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

by Sir Woodbine Parish

But Garcia's plan embraced more than could be done at once by the rulers of Buenos Ayres; and partly, perhaps, on that account, and partly because all their disposable forces and means were shortly afterwards required to carry on the struggle for their independence, it was, with many other projects laid aside, and many years elapsed ere any further step was taken.

Nevertheless the results of their new political condition developed themselves, as was anticipated, and the increase of their trade led to the extension of their pastoral establishments. Although the government took no measures for their protection, the people of the country began to occupy the lands to the south of the Salado, which soon brought them into contact and collision with the Indians, who, on their part, looked with a very natural jealousy upon settlements planted without their concurrence on lands which from time immemorial they had been accustomed to consider as exclusively their own. The more peaceable tribes retired to the fastnesses in the mountains to the south, but the Ranqueles and other migratory hordes retaliated by carrying off the cattle and plundering those who had thus intruded themselves within their territories. In these marauding expeditions they were often joined by some of the vagabond gauchos, deserters from the army, and such wretches flying from the pursuit of justice as, in times of civil commotion especially, are to be found in all countries. By those unprincipled associates they were soon taught to look with less dread upon the fire-arms of the Buenos Ayrean militia, and even to use them, whenever, either by the murder or robbery of some defenceless estanciero, they fell into their hands. Nor was this the worst. During the unhappy civil dissensions which broke out between Buenos Ayres and the provinces, some of the unprincipled leaders of the reckless factions which divided the Republic sought alliances with the Indians,[38] the fatal consequences of which they only too late discovered. Like bloodhounds it was impossible to restrain them. When once the weakest points were shown them, they burst in upon the frontier villages, murdering in cold blood the defenceless and unprepared inhabitants, and carrying off the women and children into a slavery of the most horrible description.

It was manifest that the impunity with which these outrages were committed arose mainly from the total absence of any protection on the part of the government for those settlers who had advanced their estancias beyond the old forts within the line of the Salado, and the public voice called loudly for some prompt remedies for the evil, the most efficacious of which appeared to be the adoption of some one of the many plans from time to time proposed for a new line of military posts to cover the rural population south of that river; the hilly ranges of the Vuulcan, especially, seemed to present a natural frontier which it appeared only necessary to occupy to secure the object; but the information respecting all that part of the country was still exceedingly imperfect; and it was determined, therefore, in the first instance, to send out an exploratory expedition to examine them. This led to Colonel Garcia being again called upon to proceed to the south, with the double object of endeavouring to induce the Indians to enter into an arrangement with the government of Buenos Ayres for a new boundary as the basis of a general pacification, and of acquiring precise information as to the most eligible positions for the establishment of military posts in the hilly ranges in that direction.

The communications he had had twelve years before with the leading Caciques of the tribes inhabiting the country eastward of the Salinas led him vainly to hope that those tribes at least might be brought to acquiesce peaceably in the views of the government, and, provided they were left in possession of the lands they occupied in the vicinity of the Sierra Ventana, that they would not oppose the occupation by the Buenos Ayreans of the more northern line of the Vuulcan and Taudil; but Garcia was not aware of the great change which had taken place in the feelings and policy of the Indians, from a variety of circumstances, since his journey to the Salinas in 1810.

The messengers, however, sent forward to announce his mission were well received, and a respectable deputation, headed by Antiguan, one of their principal chiefs, was sent forward to meet and to conduct the ambassador and his suite to their toldos at the foot of the Sierra Ventana, where the Caciques of the Puelches proposed the negociations should be opened, promising to invite thither at the same time representatives from all the tribes of the Pampas, not excepting the Ranqueles, and the Huilliches or People of the South, inhabiting the lands as far as the rivers Colorado and Negro.

Under this escort, and accompanied by Colonel Reyes, an engineer officer, and about thirty persons, soldiers and peons, Colonel Garcia set out from Lobos for the Indian territory on the 10th of April, 1822. On the 12th they crossed the Salado at a place where its depth allowed of the safe passage of carts, and where its width was not above thirty or forty feet; this was some way above the junction of the Flores, after which it becomes a river of more consequence, its breadth extending to 300 yards in the winter season, when it is impassable except in canoes. The next day they crossed the Saladillo at the pass of Las Toscas; this stream falls into the Salado a little above the river Flores, towards which they proceeded through a country much intersected by swamps, which obliged them to deviate continually from their direct course. When near the Lake de las Polvaderas, Colonel Reyes, being desirous to take an observation, produced his sextant, which led to an unexpected but serious manifestation of alarm and suspicion on the part of the Indians. Some foolish person, it appeared, when they were setting out had told them that the commissioners had with them instruments through which they could see all the world at once, and nothing would satisfy them, when they saw them brought out, that the Spaniards were not in direct consultation with the gualichù, or devil himself. It was impossible to do away with this notion of theirs, which led to the inconvenience of obliging the officers afterwards to take their observations by the stars at night instead of by the sun in the day-time.

About two leagues beyond where they crossed the Flores they verified its junction with the Tapalquen in a vast marsh. The Flores is in fact but the drain of the waters of that river; it was found to be more brackish than even the Salado. In the thick jungles along its banks many tigers were seen, which, however, excited little apprehension compared with the horseflies and mosquitos, from whose venomous attacks there was no escape. They followed the Tapalquen till they came in sight of the Sierra, distant ten or twelve leagues, the Amarilla Hills bearing south-south-east, and those of Curaco south-south-west; between these two groups runs one of the passes frequented by the Indians in their journeys to the Ventana, where the travellers halted, and in the night, whist their Indian guides were asleep, by an observation of Mars, determined the latitude to be 36° 45´ 10"; the longitude they fixed at 54° 13´ from Cadiz; variation 17° 10´.

The following morning, making a pretext for lagging behind out of sight of their Indian friends, they reconnoitred the pass, and determined with a theodolite the height of some of the hills in its immediate vicinity; the highest point of the Amarilla, or Tinta group, called Lima-huida, south-east of the pass, was 200 feet, and the two peaks of Curaco, which they had seen at a distance the day before, measured, the one 270, and the other about 200 feet. A small guard-house or fort would effectually close this pass against the Indians.