Proyecto de colonización del Chaco. 1836.

Proyecto de colonización del Chaco. Primera edición. Buenos Aires. Imprenta del Estado. 1836.

Quarto major (32 x 20 cm), 11 pp., Includes Title page.

Bound with:

Expedición al Chaco por el Río Bermejo ejecutada por el Coronel Adrián Fernández Cornejo. Con un discurso preliminar de Pedro de Ángelis. Buenos Aires. Imprenta del Estado. 1836. 

Both texts gathered in one volume, with its modern binding. Copies generally in good condition.

From the first edition made by Pedro De Angelis (1784-1859) of his Collection of works and documents of the Provinces of the Río de la Plata in 1836, these projects for the colonization of the Chaco and the first expedition to verify the navigability of the Bermejo River are of relevant interest. The first document was submitted to Viceroy Avilés in 1799 by the Paraguayan merchant García de Solalinde who had installed a lumber mill in Palmar de la Laguna Blanca and who had adequate familiarity with the indigenous people of the region. Solalinde dismissed the bellicosity of the indigenous people he dealt with, as well as the fantasies of the widespread wealth of gold and silver that those Chaco territories had, and proposed a territorial occupation sheltered by forts.

The second text gives an account of the journey through the Bermejo of the Salta Militia Colonel, Adrián Fernández Cornejo. That was an anthological attempt that sought in 1780 to cross the rivers from Tarija to Jujuy, and that he would finally achieve in 1790, passing from the Centa Valley to Curupaytí, giving daily news of his journey and notable notes on the indigenous population of the region.