Page:Civilization and barbarism (1868).djvu/20

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xii
Preface.

the University of Gottingen, afterwards translated and published in German Senor Sarmiento's "Memoir upon German Emigration to the La Plata," and accompanied it with one hundred and sixty-nine pages of notes and comments of his own.

When R. W. Emerson read the book, he told Colonel Sarmiento that if he would write thus for our public, he would be read; and Mr. Longfellow suggested writing a romantic poem called the "Red Ribbon," which might be made as striking though it is to be hoped an even more exceptional picture of the peculiar customs of the country than the native poet Echevarria's "Captive," so descriptive of gaucho life.

Buenos Ayres was founded in 1535, by Don Pedro Mendoza, and in 1536 Don Juan de Aloyas, the lieutenant of Mendoza, ascended the Parana and the Paraguay, which Sebastian Cabot had visited in 1530, and founded the city of Asonoption in memory of a victory gained over the Indians. This city, now the capital of Paraguay, was then the capital of the Spanish possessions in La Plata. In 1537, while Mendoza was absent in Spain, Buenos Ayres was reduced to the last extremity by the Querandi Indians. The Timbues (Indians) destroyed it entirely in 1539. It was rehabilitated in 1542, again destroyed in 1559. In 1580, Juan de Garay, lieutenant of the Governor