_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.