The Patagonian Cordillera and Its Main Rivers, between 41° and 48° South Latitude Author(s): Hans Steffen Source: The Geographical Journal, Vol. 16, No. 1 (Jul., 1900), pp. 14-38 Published by: The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1774297 . Accessed: 08/02/2015 10:56 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Geographical Journal. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Sun, 8 Feb 2015 10:56:11 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 14 THE PATAGONIAN CORDILLERAAND ITS MAIN RIVERS, "But be it so. It is from these alone, The tempest's murmur and the ice-floe's groan, The power to stand unshrinkiug when the blast Shakes the cold sky, careering fierce and fast, That England's sons defy the storms of war, And the world quails before Britannia's star. Still, tho' in vain, may her bold prows explore The frozen ocean and the barren shore." In conclusion, I would remind you that I have now occupied this chair for seven years, a period unprecedented since the days of Sir Roderick It can at no time be an easy post, nor can it be held without a heavy feeling of responsibility and anxiety. I speak of the President's work alone. But to it has been added the initiation, the raising of funds, and all the other preparations for the Antarctic Expedition. This business has increased until now the President's work is quite doubled. I would cheerfully undertake it all if it was work and nothing more. I have given my whole heart to your interests, and I am sure you know that I shall continue to do so as long as you retain me as your President. I have spared neither time nor diligence. That I can honestly declare. It is for you to say whether the Society's welfare, and ihe welfare of the Antarctic Expedition in which you have so large a stake, is safe in my hands, and whether I have conducted your affairs to your satisfaction. THE PATAGONIAN CORDILLERA AND ITS MAIN RIVERS, BETWEEN 41 AND 48 SOUTH LATITUDE.* By Dr. HANS STEFFEN. EVERY passenger on board of one of the Pacific liners bound for the western coast of South America has the opportunity of surveying at close range, while sailing through the western reaches of Magellan's straits, a lofty panorama of rugged mountains partly covered with dense forests, and partly with snow and ice. Some of these steamers pursue their northerly route by a labyrinth of channels and passes formed by the precipitous sides of the mountains, while those of a larger draft prefer to avoid the dangers of rocks and narrow passes, and take the outward course, in which case the traveller catches only now and then chance glimpses of the distant snow-capped ridges and culminating peaks, as the visible outline of the enormous mass of mountains known under the comprehensive term of "Cordillera de los Andes." The whole length of the western coast-line of Patagonia, in an extent of nearly 130 of the meridian, is formed by the flanks of these mountains, and in every place where we get near it, we receive the same * Read at the Royal Geographical Society, March 19, 1900. Map, p. 140. It is hoped to publish a more detailed map in a future number. This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Sun, 8 Feb 2015 10:56:11 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions BETWEEN 41? AND 48? SOUTH LATITUDE. 15 general impression of a wild mountainous country, difficult of access, and quite worthless for any human purpose. It is, however, prudent not to draw from such a hasty impression a premature judgment. My present object is to promote a better acquaintance with the Patagonian Cordillera, with which I have become familiar in the course of several successive journeys, having crossed its whole breadth in various lati- tudes, from the Pacific shores up to the elevated plateaus usually known as the Patagonian "Pampas." In order to penetrate to the interior of the Cordillera we shall come up by the main rivers flowing to the Pacific, the valleys of which are the paths laid down by nature; we shall then climb to some dominating summits to get the best possible comprehension of the orographical conformation of the Andine system; we shall pursue our course up to the headwaters of the main rivers, and in so doing we will sometimes find our way to the very borders of the Patagonian uplands, where the Cordillera is broken and lowered into hilly undulations of inferior relative height. This course will give us occasion to learn the practical value of the slopes and valleys of the Cordillera, and to consider the conditions under which roads might be opened and settlements be developed. It will then be seen that the first and unfavourable opinion is premature, and ought to be modified; that the Patagonian Cordillera, now abandoned and in a certain respect under- estimated, is not without its riches, and that there are in that region vast fields not utilized as yet, that the activity of man might easily render accessible to colonization and improvement. As a preliminary, it may be, however, interesting to give a 'historical outline showing how the geographical knowledge of the Patagonian Andine region has been evolved, up to the time when the actual Chilean-Argentine boundary question originated a systematic -exploration and survey of that Cordilleran region on both sides at once. The early Spanish conquerors, who took lasting possession of Chile, displayed great interest in sending exploring expeditions towards the south, as a means to obtain accurate knowledge of the extensive mountain region, of which Magellan had the first glimpse at a distance when sailing along its shores out of the Straits down to the latitude of the Gulf of Penas. The expeditions referred to began in the middle of the sixteenth century. Captain Francisco de Ulloa, entrusted with the command of the first one, in 1553, by Don Pedro de Valdivia, and four years later Captains Juan Fernandez Ladrillero and Francisco Cortes Hojea, sent by Don Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza, surveyed carefully, in the face of all kinds of mishaps, the shores of the great island of Chiloe, the Chonos archipelago, as well as the channels, inlets, and islands extend- ing southwards, up to the entrance of Magellan's straits. A complete or accurate knowledge of the topography of the country could not be, of This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Sun, 8 Feb 2015 10:56:11 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 16 THE PATAGONIANCORDILLERA AND ITS MAIN RIVERS, course, expected from such explorations, but abundant and valuable, information as to its general geography, hydrography, resources, andl native population was obtained. The journal of the voyage of Cortes Hojea is as important in this respect as the famous Ercilla's epic- poem, " La Araucana," wherein are described with profuse and accurate information the natural conditions of the island of Chiloe, as well as- the customs of its inhabitants. Geography is indebted to the famous British sailor, Sir Francis Drake, for having found out in the course of his circumnavigation (1578) the true bearing of the west coast of the triangular southern end of the American Continent. This extensive length of coast was, however, hitherto unknown in its details, and it is due to Don Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, whose expedition was the first to cross Magellan's straits from west to east, to have collected careful information about some parts of it, as the Gulf of Trinidad and the Madre de Dios archipelago, in 1579. Chiloe island was from the beginning of the seventeenth century the starting-point for the parties engaged in gaining geographical knowledge about the Patagonian region. In 1609 several Jesuit Fathers settled at Castro, a village situated in a sheltered harbour of the eastern coast of Chiloe, and there they soon raised their house to the rank of a college. From the beginning the Jesuits were indefatigable in the propagation of the gospel amongst the natives of the great island, and soon extended their excursions to the Guaitecas and Chonos archi-- pelagoes, wherein they found a sparse population of poor, submissive, and peaceful people, who did not offer any opposition to the itinerant missionaries. Meanwhile, a rumour was current for nearly half a century, among the credulous and superstitious people of all the southern Spanish colonies, as to the existence of a country of wonderful riches, a " Dorado" phantastically assumed to be placed in the southern Andine region, this account being adorned by the most extravagant stories. This tradition went under the name of "La gran noticia de los Cesares," in honour of the supposed discoverer of the place, a Captain Cesar, a follower of the famous British navigator Sebastian Cabot. Towards 1600 a city of the Caesars was more particularly mentioned, sometimes believed to flourish on the shores of one of the great Patagonian lakes, and others in a harbour of the North sea or Atlantic ocean.