Note 109 — Chapter VII · ROADS AND RAILWAYS

Martin de Moussy says that a more direct route, avoiding the detour to the north by the Rio Tercero, was followed in the eighteenth century between Buenos Aires and San Luis, by way of Salto and the Rio Quinto as far as the latitude of fort Constitución (Villa Mercedes). Woodbine Parish's map (1839) and Napp's map (1876) both show a road by way of Salto and Melincue to the Rio Cuarto, where it joins the ordinary road. However that may be, these roads were never used regularly, from fear of the Indians or—which comes to the same thing—because the area they cross, in the south of the actual territory of the provinces of Santa Fé and Córdoba, was not yet colonized.