136 To the River Plate and Back 



tions are not profitable. In the last century they were 

 plagued with revolutions and counter-revolutions. 

 To-day they have settled down to the conviction that 

 an orderly government, well administered, affords the 

 best opportunity for development. The spirit of com- 

 mercialism and industrialism reigns supreme. The 

 Argentine has ceased to be a politician in the sense in 

 which he was a politician a few years ago, and has be- 

 come, like the people of our own country, keen in the 

 pursuit of the dollar. After all it is better that men 

 should chase dollars than that they should chase each 

 other with swords and bayonets. 



In the development which has taken place in Argen- 

 tina during the past three centuries the foremost part 

 has been played by the Province of Buenos Aires. The 

 first Europeans to sight the land were a party of Spanish 

 explorers, who had set out under the leadership of Juan 

 Diaz de Solis to find a southwest passage to the East 

 Indies. Arriving in 1516, they landed, were attacked 

 by the Indians, and their leader was killed. Disheart- 

 ened they returned to Europe. De Solis was followed 

 four years later by the illustrious Ferdinand Magellan, 

 who on his voyage around the world entered the estuary 

 and sailed for some distance up the River Plate, then 

 turned, and went south without attempting to effect 

 a landing. In 1527 Sebastian Cabot explored the rivers 

 Parana, Paraguay, and Uruguay for considerable dis- 

 tances, building a fort near the mouth of the Uruguay 

 River and attempting a settlement not far from the 

 present city of Santa Fe. Nothing came of these efforts 

 except an increased knowledge of the geography of the 

 region. Cabot was followed in 1535 by Pedro de 

 Mendoza, a Basque of noble lineage, who had received 

 from the Emperor Charles V. a grant of all of what is 



