For a century after the foundation of Buenos Aires the Spaniards failed to occupy the north margin of the Plate, and in 1680 the Portuguese fore-stalled them by founding a colony and fort, called Colonia, directly opposite Buenos Aires. The Spanish governor promptly resented this piece of audacity and captured the place, but was compelled to restore it immediately by orders from Madrid. Louis XIV., who was then arbiter of Europe, had no mind to allow a war to be precipitated over so insignificant a matter as a post in an uninhabited part of South America. However, the question of right to the territory was left open for future determination. Colonia at that time was chiefly valued as an _entrepot_ for clandestine trade with the Spanish provinces, but to its existence can be traced Brazilian possession of the great states of Parana, Santa Catharina, and Rio Grande do Sul, and even Brazil's dominance in the Upper Parana valley, a dominance which would have been lost had Spain insisted upon the true Tordesillas line. CHAPTER XI GOLD DISCOVERIES--REVOLTS--FRENCH ATTACKS The early attempts to find gold and silver had not been successful. A little gold was found in Sao Paulo in the sixteenth century, but no great discoveries were made until nearly the end of the seventeenth. The Paulistas, who scoured the interior in their slave-hunts, occasionally came across indications of gold, and rumours constantly reached the coast. But for a long time the Paulistas failed, either through ignorance or design, to give sufficiently exact information. After 1670 the rumours became so circumstantial that no doubt was felt that the mountain ranges around the headwaters of the Sao Francisco River were gold-bearing. Stimulated by government promises of liberal treatment, the Paulistas undertook the hunt in earnest. About 1690 they found the rich gold washings of Sabara, where to-day is one of the great mines of the world--the Morro Velho. This is three hundred miles directly north of Rio. In 1693, Antonio Arzao, a Paulista, penetrated west from this region to the seacoast at Victoria, bringing with him native gold in large nuggets. These were sent to Portugal and created intense excitement. The Paulistas followed up these first discoveries by soon finding half a dozen other fields--all of them yielding gold in abundance to the crudest processes. A rush started that threatened to depopulate the seacoast and even Portugal itself. The find was the greatest gold discovery which had been made in the history of the world up to that time. The one province of Minas Geraes produced seven million five hundred thousand ounces within the first fifty years, and its total product to the present time has been twenty-five million ounces.