From Asunci6n, Ayolas went on an expedi tion to Peru, and upon his return was killed by the Indians. This expedition brought from Peru some ewes which had been imported from Spain via Panama. These ewes constituted the nucleus of the Argentine flocks. Several years before this seven cows and one bull, the first cattle in the river Plata territory, had arrived at Asuncion.
All the people who did not care to follow Ayolas on his unfortunate expedition across the unknown continent remained in Asuncion. Among them were many Germans and some French, Belgians, and Italians. They elected Domingo Martinez de Irala as governor, and formed the first autonomic government of South America, organizing the first colony and entering into friendly relations with the neighboring tribes of Indians.
The polygamous condition of these tribes made easy the multiplication of the colonials, thus originating the half-breed type, who in their turn joining with the Europeans gave the racial character of the new population of the region. D'Orhigny thus describes the Mestizo, or mixed blend of people: The mixture of the Spaniards with the Guaranies produces men of large form, nearly white, and having beauti ful faces even from the first generation; large eyes, clear complexion, and nose generally like the Spaniards. As a rule they have scanty beards until the third generation, when it be comes as thick as the white man's?' During the second half of the 16th century, while they were founding and organizing the governments of Paraguay and Rio de la Plata, other expeditions leaving Peru by land ex plored and settled the interior territory of the Plata. In this way were founded the cities of Estero, Tucuman, C6rdoba, Salta, Rioja and Jujuy. Other conquerors, coming from the general headquarters in Chile, took possession of the Cuyo region and founded the cities of San Juan, Mendoza and San Luis.
The inefficiency of the military conquest of the Indians and their continued insubordination decided the government at AsunciOn to try to bring them into submission through the medium of church missions, which they commissioned the Jesuit Fathers, already established in Peru, to undertake. The missionaries founded their schools in Salta, Cordoba. and Santa Fe. Others went to unexplored sections and established missions with the most perfect theocratic gov ernment among the Guaranies.
The government of Spain, after the death of Irala, sent out Don Juan de Garay as governor of Paraguay. Needing a fortified position nearer to the ocean, Garay descended from Asuncion resolved to reconquer the site occu pied by Mendoza in 1536, and succeeded in re establishing, 11 June 1580, the abandoned colony of Buenos Aires. Plans were made for the
laying out of the town which the Indians again tried to destroy. The first inhabitants of Buenos Aires were 19 Spanish and 50 Creoles. With the founding of Buenos Aires the period of conquest in the region now comprising the Argentine Republic may be said to have finally closed, to be followed by the colonial regime.
The desire to secure communication be tween Buenos Aires and Asunci6n necessitated the foundation of various forts and colonies along the Parana River in the region which to-day constitutes the provinces of Santa Fe, Entre Rios, and Corrientes.
During this time the Portuguese were ad vancing their explorations south along the At lantic coast, arriving at the left margin of the Rio de la Plata. This alarmed the Spanish government, which, being powerless to quell the internal anarchy of the colonies while in the midst of the fight with rebellious tribes of Indians, separated Buenos Aires from the gov ernment of Paraguay, instituting the province of Rio de la Plata dependent on the viceroy of Peru, and named for governor-general Bruno de Zabala, who, in 1726, founded the city of Montevideo, now the capital of the republic of Uruguay.
The Spanish government did not permit commercial importation through the port of Buenos Aires and the colonists of this region were obliged to resort to troublesome trans continental traffic to reach Lima, the capital of the viceroyalty, the only market of importa tion which they could count on. But as Para guay received direct importations in freight boats for the official agents of the Spanish gov ernment, and the traffic necessarily had to pass near to Buenos Aires, the inhabitants of this city devised methods to organize a trade with Cadiz, from which place there were secretly sent to Buenos Aires books that the Spanish government did not permit to circulate even in Spain, which contained comments on the Amer ican Revolution and philosophical writings such as preceded the French Revolution. One can understand that these books found eager read ers, since the cultured class of Buenos Aires had been recruited from liberals, who, fleeing from persecution in Spain, preferred as a refuge the modest city on the banks of the Rio de la Plata to the brilliant capital of Peru, centre of military and ecclesiastical prestige and head of an aristocracy formed from de scendants of successful adventurers. The lib eral ideas of this class separated them some what from the theocratic and military influence which ruled the interior, but during the next two centuries Buenos Aires received only such liberal literature as could be smuggled from Europe.