Buenos Ayres and the Provinces of the Rio de La Plata / Their Present State, Trade, and Debt

by Sir Woodbine Parish

This party was a fair sample of the evil consequences of such a system. It consisted altogether of about 300 people under their caciques, who had left their country more than a year before for the sole purpose of collecting cattle for the Valdivians; and they were now on their way home with about 800 head, every animal of which bore a Buenos Ayrean mark, and had been stolen from some estancia in that province. They were less shy than the Indians whom the Spaniards had before fallen in with, and so long as they got plenty to eat and drink they journeyed on by the side of the boats in apparent good humour, giving such assistance as was in their power, and such information as they could with respect to the country they passed through. But this did not last long; and when after about a fortnight they found that Villariño could not afford to make the caciques and their wives drunk every day they changed their tone, and even went so far as to lay a plot for getting the boat's crew on shore on pretence of a feast, in order to rob and murder them. Frustrated in this by a timely discovery of their treachery, they suddenly galloped off, carrying with them, however, two of the men, whom it was supposed, by means of their women, they had contrived to inveigle from the boats.

Cunning and treachery, Villariño observes, seem the special characteristics of these people; thieves by habit, plunder is the object of their lives, and to obtain it fair means or foul are alike justifiable in their eyes. Kindness is thrown away upon them, and fear alone seems to have any influence over them which can be calculated upon.

In thirty days from their leaving Fort Villariño, the boats arrived at the confluence of the River Neuquen, or Sanquel-leubú as it is sometimes called by the Indians, from the huge canes or reeds which overgrow its banks. This river was erroneously supposed by Villariño to be the Diamante, and he did not hesitate to lay it down as that river, and to express his belief that had he gone up it in twenty-five days he should have found himself in the province of Mendoza. Subsequent information has corrected this error, and shown it to be the river Neuquen, which here joins the Negro, and which, rising a little above Antuco, is increased by many other streams from the Cordillera, which subsequently fall into it.

Villariño was blamed for not exploring this river, certainly by far the most considerable affluent of the Negro. He seems to have satisfied himself with merely ascending it in a little boat for about a couple of leagues, which brought him to the place where the Indians are in the habit of crossing it, and where he doubted whether there was sufficient water at the time to allow the launches to go up, though, from the vestiges of the floods along shore, it was evidently navigable at times for much larger craft. His best excuse for not doing more was his anxiety to reach the Cordillera before the state of the snow should prevent his communicating with Valdivia. To make the best of his way onward in that direction was now his main object; but the difficulties he had as yet experienced were nothing to those which awaited him in his further progress. The horses obtained from the Indians were completely worn out, and after passing the Neuquen, the whole labour of towing the boats along again devolved upon the men.

About a league above the junction of the two rivers, the latitude was found to be 38° 44´. The course of the Negro shortly afterwards was found to incline very much more to the south, apparently turned off by the prolongation of a chain of hills from the north, which equally determines the course of the Neuquen higher up, and as far as the eye can reach from the point of its junction with the Negro.

Through these hills the Negro has either found, or forced a passage, which on either side is bounded by steep, rocky escarpments, rising 500 or 600 feet above it; and here the stream ran with such violence, that it was with the greatest difficulty the launches were dragged on, one by one; a difficulty further increased by the shallowness of the water, which made it necessary in many places to deepen the channel with spades and pick-axes, and to unload the boats and carry their cargoes considerable distances, before they could proceed[25].

All this caused incredible fatigue to the men, unaccustomed to such service, and supported only on the dry and salt provisions they had with them. Their legs became swelled with working for days together in the water, and they were covered with sores from the bites of the flies and mosquitos which hovered in clouds above its surface. The scurvy broke out, and some of them became seriously ill: fortunately they fell in with some apple-trees, the fruit of which was a great comfort to the sick; but the snow-capped peak of the Cerro Imperial, as well as the whole range of the Cordillera, was now in full view before them; and the hope of being soon in communication with Valdivia gave them fresh courage, and redoubled their exertions to reach their journey's end.

Two whole months were spent in making a distance of forty-one leagues from the Neuquen. This brought them, on the 25th of March, to the foot of the great range of the Cordillera, and to an island about a mile and a half long, where the main stream was found to be formed by two distinct rivers, there uniting from opposite directions; the one coming from the south, the other from the north.

As they knew by their latitude, which a little before reaching this point they had found to be 40° 2´ S., that they were already to the south of Valdivia, Villariño had no hesitation as to which of these rivers he should attempt to ascend. Before going on, however, he determined on giving the men a day or two's rest, of which he availed himself to make a short excursion in his little boat up the southern fork, which turned out to be a river of some magnitude.