10 SOUTH AMERICA— THE ANDES REGIONS. 



in search of spices.* These were soon followed by Vicente Pinzon and Diaz de 

 Solis, who in 1509 entered a great river which six years later Solis surveyed 

 more in detail. This was the vast southern estuary which receives the two rivers, 

 Uruguay and Parana, and which was at first named the Pio de Solis. But when 

 Sebastian Cabot discovered, in 1528, that the Parana branch led inland in the 

 direction of the Peruvian silver-mines, the name was changed to that of the Rio 

 de la Plata (" Silver River"), which the estuary still bears. 



Magellan's memorable expedition of 1520-21 completed the discovery of the 

 Atlantic coast of the New World as far as the entrance of the strait which sepa- 

 rates the mainland from the Fuegian archipelago. Six years later, Francisco de 

 Hoces, one of Loaysa's companions, coasted the seaboard without entering the 

 strait, and thus reached the southern extremity of Ticrra del Fuego close to the 

 point where the two oceans intermingle their waters. But although the sailors 

 taking part in the expedition unanimously declared that they had seen the "land's 

 end," these shores were not accurately traced till the next century, when Le 

 Maire rounded Gape Horn in 1616. 



The west coast of South America being further removed from Europe, its 

 survey was naturally subsequent to that of the Atlantic seaboard Thirty years 

 followed the discovery of Guanahani before Andagoya, advancing beyond the Gulf 

 of Panama, coasted the shores of the Pacific in the direction of the mysterious Biru, 

 or Piru (Peru), which Francisco Pizarro went in search of two years later. In 

 1527 he reached Tumbez, its northernmost point, just below the Gulf of Guaya- 

 quil ; and thenceforth the discovery of its shores and alpine coastlands went 

 hand in hand with the conquest of the Peruvian empire. In 1534 Almagro had 

 already pushed across the elevated plateau of the Andes and the Atacama desert 

 as far as the northern districts of Chili. 



In 1540 Valflivia penetrated still farther south along the narrow strip of 

 Chilian coastlands between the crest of the Andes and the Pacific. But here all 

 further exploration of the seaboard in the direction of Tierra del Fuego was long 

 arrested. Little, in fact, was done before the present century beyond making a 

 summary survey of the coast as seen from the ocean. A ship belonging to 

 Loaysa's squadron had certainly passed through the Strait of Magellan towards 

 Mexico so early as 1526, but its course lay too far seawards even to sight the coast 

 of Chili. Fourteen years later Alonzo de Caraargo, following in the same direc- 

 tion from the strait towards Callao, kept near enough inshore to determine the 

 exact trend of the continent along the Pacific Ocean. 



In 1579 Sarmiento, one of Spain's best pilots, made the voyage in the opposite 

 direction from north to south, and the coastline, as traced by him, gave a toler- 

 ably correct reproduction of its true form. Drake, also, studying the best routes 

 by which the Spanish settlements might be surprised, contributed not a little to a 

 more accurate knowledge of the southern coastlands. Their exploration is still 

 continued, and must last some time longer before complete surveys can be made of 



* D'Avezac, Nouvelles Annales des Voyages, 1869. 



