The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

424 AMAZONIA AND LA PLATA.
supplied the people of Corrientes with fuel, timber, fodder and other local produce.
But the forests of Gran Chaco have gradually receded before the woodman's axe,
and the natives have receded before the agricultural settlements which now
follow along the river banks.
.
Formosa, on an isolated blufE opposite the Paraguayan town of Villa Franca,
gives its name to the northernmost of the two divisions of Chaco, an almost
uninhabited territory comprised between the Pilcomayo and the Bermejo. In
1893 it had a European population of not more than 5,000, mostly Italians and
Slavs, and scarcely as many acres under cultivation. Yet the whole district
bordering on Paraguay has already been bought up by sugar-planters, stock-
breeders, and other capitalists. Formosa, the capital, has succeeded to Villa
Occidental, which had to be evacuated by the Argentines when North Chaco was
restored to Paraguay by the decision of the United States. In the hope of making
it a riverside trading-place, Formosa was founded at a spot exactly midway between
Corrientes and Asuncion, 140 miles from both 'cities. It also occupies a strong
strategical position at a point where the river is rather narrow and very deep.
The passage could easily be commanded by the guns of a fort erected at Formosa.
In the southern division of Argentine Chaco all the riverside lands have
been ceded or sold by the Government, and some well-managed sugar works have
already been established in the district. Tiniho or Puerto Bermejo, which
commands the confluence of the Bermejo with the Paraguay, is followed south-
wards by a Swedish settlement on the banks of the Pio de Oro, a small affluent
of the Paraguay, and lower down by Hesistencia, capital of South Chaco, at the
mouth of the Pio Negro
An agricultural colony founded in this district at the expense of the central
administration is conducted by Government officials. But no direct route has yet
been opened across the wilderness between Hesistencia and the fertile plains of
Salta.
Towns of Entre-Rios.
Below Resistencia the east bank is occupied at long intervals by a few stations,
such as Bella Vista, founded in 1826 as a penal settlement ; Goya ; Esquina, at
the confluence of the Parana and Corrientes; La Paz, formerly Cavallti-Cuatia,
midway between Asuncion and Buenos Ayres, and one of the busiest ports on
the river ; Hernandarias, crowning a high wooded bluff ; Parana, formerly Bajada,
the " Landing Stage," the first town founded in Entre-Rios. This place has
passed through great vicissitudes, having first been capital of the State, and then of
the whole Republic, from 1852 to 1861. It still does a considerable trade as the
outlet of the neighbouring colonies of Villa Urqniza and Ccrrito. Most of the
settlers in this district are Italians ; but every European nationality is represented,
including even some Rumanians accompanied by their buffaloes from the banks
of the Lower Danube.
Here alao a Russian mir, with property held in common, has been founded by