they could not exist in the sun; so that, if a basin of sugar were half filled with them, as was constantly the case, by putting it into the sun it was presently cleared of every one of them.

The Jesuit father Guevara, in his account of Paraguay, speaks of a species not noticed by Azara, found about Villa Rica, which deposits upon certain plants small globules of white wax, which the inhabitants collect to make candles of. The utility they are of in this respect, he says, in some measure compensates for the damage they do to the husbandman. Against their depredations, St. Simon and St. Jude, and St. Bonifacio[53], have been by turns elected in due form to be the special guardians and protectors of all good Catholics.

Fortunately, however, in those regions where these insects most abound, an all-wise Providence has also placed a most remarkable animal—formed, as it would appear, expressly for the purpose of destroying them and preventing their overrunning the land—the tamandua, or, as we call it, the ant-bear.

I hardly know any animal which exhibits more striking evidence of design on the part of the Creator: slow and sluggish in all its movements, without power of escape, and apparently without the ordinary means of self-defence, its long trumpet-shaped snout solely formed to contain the singular prehensory organ with which it is furnished for the purpose of taking its diminutive prey, being entirely destitute of anything like the teeth of other animals; it would be speedily exterminated by the beasts of prey which abound where it is found, were it not—as if to compensate for these deficiencies—providentially supplied with strong sharp claws, and such courage and muscular power to use them, as enables it to defy every assailant. When attacked it throws itself upon its back, and in that posture will make so desperate a resistance, that it is a match either for the jaguar or tiger, its fiercest enemies.

The ants are not the worst plagues in these countries: destructive as they are, they are not to be compared with the locusts; though, happily (and indeed were it otherwise, all man's labour would be vain), they are only occasional visitors. When they do come they lay the land utterly desolate.

I once witnessed one of their visitations, and, but that I had myself seen the extent of the devastation caused by them, I certainly would not have believed it.

They made their appearance at first in a large dense cloud, hovering high in the air, as if hesitating where to descend. All the shovels and pots andpans in Buenos Ayres were put in requisition to make a clatter to affright them, but in vain; down they came, to the consternation of the owners of every quinta, or garden, in the neighbourhood of the city. They soon spread for several miles over the surface of the land, and so thickly that it was like driving over gravel to go amongst them;—that, I well remember was just my impression upon going out upon the high road in a carriage whilst they were on the ground. They had then been at their work of destruction two or three days, and were for the most part so gorged as to be quite incapable of moving; in a day or two more they had literally not left a blade of grass or a green leaf to be seen; some of those that were not then dying of satiety began to devour one another. This was early in the year 1826. Though they were always as thick as grasshoppers, I never saw at Buenos Ayres what was termed a flight of locusts but that once, in nearly nine years.

It was succeeded a few days afterwards by a flight of small black beetles, which came down like hail, and were swept up by shovels-full in our balconies: it was a small insect, about the size of an earwig, and was said to have the same habits; they worked their way into the house in great numbers, where they fell into a sort of torpid state, in which they became an easy prey to the ants, who upon this occasion were our active allies, and helped us to get rid of them.

To the eastward of Corrientes are the depopulated ruins, all that remain, of the once famed Missions of the Jesuits, the greater part of which were situated on the shores of the Paranã and Uruguay, where the courses of those rivers nearly meet.

When the order was expelled from South America in 1767, there were a hundred thousand inhabitants in the thirty towns in those parts under their control. In those situated east of the Paranã, not a thousand souls remained in 1825, according to an account I received from the officer who was in command there at that period, and they were I believe shortly afterwards swept off during the war with Brazil for the occupation of the Banda Oriental. The other towns beyond the Paranã, being within the jurisdiction of Paraguay, have fared little better under Dr. Francia.

This was thatImperium in imperiowhich once excited the astonishment of the world and the jealousy of princes: how little cause they had to be alarmed by it was best proved by the whole fabric falling to pieces on the removal of a few poor old priests: a more inoffensive community never existed.

It was an experiment on a vast scale, originated in the purest spirit of Christianity, to domesticate andrender useful hordes of savages who would otherwise, like the rest of the aborigines, have been miserably exterminated in war or slavery by the conquerors of the land. Its remarkable success excited envy and jealousy, and caused a thousand idle tales to be circulated as to the political views of the Jesuits in founding such establishments, which unfortunately gained too easy credence in a credulous age, and contributed, there is no doubt, to hasten the downfall of their order.

Their real crime, if crime it was, was the possession of that moral power and influence which was the natural consequence of their surpassing knowledge and wisdom in the times in which they lived.

With respect to their Missions in South America, nothing could be more inconsistent than the allegations made against them:—whilst accused, on the one hand, of aiming at the establishment of a powerful and independent supremacy, they were, on the other, at the same time, reproached with having systematically kept the Indians in a state of infantine tutelage.

What would have been the consequences of the opposite system? How long would the Spanish rule in those countries have lasted had the Jesuits trained up a hundred thousand of the proper owners of the soil in any practical knowledge of the rights of man? How long would the Jesuits themselves have preserved their influence with them?

The Indians loved the Jesuits, and looked to themas to their fathers, and great were their lamentations when they were taken from them, and replaced by the unprincipled Franciscan friars sent to them by Bucareli, the Captain General of Buenos Ayres:—the following memorials, addressed to him from the Missions of San Luis and Martires, will serve to throw some light on the true feelings of the people with regard to their old and new pastors.

I have given a copy of one of the originals in Guarani in the Appendix, as a specimen of a language, which, of all the native tongues, was, perhaps, the most diffused in South America, and which, to this day, may be traced from the Paranã to the Amazons:—

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