Chap. II Account of the Establishment of the Spaniards in Rio de
la Plata.
1767.
Rio de la Plata, or the river of Plate, does not go by that same name from its source. |Incertainty concerning the source of this river.|It is said to spring from the lake Xaragès, near 16° 30′ south, under the name of Paraguai, which it communicates to the immense extent of land it passes through. In about 27° it joins with the river Parana, whose name it takes, together with its waters. It then runs due south to lat. 34°; where it receives the river Uraguai, and directs its course eastward, by the name of la Plata, which it keeps to the sea.
The Jesuit geographers, who were the first that attributed the origin of this great river to the lake of Xaragès, have been mistaken, and other writers have followed their mistake in this particular. The existence of this lake, which has been in vain sought for, is now acknowledged to be fabulous. The marquis of Valdelirais and Don George Menezès, having been appointed, the one by Spain and the other by Portugal, for settling the limits between the possessions of these two powers in this country, several Spanish and Portuguese officers went through the whole of this portion of America, from 1751 till 1755. Part of the Spaniards went up the river Paraguai, expecting by this means to come into the lake of Xaragès; the Portuguese on their part, setting out from Maragosso, a settlement of theirs upon the inner boundaries of the Brasils, in about 12° south latitude, embarked on a river called Caourou, which the same maps of the Jesuits marked, as falling into the lake of Xaragès. They were both much surprised at meeting in the river Paraguai, in 14° S. latitude, without having seen any lake. They proved, that what had been taken for a lake, was a great extent of very low grounds, which, during a certain season, are covered by the inundations of the river.
Sources of the river Plata.
The Paraguai, or Rio de la Plata, arises between 5° and 6° S. latitude nearly in the middle between the two oceans, and in the same mountains whence the Madera comes, which empties itself into the river of Amazons. The Parana and Uraguai arise both in the Brasils; the Uraguai in the captainship of St. Vincent; the Parana near the Atlantic ocean, in the mountains that lie to the E. N. E. of Rio Janeiro, whence it takes its course to the westward, and afterwards turns south.
Date of the first settlements of the Spaniards there.
The abbé Prevost has given the history of the discovery of the Rio de la Plata, and of the obstacles the Spaniards met with, in forming the first settlements they made there. It appears from his account that Diaz de Solis first entered this river in 1515, and gave his name to it, which it bore till 1526, when Sebastian Cabot changed it to that of la Plata, or of Silver, on account of the quantity of that metal he found among the natives there. Cabot built the fort of Espiritù Santo, upon the river Tercero, thirty leagues above the junction of the Paraguai and Uraguai; but this settlement was destroyed almost as soon as it was constructed.
Don Pedro de Mendoza, great cup-bearer to the emperor, was then sent to the Rio de la Plata in 1535. He laid the first foundations of Buenos Ayres, under bad auspices, on the right hand shore of the river, some leagues below its junction with the Uraguai, and his whole expedition was a chain of unfortunate events, that did not even end at his death.
The inhabitants of Buenos Ayres, being continually interrupted by the Indians, and constantly oppressed by famine, were obliged to leave the place and to retire to Assumption. This town, now the capital of Paraguai, was founded by some Spaniards, attendants of Mendoza, upon the western shore of the river, three hundred leagues from its mouth, and was in a very short space of time considerably enlarged. At length Don Pedro Ortiz de Zarata, governor of Paraguay, rebuilt Buenos Ayres in 1580, on the same spot where the unhappy Mendoza had formerly laid it out, and fixed his residence there: the town became the staple to which European ships resorted, and by degrees the capital of all these tracts, the see of a bishop, and the residence of a governor-general.
Situation of the town of Buenos Ayres.
Buenos Ayres is situated in 34° 35′ south latitude, its longitude is 61° 5′ west from Paris, according to the astronomical observations of father Feuillée. It is built regular, and much larger than the number of its inhabitants would require, which do not exceed twenty thousand, whites, negroes, and mestizos. The way of building the houses gives the town this great extent; for, if we except the convents, public buildings, and five or six private mansions, they are all very low, and have no more than a ground-floor, with vast court-yards, and most of them a garden. The citadel, which includes the governor’s palace, is situated upon the shore of the river, and forms one of the sides of the great square, opposite to which the town-hall is situated; the cathedral and episcopal palace occupy the two other sides of the square, in which a public market is daily held.
This town wants a harbour.
There is no harbour at Buenos Ayres, nor so much as a mole, to facilitate the landing of boats. The ships can only come within three leagues of the town; there they unload their goods into boats, which enter a little river, named Rio Chuelo, from whence the merchandizes are brought in carts to the town, which is about a quarter of a league from the landing-place. The ships which want careening, or take their lading at Buenos Ayres, go to la Ençenada de Baragon, a kind of port about nine or ten leagues E. S. E. of this town.
Religious establishments.
Buenos Ayres contains many religious communities of both sexes. A great number of holidays are yearly celebrated by processions and fireworks. The monks have given the title of Majordomes or Stewards of the founders of their orders, and of the holy Virgin, to the principal ladies in this town. This post gives them the exclusive charge of ornamenting the church, dressing the statue of the tutelar saint, and wearing the habit of the order. It is a singular sight for a stranger to see ladies of all ages in the churches of St. Francis and St. Dominique assist in officiating, and wear the habit of those holy institutors.
The Jesuits have offered a much more austere mode of sanctification than the former to the pious ladies. Adjoining to their convent, they had a house, called Casa de los Exercicios de las Mugeres, i. e. the House for the Exercises of Women. Married and unmarried women, without the consent of their husbands or parents, went to be sanctified there by a retreat of twelve days. They were lodged and boarded at the expence of the community. No man was admitted into this sanctuary, unless he wore the habit of St. Ignatius; even servant-maids were not allowed to attend their mistresses thither. The exercises practised in this holy place were meditation, prayer, catechetical instructions, confession, and flagellation. They shewed us the walls of the chapel, yet stained with the blood, which, as they told us, was dispersed by the rods wherewith penitence armed the hands of these Magdalens.
All men are brothers, and religion makes no distinction in regard to their colour. There are sacred ceremonies for the slaves, and the Dominicans have established a religious community of negroes. They have their chapels, masses, holidays, and decent burials, and all this costs every negro that belongs to the community only four reals a year. This community of negroes acknowledges St. Benedict of Palermo, and the Virgin, as their patrons, perhaps on account of these words of scripture; “Nigra sum, sed formosa filia Jerusalem.” On the holidays of these tutelary saints, they chuse two kings, one to represent the king of Spain, the other the Portugueze monarch, and each of them chooses a queen. Two bands, armed and well dressed, form a procession, and follow the kings, marching with the cross, banners, and a band of music. They sing, dance, represent battles between the two parties, and repeat litanies. This festivity lasts from morning till night, and the sight of it is diverting.
Environs of Buenos Ayres, and their productions.
The environs of Buenos Ayres are well-cultivated. Most of the inhabitants of that city have their country-houses there, called Quintas, furnishing all the necessaries of life in abundance. I except wine, which they get from Spain, or from Mandoza, a vineyard about two hundred leagues from Buenos Ayres. The cultivated environs of this city do not extend very far; for at the distance of only three leagues from the city, there are immense fields, left to an innumerable multitude of horses and black cattle. One scarce meets with a few scattered huts, on crossing this vast country, erected not so much with a view of cultivating the soil, as rather to secure the property of the ground, or of the cattle upon it to their several owners. Travellers, who cross this plain, find no accommodations, and are obliged to sleep in the same carts they travel in, and which are the only kind of carriages made use of on long journeys here. Those who travel on horseback are often exposed to lie in the fields, without any covering.
Abundance of cattle.
The country is a continued plain, without other forests than those of fruit trees. It is situated in the happiest climate, and would be one of the most fertile in the world in all kinds of productions, if it were cultivated. The small quantity of wheat and maize which is sown there, multiplies by far more than in our best fields in France. Notwithstanding these natural advantages, almost the whole country lies neglected, as well in the neighbourhood of the Spanish settlements, as at the greatest distance from them; or, if by chance you meet with any improvements, they are generally made by negro-slaves. Horses and horned cattle are in such great abundance in these plains, that those who drive the oxen before the carts, are on horseback; and the inhabitants, or travellers, when pressed by hunger, kill an ox, take what they intend to eat of it, and leave the rest as a prey to wild dogs and tygers12, which are the only dangerous animals in this country.
The dogs were originally brought from Europe: the ease with which they are able to get their livelihood in the open fields, has induced them to leave the habitations, and they have encreased their species innumerably. They often join in packs to attack a wild bull, and even a man on horseback, when they are pressed by hunger. The tygers are not numerous, except in woody parts, which are only to be found on the banks of rivulets. The inhabitants of these countries are known to be very dexterous in using nooses; and it is fact, that some Spaniards do not fear to throw a noose, even upon a tyger; though it is equally certain that some of them unfortunately became the prey of these ravenous creatures. At Montevideo, I saw a species of tyger-cat, whose hairs were pretty long, and of a whitish grey. The animal is very low upon its legs, about five feet long, fierce, and very scarce.
Scarcity of wood; means of remedying it.
Wood is very dear at Buenos Ayres, and at Montevideo. In the neighbourhood of these places, are only some little shrubs, hardly fit for fuel. All timber for building houses, and constructing and refitting the vessels that navigate in the river, comes from Paraguai in rafts. It would, however, be easy to get all the timber for constructing the greatest ships from the upper parts of the country. From Montegrande, where they have the finest wood, it might be transported in single round stems, through the river Ybicui, into the Uraguai, and from the Salto-Chico of the Uraguai, some vessels made on purpose for this use, might bring it to such places upon the river, where docks were built.
Account of the natives of this country.
The Indians, who inhabit this part of America, north and south of the river de la Plata, are of that race called by the Spaniards Indios 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 with various 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 balls13. These Indians are always on horseback, and have no fixed habitations, at least not near the Spanish settlements. Sometimes they come with their wives to buy brandy of the Spaniards; and they do not cease to drink of it, till they are so drunk as not to be able to stir. In order to get strong liquors, they sell their arms, furs, and horses; and having disposed of all they are possessed of, they seize the horses they can meet with near the habitations, and make off. 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 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.
Race of robbers, settled on the north side of the river.
A set of robbers united into a body, a few years ago, on the north side of the river, and may become more dangerous to the Spaniards than they are at present, if efficacious measures are not taken to destroy them. Some malefactors escaped from the hands of justice, retired to the north of the Maldonadoes; some deserters joined them; their numbers encreased insensibly; they took wives from among the Indians, and founded a race of men who live upon robberies. They make inroads, and carry off the cattle in the Spanish possessions, which they conduct to the boundaries of the Brasils, where they barter it with the Paulists14, against arms and clothes. Unhappy are the travellers that fall into their hands. They are now, it is said, upwards of six hundred in number, have left their first habitation, and are retired much further to the north-west.
Extent of the government de la Plata.
The governor-general of the province de la Plata resides, as I have already mentioned, at Buenos Ayres. In all matters which do not concern the marine, he is reckoned dependent upon the viceroy of Peru; but the great distance between them almost annuls this dependency, and it only exists in regard to the silver, which he is obliged to get out of the mines of Potosi; this, however, will no longer be brought over in shapeless pieces, as a mint has been established this year at Potosi. The particular governments of Tucuman and Paraguai (the principal settlements of which are Santa-Fé, Corrientes, Salta, Tujus, Cordoua, Mendoza, and Assumption) are dependent, together with the famous missions of the Jesuits, upon the governor-general of la Plata. This vast province contains, in a word, all the possessions of the Spaniards, east of the Cordilleras, from the river of Amazons to the straits of Magalhaens. It is true, there is no settlement south of Buenos Ayres; and nothing but the necessity of providing themselves with salt, induces the Spaniards to penetrate into those parts. For this purpose a convoy of two hundred carts, escorted by three hundred men, sets out every year from Buenos Ayres, and goes to the latitude of forty degrees, to load the salt in lakes near the sea, where it is naturally formed. Formerly the Spaniards used to send schooners to the bay of St. Julian, to fetch salt.
I shall speak of the missions in Paraguay when I come to the second voyage, which some circumstances obliged us to make again into the river of la Plata; I shall then enter into the account of the expulsion of the Jesuits, of which we were witnesses.
The commerce of the province de la Plata is less profitable than any in Spanish America; this province produces neither gold nor silver, and its inhabitants are not numerous enough to be able to get at all the other riches which the soil produces and contains. The commerce of Buenos Ayres itself is not in the same state it was in about ten years ago; it is fallen off considerably, since the trade by land is no longer permitted; that is, since it has been prohibited to carry European goods by land from Buenos Ayres to Peru and Chili; so that the only objects of the commerce with these two provinces are, at present, cotton, mules, and maté, or the Paraguay-herb15. The money and interest of the merchants at Lima have obtained this order, against which those of Buenos Ayres have complained. The law-suit is carried on at Madrid, and I know not how or when it will be determined. However, Buenos Ayres is a very rich place: I have seen a register-ship sail from thence, with a million of dollars on board; and if all the inhabitants of this country could get rid of their leather or skins in Europe, that article alone would suffice to enrich them. |Colony of Santo Sacramento.| Before the last war, they carried on a prodigious contraband-trade with the colony of Santo Sacramento, a place in the possession of the Portuguese, upon the left side of the river, almost directly opposite Buenos Ayres. But this place is now so much surrounded by the new works, erected by the Spaniards, that it is impossible to carry on any illicit trade with it, unless by connivance; even the Portuguese, who inhabit the place, are obliged to get their subsistence by sea from the Brasils. In short, this station bears the same relation to Spain here, as Gibraltar does in Europe; with this difference only, that the former belongs to the Portuguese, and the latter to the English.
Account of the town of Montevideo.
The town of Montevideo has been settled forty years ago, is situated on the north side of the river, thirty leagues above its mouth, and built on a peninsula, which lies convenient to secure from the east wind, a bay of about two leagues deep, and one league wide at its entrance. At the western point of this isle, is a single high mountain, which serves as a look out, and has given a name to the town; the other lands, which surround it, are very low. That side which looks towards a plain, is defended by a citadel. Several batteries guard the side towards the sea and the harbour. There is a battery upon a very little isle, in the bottom of the bay, called Isle au François, or French-Island. |Anchorage in this bay.| The anchorage at Montevideo is safe, though sometimes molested by pamperos, which are storms from the south-west, accompanied by violent tempests. There is no great depth of water in the whole bay; and one may moor in three, four, or five fathoms of water in a very soft mud, where the biggest merchant-ships run a-ground, without receiving any damage; but sharp-built ships easily break their backs, and are lost. The tides do not come in regular; according as the wind is, the water is high or low. It is necessary to be cautious, in regard to a chain of rocks that extends some cables-length off the east point of the bay; the sea forms breakers upon them, and the people of this country call them la Punta de las Carretas.
It is an excellent place to put in at for refreshments.
Montevideo has a governor of its own, who is immediately under the orders of the governor-general of the province. The country round this town is almost entirely uncultivated, and furnishes neither wheat nor maize; they must get flour, biscuit, and other provisions for the ships from Buenos Ayres. In the gardens belonging to the town, and to the adjoining houses, they cultivate scarce any legumes; there is, however, plenty of melons, calabashes, figs, peaches, apples, and quinces. Cattle are as abundant there as in any other part of this country; which, together with the wholesomeness of the air, makes Montevideo an excellent place to put in at for the crew; only good measures must be taken to prevent desertion. Every thing invites the sailor thither; it being a country, where the first reflection which strikes him, on setting his feet on shore, is, that they live there almost without working. Indeed, how is it possible to resist the comparison of spending one’s days in idleness and tranquility, in a happy climate, or of languishing under the weight of a constantly laborious life, and of accelerating the misfortunes of an indigent old age, by the toils of the sea?