48 SPRINGS, RIVERS, CANALS, LAKES, 



language, and exhibit in her conduct a striking picture of the forti- 

 tude which distinguishes the one sex, mingled with the sensibility and 

 tenderness peculiar to the other. 



The early Spanish writers have given to this river the name of the. 

 man who first descended it. 



The Rio DE LA PLATA, or RIVER of PLATE, rises likewise 

 among the mountains on the western side of South America ; its 

 course is said to be more than eight hundred leagues, in which it 

 receives above fifty rivers ; it discharges itself into the Atlantic Oce,an 

 by a very extensive mouth, its northern coast being in 35, and its 

 southern in 36 20' south latitude. 



This vast river was first discovered by John Diaz de Solis, whom 

 Ferdinand of Spain had fitted out at his own expense, in the year 

 1515, and provided with two ships for the purpose of opening a com- 

 munication with the Moluccas, or Spice Islands, by the west. De 

 Soils was considered as one of the most skilful navigators in Spain. 

 On the 1st January, 1716, he entered a river which he called Ja- 

 neiro. He proceeded thence to a spacious bay, which he supposed 

 to be the entrance into a strait that communicated with the Indian 

 Ocean ; but on advancing farther, he found it to be the mouth of Rio 

 de la Plata. In endeavouring to make a descent in the country, De 

 Solis and several of his crew were slain by the natives, who, in sight 

 of the ships, cut their bodies in pieces, roasted and devoured them. 

 Discouraged by the loss of their commander, and terrified at this 

 shocking spectacle, the surviving Spaniards set sail for Europe, with- 

 out attempting any discovery, and nothing farther was heard of it 

 until several years afterward, when the Portuguese gained a know- 

 ledge of its amazing extent. 



P. Cataneo, a Modenese Jesuit, who landed at Buenos Ayres in 

 the year 1749, represents his astonishment at viewing this vast body 

 of water in the following manner. " While 1 resided in Europe," 

 says he, tf and read in books of history or geography that the mouth 

 of the river De la Plata was a hundred and fifty miles in breadth, I 

 considered it as an exaggeration, because iu this hemisphere we have 

 no example of such vast rivers. When I approached its mouth, I 

 had the most vehement desire to ascertain the truth with my own 

 e\es; and I have found the matter to be exactly as it was represented. 

 This I deduce particularly from one circumstance: When we took 

 our departure from Monte- Video, a fort situated more than a huu- 



