<«<Romang's grant is situated on the immediate banks of the navigable branch of the Rio Paraná, called by the country folks 'El arroyo del pueblo viejo:' by 'pueblo viejo' they understand an Indian village, Cayesta, at a distance of about twenty-five leagues from the city of Santa Fé. There I have seen the ruins of a church and a number of houses-all seemed to have been built of tapia or adobe: remains of bricks and baldosas could be seen in various parts. The former ground of the church is now used by some of the baptized Indians as a burying-ground: they put pieces of wood and branches of trees on the tombs. Most of them have chacras (fenced in) and grow corn, water melons, pumpkins, and mani.

«The women are industrious: they spin, dye, weave, sew and stitch tolerably well; they rear cattle, have first-rate milch cows, but make neither butter nor cheese, only using milk as a beverage. Their clothing is of the most primitive nature. The land would be capital for growing cotton and tobacco. The milch cows would be very safe and do first-rate on the fine island opposite the shore.

«Dr. Romang has the land divided into lots of five and twenty cuadras, each 150 yards square, and he sells such lots in the immediate neighborhood of the river for 100 Bolivian dollars, a little further off for sixty, and those lots situated two miles from the river for fifty.

«I forgot to mention that within a league of said land there are beautiful forests of a great variety of trees. The forty families who accompany Dr. Romang are all known to me; they are old settlers of Esperanza, and have the routine of the exportation of timber, &c., which is the principal reason, I think, of their removing farther north. They all handle the rifle well, and are not afraid of the Indians.»>

The situation is most picturesque, on the banks of the San Javier, which has fringes of fine timber, and some fertile islands. The colony counts 40 families, which comprise 167 individuals, and 100 more families are ready to come out from Switzerland as soon as the war is over. Some of the lands are good, others need drainage, but have excellent timber. The chief products are maize, wheat, and potatoes. Raising pigs promises to be a lucrative business, as the animals are fattened on maize, and the hams sell at 18d. per u. Cayasta is an Indian village, comprising thirty huts, a house belonging to a Spanish wood-cutter, and the residence of the cacique, Tomas Valdez. It stands on a bluff near the San Javier, with a zone of open camps; but the horizon is bounded on all sides with a dark fringe of wood. All these lands, as far as Saladillo Dulce, are very suitable for colonists, with easy communication with the river Paraná. The Indians of Cayasta are indolent, thievish, and fond of hunting and fishing: the men

THE SAN JAVIER PROJECT.

41

are robust, and the women have regular features. Their ranchos are clean and commodious, built of long reeds. They dress decently, even the

children wearing shirts. Maize grows well, but is little cultivated.

The colonists of Helvetia lost no time in bringing the land under cultivation: by report dated January, 1866, they had sown as follows:

The Provincial Government has solicited of the National authorities that all subsidized steamers shall be ordered to stop opposite the colony, in the Boca del Riacho Hernandaria. Thus, the colony will come into direct communication with Rosario and Buenos Ayres.

SAN JAVIER CONCESSIONS.

In April, 1865, Messrs. Wilken & Vernet obtained from the Santa Fé Government a concession of 100 square leagues (650,000 acres) on the river San Javier, for the establishment of 250 families from Germany, to whom they would give 50,000 sheep, 4,000 cows, besides horses, &c. The colony was to be established within three years, and the colonists to be exempt from taxes for five years, besides exporting their produce duty free for the same term. The site was well chosen, about thirty-five leagues north of Santa Fé city, and nearly opposite La Paz in Entre Rios. Mr. Vernet's diary of his journey to San Javier is interesting

«I started from Santa Fé on the 10th of August, at 10 a.m., accompanied by my peon and a merchant of the village of Las Calchinas.

«At noon we arrived at the little village of San José del Rincon, situated about three leagues E.N.E. from Santa Fé. This village has about 1,000 inhabitants, a fine little church, and 10 or 12 stores, or «casas de negocio.»> The natives occupy themselves with growing wheat, Indian corn, water melons, and pumpkins (these latter are of colossal dimensions; I was told they harvested last year some weighing about 100 each), oranges and peaches for home consumption: all the other produce is exported to Buenos Ayres. San José has a fine port on the river Colastine, and I saw two large schooners loading wheat and Indian corn.

<<The road from Santa Fé to San José is rather bad and heavy on account of the <<bañados» which must be passed, and is also intercepted by the mouth of the Laguna Grande, which must be crossed in a canoe and the horses swimming.

«From San José leads a road to the village Santa Rosa, or Las Calchinas, situated on the banks of the river Cayesta, which is a prolongation of the Colastinė; this road is also very tiresome for horses, passing through long tracts of «bañados,» and through heavy sands, and is likewise intercepted by a branch of the Paraná, which must be crossed in a canoe. This, branch or channel leads a huge quantity of Paraná water into the Laguna Grande, on its north-eastern boundaries. The distance from one village to the other is seven leagues.

«The productions of Las Calchinas are-wheat and Indian corn, which are exported to Buenos Ayres. The port is very good, and I saw two vessels and various 'chalanes' loading. There are about 600 inhabitants in this village, and a fine two-steepled church, of good materials, recently constructed by order of the National Government: there are three or four merchants, the principal one my fellow-traveller, Don Francisco Cardona. «Las Calchinas was originally a settlement of Indians; but their number is now very limited.

«On the 11th, at 1 p.m., I left the Calchinas, in company with my peon and the 'corregidor,' José Rojas. At dusk we arrived at the new colony, Helvetia. I spent the night at the house of Dr. Romang.

«On the 12th of August, at 7 a.m., we started for San Javier, after having taken the indispensable mate and purchased some provisions for the journey. After a leisure gallop we entered a forest, which has two or three leagues depth on the river Cayasta, and extends, landwards, for several leagues. The rest of the road is open camp, scattered with groups of trees. In some parts the ground is low and swampy, in others, a little high and dry. In some parts the river San Javier touches the terra firma, in others it retires, thus forming small islands and 'bañados.'

«The distance from the colony of Helvetia to San Javier is computed by some at fifteen, and by others at eighteen leagues. Half-way there is a beautiful spot on the banks of the river; it is called El Paso del Aguara, and belongs to Mr. Genaro Elias, as also another place a little further to the north, called La Estancia Grande. A little to the south, at Las Algarrobas, is the property of Don Daniel Gowland. Both of these gentlemen are resident in Buenos Ayres.

«At half-past four p.m. we arrived at the village of San Javier.»

LAND GRANTS OF FOUR THOUSAND ACRES.

43

Messrs. Wilken & Vernet endeavored to form a company in England, but failed; the concession is now void.

In July 1866, public attention was notably directed to this part of the Gran Chaco as a field for emigration. A French colony was projected at Pajaro Blanco, a Dutch colony near Wilken's grant, a Californian colony on the San Javier, a Basque colony hard by, and another at San Antonio on the Rio Salado. Governor Oroño passed a bill through the Chambers giving estancia lots of 4,000 acres each at a nominal price, the law being as follows:

Art. 1. The lands bordering on the river Paraná between the concessions of Mr. Charles Vernet and Sr. Navarro, extending back westward to the Saladillo Grande, are hereby given in perpetuity for the use and benefit of immigrant families.

Art. 2. The Government will draw up a map of the territory, marking sites for towns, each of which shall have an area of four leagues square for streets, buildings and a general grazing-common.

Art. 3. Each township shall be divided into building-lots of 50 yards frontage by the same depth, and chacras of 20 cuadras each (80 acres): the building lots to be given gratis, as also the chacras at the rate of four cuadras for each person.

Art. 4. The rest of the territory shall be distributed as estancias of 5,000 yards frontage by the same depth (4,000 acres), or 25,000,000 square yards, to be sold on a year's credit to natives or foreigners who settle thereon, but not more than two estancias can be sold to the same individual.

Art. 5. The price of these lands shall be set down on the map, according to their distance from the river, the nature of their pastures, water-supply, wood, &c. as fixed by Government tariff which shall never be under $300 per square league, nor over $400.

Art. 6. All sales, grants, or concessions will require the indispensable condition of settling on the ground, according to the existing law.

Art. 7. The proceeds of lands sold as in Art. 4 shall be devoted to paying the passage of foreign emigrant families from Buenos Ayres to their intended place of settlement in the territory above described.

Art. S. The expenses of passage for said families shall be considered as a loan, for which the head of the family must be responsible, and it shall be as a mortgage on the lands ceded or sold to the family.

Art. 9. All moneys advanced in this manner to each family for cost of passage shall be refunded by the colonists, beginning the 2nd year after settling, in a fifth part each year, without any charge for interest.

Art. 10. The moneys refunded as above by the colonists shall form an

<«<Immigration Fund,» the annual interest of which shall be exclusively devoted to the education of the colonists' children, public works, and other purposes tending to encourage immigration.

Art. 11. The settlers shall be exempt from all Provincial tax or impost during five years after their establishment.

Art. 12. Native families of this or any other Argentine Province, who may wish to settle in the Colonies or in their neighbourhood, shall enjoy the same privileges as are hereby conceded to foreign settlers.

Art. 13. The Government will publish at expense of the State a pamphlet comprising the present law, with a description and map of the territory herein devoted to immigration purposes.

Art. 14. The Government is obliged to report each year to the Legislature on the results of the present law, with a balance-sheet of receipts and expenditure.

The only colonists who availed themselves of this advantageous offer of lands were the settlers from California, who have since established a flourishing colony. Meantime the Secretary of the Emigration Committee at Rosario published a notice as follows:

«Mr. Oroño has authorised me to state that the conveyance of all persons desirous of settling in the Chaco will be furnished gratis, and orders will be transmitted to the agents of Mr. Cabal's steamer, the Proveedor, to give free passages to such persons from Buenos Ayres to Santa Fé, from which point the Government will furnish transportation by land up the coast. At Pajaro Blanco, the Government has a reserve of sixteen leagues to be distributed gratis, in farms of eighty-five acres, to settlers. All these I have explored, and I give my word that no finer exist in the Republic. The vegetable soil is from two to four feet in depth, and there is plenty of wood; while the low lands in front, through which the San Javier runs, offer the most admirable pasture lands for cattle and the rearing of hogs. Twelve leagues above the flourishing colony of Esperanza, on the Salado River, is the site of the projected colony of San Antonio, where settlers can get grants gratis of 2,500, 1,500, 1,000 and 500 acres, according to their priority of arrival. This place is as yet outside the frontier, and cannot be settled on except by a considerable number of people, say a hundred to a hundred and fifty, for protection against the Indians. The Chaco will give the new colonists all the meat they want. There is a great abundance of deer, large and small, carpinchos, armadillos, ducks, geese, partridges, moor fowl, fish, &c., besides a sprinkling of tigers, wolves, foxes, wild hogs, and vast quantities of the American ostrich.>>