Had the practice continued of carrying on these expeditions, it is probable that the Buenos Ayreans would have become better acquainted with the southern part of the pampas; but, upon the opening of an unrestricted trade, the importation of salt from the Cape de Verd Islands and other countries rendered it unnecessary for the government to put itself to any expense about them; and, as individuals without the protection of the troops would not run the risk of encountering the Indians, the Salinas ceased to be resorted to, and the people of Buenos Ayres became reconciled to purchasing of foreigners an article of which they have an inexhaustible supply within their own territory.
Garcia proposed to the government to form a military settlement at the Salinas, to be the central point of a line of frontier to be drawn from the river Colorado across the pampas to Fort San-Rafael on the river Diamante, south of Mendoza. This he conceived would effectually check the depredations of the Ranqueles and their thievish associates, whilst the friendly and well-disposed Puelches Indians to the south, he was tolerably assured, would at that period have been glad to have been brought under the immediate protection of the government of Buenos Ayres. The principal Caciques of the latter were three brothers, from the vicinity of Valdivia, where in their early life they had learned to respect the Spaniards, and to appreciate the benefits of keeping up a friendly and well-regulated intercourse with them. Nowhere had the king's officers taken such pains to conciliate the native tribes as in Chile, and so well had that system of treating them answered, that, in the present case, these brothers declared there was nothing they desired more than the permanent establishment of a more intimate connexion between them and the people of Buenos Ayres, and that they would gladly place themselves and their followers under the immediate protection of the government.
But Garcia's plan embraced more than could be done at once by the rulers of Buenos Ayres; and partly, perhaps, on that account, and partly because all their disposable forces and means were shortly afterwards required to carry on the struggle for their independence, it was, with many other projects laid aside, and many years elapsed ere any further step was taken.