It is very natural that the people of the provinces in the interior of these countries should be desirous to realize the advantages of water communication which is so immediately within their reach; but, if they value their own peace and independence, they will settle that between themselves, not by an appeal to foreigners, much less by direct foreign intervention. They possess in a remarkable degree the means of mutual aid and support, which, if they will but act together and help one another, can hardly fail to secure to them a vast increase of individual prosperity and national importance. The reverse of the picture has been foretold in words which no man can gainsay: "If a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand." It is for the members of the Government of Buenos Ayres, which is charged with the general interests of the Confederation, to take the initiative in this all-important matter. From their long intercourse with the people of other countries, they must be fully aware of the immense benefits which steam-navigation has produced elsewhere, and how greatly it has tended to promote the prosperity and civilization of other nations: it is in their power to extend those blessings to their own countrymen in the interior of South America, and thereby to make a real and effective Confederation of that which is now little more than a nominal one, from the vast distances which separate the people of the provinces from each other, and which constitutes so serious an obstacle to any unity of action whatever amongst them. Whether the Government of Buenos Ayres shall think fit to purchase steamers on account of the state, to carry on a weekly or more frequent periodical communication with the people of Entre Rios and Corrientes, or encourage private individuals to form associations for that objectwhether steamers of large capacity shall be employed under the national flag to carry cargo, or smaller ones, as our steam-tugs, to tow sailing vessels or barges up the stream— are all questions of secondary importance, so long as the great fact is realized of the establishment of steam-navigation on the waters of the Paraná and of its tributaries. THE RIVERINE PROVINCES. IN In proceeding now to give some account of the provinces confederated with Buenos Ayres, I shall commence with those which, from their proximity to the Paraná, may be called the Riverine Provinces, and which, both from their geographical position and origin, were always more immediately connected with Buenos Ayres than any other sections of the Republic. Happy, perhaps, would it have been for them had they remained so, with no other views than one and the same common and undivided interest. The small progress they have made in the many years they have now had the management of their own affairs, sufficiently shows how little they were fitted for self-government when they were separated from the immediate control of the powers established in the capital. For the first half century after the abandonment of the settlement which Mendoza had formed at Buenos Ayres in 1535, the Spaniards in Paraguay, with their views solely directed towards Peru, seem to have concerned themselves very little about securing any hold over what they deemed the poorer districts they had left behind them; glad, perhaps, not to be again involved in hostilities with the warlike tribes who had so successfully opposed their first landing in South America. R |