part 2, chapter 10 (volume 3).

See, also, ATHENS: B. C. 477-462, and 466-454.

ARETHUSA, Fountain of.

See SYRACUSE.

AREVACÆ, The.

One of the tribes of the Celtiberians in ancient Spain. Their chief town. Numantia, was the stronghold of Celtiberian resistance to the Roman conquest.

See NUMANTIAN WAR.

ARGADEIS, The.

See PHYLÆ.

ARGAUM, Battle of (1803).

See INDIA: A. D. 1798-1805.

ARGENTARIA, Battle of (A. D.378).

See ALEMANNI: A. D. 378.

ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: Aboriginal inhabitants.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: TUPI.--GUARANI.

ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: A. D. 1515-1557. Discovery, exploration and early settlement on La Plata. First founding of Buenos Ayres.

See PARAGUAY: A. D. 1515-1557.

ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: A. D. 1580-1777. The final founding of the City of Buenos Ayres. Conflicts of Spain and Portugal on the Plata. Creation of the Viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres.

"In the year 1580 the foundations of a lasting city were laid at Buenos Ayres by De Garay on the same situation as had twice previously been chosen--namely, by Mendoza, and by Cabeza de Vaca, respectively. The same leader had before this founded the settlement of Sante Fe on the Paraná. The site selected for the future capital of the Pampas is probably one of the worst ever chosen for a city ... has probably the worst harbour in the world for a large commercial town. ... Notwithstanding the inconvenience of its harbour, Buenos Ayres soon became the chief commercial entrepôt of the Valley of the Plata. The settlement was not effected without some severe fighting between De Garay's force and the Querandies. The latter, however, were effectually quelled. ... The Spaniards were now nominally masters of the Rio de La Plata, but they had still to apprehend hostilities on the part of the natives between their few and far-distant settlements [concerning which see PARAGUAY: A. D. 1515-1557]. Of this liability De Garay himself was to form a lamentable example. On his passage back to Asuncion, having incautiously landed to sleep near the ruins of the old fort of San Espiritu, he was surprised by a party of natives and murdered, with all his companions. The death of this brave Biscayan was mourned as a great loss by the entire colony. The importance of the cities founded by him was soon apparent; and in 1620 all the settlements south of the confluence of the rivers Parana and Paraguay were formed into a separate, independent government, under the name of Rio de La Plata, of which Buenos Ayres was declared the capital. This city likewise became the seat of a bishopric. ... The merchants of Seville, who had obtained a monopoly of the supply of Mexico and Peru, regarded with much jealousy the prospect of a new opening for the South American trade by way of La Plata," and procured restrictions upon it which were relaxed in 1618 so far as to permit the sending of two vessels of 100 tons each every year to Spain, but subject to a duty of 50 per cent. "Under this miserable commercial legislation Buenos Ayres continued to languish for the first century of its existence. In 1715, after the treaty of Utrecht, the English ... obtained the 'asiento' or contract for supplying Spanish colonies in America with African slaves, in virtue of which they had permission to form an establishment at Buenos Ayres, and to send thither annually four ships with 1,200 negroes, the value of which they might export in produce of the country. They were strictly forbidden to introduce other goods than those necessary for their own establishments; but under the temptation of gain on the one side and of demand on the other, the asiento ships naturally became the means of transacting a considerable contraband trade. ... {126} The English were not the only smugglers in the river Plate. By the treaty of Utrecht, the Portuguese had obtained the important settlement of Colonia [the first settlement of the Banda Oriental--or 'Eastern Border'--afterwards called Uruguay] directly facing Buenos Ayres. ... The Portuguese, ... not contented with the possession of Colonia ... commenced a more important settlement near Monte Video. From this place they were dislodged by Zavala [Governor of Buenos Ayres], who, by order of his government, proceeded to establish settlements at that place and at Maldonado. Under the above-detailed circumstances of contention ... was founded the healthy and agreeable city of Monte Video. ... The inevitable consequence of this state of things was fresh antagonism between the two countries, which it was sought to put an end to by a treaty between the two nations concluded in 1750. One of the articles stipulated that Portugal should cede to Spain all of her establishments on the eastern bank of the Plata; in return for which she was to receive the seven missionary towns [known as the 'Seven Reductions'] on the Uruguay. But ... the inhabitants of the Missions naturally rebelled against the idea of being handed over to a people known to them only by their slave-dealing atrocities. ... The result was that when 2,000 natives had been slaughtered [in the war known as the War of the Seven Reductions] and their settlements reduced to ruins, the Portuguese repudiated the compact, as they could no longer receive their equivalent, and they still therefore retained Colonia. When hostilities were renewed in 1762, the governor of Buenos Ayres succeeded in possessing himself of Colonia; but in the following year it was restored to the Portuguese, who continued in possession until 1777, when it was definitely ceded to Spain. The continual encroachments of the Portuguese in the Rio de La Plata, and the impunity with which the contraband trade was carried on, together with the questions to which it constantly gave rise with foreign governments, had long shown the necessity for a change in the government of that colony; for it was still under the superintendence of the Viceroy of Peru, residing at Lima, 3,000 miles distant. The Spanish authorities accordingly resolved to give fresh force to their representatives in the Rio de La Plata; and in 1776 they took the important resolution to sever the connection between the provinces of La Plata and the Viceroyalty of Peru. The former were now erected into a new Viceroyalty, the capital of which was Buenos Ayres. ... To this Viceroyalty was appointed Don Pedro Cevallos, a former governor of Buenos Ayres. ... The first act of Cevallos was to take possession of the island of St. Katherine, the most important Portuguese possession on the coast of Brazil. Proceeding thence to the Plate, he razed the fortifications of Colonia to the ground, and drove the Portuguese from the neighbourhood. In October of the following year, 1777, a treaty of peace was signed at St. Ildefonso, between Queen Maria of Portugal and Charles III. of Spain, by virtue of which St. Katherine's was restored to the latter country, whilst Portugal withdrew from the Banda Oriental or Uruguay, and relinquished all pretensions to the right of navigating the Rio de La Plata and its affluents beyond its own frontier line. ... The Viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres was sub-divided into the provinces of--(1.) Buenos Ayres, the capital of which was the city of that name, and which comprised the Spanish possessions that now form the Republic of Uruguay, as well as the Argentine provinces of Buenos Ayres, Santa Fé, Entre Rios, and Corrientes; (2.) Paraguay, the capital of which was Asuncion, and which comprised what is now the Republic of Paraguay; (3.) Tucuman, the capital of which was St. Iago del Estero, and which included what are to-day the Argentine provinces of Cordova, Tucuman, St. Iago, Salta, Catamarca, Rioja, and Jujuy; (4.) Las Charcas or Potosi, the capital of which was La Plata, and which now forms the Republic of Bolivia; and (5.) Chiquito or Cuyo, the capital of which was Mendoza, and in which were comprehended the present Argentine provinces of St. Luiz, Mendoza, and St. Juan."

_R. G. Watson, Spanish and Portuguese South America,