A voyage round the world

by comte Louis-Antoine de Bougainville

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.