In the meantime the Guaranies of Paraguay steadily resisted every advance of the Spaniards, but in 1560 they were defeated in a great battle at Acari, and the Spaniards began to push southwards with the determination of again colonising the Parana country--a step, indeed, which was almost essential to their safety, since it would secure their communication with the Atlantic. The necessary exploit was achieved by a man who deserves an honoured place among Spanish-American worthies--Juan de Garay.[23] He advanced slowly towards the south from Asuncion, and in 1573 founded Santa Fé at the junction of the Parana and the Paraguay. In 1580 he took the still more important step of re-establishing Buenos Aires for the third time. With a true statesman's instinct he recognised that a mere military post would not be sufficient for the security of the rapidly growing colonies, and he took with him, besides Creoles and Spaniards, two hundred Indian settlers, and he laid out a town on a considerable scale, while farms and ranches were established in the neighbourhood. There was sharp fighting with the Indians, and Garay was unfortunately killed in a skirmish, but his work remained behind him. "The city," says Southey,[24] "immediately began to prosper, and the ship which sailed for Castile with tidings of its refoundation, took home a cargo of sugar, and the first hides with which Europe was supplied from the wild cattle which now began to over-spread the open country, and soon produced a total change in the manners of all the adjoining tribes." In 1588 Corrientes had been founded, and the people began to acquire pastoral wealth, although the advantages which they drew from the rapidly increasing herds of horses and cattle were seriously discounted by the exactions and restrictions of officials. It was a piece of great good fortune for both settlers and Indians that neither gold nor silver was to be found in the River Plate country, and thus European marauders, whether Spanish or English, were without one great temptation to harry them. The next generation was one of steady progress, and by the year 1620 the city of Buenos Aires contained three thousand inhabitants. The indefatigable Jesuits established themselves in the country in 1590, and though their history properly belongs to Paraguay, they did much good in Argentina by protecting the Indians and spreading civilisation. In 1620 a step of extreme importance was taken. The office of Adelantado, or Governor, was abolished, and the River Plate country was formed into two separate provinces. Thus we get a rough beginning of Argentina, which now consisted of Buenos Aires, Santa Fé, Entre Rios, Corrientes, and the tract now called Uruguay. This last, however, was still uninhabited. Buenos Aires became the seat of a bishop. But the whole of the settlements remained under the Viceroyalty of Peru.