BOUNDARIES AND EXTENT.
This government is the most extensive and one of the richest kingdoms of the New World. It is bounded on the north by the vast steppe of the Amazons, or, according to some authorities, by that noble river itself; on the east the territories of the Portuguese and the Atlantic ocean are its limits; on the west it is divided by the Andes from Peru and Chili, having also a province bordering on the South Sea; and on the south its bounds are the Pampas and Patagonia.
From Cape Lobos in the Atlantic to the most northerly settlements on the Paraguay its extent may be estimated at 1600 miles; and from Cape St. Antony, the mouth of the Plata, to the Andes of Chili, its breadth is at least 1000 miles.
POLITICAL AND TERRITORIAL DIVISIONS, &c.
This country was erected into a viceroyalty in 1778, and at that time several provinces were added to it from Peru and Chili. At present it is divided into five governments, Los Charcas, Paraguay, Tucuman, Cuyo, and Buenos Ayres, which are again subdivided into departments and districts.
The whole is governed by a viceroy, whose title is at present disputed, by the capital being in possession of the insurgent government; and the ecclesiastical affairs of the country are under the guidance of the archbishop of La Plata, in Charcas, who has six suffragans.
Its population is estimated at 1,100,000 Creoles and Spaniards: but the Indians have not been numbered.
HISTORY, DISCOVERY, &c.
The Spaniards claim the honour of first discovering this country. Juan Dias de Salis, having sailed from Spain with two ships, in 1515, to explore Brazil, arrived at the mouth of the Rio de la Plata, and took formal possession of the land: but, deluded by the friendly appearance of the Indians, and being off his guard, he was slain, with the few attendants who had landed with him. In 1526, Sebastian Cabot, then in the Spanish service, also endeavouring to make the coast of Brazil, entered the same river, and discovered an island, which he called St. Gabriel; advancing about 120 leagues, he found a fine river flowing into the great stream, this he named St. Salvador, and causing his fleet to enter this river, disembarked his men, and built a fort, in which he left a garrison, while he proceeded farther up, and also discovered the Paraguay. Having procured much silver from the Indians, particularly the Guaranies, who brought the metal from the eastern parts of Peru, he imagined that mines existed in the country he was in, and accordingly gave the name of River of Silver, or Rio de la Plata, to the great stream he had sailed up.
The Spaniards soon came to a determination of colonizing this valuable acquisition, and to prevent any interference on the part of the other nations of Europe, Don Pedro de Mendoza was sent from Spain, and founded the city of Buenos Ayres, in 1535. From the early times of the colonization of this country till the establishment of a viceroyalty, the government was dependent on that of Peru; though the chief of Buenos Ayres had the title of captain-general. Buenos Ayres continued for a long time almost unknown, all the inhabited parts of the kingdom lying at a distance from the ocean, and by the restrictions put upon its commerce having no other communication with Europe than by the annual flota from Spain, it languished in indigence and obscurity: but the resources of so extensive and so fertile a territory could not remain for ever concealed; as the population, and, consequently, in an agricultural country, the riches increased, the constant remonstrances of the people at last opened the eyes of the Spanish government to the importance of the colony, a relaxation took place in the system of commercial monopoly which had been hitherto rigorously adhered to, and at last, in order to put a stop to a contraband trade that had been carried to an alarming height, register ships were allowed to sail under a licence from the council of the Indies at any time of the year. The annual flota dwindled away from 15,000 to 2000 tons of shipping, and, in 1748, they sailed for the last time to Cadiz, after having carried on, for two centuries, the trade of Spanish America.