The centralization, or nationalization, of the nation has gone ahead rapidly in recent years. The forcible separation of the city of Buenos Aires from the province of the same name was one of the best things ever done by the government. In removing the preponderance of Buenos Aires the constant friction between that province, on the one hand, and all the other provinces, on the other, was removed. Railroads have been subsidized and immigration encouraged by the national government, in the effort to develop the country. The post-office has been brought to great efficiency, and its service is rapid and trustworthy. The telegraph lines are nearly all controlled by the government, although private ownership is not prohibited. Of the thirty-five thousand miles of telegraph wires, enough to go around the globe once and a quarter times, perhaps one-half are owned by the national government and one-fourth by the provinces. The greater part of the income is from customs receipts, and the national government also contributes toward the support of the provinces and territories in order to equalize taxation. The government has learned lessons from former experiences in the fluctuation of money values, so that the paper dollar, or peso, has been officially fixed at forty-four cents gold. Exchange does not vary more than a fraction of a cent from that rate at the present time. The first European navigator to discover the Rio de la Plata was Juan de Solis, a Spanish captain, in the year 1508, while in search of a passage to the Pacific Ocean. Magellan did not visit these shores until 1520. A chronicler who was with Magellan says that the “gigantic natives called canibali ate de Solis and sixty men who had gone to discover land, and trusted too much to them.” The first settlement was established at Buenos Aires in 1536 by Pedro de Mendoza, who has been termed a freebooter, and who was made governor by the Spanish Crown. This settlement was destroyed shortly afterward by the hostile Indians, and no permanent settlement was established on the mud flats of the “river of silver” until nearly forty years later.