The problem of the use of the river-routes of the Paraná and the Paraguay is not of interest to Argentina alone. It affects the whole history of colonization in South America. The very name of the Rio de la Plata is a reminiscence of the anxieties of the early navigators who landed there, chiefly in search of a route to the mineral districts of the Andes [Plata = silver]. It is remarkable that the Amazon, which opens a more direct and better route to the Andes, was never used for reaching Peru. It was at the most, and only occasionally, used as a return-route, whereas expeditions to the Cordillera were organized on the banks of the Paraná during the whole of the sixteenth century. The routes linking the Paraná and the Paraguay with the tableland furrow the whole plain of the Pampa and the Chaco, from the latitude of the estuary to about 16° S. lat. (expedition of Ñuflo de Chavez in 1557). An especially close network starts from the river between 18° and 22° S. lat. and ends at Santa Cruz, the most northern centre established by the Spaniards on the plain, at the foot of the Andes, as a consequence of the use of the Paraná.[118]
Spanish colonization, however, did not succeed in making permanent settlements on the Chaco. The Indians, who were masters of it, disputed their passage, and the only practicable route was the southernmost of the roads to the tableland, south of the Rio Salado, which ends at the estuary. From this time onward the prosperity of Buenos Aires eclipsed that of Asunción. The river ceased to be a great continental route.
The division of the Paraná between the Spanish and the Portuguese was a check upon the full development of the river-route. The Portuguese held the upper part of its basin, which now belongs to Brazil. They expelled the Spanish missionaries from the upper Paraná about the middle of the seventeenth century, and made themselves masters of the Paraguay north of 20° S. lat. Their forts at Coimbre and Albuquerque prevented any from ascending. D'Azara insists that it would have been Spain's interest to disarm these forts; it would have enabled them to go up the river as far as the Spanish missions to the Mojos and the Chiquitos. On their side, the Portuguese only used the upper section of the river, where it is joined by the Paulist road north of the Coimbre, as a means of access to the gold mines of the Matto Grosso. Even now, although the Paraná is open to every flag, the development of the river-route is not independent of political conditions. In making the railway from Saint Paul to Corumba, and so creating on its own territory a means of direct communication with the upper Paraguay, Brazil diverts from the lower districts part of the traffic which ought normally to go there. Again, the ports of southern Brazil and the lines which go to them try to attract to the Atlantic the produce of the basins of the Uruguay and the upper Paraná, which would have followed the thread of the river to foster the trade of Buenos Aires if the frontiers had been fixed otherwise.
Before the Revolution the river-trade was confined to exchanges between the Misiones and Paraguay on the one hand, and Buenos Aires and the Andean provinces on the other. After the extinction of the missions Paraguay was the chief centre of traffic on the river. At the close of the eighteenth century it had a fairly large population. According to D'Azara, it amounted to 97,000, and 47,000 for the area of the former Missions (Misiones), while Buenos Aires, Santa Fé, Entre Rios and Corrientes had not more than 103,000 inhabitants collectively. Paraguay exported tobacco, maté and timber by the river. The Buenos Aires Estano received 800 tons of tobacco a year. The exports of maté from Paraguay to Peru, Chile and the interior provinces amounted to 1,725 tons, and 2,250 tons went to Buenos Aires. The timber came mostly from the Tebicuary, where the angadas (loads of timber) were formed. The chief constructive sheds also were on the Tebicuary. Boats of twenty to 200 tons were launched there; and they had armed boats, when they went down the river, to detect ambushes of the Indians, who were masters of the right bank north of Santa Fé.
The development of navigation on the Paraná during the first half of the nineteenth century was checked by the disturbances and wars of the period of the emancipation and unification of Argentina. The river was blockaded several times and traffic interrupted. Only a few smuggling schooners succeeded in getting through the side branches, which the ships stationed in the river could not watch. Robertson escaped the Spanish vessels in this way. The picture which D'Orbigny has given us of the life of the river belongs to the year 1827. At that time the estuary was blockaded by the Brazilian fleet in the whole area of the delta as far as San Pedro. Piracy was so rife, and the insecurity so great, on the Uruguay and the Paraná, that few ventured as far as Buenos Aires, the ships being linked in convoys. Up stream, Corrientes was the limit of navigation. The dictator Francis closed the Paraguay, and even the small boats no longer sailed on the upper Paraná, along the frontier of Paraguay. The Correntinos, who spoke Guarani, could merely get permission at rare intervals to send a few boats up river. Armed boats convoyed these as far as Neembucu, and they returned with hides and maté. Corrientes thus became the market-centre of the upper river and replaced Asunción in the trade. The flotilla on the Paraná included flat-bottomed barges, which were only used in coming down, and strong keeled ships—schooners, sloops and brigs—with their ropes made of leather. Down stream there was a little more diversity in the traffic. The island sent cargoes of firewood and charcoal to Santa Fé and Buenos Aires. The orchards of the delta provided Buenos Aires with oranges and peaches. Hides for export were shipped at Goya and Santa Fé. But the chief freight was lime from La Bajada, which was burned in the kilns on the Barranca, at the outcrops of the beds of conchiferous limestone.
CONFLUENCE OF THE YGUASSU AND THE PARANÁ.
In the foreground is the left bank of the Yguassu, on Argentine territory. The right bank is Brazilian territory. At the back, on the right bank of the Paraná, is Paraguayan territory.