This state of affairs applied in a far lesser degree to Brazil, since that country was frequently able to obtain its human consignments in Portuguese vessels from its fellow-colony of Portuguese West Africa. The Spaniards, on the other hand, were dependent upon other nations for the importation of their slaves, and they were from time to time accustomed to grant special licences for this purpose. It was the reverse of likely that men of a temperament which urged them to raid the African shores in search of their human quarry, and to sail their black cargoes through the tropics, would abstain from making the fullest and most general use of an opportunity thus offered, as the Spanish officials invariably found was the case to their cost, and occasionally, as has been said, to their profit! The rivalry which characterized the relations between Spain and Portugal did not fail to be carried across the ocean, nor, when transferred to the colonies of either nation, did the mutual jealousies grow less bitter. Indeed, scarcely had the colonization of Brazil and of the Spanish territories commenced in earnest when the struggle between the two nationalities began. The area of the strife, fortunately, was confined. The enormous territories of tropical Brazil forbade anything in the nature of thorough exploration on the part of the few and slender bands of the pioneers, to say nothing of any attempt at expansion. It was in the south, where the narrow strip of Brazil projected itself downwards into the temperate latitudes, that the desire for aggrandizement raged. The Portuguese considered that the natural southern frontier of their great colony was the River Plate. The Spaniards, having already possession of the northern bank, fiercely resented any such pretension, with the result that the Banda Oriental, by which name the Republic of Uruguay is still locally known, as well as the southern part of the Province of Paraguay, became the scene of many battles. It may be said that the warfare between the two nations continued here, with but rare and short peaceful interludes, for centuries.