Show argentine pampa K 4 A ar 1 T argentine cowboys cowboy rr epard by national geographic society washington D C service UIE HE argentine government ilaug IB ang T meriting its fighting forces JL against devastating locust hordes with miles of sheet iron barriers to be used on its famous rampa pampa pampa was the indians name tor for plains spanish colonists took the name naine and thus the world knows the vast tast flat fiat argentine grasslands that from the atlantic seaboard to the te foot of the andes mountains history picked the pampa as it a vast stage maze for one of its most eventful and swift moving dramas probably rio no other region in so BO brief a time tins has seen een more astounding changes more europeans are settled here more magic cities are leaping up more railways railway being built and ro more re wealth amassed than in any equal area below the equator ask paris waiters if any other visitor spends like an argentine cow king who leaves ideates all change on the plate alfalfa alone as we shall see migrated to this new land to bring it amazing economic strength in a few short decades with suc such ii forces as prize bulls barbed wire cold storage and fast ships man turned a wilder into a farm so go big and rich that now it helps fit fir the world price of bread and meat this swift rise of a new canaan whose theme song as a texan hinted Is the ceaseless moan and bellow of myriad kine affords a fantastic example of mass migration its marvel Is if not in the fact that millions of i white settlers swarmed across the south atlantic to this fecund rampa pampa that was extraordinary of course you can imagine the infinite host slipping down under the equatorial horizon like figures turning in a extraordinary migration but the whole truth Is harder to imagine not only did the millions move from southern europe but as it if lifted and carried overseas on some magic carpet they took with them to the pampa a cross section of european life speech culture religion manners and customs they carried likewise tools and trades even their animals fowls grains fruits flowers weeds today their thistle almost covers argentina gent Iria tradition says the first thistle seed came over accidentally in the long hair of army mules I 1 along immigrant trails into the pampa a scattered fringe of european grass weeds vegetables and berries first grew up where fodder camp refuse and seeds from food were dropped just as along the santa fe and oregon trails our covered wagon trains introduced many berries plants and fruit trees from farther east history holds no parallel in time or space to certain aspects of this amazing movement of people and plant life buts but one asks since whites first landed some years ago why was the conquest of the pampa so long delayed the reasons are plain yet curiously interesting except for indians who at first dwelt near the river plate country the pampa was empty no glittering pagan cities no rich gold mines or inca treasure were here to lure the conquistadores also europe still lived then from its own farms it had not cot yet grown so thickly peopled or 0 so o highly industrialized that as later it had to look overseas for more bread and neat meat here as in our own land white settlements were long confined to limited regions the atlantic seaboard had been settled for many generations before we knew much about our far west so it was on the pampa with this difference spain who early ruled most of south america long allowed sea trade only through porto bello puerto bello in panama it took about two years by land and sea to exchange goods between cadiz in spain and the settlements along the river plate plata early inland development this decree while it made life hard for traders in buenos alres aires and encouraged cou raged smuggling by dutch and english ships really hastened the development of certain argentine back country by many centuries Our doba mendoza and jujuy tor for example though far inland were founded centuries ago because they lay along the andean mule paths over oer which spanish goods came down from panama and peru to the plate settlements some of the first sugar mills in the western world crude and primitive yet making good sugar bugay were built about rack pack trains and creaking caravans of high wheeled freight wagons plied for many years between the argentine northwest and buenos alres aires while the pampa was still as empty as oklahoma in 1870 they crossed it on a well worn trail just as our own ox wagons traded from missouri to santa fe in the ante railway days and there was the same indian menace old maps show a string of forts across the pampa west of buenos alres aires here the indian frontier was hundreds of miles long and the forts 5 stood food guard between indian raiders and the white settlers from the lookout towers on these forts soldiers watched the waving seas of pampa grass for signs of skulking indians sometimes a warning that indians were sneaking through the tall grass was given by fleeing animals or by sudden alarm and movement amon the birds again charging past the forts on horseback indians carrying long spears raided the ranches behind the lines and in the course of years many spanish women and children were seized and carried into captivity these indians stole cattle also by the thousands and drove them over the andes for sale in chile indians finally subdued through all these turbulent times the pioneer colonists stubbornly pushed their settlements farther and farther out on the plains finally about the same game time that custer miles and crook were conquering the last of our warring tribes argentina argentin a sent the famous general roca on his now historic drive against the pampa indians this campaign ended forever all danger from these predatory savages the heat beat and hammering of indian raids outlaw fights and desperado forays the trials of revolution and chil war produced a fighting breed hardy and audacious fit to handle the thundering herds and guide the rising tide of immigrant farmers from southern europe although the swift growth of pampa farms and cities Is ot of more recent date foundations for this power and wealth began in the days when san martin marched his cavalry over the andes and helped chile and peru win i in freedom from the spanish yoke history always emphasizes war viar and politics to such prosaic yet significant ant events as the coming of highbred live stock the introduction of foreign grains and forage plants or the advent of railways wire fence and windmills or the rising tide of immigrant home seekers history often makes but casual reference yet on the pampa all through the indian raids during the lawless days of facundo quiroga the pancho villa of argentina and especially during the wars with paraguay and brazil these economic forces were gaining momentum and paving the way ay for what la is today the rich and virile vyrlle argentine republic the pampa with its square miles Is to argentina what the nile valley Is to egypt it works with the rhythm of a great factory so many square leagues of corn and alfalfa fed to so many million head bead of cattle and hogs mean so many shiploads ship loads of moat meat for europe and there Is wheat so much wheat that a big crop here affects the world price at liverpool and so hits bits the pocketbooks books of wheat farmers in the united states canada australia russia and elsewhere coming of the railway let us look at what you might call the stage props or mechanics mechanic S and scenery which the argentineans Argenti hale hae set up to make their humming pampa one of the worlds amazing industrial spectacles in the old days when a gauchos gauchas gau chos wife wanted to visit her neighbors she sometimes rode hitting on a dried horsehide tier nr n r husband mounted on his horse dragged this horsehide sled with a long rope tied from it to his horses girth on this primitive conveyance ve rough as a north american I 1 indian tra travels vols the pioneer pa woman rode slipping over mud holes or bouncing through clouds of dust over this same pampa now palatial passenger trains with su sumptuous diners sleepers and glistening observation cars race from town to town over level tracks often with no curves for scores of miles hailing from newburyport mass and shipwrecked on the shores of ar gentina william wheelwright built the first really important rall railway nily oer the pampa today his pioneer ilna forms part of the CX cantral Argent argentine lne ue he planned the nd ne line did not live to see it built |