The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

84 AMAZONIA AND LA PLATA.
Recent Events.
In 1680 the Portuguese had already founded the city of Sacramento, on the
right bank of the Plate river, where now stands the old Portuguese " colony "
of Colonia. For nearly a century the two rival Powers contended for this impor-
tant station, which eventually remained with the Spaniards. The period of
transition following: the revolution of Buenos Aires and the rising of the Creole
population enabled the Portuguese to recover the Banda Oriental, a territory
which has now become the republic of Uruguay, and for some years Brazil
remained in possession of the whole of the " Cis-Platiue " province. But the
Fig. 28.—COIONIA DEL Saceajtento.
Oto 16
Feet.
Scale 1 : 950,000.
Depths.
Li^hthouBe.
16 Feet
and upwards.
18 Miles.
West or L-reenwicfi
inhabitants, nearly all of Spanish descent and speech, soon rose against the rule of
the Lusitanians, and after a war of three years, in which they were joined by the
Buenos Aires people, they achieved their independence. Since then (1828) Uruguay
has preserved its autonomy, thanks to the natural rivalries of its two powerful
northern and southern neighbours.
In the south-west the Brazilians became involved in other conflicts, here
contending not for the natural frontier formed by the Paraguay-Parana confluence
but for the maintenance of their present frontiers, and to prevent the prepon-
derance of Paraguay, which, under the dictatorship of Solano Lopez, threatened