First Pastures of Argentina
From Argentina Past & Present by W. H. Koebel, 1914.
From: 1536 C.E. To: Unknown
Location: Argentina
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From Argentina Past & Present by W. H. Koebel, 1914
The history of Argentine live-stock breeding dates back to a period very little removed from the foundation of the colony itself. The conquistadores, on their arrival at that great zone that included the numerous former provinces known as the district of the River Plate, found a strange dearth of all the European species of domestic animal.
Of corresponding native creatures there were only two kinds that served the Indians. The first, the alpaca, was responsible for meat and wool; the second, the llama, was utilised as a beast of burden. Since the latter's strength, however, does not enable it to bear more than a third of a mule's load, the animal's capabilities as a carrying agent were inconveniently restricted. Such other needs as the simple tastes of the Indians knew were supplied by hunting and fishing.
By means of the chase the aborigines varied their frugal regime of diet by the meat of the deer, vicuña, guanaco, and a few lesser animals, as well as by the fish drawn from the great rivers. The plains, in fact, were quite innocent of the ruddy and white specks with which the innumerable companies of cattle and sheep so richly endow their panorama in these days.
It was obvious, for the sake of the conquistadores' digestive organs, that the primitive state of the South American domestic supplies could not be allowed to continue. Spanish colonisation, for all the feverish lust that characterised the phase, was by no means deficient in very sound and practical methods. One of these was instanced at the very inception of the general enterprise. In the days when the tide of white men was yet eddying in thin, tentative streams over the virgin soil, concessions for the ownership of districts the size of European countries were sought for and obtained with scarcely as much difficulty as a modern syndicate would encounter that desired the control of the lighting or water supply of a minor municipality.
When once the Spanish court became familiarised with the ethics of the new continent a wise provision was included in these concessions. The titled adventurer was granted his licence to found a town and to govern the country in its neighbourhood—on condition that he stocked the district beneath his control with an adequate supply of horses, cattle, goats, sheep, and other domestic animals. In the majority of cases the exact number of such creatures to be shipped was stipulated.
It may be taken for granted that the pioneers, who were far more concerned with the accumulation of a rapid fortune and of material power than with the humdrum occupations of agriculture, looked upon these costly stipulations with no little disfavour. In many instances they doubtless endeavoured to evade their full compliance. But here the salutary law of necessity stepped in. Without the live-stock the failure of the new settlement was almost inevitable—a failure that directly involved the ruin of its chief.
Thus experience taught unquestioning compliance with the law, and it is certain that the regulation saved the new colonies from the reckless authority of many of the more irresponsible characters. Yet, with so much more at stake on the part of the governors, it is doubtful whether the forced labours of the Indians towards the prosperity of the settlements were any the lighter.
The horse was the first domestic creature to be landed on the shores of Argentina. Since the Spanish advent here was marked by continuous hostilities with the natives, it was but natural that an animal adapted for warlike purposes should take precedence of the rest. In 1536 Don Pedro de Mendoza introduced a number of these to the first settlement on the shores of the La Plata that struggled so desperately for existence on the very spot where the modern Buenos Aires now stands. Five years later the small colony, harassed to extinction by the ceaseless onslaughts of the Indians, and lacking almost utterly in supplies, was abandoned. Its inhabitants took boat, and sailed over a thousand miles up the streams of the La Plata, Parana, and Paraguay until they found rest at Asuncion. But they left behind them a certain number of horses and mares, free to roam wild and uncared-for over the plains—and of these more later.
Koebel, W. H. Argentina Past & Present. Adam and Charles Black, 1914.
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