Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/220



190 UP THE URUGUAY RIVER, AND

of city waxes lower as we go^ laughing at the beard of the

casemated Custom-house. The white steeples of La Colonia

glitter in the sun, and presently a pie-shaped domelet rises

ahead. This, we are told, is historic " Martin Garcia.^^ It

reminds us of the Piloto de Altura â€” the practical pilot who

made observations â€” the sailor rei nauticce peritus who

guided thus far up Mar Dulce, the Piloto Mayor (Admiral)

D. Juan de Solis.

" They were the first that ever burst Into that silent sea j"

and they met the fate of Magellan and Cook. Most authors have related that D. Juan Diaz de Solis was (in 1516) slaughtered, roasted, and eaten by the Charruas savages on the bank of a rivulet west of Maldonado, hence the long sandy reach is still known as Playa de Solis. Popular report places the scene of the murder on the Banda Oriental coast, nearly opposite Martin Garcia.

The islet, quasi-circular and averaging about one mile each way, is the outlier of a long oval of shoals and shallows. To east of it, and nearer the shore, is Martin Chico, rather peninsula than island, and the pair are parted from the mainland by a channel which has been prettily baptized " Canal del Infierno.^^ This passage was rehabilitated in 1847 by Captain Sullivan, R.N., and presently Captain Page, U.S.N., gave it two more feet of depth. Here the minor estuary of La Plata narrows from thirty to seven miles, and with a fathom and a half of water close to its east, " Martin Garcia'^ must be looked upon as Perim Island, a shameless pretender : it has been entitled " Pearl of the Plate^^ and " Key of the Rivers of the Interior,^' when La Colonia and Monte Video deserve all the honours.

This lumpy dome of gneiss and granite, with a low alluvial spit to the north â€” much like a flattish spoon and