h a _terra incognita_ as when the
boats of Mendoza vainly endeavoured to reach it from the Atlantic side,
and the gold-seekers of Pizarro's following alike unsuccessfully
attempted its exploration from the Pacific. Young reader, you will be
longing to know the name of this remarkable region; know it, then, as
the "Gran Chaco."

No doubt you may have heard of it before, and, if a diligent student of
geography, made some acquaintance with its character. But your
knowledge of it must needs be limited, even though it were as extensive
as that possessed by the people who dwell upon its borders; for to them
the Gran Chaco is a thing of fear, and their intercourse with it one
which has brought them, and still brings, only suffering and sorrow.

It has been generally supposed that the Spaniards of Columbus's time
subdued the entire territory of America, and held sway over its
red-skinned aborigines. This is a historical misconception. Although
lured by a love of gold, conjoined with a spirit of religious
propagandism, the so-called _Conquistadores_ overran a large portion of
both divisions of the continent, there were yet extensive tracts of each
never entered, much less colonised, by them--territories many times
larger than England, in which they never dared set foot. Of such were
Navajoa in the north, the country of the gallant Goajiros in the centre,
the lands of Patagonia and Arauco in the south, and notably the
territory lying between the Cordilleras of the Peruvian Andes and the
rivers Parana and Paraguay, designated "El Gran Chaco."

This vast expanse of champaign, large enough for an empire, remains to
the present time not only uncolonised, but absolutely unexplored. For
the half-dozen expeditions that have attempted its exploration, timidly
entering and as hastily abandoning it, scarce merit consideration.

And equally unsuccessful have been all efforts at religious propagandism
within its borders. The labours of the _padres_, both Jesuit and
Franciscan, have alike signally failed; the savages of the Chaco
refusing obedience to the cross as submission to the sword.

Three large rivers--the Salado, Vermejo, and Pilcomayo--course through
the territory of the Chaco; the first forming its southern boundary, the
others intersecting it. They all take their rise in the Andes
Mountains, and after running for over a thousand miles in a
south-easterly direction and nearly parallel courses, mingle their
waters with t