456 AMAZONIA AND LA PLATA. 



Colorado, has Bahia Blanca as its natural outlet aud future metropolis. General 

 Acha, so-named from one of the military captains of Argentina, is its present 

 capital. The district is studded with lagoons and laid out in grazing-grounds. 



A diligence, which crosses the Rio Colorado at the fort of General Paz, 

 traverses the desert between Bahia Blanca and Canneii de Patagoncs, or simply 

 Patagones, which was founded by Viedma in 1779, and which was long the 

 advanced outpost of civilisation in the inhospitable solitudes of the south. Pata- 

 gones stands on the left bank of the Rio Negro 21 miles above its mouth, 

 at the foot of the steep plateau escarpments which here present the aspect of 

 cliff's. A fort erected above the town served till recently as a refuge in case of 

 alarm for the few squatters who had ventured to establish themselves in the 

 territory of the Tehuel-che Indians. 



In the early days of independence, during the war between Brazil and Argen- 

 tina, three vessels manned by imperialists made their appearance at the bar of 

 the Rio Negro. The men landed to seize the fort, while the vessels attempted 

 to ascend the stream. But one was stranded on an island at the entrance, another 

 ran aground half-way up, and when the third came in view of the fort they found 

 that their 500 comrades had surrendered, overcome by thirst and hulf dead with 

 frio-ht at a drove of about a thousand savage horses driven against them by the 70 

 defenders of Carmen. Thereupon the remaining vessel also struck her colours, 

 and was immediatel}' broken up by the riverside people. 



Since then the inhabitants have brought the surrounding district under culti- 

 vation, and the surviving Tehuel-che Indians, having made their submission, have 

 settled down near Viedma on the opposite side of the river. Steamers from Buenos 

 Ayres touch regularly at the station of Carmen, despite its dangerous approaches. 



Fortunately the much more convenient harbour of San Bias, surveyed by a 

 hydrographie commission in 1883, lies not far off, about midway between the 

 Colorado and Negro estuaries. Should the country ever get thickly peopled, San 

 Bias will become the natural outlet for the produce of both valleys. The buoyed 

 channel giving access to the port has a depth of 23 feet at ebb, and from 28 to 

 36 at flow. Viedma, so named in honour of the founder of Carmen, is quite as 

 large and a pleasanter place of residence than its neighbour. It has been chosen 

 by the Argentine Government as capital of the Rio Negro territory. Between 

 the two settlements the rapid and dangerous river has a breadth of about 820 

 feet. 



Towns of Patagonia — Hucal — Junin de los Andes. 



The territory of Neuquen, which is separated from the province of Mendoza 

 by the Upper Colorado, and in which the Rio Negro receives neaidy all its 

 affluents, can scarcely be settled except from the Chilian side of the Cordilleras. 

 On the Atlantic slope facing the stony plains the communications must remain 

 too long and too difficult, at least until good roads or railways are constructed 

 from the coast to the foot of the Andes. 



