84 



AMAZONIA AND LA PLATA. 



Recent Events. 

 In 1680 the Portuguese had already founded the city of Sacramento, on the 

 right bank of the Plate river, where now stands the old Portuguese "colony" 

 of Colonia. For nearly a century the two rival Powers contended for tins impor- 

 tant station, which eventually remained with the Spaniards. The joeriod of 

 transition followino: the revolution of Buenos Aires and the risins^ of the Creole 

 population enabled the Portuguese to recover the Banda Oriental, a territory 

 which has now become the republic of Uruguay, and for some years Brazil 

 remained in possession of the whole of the " Cis-Platine " province. But the 



Fig. 28. — Colonia del Saceaiteivto. 

 Scale 1 : 950,000. 



West or breenwich 



Depths. 



m 



to 16 

 Feet. 



16 Feet 

 aid upwards. 



• Lighthouse. 



18 Miles. 



inhabitants, nearly all of Sj^anish descent and speech, -soon rose against the rule of 

 the Lusitanians, and after a war of three years, in which they were joined by the 

 Buenos Aires people, they achieved their independence. Since then (1828) Uruguay 

 has preserved its autonomy, thanks to the natural rivalries of its two powerful 

 northern and southern neighbours. 



In the south-west the Brazilians became involved in other conflicts, here 

 contending not for the natural frontier formed by the Paraguay-Parana confluence 

 but for the maintenance of their present frontiers, and to prevent the prepon- 

 derance of Paraguay, which, under the dictatorship of Solano Lopez, threatened 



