[Illustration: DUTCH VESSELS SAILING THROUGH THE STRAITS OF MAGELLAN.
_From a seventeenth-century engraving._]
Thus, although Portugal may be said in one sense to have cooped the
Dutch up within a narrow strip of remaining territory, and to have
been on the point of expelling them from Brazil by the sword, actually
the withdrawal was only effected by the payment of this heavy ransom. As
Southey has it: "The Portuguese consented to pay for the victory which
they had obtained."
CHAPTER XI
THE COLONY OF PERU
With South America now definitely settled, we may glance at the various
provinces which constituted the Spanish American Continent. For a long
while after the first establishment of the Spanish dominion the
divisions between the various districts remained far fewer in number
than was later the case. South America may be said to have been
partitioned off in the early days into four main divisions. The
northernmost of these was commonly known as Terra Firma, and comprised
New Granada and the neighbouring districts. This area is now occupied by
the Republics of Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador.
To the south of Terra Firma the Viceroyalty of Peru extended itself,
bordered on the south by the Province of Chile; while to the east,
occupying the remainder of the Continent as far as the Brazilian
frontier, and stretching over the fertile plains to the south, was the
great Province of Paraguay, which included the territories now contained
in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and part of Bolivia.
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