Indian Warfare on the Pampa during the Colonial Period

Abstract

THE VICEROY of the Rio de la Plata was reminded in 1796 that the boundaries of his dominions, because of a few barbarians, were the same as those which had been secured in 1590 by Juan de Garay and sixty men.1 This charge was essentially true; expansion of white settlement into the Pampa was exceedingly slow during the colonial period. The lack of maps for the plains, the absence of economic incentive to expansion, trade restrictions placed on the area by the mother country, and the meager colonial population were all factors contributing to the lethargic European expansion into lands destined to become great pastoral empires. The prime cause, however, must be attributed to the annoying barbarians-the Indians of the plains who stubbornly refused to share their lands and cattle with the whites. The terrain over which these natives ruled was itself an effective barrier to expansion. No European experience prepared the Spanish colonists for the boundless monotony of the billowing grasses which greeted them on the Par-ana-Plata shore. 2 In only three areas did high ground punietuate the flatness of the plains: the Cordoban hills, rising to approximately five thousand feet; the highlands of Veentana of about the same height; and the rocky outeroppings in the Tandil area with an elevation of about 1,600 feet.3 Several streams provided occasional variations in the landscape. The Rio Negro and the Rio Colorado, oni the southern Pampa, flow from the Andes to the Atlantic. The abundant wood supply alonlg the river banks, in contrast to the treeless plains, made this area the ultimate goal of all

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