424 AMAZONIA AND LA PLATA. 



supplied the people of Corrientes with fuel, timber, fodder and other local produce. 

 But the forests of Gran Chaco have gradually receded before the woodman's axe, 

 and the natives have receded before the agricultural settlements which now 

 follow along the river banks. 



Formosa, on an isolated bluff opposite the Paraguayan town of Villa Franca, 

 gives its name to the northernmost of the two divisions of Chaco, an almost 

 uninhabited territory comprised between the Pilcomayo and the Bermejo. In 

 1892 it had a European population of not more than 5,000, mostly Italians and 

 Slavs, and scarcely as many acres under cultivation. Yet the whole district 

 bordering on Paraguay has already been bought up by sugar-planters, stock- 

 breeders, and other capitalists. Formosa, the capital, has succeeded to Villa 

 Occidental, which had to be evacuated by the Argentines when North Chaco was 

 restored to Paraguay by the decision of the United States. In the hope of making 

 it a riverside trading-place, Formosa was founded at a spot exactly midway between 

 Corrientes and Asuncion, 140 miles from both cities. It also occupies a strong 

 strategical position at a point where the river is rather narrow and very deep. 

 The passage could easily be commanded by the guns of a fort erected at Formosa. 



In the southern division of Argentine Chaco all the riverside lands have 

 been ceded or sold by the Government, and some well-managed sugar works have 

 alrea'dy been established in the district. Timho or Puerto Brrmejo, which 

 commands the confluence of the Bermejo with the Paraguay, is followed south- 

 wards by a Swedish settlement on the banks of the Pio de Oro, a small affluent 

 of the Paraguay, and lower down by Residoicia, capital of South Chaco, at the 

 mouth of the Pio Negro. 



An agricultural colony founded in this district at the expense of the central 

 administration is conducted by Gov^ernment officials. But no direct route has yet 

 been opened across the wilderness between Resistencia and the fertile plains of 

 Salta. 



Towns of Entre-Rios. 



Below Pesistencia the east bank is occupied at long intervals by a few stations, 

 such as Bella Vida, founded in 1826 as a penal settlement ; Goya ; Esquina, at 

 the confluence of the Parana and Corrientes; La Paz, formerly CaraUu-Cnatia, 

 midway between Asuncion and Buenos Ayres, and one of the busiest ports on 

 the river ; Heniamlanas, crowning a high wooded bluff ; Parana, formerly Bajacla, 

 the " Landing Stage," the first town founded in Entre-Rios. This place has 

 passed through great vicissitudes, having first been capital of the State, and then of 

 the whole Republic, from 1852 to 1861. It still does a considerable trade as the 

 outlet of the neighbouring colonies of Villa Urqniza and Cerrito. Most of the 

 settlers in this district are Italians ; but every European nationality is represented, 

 including even some Rumanians accompanied by their buffaloes from the banks 

 of the Lower Danube. 



Here also a Russian mir, with property held in common, has been founded by 



