214 ROADS AND RAILWAYS 



From Esquina de Medrano the Peru road made for 

 Cordoba in the north-west. From the tablelands 

 which continue the Sierra de Cordoba northward it 

 descended toward the Rio Dulce, which it reached 

 west of Atamisqui, and which it followed as far as 

 Santiago del Estero, where it crossed to the north 

 bank. It crossed the Sali in the latitude of Tucuman, 

 and, passing through Tracas and Metan, followed the 

 depression which separates the Andes from the sub- 

 Andean chains. From Salta it went north to Jujuy, 

 and passed through the Quebrada de Humahuaca to 

 reach the Puna. 



The influence of rivers is not much seen in the scheme 

 of the primitive roads. There were in the sixteenth 

 century many routes from Peru to the Paraguay, 

 across the Chaco, but not a permanent road in the 

 strict sense. In the eighteenth century there was a 

 direct road from Santa Fe to Tucuman, by the north 

 of the Los Porongos lagoon and the course of the Rio 

 Dulce. There was another from Santa Fe to Cordoba. 

 These roads were not exclusively used for conveying 

 cattle. The river route which they joined at Santa 

 Fe provided them with a certain amount of traJBic 

 coming from the higher provinces. Paraguayan mate 

 reached the Andean regions by this road, and in 

 return the boatmen at Santa Fe loaded up with the 

 wines and dried fruit of the Andean provinces to take 

 to Asuncion. 



The question of joining the road on to a river was 

 not of very great importance until the time when 

 the Parana began to be used for Argentine imports 

 and exports, and to maintain the communication of 

 the interior provinces with Europe. This question of 

 connection with a river controls the history of the 



naver used regularly, from fear of the Indians or — which comes to 

 the same thing — because the area they cross, in the south of the actual 

 territory of the provinces of Santa F6 and C6rdoba, was not yet 

 eolonizeda 



