THE PARANA, ROSARIO, AND SANTA FÉ
The Parana is one of the most magnificent rivers in the world. It was
in the earliest times the most valuable route for the Spaniards into
the interior, as is shown by the fact that while they were struggling
for a foothold at Buenos Aires, and several times abandoned the
settlement altogether, they were in possession of a flourishing colony
in Asunçion. Up to recent times few immigrants thought of going to
Entre Rios or Corrientes because of the difficulties of the journey,
but now there is a train-ferry across the Parana, and there will soon
be railway connection with the capital of Paraguay. The territory,
highly favoured by nature, will in course of time be one of the
richest parts of Argentina.
[Illustration: COLON, ENTRE RIOS.]
It is impossible accurately to estimate the total course of the river,
but its length is between 2,100 and 2,800 miles. In its upper part it
receives many large tributaries--the Pardo, Paranahyba, Tiete,
Paranapanema, Ivahy, and Iguazu. In the north the falls impede
navigation, but it is practicable for vessels of 300 tons as far as
the Island of Apipe, which is 150 miles above its junction with the
river Parana. Lower down its only important tributary is the Rio
Salado. At Rosario its breadth is 20 miles, and it would present the
appearance of the sea but for a group of islands which stand in the
mid-channel and limit the view. The railways of Argentina are greatly
indebted to the Parana, which brought down enormous quantities of
quebracho lumber to be used as railway sleepers, and the various lines
now take 2,000,000 hard-wood sleepers from the Chaco yearly. At
Posadas 8,000 or 10,000 hands are needed to handle the _yerba_ and
lumber trade of the Alto Parana, and these are difficult to obtain,
for the southern regions have not sufficient labourers to supply their
own wants. Since 1902 more than 9,000 Russians and Poles have settled
at Apostoles, near Posadas, and arrangements have been made to settle
3,000 Finns in the same neighbourhood. But at present the south
attracts most of the European immigrants, and it is difficult to get
the native, who inhabits the upper basins, to work, on account of his
low standard of living and the exuberant fertility of the soil. Mr.
Barclay thinks that this fine country will for an indefinite period be
exploited only by traders, and does not expect to see them properly
colonised within the limits of the present century. He suggests
Chinese or Japanese colonists; but these people are already greatly
disliked in Chile, nor is it likely that they would be more welcome in
Argentina. It would be infinitely better that the vast forests should
continue to be inhabited by savage Indians than that one of the
noblest of European races should be tainted with yellow blood. It
would be far preferable to imitate the excellent example of the
Jesuits, and teach the Indians habits of industry, in which case they
would multiply and rapidly become civilised.
[Illustration: QUAY ON THE RIVER URUGUAY.]
Possibly the hasty traveller of to-day loses something by the
development of the railways, for he naturally takes the quick train in
preference to the slow steamboat. Rosario is only 186 miles from
Buenos Aires, and the journey occupies some seven hours on the Central
Argentine Railway, which for comfort is all that can be desired. The
officials (English) are most obliging; there is good sleeping and
dining accommodation, and the managers are most anxious to show the
traveller all that is to be seen; nor is this surprising, for
everything is of the best. It could only be wished that the railway
companies would start terminus hotels in the large towns in order that
the passengers might not abandon comfort when they quit the railway
carriage; but probably the local caterers would object.
Rosario is the second city in the Republic, and is certainly one of
the most remarkable. Founded in 1725 by Don Francisco Godoy as a
settlement for the subjugated Calchaqui Indians, it was in 1854 but an
insignificant town. It was then made a port of entry by General
Urquiza, and has prospered exceedingly. In 1870 it had a population of
21,000, in 1883 of 45,000, while in 1900 it stood at 112,000.
At the present time it must contain considerably more than 180,000
inhabitants. In 1900 the imports were valued at £1,913,803 and the
exports at £5,851,239, while in 1907 the figures were £6,397,579 and
£7,301,398 respectively. It is the chief port for wheat, maize, and
linseed,[143] but possibly, as the south is developed, it may be
surpassed as a grain port by Bahia Blanca. On the other hand, as the
north is colonised Rosario will receive the principal share of the
increased trade. The great project now is to bring the noble waterways
of the Plate into railway communication with the still more gigantic
system of the Amazon. Then Rosario will undoubtedly rival the huge
cities in the northern continent, which have thriven by the trade
brought down the Mississippi and the Missouri. Great sums have been
spent on the harbour of Rosario and a fine electric lift has been
erected, but the navigation of the Parana and its affluents suffers
from floods and erosion, and it has been questioned whether elaborate
and expensive appliances are necessary.[144] However, Rosario remains
a favourite port, and large vessels load and unload there.
In one respect Rosario produces a much more pleasant impression than
Buenos Aires, for its streets are wide and it has large parks. The Calle
Cordoba is an extremely handsome thoroughfare with good shops. There is
a busy Bolsa, many fine public buildings, and much-frequented cafés.
Large hotels have sprung up, and, it may be hoped, will in course of
time become comfortable. The people of Rosario have taken great pains in
the laying out of their town and have provided for plenty of open spaces
and boulevards. The new park is very beautiful, and handsome private
dwellings are being erected in the vicinity, but although there appears
to be no scarcity of sites, rents are said to be ruinously high. Rosario
has suffered more than any other town from municipal imposts, and at the
beginning of 1909 the traders went on strike, with beneficial results.
Complaints are also made that this great provincial town has its
interests subordinated to the small provincial capital of Santa Fé.
[Illustration: ROSARIO, THE LAW COURTS.]
However, these affairs are mere inconveniences which cannot impair the
town's prosperity. Here, as is customary in the Argentine, the English
are greatly in evidence and occupy an important place in the business
life. They have a pleasant Club and are very hospitable. Rosario has
also an advantage over Buenos Aires in being naturally more open and
picturesque. It is built on the bank of the Parana, some 300 feet
high, and a fine view is obtained of the great waterway and the
far-off, poplar-clad islands. The climate is said to be more relaxing
than that of the capital, but the difference is not great. When
Rosario has got rid of its new and unfinished appearance it will be an
extremely pleasant place of residence.
Perhaps the most interesting sight in Rosario and one that best marks
its progress on the stage to greatness is the workshop of the Central
Argentine Railway. When it is considered that as yet only a beginning
has been made with railway communications in South America, and yet
here is a great industry engaged in repairing numberless engines and
building vast numbers of carriages, imagination can hardly place a
limit to the greatness of Rosario as a railway centre when Brazil,
Paraguay, and Bolivia shall have through communication with Buenos
Aires and Rosario. These countries, with the greater part of the
Argentine Gran Chaco, represent to the Province of Buenos Aires what
the West represented to the Eastern States of North America seventy
years ago, but instead of being chiefly wheat and cattle countries
(all of which Buenos Aires already has in abundance) they contain the
priceless tropical products which from time immemorial have been
the main objects of trade. And, again, the mines of Bolivia and
Brazil, the best of which are unworked, probably unknown, will pour
their wealth down the basin of the Parana.[145] It is said that Brazil
has coal equal in quality to that of Yorkshire, and if this could
be brought cheaply into Argentina one main impediment to her
manufacturing efficiency would be removed.
The Central Argentine is an English company, and thus our traders have
a great advantage in Argentina, as the English railways naturally buy
engines and stores from home. The Rosario workshop turns out carriages
and effects every kind of repair, but the locomotives are imported. An
engine made at Hunslet in 1875 is still doing good work, whereas
American engines go to the scrap-heap in three years. Those of Kitson,
of Leeds, are of everlasting wear, and much of the work of Byer,
Peacock, Manchester, and of George Stephenson, Darlington, is to be
seen at Rosario. Some of the engines and machinery at the forge are
American, but Butler and Co., of Halifax, are prominent. Of the
carriages some come from Milwaukee, some from Birmingham, but now a
very large proportion is made in the workshops. Most of the workmen
appear to be Spaniards or Italians, but in better positions Irishmen
are numerous; in fact, on St. Patrick's Day hotel accommodation can
hardly be obtained at Rosario, and the Irish and Scotch language is
spoken with perfect purity by men who have never been outside the
boundaries of the Republic.
[Illustration: CALLE CORDOBA, ROSARIO.]
In another place an account will be given of the Central Argentine
Railway, and the other lines by which the town is well served, but it
may here be mentioned that the English company, like its rival lines
in the country, has been doing its utmost to develop the district
with which it is concerned, and a considerable part of the port
accommodation is due to its enterprise. It has constructed a wharf
which can contain five large steamers in single line, and owns more
than a mile and a half of river-front in a convenient position for
shipping grain. Besides this the Company possesses the port of
Villa Constitucion, 32 miles from Rosario, and it is being rapidly
developed. In 1907 this port was entered by British ships with a
tonnage of 80,457, and German with a tonnage of 15,838. Much of the
prosperity of Rosario--and its advance is very rapid--is due to its
excellent railways. The town has every natural advantage and possesses
an industrious and enterprising community which would be one of the
most favoured in the world if its government were better.
Santa Fé, the capital of the Province, is a comparatively
insignificant town with about thirty thousand inhabitants. It is an
old place, dating from 1573, and thus is really more ancient than
Buenos Aires. Padre Pedro Lozano[146] states: "Garay founded the city
of Santa Fé upon a delightful plain and by the same river,[147] three
leagues from the Parana. This port afforded admirable shelter to
vessels of all kinds and the soil was extremely fertile, rendering
with bounteous increase all the seeds entrusted to it. There was
abundance of game and fish and there was a large population round
about consisting of many nationalities and of widely different
languages, but these tribes are now quite extinct, and a genuine
Indian of the country is hardly ever to be seen in these days. The
latitude of this city was originally 31°, but owing to inconveniences
for land trade which afterwards manifested themselves, and to the
unfriendly attitude of the heathen, the site was shifted in the year
1660 to a more convenient position on the river Salado, and three
leagues distant from the great river Parana. The latitude of the new
site was 31° 58´ and its longitude 47°."
Santa Fé is the seat of a Bishop and possesses a Jesuit Church and
College, which dates back to 1654. Sixty years ago a traveller
described it as a pleasant town with fifteen thousand inhabitants, and
the population seems to have increased very little until quite recent
years, for it has never had any prominent industries[148] and must
always be greatly inferior to Rosario, although the older city is the
capital. Like Head at Mendoza, the observer was struck by the practice
of promiscuous river-bathing. He thus describes the town[149]: "The
city occupies a large space of ground; for, like all the towns in this
country, a considerable portion is planted as fruit gardens. The
houses are either flat-roofed, or covered with tiles, and only one
storey in height. A majority of them were built without any provision
for glass windows; the light and air being admitted only through
apertures fitted with an open framework of wood, having strong
shutters inside; neither are there fireplaces in the houses. There are
four large churches, one of which, built in 1834, is remarkable for
its solidity and fine proportions. It consists of a nave and aisles,
separated by square pillars supporting arches; light is admitted from
the windows of a clerestory. It contains a beautiful baptismal font of
silver, with four richly carved holy-water fonts. The high altar is in
the Gothic style, and enriched with gilding."
As remarked before, Santa Fé is not a city of remarkable prosperity.
The building of small river craft is an industry of some importance,
but the main occupation of its inhabitants is the export of quebracho
wood. In 1907 the shipments were 174,126 tons. The river here gives
considerable trouble and requires constant dredging, but a new port is
rapidly approaching completion, when it will be possible for vessels
with a draught of 20 feet to enter.
The great river country to the north is full of interest, but
reference can only be made to one subject--the famous Falls of Iguazu.
These Falls were known and described by Padre Lozano, but political
troubles and the general backwardness of the north after the expulsion
of the Jesuits caused them to be forgotten. Now the Government is
alive to the possibilities of using them as a great national "lion,"
and a commission some years ago was appointed to survey the route and
make it more accessible. As yet not much has been done in that
direction, but the journey to and from Buenos Aires can be made in
less than a fortnight, and a rest-house has been provided. The
traveller starts from Buenos Aires in a steamboat and proceeds up the
Plate and Uruguay Rivers to Concordia. There he leaves the river and
takes train to Corrientes, where he re-embarks in a steamer, and,
passing up the Rio Alta Parana to Posadas, makes his way far north to
the confines of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay, where the Falls are.
The Rio Iguazu joins the Parana at the place of disembarkation, and
there is a long ride through the forest to the Falls. Twelve miles
from the junction with the Parana there is a sudden bend, and the
river makes its mighty leap of 210 feet. These are the Brazilian
Falls, but lower down there are two other magnificent cascades, each
of 100 feet, which fall into a narrow gorge. These are the Argentine
Falls and are about 10,000 feet distant from the Brazilian. At the
highest point the width of the river is 3,000 feet, but the gorge into
which the magnificent columns of water finally discharge themselves is
no more than 400 feet wide, and the volume of the discharge is greatly
increased in the rainy season. The spectacle is no less magnificent
than that of Niagara. As a mere discharge of water in a single sheet
the North American fall is more impressive, but the beauty of the
Argentine scene is enhanced by the luxuriant forests, and the
long-drawn-out course of the foaming stream amid its sylvan scenery is
unmatched.
Some day, no doubt, there will be a fashionable watering-place within
the sound of the roaring waters, with great hotels and a casino, but
now the Falls are, like all the rest of the vast region, an almost
unknown place. The great rivers offer the finest waterway, and nothing
is required but men and energy to make this borderland a country of
fabulous wealth.
[Illustration: THE IGUAZU FALLS.]
FOOTNOTES:
[143] Rosario exported in 1907--
Wheat 2,850,000 tons
Linseed 580,000 "
Maize 1,400,000 "
[144] "The new port at Rosario is admittedly no improvement on the old
system of delivering wheat by shoots from the barrancas down to
vessels moored to wooden stages in deep channel. In a word, the means
of access from shore to river are most permanently effective when
capable of adaptation to the shifting character of the stream" (W. S.
Barclay, _Geog. Journ._, Jan., 1909).
"The works at the present time are sufficiently advanced to provide
berths for some 15 vessels. A channel of sufficient breadth all along
the frontage has been dredged so that large vessels drawing 24 feet or
more can now manoeuvre without stranding on sand or mud banks, as was
formerly the case. The entire port can provide loading berths for
about 40 vessels and for 20 to 25 vessels to discharge. The change
that has been effected along the river frontage in the short space of
four years is remarkable, and when the works are completed Rosario
will possess one of the best ports in the country, with excellent
storage accommodation attached. The contract price for constructing
the port was fixed at 60,000,000 fr., but a much larger sum will have
been expended before completion, exclusive of grain elevators and
other works which the Company is undertaking estimated at 17,000,000
fr." (Consular Report, July, 1908).
[145] "Now at last in our day progress is being made in the great
neglected central zone watered by the Paraná, and here, as has been
shown, the main line of advance will still be south and north. For if
we accept the statement that mountains are the true frontiers of
nations then the reverse also holds true, and the valleys that connect
them are their best and natural highways. So when the railroads which
already link Patagonia to Paraguay extend further along the great
'llanos' overshadowed by the Andes, right up to a navigable port on
the Amazon, they will strengthen, better than any words or treaties,
the ties of rational trade and intercourse between the republics whose
hinterlands meet in the Paraná watershed" (W. S. Barclay, _Ibid_.).
[146] "Coleccion de Obras," iii. 121.
[147] The Rio Salado.
[148] "The future of Santa Fé is rather in agriculture, the raising
of hogs, and the production of butter and cheese, than in the
old-fashioned system of stock-raising, which has already become an
employment for which the land gives a scant return, and which,
moreover, will become absolutely impossible at no distant date, when
the price of land rises still further" (Latzina, "Géographie," p.
239).
[149] MacCann, "Two Thousand Miles' Ride," ii. 32.