Although this spot was in many respects a very inviting one for an agricultural settlement, it wanted the principal requisite of some tolerable roadstead or harbour to facilitate any direct communication from Buenos Ayres by sea with the new line of frontier, an object of great importance if possible to secure. The coast was vainly explored in search of one from Cape Corrientes some way to the south, and to the north as far as the great lake called the Mar-chiquita, which empties itself into the sea by a narrow channel, capable, perhaps, of being deepened by artificial means, so as to form a harbour for small vessels; but even this seemed extremely doubtful, and depending on a further examination and survey, which the officers were not at the time prepared to undertake.
Under these circumstances, it was thought advisable to postpone the construction of any further works till a more accurate survey of the coast should be made. This was subsequently commenced, and carried as far as Bahia Blanca, which was reported to be the only situation from the Salado on all the line of coast intervening which combined a tolerable harbour for shipping with the capability of being made a good defensible position. Although this was far beyond the line of frontier at first contemplated, which only reached to the range of the Vuulcan and Tandil, other considerations eventually determined the government of Buenos Ayres to extend their boundary to that point. Not only did it appear that Bahia Blanca was the only place capable of being made a harbour on the coast, but the want of some such harbour to the south became more than ever apparent when the war broke out with Brazil, and the River Plate was placed under blockade by the emperor's fleet; and, although that war at first necessarily diverted the attention of the government of Buenos Ayres from the completion of their original plan, it forced upon them a more enlarged view of their position, and led to the final adoption of an infinitely better boundary-line than that which was first thought of merely as a check upon the Indians.
The line in question, which was finally adopted in 1828, and which forms the present nominal frontier of the province of Buenos Ayres towards the pampas, will be found upon the map drawn about north-north-east, from the fort built on the river Naposta, which falls into Bahia Blanca, to the Laguna Blanca, another point occupied as a military position, at the western extremity of the range of the Tapalquen; thence it runs north by the fort of Cruz de Guerra to Melinqué, the north-west point of the province. It will be obvious, on reference to the map, that, whilst this line embraced within it an infinitely greater extent of country than that at first projected, it was in reality, being straight, a shorter one, and required less defences than the ranges of the Tandil and Vuulcan, supposing all the passes to be fortified.