[109] Martin de Moussy says that a more direct route, avoiding the detour to the north by the Rio Tercero, was followed in the eighteenth century between Buenos Aires and San Luis, by way of Salto and the Rio Quinto as far as the latitude of fort Constitucion (Villa Mercedes). Woodbine Parish's map (1839) and Napp's map (1876) both show a road by way of Salto and Melincue to the Rio Cuarto, where it joins the ordinary road. However that may be, these roads were never used regularly, from fear of the Indians or--which comes to the same thing--because the area they cross, in the south of the actual territory of the provinces of Santa Fe and Cordoba, was not yet colonized. From Esquina de Medrano the Peru road made for Cordoba in the north-west. From the tablelands which continue the Sierra de Cordoba northward it descended toward the Rio Dulce, which it reached west of Atamisqui, and which it followed as far as Santiago del Estero, where it crossed to the north bank. It crossed the Sali in the latitude of Tucuman, and, passing through Tracas and Metan, followed the depression which separates the Andes from the sub-Andean chains. From Salta it went north to Jujuy, and passed through the Quebrada de Humahuaca to reach the Puna. The influence of rivers is not much seen in the scheme of the primitive roads. There were in the sixteenth century many routes from Peru to the Paraguay, across the Chaco, but not a permanent road in the strict sense. In the eighteenth century there was a direct road from Santa Fe to Tucuman, by the north of the Los Porongos lagoon and the course of the Rio Dulce. There was another from Santa Fe to Cordoba. These roads were not exclusively used for conveying cattle. The river route which they joined at Santa Fe provided them with a certain amount of traffic coming from the higher provinces. Paraguayan _mate_ reached the Andean regions by this road, and in return the boatmen at Santa Fe loaded up with the wines and dried fruit of the Andean provinces to take to Asuncion.