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band as captured and devoured by the natives; but there is no other evidence that cannibalism was practiced by them.

The Charruas belonged to the great family of the Guaranies, and their character and disposition are indicated by their name, which in the Guarany language meant fierce and quarrelsome. As a general rule, the various South American tribes were named from some prominent characteristic. Their weapons were the rude arms common to all primitive races, and their utensils, such as are found buried all over the continent-stone hatchets, rough clay pottery, etc.

Three years later, Hernando de Magallanes set sail from the port of San Lucas and, following the same course as Solis, entered the Rio de la Plata, whose stream he ascended some distance and explored the waters of the Uruguay, Guazú, and Paraná rivers in an attempt to penetrate westward in his search of a route to the East Indies, which was the constant object of the explorers of that time. Abandoning the attempt, he left the river and continued his voyage down the coast of Patagonia, until driven back by the cold storms.

On the 1st of April, 1526, Sebastian Cabot left Seville for the Moluccas, but, deciding to follow in the route of Solis, reached the Rio de la Plata. He sent an expedition under his lieutenant, Juan Alvarez Ramon, to explore the country along the Uruguay, but the band was attacked by the Charruas, and its leader killed, with many of his followers. Cabot himself ascended the Plata, exploring the west shore, and entering the Paraná, pushed his expedition as far as the great falls called Salto de Agua. Returning, he entered the Paraguay, which he ascended as far as Bermejo.

After these explorations and against the fierce and determined opposition of the savages, who resisted desperately every advance of the strangers, the first attempts at occupation of the region were made by the establishment of military posts and settlements along the explored streams. In 1527, Cabot directed the erection of the

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first fort constructed in the " Banda Oriental," or belt of country east of the Uruguay. It was situated on the river San Salvador as a protection against the attacks of the natives, and was held until 1580, when it was abandoned by its garrison.

In 1550, Capt. Juan Romero was sent from Asuncion to make the first settlement within the present limits of Uruguay, and established himself on the San Juan, giving to the settlement the name of San Juan Bautista. Two years later, the place was abandoned by the colonists, who had become disheartened and unable to resist the continued attacks of the savages. A settlement was begun in 1574 at the place where Cabot had established his fort, on the San Salvador, and was called by the name of that river. This colony also had been sent from Paraguay, and, like the last named, was abandoned by the settlers, who returned to Paraguay, worn out by the unrelenting warfare waged upon them by the natives, and lacking the means of subsistence.

In the meanwhile, the Spanish conquerors had established themselves firmly in Paraguay and were pushing their settlements into the country now known as the Argentine Republic, renewing, from time to time, their attempts to gain a solid foothold in the region east of the Uruguay, whose rich pastures attracted the raisers of cattle. The opposition of the natives was, however, so fierce and so successful that little or no progress towards occupation was made for a long time. In 1603, a veteran Spanish force under Saavedra was routed in a pitched battle by the Charruas.

It was not until 1624 that the first of the centers of population that now exist was founded. This settlement was made on the Rio Negro, about two leagues from its mouth, by a monk named Bernardo de Guzmán, and was called Santo Domingo de Soriano. The Banda Oriental belonged nominally to the Government of Buenos Aires, but being in a territory whose jurisdiction was disputed by Spain and Portugal, and being almost entirely unoccupied by the Spaniards, the Portuguese, who had already established

themselves firmly in Brazil, attempted the occupation of the country by the establishment, in 1680, of the colony of Sacramento (Colonia), on the Rio de la Plata, almost in face of Buenos Aires. A lively trade sprang up between the two places, and the inhabitants of the latter were enabled to obtain at a much lower price articles which they had been compelled to obtain from Peru under an exorbitant tax. Extending their possession in 1723, the Portuguese seized and fortified the heights surrounding the bay of Montevideo.

The Spaniards, menaced in their possessions and revenues, dispatched an expedition in 1724 against the Portuguese at Montevideo, who surrendered to the attacking force without resistance; and in January, 1726, Montevideo was founded by a settlement of six families under Marshal Bruno Mauricio de Zabula. These families came from Buenos Aires, and were joined during the same year by twelve more brought from the Canaries.

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In 1735, Colonia was besieged by the Spaniards, and the investment of the place lasted till September, 1737, when the attacking force was compelled to withdraw. The attack was resumed in 1761, and this time the town was forced to capitulate, but was restored to the Portuguese in 1763 by the treaty of Paris. 1762, the town of San Carlos was founded, and in the following year, Maldonado was settled by some families coming from Ric Grande, under the lead of Pedro Ceballos. Santa Lucia was founded in 1778 by immigrants from Asturias and Galicia, and in 1781, other Asturian families established the settlement of Pando. Other colonial centers were subsequently settled along the border and in the interior, as Paysandú in 1782, by twelve families from the Missiones; San José and Minas, in 1783; Rocha, in 1793, by Asturians and Galicians.

The Viceroy Zeballos, who was at the head of the Spanish colonies on the Plata, finding it impossible to enforce the old fiscal laws on account of the numerous frauds on the revenue, which

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