{"product_id":"2940013564855","title":"Gaspar The Gaucho","description":"CHAPTER ONE.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE GRAN CHACO.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSpread before you a map of South America.  Fix your eye on the point of\u003cbr\u003econfluence between two of its great rivers--the Salado, which runs\u003cbr\u003esouth-easterly from the Andes mountains, and the Parana coming from the\u003cbr\u003enorth; carry your glance up the former to the town of Salta, in the\u003cbr\u003eancient province of Tucuman; do likewise with the latter to the point\u003cbr\u003ewhere it espouses the Paraguay; then up this to the Brazilian frontier\u003cbr\u003efort of Coimbra; finally draw a line from the fort to the aforementioned\u003cbr\u003etown--a line slightly curved with its convexity towards the Cordillera\u003cbr\u003eof the Andes--and you will thus have traced a boundary embracing one of\u003cbr\u003ethe least known, yet most interesting, tracts of territory in either\u003cbr\u003econtinent of America, or, for that matter, in the world.  Within the\u003cbr\u003elimits detailed lies a region romantic in its past as mysterious in its\u003cbr\u003epresent; at this hour almost as much a _terra incognita_ as when the\u003cbr\u003eboats of Mendoza vainly endeavoured to reach it from the Atlantic side,\u003cbr\u003eand the gold-seekers of Pizarro's following alike unsuccessfully\u003cbr\u003eattempted its exploration from the Pacific.  Young reader, you will be\u003cbr\u003elonging to know the name of this remarkable region; know it, then, as\u003cbr\u003ethe \"Gran Chaco.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNo doubt you may have heard of it before, and, if a diligent student of\u003cbr\u003egeography, made some acquaintance with its character.  But your\u003cbr\u003eknowledge of it must needs be limited, even though it were as extensive\u003cbr\u003eas that possessed by the people who dwell upon its borders; for to them\u003cbr\u003ethe Gran Chaco is a thing of fear, and their intercourse with it one\u003cbr\u003ewhich has brought them, and still brings, only suffering and sorrow.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt has been generally supposed that the Spaniards of Columbus's time\u003cbr\u003esubdued the entire territory of America, and held sway over its\u003cbr\u003ered-skinned aborigines.  This is a historical misconception.  Although\u003cbr\u003elured by a love of gold, conjoined with a spirit of religious\u003cbr\u003epropagandism, the so-called _Conquistadores_ overran a large portion of\u003cbr\u003eboth divisions of the continent, there were yet extensive tracts of each\u003cbr\u003enever entered, much less colonised, by them--territories many times\u003cbr\u003elarger than England, in which they never dared set foot.  Of such were\u003cbr\u003eNavajoa in the north, the country of the gallant Goajiros in the centre,\u003cbr\u003ethe lands of Patagonia and Arauco in the south, and notably the\u003cbr\u003eterritory lying between the Cordilleras of the Peruvian Andes and the\u003cbr\u003erivers Parana and Paraguay, designated \"El Gran Chaco.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis vast expanse of champaign, large enough for an empire, remains to\u003cbr\u003ethe present time not only uncolonised, but absolutely unexplored.  For\u003cbr\u003ethe half-dozen expeditions that have attempted its exploration, timidly\u003cbr\u003eentering and as hastily abandoning it, scarce merit consideration.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47079585579248,"sku":"2940013564855","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013564855_p0.jpg?v=1763582806","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013564855","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}