INTRODUCTION.

WHAT is the Argentine Republic? What that land of milk and honey, with its Pampas full of cattle, and its Selvas full of bees? What portion of the What portion of the map of South America does it occupy? What are its physical featuresits natural productions-its capabilities for maintaining the populations which may in due time inhabit it, and for raising them to any importance amongst the nations of the earth?

Such are the natural inquiries of the geographer, the merchant, and the politician-inquiries which from time to time are still addressed to me in consequence of my having been so many years employed in that part of South America.

Upon my return to Europe, I thought the best way of meeting such demands was to give to the public, in whose service it was obtained, a summary of the information which I had myself been able to collect upon these matters; but whilst engaged in preparing my work, Don Pedro de Angelis at Buenos Ayres, under the auspices of that government, commenced the publication of a collection of historical notices and documents relating to the provinces of the Rio de la Plata, which seemed to supersede any necessity for extending my own task, as I then said, beyond "a brief and general sketch of the Republic, and of the progress of discovery in that part of the world in the last sixty years.

I had at that time principally in view to endeavour to elucidate the geography of those countries hitherto very

little known and most imperfectly laid down on the then best existing maps, and towards which I had formed at considerable cost, and brought to England, a numerous and important collection of manuscript maps and memoirs, which I placed in the hands of Mr. John Arrowsmith, who undertook to construct from them an entirely new map of the Provinces of the Rio de la Plata and the adjacent Countries; and which, so far as regarded the coast lines, the invaluable surveys of Captains King and FitzRoy enabled him to complete upon the best and most recent authority.

I thought it was incumbent upon me to give some account of the data upon which a new map of so large a portion of South America was founded, and which I believed to be a great improvement upon those hitherto published of that part of the world. The opinions to that effect which have since been expressed by some of the public authorities in South America, and—with his permission, I may add-by the greatest of modern geographers, Baron Humboldt, have assured me that I was neither mistaken in that belief, nor in my hope that I had been able to add something to our general stock of geographical knowledge.*

*The author received the annexed letter from Baron Humboldt in 1839, upon the appearance of his original work. Had it solely related to his own endeavours, however gratified by the kind notice therein taken of them, he might have hesitated to give it publicity; but referring, as this valuable letter does, with so much more cause to the scientific labours of Captain FitzRoy and Mr. Darwin, he thinks he ought not to keep to himself such a testimony from so eminent an authority to the importance of the works of his countrymen; still less can he withhold Baron Humboldt's opinions with regard to the masses of iron from Otumpa and Atacama, after repeating the ideas of others which gave rise to them :-

"Mon cher Chevalier,-Si j'ai tardé si long-temps à vous offrir l'hommage de ma vive reconnaissance pour votre bel et important ouvrage sur Buenos Ayres et

les Provinces du Rio de la Plata, ce n'est qu'à cause du désir que j'ai eu d'étudier, pour ainsi dire, la plume à la main, ce grand tableau physique et politique.

"Votre ouvrage, et le Voyage du Capitaine FitzRoy enrichi par les belles observations de M. Darwin, font époque dans l'histoire de la géographie moderne. On est surpris de la masse de matériaux que vous avez pu réunir pour éclaircir la topographie des pays si grossièrement ébauchée sur nos cartes de l'Amérique du Sud.

"La carte qui accompagne votre ouvrage, comme celle qui orne l'Expédition du Beagle, seront les bases solides des cartes qu'on hâtera de construire sur une échelle plus grande.

"Comme géologue et comme physicien, je vous dois des remercîmens particuliers. A des vues d'économie politique auxquelles votre position administrative sem

Further, it seemed to me that I was called upon to give some account of the discovery of those fossil monsters of the Pampas, the remains of which I had brought to Europe, and which had excited so much interest amongst geologists and palæontologists.

These, with an account of the trade and public debt of Buenos Ayres and some statistical notices, were the subjects to which I principally confined myself in publishing the work in question. It has been out of print some years, and in consequence of a renewed interest in those countries, from recent political events, I have been applied to for a new edition.

In responding to this call, I have endeavoured to increase the interest of the work by adding to it a brief account of the first discovery and settlement of the countries of the Rio de la Plata by the Spaniards, which appeared to be wanting to complete the history of the early Spanish conquests in the New World, recently given to the public by its most talented and eloquent historian, Mr. Prescott, and with the thread of which it will be found to be more interwoven than may be supposed.

The Chronicles of the Conquest of the Rio de la Plata are far from uninteresting, replete as they are with tales of hardship, endurance, and perseverance characteristic of the chivalrous spirit of the age and of the bold adven

blait vous inviter, vous avez ajouté d'excellentes observations sur la formation des Pampas-fond soulevé d'un golfe pélagique: sur les ossemens fossiles d'animaux si étranges que le megatherium et le glyptodon: sur l'absence d'animaux carnivores: sur le relief général du pays, et les passages des Andes: sur la météorologie et ces awful dust storms,' dont nous avons souffert aussi, mais à un moindre degré, dans les déserts qui entourent la Mer Caspienne.

"En enrichissant le Musée de votre pays de l'aérolite la plus gigantesque qu'on possède en Europe, j'observe que vous mettez en danger son existence planétaire : je pense que les localités méritent (lorsqu'elles seront rendues plus acces

sibles) un examen plus précis par un naturaliste accoutumé à ce genre d'observations géologiques. A un époque où les étoiles filantes jouissent d'un si grand crédit dans le monde, je n'ose me ranger de votre côté, et regarder les aérolites de Pallas, si identiques avec celles qu'on a vu tomber toutes chaudes, comme séparées de quelque gîte de minéral terrestre. Vous excuserez, Monsieur, un doute dont la franchise doit justifier les éloges que j'ai donné à tant d'excellens aperçus que renferme votre important ouvrage, fruit de solides et pénibles recherches.

Agréez, &c.

(Signé) "LE BARON DE Humboldt. "Sans-Souci, près Potsdam,

ce 18 Sept., 1839.”

turers who went forth to take possession of the newly discovered regions, although they may be devoid of that which gives such an indescribable charm to the histories of the conquest of Mexico and Peru-the novel and unexpected state of aboriginal civilization found amongst the native inhabitants of those more gifted countries by the early Conquistadores.

In the countries of the Rio de la Plata, the state of things was very different: in the widely extending regions discovered by Cabot and his followers, no monuments or works of art were anywhere found like those of the more civilized nations referred to-nothing to indicate that the aboriginal tribes had yet emerged from the rudest state of human society when they first became known to the Spaniards;-naked as the red men of the north, divided into petty and insignificant communities, and thinly scattered over that vast expanse which reaches from the southern boundaries of Peru to Patagonia, they were for the most part either soon dispersed or destroyed in unavailing efforts to resist the invaders, or perished more miserably from the deadly labour in the mines which was imposed upon them by the Conquerors. Even the more fortunate remnants of their race, which for a time were preserved from similar extermination in the celebrated Missions of the Jesuits, soon disappeared when deprived of their spiritual pastors,— leaving nothing but mouldering ruins to attest the exist ence of the only communities which formed one brighter episode in the annals of the Indians.

There is no want of materials for a history of the Rio de la Plata-the difficulty is to make a selection of them, to discriminate between conflicting narratives of the same events, and to sift the partial statements of contemporary writers.

Of the earlier chronicles which I have principally followed in preference to later works, first in point of date is the personal narrative of Ulrich Schmidel, a Ger

man volunteer, who accompanied Mendoza, the first Adelantado, to the Rio de la Plata in 1534, where for twenty years he was actively engaged in all the principal events of the Conquest. He was commissioned by Yrala on his return, to give the Emperor an account of the proceedings of the Conquistadores, and of the countries which they had taken possession of for the Crown of Spain-sufficient proof, I think, that he was well informed upon those matters. The work in question was published at Nuremburg, in 1559.*

Of still more interest is "La Argentina Historia de las Provincias del Rio de la Plata," by Ruy-Diaz de Guzman, written in Paraguay, and containing an account of the Conquest to the arrival of the Adelantado Zarate, in 1573.

The author was the son of a daughter of Yrala, the Hero of the Conquest, by a scion of the Ducal House of Medina Sidonia, who had gone to Paraguay in 1540 with Cabeza de Vaca. He was born and brought up in the midst of the stirring scenes he describes, and wrote avowedly to perpetuate the gallant deeds of the Conquerors, foremost and most distinguished of whom had been his own nearest relatives.

An historical poem under the same name, "La Argentina," was written by Martin del Barco Centenera, a priest who went to South America with Zarate about the period with which Ruy-Diaz's History concludes. During a residence there of twenty-four years, he appears to have collected with great pains a large stock of traditionary lore relating to the Conquest, which he has embodied in this rhyming chronicle. If he has mixed up with it some marvellous tales current at the time, and hardly to be wondered at in a poetical account of a new world, he has

*It is given in Spanish in Barcia's Historiadores Primitivos de las Indias Occidentales; and has lately appeared in

French in the interesting collection of early writers on Spanish America, published by M. Ternaux Compans.