QUAY ON THE RIVER URUGUAY 266 Lemco & Oxo photo COLON, ENTRE RIOS 266 Lemco & Oxo photo ROSARIO, THE LAW COURTS 268 _La Argentina_ photo CALLE CORDOBA, ROSARIO 271 _La Argentina_ photo THE IGUAZU FALLS 274 _La Argentina_ photo CHIRIGUANOS AND MATACOS 276 S. A. M. S. photo CAMP TRAVEL 276 S. A. M. S. photo TUCUMAN 282 _La Argentina_ photo PACKET STEAM NAVIGATION CO.'S _ORCOMA_ 285 Photo kindly lent by the Pacific Steam Navigation Co. INTRODUCTION The most stupendous achievement ever attained by a nation in so short a time was the discovery, conquest, and settlement of Mexico and South America by Spain within the compass of a century. To fix indelibly and for ever upon the peoples of a vast continent the language, religion, customs, polity, and laws of a nation on the other side of the globe called for qualities which could only be temporarily evoked by an irresistible common sentiment. The sentiment which gave to Spain for a time the potency to carry through simultaneously the tasks of imposing religious orthodoxy upon Christendom and founding her great colonial empire was pride: pride of religion, race, and person, deliberately fostered by rulers for political ends. This origin of the delusive strength that carried the Conquistadores through an untracked continent regardless of perils and sufferings, and made South America Spanish, rendered inevitable that the rewards, national and individual, should disappoint the recipients. For pride and its concomitant covetousness are never satisfied; and the frenzied thirst for rapid riches and distinction that spurred the Spanish explorers and conquerors onward rarely ended in the idle luxurious dignity that was their goal, and it ultimately brought to the mother country nought but penury and degradation.