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

by Sir Woodbine Parish

This led to explorations being set on foot by the public authorities, in the years 1803, 1804, and 1805, the result of which was, the discovery of several new passes over the Cordillera, south of Mendoza, one of which, the pass de las Damas, was examined by the same M. de Souillac, already spoken of, who reported that at a very small expense it might be made practicable for the passage of wheel-carriages. It only remained to be shown whether or not it was possible to travel in a direct line across the pampas from any of those passes to Buenos Ayres.

In this state of things, Don Luis de la Cruz, an enterprising officer who had seen much of the Indians, offered to start from Antuco, in the province of Conception, the most southern of the passes yet known, to endeavour to reach Buenos Ayres by a straight course across the pampas. This proposal was accepted by the Governor of Chile, and in order to secure as far as possible the co-operation of the native tribes, which indeed was absolutely necessary to the success of the undertaking, the Caciques of the Pehuenches, who inhabited the country on the eastern slopes of the Cordillera, were summoned to hold a grand parlamento, or parley, to consider it. There had been long a friendly intercourse between them and the Spaniards, who, moreover, had at times afforded them protection from the attacks of their enemies; they therefore did not hesitate on this occasion to intimate to them that they expected in return all the good offices and aid which they could give to Cruz and his party.

They attended at the time appointed, and after a grave discussion after their fashion, which lasted several days, they agreed to take the expedition under their particular protection, and see it safe to Buenos Ayres; Cruz, on his part, engaging that the Indians who accompanied him should be presented to the Viceroy, rewarded with suitable presents, and sent back in safety to their friends at the conclusion of the service. This pact was ratified with much formality; the hand of Cruz being solemnly placed in that of the most ancient of the Caciques, to signify that thenceforward he was under his special care.

Whist the expedition was preparing, Cruz spent a couple of days in an unsuccessful attempt to get to the summit of the volcano in the vicinity of Antuco, which he describes as being then in continual action, and at times burning so strongly as to be visible from a very considerable distance: but he was stopped, and obliged to turn back, by a heavy fall of rain and snow, considered by the Indians as an interposition of the Deity to prevent the examination of a region which they held it to be forbidden to mortals to approach.

On the 7th of April (1806), all being ready, the party left the fort of Ballenar, near Antuco, to commence their journey. It consisted of twenty persons, viz., Cruz and four officers, a surveyor to measure the daily distances, and fifteen attendants, besides their Indian escort; having with them carts and horses and all things they might want on the way. Striking across the pampas in as direct a course for Buenos Ayres as the nature of the country would permit, in forty-seven days they arrived at Melinqué,[29] the north-western frontier fort of that province, having travelled, according to their measured daily journeys, rather more than 166 leagues;—adding 68 more for the distance between Melinqué and Buenos Ayres, made the total distance from Antuco to that city, by this route, 234 leagues;—being 75 less than the ordinary post-road from Buenos Ayres to Mendoza.

The narrative which Cruz subsequently drew up of this expedition is extremely diffuse, and would be tiresome to most readers from the extreme minuteness with which he has thought it necessary to detail the daily discussions and parleys which, upon every trivial occurrence, took place with the Indians.

In a geographical point of view, the most interesting part of it is that in which he describes the rivers which he crossed after descending the Cordillera; from which I have attempted in the map to give an idea of them, differing, as will be seen, from that hitherto adopted. In this I have been also much guided by the observations, in my possession, of the late Dr. Gillies, my correspondent for many years at Mendoza, who had himself been as far south as the river Diamante, and had taken great pains to collect information respecting the geography of that part of the country.

The old notion was, that nearly all the rivers south of Mendoza uniting in one wide stream, to which the Diamante, as one of the principal affluents, gave its name, ran direct south into the Rio Negro; and this, as I have mentioned in the preceding chapter, was Villariño's idea, and led him, without hesitation, to believe that the great river, whose mouth he explored, and which, he says, he does not doubt would have led him to Mendoza, was the Diamante.

From a careful examination of Cruz's journal, and other data in my possession, I am satisfied this will be found to be an error, and that the great river which flows into the Negro is the Neuquen, which Cruz crossed on the sixth day after he left Antuco, at the place called Butacura, and about eighteen leagues on his journey. The Neuquen[30] is formed by many streams from that part of the Cordillera, all which Cruz names, and the principal of which appear to be the Rinqui-leubú, which descends from the mountain of Pichachen, and further north the Cudi-leubú, the drain of many small rivers. No one, he says, doubts that the Neuquen, from the junction of the Cudi-leubú, is navigable as far as the Rio Negro, and thence to the ocean.

Proceeding in a north-easterly direction, Cruz fell in with another, considerable river, as large, he says, as the Neuquen, called by the Indians the Cobu-leubú,[31] whose sources they reported to be in the Cordillera of Curriliquin, over-against the province of Maule, in Chile; and they spoke of seven rivers which fell into it in its course from the north to the place where the expedition crossed it. Cruz says distinctly it does not fall into the Neuquen, but, changing its southerly course about where they passed it, it ran eastward, in which direction the travellers kept it in view, at times coasting it, for several days, till at a place called Puelec it again turned towards the south, taking thence, as the Indians affirmed, its course to the sea. This river, there can be no doubt whatever, is the Colorado, which falls into the sea a little to the north of the Rio Negro.