CHAPTER VII.

HISTORY OF THE SPANISH SETTLEMENTS ON THE COAST OF PATAGONIA.

Little known of Patagonia till the appearance of Falkner's work in 1774. It stimulates the Spanish Government to send out an expedition under Piedra in 1778, to form settlements upon the coast. He discovers the Bay of San Joseph's. Francisco Viedma forms a settlement on the River Negro. Antonio, his brother, explores the southern part of the coast, and forms another at San Julian's. His account of the Indians he found there. The New Settlements abandoned in 1783, with the exception of that on the River Negro. Villariño ascends that river, as far as the Cordillera opposite Valdivia. A dispute with the Araucanian Indians prevents his communication with the Spaniards of Chile, and obliges him to return. Piedra succeeds Viedma, attacks the Pampa Tribes, and is defeated. Don Ortiz de Rosas, father of the present Governor of Buenos Ayres, is taken prisoner by them, and succeeds in bringing about a general pacification. Subsequent neglect of the settlement on the Rio Negro. Its population in 1825, and coasting-trade with Buenos Ayres Page 58