CHAPTER VIII 

 THE RIVER-ROUTES 



The use of the river before steam navigation — Floods — The river 

 plain — The bed of the Paran4 and its changes — The estuary 

 and its shoals — Maritime navigation — The boats on the Parang. 



The problem of the use of tne river-routes of the 

 Parana and the Paraguay is not of interest to 

 Argentina alone. It affects the whole history of 

 colonization in South America. The very name of 

 the Rio de la Plata is a reminiscence of the anxieties 

 of the early navigators who landed there, chiefly in 

 search of a route to the mineral districts of the Andes 

 [Plata = silver]. It is remarkable that the Amazon, 

 which opens a more direct and better route to the 

 Andes, was never used for reaching Peru. It was at 

 the most, and only occasionally, used as a return- 

 route, whereas expeditions to the Cordillera were 

 organized on the banks of the Parana during the 

 whole of the sixteenth century. The routes linking 

 the Parana and the Paraguay with the tableland 

 furrow the whole plain of the Pampa and the Chaco, 

 from the latitude of the estuary to about i6° S. lat. 

 (expedition of Nuflo de Chavez in 1557). An especially 

 close network starts from the river between 18° and 

 22° S. lat. and ends at Santa Cruz, the most northern 

 centre established by the Spaniards on the plain, at 

 the foot of the Andes, as a consequence of the use of 

 the Parana.^ 



' There is still a certain amount of goods traffic in this latitude 

 between the river and the Santa Cruz district by the Puerto Suarez 

 and Puerto Pacheco tracks. 



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