Last Days in Argentina 297 



which are thrilling. The ground before us has had its 

 full baptism of blood; the smooth gray waters of the 

 harbor, dimpled to-day by the rain, have been spattered 

 more than once with shot and shell. Belgium has been 

 styled "the cockpit of Europe," and Uruguay for like 

 reasons may well be called the cockpit of South 

 America. 



The fighting began when the Spaniards first at- 

 tempted to wrest the land from the Ind'ans, who in- 

 habited it. These were the Charruas, a tribe who 

 combined with great personal bravery an instinct for 

 organization and regular resistance, which made them 

 the terror of the whites. For nearly two centuries they 

 held out against the European colonists, who came to 

 regard the region as a bloody land, upon the soil of 

 which it was not well to try to tread. Buenos Aires 

 had been in existence for nearly one hundred and fifty 

 years on the other side of the river before white men 

 succeeded in obtaining a permanent foothold on the 

 opposite north bank. Both Portugal and Spain laid 

 claim to the country. The Portuguese maintained that 

 the territory of Brazil extended to the south as far 

 as the banks of the Rio de la Plata ; Spain on the other 

 hand asserted that the whole region as far north as 

 Santos belonged to her. Neither had made any attempt 

 of consequence to occupy the country because of the 

 hostility of the Charruas. 



In 1680 the first decisive step was taken by the 

 Portuguese who sent an expedition to the River Plate 

 and commenced a settlement directly opposite Buenos 

 Aires, to which they gave the name of Co'onia. The 

 river is too wide at Buenos Aires to see what is going on 

 upon the other side, and the Portuguese therefore had 

 time to begin laying out their town, to erect earth- 



