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[Illustration: GLYPTODON.]




                             BUENOS AYRES,
                                  AND
                         THE PROVINCES OF THE
                           RIO DE LA PLATA:

                 THEIR PRESENT STATE, TRADE, AND DEBT;

       WITH SOME ACCOUNT FROM ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS OF THE PROGRESS
           OF GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY IN THOSE PARTS OF SOUTH
                 AMERICA DURING THE LAST SIXTY YEARS.


                                  BY
                     SIR WOODBINE PARISH, K.C.H.,
F.R.S., G.S., VICE PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON,
      MANY YEARS HIS MAJESTY'S CHARGE D'AFFAIRS AT BUENOS AYRES.

                                LONDON:
                    JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.

                                 1839.

                                LONDON:
                  Printed by WILLIAM CLOWES and SONS,
                           Stamford Street.




INTRODUCTION.


The greater part of the materials for this volume were collected
during a long official residence in the country to which they relate:
containing, as I believe they do, some information which may be
interesting, if not useful, I feel that I ought not to withhold them
from the public, in whose service they were obtained.

The chapters which give an account of the settlements made by the old
Spaniards on the coast of Patagonia, and of the explorations of the
Pampas south of Buenos Ayres, both by them and their successors in the
present century, will be found to throw some new light on the progress
of geographical discovery in that part of the world. Our occupation
of the Falkland Islands, in the first instance, and the work shortly
afterwards published by Falkner in this country, pointing out the
defenceless state of Patagonia, joined to the enterprising character
of the British voyages of discovery about the same period, appears
to have stimulated the Spaniards, in alarm lest we should forestall
them, to examine their coasts, to explore their rivers, and to found
settlements, of which every record was concealed from public view, lest
the world at large should become better acquainted with possessions,
all knowledge of which it was their particular care and policy to
endeavour to keep to themselves.

Thus, though Spain, at an enormous cost, acquired some better
information relative to countries over which she claimed a nominal
sovereignty, the results were not suffered to transpire, but remained
locked up in the secret archives of the viceroys and of the council of
the Indies; where probably they would have been hidden to this day had
not the South Americans assumed the management of their own affairs.

In the confusion which followed the deposition of the Spanish
authorities, the public archives appear to have been ransacked with
little ceremony, and many documents of great interest were lost, or
fell into the hands of individuals who, like collectors of rarities in
other parts of the world, showed anything but a disposition to share
them with the public at large. I will not say that this was always
the case, but the feeling prevailed to a sufficient extent to enhance
materially the value of those which were either offered for sale or
obtainable by other means.

Some few individuals were actuated by a different spirit, amongst whom
I ought especially to name Dr. Segurola, the fellow-labourer with Dean
Funes in his historical essay upon the provinces of La Plata, whose
valuable collection of MSS. (from which that work was principally
compiled) was always accessible to his friends, and to whom I have
to acknowledge my own obligations for leave to take copies of many
an interesting paper. Others, also, whom I do not name, will I trust
not the less accept my thanks for the facilities they afforded me
for obtaining such information as I required. The government, I must
say, was always liberal, in giving me access to the old archives, and
in permitting me to transcribe documents[1] which I could not have
obtained from other quarters.

With these facilities, and by purchase, I found myself, by the time
I quitted South America, in possession of a considerable collection
of MS. maps and of unedited papers respecting countries of which the
greater part of the world is, I believe, in almost absolute ignorance.

Amongst the most interesting perhaps of these I may mention--

The original Diaries of Don Juan de la Piedra, sent out from Spain, in
1778, to explore the coasts of Patagonia.

A series of papers drawn up by his successors the Viedmas, the founders
of the settlements at San Julian and on the Rio <DW64>.

The original Journal of Don Basilio Villarino, who, in 1782, explored
the great river <DW64>, from its mouth in lat. 41 deg. to the foot of the
Andes, within three days' journey of Valdivia, on the shores of the
Pacific.

The Narrative, by Don Luis de la Cruz, of his Journey through the
territory of the Indians and the unexplored parts of the Pampas, from
Antuco, in the south of Chili, to Buenos Ayres, in 1806.

The Diary of Don Pedro Garcia's Expedition to the Salinas, in 1810,
given me by my most estimable friend, his son, Don Manuel.

Together with a variety of other unpublished accounts of the Indian
territories south of Buenos Ayres, principally collected by order of
that government, with a view to the extension of their frontiers.

The substance of these papers, all which relate to the southern and
least known parts of the New Continent, will be found in Chapters VII.,
VIII., and IX.

Respecting the eastern or Littorine provinces of the Republic, as
I have ventured to call them, the most valuable data existing are,
first, those collected by the Jesuits, and next, the various reports
and memoirs drawn up by the officers employed to fix the boundaries
under the treaties between Spain and Portugal of 1750 and 1777. The
especial qualifications of the individuals, particularly of those
employed in the last case, the length of time spent upon the service
(more than twenty years), and the enormous expenses incurred by Spain
in the endeavour to complete that survey, led to a large accumulation
of invaluable geographical data respecting extensive ranges of country
never before properly examined, much less described.

Nor were the labours of the officers in question confined to the
frontiers. They fixed, as I have stated in Chapter VIII., all the
principal points in the province of Buenos Ayres, made surveys of
the great rivers Parana and Uruguay, and of their most important
tributaries; and drew up many notices of great interest respecting the
countries bordering upon the higher parts of the Paraguay, which the
pretensions of the Portuguese in that direction rendered it requisite
for them to explore with more than ordinary care and attention[2].

M. Walckenaer's publication at Paris, in 1809, of the Travels of
Don Felix Azara, one of the King of Spain's commissioners on that
service, contains a general review of the labours of those officers,
and is perhaps the best work in print upon the countries which it
describes; still it can only be regarded as a very imperfect sketch of
the information collected by one of many able men employed upon that
particular service.

Another of the commissioners, Don Diego Alvear, drew up an historical
and geographical work upon the provinces of Paraguay and the Missions,
quite equal in interest, if not more so, than that by Azara, for a MS.
copy of which I have to thank his son, the present General Alvear.

Colonel Cabrer, the only surviving officer of all those employed on
this important survey, was living during the time I was at Buenos
Ayres, and for many years had, to my knowledge, been engaged in drawing
up an elaborate account of the whole progress of the survey from first
to last; in his possession I saw a complete set of all the beautiful
maps executed by the Spanish officers, the originals of which are
deposited at Madrid. He is lately dead, and I understand that the
authorities of Buenos Ayres have been in treaty for the purchase of his
papers, which will be of the greatest importance, not only to them, but
to the governments of the Banda Oriental, of Paraguay, and of Bolivia,
whenever the time comes, as it must ere long, for definitively fixing
their respective boundaries with Brazil. I considered myself fortunate
in obtaining copies of several detached portions of these surveys, and
particularly of an original map, drawn from them by Colonel Cabrer
himself for General Alvear, when commanding-in-chief in the Banda
Oriental in 1827.

There is no doubt that, so far as the Spanish frontiers extended,
these maps are the best existing data respecting the countries which
they delineate: on the other hand, we must look to the Portuguese
authorities for materials for the adjoining provinces of Brazil. The
most perfect map of that part of the continent perhaps ever made
was drawn at Rio de Janeiro in 1827, for the use of the Marquis of
Barbacena, when appointed to command the Emperor's army in the war
with Buenos Ayres, and was taken with his baggage at the battle of
Ituzaingo, and afterwards given to me. It comprises, on a large scale,
all the country lying east of the Uruguay, from the Island of St.
Catharine's to the River Plate. On my return to England I placed it
in the hands of Mr. John Arrowsmith, with the rest of my geographical
materials.

As regards the greater part of the interior provinces west of the
Paraguay, the information obtainable is very imperfect; indeed of some
vast portions of those regions, it may be said that nothing but the
general courses of the principal rivers is as yet known. The immense
tract called the Gran-Chaco is still in possession of aboriginal
tribes, and other extensive districts are inhabited by people who,
though of a different race, seem little beyond them in civilization.

It was not the policy of Spain to take the trouble of accurately
examining her colonial possessions, except when obliged to do so in
furtherance of measures of self-defence, or in the expectation of some
profitable return in the precious metals, the primary objects of her
solicitude: and, but that the high road from Potosi to Buenos Ayres
ran through them, I believe in Europe we should hardly have known,
till recently, even the names of the capital towns of the intermediate
provinces: it is only since their independence that they have brought
themselves into notice, and that any information has been acquired of
the nature and importance of their native products.

When I arrived at Buenos Ayres in 1824, in hopes of obtaining the
best existing accounts of their statistics, I addressed myself to
the governors themselves; and I have every reason to believe, under
the circumstances, that they were desirous to meet my wishes. I
received from them all the most civil assurances to that effect; but,
excepting from the Entre Rios, Cordova, La Rioja, and Salta, I found
the authorities themselves utterly unable to communicate anything of a
definite or satisfactory nature; and, although they promised to set to
work to collect what I asked for, I soon found they had most of them
other matters on hand which had more urgent calls on their attention.

Of the information which I did so obtain, the most complete by far was
from General Arenales, the Governor of Salta, who not only forwarded
to me an interesting report upon the extent and various productions
of that province, but, what I less expected, a very fair map of it,
drawn by his own son Colonel Arenales; an individual who has since
distinguished himself amongst his countrymen by the publication of a
work[3] wherein he has with great pains collected all the information
he could obtain to elucidate the geography and capabilities of a
province which nature seems to have destined to be one of the most
important of the Argentine Republic. Were his good example followed
by equally intelligent individuals in other parts of the interior,
the natives, as well as foreigners, would be greatly assisted in
learning not only what are the productions of their own country, but
in what manner they might be rendered available in furtherance of its
prosperity.

He has done his duty, and rendered a service to his country, by
pointing out the great importance of the possibility, now proved beyond
a doubt, of navigating the river Vermejo throughout its whole course,
from Oran in the heart of the continent to its junction with the
Parana, and thence to the ocean.

Mr. Arrowsmith has adopted his delineation of the course of that
river, as laid down from the diary of Cornejo, who descended it in
1790. Soria, who came down it in 1826, was deprived of all his papers
in Paraguay; and although, on reaching Buenos Ayres, five years
afterwards, he not only published a short account of his voyage, but
a map also to illustrate it, being entirely from memory, it is little
to be depended upon; neither is it reconcilable with the distance from
Oran to the Paraguay, as estimated either by himself or Cornejo.

Of