CHAPTER XIII.

_FOUNDATION AND PROGRESS OF BUENOS AYRES._

1580-1800.

[Sidenote: 1580.]

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 _Santa Fè_ on the _Paraná_. The site selected for the future capital of the _Pampas_ is probably one of the worst ever chosen for a city--a fact which is at once palpable to every one who has visited the place. That the same site should have been selected three times in succession is only to be accounted for by the tendency which exists in human nature to follow precedent, whether it be good or whether it be bad. “With a perversity of judgment,” says Mr. Washburn, in a passage in which there is not a word to alter, “which seemed to characterize all his acts, Mendoza moved up the broad and noble estuary, passing by the most suitable places for a town site, until he came to a place that combined all the inconveniences that could possibly exist, on the banks of a large navigable river. The point thus selected, and where now stands the principal city of the _Plata_, has probably the worst harbour in the world for a large commercial town. Large vessels must always lie off some two or three leagues from the shore, and those of lighter draft that venture within the inner roads are liable to be left high and dry on the hard bottom, or _tosca_, when a _pampero_, or strong wind, from the west sets in. But if the wind blows strongly from the south-east, then they are liable to drag their anchors, and be carried up so high inland that, when the wind veers again, they are left many rods from the water, and can only be broken up for firewood. The cost of lightening a vessel of her cargo is much more than the freight of it from New York or Liverpool. The country in the vicinity, for as far as the eye could reach, was a dead-level plain, without bush or tree; the air in the hot, dry season being frequently so full of dust as to be almost insupportable, and the soil of that sticky, clayey character that a slight rain would render it almost impassable for man or animal. And this place was selected by Mendoza as the site of the first Spanish settlement in South America.”

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 _Querandis_. The latter, however, were effectually quelled; the proof of it being their submission, without further resistance, to be parcelled out amongst the conquerors in _repartimientos_. “The registers are still preserved of De Garay’s followers by name, amongst sixty-five of whom he divided in lots the lands extending along the river-side from _Buenos Ayres_ to _Baradero_ on the _Paraná_, as well as the Indian inhabitants of the adjoining territories under their respective _caciques_.” The lines of the new city were laid out about a league higher up the river than the site of Mendoza’s settlement. Under De Garay’s superintendence it was soon sufficiently fortified to ensure protection. It is remarkable that it was not till about three years after the foundation of this settlement that the first vessel was despatched to Spain laden with the produce of _La Plata_--namely, hides and sugar from _Paraguay_, the former being evidence of the increase of horned cattle from the original stock imported from Europe thirty years before.

[Sidenote: 1620.]

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. 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 of the settlements south of the confluence of the rivers _Paraná_ 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.

[Sidenote: 1658.]

An English traveller, whose name is lost, has left a description of _Buenos Ayres_ as it was in the year 1658. At that time only Spaniards might proceed in Spanish ships to their Indian possessions. Other nations of Europe, however, were occasionally permitted to trade with the cities on the river Plate; and at _Buenos Ayres_, in the above-mentioned year, our countryman found twenty Dutch and two English ships preparing to proceed homewards, laden with bull-hides, plate, and vigonia wool, which they had obtained in exchange for other commodities. At that time the military resources of the city of _Buenos Ayres_ were not great; for we read that, on the alarm of an attack by a French squadron, they had to send for aid to the Viceroy at _Lima_, who caused to be levied, with much difficulty and by the exercise of force, a hundred men, who did not reach the eastern coast until eight or nine months after they had been sent for.

The town of _Buenos Ayres_ contained four hundred houses, and was not enclosed, either by wall or ditch. Its fortifications consisted in a bastion at the mouth of the rivulet, with two small iron guns, and in a small earthwork surrounded by a ditch, commanding the river, and on which were mounted ten iron guns. This fort contained the house of the governor of the place, who had under him a garrison of one hundred and fifty men, formed into three companies, the captains of which were appointed or removed at his will. The soldiers received pay at the rate of four _reals_ a day. But the governor had further at his disposal the additional means of defence of twelve hundred horses, upon which, in case of necessity, he mounted as many citizens as could be collected together, to act as cavalry. The houses of the town were then built of sun-dried bricks. They were of one storey, and were thatched with canes and straw. They contained spacious rooms, and had large court-yards and adjoining gardens full of orange, lemon, and fig trees, of pear and of apple trees; of numerous kinds of vegetables; and of excellent melons. Wine, then as now, was almost the only article of diet which was sold at a high price; and the markets of the town were supplied abundantly with beef, mutton, venison, poultry, and game of various sorts. A partridge might be purchased for a penny. Ostriches were to be found in the neighbourhood in great numbers; and the traveller, whose description I quote from, makes a remark from general observation which indicates more subtle instinct on the part of those birds than they usually obtain credit for. “I saw one thing of these creatures very remarkable, and that is, while the hen sits upon the eggs, they have the instinct or forethought to provide for their young; so five or six days before they come out of the shell they set an egg in each of the four corners of the place where they sit; these eggs they break, and when they rot, worms and maggots breed in them in prodigious numbers; which serve to nourish the young ostriches from the time they are hatched until they are able to go farther for their sustenance.”

The better houses of _Buenos Ayres_ were at that time adorned with hangings, pictures, and ornaments. The wealthier inhabitants were served from plate, and their establishments contained many servants or slaves, who were employed also in the cultivation of their grounds or to take care of their horses and mules. The wealth of the inhabitants at the period referred to consisted mainly in cattle, the numbers of which increased on the vast plains with wonderful rapidity. At that time hides were to be bought in the city at the rate of seven or eight _reals_ each, or at less than an English crown, and the same were sold in Europe for at least four times as much money. Cattle were used for a singular purpose in the prosecution of war, being driven to the river-side in such numbers as to defy the efforts of the enemy to penetrate through them.

The merchants of _Buenos Ayres_ of the seventeenth century had the reputation of possessing considerable wealth, the fortunes of many amongst them being estimated at from two to three hundred thousand crowns. They were reputed to love their ease, and to be blessed with wives who had the credit of being as virtuous as they were lovely. For their fidelity, however, they demanded a strict return, being ready to punish by the bowl or the dagger any breach of the marriage vow on the part of the husband.

Besides the Spanish population, there were in the seventeenth century in _Buenos Ayres_ a few Frenchmen, some Dutch, and some Genoese, but all these passed themselves off as being Spanish, the more surely to escape the dangers of the Inquisition.

The chief edifices and institutions of the town at that period were the cathedral, the college of the Jesuits, and the convents of the Dominicans, the Recollects, and of the Order of Mercy.

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 exerted their interest successfully to obtain prohibitory enactments against all trade with _Buenos Ayres_, lest it should interfere with the sale of their periodical shipments for _Panamá_. In vain the inhabitants of the former city petitioned and remonstrated; for some years the only boon they could obtain was the permission to export yearly to _Brazil_ or to the coast of _Guinea_ a small quantity of wheat, jerked beef, and tallow. In 1618 this was extended to a permission to send two vessels of a hundred tons burthen each year to Spain; but a custom-house was established at _Cordova_ to levy a duty of fifty per cent. on goods carried by that way. All commercial intercourse with other Spanish colonies in America was prohibited under severe penalties. Under this miserable commercial legislation _Buenos Ayres_ continued to languish for the first century of its existence.

[Sidenote: 1715.]

[Sidenote: 1739.]

In 1715, after the treaty of Utrecht, the English, as has been said, 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 twelve hundred 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. One vessel is mentioned by Dean Funes, the historian, as being well known to have carried away from the _Plata_ for London two millions of dollars in specie and seventy thousand dollars’ worth of hides in return for European goods clandestinely introduced. This trade was carried on till 1739, when Spain attempted to stop it by means of guardships. As the English resented this measure, the two powers became involved in hostilities, with the result that the _asiento_ ceased.

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_ directly facing _Buenos Ayres_. It is to be remembered, however, that the majestic stream has here a breadth of about thirty miles, or more than that which separates England from France. By the same treaty the Crown of Portugal solemnly engaged to prohibit smuggling; but, notwithstanding this clause, the provinces of _Buenos Ayres_, _Paraguay_, and _Tucuman_ were thenceforward abundantly supplied through this channel with European goods. Thus by the imbecile commercial policy of Spain, that country was not only superseded by foreign traders in the markets of her own colonies, but further lost the duties upon their produce. The yearly freight of the galleons, which a century before had been estimated at fifteen thousand tons, fell to two thousand. The Viceroy of _Peru_ had even to write to the governor of _Buenos Ayres_, requiring him to punish his officers for their negligence or connivance, since it appeared that the Peruvians no longer repaired to _Lima_ as a market for European goods, their wants being amply supplied from the _Plata_.

To this remonstrance Zavala was constrained to reply that he found all measures vain to repress smuggling whilst such facilities existed for carrying it on and such gains were its result. He was sufficiently advanced to perceive, and sufficiently bold and honest to express his opinion, that a trade so demoralizing to the colonists was only to be stopped in one of two ways; either by throwing open the markets to legitimate trade, whereby the Government would secure the duties, or by driving the Portuguese out of the _Banda Oriental_, or _Uruguay_. Of the two alternatives, the latter best suited the views of the Spanish Government. The Portuguese indeed, not contented with the possession of _Colonia_, had commenced a more important settlement near _Monte Video_. From this place, however, they were dislodged by Zavala, who, by order of his Government, proceeded to establish settlements at that place and at _Maldonado_.

[Sidenote: 1726.]

Under the above-detailed circumstances of contention between the Crowns of Spain and Portugal, represented by their respective establishments at _Buenos Ayres_ and in _Brazil_, and which were so typical of its future history, was founded the healthy and agreeable city of _Monte Video_. Some families were transported thither from the _Canaries_, whilst others removed to there from _Buenos Ayres_. Large sums of money from the mines of _Potosí_ were sent by the Viceroy to carry on the works; whilst the _Guaranís_ were despatched in numbers from _Paraguay_ to lend their labour to the fortifications. The Portuguese, however, were not dismayed, and laboured, on the other hand, to increase their own establishments, fixing themselves permanently on the _Rio Grande_, from which they carried on the contraband trade with more impunity than ever. The value of this trade is estimated by Dean Funes at two millions of _dollars_ yearly to the Portuguese, being so much loss to Spain.

[Sidenote: 1750.]

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 on the _Uruguay_. But, as is told in another chapter of this work, the inhabitants of the _Misiones_ naturally rebelled against the idea of being handed over to a people known to them only by their slave-dealing atrocities; and they made a gallant resistance against the united forces of the two powers, which appeared to enforce the conditions of the treaty. The result was that when two thousand natives had been slaughtered 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_.

[Sidenote: 1776.]

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 definitively ceded to Spain. The continual encroachments to 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_, three thousand 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_. It comprised the province of its own name, together with those of _Paraguay_, _Cordova_, _Salta_, _Potosí_, _La Plata_, _Santa Cruz de la Sierra_, or _Cochabamba_, _La Paz_, and _Puno_, besides the subordinate governments of _Monte Video_, _Moxos_, and _Chiquitos_, and the Missions on the Rivers _Uruguay_ and _Paraná_.

To this Viceroyalty was appointed _Don_ Pedro Cevallos, a former governor of _Buenos Ayres_. A formidable armament was placed under his command; twelve men-of-war escorting a numerous fleet of transports, sailed from Spain, with ten thousand men. 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.

About the same time some important changes took place in the commercial regulations affecting the Spanish colonies. Various relaxations had from time to time been made of the old system by which the entire trade of Spain was left almost as a monopoly to the merchants of Seville and of Cadiz. Periodical packets had been established between Coruña and the principal colonial ports, with permission to export and to import Spanish and colonial goods. Direct intercourse was also permitted between _Cuba_ and the other West Indian Islands; and, in 1774, the several colonies were allowed to open up a trade with each other. The above measures originated with the enlightened minister for the department of the Indies, De Galvez, who had himself passed many years in America, and who had personally witnessed to how great an extent Spain was a loser by her former system. They were followed in 1778 by the promulgation of an entirely new commercial code. The trade was still exclusively to belong to Spain and to Spanish shipping, and the tariff was based upon the principle of protection to native industry and of furthering the sale of Spanish productions. Nine ports of Spain and twenty-four in the colonies were declared ports of entry.

By these regulations it was likewise provided that for ten years Spanish manufactures of wool, cotton, linen, steel, glass, &c., should be shipped, duty free, for the colonies, which might export in return their principal articles of raw produce, such as cotton, coffee, sugar, cochineal, indigo, bark, and copper. The duty on the import of gold was reduced from 5 to 2 per cent.; that on the import of silver from 10 to 5½ per cent.; whilst vessels laden solely with natural produce were exempted from one-third of the duties. The shipment of certain articles of foreign production, such as cottons, stuffs, oil, wines, and brandies, which might interfere with those of Spain, were totally prohibited. These regulations contained, however, certain clauses framed in the old restrictive spirit. Some obsolete edicts were renewed restricting the cultivation of certain colonial productions--such as the vine and olive, hemp and flax--lest they should compete with the growth of the same articles in the mother country. The South Americans were not allowed to make their own cloth, and were debarred from the use of the wool of the _vicuña_, which was to be collected for the King’s account.

Under the administration of the above-named minister the _Creoles_ had to complain of the great partiality shown to Spaniards over themselves in the distribution of appointments, both civil and military, in the colonies--a mistake on the part of the Spanish Government all the greater on account of the period at which it took place, namely, whilst a struggle arising in the question of colonial rights was pending between Great Britain and her North-American possessions. It is certainly singular--indeed, it seems inexplicable--that Spain, of all countries, should have determined at this time to join with France in espousing the cause of the North Americans against England, whilst she herself was pursuing in her own colonies the very policy complained of. It was not long before the Spanish Crown was reminded by the South Americans that it had itself sanctioned the principle of the subject’s right to resistance against his sovereign on the plea of wrongs unredressed.

[Sidenote: 1778.]

The new commercial regulations, however, as a whole, were extremely advantageous to the colonies as well as to the mother country. _Buenos Ayres_, in particular, from being a nest of smugglers, soon rose to be one of the most important commercial cities of the New World. To take one example. Before the new regulations of 1778, the export of hides to Spain averaged about 150,000 yearly. It soon rose to between 700,000 and 800,000, whilst in one year [1783], on the conclusion of peace with England, the export attained to 1,400,000. Instead of the former two or three ships, there now sailed annually from seventy to eighty from the river _Plate_ to Spain. The population of the province of _Buenos Ayres_, under these altered circumstances, was doubled in twenty years, rising from 38,000 in 1778 to 72,000 in 1800.

Until the latter part of the eighteenth century the inhabitants of the province of _Buenos Ayres_, possessing ample lands safe from incursions of the Indians, had no particular object in extending their possessions further south than the river _Salado_. The further region was left to the Indians, and was a _terra incognita_ until the publication in England, in the year 1774, of an account of _Patagonia_ by Father Falkner.

Falkner was an English Jesuit who had been devoted to travelling as a missionary amongst the Indians, in which duty he had passed forty years. He pointed out how vulnerable by any naval power were the Spanish possessions in that region; and, on the publication of his book, the Spanish Government lost no time in instructing the Viceroy of _Buenos Ayres_ to have the coast of _Patagonia_ surveyed, with a view to the formation of fresh settlements. The command of the surveying expedition was given to an officer named Piedra, who sailed from _Monte Video_ at the close of 1778, and passed three months in examining the shores of the gulf of _St. Antonio_, where he left an officer and some men to build a fort, conveniently situated for exploring the rivers _Negro_ and _Colorado_, and for securing the entrance of those streams against invasion. A further inducement for making a settlement here was the number of whales and seals in the neighbourhood, which likewise contained extensive salt deposits.

In April 1779 a settlement was formed on the river _Negro_, and in the following year the whole of the southern part of the coast of _Patagonia_ was surveyed. The only spot which seemed to afford a promising site for a settlement was _St. Julians_, which had the advantage of a constant supply of water some three or four miles inland. The Indians in the neighbourhood were friendly and ready to offer assistance, which was of great consequence to the first Spanish settlers in the cold months of June, July, and August. This colony, however, was destined to be short-lived, as the Spanish Government, in 1783, resolved to break up the Patagonian settlements, which were the occasion of great expense to _Buenos Ayres_, and the preservation of which seemed of doubtful utility. The settlement upon the _Rio Negro_ was alone preserved.

The missionary Falkner had supposed that a hostile naval power might, by ascending the _Rio Negro_, surprise the Spanish territories in the interior and even in _Chili_. In order to determine this important point, and to survey the river and its affluents, an expedition was despatched from the _Rio Negro_. Starting from the settlement of _Carmen_ in 1782, it was absent for eight months. It proved the possibility of ascending the river to the foot of the _Andes_. One surprising fact was brought to light, namely, that the Indians of the _Pampas_ had not to drive their stolen cattle for more than three days’ journey over the _Cordillera_, from the lake of the boundary mentioned by Falkner, before reaching the fort of _Valdivia_, where they found a ready market. The party of Indians from whom the explorers learned this circumstance consisted of about three hundred people, who had left their country more than a year before for the purpose of collecting cattle for the Valdivians. They were now on their way homewards with about eight hundred head, each one of which bore the _Buenos Ayres_ mark. Their return voyage down the stream was accomplished in three weeks.

In a work of this description I find considerable difficulty in giving due regard to the unities of time, &c. My object is to place before the reader, as well as I can, the general condition of South America at any one period; but the progress of events on that continent during the colonial administration was so irregular that it is scarcely possible to avoid appearing to give undue prominence to one particular region at a time, overlooking others which in these days may seem of equal or even greater importance. Thus whilst the province of _Buenos Ayres_ was still a vast plain overrun by savages, _Peru_, subsequent to the Spanish invasion, had a long and interesting history. In deferring to so late a date in this volume any account of _Buenos Ayres_, which is to-day a place of the first importance in South America, I may seem to be wanting in a sense of comparative fitness. But on reflection the reader will perceive that for the first two hundred years of its existence _Buenos Ayres_ possessed no history beyond that of its foundation. Its records during those years, in so far as the world in general is interested, may be comprised in a single sentence. It was on the collapse of the narrow, repressive policy of Spain, and the erection of _Buenos Ayres_ into a Viceroyalty, that the history of that city and province may be said to commence. Notwithstanding its natural resources and its geographical importance, it was until that date, like _Tucuman_, merely the seat of a local government, one amongst several, dependent on the Viceroyalty of _Peru_. In the last quarter of a century, however, of its colonial existence it made colossal strides. The new prospects of commercial wealth absorbed the interests and thoughts of all; and whilst Europe was waving with the commotion caused by the French Revolution, this far-distant province of Spain, so favoured by nature and position, was steadily laying the foundations of its future importance and prosperity.

The Viceroyalty of _Buenos Ayres_ was subdivided 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 Fè_, _Entre Rios_, and _Corrientes_;

(2.) _Paraguay_, the capital of which was _Asunsion_, 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 _Potosí_, 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_.

NOTE.--This chapter is founded on “Buenos Ayres and the Provinces of the _Rio de La Plata_,” by Sir Woodbine Parish, 1839;

Falkner’s “_Patagonia_” (Latin); England, 1774;

“_Rio de La Plata_” by Felix Azaro; Paris, 1809;

Dean Funes’s “History of _Paraguay_,” &c.; _Buenos Ayres_, 1816.