The Southern has in construction a line south to the port of San Antonio, to open up the rich lands on the borders of Patagonia. It will connect with a government road which is now building from San Antonio, which is a new port on the Gulf of San Matias, westward to Nahuel Huapi, and which will be about three hundred miles long. The government is to be commended for its far-sightedness in planning this enterprise. Already a large part of the road-bed is graded and track has been laid for fifty miles or more, but service has not yet been begun. Work has also been begun on a railroad from Puerto Deseado, still farther south than San Antonio, which will run inland to Nahuel Huapi and open up an extensive country. This is but the beginning of extensive railroad development in this large southern section of Argentina, and plans have already been formulated to extend other lines into the very heart of Patagonia, and over to Lake Buenos Aires. In all the government now owns and operates a little more than two thousand miles of main track, which will be increased to fully three thousand by the new extensions of the old ones now being built.
The amount of traffic carried on these railroads is enormous and reaches big figures. I have before me the report of one of the greatest systems of Argentina for the year 1910. This states that the amount of grain carried by this line for that year, in tons of two thousand two hundred and five pounds, was as follows: linseed four hundred and two thousand one hundred and ninety-three, wheat nine hundred and ninety-one thousand one hundred and eighty-eight, corn one million one hundred and forty-two thousand four hundred. Other freight carried, not including its own supplies, amounted to five million nine hundred and eighty-three thousand one hundred and forty-three tons. Three hundred and forty-one thousand five hundred and seventy-seven head of live stock were transported. The number of passengers carried numbered almost fourteen millions. The gross receipts were twenty-five million dollars. Its capital stock is one hundred and seventy-five million dollars. It has paid for many years a regular dividend of six per cent., besides devoting large sums each year to betterments and extensions. All of these roads have been conducted along conservative lines, and their stocks are nearly all quoted on the London stock exchange considerably above par.
CHAPTER XIV
RELIGIOUS FORCES
At the time of the conquest Argentina did not possess a large indigenous population. Wandering tribes dwelt in all parts of the country from Tierra del Fuego to Brazil, but the proportion of these Indians was very small when compared with the extent of territory occupied. On the slopes of the Andes were found tribes that were very closely allied with and subject to the Incas, who ruled all along the Pacific coast from Ecuador to Chile, and there was continuous intercourse between them. No ruins of temples dedicated to the sun have been found in Argentina, although some reminders of the Inca civilization have been uncovered in the northwestern part of the republic. The principal strongholds of the native tribes were in the northeastern sections of the country, on the rich plains and low hills which border on the great rivers of the country. Indians who were related to the Tupi-Guarani tribes who inhabited Brazil, had established themselves there in considerable numbers.
These Indians were not so bloodthirsty as those in the extreme south, although some of them were given to cannibalism. Their slaying of human beings, however, was for the purpose of food and not as a part of their religious worship. They were not especially hostile to the incoming Spaniards, until the members of the tribes began to be impressed into slavery, and they then resisted the advance of that race in a feeble way. Their religion was simple and consisted of a few good deities and a number of evil ones. The former they tried to honour in their simple way, but a great deal more attention was given to appeasing the latter, in order to avoid physical suffering, for which they believed these malevolent deities were responsible. Theirs was an ignorant belief and a simple faith, and they rather welcomed the teachings of the priests who first came among them. The new doctrines were accompanied by ceremonies which appealed to their childlike natures. The chanting in an unknown but sonorous tongue, the visible emblems and the incense cast a spell over these simple people, who did not attempt to grasp the abstract idea of a trinity or the sacrifice of a Saviour.
CHURCH IN CORRIENTES, BUILT IN 1588
By far the most persistent and determined attempt to convert these aborigines was made by the Jesuit priesthood. As a result of its tireless and systematic efforts this order succeeded in establishing in Paraguay, and the country adjacent to it on the east and south, about the beginning of the sixteenth century, a seat of power which lasted for two centuries, and which has been referred to elsewhere in a general way. It developed into an ecclesiastical autocracy, with the heads of the Jesuit body as the actual as well as nominal rulers. This remarkable order subdued the Indians living between the Uruguay and Paraguay rivers, and brought all of them under its domination. This was done without resort to the sword. Although these pristine people were reduced to a condition of peonage, or serfdom, they remained loyal to the Jesuits and assisted them in repelling all invaders. So secure did the clerical rulers feel in their position, that all other white persons were forbidden to settle within the territory over which they claimed jurisdiction. It was perhaps well for the natives that they did take this position, for the Spanish adventurers would have enslaved the Indians, just as did the Portuguese “Paulistas” in Brazil.