426 



AMAZONIA AND LA PLATA. 



lands in other provinces held by a few great landowners. Some leagues north 

 of Santa Fe may still be seen traces of the trench formerly cut to arrest the 

 mounted Indian raiders. These earthworks have long been crossed by the settlers, 

 who have transformed every railway station to an agricultural centre, thus step by 

 step converting the wilderness to a cultivated plain. They are already approach • 

 ing the plantations of Santiago del Estero. 



Below Santa Fe and Parana, a cliiï rising 260 feet above the left bank is 

 crowned by the town of Diamante, which occupies a superb position at the head 

 of the delta. The Parana, contracted to a narrow channel at this point, is more 



Fig. 167.— Santa Fé and its First Colonies. 

 Scale 1 : 1,250,000. 



eo^o 



25 Miles. 



easily crossed than in the upper and lower reaches. Hence this strategic posi- 

 tion has been hotly contested in all the civil wars, and here Ilrquiza's army of 

 20,000 horse swam the current. Like Parana, Diamante is surrounded by Russo- 

 German settlements. 



Lower down a lateral creek, communicating with the main stream during 

 the floods, is occupied by the town of Victoria, so named from a victory 

 gained in 1728 over the Minuan Indians, who were driven beyond the 

 Uruguay to the Charma district. In the neighbourhood the archreologist 

 Ramon Lista has discovered some burial-places filled up with the remains of 

 these Indians. 



