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LONDON: 
TINSLEY  BROTHERS,    18,  CATHERINE  STREET,  STRAND. 

1870. 


LETTERS 


FROM   THE 


BATTLE-FIELDS  OF  PAEAGUAY. 


BY 

CAPTAIN  RICHARD  F.  BURTON, 

F.R.G.S.,  ETC. 

AUTHOR   OF    "explorations   OP   THE   HIGHLANDS   OF   THE   BRAZIL, 
ETC.    ETC. 


Mit^  a  glap  anb  lllttstrations. 


"  Le  vrai  est  le  pere  qui  engendre  le  boD,  qui  est  le  fils  :  d'oil  precede  le 
beau,  qui  est  le  Saint-Esprit."— Chateaubriand. 


LONDON : 
TINSLEY  BROTHERS,  18,  CATHERINE  STREET,  STRAND. 

1870. 

[_All  rights  of  Travel alion  and  lieivroduction  are  reserved.'] 


LONDON  :  • 

SAVILL,    EDWARDS  AND   CO.,    PRINTERS,    CHANDOS   STREET, 

COVENT   GARDEN. 


Insnib^i 


TO 

HIS  EXCELLENCY  DON  DOMINGO  FAUSTINO   SAKMIENTO, 

CITIZEN   OF   THE   UNITED   PROVINCES   OF   THE   RIO   DE   LA   PLATA, 

THE   ARGENTINE    REPUBLIC, 
ST 

ONE  WHO   ADMIRES   HIS   HONESTY  OF  PURPOSE 
Asra 

THE    HOMAGE    WHICH    HE    PAYS    TO    PROGRESS. 


PREFACE. 


The  principal  object  of  these  letters  is  to  tell  a  new  tale  of 
modern  Paraguay,  to  place  before  tbe  public  simple,  un- 
varnished sketches  and  studies  of  what  presented  itself  to 
one  visiting  the  seat  of  a  campaign  which  has,  in  this  our 
day,  brought  death  and  desolation  into  the  fair  valleys  of 
the  Paraguay  and  the  Uruguay  Rivers.  In  no  case,  let  me 
say,  has  distance  better  displayed  its  eflFects  upon  the 
European  mind.  Returned  home,  I  found  blankness  of 
face  whenever  the  word  Paraguay  (which  they  pronounced 
Paragay)  was  named,  and  a  general  confession  of  utter 
ignorance  and  hopeless  lack  of  interest. 

Many  in  England  have  never  heard  of  this  Five  Years' 
"War  which  now  appears  to  be  an  institution.  Even  upon 
the  Parana  River  I  met  an  intelligent  skipper  who  only 
suspected  a  something  bellicose  amongst  the  ^^  nebulous  re- 
publics^'' because  his  charter-party  alluded  to  a  blockade. 

It  speaks  little  for  popular  geography  when  we  read  year 
after  year  such  headings  as  '^  Hostilities  on  the  River  Plate,"'"' 
whereas  the  campaign  was  never  fought  within  300  miles  of 
the  Rio  de  la  Plata.  The  various  conflicting  accounts 
scattered  abroad,  with  and  without  interest  or  obligation  to 
scatter  them,  make  the  few  home-stayers  that  care  to  peruse 
South  American  intelligence  accept  as  authentic,  and  possibly 
act  upon,  such  viridical  information  as  that  for  instance  sup- 
plied by  the  following  clipping  : — 

b  2 


vm  PREFACE. 

Telegram  received  at  the  Brazilian  Legation  in  London. 

The  war  is  over.  (No !)  Lopez  has  either  fled  to  Bolivia,  (No !)  or 
is  concealed  at  Corrientes.  (Impossible!)  The  execution  of  his  brothers 
(?)  Burgos  (?)  the  bishop  (?)  and  prisoners  (?)  is  confirmed.  (No !) 
Tlie  Paraguayan  population  was  returning  to  Assumption  (Never !)  which 
has  been  occupied  by  the  Marquis  de  Caxias. 

And  lastly,  M.  Elisee  E,eclus_,  in  the  ^^  Revue  des  Deux 
Mondes/^  can  term  Paraguay  with  the  impunity  of  im- 
pudence,, ^^  etat  pacifique  par  excellence/'  when  her  every 
citizen  was  a  soldier^,  and  when  even  during  the  rule  of 
the  Jesuit,  the  tiller  of  the  ground  was  also  a  man-at-arms. 

The  war  still  raging  upon  its  small  theatre  of  action 
is  a  spectacle  that  should  appeal  to  man's  sympathy  and 
imagination.  Seldom  has  aught  more  impressive  been 
presented  to  the  gaze  of  the  world  than  this  tragedy ;  this 
unflinching  struggle  maintained  for  so  long  a  period  against 
overwhelming  odds,  and  to  the  very  verge  of  racial  annihila- 
tion j  the  bulldog  tenacity  and  semi-compulsory  heroism 
of  a  Red-skin  Sparta,  whose  only  vulnerable  point,  the  line 
of  her  river,  which  flows  from  north  to  south,  and  which 
forms  her  western  frontier,  has  been  defended  with  a  stubborn- 
ness of  purpose,  a  savage  valour,  and  an  enduring  despera- 
tion rare  in  the  annals  of  mankind. 

Those  who  read,  dwelling  afar,  see  one  of  the  necessary 
two  phases.  Some  recognise  a  nation  crushed  by  the  mere 
weight  of  its  enemies  ;  drained  of  its  population  to  support 
the  bloody  necessities  of  a  hopeless  war  ;  cut  off"  from  all 
communication  with  the  world  outside,  yet  still  as  ever 
fired  with  a  firm  resolve  to  do  and  die  before  submitting 
to  the  yoke  of  the  mighty  power  that  is  slowly  but  surely 
crushing  it.  Others  again  behold  nothing  but  a  barbarous 
race  blotted  out  of  the  map,  an  obscure  nationality  eaten  up, 
as  the  Kafirs  say,  by  its  neighbours ;  a  rampant  tyranny 
whose  sole  object  is  self-aggrandisement,  a  conflict  of  kites 
and  crows,  the  slaves  of  a  despot,  of  an  '^  American  Attila,'' 


PREFACE.  ^  IX 

figliting  at  the  despot's  nod^  for  the  perpetuation  of  a  policy 
of  restraint  which  a  more  advanced  state  of  society  cannot 
tolerate,  and  of  an  obsolete  despotism  which  the  world 
w^ould  willingly  abolish. 

Those  who  write  have  in  almost  all  instances  allowed 
their  imaginations  and  their  prejudices  to  guide  their 
judgment,  and  mostly  they  have  frankly  thrown  overboard 
all  impartiality.  The  few  '^  Lopezguayos''  or  "  Para- 
guayan sympathizers/-'  the  ^^  thick  and  thin  supporters'"'  of 
the  Marshal  President,  make  him  the  ''  Liberator  of  South 
America;''  the  "  Cincinnatus  of  America;"  the  "  King  Leo- 
pold of  the  Plate ;"  they  quote  the  names  applied  to  him  by  his 
subjects,  Great  White  Man  (Carai  guazii)  and  "  Big  Father." 
Paraguay  is  to  them  another  Poland  in  the  martyrology  of 
peoples,  a  weak,  meek  inland  Republic  to  be  strangled, 
after  an  "  odious  struggle  of  three  to  one,"  in  the  huge 
coils  of  the  Imperial  Anaconda.  They  accuse  the  Brazil  of 
the  most  interested  views,  they  charge  her  with  boundless 
profligacy  and  the  "  most  hideous  vices,"  as  if  these  had  aught 
to  do  with  the  subject ;  they  declare  that  no  nation  has  a 
right  to  impose  upon  a  neighbouring  and  independent 
people  a  government  not  of  its  own  choice  ;  they  irrelevantly 
predict  terrible  crises  when  the  Negro  question  and  that  of 
the  great  feudal  domains  shall  demand  to  be  settled,  and 
they  even  abuse  ''  I'Empire  Esclavagiste"  because  she  has 
not  madly  freed  her  slaves,  or  rather  because  she  has  freed 
them  to  enslave  her  free  neighbours.^  Many  there  are  who 
term  the  Marshal  President,  alias  the  '^  Tyrant  of  Paraguay," 
the  "  Monster  Lopez,"  a  "  Vandalic  and  treacherous  ag- 
gressor," a   Nero,  a  Theodore,  ''  O  barbaro  do  Paraguay  :" 


*  "  Kevue  des  Deux  Mondes,"  of  February  15th,  1865,  and  August  15tl), 
1868,  by  M.  Elisee  Reclus  :  November  15th,  1865,  by  M.  J.  de  Cazane, 
and  September  15th,  1866,  by  M.  Duchesne  de  Bellecourt.  The  ignorance 
of  fact  paraded  in  these  papers  is  to  be  equalled  only  by  the  animus 
■which  pervades  them. 


X  PREFACE. 

they  hold  his  military  republico- despotism  a  hornets^  nest, 
a  thorn  in  the  side  of  the  progressive  Brazil^  and  they  look 
upon  the  long  campaign  as  the  battle  of  civilization_,  pure 
and  simple,  against  the  Japanese  isolation  and  the  Darfurian 
monocracy  which  are  erroneously  dated  from  the  days  of 
Dr.  Francia. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  for  me  to  declare  that 
Tros  Tyriusque  mihi  nullo  discrimine  agetur, 
or  to  hope  for  immunity  from  the  pains  and  penalties  which 
attach  to  the  purely  neutral.  My  sympathies  are  with  the 
Brazil,  as  far  at  least  as  her  "  mission^^  is  literally,  not  libe- 
rally, to  unlock  the  great  Southern  Mississippi;  to  "keep  open 
and  develop  the  magnificent  water  system  of  the  Paraguay- 
Parana- Plate,'"'  and  to  sweep  away  from  the  shores  of  its 
main  arteries  the  Guardias  and  Piquetes,  the  batteries  and 
the  ridiculous  little  stockades  which  served  to  keep  its  waters 
comparatively  desert,  and  to  convert  a  highway  belonging 
to  the  world  into  a  mere  monopoly  of  Paraguay.  I  have 
spoken  somewhat  harshly  of  the  Brazilian  army  :  here  hablar 
fuertey  the  sermo  brevis  et  durus  is  the  duty  of  a  writer.  Its 
personnel  as  a  rule,  admitting  many  brilliant  exceptions, 
imperfectly  represents  the  noble  Brazilian  people;  its  suc- 
cesses have  been  hailed  with  an  enthusiasm  run  frantic,  and 
its  spare  merits  have  been  commended  with  an  exaggeration 
whose  consequences,  operating  upon  public  opinion,  may  do 
the  country  much  real  harm.  The  Brazilian  freeman,  as  his 
history  shows,  may  court  comparison  with  the  bravest  of 
soldiers.  The  case  is  not  the  same  with  the  freed  man  and 
the  servile  fresh  from  the  hoe. 

On  the  other  hand,  I  cannot  but  admire  the  wonderful 
energy  and  the  indomitable  will  of  Marshal  President 
Lopez  and  his  small  but  sinewy  power,  which  will  never 
be  forgotten  nor  want  admirers  as  long  as  history  shall 
endure.     In  many  actions  one-third  of  the  number  engaged 


PREFACE.  XI 

was  placed  hors  de  combat,  and  often  of  a  battalion  num- 
bering 400  men  only  100  returned. 

The  Paraguayans  have  indeed  fought  for  their  altars  and 
their  fires,  fought  for  the  green  graves  of  their  sires,  their  God, 
their  native  land,  for  the  '^  vindication  of  their  outraged 
honour,  the  guarantee  of  their  threatened  existence,  and  the 
stability  of  their  wounded  rights.-'^ 

As  regards  the  '^  atrocities  of  Lopez  '^ — to  quote  another 
popular  heading — his  ^^  unheard-of  and  fiendish  cruelties,*' 
his  extorting  by  torture  the  testimony  required  from  foreign 
employes,  his  starving  to  death  prisoners  of  war;  flogging 
to  death  men,  women,  and  children ;  his  starving  and  killing 
the  wounded,  and  his  repeatedly  shooting  and  bayoneting, 
amongst  others,  his  brothers,  his  sisters,  and  the  bishop, 
the  reader  will,  I  venture  to  assert,  do  well  to  exercise  a 
certain  reservation  of  judgment,  like  myself.  Truth  seems 
to  be  absolutely  unknown  upon  the  banks  of  the  Plate. 
After  the  most  positive  assertions  and  the  most  life-like 
details  concerning  the  execution  of  some  malefactor  (or 
victim)  in  high  (or  low)  position  have  been  paraded 
before  the  world,  a  few  days  will  prove  that  the  whole 
has  been  one  solid  circumstantial  lie.  The  fact  is  that 
nothing  about  Paraguay  is  known  outside  the  country,  and 
of  its  government  very  little  is  known  even  inside  its  limits. 
The  foreign  employes  themselves  must  generally  speak  from 
hearsay,  and  some  of  them  have  not  failed  to  supplement 
their  facts  by  fancies,  theories,  and  fictions.  The  most 
trustworthy  will  own  that  in  the  case,  for  instance,  of  a  whole 
corps  being  decimated,  they  remained,  though  almost  upon 
the  spot,  in  ignorance  of  the  executions  till  two  years  after- 
wards. 

The  war  in  Paraguay,  impartially  viewed,  is  no  less  than 
the  doom  of  a  race  which  is  to  be  relieved  from  a  self- 
chosen     tyranny     by     becoming    chair    a    canon    by    the 


Xll  PREFACE, 

process  of  annihilation.  It  is  the  Nemesis  of  Faith ;  the 
death-throe  of  a  policy  bequeathed  by  Jesuitism  to  South 
America;  it  shows  the  flood  of  Time  surging  over  a  relic 
of  old  world  semi-barbarism,  a  palseozoic  humanity.  Nor 
is  the  semi-barbaric  race  itself  without  an  especial  interest 
of  its  own.  The  Guarani  family  appears  to  have  had  its 
especial  habitat  in  Paraguay,  and  thence  to  have  extended 
its  dialects,  from  the  Rio  de  la  Plata  to  the  roots  of 
the  Andes,  and  even  to  the  peoples  of  the  Antilles.  Th^ 
language  is  now  being  killed  out  at  the  heart,  the  limbs 
are  being  slowly  but  surely  lopped  off,  and  another  cen- 
tury will  witness  its  extirpation. 

This  Crimean  Campaign, 

Si  licet  in  parvis  exemplis  graudibus  uti, 
abounds  in  instances  of  splendid  futile  devotion.  It  is 
a  fatal  war  waged  by  hundreds  against  thousands ;  a 
battle  of  Brown  Bess  and  poor  old  flint  muskets  against 
the  Spencer  and  Enfield  rifles ;  of  honeycombed  carronades, 
long  and  short,  against  "Whitworths  and  Lahittes ;  of 
punts  and  canoes  against  ironclads.  It  brings  before 
us  an  anthropological  type  which,  like  the  English  of  a  past 
generation,  holds  every  Paraguayan  boy-man  equal,  single- 
handed,  to  at  least  any  half-dozen  of  his  enemies.  It  is 
moreover  an  affair  which,  whilst  testing  so  severely  the 
gigantic  powers  of  the  Brazil  and  threatening  momentous 
effects  to  its  good  genius — democratic  imperialism,  has  yet 
been  prosecuted  with  so  many  laches,  with  an  incuriousness, 
an  inconsequence,  and  in  many  cases  with  a  venality  which, 
common  as  are  such  malpractices  in  the  non-combattant 
ranks  of  all  semi-disciplined  and  many  disciplined  armies, 
here  presents  an  ethnographical  study. 

Nor  is  the  subject  without  its  sensational  side.  These 
pages  will  offer  details  concerning  places  and  persons  whose 
names  are  more  or  less  familiar  to  the  public  ear  :  Asuncion, 


PREFACE.  Xlll 

the  capital  of  this  "  inland  China  -/^  Humaita,  the  "  Se- 
bastopol  of  the  South/^  that  gigantic  ^*'hum  "  whose  "grim 
ramparts  '^  (wretched  earthworks)  appeared  even  in  the 
London  Times  as  "  the  Gibraltar,  or  more  properly  the 
Mantua,  of  South  America  •"  the  Amazonian  corps  raised 
by  "Mrs.  President  Lopez/^  the  mysterious  Madame 
Lynch,  en  personne ;  the  Marshal  President,  who  though 
separated  by  half  a  world  from  our  world,  must  ever  com- 
mand a  sufficiency  of  interest ;  the  conspiracy  that  has  been 
so  fiercely  asserted  and  denied,  the  new  Reign  of  Terror, 
called  by  some  the  Reign  of  Rigour,  and  the  executions 
which,  if  they  really  took  place,  can  be  explained  only  by  the 
dementia  preceding  destruction,  or  by  the  most  fatal 
of  necessities.  In  the  purely  military  sketches  the  most 
interesting  details  are  those  concerning  the  much  talked-of 
earthworks,  a  style  of  defence  becoming  in  these  days  of 
breech-loading  and  couchant  drill,  more  and  more  neces- 
sary as  the  means  of  oflPence  shall  improve,  and  calling  for  as 
much  practical  information  as  we  can  collect. 

The  Paraguayan  campaign  is  essentially  a  war  of  en- 
trenchments as  opposed  to  the  siege  and  the  pitched  battle, 
and  entrenchments  have  now  taken  a  high  position  in 
strategics. 

I  made  two  visits  to  the  seat  of  war.  The  first,  from  August 
15th  to  September  5th,  1868,  led  me  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Tebicuary  River,  when  the  Paraguayan  batteries  of  San 
Fernando  were  being  stormed.  The  second  began  on  April 
4th,  lasted  till  April  18th,  1869,  and  showed  me  the  curtain 
rising  upon  the  third  act  of  the  campaign — the  Guerilla 
phase  preceding  the  conclusion.  During  a  residence  of 
some  three  and  a  half  years  in  the  Brazil,  the  Paraguayan 
question  was  the  theme  of  daily  conversation  around  me, 
and  where  my  personal  experience  failed  it  was  not 
difficult  to  turn  to  account  that  of  others. 


XIV  PREFACE. 

In  making  up  the  map,  the  trustwortliy  and  satisfactory 
labours  of  Captain  Mouchez  of  the  French  Imperial  navy, 
which  have  been  adopted  by  the  Allied  Armies  in  the  field,* 
have  of  course  been  taken  as  a  base.  The  northern  part  of 
the  republic  is  borrowed  from  Colonel  du  Graty,  whose  geo- 
graphy, whatever  may  be  his  politics,  is,  in  this  portion, 
better  than  that  of  any  other  traveller.  The  whole  has 
been  corrected  by  the  map  illustrating  the  work  on  the 
Paraguayan  War,  by  Lieut.-Col.  George  Thompson,  of  whom 
more  presently. 

I  have  not  yet  had  leisure  to  reduce  to  writing  the 
printed  documents  of  the  Brazilian  War-office,  obligingly 
supplied  to  me  by  the  enlightened  Minister  H.  E.  the 
Burao  de  Muritiba.  He,  however,  who  would  produce  a 
detailed  and  connected  study,  a  complete  and  satisfactory 
account  of  a  four  years^  campaign,  interesting  even  after 
Custozza,  Sadowa,  and  Lissa,  and  certainly  the  most  com- 
plicated, topographically  and  strategically,  that  has  been 
fought  since  1850,  must  have  more  time  and  better 
opportunities  than  I  possess.  He  should  have  access  to  the 
private  as  well  as  to  the  published  reports  of  Bio  de  Janeiro, 
of  Buenos  Aires,  and  of  Monte  Video.  Nor  will  his  account 
be  aught  but  incomplete  unless  he  be  enabled  to  collate 
with  those  of  the  Allies  the  official  correspondence  of  the 
Paraguayan  commandants,  whilst  a  complete  set  of  the  Sema- 
nario,  the  Moniteur  of  the  republic,  is  becoming  almost  un- 
attainable. Whatever  victory  the  Brazil  has  claimed, 
Paraguay,  as  may  be  expected,  has  revindicated  it,  and 
vice  versa. 

All  accounts  which  have  hitherto  appeared  are  neces- 
sarily one-sided  :  the  Allies  —  Brazilian,  Argentine,  and 
Oriental — have  told  and  re-told  their  own  tale,  whilst  the 
Paraguayans  have  mostly  been  dumb  perforce. 

Since    these    remarks    were    penned,    I   have    had    an 


PREFACE.  XV 

opportunity  of  reading,  and  I  have  read  with  the  utmost 
interest,  ^'  The  War  in  Paraguay,  with  an  Historical  Sketch 
of  the  Country  and  its  People,  by  George  Thompson,  C.E., 
Lieutenant-Colonel  of  Engineers  in  the  Paraguayan  Army, 
Aide-de-camp  to  President  Lopez,  &c/^  (Longmans,  1869). 
By  the  kindness  of  the  author  and  of  the  publishers  the 
proofs  were  sent  to  me  before  they  were  made  public,  and  I 
delayed  for  some  time  my  own  pages  in  order  that  Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Thompson  should  takethe  precedence  to  which 
his  knowledge  of  the  subject,  and  experience  of  eleven  years 
spent  in  hard  labour  and  in  actual  field-service,  entitle  him. 
The  two  books,  however,  are  by  no  means  likely  to  clash. 
The  "  War  in  Paraguay^^  is  semi-historical,  treating  of  what 
the  author  witnessed  during  the  hostilities.  "  Letters  from 
the  Battle-fields"^  is  a  traveller's  journal  of  much  lighter 
cast,  and  necessarily  more  discursive. 

I  have  attempted  also  to  sketch  the  campaign,  than 
which,  rightly  explained,  nothing  can  be  more  easily  under- 
stood. It  is  composed  of  three  great  acts,  and  the  follow- 
ing is  the  skeleton  :* — 

Act  No.  1.  President  Lopez  raises  a  force  of  80,000 
men  and  resolves  to  brook  no  interference  on  the  part  of 
the  Brazil  in  the  affairs  of  the  Platine  States.  He  engages 
in  hostilities  and  he  determines  to  be  crowned  at  Buenos 
Aires  Emperor  of  the  Argentines.  For  this  purpose  he 
marches  (April,  1865)  two  corps  d'armee  of  25,000  men 
under  General  Bobles,  and  12,000  men  under  Lt.-Col. 
Estigarribia,  down  the  rivers  Parana  and  Uruguay,  intending 
that  they  should  rendezvous  at  Concordia  or  some  cen- 
tral point  and  jointly  occupy  Buenos   Aires.      He   himself 


*  The  reader  will  kindly  remember,  that  these  pages  treat  only  of  the 
Paraguayan  war  in  the  south.  Nothing  is  said  touching  the  campaign  in 
Matto-Grosso,  and  on  the  northern  waters  of  the  Paraguay  river. 


XVI  PREFACE. 

remains  witli  a  third  corps  d^armee  of  supports  and  re- 
serves, behind  his  proper  frontier,  the  Parana  River.  Both 
the  invading  columns  are  defeated  in  detail,  the  survivors 
return  by  the  end  of  October,  1865,  and  the  central  body 
retreats  to  Paso.  Thus  ends  the  offensive  portion  of  the 
campaign,  which  lasted  about  five  months. 

Act  No.  2.  President  Lopez,  commanding  his  armies  in 
person,  vainly  attempts  to  defend  the  frontiers  of  the  Republic, 
and  gradually  retiring  northwards,  before  vastly  superior 
forces  and  a  fleet  of  ironclads,  he  fights  every  inch  of  ground 
with  a  prodigious  tenacity.  This  defensive  phase  concludes, 
after  upwards  of  three  years,  with  the  affair  of  Loma  Va- 
lentina,  the  "  Waterloo  of  the  war."  This  terrible  blow  was 
struck  December  25th-27th,  1868. 

Act  No.  3,  and  as  yet  not  "  played  out^"*  (September, 
1869).  The  Guerilla  phase,  when  President  Lopez,  com- 
pelled to  abandon  his  capital,  Asuncion,  falls  back  upon 
Cerro  Leon,  and  makes  ''  Paraguary  "^  provisionally  his 
chief  town.  Whilst  this  state  of  things  endured  I  left  the 
Rio  de  la  Plata. 

Named  by  her  Gracious  Majesty,  Consul  at  Damascus, 
I  now  bid,  and  not  without  the  sincerest  regret,  a  tem- 
porary adieu  to  the  Brazil,  that  glorious  land,  the  garden 
of  South  America,  which  has  so  long  afforded  me  a  home. 

R.  F.  B. 

August,  1869. 


*  Our  periodicals  mostly  print  the  word  Paraguay,  thus  confounding 
the  little  country  town  with  the  country. 


CONTENTS. 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY pp.   1 79 

LETTER  I. 

FROM    RIO    DE    JANEIRO    TO    MONTE    VIDEO      .        .        .  80 94 

LETTER  II. 

MONTE    VIDEO THE    MURDER    OF    GENERAL    FLORES       95 117 

LETTER  in. 

MONTEVIDe'aNS NATIVES   AND    FOREIGNERS   .       .        .    118 134 

LETTER  IV. 

TO    THE    COLONIA   AND    BUENOS    AIRES        ....    135 151 

LETTER  V. 

A    DAY    AT    BUENOS    AIRES THE    OLD    ENGAGExMENT 

KEPT 152—171 

LETTER  VI. 

A    GLANCE    AT    BUENOS    AIRES 172 188 

LETTER  VII. 

UP  THE  URUGUAY  RIVER_,  AND  VISIT  TO  GENERAL 

URQUIZA .  189 206 

LETTER  VIII. 

UP  THE   URUGUAY  RIVER THE  SIEGE  OF  PAYSANDU, 

SALTOj    CONCORDIA^    URUGUAYANA     ....    207 222 


XVlll  CONTENTS. 

LETTER  IX. 

UP    THE    PARANA   RIVER    TO    ROZARIO        .        .        .pp.  223 235 

LETTER  X. 

ACTUALITIES    OF    ROZARIO    (SANTA    Fe')       ....    236 248 

LETTER  XL 

FROM    ROZARIO    TO    CORRIENTES 249 269 

LETTER  XII. 

A    WEEK   AT    CORRIENTES 270 291 

LETTER  XIII. 

FROM    CORRIENTES    TO    HUMAITA 292 308 

LETTER  XIV. 

TO    HUMAITA 309 313 

LETTER  XV. 
HUMAITA 314 — 327 

LETTER  XVI. 

A    VISIT    TO    THE    GRAN    CHACO 328 340 

LETTER  XVII. 

VISITS  TO  TIMBO  AND  TO  ESTABELECIMENTO  NOVO 
{alias  THE  CIERVA  REDOUBT.)  GENERAL 
ARGOLO     341 350 

LETTER  XVIII. 

RIDE    ROUND    THE    HUMAITA    "  QUADRILATERAL  ''     .     351 — 362 

LETTER  XIX. 

FROM    HUMAITa'    TO    GUARDIA    TACUARA  .        .        .     363 371 

LETTER  XX. 

TO    THE     BRAZILIAN     FRONT 372 390 


CONTENTS.  XIX 

LETTER  XXI. 

TO    THE    TEBICUARY    RIVER pp.   391 405 

LETTER  XXIL 

RETURN     TO     BUENOS     AIRES. THE    CONSPIRACY. 

THE    ^^  ATROCITIES    OF    LOPEZ  ''  ....    406 412 

LETTER  XXin. 

TRIP    TO    ASUNCION,    THE    CIUDAD 413 430 

LETTER  XXIV. 

DESCRIBING    ASUNCION,    EX-CAPITAL     OF     PARAGUAY    431 444 

LETTER  XXV. 

AT  AND  ABOUT  ASUNCION 445 — 458 

LETTER  XXVI. 

AGAIN    TO    THE    ALLIED    FRONT 459 468 

LETTER  XXVIL, 
AND   LAST 469 — 481 


THE 


BATTLE-FIELDS  OF  THE  PAEAGIJAY 
AND  UEUGUAT  RIVERS. 


/^ 


SECTION  I. 

INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY— PARAGUAY. 

T  HAD  intended  to  spare  my  readers  the  mortification  of 
-■-  readings  and  myself  of  writiog,  this  essay.  Returning^ 
however^  to  England,  and  once  more  restored  to  civilized 
society,  my  astonishment  was  great  to  find  the  extent  of 
ignorance  touching  what  has  been  called  "  La  Chine  Ameri- 
caine'^ — both  grow  tea,  but  that  is  their  chief  point  of  resem- 
blance. I  was  mortified  to  see  the  want  of  interest  attached 
to  perhaps  the  most  remarkable  campaign  fought  during 
the  present  century,  and  I  applied  myself  during  my  six 
weeks  of  leave  to  find  out  the  cause  of  the  phenomenon. 

It  proved  on  inquiry,  that  after  the  interest  of  Dr.  Francia 
faded  away,  Paraguay  had  dropped  clean  out  of  general  vision. 
Many,  indeed,  were  uncertain  whether  it  formed  part  of 
North  or  of  South  America;  and  it  is,  I  need  hardly  say, 
impossible  to  take  any  interest  about  the  fortunes  of  a  race 
whose  habitat  is  unknown.  Moreover,  the  periodicals  of 
Europe,  wanting,  like  their  public,  accurate  topographical 
knowledge  of  the  scene  of  action,  managed  to  invest  a  cam- 
paign whose  grand  movements  are  simple  in  the  extreme 

1 


2  INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY, 

however  complicated  by  terrain  may  be  its  details,  with  a 
confusion  that  lacked  even  the  interest  of  mystery.  Hence 
most  readers  of  journals  have,  during  the  last  four  years, 
studiously  avoided  leaders,  articles,  or  intelligence  headed 
"  Hostilities  in  the  River  Plate,^"*  and  in  so  doing  they 
were  justified. 

This  Essay  proposes  to  itself  an  abstract  of  the  geography 
and  the  history  of  Paraguay,  compressed  as  much  as  possible 
without  being  reduced  to  a  mere  string  of  names  and  dates. 

And  first  of  the  word  "  Paraguay,''^  which  must  not  be 
pronounced  ^'  Paragay.^^  The  Guarani  languages,  like  the 
Turkish  and  other  so-called  ^'  OrientaP^  tongues,  have  little 
accent,  and  that  little  generally  influences  the  last  syllable  : 
a  native  would  articulate  the  name  Pa-ra-gua-y.* 

For  this  term  are  proposed  no  less  than  nine  derivations. 

"  Paraguay ,''^  says  Muratori  (p.  92),  "  means  ^  River  of 
feathers,^  and  was  so  called  from  the  variety  and  brilliancy 
of  its  birds .^^ 

"  Paraguay ,''^  says  P.  Charlevoix,  "  signifies  ^  fleuve 
couronne,^  from  Para,  river,  and  gua,  circle  or  crown,  in 
the  language  of  the  people  around  the  Xarayes  lake,  which 
forms  as  it  were  its  crown. ^'' 

"Paraguay,'"*  says  Mr. Davie  (1805),  "would  signify  ^variety 
of  colours,'  alluding  to  the  flowers  and  birds.  Para,  in  fact, 
may  mean  '  spotted,'  as  in  the  name  Petun  Para,  the  speckled 
tobacco  familiar  to  all  Paraguayan  travellers.""  Mr.  Wilcocke 
(1807),  who  borrows  without  acknowledgment  from  Davie 
and  other  authors,  echoes  "  variety  of  colours." 


*  "  Y "  is  written  in  the  Tupi  or  Brazilian  dialect,  "  ig,"  or  "  yg." 
The  sound,  somewhat  like  the  French  "  eu  "  in  "  eut,"  for  instance,  was 
and  is  still,  a  shibboleth  for  foreigners.  We  find,  by  a  curious  coincidence, 
which  of  course  has  no  serious  etymological  significance,  the  Celtic  Gauls 
expressing  water  by  the  terminal  "y,"  for  instance  in  vich-y  =  vich 
(strength  or  virtue)  and  "  y,"  water. 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY.  3 

"  Paraguay/'  says  D.  Pedro  de  Angelis  (1810)^  "  must  be 
translated,  the  River  running  out  of  the  lake  Xarayes, 
celebrated  for  its  wild  rice.  The  derivation  would  be  Para, 
sea,  gua,  of,  and  y,  water/' 

"Paraguay,"  which  in  some  old  MSS.  is  written  Paraquay, 
says  Rengger,  "  is  simply  '  sea-water  hole,'  from  Para,  the 
sea,  and  qua-y,  water- hole." 

"  Paraguay,"  says  popular  opinion,  "  merely  expresses 
water  of  the  (celebrated)  Payaguaor  Canoe  tribe  of  Indians, 
corrupted  into  Paragua  by  the  first  Spanish  settlers."   * 

"  Paraguay,"  says  Lieut. -Col.  George  Thompson,  C.E.,  "is 
literally,  '  the  river  pertaining  to  the  sea'  (Para,  the  sea, 
gua,  pertaining  to,  and  y — pronounced  ii — river  or  water) ." 
Colonel  Thompson,  I  may  here  remark,  is  spoken  of  as  an 
excellent  Guarani  scholar,  and  he  has  prepared  for  publi- 
cation a  vocabulary  of  that  interesting  moribund  tongue. 

An  eighth  derivation,  for  which  there  exists  no  authority, 
is  "  Water  of  the  Penelope  bird"  (the  Ortalida  Parraqua,  still 
common  on  its  banks). 

Without  attempting  to  decide  a  question  so  disputed  by 
authorities  so  respectable  and  so  discrepant,  I  would  observe, 
that  even  as  late  as  1837,  a  tribe  of  Guaranis  had  for  chief 
one  Paragua;  that  such  names  have  been  handed  down 
amongst  them  from  extreme  antiquity;  and  that,  both  in 
Portuguese  and  in  Spanish  America,  the  conquerors  often 
called  geographical  features  after  the  caciques  whom  they 
debelled  or  slew.  Paraguay  therefore,  may  mean  the  river 
of  (the  kinglet)  "  Paragua." 

It  is  not  easy  to  treat  of  the  topography  and  geography 
of  Paraguay.  Some  portions, — for  instance,  the  Paraguay 
river  and  the  Parana  to  the  parallel  of  Villa  Rica,  and 
even  to  the  rapids  of  La  Guayra — have  for  three  centuries 
been  travelled  over  and  surveyed.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
most  tropical  division  of  the  Cordillera,  which,  runniDg  north 

1—2 


4  INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY. 

from  Villa  Rica  to  the  Apa  River^  traverses  the  Republic 
like  a  dorsal  spine^  may  be  pronounced  to  be  in  parts  com- 
pletely unknown. 

The  limits  of  the  Republic  are  undetermined ;  upon  this 
subject  she  has  differences  with  all  her  neighbours^ — with 
Brazil_,  with  Bolivia^  and  with  the  Argentine  Confederation. 
A  detailed  history  of  these  disputes  would  fill  many  a 
volume.  She  claims  to  extend  between  S.  lat.  22°  58'  and 
37°  50'  j  and  she  traces  her  frontier  up  the  Parana  after  its 
confluence  with  the  Paraguay  River  to  the  Cordillera  of  the 
Misionesj  thence  to  the  line  of  the  S.  Antonio  Mini  till  it 
falls  into  the  River  of  Curitiba,  then  again  bending  west- 
ward up  the  Parana,  and  more  westward  still  up  the 
Ivenheima  affluent  (so  called  by  the  Brazilians,  the  Igurey 
or  Yaguarey  of  the  Spaniards),  and  finally  over  the  moun- 
tains to  the  valley  of  the  Rio  Blanco  (S.  lat.  21°).  Westward 
the  limitation  remains  for  adjustment  with  Bolivia,  and  to 
the  southwest  the  Rio  Bermejo  separates  the  Paraguayan 
from  the  Argentine  Republic.  This  demarcation,  including 
the  disputed  territory  between  the  Rio  Blanco  and  Rio  Apa 
(the  Crooked  Stream  alias  Corrientes)  and  others,  in- 
volves a  trifle  of  square  860  leagues. 

Under  these  circumstances,  as  may  be  imagined,  the  area 
of  the  Republic  is  a  disputed  point.  I  will  briefly  cite 
the  extreme  views  of  other  authors. 

Messrs.  Rengger  and  Longchamps  (1825)  allow  to  her 
10,000  square  leagues. 

Mr.  Demersay^s  estimate  is  : 

Square  Leagues. 
Lands  between  the  Parana  and  Paraguay  Rivers  .     .     .     10,413 

Ditto  ditto  in  Grand  Chain 16,537 

Ditto  the  Parana  and  Uruguay  Rivers    .     .     .       1,820 


Total  square  leagues     .     28,770* 


*  These  are  square  Spanish  leagues=26,759  French,  or  26,935  of  25  to 
the  deyrree. 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY.  5 

Colonel  du  Graty  conjectures  the  extent  of  the  Republic 
to  represent  a  total  of  square  Spanish  leagues  29,470 — viz., 

Land  east  of  the  Paraguay  River      .     .     11,123 

Land  west  ditto  .     .     16,537  (purely  fanciful). 

The  Misiones  claim 1,820 

Of  these  vast  areas,  only  2500  square  leagues  are  supposed 
to  be  inhabited,  cultivated,  or  used  for  cattle  breeding. 

We  may  concisely  lay  down  the  limits  of  Paraguay  thus  : 
the  river  of  that  name  and  the  Gran  Chaco  limit  the  west, 
the  Parana  bounds  the  east  and  south,  separating  her  from 
the  Argentine  Confederation;  and  northwards  begins  the 
Brazilian  Empire.  The  parallelogram  admits  of  two  great 
divisions  :  the  northern  is  a  mountainous  mass  averaging,  as 
far  as  is  known,  1200  metres  above  sea  level ;  the 
southern  is  a  delta  or  doab,  in  places  lower  than  the  two 
rivers  which  form  it.  Between  the  two  is  a  middle  part,  called 
the  "  Cordilleritas,-'^  rarely  exceeding  in  height  120  metres  ; 
and  here,  the  uplands  fall  into  the  lowlands.  Such,  for  in- 
stance, are  the  ''  Campos  Quebrados''  (broken  prairie),  north 
of  Asuncion;  the  ''  Altos'^  about  Paraguay  and  Asciirra,  one 
of  the  places  where  Marshal  President  Lopez  established  his 
guerilla  head  quarters;  and  the  "Lomada"" — a  continuity 
of  "Lomas,^^  or  land-waves,  immediately  south  of  Asuncion. 

The  northern  mountain-masses  are  conjectured  to  be  of 
trap  formation,  and  to  inosculate  with  the  Highlands  of  the 
Brazil,  especially  with  the  Serra  do  Espinha90,  whose  out- 
lines extend  to  the  Andine  system.  The  trend  is  laid  down 
as  quasi-meridional;  the  Oriental  slopes  are  the  more 
abrupt,  and  the  ridge  divides  the  Republic  into  two  planes. 
Thus  there  is  a  double  watershed  of  about  equal  areas, 
E.S.-eastward  to  the  Parana,  W.S.-westward  to  the  Paraguay, 
and  the  streams  are  unimportant.  The  Cordillera  is  supposed 
to  rise  in  Matto  Grosso,  about  S.  lat.  19°,  under  the  names 
of   Sierra   de  Amambay    (the    Tupi  Samambaia,   or  poly- 


6  INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY. 

podium),  de  S.  Jose  or  de  Maracaju  (the  Jesuits'  Mbaracuyu, 
the  Passion  Flower).  Running  with  southerly  rhumb 
it  fines  off  into  a  dos  d^ane,  under  the  names  of  Nabi- 
leque,  Caa-guazu  (large  Yerba),  and  Cuchilla  Grande, 
the  divortium  aquarum  which  throws  ofi*  the  Tebicuary 
River.  It  then  sinks  into  low  hills  some  six  miles  north 
of  the  line  of  railway ;  whilst  the  main  ridge  diverging  to 
the  east,  forms,  where  traversed  by  the  Parana  River,  the 
Rapids  south  of  La  Guayra.  Finally,  entering  the  Brazilian 
provinces  of  Parana  and  S.  Paulo,  it  inosculates  with  the 
Eastern  ghauts,  the  Serra  do  Mar;  and  in  the  south-east 
it  joins  the  Cordillera  of  Misiones.  This  mountainous  sec- 
tion of  the  Republic,  deeply  cut  by  streams  and  torrents, 
abounds  in  game,  and  is  rich  in  primaeval  forests  of 
valuable  timber :  the  savage  Redskins,  however,  still  hold 
possession  of  the  land,  and  exploration  will  be  costly,  if  not 
perilous. 

The  remainder  of  the  republic  is  an  expanse  of  drowned 
Savannahs  lying  between  the  two  mighty  rivers,  and  it  is 
believed  that  the  western  half,  drained  by  the  Paraguay,  is 
on  a  lower  plane  than  that  discharging  into  the  Parana. 
The  ground  much  resembles  the  Gran  Chaco,  an  alluvial 
detritus  from  the  Andes,  filling  up  the  great  basin  of  Pampas 
formation.  Here  is  supposed  to  grow  the  Abati  Guaniba  or 
wild  maize,*  and  this  is  said  to  be  the  home  of  the  Ombii 
Fig,  as  the  mountains  are  of  the  Araucaria  (Braziliensis) 
pine.  I  need  not  now  describe  the  features  of  the  land  to 
which  my  diary  will  lead  me. 

As  regards  her  political  distribution,  Paraguay  consisted 


*  Old  writers  give  four  kinds  of  maize  in  these  regions: — 1.  Abati 
nata,  a  very  hard  grain.  2.  Abati  moroti,  in  Tupi "  Marity"  (means  shining), 
a  soft  and  white  grain.  3.  Abati  mini,  a  small  grain  which  ripens  after  a 
month.  4.  Bisingallo,  an  angular  and  pointed  grain,  which  gives  the 
sweetest  flour. 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY.  7 

ill  1857  of  twenty-five  departments^  including  one  in  the 
Gran  Cliaco,  and  the  other  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Parana 
River.  Each  of  these  divisions  had  one  or  more  towns, 
villages,  or  chapels,  with  a  military  commandant,  a  juge  de 
paix,  and  a  curate.  The  capital  is  Asuncion,  numbering 
some  12,000  souls,  which  anchors  raise  to  15,000,  to  21,000, 
and  Colonel  du  Gratz  to  48,000.  Other  places  of  name  are 
El  Pilar,  which  we  shall  visit,  Villa  Rica,  a  pauper  central  set- 
tlement in  the  richest  lands,  hence  generally  known  as  Villa 
Pobre,  and  differing  little  from  the  various  Pueblos,  Pueblitos, 
and  Capillas,  south  of  the  Tebicuary.  It  lies  in  south  latitude 
25°  47'  10'',  and  west  longitude  56°  30'  20",  some  323  feet 
above  Asuncion,  and  580  higher  than  Buenos  Aires.  Villa 
Real  is  built  on  the  river  eighty  leagues  above  Asuncion. 
Twenty  leagues  further  is  Tevego,  now  Fort  Bourbon  or 
Olympo,  the  "  Botany  Bay  ''  of  Dr.  Francia ;  and  there  are 
sundry  minor  places,  as  Encarnacion  on  the  Parana,  and  La 
Villeta,  S.  Pedro,  and  Concepcion  on  the  Paraguay,  rivers. 
These  are  dignified  with  the  pompous  titles  of  cities  and 
towns.      They  are  mere  villages  and  hamlets. 

Where  the  limits  of  a  country  are  not  accurately  laid 
down  we  know  what  to  think  of  its  census.  Moreover, 
the  case  of  Paraguay  is  complicated  by  the  admission  or 
non-admission  of  the  so-called  "  Indian "  element.  We" 
must  therefore  not  be  astonished  to  find  that,  about  the 
beginning  of  the  war,  the  extremes  of  estimate  varied  be- 
tween 350,000  and  1,500,000. 

In  1795  the  accurate  Azara  gives  the  official  census  as 
97,480  souls,  including  11,000  ^'^  mission  Indians.-*^  In 
1818   Messrs.  Rodney  and   Graham*   report   300,000.      In 


*  Mr.  (sometimes  called  Colonel)  Graham,  United  States'  Consul  at 
Buenos  Aires,  was  sent  to  Paraguaj^  by  Mr.  Brent,  American  Charge 
d' Affaires  to  the  Argentine  Confederation.  He  was  received  with  great 
suspicion,  and  he  was  long  delayed  at  El  Pilar. 


8  INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY. 

1825  Messrs.  Rengger  and  Longcharaps  suggest  200,000,  of 
whom  800  only  were  whites  or  Spaniards.  The  Brothers 
Robertson  (Jan.  1st,  1838)  increase  the  figure  to  300,000 
souls,  with  a  regular  force  of  3000  but  never  4000  men. 
In  1839-40,  the  census  of  Paraguay,  ordered  by  Dr. 
Francia  before  his  death,  numbers  220,000  souls,  and  this 
estimate  is  probably  the  most  reliable.  In  1848  General 
Pacheco  y  Obes*  suggests  600,000  to  700,000  souls.  In 
1857  Colonel  du  Graty,  probably  including  the  Indians, 
exaggerates  it  to  1,337,449,  whereas  the  vast  Argentine 
Confederation  had  at  that  time  about  one  and  a-half 
millions.  Since  1856  all  children  of  strangers  born  in 
Paraguay  have  become  by  law  citizens,  but  they  are  too 
few  to  be  of  any  importance.  In  1860  M.  Demersay 
allows  625,000  souls,  and  after  the  calculations  of  Azara, 
18,041  female  to  16,753  male  births.  The  book  officially 
published  in  the  same  year,  under  the  direction  of  the 
Paraguayan  Government,  increases  the  sum  to  1,337,439, 
which  at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  in  1865,  would  give  in 
round  numbers,  400,000.  The  "Almanac  de  Gotha,^^  in 
1861,  suggests  800,000,  and  this  number  is  repeated  by 
Captain  Mouchez  in  1862.  On  the  other  hand,  the  late 
Dr.  Martin  de  Moussy  unduly  reduces  it  under  official  in- 
spiration to  350,000.  Mr.  Gould  (1868)  places  the  total 
between  700,000  and  800,000,  justly  remarking  that  there 
are  no  reliable  data  for  the  computation.  He  estimates 
the  loss  during  the  war  at  100,000  men  (including  80,000 
by  disease),   and  this   would   exceed  the   whole  number  of 


*  "Le  Paraguay,  son  Passe,  son  Present  et  son  Avenir;  par  un 
Etranger  qui  a  vecu  longtemps  dans  le  pays.  Ouvrage  public  ^  Eio 
Janeiro  en  1848,  et  reproduit  en  France,  par  le  General  Oriental  Pacheco 
y  Obes.  Paris :  Lacombe.  1851."  The  general  prefixed  a  preface  to  the 
work  of  a  resident  of  more  than  six  years'  standing,  probably  a  medical 
man. 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY.  9 

the  army  at  first  levied.*  The  Times  newspaper  adopts 
the  figure  600,000,  with  a  fighting  force  of  20,000.  And 
it  is  understood  that  Dr.  Stewart  and  other  officers  tho- 
roughly conversant  with  the  country,  further  diminish  it  to 
400,000. 

Colonel  du  Graty  would  make  the  population  double  in 
seventeen  years ;  but  this  formula  is  also  officially  inspired, 
and  is  probably  greatly  exaggerated.  The  population  of 
Buenos  Aires  has  trebled  in  twenty-five  years  ;  but  in  her 
case  there  has  been  a  most  important  influx  of  foreigners. 
Moreover,  from  the  days  of  Azara,  it  has  been  believed 
that  in  Paraguay  the  births  of  the  sexes  are  not  equal. 
'  Un  fait  assez  notable  est  la  proportion  plus  forte  des 
naissances  du  sexe  feminin  que  celles  du  sexe  masculin.^' 
(Du  Graty,  265.)  This  peculiarity  would  doubtless  be  the 
effect  of  the  hot  damp  climate  of  the  lowlands  aff'ecting  the 
procreative  powers  of  the  male,  and  combined  with  the 
debauchery  of  the  people,  would,  to  a  certain  extent,  tend 
to  limit  multiplication.  We  may,  I  believe,  safely  adopt 
the  220,000  souls  of  Dr.  Francia's  census  in  1840,  and 
double  them  for  1865,  thus  obtaining  at  most  450,000 
inhabitants,  of  whom  110,000  would  be  fighters  between 
the  ages  of  fifteen  and  fifty-five,  and  perhaps  150,000  of 
twelve  to  sixty  years  old.  It  is  evident  that  the  male  popu- 
lation must  now  be  almost  destroyed  or  deported.  Since  early 
1865,  marriages  have  been  rare,  and  of  late  they  have  ceased 
to  be  contracted.  Paraguay  will  presently  be  left  with  a 
population  of  some  200,000  women  and  children— our 
1,500,000  of  inutilized  women  are  nothing  to  such  propor- 
tions as  these.  Unless  she  establish  polygamy  her  history 
is  at  an  end. 

The  Paraguayan    race    may    be    divided    into   four  dis- 


*  Colonel  Thompson,  C.E.  (Chap.  Y.),  computes  the  Paraguayan  army 
in  April,  1865,  at  about  80,000  men. 


10  INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY. 

tinct  types.  The  few  hundred  "  Whites  ^^  forming  the 
aristocracy  of  the  land^  are  descended  from  the  blue 
blood  of  Spain  and  Biscay  through  Guarani  and  other  red- 
skin women^  and  they  have  kept  themselves  tolerably  pure 
by  intermarriage,,  or  by  connexion  with  Europeans.  The 
nobility,  therefore,  is  Spanish ;  the  mobility  is  not.  The 
mulatto  or  ^^  small  ears "  is  a  mixture  of  the  white  with 
the  Indian  or  the  Negro,  the  third  and  fourth  breeds ;  as 
usual,  he  is  held  to  be  ignoble  :  an  "  Indian^^  might  enter 
the  priesthood ;  not  so  the  mulatto.  The  same  was  the  case 
in  the  United  States,  and  in  the  Brazil — the  instinct  of 
mankind  concerning  such  matters  is  everywhere  the  same. 
It  is  only  the  philanthropist  who  closes  his  ears  to  the  voice 
of  common  sense. 

It  is  a  mistake  to  consider  the  Paraguayans  as  a 
homogeneous  race.  The  Whites  or  Spaniards  preponde- 
rated in  and  about  Asuncion ;  whereas  at  Villa  Rica  the 
"  Indian''  element  was  strong.  About  1600-1628,  the 
"  Mamelukes''  of  S.  Paulo  having  seized  and  plundered  the 
nearest  Reduction  of  Jesus  and  Mary  in  the  province  of  La 
Guayra,  distant  only  900  miles  from  their  city,  the  people  fled 
to  Central  Paraguay,  and  their  descendants,  the  Villa  Ricans, 
are  still  known  as  Guayrenos.  In  the  southern  and  south- 
eastern parts  of  the  country  the  blood  was  much  mixed  with 
Itatins"^  or  Itatinguays,  a  clan  which  also  migrated 
from  the  banks  of  the  Yi  River  to  the  seaboard  of 
Brazilian  S.  Paulo.  When  independence  was  declared,  the 
negroes  who  were  household  servants  did  not  exceed  2000 — 
others  reduce  them  to  1000.  The  Consular  Government 
decreed  the  womb  to  be  free,  and  forbad  further  import. 
Until  very  lately,  however,  slaves  were  sold  in  Paraguay. 


*  Thej  may  be  called  so  from  their  original  settlements,  Ita-tin,  mean- 
ing a  white  stone. 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY.  11 

The  Paraguayo — not  Paragueno,  as  some  travellers  write 
the  word — is,  then^  a  Hispano-Guarani,  and  he  is,  as  a  rule, 
far  more  "  Indian'^  than  Spanish.  Most  of  the  prisoners 
with  whom  I  conversed  were  in  fact  pure  redskins.  The 
figure  is  somewhat  short  and  stout,  but  well  put  together, 
with  neat,  shapely,  and  remarkably  small  extremities.  The 
brachycephalic  head  is  covered  with  a  long  straight 
curtain  of  blue-black  hair,  whilst  the  beard  and  mustachios 
are  rare,  except  in  the  case  of  mixed  breeds.  The 
face  is  full,  flat,  a  ad  circular  ;  the  cheekbones  are  high, 
and  laterally  salient;  the  forehead  is  low,  remarkably 
contrasting  with  the  broad,  long,  heavy,  and  highly-de- 
veloped chin ;  and  the  eyes  are  often  oblique,  being  raised 
at  the  exterior  canthi,  with  light  or  dark-brown  pupils,  well- 
marked  eyebrows,  and  long,  full,  and  curling  lashes.  The 
look  is  rather  intelligent  than  otherwise,  combined  with  an 
expression  of  reserve  ;  it  is  soft  in  the  women,  but  in  both 
sexes  it  readily  becomes  that  of  the  savage.  The  nose  is 
neither  heavy  nor  prominent,  and  in  many  cases  besides 
being  short  and  thin  it  is  upturned.  The  masticatory  ap- 
paratus is  formidable,  the  mouth  is  large  and  wide,  the 
jaws  are  strong,  and  the  teeth  are  regular,  white,  and  made 
for  hard  work.  The  coloration  is  a  warm  yellow  lit  up 
with  red ;  the  lips  are  also  rosy.  In  the  "  Spaniards,"  the 
complexion,  seen  near  that  of  the  pure  European,  appears 
of  that  bleached- white  with  a  soup9on  of  yellow  which  may 
be  remarked  in  the  highest  caste  Brahmans  of  Guzerat  and 
Western  Hindostan.  The  only  popular  deformity  is  the  goitre, 
of  which  at  Asuncion  there  is  one  in  almost  every  family ; 
the  vulgar  opinion  is  that  all  who  suffer  from  it  come  from 
the  uplands.  Obesity  is  rare,  yet  the  Paraguayan  is  ebrius 
as  w^ell  as  ebriosus,  and  his  favourite  "  chicha"  beer  of  maize 
or  other  grains,  induces  pinguefaction.  Until  the  late  war, 
he  was  usually  in  good  health.      The  only  medicines  known 


12  INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY. 

to  the  country  were  contained  in  various  manuscripts  of 
simple  recipes^  written  by  Sigismund  Asperger,  a  Hungarian 
priest  J  who  spent  (says  Azara)  forty  years  amongst  the 
missions  of  La  Plata^  and  who,  after  the  expulsion  of  his 
order^  died,  aged  112.  The  Paraguayan  is  eminently  a 
vegetarian,  for  beef  is  rare  within  this  oxless  land,  and  the 
Republic  is  no  longer,  as  described  by  DobrizhofFer^,  the 
"  devouring  grave  as  well  as  the  seminary  of  cattle.^^  He 
sickens  under  a  meat  diet;  hence^  to  some  extent,  the 
terrible  losses  of  the  army  in  the  field.  Moreover,  he  holds 
with  the  Guacho,  that  ^'  Carnero  no  es  carne''^ — mutton  is 
not  meat.  Living  to  him  is  cheap.  He  delights  in 
masamora  (maize  hominy),  in  manioc,  in  the  batata,  or 
^'  Spanish  potato/^  grown  in  Southern  Europe ;  in  various 
preparations  of  cow^s  milk^  and  in  fruity  especially  oranges. 
Of  course  he  loves  sweetmeats,  such  as  "  mel,^^  or  boiled- 
down  cane-juice,  not  the  common  drained  treacle.  His 
principal  carbonaceous  food  is  oil  of  "  mani^^ — the  Arachis, 
here  the  succedaneum  for  the  olive — and  the  excellent 
fish  of  the  Paraguay  river :  the  latter  aliment  has  of  late 
years  become  an  especial  favourite,  as  the  ready  phosphorus- 
supplier  to  the  brain,  and  "  ohne  phosphor  keine  gedenke.^' 
Concerning  the  Paraguayan  character,  authors  greatly 
differ,  though  mostly  agreeing  that  in  some  points  it  is 
singular  and  even  unique.  ^^  He  is  brave  because  he  is 
good,''^  said  Mr.  Mansfield,  overjoyed  to  find  a  man  and  yet 
a  vegetarian,  free,  moreover,  from  the  "  disgusting  vice  of 
shopkeeping.''''  "  Un  peuple  vertueux  et  vaillant,^^  endorses 
General  Pacheco.  "  Paraguayo,^^  is  now  applied  by  the 
Brazilian  to  a  stubborn  mule,  to  a  kicking  horse,  or  to  a 
drunken  man  :  the  women  give  the  name  to  their  naughty 
children.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Spanish  Paraguayans  call 
the  Brazilians  "  Rabilongos,"  the  long-tailed  (monkeys)  ; 
and    the    Guarani    speakers    "  Cambahis,^^   or  niggers.      In 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY.  13 

Argentine  land  the  Luso- American  is  always  talked  of  as 
Macaco,  the  ape.  Travellers  have  noticed  the  manifold 
contradictions  of  the  national  mind — such  as  its  "  Indian^' 
reserve  mixed  with  kindness  and  seeming  frankness;  its  hospi- 
tality to,  and  dislike  of,  foreigners ;  the  safety  of  the  purse, 
not  of  the  throat,  throughout  the  Republic;  and  its  ex- 
cessive distrust,  mefiance,  and  suspicion,  concealed  by  ap- 
parent openness  and  candour.  Some  of  our  countrymen 
employ  Paraguayan  captives  as  shepherds  and  labourers ; 
they  are  found  to  work  well,  but  the  man  will,  if  possible, 
lie  all  day  in  his  hammock  or  about  the  hut,  and  send  his 
wife  afield.  Personally,  I  may  state  that  in  every  transaction 
with  Paraguayans — of  course  not  the  upper  dozen — they 
invariably  cheated  or  robbed  me,  and  that  in  truthfulness 
they  proved  themselves  to  be  about  on  a  par  with  the 
Hindu.  Even  the  awful  Marshal  President  was  not  safe 
from  their  rascality. 

It  is  pretended  by  his  enemies  that  Dr.  Francia,  the 
better  to  sustain  his  despotism,  brought  about  amongst  a 
semi- Republican,  semi-patriarchal  race,  a  state  of  profound 
immorality,  in  the  confined  sense  of  the  word,  and  that  to 
the  encouragement  of  low  debauchery  he  added  that  of 
gambling.  The  fact  is,  he  ruled  the  people  by  systematising 
the  primitive  laxity  and  the  malpractices  which  he  found 
amongst  them ;  and  in  autocracies  generally,  the  liberty 
conceded  to  society  is  in  exact  inverse  ratio  to  the  strictness 
with  which  political  latitudinarianism  is  curbed.  Dr. 
Francia  rose  to  power  over  a  nation  of  ^vhom  each  member 
was  profoundly  satisfied  with  his  family,  his  native  valley, 
his  country ;  with  his  government,  which  he  adored,  and  with 
his  religion,  to  him  the  only  one  upon  earth.  The  con- 
tempt of  mankind  was  the  beginning  of  his  wisdom.  He 
asserted,  as  do  his  friends,  that  Paraguay  has  no  other  fault 
but  that  of  being   the  strongest  and  the  most  prudent  of 


]4  INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY. 

States,  and  that  all  who  speak  against  her  are  actuated  by 
mere  envy  and  jealousy.  A  serf,  the  descendant  of  mere 
serfs — Yanaconas  and  Mitayos* — a  fervent  patriot  more- 
over, the  only  freedom  to  which  he  aspired  was  that  of 
morals.  Everywhere  the  woman  of  Guacho-land  takes  a  most 
matter-of-fact  view  of  a  subject  into  which  most  peoples  of 
the  world  attempt  to  infuse  a  something  of  poetry  and 
romance.  Love  is  with  her  as  eating  and  sleeping — a 
purely  corporeal  necessity.  Like  Rahel  Varnhagen,  she  is 
constant  :  she  always  loves  some  one,  but  not  the  same. 
As  everywhere  in  South  America^  marriage  is  not  the  rule, 
and  under  Dr.  Francia  it  was  forbidden,  or  rather  it  was 
conceded  under  exceptional  circumstances  only ;  this  would 
tend  to  make  of  the  whole  race  one  great  household,  and 
to  do  away  with  onr  modern  limited  idea  of  the  family. 
Of  course  the  women  were  faithful  to  the  men  as  long  as 
they  loved  them,  and  when  that  phase  passed  away  they 
chose  for  themselves  anew.  Like  the  Brazilians,  both  sexes 
are  personally  clean,  and  the  Paraguayan  camps  were  ex- 
ceptionally so,  but  the  people  do  not  keep  their  houses  in 
Dutch  order. 

The  Paraguayan  soldier  has  shown  in  this  war  qualities 
which  were  hardly  expected  of  him.  He  has,  in  fact,  de- 
stroyed himself  by  his  own  heroism.  Most  foreigners  are 
of  opinion  that  two  Paraguayans  are  quite  a  match  for 
three  Brazilians.  The  enemies  of  the  Marshal  President 
assert  that  he  forces  his  subjects  to  fight;  that  the  first 
line  has  orders  to  win  or  fall,  the  second  to  shoot  or 
bayonet  all  fugitives,  and  so  forth  till  finally  the  threads 
are  gathered  together  in  one  remorseless  hand — this  idea  of 


*  In  the  Encoraieiidas  that  belonged  to  laymen,  the  Yanacona  system 
made  the  "Indian"  de  facto  a  life-long  slave.  The  Mitayo  was  a 
temporary  Redskin  serf  who  owed  a  "  mita"  or  corvee  of  two  months  per 
annum  to  his  feudal  lord. 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY.  15 

tlie    triple  line  seems  the   invention  of   Ercilla's  Lautaro. 
If  a  point  be  carried  by  the  enemy,  the  Paraguayan  officers 
are,  it  is  said,  "  passed  under  arms,^^  and  their   wives  and 
children  flogged,  outraged,  and    put  to  death ;  the  men  are 
merely    decimated.       As   will   presently    appear,    the    dis- 
cipline   of    Marshal     President     Lopez    allows    no    mezzo 
termine ;  with  him  it  is  fight    or  die,  either  bravely  in  the 
field,  or  if  a  coward,  by  the  executioners^  shot  in  the  back. 
The  Paraguayan  soldier  has  certainly  fought,  in  his  hatred 
of  the  sterile  anarchy  of  the  purer  race,  and  in  resisting  the 
usurpations  of  his  neighbours,  with  a  tenacity  of  purpose, 
with  a  fierce  intrepidity,  and  with  an  impassible  contempt 
of  death  which  do  him  the  highest  honour.      On  the  other 
hand,  he  is  a  savage  who  willingly  mutilates  the  corpse  of 
his  enemy,  and  hangs  strings  of  ears  to  the  shrouds  of  his 
ship.      The  secret  of  his  success  is,  that  he  holds  himself 
single-handed  a  match  for   any  half-dozen  of  his  enemies. 
The  secret  of  his  failm-e  is,  that  his  enemies  have  divined  him. 
Thus,  when  he  attacks  in  bodies  of  7000,   he  is  opposed  by 
20,000.      In  one  notable  point  is  the  Paraguayan  soldier  de- 
ficient, and  that  is  in  intelligence.    He  wants  initiative  :  his 
arm  is  better  than  his  head.     This  is  the  inevitable  result 
of  the  '^  Indian  "  being  mixed  with  European  blood ;  and  the 
same  may  be  seen  in  the  Chilian  and  the  Peru^dan — good 
soldiers,  but  lacking  brains.     He  despises  pain,  to  which  he 
is  probably  little  sensitive,  and  he  has  not  that  peculiar  ferocity 
which  characterizes  the  people  of  the  Pampas,  as  it  does  all 
the  shepherd  races  of  mankind.     M.  Alberdi  said  well,  '^  Le 
desert   est   le   grand   ennemi   de   FAmerique,    et   dans    un 
desert,  gouverner  c^est  peupler.^^      Man  who  lives  with  beasts 
rapidly  brutalizes   himself.     A  single  day  in  the  Guacho^s 
hut  suffices  to  show  how  his  cruelty  is  born  and  bred.     The 
babies  begin  to  "  balF^  and  lasso  the  dogs,  cats,  and  poultry, 
and  the  little  boy  saws  at  the  lamVs   neck  with  a  blunt 


16  INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY. 

knife,  little  sister  the  while  looking  on  amused.  From 
lambs  to  sheep,  to  black  cattle,  and  to  man  the  steps  are 
easy. 

Paraguay  instances  the  truism,  that  you  may  learn  reading, 
writing,  and  the  four  first  rules  of  arithmetic,  yet  you  may 
know  nothing.  The  Commonwealth  had,  according  to  Colonel 
du  Graty,  500  primary  schools,  and  a  total  of  20,000  pupils. 
The  census  of  1845  registered  16,750  male  pupils,  which,  ac- 
cording to  the  proportions  calculated  in  the  United  States, 
represents  ^th  of  male  population — this  remark  was  made  by 
M.  T.  M.  Lasturria  (Chilian  Minister  to  the  Platine  Republics 
and  the  Brazilian  Empire) .  Assuming  Azara^s  computation 
regarding  the  diflPerence  of  sexes,  16,750  boys  would  be  the 
equivalent  of  18,041  girls  who  are  not  educated.  Since  1861 
the  justices  of  the  peace  were  ordered  to  send  to  school 
all  children  between  nine  and  ten  who  had  no  excuse  for 
staying  away.  Each  district  had  its  school,  but  only  those  of 
the  principal  places  were  subsidized  by  the  State.  The  usual 
pay  tcTthe  teacher  was  one  riyal  (sixty-five  cents)  per  month 
irregularly  paid  by  paterfamilias  ;  consequently  the  school- 
master was  despised  almost  as  much  as  amongst  the  gold 
diggers  of  Australia. 

Instruction  was  made,  as  everywhere  it  should  be, — an- 
other truism — elementary,  compulsory,  gratuitous,  universal. 
Unfortunately,  it  was  not  made  purely  secular.  As  usual  in 
South  America,  Paraguay  indulged  herself  in  the  luxmy 
of  a  State  religion — namely,  the  Catholic,  Apostolic,  and 
Holy  Roman,  modified  by  the  presence  of  a  second  and  a 
stronger  Pope,  in  the  shape  of  a  President.  The  amount 
of  religious  instruction  was,  however,  confined  to  the  "  Chris- 
tian doctrine,^^  an  elementary  catechism  learned  by  heart ; 
in  fact,  they  acquired  theology  enough  to  hate  a  heretic 
neighbour,  without  knowing  the  reason  why.  No  Para- 
guayan was  allowed  to  be  analphabetic — a  curious  contrast 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY.  17 

with  England  and  her  two  millions  of  uneducated  children. 
The  handwriting  became  so  similar^  that  a  stranger  would 
have  thought  the  Republic  confined  to  a  single  writing- 
master.  But  the  educational  element  was  completely  sterile. 
The  only  books  allowed  were  silly  lives  of  saints^  a  few 
volumes  of  travels,  subsidized  and  authorized  by  the  State, 
and  hideous  lithographs  probably  put  on  stone  at  Asuncion ; 
the  worst  and  ignoblest  form  of  literature  once  popular  in 
"  Bookseller's  Row."*^  There  was  little  secondary  instruction, 
and  only  one  institute  in  which  superior  teaching  was  at  any 
time  allowed.  The  newspaper,  more  potent  than  the  steam 
engine,  was  there,  but  the  organ  of  publicity  was  converted 
to  Governmental  purposes. 

"  II  n^y  a  pas  de  Journaux  a  TAssomption,^^  says  the 
Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  with  customary  and  characteristic 
veracity.  As  early  as  April  26,  1845,  a  weekly  paper 
was  established  to  refute  the  calumnies  of  the  Argentine 
press.  El  Paraguayo  Independiente  was  issued  on  Saturdays, 
but  irregularly,  by  the  Printing  office  of  the  State,  and  it 
was  purely  official,  no  advertisements  being  admitted,  whilst 
the  price  per  number  was  one  riyal  (65  cents).  Some 
years  afterwards  it  was  judged  advisable  to  modify  it  after 
a  civilized  fashion,  to  vary  the  matter,  and  to  admit  feuil- 
letons  and  announcements.  It  was  still  the  official  sheet, 
the  Moniteur  of  the  Republic,  and  it  changed  its  name  to 
El  Semanario — the  weekly — not  as  often  written  ''  Seminario" 
— "de  Avisos  y  conocimientos  utiles  J'  It  was  published  at 
the  official  capital,  Asuncion,  Luque,  Paraguary,  or  wherever 
head-quarters  might  be ;  forming  a  single  sheet,  2  spans  long, 
by  1-30,  printed  upon  Caraguata  fibre.  This  wild  Bromelia 
makes  a  stiff"  whitey-brown  paper,  good  for  wrapping, 
but  poorly  fitted  to  receive  type,  especially  when  the  ink 
is  made  from  a  species  of  black  bean.  The  first  two 
columns   are   the   ^'  seccion    officiel ''"'   and  the   rest  is    '^  no 

2 


18  INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY. 

officiel  j "  at  times  a  little  Guarani  poetry  appears  at  the 
end.  The  single  number  costs  four  riyals,  or  twelve  =  three 
dollars.  August^  1868^  saw  its  sixteenth  anniversary.  El 
Semanario  is  published  purely  under  Governmental  inspi- 
ration, hence  the  perpetual  victories  over  the  Brazil,  and  the 
superhuman  valour  of  the  Marshal  President.  It  is  said 
that  the  copies  forwarded  to  the  out  stations  are  ordered, 
especially  since  paper  became  so  scarce,  to  be  read,  and  to 
be  returned.  A  complete  set  of  Semanarios  will  be 
necessary  to  the  future  historian  of  the  war,  and  they  will 
not  be  easily  procured. 

The  Cabichui  newspaper,  translated  Mosquito,  or  Mouche 
k  Miel,  is  a  kind  of  Guarani  Punch  or  Charivari,  established 
by  Marshal  President  Lopez,  to  pay  off  in  kind  the  satirists 
and  caricaturists  of  Rio  de  Janeiro  and  Buenos  Aires,  and 
printed  by  the  Army  Press.  I  saw  but  one  number,  bearing 
date  year  1  Paso  Pucu.  The  paper  was  of  Caraguata, 
prepared  by  M.  Treuenfeldt  of  the  Telegraph  Office,  and 
the  size  1|-  span  long  by  1  broad.  The  single  sheet  begins 
with  a  vignette  of  a  Sylvan  man  surrounded  by  a  swarm  of 
brobdignag  flies,  like  the  Gobemouche  sketched  by  French 
children.  It  has  an  almanac  for  the  week,  sundry  articles, 
all  political,  and  caricatures  of  the  Emperor  and  Empress 
of  the  Brazil,  the  Triple  Alliance,  Marshal  Caxias  and  his 
army,  and  Admiral  Inhauma  with  his  iron-clads.  The 
illustrations,  drawn  by  some  amateur  military  Rapin,  and 
cut  in  wood,  are  rude  in  the  extreme,  but  they  are  not 
more  unartistic  than  was  the  Anglo-Indian  Punch  in  my 
day.  The  Lambare  is  published  only  in  Guarani  for  the 
benefit  of  those  who  cannot  enjoy  Spanish.  The  Continela 
was  in  Spanish,  with  an  occasional  Guarani  article.  Thus 
^^  il  n^  a  pas  de  journaux  ^^  means  that  there  are  four. 

The   commerce  of   Paraguay  is   nominally   free,  but  the 
Government,  that  is  to  say,  the  President,  owns  more  than 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY.  19 

oue-half  of  the  surface  of  the  republic,  and  is,  like  the  old 
Imam  of  Muskat,  the  strongest  and  the  most  active  of 
merchants.  The  country  is,  in  fact,  a  great  estancia  of 
which  the  chief  magistrate  acts  proprietor.  The  so-called 
public  property  supported  about  300,000  head  of  cattle,  and 
thus  the  army  was  easily  rationed ;  it  also  bred  poor  horses 
for  the  cavalry,  the  Paraguayan  being  an  equestrian  race, 
but  not  so  notably  as  the  Guacho  of  the  Pampas,  the 
Centaur  of  the  south.  An  absolute  Government,  a  supreme 
authority,  buys  from  its  subjects  at  the  price  which  best 
suits  it;  sells  the  produce,  and  employs  means  to  maintain  a 
certain  level  of  fortunes  ;  thus  the  Krumen  of  the  West 
African  coast  temper  riches  ("too  plenty  sass"),  which 
would  give  the  individual  power  and  influence  unpleasant 
or  injurious  to  his  brother  man.  The  rudimental  agriculture, 
in  which  a  wooden  plough  is  used  to  turn  up  the  loose  soil, 
is  limited  to  procuring  subsistence,  and  even  before  the  war 
began  it  was  considered  rather  women^s  work  than  men^s. 
The  permanent  military  organization  and  the  excessive 
armaments  always  carried  off  hands,  whose  absence,  combined 
with  drought  and  insects,  rendered  a  surplus  impossible. 
The  following  are  the  exports,  and  there  is  always  a  ready 
market  for  them  down  stream  :■ — 

In  1846,  when  the  present  tariff  of  import  dues  was 
settled,  Yerba  or  Paraguay  tea  was  made  a  monopoly  of 
Government,  who  bought  it  from  individuals  for  $1  (f.)  per 
arroba  (251bs.),  and  sold  it  to  the  exporting  merchants 
for  $6  (f.)*  The  "herb''  was  in  fact  gold  in  the  presi- 
dential pocket,  its  superior  excellence  made  it  in  demand 
throughout  South  America,  and  it  promised  to  be  an  inex- 
haustible mine  of  wealth.      By  means  of  it  only,  Paraguay, 


*  Lieut.- Colonel  Thompson  says  that  in  his  day  Government  piirchased 
at  one  shilling  per  25  lbs.,  and  sold  at  21-32*. 

■       2—2 


20  INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY. 

comparatively  rich  thougli  positively  poor^  never  had  a 
public  debt,  and  was  not^  like  the  adjoining  States^  whose 
revenues  and  expenses  were  unequal^  dependent  upon  foreign 
loans.  At  one  time  she  was  rich  enough  to  assist  deserv- 
ing citizens  with  small  advances  at  6  per  cent. — economies 
effected  by  lessening  her  number  of  employes^  quite  the 
reverse  of  her  neighbours^  policy.  The  tobacco  (petun)"^ 
has  been  compared  with  that  of  the  Havannah^  and  the 
similarity  of  the  red  ferruginous  soils  of  Paraguay  with 
the  celebrated  Vuelta  de  Abajo  has  not  escaped  observa- 
tion ;  about  3,000_,000  pounds  in  bale  and  6^000^000  cigars 
were  the  annual  produce.  The  forests  abound  in  admirable 
timber  for  building  and  bark  for  tanning — such  are  the 
Cebil  and  the  Curupay.  During  the  six  months  ending 
March,  1858,  Paraguay  planted  4,192_,520  ridges  of  cotton 
seed,  and  195,757  shrubs  and  fruit  trees :  and  in  1863  some 
16,600,000  Cotton  plants  were  set  and  the  yield  was  4000 
bales.  The  cotton,  except  only  the  Samuhu  or  Nankeen,  whose 
fibre  wants  cohesion,  has  length,  force,  and  fineness,  in  fact, 
all  the  requisite  qualities.  Rice  and  sugar,  wool  and  fruits, 
can  be  supplied  in  any  quantities.  Cochineal  appears  spon- 
taneously upon  the  Cactus ;  the  woods  abound  in  honey, 
and  the  wild  indigo  has  been  compared  with  that  of  Guate- 
mala. Other  rich  dyes  are  the  Yriburetima  or  "  vulture^s 
leg^^  which  gives  a  blue  metallic  tint,  and  the  Acaugay  root 
which  stains   scarlet.      Leeches  have   been  found,  but  they 

*  As  M.  Demersay  remarks,  it  is  not  a  little  singular  that  the  Bretons 
have  preserved  for  tobacco  the  Guarani  name  "  Pe-tun,"  which  expresses 
the  sound  of  the  breath  escaping  from  the  lips.     He  quotes  the  couplet — 

"  Quant  il  en  attrape  quelqu'un 
De  leurs  chair  il  fait  du  petun." 

It  is  a  far  better  name  than  "  tobacco,"  which  means  a  pipe,  or  than  the 
selfish  "  Angoulmoisine,"  proposed  by  Thevet  of  Angouleme,  who  for 
thirty-six  years  "  navigua  et  peregrina.'*  The  modern  Bretons,  I  believe, 
pronounce  the  word  "butun." 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY.  21 

are  still  sent  from  Hamburg  to  tlie  Plate.  The  principal 
fibres  are  from  tliePiassaba  palm  now  becoming  so  well  known 
in  England,  the  Caraguata  and  the  Ybira,  fitted  for  ropes. 
The  Caoutchouc  of  the  Curuguati  and  the  Cuarepoti  moun- 
tains is  called  Atangaisi.  The  medical  flora  is  rich  in 
gums_,  resins,  and  drugs ;  for  instance,  the  Oriissi,  the  Cana- 
fistula,  the  Copaiba,  and  the  Aguaribay,  popularly  termed 
"  Balm  of  the  Missions. ^^  Some  authors  mention  rhubarb, 
but  I  do  not  know  to  what  plant  they  refer. 

The  imports  comprised  all  things  wanted  by  a  poor  and 
semi-civilized  country :  arms  were  in  especial  demand — 
the  Paraguayans  occupied  Corrientes  in  1849  solely  in 
order  to  secure  the  free  importation  of  warlike  stores. 
Even  lime  was  introduced,  although  there  is  abundance  of 
it  in  the  land.  The  other  articles  were  mainly  wet  goods 
(wines  and  liqueurs) ;  dry  goods  (silks,  cottons,  and  broad 
cloths),  and  hardware.  The  Messrs.  Ash  worth,  of  Buenos 
Aires,  supplied  the  stout  baize  for  the  use  of  the  troops  : 
since  the  beginning  of  the  war  that  occupation  has 
gone.  The  total  value  of  the  books  imported  in  ten  years 
Jiardly  reached  $3299,  and  of  these,  few  if  any  treated  of 
the  arts  or  sciences,  mechanics  or  industry. 

There  were  four  taxes  in  Paraguay  which,  in  ordinary 
times,  sufficed  to  support  the  commonweal.  The  tithes 
abolished  by  Dr.  Francia  were  re-established  by  President 
Lopez  I.,  "  rillustre  magistrat,''''  who  gave  impulsion  to  the 
Code  of  Commerce,  perfected  the  financial  system,  and 
established  a  mint  to  stamp  coin  with  the  arms  of  the  Be- 
public.  He  raised  them  in  lieu  of  $1  on  head  of  cattle 
sold ;  of  the  "  Alcabala,''  or  4  per  cent,  on  yearly  sales,  and 
of  the  vexatious  6  per  cent,  on  purchases  from  foreigners. 
The  custom-house  dues,  as  in  the  Brazil,  w^ere  of  all  the 
most  important  items  of  income,  and  this  evil  is  apparently 
unavoidable  in  young  lands.      The  demi-annatte  or  conceded 


22 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY. 


lands  were  made  to  pay  5  per  cent,  of  their  proper  value^ 
not  one-half,  as  in  its  unwisdom  the  old  Spanish  law  di- 
rected. Lastly  was  stamped  paper,  which  hrought  in  con- 
siderable sums :  the  highest  class  of  $7  (f.)  was  used  for 
patents  of  administration.  As  a  rule  taxation  was  exceed- 
ingly light,,  and  public  works  were  paid  for  out  of  the 
treasury  hoards  or  by  the  profits  derived  from  Yerba. 

A  book  published  in  Paraguay  by  "  supreme"  dictation, 
contains  the  following  scale  of  imports  and  exports  during 
the  ten  years  of  1851-1860 :— 


EXPOETS. 

Impoets. 

Years.                      Yerba,  tobacco,  hides,             Wet  goods,  dry  goods, 
wool,  fruits,  &c.                           iron  ware,  &c. 

1851          .      .      .     $341,616        .      .      .      $230,907 

1852 

470,010 

. 

715,886 

1853 

690,480 

406,688 

1854 

777,861 

. 

. 

595,823 

1855 

1,005,900 

431,835 

1856 

1,143,131 

.        631,234 

1857* 

1,700,722 

.     1,074,639 

1858 

1,205,819 

.        866,596 

1859t        . 

2,199,678 

1,539,648 

1860 

.      1,693,904 

885,841 

10  years.      Total  $11 ,229,121 


,379,107 


In  1861  the  total  revenue  was  estimated  at  8  millions  of 
francs,  about  4j  millions  resulting  from  the  profits  on  Yerba, 
and  the  residue  from  the  sale  of  stamped  paper,  public 
lands,  and  other  taxes. 

In  1862  the  commerce  of  Paraguay  was  represented  by 
exports  $1,867,000,  and  imports  $1,136,000. 


*  Others  estimate  the  revenue  of  1857  at  $2,441,323. 
f  It  has  even  been  asserted   that  in   1859  the  export  and  import  dues 
rose  to  3,500,000  patacoons. 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY.  23 

In  1863  by  exports  $1,700,000,  and  imports  $1,148,000. 

Under  the  senior  Lopez  the  country  was  well  pierced 
with  roads,  despite  the  many  difficulties  of  "  Cienega ''  and 
swamp.  Of  these  one,  twelve  leagues  in  length  and  fifty 
feet  broad,  was  run  over  Mount  Caio,  and  a  second  over 
Mount  Palmares,  thirteen  leagues  long.  A  third,  numbering 
six  leagues,  and  thirty-six  feet  broad,  traversed  the  Cora- 
guazu,  whilst  a  cart-road  was  commenced  from  Villa  Rica 
to  the  Parana  River,  about  parallel  with  the  mouth  of  the 
Curitiba  or  Iguazii^s  influent.  A  single  pair  of  rails  with 
sidings  was  proposed  to  run  from  Asuncion  to  Villa  Rica, 
a  distance  of  108  miles.  This  line  began  in  1858,  and  was 
wholly  the  work  of  the  Paraguayan  Government :  it  had 
reached  Paraguari,  only  a  distance  of  seventy-two  kilometres, 
when  the  allies  captured  Asuncion.  The  chief  engineer  was 
Mr.  Paddison,  C.E.,  now  in  Chili :  that  gentleman,  fortu- 
nately for  himself,  left  Paraguay  before  the  troubles  began, 
and  he  was  succeeded  by  Messrs.  Valpy  and  Burrell,  who 
did  not. 


SECTION  II. 

HISTORICAL    SKETCH. 

The  history  of  Paraguay  —  she  never  forgets  that  she 
is  a  province  senior  to  her  sister,  the  Argentine  Confedera- 
tion— naturally  divides  itself  into  four  distinct  epochs, 
namely,  the 

Age  of  Conquest  (1528-1620);  the  Period  of  Colonial 
AND  Jesuitic  Rule  (1620-1754)  ;  the  Government  of 
THE  Viceroys  (1754-1810);  and  the  Era  of  Indepen- 
dence  (1811). 

Discovered  by  Sebastian  Cabot,  who  in  1530,  after  a 
navigation   of  three   years,  returned   to   Europe,  Paraguay 


24  INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY. 

was  granted  by  the  Spanish  monarchs  to  ^'^  Adelantados''^  or 
private  adventurers,,  men  mostly  of  patrician  blood,  "  as 
good  gentlemen  as  the  king,  but  not  so  rich/"  This  is  the 
romantic  period,  the  childhood  of  her  annals,  upon  which 
the  historian,  like  the  autobiographer,  loves  to  dwell :  no 
new  matter  of  any  interest  has,  hoAvever,  of  late  years, 
come  to  light.  We  still  read,  in  all  writers  from  Robertson 
to  the  latest  pen,  of  the  misfortunes  that  befel  D.  Pedro  de 
Mendoza ;  of  the  exploits  of  his  lieutenant,  D.  Juan  de 
Ayolas,  who  on  August  15th,  1537,  founded  Asuncion;  of 
the  wars,  virtues,  and  fate  of  Alvar  Nunez  (Cabeza  de  Vaca), 
against  whom  his  contador,  or  second  in  command,  the  vio- 
lent and  turbulent  Felipe  Caceres,  rebelled  ;  of  the  conquest 
of  D.  Domingo  Martinez  de  Irala,  who  settled  the  colony ; 
of  the  subjugation  of  the  Guaranis  by  the  Captain  Francisco 
Ortiz  de  Vergara,  for  whom  the  audience  of  Lima  substi- 
tuted D.  Juan  Ortiz  de  Zarate ;  of  the  lieutenant-governor- 
ship of  the  double-dyed  rebel  Felipe  Caceres,  who  had  again 
revolted  against  Vergara,  and  who  expiated  his  offences  by 
imprisonment  and  deportation  to  Spain ;  and  lastly,  of  the 
chivalrous  career  of  the  valiant  Biscayan,  D.  Juan  de  Garay, 
who  after  conquering  and  settling  an  extensive  province 
perished  miserably  (1581)  by  the  hands  of  the  ignoble 
Minuano"^  savages.  Thus  by  conquest  and  violence  arose 
a  state  which  was  doomed  to  fall,  in  the  fulness  of  time, 
bathed  in  its  own  blood. 

As  early  as  1555  Asuncion  became  the  seat  of  the  first 
diocess :  its  juniors  were  Tucuman,  originally  established 
at  Santiago-dcl-Estero,  and  transported  to  Cordoba  in  1700; 
Buenos  Aires,  founded  in  1620;  and  lastly  Salta,  in  1735. 
From  the  beginning,  as   in   the    days    of    Dr.  Francia  and 


*  The  word  is  generally  written  "  Minuane,"  but  I  am  assured  by 
Mr.  R.  Huxham,  of  the  Hio  Grande  do  Sul,  a  competent  judge,  that  Minuano 
is  the  correct  form. 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY.  25 

the  two  Lopez,  tlie  spiritual  was  made  subordinate  to  the 
temporal  power.  Ferdinand  the  Catholic  obtained  from 
Pope  Alexander  VI.  the  right  of  levying  chureh  tithes, 
upon  the  express  condition  of  Christianizing  his  own 
hemisphere.  Shortly  afterwards  (1508)  Julius  II.  made 
over  to  him  the  entire  patronage  of  ecclesiastical  interests. 
Such  concessions  created  the  Spanish  kings  heads  of  the 
South  American  Church,  and  proprietors  of  her  property  ; 
the  Chief  Pontiff  confirmed  all  their  appointments,  and  Papal 
Bulls  had  no  power  in  their  colonies  unless  sanctioned  by 
the  Consejo  de  Indias.  The  first  oath  of  the  Bishop  elect 
was  to  recognise  the  spiritual  superiority,  and  to  swear 
that  he  would  never  oppose  the  prerogative  [patronato  real), 
of  his  sovereign.  In  other  points  the  ecclesiastical  hierarchy 
was  placed  on  the  same  footing  as  in  Spain :  the  prelates 
received  a  portion  of  the  tithes,  whilst  the  rest  was  devoted 
to  propagandism,  and  to  the  building  of  churches. 

The  government  of  the  Adelantazgo  of  private  adven- 
turers— the  era  of  conquest  and  confusion — was  succeeded 
by  the  norm  of  order,  and  by  the  despotism  laical  and 
clerical  of  the  parent  country.  A  royal  decree  in  1620 
divided  Paraguay  into  two  governments,  completely 
independent  of  each  other.  The  first  was  Paraguay 
Proper  :  the  other  was  the  Rio  de  la  Plata,  which  thus  ob- 
tained her  own  capital,  Buenos  Aires,  and  the  seat  of  her 
bishopric.  To  both  colonies  a  king  irresponsible  by  law 
gave  laws  and  functionaries.  Both  Paraguay  and  the  Argen- 
tine Provinces  were  governed  for  more  than  two  centuries 
by  the  Vice-royalty  of  Peru,  and  the  '^Audience  of  Charcas,^' 
whose  only  peer  was  then  that  of  Nueva  Espaiia. 

It  was  at  this  period  that  the  Society  of  Jesus  obtained 
permission  to  catechize  the  indolent,  passive,  receptive 
child-men  called  Guaranis.  They  were  rather  barbarians 
than  savages  like  the  nomads  of  the  Pampas  j   they  culti- 


26  INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY. 

vated  maize  and  sweet  potato^  tobacco  and  cotton,  and 
they  had  none  of  the  headstrong  independence  that  cha- 
racterizes the  Gaucho  or  mixed  breed.  Philip  III.  having, 
by  his  decree  of  1606,  approved  of  the  project  to  propagate 
the  faith,  allowed  two  Italians,  Simoni  Mazeta  and  Giuseppe 
Cataldino  to  set  out  (December  8,  1609)  en  route  for  the 
colony  of  La  Guayra,  where  some  Spaniards  had  settled 
and  had  laid  the  foundations  of  future  empire.  The  Jesuits 
began  to  form  their  rival  government  in  the  regions  to  the 
east  and  south-east  of  the  actual  republic,  the  fertile  valleys 
of  the  Rivers  Parana  and  Uruguay  ;  and  between  1685  and 
1760  they  established  the  Misiones  or  Reductions  of 
Paraguay.  The  whole  Guarani  Republic,  for  it  might 
so  be  called,  contained  thirty-three  Pueblos  or  towns. 
Of  these,  seven,  now  hopelessly  ruined,  lay  on  the  left 
bank  of  the  Uruguay  River ;  fifteen,  also  destroyed,  were 
in  the  modern  provinces  of  Corrientes  and  Entre  Rios  ;  and 
eleven,  of  which  remnants  of  church  or  chapel  still  exist, 
were  in  Paraguay  Proper,  that  is  to  say,  north  of  the  Great 
River.  These  thirty-three  Reductions  numbered  at  one  time 
100,000  souls  and  743,608  head  of  cattle. 

It  is  a  popular  error  to  suppose  that  all  Paraguay  was 
occupied  by  the  Jesuits ;  their  theocracy  extended  over  but 
a  small  portion  of  the  modern  Republic ;  on  the  other  hand 
their  influence  flew  far  and  wide.  In  the  west  and  about 
Asuncion  was  the  civil  government,  one  of  pure  immobility 
as  regards  progress,  and  occupied  only  by  contemptible 
wars,  civil  and  foreign.  The  clergy  was  in  the  last  stage 
of  corruption  and  ignorance,  except  when  its  own  interests 
were  concerned.  New  Spain  alone  numbered  15,000  priests. 
About  1649  South  America  supported  840  monkeries  with 
enormous  estates  :  a  will  that  left  nothiog  to  a  religious 
house  was  held  an  irreligious  act  in  those  days,  and  even 
now  the  prejudice  is  not  quite  obsolete.     Moreover,  every 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY.  27 

landed  property  was  mulcted  in  impositions  known  as 
Capellanias.  Its  nunneries  were  equally  wealthy,  and  most 
of  them  admitted  only  ladies  of  Spanish  origin,  thus  foster- 
ing the  spirit  of  aristocracy  in  the  very  bosom  of  religion. 

It  is  interesting  to  see  how,  in  the  organization  of  those 
early  times,  we  find  adumbrated  the  system  of  Paraguay  in 
the  heart  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Then,  and  not  as 
vulgarly  supposed  with  Dr.  Francia,  commenced  the  isola- 
tion which  afterwards  gave  to  Paraguay  the  titles  of  Japan 
and  "  Chine  Americaine.''^  Then  began  the  sterile,  extra- 
vagant theocratic  despotism  which  made  the  race  what  it 
still  is,  an  automaton  that  acts  as  peasantry  and  soldiery ; 
not  a  people  but  a  flock,  a  servum  pecus  knowing  no  rule 
but  that  of  their  superiors,  and  whose  history  may  be 
summed  up  in  absolute  submission,  fanaticism,  blind  obe- 
dience, heroic  and  barbarous  devotion  to  the  tyrant  that 
rules  it,  combined  with  crass  ignorance,  hatred  of,  and 
contempt  for,  the  foreigner.  Then  first  arose  the  oligarchy, 
the  slavery  of  the  masses,  the  incessant  corvees  which  still 
endure,  the  regimentation  of  labour,  and  even  the  storing  of 
arms  and  ammunition.  Bearing  this  fact  in  mind,  we 
have  the  key  that  opens  many  a  fact,  so  inexplicable  to  the 
world,  in  the  events  of  the  last  five  years^  war. 

The  Jesuits  appeared  as  Thaumaturgi,  missioners  and 
martyrs  :  in  those  days  they  headed  progress  and  they  strove 
to  advance  science,  until  the  latter  outstripping  them,  they 
determined  to  trip  her  up.  Their  system  justified  hunting- 
expeditions  to  catch  souls  for  the  Church ;  and  Azara 
has  well  described  their  ingenuity  in  peopling  the  Mission 
of  San  Joachim.  By  founding  in  every  city  churches  and 
religious  houses  they  monopolized  education,  beginning 
even  with  the  babe,  and  by  immense  territorial  property 
they  rose  to  influence  and  power.  The  Guaranis,  taught 
to  hold  themselves  a  saintly  and  chosen^  a  privileged  and 


28  INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY. 

God-elected  race,  and  delighted  to  be  so  patriarclially  and 
caciqually  ruled,  prostrated  themselves  before  the  Fathers 
in  body  and  mind  ;  looked  up  to  them  as  dog  does  to  man, 
and  bound  up  in  them  their  own  physical  as  well  as 
spiritual  existence. 

The  Superior  of  the  Missions  being  empowered  by  the 
Pope  to  confirm,  bishops  were  not  wanted.  That  high 
official  usually  resided  at  Candelaria,  on  the  left  bank  of 
the  upper  Parana  River.  In  each  of  the  reduced  villages 
was  a  ^'  College^^  for  two  Jesuits — misite  illos  binos,  the 
practice  of  the  earliest  Christian  Apostles,  was  with  them  a 
rule  as  in  Japan  and  Dahome.  One  charged  with  temporals 
was  the  Rector,  Misionero,  Cmxta  or  Curate ;  the  other, 
called  Doctrinero  or  Companero,  the  Vice-Curate,  managed 
spiritual  matters.  Each  settlement  also  had  its  Cabildo 
or  municipality,  composed  of  a  Corregidor,  an  Alcalde 
(magistrate)  and  his  assessors;  but  as  in  the  native  corps 
of  the  Anglo-Indian  army,  these  were  native  officers 
under  command  of  the  white  strangers.  The  Fathers  also 
decided,  without  appeal  to  the  ordinary  judges  or  to  the 
Spanish  tribunals,  all  cases  civil  and  criminal;  the  only 
rule  or  law  was  the  Jesuit^s  will,  and  the  punishments  were 
inflicted  through  the  Cabildos  over  which  they  presided. 
Presently  the  royal  tithes  and  taxes  were  replaced  by  a 
fixed  levy  in  order  to  avoid  communication  with  the 
agent  at  the  head-quarters  of  civil  power. 

A  system  of  complete  uniformity  was  extended  even  to 
the  plan  of  the  settlement  and  of  the  houses.  Travellers 
in  the  Missions  have  deemed  themselves  victims  of  delusion 
when  after  riding  many  leagues  from  one  Reduction  they 
found  themselves  in  a  facsimile  of  that  which  they  had 
left.  All  the  settlements  had,  like  the  settlers,  saints^  names. 
The  normal  plan  was  a  heap  of  pauper  huts  clustering 
about  a  church  of  the  utmost  procurable  magnificence,  and 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY.  29 

tlie  establishments  of  the  Fathers  were  in  the  church,  not 
in  the  hut.  The  Jesuits  were  forbidden  to  converse  singly 
with  women  or  to  receive  them  in  their  home ;  but  Jose 
Basilio  da  Gama  and  their  other  adversaries  declare  that 
most  of  them  had  concubines  and  families. 

The  community  was  a  mere  phalanstery.  The  Guaranis 
w^ere  taught  by  their  Fathers  to  hear  and  to  obey  like 
schoolboys,  and  their  lives  were  divided  between  the  chapel 
and  farm  work.  Their  tasks  were  changed  by  Jesuit  art 
into  a  kind  of  religious  rejoicing,  a  childish  opera.  They 
marched  afield  to  the  sound  of  fiddles,  following  a  pro- 
cession that  bore  upon  the  Anda  or  platform  a  figure  of 
the  O^oTOKog ;  this  was  placed  under  an  arbour,  whilst  the 
hoe  was  plied  to  the  voice  of  psalmody,  and  the  return  to 
rest  was  as  solemn  and  musical  as  the  going  forth  to  toil. 
This  system  is  in  fact  that  of  the  Central  African  Negro 
— I  have  described  the  merrymakings  which  accompany 
the  tilling  of  Unyamwezi  and  the  harvest-home  of 
Galla-land.  The  crops  of  yerba  and  tobacco,  dry  pulse 
and  cotton,  cut  with  the  same  ceremony,  were  stored  with 
hides,  timber,  and  coarse  hand-woven  stuff's,  in  public 
garners  under  the  direction  of  the  Padres.  After  feeding 
and  clothing  his  lieges.  King  Jesuit  exported  the  remains 
of  the  common  stock  in  his  own  boats,  and  exchanged  it  at 
Buenos  Aires  for  the  general  wants — hardware,  drugs, 
looms,  agricultural  implements,  fine  clothes  to  be  given  as 
prizes,  and  splendid  stuff's  and  ornaments  for  the  Chm-ch. 
No  Guarani  could  buy  or  sell ;  he  was,  however,  graciously 
permitted  to  change  one  kind  of  food  for  another. 
Feminine  work  was  submitted  to  the  same  rule  as  masculine, 
and  "  Dii  laboribus  omnia  vendunt'^  became  strictly  true, 
but  only  of  the  priestly  purchasers. 

In    some   Missions    the   toil   was    constant    and    severe, 
indeed   so   much    so    as    to    crush    out    the    spirit   of   the 


30  INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY. 

labourers.  A  curious  report^  alluded  to  at  the  time  by 
most  Jesuitical  and  anti-Jesuit  writers^  and  ill-temperedly 
noticed  by  Southey^  spread  far  and  wide — namely,  that  the 
Fathers  were  compelled  to  arouse  their  flocks  somewhat 
before  the  working  hours,  and  to  insist  upon  their  not 
preferring  Morpheus  to  Venus,  and  thus  neglecting  the 
duty  of  begetting  souls  to  be  saved.  I  have  found  the 
tradition  still  lingering  amongst  the  modern  Paraguayans. 
Everything,  pleasures  as  well  as  labours,  meals  and 
prayers,  was  regulated  and  organized  by  the  Fathers.  The 
saint''s  day  was  duly  celebrated  with  feasting,  dancing, 
drinking,  tournaments,  bull-baiting,  and  cock-fighting ;  in 
the  simple,  childish  Indian  brain  religion  consisted  of 
fetes  and  processions.  The  ceremonies  of  worship  and  even 
the  mode  of  entering  church  were  made  matters  of  etiquette. 
The  Fathers  wore  their  golden  copes ;  the  children,  robed 
in  white,  swung  their  censers,  and  the  faithful  paced  in 
complacent  ranks  with  measured  steps  under  the  perfumed 
shade  of  their  orange  groves.  The  description  reads  like  a 
scene  of  piping  and  fiddling  in  a  play.  Dress  was  regulated 
— the  women  wore  petticoats  and  armless  chemises  girt  at  the 
waist,  with  hair  plaited  into  one  or  two  tails  and  adorned 
with  a  crimson  flower;  the  men  were  clad  in  ponchos  and 
drawers ;  both  sexes  looked  like  big  babies,  and  they 
went  barefoot,  still  the  fashion  of  middle  and  lower  class 
Paraguay. 

Education  in  the  Missions  was,  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
what  the  Republic  has  preserved  in  the  nineteenth.  The 
Jesuits,  whose  university  was  at  Cordoba  in  the  modern 
province  of  Santa  Fe,  had  their  o\>ti  printing-presses  in  the 
Reductions ;  they  were  diligent  students  of  the  barbarous 
native  dialects,  which  they  soon  advanced  by  means  of 
grammars  and  vocabularies  to  the  rank  of  semi-civilized 
tongues;  they  did  the  thinking  for  their  converts,  but  they 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY.  31 

taught  them  to  read,  to  recite  the  Doctrina  Christiana  in 
Guarani,  and  to  study  certain  books  of  piety.  The  people 
were  forbidden  to  learn  Spanish;  and  when  the  Inquisition 
put  ''  a  rindex"'  poor  Robinson  Crusoe  (1790),  doubtless 
because  he  managed  to  live  so  long  without  the  aid  of  a 
ghostly  father,  we  may  imagine  what  must  have  been  the 
Jesuitical  succedaneum  for  education.  To  educate  is  to 
enfranchise,  to  enfranchise  is  to  disestablish,  or  rather  to 
disendow.  We  in  England  at  least  understand  that,  other- 
wise we  should  long  ago  have  made  education  compulsory _, 
gratuitous,  secular,  universal. 

The  Jesuits  established  their  system  by  the  means  most 
efficacious  amongst  savages,  the  grasp  of  the  velvet-gloved 
iron  hand.  Their  prime  object  was  complete  isolation,  to 
draw  a  cordon  between  the  Missions  and  the  outer  world ; 
even  communication  between  the  "  Indians'*^  of  the  several 
Reductions  was  rarely  allowed.  It  succeeded,  this  deadening, 
brutalizing  religious  despotism,  amongst  the  humble  settled 
Guaranis  who  were  eager  to  be  tyrannized  over,  and  the 
tree  planted  by  the  hand  of  St.  Ignatius  began  to  bear  its 
legitimate  fruit  in  1864.  I  need  hardly  say  that  the  fruit 
is  the  utter  extinction  of  the  race,  which  the  progress  of 
mankind  is  sweeping  from  the  face  of  the  earth.  When 
tried  amongst  the  fiercer  and  more  warlike  nomads  of  the 
Gran  Chaco  the  system  was  an  utter  failure.  The  Guaranis 
themselves  made,  as  might  be  expected,  so  little  progress  in 
civil  life  that  after  the  expulsion  of  the  Fathers  they  found 
self-government  impossible,  and  ''  Sint  ut  sunt  aut  non  sint^'' 
seems  to  have  been  the  clerical  axiom.  It  was  deemed 
necessary  to  organize  under  the  Dominicans  an  imitative 
Jesuitism.  The  converts  speedily  relapsed  into  their  pris- 
tine barbarism,  and  many  of  them  flying  the  settlements 
returned  to  their  woods  and  swamps. 

The  Missions  of  Paraguay  have  often  been  described — of 


32  INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY. 

course  in  the  two  opposite  ways.  The  Jesuit  Charlevoix 
and  the  devout  Muratori^  undeterred  by  qualms  of  con- 
science touching  pious  frauds,  have  given  the  rosy  side  of 
the  view.  And  considered  from  the  clerical  stand-point, 
these  Missions  were  the  true  primitive  Christian  idea  of 
communism,  the  society  presided  over  by  Saint  Paul,  and 
the  establishment  which  Fourier,  Robert  Owen,  Mr.  Harris, 
and  a  host  of  others  have  attempted  to  revive  in  this  our 
day.  Severe  taskmasters,  and  carrying  out  propagandism  by 
the  sweat  of  their  scholars^  brows,  the  Fathers  made  this 
world  a  preparatory  school  for  a  nobler  future ;  they  crushed 
out  the  man  that  he  might  better  become  an  angel,  and 
they  forced  him  to  be  a  slave  that  he  might  wax  fit  for  the 
kingdom  of  heaven.  The  learned  and  honest  D.  Felix  de 
Azara  (Vol.  I.  Chapter  XIII.),  who  visited  the  Missions 
shortly  after  the  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits,  and  a  host  of  less 
trustworthy  and  more  hostile  authors,  show  the  reverse  of 
the  medal.  The  latest  study  upon  the  subject  of  the  Jesuit 
Reductions  is  that  of  the  late  Dr.  Martin  de  Moussy.  Its  geo- 
graphy must  be  studied  with  some  reserve,  but  much  of  the 
historical  matter  was,  I  am  assured,  contributed  by  the 
literary  ex-President  of  the  Argentine  Confederation,  D. 
Bartholome  Mitre. 

In  most  writings,  especially  those  inspired  by  the  Jesuits, 
two  remarkable  features  of  the  Missions-*  system  have  either 
been  ignored,  or  have  been  slurred  over. 

The  first  is  the  military  organization  which  the  preachers 
of  a  religion  of  peace  and  goodwill  to  man  introduced 
amongst  their  neo-Christians.  All  the  adult  males  were 
regimented;  the  houses  were  defended  by  deep  fosses  and 
stout  palisades  ;  leave  was  obtained  from  Spain  to  manu- 
facture gunpowder  and  to  use  fire-arms,  and  when  these 
were  wanting  the  converts  were  armed  with  native  weapons. 
The  ostensible  cause  was  the  hostility  of  the  "  Mamelucos,'-' 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY.  33 

the  bold  Brazilian  Paulistas,  the  "  sinful  and  miserable'' 
Paulitians  or  Paulopolitans,  whom  Muratori  attacks  with 
the  extreme  of  odium  theologicum.  I  may  here  remark  that 
no  movement  has  been  more  systematically  maligned  and 
misrepresented^  than  the  hostilities  carried  on  between 
the  years  1620  and  1640  by  the  people  of  S.  Paulo.  They 
had  justly  expelled  from  their  young  city  the  meddling  and 
greedy  Jesuits  ;  and  the  employes  of  the  society,  Charlevoix, 
for  instance,  happened  at  this  time  to  have  the  ear  of 
Europe.  The  quarrel  was  purely  political.  The  Spanish 
Crown,  which  had  absorbed  Portugal  in  1580,  was  en- 
croaching rapidly  through  its  propagandists,  as  does  Russia 
in  High  Asia,  upon  the  territory  claimed  by  and  belonging 
to  the  Paulistas ;  and  the  latter,  who  in  that  matter  were 
true  patriots,  determined  to  hold  their  country's  own  with 
the  sword.  I  do  not  wonder  to  see  half-read  men  like 
Wilcocke  (p.  286)  and  Mansfield  (p.  441)  led  wrong  by  the 
heroic  assurance  of  the  Jesuit  historians ;  but  the  accurate 
Southey,  a  helluo  librorum,  ought  certainly  to  have  known 
better.*  Working,  however,  the  Mameluco  invasion,  the 
Company  of  Jesus  managed  to  form  under  the  sway  of  its 
General  an  imperium  in  imperio,  which  in  ]  750  could  resist 
the  several  campaigns  directed  against  it  by  the  united  arms 
of  the  Brazil,  of  Buenos  Aires,  and  of  Montevideo.  We 
may  still  learn  something  from  their  military  regulations  ; 
for  instance,  from  the  order  of  Father  Michoni,  "  The  chil- 
dren ought  also  to  be  drilled,  and  to  undergo  review." 

It  is  interesting  to  see  in  the  present  year  the  same  dis- 
position— oflPensive  and  defensive,  the  individual  superiority 
of  the  descendants  of  Sepe  and  Cacambo,  and  the  leader- 
ship of  one  more  terrible  than  the  terrible  Father  Balda. 


*  I  propose   to  reconsider  this   interesting  subject  in   a   forthcoming 
volume,  "  The  Lowlands  of  the  Brazil." 

8 


34  INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY. 

The  second  is  the  secret  working  by  the  Missioners  of 
gold  mines — a  subject  kept  in  the  profoundest  obscurity. 
A  host  of  writers^  the  latest  being  M.  Demersay^  doubts 
their  very  existence,  and  makes  the  precious  metals  an 
extract  of  agriculture.  But  their  opinions  are  of  little 
value  in  the  presence  of  earlier  authors ;  for  instance,  of 
^^  Mr.  R.  M.^''  ['^  A  Relation  of  a  Voyage  to  Buenos  Ayres, 
1716  ■'■'),  who  declares  that  the  Misiones  had  gold  diggings, 
and  of  Mr.  Davie^  (^'  Letters  from  Paraguay"),  who,  travelling 
in  1796-1798^  asserts  that  the  Fathers  of  the  Reductions 
had  80,000  to  100,000  disciplined  troops  to  defend  their 
mines.  The  latter  author  saw  pure  gold  collected  from 
the  banks  of  the  Uruguay,  upon  which,  we  may  re- 
member, were  seven  of  the  thirty  Missions.  He  imprudently 
travelled  through  the  old  Missions  in  a  semi-clerical  dis- 
guise, and  he  suddenly  disappeared  without  leaving  a  trace.  I 
have  myself  handled  a  lump  of  virgin  silver  from  the  High- 
lands of  Corrientes,  known  as  the  Sierra  de  las  Misiones  ; 
and  a  French  painter  at  S.  Paulo,  who  was  also  aware  of 
its  existence,  proposed  to  exploit  the  diggings,  setting  out 
from  Brazilian  Rio  Grande  do  Sul  with  an  armed  party 
strong  enough  to  beat  off  hostile  '^  Indians."" 

The  Jesuits,  it  may  be  remembered,  were  almost  all 
foreigners — Italians  and  French,  Germans  and  Portuguese, 
English  and  Irish.  Their  communistic  system,  their  gold, 
and  their  troops  at  last  seriously  alarmed  the  Spanish 
monarchy.  Men  had  heard  of  Nicholas  Neengiru,  "  King 
Nicholas  of  Paraguay ;"  f  and  a  proverb-loving  race  quoted 
the  saying,  "  La  mentira  es  hija  de  Algo."  By  his  decree 
of  April  27,  1767,  issued  some  220  years  after  the 
Jesuits  had   landed   upon  the    shores   of    South   America, 


*  I  do  not  know  why  this  traveller  has  had  the  honour  to  be  so  severely 
abused  by  M.  Alexandre  Dumas  (pere). 

t  Concerning  this  personage,  see  Southey,  vol.  iii.  469. 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY.  35 

Charles  III.  "  estranged  them  from  all  his  dominions/' 
The  peculiar  secresy,  the  sealed  orders,,  and  the  other  pre- 
cautions with  which  they  were  deported  show  what  Iberia 
believed  to  be  their  power  of  resistance. 

The  era  of  progress  seemed  to  have  dawned,  but  it  was 
fraught  with  misery  to  the  Misiones.  Deprived  of  their 
Jesuits,  a  few  lingered  on  to  the  present  century,  and  now 
they  are  virtually  extinct.  About  1817,  General  Artigas 
raised  the  "  Indians''  against  the  Portuguese,  who  punished 
them  by  destroying  their  settlements,  whilst  their  ^^  Protector" 
finished  wasting  all  those  between  the  Rivers  Parana  and 
Uruguay.  In  1838  the  cattle,  which  nearly  two  centuries 
before  had  numbered  upwards  of  700,000,  were  reduced 
to  8000 ;  and  in  1848  the  6000  souls  of  the  eleven  Para- 
guayan Missions  were  dispersed  by  the  first  President  Lopez. 

Whilst  ecclesiastical  Paraguay  was  thus  rising  to  decline 
and  to  fall,  laical  Paraguay,  subject  as  has  been  said  to  the 
Viceroy alty  of  Peru,  was  slowly  advancing  in  the  colonial 
scale.  Her  port,  Buenos  Aires,  advantageously  situated 
for  the  carrying  trade  between  Europe  and  the  Andine 
Regions,  became  the  nucleus  of  important  commerce,  and 
demanded  defence  against  the  Portuguese.  By  royal 
rescript  of  August  8,  1776,  the  King  of  Spain  created  the 
Viceroyalty  of  Rio  de  la  Plata,  independent  of  Peru,  and 
it  presently  embraced  the  Intendencies  or  Provinces  of  La 
Plata,  Paraguay,  Tucuman,  Potosi,  Santa  Cruz  de  la  Sierra, 
High  Peru  now  Bolivia,  and  Cuyo  alias  Chile  East  of  the 
Andes,  now  Mendoza,  and  S.  Juan.  These  Intendencies 
all  preserved  certain  privileges  which  gave  them  a  manner 
of  autonomy.  The  new  division,  with  Buenos  Aires  as  a 
capital,  contained  about  3,000,000  souls,  and  could  ex- 
pend upon  government  $3,000,000,  remitting  the  while 
$1,000,000  per  annum  to  the  king.  It  was  separated  into 
two  Presidencies — Paraguay  and  Buenos  Aires,  whose  Royal 

3— :2 


36  INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY. 

Audience  was  established  in  1783^  and  thus  it  became  inde- 
pendent of  Ch  areas  (Chuquivaca)  where  the  high  Court 
dated  from  1559. 

The  first  Viceroy  of  the  Provinces  of  the  Rio  de  la  Plata, 
appointed  March  21, 1778_,  was  Lieutenant- General  D.  Pedro 
de  Zeballos.  This  officer  was  at  once  Captain- General 
with  command  of  army,  fleet,  and  church,  and  with  civil 
as  well  as  military  powers.  His  successors  kept  up  con- 
siderable state ;  they  lived  pompously  upon  gifts,  unlawful 
to  accept ;  and  they  cared  little  for  the  orders  which  forbad 
them  to  trade,  to  borrow,  or  to  lend  money ;  to  marry  with- 
out permission,  to  become  sponsors,  officially  to  attend 
marriages  or  funerals,  to  have  intimate  friends,  or  even  to 
possess  land.  The  Viceroys  were  removable  at  will;  and, 
at  the  end  of  their  term,  each  was  expected  before  he 
went  home,  to  justify  his  acts  before  a  Tribunal  de  Resi- 
dencia.  The  latter  was  held  for  sixty  to  ninety  days  by 
a  doctor  of  laws^  whom  the  King  chose  out  of  three  nomi- 
nees^ proposed  to  him  by  the  Council  of  the  Indies.  This 
was  some  check  upon  a  bad  man ;  otherwise,  as  a  Viceroy 
himself  said,  the  Viceroy  could  be  "  more  sovereign  than 
the  Grand  Turk.^^  At  first,  the  locum  tenens,  during  the 
absence  of  the  King^s  representative,  was  the  Rejente,  or 
senior  Oidor,  the  Auditor-judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  (Audi- 
encia).  In  the  latter  days  of  colonial  rule,  the  senior  military 
authority  claimed  the  place,  and  thus  in  the  revolutionary 
times  and  to  the  present  age,  Spanish  America,  it  may  be 
remarked,  has  ever  preferred  the  rule  of  generals. 

Meanwhile,  the  province  of  Paraguay,  here  the  cradle  of 
Spanish  colonization,  that  Mediterranean  state,  distant  from 
the  ocean  and  from  the  Platine  ports  affected  by  Europeans, 
isolated  from  the  world,  and  deeply  depressed  by  Jesuitic 
Socialism,,  owed  all  her  advantages  to  the  suavity  of  the 
climate^  the  fertility  of  the  soil,  and  the  easy  simple  life  which. 


INTRODUCTORY   ESSAY.  37 

however  relaxed,  favoured  to  some  extent,  population.  The 
early  Spaniards  had  attempted  to  make  it  a  high  road  to 
Peru  and  to  the  Cobija  port  on  the  Pacific,  but  the  inordinate 
difficulties  which  it  presented  diverted  the  current  of  trade 
to  the  western  lines,  via  Tucuman  and  Mendoza.  It  still 
preserved  much  of  the  ecclesiastical  system,  so  adverse  to 
moral  dignity  and  mental  independence,  and  so  fatal  to 
development  and  progress.  In  fact,  at  the  date  when  the 
revolution  broke  out,  the  Paraguayans  were  the  people  least 
prepared  for  independence.  They  cared  little  whether  of 
170  Viceroys  of  the  Rio  de  la  Plata,  only  four  were  American 
born,  or  if  the  New  World  had  given  but  fourteen  out  of 
602  Captains -general ;  they  had  transferred  to  the  Crown 
the  allegiance  which  they  once  owed  to  the  Church,  and  in 
their  ignorance  and  apathy,  they  felt  themselves  happy. 

We  now  approach  the  fourth  epoch  of  Paraguayan  history. 
It  begins  in  1811  with  the  birth  of  a  Republic,  which 
now  numbers  nearly  two  generations.  The  last  of 
the  sixty-five  intendents  or  provincial  governors  was  Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel D.  Bernardo  de  Velasco,  a  brave  but  unin- 
telligent soldier,  whose  patriarchal  kindness  pleased  his 
subjects.  Influenced  by  this  popular  ruler,  the  people  heard 
with  indiff'erence  the  glad  tidings  brought  by  an  emissary 
from  the  Buenos  Airean  Junta,  who  announced  the  depo- 
sition of  the  Viceroy  and  the  revolution  of  May  25,  1810. 
A  general  assembly  of  the  province,  especially  convoked, 
hesitated  to  accept  the  new  regime,  and  pointedly  refused 
to  recognise  the  "  hegemony  ^^  of  Buenos  Aires.  Thereupon 
the  Revolutionary  Junta  resolved  to  try  the  effect  of  a 
corps  of  800  men,  headed  by  one  of  their  best  soldiers.  General 
D.  Manuel  Belgrano.  He  was  allowed  to  advance  nearly 
300  miles,  till  his  force  was  reduced  from  800  to  600  men  ; 
he  was  beaten  by  the  half-armed  Paraguayans  under  Colonel 
Cabanas,    at   the    Convent   of   Paraguary,   in   the  heart  of 


38  TNTRODUCTOEY    ESSAY. 

ParagTiay^  and  di'iven  back  to  the  Tacuari  River,,  in  the 
Misiones^  and  on  March  10^  1811^  he  was  disgracefully 
compelled  to  capitulate.  The  army  was  allowed  to  retire 
without  molestation^  and  Belgrano^  spending  the  end  of  the 
month  with  the  Paraguayan  officers^  used  his  time  in  show- 
ing the  advantages  which  their  country  would  secure  by 
throwing  off  the  yoke  of  Spain.  Shortly  afterwards  were 
heard  in  the  mouths  of  the  soldiery  allusions  to  liberty, 
liberal  ideas,  independence  and  nationality,  which  a  few 
days  before  would,  if  they  could  have  understood  them,  have 
made  them  tremble. 

After  the  "  conferences  of  Tacuari ''  and  a  brief  occupa- 
tion of  Corrientes,  the  Paraguayan  army  returned  to 
Asuncion,  leaving  at  Ytapua,  now  Encarnacion,  200  men 
under  D.  Fulgencio  Yegros.  This  officer,  who  had  been 
second  in  command  to  Colonel  Cabanas,  still  kept  up  com- 
munications with  Buenos  Aires,  and  he  was  ably  assisted 
by  a  native  of  that  city  and  a  relative  of  General  Belgi'ano, 
Dr.  D.  Pedro  Somellera,*  in  arousing  the  spirit  of  the 
Paraguayans  to  adopt  a  change  of  Government.  The 
Governor,  Velasco,  who  was  fonder  of  humming-birds  than 
of  public  affairs,  had  lost  his  prestige  during  the  campaign. 
Suddenly,  on  the  night  of  April  3,  1811,  a  band  of  soldier 
conspirators,  headed  by  their  officers,  occupied  the  barracks, 
and  D.  Bernardo,  unable  to  resist,  accepted  a  declaration  of 
independence,  unaccompanied  by  a  single  death  and  animated 
by  an  usually  moderate  patriotism. 

The   viceregal    power   thus    overthrown.    Dr.    Somellera 


*  The  two  Swiss  naturalists  Rengger  (known  as  Juan  Rengo)  and  Long- 
champs  lived  in  Paraguay  between  July,  1819,  and  May,  1825.  They 
then  returned  to  Europe,  and  produced  in  1827,  amongst  other  works, 
the  "  Essai  Historique  sur  la  Revolution  du  Paraguay."  This  naive  and 
highly  interesting  volume  was  translated  into  Spanish  by  D.  Florencio 
Varela  (Monte  Video,  1846) ;  and  it  was  enriched  with  the  curious  notes 
of  this  Dr.  Somellera,  Assessor  of  the  Intendency  of  Paraguay. 


INTRODUCTORY   ESSAY.  39 

proposed  a  Junta,  composed  of  three  members  — 
namely  Generals  D.  Pedro  Juan  Caballero,  and  D. 
Fulgencio  Yegros,  with  Dr.  (D.C.L.  —  others  say  D.D.) 
Jose  Gaspar  Rodriguez  de  Francia.  The  two  former  were 
at  once  accepted,  the  latter,  whose  name  was  fated  to  sound 
sinister  in  the  ears  of  men,  owed  his  rise  to  the  peculiar 
persistence  of  his  character.  Born  about  1757,  ten  years 
before  the  expulsion  of  the  Societas  Jesu,  he  was  at  the 
time  when  this  Revolution  broke  out,  of  mature  age.  He 
began  life  as  a  student  of  theology  at  the  college  of  Cordoba, 
and  for  many  years  he  was  supposed  to  be  half  a  Jesuit. 
Of  an  ascetic  tui-n  of  mind,  and  fond  of  study  and  solitude, 
he  acquired  also  the  reputation  of  a  Cabalist.  Become  by 
profession  a  lawyer,  he  secm-ed  by  his  talents,  his  expe- 
rience, and  his  unusual  integrity,  the  esteem  of  his  fellow 
countrymen,  who  selected  him  for  various  important  offices 
in  the  Province.  For  some  years  during  middle  age  he  had 
retired  to  his  house  in  the  suburbs  of  the  capital,  and  to  a 
farm  not  distant  from  Asuncion ;  there  he  devoted  himself 
to  the  perusal  of  the  few  books  on  science  and  politics 
which  were  then  procurable.  He  read  greedily  everything 
published  about  the  French  Republic,  the  Consulate,  and 
the  Empire,  and  evidently,  as  says  M.  Quentin  (copying 
Rengger),  he  had  mastered  his  Rollin,  and  dreamed  in  early 
days  of  becoming  Consul,  Dictator,  and  Imperator. 

The  portrait  of  this  truly  remarkable  man  has  been  pre- 
served :  I  secured  a  photograph  taken,  of  course,  from  a 
portrait,  which  showed  him  in  about  his  sixtieth  year.  He 
sits  opposite  his  library,  deeply  concentrated  in  the  presence 
of  his  books,  with  a  look  of  penetration  and  intelligence, 
and  that  painful,  distrusting,  care-worn  expression  which 
belongs  to  men  whom  hope  deferred  has  made  sick,  and  who 
have  risen  to  the  height  of  their  ambition  only  when  Siren 
life   has   lost   many  of  her  charms.      Of  a  purely  nervous- 


40  INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY. 

bilious  temperament,,  and  '^castey^^  aspect^  he  is  spare 
and  delicately  made,  and  his  brow  is  tall  and  broad^  ending 
in  thick  eyebrows,  which  overshadow  fine^  black,  deep-set 
piercing  eyes;  his  lips  are  morose,  thin  and  drawn,  his 
cheeks  are  fleshless,  his  nose  is  high  and  aquiline,  and  his 
chin  is  powerfully  yet  symmetrically  formed.  He  wears  a 
tall  white  cravat  and  waistcoat,  a  square-cut  coat,  and 
black  knee-breeches  and  silk  stockings  ;  whilst  his  hair  is 
tied  up  in  the  then  ceremonious  pig-tail  —  a  costume 
which,  when  out  of  uniform,  he  affected  on  all  ceremonious 
occasions  to  the  end  of  his  life.  Such  physically  was  the 
man  who  was  about  to  attract  the  attention  of  the  civilized 
world.  His  portrait  contrasts  favourably  with  that  of  the 
"  great  American,'^  as  Dictator  Rosas  was  called  by  his 
friends :  the  latter,  who  never  looked  straight  at  a  man,  had 
only  regular  beauty  of  feature,  whilst  the  expression  of  his 
countenance  denoted  when  at  rest  nothing  but  calm  and 
stolid  cruelty. 

Dr.  Somellera  strove  manfully  to  send  an  emissary,  an- 
nouncing that  Paraguay  would  adhere  to  the  policy  of 
Buenos  Aires.  But  Dr.  Francia  was  like  Mirabeau,  one  of 
the  few  capable  of  guiding  a  revolution  to  its  logical  end  ; 
he  strenuously  opposed  the  project,  and  with  an  iron  will 
imposed  his  supremacy  upon  his  colleagues.  He  simply 
imprisoned  all  who  favoured  Buenos  Aires,  including  the 
ex- Governor  Velasco  and  Dr.  Somellera.  The  general  idea 
of  liberty  in  the  new  Republic  was  a  something  consisting 
of  Faith,  Hope,  and  Charity  under  a  new  name.  By  his 
influence  the  first  Congress  or  General  Assembly,  meeting 
between  June  17-20,  1811,  despatched  not  an  accredited 
agent,  but  a  note  dated  July  20,  1811,  and  addressed  to  the 
Junta  of  Buenos  Aires,  defining  the  action  taken  by  Para- 
guay, and  decreeing  amongst  other  points  that  the  infant 
Bepublic — who  now  for  the  first  time  chose  for  herself  a  coat 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY.  41 

of  arms — categorically  refused,  except  as  a  member  of  tlie 
Confederation,  to  unite  herself  with  the  Commonwealth 
about  to  be  founded  upon  the  ruins  of  the  Spanish  vice- 
royalty.  He  declared  in  the  broadest  terms  that  Paraguay, 
having  reconquered  her  liberty,  would  not  shift  allegiance 
from  Spain  to  a  colony  of  Spain ;  and,  it  must  be  observed, 
that  whilst  the  former  had  declared  herself  a  free  and 
sovereign  state  in  1811,  Buenos  Aires  acted  till  1816  in 
the  King^s  name.  The  latter,  then  at  war  with  the  Spaniards 
of  the  Banda  Oriental  and  High  Peru  (Bolivia),  commis- 
sioned General  Belgrano  to  sign  in  person  a  provisional 
treaty  of  amity.  The  instrument,  dated  October  12,  1811, 
was  drawn  up  at  Asuncion,  upon  the  conditions  imposed  by 
Dr.  Francia — namely,  the  independence  of  Paraguay,  who 
was  at  liberty  to  become,  or  to  refuse  to  become,  a  member 
of  the  ConfederatioflL  whenever  the  latter  might  be  organized. 
On  January  31,  1813,  Buenos  Aires  installed  a  Constituent 
Assembly,  and  by  the  mouth  of  an  Envoy  Extraordinary 
invited  Paraguay  to  contribute  to  it  her  deputies.  But  by 
this  time  Dr.  Francia  had  pitilessly  crushed  all  resistance. 
He  feared  nothing  from  the  old  capital  of  the  vice-royalty, 
he  probably  foresaw  the  troubles  and  the  anarchy  which 
would  spring  from  that  Pandora''s  box,  "  Centralization,^^  and 
he  determined  upon  the  foreign  policy  to  which  he  adhered 
till  the  end.  By  his  influence,  on  October  1,  1813,  a  second 
General  Congress  of  all  the  representatives  of  the  people, 
about  a  thousand  in  number,  assembled  at  Asuncion.  The 
deputies,  who  were  the  chiefs  of  the  several  districts,  ap- 
peared more  like  criminals  than  legislators,  and  voted  all 
that  was  required  of  them  in  order  the  sooner  to  return 
home — hence  it  was  called  a  mere  feint,  and  was  compared 
with  a  horde  of  ''  Indians  '^  choosing  their  cacique.  This 
Congress  not  only  refused  point  blank  to  send  deputies  to 
Buenos  Aires,  it  also,  in  confirming  the  independence  of  the 


42  INTR01>UCT0RY    ESSAY. 

Republic^  annulled  the  treaty  of  1811^  alleging  that  its 
terms  had  been  violated  by  its  neighbours.  From  that  time 
Paraguay  remained  definitely  separated  from  the  provinces 
forming  the  Argentine  Confederation^  and  her  citizens,  in- 
different as  usual  to  politics,  which  concerned  only  their 
rulers,  persisted  in  being  absolutely  quiet  and  contented. 

The  same  Congress  changed  the  Governmental  Junta  for 
a  duumvirate.  Two  Curule  chairs,  one  inscribed  "  Cesar^^ 
and  the  other  "  Pompey,^^  were  placed  in  the  Assembly;  Dr. 
Francia  took  Cesar,  and  Pompey  was  left  to  the  Gaucho 
General,  the  Commandante  Fulgencio  Yegros.  Here  again 
it  is  easy  to  see  the  effects  of  Dr.  Francia^s  studies  under  the 
Franciscans  of  Cordoba;  in  Classicism  he  imitated  Robes- 
pierre, and  in  the  fulness  of  time  he  copied  Napoleon  I.  In 
fact  he  became  a  mixture  of  both,  or  rather  of  what  his 
ideas  concerning  them  were. 

This  ephemeral  Consulate  definitively  broke  off"  relations 
with  Buenos  Aires,  and  despatched  an  envoy,  D.  Nicholas 
Herrera,  to  declare  that  Paraguay  would  not  take  part  in 
the  proposed  Assembly  of  the  Platine  provinces.  A  third 
Congress  met  at  Asuncion,  October  3,  1814,  to  nomi- 
nate new  magistrates,  and  these  legislative  bodies  began 
to  assume  the  type  which  they  have  ever  since  borne. 
The  chief  authority.  Consul,  Dictator,  or  President, 
chooses  the  members  by  his  right  to  appoint  the  President 
of  Congress,  the  latter  chooses  the  commandants  of  dis- 
tricts, and  these  again  choose  their  delegates  for  each 
*'  partido  '^  or  arrondissement :  thus  all  the  citizens  vote, 
and  Congress  chooses  the  Consul,  Dictator,  or  President,  who 
virtually  chooses  himself.  It  is  said  that  the  third  de- 
liberative body  at  first  preferred  Yegros,  but  that  Dr. 
Francia  delayed  the  members  at  the  capital  till,  fearing  to 
offend  him,  and  sorely  wishing  to  return  home,  they  voted 
for   him   on  the  third  day  with  a  large  majority.      In  pre- 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY.  43 

sence  of  the  crisis  produced  by  the  internal  disorders  of  the 
Hispano- American  States^  he  persuaded  them  to  choose  after 
the  fasliion  of  the  Roman  Republic^  a  Dictator  for  three 
years,  and  to  make  him  their  Dictator.  The  troops  under 
Yegros  refused  to  acknowledge  the  civilian,  but  the  storm 
was  averted  by  the  neglected  triumvir  Caballero,  who  went 
to  the  barracks  and  succeeded  in  appeasing  the  mutineers. 
Caballero,  it  is  said,  strangled  himself  in  prison  about  1821, 
and  Yegros,  according  to  the  Robertsons,  was  afterwards 
shot  or  bayonetted  by  his  successful  rival. 

Dictator  Francia  at  once  established  himself  in  the  palace 
of  the  ancient  Spanish  Governors,  and  began  to  govern  in 
real  earnest.  The  dark  and  mysterious  figure,  morally  as 
well  as  physically,  has  excited  abundant  interest.  Pen-and- 
ink  portraits  of  him  have  been  left  by  Rengger  and  Long- 
champs,  by  the  Robertsons,  and  by  D.  Santiago  Arcos  (La 
Plata,  Etude  Historique,  p.  295;  Paris,  1865).  He  is  alluded 
to  by  Sir  Woodbine  Parish,  with  whom  he  had  an  official 
correspondence  touching  some  eighteen  or  nineteen  British 
subjects;  but  he  did  not  release  them  until  1826.  The 
Pharoahnic  practice  of  not  letting  the  people  go  was  found 
therefore,  ready  made  in  Paraguay  by  Marshal  President 
Lopez,  and  in  these  days  '^  circumstances  ^^  do  not  much 
encourage  the  type  of  British  naval  officer  represented  in 
1815  by  the  very  gaUant  Captain  the  Honourable  Percy 
Jocelyn  of  H.M.''s  ship  Hotspur,  commanding  H.B.M.^s 
ships  in  the  river  Plate. 

England  unfortunately  derived  her  knowledge  of  Dr. 
Francia  from  the  works  supplied  to  the  book-trade  in  an 
age  when  Negro  Emancipation,  Constitutional  Government, 
the  rule  of  the  '^  Anglo-Saxon  ^^  race,  and  the  mercantile 
"  Civis  sum  Romanus  "'■'  were  rampant.  "  Dr.  Francia^'s 
Reign  of  Terror"-'  and  ''  Letters  from  Paraguay,''''  by  the 
brothers  Robertson  are  still  our  staple.  The  brothers  were  well 


44  INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY. 

treated  at  first,  but  they  imprudently,  and  perhaps  purposely 
disappointed  the  Dictator,  who,  in  exchange  for  his  produce, 
wanted  arms  and  arms  only.  They  fell  into  disfavour,  they 
prudently  left  the  country,  and,  arrived  in  England,  they 
wrote  popular  books  about  Paraguay.  Hatred  made  them 
photograph  their  foe  and  produce  a  manner  of  biography 
amusing  as  that  of  Boswell.  The  latter  was  a  fautor  of  the 
great  master  of  the  English  language,  the  "  Majestic 
Teacher  of  Moral  and  Religious  Wisdom  ; ''  whereas  the 
brothers,  while  holding  up  Dr.  Francia  as  a  vulgar  tyrant 
to  the  execration  of  a  civilized  and  commercial  world,  invested 
him  with  more  than  usual  nobility  and  grandeur,  with  the 
faults  of  his  age  and  race,  and  with  virtues  and  merits  all  his 
own.  Mr.  Carlyle  {Foreign  Quarterly,  No.  62,  July,  1843), 
guided  only  by  the  light  of  intelligent  despotism,  easily  under- 
stood through  the  running  shrieks  of  constitutionalisms  and 
other  humbugs,  that  Francia  was  a  "  true  man  in  a  bewildered 
Guacho  (Gaucho)  world.""' 

Yet  we  must  be  grateful  for  the  popular  and  respectable 
volumes  of  the  unsage  brothers.  We  see  the  Dictator 
pacing  about  his  ground-floor  verandah  in  a  dressing-gown 
of  flowered  cotton,  deeply  pondering,  whilst  he  daintily  takes 
his  pinch  of  "  Princeza,""  or  smokes  his  cigarette-like  cigar, 
made  for  him  by  the  sister  who  acts  as  his  Ama  de  Haves 
(housekeeper) .  We  hear  him  thunder  forth  the  bruto,  the 
barbaro,  and  the  favourite  "  bribonazo  "  (blundering 
rascal).  We  behold  him  leading  his  cavalry  charges 
with  boyish  glee,  and  we  catch  him  handing  out  the  three 
economical  ball  cartridges,  with  which,  more  Austriaco,  crimi- 
nals were  shot.  His  outburst  against  the  English  importer 
— so  naively  quoted,  and  so  telling  against  the  quoter — and 
his  proverb  "  pan  pan  y  vino  vino,"''  light  up  many  a  dark 
page  of  hysterical  Anglomania.  He  appears  as  a  lawyer 
strictly  honest,  as  a  statesman  single-minded,  as  a  patriot 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY.  45 

unde filed  by  lucre  ;  as  a  judge  he  spends  the  day  over  the 
smallest  details  of  justice;  as  a  student  he  reads  through 
the  night.  Convinced  that  his  Dictatorship  is  a  protest  of 
the  Spirit  of  Order  against  the  Spirit  of  Anarchy^  and  believ- 
ing that  the  independence  of  his  beloved  country  and  perhaps 
his  own  existence  depend  upon  an  imposing  military  force, 
he  organizes  the  imitation  of  a  regular  army,  and  after  pe- 
rusing books  he  drills  it  liimself.  The  unwise  brothers  find 
in  this  measure  only  a  pretext  to  deride  his  uniform  and  his 
word  of  command.  Wishing  to  improve  his  capital,  he 
applies  vigorously  to  his  self-imposed  task  of  town  architect. 
The  Robertsons  caricature  him  using  a  level.  Like  Ma- 
horamed  Ali  Pasha  of  Egypt,  he  is  assiduous  in  his 
endeavours  to  establish  a  system  of  industry,  to  add  agricul- 
ture and  cattle  breeding  to  the  miserable  trade  in  yerba  and 
tobacco  that  characterized  the  still  and  silent  shores  of 
the  mighty  Paraguay.  He  accepts  only  a  third  of  the 
$9000  voted  to  him  by  Congress,  observing  that  the  State 
wants  more  than  he  does — would  the  Messrs.  Philistine 
Bull  have  done  likewise? 

Dr.  Francia  had  one  pet,  the  army,  and  one  pet  aversion, 
the  Church.  He  severely  disciplined  his  troops,  but  only 
when  they  were  under  arms :  at  other  times  they  were 
free.  Foreseeing  probably  what  wild  work  Generals  and 
Colonels  would  do  for  the  Argentine  Republic,  he  raised  no 
officer  above  the  rank  of  Captain.  This  precaution  has 
been  one  of  the  fatalities  of  the  present  war,  where  the 
Paraguayan  private,  essentially  unintelligent,  looked  to  his 
commander  and  found  none.  He  established  in  fact  a 
stratocracy  which  placed  the  military  element  above  the  civil ; 
every  citizen  was  compelled  to  doflf  his  hat  to  a  sentinel. 
This  was  anciently  the  case  in  the  Brazil,  and  perhaps  in  all  the 
lands  of  the  neo-Latin  races,  the  soldier  on  guard  being  the 
symbol  of  his  government.  Duly  weighing  the  unsatisfactory 


46  INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY. 

state  of  his  relations  with  the  Conterminal  States^  especially 
with  Buenos  Aires,  which  could  at  any  time  have  closed 
his  only  line  of  importation,  he  was  eager  to  lay  in  that 
formidable  store  of  arms  and  ammunition  and  military  appa- 
ratus, which  still  accumulated  by  a  second  generation,  have 
lasted  through  a  five  years^  war.  Finally  he  was  steel- 
cased  at  all  points,  and  ever  ready  to  fight ;  hence,  I 
presume,  we  even  now  read  of  the  ^^  peaceful  little  Republic, 
Paraguay.^"* 

With  regard  to  the  Church  he  evidently  thought  with 
the  great  Mii'abeau,  "  Yous  ne  ferez  jamais  rien  de  la  Revo- 
lution si  vous  ne  la  dechristianisez  pas.^^*  He  abolished  the 
Inquisition ;  he  did  away  with  the  onerous  diezmo  or 
tithes ;  he  converted  the  idle  monasteries  into  barracks, 
and  he  secularized  the  valuable  gold  and  silver  plate,  the 
doubloons  and  the  other  property  which  lay  useless  in  and 
around  the  religious  houses  and  the  Misiones.  He  shaved 
the  heads  of  oflPending  monks  "  in  order  to  take  the  glory 
from  their  crowns."'^  He  wished  to  be  a  Catholic,  not  a 
Roman  Catholic.  One  of  his  favourite  sayings  was — ^'  You 
see  what  priests  are  good  for ;  they  make  us  believe  more 
in  the  devil  than  in  God."  Again  he  would  remark,  pro- 
bably imitating  the  greatest  Corsican,  "  Be  Christians,  Jews, 
or  Mussulmans,  anything  but  Atheists."^  The  saying  was 
latitudinarian  in  his  day,  before  Anti-Theism  had  taken 
the  place  of  Atheism.  Finding  that  the  Bishop  of  Asun- 
cion had  fallen  into  a  manner  of  aberration,  the  result  of 
age  and  mental  sufi'ering.  Dictator  Francia,  determined  to 
be  governor  spiritual  as  well  as  temporal,  made  him  depute 
his  powers  to  Pai  Montiel,  "  Provisor'^  or  Yicar- General. 
Through  the  latter  he  ruled  the  diocese,  and  made  the  Church 
the  handmaid,  as  she  should  be,  not  the  mistress  of  the  State ; 
the  moral  Police,  not  the  Sovereign.  He  suppressed  night 
worship  and  processions,  because  they  certainly  led  to  dis- 


INTllODUCTOllY    ESSAY.  47 

orders^  and  they  might  lead  to  conspiracy.  Finally,  at  the 
time  of  his  death  only  fifty  priests,  all  aged  and  mostly 
decrepit,  survived  in  the  land  that  had  once  been  overrun 
by  them. 

"  Por  suas  ideas  religiosas/'  says  my  learned  friend  Dr. 
D.  Barros  Arana,  of  Santiago  de  Chile,  whose  excellent  school 
history  of  the  New  World  deserves  to  be  naturalized  amongst 
us,  "  aquel  mandatario  no  parecia  nascide  i  educado  en 
una  Colonia  espanola.'^  It  is  not  generally  known  that  the 
Francia  family  is  of  Paulista  origin,  and  that  the  Fran9a  e 
Horta  house  still  exists  at  S.  Paulo.  The  Dictator's 
father,  Garcia  Rodriguez  rran9a,  was  established  by  the 
Governor  of  Paraguay,  D.  Jaime  Sanjust,  as  Majordomo  in 
the  Yaguaron  plantation  of  black  tobacco,  with  which  the 
Spaniards  attempted  to  rival  the  Brazilians.  Bengger 
declares  that  his  father  was  born  a  Frenchman,  yet  owns 
that  Paraguay  believed  him  to  be  Portuguese.  G.  B. 
Fran9a  Castilianized  his  name,  and  married  in  his  adopted 
home.  His  son,  however,  never  belied  his  Portuguese 
origin,  or  his  descent  from  that  noble  city  which  has  three 
times  expelled  the  Jesuits — she  will  yet  do  it  a  fourth 
time — and  which  pushed  her  arms  far  as  the  Gaarani 
language  spread,  from  the  Plate  river  to  the  Amazons,  from 
the  Atlantic  to  the  foot  of  the  Andes.  Viewed  by  this  light, 
the  high-minded  and  self-reliant,  the  disinterested  and  far- 
seeing,  the  sombre,  austere,  and  ascetic  character  of  Dic- 
tator Francia,  becomes  at  once  intelligible. 

On  May  1,  1816,  the  fourth  Congress  met  at  Asuncion 
and  elected  Dr.  Francia  perpetual  Dictator  of  the  Republic  : 
he  was  no  longer  "  Usia''-'  or  "  Vuestra  Senoria  /''  he  became 
"  Excelentisimo'-'  and  ^'  El  Supremo''' — in  those  times  a 
recognised  title.  It  is  now  quoted  as  if  a  little  blas- 
phemous. The  Dictator  had  attained  the  ripe  age  of  sixty, 
when  the  fixed  habits   of  a  life  show  only  a  tendency  to 


48  INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY. 

exaggerate  themselves.  The  national  mind  had  become 
torpid  and  paralysed  under  his  reign  of  rigour,,  and  thence- 
forward he  became  a  kind  of  modern  Dionysius.  He 
established  a  "  Chamber  of  Truth"  in  which  men  were 
questioned.  He  supported  every  Creole  against  any  *'  old 
Spaniard/^  and  he  permitted  the  latter  to  marry  only 
Negresses,  China  girls^  or  "  Indians."  His  administration 
was  remarkable  for  its  eternal  suspicion^  even  after  he  had 
slowly  but  relentlessly  degraded  all  not  sufficiently  docile 
functionaries.  Arrogating  the  right  to  nominate  Cabildos, 
he  had  raised  to  power  the  blind  instruments  of  his  will. 
All  his  orders  passed  through  an  ^^  Actuario/^  or  Prepose 
aux  actes.  This  subaltern,  who  alone  had  access  to  the 
Dictator,  became  a  "  tyran  fantastique/^  who  refused  to 
receive  a  petition,  even  if  the  ink  did  not  please  him,  and 
who  kept  the  petitioners  awaiting  an  answer  for  months.  The 
bruit  of  a  conspiracy  at  times  enabled  him  to  order  a  cer- 
tain number  of  executions,  and  to  fill  with  terror  a  people  who, 
like  the  Egyptians,  apparently  love  to  be  tyrannized  over. 
He  witnessed  his  own  flogging-tortures  and  execu- 
tions, and  he  became  intolerably  fierce  when  the  east  wind 
blew.  He  never  left  his  palace  save  on  horseback,  followed 
by  a  guard  that  made  the  citizens  range  themselves  in  re- 
spectful files,  and  the  boys  were  forced  to  wear  pour  toute 
toilette  straw-hats,  with  which  he  was  to  be  complimented. 
And  at  last  his  orders  drove  all  from  the  streets  whilst  his 
cortege  was  passing ;  doors  and  windows  were  shut,  and  the 
Dictator  traversed  thoroughfares  dreary  and  desert  as  those 
of  Valparaiso  on  a  dusty  Sunday. 

Yet  he  was  wonderful  in  matters  of  detail :  he  knew 
exactly  the  cost  of  hoe  or  axe,  and  he  used  to  count  and 
measure  the  needles  and  thread  necessary  for  a  uniform. 
In  1829  he  compelled,  under  heavy  penalties,  every 
householder  to  sow  a  certain  quantity  of  maize,  which  con- 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY.  49 

tributed  4  per  cent,  to  the  revenue  of  the  Republic ;  and 
at  all  times,  through  the  commandants  of  Partidos,  he  gave 
orders  what  to  plant.  His  success  bred  a  host  of  irrecon- 
cileable  enemies,  who  could  not  forgive  one  that  was 
more  prosperous  than  themselves.  In  1836  appeared 
myriads  of  Garrapatas,  the  Carrapato  or  Ixiodes  of  the 
Brazil,  whence  it  probably  came  to  Paraguay,  and 
the  bovine  race  suffered  severely  from  the  Epizootic 
complaint.  The  Dictator  ordered  all  the  infected  to  be 
shot  by  platoons,  and  was  soundly  abused  for  teaching  the 
world  our  modern  equivalent,  the  ^'  Cattle  Disease  Preven- 
tion Act."  With  a  similar  rough  vigour  the  King  of  Yemen 
resolved  to  extirpate  the  dreadful  Helcoma  by  putting  to 
death  on  a  certain  day  all  the  sufferers  ;  and  even  now  the 
Gallas  spear  the  first  cases  of  small-pox,  and  burn  the  huts 
over  the  bodies.  In  1843  he  suppressed  the  College  of 
Theology  with  the  dictum,  '^  Minerva  duerme  cuando  vela 
Marte,"  for  he  was  nothing,  if  not  classical.  The  very  fair 
and  impartial  book  by  Messrs.  Kengger  and  Longchamps, 
"  Reign  of  Dr.  Joseph  Gaspard  Roderick  de  Rodriguez  de 
Francia  in  Paraguay"  (London,  1827),  tells  us  how  the 
Dictator  would  not  allow  an  English  ship  to  break  bulk 
until  he  had  mastered  sufficient  of  the  language  to  under- 
stand her  charter.  To  ridicule  such  a  man  is  evidently 
absurd ;  the  attempt  can  only  recoil  upon  those  who  make  it. 
Dictator  Francia^s  system  demanded  complete  isolation, 
and  thus  Paraguay,  which  had  been  temporarily  thrown 
open  by  the  Revolution  of  1810,  became  a  Darfur,  a 
Waday.  Commerce  was  prohibited,  or  rather  was  mono- 
polized, and  sequestration  soon  annihilated  a  trade  which, 
during  the  thirty  years  ending  the  last  century  and  ten 
years  of  the  present,  had  risen  to  upwards  of  $1,500,000 
per  annum,  and  employed  several  thousand  hands  in  750 
ships  of  sizes,  thirty  of  them  exceeding  200  tons. 

4 


50  INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY. 

The  Dictator,,  apparently  impassive  and  phlegmatic^  was 
most  sensitive  to  anything  like  a  claim  of  predominance, 
superiority,  or  influence  of  strangers ;  he  poignantly  felt 
every  insult  of  the  foreign  press,  and  he  was  ever  ready  to 
attribute  to  contempt  the  most  indifferent  actions  of  the 
"  tagues" — that  is  to  say,  all  who  are  not  Paraguayans.  He 
therefore  encouraged  the  prejudices  of  the  people,  who 
soon  learnt  to  look  upon  itself  as  the  first  in  the  world,  to 
whom  all  others  would,  if  permitted,  do  homage. 

Diplomatic  relations  with  foreign  powers  were  mercilessly 
cut  off.  In  1840  the  Argentine  Government  again  de- 
spatched to  Paraguay  an  envoy  directed  to  apply  for 
deputies  to  attend  the  coming  sessions  of  the  General  Con- 
gress. This  agent  wisely  remained  at  Corrientes,  and  for- 
warded his  credentials  by  an  emissary,  who  was  at  once 
thrown  into  prison.  The  diplomatic  representative  of  the 
Brazil  also  received  his  passports. 

In  order  to  complete  the  blockade  it  was  necessary  to 
prevent  the  ingress  of  traders  and  travellers  who  might 
bring  with  them  pestilent  books  and  doctrines.  The  town  of 
El  Pilar  or  Nembucu,  154  miles  from  Asuncion,  was  made 
the  terminus  of  ship  navigation  and  the  7ie  plus  ultra  of  the 
foreign  voyager.  As  late  as  1845,  Colonel  Graham,  the 
United  States^  Consul,  Buenos  Aires,  when  on  a  special 
mission  to  Paraguay,  was  here  delayed  by  Dr.  Francia  some 
twenty  days.  The  strip  of  country  between  S.  Borja  and 
Ytapua,  now  Encarnacion,  was  constituted  the  sole  place  ac- 
cessible to  land  import,  especially  to  Brazilian  commerce, 
and  no  Paraguayan  could  repair  thither  without  leave  ;  thus 
the  post  became  the  "  mutual  factory  of  a  second  China." 

All  who  entered  the  Republic  without  permission  were 
straightway  imprisoned.  The  explorers  of  the  Rio  Bermijo 
were  not  only  placed  in  durance  vile,  they  were  also 
plundered   of  their  journals.      When   M.  Aime   Bonpland 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY.  51 

(whose  real  name  by-the-bye  was  the  not  euphonious  Gou- 
jand)^  settling  on  land  claimed  by  Paraguay,  began  impru- 
dently to  cultivate  the  monopolized  yerba,  he  was  seized  by 
order  of  the  Dictator,  and  was  carried  prisoner  across  the 
frontier.  This  act  has  been  held  to  be  a  violation  of  territory 
— has  been  called  gross  as  the  capture  and  execution  of  the 
Due  d'Enghien.  Francia,  however,  justified  it,  and  detained 
the  botanist  ten  years  (1821-1831).  For  somewhat  the 
same  reason  the  Doctors  Rengger  and  Longchamps  enjoyed 
an  obligatory  residence  of  six  years. 

Yet  the  Dictator  could  at  times  do  a  generous  deed. 
When  (1820)  his  old  and  tried  enemy,  General  Artigas,  once 
Captain  of  Blandengues  or  horse-militia,  and  afterwards 
"  Protector  and  Most  Excellent  Lord"  of  the  Banda 
Oriental,  was  compelled  by  Ramirez  to  fly  his  country, 
he  had  recourse  to  Paraguay,  where,  by  "  supreme  order,^' 
a  small  pension  and  a  safe  asylum  at  Caraguate  were 
assigned  to  him.  The  Uruguayan  Robin  Hood  was  allowed 
to  end  his  days  in  peace  (1850) — other  petty  despots  would 
have  sent  him  at  once  to  the  banquillo,  the  shooting-bench. 

At  last  Paraguay  became  to  the  political,  travelling,  and 
commercial  world  a  terra  incognita^  a  place  existing  only  in 
books  and  maps;  it  had  been  caused  to  disappear,  as  it 
were  by  a  cataclysm,  from  the  surface  of  the  globe. 

Dictator  Francia  excused  himself  by  declaring  that  he 
had  carefully  proportioned  liberty  to  civilization,  and  he 
defended  his  incommunicability  by  pointing  in  triumph 
to  the  disastrous  revolutions  and  to  the  fratricidal  wars 
with  which  federalism  and  a  licence  called  liberty  had 
dowered  the  conterminal  republics.  He  could  show  to  the 
world  in  the  recluse  kingdom  of  the  Jesuits,  the  sole 
exception  to  republican  anarchy,  a  tranquil  and  powerful, 
a  contented  if  not  a  happy  people  j  and  he  could 
declare  bond  fide  this  state  of  things  to  be  the  result  of  his 

4-^ 


52  INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY. 

non-intercourse  policy.  Hostile  writers  aver  that  the  un- 
happy land  lived  embruted  under  a  death-like  peace  imposed 
by  ignorance  and  terror,,  enduring  a  despotism  of  isolation 
and  desolation  more  lethal  and  funest  than  all  the  civil 
wars  and  anarchy.  But  there  are  few  men  who  have  not 
political  creeds  prejudged  and  formulated  in  advance^  with 
models,  prototypes,  and  ideal  predilections  which  falsify 
their  judgment.  Evidently  the  Republic  of  the  Dictator  was 
a  reproduction,  in  somewhat  a  sterner  mould,  of  the  Jesuit 
Reduction  system,  and  it  throve  because  the  popular  mind  was 
prepared  for  it.  Others,  I  have  said,  accuse  Francia  of  having 
governed  by  encouraging  a  profound  corruption  of  morals ; 
but  probably  the  ecclesiastical  system  of  rule,  which  allows 
everything  to  those  who  believe,  tremble,  and  confess,  left 
very  little  of  virtue  for  him  to  trample  upon.  And  still  he 
could  say  with  Solon,  "  I  have  not  given  you  the  best 
possible  laws,  but  those  laws  that  suit  you  best/''  As  has  been 
proved  by  the  logic  of  facts,  the  people  were  enthusiastic, 
both  for  the  system  and  for  its  administration.  They  may 
be  pitiable,  but,  like  the  needy  knife-grinder,  they  will  not 
be  pitied.  They  were,  doubtless,  and  they  still  are,  in  a 
state  of  semi-barbarism,  but  they  have  given  their  lives 
rather  than  abandon  the  customs  of  their  ancestors  and 
betray  what  must  be  called  their  political  creed. 

On  Sept.  20,  1840,  Dr.  Francia,  rushing  to  sabre  his  "  cu- 
randero^''  or  doctor,  fell  into  a  fit.  The  man  of  blood  called  in 
the  sergeant  of  the  guard,  who  refused  to  enter  without  orders. 

"  But  he  can^t  speak.-*^ 

"  No  matter  V  replied  pipe-clay ;  ''  if  he  comes  to,  he 
will  punish  me  for  disobedience.^^ 

El  Supremo   died   at  9  a.m.,  aged  eighty-three  years  y^ 

*  The  date  of  his  birth  was  uncertain  ;  hence  some  make  his  age  eighty, 
others  eighty-four,  and  others  eighty-five  years.  Dr.  Martin  de  Moussy 
dates  his  death  December  25. 


IXTRODUCTORY    ESSAY.  53 

and  after  a  virtual  reign  of  nearly  thirty.  He  had  ap- 
pointed no  successor,  shrewdly  remarking  that  he  was 
not  likely  to  want  heirs.  His  last  order  was  to  direct  the 
death  of  an  enemy ;  he  made  no  will,  he  kept  no  records, 
and  he  left  about  one  million  of  dollars  in  the  national 
treasury.  Early  he  had  adopted  the  excellent  plan,  for  a 
tyrant,  of  destroying  all  his  '^'^bandos^'  or  decrees  returned 
to  him  with  ^'  executed^^  upon  the  margin.  He  was  very 
much  addicted  to  women — the  greater  the  man,  the  warmer 
are  his  passions,  doubtless  the  instinct  which  would  multiply 
him.  He  left  sundry  illegitimate  children  whom  he  never 
adopted,  and  he  prematurely  carried  out  the  saying  ^'  Neque 
nubent,  neque  nubentur.^^  Many  couples  who  had  families 
took  the  advantage  of  his  death  and  caused  themselves  to 
be  married.  He  was  buried  in  the  Cathedral  of  Asuncion, 
but  the  exact  spot  is  now  forgotten.  According  to  Mr. 
Mansfield  and  Lieut. -Colonel  Thompson,  the  rem.ains  of 
"  El  Defiinto^^ — his  new  title — were  cast  out  by  private 
enmity  from  a  violated  grave.  This  is  hardly  probable  in 
a  country  where  for  years  after  his  death  men  uncovered  at 
the  mention  of  his  name. 

Europeans  often  wonder  how,  after  such  a  career.  Dic- 
tator Francia  was  allow^ed  to  die  in  his  bed.  '^  Spain,''^  said 
Gibbon,  "  was  great  as  a  province,  but  small  as  a  kingdom  -/' 
and  the  same  may  be  asserted  of  all  the  Spanish  provinces 
and  colonies  in  our  time.  The  peculiar  characteristic  of 
the  Spaniard — as  the  lengthened  reign  of  D.  Isabel  II. 
proves — and  of  the  Hispano-American,  as  opposed  to 
the  Luso-American,  is  a  marvellous,  Oriental,  fatalistic 
patience  under  despotisms  the  least  endurable.  For  years 
Rosas  freely  tyrannized  over  Buenos  Aires,  and  he  owed 
his  overthrow  only  to  the  foreign  idea,  even  as  Marshal 
President  Lopez  is  succumbing  to  the  stranger  bayonet. 
At  the  present  day,  D.  Justo  XJrquiza,  the  Taboada  family. 


54  INTRODUCTORY   ESSAY. 

and  Dr.  Garcia  Moreno  rule  with  a  sceptre  which  takes  the 
form  of  sword  and  dagger^  the  Provinces  of  Entre  Rios  and 
Santiago  del  Estero  and  the  Republic  of  Ecuador.  To 
recover  liberty  is  every  man^s  business^  and  consequently, 
as  the  saying  is,  no  man^s  business  ;  it  is  therefore  left  to 
recover  itself:  a  concentrated  individuality  takes  the  place 
of  the  noble  and  generous  sentiment  of  nationality  and  of 
patriotism,  the  unselfish  egotism  of  peoples. 

Yet  it  is  evident  that  Francia  was  not  one  of  the  herd  of 
tyrants  upon  whom  the  world  looks  with  a  transient  interest. 
He  left  his  mark  in  history :  he  created  a  school ;  his  ideas 
of  ^'  Americanismo^^  long  antedate  the  '^  Know-nothings  ■'"' 
and  the  "  Spread-Eagleism ''''  of  the  United  States,  and  they 
are  becoming  predominant  throughout  Southern  America. 

In  Paraguay  the  system  of  government  depends  rather 
upon  persons  than  upon  institutions.  Strangers,  therefore, 
generally  believe  that  the  repressive  measures  imposed 
upon  society  by  the  energetic  will  of  "  the  Supreme,''^  and 
kept  up  for  a  whole  generation,  would,  after  his  death, 
bring  on  a  reaction  more  or  less  violent.  The  contrary  was 
the  case,  and  with  his  decease  commenced  the  ordering  and 
organization  of  the  Republic.  The  country  was  expected, 
said  Erancia^s  enemies,  to  ^^rise  like  Lazarus  at  the  voice 
of  the  Redeemer.^^      It  remained  docile  as  before. 

A  very  brief  acephalous  interim  followed  the  death  of  the 
dark  Dictator.  His  "  actuario^-*  or  secretary,  who  presently 
hanged  himself  in  prison,  persuaded  the  commandants  of 
the  four  corps  occupying  the  capital^  to  form  a  Junta 
Gubernativa.  This  ruling  body  was  presided  over  by  the 
Alcalde,  Dr.  C.  L.  Ortiz,  and  was  soon  driven  from  power 
by  a  military  revolution.  The  Commandant  General-at- 
Arms,  D.  Juan  Jose  Medina,  placed  himself  at  the  head  of 
affairs,  but  he  was  called  a  usurper  because  he  had  no 
administrative  authority. 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY.  55 

After  about  six  months  the  people  of  the  capital  "  pro- 
nounced/^ and  consequently,  on  March  12,  1841,  an  Extraor- 
dinary Congress  of  500  members,  elected  by  the  usual  farce  of 
general  suffrage,metat  Asuncion.  This  body,  which  is  described 
as  being  more  than  usually  ridiculous,  restored  the  consular 
government,  or  rather  a  duumvirate,  consisting  of  D.  An- 
tonio Carlos  Lopez,  and  an  old  soldier.  Colonel  D.  Mariano 
Roque  Alonzo.  It  opened,  also,  Paraguayan  ports  to  general 
commerce;  it  concluded  a  treaty  of  friendship  and  trade 
with  the  Province  of  Corrientes,  then  at  war  with  Buenos 
Aires  ;  and  it  convened  an  extraordinary  session  of  itself — 
the  deliberative  body  usually  met  for  five  days  every  five 
years — in  order  to  consider  the  desideratum  of  re-establishing 
foreign  connexions.  At  the  same  time  most  of  the  600 
political  prisoners  left  in  the  dungeons  of  Dr.  Francia  were 
amnestied. 

In  November,  1842,  the  Complimentary  Congress  held 
its  session.  It  ratified  Paraguayan  independence,  deter- 
mined the  flag,  and  chose  blue  as  the  '^  color  de  la  Patria.^-* 
Approving  of  all  the  consular  acts  and  plans,  it  offered 
commercial  relations  to  Buenos  Aires,  but  Dictator  Kosas, 
insultingly  refusing  to  acknowledge  the  Republic,  closed  to 
her  the  Rio  de  la  Plata  till  such  time  as  the  Province  of 
Corrientes  should  desist  from  its  "  rebellion.''^  At  this  time 
an  ecclesiastic  long  persecuted  by  Dr.  Francia,  Padre  Marcos 
Antonio  Maiz,  the  "  terrible  father  "  as  he  was  called  by  the 
English,  the  "  pretre  estimable  k  tons  egards,""  according  to 
M.  Demersay,  was  made  Professor  of  Latin  and  Philosophy  at 
Asuncion,  and  took  the  first  step  towards  becoming  Coadju- 
tor Bishop  in  part,  infid. 

A  third  National  Congress,  meeting  on  March  16,  1845, 
put  an  end  to  the  consular  government,  and  sanctioned  by  a 
Constitution  the  fundamental  law  of  the  Republic  which  en- 
trusted executive  powers  to  aPresident.  The  only  obligation  of 


56  INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY. 

this  magistrate  is  to  preserve  and  defend  tlie  independence 
and  integrity  of  the  State.  He  cumulates  a  variety  of  impor- 
tant offices^  he  is  at  once  Supreme  Judge  and  Manager  of  Fi- 
nances_,  he  is  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  army^  and  Admiral 
of  the  fleets  and  he  appoints  the  President  of  Congress  ; 
while  the  Vice-President  of  the  Republic  being  named  by 
him,  and  serving  only  to  convoke  the  electoral  meetings, 
is  a  mere  tool  that  cannot  even  act  for  him  when  he  is  ab- 
sent. Thus  the  President  is  an  autocrat  at  once  legislative, 
judicial,  and  executive.  Paraguay  was  ever  a  repertory  of 
old  world  ideas,  cut  off  from  civilization  since  the  days  of 
the  Grand  Monarque.  But  the  year  1845  worked  in 
her  a  true  revolution — social^  political,  and  commercial ; 
at  this  time  arose  the  "  law  establishing  the  political 
administration  of  the  Republic  of  Paraguay.^''  It  gave  ex- 
traordinary attributes  to  the  President;  it  reduced  the 
ministers  of  state  to  simple  heads  of  bureaus,  and  it  was 
shortly  followed  by  an  edict  which  placed  the  Church  in  com- 
plete subjection  to  the  Supreme  National  Government — 
forbidding  the  Bishop  to  use  even  a  robe  or  a  throne.  Of 
this  new  Constitution  pure  and  simple  despotism  was  the 
essence,  whereas  before  it  had  been  only  a  republican 
accident. 

Thus  D.  Antonio  Carlos  Lopez  became  President  of 
Paraguay  for  ten  years.  '^  El  Ciudadano,^^  as  he  loved  to 
call  himself,  was  then  about  forty-four  years  old.  Educated 
at  the  College  of  Asuncion,  he  had  lectured  in  theology  and 
philosophy ;  he  had  studied  jurisprudence,  and  after  making 
a  few  dollars  by  the  law^,  he  had  retired  to  a  country  place 
some  forty  leagues  from  the  capital.  He  rarely  visited 
town,  and  spent  most  of  his  time  in  reading  books  and 
mastering  agriculture.  Although  he  had  never  left  his 
native  land,  he  was  looked  upon  as  an  enlightened  man,  and 
he    had  acquired,    in  comparatively  early    life,    a    general 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY.  57 

reputation  for  patriotism,,  special  knowledge^  and  adminis- 
trative aptitude. 

The  elder  Lopez  has  been  carefully  portrayed  by  Dr.  L. 
Alfred  Demersay  C^^Histoire  physique,  economique,  et  poli- 
tique du  Paraguay.''^  Paris,  1864.  Vol.  ii.)  He  is  also  known 
by  the  work  of  Colonel  du  Graty.  English  readers  and 
writers  mostly  take  their  opinions  from  Captain  J.  Page, 
late  United  States  Navy  ("  La  Plata,  the  Argentine  Con- 
federation, and  Paraguay  ")  :  upon  the  spot  it  is  considered 
the  best  authority.  Mr.  Charles  B.  Mansfield,  whose  gene- 
ral crotchettiness  merged  into  an  absolute  enthusiasm  for 
Paraguay,  has  left  sketches  and  descriptions  of  the  Guardia, 
of  the  hide-hammock,  and  of  the  first  of  the  Presidents. 
The  woodcuts  of  Messrs.  Page  and  Mansfield  make  him 
hideous,  burly  and,  thick-set,  as  Dictator  Francia  was  thin 
and  lean.  With  chops  flapping  over  his  cravat,  his  face 
wears,  like  the  later  George  IV.,  a  porcine  appearance, 
which,  however,  as  in  the  case  of  Gibbon,  is  not  incompatible 
with  high  intellect.  On  the  other  hand.  Colonel  du  Graty 
presents  a  stout  but  respectable  looking  citizen.  He 
generally  received  strangers  sitting  in  an  arm-chair,  pro- 
bably to  conceal  the  fact  that  one  leg  was  shorter  than  the 
other,  and  he  wore,  honoris  causa,  his  hat,  which  was  a  little 
cocked  on  one  side.  At  times  he  would  astonish  visitors 
by  his  courtesy  in  asking  them  to  sit  down  in  the  presence. 

President  Lopez  I.  married  in  early  life  D.  Juana  Paula 
Carrillo,  who  was  almost  as  fat  as  himself.  The  issue  con- 
sisted of  five  children.  Francisco  Solano,  the  actual  President, 
said  to  have  been  born  at  Asuncion  in  1827,*  was  the  eldest. 

*  In  1852,  Mr.  Mansfield  calls  him  a  "young  lad  of  twenty  or  so,  the 
General  of  the  Army."  This  would  make  the  date  of  his  birth  1832,  and 
his  present  age  thirty-seven.  But  if  born  in  1832,  he  could  hardly  have 
commanded  a  corps  d'armee  in  1845.  It  is  well  known  that  his  birthday 
was  July  24th,  and  Augustus-like,  he  caused  July  to  be  styled  "the 
month  of  Christian  Lopez." 


58 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY. 


The  second,  Venanncio,,  was  made  a  colonel  in  the  army,  and 
commanded  the  garrison  of  Asuncion.  The  youngest, 
Benigno,  who  was  ever  the  father's  favourite,  became  a 
major  in  the  army,  and  admiral  of  the  fleet ;  but  he  pre- 
ferred idling  and  "  woman -hunting  "  at  home.  The  elder 
daughter,  D.  Ynocencia,  was  married  to  General  Barrios, 
afterwards  Minister  of  War,  and  the  younger,  D.  Rafaela, 
became  the  wife  of  the  treasurer,  D.  Saturnino  Bedoya. 
The  Presidentess  and  her  daughters  dressed  in  the  usual 
imitation  Parisian;  they  were  fond  of  society,  and  they 
never  neglected  to  make  a  little  money.  The  Presidential 
salary  was  only  $4000  per  annum. 

President  Lopez  had  no  light  task  before  him.  The 
Dictatorship  had  left  only  ruins  :  he  had  to  create  ;  he  was 
to  be  the  organizer  as  Francia  had  been  the  founder  of 
Paraguay;  he  was  to  assume  the  relation  of  Brigham  Young 
to  Joseph  Smith.  He  wished  to  break  the  chains  which 
his  predecessor  had  forged,  to  draw  Paraguay  from  her  shell. 
Yet  freedom  was,  he  knew,  dangerous  after  the  slavery  of 
ages,  and  an  exaggerated  liberalism  might,  it  was  feared, 
in  due  course  of  reaction  take  the  place  of  conservative 
terrorism.  He  required  to  steer  between  the  Scylla  of  iso- 
lation and  popular  lethargy,  and  the  Charybdis  of  neology 
in  religion  and  politics.  And  if  he  governed  somewhat 
too  much,  assumed  "  Asiatic  airs,''  and  neglected  the  pre- 
cepts "  laissez  faire"  and  ''  laissez  passer,"  still  his  intentions 
were  apparently  good,  and  his  success  was  as  great  as 
could  be  expected. 

The  difficulties  of  the  new  ruler  were  increased  by  the 
hostility  of  Buenos  Aires,  which  required  him  to  create  and 
to  provide  for  the  maintenance  of  an  army.  He  began 
with  3000  soldiers,  enlisted  for  only  three  years,  and  pre- 
sently he  could  muster  a  force  of  8000  regulars,  an  effective 
militia  of  30,000  men,  and  a  levee  en  masse  in  their  rear. 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY.  50 

Again,  early  in  18i5,  wlien  President  Lopez  had  de- 
clared the  country  open  to  foreigners  both  for  commerce 
and  residence,  Dictator  Rosas  refused  transit  to  Paraguay, 
as  long  as  the  latter  should  keep  aloof  from  the  Argentine 
Provinces ;  and  he  presently  decreed  the  prohibition  of  all 
her  exports,  even  in  neutral  bottoms,  thus  hoping  to  cut 
her  off  from  her  principal  customer,  the  Brazil.  The 
stout-hearted  President  feeling  insulted  by  this  proceeding 
replied  on  December  4,  with  a  formal  declaration  of  war 
beginning, 

^^  Long  live  the  Republic  of  Paraguay  !  Independence  or 
death,^^*  and  threatened  an  invasion.  He  reinforced  his 
vanguard,  the  Province  of  Corrientes,  which  had  lately 
captured  Argentine  shipping,  and  at  once  sent  against 
Oribe,  the  lieutenant  of  Rosas,  his  first  corps  d^armee 
under  his  eldest  son  Brigadier  Francisco  Solano  Lopez, 
then  a  youth  of  eighteen.  This  force  was  attacked  by  the 
Buenos  Airean  army  of  operations  in  January,  1846,  and 
was  compelled  to  retreat  "^  re  infecta,^''  behind  the  Parana 
River,  chiefly,  it  is  said,  by  the  treachery  of  the  Correntino 
Governor,  Madariaga.  In  September,  1846,  President 
Lopez  ended  the  affair  with  a  declaration  that  Paraguay 
would  definitively  remain  neutral,  leaving  the  Argentine 
Republic  to  settle  its  own  disputes. 

Presently  the  mediation  of  the  LTnited  States  caused 
transit  and  commerce  to  be  re-established  between  Para- 
guay and  Buenos  Aires.  The  arrangement,  however,  had 
no  positive  guarantee.  At  the  battle  ofVences,  in  1847, 
General  Urquiza  conquered  Corrientes,  and  new  troubles 
arose  about  Border  questions.      Thereupon  President  Lopez 


*  This  is  part  of  the  old  Paraguayan  motto,  and  very  possibly  Dom 
Pedro  I.  of  Brazil,  who  was  well  versed  in  South  American  history,  had 
heard  of  it  before  he  raised  the  "  grito  de  Yporanga." 


60  INTRODTJCTORY    ESSAY. 

again  looked  to  liis  army^  and   created   there  camps  of  in- 
struction.     The  Juiz  de  Paz  was  ordered  to  register  all  the 
males  between   18   and   30^   and   to  forward   to  head-quar- 
ters so  many  per  district.      Within  three  months  were  thus 
collected  twelve  infantry  battalions  of  700  rank  and  file^  six 
corps  of  cavalry^  each  100  sabres,  and  one  corps  of  artiUery. 
The  elder  Lopez^  though  charged  with  being  an  unscru- 
pulous   diplomatist,    was  an    active  organizer,   and  though 
his    temper  was    hot,  he  was  not  wanting  in    cool  vigour. 
One  of  his  first  acts  was  to  propose   as  Bishop  of  Asuncion 
his  brother,  D.  Basilio  Lopez,  a  Franciscan  Monk,  not  well 
spoken  of,  and  the  nomination  was  accepted  by  Pope  Gregory 
XVI.      He  deported  in  1846  the  two  Jesuits  who  had  taken 
charge  of  the  Chairs  of  Latinity  and  Philosophy  in  the  so- 
called   Literary   Academy,  or   new   College.      He   shot  the 
sergeant  Espaiiola  for  the  crime  of  tearing  up  stamped  paper, 
and  he  deported  a  Frenchman  who  had  practised  mesmerism 
without  his  permission.       To  the  National  Congress  which 
met  in  1849  he  could   announce  the   creation  of  an  army 
and  a  naval  force,  the  establishment  of  Guardias  and  forts 
against  the  Indians  of  the  Gran  Chaco ;  the  foundation   of 
an  arsenal,  of  a  manufactory  of  arms  and  gunpowder,  and 
of  the   Ibicuy  foundry    (definitively  worked  in  1853) ;  the 
organization   of  the   clergy ;    the   construction  throughout 
the  country  of  churches,  cemeteries,  and  schools  for  primary 
instruction  ;  the  issue  of  an  official  newspaper  ;  the  building 
of  quays  and  other  public  works  ;  the  opening  of  roads  and 
canalizing  of  rivers ;   the  encouragement  of  agricultm'e  and 
exportable  industry,  especially  of  Yerba  and  Tobacco,  and 
finally,  the   guarantee  of  patents,  the   protection,  the  free 
admission,  and  the  favourable  nationalization  of  strangers. 
The  latter,   however,  were  not    allowed  to  travel,  to   enjoy 
any  international  rights,  to  hold  real   property  in   the  Re- 
public, or  to  marry    Paraguayans  without   especial  license ; 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY.  61 

moreover,,  no  Paraguayan  woman  could  leave  ^^  La  Rcpub- 
lica/^  except  by  express  order — again  China.  The 
naturalized  foreigner  of  course  having  no  protection  from 
his  consid,  and  being  sworn  like  one  of  the  natives  to  the 
Constitution  and  to  the  Government,  was  not  permitted  to 
quit  Paraguay  except  by  particular  order.  Under  these 
circumstances.  President  Lopez,  who  might  truly  have 
said,  "  auribus  lupum  teneo,^^  was  formally  re-elected  for 
a  term  of  five  years. 

Presently,  General  Urquiza,  Governor  of  Entre  Rios, 
attacking  Dictator  Rosas  with  the  view  of  restoring  their 
rights  to  the  Provinces  and  of  re-organizing  the  Argentine 
Republic,  crushed  him  at  the  battle  of  Monte  Caseros  on 
February  2,  1852.  The  fall  of  the  "  wretch  Rosas,'^  who  had 
even  forbidden  the  navigation  of  the  Parana,  opened  the 
rivers  and  ports,  and  brought  about  the  recognition  of 
Paraguayan  independence  by  General  Urquiza,  who  became 
the  President  Director  of  the  Argentine  Confederation; 
hence  resulted  the  treaties  of  1851  and  1852,  which,  however, 
were  not  ratified  by  the  Federal  Congress  tiU  1856.  The 
latter  instrument  attempted  to  determine  the  long  debated 
question  of  limits,  and  to  regulate  the  relations  of  commerce 
and  navigation.  But  the  Argentine  Confederation  sus- 
pended the  Border  convention,  and  in  1856  the  frontier 
survey  was  adjourned  sine  die.  The  first  British  Envoy, 
Sir  Charles  Hotham,  charged  with  a  special  mission,  accom- 
panied by  Mr.  Secretary  Thornton,  reached  Asuncion  in 
H.M.^s  ship  Locust  at  the  end  of  1852,  and  the  late  M.  de 
Saint-Georges  presently  appeared  in  the  Flambard,  which  had 
run  aground.  In  March,  1853,  when  General  Urquiza  had 
formally  recognised  the  independence  of  the  Republic,  the 
Plenipotentiaries  of  England  and  the  United  States,  France 
and  Sardinia,  meeting  at  the  capital,  signed  with 
Paraguay  treaties  of  friendship,  commerce,  and  navigation. 


62  INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY. 

opening  up  the  river  to  tte  flags  of  all  nations.  Thus, 
diplomatic  relations  with  the  European  powers  formally 
began,  and  Ministers  and  Consuls  appeared  on  the  field. 

The  internal  administration  of  the  Republic  was  distri- 
buted into  four  councils  of  government,  each  with  its  own 
bureau.  These  were  the  Secretariat  of  State  for  Foreign 
Aff'airs,  and  the  Ministries  of  the  Interior,  of  Finance,  and 
of  War  and  Marine,  which  also  included  the  Commandership- 
in-Chief  The  holders  of  these  pompous  titles  were  mere 
clerks,  salaried  by  the  President,  and  having  no  other  style 
but  "  you.'^  In  criminal  trials  the  judges  were  ordered  to 
associate  with  themselves  two  adjuncts,  drawn  by  lot  from 
a  prepared  list.  The  President  made  himself  "private 
judge  of  the  causes  reserved  in  the  statute  of  the  adminis- 
tration of  justice — that  is  to  say,  all  appeal  lay  to  him 
only."  A  bi-weekly  line  of  steamers  to  Buenos  Aires  was 
also  established. 

President  Lopez  then  turned  his  attention  to  protecting 
his  northern  frontier.  On  the  left  or  southern  bank  of 
the  Rio  Apa,  he  found  only  the  fortlet  of  San  Carlos, 
built  in  1806  to  control  the  fierce  Mbaya  Indians.  These 
savages  having  depopulated  the  department  and  town  of 
Divino  Salvador,  ravaged  the  river-sides  as  far  south  as 
Concepcion,  almost  on  the  tropic  of  Capricorn.  He  at  once 
established  a  protective  line  of  posts  which  began  westward 
upon  the  left  bank  of  the  river  Paraguay,  and  which,  fol- 
lowing the  course  of  the  Apa,  extended  sixty  leagues  over 
the  mountain- chain  to  the  east. 

Mr.  Charles  A.  Henderson,  appointed  British  Consul  to 
Asuncion,  there  drew  up  (March  4,  1853)  a  treaty  of  com- 
merce. Similar  instruments  were  also  ratified  with  the 
Governments  of  France  and  Sardinia,  but  the  modifica- 
tions proposed  by  the  United  States  were  not  accepted.  lu 
early  1854,  the  National  Cougress  again  meeting,  re-elected 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY.  63 

President  Lopez  for  a  term  of  ten  years  ;  to  this  the  nominee 
objected,  refusing  to  rule  or  serve  for  more  than  three ;  he 
consented,  however,  to  the  whole  term  in  1857.  Ensued 
some  trouble  with  Mr.  E.  Hopkins,  United  States  Consul, 
and  representative  of  an  Industrial  Company  of  Navigation. 
This  officer  was  supposed  to  be  hostile  to  Paraguay  ;  his 
exequatur  was  withdrawn,  and  the  claims  for  compensation 
which  he  forwarded  were  ignored.  Six  months  after  this 
event  (February  1,  1855),  Captain  Page,  commanding 
U.S.S.S.  Waterwitch,  ignoring  the  fact  that  in  October, 
1854,  foreign  ships  of  war  had  been  forbidden  to  navigate 
the  inner  rivers  of  the  Republic,  .insisted  upon  quitting  the 
main  channel  of  the  Parana,  and  upon  surveying  the  by- 
waters  of  the  "  Fuerte  Itapiru.''^  The  cruiser  was  fired 
into  by  the  Guardia  Carracha  battery,  and  the  man  at  the 
helm  was  killed.  No  reprisals  were  found  possible  by 
Commodore  W.  D.  Salter,  and  ensued  a  coolness  between 
the  great  and  the  little  Republic. 

Relations  with  Brazil  also  became  unsatisfactory,  and 
the  Empire  sent  as  Envoy  Plenipotentiary,  charged  to  settle 
the  right  of  way  and  territorial  limits,  Admiral  Pedro 
Ferreira  de  Oliveira,  with  ten  men  of  war  and  transports. 
President  Lopez  hastily  threw  up  batteries  at  the  old 
Guardia  Humaita,  on  the  site  of  a  Penitentiary  founded 
1777,  against  the  Indians  of  the  Gran  Chaco  by  D.  Pedro 
de  Zeballos,  and  destined  to  be  talked  about  throughout 
the  world  in  1867.  He  could  now  dictate  his  own  con- 
ditions to  the  intrusive  power  ;  in  February,  1855,  he  halted 
all  the  squadron  at  "Tres  Bocas,^''  and  the  Envoy,  after 
professing  peaceful  intentions,  was,  only  when  completely 
outgeneralled  by  Lopez,  permitted  with  his  staflP  to  visit 
Asuncion  in  a  single  steamer.  Salvos  were  duly  exchanged, 
and  on  August  27  was  ratified  a  treaty  of  commerce  and 
navigation,  together  with  a  convention  stipulating  that  the 


C4  INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY. 

delimitation  question  should  be  settled  within  the  precise 
period  of  one  year.  When  the  Brazil  rejected  the  latter, 
Paraguay  sent  to  Eio  de  Janeiro  a  plenipotentiary,  who 
concluded  (April  6,  1856)  the  treaty  of  commerce  and 
navigation,  fixing  the  period  of  determining  the  boundaries 
at  six  years,  during  which  neither  people  might  occupy  the 
disputed  lands."^  During  January,  1858,  took  place  the 
Convention  of  Asuncion  between  Paraguay  and  the  Brazil, 
when  the  river  was  opened  to  the  merchant  shipping  of  all 
friendly  peoples.  Meanwhile,  the  Boundary  question  was 
complicated  by  the  presence  of  the  new  batteries,  whose 
strength  was  grossly  exaggerated ;  the  Brazil  began  to 
collect  military  stores  in  Matto-Grosso,  and  a  war  was  evi- 
dently brewing. 

About  the  middle  of  1858,  Asuncion  was  visited  by  Mr. 
Christie;  he  came  as  Plenipotentiary  to  renew  the  com- 
mercial treaty  whose  limits  were  1853-1860.  At  first  all 
ran  smoothly,  and  the  Minister,  when  presenting  his 
credentials,  addressed  President  Lopez  in  flattering  terms. 
Presently  difficulties  arose;  Mr.  Christie  insisted  upon  ter- 
minating the  business  in  twenty  days,  and  wished  to 
transact  personally  with  the  President  the  negotiation 
business  opened  with  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs.  The 
testy  Lopez  then  showed  his  temper,  and  the  Plenipo- 
tentiary having  failed  in  his  mission  returned,  no  friend  to 
the  Government  of  Paraguay. 

This  regrettable  incident  was  followed  in  1859  by  the 
"  Canstatt  aff'air.'^  The  President  had  thrown  into  prison 
some  twelve,  others  say  twenty,  persons  accused  of  having 
conspired  to  shoot  him  in  the  theatre.  Amongst  these  was 
a  certain  Santiago  Canstatt,  who  still  lives,  but  without  the 


*  To  sum  up  the  question  of  limits  iu  the  north,  the  Brazil  claimed  the 
Rio  A  pa  as  her  boundary,  Paraguay  the  Rio  Blanco. 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY.  65 

respect  of  his  fellow- men.  He  was  the  son  of  a  Belgian 
army  surgeon  long  domiciliated  in  the  Banda  Oriental ;  he 
had  established  himself  since  1852  as  "  subditus  tempo- 
raneus^^  in  Paraguay  ;  he  is  described  by  his  enemies  as  an 
"  Uruguayan,  son  of  a  stranger  of  dubious  English  origin/' 
and  he  was  charged  with  being  an  active  member  of  a 
revolutionary  committee  established  at  Buenos  Aires.  Mr. 
Henderson  claimed  the  power  of  protecting  this  "  British 
subject/'  and  in  return  received  his  passports  ;  the  French 
Consul,  M.  Izarie — subsequently  transferred  to  Bahia — 
being  admitted  to  act  in  his  stead.  By  way  of  reprisal,  the 
British  Admiral  in  the  Plate  ordered  H.M.  ships  Buzzard 
and  Grappler  to  detain  the  Paraguayan  war-steamer  Tacuari 
— a  strong  measure  in  a  neutral  port.  On  board  the  ship 
was  Brigadier-General  Lopez,  who,  as  Envoy  Extraordinary 
and  Minister  Plenipotentiary,  had  been  acting  mediator 
between  the  contending  parties  of  the  Argentine  confede- 
ration, and  who  had  been  presented  with  hundredweights 
of  sweetmeats  by  the  Bonaerensan  ladies.  The  Brigadier 
left  the  Tacuari,  and  travelling  overland  to  Santa  Fe,  there 
found  a  ship  for  Asuncion.  President  Lopez,  once  more 
outraged  by  this  proceeding,  released  M.  Canstatt,  shot  the 
two  brothers  Decoud  (Teodoro  and  Gregorio),  and  sent  a 
diplomatic  agent  to  London  for  explanations.  The  opinions 
of  the  most  eminent  lawyers  were  taken  in  the  disputed 
matters  of  consular  jurisdiction  and  the  protective  pre- 
rogative of  neutral  waters  :  the  general  voice  was  in  favour 
of  Paraguay,  but  it  was  long  before  redress  came.  The 
difficulty  was  finally  settled  by  General  William  Doria  in 
January,  1863,  and  a  Paraguayan  Legation  was  proposed  to 
England. 

In  early  1859  the  United  States  sent  Mr.  C.  Johnson  as 
Especial  Envoy  to  Paraguay,  with  the  view  of  arranging  the 
Hopkins  and  Waterwitch  afi*airs.    That  officer  left  at  Buenos 

5 


66  INTRODUCTORY   ESSAY. 

Aires  the  squadron  which  had  conveyed  him  :  its  presence  in 
the  port  caused  no  little  alarm  till  General  Urquiza,  then 
Provisional  Director  of  the  Republic,  repaired  to  Asuncion 
and  lent  his  influence  in  satisfactorily  disposing  of  all  dif- 
ferences. On  February  4,  1.859,  another  treaty,  superseding 
that  of  1853,  was  concluded  between  the  United  States  and 
Paraguay,  and  soon  afterwards  it  was  decided  that  the 
claims  of  Mr.  Hopkins  were  null  and  void. 

Some  annoyance  was  also  caused  in  France  by  the  treat- 
ment of  her  subjects  settled  in  Paraguay.  A  contract, 
signed  at  Bordeaux,  created  a  colony,  hence  called  Nueva 
Burdeos,  and  the  emigrants  were  located  at  '^  Gran  Potrero 
del  Cerro."'^  This  ill-selected  ground  is  on  the  right  bank 
of  the  Paraguay,  exposed  to  malarious  influences,  to  the 
attacks  of  the  Gran  Chaco  "  Indians,''^  and,  worse  still,  to 
the  hostility  of  the  Paraguayan  people  and  authorities.  The 
attempt  proved  an  utter  failure :  some  of  the  unfortunate 
Frenchmen  fled,  others  were  imprisoned,  and  others  lost 
their  lives.  Those  who  have  received  inducements  to  pane- 
gyrize the  policy  of  President  Lopez  I.  throw  the  blame 
upon  the  ''  Armateurs,^^  who  sent  out  unfit  emigrants.  The 
impartial  will  remember  that  the  "  fournisseur"  and  Juge 
de  paix  appointed  to  Nueva  Burdeos,  was  the  opponent  of 
Mr.  Gould,  the  accuser  of  Mr.  Washburn,  and  the  Grouchy 
of  the  Paraguayan  Waterloo,  M.  Luiz  Caminos,  a  name 
carrying  with  it  no  pleasant  associations. 

Paraguay  had  now  taken  her  place  amongst  civilized 
peoples.  In  1859,  she  ofi'ered  her  mediation  between  the 
Argentine  Confederation  and  the  Province  of  Buenos  Aires, 
a  mother  and  daughter  that  had  been  separated  seven  years. 
The  reunion  was  compassed  by  the  Convention  of  S.  Jose 
de  Flores.  In  1860,  President  Lopez  undertook  negotiations 
with  the  Holy  See,  presenting  two  priests  for  episcopal 
ordination,    one   as   titular   of  the   diocese,    the    other    as 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY.  67 

coadjutor.  The  consequence  was  the  election  of  an  old 
man,  Mgr.  J.  Urbieta,  Bishop  of  Corycium,  in  partibus. 

On  August  15,  1862,  President  Lopez  I.  named  by  a 
secret  act  (pliego  de  reserva)  his  eldest  son  Vice-President. 
He  died  aged  sixty-nine,  after  a  painful  illness,  on  September 
10,  (Dr.  Martin  de  Moussy  says  7,)  1862  ;  the  body  was 
embalmed ;  a  splendid  service  was  performed  over  it  in  the 
cathedral  of  Asuncion,  and  in  the  church  of  La  Trinidad, 
built  by  himself ;  the  first  Paraguayan  President  was  buried 
without  monument. 

Immediately  after  the  death  of  the  second  '^  Supremo,^"* 
who  had  virtually  ruled  seventeen  years,  D.  Francisco 
Solano  Lopez  took  the  usual  precautions.  He  possessed 
himself  of  all  his  father^s  papers,  doubled  the  sentinels, 
supplied  the  streets  with  extra  patrols,  summoned  the 
Ministry  or  Council  of  State,  to  whom  he  read  the  will 
appointing  him  Vice-President,  and  therefore  acting  Chief 
Magistrate,  and  ordered  a  national  and  electoral  Congress 
to  meet.  His  measures  were  so  prudently  laid  that  he  was 
named,  on  October  16,  1862,  without  difficulty.  President  for 
ten  years ;  and  he  could  boast  that  he  was  the  chosen  of 
the  people,  not  an  inheritor,  nor  one  appointed  by  will. 
In  1863  the  new  ruler  was  congratulated  by  eleven  Euro- 
pean Powers,  and  all,  abroad  and  at  home,  believed  that  the 
enlightened  General  who  had  travelled  in  England  and 
France  would  indulge  Paraguay  with  a  free  Government. 

There  are  idle  tales  that  the  elder  Lopez  preferred  his 
Benjamin,  Benigno,  as  less  violent  and  ambitious  than  his 
eldest  son  :  he  is  also  reported  to  have  predicted  that  if 
Francisco  Solano  ever  became  her  ruler,  Paraguay  would  rue 
the  day.  It  is  said  that  the  preference  of  the  old  man  for 
Benigno,  whom  he  would  gladly  have  seen,  if  he  could,  his 
successor  to  the  Presidential  chair,  and  heir  to  the  bulk  of 
his  property,  bred  a  fatal  jealousy  between  the  two  brothers. 

5—2 


68  INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY. 

Their  aversion,,  however,  probably  began  as  the  result  of 
mere  incompatibility  of  character,  and  ended  in  absolute 
hatred.  At  the  General  Congress  which  elected  his  brother 
President,  D.  Benigno  Lopez,  it  is  said,  openly  joined  those 
members  who  were  opposed  to  the  military  government  of 
the  family  becoming  hereditary.  It  has  also  been  asserted, 
and  even  official  documents  have  been  cited  in  proof,  that 
the  elder  Lopez  appointed  a  Triumvirate  to  direct  the 
affairs  of  the  nation,  and  that  his  first-born,  aided  by  Padre 
Maiz,  poisoned  one  of  the  three,  and  terrified  the  Congress 
into  electing  him  their  President.  These  are  mere  ''  bolas,^^ 
and  of  a  similar  nature  are  reports  that  he  was  in  1853  an 
eleve  exterieur  of  the  Ecole  Toly technique,  that  he  was  a 
fellow  pupil  of  the  Emperor  of  the  Brazil,  and  that  he 
served  on  the  French  staff  before  Sebastopol.  He  did, 
however,  attend  the  naval  school  at  Bio  de  Janeiro,  and 
there  are  some  doubts  whether  he  did  or  did  not  aspire  to 
the  hand  of  the  Princess  Leopoldina  of  the  Brazil. 

From  a  very  early  age  the  actual  President  Lopez  was 
entrusted  by  his  father  with  high  offices.  As  has  been 
said,  he  was  made  General-in-Chief  of  the  Army  and 
Minister  of  War  when  quite  a  lad.  In  1845"^  he  began 
his  career  by  commanding  the  Paraguayan  Expeditionary 
Army  that  had  been  marched  upon  Corrientes,  and  in  1849  he 
pacified  the  lands  between  the  Bivers  Parana  and  Uruguay 
as  far  as  Cuais.  In  1854  he  was  sent  to  Europe  in  order 
to  make  personal  acquaintance  and  treaty  of  amity  with  the 
several  Courts.  Some  say  that  he  acted  like  a  Peter  the  Great, 
who  studied  all  things,  and  who  made  the  best  use  of  his 
time,  whilst  others  make  him  live  the  life  of  a  man  of 
pleasure.      He  came  away  with  a  feeling  of  aversion  towards 


*  Lieut.-Colonel  Thompson   says,  in   1849   ("  The  War  in  Paraguay,' 
Chap.  I.). 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY.  09 

"  La  boutiquiere/^  whose  language  he  understands,  but  can 
speak  little,  and  who  treated  him  as  it  did  Mr.  Secretary 
Seward,  with  her  usual  trick  of  neglect.  On  the  other 
hand,  he  was  delighted  with  France,  and  he  learned  French 
well.      He  keeps  up  his  practice  at  home. 

President  Lopez  II.  rose  to  power  a  young  man. 
His  appearance  is  not  unfavourable,  though  of  late 
he  has  become  very  corpulent,  after  having  been  a 
slim  and  active  youth.  He  is  about  5  feet  7  inches 
in  height,  of  bilious-nervous  temperament,  and  darker 
than  Spaniards,  or  even  than  the  generality  of  his  sallow- 
faced  subjects,  a  brunet,  without  however  any  admixture 
of  inferior  blood.  His  hands  and  feet  are  small,  and  his 
legs  are  bandy  with  early  riding.  His  features  are  some- 
what Indian,  his  hair  is  thick,  and  his  beard,  worn  in  the 
form  which  we  once  called  "  Newgate  frilV^  is  by  no 
means  so  full  and  thick  as  his  portraits  show.  These  are 
taken,  in  fact,  from  the  equestrian  picture  for  which  he  sat 
in  Paris,  and  which  does  not  err  by  under-flattering.  He 
still  affects  the  white  charger,  and  the  Napoleonic  grenadier 
boots  and  spurs,  the  rest  of  the  toilette  being  a  kepi,  a 
frock  coat,  and  a  scarlet  poncho  with  gold  fringe  and 
collar ;  in  fact,  he  has  a  passion  for  finery.  Dignified  in 
manner,  he  has  a  penetrating,  impressive  look,  which  shows 
the  overweening  pride  and  self-confidence  that  form  the 
peculiar  features  of  his  character.  He  delights  in  curious 
intrigues,  which  may  be  called  '^  dodges,^^  and  which  have 
been  qualified  by  one  of  his  employes  as  ^'  inexplicable  tan- 
trums.^^  This  is  doubtless  a  result  of  "  Indian^'  blood. 
The  Marshal-President  has  not  left  pleasant  reminiscences 
with  diplomatists  generally.  On  the  other  hand,  English, 
French,  and  American  naval  officers  agree  in  speaking 
highly  of  him.  They  repeatedly  assert  that  he  never  asked 
them  a  question  to  which,   as   men  of  honour,  they  could 


70  INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY. 

not  reply^  but  that  the  same  was  not  the  case  with  all  his 
entourage.  He  is  a  hon  vivant,  a  gourmand,  and  a  gourmet — 
fond  of  a  song  after  dinner  ;  he  rides  well^  and  there  is  no 
reason  why  he  should  not  conduct  a  guerilla  war.  Mr.Wash- 
burn  made  him  drink^  and  supplied  him  with  a  diarrhoea — 
all  fancy.  He  is  fond  of  "  chaflBng.''^  An  English  second 
engineer  sent  him  an  impudent  answer  to  a  message^  and 
when  summoned  to  his  presence  pointed  at  some  object 
with  his  forefinger.  The  hand  was  at  once  struck  down 
by  the  President^  with  the  remark^  ^'  In  England  it  is  not 
manners  to  point  V  He  addresses,  a  la  Napoleon,  jocular 
remarks  in  the  Guarani  tongue  to  his  troops,,  who  receive 
them  with  the  greatest  delight  and  enthusiasm  ;  and,  like  the 
King  of  Dahome,  he  scolds  his  officers. 

The  courage  of  the  ''  unconquered  Marshal/^  as  he  styles 
himself,  is  at  best  questionable.  His  panegyrists,  like  M. 
Felix  Aucaigne,"^  call  him  the  "  Premier  soldat  du  Para- 
guay .^^  His  official  organ  terms  him  the  "  Vencidor 
(Conqueror)  of  Coimbra,  Albuquerque,  and  Corumba.^'  On 
March  5^  J  865,  the  National  Congress  created  exclusively 
for  him  the  rank  of  Field-Marshal ;  the  only  General  of 
Division  being  his  brother-in-law  Barrios,  who  succeeded 
him  as  Minister  of  War,  whilst  many  of  the  third  rank  or 
brigadiers  were  appointed.  He  is  said  to  have  commanded 
in  person  at  the  great  actions  of  May  2  and  May  24,  1866. 
It  is  stated  that  during  the  seven  days^  fighting  in  December, 
1868,  at  Loma  Valentina,  he  had  two  horses  killed  under 
him ;    and   that    his  son,  Panchito    (Frank),  a  youth   about 


*  « 


''  Les  Contemporains  Celebres  "  (by  various  authors.  1st  series. 
Paris  Librairie  Internationale.  1867-9).  The  article  in  question  gives 
Paraguay  1,500,000  of  inhabitants ;  compares  it  with  a  Poland  struggling 
in  the  arms  of  the  Eussian  colossus,  Brazil ;  makes  the  poor  earth- 
works of  the  Tebicuary  river  a  "second  Humaita;"  and  affectingly 
reminds  us  of  the  little  Helvetia  versus  Austria,  on  the  field  of  Mor- 
garten. 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY.  71 

fourteen,  had  four,  whilst  Madame  Lynch  received  three 
wounds.      Of  this,  I  believe,  not  a  word  is  true. 

On  the  other  hand,  foreigners  in  his  service  are  almost  if 
not  quite  unanimous  in  declaring  him  to  be  a  gallince  filius 
alba  ;  they  say  that  he  never  once  exposed  himself  in  battle  ; 
that  he  is  a  craint-plomb  that  shudders  at  the  whistle  of  a 
ball,  and  that  he  has  repeatedly  run  away,  deserting  even  his 
family  in  the  hour  of  danger.  Some  of  those  who  escaped 
are  so  furious  that  they  threaten  him  with  personal  violence 
should  they  happen  to  meet  him  in  a  propitious  place.  He 
has  certainly  never  headed  a  charge,  and  he  has  rarely  been 
reported  to  have  fallen  a  captive.  But  there  is  no  need  for 
the  President  to  act  soldier ;  Uetat  &est  lui.  If  he  falls  the 
cause  of  Paraguay — and  she  has  a  cause — is  sheer  lost; 
whilst  he  lives  she  has  hope.  He  has  always  been  able  to 
escape  ;  his  enemies  are  ever  ready  to  build  for  him  a  bridge 
of  gold,  and  the  best  conditions  are  at  his  service ;  he  has 
manfully  rejected  them  all.  He  is  charged  with  having 
plundered  his  country,  and  yet  he  is  known  not  to  have 
money;  he  is  blamed  for  his  want  of  patriotism,  and  for 
not  ending  the  war  by  self-exile,  yet  it  is  not  proved  that 
his  country  will  gain  by  his  loss,  and  his  countrymen  fight 
for  him  like  fiends — a  sign  that  they  still  adhere  to  his 
cause.  He  is  said  to  rule  them  by  fear.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  Paraguayan  prisoners  are  rarely  if  ever  known  to 
utter  a  word  against  him. 

And  there  is  no  doubt  of  the  Marshal-President's  ability. 
He  is  a  remarkably  good  speaker.  His  letters,'  his  decrees, 
and  his  State  papers  answer  for  themselves.  Without  being 
a  practical  soldier  he  is  an  excellent  topographer,  and  he 
has  fought  the  defensive  part  of  the  campaign,  if  not  with 
ability,  at  any  rate  with  fewer  blunders  than  his  assailants. 
Driven  backwards  by  the  combination  of  army  and  iron- 
clads, he  shifted  his  base  line  to  the  north  till  he  found 
some    readily  defensible    position.      He  thus   compelled  the 


72  INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY. 

invaders  to  cross  over  to  the  Gran  Chaco,  to  drive  a  highway 
over  swampSj  to  bridge  sluggish  streams^  and  to  "undergo  all 
the  hardships  of  a  malarious  land  abounding  in  mos- 
quitos  and  other  pests.  With  an  audacious  tenacity  of 
purpose,  and  a  vast  moral  courage  peculiarly  his  own,  he 
will  probably  fight  his  last  man  in  the  hope  that  the  Triple 
Alliance  may  collapse,  or  that  the  Brazil  may  become  weary 
of  her  tremendous  burden.  His  enemies  declare  him  to  be 
mad  with  obstinacy,  and  predict  that  he  will  end  by  shooting 
himself. 

The  reader  will  readily  remember  that  there  are  races  of 
men,  the  Hindu  (Brahman)  for  instance,  who  fear  to  fight 
though  they  do  not  dread  to  die,  and  that  history  quotes  many 
an  instance  of  the  most  cruel  of  torturers,  and  the  most 
audacious  conspirators,  who  were  unnerved  and  unmanned  by 
the  least  physical  danger.  Robespierre  and  Brigham  Young 
have  both  been  described  as  men  of  this  stamp — a  stamp 
be  it  said  hardly  comprehensible  to  the  strong-nerved 
Briton.  Moreover,  the  tongue  of  slander  has  applied  the 
word  of  disgrace  to  Wellington,  to  San  Martin,  and  even  to 
the  hero  of  Lodi,  the  namesake  of  a  certain  Corsican  Saint 
who  suffered  under  Diocletian. 

In  Paris  the  young  General  Lopez  met  his  destiny  in 
the  shape  of  a  woman.  I  have  no  hesitation  in  alluding 
to  Madame  Lynch,  who  has  fought  through  the  present 
campaign  by  the  side  of  the  Marshal-President,  and  whose 
name  is  now  public  property.  For  motives  easily  appreciated, 
Lieut.-Col.  Thompson  merely  remarks,  (Chap.  III.,)  '^  This 
was  an  Irish  lady,  educated  in  France,  who  had  followed 
Lopez  from  Europe  to  Paraguay.^''  She  prints  herself  Eliza 
A.  (Alicia)  Lynch — her  brother,  Mr.  Lynch,  is  still  with  her 
in  Paraguay — and  in  early  life  she  married  M.  de  Quatre- 
fages,  a  surgeon  in,  or  Surgeon-General  of,  the  Algerian  army, 
and  nephew  of  the  distinguished  litterateur  who  advocated 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAV.  73 

I'umte  de  Tespece  humaine.  Having  been  left  by  her 
husband  in  the  Rue  Richer  she  accidentally  met  General 
Lopez,  who  then  lodged  hard  by  in  the  Maison  Meublee 
Americaine,  and  was  persuaded  to  follow  him  to  South 
America.  After  eighteen  months  of  European  travel,  he 
returned  to  his  native  continent  in  December,  1855,  and  his 
fellow  passengers  still  speak  of  him  as  a  somewhat  reserved 
and  silent  man.  The  lady  arrived  by  the  next  mail,  and 
remained  at  Buenos  Aires  until  the  humour  of  Lopez  Pere 
should  become  known.  Here  "  Panchito,^''  the  first  child 
of  her  five  or  six,  was  born :  one  of  the  sponsors  was  M. 
Labastie,  of  the  Hotel  de  Paz  at  Rozario,  and  he  is  sup- 
posed to  have  preserved  some  curious  letters,  which  many 
however  have  failed  to  see.  The  widely-spread  report  that 
she  lived  for  two  years  with  M.  Pujol,  Governor  of  Cor- 
rientes,  is  a  mere  calumny.  Presently  she  was  allowed  to 
reside  at  Asuncion,  and  was  called  upon  by  the  old  Presi- 
dent and  his  family :  she  never,  however,  occupied  the  same 
house  as  the  General.  The  reader  can  now  appreciate  the 
value  of  Mr.  Hinchliff's  information — "  The  honours  of  the 
Presidential  throne  are  shared  by  an  amiably  disposed 
Englishwoman .'' 

I  failed  to  procure  a  photograph  of  Madame  Lynch,  al- 
though one  was  often  promised  to  me.  An  English  officer 
whom  she  had  impressed  most  favourably  described  her  as 
somewhat  resembhng  Her  Imperial  Majesty  of  Fi-ance,  tall, 
'^  belle  femme,^^  handsome,  with  grey-blue  eyes — once  blue, 
and  hair  chatain-clair  somewhat  sprinkled  with  grey.  These 
signs  of  age  are  easily  to  be  accounted  for ;  her  nerve  must 
have  been  terribly  tried  since  the  campaign  began,  by  tele- 
grams which  were  delivered  even  at  dinner  time,  while 
every  gun,  fired  in  a  new  direction,  caused  a  disturbance. 
She  and  her  children  have  been  hurried  from  place  to  place, 
and  at  times  she  must  have  been  a  prey  to  the  most  weary- 


74  INTRODUCTORY   ESSAY. 

ing  and  wearing  anxiety.  Her  figure  threatens  to  be 
bulky _,  and  to  accompany  a  duplicity  of  chin  :  it  is^  however^ 
as  will  be  seen  in  the  sequel,  a  silly  rumour  wliich  reports 
thatj  like  another  La  Valliere^  she  lost  her  influence  over 
her  "  fickle  lord  '^  since  she  inclined  to  stoutness.  Her 
manners  are  quiet_,  and  she  shows  a  perfect  self-possession : 
only  on  one  occasion  did  she  betray  to  my  informant  some 
anxiety  as  to  whether  the  British  Minister  would  visit 
Paraguay. 

All  are  agreed  that  during  the  war  Madame  Lynch  has 
done  her  utmost  to  mitigate  the  miseries  of  the  captives,, 
and  to  make  the  so-called  "  detenus  ^'  comfortable.  Before 
hostilities  began  she  was  ever  civil  to  her  bachelor  fellow- 
countrymen,  but  the  peculiarity  of  her  position  made  her 
very  jealous  of  wives  who,  in  the  middle  classes  at  least, 
are  apt  to  be  curious  about  '^  marriage  lines. ^^  She  is  said 
to  be,  when  offended,  very  hard,  and  to  display  all  the 
"  ferocite  des  blondes.^''  Two  young  Frenchmen  of  family, 
who  when  dunned  for  money  which  they  had  borrowed,  applied 
ugly  words  to  Madame  Lynch,  were  at  her  instigation  ar- 
rested for  debt,  thrown  into  prison,  and  compelled  to  beg 
their  bread  in  the  streets.  This  was  told  to  me  by  an 
English  lady,  who  ought  to  know  the  truth.  The  French 
Consul,  M.  Cochelet,  who  would  not  visit  Madame  Lynch, 
was  kept  until  the  arrival  of  the  French  steamer  in  a  room 
at  Humaita,  where  he  and  his  family  were  exposed  to  the 
shells  of  the  Brazilian  fleet. 

Madame  Lynch  must  be  somewhat  ambitious.  It  is 
generally  believed  that  she  in  company  with  the  (late  ?) 
Dean  of  the  Cathedral,  subsequently  Bishop  D.  Manuel 
Antonio  Palacios,  a  country  priest  who  succeeded  Urbieta, 
and  with  a  Hungarian  refugee.  Colonel  Wisner  de  Morgen- 
stern — his  card  so  bears  the  name  under  his  armorial  de- 
vice— worked   upon    President   Lopez,  and   persuaded  him 


INTRODUCTORY   ESSAY.  75 

that  he  might  easily  become  Master  and  Emperor  of  the 
Platine  Regions.  As  early  as  1854  an  obsequious  deputy 
had  proposed  in  Congress  to  make  the  senior  Lopez  Em- 
peror, and  the  crown  to  be  hereditary  in  his  family.  But 
as  Captain  Page  remarked^  he  was  ''  de  facto  Emperor/' 
and  he  did  not  want  the  odium  of  the  name.  Perhaps  his 
son  coveted  it  upon  the  principle  which,  amongst  us,  makes 
a  peerage  valuable  to  a  man  whose  father  refused  it.  Upon 
my  return  to  Buenos  Aires,  I  was  shown  the  plaster  model 
of  a  crown,  apparently  that  of  the  first  Napoleon,  which, 
stuck  to  a  board,  had  been  forwarded  for  any  alterations 
which  the  Marshal-President  might  suggest.  Suspecting 
this  to  be  a  ruse  de  guerre  in  order  to  stir  up  popular 
odium,  I  consulted  President  Sarmiento.  This  statesman, 
in  the  presence  of  witnesses,  declared  to  me  that  it  had 
been  sent  out  bond  fide  by  a  Parisian  house,  and  that  it  had 
been  embargo^  by  the  Argentine  Government,  together  with 
furniture  ordered  by  the  Marshal-President.  The  furniture, 
destined  for  one  room,  and  worth  about  400/.,  consisted  of 
fine  solid  curtain  hangings,  showy  chairs,  white,  red,  and 
gold,  and  tinsel  chandeliers,  with  common  cut  glass  and 
white  paint  showing  under  the  gilding.  It  bore  the  arms 
of  the  Republic,  but  it  was  evidently  copied  from  the  Tui- 
leries.  A  hard  fate  caused  it  to  be  sold  by  auction  at 
Buenos  Aires. 

Using  the  state  of  political  parties  in  the  Banda  Oriental 
as  a  pretext.  President  Lopez,  in  early  1864,  began  actively 
to  prepare  fcr  war.  There  is  little  doubt  that  he  thought 
the  proceeding  one  of  self-preservation  against  his  mortal 
enemies  the  Liberal  party,  which  threatened  incontinently 
to  hem  him  in,  and  he  is  said  to  have  declared,  "  If  we 
have  not  a  war  with  the  Brazil  now,  we  shall  have  it  at  a 
time  less  convenient  for  ourselves."  Since  then,  in  a  mani- 
festo, he  stated,  "  Paraguay  must   no   longer  consent  to  be 


76  INTRODUCTORY   ESSAY. 

lost  sight  of  when  the  neighbouring  states  are  agitating 
questions  which  have  more  or  less  a  direct  influence  upon 
her  dearest  rights/^  Moreover  he  felt  poignantly  in  his 
inmost  soul  the  ^'  ribald  articles/^  those  edged  tools  with 
which  the  press  of  Buenos  Aires  delighted  to  play^  calling 
him  for  instance  "cacique/^  and  Asuncion  his  "wigwam." 

The  following  is  a  simple  abstract  of  the  dates  which 
render  the  five  years'  war  remarkable.  The  precis  may  be 
useful  to  the  reader,  and  I  have  given  in  the  Preface  the 
briefest  possible  sketch  of  the  campaign  in  its  two  phases^ 
offensive  and  defensive. 

October  16,  1864. — The  Brazilian  army  invades  the  Banda 
Oriental,  despite  the  protestations  of  President  Lopez, 
who  declared  that  such  invasion  would  be  held  a 
casus  belli. 

December  4^,  1864. — President  Lopez  despatches  an  expe- 
ditionary column  to  invade  the  Brazilian  province  of 
Matto-Grosso. 

April  13,  1865. — After  vainly  soliciting  permission  from 
the  Argentine  Bepublic  to  march  his  troops  across 
Corrientes,  in  order  to  attack  the  Brazil,  President 
Lopez  seizes  two  Argentine  ships  of  war  in  the  port 
of  Corrientes  and  occupies  the  city. 

May  1,  1865.— The  "  Treaty  of  May  1^'  concludes  a 
triple  alliance,  oflPensive  and  defensive,  between  the 
Brazil,  the  Argentine  Republic,  and  the  Banda 
Oriental  again«t  the  government  of  Paraguay. 

May,  1865. — Paraguay  invades  the  Brazilian  Province  of 
Rio  Grande  do  Sul,  and  her  left  corps  d'armee 
marches  down  the  valley  of  the  Uruguay  River. 

June  11,  1865. — The  Paraguayan  fleet  is  defeated  at  the 
Battle  of  Riachuelo,  and  the  right  corps  d'armeCy 
marching  down  the  Parana,  is  compelled  to  retreat. 


INTRODUCTORY   ESSAY.  77 

September  18, 1865. — The  Paraguayan  left  corps  d'arm6e 
surrenders  in  Uruguayana  to  the  Emperor  of  the 
Brazil,  commanding  the  allies. 

November  1-3,  1865.  —  The  Paraguayan  right  corps 
d'armee  retreats  behind  its  own  proper  frontier,  the 
line  of  the  Parana  River,  and  thus  terminates  the 
offensive  phase  of  the  campaign. 

For  nearly  a  year,  between  November  1865,  and  Sep- 
tember 1866,  the  Allies  having  crossed  the  Parana  River, 
hold  their  ground  despite  the  frantic  efforts  of  the  Para- 
guayans to  dislodge  them.  Amongst  the  actions  the  most 
severe  are  the  Battle  of  Estero  Bellaco  (May  2,  1866,)  and 
the  Battle  of  Tuyuty  (May  24, 1866).  The  Commander-in- 
chief,  Mitre,  at  last  determines  to  force  the  line  of  the 
Paraguay  River. 

September  3,  1866. — The  Paraguayan  works  at  Curuzu, 
an  outwork  of  Humaita,  are  stormed  by  the  Allies. 
This  is  followed  by  the  Conference  of  Ytaiti-Cora, 
where  Presidents  Mitre  and  Lopez  coidd  not  come  to 
terms. 

September  22,  1866. — The  Allies  attack  Curupaity,  an- 
other outwork  of  Humaita,  and  are  repulsed  with 
terrible  loss,  especially  of  the  Argentine  army. 

This  fait  d'armes  is  followed  by  nearly  a  year  of  com- 
parative inaction ;  Marshal  Caxias  assumes  command  of  the 
Brazilian  army,  and  Admiral  Tamandare  retires  from  the 
fleet. 

August  15,  1867. — The  Brazilian  iron-clad  squadron 
steams  past  the  batteries  of  Curupaity. 

January  14,  1868. — General  Mitre  retires  from  the  war, 
and  is  succeeded  by  Marshal  Caxias  as  Generalissimo. 


78  INTRODUCTORY   ESSAY.  •- 

February  \S,  1868. — The  Brazilian  iron-clads  run  past 
the  batteries  of  Humaita. 

March  \,  1868. — The  Paraguayan  canoes  attack  the  Bra- 
zilian ironclads.  Marshal-President  Lopez  retires 
from  his  Head-Quarters  at  Paso  Pucii  to  Timbo, 
and  thence  to  the  line  of  the  Tebicuary  River. 
A  general  movement  in  advance  on  the  part  of  the 
Allies  takes  place  (March  21)^  the  result  being  that 
the  batteries  of  Curupaity  are  evacuated  (March  22). 

June  18-20^  1868. — Marshal-President  Lopez  discovers, 
or  suspects  that  he  has  discovered,  a  conspiracy  with 
revolutionary  intentions,  headed  by  General  Berges. 
Many  executions  are  reported. 

July  24,  1868. — The  garrison  of  Humaita,  surrounded  on 
all  sides  and  starved  out,  evacuates  the  so-called 
stronghold,  makes  for  the  Gran  Chaco,  on  the  other 
side  of  the  river,  and  on  August  6th  surrenders. 

August  22, 1868. — The  Paraguayans  evacuate  the  batteries 
of  Timbo,  north  of  Humaita. 

August  28,  1868. — The  Allies  become  masters  of  the 
deserted  line  of  the  Tebicuary  Biver.  Marshal-Pre- 
sident Lopez  retires  to  Villeta,  up  stream. 

Oct.  1,  1868. — Four  ironclads  force  the  Angostura  bat- 
teries. 

November,  1868. — Marshal  Caxias  determines  once  more 
to  turn  the  enemy^s  right  flank,  and  directs  Marshal 
Argolo  to  begin  a  military  road  through  the  Gran 
Chaco.  Admiral  Viscount  de  Inhauma  forces  the 
Pass  of  Angostura,  November  15. 

December  5,  1868. — The  vanguard  of  the  Brazilian  army 
crosses  the  Paraguay  River  and  lands  unopposed  on 
the  left  bank  at  San  Antonio. 

December  21-27,  1868.— The  ^^  Waterloo  of  the  war.^' 
After  four  several  actions,  Marshal-President  Lopez, 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY.  79 

compelled  to  abandon  Loma  Valentina,  and  accom- 
panied by  a  handful  of  horsemen,  dashes  through  the 
enemy  and  reaches  Cerro  Leon. 

December  30,  1868. — The  celebrated  Angostura  batteries, 
commanded  by  Lieut. -Col.  George  Thompson,  C.E., 
and  Colonel  Carrillo,  surrender. 

January  2,  1869. — The  Commander-in-Chief,  Marshal 
Caxias,  enters  in  triumph  Asuncion,  finds  it  evacuated, 
and  declares  the  war  to  be  "  ended.^^ 

At  this  point  finishes  the  second  act  of  the  war,  and 
begins  the  third,  which  is  not  yet  concluded.  Marshal- 
President  Lopez,  safely  sheltered  by  the  mountains,  de- 
termines upon  a  guerilla  warfare,  and  collects  for  that 
purpose  the  last  of  the  doomed  Paraguayan  race. 


LETTEE  I. 

FEOM    RIO    DE    JANEIRO  TO    MONTE  VIDi^O. 

Monte  Video,  August  11, 1868. 

My  dear  Z J 

You  directed  me,  remember,  to  proceed 

straight  to  the  seat  of  war,  in  the  "  seld  seen  land,^^ 
Paraguay,  and  there  to  constitute  myself  your  ''  Military 
Correspondent/^  You  were  weary  of  reading  for  more 
than  three  years  a  succession  of  reliable  details  published 
by  one  newspaper  and  directly  contradicted  by  another. 
You  pitied  the  public  when  I  was  asked  for  articles  upon 
that  interesting  if  not  important  subject  by  a  certain 
Editor  who,  knowing  me  to  be  at  Santos,  Sao  Paulo,  inferred 
that  places  and  persons  distant  a  thousand  miles  or  so, 
were  therefore  necessarily  familiar  to  me.  You  asked  with 
P.  Pilate  "  What  is  truth  ?  ''  You  were  "  dying ''  to  know 
something  about  that  unspoiled  Arcadia  which  deaf 
Mr.  Mansfield,  after  a  ten-months^  sojourn  on  the  soil, 
pronounced  to  be  the  ''  most  interesting,  loveliest,  plea- 
santest  country  in  the  world  -/'  about  the  "  Nestor  of  the 
war,^^  Marshal  Caxias;  about  Madame  Lynch;  about  the 
battles  and  the  massacres,  and  the  rumours  of  massacres,  and 
remembering  the  ladies  of  Sienna  in  the  Livre  de  Montluc, 
about  the  Amazonian  army  whose  "  uniform  was  white, 
with  white-fringed  caps ;  their  arms  a  lance  with  pennant, 
and  their  grades  eflfeminized  into  Commandanta,  Capi- 
tana,  Alfereza,  Sargenta." 

To  hear  was  to  obey.      I  at  once  girded  up  my  loins  for 
the  task.    With  a  stoicism  not  less  rare  than  commendable. 


FROM    RIO    BE    JANEIRO   TO    MONTE    VIDEO.  SI 

and  au  epicurean  zest  to  leave  tliose  old  familiar  scenes  and 
faces,  whose  many  charms  had  begun  to  pall  upon  the 
traveller's  palate,  I  descended  for  the  last  time  the  tre- 
mendous inclined  planes  of  the  Santos  and  Jundiahy  railway, 
and  still  shuddering,  bade  farewell  to  a  three  years'  home. 
We  embarked  for  the  last  of  so  many  times  at  Santos,  that 
Weston-super-mud  of  the  Far  West,  peculiarly  fatal  to  the 
genus  European,  species  Consul,  and  with  ses  triplex  about 
the  cardiac  region,  we  affronted  the  risks  of  fire  and  water 
on  board  a  Brazilian  steamer,  northward  bound  to  the 
capital. 

After  a  rapid  fortnight  amongst  the  hospitalities  of  Rio 
de  Janeiro,  which  our  countrymen  will  call  '^  Rye -oh,''  you 
delivered  me  (August  6,  1868),  duly  labelled,  ''Monte 
Video — this  side  up — fragile — with  care,^'  on  board  the 
R.M.S.S.  Arno,  Captain  Bruce.  You  preferred  for  me 
the  "  Slow-coach  line,''  as  it  was  called  by  a  testy  editor 
who,  holding  himself  aggrieved,  planted  his  little  sting  in  the 
tenderest  part — when  will  English  take  example  from  Anglo- 
American  Companies,  and  learn  how  much  may  be  made, 
or  how  much  may  not  be  lost,  by  a  little  timely  expenditure 
of  "  dead-heading  ?  "  The  choice  of  steamers  had  for 
object,  personal  comfort  and  a  zoological  study  of  the  pas- 
sengers ;  upon  which  I  cumulated  observation  of  the  mani- 
fold and  manifest  antediluvianisms  of  the  Great  Company. 
Why  should  the  outward-bound  public  be  delayed  four  or 
five  days  at  Rio,  awaiting  the  arrival  of  the  ''  inter-colonial" 
Arno  ?  Why  treat  ''  the  River  "  to  an  "  inter- colonial  "  at 
all,  when  the  big  steamer  should  make  it  her  terminus? 
Why  retain  the  Arno  of  757  tons  register,  which  daily  con- 
sumes from  /thirty  to  thirty-two  tons  of  coal,  when  the 
improved  engines  of  the  new  Pacific  steamer  Magellan 
make  twenty-five  do  the  work  of  3500  tons  ?  Again,  why 
should   the  Buenos  Aires   mails,  and  the  homeward- bounds 

6 


82  FROM    RIO    DE    JANEIRO    TO    MONTE    VIDEO. 

be  kept  waiting  two  days  at  Monte  Video  ?  Lastly,  why 
should  the  mail-bags  be  shipped  from  Buenos  Aires  in  a 
sailing-boatj  often  delaying  Arno  two  hours,  and  demanding 
full  speed  with  an  increased  expenditure  of  coal  !  Arrange- 
ments for  embarking  and  disembarking  upon  the  Platine 
shores  are  imperfect  all,  but  the  Royal  Mail  simply  makes 
none.  New  and  immense  sources  of  profit,  such  as  touch- 
ing at  Santos  in  S.  Paulo,  have  been  proposed  even  by 
myself.  During  the  affair  of  Federals  versus  Confederates, 
when  the  Royal  Mail  had  virtually  a  monopoly  of  transport, 
a  noble  service  might  have  been  organized  had  they  not 
preferred  distributing  bonuses.  My  proposals  were  re- 
jected, and  the  profits  were  made  over  to  the  French  and 
to  a  rival  line,  the  '^'^  Astronomicals,^^  by  the  incapacity 
of  certain  superannuateds,  who  have  done  nothing  but 
mangle  the  fair  proportions  of  the  company.  Yet,  when 
the  last  yearns  West  Indian  typhoon  lost  four  steamers,  the 
Royal  Mail,  which  has  on  board  every  ship  begging-boxes 
for  widows  and  orphans,  could  not  afford  to  pay  pensions, 
and  was  compelled  to  pass  round  the  ignoble  hat.  Beware 
O  ex-Great  Company,  and  bestir  thyself!  We  will  not  be 
made  to  go  backwards.  There  is  a  Lamport  and  Holt — 
although  that  coach  is  even  slower — there  is  a  Tait^s  London 
line,  and,  to  say  nothing  of  the  French,  Italians,  and 
Belgians,  there  are  fine  brand-new  Pacific  steamers  through 
Magellan  Strait,  which  may  presently  claim  a  fat  slice  from 
the  Mail  contract. 

You  must  not  think  that  in  making  these  remarks,  my 
object  is  to  grumble  or  to  blame  :  it  is  rather  to  suggest  the 
mode  of  preventing  discontent.  Personally  I — let  us  say 
we — have  ever  met  with  the  most  kindly  treatment  on 
board  the  many  vessels  of  the  Royal  Mail  that  conveyed 
us.  It  is  still  the  line  which  will  be  preferred  by  families, 
and  where  the  unprotected  one  is  safe  from  the  attentions 


FROM    RIO    DE    JANEIRO    TO    MOxNTE    VIDEO.  83 

of  delirium  tremens^  and   I    show  my  gratitude  by  pointing 
out  what  is  required  to  perfect  it. 

Meanwhile  the  Royal  Mail  has  made  two  moves  in  the 
right  direction.  Freights  were  frightful;  they  have  now 
been  reduced  from  10/.  to  3/.  \0s.  Ocl.  per  ton.  The  lowest 
first  class  between  Buenos  Aires  and  London,  including 
five  days  at  Rio_,  costs  35/.,  decidedly  cheap  locomotion 
for  thirty-six  days.  The  highest  fare  is  80/.,  which  hires 
a  single  cabin  upon  the  upper  deck.  It  is  a  good 
principle  to  make  the  necessaries  of  travel  as  cheap  as 
possible,  and  the  luxuries  dear  to  those  who  can  afford  them. 
The  details,  however,  may  be  improved.  For  instance,  35/. 
is  too  little :  it  crowds  the  saloons  with  wild  bipeds  who 
should  be  shipped  forwards.  Nothing  but  first  and  second 
class  should  be  allowed,  and  so  forth.  I  would  also  advise 
the  purser,  when  there  are  300  passengers  on  board,  to  have 
breakfast  on  the  table  from  8  to  11  a.m.,  as  is  the  custom 
of  the  English  country  house. 

That  Thursday  when  Blue  Peter  came  down,  was  a  grey 
day,  and  the  beautiful  face  of  Rio  Bay  gave  me  a  parting 
scowl  which  I  did  not  deserve.  As  we  started  at  8  a.m. 
no  jollity  was  there.  You  should  see  the  contrast  at  Buenos 
Aires  when  an  old  habitue  leaves.  Then  Englishmen  and 
Germans  congregate  :  then  is  consumed  an  intolerable  deal 
of  pale  sherry — four  shillings  on  board  and  ten  on  shore : 
then  national  anthems  are  sung,  and  bravos  and  vivas, 
''  hoorays  ^'  and  hurrahs  are  howled,  and  then  are  prodi- 
gious kissings,  embracings,  and  tear-sheddings,  not  unac- 
companied by  bonnetings. 

Before  us  lay  five  dreary  days  to  cover  1040  miles,  which 
may,  at  this  season,  afford  a  rough  passage.  August  30  is 
the  anniversary  of  Santa  Rosa,  a  young  person  who,  per- 
haps you  do  not  know,  patronizes  South  America,  and  the 
fete  of  the  fair  Limena — she  was  not  like   St.  Catherine  of 

6—2 


84  FROM    RIO    DE    JANEIRO    TO    MONTE    VIDEO. 

Sienna — is  expected  to  bring  from  the  south-east  a  gale 
which  tosses  up  mountains  of  sand^  and  which  has  thrown 
ships  amongst  and  over  the  house-tops.  Consulting  the 
register  for  the  last  few  years,  I  find  the  Saintess  unpunc- 
tual  as  Saint  S within  :  in  fact  the  phenomenon  must  be 
reduced  to  a  mere  equinoctial  disturbance.  Arno  is  in 
luck  as  long  as  she  keeps  this  cold,,  raw  north-easter  which 
holds  up  the  rain.  If  the  breeze  falls,  and  the  sea  is 
lulled,  she  must  look  out  for  the  Pampero  or  Prairie  wind, 
a  Harmattan,  a  Khamsin,  whose  very  name  makes  the  flesh 
of  the  timid  chilly  creep,  and  which  whizzes,  they  say, 
through  their  bones. 

You  will  accept  a  few  words  about  this  meteor,  the  only 
health  officer  of  Platine  cities,  the  maintainer  of  atmo- 
spheric circulation,  and,  according  to  M.  Bravard,  the  great 
builder  of  the  Pampas.  The  Pampero,  which  ranges  from 
south-west  to  south- south-west,  is  as  usual  more  felt  in 
countries  towards  which  it  blows  than  in  the  regions  where 
it  rises.  It  is  of  two  kinds — clean  and  dirty.  The  ^'  Lim- 
pio,^''  after  threatening  rain,  sweeps  the  sky  bright  and 
clear.  The  rheumatic  gale  is  cutting  as  a  Kent-coast 
black  caster,  and  sailors  complain  that  the  Plate  appears  to 
them  after  the  relaxing  heat  of  Kio,  the  bitterest  place  they 
know.  But  it  is  a  true  relief  in  the  seething  summer ;  it 
forms  a  break  of  invigorating  freshness :  cold  and  consequently 
dry,  it  renders  even  Buenos  Aires  of  the  fetid  airs  inhabitable. 
The  Pampero  Sucio  comes  out  from  a  horizontal  line  of 
sable  cloud,  like  the  arch  of  the  West-African  tornado 
down-flattened;  and  whilst  the  curtain  creeps  up  to  the 
zenith,  the  storm-wind  with  a  rush  and  a  roar  swoops  down 
upon  the  world  of  waters.  It  brings  thunder  closely  fol- 
lowing the  flash,  which  is  peculiarly  tremulous  and  persistent, 
whilst  ascending  balls  are  common :  such  lightning  is 
dangerous  on  the  Pampas,  as  on  the  North  American  Prairies. 


FROM   Rro   DE   JANEIRO    TO   MONTE  VIDEO.  85 

Azara  calculates  that  "  thunderbolts  '^  fall  about  ten  times 
more  often  in  Paraguay  than  in  Spain.  I  do  not  speak  of  the 
dust^  being  at  sea  ;  the  rain  begins  by  "  spitting  sixpences/' 
and  ends  in  emptying  bucketsful :  the  gale  sleeps  at  night, 
and  raves  sometimes  for  two  and  even  for  three  days, 
making  all  wretchedly  uncomfortable  till  it  has  blown  itself 
dead. 

It  has  been  remarked  that  the  wind  ending  in  the 
Pampero  should  traverse  fi'om  north  to  west,  and  thus  from 
south-south-west  to  south-west.  If  it  pass  round  eastward, 
or  with  the  sun,  it  will  not  last.  Sailors  exaggerate  its 
effects :  blowing  offshore,  it  is  therefore  not  so  bad  as  the 
"  Northern'^  of  Valparaiso,  and  the  ill-famed  "  Norte**'  of 
the  Mexican  Gulf.  But  it  is  frigid  with  Andine  snows, 
and  dry  as  a  Simoom  after  coursing  over  the  naked  south- 
temperate  plains.  It  extends  to  Rio  Grande,  the  southern- 
most province  of  the  Brazil,  but  there  it  is  comparatively 
innocuous,  and  the  Temporal  de  Polvo  shows  to  best  ad- 
vantage, speaking  of  it  as  a  curiosity,  on  the  Pampas  and 
where  the  soil  is  poorest.  The  ''  spelF'  from  Rio  to  Monte 
Video  is  held  by  seamen  the  worst  of  the  six  acts  which 
represent  the  total  voyage-drama  from  England  to  Plate- 
land.  Our  wind  veers  during  five  days  almost  round  the 
compass,  and  becomes  notably  rawer  as  we  advance. 
Heavy  showers  —  rain  being  here  almost  inevitable  — 
drench  the  feet;  and  once  cooled  on  board,  feet  do 
not  wax  warm  throughout  the  day.  The  fogs,  or 
rather  the  Scotch  mists,  of  the  calm  nights  are  heavy, 
and  as  we  are  upon  the  beaten  track  of  ships,  our 
steam-whistle  is  not  silent.  At  times  the  water  is  smooth 
as  oil,  a  Pacific,  not  a  moaning  and  misty  Atlantic.  The 
half-knot  current  sets  at  present  to  the  south-west,  the 
direction  by  which  it  doubles  the  Horn,  but  a  southerly 
gale  will  drive  it  two  knots  per  hour  to  the  north.      About 


86  FROM    RIO    DE    JANEIRO    TO    MONTE  VIDEO. 

the  Abrolhos  Islands,  infames  scopulos,  soundings  even  of 
fifty  fathoms  cannot  be  told  by  the  colour.  Here  the  tints 
shift  from  light  blue^  showing  a  sandy  floor^,  to  dark  blue 
and  sombre  brown ;  this  is  the  effect  of  a  muddy  bottom, 
the  deposit  of  the  Plata  following  the  wind,  now  sweeping 
up,  then  floating  down  coast. 

Happily  for  the  traveller's  repose,  steam  has  given  old 
science  the  go-by.  At  this  rapid  pace  we  are  no  longer 
bound  in  duty  to  catch  gulf- weed  and  acalephs ;  to  observe 
and  register  the  temperature  of  the  atmosphere  and  the 
oscillations  of  the  ship;  to  speculate  on  the  existence  of 
phosphorus  in  our  water,  or  narrowly  to  observe  the  flight 
of  the  flying-fish.  We  may,  sound  in  conscience,  eat,  drink, 
and  sleep,  smoking  between  whiles  pectoral  cigarettes, 
playing  ^^  bulF^  or  maritime  quoits,  sleepily  watching  the 
companionable  gull,  or  recognising  by  the  parrot-like  thrill 
of  their  barred  wings  one's  old  world  friends  the  Cape 
pigeons.  And  the  style  of  the  outward-bound  companion 
is  here  better  than  that  which  lands  in  the  Brazil.  Our 
staple  consists  of  '^  gentle  shepherds,-"  as  the  slang  is ; 
simple  young  fellows  fi-om  the  country,  many  of  them 
Scotch,  coming  out  to  become  Magyar  Esterhazys  and 
Cokes  of  Holkham,  or  rather  going  to  the  bad  in  the 
pursuit  of  sheep.  Some  are  putting  in  a  first  appearance ; 
others,  older  hands,  are  returning  to  their  muttons.  With 
us  is  a  Plenipo.,  accompanied  by  Mrs.  P. ;  there  is  a  gentle- 
manly person  in  knickerbockers  and  poor  health;  there 
is  the  "  Mail  abroad,''  wending  home  to  Argentine- land, 
with  a  remarkably  pretty  and  pleasing  "  Mail-ess,"  who 
admirably  "ryles  up;"  and  there  are  some  nondescripts, 
many  Germans,  and  a  few  French,  the  latter  a  race  that 
never  feels  thoroughly  at  home  on  board  English  steamers. 
Unfortunately,  my  bete  noire  is  also  there — a  loud,  brassy, 
bumptious,  bellowing,  blatant  manner  of  being — the  thing. 


FROM    RIO    DE    JANEIRO    TO    MONTE    VID:6o.  87 

in  fact,  that  begat  our  modern  and  English  Anglophobia. 
This  typical  10/.  householder  had  waxed  fat  on  River  hide 
and  tallow,  and  upon  his  mental  toe  I  had  unconsciously 
trodden  by  mistaking  him  for  a  gentleman's  valet.  He  is 
characteristically  servile  to  his  superiors,  pert,  contradictory, 
and  offensive  to  his  peers,  insolent  to  his  inferiors.  His 
beau  ideal  of  a  man  is  an  anything  married  by  the 
daughter  of  Lady  Jones,  and  wedded  to  180,000/. — of  such, 
we  are  told,  is  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 

The  return  lot  is  not  so  pleasant.  There  are  many 
Teutons,  who  form  a  distinct  class.  There  are  a  few  Bra- 
zilians, wild  as  Kafirs  :  the  men  argue,  gesticulate,  thump 
fists  on  table,  take  places  that  are  not  their  own,  and  seem 
strange  to  the  appliances  of  civilization  as  might  have 
been  the  Tupis ;  the  women  are  invariably  sea-sick,  wear 
calicos,  wag  the  forefinger,  and  use  bottines  that  never 
knew  Paris.  The  Portuguese  are  Brazilians  Europeanized, 
and  personally  not  so  clean  :  you  easily  know  them,  their 
talk  is  about  nothing  but  dollars  and  the  other  sex. 
Dictator  Rosas  allowed  them  and  them  only  to  congregate 
in  the  streets.  "  Yov''  said  he,  "  when  two  Portuguese 
meet,  the  talk  will  always  be  about  *  p'^'^^'^'^a,'  in  fact — 

"  To  chatter  loose  and  ribald  brothelry." 

All  nationalities  will  be  first  class.  I  should  suggest  the 
example  of  a  certain  Argentine  railway,  where  the  ticket-clerk, 
glancing  at  the  customer,  determines  his  class — the  larger 
the  spurs  the  lower  goes  the  wearer.  The  Creole  English 
muster  strong ;  they  speak  Spanish  amongst  the  English, 
English  amongst  the  Spaniards ;  their  voices  are  curiously 
harsh  and  metallic ;  they  open  the  lips  widely  when  pro- 
nouncing their  English,  as  though  it  were  Spanish,  and  the 
result  nearly  approaches  to  what  we  call  the  "  Chichi  boli,'' 
or  Mulatto  dialect  of  Bengal^  with  not  a  little   of  the  New 


88  FROM    EIO    DE    JANEIRO    TO    MONTE    VIDEO. 

England  and  the  Australian  nasalization.  Here  and  there  is 
a  civilized  Englishman ;  the  staple,  however,  comes  from  the 
bush,  haggard  with  toil  and  discomfort,  dressed  in  home-made 
clothes,  and  bringing  half-a-dozen  cubs,  who,  fresh  out  of  a 
cattle-breeding  ground,  want  breaking  like  wild  colts.  Truly 
terrible  is  this  small  infantry  warred  on  by  nurses,  it  is 
worse  than  the  juvenile  Anglo-Indian.  Misther  T'him 
O^Brien,  for  instance,  rising  six  years,  is  requested  by  a 
polite  Mail  officer  not  to  thrash  his  sister.  He  raises  eyes 
blazing  fiery  green  out  of  a  freckled  face,  and  briefly 
ejaculates — 

"  You  go  to  h "      Ending  with  Spanish  which  even 

dashes  will  not  make  decent.  If  the  officer  add  a  word, 
his  shins  will  feel  the  thickness  of  Mr.  Tim^s  double-soled 
highlows;  and  his  mother  will  express  the  profoundest 
astonishment — she  has  always  found  her  T^him  such  a  "  dear 
good  little  boy.^"* 

You  will  want  to  hear  something  about  colonizing  in  the 
River  Plate,  emigration  to  those  lands  being  still  believed  in 
by  a  benighted  public*  At  the  present  moment,  whatever 
it  may  have  been,  sheep-farming  is  a  snare  and  a  delusion. 
The  industry  was  introduced  by  foreigners,  especially  by 
Messrs.  Sheridan  and  Harratt,  in  1825 ;  they  greatly  im- 
proved upon  the  Pampas  breed,  which  in  1550  came  with 
the  goat  from  Peru.  It  was  the  third  stage  of  progress, 
the    first    being    the   wild   ^^  Indian^^   that   killed   out    the 


*  It  is  only  fair  for  me  to  refer  to  the  favourable  side  of  the  question 
as  developed  in  "  Letters  Concerning  the  Country  of  the  Argentine  Re- 
public (South  America)  being  Suitable  for  Emigrants  and  Capitalists  to 
Settle  in."  (1869.  Second  issue.  London  :  Waterlow  and  Sons.)  The 
able  and  energetic  author  and  compiler,  Mr.  William  Perkins,  Secretary 
National  Commission  of  Immigration,  kindly  sent  me  a  copy.  For  my 
part  I  agree  with  Messrs.  Jessop  and  "  Old  Scotchman,"  rather  than  with 
Mr.  Purdie  and  Mr.  Henly  ;  and  my  opinion  is  not  valueless,  as  I  have 
seen  three  times  more  of  the  country  than  any  of  them. 


FROM    RIO    1)E    JANEIRO    TO    MONTE    VIDEO.  89 

Megatheroicl ;  and  the  second,  horses  and  black  cattle,  the 
former  brought  by  Mendoza  in  1536,  and  the  latter  intro- 
duced in  1553,  by  the  Spaniards  of  Asuncion  from  the 
Brazil.  The  turnip  must  follow  the  mutton,  and  the  fourth 
step  will  of  course  be  agriculture  :  the  latter  should  be 
combined  with  "pastoral  pursuits^^  as  soon  as  possible. 

Twenty  years  ago  sheep  farmers  throve.  They  led  for  a 
few  years  jolly  lives  of  savage  exile,  and  then  they  went 
home  rich  "  for  good.^^  Presently  increased  wages,  and 
the  higher  prices  of  campo-land,  once  so  cheajJ,  combined 
with  a  more  expensive  style  of  establishment,  with  the  in- 
security of  life  and  property,  and  with  the  perpetual  ^•' pro- 
nouncings^^ of  the  native  population,  changed  the  face  of 
affairs.  The  United  States,  formerly  the  best  customer, 
came  into  the  wool  market,  and  the  Morrill  tariff  imposed 
a  protective  duty  prohibitory  to  all  but  the  cheapest  articles, 
these  paying  only  six  cents  per  pound.  The  last  straw  was 
the  export  duty  of  10  per  cent.  (Mr.  Ross  Johnson  says  15) 
levied  by  the  Argentine  Government — 5  in  ready  money, 
and  5  after  fouv  months.  The  Platines  have  reason 
to  say,  "  The  English  are  the  only  people  who  come  here 
with  money,  and  who  go  away  without.^^  Certainly, 
Spaniards  and  Italians,  Portuguese  and  Basques,  Brazilians 
and  Germans  do  not.  But  they  are  mostly  "  hands^^  as 
opposed  to  capital. 

The  oldsters  on  board  told  many  a  popular  tale  that  shows 
which  way  the  wind  sets.  One  professed  himself  ready  to 
walk  a  mile  in  order  to  kick  a  sheep.  Another  related  how 
an  emigrant  had  cut  the  throats  of  all  his  flock,  and  lastly  his 
own — the  best  way  to  get  rid  of  the  business.  Apparently 
all  were  eager  to  sell,  none  to  buy  :  they  were  ready  to 
sell  for  $1  what  they  had  bought  for  $4;  and  some  have 
taken  \s.  'iOd.,  and  even  1^.  Qd.  They  asserted  roundly 
that  give  a  man  three  leagues  of  land  and  20,000  sheep. 


90  FROM    RIO    DE    JANEIRO    TO    MONTE    VIDEO. 

he  must  be  ruined  in  five  or  six  years  if  not  permitted  to 
trade  them  off.  Every  tongue  spoke  harshly  of  those 
agents  at  home  and  abroad  whose  business  it  is  to  attract 
as  many  emigrants  as  possible.  Mr.  David  Robertson^  M.P., 
"vvas  accused  of  having  deluded  many  a  wretch  to  his  doom, 
and  of  keeping  up  the  lure.  Dr.  Juan  M'Coll — Huan  is 
more  Spanish  than  John — a  broker,  especially  of  estates, 
alias  a  "  Titan  in  Monte  Videan  progress,"  was  charged 
with  having  written  the  "  Republic  of  Uruguay  and  Life  in 
the  River  Plate,^^*  alliteratively  characterized  as  "  all  rot  and 
rubbish/^  whilst  his  "■  sheep  farmer^s  paradise^^  was  defined 
to  be  a  limbo  of  fools.  Mr.  Wilfred  Latham  was  soundly 
rated  for  his  calculation  of  75  per  cent,  profits  :  this  may 
once  have  been  the  case,  but  the  repetition  of  it  calls  for 
contradiction.  As  harsh-judged  were  all  the  handbooks, 
the  guides,  and  other  publications  which  Messrs.  Drabble, 
Maua,  and  others  have  cast  broad- scattered  upon  the  w^aters 
of  emigration.  Some,  it  is  true,  opined  the  present  to  be 
the  crisis  preceding  the  cure :  they  believed  their  own  hopes, 
that  the  industry,  like  tobacco,  cotton  and  sugar  growing  in 
the  Southern  States  of  the  Union,  where  the  great  landlord 
has  been  "  wiped  out,"*^  will  gain  a  new  term  of  life  by 
spreading  to  the  masses.  Others  would  establish  '^^  Anonymous 
Companions'^  (Limited  Liability)  with  capitals  of  at  least 
60,000/.,  combining  grease-melting  with  cattle-slaughtering, 
and  with  the  latest  improvements  for  utilizing  everything, 
even  the  blood  of  the  slain.  All,  however,  agreed  that  in 
the  actual  status  there  are  many  poor  to  very  few  rich,  and 
that  those  who  send  their  "  young  friends'' — and  gentle- 
men with  small  capitals,  to  make  fortunes  on  the  Plate 
are  cruelly  unkind.  I  afterwards  heard  of  a  widow  who, 
blessed  with  an  overstocked  quiver,  including  a  son  of  six- 


*  Effingham  Wilson.     London:  1862. 


FROM    RIO   DE    JANEIRO    TO   MONTE    VIDEO.  91 

teen,  Tvitli  an  annual  income  of  30/.  to  cease  after  five 
years,  had  determined  upon  despatching  him  in  quest  of 
fortune  to  Buenos  Aires.  Such  a  step  woukl  entail  ruina- 
tion of  body  and  mind.  The  unfortunate  would  not  die  of 
starvation,  but — man  cannot  live  upon  mutton  and  hard 
bread  alone — he  could  aspire  to  little  beyond  the  situation 
of  a  puretero  (shepherd),  or  a  peon  (wool-farmer^s  flock- 
tender)  under  the  Capataz  or  Majordomo  of  the  estate.  His 
sole  occupation  would  be  to  drive  out  the  sheep  every 
morning,  and  to  drive  in  the  sheep  every  evening.  His  food 
would  be  raw  rum  and  the  contents  of  a  cutty  pipe,  tough 
meat  and  old  biscuit.  His  home  would  be  a  hovel,  gar- 
nished at  best  with  a  Chi  nit  a,  or  whitey-yellow  girl  :  a 
hide  would  be  his  bed,  and  his  raiment  flannel  shirt  and 
overalls,  the  former  generally  worn  till  it  falls  ofi".  He 
would  have  no  time  to  do  anything,  yet  he  would  have 
nothing  to  do  :  here  the  English  settler  learns  to  excel  all 
others  in  the  art  and  mystery  of  loafing  and  dawdling.  It 
is  not  wonderful  that  after  a  few  years  of  such  ignoble  dis- 
comfort— such  fatal  monotony — the  man  becomes  brutalized, 
and  that  his  fellows  detect  in  his  features  and  expression  a 
shade  of  approach  to  those  of  his  rams.  I  have  myself 
seen  the  ovine  countenance,  and  it  is  curious  to  trace  the 
same  degradation  in  the  faces  of  Schwein  Konigs  and  pig- 
drivers,  menagerie  servants,  and  attendants  upon  the  insane. 
Briefly  to  conclude,  the  end  of  our  victim,  commenced 
by  the  dreariest  of  isolation,  would  most  probably 
be,  unless  he  fled  robbing  the  till,  drunkenness — here  the 
more  drink  the  more  honour — and  debauchery,  disease,  and 
death. 

Such  are  the  present  prospects  for  the  gentleman-adven- 
turer become  a  ''  multi  pastor  odoris^^  in  these  regions. 
But  sheep-farming  and  cattle-breeding,  low  as  the  industry 
now  is,  may  possibly  improve.      A  Russian  war  would,  after 


92  FROM    RIO    DE    JANEIRO    TO    MONTE    VIDEO. 

a  time_,  create  a  demand  for  tallow ;  the  removal  of  the 
tariff  and  the  export  duties  should  make  wool  pay.  "  Those 
wonderful  Chinese  sheep  which  have  six  lambs  yearly'^  might, 
as  the  guidebook  says,  be  imported,  instead  of  the  ewe  of 
six  lambings  which  now  satisfies  the  breeder.  Still,  how- 
ever, would  remain  the  necessity  of  leading  a  half-savage 
life;  the  depressing  conviction  of  being  at  the  mercy  of  a 
government  which  taxes  everything  exportable — wheat,  for 
instance,  even  before  there  is  any  wheat  to  export — and 
the  daily  danger  of  revolution,  of  battle,  of  murder,  and 
of  sudden  death.  And  if  stabbed  or  shot  upon  your  own 
threshold,  under  your  own  roof-tree,  you  die  without  feeling 
the  poor  satisfaction  that  justice  will  be  done  to  you  upon 
the  cowardly  assassin  who,  bloodthirsty  as  a  Shoho  Dankali, 
offers  a  bowl  of  milk  with  one  hand  and  knifes  you  with 
the  other.  In  these  fair  lands  the  slaughterer  of  a  stranger, 
even  if  seized  red-handed,  is  never  punished.  Moreover, 
where  almost  all  ^'  Gauchos^'  are  murderers  in  posse  if  not  in 
esse,  detected  or  undetected,  if  the  foreigner  take  a  life  in  the 
extremity  of  absolute  self-defence,  he  is  visited  with  the 
severest  penalty  of  the  ridiculous  law,  or  no  law.  Justice 
is  in  abeyance;  there  is  neither  the  code  of  the  Revolver, 
nor  of  Judge  Lynch,  nor  of  the  Juiz  de  Paz.  And  so  will 
the  state  be,  until  the  afore-mentioned  Judge  comes  to 
exercise  the  jus  fori  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of 
the  Confederation. 

We  made  our  landfall  at  Cape  Castillos  Grande,  where 
ships  from  Europe  bend  westward  and  prepare  to  enter 
^^  the  River.^-*  We  wondered  at  not  finding  a  lighthouse 
upon  the  steep,  round,  black  islet  that  outlies  the  low  shore. 
Presently  we  steamed  past  the  historic  Cabo  de  Santa 
Maria — a  strip,  however,  not  a  cape — where,  in  the  days  of 
Fernandez  de  Enciso,  South  America,  like  Africa  in  the 
Ptolemsean  age,  was  shorn  of  its  tail.      According  to  some. 


FROM    RIO    DE    JANEIRO   TO   MONTE    VIDEO.  93 

the  next  projection,  the    Punto  del   Este,  is  the  true  portal 

of  that  river, 

"  to  whose  dread  expanse, 
Continuous  depth,  and  wondrous  length  of  course. 
Our  floods  are  rills." 

The  fixed  white  light  of  Maldonado,  dim  as  that  of  any  coaler, 
has  been  compared  with  a  sentinel  placed  to  plunder  the 
poor :  here  begin  the  perils  which  caused  the  old 
navigators  to  call  its  river  "  Boca,"  "  hell  of  pilots/^ 
Evidently  the  Phare  should  be  at  the  danger^s  end,  and  this 
is  certainly  Gorriti  of  the  ''  Indians,"  alias  Isla  de  Lobos, 
a  rookery  of  seals  and  sea-lions.  The  Oriental  Government 
having  farmed  out  the  hunting,  on  March  26,  1866,  removed 
the  light,  because  it  injured  a  valuable  trade.  Mr.  Buckley- 
Matliew,  Minister  Plenipotentiary  to  the  Argentine  Confede- 
ration, worked  manfully  to  restore  the  "  Lobos  Light,"  and 
failed.  The  saintly  owner  of  the  rocky  islet,  an  English- 
man well  known  from  Monte  Video  to  Tucuman,  will,  let 
us  not  doubt,  embrace  in  turn  the  opportunity  of  wrecking 
fewer  ships  and  losing  fewer  lives  at  the  risk  of  catching 
fewer  seals. 

As  we  run  along  the  coast,  I  recognise  the  country  to  be 
geographically  the  Brazil ;  the  hillocks,  in  fact,  are  the  toe- 
tips  of  the  gigantic  Serra  do  Mar,  eastern  ghauts  of  the 
empire  of  the  Southern  Cross,  whose  stony  wall  has  so  long 
donjon'd  us.  Since  1806  it  has  been  occupied  alternately  by 
English  and  Spanish,  Portuguese  and  Brazilian  troops.  The 
latter  have  had  it  twice,  and  will  have  it  again — as  a  Russian 
patriot,  I  would  give  my  life  for  Stamboul ;  as  a  Persian 
for  Herat ;  as  a  Brazilian,  for  the  Banda  Oriental.  And  we 
Englishmen  do  not  forget  that  the  incapacity  of  a  genei'al 
of  the  Great  Georgian  epoch  lost  to  us  a  colony  which 
now  would  have  been  the  grand  depot  of  Eastern  South 
America,    and   the   brightest   jewel  of  the   British   crown. 


94  FROM    RIO    DE    JANEIRO    TO   MONTE    VIDEO. 

Uruguay,  double  the  size  of  Ireland,  would  have  been  the 
best  of  termini  for  the  Hibernian  exodus ;  with  all  due 
allowance  for  head-breaking  and  hedge-shooting,  the  popu- 
lation would  now  have  numbered  1,000,000,  not  300,000 
souls,  mostly  Celts,  and  assuredly  there  would  not  have  been, 
as  there  is  now,  a  Fenian  club  at  Buenos  Aires. 

The  next  remarkable  point  is  the  Isla  de  las  Flores,  which 
Davie  and  other  old  travellers  found  bright  with  rainbow 
blossoms,  and  fragrant  with  wild  vegetation.  Backed  by 
the  usual  terra  firma  of  tawny  and  tree-scattered  points,  it 
is  now  single,  then  double,  according  to  the  height  of  the 
water ;  and  whilst  part  of  it  supports  rabbits  and  a  revolving 
light,  the  rest  is  in  its  season  a  gull-fair.  Buceo,  loved  by 
bathers,  with  its  bonny  sands  and  outlying  quintas  nestling 
under  the  tree-clumps  that  speckle  the  raised  and  rolling 
grasslands  of  the  northern  bank,  and  the  Plaza  de  Ramirez, 
that  glistening  patch  whereon  cari'iages  from  the  town 
stand,  both  point  the  way  to  a  pleasing  view.  A  crystal- 
clear,  diaphonous  atmosphere  sets  forth  every  feature  of  the 
approach  to  Sea^s  End  ;  over  the  ocean  horizon  of  the  river  in 
front  the  sun-glow  is  tempered  by  the  cool  crisp  wind 
before  which  race  up  the  white  dots  of  sails,  and  the  broad 
lights  and  shades  of  the  shore  and  of  the  smokeless  city 
are  distributed  with  a  charming  picturesqueness. 

At  2 '30  P.M.  we  sight  to  the  north-west  a  forest  of  masts 
lying  under  the  "  Town  of  the  Mount,^''  backed  by  its  Cerro, 
a  splay-backed  and  high- shouldered  hill,  which,  only  465 
feet  high,  towers  like  a  giant  above  the  ridgy  and  peakless 
coast  line.  We  know  that  we  have  reached  our  destination, 
and  a  classical  person  exclaims  with  the  classical  look-out 
man  of  yore, — 

Montem  Video  ! 

Adieu. 


LETTER   II. 

MONTE    VIDEO — THE    MURDER    OF   GENERAL    FLORES. 

Monte  Video,  August  11,  1868. 

My  dear  Z , 

You  ordered  me  to  report  to  you  in  these 
letters  more  about  men  and  modernisms  tlian  concerning 
cities  and  antiquities.  I  will  therefore  sketch  the  capital 
of  this  wee  Republic,  a  South  American  Monaco,  a  dwarfish 
abortion  amongst  the  Giants,  with  the  very  broadest 
touches. 

Monte  Video  (not  Video)  has  little  of  history,  but  "  en 
revanche  '*  an  awful  name,  "  Cidade  de  San  Filipe  y  Sant- 
iago de  Monte  Video.''^  The  Sjfaniards  and  Portuguese, 
whilst  fighting  for  the  Colonia  and  the  Islet  rock  of  Martin 
Garcia,  mere  wards,  wholly  neglected  this,  the  true  key  of 
the  vast  Platine  valley,  and  allowed  the  hide  huts  of  pauper 
fishermen  to  occupy  the  only  good  port  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Southern  Mississippi.  Presently  it  was  fixed  upon  by  the 
Brazilo-Portugiiese  as  a  smuggling  station,  a  fibre  con- 
nected with  the  heart  of  the  great  Viceroyalty  further 
inland.  As  late  as  1726  the  Governor  of  Buenos  Aires, 
D.  Bruno  Mauricio  de  Zabala,  described  as  a  man  of '^'^bizarra 
y  arrogante  presencia,^^  received  the  orders  to  crush  the 
contraband,  then  worth  to  the  Portuguese  two  annual  mil- 
lions of  dollars ;  to  drive  the  interlopers  from  their  forts 
into  the  pauper  land,  now  called  the  Province  of  Sao  Pedro 
do  Bio  Grande  do  Sul,  and  with  money  supplied  by  the 
Viceroy  of  Potosi  (not  Potosi),  and  by  the  corvee  of  en- 
slaved aborigines,   to   found,   in    1726,   the   settlements   of 


96  MONTE    VIDEO. 

Monte  Video  and  Maldonado.  The  colonists  were  mostly 
Canarians  and  Andalusians^  a  tall  and  handsome^  brave  and 
adventurous  race^  hard-working  and  not  readily  conquered. 
The  Montevidians^  as  opposed  to  the  Orientals^  are  still 
called  "  Canarios/^  and  their  pretty  women^  I  regret  to  say, 
'^  Sapatos  rastrados  " — slipshods.  There  is  much  small 
but  malignant  jealousy  between  them  and  their  rivals  the 
Portenos_,  more  classically  termed  Bonaerenses_,  and  qualified 
by  the  smaller  city  as  "  Zaraziras/^  or  wearers  of  striped 
clothes — once  servile  gear.  In  1751  a  Lieutenant-Governor 
was  appointed  to  Monte  Video,  which_,  till  then,  had  obeyed 
the  commands  of  Buenos  Aires,  and  from  that  date  the 
progress  of  the  place  has  been  rapid  and  regular. 

The  protoplasm,  the  original  expression  of  all  these  new 
Iberian  settlements  from  Monte  Video  to  Asuncion  is  a 
cell,  the  Plaza,  a  central  hollow  square.  It  dwarfed  by  its- 
vastness  the  surrounding  of  mean  dwellings,  amongst  which 
were  the  Communal,  such  as  the  church  or  chapel,  in  those 
times  also  Cemetery  ;  the  Cabildo,  a  town-house  above  and 
common  jail  below,  replaced  in  1825  by  the  "Municipality;-'^ 
the  barracks  or  police-office,  and  perhaps  the  theatre. 
Presently  cool  shady  trees  were  planted  round  it,  and  brick 
or  stone -paved  bands  of  walk  were  run  along  and  athwart 
it,  the  rest  remaining  weedy  or  muddy.  After  the  "  glorious 
days,^^  a  solitary  pillar — a  built-up  obelisk  or  some  other  such 
unarchitectural,  unornamental  monument,  with  or  without 
railing,  was  erected  about  the  middle  region,  in  memory  of 
something  or  somebody,  more  or  less  memorial.  Often  the 
centrepiece  is  capped  by  Liberty,  a  lass  of  Amazonian  sem- 
blance and  proportions,  in  foolscap  or  Phrygian  bonnet,  and 
bathing-house  drapery,  armed  with  shield  and  spear,  or  as 
at  Monte  Video,  directing  at  your  breast — O  Gringo  ! — a 
sword,  with  the  gesture  of  a  knife  thrust.  At  the  corners 
of  the  pedestal,  around  the  column  base,  will  stand  busts  in 


MONTE    VIDEO.  97 

kitcat,  of  white  plaster,  blue  ribbons  (Argentine  colours) 
and  gamboge  epaulets.  These  caricature  the  revolutionary- 
generals  and  heroes,  such  as  S.  Martin,  Bolivar  (not  Bolivar), 
Eelgrano,  Alvear,  Lavallot,  and  others.  The  inscriptions 
embody  some  eventful  date,  of  course  differing  in  the  several 
Republics ;  and  the  pleiad  of  South  American  Common- 
wealths "  makes  epochs ''  of  almost  every  day  in  the  year. 
Thus,  "25  de  Maio''  (1810),  is  the  local  4th  of  July  com- 
memorating Argentine  independence ;  whereas,  "  18  de 
Julio,''^  (1829),  establishes  the  Constitution  of  Uruguay,  alias 
the  Banda  Oriental.  This  "  Eastern  Side"  of  the  Uruguay 
river — popularly  the  "  Banda  " — is  often  erroneously  called 
Monte  Video,  even  as  Utah  Territory  has  been  merged  into 
Salt  Lake  City. 

Upon  the  Plaza  debouch  the  long  streets,  whose  bisections 
suggest  to  every  traveller  a  chessboard ;  they  change  names 
at  the  square,  and  thus  each  has  two,  a  useless  luxury  of 
nomenclature  serving  only  to  confuse.  The  settlement  is 
further  divided  into  cuadras  (solid)  squares  or  cubes,  whose 
dimensions  everywhere  vaiy.  As  a  rule,  however,  the 
further  inland  they  are,  the  larger  they  grow.  Here  we 
have  the  cuadra  of  100  varas  (each  34,  or  to  be  more  exact 
33-750  inches),  and  at  Buenos  Ayres  the  more  normal  150 
"yards."  The  distance  is  counted  from  the  mid-street, 
which,  at  the  latter  city  is  16  feet  wide,  whereas,  as 
President  Sarmiento  informs  us  (p.  114),  in  old  Monte 
Video  it  is  only  14.  The  "  Cuadra  cuadrada,"  or 
squared  square,  is  also  called  a  "  Manzana,"  or  block.  You 
would  think  it  easy  to  find  your  way  through  streets  per- 
fectly straight  and  "  distractingly  regular  thoroughfares,"  as 
the  Britisher  grumbles,  liking  irregularity,  except  in  his 
home  or  his  ledger.  Such  is,  however,  by  no  means  the  case, 
especially  at  night,  when  strangers  cannot  thread  the  maze 
except  by  aid  of  some  remarkable  building  in  each  street. 

7 


98  MONTE    VIDEO. 

Plans^  however,  are  everywhere  published^  and  these  may  he 
printed  even  on  the  backs  of  Almanacks  and  Ayers  Sar- 
saparilla. 

There  are  two  views  of  the  little  capital  where  she  best 
shows  her  peculiarities.  The  first  is  that  seen  as  you  skirt 
the  southern  end  of  the  eastern  or  new  town.  The  thorough- 
fares facing  west-south-west,  and  abutting  upon  the 
water,  open  as  you  run  by  them  :  after  the  gorgeous  growth 
of  Rio  de  Janeiro,  they  look  bald  and  stony,  treeless  and 
barren  as  lanes  in  a  burrow.  The  sky-line  is  fi^etted  with 
miradores,  gazebos,  steeples,  and  here  and  there  towers  a 
gaunt  factory  chimney.  Successively  rise  high  into  the  air 
a  huge-flanked  religious  house ;  a  Dutch-tiled  cupola,  over 
whose  ochred  walls  peep  cypresses  and  black  rows  of  empty 
niches  declaring  it  to  be  a  cemetery ;  the  English  ^'  temple  '* 
resembling  a  shed  to  stable  bathing  machines,  or  a  reformed 
powder  magazine  sulkily  turning  back  upon  the  bay  -,  the 
new  hospital  (de  Caridad),  three  storied,  yellow  tinted,  and 
dwarfing  as  it  should  the  churches  ;  the  big  brick  barn — 
also  seen  in  reverse — known  as  the  Solis  Theatre,  and  the 
Hotel  Oriental,  which,  like  a  tall  bully,  lifts  its  head  and 
lies.  Then  comes  the  substantial  stone  Matriz  of  SS. 
Philip  and  James,  the  "  womV^  whence  have  issued  other 
places  of  worship.  The  whole  aff'air  is  a  mistake ;  the  dome 
springing  from  the  flat  roof  suggests  a  pepper  castor  upon 
a  thick  book  :  it  is  too  small  and  too  distant  from  the 
towers,  and  these  are  absurdly  far  apart  :  fantastic  as  to 
terminals,  the  minaret-shaped  belfries  are  evidently  crooked, 
diverging  like  asses'  ears.  All  three  protuberances  are 
capped  with  azulejos,  blue  and  white  Dutch  tiles,  fancifully 
disposed,  which  glisten  like  the  gilt  cupolas  of  Moscow, 
and  whose  eye-pleasing  power  suggests  that  you  might  imi- 
tate it  to  advantage  at  home.  This  is  everywhere  the 
practice   of  Argentine    land,    and    whenever  the   dome   is 


MONTE    VIDEO.  99 

dingy  we  know  that  money  has  run  out,  and  that  the 
*^  cura ''  waits  to  collect  more  from  his  little  flock  of 
"  beatas  ''  and  pious  seniors. 

Round  the  heel  of  the  boot,  the  eastern  Punto  de  S. 
Jose  projecting  into  the  bay,  we  find  the  old  Spanish 
castle  '^  S.  Joseph,"  whose  fifteen  saluting  guns  are  supposed 
to  command  us.  The  once  considerable  outwork  has  now 
been  levelled,  and  the  "  fort "  is  reduced  to  a  small  stone 
affair  with  two  artless  bastions  on  the  land  side,  and  sea- 
wards a  double  curtain  fancifully  whitewashed.  Beyond  it 
is  the  Mercado  del  Puerto,  a  new  market-place,  with  a  fine 
zinc  dome  of  engineer  architecture,  built  in  Manchester,  to 
shelter  the  stalls  of  butchers  and  fruiterers  ;  in  the  centre 
is  a  fountain  which  at  present,  curious  to  say,  plays. 

AYe  now  enter  the  bay  or  port,  and  the  first  glance  at 
the  semicircular  inlet  forcibly  suggests  the  extinct  crater 
punch-bowl  of  S.  Vicente,  whilst  the  dashes,  sheets,  and 
dunelets  of  yellow  sand  in  the  centre  of  the  bight  confirm 
the  likeness.  The  larger  ships  of  war  lie  in  the  outer  roads, 
two  or  three  miles  distant;  they  want  to  up  sail,  and  be 
off  readily  in  case  of  a  sudden  and  damaging  Pampero. 
The  half  square-mile  of  watery  sui'face  in  the  basin, 
crowded  as  it  is  with  ships  in  utter  disorder,  not  aligned  as 
at  Valparaiso,  urgently  requires  a  breakwater  :  this  has  been 
proposed,  and  if  it  be  soon  thrown  up,  Monte  Video  will 
take  the  wind  out  of  her  big  neighbour's  sails,  and  will 
reign,  for  a  time  at  least,  the  Queen  City  of  the  River 
Plate. 

The  Bay  is  lively  enough  on  a  fine  day,  when  steam-tugs 
puff  up  and  down  amongst  the  swarm  of  boats,  not  civi- 
lized gigs,  "  yoles,"  or  wherries,  but  heavy  old  tubs  shaped 
like  calabashes  elongated  fore  and  aft.  They  mostly  bear 
the  Uruguayan  national  flag,  a  washed-out,  changed- 
coloured   copy   of  the  Stars    and  Stripes.      The  only   star, 

7—2 


100  MONTE    VIDEO. 

however,  is  a  broad,  good-humoured  yellow  face,  with  hair 
apostolically  parted  in  the  centre,  and  subtended  by  a  huge 
glory  :  this  is  Dan  Sol,  and  it  has  some  mystical  allusion  to 
"  Oriental/^  It  contrasts  strongly  with  the  Brazilian 
colours,  which  wash  badly,  and  which  when  old,  look  like 
a  cross  between  the  Irish  flag  and  a  Bandanna  pocket- 
handkerchief.  The  arms  of  the  Orientals  are  quaint  as 
their  flag,  quarterings  of  ox  and  horse,  a  hill-like  loaf  of 
sugar,  and  a  balance  in  which  the  Bepublic  has  been 
weighed,  but  has  ever  been  found  sadly  wanting. 

Flanking  the  port  ride  the  gunboats  of  various  nations. 
Amongst  them  is  the  Lima  Barros,  a  well-dented  Brazilian 
ironclad  fresh  from  the  Paraguayan  war :  properly  handled,  she 
would  blow  all  our  ''  united  squadrons,^^  as  they  are  pom- 
pously called,  out  of  the  water,  and  she  contrasts  even  with  the 
Kansas  and  the  Pawnee  unfavourably  for  the  '^'^  citizens. ^^  The 
English  cruisers  are  known  by  their  cleanliness,  and  by  their 
being  the  worst  of  the  lot ;  floating  coflins  equally  vile  for 
living  in  as  for  fighting.  Detached  upon  river- work  they 
carry  Armstrongs  which  throw  three  miles,  and  which  drill 
mere  holelets  at  300  yards,  whilst  their  pivot  guns  heel 
them  over  4°  to  5°,  the  angle  of  the  deck  being  apparently 
intended  to  warn  the  enemy  whence  to  expect  and  how  to 
avoid  the  broadside.  It  is  a  shame  to  call  such  trash  ships 
of  war. 

The  other  and  by  far  the  prettier  view  of  Monte  Video^ 
is  to  be  had  by  crossing  the  bay  and  ascending  the 
Cerro.  On  the  way  is  a  granatoid  patch,  properly  the  "  Isle 
of  Rats,^"*  and  now  baptized  ^'  Island  of  Liberty,^^  because,  I 
presume,  men  are  in  this  jail  imprisoned  to  do  quarantine 
on  pickles  and  sweetmeats.  The  surface  of  the  Cerro  is  in 
spring  bright  green  below  and  grey  stone  above,  whilst  its 
base  lines  of  horizontal  white  houses,  and  its  volcanic  shape, 
an  irregular  flattened  cone,  remind  you  of  a  section  of  Ve- 


MONTE    VIDEO.  101 

suvius.  The  top  is  a  new  lighthouse,  represented  by  a  per- 
pendicular knob,  and  a  red  nipple  rising  from  the  straight 
walls  of  an  old  fort,  and  giving  at  a  distance  an  imposing 
semblance  to  what  is  called  by  picnickers  "  the  Mountain/' 
We  shall  presently  end  with  the  systematic  series  of  mis- 
nomers which  begins  in  the  Brazil.  The  "  Orientals  '^  are 
not  Easterns.  The  Argentines  are,  if  aught  of  silver, 
German  silver.  The  Plate  River  has  nothing  Platine,  and 
for  Buenos  Aires  the  local  Joe  Miller  reads  Malos  Aires. 
The  Cerro  is  no  more  a  mountain  than  is  "  Roseberry  Top- 
ping," the  "  highest  hill  in  all  Yorkshire. '^ 

The  rocks  of  the  Cerro,  like  the  rest  of  the  Banda,  are 
mostly  volcanic  and  secondary  ;  thus  the  country  boasts  to 
excel  her  rival  in  the  phosphates  and  alkaline  silicates 
which  develop  meat  and  corn.  Turning  to  the  left  of  the  dwarf 
pier  men  have  found  columnar  basalt,  the  last  sign  of  igneous 
action  so  strikingly  displayed  in  the  grand  Brazilian  Man- 
tiqueira.  Amongst  the  granites,  gneisses,  and  sandstones  are 
scatters  of  quartz  which  still  give  gold  ;  and  the  rusty  waters 
trickling  down  the  hillside,  and  clothing  it  with  grass  and 
blossoms,  red,  white,  and  blue,  betray  the  presence  of  iron. 

From  the  summit,  looking  east,  you  have  a  bird's-eye 
view  of  the  city,  which,  set  after  a  fashion  upon  a  hill, 
cannot  be  hid.  The  site  is  a  boot-shaped  ridge,  admirable 
for  drainage,  and  everywhere  commanding  a  broad  view. 
This  hog's  back  of  stone  forms,  on  the  eastern  part  of  the  bay, 
a  peninsula  about  one  mile  and  a  quarter  long  from  south- 
west to  north-east,  with  half  a  mile  of  average  breadth.  The 
regular  outline  of  the  narrow  chine  is  broken  by  the  towers 
of  the  Matriz  and  of  the  Vascos  and  Cordon  churches. 
As  New  York  is  bounded  by  the  East  and  Hudson  rivers, 
so  Monte  Video  has  water  on  both  sides,  here  the  bay,  there 
the  sea-like  stream,  which  you  can  hardly  call  river,  a  Yang- 
tse-kiang,  a   yellow  flood,  a   muddy  Mediterranean.      Eor- 


102  MONTE   VIDEO. 

merly  a  wall  crossed  the  neck  of  the  ridge_,  running  about 
one  mile  from  the  sea  outside  to  the  port  inside. 
This  was  in  due  time  knocked  down,  the  old  citadel  being 
converted  into  a  market ;  whilst  the  new  town,  which  bends 
to  a  due  east  and  west  direction,  stretches  far  out  into  the 
country  over  a  clay  soil  resting  npon  stone.  The  houses 
seem  battlemented  even  to  the  turrets,  which  are  of  every 
shape;  they  are  mostly  coloured,  especially  with  all  the 
yellows  from  drab- yellow  to  gamboge  ;  many  are  white,  a 
few  are  red  with  sloping  tiled  roofs,  and  dark  chocolate 
tints  are  not  unknown. 

We  may  not  land  until  duly  permitted  by  the  health 
officer  and  the  captain  of  the  port.  The  latter,  a  normal 
Iberian  pest,  is  a  King  Stork,  a  personage  of  great  and  ar- 
bitrary power.  His  duty  is  to  settle  disputes,  to  point  out 
anchorage  ground,  to  prevent  smuggling,  to  make  ships  pay 
their  debts,  and  to  ascertain  that  dues  are  not  shirked. 
Harbour- master  must  show  his  importance,  will  obtrude  his 
personality,  no  matter  what  may  result  to  the  public  service ; 
he  can  forward  little  but  he  can  obstruct  much,  and  he  cer- 
tainly will  obstruct  until  he  has  recalled  to  the  suitor's 
common  sense  the  words  addressed  to  Zaccheus.  The  doctor 
is  as  usual  an  elderly  King  Log,  in  white  hair  and  black 
clothes,  serious  as  a  mute,  grave  as  an  undertaker,  possibly 
toothless.  His  boat  wants  paint,  his  flagstaflP  is  evidently 
a  curtain-rod — the  wee  Republic  shows  signs  of  impecu- 
niosity. 

Knowing  nothing  of  the  land  I  follow  a  young  leader, 
whose  two  sheep-dogs  engross  all  his  thoughts,  and  are 
voted  by  his  friends  precious  bores.  He  asks  me  to  visit 
his  estancia  or  cattle  estate,  distant  a  few  leagues.  After 
due  inquiry,  I  determine  not.  In  this  liberty -land  the 
honoured  guest  may  bear  a  hand  at  shearing  sheep,  or  in 
tiling  the   gaipon-shed,  but   it   is  not  pleasant  when  he  is 


MONTE    VID^O.  103 

expected  to  clean  out  the  offices.  The  single  boatman  who 
plies  sculls  and  sail,  charges  us  a  "  lira  esterlina^' — not  lira 
Toscana,  the  pund  Scots — for  a  few  minutes^  row,  when  he 
should  land  us  from  the  outer  Road  for  a  dollar,  and  for  half 
a  dollar  from  the  Bay.  We  now  begin  to  realize  the  ex- 
tortions of  Monte  Video,  and  to  learn  something  about  the 
currency  :  why  do  travellers  so  persistently  neglect  to  lecture 
their  readers  upon  this  important  subject  ? 

The  safest  plan  here,  as  in  most  parts  of  South  America, 
is  to  carry  sovs. — British  or  Brazilian,  the  latter  popularly 
known  as  "  Pedrinhos.^^  If  you  take  the  utterly  unre- 
deemable local  paper  into  the  next-door  Republic,  you  lose 
an  arbitrary  sum.  Gold  and  silver  are  never  coined  by 
''  Orientals  /"*  at  times  the  government  sends  to  France  for 
a  ton  or  so  of  one-cent,  two- cent,  and  four-cent  pieces, 
copper  blended  with  zinc.  The  money  is  paper,  following, 
not  to  speak  of  the  United  States  and  the  Brazil,  the 
example  of  Kussia^  Austria,  and  Italy,  which  has,  or  had, 
about  two  thousand  banks  of  emission.  The  material  is 
made  by  Messrs.  Bradbury  or  by  the  American  Bank-note 
Paper  Company,  and  the  notes  are  distinguished  by  dif- 
ferent tints  and  sizes  :  as  a  rule,  the  larger  the  format  the 
higher  the  value.  After  a  certain  percentage  has  been 
surely  falsified,  the  whole  issue  is  called  in  ;  and  the  banks, 
to  save  trouble,  will  always  pay  the  first  forgeries  presented 
to  them. 

The  unit  of  value  at  Monte  Video  is  the  Patacon,  Peso, 
Piastre,  or  old  Piece  of  Eight,  formerly  worth  4^.  6c?.,  and 
now  somewhat  less.  This  is  decimally  divided  into  100 
centesimos  or  centimes.  The  "  Peso"  is,  however,  a 
doubtful  word,  meaning  either  silver  or  paper — that  repre- 
senting 45.  2d.  ;  the  latter  the  pence  minus  the  shillings. 
The  former  is  denoted  in  Buenos  Aires  by  ''  f "  {i.e.  fuertes)  ; 
the  latter  by  "  m/c  "    (moneda   corriente) ;   and  both  by  $. 


104  MONTE    VIDEO. 

New   arrivals   gasp    when   asked   seventy   dollars   for   what 
is  worth,  perhaps,  the  same  number  of  pence. 

Now  we  run  at  a  flight  of  steps  between  two  dwarf  un- 
imposing  wooden  piers — what  can  the  guidebook  mean  by 
"  commanding  quays  T'  Of  these  incipient  moles,  one  is 
attached  to  each  warehouse,  and  they  are  mostly  garnished 
with  puffing  steam-cranes — a  whole  generation  ahead  of 
Folkestone.  Similarly  I  have  seen  a  steam  stone-crusher 
under  the  shade  of  the  Brazilian  virgin-forest,  and  four  lumber- 
ing dray-horses  dragging  an  obsolete  roller  up  and  down  Baker 
Street,  London,  W.  We  are  received  by  a  crowd  of  porters, 
white,  black,  and  brown,  who  run  and  push  to  garnish  the 
steps  ;  the  villain  faces  are,  it  is  evident,  mostly  from  Italy. 
These  emigrants  utterly  reject  peasant  labour ;  they  remind 
us  of  hungry  Leghorn^s  rascaldom,  the  facchini  in  cacciatoras 
and  cotton  velvets,  reeking  with  sweat  and  garlic,  rude  in 
look,  word,  and  gest  ;  savages  fresh  from  the  Old  World, 
and  not  yet  tamed  by  the  ease  and  comfort  of  the  New 
World — this  Paradise  of  Labour,  this  Purgatory  of  Capital. 
Of  late  the  police  has  been  obliged  to  regulate  porterage 
amongst  the  foreign  gentry ;  the  charge  has  been  fixed 
at  $0  50c.  (2^.  Id.)  per  package.  In  old  times  the  Austrian 
Conqueror  at  once  acknowledged  the  Argentine  Republic, 
and  used  it  as  a  healthy  outlet  for  his  disaffected  Lombardo- 
Venetians.  Then  came  the  Genoese,  and  lastly,  worst  of 
all,  the  Neapolitan,  a  word  insulting  to  the  northern  races 
and  despised  by  the  owners  of  the  land,  because  their 
country  has  been  made  a  Botany  Bay  for  the  lazzaroni, 
now  almost  extinct  at  home.  Of  late  years,  the  Kingdom 
of  Italy  has  naturally  enough  opposed  the  exodus  of  its 
sturdy  limbs  and  hands  fit  to  pull  a  trigger. 

The  other  remarkable  element  is  the  Basque  or  Biscayan, 
who  in  1717  began  emigrating  to  Potosi.  He  is  known  at 
once  by    his   alpargatas   (spartelles),  and    by    his  pancake 


MONTE    VIDEO.  105 

bonnet  of  blue  or  scarlet  wool ;  by  his  fleshy  nose,  his  thin 
compressed  lips_,  his  well-made  bust,  and  his  thin  wiry  legs, 
to  say  nothing  of  his  harsh  antediluvian  tongue.  He  is, 
however,  a  favourite  in  the  country ;  he  adopts  the  native 
costume  and  he  spends  his  coin  freely,  which  his  rival  does 
not.  Foreigners  mostly  complain  that  he  is  ignorant  of 
cattle  breeding,  and,  moreover,  that  compared  with  an 
Argentine,  he  is  exceedingly  duuderhended. 

A  goods  tramway  leads  us  through  an  open  shed  to  the 
Custom-house,  a  big  three- storied  building,  tinted  slightly 
drab-yellow,  with  the  inner  windows  of  the  upper-floor 
ofiices  broken,  like  an  Irish  railway  station  after  a  Fenian 
row.  The  officers  are  mostly  civil,  they  do  not  take  douceurs, 
at  least  upon  small  matters — so  far  a  great  improvement 
upon  the  Brazil ;  but  they  always  insist  upon  opening  your 
boxes,  possibly  from  curiosity,  and  they  sometimes  rob.  A 
companion  and  I  here  imprudently  deposited  a  keg  of 
Mendoza  brandy  which  we  had  brought  over  the  Andes 
and  round  by  Magellan  ;  when  Mr.  Cecil  A.  Edye  obligingly 
bottled  it  for  us,  he  found  that  thirty-six  had  dwindled  to 
sixteen. 

After  the  Custom-house  comes  the  Hotel,  the  lodging- 
house  of  Buenos  Aires  being  here  unknown.  Hotels  swarm 
as  at  Boulogne ;  practically,  however,  there  are^  or  rather 
there  were,  three — the  Blin,  the  Oriental,  and  the  Gran 
Hotel  Americano.  The  first  is  a  kind  of  restaurant  famed 
for  feeding  ;  the  closeness  of  its  box-like  rooms  is  frightful. 
The  Oriental  is  kept  by  Ramon  and  Thomaz  Fernandez, 
Spaniards  and  quondam  cooks  or  valets  to  a  certain  Hebrseo- 
Teutonico- Iberian  capitalist,  here  well  known.  Being  the 
best,  it  is  always  crowded  when  money  is  not  dear.  I 
w^ould  not  lodge  there,  as  during  the  cholera  days  it  made 
the  mistake  of  refusing  to  admit  the  wife  of  the  British 
Minister,  although  a  surgeon  of  the  United  States  squadron 


106  MONTE    VIDEO. 

certified  that  she  was  not  attacked  by  the  epidemic.  This 
barbarity  cost  the  house  much  and  should  cost  it  more. 
The  United  States  officers  at  once  deserted  the  Oriental, 
despite  its  ready  baths  and  marble  courts.  I  regret  to  say 
that  English  gentlemen  did  not ;  with  a  little  more  esprit 
de  corps  and  public  spirit  we  should  do  much  good  to  our 
travelling  fellows  and  to  our  travelling  selves. 

Remained  for  m^the  Gran  Hotel  Americano,  built  in 
1865  for  a  company.  It  is  imposing  outside,  with  its  four 
brand-new  Caryatides,  and  fronted  in  prints  by  crowds  of 
equipages.  Inside  all  is  white  and  black  marble  brought 
from  Italy  or  Marseille  :  the  hall  columns  and  pavement 
equal  those  of  the  Grand  Opera,  and  heavy  slabs  form  the 
staircase  even  to  the  highest  floor.  For  this  grandeur  we 
shall  suff"er  in  purse  and  flesh :  we  shall  find  it  the  regular 
French  hotel  of  the  bad  old  stamp — all  show  and  no  comfort. 
The  bedroom  is  a  stone  jug,  a  tall  square  hole,  with  a  light- 
hole  in  the  ceiling.  On  both  floors  "  baths^"  appear  in  huge 
type,  but  you  cannot  have  one  before  6  p.m.,  and  a  tub  is 
represented  by  a  pie-dish  full  of  lukewarm  fluid.  Your 
washerwoman  will  take  your  linen,  but  not  return  it — 
mine  at  least  all  disappeared,  nor  could  any  extent  of 
energy  recover  it.  The  eating-room  is  a  coffin  with  one 
end  knocked  out,  a  long,  low-ceilinged  box ;  dingy,  frowsy, 
and  ill-ventilated,  with  a  single  street-window  perpetually 
kept  under  persiannes,  and  with  mirrors  craped  against  the 
flies.  The  waiters  attempt  to  serve  twenty-seven  people 
scattered  at  diff'erent  tables  :  no  wonder  that  the  former 
are  late  risers,  and  that  milk  and  butter  cannot  be  had 
before  9  a.m.  The  feeding  is  atrocious  ;  the  soup  is  ever 
lukewarm.  You  must  dine  at  4  p.m.  or  the  fish  is  finished. 
The  flesh  is  fatless — all  the  adipose  tissue  having  been  re- 
moved for  tallow.  The  fowls  have  each  three  wing-bones 
and   as  many  necks  and  drumsticks.      There  is   no  ice  to 


MONTE    VIDEO.  107 

make  the  champagne  drinkable :  the  only  really  cold  thing 
is  your  plate.  As  in  the  English  inn,  there  is  no  saloon — 
no  public  apartment ;  you  must  turn,  on  wet  days,  your 
bedroom  into  a  drawing-room.  The  offices,  abominably 
foul,  reminded  me  of  Abbeville  during  the  days  when  the 
waiter  exclaimed,  "  Mais,  monsieur,  vous  avez  des  bottes." 
The  Oriental  is  certainly  more  airy  and  less  unpleasant. 
Why  did  the  owners  turn  from  their  doors  that  charming 
woman  ? 

After  some  difficulty  in  finding  room  even  to  stow  away 
a  few  trunks,  we  will  walk  ^^  up  town^^  and  prospect.  The 
lower  part  is  Thames  Bank,  a  succession  of  doggeries  and 
groggeries  yclept  "  Free  and  Easy,^'  "  Cafe  de  la  Alcanze,^^ 
*'  First  and  Last  Wine  and  Spirit  Store,"  with  the  usual 
aspect  of  a  seaport,  and  swarming  with  pertinacious  flies. 
Drainage  is  everywhere  unknown,  and  the  pavement  is 
especially  vile  :  in  the  rain  muddy,  under  the  sun  dusty, 
and  the  thoroughfares  are  less  like  streets  than  "  channels 
worn  by  the  after  currents  of  the  deluge."  This  may  be 
said  of  all  the  city,  except  a  single  dwarf  bit  subtending 
the  cathedral  fi'ont.  The  place  is  large,  but  practically  it 
is  bounded  for  foreigners  by  the  Bay  west,  east  by  the  main 
square  and  the  Calle  del  Rincon — the  neighbour  of  "  25  de 
Mayo,^'  its  Regent  Street.  The  northern  limit  is  the  Calle 
de  Misiones,  where  is  the  Gran  Hotel  Americano,  and  to  the 
south  Solis  Street  contains  the  Hotel  Oriental.  Within  these 
limits  is  the  Calle  de  Zabala,  where,  in  1854,  was  opened 
the  new  Bolsa  or  Exchange,  and  its  adjoining  American 
saloon  for  drinks.  Thus  are  epitomized  long  drawn  out 
ways  of  abominable  weariness. 

Some  of  the  old  Spanish  houses  still  remain,  especially 
in  the  Calle  Misiones  and  the  "  25  de  Augusto."  Near 
and  parallel  with  the  water  most  of  the  hovels  have  been 
pulled  down  to  make  place  for  huge  stores,  and  others  have 


1C8  MONTE   VIDEO. 

sunk  into  low  taverns.  They  are  mostly  cottages,  humble 
as  the  beginnings  of  Imperial  Rome^  with  one  door  and  one 
window^  the  "porta  e  janella'''  of  the  Brazil,  or  with  two 
doors  and  without  a  window.  The  sloping  roof  of  tiles  is 
well  grown  with  tropical  vegetation.  The  smallest  represent 
a  door,  a  room  on  both  sides  of  it,  and  a  little  patio  or 
court  behind.  The  better  sort  are  low  and  long  tenements, 
with  tall  solid  entrances,  which  remind  you  of  private 
chapels.  Now  a  superior  style  has  been  introduced  by  the 
Italian  masons,  and  we  shall  presently  see  it  better  developed 
at  Buenos  Aires.  The  tenements  have  mostly  a  headless 
impoverished  look,  as  if  awaiting  another  story,  which  in 
fact  they  do.  The  azoteas  (corrupted  from  the  Ai'abic  El 
Sat'h)  are  flat  terraces,  which  not  only  collect  rain,  they 
also  form  good  lounging  places,  and  they  supply,  as  we 
know  to  our  cost,  means  of  defence,  every  house  becoming 
a  castle.  You  stare  at  the  number  of  banks  and  barbers; 
the  former  are  accounted  for  by  the  curso  for90so,  the  forced 
paper  currency ;  the  latter,  by  every  man  requiring  his  own 
Truefitt,  hired  by  the  year.  The  population  in  1865  was 
50,000,  it  is  now  75,000,  which  we  may  reduce  to  60,000. 
And  it  will  presently  rise  to  100,000. 

The  first  glance  at  Monte  A^ideo  sets  it  down  as  a  town 
rather  than  a  city,  what  would  be  called  over  the  water  a 
''  one-horse ''  place,  a  single-barrelled  affair.  You  can 
hardly  believe  that  it  has  or  ever  had  as  much  behind  it  as 
Buenos  Aires.  The  streets  appear  narrow,  the  squares  are 
small  and  mean,  whilst  the  public  buildings  are  utterly 
undeserving  of  description.  Moreover,  they  are  all  carefully 
photo^d  by  the  enterprising  Messrs.  MulhalFs  (M.  G.  and 
E.  T.)  "  New  Handl)ook  of  the  River  Plate,''  called  in  County 
Dublin  jocose  way  ^^  Handbook,''  because  the  two  volumes  ai^e 
about  as  handy  as  a  Post-office  Directory.  The  work,  in  which 
the  veteran  sojourner  of  exact  turn  of  mind  detects  a  variety 


MONTE    VIDEO.  109 

of  small  blemishes,  is  invaluable  to  the  tourist,  and  is  owed 
principally  to  the  energy  and  industry  of  Mr.  M.  Mulhall, 
who  has,  I  trust,  escaped  the  ruin  with  which  his  brother 
declared  it  threatened  them.  It  has  already  enabled  a  cer- 
tain traveller,  who  came  out  by  one  mail  and  went  home 
by  the  next,  to  produce  a  book  about  Argentine-cum- 
Oriental  land.  The  third  edition*  will  doubtless  justify 
authors  in  writing  without  the  trouble  of  leaving  their 
firesides.  Finally,  the  work  amply  deserves  from  the  native 
Government  that  patronage  which  as  yet  they  have  not 
dealt  to  it.  I  shall  often  cite  it  with  a  view  of  "  differinsr 
in  opinion.^^  Such,  in  fact,  is  the  main  use  of  guide- 
books. 

A  single  walk  through  the  place  suffices :  one  palazzo  at 
Rome  or  Naples  contains,  I  believe,  far  more  of  art  than 
the  combined  treasures  of  South  America.  The  cathedral, 
dedicated  to  the  Purisima,  and  to  the  two  patron  saints,  is 
grotesque  outside  and  inside,  plain  to  ugliness.  It  fronts 
the  main  square,  a  poor  small  place  of  recreation,  at  times 
crowded  ;  in  a  street  behind  it,  a  house  of  moderate  size 
combines  Post-office  with  National  Library  and  Museum  ; 
and  in  face,  a  tall  flagstaff  and  a  quaint  sentry-box,  like  an 
office  tent  in  wood,  denote  the  Representacion  Nacional — 
the  Chambers.  Further  on  to  the  right  rises  the  Solis 
Theatre,  a  heavy,  sturdy  mass  of  masonry,  in  which  Mr. 
M.  M.  detects  an  '^  aerial  appearance."  Below  it  lies 
the  grand  new  market,  ready  to  be  opened,  and  far  too 
grand  for  the  place  ;  lower  still  the  British  "  templum,''^ 
very  aggressive,  hideous,  and  Protestant.  At  the  top  of 
the  Calle  Sarandi,  and  soon  to  be  swept  away,  stands  the 
solid   Spanish   citadel,   lately   a  market,  and  till   1840  the 


*  The  first  edition,  in  1863,  was  of  one  volume  and  300  pages ;  the 
second  is  in  two,  12001';  and  the  third  will  be  in  four — say  3500  pages. 


110  MONTE    VIDEO. 

limit  of  the  town.  Its  entrance  reminded  me  of  the  old 
main  gate  of  Tilbnry  Fort.  Beyond  it  is  the  new  town, 
turning  to  the  east  and  spreading  up  the  ridge.  The  "  Calle 
18  de  Julio ''  has  a  graceful  vista^  with  its  two  rows  of 
trees  flanking  a  civilized  thoroughfare^  ninety  feet  broad, 
and  ending  in  a  column  and  statue.  Here  is  laid  a  single 
line  of  tramway  running  out  to  La  Union,  where  the  bull- 
fights are  held,  about  one  league  and  a  half  distant.  On 
the  way  can  be  seen  the  Plaza  de  Cagancha  with  its  mur- 
derous-looking statue  of  Liberty,  the  Cementerio  Inglez — 
called  de  los  Protestantes,  to  distinguish  it  from  the  Ce- 
menterio Cristiano  of  the  Catholics — and  mistaken  by 
me  for  a  humbler  sort  of  Jardin  des  Plantes.  Beyond  it 
the  Capilla  del  Cordon  shows  where  General  Oribe,  a 
Lieutenant  of  the  Dictator  Rosas,  established  his  vanguard, 
subjected  Monte  Video  to  a  Trojan  siege  of  nine  years,  and 
like  a  modern  Hindu  Rajah  investing  his  enemy^s  hill 
fort,  built  a  rival  capital,  La  Union.  Here  a  scaffolding 
lately  fell,  with  a  mass  of  masonry,  injuring  sundry  of  the 
workmen.  Mr.  Adams,  the  Protestant  minister,  passing 
at  the  time,  rushed,  with  a  British  energy,  regardless  where 
he  trod,  to  assist  the  hurt.  Whereupon  came  forth  the 
sturdy  old  genius  loci,  the  Padre,  and  in  peremptory 
accents  warned  his  heretic  brother  against  harming  the 
bricks.  On  the  right  of  the  Tramway  is  to  be  seen  the 
Catholic  Cemetery,  near  the  large  new  Chapel  and  Convent 
Nuestra  Senora  del  Huerto,  where  Sisters  of  Charity  distort 
the  young  idea,  and  go  forth  to  heal  or  to  console  the  sick. 
To  the  left  is  the  unfinished  Capilla  de  los  Vascos,  a  Chapel 
built  by  and  for  the  Basque  population. 

You  were  curious  to  know  about  the  Revolution  of  1868, 
and  where,  how,  and  why  ex-President  Flore s  was  murdered, 
an  event  which  raised  so  much  excitement  in  the  Brazil. 
We  must,  then,  turn  back  and  place  ourselves  in  the  street 


THE    MURDER    OF    GENERAL   FLORES.  Ill 

leading  from  his  house  to  the  Government  House.  The 
shops  and  the  names  have  been  altered.  Men,  however, 
still  show  the  spot  where  the  gallant  old  man  lay  foully- 
butchered,  with  his  head  to  the  wall  and  his  feet  projecting 
over  the  trottoir. 

The  how  is  easily  explained.  General  Flores  hearing 
that  the  normal  revolution  had  broken  out,  or  according  to 
others,  being  summoned  by  a  forged  signature  of  D.  Pedro 
Varela,  President  of  the  Senate,  drove  to  the  Government 
House  accompanied  by  three  friends — M.  Flangini,  Minister 
of  Foreign  Affairs ;  M.  Marquez,  Minister  of  Finance ; 
and  Mr.  Secretary  Errecart.  Some  desperate  act  was  known 
to  be  intended  :  the  shopkeepers  began  to  close  their  doors 
as  the  carriage  approached  the  Plaza  Principal.  Presently 
it  reached  the  north-east  corner  of  the  Calle  Juncal,  where 
it  meets  the  Calle  del  Rincon.  A  house  was  then  buildina: 
here  ;  heaps  of  rubbish  cumbered  the  ground,  and,  according 
to  some,  carts  had  been  thrown  down  in  order  to  stop  the 
vehicle.  Suddenly  a  body  of  men,  variously  stated  to  be 
twelve,  eight,  or  four,  rushed  out  of  the  neighbouring 
houses,  and  evidently  acting  in  concert,  began  firing  their 
pistols.  The  coachman  and  one  horse  were  shot,  which 
had  the  effect  of  overturning  the  carriage.  General  Flores 
drew  his  revolver  as  he  struggled  out,  but  he  was  killed 
before  he  could  use  it,  by  a  ball  in  the  mouth,  and  with 
eleven  stabs  by  the  long  knives  of  the  assassins.  His 
friends  were  slightly  wounded  ;  twenty  or  thirty  shots  were 
fired,  and  the  murderers  escaped.  One  of  them  is  said  to 
have  been  taken  and  put  to  death  after  the  usual  drum-head 
court-martial.  But  of  this,  as  of  many  other  details,  nothing 
certain  is  known  ;  the  man  may  have  made  off,  or  he  may 
have  been  murdered  by  his  employers. 

The  crime  which  made  the  fate  of  the  gallant  Flores 
curiously  resemble   that   of  Abraham   Lincoln,   took  place 


112       THE  MURDER  OF  GENERAL  FLORES. 

on  February  19,  1868,  when  the  Brazilian  ironclads  were 
triumphantly  steaming  past  the  batteries  of  Humaita. 

The  why  is  not  so  readily  answered.  It  necessitates  a 
certain  explanation  of  parties  and  politics  in  "  the  Banda." 
This  I  will  make  as  curt  as  possible  :  for  none  but  a  pro- 
fessional can  the  subject  have  an  atom  of  interest. 

The  Republic  of  Uruguay — double  the  size  of  Ireland — 
represents  three  distinct  and  hostile  parties — Blancos,  Colo- 
radoSj  Conservadores. 

The  Blancos  are  the  "  outs/^  They  represent  our  Tories 
and  the  old  Democrats  of  the  United  States  :  they  are  locally 
known  as  "  Gauchos^^ — backwoodsmen — and  when  rising  to 
the  importance  of  an  Artigas,  as  "  Caudillos/^  or  guerilla 
leaders.  They  are  Conservative,  retrograde,  and  '^  know- 
nothing.-'^  Yet  they  are  preferred  by  strangers  as  being 
men  of  honour,  education,  and  property,  and  they  greatly 
outnumber,  some  say  four  or  five  to  one,  their  rivals.  Their 
name  comes  from  wearing  round  their  caps  a  white  ribbon, 
bearing  the  inscription,  ''  Defend  the  Law  ;"  others  say  it 
was  originally  blue,  but  washed  out. 

The  Colorados,  Colora^'os,  or  reds,  are  still  the  '4ns/''  They 
correspond  with  our  Liberals  and  the  former  Republicans  of 
the  Union  :  they  wear  around  their  caps  the  red  ribbon  of 
Federalism,  and  their  motto  was,  and  is,  '^  Constitution.-'^ 

^'  Outs"  also  are  the  Conservadores.  These  men  must 
not  be  confounded  with  our  Conservatives;  they  are  ad- 
vanced Colorados — in  fact.  Radicals.  It  is  a  small,  but 
turbulent  and  violent  party,  ever  aspiring  to  power — furiously 
hating  both  their  rivals — crying  for  European  civilization, 
and  yet  obstructing  it  by  extra  taxation  and  various  diffi- 
culties. It  is  chiefly  recruited  from  the  Doctores — pro- 
nounce Dotores  —  mathematici  sine  mathesi :  men  who 
love  to  discuss  Liberty,  Congress,  Education,  Constitution. 
These   professional   politicians   have,  as  a  rule,  no  principle 


THE    MURDER    OF    GENERAL    ELORES.  113 

but  personality.  With  tlicm  the  question  narrows  itself 
to — "  Is  Jack  or  is  Jim  to  be  or  not  to  be  ?^^  When  their 
party  is  in  office,  all  are  of  the  party  and  in ;  vice  versd 
being  of  course  also  the  rule. 

The  storm  that  ended  in  the  murder  of  Flores  began  to 
growl  about  the  middle  of  1867.  On  Sunday,  June  30,  of 
that  year,  the  Chief  of  Police,  D.  Jose  Candido  Bustamente, 
discovered  a  mine  which,  passing  under  the  Calle  de  Maio, 
had  nearly  reached  the  cellars  of  the  Forte  or  Government 
House.  "  Blowings-up^^  appear  to  be  growing  into  fashion. 
Here  had  been  placed  an  infernal  machine — a  RuhmkorfF^s 
"electric  multiplier^' — ready  to  explode  two  barrels  (250 
lbs.)  of  gunpowder.  This  plot  purposing  to  blow  up 
Flores  and  his  Ministry  is  said  to  have  been  organized, 
doubtless  under  higher  inspiration,  by  one  Eduardo  Beltan 
the  ringleader,  who  bought  the  houses  through  which  the 
mine  was  to  pass  :  under  him  were  Paul  Nieumayer,  a  land 
surveyor,  and  Jules  Gassen,  an  Austrian  engineer.  It  is 
reported  that  all  these  men  were  allowed  to  escape  punish- 
ment. 

After  the  meeting  of  the  Chambers  on  February  15, 1858, 
the  Provisional  President  of  the  Republic,  General  D. 
Venancio  Flores,  would  cease  to  hold  office.  D.  Pedro 
Varela,  to  the  great  discontent  of  the  many,  would  thus 
become  ex-officio,  as  President  of  the  Senate,  acting  Presi- 
dent of  the  Republic ;  and  D.  Hector  Varela  was  expected 
to  be  his  Minister  of  Government  and  for  foreign  affairs. 
Meanwhile,  on  February  6,  D.  Fortunato  Flores,  the  eldest 
of  the  ex-President^s  three  sons,  a  man  tres  repandu  at 
Buenos  Aires,  and  who  vastly  enjoyed  a  little  murder,  had 
a  violent  altercation  with  his  father,  insisting  upon  the  latter 
re-offering  himself  for  the  chief  magistracy.  Instigated  by 
his  mother,  D.  Maria  G.  de  Flores,  who  has  been  mildly  de- 
scribed as  a  "  tigress/'  and  who,  if  truth  be  told  about  her, 

8 


114  THE    MURDER    OE    GENERAL    FLORES. 

must  be  steeped  to  her  lips  in  blood_,  D.  Fortunato  slapped 
the  paternal  face,  and  running  to  the  barracks  called  out 
the  corps  of  which  he  was  colonel.  Having  made  all  safe 
with  the  officers,  he  seized  Colonel  Batlle  (pronounce 
Bailie),  then  Minister  of  War,  and  by  threatening  to  shoot 
him  obtained  an  order  upon  the  officer  on  guard  to  sur- 
render the  Fort  of  S.  Jose.  D.  Fortunato  then  tried  a 
ruse  de  guerre^  hoping  to  get  possession  of  his  father's 
person,  but  the  brave  "  General-in-Chief  of  the  Vanguard  " 
had  disappeared  from  La  Union,  where  he  had  been  com- 
pelled to  fly.  The  "  Pronunciamento^''  was  presently  crushed, 
and  a  decree  of  February  8  banished  D.  Fortunato  and 
fourteen  officers  of  his  corps,  with  four  other  partisans*  It 
also  dismissed  for  revolting  against  his  father,  but  did  not 
banish,  the  cadet  D.  Eduardo  Flores — a  man  who  can 
thoroughly  well  lose  his  money  at  billiards,  but  who  is  not 
equally  fond  of  paying  his  losses.  Both  these  officers  em- 
barked on  the  same  day  (February  8)  under  promise  to 
quit  the  country,  and  landed  again  after  a  few  hours. 

Meanwhile,  another  complication  declared  itself.  The 
Blancos  who  had  lost  power  after  the  invasion  of  the  Banda 
Oriental  by  General  Flores  in  1863,  and  who  were  hope- 
lessly reduced  by  the  storming  of  Paysandu  in  1864,  rose 
in  arms  against  the  Colorados.  The  former  were  headed 
by  ex-President  D.  Bernardo  P.  Berro,  a  favourite  with 
foreigners  and  highly  respected  by  all  classes.  The  tragical 
affair  had  its  comic  side.  Berro,  a  fine  tall  figure  with 
flowing  white  hair,  is  described  as  rushing  about  in  a  black 
hammer-claw  coat  and  starched  evening  tie,  spear  and  re- 
volver in  hand,  shouting  "  Liberty.^' 

At  this  conjuncture  General  Flores  was  foully  assassi- 
nated. 

Meanwhile  ex-President  Berro,  accompanied  by  Sr  Bar- 
bot   and  some    forty-five    friends,    seized   the  Government 


THE   MURDER    OF    GENERAL    FLORES.  115 

House,  and  called  upon  the  people  to  put  down  the  existing 
Executive.  But  no  one  was  moved  by  the  revolutionary 
proclamation,,  and  soon  D.  Hector  Varela,  D.  Segundo 
Flores,  the  third  son,  and  other  Colorados,  broke  into  the 
house,  seized  D.  Bernardo  Berro,  and  his  friends,  and  hurry- 
ing them  to  the  Cabildo,  put  them  to  death.  Some  say 
that  the  ex-President  was  shot,  others  that  he  was  run 
through  with  a  sword ;  some  that  his  throat  was  cut,  others 
that  he  was  thrown  out  of  the  window. 

Thus  the  attempt  at  a  revolution  had  proved  futile,  and  fatal 
to  the  leaders  of  both  the  contending  parties.  During  five 
days  military  and  mob  law  struggled  for  supremacy.  Flags 
were  hoisted  half-mast  high.  A  body  of  a  hundred  men 
found  in  arms  were  cut  down.  Citizens  were  compelled  to 
prove  themselves  Floristas  by  wearing  red  ribbons,  and  the 
lives  of  strangers  were  in  serious  danger.  Captain  Mariette, 
a  retired  officer  of  our  Rifles,  was  arrested  in  the  streets  by 
black  fellows,  calling  themselves  soldiers,  upon  the  charge 
of  having  jostled  one  of  their  number,  and  he  luckily 
escaped  with  unsplit  weazand. 

Meanwhile,  D.  Pedro  Varela  becoming  acting  President, 
proceeded  to  appoint  D.  Hector  Varela,  associating  with 
him  D.  Jose  C.  Bustamente,  as  Minister  of  War  and  Ma- 
rine, and  D.  Eureterio  Rigunaga,  Minister  of  Finance. 
The  National  Guard  was  mustered,  and  ordered  to 
take  charge  of  the  city.  The  territory  of  the  Republic 
was  divided  into  three  military  departments,  with  the 
view  of  suppressing  any  intended  movements  of  the 
'^whites,^^  and  all  the  Blanco  officers  were  cashiered.  M. 
Varela  applied  to  the  British  Admiral  for  a  force  of  ma- 
rines to  guard  the  Custom  House ;  the  gunboats  of  other 
foreign  powers  also  joined  them,  while  all  prepared  to  pro- 
tect their  respective  fellow-subjects. 

On  February  21,  Adjutant-Major  D.  Segundo   Flores,  a 

8—2 


116  THE    MURDER    OF    GENERAL    FLORES. 

youth  of  sixteen,  assisted  it  is  suspected  by  liis  brother,  D. 
Eduardo,  and  accompanied  by  a  small  party,  went  to  the 
house  of  two  Spanish  subjects,  the  Maurigons,  father  and 
son,  gargottiers,  who  kept  a  guingette,  where  his  father^s 
assassins  had  been  drinking  before  the  murder,  and  whom 
he  suspected  to  have  been  in  the  plot.  Under  pretence  of 
requiring  their  depositions,  D.  Segundo  led  them  to  the 
river  side,  and  there  directed  Sergeant  Laprecute  to  cut 
their  throats.  The  Spanish  Minister  indignantly  demanded 
an  investigation,  but  the  Oriental  Government,  after  using 
all  decent  expressions  of  horror,  not  only  neglected  to  arrest 
the  persons  inculpated,  it  even  promoted  to  the  rank  of 
colonel  the  dismissed  Major  D.  Eduardo,  and  as  he  had 
proved  himself  a  man  of  action,  employed  him  upon  a  con- 
fidential mission.  Colorados  are  not  yet  so  cheap  that  they 
can  be  sacrificed  for  the  peccadillo  of  cutting  a  "  Gringo^s^^ 
throat. 

Ensued  new  complications.  D.  Manuel  Flores,  brother  of 
the  murdered  General,  and  some  twenty  of  his  friends  and 
relations,  died  suddenly  on  Feb.  23 ;  and  a  report  that  they 
had  been  poisoned  by  the  Blancos  drove  the  people  to  fury. 
Others  explained  the  accident  by  the  exhalations  of  a  cistern, 
others  by  the  fact  that  all  had  been  present  at  the  embalm- 
ing of  General  Floras^  corpse.  A  regular  practitioner 
having  demanded  100/.,  the  body,  which  had  become 
decomposed,  was  given  over  to  an  Italian  bird-stuffer; 
and  this  artist  did  his  work  by  sewing  the  collar  of  a 
uniform  around  the  neck,  the  face  being  still  in  a  tolerable 
state  of  preservation. 

General  D.  Lorenzo  Batlle,  a  moderate  Colorado,  was 
constitutionally  elected  on  April  1,  and  thus  the  Floristas 
kept  their  ascendancy.  He  was  opposed  by  General  D. 
Gregorio  (vulgo  Gojo)  Suarez,  a  violent  Radical  (Conser- 
vador),  personally  hostile  to   Flores :  this  officer's  conduct^ 


THE  MURDER  OF  GENERAL  FLORES.       117 

after  the  capture  of  Paysandii,  rendered  him  the  hatred 
and  horror  of  the  Blancos.  He  was  soon  persuaded  to  be 
Minister  of  War — a  fine  post  for  making  money,  as  indeed 
all  connected  with  the  portfolio  here  are.  The  three  sons 
of  General  Flores  were  banished  to  Rio  de  Janeiro,  and 
presently  had  to  leave  it  in  consequence  of  an  after-dinner 
"  row  ''  at  the  '^  Cas^^  or  Alcazar.  Returning  home  they 
found  their  own  party  in  power,  and  thus  all  their  little  pec- 
cadilloes were  forgiven  and  forgotten. 

The  Flores  murder  you  will  agree  with  me  is  one  of  the 
most  remarkable.  Every  one  knows  that  it  originated 
from  the  temporary  combination  of  the  Blancos  and 
Conservadores  for  the  purpose  of  expelling  the  successful 
Colorados.  Every  one  knows  the  instigator  of  the  murder, 
and  all  who  care  for  so  doing  can  know  who  are  the  actual 
murderers.  Yet  with  the  exception  of  a  little  innocent 
blood  and  a  few  lives  remotely  accessory  to  the  fact,  no  one 
has  been  punished.  Justice  has  been  cheated,  and  Nemesis 
frowns  at  her  victims  in  vain. 

Since  February,  1868,  there  has  been  no  movement, 
strange  to  say,  in  this  home  of  revolutions.  It  was,  how- 
ever, expected  every  time  I  visited  Monte  Video,  and  once  it 
was  opportunely  stopped  by  a  shower  of  rain. 

Ever  yours. 

P.S. — The  "  pronunciamento  ^^  did  break  out  almost  im- 
mediately after  1  reached  England,  June  1,  1869  :  the  ex- 
Minister  of  War,  Gojo  Suarez,  and  the  General  Manduca 
Carbajal  had  combined  versus  General  Batlle. 


LETTER  III. 

MONTEVID]^ANS NATIVES    AND    rOREIGNERS. 

Monte  Video,  August  14,  1868. 

My  dear  Z , 

The  aspect  of  a  Montevidean  street  is  not 
displeasing.  Building  and  repairing  are  almost  as  active  as 
in  Paris  and  London.  The  centre^  however^  instead  of  being 
homhey  is  a  gutter,  towards  which  the  sides  shelve ;  the 
trottoirs  are  narrow  and  high  above  the  sole,  as  opposite 
Whitehall  Place.  There  is  no  excuse  for  such  barbarism 
here,  although  the  older  towns  of  Europe  still  abound  in  it. 
The  fact  is,  many  of  these  New  World  settlements  are  in 
point  of  comfort  and  civilization  far  nearer  London  and 
Paris  than  many  an  Old  World  city  within  five  hours  by 
rail.  Their  only  fault  is  the  absolute  distance,  and  in  this 
age  of  the  world  it  is  not  to  be  remedied. 

Shops,  mostly  French,  and  full  of  glitter  and  attractions, 
everywhere  catch  the  eye.  In  days  gone  by  I  avoided  them, 
but  Free  Trade  has  done  away  with  the  sturdy,  homely, 
lasting,  and  expensive,  yet  economical  English  article ;  so  I 
go  to  France  for  something  just  as  durable  as,  and  far  more 
sightly  than,  the  work  you  do  over  the  water.  Strangers 
remark  that  all  the  house  doors  are  open,  here  no  churl 
dares  to  sport  his  oak.  A  lady,  hearing  that  European 
entrances  are  kept  closed,  justly  remarked  that  it  must 
be  "  muy  tristej'  For  the  first  time  since  some  years,  I 
saw  at  the  doorsteps  the  servant  gal,  pure  and  simple ; 
there  will  be  none  further  East,  and  in  the  Great  Empire 
all  women  in  white  skins  are  ladies.    The  unmarried  Monte- 


MONTEVIDEANS — NATIVES    AND   FOREIGNERS.       119 

videana  is  allowed  to  walk  the  town  alone,  a  civilized  sight 
as  yet  impossible  in  the  Brazil.  All  understand  the  word 
"  pretty/'  but  from  unwelcome  lips  it  will  sometimes  elicit 
a  "  Que  bestia  V  These  ladies  are  extreme  politicians.  I 
was  shown  near  the  Matriz  a  Confiteria  y  Cafe,  underneath 
whose  balcony  the  Brazilian  officers  used  to  congregate,  and 
whence  they  were  once  driven,  ejaculating  "  Diabo  do 
Diabo  V^  by  some  ''  Blanco^'  girls,  who  maltreated  them  more 
than  ever  New  Orleans  did  the  hated  ''  Yank.''' 

The  upper  class  here  is  the  best  looking  that  1  have 
seen  in  South  America,  excepting  only  the  Limena  and  her 
sister  of  Guayaquil ;  we  shall  not  fare  better  in  the  Argen- 
tine Republic  as  we  go  further  from  the  sea.  The  cause  is 
partly  that  which  operates  in  the  familiar  capitals  of  Europe 
— the  handsomest  of  both  sexes  meet,  and  thus  there  is 
selection  of  species.  Partly  it  is  the  effect  of  climate.  The 
Creole  or  country-born  daughters  of  British  parents — Lan- 
cashire carpenters  or  Cheshire  farmers — remind  me  of  what 
I  remarked  at  Salt  Lake  City,  and  was  duly  derided  for 
recording  my  remark.  This  pure,  clean,  hot,  '^  Orientar' 
air,  burning  away  adipose  tissue,  refines  form  and  feature, 
and  fines  down  hands  and  feet.  The  outlines  become  more 
regular  and  the  colours  wax  tenderer.  Here  for  the 
mechanic's  family — unless  it  be  murdered — there  is  physical 
and  moral  improvement :  it  suffers  from  none  of  the  penury 
which  chilled  the  parents'  blood,  it  is  not  frozen  by  the  cold 
shade  of  its  own  bourgeois  aristocracy ;  the  produce,  there- 
fore, already  born  more  delicate,  gracieuses,  and  "  ladylike,'"' 
because  of  a  more  nervous  temperament,  have  their  tempers 
better  in  hand  and  become  more  susceptible  of  civilization. 

You  easily  learn  after  a  few  days  the  peculiar  aspect  of 
the  "  camp"  man.  He  is  not  military,  but  from  the  country  ; 
"  camp"  being  one  of  the  many  curious  Anglicisms  for 
campo,  the  pampa  or  prairie,  opposed  to  the  city.    Similarly 


120  MONTEVIDEANS  : 

cuesta,  a  hill  slope,  becomes  a  ^^coast/^  and  the  orange 
"  mount^^  of  Mr.  Mulhall  is  "  monte/^  a  grove,  a  bush,  a 
low  forest.  Of  course,  many  Spanish  words  are  pulled  in 
by  the  ears — thus  to  "  sinch  up^^  is  to  tighten  the  sincha  or 
girth,  and  to  "  sinch  out'"*  is  to  tow  out  a  beast  stuck  in  the 
mud  by  throwing  over  it  a  lasso  which  is  made  fast  to  the 
surcingle. 

"  Camp'^  and  City  agree  like  Town  and  Gown,  cat  and 
dog.  Camp  is,  or  was,  often,  let  me  say  generally,  a  man 
of  family,  education,  and  refinement,  pastoral,  landed,  and 
aristocratic.  City  is  commercial,  monied,  democratic,  and 
in  a  society  that  ignores  the  gentleman  by  profession 
capital  becomes  a  manner  of  rank,  and  la  fortune  claims  to 
be  la  mesure  de  Vintelligence.  This  alto  Comercio-Britanico 
— why  cannot  we  expunge  our  double  consonants  as  these 
neo-Spaniards  do? — will  gain  empire  as  it  courses  westwards. 
At  Valparaiso  it  will  become  an  oligarchy,  which,  despite 
all  Aristotle,  claims  nobility,  and  meditates  a  speedy  and 
decided  reform  in  the  small  matter  of  a  national  precedence- 
table. 

City  and  Camp  here  mix,  but  not,  unless  connected,  with 
a  will.  City  is  neat,  prim,  clean,  respectable,  his  manners 
are  staid,  and  his  costume  is  the  work  of  a  London  tailor, 
possibly  Mr.  Poole.  Camp  is  readily  recognised  by  hair 
preternaturally  long  or  marvellously  short ;  by  skin  bronzed 
or  freckled ;  by  "  biled-rag^'  shirt ;  by  nails  still  in  a  state 
of  slight  but  apparently  perpetual  mourning ;  by  attire 
splendid  but  creased,  crumpled,  and  camphory,  and  by 
French  boots,  where  English  cannot  be  procured.  He  is 
jolly,  and  perhaps  at  first  somewhat  loud,  tlie  effect  of 
excitement  at  seeing  once  more  his  kind  ;  he  is,  however,  a 
general  favourite ;  he  flirts  like  a  naval  officer  at  Malta,  he 
waltzes,  he  plays,  and  he  runs  up  a  bill  like  a  man.  Fearful 
is  the  growling  when  the  quart  d^heure  de  Rabelais  brings 


NATIVES    AND    FOREIGNERS.  121 

the  "  addition ;"  still  the  pay  is  safe^  and  the  hotel-keeper 
is  sure  to  keep  a  good  room  ready  for  Camp. 

Here  and  there  you  see,  as  they  lean  against  a  wall 
because  too  lazy  to  stand  upright,  a  few  creechurs  in  long 
hair  and  the  ridiculous  chiripa  or  poncho — don^t  say 
"  puncho^' — turned  into  a  kilt.  Local  colour,  however,  is 
on  the  wane,  and  the  costume  is  not  so  barbarous  as  that 
of  the  milkwoman  or  the  billycock  hat  and  smockfrock 
wearer  in  the  streets  of  London.  Some  Englishmen,  doomed 
to  the  outer  districts,  affect  it  because  good  for  riding ;  they 
are  looked  upon  by  the  true  Gaucho  as  ''  Compadritos,^^  or 
proselytes  of  the  gate.  The  wild  native  shows  far  better 
lounging  on  horseback  than  on  foot.  Here  the  equine  is 
the  only  comfortable  locomotion,  and  strangers  wonder  how 
the  animals  keep  their  footing  as  they  gallop  down  the 
slippery  hill-pavement.  The  beasts,  hobbled  with  "  maneas,^^ 
as  the  law,  under  pain  of  line,  directs,  stand  champing 
before  the  doors,  or  hop  on  and  off  the  pavement,  or  attempt 
to  gambade  down  the  street ;  they  are  said  not  to  kick,  and 
if  you  believe  it  you  will  be  kicked.  The  advanced  native 
looks  forward  to  the  day  when  never  a  saddled  quadruped 
will  be  seen  in  the  streets,  even  as  the  Brazilian  sighs  for 
the  disappearance  of  the  slave  and  the  ''  burro."  Mean- 
while, the  baker's  boy,  known  by  his  leather-covered  pannier, 
rides,  so  do  the  milk  and  the  waterman  with  his  tin  cans, 
so  does  the  washerwoman  with  her  bundles. 

At  each  corner  of  the  Montevidean  street  there  is  usually 
a  post,  formerly  represented  by  a  gun,  whose  open  mouth 
was  fall  of  rain,  cigar-ends,  and  pebbles.  These  weapons 
have  been  mostly  sold  to  Marshal-President  Lopez.  Here 
porters  gather,  lottery  boys  tempt  you,  and  Basques  jabber 
guttural  discordance.  Of  the  few  native  gentry  met  in  the 
streets,  most  have  some  anecdote  appended  to  them.  An 
Arab  poet  sings  : — 


122  MONTEVIDEANS  : 

"  The  tale  of  the  world  is  nought  but  this, 
In  such  a  year  died  such  a  one,  another  and  another." 

At  Moute  Video  the  refrain  is_,  "  in  18 —  sucli  a  body  shot 
or  stabbed  such  a  body/'  Higher  up  stream  it  will  be 
such  a  body  (feminine)  lives  with  such  a  body  (masculine), 
or  M.  un  tel  is  master  to  Mdme.  une  telle.  Everywhere, 
however,  bloodthirstiness  is  the  rule.  Even  Creole  children, 
all  except  the  usual  good  boy  who  talks  theology  or  philoso- 
phy, revel  in  chat  about  wounds  and  death ;  and  these  sons 
of  Europe  are  said  to  be  worse,  to  degenerate  better  even 
than  the  Gaucho.  An  acquaintance  pointed  out  to  me  an 
officer  of  rank,  who,  during  the  last  affair,  meeting  a  friend 
on  the  other  side  of  politics,  answered  the  outstretched 
hand  by  a  sword  through  the  body,  and  wiped  the  blade  upon 
his  victim's  coat-tails.  Another  tall  personage  walks  about 
with  impunity,  although  he  directed  the  murder  of  Colonel 
Leandro  Gomez  at  Paysandu,  and  he  is  more  than  sus- 
pected of  having  aided  to  assassinate  General  Flores.  These 
things  are  told  to  me  by  Englishmen,  in  a  painful  whisper, 
as  if  they  were  talking  politics  in  Rome  or  in  Paraguay. 
It  makes  me  blush  to  see  them  so  cowed,  but  the  fact 
is  man's  life  is  never  safe,  at  the  best  of  times,  and  in 
troublous  times  it  is  eminently  unsafe. 

Another  imminent  danger  is  from  the  soldier.  You  know 
him  by  his  dark -blue  kepi,  tunic,  and  pants,  the  whole  with 
red  facings.  He  is  almost  always  a  negro  ;  the  Orientals 
and  Argentines  got  rid  of  the  "  irrepressible  ''  by  enlisting 
him  to  fight  their  civil  wars,  and  the  Brazil  is  being  driven 
by  philanthropists  to  adopt  a  similar  system  of  extirpation. 
Approaching  barracks,  even  by  day,  you  must  stand  and 
ask  leave  to  advance,  or  the  anthropoid  will  charge  bayonet 
blindly  as  a  mad  bull.  And  on  all  occasions  it  is  his  great 
delight  to  shoot  or  stab  a  white  man,  especially  a  foreigner, 
whom    he   calls    ^'  Gringo   animal."     The    Brazil,   you  will 


NATIVES    AND    FOREIGNERS.  123 

remember,  has  no  such  term  ;  there  we  were  simply  "  fo- 
rastieros/^ 

The  policemen  are  like  their  brethren  in  certain  other 
lands,  offenders  rather  by  omission  than  commission.  Not 
so  the  vigilantes,  nicknamed  "  Serenos/^  the  Charleys  or 
watchmen  that  remind  us  of  the  old  German  song, 

"  Hort,  ihr  Herrn,  last  euch  sagen,"  etc. 

As  the  policeman  is  the  chief  do-nothing,  and  the  soldier  is 
the  head  bandit,  so  is  the  Sereno  head-thief,  an  accomplice 
in  almost  every  robbery.  The  combined  result  is,  that  five 
stabbings  in  three  days  distinguish  as  an  average  the 
90,000  souls  of  Buenos  Aires — the  sum  would  represent 
10,000  murders  per  annum  in  London.  The  Sereno  uses 
his  weapon  freely,  and  is  "  death  upon  "  the  stranger.  If 
you  happen  to  bump  him  as  you  turn  the  corner,  your  case 
will  be  that  of  a  certain  Marquis  of  Waterford  and  the 
morning-star.  During  my  first  week  at  Monte  Video,  an 
Englishman  was  carried  to  the  Police  Hospital  with  his 
head  laid  open  by  one  of  these  vicious  fathers  of  the 
''  Bobbies.^' 

Monte  Video  amuses  herself  much  more  heartily  than 
does  her  big  rival ;  the  former  cultivates,  the  latter  neglects 
her  theatre  and  amusements.  The  pianist,  M.  Gottschalk, 
prefers  the  smaller  city.  La  Codazzi,  the  diva,  receives 
400/.  per  mensem,  and  others  in  proportion.  Ristori  would 
not  disdain  such  inducements.  Besides  the  Solis  Theatre 
for  the  opera,  there  is  the  San  Felipe,  generally  taken  by 
the  Compania  de  Zarzuela,  a  Spanish  buffo,  as  yet  little 
known  to  the  world.  I  greatly  admire  this  purely  Iberian 
style,  which  will  come  over  to  England  when  the  national 
ear  shall  be  refined  into  enjoying  simplicity.  Much  of  the 
music  is  in  the  minor  key,  and  from  the  beginning  to  the  end 
there  is  a  recurrence  of  motive,  of  dominant  expression,  and 


124  MONTEVIDEANS  : 

an  echo  of  half-forgotten  melody,  which  gently  caress  the 
senses.  There  is  also  a  Bouffes  Company,  which  oscillates 
between  Monte  Video  and  Buenos  Aires.  Other  theatres 
are  the  Teatro  de  Titens,  the  Teatro  Franco- Oriental,  and 
the  Great  American  Circus. 

The  bull-ring,  I   told  you,  is  outside  the  city,    and  the 
fights  are  always  on  fetes   and   Sundays.      The  sport  is  pro- 
vided by  the   Sociedad   de  la  Plata,  and  the   beef  is  from 
Pando,  near  Maldonaro.      The  toreros  are  two  first  swords, 
including  El  Tuerto,  two  picadors   and  four  capas,  chulos, 
or  bandilleros.      The  aspect  of  these  bulldogs  is  peculiar  as 
that  of  the  English  fighting-man ;  they  are  known  even  in 
mufti  by  the  little  pigtail  springing  lank  from  the   close- 
cut  blue- black  hair   behind,  the   thin  thighs,  and  the  short, 
trim,  compact  figure,  with  the  bullet-head  and  square  jowl, 
which  show  that  they  are  bred, like  the  English  jockey, to  their 
work.      The  fair  sex  of  Monte   Video  begin    to   like   bull- 
fighting. On  November  9,  one  of  the  fullest  houses  collected 
$11,000  from  7600  spectators.      Men  are  frequently  killed, 
and   the   sacrifice   of  horseflesh  is    excessive.      Here,  as  in 
Spain,  garrons  are  supplied  by  contract  to  be  gored.      The 
lower,  that  is  to   say,   the    uneducated  classes,   everywhere 
brutal  rather  than  cruel,  enjoy  the  spectacle  of  a  tortured 
animal  rushing  about  the   ring,  and  this  is   the   only  un- 
pleasant part  of  the  noble  sport.      It  is  thoroughly  enjoyable 
at  Lima,  where  the   most  valuable  animals  are  lent,  for  the 
purpose   of  being   displayed,  to  the  best  and  safest  riders. 
Everywhere  it  would  be  possible  to  defend  the  horse^s  belly 
with  a  padded  jerkin  of  stifi"  leather. 

The  Cockpit  is  still  a  favourite  with  some  classes,  especially 
with  the  gentleman  of  the  old  school,  the  army  man,  and  the 
priest.  All  go  armed  with  a  knife  at  least — more  often 
with  a  revolver.  The  building  is  here  called  Rinadero  de 
Gallos,  at  Corrientes  Circo   de  los  Gallos,  at  Lima  Coliseo, 


NATIVES    AND    FOREIGNERS.  125 

and  at  other  places  Aranadal  de  Gallos.  It  is  usually  a 
loosely  made  wooden  circus^  with  three  or  four  tiers  of  benches, 
rising  from  a  sawdusted  arena.  The  latter  is  shaped  like 
a  bath,  fifteen  feet  in  diameter,  with  walls  sixteen  inches 
high,  made  sloping  or  perpendicular,  of  tin,  wood,  or  matting. 
The  two  lower  tiers  are  mostly  ticketed,  showing  that  they 
are  private.  Those  on  the  ground  floor  are  boxes,  each 
containing  its  trained  bird,  the  cocks  not  wanted  at  the 
time  are  tied  by  the  leg  and  dispersed  about  the  building, 
which  resounds  with  their  pugnacious  cro wings.  They  are 
small  compared  with  our  English  blood;  the  usual  food  is 
wheat  and  cooked  meat,  and  they  are  trained  by  shampooing 
and  occasional  sparring.  The  Argentines  in  this  matter  are 
far  behind  the  Spaniards,  and  the  Moslems  of  India  are  a 
century  in  advance  of  both,  being  able  to  train  a  cock  to 
fly  at  man  or  dog.  The  spur  is  not  so  artificial  as  ours  or  as 
that  of  Hindustan ;  it  is  of  metal,  and  made  hollow  to  fit 
over  the  natural  weapon,  whose  slope  it  imitates.  There  is 
scant  art  shown  in  choosing  the  angle,  and  the  birds  instead 
of  being  lifted  are  simply  thrown  into  the  pit.  The  pas- 
time is  very  slow,  hours  being  often  wasted  till  a  good  bargain 
is  secured.  As  a  rule  to  strangers,  ^^back  the  Colorado^' 
or  red  bird,  and  if  there  be  two  reds  back  the  redder. 

Prize-fighting,  expelled  from  the  old,  seems  likely  to  find 
a  home  in  the  New  World.  Lately  a  "  set-to  ''  for  $2000 
a  side  took  place  on  the  Cerro  between  a  Manchester  man 
and  a  so-called  American.  Many  natives  witnessed  it  with 
great  engouement ;  they  were  prepared  by  hearsay  to  find 
the  spectacle  more  brutal  than  it  is,  and  they  were  charmed 
by  its  fair  play.  Before  I  left  the  Plate  another  fight  was 
talked  of  between  Professor  Cox  and  Mr.  Jack  Turner, 
terms  200/.,  and  place  "  between  ■'ome  and  ^ome.''^  Per- 
haps prizefighting  is  prettier  sport  than  the  "pronuncia- 
mento.'^ 


126  MONTEVIDEANS  : 

Curious  to  say,  with  all  this  public  spirit  Monte  Video 
owns  no  English  club.  The  last  attempt  at  this  first  sign 
of  civilization  came  to  grief — ^'  Camp  ''  was  allowed  to  run 
up  bills  for  breakfasts  and  dinners.  At  present  there  is 
only  a  Sala  di  lectura  in  the  Calle  del  Cerrito,  where  a  slow 
senior  fumbles  over  the  newspapers — at  the  Commercial 
Rooms  of  Lima  a  Yankee  rowdy  is  kept  for  the  purpose. 
There  is  a  native  Circle  in  the  Regent-street,  "  25  de  Maio/' 
and  Argentines,  a  clubbable  people,  have  the  sense  to  keep 
up  such  places  even  in  the  country  towns.  Foreigners 
must  meet  in  drinking-honses,  hence  about  Christmas  time 
or  Midsummer  there  is  a  portentous  diffusion  of  stimu- 
lants. In  fact  Camp  at  that  season  mostly  comes  to  town 
for  cocktails  and  billiards.  Everywhere  you  see  Cafe  y 
Helados,  and  billiard-rooms  are  the  rage,  all  allowing  high 
play. 

Amongst  other  institutions  Monte  Video  rejoiced  in  a 
'*  Gormandizing  Club,^^  as  did  Rio  Grande  do  Sul  in  her 
"  Gluttons  '/'  both  resemble  our  "  Sublime  Society  of  Beef- 
steaks,^^ which  the  vulgar  would  call  a  Beefsteak  Club. 
This  and  sundry  kindred  institutions  were  kiUed  by  slack- 
ness of  business.  The  forced  currency,  and  the  failure 
of  the  banks  are  subjects  well  known.  The  Fomentos 
Montevideano,  a  Credit  Mobiher  to  buy  up  lands  for  sale, 
proved  to  be  here  as  elsewhere  mere  moonshine.  The 
tramway  running  to  La  Union  is  or  might  be  a  success  : 
the  Central  Uruguayan  Railway  is  not.  The  first  sod  was 
turned  by  General  Flores  on  April  25,  1867 ;  it  has  reached 
Las  Piedras,  some  nine  miles  off,  and  no  one  now  living  ex- 
pects to  hear  the  whistle  at  Durazno.  Stone,  brick,  lime, 
and  splendid  timber,  all  are  forthcoming  save  money  alone ; 
no  company  has  confidence  in  it,  and  we  cannot  wonder 
that  such  should  be  the  case  where  revolutions  are  not  the 
exceptions  but  the  rule. 


NATIVES    AND    FOREIGNERS.  127 

I  paid  two  short  visits  to  Monte  Video.  During  my  first, 
on  August  13, 1868,  at  about  10  p.m.,  burst  a  terrific  storm 
of  thunder  and  lightning,  wind  and  rain,  till  the  sluice- 
gates above  seemed  to  run  dry.  The  inhabitants  compared 
it  with  the  great  S.  Joseph  hurricane  of  March,  1866,  and 
at  Buenos  Aires  some  thirty  people  were  drowned.  In  due 
time  the  post  brought  us  the  intelligence  of  that  earthquake, 
perhaps  the  most  terrible  recorded  in  history,  which,  be- 
ginning at  5  to  6  P.M.,  laid  waste  the  west  coast  of  South 
America,  and  the  interior  of  Peru  and  Ecuador.  As  always 
happens,  the  effects  of  the  atmospheric  wave  outran  the 
water  wave,  even  more  than  this  did  the  earth  wave. 
The  remnant  of  the  year,  and  part  of  1869,  both  at 
Buenos  Aires  and  at  Monte  Video  —  to  mention  no 
other  places — were  unusually  cold,  hot  and  rainy,  the  citi- 
zens did  not  remember  such  captiousness  of  climate  for 
ten  years.  Similarly,  in  August,  1868,  the  earthquake  of 
Hawaii  was  followed  by  a  storm,  the  air  felt  like  steam,  and 
white  streams  of  lightning  ran  along  the  ground.  During 
the  same  year  deluges  of  summer  rain,  with  thunder  and 
lightning,  extending  from  April  to  September,  accompanied 
throughout  Naples  the  eruption  of  Vesuvius. 

My  second  was  in  1869,  at  the  end  of  the  Holy  Week, 
a  "  Great  Juju,^'  wherein  the  "  cold  intellectuality  of  the 
advanced  Protestant ''  finds  the  death  and  resurrection  of 
Adonai,  the  sun-god.  The  crossed  yards  of  ships  showed 
Good  Friday  ;  during  Long  Gospel  and  the  Adoration  of 
the  Cross,  the  cathedral  was  crowded,  and  the  Negro  sen- 
tinels and  policemen  were  as  troublesome  as  they  are  wont 
to  be  when  they  can.  On  Holy  Saturday,  bells,  squibs, 
and  all  kinds  of  noises  accompanied  the  "  toca  da  gloria." 
The  four  piers  of  the  cathedral,  generally  white  and  blue, 
with  gilt  capitals,  were  hung  with  red  silk,  the  gilt  pulpit 
sent  forth  muffled   thunder,  crowds   worshipped  before  the 


128  MONTEVIDEANS  : 

Lady  Chapel  to  tlie  right  of  the  entrance,  and  a  well- 
dressed  mob  pressed  towards  an  especially  vile  daub  repre- 
senting the  Resurrection.  At  the  entrance  stood  an  avenue 
of  male  humanity  to  admire  the  small  pufiy  clouds  of  pink, 
green,  and  sulphur-yellow  which  formed  the  Sortie  de 
Messe  :  we  awarded  the  palm  of  beauty  to  the  daughters 
of  an  old  compagnon  de  voyage,  M.  Cibil,  a  wealthy  Spanish 
landowner.  The  rainy  south-easter  prevented  the  bull- 
fight of  Easter  Sunday,  and  there  were  no  signs  of  ball  or 
feast. 

Wishing  to  hear  his  impressions  of  Paraguay,  I  called 
upon  Admiral  C.  N.  Davis,  an  old  and  experienced  officer 
commanding  the  United  States  squadron,  and  not  likely  to 
be  imposed  upon  by  mere  "  amiability  and  plausibility.^^ 
Marshal-President  Lopez  had  affected  him  favom'ably,  as^ 
indeed  seems  to  be  his  fate  with  naval  men — for  instance. 
Captains  Kirkland,  Mitchell,  and  Parsons.  He  believed 
that  the  "  atrocities  of  Lopez" — another  popular  heading — 
had  been  grossly  exaggerated,  and  he  remarked  that  the 
Marshal-President  had  killed  one  brother  nine  times  in 
three  or  four  different  ways.  The  Honourable  Mr.  Wash- 
burn had  assured  me  that  Marshal- President  Lopez  was  too 
fat  to  ride,  and  could  not  engage  in  guerilla  warfare. 
Admiral  Davis  saw  him  mount  a  fiery  horse  and  dash  away 
through  a  violent  storm. 

The  history  of  the  AdmiraFs  mission  is  curious.  Mr. 
G.  F.  Masterman,  an  English  apothecary,  with  local  rank  as 
lieutenant,  became  doctor  to  the  United  States  Legation, 
and  the  secretaryship  was  given  to  Mr.  Porter  C.  Eliss. 
The  latter,  the  son  of  a  Reverend  in  the  State  of  New 
York,  was  aged  about  thirty-two,  a  linguist,  especially  a 
student  of  "  Indian"^  dialects,  and  a  man  of  some  education, 
but  mostly  superficial.  He  had  been  tutor  in  the  family  of 
General  Webb,  United  States  Minister  at  Rio  de  Janeiro, 


NATIVES    AND    FOREIGNERS.  129 

and  after  editing  tlic  River  Plate  Magazine,  he  had  drifted 
up,  like  other  ne'er-do-weels,  into  Paraguay.  When  Mr. 
Wasliburn,  demanding  his  passports  in  high  dudgeon,  left 
Asuncion,  these  two  employes  were  violently  and  illegally 
arrested  in  the  streets,  put  in  irons,  sent  to  the  army  for 
judgment,  and  otherwise  maltreated,  upon  the  "  not  proven'' 
charge  of  having  conspired,  in  company  with  Colonel 
Benigno  Lopez,  Vice-President  Sanchez,  and  others,  against 
the  Marshal-President's  life. 

Mr.  Bliss,  presently  after  his  detention,  published  against 
his  employer  a  pamphlet  entitled,  ^'  Historia  Secreta  de 
la  Mision  del  Ciudadano  Norte-Americano,  Charles  Amos 
Washburne,  cerca  del  Gobierno  de  la  Republica  del  Para- 
guay, por  el  Ciudadano  Americano,  Traductor  Titular  (in 
partibus)  de  la  Mesma  Mision,  Porter  Cornelio  Bliss,  B.A. ;" 
and  bearing  for  motto  the  venerable  "  Quousque  tandem 
Catalina  abutere  patientia  nostra ?"  (Cicero).  The  unfinished 
volume,  which  is  vilely  printed,  extends  over  168  pages.  It 
is  a  mass  of  undigested  nonsense,  dragging  in  Mesdames 
Harris  and  Partington,  quoting  all  the  languages  of 
Europe,  and  citing  evry  poet  from  Gray  to  Tennyson  ;  its 
sole  object  is  to  abuse  Mr„  Washburn,  describing  his 
"blind  spite  against  the  Marshal-President,"  his  '^'^deep 
libations  of  cocktails  of  sherry,"  and  of  ''  sudden  deaths" 
(matados  a  cinco  pasos) ;  and  finally  it  crushes  him  with — 

"  Man  being  reasonable  must  get  drunk." 

This  "  Anti-Washburnianism"  was  duly  forwarded  to  all  the 
powers  of  Europe — 1  saw  a  list  of  them  in  the  Marshal- 
President's  own  writing.  Nothing  could  be  more  simple, 
more  ostrich-like,  than  thus  to  accuse  oneself  by  a  document 
bearing  upon  its  face  the  signs  of  compulsion.  But  the 
Paraguayans  are,  like  all  Indians,  an  eminently  childish 
race ;  when  they  could  not  shake  their  enemies'  nerves  with 

9 


130  MONTEVIDEANS  : 

gunpowder  they  made  tliem  miserable  by  concerts  of 
tuturiitus,  or  cowborns  pierced  with  blowholes  at  the  sides. 
It  will  remind  you  of  the  Chinese,  who  frightened  us  by 
holding  up  and  shaking  their  shields  painted  with  tigers. 

The  arrest  of  the  two  employes  caused  some  excitement 
at  Washington;  at  Rio  de  Janeiro  General  Webb  would 
have  had  an  armed  demonstration  against  everybody,,  even 
against  the  Brazilians,  if  they  had  refused  passage  to  the 
squadron,  and  he  evidently  did  not  believe  that  Imperial 
iron-clads  could  resist  Republican  wooden-walls.  General 
M^Mahon,  an  officer  who  had  distinguished  himself  in  the 
Secession  wars,  was  sent  to  Paraguay  as  new  Minister,  and 
Admiral  Davis  was  directed  to  escort  him  with  the  squadron, 
and  to  demand  the  unconditional  release  of  Messrs.  Bliss 
and  Masterman. 

About  the  end  of  November,  1868,  the  squadron^  steamed 
up  stream,  leaving  at  Monte  Video  only  the  GuejTiere,  flag- 
ship, that  drew  too  much  water.  Happily  things  passed 
without  trouble.  The  Brazilians  and  Allies,  who  had  ques- 
tioned the  AdmiraFs  right  to  break  the  blockade,  were 
startled  at  the  aspect  of  the  squadron,  which  practised  as 
it  advanced,  and  they  knew  that  torpedos  level  differences. 
The  Kansas  grounded  near  Angostura  and  was  got  off,  but 
not  without  delay  and  difficulty.  It  is  fortunate  that  our 
home  authorities  did  not  send  up  what  is  called  magnilo- 
quently  the  South-Eastern  Coast  of  South  America  Squadron. 
Such  things  as  Spider,  Doterel,  and  Beacon  are  not  a  national 


*  The  squadron  consisted  of — 

The  U.S.S.  Pawnee,  Captain  Urban,  900  tons,  11  guns. 
„         Quineberg,  Captain  Burritt,  750  tons,  7  guns. 
„         Kansas,  Captain  Wheeler,  600  tons,  5  guns. 
„         Wasp,  Captain  Kirkland,  550  tons,  3  guns. 

The  first  mentioned  was  the  most  effective  vessel  j  the  Wasp  acted  flag- 
ship. 


NATIVES    AND    FOllEIGNERS.  131 

honour,  and  a  single  battery  of  Paraguayans  would  easily 
have  sunk  the  "  British  fleet/-*  This  would  have  been  more 
amusing  than  even  the  adventure  of  the  cruiser  which  was 
nearly  captured  by  negroes  on  the  west  coast  of  Africa. 

After  some  pourparlers,  Messrs.  Bliss  and  Masterman  were 
given  up,  not  unconditionally  as  had  been  demanded,  but 
as  political  prisoners  to  be  tried  in  the  United  States ;  they 
were  not  allowed  to  communicate  with  any  one  on  board, 
and  accusations  in  sealed  envelopes  accompanied  them.  The 
captives  embarked  at  11  p.m.;  they  complained  of  torture, 
whereas  the  surgeon  who  examined  them  found  no  marks, 
and  calling  for  supper  they  showed  a  healthy  appetite.  This 
is  from  high  authority ;  an  equally  high  authority  declares 
that  Dr.  Duval  did  find  scars  on  Mr.  Masterman.  General 
M'Mahon  was  landed  on  December  12,  1868,  and  on  the 
next  day  the  JVasp  left. 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  was  still  more 
aggrieved.  Mr.  Washburn^'s  brother  had  become  Chief 
Secretary  to  the  new  President  Grant,  and  it  was  deter- 
mined to  support  him.  Admiral  Davis  was  greatly  blamed 
for  taking  on  board  an  American  ship  of  war  the  political 
prisoners  of  Marshal-President  Lopez,  for  placing  them 
under  a  guard  of  marines,  and  for  allowing  them  to  land 
and  pass  three  days  at  Rio  de  Janeiro  before  they  left  for 
the  United  States.  The  charge  is  rather  specious  than  real. 
M.  Libertat,  Chancellier  of  the  Consulat  de  France,  was  sent 
as  a  prisoner  on  board  a  French  cruiser  despatched  to  bring 
him  down ;  and  he  also  had  been  accused  only  of  conspiracy. 
Doubtless,  Admiral  Davis,  as  would  any  other  brave  man, 
stretched  a  point  in  favour  of  the  hapless  little  Republic 
which  is  fighting  single-handed  against  three,  and  avoided 
everything  that  might  have  driven  him  to  the  disgrace  of 
firing  a  shot.  But  public  opinion  most  wrongfully  con- 
demned  General   M'^Mahon   for    taking    the   place   of   the 

9-2 


132  MONTEVIDEANS  : 

Honourable  Mr.  Washburn.  Men  said  that  lie  should  have 
awaited  fresh  orders  from  home^  as  Marshal-President 
Lopezj  being  a  fugitive,  had  no  regular  capital.  This  was  an 
error.  The  transfers  from  Asuncion  to  Luque,  and  from 
Luque  to  Paraguary,  were  officially  announced  in  the 
Semanario  gazette,  and  they  were  effected  with  all  due 
formalities. 

Meanwhile,  Mr.  Bliss,  returning  to  New  York,  retracted 
in  the  New  York  Tribune  (February  27,  1869)  all  that  he 
had  written,  and  declared  that  he  had  done  so  under 
penalty  of  the  Cepo  Uruguayana.  There  are  sundry  kinds 
of  Cepos  or  stocks  in  Paraguay.  The  Cepo  de  laso  is  when 
a  cord  fastened  to  two  stakes  is  rove  round  the  patient's 
ankles.  The  Uruguayana,  a  slang  name,  is  the  "  bucking^' 
of  Negro  overseers  :  the  arms  are  tied  round  the  knees, 
under  which  a  stick  is  thrust,  and  the  man  is  thus  made 
into  a  bundle — it  is  the  position  in  which  children  play  at 
cock-fighting.  The  Cepo  Columbia  is  the  worst  of  all :  it 
is  "  bundling,^'  with  the  addition  of  hea'vy  weights,  muskets, 
and  other  things  placed  upon  the  back  of  the  neck,  and  pro- 
ducing dangerous  wounds.  We  read  of  such  things  in  a  Car- 
melite convent  near  Cracow,  where  the  penitents  must  carry 
crosses  weighing  eighty  kilogs.  Mr.  Masterman  also  lost  no 
time  in  publishing  an  '^  interesting  narrative,^'  which  sounds 
like  the  dropping  of  tears — a  true  "  pleurnicherie  bour- 
geoise.^' 

After  this  you  will  wonder  why  the  foreigners  who, 
when  much  less  numerous,  prevented  the  ^'  savage  Oribe^' 
from  bombarding  Monte  Video,  do  not  combine  to  put 
down  the  revolutionary  native  politician — why,  in  fact, 
they  do   not   take  the  government  into   their  own   hands. 


*  Mr.  Masterman  has  since  that  time  published  a  book  which  reads  far 
better  than  his  letter. 


NATIVES    AND    FOREIGNERS.  133 

At  present,  however,  they  are  like  Hindus,  divided  into  a 
score  of  castes  which  cannot  co-operate.  But  a  time  shall 
come  when  the  Gauchada,  the  Jacquerie,  will  die  an  unna- 
tural death,  after  the  fashion  of  Kilkenny  cats.  In  parts  of 
the  country  there  are  four  women  to  one  man,  and  yet,  mar- 
vellous to  record,  polygamy — or,  if  you  prefer  the  term, 
patriarchal  marriage,  has  not  been  made  the  law  of  the  land. 
Presently  this  little  Uruguay — this  true  key  of  the  vast 
and  wealthy  Platine  valley — which  belongs  geographically, 
if  not  politically,  to  the  Brazil ;  which  has  twice  been  held 
by  the  Empire,  and  which  has  indirectly  caused  the  present 
war,  must  come  to  its  manifest  destiny.  It  is  rich  in  metals. 
Petroleum  and  coal  suitable  for  gas-making  have  lately 
been  found  about  Maldonado  and  the  Department  of  Minas, 
thus  prolonging  the  coal-field  and  completing  the  maritime 
system  from  the  mouth  of  the  La  Plata  to  that  of  the 
Amazons — amazing  wealth  stored  up  for  those  to  be. 
Finally,  it  is  the  only  spot  where  the  vast  Empire  of  the 
Southern  Cross — one-third  of  the  whole  Columbian  con- 
tinent— is  easily  vulnerable.  At  present  the  people  of  the 
Brazil,  though  generally  credited  with  the  far-seeing  Ma- 
chiavellian policy  which  the  last  generation  of  Europe 
attributed  to  the  purely  egotistical  and  commercial  views  of 
England,  does  not  pay  much  attention  to  the  Banda 
Oriental.  But  in  time  it  must,  and  the  sensible  foreigner 
will,  if  not  his  own  master,  prefer  Imperial  to  Republican 
rule. 

You  have  doubtless  gathered  from  these  pages  that  I  do 
not  think  highly  of  present  Uruguay  as  an  emigration 
ground  for  Englishmen  —  for  emigrants  who  somewhat 
respect  life  and  property,  whose  laws  are  more  or  less 
executed,  and  whose  faith  in  the  stability  of  their  constitu- 
tion is  a  creed.  It  is,  however,  very  difficult  to  give  you 
anything  like  a  clear  idea  of  the  state  of  things  in  the  Banda. 


134       MONTEVIDEANS — NATIVES    AND    FOREIGNERS. 

The  mixed  population,  Spanish  and  Portuguese,  Brazilian  and 
Italian,  French  and  English,  with  a  dash  of  Yankee  in 
political  matters,  retains  all  the  vices  and  few  of  the  virtues 
that  characterized  its  ancestors.  Here  nobody  expects 
justice — nobody  has  any  confidence  in  the  honour  of  the 
Government,  or  in  the  honesty  of  the  individual.  The 
miserable  administration  of  justice  in  the  outstations  secures 
impunity  to  the  murderer,  and  executions,  frightfully  common 
in  revenge  for  political  misdemeanours,  are  unknown  when 
the  offence  is  taking  life.  The  ridiculous  authorities  object 
strongly  to  any  measure  of  self-defence.  No  one  forgets 
the  case  of  Mr.  Flowers,  who,  to  save  himself,  shot  a  ruffian 
and  thereby  secured  nine  months  of  public  gaol.  I  saw 
the  wife  of  an  English  colonist,  who,  being  remarkably 
handsome,  requires  as  much  protection  as  a  twenty-carat 
diamond.  Sundry  Gauchos  have  sworn  to  carry  her  off 
a  Vlrlandaise,  and  if  they  can  they  will. 

Nor  do  foreigners,  especially  Englishmen  of  the  better 
class,  thrive  physically  or  morally,  in  the  present  state 
of  society.  They  come  out  full  of  life  and  energy,  ready 
to  work  hard,  fond  of  riding,  travelling,  and  field  sports. 
By  degrees  they  drop  all  energy ;  they  cease  to  take  exer- 
cise ;  they  cling  to  hut  and  hammock — more  poetically, 
^^  pensile  bed  f  then  they  give  up  reading  anything  but 
newspapers,  and  presently  even  these.  Letters  are  far  too 
much  for  them,  and  they  can  do  nothing  but  drink,  smoke, 
and  eat.  I  purposely  put  the  first  before  the  last,  where- 
with adieu. 


LETTEE  IV. 

TO    THE    COLONIA    AND    BUENOS    AIRES. 

Buenos  Aires,  August  15,  1868. 
My  dear  Z , 

Happily  for  me  a  passenger  steamer  had  been 
told  off  to  run  between  Monte  Video  and  Humaita — you 
"will  remember  a  word  so  frequently  repeated  till  it 
nauseated  us.  The  ship  was  the  Yi  (pronounce  Ji^  so- 
called  after  an  influent  of  the  Rio  Negro),  1300  tons,  said  to 
average  ten  to  twelve  knots  an  hour,  and  costing  30,000/., 
here  a  marvel,  but  in  the  United  States  some  ten  years 
behind  the  age.  Built  like  her  consort  the  America,  by 
Messrs.  M'^Kay  and  Alders,  of  Boston,  E.U.,  she  is — rather 
she  was — the  usual  two,  or  properly  three-storied  floating 
hotel,  with  the  normal  walking- beam  engine.  Poor  Yi  !  the 
last  time  I  saw  her  the  walking-beam  barely  projected 
above  the  muddy  brown  river  off  Buenos  Aires.  She  was 
burnt  for  over-success  to  the  water^s  edge,  and  the  suspected 
foul  play  might  have  been  brought  home,  but  was  not. 

I  paid  $70  (say  14/.)  for  the  "  go''  to  Humaita,  $120 
being  the  price  of  the  "  go  and  come'' — heavy  price,  but 
cheap.  We  embarked  on  Saturday,  August  15,  at  nightfall, 
and  were  received  by  Mr.  Crawford,  New  Englander  and 
engineer.  I  say  ''  we,"  my  fellow  passenger  was  D.  Carlos 
M'Kinnon,  F.R.G.S.,  an  old  resident  on  the  river,  full  of 
information,  and  right  ready  to  "  rip  himself  up."  There 
was  confusion  on  board ;  the  cook  had  bolted  in  fear  of 
enlistment ;  the  steward  had  also  fled,  having  locked  up  the 
pantry ;  in  fact,  the  party  of  pleasure  began,  as  usual,  pam- 


136  TO    THE    COLONIA    AND    BUENOS    AIRES. 

fully.  On  board  also  came  Mr.  William  C.  Maxwell^  in 
whose  pleasant  society  I  was  fated  afterwards  to  see  the 
glories  of  the  Andes_,  the  Pacific  Coast,  and  Magellan. 
Finally,  we  carried  with  us  the  three  political  creeds,  and 
especially  a  party  of  Blancos  hastening  to  gloat  over  the 
messes  of  their  rival  Colorados.  Amongst  these  gentlemen 
were  some  whose  professions  were  to  be  millionaires,  and 
whatever  one  of  them  told  me  for  my  "  carnet,"''  to  that 
another  whispered  the  flattest  contradiction — audi  alteram 
partem  therefore  became  a  necessity. 

We  were  fortunate  in  travelling  by  day,  so  as  to  see  what 
is  to  be  seen ;  usually  the  Holyhead-Kingston  trip  of  150 
miles  is  done  by  night.  My  business,  I  repeat,  is  now 
rather  with  men  and  manners,  with  events  and  politics,  than 
with  geography  or  topography ;  yet,  without  a  sketch  of 
the  route,  you  will  barely  be  able  to  follow  me. 

The  confusion  of  starting  over,  we  cast  a  friendly  look 
upon  the  dwindling  scene — those  big  Montevidean  ware- 
houses yellow  and  stone-tinted,  the  tall  Concordia  hospital 
near  the  San  Jose  Point,  the  forest  of  masts  crowding  the 
punchbowl  bay,  the  houses  a  mixture  of  Spanish  and  Por- 
tuguese with  a  dash  of  Italian,  and  the  bleached  spars  of 
wrecks  protruding  lightless  from  the  silty  wave.  As  we 
turn  the  Punta  del  Rodeo,  slow  sinks  into  the  ''  Sweet  Sea'' 
the  Guardsd  Mount,  here  the  Grand  Vision,  and  our  glances 
dwell  lovingly  upon  the  little  crooked  cone,  the  last  that 
we  shall  see  for  nearly  a  thousand  miles. 

The  Yi,  being  new  and  badly  loaded,  makes  a  kind  of 
circular  progress,  and  we  have  little  to  prospect  save  the 
river :  that,  however,  is  suggestive  enough.  The  northern 
steeple  of  the  great  gate  is  the  Cape  St.  Mary,  which  we 
passed  in  the  Arm,  and  the  southern  is  Cape  St.  Anthony, 
a  triiie  of  155  miles  to  the  south-west,  thus  making  the 
embouchure  one   of  the  broadest  in  the  world.      Some  swell 


TO    THE    COLONIA   AND    BUENOS    AIRES.  137 

the  size  to  170  miles,  and  travellers  dispute  whether  it  be 
sea  or  river.  Equally  respectable  is  its  length,  2150  miles, 
3368  being  the  stature  of  the  Amazons  ;  and  some  day  both 
will  be  connected  by  canals  with  the  mouth  of  the  Orinoco. 
What  we  enter  now  is  the  first  of  four  distinct  sections — 
namely,  the  Grand  Estuary,  between  the  true  mouth  whose 
lips  are  Monte  Video  and  the  Punto  de  las  Piedas  (seventy- 
flve  miles),  and  Buenos  Aires,  distant  only  thirty  miles  to 
La  Colonia.  In  succession  we  shall  ascend  the  Minor  Estuary, 
the  Riverine  Delta,  and  lastly,  the  River  Proper. 

The  Guarani  name  dating  from  prehistoric  ages  was 
Parana,  or  sea-like.*  You  must  pronounce  this  word 
'^  Parana,^^  and  not  with  Southey, 

"  Thou  too,  Parana,  thy  sad  witness  bear." 

Par  parenthese  it  is  curious  that  that  walking  encyclopaedia 
never  took  the  trouble  to  learn  the  pronunciation  of  words 
which  he  wrote  and  pronounced  a  hundred  times.  For  in- 
stance, for  "  Guarani^'  we   read   in  the   tale  of   Quiara  and 

Monnema — 

"  A  feeble  native  of  Guarani  race," 

which  is  hideous. 

D.  Juan  Diaz  de  Solis,  the  discoverer  of  the  Parana  in 
1515,  ti'uly  and  picturesquely  called  it  "Mar  Dulce;''"'  after 
his  murder  it  became  Rio  de  Solis.  The  magnificent 
misnomer  Rio  de  la  Plata,  where  no  such  metal  exists,  was 
given  they  say  by  Cabot,  who  higher  up  stream  found  silver 
ornaments  worn  by  the  savages.  Of  course  the  term  is 
disputed.  M.  C.  Beck  Bernard  opines  that  it  was  so  called 
by  the  crew  of  De  Solis,  who  saw  spangles  of  mica  floating 


*  Para,  the  sea,  and  na,  for  ana,  comparative  affix,  "like."  Some 
wrongly  translate  it  "powerful  as  the  sea;"  and  others  '*  Paraanaraa, 
pariente  del  mar,"  Para  is  one  of  those  general  Guarani  words  that 
extend  throughout  the  eastern  moiety  of  the  Columbian  continent. 


138  TO   THE    COLONIA   AND    BUENOS    AIRES. 

on  the  waters;  perhaps  he  means  the  crystals  of  selenitethat 
are  washed  out  from  the  clay  banks  of  the  river  Paraguay. 

To-day,  rarely  enough,  the  distant  hue  of  this  grand  re- 
servoir of  a  thousand  streams  looks  tenderly  blue,  somewhat 
like  the  Mediterranean  in  cloudy  weather.  The  colour  is 
generally  that  of  grey  mud,  and  our  paddles  churn  up 
yellow  and  thick  brown  water,  which  reminds  us  of  the 
Brazilian  streams.  Full  of  vegetable  matter,  it  never  strains 
clear  and  colourless;  some  say  it  is  good  to  drink,  others, 
myself  included,  that  it  causes  trouble.  On  board  we 
drink  the  produce  of  Monte  Video  tapped  by  Norton^s 
American  system  of  tube-pumps,  published  to  the 
world  by  the  Abyssinian  campaign.  Here  men  are  not 
slow  to  import  improvements ;  the  invention  was  at  once 
tried,  it  succeeded  in  the  Banda  Oriental,  but  it  failed  in 
the  province  of  Buenos  Aires — where  blessed  with  all  the 
gifts  of  Plutus  shall  be  the  wight  that  invents  water. 

The  proportion  of  silt  in  the  estuary  has  never  been  ac- 
curately measured,  but  the  element  we  can  see  is  heavily 
charged.  We  may,  then,  assume  the  discharge  of  the 
Indus,  whose  proportions  vary  from  17  to  43-60  per  cent, 
in  time  of  flood.  The  average  would  be  217,250,000  of 
cubic  feet  per  annum,  or  seventy  square  miles  of  surface 
one  foot  thick.  The  stream  is  felt  at  an  offing  of  ninety 
miles,  but  its  great  specific  gravity  prevents  the  Plate  from 
being  a  tidal  river.  In  Maldonado  Bay  the  water  is  so  fresh 
that  it  makes  a  difi'erence  of  three  inches  in  a  ship^s 
draught.  Off  Monte  Video  there  is  said  to  be  an  under- 
current of  salt  water,  as  at  Gibraltar  Gut  and  Bab  el 
Mandab ;  the  limit  of  the  ebb  and  flow  is  laid  down  at  the 
mouth  of  the  little  Sta.  Lucia  Biver,  some  nine  to  ten 
miles  to  westward  of  the  city.  Like  the  Mediterranean 
and  the  Caspian,  it  is  subject  to  wind  tides  ;  thus  also  the 
Suez    Gulf  being   depressed   by   northerly   winds   for  nine 


TO    THE    eOLONIA   AND    BUENOS    AIRES.  139 

months^  whilst  during  the  rest  of  the  year  southerly  gales 
raise  it  to  three  and  sometimes  to  five  feet_,  caused  the  world 
since  1798  to  believe  that  the  Red  Sea  is  32^  feet  above 
the  Mediterranean.  Here  we  shall  find  the  same  phe- 
nomenon regularly  repeated.  The  Plate  heaped  up  by 
eastern  and  south-eastern  winds,  gains  even  when  not 
at  flood  an  elevation  of  four  to  eight  feet :  the  western 
and  northern  gales  depress  it  by  driving  the  current. 
When  the  Pampero,  that  Euroclydon  of  the  Austral  hemi- 
sphere, ceases  to  course  over  the  Pampas,  the  accumulated 
discharge  rushes  out  like  a  sluice,  especially  round  the  Point 
S.  Jose.  And  everywhere  on  the  Lower  Plate  the  weather, 
like  the  water,  depends  not  upon  seasons,  but  upon  the  force 
and  direction  of  the  wind. 

Thus  much  "  de  Argenteo  flumine  quod  vulgo  Rio  de  la 
Plata  nuncupatur.^^  Wars,  it  has  been  said,  teach  the  na- 
tions their  geography.  Lord  Palmerston,  when  reproached 
about  the  Affghan  afi'air,  told  the  House  of  Commons 
that  it  had  introduced  to  public  knowledge  Central  Asia. 
"  Admiralty  seamanship,^''  it  is  true,  still  telegrams  to  iron- 
clads that  they  must  run  for  refuge  into  Dover  Harbour, 
whose  poor  ten  feet  of  water  are  fit  only  for  the  fishing- 
smack.  But  we,  the  instructed  public,  no  longer  recognise 
the  old  facetiae  of  a  fleet  being  sent  up  to  Frankfort  on  the 
Maine,  or  of  a  frigate  being  moored,  as  Sir  Charles  Napier 
was  reproved  for  not  doing,  off  Sindian  Hyderabad,  in  the 
Indus  five  feet  deep. 

And  the  British  Admiral — who  shall  teach  him  ?  What 
shall  modify  his  omniscient  ignorance  ?  The  last  specimen 
(let  us  hope)  of  the  '^  Commodore  Trunnions,"  a  fossilized 
remnant  of  the  days  of  grog  and  double  damns,  one  who 
heartily  hates  the  civilian,  and  who  thinks  the  blue  blood 
of  Europe  to  run  through  veins  descended  from  a  Scotch 
cattle-lifter,  hearing  that   one  of  his  squadron  had  lost  an 


140  TO    THE    COLONIA    AND    BUENOS    AIRES. 

anchor  some  500  miles  up  the  Parana  head-waters  of  the 
Plate^  sent  solemn  peremptory  orders  to  steam^  with  slack 
cable,  round  the  missing  mud-hook,  "  water  and  tide  serv- 
ing.'* Impossible  !  you  will  exclaim.  Yet  it  is  textually 
true,  although  methinks  I  hear  Rear-Admiral  Jock  Trun- 
nion exclaiming,  as  he  often  has  exclaimed  upon  his  quarter- 
deck, that  it  is  a  "  dom'  lee." 

Midway  we  pass  the  huge  Ortiz  Bank,  which  occupies 
more  than  half  the  river's  breadth,  and  which  is  separated 
from  the  northern  shore  by  a  string  of  deep  pools.  In  the 
excellent  map  of  Captain  Mouchez',  it  projects  an  angle  to 
the  south-east ;  the  Hydrographical  survey  makes  it  a  long 
oval  disposed  north-west  to  south-east.  The  formation  is 
sand  upon  ''  tosca,''  in  Spanish  a  generic  term  meaning  any 
imperfect  stone.  Here  it  is  a  rotten  friable  sandstone,  with 
nodules  of  hardened  and  compacted  clay.  Sometimes  it  is 
applied  to  these  nodules  only ;  at  others  it  is  a  layer  of  tufa, 
or  sand  mixed  with  comminuted  shells,  and  effervescing 
kindly  under  acids.  The  latter  is  useful  as  a  compost  to 
correct  the  huraic  and  ulmic  "  sourness''  of  a  virgin  soil  in 
a  subtropical  climate.  Presently  we  shall  see  the  "  Piano 
toscoso"  below  the  Meseta  or  table-land  upon  which  the 
city  of  Buenos  Aires  is  built. 

As  the  even  shadow  lengthens,  a  small  white  patch  on  a 
promontory  pushing  out  to  starboard  proves  to  be  the  Nova 
Colonia  do  Sacramento,  where  the  Major  Estuary  ends,  and 
whence  the  Minor  section  stretches  to  the  mouths  of  the 
rivers  Parana  and  Uruguay.  When  mirage  upraises  it, 
and  Fata  Morgana  upturns  it,  Colonia  is  visible  from  Buenos 
Aires ;  but  the  big  port  must  look  out  for  squalls. 

A  strange,  eventful  history  has  that  tiny  white  sheet, 
again  and  again  stained  with  streams  of  man's  life  blood, 
tepid  and  impure.  The  "  endless  question"  of  the  Colonia 
was  pretty  familiar  to  Englishmen  between  the  days  of 
Swift   and   Southey ;  now   it  is    utterly   forgotten.     Very 


TO    THE    rOLONIA    AND    BUENOS   AIRES.  141 

valuable  too  was  the  now  pauper  village  in  times  when  Spain 
limited  her  three  vast  inland  viceroyalties  to  three  ships  per 
annum,  and  when  Portugal  and  England — such  then  was 
the  precedence — did  all  the  contraband  trade  of  half  a  New 
World.  Even  in  1729  the  port  of  S.  Gabriel  Island  sheltered 
a  score  of  English,  Portuguese,  and  French  interlopers. 

Muratori  ("A  Relation  of  the  Missions  of  Paraguay,'' 
now  done  into  English  from  the  French  translation.  Lon- 
don :  1759.  8vo,  pp.  166—7)  tells  in  quaint  language 
how  the  Portuguese,  under  D.  Emanuel  de  Lobos, 
seized  (1679)  the  port  where  Colonia  afterwards  arose,  and 
building  a  fort,  duped  D.  Joseph  de  Barro  (Jose  de  Barros) 
Governor  of  Buenos  Aires.  The  latter  receiving  orders  to 
dislodge  the  enemy,  summoned  from  the  Reductions,  600 
miles  distant,  the  Corregidores  of  Indians,  and  the  latter  in 
eleven  days  mustered  3300  men,  4000  horses,  4000  mules, 
and  200  oxen  for  dragging  the  guns.  The  Spanish  General 
D.  Jose  de  Vera,  with  300  regulars,  invested  the  land  side, 
and  proposed  when  the  enemy  showed  fight  to  trample 
them  under  foot  by  a  stampede  of  riderless  horses :  the 
farcical  project  was  deprecated  probably  by  some  savage 
with  common  sense,  possibly  by  some  one  who  remembered 
the  Carthaginians  and  their  elephants.  The  walls,  however, 
were  scaled,  and  the  place  was  captured  by  dint  of  num- 
bers, the  Spaniards  losing  only  six  men  and  thirty  Indians. 
Lobos  was  made  prisoner,  and  200  of  the  Mamelukes  were 
slain  by  the  Redskins,  who  did  not  understand  prayers 
for  quarter.  D.  Emilio  Galban  (Galvao),  the  Portuguese 
Commander,  fell,  and  men  "  saw  with  wonder  and  surprise 
his  lady  fighting  sword  in  hand  by  his  side  -."  she  also  re- 
fused to  surrender,  and  was  duly  killed. 

This  only  began  the  history  of  Colonia.  In  1681  it 
again  hoisted  the  Quinas,  and  it  was  evacuated  in  1705.  Again 
it  was  secured  to  Portugal  by  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht  (March 
26,    1713),   the    same    which    gave   peace   to   Europe,  and 


142  TO    THE    COLONIA   AND    BUENOS    AIRES. 

to  England  the  Asiento  or  slave  importing  contract, 
and  thus  built  Liverpool  and  Bristol.  In  1720  the  Governor 
and  Captain-General  of  Buenos  Aires^  D.  Bruno  Mauricio 
de  Zabala,  was  ordered  by  his  crown  to  keep  the  Portuguese 
within  certain  limits,  which  were  exceedingly  uncertain.  His 
successor  Salcedo  also  threw  himself  heart  and  soul  into  the 
cause;  and  the  result  was  the  stubborn  investment  of  1736.  It 
was  ceded  to  Spain  by  the  Treaty  of  Limits  (January  13, 
1750),  a  convention  so  upright  as  to  be  an  era  in  the  annals 
of  diplomacy,  and  to  cause  an  uncontemplated  amount  of 
misery.  The  melancholy  result,  the  Guaranitic  or  Jesuit 
war,  is  admirably  described  in  the  Brazilian  epic  poem  par 
excellence,  "O  Uruguay"  of  Jose  Basilio  da  Gama.  To  the 
great  joy  of  the  Portuguese  the  treaty  was  annulled  by  Charles 
III.  in  1761,  enabling  them  to  keep  "The  Colony.''  Then 
came  the  desperate  siege  (Oct.  30,  1762)  by  the  Viceroy 
Lieut.- General  D.  Pedro  de  Zeballos,  when  the  Portuguese 
squadron  was  destroyed  despite  the  efforts  of  Captain 
Macnamara,  of  the  Lord  Clive,  and  of  Penrose  the  poet, 
who  went  forth,  not 

*'  To  sail  triumphant  o'er  La  Plata's  tide." 
The  capitulation  of  the  place,  and  the  razing  of  the  fortifi- 
cations, caused  the  death  of  the  purest  and  the  most  pa- 
triotic of  Portugal's  many  patriots.  Gomes  Freyre  de 
Andrade,  first  Viceroy  of  Bio  de  Janeiro.  The  hero, 
however,  broke  his  heart  prematurely,  for  the  new  colony 
was  in  1763  restored,  by  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  to  Portugal. 
She  yielded  it  up  by  the  Second  Treaty  of  Limits  (S. 
Ildefonso,  1777),  and  she  then  finally  retired  from  the 
Banda  Oriental. 

The  "endless  question"  of  La  Colonia  stiU  has  significance. 
Like  the  present  war  it  was  a  chronic  struggle  between  the 
two  great  branches  of  the  Ibero- American  family.  With 
your  permission,  therefore,  I     will   throw    overboard    the 


TO    THE    COLONIA   AND    BUENOS    AIRES.  143 

chronology  of  my  journey^  and  will  here  introduce  a  short 
description  of  the  most  modern  Colonia,  which  I  visited  later, 
in  1868. 

The  Department  of  La  Colonia,  rich  in  pastoral  English- 
men, has  generally  a  steamer  from  Buenos  Aires,  which  makes 
her  passage  in  three  to  four  hours.  I  went  in  the  Beauly^ 
a  little  red  and  black  yacht-built  thing,  commanded  by  a 
rough  and  ready  German.  The  Colony,  like  Monte  Video,  oc- 
cupies a  long  narrow-necked  land-tongue,  with  a  fine  slope 
for  drainage,  and  forming  the  port  which  is  emphatically 
not,  as  Southey  states,  a  ''  very  commodious  harbour .'' 
The  point,  composed  mostly  of  gneiss,  trends  from  north- 
east to  south-west,  and  therefore  the  roads,  for  such  they 
are,  lie  open  to  the  Pampero,  that  intolerably  heaps  up  the 
sand.  Westward  of  the  point  is  a  scatter  of  islets  :  the  old 
Hydrographic  chart^  names  them,beginning  from  the  south- 
west, I.  Farallon,  S.  Gabriel,  del  Inglez,  and  de  Hornos. 
The  native  pilots  divide  del  Inglez  into  two — viz.,  "  Lopez 
East  '^  and  '^  Lopez  West,^''  with  its  outliers.  They  also  assign 
three  islets  to  the  group  of  Hornos,  the  smallest  of  the 
little  Archipelago,  lying  opposite  the  Arroyo  de  S.  Pedro. 
Here,  in  some  twenty-one  feet  of  water,  1  saw  a  single 
hulk :  it  lay  north  of  S.  Gabriel,  the  largest  feature,  where 
Salcedo  mounted  his  batteries ;  here  also  a  ship  was  wrecked 
carrying  a  certain  missionary — 

**  And  Dobrizhoffer  was  the  good  man's  honoured  name." 
We  land  at  the  little  mole,  leaving  to  the  right  a  dwarf 
dock  and  a  slip  for  schooner  building.  Our  destination  is 
the  Hotel  Oriental,  the  best,  but  bad  and  therefore  dear, 
with  prices  rivalling  Paris  and  New  York.  The  houses, 
whitewashed   against   cholera,  and   rising   abrupt  from  the 


*  The  names  are  correctly  given  by  the  new  Hydrographic  Office  map, 
by  C.  H.  Dillon,  Master  R.N.,  1847,  with  additions  by  Lieut.  Sidney, 
1856. 


144  TO    THE    COLON  I  A.   AND    BUENOS    AIRES. 

unpaved  thorouglifare,  are  better  than  you  would  expect ; 
the  material  is  quarried  from  the  old  fortifications,  which 
in  their  day  cost  $10_,000  to  level.  The  church,  with  the 
white  belfries  and  burnt  roof,  is  a  conspicuous  object,  and 
the  old  lines  of  defence  are  still  in  places  visible. 

The  Colony  was  once  walled  on  all  sides  except  the 
north  :  it  mounted  eighty  pieces  of  artillery,  and  was  gar- 
risoned by  935  men.  Beyond  the  south-eastern  end  of  the 
Plaza  are  the  remains  of  two  bastions,  one  for  a  single  gun, 
the  other  for  three  bouches  a  feu :  near  them  the  tall 
pharol,  white-bodied  and  red-headed,  towers  over  the  solidly 
built,  time-shattered  bulwark  wall.  Further  south  is  the 
sea  ;  dyked  in  by  lines  of  gneiss  stained  with  yellow  lichen, 
and  often  snowy  with  the  washerwoman's  work.  The  land 
approach  was  once  imperfectly  defended  by  thirty- two 
guns,  in  a  curtain  with  four  bastions,  of  which  two  were  at 
the  angles — they  are  now  supplanted  by  a  hedge  of  cactus 
and  aloes.  North-west  of  the  main  square  are  the  remains 
of  a  bastion  and  its  old  "  Aljibe,''  or  rain  cistern  :  ground 
has  waxed  valuable,  much  of  the  relic  has  been  broken  up 
for  building  materials  during  the  last  three  years,  and  in 
a  few  more  it  will  completely  disappear.  It  was  in  this 
place  that  Galvao  and  his  gallant  wife  fought  to  the 
death. 

Even  during  the  present  century  there  have  been  troubles 
at  the  Colonia,  and  there  will  be  more — men  wish  that  they 
had  a  gold  ounce  for  every  throat  that  has  been  cut  in  the 
place.  Outside  the  village  they  show  on  the  road  to  the 
muddy  river  a  cottage  and  its  Ombu  tree,  where  Moreno,  a 
pet  ruffian  of  General  Urquiza,  when  sent  to  kill  off  the 
men  seized  a  wretch,  and  by  way  of  "  renowning  it,''  cut 
out  sundry  of  his  ribs  and  made  them  into  an  Asado  or 
r^ti — a  cotelette  funeste,  as  the  French  play  says  of  Eve. 
The   sons  of   the  Colonia    are   reported    to    be    lazy   and 


TO    THE    COLONIA    AND    BUENOS    AIRES.  145 

roguish  :  you  certaiuly  here  will  hear,  in  an  hour,  more 
scurrility  and  cursing  with  ''  omne  quod  exit  in — ajo," 
than  in  a  whole  day  elsewhere. 

The  land  is  truly  Uruguayan,  and  one  of  the  most 
charming  known  to  me.  The  rolling  surface  of  green 
turf,  varied  here  and  there  with  outcrops  of  grey 
stone,  dips  in  gentle  undulations  which  become  horizontal 
as  they  near  the  soft  hazy  horizon ;  and  your  only  guides 
are  an  occasional  Estancia  house  topping  its  prim  lines  of 
artificial  "  moute,^'  or  a  thick-headed,  gouty-footed  Ombu, 
under  which  the  cattle  find  rest  and  shade.  Nothing  can 
be  more  amene  or  gracious  than  this  modified  Pampa  form 
in  fine  weather.  Our  modern  poets  have  been  charged 
with  too  exclusive  a  homage  of  colour.  We  travellers  must 
bow  even  more  lowly  to  the  great  diflPerentiator  between 
beauty  and  deformity. 

There  is,  however,  with  all  its  loveliness,  a  serious  dis- 
advantage in  living  along  this  coast  of  the  wee  Republic. 
It  is  the  flooding  of  the  streams  which  rise  at  the  least 
pretext,  and  which  may  keep  you  and  your  friends  prisoners 
for  a  week,  unless  you  prefer  risking  life  by  spurring  your 
horse  into  the  broad  muddy  torrents.  The  visitor  who 
wishes  thoroughly  to  enjoy  the  country  about  the  Colonia 
has  only  to  secure  a  letter  of  introduction  for  my  most 
hospitable  and  agreeable  host,  Mr.  William  White,  of  Es- 
tanzuela.  He  will  then  see  a  most  civilized  style  of  shooting 
out  of  a  four-in-hand  waggonette,  with  a  boy  or  two  by 
way  of  retriever  to  bag  the  lesser  partridge  and  the  Cholo- 
plover.  I  wonder  if  my  friend  remembers  how  we  sat  in 
committee  over  the  nettlestalk  salad,  and  the  salmi  of 
prairie  owls,  which  we  pronounced  to  be  well  cooked  and 
thoroughly  detestable  ?  . 

Nearly  opposite  the  Colonia  is  "  Quilmes  '^  of  the  Red- 
skins, driven  down   in  1618  from    the  valleys  of   Santiago 

10 


146  TO    THE    COLONIA    AND    BUENOS    AIRES. 

del  Estero.  Its  two  steeples  of  warm  colour  stand  out  from 
a  goodly  company  of  white  houses  and  green  trees.  Distant 
three  leagues  south  of  the  capital,  it  will,  when  the  railroad 
reaches  it,  become  a  charming  place  for  villeggiatura.  The 
site  is  good,  being  the  raised  bank  of  the  riverine  valley, 
whose  main  drain  is  the  Riachuelo  or  rivulet.  Do  not  write 
with  old  travellers  R.  or  Rio  Chuelo,  a  funny  form,  re- 
appearing even  in  modern  maps ;  nor  translate  as  does  the 
gallant  Sir  Home  Popham,  ''  River  Chuelo/"^ 

Looms  ahead  a  forest  of  masts,  with  here  and  there  a 
spread  sail  inland,  overshadowing  the  scrubby  vegetation  of 
greyish  metallic  green.  Then  we  sight  the  white  houses  of 
the  Boca  (de  Riachuelo,)  the  mouth  of  the  said  rivulet.  This 
is  a  dredge-demanding  Styx,  some  160  feet  wide,  a  sluggish 
drain  of  black  mud,  that  often  runs  red  with  the  produce  of 
a  dozen  Saladeros.  The  air  is  then  heavy  with  meat,  tainted 
as  well  as  fresh;  you  turn  pale,  you  feel  at  sea,  you  call 
for  a  ^^  uip,''"'  and  all  around  you  declare  the  atmosphere  to 
be  exceptionally  health-breeding.  Perhaps  on  the  same 
principle  Frenchmen  used  to  take,  and  perhaps  still  take, 
their  baths  in  an  abattoir.  The  salting-houses  are  not 
salting  now.  December,  when  the  animals  are  fat  from 
grass,  will  open  the  season.  The  Boca  is  a  hard-working 
suburb  of  Italians,  occupying  themselves,  as  we  see,  with 
stores  and  shipbuilding.  Piles  of  North  American  pine 
line  the  quays.  The  native  growths,  especially  the  Quebracho 
(or  Quebrahacho,  the  axe-breaker),  and  the  Urunday  Mimosa, 
whose  short  and  crooked,  but  exceedingly  hard  gnarlings 
fit  them  for  wheel-tires  and  boat-knees,  are  not  so  common 
but  more  valuable.  Around  the  Boca  is  a  swampy  flat 
where  the  lumber-houses  must  perch  high  upon  piers  and 
stilts ;  a  few  of  yesterday^s  build  are  of  brick,  but  the  walls 
sag  and  split.  The  Boca  is  connected  with  Buenos  Aires 
by  a  branch  railway  in  the  good  old  style,  chair  and  sleepers. 


TO    THE    COLON lA   AND    BUENOS    AIRES.  147 

here  perhaps  the  best.  Its  rails  are  looted  Paraguayan, 
found  in  the  Custom-house,  and  duly  confiscated. 

Inland  of  the  Boca  is  Las  Barracas,  the  "  stores  "  (for 
goods-housing),  northern  and  southern ;  a  settlement  about 
double  the  size  of  its  neighbour;  and  a  congeries  of  sheds 
and  courts,  commanded  by  rf  two-steepled  church.  Thi.» 
dead  flat,  a  prolongation  of  the  estuary  bay  is  the  spou 
where  "  Que  buenos  Ayres  se  respiran  en  esta  tierra  V 
exclaimed  stout  Captain  Sancho  Garcia,  and  where  D.  Pedro 
de  Mendoza,  the  Grandee,laid  the  foundation-stone  of  nuestra 
Senora  de  Buenos  Aires.  The  date,  (February  2,  1535), 
was  only  three  years  after  the  establishment  of  San  Vicente^ 
the  Portuguese  proto-colony  in  the  Brazil,  and  two  years  and 
a  half  before  the  building  of  Paraguayan  Asuncion  (August 
15,  1537).  The  once  charming  stream  is  now  foul  with 
mud  and  offal,  and  there  is  a  dreadful  perfume  of  tallow 
and  liquid  meat,  mixed  with  the  essence  of  calcined  bones. 
The  population  is  evidently  Basque,  and  iron  wirings  are 
required,  as  in  Egypt,  to  keep  out  the  flies,  which  haunt 
the  streets  by  myriads.  There  is  trade  in  Las  Barracas, 
we  see  an  inn  with  a  Russian  inscription,  and  the  beggars 
do  not,  as  in  the  city,  confine  themselves  to  Saturdays. 
Here  the  Saladero  may  be  studied  to  advantage  by  the 
amateur  butcher,  and  described  by  those  who  would  add 
another  description  to  the  scores  published.  I  will  only 
say  that  the  salting-houses  at  Buenos  Aires  will  presently 
run  short  of  work  if  they  continue  slaughtering  390,000 
head  of  cattle,  as  happened  between  October  1,  1868,  and 
April  1.  1869. 

And  here,  for  your  benefit,  I  shall  shortly  dispose  of  the 
normal  stock  subjects  in  Argentine-land  :  "  Let  all  such 
history/^  says  the  old  Styrian,  "be  consigned  to  the  spice 
shop  to  wrap  paper,  yea,  to  a  meaner  office.^^  Such  is  the 
Gaucho,  who   has   been  hopelessly  vulgarized   by  the   last 

10—3 


148  TO    THE    COLONIA    AND    BUENOS    AIRES. 

Great  Exhibition.  Such  are  the  fierce  dogs,  the  breaking 
of  horses  and  mules,  the  poncho,  the  cart  being  placed 
before  the  horse,  the  '' terrible  dust  storm,''  the  Pordiosero 
or  beggar  on  horseback,  the  big  aerolite,  and  the  Quemazon 
or  prairie  fire.  Of  such  themes  it  is  easy  to  say  what  others 
have  said,  but  it  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  say  something 
more,  something  new.  Of  the  bolas,  the  "  bowls"  of  old 
English  travellers,  I  have  only  to  tell  you  that  it  was  an 
improvement  upon  the  simple  sling  of  the  natives,  a  stone 
tied  to  a  cord.  The  Recado,  pronounced  Reca'o  (not  Ricow), 
is  the  country  saddle,  the  bed  on  horseback  borrowed  from 
Asia.  The  lasso  (lazo,  in  Portuguese  la90,  a  slip-knot)  was 
originally  used  in  Italy  to  catch  wild  cattle.  A  good  man 
is  sure  of  his  cast  with  twenty  to  thirty  yards  of  open 
ground  before  him ;  in  underwood  he  must  approach  within 
twenty  to  thirty  feet.  If  a  noose  be  thrown  at  you,  lie 
down  before  it  reaches  the  mark,  with  legs  and  arms  flat  on 
the  ground,  so  that  the  rope  may  find  no  purchase.  Do  not 
trust  a  knife,  except  the  sharpest,  to  cut  the  lasso,  and 
remember  that  anything  is  better  than  being  bumped  to 
death  behind  a  galloping  horse.  Do  not  pronounce  the 
written  Mate  "Mate,''  but  "Mate,"  nor  confound  Mate, 
the  tea-gourd  in  the  Incan  or  Quichua  tongue,  with  Yerba 
or  Yerba  Mate,  the  Paraguayan  tea,  which  will  some  day 
reach  England.  And  if  you  would  know  the  last  news  con- 
cerning the  "Caa,"  consult  Mr.  John  Miers,  F.R.S.,  &c.,  "On 
the  different  species  of  ilex  employed  in  the  preparation  of 
the  '  Yerba  de  Mate'  or  Paraguay  tea"  ("  The  Technologist," 
vol.  iv.  1864). 

Before  landing,  I  may  warn  you  that  much  has  been 
written  about  Monte  Video  and  the  adjoining  Republics. 
The  "  South  American  Pilot"  tells  all  it  knows  about  the 
river.  The  new  handbook  has  already  been  quoted.  By 
far  the  best  account  of  the   small  Republic — her  sons  are 


TO    THE    COLONIA    AND    BUENOS    AIRES.  149 

called  by  the  Brazilians"  Republiquitas^' — is  the  "Descripciou 
Geographica  del  Territorio  Oriental  del  Uruguay,  &c.  Por 
el  General  de  Ingenieros  D.  Jose  Maria  Reyes^^  (2  vols.  8vo 
Monte  Video.  1859).  This  sound  geographical  work,  re 
duced  to  a  single  volume,  deserves  translation  into  English 
Of  the  older  authors  you  have  Alderic  Schmidel  (1 534)  , 
Ruy  Diaz  de  Guzman ;  Centinera ;  Fernandez ;  Herrera  : 
Techo ;  Mr.  R.  M.;^  Charlevoix  ;  Muratori ;  Aguirre  (1788)  . 
Lozano ;  Guevara;  Helms  ;t  Azara ;  and  the  Jesuit  F 
Thomas  Faulkner.  In  the  present  century  are  Davie  ;J 
Wilcocke  ;§  Dean  Funes  ;  Pedro  de  Angelis;  the  Brothers 
Robertson  (two  sets) ;  Sir  Francis  Head  ;  Colonel  Arenales 
(1833) ;  Rengger  and  Longchamps  (1835) ;  Charles  Empson 
(1836)  ;  Parish ;  Darwin ;  D'Orbigny  (1845)  ;  Castelnau 
(1850)  ;  Weddell  (1851)  ;  Mansfield  (1852)  ;  President 
Sarmiento  (1853) ;  Captain  Page ;  Arsene  Isabelle ;  Amedee 
Jacques; II  Demersay  (1860-64);  HinchclifF;  Hadfield  (two 
publications) ;  Colonel  du  Graty  (1862) ;  Dr.  Martin  de 
Moussy ;  M.  Charles  Beck  Bernard  ;1[  Mr.  Consul  Hutchin- 
son; and  Mr.  Ross  Johnson.**  Those  best  known  in  England 
are  Head  and  Parish,  Page,  Mansfield,  and  Hutchinson.  I 
have  perused  all  my  list,tt  and  it  will  be  my  care  to  avoid 
vain  repetitions. 

*  *'  A  Relation  of  Mr.  R.  M.'s  Voyage  to  Buenos  Ayres."  London : 
John  Darby.     MDCCXYI. 

t  "Travels  from  Buenos  Ayres  by  Potosi  to  Lima  (1789-93)."  By 
Anthony  Z.  Helms  (Mining  Engineer).  London  :  Richard  Phillips.  1806. 

X  "  Letters  from  Paraguay."  By  J.  Constance  Davie,  Esq.  London  : 
Robinson.     1805. 

§  "  History  of  the  Viceroyalty  of  Buenos  Ayres,"  &c.  By  Samuel 
Hull  Wilcocke.     London  :  Symonds  and  Co.     1807. 

II  "  Excursions  au  Rio  Salado."  Par  Amedee  Jacques.  Paris  :  Pillet. 
1857. 

^  "  La  Republique  Argentine  "     Lausanne.     1865. 

**  "  A  Long  Vacation  in  the  Argentine  Alps."     1868, 

ft  Pamphlets  are. not  mentioned ;  of  these  each  house,  I  have  said,  seems 
to  publish  one  for  itself. 


150  TO    THE    COLONIA    AND    BUENOS    AIRES. 

Las  Barracas  has  its  curio,  an  artesian  well  which, 
despite  the  predictions  of  the  learned  Dr.  Burmeister,  suc- 
ceeded, the  water  rising  four  metres  above  the  soil,  which 
it  ought  not  to  have  done.  Another  attempt  made  in  Calle 
Piedade  of  the  city  obligingly  failed ;  the  boring  tool  had 
reached  the  granite  gneiss,  or  whatever  the  floor  rock  may 
be,  when  the  funds  gave  out.*  From  Las  Barracas,  Mr. 
William  Wheelwright,  of  whom  more  presently,  is  laying 
down  rails  to  Ensenada,  the  "  Bay,^^  heir  apparent  to  Buenos 
Aires,  and  distant  thirty-eight  miles.  The  present  line 
begins  perilously  near  the  washing,  splashing  river,  through 


*  Section  of  the  Barracas  artesian  well  (June  1,  1862),  sunk  by  MM. 
Bordeaux  and  Lyons  : — 

Metres. 

1.  Sand 4  33 

2.  Clay  (very  sandy) 8-02 

3.  Clay  (muddy) 1-05 

4.  Clay  (plastic  dark  blue) 2-90 

5.  Tosca  (with  calcareous  nodules) 2*30 

6.  Yellow  sand  fine  and  fluid,  quartz,  pebbles,  and  fluviatile 

shells 28-60 

7.  Green  clay,  more  or  less  plastic  and  calcareous,  iron  py- 

rites, sea  shells,  nodules  of  lithographic  limestone,  part 

of  glyptodon's  shell 20*30 

8.  Greensand,  shells,  and  quartz 0"80 

9.  Calcareous  shell  stratum 0'45 

10.  Calcareous  argile  ........  2*00 

11. /Shelly  grit 025 

12.  Green  clay  (sandy) 2*00 

13.  J  Shelly  grit 0-30 

14.  I  White  sandy  grit 0*70 

15.  Very  compact  sandy  clay 2*25 

16.  VCommon  grit 1*40 

17.  Green  clay,  fine  and  fluid,  shells,  and  quartz  .         .         .  2*35 

Total         .         .    80  metres. 
Section  of  the  artesian  well  in  Buenos  Aires : — 

1.  Humus. 

2.  Argillaceous  sand. 

3.  Compact  sand. 

4.  Plastic  clay. 


6.  "Tosca. 


6.  Fluid  sand. 

7.  Plastic  clay. 

8.  A  mixture  of  several  rocks. 

9.  Red  clay  to  180  metres. 


TO    THE    COLONIA    AND    BUENOS    AIRES.  151 

swampy  land,  willow-clothed  and  provided  with  seats  for 
those  aspiring  to  rheumatism.  It  will  presently  run  to  and 
from  the  Custom-house. 

The  proper  left  "  barranca^^  or  raised  river-bank  of  the 
Riachuelo  Valley,  is  twenty  feet  high,  and  forms  a  verdant 
slope  crowned  by  the  Alto  or  Southern  City.  The  roads 
which  run  down  it  must  have  metalling,  consequently  here, 
as  in  the  Brazil,  the  railway  will  be  the  first  step,  and  men 
perforce  run  before  they  walk.  Yon  large  building  is  the 
British  Hospital,  under  the  charge  of  the  amiable  and 
benevolent  Dr.  Reid.  Close  in  front  of  it  is  the  establish- 
ment of  M.  Lezica  (of  the  Commissariat),  with  steeple-like 
Belvidere  and  tall  dead  wall  surrounding  French  gardens  of 
various  trees.  Beyond  it  swells  to  a  flattened  dome  the  two 
mile  long  and  well  frilled  ridge-line  of  the  city,  which  looks 
better  in  nature  than  in  counterfeit.  The  white  belfries, 
the  clock  tower  of  the  Cabildo,  and  the  pottery-clad  cupolas 
flash  back  the  sun,  and  the  colours  are  mostly  Argentine — 
silver  and  azure.  The  site  is  evidently  the  old  "  barranca^^ 
of  the  Plate  Eiver,  which  bends  away  at  the  northern  ex- 
tremity, and  the  water-line  is  a  long  plantation  of  green 
willows,  whose  foreground  is  a  mile  and  a  half  of  white, 
brown,  and  black  Nausicaas. 

Here  we  are  in  fine  at  the  grand  commercial  centre  of 
the  Platine  basin ;  the  port  and  outpost  of  a  rapidly  de- 
veloping and  enormously  improveable  country  ;"^  it  was 
succinctly  named  the  "  very  noble  and  very  loyal  city,  the 
Puerto  de  Santa  Maria,  Ciudad  de  la  Santisima  Trinidad'' 
— this  new  town  built  by  the  gallant  de  Garay  on  the  Day 
of  the  Holy  Trinity  (June  11)  1580. 

*  According  to  M.  Thiers  the  Brazilian  trade  has  doubled  in  ten  years 
(30,000,000  iraucs  having  become  60,000,000) ;  whilst  in  twelve  years 
that  of  La  Plata  has  risen  from  4,000,000  or  5,000,000  to  40,000,000. 


LETTEE   Y. 

A    DAY    AT    BUENOS    AIRES — THE    OLD    ENGAGEMENT 
KEPT. 

Buenos  Aires,  Sunday,  August  16,  1868. 
My  dear  Z , 

We  prepare  to  land,  and  of  all  self-styled 
civilized  landing-places  this  at  the  '^^  Athens  of  South  America" 
is  perhaps  the  worst.  Vile  in  fine  weather— what  must  be  the 
abomination  when  Pampero  the  storm-blast  is  out !  The 
wind  seems  always  to  blow  inwards,  and  summer  shows  a 
worse  river  than  winter;  while  with  rare  intervals  the  air 
is  ever  wet,  damp,  and  depressing. 

From  the  "  CanaF'  or  outer  roads,  distant  four  or  five 
miles,  where  the  larger  steamers,  including  the  mails,  ride  in 
summer,  and  whence  disembarking  is  at  times  almost  im- 
possible for  a  week,  you  must,  as  a  rule,  touch  ground  at 
your  own  expense.  There  are  ^'^  Vaporcitos"^  or  little 
steamers,  the  Jacare  and  the  Baby,  which  come,  or  which 
come  not,  as  they  list.  They  are  never,  as  they  should 
be,  under  the  control  of  any  great  foreign  company.  The 
usual  landing  process  is  at  present  composed  of  three 
several  steps.  First  you  drop  with  bag  and  baggage  from 
the  ship  ladder  into  a  lighter,  or  into  one  of  the  sailing 
craft  which  —  manned  by  foreigners,  Italians,  or  worst 
of  all,  English  —  await  to  devour  you.  Here,  as  at 
Monte  Video,  the  water  is  far  too  dangerous  for  gigs  or 
wherries.  After  an  involuntary  douche  caused  by  the  least 
capful  of  wind,  you  are  transferred,  as  the  boat  grounds,  to 
a  cart  painted  blood-red,  whose  pitiful  team  of  half-drowned 


A    DAY    AT    BUENOS    AIllES.  153 

and  rheumatic  horses  sticks  and  dips,  rises  and  struggles 
painfully  along,  urged  by  the  screams  of  the  European,  who 
has  now  ousted  the  Gaucho.  The  last  transfer  is  to  the 
northernmost  of  the  two  moles,  the  shallow  water  utterly 
disqualifying  for  use  the  southern  one  fronting  the  large 
Custom-house.  Men  and  women,  loungers  and  promenaders, 
gather  in  groups  at  the  mole-head,  adding  ridicule  to  your 
difficulties  as  if  you  were  in  the  tidal  boat  entering  Boulogne. 
Lads  and  boys  playfully  wreathe  their  bodies  in,  out,  and 
through  the  timbers  of  the  main  jetty,  or  bathe  and  fish  in 
the  troubled  waters  below,  or  foully  bewray  the  dirty  steps. 
Some  thirty  or  forty  excited  changadores  (porters)  and 
peons  (labourers)  make  a  dash  at  your  baggage,  and  the 
unsuccessful  salute  the  successful  with  a  volley  of  foul  abuse. 
These  men  are  the  common  carriers  of  the  country :  it  is 
actionable  (with  the  knife)  to  call  a  decent  man  ^'  peon^^  (our 
pawn  from  the  Persian  '^  piyadaV^),  and  the  Frenchman  will, 
when  wishing  to  say  his  worst,  emphatically  declare  of  the 
hated  rival,  "  C'est  un  pe-on  \" 

After  enduring  this  savage  mobbery,  you  step  probably 
upon  an  iron  bar,  and  climb  up  broken  steps  to  landing- 
places  which  are  also  of  the  filthiest.  The  new  '^  Muelle,^"' 
built  in  1855  for  the  local  Government  by  the  late  Mr. 
Taylor,  C.E.,  is  a  wretched  affair,  some  440  yards  long,  by 
20  wide  and  7  to  8  high,  composed  of  soft  pine  timbers  dis- 
posed crosswise.  There  is  ever,  despite  the  daily  abuse  of 
the  daily  papers,  a  hole  in  the  mole,  or  rather  a  series  of 
holes,  while  a  system  of  mighty  cracks,  crannies,  and 
crevices  makes  the  whole  affair  a  man-trap — but,  until 
lately,  anything  was  "  good  enough  for  the  Plate.^'  The 
rain-welled  surface  is  slippery  as  the  clay  of  Fernando  Po 
or  the  Puy  de  Dome,  and  I  have  seen  a  man  badly  hurt 
by  it,  his  legs  coming  from  under  him  as  if  on 
ice. 


154  A  DAY  AT  BUENOS  AIRES. 

Lastly,  your  luggage  is  deposited  at  the  northernmost 
half  of  the  "  Resguardia/^  here  represented  by  two  little 
summer-houses,  kiosks,  or  China  tea-rooms,  wooden  curio- 
sities striped  blue  and  white,  queerly  attached  to  the  root 
of  the  long  projection.  The  kiosk  mania  has  migrated 
from  the  banks  of  the  Seine  to  far  Father  Plate;  at  Buenos 
Aires  you  see  them  even  in  the  main  square.  They  sell 
newspapers  and  cheap  books.  Erotic  lyrics,  and  half- naughty 
photos. ;  none  ever  knew  a  body  who  had  ever  entered  into 
one  of  them.  The  Custom-house  officers  are  very  civil, 
and  slow  in  proportion ;  "  nada  mas  que  ropa"  will 
generally  do  the  douanier.  They  open,  however,  carefully 
every  box  and  bag,  although  they  probably  consider  rum- 
maging not  the  work  of  a  "  cavalier."  For  this  "  pitch 
and  toss  treatment^^  you  pay  your  part  of  boat  $50,  landing- 
cart  $20,  and  say  four  changadores,  $90  =  $  140  (paper)  = 
1/.  3^.,  and  you  at  once  discover  that  the  sovereign  here  is 
the  crown  in  Europe. 

The  site  of  Buenos  Aires  is  commercially  bad ;  the 
^'  old  men"  could  hardly  have  looked  forward  to  the  present 
state  of  trade.  Even  for  them,  either  San  Fernando  to  the 
north  or  Ensenada  to  the  south-east  would  have  been 
better.  Strangers  explain  the  peculiar  choice  by  the  fre- 
quency and  daring  of  those  days  buccaneers,  when 
shallows,  as  we  shall  see  up-stream,  formed  defences.  Pro- 
bably the  roads  were  a  long  while  ago  deeper,  and  have 
silted  up  during  the  course  of  ages.  Yet  DobrizhoflPer  in 
1784  found  the  port  of  Buenos  Aires  shoal  water.  The 
internal  action  of  the  earth  has,  however,  certainly  caused 
a  gradual  upheaval  of  this,  the  shelf- edge  of  the  Pampas,  as 
well  as  of  the  great  Prairies  themselves.  On  the  Parana 
Kiver  we  shall  everywhere  see  successive  marks  of  former 
water-levels  many  yards  higher  than  the  highest  modern 
floods.      Others  have  made  dust,  the  incremental   material 


A    DAir    AT    BUENOS    AIRES.  155 

swept  up  like  the  silt  of  the  Nile  by  the  storm- wind  from 
the  arid  sub-Andine  wastes  to  the  south-west. 

Actual  Bueuos  Aires  will  soon  see  a  better  future  when 
its  water-front  shall  be  built  up  like  Californian  San  Fran- 
cisco or  the  levees  of  New  Orleans.  Somebody  will  find  her 
brickj  and  w  ill,  Augustus-like^  leave  her  marble.  Evidently, 
present  amelioration  is  loudly  called  for.  The  barques  and 
brigs,  brigantines  and  polaccos,  schooners  and  luggers  in 
port  now  generally  average  upwards  of  200,  and  soon  they 
will  be  500.  The  injury  to  merchandize  is  enormous ; 
therefore  every  engineer  proposes  his  nostrum,  and  naturally 
enough  the  authorities,  stunned  by  so  much  counsel,  are 
deaf  to  the  voice  of  specific.  Similarly  the  owner  of  the 
Great  Dragon  TreeatTenerifife — you  remember — over-advised 
by  the  host  of  travellers,  allowed  it  one  fine  day  to  fall. 
The  foreigner  accuses  the  native  of  being  a  dog  in  the 
manger,  which  perhaps  the  native  is;  whilst  assuredly  the 
foreigner  is  mostly  anxious  about  the  bone  purely  for  the 
boners  sake. 

The  difficulties  in  the  way  of  constructing  a  port  are 
certainly  enormous.  The  characteristic  feature  of  the 
south-eastern  or  Buenos  Airean  shore  is  deep  water  in 
lines  and  patches — the  Outer  and  Inner  Roads,  the  Pozo, 
the  Catalinas,  and  others.  These  are  broken  and  divided 
by  long  narrow  banks  and  shallows,  incipient  islands, 
whose  length  is  of  course  disposed  down  stream.  From  the 
mouth  of  the  Corpus  Christi,  also  called  the  Lujan  River — 
the  nearest  stream  independent  of  the  Parana  delta — a 
fringing  shelf  of  mud  and  soft  stone,  the  '^  Residencia  bank," 
so  called  from  an  old  Hospital,  subtends  the  land.  The 
^^tosca,"  in  places  twenty  feet  thick  and  thinning  off  to 
three,  is  a  whitish-yellow  skin,  an  upright  and  raised  crust 
standing  out  from  the  mud,  like  tables  of  lava.  In  places  it 
is  hard,  in  others  it   is  so   soft  that   the  boring-iron   slips 


156  A    DAY    AT    BUEiNOS    AIRES. 

through  it.  Where  the  bank,  cut  away  by  currents,  narrows 
to  a  mere  strip,  are  the  "  Balizas"  or  inner  roads,  safe  for 
ships  drawing  less  than  eleven  feet.  Northwards  is  the 
Catalinas  patch,  so  called  being  opposite  the  old  nunnery  of 
St.  Catherine  in  the  Calle  Templo,  alias  Tacuari,  still 
blessed  by  a  Chapel  of  Ease.  Distant  about  2000  yards 
from  the  Balizas  is  the  Banco  de  la  Ciudad,  a  sudden 
broadening  which  begins  below  the  northern  part  of  the 
settlement ;  this  "  City  Bank^'  is  very  shallow,  and  beyond 
it  is  the  "  Canal"''  or  Outer  Roads.  The  whole  place  is 
paved  with  wrecks,  and  the  anchors  and  ironwork  would 
repay  dredging,  if  the  main-d^oeuvre  were  at  all  reason- 
able. 

Some  would  clean  remove  the  port  to  Ensenada,  or  even 
to  Bahia  Blanca;  others  propose  a  breakwater  eight  miles 
long,  one  broad,  raised  on  arches  above  the  highest  flood, 
with  a  '^  Tosca''"'  foundation  supporting  concrete  in  galvanized 
iron  coffers ;  upon  this  they  would  build  piers,  steam-cranes, 
a  Custom-house,  docks,  marine  markets,  and  so  forth. 
Others  would  form  an  enclosed  harbour — the  favourite  idea, 
because  it  would  cause  money  to  be  spent.  Others  advise 
a  semicircular  pier  from  Gasworks  Point,  convex  to  the 
present  Mole,  with  slip  and  graving  dock,  and  room  for  two 
or  three  streets.  This  plan  is  tempting  from  its  proximity 
to  deep  water.  Others,  again,  would  extend  the  actual  piers ; 
whilst  others  would  build  the  ''Catalinas  (tidal)  Docks,'' 
and  warehouses  at  the  point  called  Bajo  de  Catalinas. 

The  most  sensible  project  for  improving  the  channel  is 
that  proposed  by  my  good  friend  John  Coghlan,  C.E.  His 
plan  shows  a  great  leg-of-mutton-shaped  patch  of  reclaimed 
ground,  beginning  at  the  gasworks  and  ending  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Riachuelo.  At  an  expense  of  787,860/. — not  one- 
sixth  of  what  is  thrown  into  many  European  harbours — he 
would  convert  the  City  Bank  into  an  island,  thus  forming  a 


A    DAY    AT    BUENOS    AIRES.  157 

deep  channel  and  securing  anchorage  near  the  shore.  He 
"would,  moreover,  trace  a  suitable  land-line  by  throwing  out 
to  double  the  length  of  the  Moles  (880  yards)  embankments, 
with  quays  and  wharfs,  reclaiming  ground  to  the  extent  of 
230  cuadras  cuadradas  (the  square  of  150  varas,  each  of 
34  inches  =  22,500  varas).  This  emblayement  would  give 
room  for  docks  larger  than  any  save  those  of  Liverpool,  for 
a  Grand  Central  Station  where  all  the  railways  would  meet, 
for  Custom-house  buildings,  platforms,  and  other  neces- 
saries. Moreover,  it  could  spare  120  cuadras  for  a  pro- 
menade, here  so  much  wanted,  and  to  be  sold  as  building 
ground  at  prices  which  would  to  a  great  extent  pay  off 
the  cost  of  the  proposed  works.  But  he  is  persuaded  that 
such  changes  should  be  made  in  a  tentative  way.  The 
causes  that  formed  the  delta-islands  of  the  Parana  are  still 
active,  and  in  the  natural  order  of  events  banks  must  be 
growing  up  between  the  mouth  of  the  Uruguay  and  the 
Parana  de  las  Palmas.  Finally,  no  company  would  do 
justice  to  such  works;  they  can  hardly  be  entrusted  to  a 
Government  which  rarely  outlasts  three  years  and  ends  in  a 
smash — in  fact,  my  friend  comes  to  the  wise  conclusion  that 
the  scheme  is  too  vast  for  the  young  country  in  its  present 
backward  state. 

Meanwhile,  in  April,  1 868,  the  Government  of  President 
Sarmiento  signed  a  contract  with  the  Impresarios,  Messrs. 
Madero  and  Proudfoot,  to  carry  out  the  plans  of  Messrs. 
Miller  and  Bell,  C.E.  The  sum  is  fixed  at  $7,000,000, 
which  appears  large,  but  which  will  not  be  sufficient.  The 
work  is  mainly  a  huge  tidal  dock,  with  a  narrow  entrance, 
which  will  make  it  a  mere  silt-trap.  It  is,  moreover,  to  be 
finished  in  five  years,  an  imprudent  and  hasty  period.  The 
scour  from  the  north-west  and  south-east  would  be  checked 
by  such  an  obstacle ;  the  diminished  flow  would  render 
dredging   useless ;    the   fringing   bank   of  the   river  would 


158  A    DAY    AT    BUENOS    AIRES. 

creep  towards  the  eastward^,  diverting  deep  water  further 
from  the  shore  ;  and  in  this  case,  as  in  many  others,  unless 
engineering  science  can  bring  the  rivers  of  the  future  close 
to  existing  harbours,  Bahia  Blanca  will  become  the  port 
of  the  Buenos  Aires  that  is  to  be. 

As  we  land  we  remark  a  great  change  from  the  City 
of  the  Past  to  that  of  the  Present.  Instead  of  the 
sturdy,  rock-like  historic  fort,  "  Santa  Trinidad  de  Buenos 
Ayres,"  which  still  appears  in  Sir  Woodbine  Parishes  second 
edition,  there  is  a  new  Custom-house  of  two  stories,  white- 
washed, semicircular,  and  arched  like  casemates.  Behind 
it,  separated  by  a  kind  of  stone-revetted  moat,  is  a  square, 
yellow,  two-storied  box — not  "  very  handsome  and  com- 
modious^^— with  a  broad  verandah,  denoting  the  Government 
House.  Wilcocke  (1807)  shows  in  his  plan  "  the  Fort^'  and 
the  Parade  or  Paseo.  Parish  also  sketches  the  increase  of 
growth  in  his  day,  and  now  it  is — for  South  America — enor- 
mous, and  ever-progressing.  The  population  is  generally  set 
down  at  200,000.  Mr.  Coghlan,  however,  easily  reduced  it 
to  about  half  that  total,  and  even  to  less."^  He  adopted  a 
simple  process  which  may  be  found  useful  in  lands  where 
the  census  can  hardly  be  reliable.  After  counting  the 
cuadras,  say  500,  he  ascertained  the  area— three  and  a-half 
square  miles — and  compared  it,  by  way  of  maximum,  with 
that  of  the  most  crowded  part  of  London — about  30,000 
per  square  mile — from  which  of  course,  subtraction  must  be 
made.  He  was,  however,  astonished  at  the  general  ex- 
penditure, at  the  consumption  of  the  inhabitants,  and  at  the 


*  Mr.  Coghlan's  computation  is  as  follows  : — 

Part  of  the  city  of  which  the  census  has  been  completed  73,000 

Remaining  part  estimated  at 14,000 

Barracas 6,000 

Boca 3,000 


96,000 


A    DAY    AT    BUENOS    AIRES.  159 

number  of  rooms  suiting  a  city  with  treble  the  population 
which  he  allows  to  it.^ 

We  step  upon  the  Paseo  de  Julio,  a  mixture  of  Marine 
Parade  and  Wapping,  badly  paved  and  poorly  lighted  ;  this 
is  the  city  front,  now  backed  by  a  couple  of  handsome 
houses,  but  mostly  by  low  inns,  foundries,  cafes,  and  es- 
taminets,  shops,  stores,  and  sailors^  haunts,  where  those 
amiable  beings  love  to  growl,  grumble,  and  knag  one 
another,  as  only  the  uneducated  classes  of  England  can  do ; 
to  drink,  curse,  and  fight,  occasionally  sallying  out  with  foot 
or  fist — foreign  Jack  prefers  the  knife — upon  the  sober, 
whose  sobriety  outrages  their  sensitive  feelings.  At  one 
time  here  was  an  Alameda,  which  Dictator  Rosas  proposed 
prolonging  as  far  as  his  country  palace  Palermo ;  the  break- 
water and  railing,  however,  were  swept  away  by  a  gale  in 
1861,  and  unfortunately  there  is  now  no  Rosas  to  rebuild 
them. 

Sunday  is  here  a  crowded  day,  and  the  length  of  your 
purse  determines  which  of  three  ways  you  choose  for  passing 
it.  Lack-coin  discontentedly  lounges  about  the  Paseo  and 
the  Muelle.  Little-money  rides  the  tailor's  ride  on  a 
hack  horse  to  Palermo  or  Belgrano.  Dives  sleeps  the 
Saturday  night  at  his  Quinta  out  of  town,  or  runs  down  by 
the  Northern  Railway  to  S.  Fernando,  S.  Isidro  (summer 
quarters),  or  the  Tigre.  He  then  idles  away  the  day, 
visits,  perhaps  boats,  and  returns  home  plenus  Bacchi. 


*  In  1717  Buenos  Aires  had  only  400  houses,  the  same  as  Cordoba, 
the  capital  of  Tucuman,  and  the  old  Jesuit  novitiate  and  university.  The 
census  of  1858  gave  55,000  natives.  The  following  is  the  statistic  census 
of  the  city  taken  till  1869  :— 

Cuadras,  658  (447  corresponding  to  329  manzanas  or  blocks)  ; 
houses,  13,116;  rooms,  64,670;  inhabitants,  72,972;  annual  rental, 
1,333,517Z.  Results:  each  cuadra  averages  40  houses,  197  rooms,  222 
souls ;  the  annual  rent  is  4000Z. ;  it  must,  however,  be  observed  that  in 
making  this  calculation  houses  occupied  by  their  owners,  and  forming  a 
large  proportion  of  the  city,  are  not  included. 


160  A  DAY  AT  BUENOS  AIRES. 

We  enter  by  tlie  Calle  Cangallo,  here  pronounced  Cajje 
Cangajjo_,  "  oppidum  seu  pagus  de  Rio  de  la  Plata  '^ — still 
the  title  of  the  Archbishopric.  A  steep  short  pitch  leads 
to  the  longitudinal  Calle  25  de  Maio,  the  summit  of  the  true 
"  barranca/^  glacis,  or  old  river  bank,  which  is  everywhere 
traceable  between  the  Tigre  and  the  Riachuelo.  It  has  a 
similar  talus,  but  of  greater  slope  inland,  which  is  rather 
puzzling  to  drainage,  and  though  formerly  set  down  at 
70  feet,  nowhere  does  its  height  exceed  64*2  feet  above  the 
water  ;  some  reckon  50  feet,  but  the  mean  of  the  barometer 
is  29-66. 

The  streets  are  long,  narrow,  and  ill  ventilated ;  and  the 
tramway  of  modern  progress  is  as  yet  unknown  to  them.  The 
pavement,  even  after  Monte  Video,  strikes  us  as  truly  detes- 
table. It  is  like  a  fiumara-bed,  bestrewn  with  accidentally 
disposed  boulders,  gapped  with  dreadful  chasms  and  man- 
holes, bounded  on  both  sides  by  the  trottoirs,  narrow 
ledges  of  flattish  stone,  like  natural  rock  "  benches,^^  flood- 
levelled  on  each  side  of  the  torrent.  In  many  parts  the 
side  walks  are  raised  three  and  even  five  feet  above  the 
modern  street  plane,  and  flush  with  the  doors,  which  are 
high  up  as  that  of  the  Kaabah.  These  trottoirs  covered, 
like  the  pavement  after  rain,  with  a  viscid  mud,  sliding  as 
a  ship^s  deck,  dangerous  as  a  freshly  waxed  parquet  for  the 
noble  savage,  often  end  at  the  corners  with  three  or  four 
rude  steps,  rounded  slabs,  greasy  and  slippery  by  the  tread, 
as  though  spread  with  orange  peel,  and  ascended  and  de- 
scended with  the  aid  of  an  open-mouthed  carronade,  or  a 
filthy  post  blacked  by  the  hand  of  toil.  There  is  a  legend 
of  a  naval  captain  who  cracked  his  pate  by  a  header  down 
one  of  these  laderas,  these  corniches,  these  precipices,  and 
certainly  few  places  can  be  more  perilous  than  they  are 
for  gentlemen  in  the  state  decently  termed  "  convivial.^' 
Like  the  trottoirs  they  want  handrails. 


A    DAY   AT    BUENOS    AIRES.  161 

More  than  one  street — for  instance,  Calles  Paraguay  and 
Defensa — must  be  crossed  by  a  drawbridge  after  rains 
which  drown  men,  and  which  carry  off  carts  and  horses. 
Before  the  days  of  pavements,  when  the  pantanos  or  muds 
were  filled  up  with  corn  or  jerked  beef,  the  earth  was  con- 
verted by  showers  into  slush,  and  swept  down  into  the 
general  reservoir,  the  river  bed — hence  the  sunken  ways. 
The  crossings  are  nowhere  swept :  being  slightly  raised 
above  the  general  level  they  soon  dry  and  cut  up  the  line 
into  deep  puddles  which  lie  long,  or  into  segments  and 
parallelograms  of  mire.  The  thoroughfares  are  macadam- 
ized with  the  soil  of  the  suburbs,  which  cakes  under  the 
sun,  and  crumbles  before  the  wind,  dirtying  the  hands  like 
London  smoke.  Drainage  is  left  to  those  Brazilian  engi- 
neers, Messrs.  Sun  and  Wind.  The  only  washing  is  by  rain 
rushing  down  the  cross  streets.  There  is  absolutely  no 
sewerage  ;  a  pit  in  the  patio  is  dug  by  way  of  cesspool, 
and  is  filled  up  with  soil,  a  fair  anticipation  of  the  deodo- 
rizing earth  closet.  The  "  basura  ^'  or  sweepings  are  placed 
at  an  early  hour  in  boxes  by  the  doorways  to  be  carried  off 
by  the  breeze,  or  to  be  kicked  over  by  horses  driven  to 
water :  these  offals  are  used  to  fill  up  holes  in  the  road  out- 
side the  city,  and  yet  the  citizens  expect  ''  good  airs.^' 
Beyond  the  town,  the  unpaved  lines  thus  become  quagmires, 
impasses,  and  quaking  bogs  where  horses  and  black  cattle 
are  hopelessly  fixed. 

Street  walking  becomes  at  Buenos  Aires  a  study,  an  art. 
People  prepare  for  it  their  toe-nails — excuse  the  subject — I 
have  a  duty  to  perform — like  most  duties  it  is  "unplea- 
sant.^^ The  centre  of  the  nail  is  scraped  thin,  so  as  to 
weaken  the  keystone  of  the  arch  :  the  middle  edge  is  cut 
into  a  demilune  concave,  and  the  corners,  generally  removed 
by  the  vulgar  mind,  are  encouraged  to  grow  square,  so  as 
not   to  penetrate  the  flesh.      Inattention  to  this    general 

11 


162  A   DAY    AT    BUENOS    AIRES. 

practice  may  lame  you  for  a  montli  (experto  crede !)  and 
all  your  friends  will  certainly  wag  the  head^  and  vote  you  a 
^'  martyr  to  the  gout/^  Another  inconvenience  is  the  cus- 
tom of  placing  the  petticoat  on  the  wall  side  :  the  bump- 
tious soutane  also  claims  the  honour,  so  you  must  per- 
petually be  hopping  on  and  off  the  lofty  trottoir.  To 
escape  wind  and  rain  you  avoid  the  side  whither  the  paper- 
slips  are  whirled :  the  thoroughfares  of  the  city_,  roughly 
speaking,  face  the  cardinal  points,  whilst  the  wet  and  high 
winds  strike  them  diagonally,  and  the  houses  act  screens. 
Had  the  lines  been  fronted  more  obliquely,  one-half  of  each 
thoroughfare  would  not  have  been  in  the  sun,  and  the  other 
half  in  the  shade  :  moreover  all  the  houses  facing  south- 
wards would  not  have  been  mildewed.  The  prevailing 
directions  are  the  north-easter  especially — like  the  norther, 
fine  and  cool — the  wet  souther  and  south-easter  and 
the  gusty  south- south-wester  and  south-wester.  Thus  one 
side  of  the  street  is  dry  in  wet  and  is  windless  in  windy 
weather,  and  as  the  height  of  the  houses  increases,  those 
at  the  corners  should  be  rounded  off  to  insure  ventilation. 

The  street  scandal  is  inexcusable  in  so  wealthy  a  place. 
The  municipality  can  afford  $600,000  (f.)  =  120,000/.  of  in- 
come, but  the  city  fathers,  those  posts  that  point  the  way  to 
progress  without  ever  progressing,  though  eternally  ^^  pitched 
into  "  give  no  sign,  and  fresh  blood  is  still  wanted.  Buenos 
Aires  sadly  requires  the  Baron  de  Campy,  who  is  supposed 
to  have  paved  the  Imperial  capital  further  north.  The 
new  Custom  House,  the  Moles,  the  Western  Railway,  the 
Gas  Works,  the  Colon  Theatre,  and  the  Water  Works,  with 
other  undertakings  carried  out  by  provincial  resources,  show 
how  much  may  be  done  if  money  be  not  frittered  away. 
A  little  macadam,  compacted  by  water  and  a  steam  roller, 
would  cheaply  remedy  the  worst  evils,  and  a  better  material 
would  be  the  admirable  Pedregulho  or  gravel  from  Salto  of 


A    DAY   AT    BUENOS    AIRES.  163 

the  Uruguay,  River  of  the  Missions.  Broken  brick  would 
be  better  than  nothing  in  streets  which  are  not  much  visited 
by  wheeled  vehicles,,  and  these  could  at  present  be  limited. 
Sufficient  care  is  not  taken  in  naming  the  thoroughfares  : 
France  is  the  great  mistress  of  that  art.  As  at  Rio  de 
Janeiro,  the  black  forefinger  points  the  direction  of  transit 
in  carriage  or  cart :  this  plan^  so  necessary  in  narrow  streets, 
might  be  adopted  even  in  London. 

Buenos  Aires  is  evidently  a  city  j  it  has  a  civic  hurry  and 
excitement ;  there  is  a  polished  manner  of  citizen  in  it ; 
the  first  glance  tells  us  that  it  is  not,  like  Monte  Video,  a 
town.  The  houses,  especially  externally,  are  palazzi,  built  by 
Italians,  who  partly  follow  the  Spanish  taste ;  they  appear 
remarkably  fine  and  solid  after  the  poorer  architecture  of 
the  Brazil.  It  is  wonderful,  at  least  for  these  regions,  how 
readily  and  speedily  the  tenements  are  run  up,  especially 
the  outer  shell.  The  streets  give  vistas  of  great  length  : 
practically,  however,  the  City  is  bounded  to  the  stranger 
north  by  the  Calle  del  Parque,  south  by  the  Calle  Bel- 
grano,  east  by  the  river  and  west  by  Florida,  the  Regent 
Street.  Thus  here  again  we  epitomize  long  thoroughfares 
of  intense  weariness.  This  is  in  fact  our  club-land — our 
Pall  Mall,  and  within  these  narrow  limits  are  contained  the 
consulate,  the  clubs,  the  cathedral,  the  museum,  the  libraries, 
the  chief  hotels,  the  favourite  streets,  and  the  offices  of 
the  principal  periodicals. 

My  arrival  day  was  lovely — it  was  the  weather  of  Italy 
and  Algiers  in  spring.  The  cool,  pure,  crisp  air  made  the 
mere  sense  of  life  absolutely  enjoyable :  one  would  be  sorry 
in  such  weather  to  be  dead.  These  rarities  have  methinks 
given  to  the  climate  an  undeserved  good  name,  and  once 
won,  a  good  name  in  such  matters  is  not  readily  lost. 

The  raging  of  cholera  in  1867-8  shows  that  Buenos  Aires 
is  now  by  no  means  free,  as  it  used  to  boast  itself,  from  the 

11—^ 


164  A  DAY    AT  BUENOS   AIRES. 

epidemic  disorders  of  other  lands,  and  without  some  sanitary 
measures  it  may  look  forward  to  a  plague  or  yellow  jack.  The 
whole  city,  I  have  said,  is  built  upon  and  undermined  by  the 
foulest  impurities,  and  as  at  Zanzibar,  the  loose  soil  permits 
percolation  into  the  wells  and  rain  cisterns. 

August  the  IGth"^  finally  announced  as  President-elect 
Citizen  D.  Domingo  Faustino  Sarmiento,  surnamed  Cara- 
pachay  (of  the  Cara  tree),  from  the  islands  of  the  Parana, 
which  he  and  others  have  celebrated  as  the  Tempe  Argen- 
tina. A  biographical  sketch  of  Don  Yo  (Mr.  I.),  as  this 
statesman  is  called  in  recognition  of  a  somewhat  tough  and 
determined  will,  has  been  prefixed  by  Mrs.  Horace  Mann 
(New  York,  Hurd,  1868)  to  her  translation  of  his  well-known 
work,  "  Civilization  and  Barbarism.'-'  Rockets  were  being 
fired,  vivas  rang,  and  bells  pealed ;  changed  hands  in  the 
"  camp''  sheep  and  cows,  and  in  the  city  hats  and  boxes  of 
cigars,  and  the  public  expressed  its  general  joy  at  the 
defeat  of  D.  Rufino  Elizalde,  the  chosen  candidate  and 
nominee  of  ex-President  Mitre.  This  lawyer,  justly  enough 
disliked  in  the  provinces  because  he  is  known  to  be  an  un- 
scrupulous partisan,  supposed  to  favour  the  "  triple  alliance" 
in  the  interest  of  the  Brazil,  with  which  he  is  connected  by 
marriage  and  other  ways,  numbered  only  twenty-two  votes 
to  seventy-nine. 

D.  Domingo  has  a  stiff  task  before  him.  He  has  cam- 
paigned, but  he  is  rather  a  civilian  than  a  soldier.  The 
later  rule  of  Spain  has  familiarized,  I  have  said,  genera- 
tions to  the  sway  of  Generals,  not  Doctores,  and  his  only 
bourgeois  predecessor.  Dr.  Derqui,  lasted  about  a  year.  He 
is  pledged  by  the  promise  of  all  his  career  to  make  sacrifices 
in  the  cause  of  extended  popular  education,  and  in  this  he 


*  Preliminary  elections,  April  12 ;  final,  August  16.  President  assumes 
■power  October  12  ;  1  p.m.  begins  the  constitutional  period. 


A    T)AT    AT   BUENOS   AIRES.  165 

will  be  ably  assisted  by  the  Vice-president^  citizen  Dr.  Adolfo 
Alsina.  He  must  honourably  terminate  the  present  state  of 
things,  and  devote  to  European  immigration  the  energies 
and  expenditure  lavished  upon  a  disastrous  war.  He  must 
reform  his  fleet,  create  an  army,  and  repress  the  wild 
Indians,  who  now  ride  up  within  a  few  leagues  of  the 
capital,  and  who,  during  the  last  presidential  period,  have 
made  some  200  unpunished  raids.  He  must  reform  ex- 
penditure— without,  however,  truckling  to  those  economists 
who  would  make  every  servant  of  the  State — even  the  chief 
magistrate — suck  mate,  eat  '^  asado^^  and  '^  puchero,^^  and 
sit  upon  a  horse-skull  or  the  ox- skeleton  used  by  ancients 
as  architectural  ornament. 

I  was  afterwards  introduced  to  this  distinguished  man, 
who,  presenting  to  me  a  copy  of  his  book,  pleasantly  in- 
scribed it,  "  Au  Capitaine  Burton,  voyageur  en  route,  D.  F. 
Sarmiento,  voyageur  en  repos,'^  and  who  allowed  me  in 
gratitude  for  his  kindness  to  address  to  him  these  pages. 
As  yet  he  has  gallantly  held  his  own,  despite  the  ridicule 
of  men  who,  unable  to  understand  his  advanced  views,  honour 
him  with  the  epithet  "  el  loco  Sarmiento,^^  and  think  to 
dishonour  him  by  dubbing  him  "  schoolmaster.^"'  Soon 
after  his  election  appeared  certain  "  writings  on  the  wall,'''' 
abusive  and  indecent,  daubed  with  nitrate  of  silver  over  the 
white  marble  steps  and  slabs  of  the  city.  On  November  22, 
1868,  nails  were  planted  between  the  rails  to  throw  off  the 
train  which  carried  the  President  to  a  picnic  on  board  the 
new  steamer  America,  and  but  for  the  care  of  Mr.  Crabtree 
serious  national  troubles  might  have  occuiTcd.  Here  a 
revolution  usually  begins  by  a  dozen  ruffians  or  so  rushing 
into  the  chief  magistrate's  house  and  stabbing  or  shooting 
him.  The  principal  then  appears  at  the  window  and 
screams  "  Liberty.^'  His  friends  cheer  him  lustily ,  his 
enemies,  after  firing   a  few  shots,  make  themselves  scarce. 


166  A   DAY   AT    BUENOS   AIHES. 

and  he  and  Lis  turn  their  steps  towards  the  National 
Treasury.  Next  morning  a  new  Governor  and  a  new 
Government  appear  in  order^  and  that  is  all.  With  Presi- 
dent Sarmiento  my  sincere  wishes  are  that  he  may  pass 
gloriously  through  all  the  perils  of  his  pre-eminence. 

At  Buenos  Aires  I  met  an  old  acquaintance^  Mr.  Gould. 
In  1856  we  had  agreed  to  dine  together  in  1860^  but  fate 
deferred  that  dinner  till  1868.  He  had  just  returned  from 
his  visit  to  the  camp  of  Marshal-President  Lopez  ;  he  was 
wholly  Brazilian  in  sympathy,,  and  he  confidently  predicted  the 
speedyconclusionof  the  war.  Thus  he  was  completely  in  unison 
with  Mr.  Buckley-Mathew,  whilst  Mr.  Lettsom,  Mr.  Consul 
Hutchinson^  and  others  lent  a  willing  ear  to  the  other  part. 
Mr.  Gould  showed  me  a  map  by  Count  Lucien  de  Brayer 
(1863),  and  allowed  me  to  compare  it  with  the  most  modern 
plans  in  his  possession.  He  gave  me  an  introductory  letter 
to  the  officer  commanding  H.M.S.  Linnet ^  and  watching 
British  interests  in  Paraguayan  waters.  The  cruiser  had 
been  sent  up  "  because  the  presence  of  one  of  H.M.^s  ships 
would  greatly  strengthen  an  appeal  for  the  liberation  of 
our  fellow-countrymen.^^  He  introduced  me  to  the  Brazilian 
Envoy  Extraordinary,  the  highly  distinguished  M.  de  Amaral, 
who  resigned,  it  is  said,  his  post  because  he  could  not 
honestly  advance  the  cause.  I  owe  a  debt  of  gratitude  to 
Mr.  Gould,  but  this  must  not  prevent  my  differing  with 
him  upon  the  subject  of  Paraguay. 

I  was  also  then  and  there  presented  to  one  of  the  most 
prominent  personages  in  South  America,  President  D. 
Bartholome  Mitre.  He  had  lately  escaped  an  impeachment 
for  having  plunged  the  country  into  a  war,  but  the  acquittal 
of  President  Johnson  also  acquitted  him.  Beginning  life  as 
an  artiUery  cadet,  he  became  successively  a  military  teacher, 
a  newspaper  editor,  a  local  deputy,  and  in  due  course  of 
time  an  exile.      He  was  an  Artillery  Commandant  at  the 


A   DAY   AT    BUENOS    AIRES.  167 

battle  of  Monte  Caseros,  and  in  the  same  year  (1852)  he 
appeared  as  the  biographer  of  Belgrano.  Like  Echevarria, 
he  is  a  poet,  inspired,  as  were  the  Magyar  Potoefi,  the 
Russian  Gogol,  and  the  North  American  Cooper,  by  the 
glory  and  grandeur  of  the  Pampas,  the  Steppes,  the  Prairies. 
His  Muse  has  been  the  magnificent  uniformity  extending 
from  horizon  to  horizon,  with  its  rim-line  level  as  the 
ocean,  a  sea  on  land,  whose  waves  of  ground  represent  the 
billows,  whilst  grass  bowing  before  the  wind  is  the  water, 
and  the  foam-flakes  are  simulated  by  scatters  of  blossom. 
Man  feels  comparatively  helpless  in  the  tropical  forest  and 
in  the  sub-tropical  valley,  on  the  jungly  mountain,  and  on 
the  stony  or  icy  hill.  Mounted  on  his  Pampa  horse, 
however,  he  is  master  of  space  ;  Nature  may  be  less  superb, 
still  he  is  her  lord ;  she  is  perhaps  a  poor  thing,  yet  she  is 
his  own  ;  and  his  song,  like  his  gait  or  the  expression  of  his 
countenance,  conveys  the  one  idea  of  proud  exultation. 

As  a  soldier,  at  the  head  of  his  National  Guard,  General 
Mitre  snatched  from  the  Confederates  under  President  Derqui 
and  General  Urquiza — who  called  him  General  de  Papel — 
victory  at  Pavon  (Sept.  17,  1861).  He  has  been  Provisional 
Governor,  Provisional  President,  and  since  1862  actual 
President  and  Commander-in-chief,  yet  his  friends  lately 
subscribed  to  buy  for  him  a  house — surely  this  is  high 
praise,  here  and  elsewhere.  He  is,  moreover^  a  statician,  a 
geographer,  a  linguist,  and  an  orator — flowery,  but  of  no 
mean  merit;  in  sharpness  of  memory  he  reminded  me  of 
H.I.M.  of  the  Brazil ;  as  a  bibliophile  he  astonished  me  by 
his  knowledge  of  books,  not  only  of  the  inside  but  of  the 
outside ;  and  he  has  a  collection  of  rare  and  classical 
works,  especially  geographical,  perhaps  unequalled  on  this 
continent ;  and  all  this  at  the  age  of  forty-seven — truly  life 
circulates  fast  in  these  young  lands.  He  had  heard  some- 
thing of  my  travels,  he  received  me  like  an  old  acquaintance, 


168  A    DAY    AT    BUENOS   AIRES. 

and  he  gave  me  the  three  lately  published  volumes  of  Dr. 
Martin  de  Moussy,  in  whose  labours^  as  a  basis  for  a  future 
superstructure^  he  had  taken  a  lively  interest. 

My  admiration  of  General  Mitre  does  not  blind  me  to 
the  fact  that  his  later  career  bears  upon  it  the  stain  of  a 
profound  political  immorality,,  in  having  caused  for  party, 
nay,  for  personal  and  for  egotistic  purposes,  a  military  alli- 
ance, whose  result  is  the  present  disastrous  and  by  no  means 
honourable  war.  Possibly  he  did  not  expect  such  energetic 
action  on  the  part  of  Paraguay,  which  at  Buenos  Aires 
was  looked  down  upon  as  a  petty  semi-barbarous,  almost 
"  Indian"*^  power.  But  the  statesman  and  the  biographer  of 
Belgrano  should  have  known  better.  Had  he  not  aided 
and  abetted  with  money,  with  thousands  of  muskets,  and 
with  moral  support,  ex-President  Flores  in  attacking  the 
Banda  Oriental,  the  Brazil  would  have  found  no  opportunity 
of  interfering  in  the  politics  of  the  Plate ;  and  Paraguay,  the 
"  equilibristra,^^  would  not  have  deemed  it  her  interest  or 
her  duty  to  break  the  peace.  The  assistance  rendered  by 
General  Mitre  to  Flores  was  under  the  rose,  even  as 
Garibaldi  was  provided  with  the  Anglo-Italian  Legion, 
whose  victories,  attributed  to  the  Picciotti,  so  mystified  the 
public.  But  he  is  charged  by  the  general  voice  with  having 
brought  about  a  war  which  has  made  Buenos  Aires,  like 
Monte  Video,  a  simple  prefecture  of  the  Cabinet  of  S. 
Christovao ;  he  has  placed  his  native  land  in  the  ignoble 
position  which  Lord  Palmerston  chose  for  us  in  the  Crimea, 
that  of  a  second-rate  fighting  under  a  first-rate  power ;  a 
weak  republic  by  the  side  of  an  immense  empire.  And  he 
is  bound,  if  he  can,  to  defend  his  character,  under  pain  of 
contumacious  silence  being  charged  to  him. 

Compare  the  photographs  of  these  two  celebrated  men, 
Sarmiento  and  Mitre,  who  are  both  excellent  illustrations 
of   phrenology   and    physiognomy.      The   former   is   short. 


A    DAY    AT   BUENOS    AIRKS.  109 

thickset,  bilioso-nervous,  witli  beetle  brows  and  high  nar- 
rowing forehead,  evidently  the  man  of  observation ;  the 
latter,  nervous-bilious,  thin,  delicate,  and  highly  developed 
in  the  coronal  region,  is  the  man  of  reflection.  This  will 
often  think  without  facts  :  that  will  not  reflect  upon  what 
he  perceives  and  learns.  President  Sarmiento  is  essentially 
matter-of-fact,  studious,  and  prosaic;  he  is  the  male  tem- 
perament pure  and  simple.  President  Mitre  is  imaginative, 
instinctive,  and  of  markedly  poetic  nature — in  fact,  the 
feminine  blended  with  the  masculine  type.  The  former  is 
a  heaven-born  Democrat  par  excellence,  a  sturdy  popular 
magistrate,  fond  of  work,  careless  of  enjoyment,  whose 
enemies  deride  him  as  a  ^^  Gaucho  -"  the  latter,  fond  of 
pleasure,  play,  and  women,  is  by  nature  an  aristocrat  whom 
Fate  has  made  a  republican,  and  whose  foes  declare  him  to 
be  an  intriguer.  Both  speak  with  tolerable  fluency,  as  all 
the  neo- Spaniards  do,  but  their  oratory  is  at  once  known 
by  their  physique. 

We  dined  the  dinner  of  1860  at  the  Cafe  de  Paris,  Calle 
San  Martin,  where  the  "  best  people"  feed.  Such  esta- 
blishments are  more  or  less  common  in  the  Argentine 
Confederation^  and  on  the  Pacific  coast,  but  this  is  the  only 
one  which  has  the  least  claim  to  respect.  It  has  upper 
story  "  particular  cabinets"  for  private  dinners ;  the  public 
eating-room,  with  its  eight  looking-glasses  and  never  a 
window,  is  cleaner  than  any  of  the  clubs.  It  produces  some 
dishes  which  might  please  in  Europe  :  the  Peje-rey  fish, 
boiled  for  breakfast,  is  more  delicate  than  the  Goujon,  and 
enjoyable  as  whitebait  at  a  later  hour.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  prices  are  treble  those  of  the  Parisian  Cafe  Anglais,  the 


*  Addressing  President  Sarmiento  I  call  it  the  Argentine  Eepublic,  to 
others  the  Argentine  Confederation.  The  latter  word  has  a  grim  and 
dolorous  sound  in  the  ears  of  the  Unitarian  party,  who  yet  are  thorough 
votaries  of  States'  rights. 


170  A    DAY    AT   BUENOS    AIRES. 

wines  are  poor^  and  the  proprietor,  coining  gold,  does  not 
care  a  fig  for  public  opinion.  The  waiter,  who  in  Chile 
and  Peru  waits  at  full  gallop,  here  creeps  the  snaiFs  pace. 
To  secure  attention  you  must  give  the  garqon  five  times 
the  old  sou  per  franc,  the  fee  of  Paris ;  with  less  than 
25  per  cent,  he  will  be  negligent,  and,  unless  you  check 
him,  he  will  wax  insolent. 

In  the  evening  we  went  to  the  Italian  Opera  in  the 
Colon  Theatre,  a  huge  pile  whose  red-painted  roof  gives 
a  fine  view  of  the  city  and  suburbs,  whose  double  row  of 
balconies  is  much  admired,  and  whose  fretted  ironwork 
shelters  a  masonic  hall,  where  the  brother  is  safe  from  the 
'^  Cowan.'^  Its  exterior  is  much  praised  with  little  reason ; 
its  shape  is  claret  chest,  its  order  is  of  the  railway  station 
style  of  art,  and  the  most  we  can  say  of  it  is  that  its 
ugliness  is  not  so  ugly  as  that  of  many  such  buildings.  Do 
you  not  wonder  why  the  moderns  always  make  their  theatres 
like  the  palaces  of  Baghdad,  "  mean  and  hideous  without  ?^^ 
The  inside  is  dingy  and  badly  lighted,  and  sundry  vigilantes 
are  on  guard  to  keep  the  passages  clear.  For  real  and 
imminent  risk  in  case  of  fire  or  panic  the  audience  can 
hardly  be  worse  lodged  in  any  public  building  yet  made. 
Will  no  one  take  a  hint  from  the  vomitories  of  the  ancients  ? 

The  first  aspect  of  Portena  beauty,  of  whose  face  and 
figure  I  had  heard  so  much,  did  not  dazzle  these  eyes.  The 
most  admired  belles  pointed  out  to  me  were  the  clear,  dark 
little  crumpled  faces,  the  nez  a  la  Ro.valane ;  the  low  narrow 
brow,  beloved  of  Horace ;  the  well-opened  velvety  black 
eyes — which  they  know  perfectly  how  to  use — and  the 
piquant  expression,  which  the  real  Spaniard  prefers  to  the 
signs  of  the  bluest  blood.  These  small  physiognomies  were 
powdered  over  like  apple-pies,  lit  up  with  rouge  at  the 
cheeks  like  pommes  d'apis,  and  buried  in  vast  masses,  with 
terminal  manes  of  "  frightful  hair  '^  like  the  mane  and  tail 


A  DAY  AT  BUENOS  AIRES.  171 

of  the  barb  horse,  or  the  trophy-skulls  of  the  Jivaros. 
Those  who  wore  the  skin  nude  wore  it  dark,  and  after  a 
certain  age  the  moustache  was  distinct  and  curly  as  in  the 
majority  of  cornets.  Probably  the  fame  of  the  Portena's 
charms  arose  in  old  days  when,  as  Wilcocke  informs  us,  her 
shoes  had  silver  heels ;  when  lace  below  the  knees  exposed 
the  gold  fringe  of  her  tasselled  garters,  and  when  her  bosom 
was  veiled  with  trinkets,  jewels,  and  crosses — the  latter  a 
toilette  of  which  the  late  Mr.  Gibson  of  Rome,  statuary  and 
man  of  taste,  would  greatly  have  approved. 

The  performance  was  not  bad — considering  that  we  are 
2500  leagues  from  the  two  great  head-quarters  of  the 
musical  muse.  The  prima.  Mad.  Pasi,  and  the  tenor  Sr. 
Leruli,  were  the  last  days  of  Grisi  and  Mario.  Mad. 
Josephine  danced  well,  but  the  ballet  is  here  utterly 
exotic — admired  by  neither  man  nor  woman.  The  corps 
was  of  local  growth — decidedly  Gaucho,  rigid  as  gutta 
percha,  awkward  as  Tartars  on  foot ;  wearing  dresses  made 
for  others,  and  stockings  of  the  brightest,  liveliest  rose, 
which  "  fleshings'^  made  every  leg  look  as  if  it  had  lately 
been  flayed. 

We  retired  to  rest  that  night  on  board  the  Yi,  with  the 
pleasing  sensation  of  having  passed  an  agreeable  as  well 
as  a  profitable  day. 


LETTEE  YI. 

A  GLANCE  AT  BUENOS  AIRES. 

Buenos  Aires,  August  17,  1868, 
My  dear  Z -, 

Buenos  Aires,  I  have  said,  is  pre-eminently 
the  city  of  the  future,  and  the  mind^s  eye  sees  her  seated 
en  reine  upon  her  subject  flood,  with  a  tiara  of  towers  and 
a  fair  broad  skirt  of  noble  buildings,  docks,  and  promenades 
where  mud  shallows  and  the  tosca  eruptions  now  sadden 
the  sight.  At  present,  however,  our  business  is  with 
actualities.      And  the  first  thing  is  to  lodge  ourselves. 

A  host  of  hotels  offer  themselves,  the  great  new  com- 
fortless Argentine  ;  the  ministerial  La  Paix,  and  its  succursale 
the  San  Martin;  the  expensive  and  so-called  ^'^ fashionable ■'^ 
Louvre— what  a  misnomer ! — the  cheap  and  second-rate 
Globo,  and  the  rascally  Provence,  where  the  French  ruffian 
that  owns  it  never  attempts  to  be  commonly  civil.  All  are 
abominably  bad,  and  dear  in  proportion.  They  show 
discomfort  at  its  acme,  and  service,  food,  and  care  of  rooms 
are  inferior  to  third-rate  inns  in  a  second-rate  European 
city.  Surely  in  a  place  where  gold  ounces  are  so  very 
cheap,  it  would  be  possible  to  set  up  a  good  new  American 
hotel,  like  the  Grand  in  the  Boulevart  des  Italiens.  Perhaps 
the  least  abominable  is  the  Hotel  Universal,  in  the  Calle  San 
Martin  ;  it  enters,  like  the  Ancla  Dourada,  into  the  category 
of  '^  cazas  ameubladas,^^  allowing  you  to  dine  at  the  Cafe 
de  Paris,  at  your  club,  or  at  your  friend^s  house — and  in 
this  most  hospitable  of  cities  you  will  be  asked  to  dine  at 
some  three  places  every  evening.      The  Universal  has  the 


A    GLANCli    AT    BUENOS    AIRES.  173 

advantage  of  being  a  bath  establishment,,  where,  for  the 
use  of  an  old  tin  pot  pulled  out  at  both  ends  and  full  of 
muddy  Platine  water,  you  pay  as  much  as  for  a  first-elass 
bain  complet  at  Nice.  On  the  other  hand  it  has  a  serious 
disadvantage,  namely,  rooms  are  never  procurable  there. 

Turned  from  the  doors  you  may  try  the  ''  lodging-house,^^ 
whose  main  crime  is  its  name.  Of  these  there  are  numbers 
in  the  Calle  "  25  de  Maio  " ;  they  are  quite  in  old  world 
style;  ground- floors,  where  ground-floors  are  an  abomination; 
small  dark  rooms,  where  man  wants  them  large,  light,  and 
airy.  As  a  rule  they  are  kept  by  veteran  Englishwomen, 
''  old  soldiers,^^  mostly  wives  or  widows  of  diplomatic  butlers 
or  valets,  here  settled  for  life,  and  generally  provided  with 
daughters  more  or  less  pretty,  who  speak  bad  Creole  English 
and  good  Argentine  Spanish,  and  who  go  out  broadly  into 
"  society  .^•'  The  wary,  however,  will  be  careful  how  they 
trust  themselves  under  any  particular  roof.  One  landlady 
has  a  pronounced  taste  for  "  brandy-pawnee ;"  another  is 
painfully  familiar  with  her  clientele;  whilst  a  third  is  so  open- 
eared  to  the  charms  of  the  lottery  voice,  that  she  will  invest 
in  an  impossible  speculation  the  sovereigns  entrusted  by 
you  to  her  strong  box,  and  she  will  probably  address  to  you 
a  begging  letter,  representing  that  she  is  a  lone  wife  or  a 
poor  widow. 

We  will  now  proceed  up  the  Calles  Cangallo  and  San 
Martin,  to  the  Plaza  de  la  Victoria,  ^'  the  only  centre  of 
attraction,^^  says  the  handbook,  as  if  a  centre  could  be 
plural.  On  the  left  is  the  Methodist  Chapel,  with  a  sunken 
cross  over  the  door  ;  it  is  recessed,  band-boxey,  American, 
hideous;  and  so  is  the  music  which  periodically  electrifies 
those  passing  down  the  street.  It  contrasts  most  unfavour- 
ably with  the  convent  on  the  other  side  of  the  way,  the 
Merced,  although  this  is  per  se  anything  but  admirable. 
The  Church  of  England  ''  temple''  is  hard   by  in  the  "  25 


174  A    GLANCE    AT    BUENOS  AIRES. 

de  Maio/^  also  recessed,  of  the  melancholy  Doric  type 
to  which  Protestant  Christianity  is  reduced  in  these  ''  idola- 
trous lands /■*  There  is  a  chaplain,  but  the  sheep  are  mostly 
in  a  state  of  blood-feud  with  their  shepherd.  If  he  be 
ungenial,  they  pay  him  and  hate  him;  if  he  be  fond  of 
mild  pleasures,  say  of  a  social  glass,  a  cigar,  and  a  game  of 
whist,  they  vote  him  unclerical  and  propose  to  pay  some 
other  person. 

We  study  the  Buenos  Airean  house  as  we  advance. 
Here  all  trades  are  monopolized  by  some  nation,  and  the 
Italians  have  made  themselves  the  master  masons  and  the 
masons,  even  as  the  Irish  are  the  hod-carriers  of  the  United 
States.  Their  building  is  an  improved  and  Romanized 
Spanish,  tinted  for  the  most  part  outside.  Every  stranger 
coming  from  Rio  de  Janeiro  remarks  the  beauty  and  solidity 
of  the  houses,  and  much  more  does  he  admire  who  comes 
from  that  drab-coloured  wooden  abomination,  Valparaiso, 
where  fire  or  ruin  by  earthquake  is  purely  a  question  of 
time.  In  the  old  establishment  all  is  coarse  and  heavy;  the 
brick-paved  patio,  with  its  rude  horseshoe  arches,  the  flat 
roof  draining  into  the  Aljibe,  rain-tank,  or  cistern — I  have 
advised  you  to  beware  of  the  fluid — and  the  badly  laid  out 
plan  in  which  the  bedrooms,  for  instance,  conduct  to  the 
saloons,  speak  of  a  time  when  wealth  was  general  and  re- 
finement rare.  This  under  the  artistic  Ausonian  touch  has 
become  a  fairy  garden  of  creepers  and  orchids,  flowers  and 
air  plants,  in  half-Moorish  style,  decorating  light  colonnades, 
fretwork  in  stone,  or  arabesques  in  ironwork,  lit  up  with 
gilding,  and  painted  with  tender  green  or  white  and  blue — 
Argentine  colours  which  here  blend  well.  The  frontage  is 
mostly  narrow  and  reduced  to  a  door  and  two  windows ;  on 
the  other  hand,  the  depth  is  half  a  square,  or  225  feet. 
Large  establishments  therefore  have  generally  two  or  more 
patios,  forming   a   pleasant   vanishing  vista   of  shady   cor- 


A    GLANCE    AT    BUENOS    AIRES.  175 

ridors  paved  with  white  marble,  and  ending  in  a  garden, 
or  at  least  in  a  shrubbery.  On  sunny  days  a  velum 
stretched  across  secures  coolness.  The  system  is  pleasant  for 
the  individual,  bad  for  the  community,  as  the  waste  of 
space  is  prodigious.  All  the  older  tenements  are  ground 
floors  ;  the  "  Alto,^^  or  many-storied  house,  the  "  Sobrado,^' 
or  ''  Caza  nobre^^  of  the  Brazil,  does  not  belong  to  these 
latitudes,  but  it  is  becoming  common ;  and  the  difficulty  of 
finding  building  ground  is  also  gradually  interfering  with 
the  ventilation.  The  taste  for  tall  houses  has  exaggerated 
the  mirador,  or  look-out ;  it  is  often  provided  with  extensive 
balconies,  and  with  well  railed  exterior  staircases ;  when 
three  stories  tall  it  makes,  as  in  the  Limagne,  the  house 
appear  like  a  box  standing  on  one  end.  On  both  sides  of 
the  entrance-hall  are  the  saloons  and  dining  rooms,  whose 
windows  looking  upon  the  street  are  barred  like  the  jails  ; 
the  inmates  therefore  can  be  seen,  as  in  a  French  bathing 
place,  by  every  passer  by — and  naughty  boys  delight  to  pull 
up  the  persiannes,  or  green  blinds.  This  is  contrary  to  the 
custom  of  Lima,  where  the  sitting  rooms  in  the  best  tene- 
ments are  always  at  the  bottom  of  the  court. 

The  main  square,  Plaza  de  la  Victoria,  the  heart  of  cir- 
culation, the  business  part  where  men  in  fine  weather  seem 
to  live,  and  where  you  meet  all  your  acquaintances  half 
a  dozen  times  a  day,  is  small  and  mean,  fitted  for  a 
country  town,  utterly  unworthy  of  a  metropolis,  the  Pro- 
vincial and  Confederative  capital,  the  seat  of  the  local 
and  general  legislature,  a  New  York  and  Washington  in 
one.  It  suggests  the  days  of  that  old  foundation-stone 
laid  down  by  D.  Pedro  de  Mendoza  at  the  corner  of 
the  present  Calles  Eivadavia  and  San  Martin,  which 
when  nearly  crushed  by  carts  was  put,  by  the  piety  of  a 
local  antiquary,  into  splints,  a  flat  cross  of  iron  bands. 
The  Plaza  is  one  quarter  of  what  such  a  city  requires,  and 


176  A    GLANCE    AT    BUENOS    AIRES. 

one  half  of  what  it  easily  could  command.  To  eastward, 
behind  the  casemated  ex-fort  and  Custom-house,  and  the 
Governmental  *^  bungalow/'  is  a  slovenly,  foul,  unpaved, 
dusty  or  muddy  space,  trodden  only  by  high  trotting  horses 
and  by  country  carts  painted  the  colour  of  pig's  blood. 
This  is  separated  from  the  Victory  Square  by  the  Recoba 
Vieja,  or  "  old  Arcade,''  a  thin  line  of  cheap  shops,  with 
two  long  walls  of  jaundice-coloured  brickwork,  towering 
above  the  tenements  in  a  fanciful  profile,  open  over  head  ; 
intended  to  represent  a  triumphal  arch,  but  surprisingly  like 
a  building  that  expects  to  be  roofed  in.  If  this  hideous 
"  relique  of  antiquity,"  which  looks  painfully  new,  really 
belong  to  a  wealthy  family  that  refuses  to  remove  it,  the 
nuisance  should  be  abated  by  the  local  M.  Haussmann  and 
the  Provincial  Government,  and  thus  the  Plaza  would  ex- 
tend itself  to  the  river  side. 

The  Plaza  is  surrounded  and  crossed  from  north  to  south 
by  avenues  of  the  ubiquitous  Paraiso  (Paradise)  tree,  the 
English  "  Persian  lilac,"  the  American  *^  Pride  of  India," 
the  Latin  Margosa  (Amargosa),  the  Nim  of  Hindostan,  the 
Calendar  tree  of  the  Levant,  and  the  Melia  Azedarachta 
(Persian  Azad-darakht,  or  ''  free  tree")  of  botanists.  It  is 
universally  a  favourite  from  Monte  Video  to  the  far 
interior,  but  the  reason  why  we  cannot  explain.  The 
shrub-like  trees  are  always  stunted;  they  are  mere 
sticks  in  August,  with  little  of  leafage,  hardly  shading,  even 
in  March,  the  little  kiosks  that  sell  newspapers ;  the  boles 
are  dark  and  dingy,  and  the  bundles  of  brown  berries  are, 
out  of  chaplets,  disagreeably  prominent.  The  general 
aspect  of  the  square  is  bald  and  poor,  especially  when  seen 
after  Santiago  and  Lima ;  there  are  no  diagonal  pathways 
across  the  terreplein  of  yellow  clayey  earth,  which  every 
shower  converts  into  a  swamp  of  slippery  slush.  Here  re- 
views are  held ;  I  have  heard  of  6000  or  7000  bayonets  on 


A    GLANCE    AT    BUENOS    AIRES.  177 

parade^  but  I  never  saw  more  than  two  companies  at  a 
time.  Here  also  "  pronouncements  '^  are  prepared.  On 
Sunday,  Marcli  28_,  1869,  it  was  proposed  at  an  indignation 
meeting  to  pull  down  the  office  of  the  Tribuna,  the  Thun- 
derer of  Argentine  land  having  taken,  or  having  been  sup- 
posed to  take,  undue  license  in  the  matter  of  Provincial 
elections.  The  guard  was  called  away  from  the  police- 
office,  all  the  prisoners  at  once  broke  jail,  and  thus  the  affair 
terminated  to  general  satisfaction. 

The  centre  of  the  square  sustains  an  obelisk  some  forty 
feet  high,  of  plastered  brick,  waiting  to  be  made  marble. 
On  the  top,  in  Masaniello  cap,  stands  Republican  Liberty, 
spear  in  hand,  the  point  of  attraction  for  a  system  of  gas- 
cocks,  whose  tubes  running  up  the  angles  become  useful 
when  the  National  Anniversary  calls  for  illumination.  At 
that  epoch  also  the  monument  is  whitewashed  till  glaring 
as  a  bride-cake  ;  but  the  coating  does  not  endure  for  a 
year ;  many  a  rent  discloses  the  petticoat,  and  the  aspect  is 
distinctly  shabby.  The  inscription  is  ^'  25  de  Mayo,  1810  /' 
this,  I  have  said,  is  the  date  of  the  Revolution,  and  the 
birthday  of  Argentine  independence.  Each  face  bears  the 
blazon  of  the  Republic,  two  bare  arms  shaking  hands  as  if 
before  a  prize-fight,  under  the  shadow  of  a  (red)  foolscap 
which  takes  a  pole  to  carry  it,  the  sun  looking  on  compla- 
cently from  above  as  though  he  were  bottleholder.  Around 
the  monument  are  mustered  four  statues  strongly  suggestive  of 
New  Road  art.  This  obelisk  is  the  most  ridiculous  of  obe- 
lisks save  one,  I  mean  that  in  the  Phaynix  Park,  Dublin, 
concerning  which  a  malignant  wrote, — 

"  'Tis  a  polylithic  obelisk  that  monolith  should  be, 
A  needle  insignificant  of  silly  masonry  : 

You  upclimb  its  steps  with  toil,  you  descend  them  with  a  will, 
With  Sifacilis  descensus  that  men  briefly  call  a  *  spill :' 

Scatter'd  o'er  its  faces  four  Arthur's  victories  you  view, 
And  the  only  one  omitted  from  the  list  is  Waterloo." 

12 


178  A    GLANCE    AT    BUENOS    AIRES. 

It  was  proposed  to  abolish  this  mean  and  semi-barbarous 
monument  in  favour  of  a  handsome  modern  fountain ;  the 
authorities  and  the  people  rejected  the  idea,  as  though  it 
had  been  a  studied  insult — a  profanity. 

On  the  northern  side  of  the  Plaza  is  the  reformed  cathe- 
dral, which  comprises  in  itself  a  dozen  absurdities,  wanting 
only  its  former  belfries.  The  fa9ade  is  classical,  with  pedi- 
ment, alt- reliefs,  and  portico  distinguished  by  peculiar  vile- 
ness  of  intercolumniation.  The  dome  over  the  high  altar 
is  mediaeval,  pepper-castor,  and  Dutch-tiled  like  a  dairy 
turned  inside  out.  The  highly  finished  front  is  at  best  '*  un 
faux  temple  antique  /*  and  the  general  aspect  is  rather  that  of 
a  Bourse,  of  a  home  of  Mammon  than  of  a  place  of  prayer. 
The  rear  is  unfinished  and  bald,  with  bricks  which  await 
the  plasterer.  Inside  there  is  nothing  to  admire  save  the 
size,  270  feet  by  70,  and  the  stern  republican  plainness  of 
the  sepulchral  white  walls.  From  the  dome  base,  if  you 
do  not  object  to  ladders  with  iron  rungs,  there  is  a  good 
bird^s-eye  view  of  the  city,  not  equal  however  to  that  seen 
from  the  summit  of  the  Colon  Theatre,  or  from  the  steeple 
of  S.  Miguel.  As  at  Monte  Video,  a  bit  of  decent  pave- 
ment, cut  stone  from  Martin  Garcia,  fronts  the  cathedral; 
it  was  proposed  as  a  model  for  the  rest  of  the  streets,  but 
the  tremendous  efi'ort  exhausted  the  projectors. 

On  the  east  of  the  tall  pile  is  a  neat  palazzo  of  Palladian 
pretensions,  the  Archiepiscopal.  Instead  of  leaving  such 
matters  to  private  selection,  the  Federal  Governments  of 
1853  and  1861  unhappily  adopted  a  national  religion,  the 
Catholic,  Apostolic,  and  Holy  Roman.  Hence  the  Keve- 
rcndissimo,  an  evil  shoot  from  the  Old  World  grafted  upon 
a  NeV  World  tree.  By  the  palace  side  is  the  eyesore  usual 
in  this  country,  and  many  others,  the  ugly  contrast  of  a 
hovel  with  a  mean,  weed-grown,  dingy-tiled  roof.  This 
specimen,  perhaps  the  oldest    of  the  last  century's  ground- 


A    GLANCE    AT    BUENOS    AIRES.  179 

floor  habitations,  contains  the  office  of  tlie  Revista  Journal, 
and  is  not  to  be  removed. 

The  Recoba  Nueva,  another  row  of  uninteresting  alcoves 
supporting  dwelling-li^ses,  faces  the  cathedral,  and  forms 
a  right  angle  with  the  Recoba  Vieja.  Here  is  one  of  the 
few  stands  for  hackney  coaches,  which  have  room  for  six 
when  wanted  for  one.  Tilburys,  cabs,  and  above  all  things 
Hansoms,  are  an  ever-increasing  want ;  at  present  the  only 
light  vehicles  are  private.  The  fares  are  not  exorbitant, 
but  it  is  as  well  to  make  your  bargain,  and  never  to  trust 
in  the  matter  of  calling  for  you  at  night.  Finding  scanty 
pleasure  in  driving  over  vile  pavements  and  viler  roads,  most 
people  here  prefer  riding ;  and  the  livery  stables,  though 
dear  and  mostly  kept  by  foreigners,  are  tolerable.  Some 
years  hence  a  pair  of  tramways  will  cross  the  city  to  the 
four  quarters  of  the  compass,  and  will  make  a  fortune  for 
somebody.  Buenos  Aires,  take  example  from  Rio  de 
Janeiro  ! 

The  western  side  of  the  Plaza  is  devoted  in  the  main  to 
the  culte  of  Justice,  such  as  she  is.  The  Cabildo,  or  Mu- 
nicipality, dating  from  1711,  is  a  useful  public  servant;  its 
tall  white  tower,  its  clock  illuminated  at  night,  are  the  best 
of  landmarks,  and  regulate  all  appointments.  The  Cabildo 
front  is  a  portico,  under  whose  shade  officers  in  Magenta 
caps  and  bags,  riding  chairs,  eye  the  passers  by ;  where 
liver-coloured  and  black-coated  men,  evidently  "  doctores  " 
from  the  law  courts  below,  and  the  notaries'  offices  hard 
by,  carry  on  eager  and  gesticulatory  conversations ;  and 
where  European  and  Negro  sentinels  pace  in  heavy  march- 
ing order  before  the  entrance  of  the  filthy  jail. 

Here  and  there  we  see  and  avoid  the  policeman  jn  his 
briquet,  leather-pointed  casquctte,  and  dark  uniform.  Almost 
incredible  in  a  city  otherwise  so  highly  civilized  is  the  im- 
punity of  crime ;  you  feci  as  if  living  in  an  aff reuse  tuerie^ 

12—2 


180  A    GLANCE    AT    BUENOS    AIRES. 

amidst  a  community  of  assassins — bandits  in  the  country 
and  murderers  in  tlie  city.  An  ^^  accident^-'  takes  place 
every  day,  it  is  no  man^s  business ;  the  policeman,  smoking 
his  cigarette,  calmly  surveys  the  corpse,  and  hardly  turns 
his  head  to  see  the  fugitive  felon^s  back.  In  this  matter 
of  life-taking  the  foreigners  are  bad,  the  natives  are  worse ; 
you  must  not  think  it  always  positive  bloodthirstiness,  it  is 
rather  an  utter  disregard  for  human  existence.  A  popular 
story  is  told  of  a  friendly  Gaucho  who  cut  a  friend's 
throat  in  order  to  cure  the  "pobrecito^^  of  headache. 
Accustomed  from  babyhood  to  wear  and  to  use  his  knife, 
he  draws  it  when  he  pleases,  and  not  unfrequently  for  the 
fun  of  a  little  murder.  The  only  life  religiously  respected 
is  that  of  the  non-political  criminal ;  to  hang  him  would  be 
bad  taste,  brutality,  barbarism,  and  it  would  be  worse  taste 
still  to  flog  him.  His  proper  punishment,  no  matter  how 
brutal  his  crime,  is  ten  months  of  prison,  after  which  common 
decency  allows  him  to  escape.  Perhaps  he  is  sent  to  some 
distant  Presidio  or  frontier  garrison ;  here  his  residence  is 
ad  libitum,  and  he  can  always  join  the  Montonera  or  Gaucho 
bandits  (the  Kaum,  ^^j,  of  the  Arabs),  or  ride  with  the 
wild  "  Indian'^  raiders.  A  permanent  gallows  in  the  out- 
skirts of  the  city  would  do  a  power  of  good  to  Buenos 
Aires.  And  yet,  you  know,  I  would  abolish  in  civilized 
countries  capital  punishment. 

The  fact  is,  since  Dictator  Rosas,  then  the  only  mur- 
derer, fell  before  the  foreign  idea  which  he  had  outraged, 
every  man  has  been  his  own  Rosas.  Therefore  would  many, 
especially  foreigners,  hail  with  pleasure  his  return ;  this  re- 
version to  the  "  good  old  times''  is,  however,  of  course  im- 
possible. But  of  that  peculiar  personage,  who  disappointed 
Mr.  Darwin,  some  good  is  to  be  said.  True  he  had  his 
'^  saladero,"  his  human  shambles  ;  he  put  to  death  a  priest 
and   a  nun   for   incontinence ;    he    murdered    an    English 


A  GLANCE  AT  BUENOS  AIRES.  181 

family;  he  had  an  English  envoy  horsewhipped  in  the 
streets;  he  made  a  laughing-stock  of  another;  he  had  horse- 
hobbles  made  of  an  enemy^s  skin;  he  forbade  men  to  wear 
beards  that  represented  the  letter  U  of  Unitario ;  and  he 
forced  even  the  free-born  Briton  to  don  the  red  waistcoat. 
But  also,  in  his  early  career  he  saved  from  the  pol- 
lution of  the  filthy  "Indians'^  some  1500  Argentine 
women  and  children,  left  by  his  predecessors  in  helpless, 
hopeless  captivity.  He  discouraged  priestcraft,  and  he 
turned  out  the  Jesuits — they  say  for  refusing  to  place 
his  portrait  upon  the  high  altar.  He  gave  to  his  native 
province  a  civil  marriage ;  he  permitted  all  ecclesiastics 
of  all  denominations  to  perform  the  rite ;  and  when  he 
fled  on  board  the  English  ship  after  the  defeat  of 
Monte  Caseros  (February  3,  1852),  he  carried  with  him  so 
little,  that  his  friends  were  compelled  to  supply  him  against 
want.  Since  that  time  he  has  been  known  chiefly  for  sell- 
ing fresh  milk  at  twopence  per  quart,  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  South^ton. 

We  have  now  finished  with  the  square,  the  typical  part 
of  Buenos  Aires.  A  few  lines  concerning  the  remainder 
will  suffice.  Rivadavia- street  issues  from  the  north-west 
corner  of  the  Plaza,  and  running  some  three  miles  in  an 
east  to  west  direction,  cuts  the  city  into  a  northern  and  a 
southern  half  Here  we  can  find  a  pick-me-up  at  Mr. 
Cranwell's,  or  ^'  something  short^^  within  the  next  door,  the 
'*^  American  Mineral  Water  Establishment.^^  A  turn  to 
the  south  leads  to  the  Calle  Victoria,  in  which  are  the 
Alcazar  and  the  Progreso  Club,  of  which  more  presently. 

The  street  to  the  south-east  of  the  square  is  the  Calle 
Defensa,  so  called  because  in  the  days  when  the  English 
were  ^'^hereges  y  tenian  cola,"  General  Whitelocke  here 
marched  up  his  doomed  men,  every  house — especially  the 
houses   of  God — being  a  redoubt.     We  find  a  wonderful 


182  A    GLANCE    AT    BUENOS    AIRES. 

specimen  of  a  Britisli  library^  and  we  glance  at  two  huge 
pileSj  S.  Francisco  and  Santo  Domingo^,  which  look  some- 
what perilous  to  those  passing  by.  This  thoroughfare,  con- 
taining Mr.  Morton^s  deodorizing  apparatus,  leads  to  a  mass 
of  hospitals,  the  British,  the  French  Joint-Stock,  the  Italian, 
and  the  Convalescencia,  all  clustering  upon  the  northern 
bank  that  bounds  the  riverine  valley  of  the  Riachuelo.  I 
have  pleasant  reminiscences  of  Calle  Defensa,  Esquina 
Garay ;  of  enjoyable  evenings  spent  in  the  hospitable  house 
of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Russell. 

Returning  to  the  Plaza,  and  issuing  by  the  south-west 
angle,  we  enter  Bolivar- street.  Here  is  the  College  or  San 
Ignacio  Church,  formerly  Jesuit  property,  and  externally  at 
least  the  best  in  the  city.  The  whole  block  is  taken  up  for 
Government  purposes.  The  educational  portion  is  presided 
over  by  the  highly  distinguished  Dr.  Juan  Maria  Gutierrez,  a 
name  well  known  to  European  art  and  science.  Part  of  the 
building  has  been  made  over  to  Dr.  Hermann  Burmeister, 
naturalist,  physiologist,  anthropologist,  and  Brazilian,  as  well 
as  Argentine  traveller  :  the  \dsitor  will  find  this  collection  very 
different  from  what  it  was  in  the  days  when  Rosas  reigned. 
Then  the  roof  was  in  holes,  and  then  a  few  dusty  birds  and 
beasts  stuck  awry  upon  wires  nodded  to  their  fall.  The 
inlaid  picture  and  the  fossil  horse  of  the  Pampas,  a  zebra,  are 
especially  worthy  of  inspection,  and  the  collection  of  mega- 
theroids  is  too  well  known  to  require  more  than  mention. 
On  the  west  side  of  the  block  is  the  Public  Library,  to- 
gether with  the  Land  Office  and  other  establishments.  At 
the  junction  of  Belgrano  you  look  to  the  left,  and  see  the 
office  of  the  Standard,  the  only  English  daily  published 
south  of  the  equator,  say  the  editors.  May  their  supply 
of  the  paddles  with  which  the  Paraguayan  canoes  attacked  the 
Brazilian  ironclads  never  be  less  !  Beyond  it  is  the  Post- 
office,  and  further  on  the  city  straggles  out  into  suburbs. 


A    GLANCE    AT    BUENOS    AIRES.  183 

Again  you  go  back  to  the  main  square  and  continue 
Bolivar-street,  to  the  north-west  known  as  San  Martin. 
This  is  perhaps  the  most  familiar  to  foreigners :  No.  44  is 
the  Club  de  los  Estrangeros  Residentes,  and  the  liberality 
with  which  the  traveller  is  temporarily  admitted  free  to  all 
the  privileges  of  members,  imposes  upon  us  a  debt  of  gra- 
titude. Beyond  it  is  Mr.  Mackern's  stationery  store — it  is 
wonderful  that  some  enterprising  London  publisher  does 
not  use  this  and  similar  establishments  to  make  a  clientele 
in  South  America.  English  books  are  extensively  read 
both  by  natives  and  foreigners,  but  few  will  take  the  trouble 
of  sending  for  them  to  England.  Beyond  lies  the  Bourse 
of  Buenos  Aires,  a  contemptible  affair,  ruinous  inside, 
and  outside  unworthy  of  a  country  town. 

A  turn  to  the  left  up  Cangallo-street  takes  you  into 
Calle  Florida  (not  Florida),  the  Regent  Street.  Here  are 
the  best  shops  in  the  place,  barbers  and  jewellers,  mercers 
and  modistes,  hatters  and  bootmakers,  tobacconists  and 
lollipop  vendors.  The  prices  are  double  those  of  Europe, 
the  quality  is  very  inferior,  but  the  farther  up  country  you 
go,  the  worse  you  fare.  Here  girls  walk  alone  by  day ; 
giving  the  place  a  gay  look,  and  "shopping^-'  becomes 
once  more  possible.  Crossing  the  Calle  Paraguay — after 
rain  a  torrent — we  enter  the  Plaza  de  Marte,  alias  the 
Betiro,  celebrated  for  the  barracks  of  Dictator  Rosas.  We 
stare  and  wag  the  head  at  the  equestrian  statue  of  General 
San  Martin,  and  we  remember  that  General  Beresford 
held  this  place  in  1807,  since  which  time  many  a  wretched 
political  offender  has  gazed  at  it  with  hot  and  weary  eyes 
before  being  blindfolded,  and  seated  upon  the  fatal 
banquillo. 

Passing  the  Church  of  San  Miguel,  and  some  old  domi- 
ciles which  look  like  fortresses,  you  may  visit  if  you  like 
the  Recoleta  or  Metropolitan  Cemetery.      Here  formerly  was 


184  A    GLANCE    AT    BUENOS    AIRES. 

the  Betlilemite  Convent^  whicli  after  the  extinction  of  its 
community  was  turned^  in  1827,  to  some  nse.  Being  far 
too  crowded,  plans  for  enlarging  it  start  up  in  crops,  tlie 
Protestants  would  willingly  have  a  "  finger  in  the  pie/^  but 
the  Reformed  house  is  divided  against  itself,  English  and 
Anglo-Americans,  and  in  short  too  many  interests  are  in- 
volved in  the  matter.  The  ground  is  crushed  by  heavy 
tasteless  masses  of  masonry,  tents,  sentry  boxes,  naval 
columns,  truncated  pillars,  crosses,  crucifixes,  groups  of 
statuary,  and  the  normal  paraphernalia  of  Christian  piety. 
The  poorly  cleaned  surface  abounds  in  hemlock  (cicuta)  and 
rank  grasses :  after  a  few  years  the  bones  are  exhumed  and 
thrown  into  a  corner  hole.  These  young  peoples  should  be 
innovators — why  do  they  not  try  first  of  all  things 
*^  cremation  ?"  A  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons 
pronounced  it,  I  believe,  too  expensive  for  England,  but 
here  surely  a  large  blast  furnace  constructed  on  the  most 
modern  scientific  principles  would  be  economical  enough. 
During  the  present  war  attempts  were  made  to  burn  the 
dead  in  piles  from  50  to  100,  disposed  in  layers  alter- 
nately with  wood.  The  burly  Brazilian  Negro  com- 
plained that  the  Paraguayan  enemy  was  too  lean  to  catch 
fire. 

We  have  now  done  the  city  :  we  have  dined  at  the  Cafe 
de  Paris,  we  have  seen  the  Grand  Opera,  remain  only  the 
Alcazar,  and  the  humours  of  a  Progreso  Ball. 

The  former  is  the  great  resource  for  bachelors  who  do 
not  admire  the  private  concert,  the  tertulia,  the  teafight, 
the  quiet  rubber.  There  are  neither  lecture  rooms  nor 
literary  meetings  in  the  self-styled  '^  Athens  of  South 
America.^^  Let  us  remember  that  we  have  at  home  a  city 
which,  with  equal  impudence,  claims  a  title  which  none 
should  dare  to  bear.  At  the  same  time  the  proportion  of 
libraries  to  billiard-rooms  is  1   to  100,  and  of  libraries  to 


A    GLANCE    AT    BUENOS    AIRES.  185 

pulperias  or  esquinas"^  (drinking  houses)  1  to  150.  The 
Club  reading-rooms,  lit  up  with  gas,  spoil  the  eyesight  : 
the  cafes,  with  itinerant  bands,  make  the  head  ache,  so  men 
go  to  the  "  Cas.'' 

"  Music  Hall,"  writ  large,  arrests  us.  We  pay  $10 
(paper)  for  pit  or  gallery,  and  $20  for  stalls ;  there  is  no 
Cazuela  or  family  tier  set  apart,  and  the  few  feminines 
present  are  the  loudest  of  the  loud.  ^'  Swells "  do  not 
patronize  the  place,  except  when  something  new  is  ex- 
pected— a  singer  or  a  squabble.  So  far,  all  is  inferior  to 
Rio  de  Janeiro,  where  the  Aimee  certainly  excels  the 
Schneider,  and  where  anybody  is  as  good  as  M.  Dupuis. 

The  room  is  a  small  oval  with  a  few  open  boxes  near  the 
stage,  which  is  fronted  by  a  trumpery  orchestra.  Venti- 
lation is  wanting,  and  it  is  no  wonder  that  the  pale  reds 
and  yellows  of  the  house  wear  a  dingy,  bilious,  jaundiced 
hue.  The  audience,  sitting  at  marble  tables,  smoking  rank 
tobacco,  and  drinking  beer  and  liqueurs,  both  equally  vile, 
but  not  cheap  as  the  aspect  suggests,  delights  in  French 
Vaudevilles,  and  songs  a  la  Therese,  in  which  the  most  vio- 
lent action  is  admitted,  and  admired.  M.  and  Mme. 
Cheri  Labouchere  preside  over  the  revels — the  lady  was 
once  pretty — and  the  revels  sometimes  end  roughly.  An 
actress  of  prodigious  girth  once  nearly  caused  a  "  pro- 
nouncement," because  she  would  remain  faithful  to  the 
tenor.  Every  night  saw  its  disturbance,  men  rushing 
wildly  about  the  galleries,  and  jumping  over  tables  and 
benches,  to  escape  a  charge  en  masse  by  the  police,  who 
pursued,  "  sabre  au  poing,"  those  that  dared  indulge  in  hiss 
or  catcall.  After  witnessing  the  actions  and  postures  with 
which  Mme.  Gooz  illustrated  her  song  I  was  not  surprised 

*  The  pulperia  is  the  establishment  of  the  pulpero — grocer,  spirit-dealer, 
and  vendor  of  dry  goods.  It  is  the  venda  further  north  which  I  have 
described  in  the  "  Highlands  of  the  Brazil." 


186  A    GLANCE    AT    BUENOS    AIRES. 

to  hear  that  the  married  women  of  Buenos  Aires  had  in  a 
memorial  to  the  Archbishop^  prayed  him  to  close  the  Al- 
cazar^  or  at  least  to  keep  their  husbands  away  from  it. 
Silly  married  women — as  if  the  remedy  were  not  in  their 
own  hands  ! 

Far  different^  though  situated  in  Alcazar- street _,  are  the 
humours  of  the  "  Progreso  Balls/"'  which  are  frequented  by 
all  the  celebrities  and  somebodies  in  the  city.  The  Club  is 
most  hospitable  in  sending  out  its  invitations,,  and  Mr. 
Constant  Santa  Maria  never  lets  his  countrymen  lack  the 
hint  to  attend.  Socially  considered^  the  Club  Progreso  is  of 
the  highest  order,  the  members  are  the  best  men,  and 
though  its  object  is  of  course  political,  its  opinions  are  not 
extreme.  Physically  it  is  a  handsome  house,  laid  out  more 
in  French  than  in  English  style ;  and  having  been  built  by 
a  Spaniard,  the  basement  floor  is  let  to  shops  and  stores. 

The  ball  hardly  opens  before  1  a.m.,  though  the  local 
dinner  hour  is  5  to  6  p.m. — why  not  make  it  at  once  2  a.m., 
and  snatch  the  "  beauty-sleep^^  before  going  ?  A  few,  very 
few,  heavily  bearded  old  ladies  represent  the  dowager  and 
the  chaperon,  so  perhaps  the  hours  are  not  merely  fashion- 
able and  absurd.  Unmarried  girls  accompany  their  mar- 
ried sisters,  which  savours  of  innocence.  The  toilettes 
greatly  vary,  these  resemble  peignoirs — those  might  be  seen 
at  the  Tuileries.  I  cannot  wax  enthusiastic  about  the 
beauty :  an  Englishwoman  there  suggested  the  lines — 

"  So  shows  a  snowy  dove  trooping  with  crows, 
As  yonder  lady  o'er  her  fellows  shows." 

The  men  are  extensively  *^  got  up ;"  every  cheek  displays 
the  handiwork  of  the  artiste  ;  every  head  has  been  sub- 
jected to  the  curling-irons;  the  dressing-room  is  crowded 
throughout  the  night,  and  at  times  a  youth  in  a  sly  corner 
of  the  ball-room  draws  through  his  wiry  locks  the  furtive 
comb.      Yet,  with  the  exception  of  a  foreigner  or  two,  there 


A    GLANCE   AT    BUENOS    AIRES.  187 

are  no  figures  worthy  of  attention.  The  distinction  of  ranks 
is  here  not  very  perceptible,  and  even  the  emigrants  become 
as  a  rule  exceedingly  Republican.  Girls  of  the  best  families 
may  be  seen  in  stores,  shaking  hands  over  the  counter  and 
chaffing  with  the  shopboys^  whilst  these  may  be  the  sons 
of  ex-Ministers,  and  perhaps  may  become  Ministers  them- 
selves. A  peculiar  familiarity  of  conversation  is  customary  ; 
you  soon  address  D.  Maria  A.  B.  C.  de  Tal  as  D.  Maria, 
and  presently  D.  Maria  as  "  Mariquita/^  whilst  she  honours 
Mr.  Smith  by  interpellating  him  O  Smith  ! 

The  fine  reading-room  of  the  club  is  turned  into  an 
appropriate  dancing  saloon.  The  white  and  yellow  hangings, 
and  the  three  ormolu  chandeliers  are  not  at  all  like  our 
stout  leather -lined  seats,  solid  mahogany  tables,  and 
ponderous  gas-stars.  The  ceiling  is  low,  and  insufficiently 
pierced  with  ventilating  holes;  the  carpet  is  too  soft  for 
anything  but  languid  dancing,  and  silk-covered  ottomans  dis- 
posed, as  sailors  say,  "  athwart  ship,^'  cut  the  long  room  into 
three  small  compartments,  and  absolutely  forbid  rusliing  or 
whisking.  The  thing  is  to  lead  out  some  small  dark  person, 
to  hold  her  moderately  close,  to  twist  mincingly  round  upon 
yourself  some  half  a  dozen  times,  to  stop  with  a  jerk,  and 
then  to  stand  amongst  the  lookers-on.  Young  Buenos 
Aires  is  not  given  to  affecting  manliness.  He  has  still  to 
learn  the  value  of  athletic  sports,  and  to  attend  the  school 
of  arms. 

In  the  red  satin  room  are  refreshments,  tea  and  coffee — 
'^  no  mas.^^  A  little  before  dawn  is  a  succulent  supper,  to 
which  the  sexes  in  couples  sit  down  and  are  served;  the 
single  man  must  wait  till  he  can  serve  himself.  We  look 
round  in  vain  for  flirtation  even  over  the  tea,  or  after  the 
great  event  of  the  evening.  This  form  of  salut  before  the 
real  assaut  d'armes  apparently  awaits  introduction.  A 
grand  serieux  is  the  humour,  except  when  the  normal  French 


188  A    GLANCE    AT    BUENOS    AIRES. 

attache  shows  his  inevitable  liveliness,  or  when  some  model 
Britisher  shuffles  off  his  usually  inevitable  phlegm. 

If  I  have  written  in  this  letter  anything  to  offend  Buenos 
Aires  or  the  Buenos  Aireans,  you  will,  I  am  sure,  allow  me 
to  withdraw  it  and  to  beg  pardon.  Amongst  the  thousand 
places  which  store  my  cabinet  of  memory  there  is  none 
that  stands  more  favourably  than  the  Platine  capital. 
The  peculiar  heartiness  with  which  all,  Argentines  as  well  as 
foreigners,  receive  the  traveller  ;  the  friendliness  with  which 
he  is  admitted  to  their  homes  and  made  free  of  their  insti- 
tutions ;  and  their  anxiety  to  gratify  his  wishes;  to  cicerone 
him ;  to  forward  his  pursuits  ;  in  fact,  to  make  him  happy 
as  well  as  comfortable,  are  not  to  be  equalled  in  any  city 
that  I  have  yet  visited.  We  are  apt  to  take  these  things 
at  the  time  as  matters  of  course.  Perhaps  we  are  often 
vain  enough  to  assume  them  the  tribute  paid  to  our 
remarkable  merits.  But  all  this  falls  away  when  we  have 
leisure  to  reflect — to  look  back — and  modestly  to  recognise 
the  real  benevolence  and  politeness  which  prompt  the 
gratifying  reception.  The  weeks  that  I  passed  at  Buenos 
Aires  will  ever  be  remembered  by  me  with  that  pleasure 
with  which  on  a  wintry  day  we  recall  to  mind  the  sweet 
savour  of  perfumed  spring.      Con  que — Adios. 


LETTER   VII. 

UP  THE  URUGUAY  RIVER,  AND  VISIT  TO  GENERAL  URQUJZA, 

Buenos  Aires,  October  17,  1868. 

My  dear  Z , 

It  will  be  better,  in  telling  my  tale  of 
Paraguay,  to  sacrifice  the  unity  of  place  to  that  of  time ;  and 
instead  of  proceeding  straight  to  the  seat  of  war,  as  I  did 
in  August,  1868,  to  inspect  at  once  the  sites  where  the 
war  began.  The  line  of  the  Uruguay  River  will  show  us 
that  ^^  terrible  worthy^^  General  Urquiza,  in  his  Pampa 
Palace  j  Paysandu  still  seared  with  the  scars  of  siege,  and 
other  ^'places  with  names.'^ 

So  one  breezy,  blowy  morning  (Tuesday,  October  6) 
when  the  north  wind  was  out,  and  the  Garua  or  Scotch 
mist  was  down  on  the  world,  we  boarded,  plunging,  rolling, 
and  dashing,  the  Campania  Saltena^s  steamer,  Rio  Uruguay j 
Captain  Panasco,  of  Tenerife,  a  civil  man  and  a  good  sailor — 
happily  not  Benito  Magnasco,  an  Italian,  bilious  and  surly, 
who  is  the  reverse  of  both.  The  party  consisted  of  Dr. 
Gibbings,  an  estanciero  or  landowner  settled  in  the 
province  of  Buenos  Aires,  and  his  son,  who  had  preferred 
being  Postmaster  in  Entre  Bios  to  the  disagreeable  alter- 
native of  becoming  a  "  personero,'^  un  conscrit.  Messrs. 
Maxwell  and  Johnston — names  mentioned  before — were  to 
accompany  us  halfway,  and  then  to  regain  the  Banda 
Oriental.  Finally,  Mr.  Power,  from  the  South  of  Ireland, 
kept  us  in  fun  till  the  day  of  parting,  when  he  went  ofi*  sky- 
rocketing to  prepare  for  a  sail  up  the  Paraguay  Biver. 

We  steam  towards  the  Outer  Boads,  and  the  low  stretch 


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 — the  practical  pilot  who 

made    observations — 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 — much  like  a  flattish  spoon  and 


VISIT   TO    GENERAL    URQUIZA.  191 

handle — has  its  own  history.  Here  the  War  of  Independence 
hegan  in  1810,  and  the  islet  was  carried  from  a  force  of 
seventy  Spaniards  and  three  gnns  by  Lieut.  Caparroza 
and  eighteen  Patricio  dragoons.  A  novel  and  interesting 
use  for  the  "  equine^"*  is  that  of  storming  fortified  and  insu- 
lated posts.  In  '^  Argentine  Gleanings^'  we  read  of  "  horses 
making  brick  !" — of  "  horses  thrashing  corn !" — of  '^  horses 
churning  butter  !''  I  may  add,  horses  defending  coasts 
and  leading  forlorn  hopes  (see  Muratori) — horses  attacking 
frigates  (witness  the  Spanish  Mer curio,  grounded  in  1810) 
— horses  clearing  earthworks  (so  did  the  gallant  Osorio^s 
cavalry  at  Humaita) — and  horses  assaulting  steam-engines, 
as  happened  to  the  ''  railway  battery/^  of  which  we  shall 
presently  hear  more. 

In  1814,  the  Irishman,  Admiral  Brown,  successfully  ran 
past  the  batteries — a  feat  in  which  he  was  often  rivalled 
by  Garibaldi — yet  the  French  squadron  was  subsequently 
checked  by  half  a  company  of  wounded  men  under  command 
of  Colonel  Cortanses.  The  gallant  Argentine  was  taken  in 
the  war,  made  prisoner,  and  sent  to  Dictator  Kosas  by  the 
French  admiral,  with  the  Gallican  epigram  "  Glory  to  the 
Conquered.^^  Two  other  Argentine  soldiers,  Mayer  and 
Villanueva,  who  subsequently  became  well  known  in  Prussia 
and  Mexico,  here  began  their  careers  :  the  people  still  show 
a  quarry  into  which  a  Neapolitan  Sappho,  who  lived  in  the 
island,  threw  herself  after  the  departure  of  Phaon  Mayer. 
In  1859,  the  brothers  Cordero  again  ran  their  squadrons 
in  safety  past  the  four  batteries,  and  proved  how  trifling 
an  obstacle  would  be  ''  Martin  Garcia^'  against  ironclads. 
Finally,  here  stands,  in  books,  the  Argyropolis  of  President 
Sarmiento :  and  if  the  Argentine  Confederation  wants  a 
distinct  Columbia  and  a  City  Washington,  by  all  means 
place  it  in  this  pocket  Botany  Bay. 

Martin  Garcia  once  belonged  to  Banda  Oriental,  now  she 


192  UP    THE    URUGUAY    RIVER,    AND 

is  attaclied  to  Buenos  Aires.  The  block  of  desirable  building 
material  is  forbidden  by  treaty  to  be  fortified.  Therefore  we 
find  the  water-line  girt  round  with  ruined  batteries.  To  the 
south-east  and  behind  the  point,,  we  see  what  may  easily  be 
reconverted  into  a  redoubt.  The  next  is  a  strong  post  at  the 
point  with  embrasures  for  five  guns.  The  third  may  be 
called  the  Flagstaff  Battery ;  it  is  on  a  scarped  bank  thirty 
feet  above  the  water,  with  yellow  battlements,  accommo- 
dating nine  or  ten  guns,  and  space  for  more.  Lastly,  below 
the  Commandante^s  quarters  there  is  a  fourth  redoubt 
without  guns.  The  rest  of  the  scene  consists  of  three  flag- 
stavesj  barracks,  and  white  houses^  gardens,  fields,  and  a 
few  patches  of  shady-looking  vegetation,  thin  grass  pricking 
up  amongst  the  rocks  and  stones. 

We  enter  the  barless  mouth  of  the  Rio  Uruguay  at  Las 
Vacas,  an  artless  name  which  has  been  vulgarized  to  Car- 
melo :  even  so  Higueritas,  ^*  Figlets/^  has  Howardized  itself 
to  "  Nueva  Palmira^^ — and  what  a  Palmyra !  Presently 
we  shall  have  New  Romes,  Memphises,  Thebeses,  and  so 
forth.  We  halt  at  Fray  Bento^s,  a  little  place  on  the 
eastern  bank,  facing  the  stream  which  haughtily  calls  itself 
Gualeguaichu.  Some  philologists  render  the  euphonious 
term,  also  written  Gualeyuay-chu,  ^'  Little  River,^^  others 
'^  Little  Devil.'-'  My  learned  friend  Dr.  J.  M.  Grutierrez 
translates  Gua  line,  stripe,  or  blot ;  Guai,  diminutive  of 
painted,  and  Chue,  a  land  tortoise.  Thus  the  name  would 
mean  "  stream  of  the  striped  terrapin .''  He  casts  out 
the  second  syllable  ("  le,"')  remarking  that,  according  to 
P.  Montoya,  the  Jesuit  author  of  the  best  Guarani 
Dictionary,  the  language  had  no  " \" 

The  Fray,  after  a  long  hot  youth  of  very  dubious  pro- 
priety, has  of  late  years  cut  his  wise  teeth,  and  is  now  greasy 
and  redolent  of  the  roti,  as  becomes  his  cloth.  He  has  taken 
up  '^  Extractum  Carnis,''  the  great  invention  of  the  great 


VISIT    TO    GENEKAL    UllQUlZA.  193 

Professor  Barou  Justus  von  Liebig.  It  is  a  kind  of  liquid 
sirloiu,  which  makes  a  manner  of  beef-tea  "  much  im- 
proved/' says  the  advertisement,  "  by  the  addition  of  a 
little  fresh  butter,  a  slice  of  hot  or  cold  ham,  beef,  or 
mutton,  with  spices  according  to  taste."  This  recipe,  which 
makes  it  an  assistant  to  itself,  reminds  me  of  the  Irish  recipe 
for  making  "  stone  soup" — boiling  water,  with  meat  and 
vegetables  ad  libitum.  I  tried  Extractum  Carnis,  and 
found  it  detestable,  gluey,  empyreumatic,  with  an  inde- 
scribable unzest  like  that  of  over-toasted  bread.  In  large 
doses  it  poisons,  as  does  nicotine,  and  at  best  it  is  fit  only 
for  thickening.  But  "  simple  processes  for  the  preservation 
of  meat"  seem  almost  as  simple  as  making  diamonds,  or  as 
permuting  base  metal  to  gold.  So  all  fortune  to  ye  who 
would  supply  fresh  meat  for  the  roast  beef  of  Old  England. 
Steam  your  stuff  into  cakes,  D.  Carlos  Lix  !  Compress 
hydraulically  Messrs.  Muiioz  and  Company  !  Inject  Chlo- 
ride of  Sodium  into  the  aorta,  Messrs.  Morgan  and  Oliden, 
versus  Messrs.  Medlock  and  Bayly,  cum  Dr.  Kernot  with 
bisulphide  of  calcium  !  Deal  mysteriously  with  charqui 
by  dark  processes  Messrs.  de  Maria  and  Ariza,  Messrs. 
Lermitte  and  Biraben  !  Smoke  dry,  Mr.  Wilhelm  Miiller, 
your  "  moot'n  'awms  !"  Though  results  be  as  yet  next  door 
to  "  nil,"  I  will  suggest  nil  desperandum.  When  you  shall 
feed  your  cattle  with  oil-cake  and  pressed  aUalfa^  instead  of 
killing  it  when  fresh  from  poor  grass,  fibreless  and  over- 
heated by  long  driving,  man  shall  in  the  length  of  time 
achieve  conserves  of  beef.  As  yet,  however,  I  prefer  to 
'^  Ext.  Car."  a  glass  of  the  smallest  beer. 

Before  turning  in  we  studied  for  a  while  the  fair  features 
of  the  River  Uruguay,  also  known,  as  the  River  of  the 
Missions.  The  name  is  translated  by  some  stream  of  the 
Cachuelas  or  Rapids,  by  others  w^ater  of  the  Uru  bird — 
the   Charrua  name   of  an  aquatic.      Every  river,  like  every 

13 


194  UP   THE   URUGUAY   RIVER,    AND 

mountain — M.  Michelet  answers  for  the  latter,  I  for  the 
former — has  his  or  her  distinct  physiognomy.  Let  us  com- 
pare masculine  Uruguay  with  the  Parana,  which,  at  least  be- 
tween the  Paraguay  junction  and  the  Delta,  is  palpably  and 
distinctly  feminine.  The  former  is  raw-boned  with  rock- 
rib,  muscular  with  rolling  green  '^  loma^"*— swelling  ground 
and  hillock — which  shall  presently  become  hill  and  moun- 
tain ;  sinewy  with  high  sandstone  banks,  rough-skinned  with 
white  grit,  and  hirsute  with  thin  willow,  giant  grasses,  and 
grand  forest  growth.  The  latter,  Parana,  is  of  the  "  long 
and  lazy ''  order  of  feminine  loveliness  ;  a  kind  of  sleepy 
Venus  like  a  certain  Dudu;  a  broad-bosomed  daughter  of 
Amphitrite  reposing  in  the  softest  of  osier  beds  ;  a  placid 
smiling  Princess,  who  has  never  heard  of  revolution,  or  of 
kings  and  queens  retired  from  business. 

Geographically  and  politically,  Uruguay  is  Brazilian,  fed 
by  the  copious  rains  of  the  ''  Empire  of  the  Southern 
Cross  •/'  therefore  is  he  tolerably  sweet  and  wholesome,  not 
to  say  clear  and  clean — at  any  rate  the  dirt  is  clean  dirt. 
Parana,  three-quarters  rain  to  one-quarter  snow,  contains 
dirty  dirt,  salts  washed  from  the  saleratus  deserts,  and  the 
mineralized  soils  of  the  lower  Andes  :  in  parts  therefore  the 
waters  are  not  drunk.  Both  are  equally  pesculent,  both 
are  barless,  both  will  supply  timber-rafts  more  valuable 
than  any  on  the  Rhine,  both  average  in  flood  two  and  a 
half  knots  per  hour,  and  both  have  water  power  enough 
to  give  an  engineer  dynamical  dreams.  In  both,  as  the 
slope  flattens  the  curves  become  sharper,  or  what  is  equiva- 
lent, the  greater  the  volume  of  water,  the  straighter-  are 
the  reaches.  But  the  accurate  observation  of  instruments 
must  determine  this  question,  and  here  I  stop,  otherwise 
Messrs.  Fergusson  and  Tremenheere,  who  have  lately  done 
deadly  battle  in  the  Journal  of  the  R.  G.  Society,  will  deal 
with  me  as  did  the  rival  editors  with  a  certain  old  friend^ — 


VISIT    TO    GENERAL    URQUIZA.  195 

will   battle  over  me  as   Dr.  E.  Gray   and  Professor  Owen 
battled  over  Paul  du  Chaillu. 

At  4  A.M.  a  puffing  steam-tender  runs  alongside  the 
"  Rio  Uruguay  •/'  her  object  is  to  carry  off  the  live  freight 
destined  for  "  Concepcion/''  capital  of  Uruguay.  We  must 
run  down  to  the  south-west ;  we  must  work  up  to  the 
north-east,  and  thus  we  must  cover  some  two  leagues  of 
creek.  A  riverine  islet,  a  swamp  and  a  branch  stream  thus 
trouble  us,  whilst  the  few  houses  and  the  pepper-castor 
dome  of  the  Matriz  towering  above  the  tree  avenues  of  the 
right  bank,  are  apparently  distant  about  a  mile.  It  is 
gi'ey-dark,  we  have  amongst  us  some  twenty  "  colis," 
and  the  stewards  are  sleepy-headed  as  ourselves — even  fees 
fail  to  rouse  them.  We  shift  to  the  cuddy  or  cabin  of  the 
Baby,  whose  air  (which  can  be  cut)  is  mainly  composed  of 
garlic  and  onions,  tobacco,  strong  waters,  and  Basques  in 
equal  parts.  We  take  mate  scientifically  compounded  by 
Mr.  Postmaster  Willy  Gibbings,  and  with  steady  nose- 
melody  we  join  the  assembly,  jolly  as  a  funeral. 

Our  destination  is  a  "  Puerto"  consisting,  as  in  the  Brazil, 
of  a  clearing  in  the  river-bank,  and  nothing  else.  We  land 
upon  quartz,  rock-crystal,  agate,  amethyst-gangue,  chalce- 
dony, jasper,  and  other  forms  of  silex,  which  Uruguay 
sweeps  down  from  his  highland  cradle,  and  wherewith  he 
bestrews  Entre  Bios  as  well  as  Banda  Oriental.  You  are 
duly  warned  not  again  to  sink  capital  in  Oberstein  cameos, 
and  pay  for  them  the  prices  of  Italian  gems :  they  are  most 
probably  the  produce  of  remote  Uruguay. 

A  cart  carries  up  our  belongings  and  the  carter  touches 
his  hat  to  us.  We  observe  generally  that  the  stolid 
equality  of  dead-level  Buenos  Aires  is  here  in  abeyance. 
Scant  care  is  required  for  our  baggage — are  we  not  under 
the  protecting  wing  of  H.  E.  General  D.  Justo  Urquiza, 
Governor  and  Laird  of  Entre  Rios  ?     Perhaps  the  absence  of 

13—2 


196  UP    THE   URUGUAY    RIVER,   AND 

independence,  robbery,  and  murder  bas  somewhat  depressed 
tbe  spirit  of  tbe  capital.  Concepcion  del  Uruguay  bas  a 
eburcb  of  normal  size  and  shape,  visited  every  Sunday  by 
the  Laird^  the  Laird^s  lady,  and  the  Laird^s  family,  but 
it  cannot  be  described  as  finished.  There  is  the  usual 
square,  with  the  inevitable  obelisk,  surrounded  by  stunted 
'^  Paradise  trees,^'  and  furnished  with  brick  walks,  somewhat 
rare  in  these  country  places.  A  kind  of  Pompey^s  Pillar  in 
stucco  composite  is  set  in  a  field  of  the  rankest  weeds  and 
grasses.  The  streets,  where  not  overgrown  with  poisonous 
cicuta  and  other  wild  vegetation,  are  lines  of  black  mud_, 
like  those  that  span  the  amene  suburbs  of  ^'  young  Athens  /' 
and  they  are  ever  deadly-lively  as  the  thoroughfares  of  New 
York  on  a  hot  '^  Sabbath^''  afternoon.  The  distances  are 
truly  magnificent — the  mile  may  average  three  tenements, 
and  the  connexion  is  by  rough  posts  and  wires  or  bands, 
like  those  that  secure  cotton-bales.  Amongst  a  few  good 
houses  are  lumpy  detached  boxes  of  the  worst  bricks,  which 
are  piled  up  without  breaking  the  joint,  whilst  the  surface 
is  rarely  whitewashed.  The  cottages  are  mere  bandboxes, 
a  long  stifi"  rush  (Junco)  being  used  for  the  walls  and  a 
short  soft  grass  for  thatch.  Such  is  Concepcion.  Throw  in 
a  building  where  big  balls  have  been  given,  a  Hotel  du 
Commerce,  kept  by  a  civil  Frenchwoman,  who  has  spent 
twenty-four  years  in  this  lively  corner  of  the  world,  and  a 
Cafe  de  Paris,  whose  charges  are  half  those  of  exorbitant 
Buenos  Aires,  whilst  the  reception  is  at  least  thrice  as  civil 
— et  vHd,  as  exclaims  the  gar9on  bringing  in  the  breakfast 
carte. 

The  staple  solid  here  is  a  blanket  piece  of  beef-rib,  written 
Asado  and  pronounced  Asa^o.  Not  having  had  my  teeth 
case-hardened  and  steel-tipped  before  visiting  Argentine- 
land,  I  have  found  it  pleasant  to  masticate  as  indiarubber 
might  be.    Perhaps  its  very  toughness  and  the  meaty  flavour 


VISIT    TO    GENERAL    UllQUIZA.  197 

of  the  meat — even  as  freshly  caught  salmon  is  exceptionally 
fishy  and  new-laid  eggs  are  remarkably  eggy — form  the 
main  of  its  merits.  The  eupeptic  African  chooses  for  you, 
when  hospitably  disposed,  the  veteran  rooster  of  the  poultry 
yard,  the  venerablest  patriarch  of  the  goats  :  that  takes  long 
to  masticate ;  this  has  the  highest  haut  gout.  The  Asado  is 
the  nearest  approach  to  the  raw  beef  of  Abyssinia,  and  you 
may  eat  it  in  the  self-same  style  with  your  snick-and-snee 
shaving  your  nose  tip.  It  should  be  washed  down  with  a 
cow^s  horn  full  of  muddy  water.  I  know  only  one  thing 
worse  than  the  Asado,  and  that  is  the  Matambre,  whose 
relation  is  that  of  garlic  to  onion.  But  it  is  the  fashion  to 
speak  succulently  of  the  Asa^o.  "  St.  Antonio  himself  could 
not  have  resisted  the  temptation  of  an  Asa^o/^  says  a  tra- 
veller who  makes  his  attendant  address  him — "  Oh  !  Don 
Enriquez,  query  el  Cafife  V  (Pix)h  pudor  !)  Sir  Francis 
Head  tells  us  that  Asa^o  and  Yerba,  the  most  "  lasting'''  of 
diet,  enabled  him  to  ride  liO  miles  a  day,  and  readily  to 
recover  from  heavy  falls  ;  also  that  the  Gauchos  can  select 
tender  bits  from  meat  that  no  Englishman  could  manage. 
It  is  the  fashion  to  eat  game  that  taints  and  cheese  that 
walks  :  it  is  now  the  fashion  to  carry  the  "  polisson"  outside, 
to  wear  Hessians,  and  to  display  the  tassels.      Basta  ! 

We  bargain  down,  or  rather  Dr.  Gibbiugs  bargains  down, 
a  carriage  to  three  dollars  Bolivian  (each  3^.  3i/.),  say  half 
a  sovereign  per  head.  Coachman,  a  berry -brown  boy  about 
twelve  years  old,  who  answers  to  "  Amiguito,"'  sturdily 
handles  the  ribbons  of  the  quadriga,  the  four  mules  or 
horses  being  all  abreast.  Galloping  over  the  springy  turf, 
not  the  mud  called  a  road,  we  change  nags  at  the  frontier 
of  D.  Justo''s  little  estate.  We  visit  a  Gaucho's  ranch  to 
take  mate  and  notes ;  and  we  shake  hands  with  his  wife,  a 
middle-aged  body  whose  prehensile  member  feels — the  com- 
parison belongs  to  the  lively  Mr.  Power — like  a  half-alive 


198  UP    THE    URUGUAY    RIVER,    AND 

trout ;  tills  style  of  manuquassation  is  here,  they  say,  the 
thing.  We  find  the  prairie  gallop  interesting.  This  Me- 
sopotamian  Campo  appears  picturesque  after  the  dull,  dead 
flats,  the  treeless  plains  south  of  Buenos  Aires,  where  high 
winds  and  low  rainfall  produce  a  modification  of  the  Arabian 
desert.  The  ground  is  disposed  in  long  billows,  gently 
rolling  down  from  the  highlands  of  the  Brazil ;  ^'  Monte^^ 
clothes  the  bottoms,  and  on  the  uplands  solitary  ombus 
(Ficus  ombu)  shed  their  dense  cool  shade,  suggesting  from 
alar  English  oaks.  The  sun  sucks-the  earth,  but  the  clear, 
uright  air  shows  distances  well  defined  as  those  of  Salisbury 
Downs  on  a  fine  October  day.  The  one  bad  banado  or 
swamp  does  not  let  or  injure  us,  although  the  corrals  or 
paddocks,  and  the  rodeos  or  gathering  grounds  for  cattle, 
are  knee-deep  in  bone-dirt  and  mire.  Thin  cattle  and 
thinner  sheep  browse  upon  the  grass,  which  is  coarse  and 
luxuriant,  and  the  ground  is  scattered  with  domes,  barrow- 
shaped  ant-hills  large  and  small.  Pufling  up  their  wings  and 
tail  plumes,  male  ostriches  troop  leisurely  away  from  us, 
fearing  no  "  bolas^' — the  hens  are  mostly  laying  in  the  bush, 
also  under  the  protecting  wing  of  D.  Justo.  Even  the 
^'  tero-tero,^^  or  horned  plover,  appears  exceptionally  secure 
as  he  hovers  overhead,  screaming  abuse  at  the  intruders. 

After  a  four  hours^  drive,  now  down,  then  along  an  avenue 
of  young  ombiis,  we  sight  the  twin  towers  of  a  Pampa 
palace,  whose  architect  is  D.  Justo  himself.  "  San  Jose^^ 
will  startle  those  who  have  not  seen  Mr.  Hutchinson^s  de- 
scription, or  the  sketch  of  Colonel  du  Graty.  In  due  time 
the  tall  fa9ade  rises  in  view ;  then  appear  the  garden  and 
the  aviaries,  which  contain  even  African  lories  and  rosy- 
crested  Leadbeater  cockatoos.  On  the  right  are  the  hut 
lines  occupied  by  the  single  battalion  of  gunners — ruSians 
kept  in  prime  order  by  throat-cutting.  Turkeys  and  other 
poultry  strut  about,  the  Laird   being   the   only  person  that 


VISIT  TO    GENERAL    URQUIZA.  199 

can  keep  them.  Near  the  entrance  are  kennelled  "  tigers/' 
that  is  to  say  spotted  ounces  opposed  to  the  concolor  puma 
or  lion.  We  send  in  our  names  with  due  ceremony,  and 
we  are  at  once  invited  to  enter  the  main  gate.  On  the 
right  is  the  chapel,  with  Italian  font,  poor  European  pic- 
tures, gold  and  silver  ornaments,  rich  Barcelona  dresses, 
and  "  Cortado^'  embroidery  exceptionally  fine.  The  left 
steeple  is  the  Froveduria,  storehouse,  grocery,  groggery,  and 
body-guard  house. 

I  shall  say  little  about  the  palace,  upon  which  a  dozen 
pens  have  exercised  themselves.  Dr.  Victorica,  a  connexion 
of  D.  Justo,  who  had  kindly  preceded  the  party,  placed  us 
under  the  charge  of  the  Sargento  Mor,  D.  Carlos  Calvo  ; 
state  rooms  in  the  inner  court  were  found  for  us,  and,  after 
a  few  minutes,  we  were  summoned  to  an  interview.  This 
was  an  unusual  attention,  some  visitors  having  been  kept 
waiting  for  a  week.  The  owner  met  us  at  the  entrance  of 
a  long  narrow  saloon,  garnished  with  the  usual  sofas  and 
chairs ;  the  only  remarkable  part  was  the  ceiling,  divided  by 
woodwork  into  compartments  of  mirrors,  below  which  hung 
a  Saint  Andrew's  Cross  of  tinted  fly-paper.  I  made  my 
compliments,  expressing  in  all  sincerity  my  pleasure  at 
seeing  a  name  so  well  known  thi'oughout  the  civilized  world  : 
D.  Justo  received  this  little  tribute  with  a  bow  and  a 
smile,  welcomed  and  shook  hands  with  the  whole  party, 
and  seated  us  near  him  upon  the  settee,  opposite  his  full- 
length  portrait,  which  painters  persist  in  making  too 
grim. 

I  was  curious  to  see  and  narrowly  observed  this  latest 
specimen  of  the  feudal  chief,  a  man  whose  history  is  that 
of  the  Argentine  Confederation,  when  he  was  Protector  of 
the  Provinces — that  is  to  say,  Provisional  Director  of  the 
Commonwealth;  and  who  as  early  as  1853  (July  10)  had 
in  the  name  of  his  country  signed  with  England  and  France 


200  UP    THE    URUGUAY  RIVER,    AND 

a  treaty  opening  np  tlie  Rio  Parana  to   all  flags — then  a 
great  desideratum. 

General  Urquiza  is  a  short,  thickset  man  about  sixty,  of 
bilious-nervous  complexion,  rather  dark,  with  light  brown 
and  very  vivacious  eyes,  a  closely  fitting  mouth,  and  broad 
strong  jaws  and  chin.  He  wears  his  whisker  a  l^Anglaise, 
which  is  in  fact  the  Portuguese,  Spanish,  and  old  French 
style  still  found  in  country  parts  :  his  side  hair,  which  is 
dyed,  covers  the  deficiencies  of  the  centre,  and  his  dress  is 
that  of  the  Latin  races,  black  from  head  to  foot.  I  won- 
dered at  his  excitable  gesticulations,  and  glances  flashing  on 
every  occasion,  a  something  so  far  from  Castilian  repose. 
But  presently  I  called  to  mind  that  he  was  a  Basque,  whose 
father  had  emigrated  to  South  America,  and  had  long  kept 
a  small  store  at  Corrientes.  His  life  is  simple  in  the  ex- 
treme. He  rises  with  the  light,  and  holds  a  ''  durbar ''  to 
settle  the  causes  of  his  Entre  Rianos,  who,  though  excel- 
lent fighting  men,  and  after  the  Portenos,  the  best  looking 
of  Argentines,  require  riding  on  the  tightest  of  curbs.  He 
dines  or  rather  breaks  his  fast  at  noon,  and  he  sups  at 
dark,  rarely  with  his  family  except  to  honour  a  guest.  Soup 
and  puchero  (bouilli),  poultry,  and  sweetmeats  compose  the 
meals,  he  never  smokes,  and  he  drinks  water,  which  is 
here  muddy.  At  one  time  he  was  a  vegetarian,  and  Mr. 
Mansfield  approved  of  him  for  the  all-sufficient  reason  that 
besides  not  being  one  of  his  ^'  poor  carnivorous  creatures,-*' 
he  was  a  teetotaller. 

Of  late  years  General  Urquiza  has  devoted  himself  to 
the  improvement  of  an  estate  which,  containing  50  +  10 
leagues  or  3,600,000  acres,  is  larger  than  many  an  English 
county.  He  is  said  to  own  200,000  sheep  and  800,000 
head  of  cattle,  whose  annual  increase  must  be  at  least  10 
per  cent.  :  he  slaughters  80,000  head  at  $8  each,  which 
represents    an    income   of    125,000/.       Grease    and    wool. 


VISIT    TO    GENERAL    URQUTZA.  201 

salt  meat,  hair  and  hides,  raise  this  to  225,000/.,  and  the 
value  of  the  property  is  supposed  to  double  every  five  years. 
Public  report  makes  him  worth  1,000,000/.  to  1,200,000/., 
but  it  knows  about  him,  I  presume,  more  than  he  knows 
himself.  He  is  not  a  good  paymaster,  his  peons  are  often 
six  months  in  arrears,  and  his  agents,  like  the  publishers  of 
M.  de  Balzac,  court  ruination.  The  greater  part  of  his 
wealth  was  made  by  supplying  cattle  and  horses  to  the 
Allies,  a  profit  of  which  his  Eutre  Riano  subjects  were  allowed 
to  partake.  It  is  no  wonder  that  he  withdrew  his  contin- 
gent from  the  war. 

It  is  curious  to  hear  this  "  despot,^'  who  can  stiU  raise 
his  10,000  men,  talking  quietly  like  a  respectable  country 
squire  of  his  land  improvements,  of  the  wine  made  upon 
his  estate,  and  of  his  model  dairy.  Encouraged  by  the 
Gualeguay  Railway,  the  cheapest  in  South  America,  and 
laid  down  by  Mr.  J.  Coghlan,  C.E.,  under  3000/.  per  mile, 
he  proposes  to  connect  his  palace  with  the  port  of  Con- 
cepcion.  Depending  upon  opinion  from  without,  he  wishes 
to  stand  well  with  all  foreigners,  and  he  proposes  to  establish 
twin  colonies  on  two  and  a  half  square  leagues  to  the  north 
and  south,  in  sight  of  San  Jose.  Can  this  be  the  man  who 
once  ordered  the  English  in  Entre  Rios  to  shave  their 
beards  lest  the  hair  should  form  the  offensive  letter  U  ?* 
Can  we  be  chatting  with  the  ''  Gaucho^''  who  staked  down 
an  enemy  for  some  nine  years,  who  sat  his  horse  sucking 
mate  whilst  hundreds  of  human  throats  were  being  cut 
before  his  eyes,  who  ranked  at  one  time  highest  of  the 
four  great  "  Caudillos''— viz.,  Lopez   of  Santa  Fe  (1820-33, 

*  The  motto  of  General  Rosas  was — 

"  Murien  los  selvajes  Unitarios." 
That  of  General  Urquiza — 

"  Defendemos  la  ley  Federal  jurada, 
Son  traidores  los  que  la  combaten." 


202  UP   THE   URUGUAY    RIVER,    AND 

poisoned)^  Ibarra  of  Santiago  (1822-43),  Quiroga  of  La 
Rioja  (1825-37,  assassinated),  and  Rosas  of  Buenos  Aires 
(1830-52,  banished)  ?  I  remembered  witb  some  amuse- 
ment tbe  comparison  of  tbe  tenacious,  energetic,  impetuous, 
unscrupulous  Basque  with  tbe  stiff,  cold,  un genial,  and 
highly  moral  old  man  of  Mount  Vernon. 

The  preliminary  interview  over.  General  Urquiza 
showed  us,  under  the  arcades  of  the  first  or  eastern  court, 
fresco  representations  of  his  battles,  done  by  an  Italian  of 
more  pluck  than  skill.  Here  at  Caseros  fight,  distinguished 
by  a  white  overcloth  and  chimney-pot  hat,  he  leads  his  thick 
red  line  of  ponchoed  men  to  victory.  There  at  Vences  he 
lands  his  cavalry  across  the  river  in  compact  bodies :  under 
his  rule  there  were  no  "  dispersos^^  or  "  pasados" — stragglers 
or  deserters — upon  the  principle  that  made  Marshal  Narvaez 
leave  no  enemies.  He  then  conducted  us  to  the  garden 
west  of  his  palace,  and  showed  us  araucarias  and  cypresses, 
oranges  straw-swathed  to  keep  out  the  cold,  and  pears  and 
fruit-trees  close  shaved  that  the  sap  might  have  the  less 
way  to  travel.  We  then  visited  the  two  large  tanks,  one  a 
bathing-place  for  the  family,  deep  enough  in  the  centre  for 
pisciculture,  and  provided  with  a  sailing  boat  and  a  hand- 
paddle  gig.  The  second  was  dry,  and  served  as  a  corral  to 
contain  half- wild  cattle  when  a  branding  festival  is  to  be 
given.  Between  the  two  is  a  neat  pavilion,  whose  summit 
shows  the  line  of  the  Gualeguaichu  River,  and  the  thick 
dark  grove  of  Acacia  and  Mimosa  ^^  Monte,^^  which  extends 
to  Montiel. 

D.  Justo  having  wisely  ascertained  from  our  introductor 
that  I  was  not  a  "  traidor,"  here  sat  down  and  chatted  en 
tete-a-tete  in  Spanish,  the  only  language  which  he  speaks. 
Part  of  the  conversation  may  be  repeated.  The  General 
openly  declared,  that  had  not  Marshal- President  Lopez  in- 
vaded Corrientes,  which  he  looked  upon  as  a  portion  of  his 


VISIT    TO    GENERAL    URQUIZA.  203 

Mesopotamia,  he  would  have  aided  him  with  15_,000  men 
against  the  Macacos,  or  Monkeys.  The  latter  is  here  the 
popular  term  for  the  Brazilians,  even  as  their  own  Tupys 
knew  the  Negros  as  '^  Macacos  da  terra/^  ground  (not  tree) 
monkeys.  This  was  the  truth,  but  not  the  whole  truth. 
General  Urquiza,  who  was  Captain- General  of  the  Argen- 
tine army,  had  been  named  to  an  inferior  command, 
"  Superior  Officer  of  the  Entre  Rios  cavalry,^'  by  President 
Mitre,  who  proposed  to  be  himself  Commander-in-Chief  of 
the  Allies.  Moreover,  General  Lopez  had  disappointed  him 
by  promising  men,  ships,  and  money,  to  aid  him  in  besieg- 
ing Buenos  Aires ;  furthermore,  as  an  arbitrator  after  the 
battle  of  Pavon,  the  former  had  not  been  a  friend  to 
Urquiza.  The  latter  must  have  known  that  any  rival  as- 
sisting to  forward  the  ambitious  views  of  the  Marshal-Pre- 
sident of  Paraguay  would  have  been  used  and  shot.  I 
hardly  liked  to  ask  why  in  dispersing  his  long-promised 
contingent  that  was  marching  upon  Uruguayana,  he  had 
trodden  so  perilously  near  the  brink  of  high  treason — a 
position  which  he  had  generally  avoided  since  his  overthrow 
in  1853.  He  was  at  that  time  probably  undecided  as  to 
his  part.  The  sole  reason  why  the  Brazil  instead  of  wasting 
gold  on  the  Platine  Provinces,  did  not  make  Bio  Grande  do 
Sul  their  base  of  operations,  was  the  reasonable  fear,  that  in 
case  of  a  check  by  Paraguay,  the  latter  would  command  the 
assistance  of  one  that  never  wished  her  well.  D.  Justo 
spoke  sensibly  and  in  a  soldier-like  way  about  the  cam- 
paign. He  declared  the  Conde  de  Porto- Alegre  (Joaquim 
Marques  de  Souza),  ex- Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Imperial 
Army,  to  be  its  best  general ;  unfortunately  he  is  a  Liberal, 
and  a  Conservative  Government  must  have  its  own  Giulai. 
He  gave  the  Brazilians  24,000  men  in  the  field,  and  the 
Paraguayans  20,000,  or  nearly  double  the  vulgar  estimate ; 
finally,  he   predicted    that    if   the    empire    failed    in    this 


204  UP    THE    URUGUAY    RIVER,    AND 

campaign,    her     southern     provinces    would     become     re- 
publican. 

Never  leaving  home,  and  being  visited  by  strangers  from 
all  quarters,  General  Urquiza  has  a  right  to  hold  himself  a 
man  of  note  ;  his  family  naturally  think  him  the  first  in 
the  vrorld ;  and  his  flatterers  declare  that  but  for  the 
fault  of  Marshal-President  Lopez,  he  would  have  lassoed  at 
Uruguyana  the  Imperial  leader  of  the  Brazilian  army. 
When  speechifying,  they  will  opine  that  the  crown  of  the 
Empire  of  the  Southern  Cross  should  be  transferred  from 
the  brow  of  D.  Pedro  II.  to  that  of  General  Urquiza,  and 
the  latter  sits  listening  the  while  in  a  cold,  abstracted 
silence,  deep  and  impressive. 

We  played  billiards — the  old  French  pin  game — till 
dinner  was  announced  at  8  p.m.  Then  appeared  Madame 
Urquiza,  the  daughter  of  an  Italian,  still  in  early  middle 
age,  black  haired,  broad  browed,  straight  featured,  strong 
framed,  and  looking  fit  to  be  the  mother  of  men.  Two 
girls  compose  the  last  family,  the  elder  being  about  seven- 
teen and  very  handsome.  They  have  a  French  governess  ; 
they  know  a  little  English,  but  will  not  speak  it;  and  a 
German  professor  teaches  them  music.  Here  the  sex  pre- 
serves the  old  uncourteous  custom  noticed  by  Sir  Francis 
Head,  of  not  rising  from  their  chairs  to  strangers.  In  the 
evening  a  dance  was  evidently  wanted,  but  no  one  would 
propose  it. 

Next  morning  saw  us  betimes  in  carriages.  Dr.  Gibbings 
tooling  as  only  an  old  Irishman  can  do.  We  visited  the 
Escuela  Pastoril  de  la  Republica  Argentina,  a  model  dairy 
under  the  direction  of  an  Italian.  The  general  has  given 
him  a  hundred  cows  for  experiments,  and  a  few  boys  loung- 
ing about  in  uniform  represented  the  scholars.  The  two 
rooms  suggested  a  curiosity  shop,  old  and  new,  for  D.  Pablo 
(Signer  Paolo)  Cataldi  is  everything  between  a  poet,  writing 


VISIT    TO    GENERAL    URQUIZA.  205 

the  "  Liras  de  la  Pampa/'  and  a  pump -maker.  He  greatly 
prides  himself  upon  his  cutting  and  stamping  machine, 
which  engraves  buttons,  prize  medals,  and  portraits  of  his 
patron,  in  blue  ink.  He  showed  us  his  system — borrowed 
from  Sicily  and  Roumania — of  preserving  for  two  years 
butter  fresh,  or  nearly  so,  in  a  coat  of  cheese  somewhat 
like  ricotta,  and  he  kindly  gave  me  specimens  to  send  home. 
His  Parmesan  was  remarkably  good. 

After  breakfast  we  bade  adieu,  with  many  thanks  for  his 
hospitality,  to  D.  Justo.  Knowing  my  intention  to  cross 
the  Pampas,  then  in  a  somewhat  troubled  state,  he  favoured 
me  with  his  likeness  and  with  a  letter  of  safe  conduct,  ad- 
dressed in  peremptory  terms  to  the  ''  Indian"  chiefs  and 
to  their  Gaucho  companions,  who  still  consider  him  their 
feudal  chief.  Ai-med  with  this  instrument,  I  felt  more 
secure  than  if  protected  by  the  flags  of  England  and  France ; 
moreover,  I  well  knew  that  a  hecatomb  would  have  revenged 
my  death.  The  main,  perhaps  the  only  charm  of  the  per- 
sonal and  aristocratic  government  appears  to  be  that  it  is  a 
rule  of  honour  that  begets  loyalty.  The  red  ponchos  would, 
had  I  been  killed,  have  taken  the  field  as  if  bound  on  a  battue, 
and  the  Argentine  Mesopotamia  would  not  have  grumbled, 
even  had  she  been  called  upon  to  pay  twopence  in  the  pound. 
Madame  Urquiza  courteously  sent  to  my  wife,  by  way  of 
'^  recuerdo,^^  a  pretty  silver-mounted  mate,  with  its  bombilla 
or  pipette.  We  all  left  San  Jose  under  the  impression  of 
having  paid  a  somewhat  peculiar  but  very  pleasant  visit. 

I  should  augur  well  for  Entre  Rios  if  D.  Justo  were 
thirty  instead  of  sixty  years  old.  He  will  leave  no  hand 
strong  and  cunning  enough  to  hold  the  provincial  reins, 
and  to  guide  the  wild  team  that  now  hardly  dares  to  chafe 
at  the  bit.  The  many  foreign  estancieros  who  at  present 
enjoy  his  rule  of  ^'  honey  on  velvet,''^  hardly  conceal  their 
fear  that  it  will  be  followed  by  a  reaction,  when   the  semi- 


206  UP    THE    URUGUAY   RIVER. 

barbarians  of  the  land  will  make  it  a  Pandemonium  broken 
loose^  and  lay  low  all  the  labours  of  peace  with  fire  and 
steel.  It  must^  however,,  be  remembered  that  the  same 
horrors  were  expected  to  accompany  the  expulsion  of  Dic- 
tator RosaSj  and  that  the  prophecy  was  notably  falsified  by 
what  happened.  Meanwhile,  in  gratitude  for  kindnesses 
received,  and  in  the  interest  of  my  fellow  countrymen,  I 
will  conclude  this  letter  with  '^  Viva  D.  Justo  V^ 
And  now  till  the  next — as  they  say  here. 


LETTER  VIII. 

UP  THE  URUGUAY  RIVER THE  SIEGE  0¥    PAYSANDU, 

SALTO,  CONCORDIA,  URUGUAYANA. 

Buenos  Aires,  October  20,  1868. 

My  dear  Z , 

A  stormy  night  delayed  the  up-steamer  till 
7.15  A.M.  (October  9),  at  which  time  we  began  the  short 
trip  ^'  aquas  arriba.^^  Nearly  opposite  Concepcion  is  the 
Saladero-Estancia  of  M.  de  la  Morvonnais_,  a  Breton  gentle- 
man who  knew  this  country  when  an  oflScer  in  the  French 
navy.  I  deeply  regretted  not  being  able  to  accept  his 
hospitable  invitation.  The  river  here  showed  little  of 
interest.  It  was  in  unusual  flood,,  but  the  traveller  is  used 
to  the  "unusual.^^  For  instance,  Buenos  Aires  declares 
her  present  year's  climate  to  be  the  worst  of  the  last  decade. 
Tree-trunks  grew  out  of  the  water;  snags  pricked  us  with 
their  points ;  floating  islands  attempted  to  choke  us ; 
sawyers  bobbed  up  and  down,  and  the  huts  on  the  lower 
bank — as  usual,  one  was  higher  than  the  other — facing 
the  taller  re-entering  angle  of  the  stream,  were  half- 
submerged.  Estancias  were  scattered  about  the  uplands — 
a  sure  sign  of  good  ground ;  and  the  various  craft  that  we 
met  and  passed  made  the  Uruguay  anything  but  a  silent 
highway  of  the  nations. 

Presently  remnants  of  batteries  on  the  right  bank  showed 
the  place  where  Urquiza  had  prepared  to  receive  Garibaldi 
and  his  fighting  "  cooks.''  Paysandii  town  is  on  the  oppo- 
site bank ;  the  buildings,  massed  in  amphitheatre-shape, 
crowned   by  the   Dutch-tiled  dome,   are  picturesque,   and 


208  UP    THE    URUGUAY    RIVER. 

withal  present  a  perfect  target  to  a  bombarding  squadron. 
The  river  here  runs  north  and  south ;  the  long  streets  are 
therefore  disposed  east  to  west  so  as  the  better  to  be  enfiladed. 
Around  it  the  country  rises  to  the  Cuchilla  de  los  Palmares, 
which  completely  commands  the  landward  side.  These 
heights  afford  a  glorious  view,  especially  at  sunset,  of  the 
noble  river — here  somewhat  broader  than  the  Paraguay.  It 
is  a  stream  of  gold  flowing  through  the  liveliest  green  that 
spring  can  give  ;  and  the  beauty,  the  variety,  and  the  soft- 
ness of  the  tints  above  can  only  be  equalled  by  the  pic- 
turesque diversity  and  amenity  of  the  scene  below.  About 
one  league  to  the  north  the  uplands  sink  into  the  valley 
of  the  Arroyo  Grande  (de  San  Francisco),  famous  for  fight 
and  skirmish,  and  the  Arroyo  Sacra  bounds  the  Egido  or 
municipality  about  three  quarters  of  a  mile  to  the 
south."^ 

The  name  of  the  settlement  is  under  dispute — pardon 
me  if  you  are  troubled  with  it ;  but  for  the  last  three  years 
I  have  worked  at  the  Tupy-Guarani  language,  and  it  is 
evident  to  me  that  unless  some  one  record  them,  all  these 
interesting  proper  names  will  presently  express  nothing,  and 
the  traveller  will  vainly  inquire  the  "  unde  derivatur." 
Generally  the  people  translate  Pay-Sandii  by  Father  Sandii, 
Sawney  or  Alexander,  and  call  themselves  Sanduseros. 
General  Urquiza,  however,  explained  it  to  me  as  a  corrup- 
tion of  Pay  Zaingo,  Padre  forcado,  or  the  father  (that  was) 
hanged.  Thus  Ituzaingo  alias  the  Battle  of  Rozario,  where 
the  Marquis  of  Barbacena  was  defeated  by  the  Orientals, 
and  saved   only  by  the  valour   of   the   Paulistas,   signifies 

*  Paysandii  is  in  S.  lat.  32°  19'  3",  and  lon^.  W.  (G.)  58°  1'  16".  The 
difference  of  London  time  is  3^"  52""  15.3* ;  and  the  variation  made  by 
Mr.  Alec.  Mackinnou  is  11"^  east.  The  Egido,  or  municipal  lands,  to  be 
laid  out  in  garden  lots  and  chacras  represent  a  total  of  9|  square 
leagues  +  400  manzanas  =  346,000,000  superficial  varas  (short  Argentine 
yards).     Here  the  cuadra  contains  100  varas,  in  Entre  Eios  80. 


UP    THE    URUGUAY    RIVER.  209 

"  Itu  (Frank)  who  was  hanged."  I  will  also  remark  that 
in  the  Guaraui  tongue  "  pai"  also  means  to  hang. 

Having  landed  at  the  unfinished  pier  of  wood  and 
masonry ;,  whose  poor  funds  were  diverted  to  other  purposes 
by  D.  Leandro  Gomez,  we  proceeded  to  the  normal  adjunct, 
a  big  custom-house,  in  which  our  luggage  was  perfunctorily 
examined.  Near  the  water  the  tenements  are  huts  and 
boxes  of  brick,  stone,  and  lime,  connected  by  posts  and 
wire.  The  old  buildings  are  inland,  and  date  before  the 
days  of  steamers.  I  suppose  Paysandii  must  be  called  a 
city.  It  contains  9000  souls,  whereas  the  chief  places 
in  Entre  Eios,  Concepcion,  Gualeguaichu,  and  Concordia 
average  about  6000. 

We  walked  up  the  long  street  ^^18  de  Julio.''^  Last 
night-'s  rain  had  washed  the  fine  bracing  air  sweet  and 
clean  ;  at  the  same  time  it  had  made  the  rivulets  impassable, 
and  had  filled  the  thoroughfares  with  a  black  mud,  which, 
however,  being  based  on  sand,  readily  dries.  After  Con- 
cepion  the  place  had  a  remarkable  look  of  business,  of 
bustle,  of  go-ahead.  We  found  the  Hotel  de  France  (M. 
Bertrande)  full,  and  luckily  for  me  an  old  acquaintance, 
Mr.  Good,  chief  manager  of  the  Maua  Bank,  gave  me 
hospitality  and  introduced  me  to  the  resident  strangers. 

The  first  walk  of  inspection  led  us  eastward  to  the  main 
or  Matriz  Square.  All  the  line  is  up-hill,  excellent  for 
drainage,  and  to  the  north  there  is  a  hollow,  beyond  which 
the  land  rises  again.  The  streets  are  strewed  with  agate 
and  broken  glass ;  as  in  the  Brazil,  they  are  banded  with 
ribs  of  rough  stone  to  prevent  the  washing  away  of  the 
rain,  and  the  trottoirs  are  tall  narrow  ledges  of  brick.  The 
Matriz,  with  a  single  tower  like  that  of  Humaita,  was  then 
under  repairs,  and  the  only  peculiarities  in  it  were  a  black 
saint  and  saintess,  SS.  Benito  and  Rosa.  Having  been 
connected  with  a  gun  battery  it  had  been  severely  treated 

14 


210  UP   THE   URUGUAY  RIVER. 

by  the  Brazilian  Whitworths.  The  brick  walls,  however, 
allowed  the  bolts  to  pass  through  without  doing  much  damage. 
The  sacristan,  who  was  a  Swiss,  complained  that  the 
Oriental  Government  owed  to  the  Junta  a  sum  of  $25,000, 
borrowed  to  put  down  the  Blanco  chief,  Maximo  Piris,  at 
Mercedes,  and  yet  that  funds  for  repairing  the  fane  were 
not  to  be  had. 

In  front  of  the  church  four  companies  were  drilling,  and 
the  men  appeared  all  to  be  Italians.  The  ''  Orient aV' 
Government,  like  that  of  Imperial  Rome,  begins,  without 
reflecting  upon  what  must  be  the  result,  to  arm  foreigners 
because  these  are  more  disciplinable.  The  last  native 
mutiny  took  place  but  a  few  months  ago  (July  20,  1868). 
The  "  Guardia  Urbana,"  or  constabulary,  offended  by  the 
''  curzo  forzoso,''  and  by  being  kept  in  arrears  for  two 
months  "  pronounced,^^  armed  themselves,  and  shouted 
'^  Liberty .^^  About  twenty  men  out  of  a  total  of  sixty 
carried  off"  a  gun,  and  having  murdered  a  "  Sereno"  for 
undue  interference,  took  refuge  in  Entre  Bios.  They  forgot 
to  plunder  the  treasure  chest,  which  contained  $6000,  and 
although  they  proposed  to  loot  the  banks,  the  measure  was 
not  effected. 

The  square  is  planted  round  with  the  usual  ragged  "  Pa- 
raiso^"*  trees.  Its  south  side  shows  an  old  ranch  of  a 
chapel.  At  the  north-east  corner  a  single-storied  house, 
left  in  statu  quo,  represents  the  head  quarters  of  D.  Leandro 
Gomez.  When  it  was  bespat  by  balls,  and  torn  to  shreds 
by  bolts,  the  commandant  transferred  himself  to  the  west 
side  of  the  square.  In  the  centre  is  an  unfurnished  pe- 
destal ;  "  Liberty  '^  has  been  knocked  down,  and  has  not 
yet  been  replaced.  The  chief  battery  of  the  defence,  a 
round  tower  to  the  south-east  of  the  square,  between  the 
Liberty  column  and  the  Matriz,  has  clean  disappeared. 
This  '^  Malakoff,^^   a   poor   brick   affair,  was   mounted  with 


UP   THE   URUGUAY   RIVER.  211 

only  four  8-pounders,  and  a  few  discharges  brought  it  about 
the  gunners^  ears.  The  other  posts  were  mere  street  bar- 
ricades, and  the  chief  buildings  hastily  strengthened.  The 
Maua  bank  was  almost  knocked  to  pieces,  and  required 
complete  rebuilding.  The  plaster  pilasters  of  the  Gefatura 
or  Police  and  Magistrates*  offices  on  the  "  Calle  8  de  Octo- 
bre ''  had  been  smashed,  and  the  fayade  had  been  much  in- 
jured. The  barricades  were  of  the  weakest,  mostly  com- 
posed of  wool-bales  and  overturned  carts,  behind  which  the 
defenders  fought  every  foot. 

Paysandii  has  ever  been  a  battle  ground  between  Blancos 
and  Colorados  ;  and  the  "  very  heroic  city "  is  as  accus- 
tomed to  bombardments  as  though  it  had  been  in  Belgium. 
The  first  was  on  December  6,  1846.  D.  Fructuoso  Kivera, 
Gaucho,  soldier,  and  first  President  of  the  Oriental  Republic, 
was  succeeded  in  1834  by  General  D.  Manoel  Oribe.  The 
latter  having  thrown  himself  into  the  arms  of  Dictator 
Rosas,  executed  a  revolution  headed  by  Rivera  in  1836  : 
Oribe  however  held  out  till  1838,  when  despairing  of  success 
he  resigned.  Rosas  refused  to  let  him  take  this  step, 
and  thus  began  a  campaign,  a  siege,  and  a  civil  war 
which  lasted  nine  years.  The  Blancos  fought  under  the 
banner  of  Oribe,  the  Colorados  were  led  by  Rivera,  and 
the  latter  was  assisted  by  the  Republican  rifi-raff  of 
Europe.  On  this  occasion  Garibaldi  organized  his  legion 
of  400,  afterwards  800  "  cooks,''"'  whose  immense  losses 
show  how  desperately  they  were  handled.  Rivera  having 
collected  some  5000  to  6000  men  harried  the  country,  and 
cannonaded  his  enemies  out  of  Paysandii  in  about  a  week. 
He  afterwards  lost  the  decisive  battle  of  India  Muerta,  and 
fled  to  the  Brazil  :  he  died  in  1852  en  route  to  Monte 
Video. 

Standing  in  front  of  the  Matriz  we  can  see  the  hopeless 
attitude  of  the  defenders  of  Paysandu,   when  it  was  last 

14—2 


212  UP   THE    URUGUAY   RIVER. 

attacked  (December  5,  1864).  On  the  river  to  the  west  lay 
the  squadron  of  Admiral  Tamandare_,  and  its  fire  did  the 
most  damage.  Men  say  that  only  the  strongest,,  even 
threatening^  remonstrances  made  by  the  foreign  gun-boats 
anchored  off  the  Puerte  de  los  Aguaderos,  the  French 
(senior),  English,  Italian,  and  Spanish,  induced  that  officer 
to  allow  time  for  the  women  and  children  to  escape.  I 
hope  to  see  this  officially  contradicted,  for  though  Admiral 
Tamandare  proved  himself  at  first  a  mere  faineant  in  the 
war,  and  afterwards  a  jealous  opponent  of  the  Commander-in- 
Chief  Mitre,  such  a  fletrissure  should  not  be  attached  without 
ample  reason  to  his  name.  On  the  northern  heights  were 
the  ^^  rebel "  batteries,  commanded  by  General  Flores  and 
Colonels  Caraballo  (Carabajjo)  and  Goyo  Suarez  :  the  works 
were  400  metres  long,  and  the  flying  artiller^^  could  change 
position  about  the  ridge-crest.  The  Brazilian  General, 
Menna  Barreto,  occupied  the  southern  flank  of  the  doomed 
town,  commanding  the  fords  and  passages,  and  completing 
the  investment  of  the  place :  his  head  quarters  were  near 
the  cemetery  at  San  Solano,  an  underground  salad ero  built 
by  an  old  Jesuit  of  that  name.  General  Netto  had  also 
joined  Flores  with  1400  men  :  the  total  of  the  allied  forces 
is  estimated  at  12,000  men,  and  the  site  of  Paysandu  is,  as 
I  have  said,  a  perfect  ball-trap. 

The  Commandante  General  al  Norte  del  Rio  Negro, 
Colonel  D.  Leandro  Gomez,  had  charge  of  the  defence.  He 
was  a  noted  Blanco,  and  brother  of  the  Minister  of  War, 
Andres  A.  Gomez.  Having  been  compelled  by  a  council, 
of  whom  eighteen  voted  against  twelve,  to  evacuate  Salto, 
he  was  instructed  by  his  party  to  hold  Paysandu  till  the 
last,  and  daily  to  expect  reinforcements.  The  notorious 
D.  Juan  Saa,  an  old  lieutenant  of  Urquiza,  and  popularly 
known  as  "  Lanza  Seca,"^  was  directed  to  march  with 
2500  men  upon  the  beleaguered  town.     After  crossing  the 


UP    THE   URUGUAY    RIVER.  213 

E/io  Negro  he  contented  himself  with  observing  the  out- 
posts of  Colonel  Caraballo^  and  he  retired  whenever  General 
Flores  went  out  to  meet  him.  D.  Leandro  Gomez^  nothing 
daunted,  threw  up  battery  and  barricade,  loopholed  houses, 
placed  arms  in  the  hands  of  all  the  adults,  and  more  than 
once  thought  of  compelling  the  foreigners  to  fight.  And  he 
kept  his  ]900  men  at  work  till  only  500  or  600  of  them 
were  left  alive.  D.  Lucas  Piris,  a  sturdy,  broad-faced  old 
man  also  fell,  and  a  similar  fate  awaited  the  third  in  com- 
mand. 

The  twenty-eight  days^  siege  ended  with  fifty-two  hours 
of  tremendous  fire,  and  Paysandu  fell  at  7  a.m.  on  Jan.  2, 
1865.  Lieut.- Colonel  Thompson  asserts  (Chap.  II.)  that  the 
Brazilians  treacherously  entered  the  town  under  a  flag  of 
truce,  and  it  is  generally  understood  that  all  was  not  fair 
and  above  board.  But  the  author  of  the  ''  War  in  Paraguay^^ 
is  not  justified  in  throwing  the  blame  of  Leandro  Gomezes 
murder  upon  the  Brazilian  officers ;  he  has  been  misin- 
formed about  the  "  indiscriminate  massacre  of  the  women 
and  children  of  the  place  -/'  and  he  cannot  correctly  assert 
that  ''  the  taking  of  Paysandu,  with  the  atrocities  com- 
mitted there,  form  a  revolting  page  in  the  history  of 
Brazil.^'  On  the  other  hand  the  Brazil  had  as  little  reason 
to  boast  about  having  conquered  a  place  ^'  so  strongly  gar- 
risoned and  guarded  by  secure  trenches.^''  (Relatorio  of 
the  Minister  of  War,  p.  3,  1865.) 

The  truth  is  this.  D.  Leandro  Gomez  and  his  sur- 
viving officers  were  being  marched  down  the  street  by 
Brazilian  soldiers,  who  were  taking  him  to  their  Chief. 
Admiral  Tamandare  had  been  waited  upon  by  an  English 
resident,  Mr.  Richard  Hughes,  and  that  officer  in  reply  to 
a  request  that  the  gallant  defender's  life  might  be  spared, 
replied  that  he  had  orders  from  his  government  so  to  do. 
Meanwhile  Gomez  was  demanded  by   the   Colorados,   his 


214  UP    THE    URUGUAY    RIVER. 

enemies^  and  was  still  retained  by  his  captors;  at  tlie  second 
time  of  asking  he  exclaimed^  "  I  go  with  my  countrymen'^ 
(mis  paisanos)^  and  he  insisted  upon  passing  over  to  the 
Orientals.  Thereupon  his  only  companion,  the  plucky 
little  Commandant e  Braga  also  cried  out,  "  E  yo  con  mi 
jeute."  They  were  placed  for  an  hour  or  so  in  a  ground- 
floor  room  of  No.  55,  Calle  Orientales,  at  whose  corner  is 
the  Maua  Bank,  not,  as  is  generally  supposed,  in  the  blue 
shattered  house  opposite  the  Gefatura.  It  is  said  that 
during  this  nervous  interval  Gomez  showed  some  sign  of 
fear — not  so  Braga.  At  length  both  were  taken  out  and 
shot  against  the  eastern  wall  of  the  compound.  Their 
corpses  were  thrown  into  the  general  ditch,  whence  they 
are  supposed  to  have  been  rescued  for  the  purposes  of  a 
monument. 

This  cold-blooded  murder,  for  such  it  is,  was  generally 
attributed  to  D.  Gregorio  (Goyo)  Suarez,  third  in  command 
of  the  Oriental  forces,  and  subsequently  Minister  of  War 
and  rebel.  The  vendetta  is,  moreover,  said  to  have  been  the 
result  of  an  old  private  feud,  Gomez  having  once  struck  the 
mother  of  Suarez  :  if  the  tale  be  true,  such  brutality  con- 
siderably dims  the  lustrous  gallantry  and  devotion  that 
fought  against  such  overwhelming  odds.  Of  course  there 
are  two  opinions  about  Leandro  Gomez  :  his  party  holds 
him  a  martyr,  his  enemies  a  scelerat.  He  appears  to  have 
been  a  '' CaudilV  of  a  better  sort;  he  read  Humboldt  and 
he  had  a  taste  for  books  and  natural  history.  His  medallion 
makes  him  a  good-looking  man,  with  a  somewhat  pensive 
cast  of  countenance,  and  chiefly  distinguished  by  an  enor- 
mous *'  goatee^'  and  mustachios.  His  death  caused  great  ex- 
citement among  his  friends  at  Monte  Video,  who  threatened 
to  kill  the  President  D.  Atanacio  Aguirre.  And  popular 
feeling  was  outraged  by  the  treatment  of  the  prisoners,  who 
were  forcibly  enlisted  into  the  Colorado  or  rebel  army. 


UP    THE    URUGUAY    RIVER.  215 

Hardly  had  Paysandu  recovered  from  the  horrors  of  war 
when  it  was  attacked  by  cholera  (1867),  and  such  was  the 
panic  that  sundry  patients  were  buried  alive.  It  is  now, 
despite  "  pronanciamentos*'  and  internal  feuds,  a  thriving 
little  city,  the  seat  of  an  Alcalde  Ordinario,  who  can  decide 
causes  to  the  extent  of  $3000,  and  who  will  soon  make  way 
for  a  Juez  letrado.  It  has  its  photographer,  its  college,  and 
its  two  banks,  the  Maua  and  the  Italian.  The  former  has 
just  built  the  best  house  in  the  place,  and  the  ground,  sold 
for  $15  only  twenty- two  years  ago,  now  fetches  $7000  per 
half  lot.  The  resident  foreign  mechanics  make  good  furni- 
ture, even  door-springs,  which  cannot  be  manufactured 
at  Monte  Video.  The  imports  are  dry  and  wet  goods.  The 
exports  are  the  produce  of  cattle  bred  in  the  neighbourhood, 
and  supplying  each  saladero  with  about  40,000  head  per 
annum.  Sheep  are  still  rare,  the  pasture  has  not  yet  been 
fitted  for  them. 

I  spent  a  few  pleasant  days  amongst  the  resident 
foreigners  of  Paysandu.  Messrs.  Tippet  and  Serra,  engaged 
on  the  town-survey,  supplied  me  with  all  details  required 
by  a  traveller.  M.  Serra  is  a  civilized  Brazilian,  brought 
up  in  Europe  and  speaking  six  languages  fluently ;  he  has 
lost  all  that  unpleasant  look  and  that  aggressive  manner  of 
the  home  bred,  which  seem  to  say  "  Nao  hai  como  nosotros,^' 
and  which  rouse  the  bile  of  every  stranger.  To  his  brother, 
an  employe  in  the  Maua  Bank,  I  am  indebted  for  much 
information  and  for  sundry  photographs  of  Paysandu.  Mr. 
Kennedy,  the  son  of  an  Englishman  here  settled  as  librarian, 
and  M.  Legar,  the  French  pharmacien,  had  witnessed  the 
siege,  and  enabled  me  to  compile  an  account  of  it.  Mr. 
Thomas  O^Connor  and  his  two  brothers  showed  me  their 
salting-house,  and  as  it  works  only  between  December  and 
July,  they  put  a  bullock  through  the  machinery  to  illustrate 
what  400  or  500  head  undergo  per  diem.     I  was  astonished 


216  UP    THE    URUGUAY    RIVER. 

to  find  that  here  and  elsewhere  the  blood  is  allowed  to  waste. 
Passed  through  a  sieve,,  dried  in  vacuum  pans^  powdered 
and  bottledj  it  would  supply  the  red  globules,  which  in  ten- 
grain  doses  have  been  found  so  beneficial  in  Germany  and 
elsewhere. 

I  saw  but  little  of  native  society  at  Paysandu^  and 
common  report  did  not  induce  me  to  see  more.  The  Girl 
of  the  Period  at  home  would  marvel  at  the  life  which  her 
sister  is  contented  to  lead  in  these  latitudes  of  the  '^'^dol drums. ^"^ 
The  Sandusera^  who  perhaps  is  pretty,  rises  and  dons  her 
morning  wrapper  at  8  a.m.,  when  she  indulges  in  a  little 
ablution,  but  no  toilette.  She  drinks  mate,  puffs  a  secret 
cigarette,  and  bestares  the  street  till  breakfast  time — 11  a.m. 
or  noon.  The  siesta  relieves  her  of  her  ennui  till  3  p.m., 
after  which  mate  again  acts  as  an  eye-opener.  Then  com- 
mences the  serious  business  of  the  toilette ;  its  object  is  to 
stroll  about  the  streets  and  to  pay  long  visits,  where  more 
mate  is  consumed.  The  only  talk  is  of  dress,  flowers,  and 
the  private  affairs  of  friends,  acquaintances,  and  the  town. 
A  man  who  does  not  deliver  himself  of  a  compliment  like  a 
pistol  shot  a  brule  pourpoint  at  every  second  sentence  is  not 
a  ^^  Caballero,^^  at  any  rate  he  is  a  bore.  Dinner  at  dark, 
more  ridiculous  conversation,  perhaps  tobacco  with  a  dif- 
fusible stimulant,  and  bed  about  midnight. 

I  also  visited  some  of  the  estancias  south  of  Paysandii — 
first,  the  Rincon  del  Cangue,  belonging  to  the  late  Mr. 
Plowes,  and  managed  by  Dr.  Gibbings.  The  house  is  com- 
fortable, but  bald  of  wood,  wanting  the  garden-ground  and 
the  monte  that  surround  the  country  houses  of  the  Buenos 
Aires  province.  Thence  we  rode  over  to  La  Paz,  the  estate 
of  D.  Ricardo  Hughes  :  the  tenement  is  far  more  picturesque 
than  usual,  the  Eucalyptus  gum  flourishes,  and  the  Passion- 
flower creeper  clothes  the  walls.  The  host  had  resided  for 
some  years  in  Paraguay  before  the  war,  and  had  sketched 


UP    THE    URUGUAY    RIVER.  217 

the  country  in  a  useful  map.  He  believed  devoutly,  as 
indeed  does  my  excellent  friend,  Mr.  G.  Lennon  Hunt, 
H.B.M.'s  Consul,  Rio  de  Janeiro,  in  Baliia  Blanca  as  the 
future  port  of  Buenos  Aires.  The  population  there  will  be 
white,  ignoring  the  mixed  breeds,  that  curse  of  the  older 
settlements.  The  climate  is  excellent,  and  the  "  Indian^^ 
tribes,  more  like  Germans  than  Patagonians,  hospitably 
harboured  our  unfortunate  Welsh  colonists,  and  gave  them 
cattle  to  save  them  from  starvation. 

From  La  Paz  I  went  to  see  Mr.  Henley^s  flax,  and  found 
the  owner  drinking  cold  mate,  which  is  generally  held  to 
be  an  emetic.  The  agriculturist  never  can  forget  what  he 
has  learned  at  home ;  the  richest  soil  with  the  sunniest 
exposure  had  been  chosen,  and  the  seed  which  had  become 
hot  here  produced  poorly,  there  refused  to  grow,  and  where 
the  yield  was  good  it  had  fed  the  ants.  The  people  say 
there  is  poison  in  these  grounds,  which  have  lain  fallow 
since  the  days  of  their  creation.  The  fact  is,  that  its  over- 
luxuriance,  its  '^  sourness'^  or  superabundance  of  humic  and 
ulmic  acid,  require  previous  correction.  The  readiest  way 
is  to  sow  a  few  crops  of  maize  and  to  burn  down  the 
stubbles,  spreading  the  ashes  over  the  surface.  Also  it 
might  be  advisable  to  treat  the  soil  with  ^'  tosca,-*^  which  is 
here  highly  calcareous,  as  the  presence  of  shells  proves. 
There  is  little  doubt  that  Mr.  Henley  will  succeed,  as  far 
as  flax-growing,  but  whether  he  prospers  or  not  is  question- 
able. I  saw  the  remnants  of  the  English  colony  which  he 
had  brought  out.  The  unhappies  had  been  for  some  time 
crowded  together  eighteen  in  one  room.  They  had  been 
fed  daily  with  beef,  which  in  England  they  saw  perhaps  on 
Sundays.  Consequently,  out  of  forty-one,  eighteen  died^ 
mostly  of  dysentery,  and  others,  especially  the  women, 
sought  their  fortunes  elsewhere.  I  rode  past  a  few  of  them 
employed  in  field   labour,  and   their  surly  hang-dog  looks, 


218  UP    THE    URUGUAY    RIVER. 

and  sickly,  pallid,  ague-stricken  faces  told  me  how  little  the 
climate  suited  them. 

Having  time  to  spare,  and  my  feet  "itching  for  a 
journey/-'  I  resolved  to  visit  Salto,  the  terminus  of  Uruguay 
navigation.  The  river  in  this  section  becomes  exceedingly 
picturesc  le.  After  passing  a  neat,  clean  Swiss  colony 
which  shows  signs  of  roads,  we  find  on  the  left  bank  those 
sandstone  blufis  that  have  made  travellers  compare  Father 
Uruguay  with  Father  Ehine.  A  flat  table,  surrounded  by 
rock  precipices,  falling  into  an  earthslope,  and  brought  up 
by  thick  dwarf  forest  below,  is  pointed  to  us  as  the  "  Mesa 
de  Artigas.^^  Tradition  declares  that  the  wild  potentate, 
D.  Pepe,  who  is  described  by  all  the  travellers  of  the  day, 
used  here  to  cut  his  prisoners^  throats  and  toss  them  from 
the  plateau  into  the  water.  On  both  shores  now  begins 
a  wealth  of  limestone ;  it  is,  however,  hard  as  marble  and 
expensive  to  burn.  Frequent  arroyos  divide  the  fine  grazing 
grounds,  and  the  lomas  or  uplands  are  tasselled  with  the 
Coquito  palm. 

Presently  we  sight  on  both  sides  of  the  river  the  normal 
white  sheet  that  argues  a  settlement.  The  right  bank 
supports  Concordia  of  Entre  Rios ;  opposite  it,  in  the  Banda 
Oriental,  lies  Salto,  "  the  Cascade,"  whose  site  is  similar  to 
that  of  Paysandii.  Nor  will  the  town  require  description.  It 
has  a  pier,  a  Custom-house,  three  long  parallel  streets  ex- 
tending up  the  ridge,  a  main  square,  a  Matriz,  poor  and 
yellow — the  Saltefios  appear  more  busy  in  temporal  than 
in  spiritual  matters.  The  Hotel  de  la  Concordia,  kept  by 
one  Diogo  Zavala ;  an  upper  square ;  a  Maua^s  bank,  pre- 
sided over  by  the  courteous  M.  Queque;  and  an  office  of 
the  Morgan  Company,  Limited  (sample-rooms  of  salted  beef, 
48,  Oldhall  Street,  London),  where  J).  Kicardo  Williams  is 
the  ruler. 

Salto  was  blockaded  by  the   Brazilian   Commodore,   Joa- 


UP    THE    URUGUAY    RIVER.  219 

quim  Jose  Pinto,  with  four  guuboats,  besides  the  steamer 
Gualeguay  carrying  the  Oriental  flag.  The  garrison  burnt 
the  steamer  Villa  del  Salto  in  order  to  prevent  her  falling 
into  the  hands  of  the  invaders;  and  accuses  the  latter — I 
know  not  with  what  truth — of  firing  into  the  utterly  de- 
fenceless town  large  guns  and  congreve  rockets.  The 
foreign  residents  severely  blame  Lieut. -Commander  Notts, 
H.M.'s  gunboat  Sheldrake,  for  going  to  coal  at  Paysandu 
during  their  hour  of  difficulty,  and  headed  by  Mr.  Williams, 
formed  a  deputation  and  prayed  D.  Leandro  Gomez  to  re- 
tire from  a  place  which  he  could  not  protect.  In  early 
December,  1864,  he  yielded  Salto  without  a  blow  to  General 
Flores,  and  marching  south  to  Paysandu,  he  presently 
found  a  grave. 

After  inspecting  Salto  I  did  the  same  service  to  Con- 
cordia of  Entre  Rios.  The  town  is  neat  and  pretty,  the 
gardens  are  well  kept,  and  the  Campo  is  fertile  and  pic- 
turesque. I  bore  a  letter  for  the  Brazilian  Consul,  a 
Portuguese,  who  had  forgotten  his  mother  tongue :  he  was 
perforce  circumspect ;  he  spoke  under  breath,  and  when  he 
talked  of  anything  that  might  be  construed  politically  he 
looked  around  shuddering  as  though  a  bogie  had  been  in 
the  room.  Even  the  boatmen  on  the  river  trembled  at  the 
name  of  General  I  Jr  quiz  a,  and  doubtless  by  his  order  arbi- 
trarily made  the  dollar  worth  eight  instead  of  ten  rialo. 

A  comparison  between  the  settlements  places  Salto  at 
least  fifty  years  in  advance  of  her  neighbour.  The  former 
has  besides  the  usual  public  buildings,  its  own  Steam  Navi- 
gation Company — the  Compania  Salteiia — it  has  made  its 
pier,  it  is  finishing  its  Custom-house,  and  it  proposes  to 
run  as  far  as  Sta.  Rosa  a  railway  around  the  rapids  which 
disconnect  it,  as  the  name  denotes,  with  the  upper  Uruguay. 
Concordia  is  lively,  morally  and  physically,  as  Herculaneum 
and  Pompeii. 


220  UP    THE    URUGUAY    RIVER. 

Here  we  see  the  cause  of  republicanism^  of  democracy, 
practically  pleaded  against  that  of  despotism_,  of  alien  rule. 
The  former^  in  this  home  of  six-monthly  revolutions^  in  this 
theatre  of  battle,  murder,  and  sudden  death,  in  a  society 
afflicted  by  a  chronic  acephalous  disorder,  and  by  exaspera- 
tions of  the  most  savage  anarchy,  and  where  the  citizen  is 
unprepared  either  by  education,  by  civilization,  by  tradition, 
or  by  civic  virtues  for  self-rule  and  for  the  choice  of  his  rulers, 
Salto,  I  beg  to  say,  prospers,  progresses,  goes  ahead.  On 
the  other  hand  Concordia,  governed  according  to  ancient 
principles,  schooled  to  order,  and  disciplined  into  propriety, 
falls  out  of  the  race  of  life  :  the  hand  of  a  self-imposed 
ruler  weighs  heavy  upon  it;  it  sleeps,  it  swoons,  it  dies. 
We  are  encouraged  by  the  experience  of  these  two  rival 
villages  to  believe  in  that  future  which  is  now  mainly  in 
the  hands  of  poets,  in  the  universal  Republic,  in  the  Fede- 
ration of  peoples,  and  in  the  absolute  self-rule  which  a 
progressive  race  will  presently  demand  as  its  birthright. 

The  rapids  above  Salto  are  hardly  passable  during  the 
dries.  About  mid-October  cruisers  cross  them,  but  they 
must  presently  return,  under  pain  of  confinement  to  the 
upper  river  till  the  next  year's  flood.  Admiral  Tamandare 
was  fortunate  in  passing  over  his  four  gunboats  in  August, 
1865.  Here  the  best  agates  of  commerce  (chalcedonies) 
are  found,  and  about  200  tons  are  yearly  exported  to  Havre 
and  Antwerp :  they  occur  detached  or  embedded  in  the 
amygdaloid,  adhering  to  the  hard  sandstone  like  butter  to 
bread.  The  noble  quartzes  appear  in  water-rolled  pebbles, 
large  and  small ;  there  is  the  amethyst,  the  true  agate,  jas- 
per, cornelian,  onyx,  sardonyx,  and  jet :  sign  of  diamonds 
is  also  not  wanting.  All  these  come  from  the  highlands  of 
the  Brazil,  and  are  identical  with  the  formations  of  the 
great  Kio  de  Sa5  Francisco.  Amongst  them  are  perfect 
petrifactions  of  tree   trunk,  bark,  and   heart,  wood  silicified 


UP    THE   URUGUAY    RIVER.  221 

by  iufiltration  :  similarly  petrified  cowhorns  are  said  to  be 
found  on  the  upper  Parana.  Much  of  the  sandstone  grit 
is  blackened  and  polished  by  the  force  of  the  rapids, 
iron-revetted  like  the  rocks  in  many  of  the  West  African 
and  east  South  American  rivers.  In  the  great  Platine 
valley,  I  found  the  crust  only  here. 

My  desire  to  see  Uruguayana  and  the  upper  Uruguay 
was  thwarted  by  circumstances.  The  roads  were  knee 
deep  in  mud,  and  the  weather  was  detestable,  now  seething 
with  sun  and  mist,  then  raw  and  damp  with  the  south 
wind  and  Gariia,  the  river  fog.  The  river  was  falling  ra- 
pidly, the  wretched  little  steamer  Chata  or  raft  which  was 
detached  to  make  the  passage,  had  been  forced  back  to 
repair  an  injury  done  by  the  nearest  rapid,  and  no  one  ex- 
pected her  to  make  her  destination,  whilst  M.  Rivas,  the 
owner,  crowded  her  with  passengers,  and  demanded  uncon- 
scionable fares.  I  therefore  took  heart  of  grace,  and 
merrily  returned  to  Buenos  Aires. 

Uruguayana,  a  fourth-rate  Brazilian  town  in  the  Upper 
Uruguay,  won  a  name  for  itself  during  the  last  Paraguayan 
war.  Here  fell  to  pieces  the  Corps  d^Armee  of  the  east, 
which  Marshal-President  Lopez  had  despatched  under 
Colonel  Estigarribia,  to  sweep  the  riverine  valley,  and  to 
effect  a  junction  with  the  western  column.  The  Paraguayan 
leader  had  made  the  fatal  mistake  of  leaving  one-third  of 
his  forces  on  the  right  bank  of  the  stream,  which  now^here 
allows  communication  without  boats  ;  and  this  second  divi- 
sion of  2500  men,  under  Colonel  Duarto,  was  annihilated 
with  the  exception  of  300  prisoners  by  the  13,000  allies,  on 
17th  August,  1865,  at  the  Battle  of  Yatay  (the  Brazilian 
Jatahy).  On  June  11,  the  Paraguayan  cause  had  been 
greatly  shaken  by  the  defeat  of  her  navy  at  Riachuelo, 
and  Colonel  Estigarribia  found  it  advisable  to  fall  back  upon 
Uruguayana.      This   town    was   presently   invested   by    the 


222  tJP    THE    URUGUAY    RIVER. 

Allies,  and  in  due  time,  at  4  p.m.  on  September  18,  the 
Paraguayan  garrison,  numbering  without  the  sick  5103 
officers  and  men,  or  a  total  of  6000,  surrendered  to  His 
Imperial  Majesty  of  the  Brazil,  who  was  accompanied  by 
his  sons-in-law  their  RR.HH.  the  Comte  d^Eu  and  the 
Due  de  Saxe.  The  spoils  of  victory  included  7  standards, 
6  bouches  a  feu,  5000  stand  of  arms,  231,000  cartridges, 
and  an  altar  with  its  furniture. 

Thus  in  defeat  and  disgrace  ended  the  corps  of  the 
Uruguay,  and  the  first  phase  of  the  Paraguayan  campaign, 
the  aggressive.     Adieu. 


LETTEE  IX. 

UP    THE    PARANA    RIVEE    TO    ROZARIO. 

August  20, 1868. 
My  dear  Z ^ 

At  Buenos  Aires  the  Yi  received  on  board 
the  wife  and  daughter  of  General  D.  Juan  A.  Gelly  y  Obes, 
Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Argentine  Contingent — I  can 
hardly  call  it  ^'  forces'^  or  "  army.^^  We  had  also  M. 
Artui'o  de  Marcoartu_,  C.E.^  a  Spaniard,,  who  proposes  the 
railway  from  Salto  on  the  Lower,  to  Santa  Rosa  on  the 
Upper  Uruguay.  Among  the  tripsters  was  D.  Hector  F. 
Varela,  notable  amongst  the  numerous  and  highly  distin- 
guished family  of  that  name  :  after  playing  a  prominent 
and  pugnacious  part  at  a  certain  Peace  Congress,  he  was 
compelled  by  a  duel  to  quit  France  hurriedly,  and  now 
after  holding  a  variety  of  high  offices  he  writes  in  the 
Tribuna  of  Buenos  Aires.  I  have  to  thank  him  for  assisting 
me  in  my  studies  of  Paraguay.  We  also  carried  D.  Segundo 
Floresj  the  third  son  of  the  murdered  President,  going,  it 
was  reported,  to  obtain  a  contract  for  clothing  the  Brazilian 
troops.  Good-looking  and  much  resembling  the  portraits 
of  his  father,  he  was  an  intelligent  youth,  speaking  good 
English  and  French,  in  manner  rather  shy,  and  little  show- 
ing what  a  tiger  he  can  be  when  his  blood  is  up.  We  often 
met  afterwards,  and  I  enjoyed  his  society — '^  c^etait  une 
nature,^'  as  Goethe  used  to  ask  in  his  old  age.  Many  other 
notabilities  had  promised  to  assist  at  the  steamer  '^'^func- 
cion,'^  but   they  failed  when  it  came  to  the  point  :  a  loose- 


224  UP    THE    PARANA    RIVER    TO    ROZARIO. 

ness  in  keeping  engagements  seems  hereabouts  to  be  a 
chronic  disorder. 

The  delta  proper^  or  to  speak  more  correctly,  the  paral- 
lelogram of  the  Parana  river^  has  a  base  line  of  thirty  miles 
subtending  the  embouchure  of  the  Uruguay,  and  forming 
the  minor  estuary  of  the  Plate,  which  connects  itself  with 
the  ocean  by  means  of  the  larger  fluvial  estuary  and  the 
sea-gulf.  The  apex,  Diamante,  below  which  offsets  the  Rio 
Paranancito,  lies  178  direct  miles  from  the  mouth,  and  thus 
the  true  delta  would  contain  some  5350  square  geographical 
miles.  There  are  several  false  deltas,  especially  that  formed 
by  the  Ibicuy  or  upper  waters  of  the  Parana  Guazu,  which 
leaves  the  Parana  de  las  Palmas  at  Villa  Constitucion.  A 
smaller  division  still  is  bounded  by  the  Parana  Guazu  and 
the  Parana  de  las  Palmas  with  the  little  town  of  S.  Pedro 
for  its  apex. 

There  are  two  chief  lines  of  navigation  up  the  delta  of 
the  Parana.  The  course  that  lies  straight  ahead  from  the 
outer  roads,  and  best  fitted  for  small  steamers  and  sailers 
drawing  five  to  six  feet,  is  the  Parana  de  las  Palmas,  classic 
waters  so  called  in  1526  by  their  first  navigator,  Cabot,  of 
Bristol,  who  explored  them  with  a  caravel  and  three  little 
ships.  In  these  days  its  palms  are  too  rare  to  give  it  a 
name;  at  least,  we  shall  not  see  them  till  some  way  up. 
You  run  down  the  northern  railway,  twenty-one  miles  long, 
to  the  Tiger's  foul  stream,  where  certain  wealthy  citizens 
have  built  handsome  country  houses,  and  where  dwarf 
docks,  shipbuilding  yards,  a  railway  station,  workhouses 
and  offices  are  beginning  to  procreate  a  town.  The  Tiger's 
river  is  about  ten  years  old — the  English  boat-club  has  known 
it  for  seven  or  eight  years.  A  sudden  freshet  made  it  take 
the  place  of  its  south-western  neighbour,  the  Rio  de  las 
Conchas  mentioned  by  all  old  travellers  ;  and  like  the  latter^ 
it  feeds  the   Rio  de  Lujan,  alias  Corpus   Christi.      After  a 


UP    THE    PARANA    RIVER    TO    ROZARIO. 


225 


few  yards  you  strike  this   Lujan — a  stream  rising   indepen- 
dently of,  but    falling    into,    the    Parana.*      Here    we    are 

*  Itinerary   by  South  American  Pilot   (Part  I,,  taken   from   Captain 
Mouchez)  : — 


Miles. 

52 
150 

185 
218 
310 


Buenos  Aires  to  Boca  del  Guazu       ..... 
S.  Pedro  (First  Delta)     .... 

„  S.  Nicolas 

„  Rozario  ...... 

„  Parana  (Guazii  to  Parana,  256,  Sullivan) 

„  La  Paz 392 

Goya 517 

„  Bella  Vista 566 

„                Corrientes  (Guazii  to  Corrientes,  322,  Sullivan)     635 
„               Mouth  of  Paraguay  River  (18  miles  from  Cor- 
rientes)       653 

„  Humaita 676 

„  Neembucii  702 

,,  Asuncion  (77  metres,  252-3  feet,  above  sea  level)     865 

By  Captain  Page  of  Waterivitch,  1860  :— 

statute  miles. 

Buenos  Aires  to  M.  Garcia  . 45 

the  Guazii 24 

S.  Pedro 88 

S.  Nicholas 40 

Obligado 10 

Rozario 54 

San  Lorenzo 14^ 

Mouth  of  the  Carcarana  ....      22 

Diamante 67 

Parana ,36 

La  Paz 102 

Goya 145 

Bella  Vista 53 

Corrientes 87 

Cerrito 18 

Salto  del  Apipe,  terminus  of  Parana  navigation,  780  miles.     To  the 

Salto  de  Paraguay,  1070. 

Table  by  Thomas  Aylen,  Master  H.M.S.  Ardent,  1861  :— 

Buenos  Aires  to  Martin  Garcia 
Boca  del  Guazii 
S.  Piedro 
Obli-ado 
S.  Nicholas 
Las  Piedras 
Rozario 
S.  Lorenzo 

Diamante  (Second  Delta) 
Parana  .... 


Miles. 

45 
14 
103 
11 
40 
11 
40 
23 
70 
46 

403 


15 


226      UP  THE  PARANA  RIVER  TO  ROZARIO. 

amongst  the  "  Isleria/^  or  Islandry  proper^  and  the  caracols 
or  windings  of  the  mouths  :  scenery  which  owes  to  Presi- 
dent Sarmiento  what  Laura  did  to  Petrarch.  The  proprie- 
torship— a  more  material  matter — is  still  a  moot  point 
between  the  National  and  Provincial  Governments.  1  after- 
wards visited  these  waters  in  company  with  the  President,, 
and  I  can  well  understand  why  the  "  Archipelago  of  Cara- 
pachay^"*  was  called  "  Tempe  Argentina.^^ 

From  the  Lujan,  whose  bar  is  shallow,  we  sight  the  ships 
lying  off  S.  Fernando,  and  the  white  houses  on  the  green 
"  barranca"*^  here  at  its  highest,  thirty- five  metres.  Thence 
we  run  up  the  wonderfully  tortuous  Arroyo  del  Capitan, 
a  vein  some  100  yards  wide,  with  occasional  openings  and 
outlets  to  starboard,  which  show  the  main  stream,  a  muddy 
Mediterranean.  It  reminds  me  of  the  Whydah  Lagos 
Lagoon  subtending  the  Slave  Coast  in  all  the  terrible  beauty 
of  Africa.  Here  and  there  the  resemblance  is  increased  by 
a  wretched  road,  fronted  and  backed  by  swamp,  with 
canoes,  the  horses  of  the  country,  ready  to  aid  in  escaping 
from  hostile  floods.  After  nearly  four  hours  amongst  the 
islands  of  the  Parana,  a  garland  of  emeralds  like  "  Insulind^'' 
formed  by  cross  cuts  passing  between  main  lines  of  dis- 
charges, our  steamer  debouches  from  the  Capitan  vein  into 
the  main  artery,  Parana  of  the  Palms,  here  three  to  four 
miles  broad  with  the  jump  of  a  sea.  At  the  mouth  it 
is  4*50  metres  deep,  but  it  shallows  rapidly  at  Praya  Honda, 
where  it  is  fit  only  for  ships  of  light  draughts,  and  that  only 
in  the  best  state  of  water  and  weather.  Another  four  hours-' 
spell  shows  on  the  right  bank  La  Campana,  ''^the  bell.^' 
Below  the  high  talus  is  a  big  shed,  a  saladero,  buried  in  a 
wealth  of  willows,  and  above  it  rise  the  large  and  handsome 
white  house  and  Estancia  of  the  ex-MinisterD.Eduar do  Costa. 
Higher  up  is  Zarate,  a  mead  fringed  with  the  salix,  and 
a  half-finished  dwarf  pier  for  landing  a  few  passengers,  the 


UP  THE  PARANA  RIVER  TO  ROZARIO.      227 

houses  being  concealed  behind  the  water-slope.  After  this 
point  comes  S.  Pedro^  where  the  Parana  de  las  Palmas 
anastomoses  with  the  Parana  Guazii. 

The  Yi  will  run  up  this  "  Guazu/^  as  it  is  familiarly  called. 
I  will  first  attempt  to  explain  something  of  the  delta 
formation.  The  general  opinion  of  the  older  travellers 
makes  this  ringe  of  the  Pampas  the  easternmost  limit 
of  a  southern  Gulf  of  Mexico.  The  limits  of  this  great 
estuary,  a  rough  quadrilateral,  would  be  Cape  S.  Antonio  to 
the  south-east,  Patagonia  to  the  south  (limit  unknown), 
westward  the  line  of  the  Andes,  and  northwards  the 
Chiquitos  country,  and  the  water  -  sheds  which  divide 
the  basins  of  the  Amazons  and  the  Plate.  Thence 
the  outline  would  pass  eastward  of  the  Xarayes  swamps 
and  follow  the  great  spinal  cordillera  of  Paraguay.  South 
of  Villa  Rica  it  would  trend  eastward,  embracing  the 
valley  of  the  Parana  proper  as  far  as  the  Salto  de  la 
Guayra,  and  to  the  south  south-east  the  valley  of  the 
Uruguay  would  complete  the  circuit.  Thus  the  length 
would  be  1920  geographical  miles  (betweeu  south  latitudes 
17°  and  49°),  and  the  breadth  600  miles  (from  58°  to  68° 
longitude)  west  of  Paris.  The  total  area  is  1,152,000  square 
miles — nearly  half  of  South  America.  This  vast  estuary 
is  supposed  to  have  been  an  inland  sea  with  rocky  islands, 
such  as  the  Sierras  of  Cordoba  and  S.  Luis,  gradually 
warped  up  by  the  washings  of  the  Andes  and  the  other 
highlands,  while  the  ground  grew  under  the  influence  of 
secular  elevation  and  deposition.  But  M.  A.  Bravard  {"  Geo- 
logic des  Pampas,^^  a  work  unhappily  incomplete)  explains  the 
so-called  Pampasian  alluvium  by  atmospheric  and  terrestrial 
causes.  Secular  upheaval  produced  a  shallower  sea — upon 
which  sand  dunes  formed  a  floor,  and  subsequently  the 
dust  and  volcanic  ashes  were  transported  by  the  Pampero 
builder  from  the   Andes  and  the  arid  regions  to  the  west, 

15—2 


228      UP  THE  PARANA  RIVER  TO  ROZARIO. 

and  were  consolidated  by  the  torrential  lowland  and  sea- 
board rains.  Lest  dust  be  considered  an  inadequate  cause, 
he  quotes  the  instance  of  a  single  storm  at  Buenos  Aires 
which,  after  a  few  hours,  covered  the  verdure  with  a  cloak 
one  inch  thick. 

South  of  the  Parana  de  las  Palmas  is  the  Parana  Mini 
(the  Minor  Parana) — a  middle  line  very  little  used.  It  is 
represented  in  maps  to  be  a  mere  branch  of  the  third  great 
southernmost  arm,  the  Parana-Guazu. 

On  Monday  (August  17)  the  Yi,  not  yet  in  light  marching 
order,  zigzagged  and  staggered  across  the  north-western  edge 
of  the  outer  roads,  avoiding  the  city  bank  ;  turned  slowly  to 
the  north-east,  and  lastly  made  northing  for  Martin  Garcia, 
the  historic  islet.  Drawing  six  to  seven  feet  when  at 
anchor  and  nine  when  driven,  she  ploughed  up  waves  of 
liquid  mud,  and  rollers,  breakers,  and  billows  of  mire 
followed  in  her  wake  till  she  was  obliged  to  anchor.  Mr. 
Crawford,  her  engineer,  swore  that  one  should  travel  up 
such  a  river  upon  a  pair  of  stilts.  This  water,  heavily 
charged  with  detrital  matter  and  arrested  by  the  action  of 
the  sea  stroke,  forms  the  land-banks  and  islets  of  dark  mud, 
fringing  the  once  mighty  estuary  now  a  prairie.  When  we 
reach  the  true  river,  we  shall  find  on  both  sides  a  glacis 
defining  the  bed,  and  above  Corrientes  the  absence  of  a 
marked  riverine  valley  will  strike  us  as  something  new. 

We  run  too  far  west  to  distinguish  anything  but  the 
rolling  outlines  of  the  Ban  da  Oriental  or  eastern  shore, 
along  which  we  coasted  when  ascending  the  Uruguay  river. 
These  ^Homas^^  will  presently  reproduce  themselves  behind 
Angostura,  and  form  the  slopes  where  the  last  great  battles 
were  fought.  We  are  compelled  to  steam  close  by  the 
western  or  fortified  side  of  Martin  Garcia.  After  running 
ten  miles  more  we  are  right  opposite  Las  Bocas,  the  mouths 
of  the  Parana  ;  but  we  do  not  relish  entering  them  at  night. 


UP    THE    PARANA    RIVER    TO    ROZARIO.  229 

especially  with  a  bad  norther.  In  front  is  the  gigantic 
Uruguay,  an  '^  aber/'  showing  almost  a  sea  horizon,  and  its 
capes  and  distances  are  dots  based  apparently  upon  the 
wave.  We  therefore  anchor  off  the  Boca  del  Guazii  some 
170  miles  from  the  sea. 

On  the  next  morning,  a  Niebla  or  Cerrazon,  a  warm 
fog,  kept  us  fast  to  our  mud-hook.  In  autumn — April  and 
thereabouts — it  usually  lifts  at  8  a.m.  ;  in  the  cold  season,  as 
at  present,  it  lasts  till  11  a.m.,  and  longer  still  on  the  upper 
stream.  We  presently  make  play  and  enter  the  Boca,  which 
is  half  a  mile  wide,  presently  bulging  out  to  3000  yards — 
thirty  cuadras,  the  passengers  say,  for  here  distance  is 
counted  by  squares ;  and  lastly,  settling  down  to  500  yards. 
The  soundings  at  the  entrance  show  7*50  metres;  this, 
therefore,  is  evidently  the  main  line.  We  cast  curious 
looks  over  the  smooth,  currentless  expanse  at  the  far-famed 
Islands  of  the  Parana.  Still  flooded  at  high  tides,  it  is  a 
riverine  Archipelago,  formed  by  Arroyos  and  Arroyitos, 
Riachos  and  Cafiadas  or  hollows,  as  harsh  a  view  at  this 
moment  as  any  on  the  coast  of  Essex.  The  typical  growths 
are  the  poplar  and  the  weeping  willow  (Sauce  de  Lloron),  both 
transplanted  from  the  Old  World,  and  right  curiously  they 
contrast.  The  former,  here  as  elsewhere  announcing  a  set- 
tlement, stands  up  in  the  stiffest  and  thinnest  of  perpen- 
dicular lines,  gaunt,  pruned  out  of  all  semblance  to  the 
trees  of  Touraine,  and  dark  with  sombre  metallic  green. 
The  willow  bends  and  droops  by  the  tall  tree's  side,  every 
line  is  curved  and  prone,  every  motion  is  soft  and  languid, 
the  very  music  of  the  leaves  is  a  whisper,  not  a  rustle,  and  all 
are  now  drawing  on  their  spring  coats  of  light  and  feathery 
green.  The  "  Sauce,''"'  which  forms  one  quarter  of  the  woody 
vegetation  of  the  Arctic  zone,  extends  from  this  latitude  to 
Patagonia,  where  it  occupies  about  the  same  rank ;  further 
north  it  will  make  way  for  tropical  growth.   There  are  several 


230      UP  THE  PARANA  RIVER  TO  ROZARIO. 

kinds — the  useless  Lloron^  introduced^  it  is  said^  by  the 
Jesuits  ;  the  Colorado  or  red_,  which  gives  good  timber ;  the 
Mimbre  or  osier^  useful  for  withies ;  and  the  white  or  in- 
digenous species^  which  has  congeners  on  the  Amazons 
and  the  S.  Francisco  (Salix  Humboldtiana).  Their  exposed 
roots  caused  the  South  American  Pilot  (i.  5_,  180)  to  discover 
'^impenetrable  mangroves"  in  the  delta  of  the  Parana;  but 
here  the  salt  water  does  not,  despite  Commodore  Jack 
Trunnion,  extend;  consequently  there  are  no  "forests  of 
the  sea."  The  largest  growth — not  very  tall,  for  the  wind, 
the  great  leveller,  cuts  them  down — is  that  leguminous  and 
papilionaceous  erythrina,  the  Ceibo,  which  foreigners,  mis- 
taking for  Cebo,  mistranslated  "  tallow-tree."  At  present 
it  is  a  mere  system  of  woody  spikes,  forming  gigantic 
brooms ;  in  October  or  November  it  will  be  aflame  with 
bright  embers  of  bloom,  and  then  it  will  be  dressed  in  the 
burnished  leaves  that  suggest  the  North  American  "  fall." 
The  Lianas,  here  called  "  Loconte,"  and  in  Chile  "  Boqui," 
appear  like  climbers  upon  hop-poles  ;  presently  these  creepers 
and  air- plants  will  beautify  old  age  and  skeletons,  and  will 
turn  death  into  life. 

At  another  season  we  shall  find  all  the  brown  grown 
green.  Orchard  follows  orchard  of  apple,  pear,  quince,  and 
the  wild  dm^azno  or  peach,  which  wants  only  grafting  and 
training  ;  its  tender  pink  blossoms  contrast  well  with  the 
black-green  poplars,  with  the  grey-green  of  the  young- 
white  willows,  with  the  darker  foliage  of  the  older  salix, 
with  the  leek  green  of  the  weeping  willow,  and  with  the 
metallic  greens  and  burnished  tints  of  the  less  known 
growths.  There  is  the  orange,  fast  returning  to  its  original 
type ;  despite  the  fade  and  somewhat  bitter  taste,  the  fruit 
is  made  into  cooling  drinks,  and  was  at  one  time  gathered 
like  the  peach  for  the  Buenos  Aires  market.  As  the 
clearings  in  the  higher  levels  and  the  smoke  rising  from  the 


UP    THE    PARANA   RIVER    TO   ROZARIO.  231 

far  inland  sliow,  the  present  is  the  time  for  the  charcoal 
burner.  He  must  lead  a  wild  kind  of  campaigning  life, 
ever  in  heavy  marching  order,  carrying  with  him  all  his 
belongings,  exposed  to  every  manner  of  insect  plague, 
worse  than  the  'Higer"  or  the  aboriginal  "  Indian,^'  and 
perpetually  battling  with  chills  and  fevers  :  yet  these 
squatters  must  represent  a  fair  item  in  an  islanders  popu- 
lation laid  down  at  2000. 

On  the  edges  of  streams  appear  various  aquatic  plants, 
suggesting  that  the  country  could  grow  rice  for  a  continent. 
The  "  eunco,''^  with  papyrus-like  head,  is  of  two  kinds,  large 
and  small,  the  Piri  and  the  Piripiri  of  the  Brazil.  The 
'  Camalote'^  or  pistia  stratiotes,  called  the  Aguape  further 
north,  veils  the  water  with  fat,  liliaceous  leaves,  supporting 
the  flower  stalks.  Hence  the  "  Camalotes,^^  or  floating 
islets,  at  times  scattered  over  the  river ;  there  are  legends 
of  '^tigers^^  and  wild  beasts  being  floated  down  by  them 
into  civilization — I  never  saw  any  that  could  compare  with 
those  of  the  Benin  river.  Along  the  lower  reach  are  fields 
of  rush  and  flag,  inundated  every  year,  and  determined  by 
the  extent  of  the  flood.  Higher  levels  produce  the  Flechilla 
or  arrow-grass,  whose  stems  and  seed-sheaths,  matting  the 
fleece,  are  odious  to  the  sheep  farmer.  There  is  the  "  Paja 
Colorada^^  or  red  grass,  with  floss-like  panicles,  the  Paja 
Cartadera  or  cutting  grass,  which  is  the  true  grass  of  the 
Pampa,  and  the  Paja  Brava  or  Totora,  terms  applied  to 
many  different  species.  The  white  plumes  of  the  stiff"  cane, 
whose  tasselled  head  rises  ten  feet  high,  and  the  green 
leaves  that  gracefully  droop  about  its  base,  recommend  this 
"  Pampas  grass^^  to  the  ornamental  grounds  of  England, 
where,  however,  it  is  useless.  Here  strange  cattle  refuse  the 
rank  growth,  whilst  those  accustomed  to  such  fodder  thrive 
upon  it.  Captain  Page  says  that  it  is  common  in  eastern 
Virginia.      Throughout  these  latitudes  it  belts  the  streams 


232      UP  THE  PAUANA  UIVER  TO  ROZARIO. 

and  extends  deep  into  the  Pampas^  always  following,  I 
believe,  the  watercourses;  and  we  shall  find  it  high  up  on 
the  Parana  and  the  Paraguay. 

The  channel  winds  wonderfully,  to  the  east,  to  the  south, 
and  to  the  north-west.  Rival  channels  abound,  and  we  often 
see  far  beyond  the  monte-bush,  to  our  right  and  left,  ships'* 
sails  passing  up  over  land  like  the  sailing  waggons  of  the 
Seres.  When  the  waters  are  out,  temporary  cross-cuts,  as 
on  the  great  Rio  de  Sao  Francisco,  enable  boats  to  cruise 
across  country.  The  riverine  edges  wax  higher  as  we 
advance,  and  whilst  one  side  grows  grass  the  other  becomes 
tree-clad ;  higher  up,  this  formation  will  assume  larger  and 
more  distinct  proportions. 

From  this  lower  bed  the  larger  animals,  so  common  up 
stream,  have  of  late  been  frightened  away ;  the  fish  to  breed 
in  the  tributaries  and  the  less  disturbed  parts  ;  and  little 
life  save  aerial  remains.  At  rare  times  a  bullet  head  pro- 
truded from  the  water  and  at  once  withdrawn  denotes  the 
"  Nutria,-'-'  indifferently  described  as  an  otter,  a  seal,  or  a 
sea-wolf.  The  shag,  plotus,  or  divsr,  is  of  two  kinds,  one 
dingy  brown,  the  other  black  with  white-tipped  wings  and 
a  plume  that  commends  itself  to  what  wears  bonnets.  They 
gaze  at  us  with  extended  necks  and  ^'^boV  down  stream, 
in  remarkable  contrast  with  the  hunchbacked,  motionless 
Mirasol  or  white  crane,  standing  one-legged  and  meditative 
on  the  bank,  and  with  the  Socoboi,  the  large  ash-coloured 
heron,  roaring  like  a  bull  because  we  dare  to  disturb  him. 
Ducks  are  rare,  and  yet  August  is  the  height  of  the  shooting 
season.  Wild  pigeons  are  common  before  this  month  ;  the 
Paloma  torcaza  (properly  torquaz  or  torquated)  is  large  as 
a  blue  rock,  and  the  toroassita  equals  the  ringdove.  There 
are  swallows,  red  orioles  (sangre  de  boi) ;  "  Calandrias-'^  or 
singing  thrushes,  the  Sabias  of  the  Brazil ;  black  thrushes ; 
pajaritos  de  las  animas,  and  two  red-crested  "  Cardinals,''-' 


IP    THE    PARANA    RIVER    TO    ROZARIO.  233 

large  and  small.  Amongst  the  hawks  appears  the  ^^Carancha/' 
the  Brazilian  "  Caracara/^  an  ignoble  but  clever  and  versatile 
bird,  ranking  with  the  eagle,  but  feeding  like  the  carrion 
crow ;  ready  to  fish,  to  combine  in  hunting  away  the  black 
vulture,  in  pulling  down  a  crane,  and  in  carrying  off  a 
chicken ;  it  will  dig  its  dying  talons  so  deeply  into  the 
offending  hand  that  the  shank  must  be  cut  off  before  it  loosens 
hold.  And  everywhere  the  skeleton  trees  are  whitened  by 
the  roosting  of  '^  Cuervo,^^  the  turkey-buzzard. 

No  eastern  limits  has  the  delta  nor  occidental  either 
till  4.15  P.M.,  when  looking  to  the  west  we  descry  sign  of 
a  true  coast,  low  but  rising  above  the  trees,  and  rolling  far 
away  to  the  south.  This  ''  barranca^^  or  bank,  which,  hem- 
ming in  the  stream,  controls  its  floods,  is  straight-lined,  with 
level  summit,  here  green,  there  bare,  and  its  wall-like  surface 
is  in  places  broken  by  blue  clumps  of  trees.  The  water-cut 
talus  or  slope  seems  formed  of  sand  or  clay,  with  here  and 
there  patches  of  bush  :  it  appears  in  the  form  of  cliffs  and 
headlands,  scarps  and  slopes,  double  and  compound  dis- 
tances, which  refresh  the  eye  wearied  by  the  flatness  of  the 
rushy  grassy  sea  stretching  in  all  other  directions.  As  we 
pass  the  "  Cancha  '^  or  Reach  of  S.  Pedro,  at  the  head  of  the 
first  or  smallest  delta,  we  see  from  the  hurricane-deck  the 
glittering  steeple,  and  the  tall  whitewashed  ridge-roofed 
church  of  Baradero ;  the  name  "  place,  where  ships  go 
aground  (barar},  or  are  careened,"  suggests  the  Varadouro  of 
the  Brazil.  The  hamlet  has  its  bit  of  history.  In  1 580  D.  Juan 
de  Garay,  the  founder  or  restorer  of  Buenos  Aires,  divided 
amongst  his  followers,  after  killing  the  Chief  Taboba,  the  lands 
taken  from  the  warlike  Querandis.  It  now  owns  a  Swiss 
colony,  concerning  which  I  may  refer  you  to  Mr.  Hutchinson. 

After  this  came  Obligado,  memorable  for  the  chain  or 
rather  for  the  three  chains.  Here  Dictator  Rosas  opposed 
the   English    and  French  squadrons  by  a  resilient  structure 


234      UP  THE  PARANA  RIVER  TO  ROZARIO. 

composed  of  a  one  and  a  quarter  incli  chain  amidships, 
flanked  by  two  one-inch  chains  on  each  side,  and  floated 
across  the  channel  upon  thirteen  pontoons  formed  of  small 
dismasted  vessels.  Commodores  Hotham  and  Trehouart 
sent,  on  Nov.  20,  1845,  Lieutenants  Hope  (now  Admiral 
Sir  James  Hope)  and  de  la  Morvonnais^^  (whose  estancia 
we  passed  upon  the  Uruguay  river),  and  after  the  fleet  had 
suffered  severely  by  being  detained  under  batteries  which 
could  not  be  turned,  the  cold  chisel  soon  opened  a  way. 
This  "  beau  fait  d'armes  "  is  at  this  moment  especially  in- 
teresting ;  we  are  bound  for  Paraguay,  and  we  become 
curious  about  chains  and  booms. 

Now  we  approach  S.  Nicolas  de  los  Arroyos,  185  miles 
from  Buenos  Aires,  and  famed  as  the  prettiest  part  of  the 
stream.  The  bottom  is  here  sandy  not  muddy,  and  there 
are  few  snags  or  sawyers,  the  rare  driftwood  being  gene- 
rally carried  towards  the  western  shore  into  which  the 
stream  is  now  biting.  The  vegetation  begins  to  change^ 
the  '^  ceibo ''  is  finer  though  less  common,  and  generally 
the  leafage  is  larger.  The  left  bank  is  low  and  flat :  the 
right,  tall  and  well  raised,  supports  the  townlet,  which  is 
limited  by  a  creek  on  the  north.  All  visible  from  the  river 
is  a  string  of  new  houses,  mostly  of  brick  and  nearly 
finished  :  the  lower  town  of  S.  Nicolas,  in  April,  1869,  will 
be  under  water.  Apparently  all  the  traffic  goes  ''  aquas 
arriba/^  none  down  ;  big  ships  lie  at  anchor,  other  ships 
run  up  before  the  ''  soldier's  wind,''-'  and  a  steam-tug  tows 
her  three  anchors,  proud  as  a  hen  with  chickens.  The 
craft  is  of  every  kind,  good,  bad,  and  indifferent,  all  being 
equally  fish  to  the  war-makers,  who  prefer  quantity  to 
quality.  At  night  the  ships  have  an  old  habit  of  making 
fast  to  the  trees,  hence  hoar  and  reverend  jests  put  into  the 

*  I  regret  to  see  that  English  writers  have  chosen  entirely  to  ignore 
the  part  taken  by  our  French  allies  in  this  gallant  enterprise. 


UP  THE  PARANA  RIVER  TO  ROZARIO.      235 

native  mouth  concerning  the  nightly  repose  on  the  Atlantic. 
The  lights,  yellow,  red,  and  green,  are  almost  as  good  an 
illumination  as  that  of  Buenos  Aires.  It  is  suggestive  to 
see  the  mighty  river  so  populous,  thus  illustrating  what  it  will 
be  two  centuries  hence,  when  the  sounds  of  war  shall  have 
died  away  from  its  banks,  and  the  sights  from  its  memory. 

Above  S.  Nicolas  the  stream  spreads  out  some  six  miles  : 
its  peculiarity  is  that  the  deeper  water  lies  near  the  two 
sides.  Ships  therefore  brush  the  bush  to  avoid  grounding, 
and  to  save  the  curves.  We  passed  unconscious  the  Vuelta 
de  Montiel,  that  great  bend  whose  delays  are  so  much 
feared  by  sailors.  Again  the  river  narrowed,  whilst  the 
bank  rose  to  eighty  feet,  tunnelled  and  pierced  like  salt 
licks,  by  the  Viscacha — where  it  exists — by  the  martin, 
and  by  the  parroquet.  Below  the  side -slopes  animals 
gather  to  get  shelter  from  the  wind,  and  to  chew  the  cud 
in  the  presence  of  water.  The  approach  to  the  city  is  a 
big  unfinished  brick  house,  bald  all  about,  a  small  Saladero, 
that  kills  its  150  beasts  per  diem. 

At  2  A.M.  we  halted  off  Bozario  in  the  swiftly  rushing 
stream  of  two  and  a  half  to  three  knots.  Here  the  river, 
about  one  mile  wide,  is  very  deep,  and  the  ships  often  lose 
anchors  :  friction  and  other  obstacles  make  the  under-flow 
faster  than  the  surface  current  in  proportion  of  eight  (or 
eight  and  a  half)  to  four  and  three-quarters,  or  five.  The 
fall  of  the  Parana  from  Bozario  to  the  Puerto  de  las 
Piedras  (thirty-three  miles)  is  seven  feet  four  inches  duly 
measured,  and  giving  a  declivity  of  two  and  three-quarter 
inches  per  mile.  Similarly  the  Mississippi  Biver,  from  the 
mouth  of  the  Ohio  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  a  distance  of  1200 
miles,  gives  275  feet,  or  two  and  a  quarter  inches  per  mile. 

We  must,  I  suppose,  land  at  Bozario,  if  it  only  be  to 
pay  a  visit  to  the  Consul.  His  jurisdiction  we  are  told 
extends  no  higher  up.      A  tantot. 


LETTER  X. 

ACTUALITIES    OF    ROZARIO    (SANTA    FE). 

August  19,  1868. 
My  dear  Z         j 

The  Spaniard  writes  Rozario  and  pronounces 
Rosario  \  the  Portuguese  writes  Rosario  and  pronounces 
Rozario. 

After  this  etymological  caution  we  may  remark  that  the 
approach  to  the  town  is  a  shelf  of  hardened  silt_,  varying 
from  60  to  nearly  100  feet  high^  which  is  in  fact  the  edge  of 
the  Parapasian  formation.  The  outline  viewed  in  perspec- 
tive is  diversified  by  headlands  and  double  distances,,  escarp- 
ments and  undercliffsj  here  grass-clad,  forming  compara- 
tively level  downs  like  those  of  Dover;  there  dotted  with 
tree  clumps  and  single  trees.  The  barranca  or  bluff-face  is 
tunnelled  by  the  parrot,  and  monte  somewhat  resembling 
our  oak  coppices  clothes  the  sloping  base  that  rests  upon 
the  wave.  The  left  bank,  low,  flooded,  and  peculiarly  dull- 
looking,  is  still  Entre  Rios,  the  Mesopotamia  of  Argentine- 
land. 

The  history  and  topography  of  Rozario  have  been  so 
well  and  so  frequently  described,  that  I  may  without  the 
imputation  of  idleness  shirk  the  task.  The  main  interest  of 
the  settlement  is  its  prodigious  growth.  In  1850  it  was  a 
miserable  hamlet  of  mud-huts  sheltering  600  souls ;  in 
1852  it  numbered  1500  to  2C00;  in  1855  it  had  6000;  in 
1857,  12,000.  The  census  of  1858  gave  it  13,826,  and  now 
its  population  cannot  fall  short  of  25,000.  Its  importance 
arises   from   its   position   as   a  river  port  for  the  vast  pro- 


ACTUALITIES   OF    ROZARIO    (SANTA    YE).  237 

vinces  of  the  interior.  It  is  also  conuected  by  a  coach- 
line  with  Mendoza^  which  lies  nearly  in  the  same  parallel ; 
and  during  the  last  four  years  it  has  thriven  by  the  Para- 
guayan war,  and  by  the  railway  being  run  towards  Cordoba 
— a  Central  Illinois,  which  will  presently  make  Rozario 
another  Chicago. 

And  now,  from  being  the  commercial  capital  of  the 
Argentine  Confederation,  it  aspires  to  become  the  political. 
A  bond  fide  Federal  Washington  or  Rio  de  Janeiro  is  much 
wanted,  and  Hozario  is  a  central  site  far  superior  in  every 
way  to  Buenos  Aires.  Its  promotion  is  ardently  desired 
by  the  provinces,  and  the  Deputy  Quintana  highly  gratified 
them  by  introducing  into  Congress  the  following  pro- 
ject :— 

'^''Art.  I.  The  City  of  Rozario  is  declared  Capital  of  the 
Republic,  comprising  the  territory  between  the  Arroyos 
Saladillo  and  Luduena,  on  the  River  Parana,  with  a  league 
of  inland  depth. 

"Art.  2.  All  public  properties  and  establishments  within 
the  federalized  territory  become  national  property. 

"  Art.  3.  The  Executive  shall  have  two  years  to  prepare 
the  necessary  buildings  for  the  national  authorities,  the 
latter  meanwhile  residing  in  the  City  of  Buenos  Aires. 

"  Art.  4.  This  law  shall  be  submitted  for  acceptance  of 
the  Provincial  Legislature  of  Santa  Fe.^^ 

The  bill  was  passed  on  September  18,  1868,  by  a  majority 
of  one — 20  to  19.  Had  there  been  a  tie.  President  Mitre 
would  have  vetoed  it.  But  Sor  Tijedo,  though  opposed  to 
the  measure,  left  the  Chambers  without  voting.  President 
Sarmiento  will  doubtless  stave  off  the  measure  during  his 
term  of  office — six  years.  After  that  time  Rozario  will 
have  the  best  of  chances.  Meanwhile,  the  value  of  land 
has  at  least  trebled,  and  the  Central  Argentine  Railway 
will  presently  make  it  independent   of  its  big  neighbour. 


238  ACTUALITIES    OF   ROZARIO    (sANTA   FE). 

and  enable  it  to  ship  produce  direct  to  Europe.  Buenos 
Aires  must  bestir  herself^  and  nothing  less  than  a  direct 
railway  to  the  Andes  can  enable  her  to  retain  her 
supremacy. 

The  landward-sloping  talus  of  these  tall  riverine  banks 
makes  all  the  settlements  seen  from  the  stream  appear 
small^  ragged,  and  scattered  :  viewed  from  the  ridge  they 
are  large,  and  regularly  laid  out.  The  shape  of  Eozario 
is  square,  except  where  the  river  bed  cuts  off  an  angle.  To 
the  west  there  is  a  bad  undrained  swamp,  which  must 
have  been  a  boon  to  the  cholera :  here  the  city  thins  out 
into  scattered  buildings,  brick-kilns,  and  enclosures  recently 
cultivated.  The  official  plan  gives  seventeen  streets  parallel 
with,  and  fourteen  perpendicular  to,  the  stream.  Of  these 
many  are  still  on  paper,  and  all  the  interest  of  the  town  is 
concentrated  in  the  eight  ''  cuadras,""  bounded  north  by  the 
Playa  or  river  side  ;  south,  by  Calle  Cordoba,  the  Hegent 
Street;  east  by  the  Matriz,  and  west  by  the  Calle  del 
Puerto.  Within  this  space  is  the  theatre,  lately  burnt 
down ;  the  usual  bull-baiting  yard,  the  chief  tennis  court, 
the  Club,  the  Post-office,  the  two  Consulates,  English  and 
"  American^^  (U.S.),  the  cafes  de  Paris  and  Orispe,  acting 
local  exchange,  not  to  speak  of  "  London^s  cafe  and  re- 
staurant ;"  the  new  house  of  Messrs.  Dugued  and  Co.,  and 
the  banks — London  and  River  Plate,  the  Argentine,  the 
Cabal  and  Co.-'s,  and  the  Maua  and  Co.^'s. 

The  main  square,  "  25  de  Maio,"^  gay  with  promenades 
on  Sunday  and  Thursday  evenings  only,  is  that  of  the  Ar- 
gentine country-town  generally.  The  usual  scaly  and 
shabby  Paraiso  trees  shelter  new  seats  of  cast-iron  cleanly 
painted,  and  surround  a  column,  upon  whose  summit  stands 
Liberty  like  St.  Simeon  Stylites.  But  the  deity,  unlike 
the  saint,  wants  an  arm,  and  is  otherwise  much  bruised 
and  knocked  about.     The  colours  are  wonderful;    the  pe- 


ACTUALITIES    OF    ROZAllIO    (SANTA   FE).  239 

destal  is  indigo  blue,  the  cornice  is  dirty  gamboge  ycllow_, 
the  basement  is  chocolate-coloured,  and  the  four  steps  that 
lead  up  to  it  are  mottled  with  chipping.  Around  it  stands 
a  small  family  of  four  young  columns  a  quarter  grown  and 
headless :  the  busts  which  surmounted  them  have  been 
injured  and  removed.  A  seedy  iron  railing  and  tipsy- 
looking  lamps  complete  the  monument,  which  reads  a  lesson 
in  high  art  to  the  Rosarinos. 

Facing  the  north  of  the  main  square  is  the  new  Gefatura, 
a  tall  and  handsome  building :  it  lacks,  however^  the  useful 
clock  of  the  Buenos  Aires  Cabildo.  The  Matriz,  whose  two 
round  white  steeples  of  the  pepper-castor  order  can  be  seen 
from  the  river,  and  make  ns  compliment  Rozario  upon  not 
having  too  much  church,  is  on  the  eastern  side.  Fronting 
west,  and  adjoining  it  to  the  north,  is  a  low  yellow  building 
that  acts  as  priests'  quarters  and  police  office.  Nothing  can 
be  more  hideous  than  this  attempt  at  classical  art,  its  plaster 
Ionic  pillars,  with  intervals  unknown  to  the  gods  or  Vitru- 
vius.  At  9.10  A.M.  mass  on  Sundays  and  fetes  the  church 
is  crammed.  Men  in  the  blackest  of  black  suits  stand 
bareheaded  under  that  dreadful  portico.  The  women — 
endimanchees — overwhelming  society  with  superfluous  dry 
goods,  and  dressed  not  to  please  the  other  sex  so  much  as 
to  displease  their  own,  squat  upon  the  floor.  The  first  glance 
justified  me  in  quoting 

"  Ugly  church,  ugly  steeple, 
Ugly  square,  and  ugly  people." 

The  latter  are  mostly  Chinos — don't  mistake  this  for  Chinese 
— uninteresting  half-breeds,  white-red,  with  here  and  there 
a  flavour  of  Ham.  China  girls,  tall  and  cleanly  made,  with 
fine  long  black  hair,  eyes  like  the  llama's,  luscious  lips, 
and  skins  of  bronze  that  show  only  one  single  tone,  are  ad- 
mirable in  their  early  teens.  Marriageable  at  thirteen,  after 
the  third  lustre  they  devote  themselves  somewhat  fanatically 


240  ACTUALITIES    OF   ROZARIO    (sANTA   EE). 

to  the  dulia  of  the  jolly  god^,  now  San  Martin,,  and  the 
loving  goddess  of  late  called  Mai  dos  Homens.  They  are 
"  passed  ^'  at  twenty,  faded  at  twenty-five,  and  horribly  old 
and  hideous  at  thirty-five. 

The  "  Sabbath^^  evening  at  Rozario  passes  somewhat  less 
respectably  than  the  morning.  There  is  generally  some  ambu- 
lant company  that  hires  a  baiting-yard  in  the  Calle  de  Cor- 
doba, and  the  citizens  delight  in  fighting  animals.  Entering 
the  circus-tent,  which  was  dimly  lit  with  a  dozen  tallow  can- 
dles, we  were  obliged  to  take  a  box — chimney-pot  hats  may 
not  sit  in  "  vulgar  "  places.  The  entertainment  began  with 
the  tumbling  of  a  clown  in  white  night-shirt,  spotted  with 
black  wafers.  Then  came  the  man  with  the  dancing  bear, 
the  supping  bear,  and  the  wrestling  bear,  that  pretended  to 
lose  temper — all  were  of  the  small  brown  species.  The 
bull-baiting  was  announced  by  prodigious  excitement  of  the 
caninery  that  was  fastened  by  staples  and  chains  to  heavy 
timbers  in  the  yard  behind  the  scenes  :  they  were  restless 
and  noisy  as  boys  on  board  a  steamer.  The  baiteewas  evidently 
an  old  soldier,  a  neatly  made  little  bull,  that  sensibly  kept 
its  nose  guarded  by  brass-tipped  horns  close  to  the  ground, 
and  cleverly  tossed  a  succession  of  assailants.  At  length 
the  clown  shouted  with  efi'usion  "  Aqui  el  perro  Inglez,"*^ 
and  straightway  bolted  in,  direct  as  a  bee  line,  a  vicious 
little  brute  with  broad  flat  snaky  head,  somewhat  bulkier 
than  the  rest  of  its  person,  mere  screws  of  ears,  a  well 
scarred  yellow-white  coat  that  would  have  gained  by  scour- 
ing, and  a  villanous  sidelong  scowl,  in  which  was  visibly 
written  ruffian''s  dog.  Its  friend  the  bull  received  the  rush 
in  full  front,  and  chucked  it  some  yards  away,  when  it  was 
caught  in  an  attendant's  arms,  and  nondum  satiatus  was 
carried  to  bed,  kicking  for  more  fight.  All  this  was  pain- 
fully dull.  More  amusing  and  of  course  more  barbarous 
were   the   next  two   acts,   when   the   dogs   were  loosed  at 


ACTUALITIES    OF    ROZARIO    (SANTA    FE).  241 

various  animals_,  especially  at  a  pony  and  afterwards  at  a 
donkey.  The  latter  was  ridden  by  a  pink-dressed  monkey 
that  at  first  sat  well  home  in  the  saddle ;  but  as  assailant 
after  assailant  came  on,  the  hapless  anthropoid  rose  higher 
and  higher  till  the  curtness  of  its  coat  became  distinctly 
visible.  Some  of  the  dogs  preferred  the  rider  and  received 
tolerably  severe  scratches,  others  flew  at  the  monture,  and 
that  maligned  animal  the  ass  was  in  all  duels  the  cleverer 
by  half;  skilfully  avoiding  exposure  of  the  throat,  which 
was  protected  by  a  broad  leather  band,  it  bit,  it  trampled, 
it  kicked,  it  struck  out  with  the  forehand,  all  with  the 
agility  of  the  original  zebra.  The  evening  ended  at  the 
Cafe  de  Paris,  Calle  del  Puerto ;  it  is  the  best  in  the  place, 
but  bad  ventilation  gives  it  the  climate  of  the  Gold  Coast, 
and  makes  the  stale  tobacco-smoke  hang  heavy  and  lurid 
as  a  thundercloud. 

Literature  does  not  flouiish  at  Rozario — witness  the 
"  Aviso  "  of  M.  Vincent  Verge,  beginning — 

"  The  undersigned  (Phlebotomist  approved),  who  lives  in 
Port-street,  No.  165,  near  the  market,  prevent  the  public 
that  he  hast  just  received  a  part  of  HamburgFs  leeches,'^ 
&c. 

Yet  even  in  the  balneal  Etablissement  of  civilized  Vichy 
we  read — 

"  Sir  Hirschler,  Corn- Cutter  and  Pedicure  to  Her  Ma- 
jesty the  Emperor.^^ 

There  are  two  local  dailies.  El  Federalist  a  is  politically 
affiliated  to  the  Nacion  Argentina  of  Buenos  Aires  in  oppo- 
sition to  President  Sarmiento,  the  Editor,  Sor  Emilio  Gomez, 
being  a  negroid.  The  other  is  La  Capital^  whose  redactor  and 
editor,  Sor  Ovideo  Lagos,  was  described  to  me  as  an  Urqui- 
zista,  and  something  worse.  Rev.  Mr.  Carter,  an  American 
Missionary,  emits  the  South  American  Monthly,  a  magazine 
suited   to   the   most   limited  capacity,   full  of  goody-goody 

IG 


242  ACTUALITIES    OF    ROZARIO    (SANTA    FE). 

talk^  victorious  polemique^  and  a  few  apocryphal  conversions. 
Finally^  there  is  a  truly  civilized  Preqo  Corriente  published 
fortnightly  by  Carlos  F.  Gorsse  in  English  and  French, 
Spanish  and  Italian.  El  Cosmopolitano  and  El  Ferro 
Carril  are  in  abeyance,  owing  to  the  absence  on  a  colonizing 
crusade  of  the  sanguine  and  enterprising  Canadian  "  D. 
Guillermo.''  Mr.  Perkins,  F.R.G.S.,  whom  I  have  before 
mentioned,  published  at  Rozario  in  1867,  the  "  Expedicion 
k  El  Rey  en  el  Chaco,^^  giving  an  account  of  the  settlements 
proposed  by  him.  He  has  lately  been  writing  in  the  Field. 
We  will  now  follow  the  example  of  Rozario,  which  is 
being  rapidly  drawn  by  the  railway  out  of  town  to  the 
north-west.  We  skirt  the  river,  turning  off  at  the  place 
where  presently  will  be  the  new  Hotel  de  la  Paix,  and 
where  now  is  a  mere  ^'^  jumpery.^^  All  the  characteristic 
sounds  of  the  American- Spanish  town  are  here — bugles  ad 
libitum,  and  eternal  bells,  which  good  taste  should  abolish, 
should  banish  to  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  As  the  Brazilian 
settlement  may  be  known  by  the  Araponga,  or  bell  bird,  so 
the  Platine  is  at  once  betrayed  by  the  shrill  scream  of  the 
Gallo  calling  out  all  his  brother  cocks.  In  places  you  will 
hear  three  grind-organs  playing  at  once,  and  apparently 
the  more  they  come  the  more  are  wanted.  With  great 
theoretical  respect  for  the  subject^s  liberty,  I  practically 
would  seize  all  such  sturdy  vagabonds  and  put  them  to 
honest  labour.  The  hairless  dog,  whose  parent  stock  came 
from  the  Sandwich  Islands,  is  here  common,  though  still 
rare  further  north.  They  somewhat  resemble  ugly,  clumsy 
Italian  greyhounds,  and  their  leaden-grey  skins  are  bald, 
except  where  a  few  bristles  sprout,  and  the  topknot  and 
tail-tuft,  which  are  sometimes  white.  These  "  Pelados" 
look  unnatural  among  the  canines,  and  the  albinos  are 
loathsome  as  white  Negros.  The  people  call  them  "  Ee- 
medios^^   because    they    cure    the   rheumatics   by   sleeping 


ACTUALITIES    OF    ROZARIO    (SANTA    FE).  243 

upon  the  aflfected  limb,  and  having  no  shelter  for  vermin 
they  are  applied  to  the  feet  in  bed  as  warming  pans  or  hot- 
water  bottles.  In  out-of-the-way  parts  of  the  country 
women  prefer  them  ^^  para  extrahirlas  la  leche."  The 
Gauchos  of  Rozario  are  peculiarly  ugly  and  wild-looking; 
instead  of  boots  and  calzoncillos,  the  short  Turkish  drawers, 
they  wear  dirty-white  ill-fitting  stockings  sandalled  to  the 
knee  with  the  ribbons  of  the  Spartelle  or  Basque  sandal. 
Their  montures  are  small,  poor  and  ill-bred,  heavy-barrelled 
and  light-limbed,  more  like  cows  than  horses ;  they  want  a 
leavening  of  Arab  or  of  English  thorough-bred.  The  best 
by  far  are  the  Mendozinos,  despite  their  exceedingly  coarse 
crests,  ponderous  forehands,  and  the  kind  of  circus  training 
which  they  undergo.  All  pull  tolerably  well,  and  are  very 
quiet,  or  rather  spiritless,  being  poorly  fed  and  severely 
punished. 

Passing  through  the  straggling  suburb  to  the  outskirts, 
where  land  will  soon  command  its  breadth  in  silver,  we 
come  to  a  garden  labelled  Chateau  des  Fleurs.  It  is  the 
familiar  DeviFs  Acre,  cut  up  into  long  straight  walks  and 
dwarf  flower-beds,  fronted  by  seats  and  tables  under  dark 
arbours  and  trellised  vines.  We  graced  the  opening  night, 
Saturday,  November  28,  and  paid  at  the  door  $1  Bolivian 
(35.  2d. — 4^.)  A  little  lumber  theatre  had  been  hastily 
thrown  up.  The  stalls  were  crowded  with  decent  women, 
whilst  the  men  drank  beer  and  brandy  on  the  back  seats, 
which  gave  it  the  genuine  look  of  a  penny  gaff.  Madame 
Angel  and  Mademoiselle  Talleyrand,  who  had  travelled  with  us 
from  Buenos  Aires,  sang,  danced,  and  did  Theresa  and 
Rigolboche  (poor  girl !)  to  abundant  applause,  ^'  mas  arriba^^ 
being  the  only  objection  where  the  foot  was  not  raised 
sufficiently  a  la  Almah.  Though  sadly  disappointed  by  the 
absence  of  a  cancan,  that  gracious  gift  of  friendly  France  to 
these  young  lands,  the  audience  was   in  excellent  humour. 

16—2 


244  ACTUALITIES    OF    ROZARIO    (sANTA    FE). 

An  unhappy  tenor^  beginning  to  mangle  his  song  without 
ruth  or  stint^  was  literally  cheered  ofiP  the  stage — a  great 
improvement  upon  the  barbarous  European  howls_,  hisses^ 
and  cat-calls.  We  ended  the  evening  at  the  house  of 
D.  Carlos  Hurtado^  who^  over  some  first-rate  port^  supplied 
us  with  an  abundance  of  the  most  interesting  local 
information. 

During  our  first  visit,  my  good  colleague,  Mr.  Thomas 
Hutchinson,  H.B.M.^s  consul,  was  absent  on  sick  leave  to 
England.  The  second  found  him  preparing  to  quit  his 
little  quinta  in  the  suburbs.  He  had  done  heroic  service 
during  the  terrible  cholera  plagues  which  desolated  Rozario 
in  March  to  May  1867,  and  in  December  to  February, 
1867-8.  A  single  month  (April)  saw  492  victims  buried  in 
the  churchyard.  The  people  mostly  fled  from  the  sick, 
even  from  those  sufiering  cholerine — an  epidemic  that  visits 
them  almost  yearly  during  the  great  heats  and  autumnal 
rains.  My  colleague  was  ably  aided  by  the  Sisters  of 
Charity,  with  their  customary  devotion  to  the  cause  of 
suffering  humanity,  and  by  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  who  like 
himself  did  not  escape  unscathed.  He  was  then  subjected 
to  a  cowardly  attack  in  the  shape  of  a  caricature.  The 
native  doctors,  who,  by  the  depletive  treatment  had  sent 
their  scores  to  the  grave,  were  too  glad  to  throw  dirt  at  a 
medical  man  who  cured  many  a  patient  with  chloroform, 
chlorodyne,  and  shampooings  with  brandy  and  spirits  of 
turpentine.  He  was,  however,  gratified  by  the  present  of 
a  medal,  inscribed,  "  In  Memoria  de  los  Tavajos  Practi- 
cados  por  la  Log.  Cap.  Union,  durante  el  Colera  de  1867. 
Rosario,  1867.^'  And  there  I  believe  ended  his  reward. 
It  almost  proves  a  future  state,  et  cetera. 

Mr.  Hutchinson  of  course  had  troubles  with  the  bad 
section  of  his  constituents,  some  of  whom  circulated  a 
complaint  against  him.      "  Society'''  at  and  about  Rozario  is 


ACTUALITIES    OF   ROZARIO    (sANTA    FE).  245 

even  more  divided  thau  iu  Monte  Video  :  the  "  Camp^'  is 
first ;  the  City  comes  in  a  poor  second.  Amongst  the 
citizen-foreigners  are  also  two  divisions — gentilhommes  and 
bourgeois,  nobs  and  snobs — who  dwell  wide  apart  as  the 
original  owners  of  the  Burra-Burra  mine.  You  may  imagine 
the  effect  of  such  complications  in  the  most  limited  of  circles, 
especially  when  further  subdivided  by  separation  of  saint 
from  sinner,  Liberal  from  Conservative,  Creole  English  and 
home-bred  English.  The  consequence  is,  that  practically 
your  '^  set^^  is  reduced  to  a  quarter  dozen  at  the  most. 
This  is  much  less  the  case  amongst  the  Germans,  Italians, 
French,  and  few  Basque.  A  week  at  Rozario  was  long 
enough  for  me  to  hear  of  these  troubles,  and  not  long 
enough  to  involve  me  in  them.  We  spent,  even  in  the 
town,  some  very  pleasant  evenings,  especially  with  Mr. 
Weldon  and  Mr.  George  W.  Bollaert,  a  son  of  the  well- 
known  litterateur.  I  cannot  commend  too  strongly  their 
habit  of  dining  sub  divo  in  the  patio  backed,  by  the  fragrant 
garden. 

From  Mr.  Hutchinson^s  Quinta  we  walked  over  to  the 
terminal  station  of  the  Central  Argentine  Railway,  of  which 
Mr.  William  Wheelwright  is  contractor.  This  gentleman 
was  then  building  for  himself  another  large  house,  thereby 
notably  stultifying  a  certain  proverb.  Now  past  seventy-one, 
he  began  life  by  trading  notions  in  a  little  Yankee  schooner 
on  the  western  coast  of  South  America,  and  whilst  he  was 
treated  as  a  mere  visionary  and  speculator,  his  energy  and 
perseverance  enabled  him  to  conquer  difficulty  after  difficulty, 
and  at  last  victoriously  to  establish  the  steam  navigation  of 
the  Pacific.  Since  that  time  his  name  has  been  connected, 
more  or  less,  with  every  great  act  of  progress  effected  by 
the  Hispano-American  republics.  I  afterwards  made  ac- 
quaintance with  Mr.  Wheelwright  at  Buenos  Aires,  and 
found  him,  as  he  had   been  described  to  me,  in   appearance 


246  ACTUALITIES    OF    ROZARIO    (SANTA    FE). 

the  typical  John  Bull^  and  in  character  an  excellent  com- 
bination of  what  is  most  valuable  in  the  two  races^  English 
and  Anglo-American.  I  only  hope  that  he  may  live  to  see 
his  various  projects  crowned  with  success. 

Mr.  Wheelwright  obligingly  gave  me  letters  to  his  officials, 
Mr.  Ben.  Lea,  agent  for  the  contractors,  and  Mr.  George 
Cooper,  Mechanical  Engineer.  It  is  mortifying  to  find  how 
ungenial  and  even  ofi*ensive,  after  the  perfect  courtesy  of 
Argentine  and  Brazilian,  are  not  a  few  of  one^s  countrymen. 
Perhaps  it  is  often  merely  the  roughness  of  ignorance  that 
never  saw  society  beyond  shop  or  engine-house,  but  common 
sense  should  teach  a  man  how  to  receive  a  visit  without, 
for  instance,  turning  the  visitor  from  his  door.  The  only 
exception  to  the  rule  of  Central  Argentine  Railway  incivility 
was  Mr.  Woods,  Chief  "Resident  Engineer.  He  led  us  about 
the  spacious  station  which  is  now  being  built ;  we  found  all 
in  active  progress — passenger-rooms,  engine-houses,  offices, 
repairing  shops,  wood  sheds,  houses  for  mechanics,  and 
machinery  of  every  description  required.  This  is  doing 
things  on  a  large  scale  :  half  the  terminal  "  Cares'*^  in  the 
Brazil  would  fit  into  a  station  1000  metres  long  by  120 
broad.  The  site  is  an  old  cemetery,  from  which  skulls  and 
other  valuables  were  taken;  these  have  unfortunately  all 
been  dispersed.  For  making  the  bricks  of  the  enclosure, 
which  requires  millions,  pugging-machines  were  brought 
out — the  English  shape,  not  the  flat  Argentine,  is  pre- 
ferred, and  straw  and  manure  are  rendered  inadmissible  by 
the  cut  ting- wires.  Under  the  upper  black  humus,  one  foot 
thick  and  preferred  by  the  natives,  our  engineers  found  a 
subsoil  of  yellow  clay,  while  sand  of  superior  quality  than 
that  supplied  by  the  river  was  discovered  up  the  line,  and 
is  delivered  for  $4  per  cubic  yard.  At  first  the  proportions 
were  three  parts  of  black  and  yellow  earth  to  one  of 
arenaceous  matter ;    this   was   afterwards    changed    to   five 


ACTUALITIES    OF    ROZARIO    (SANTA    FE).  247 

yellow,   one  black,  and  one  sand,  and  careful  drying  pro- 
duced a  serviceable  article. 

The  first  sod  of  the  Central  Argentine  Railway  (see  the 
"  Parana  and  Cordoba  R.  R./^  a  paper  read  at  the  meeting 
of  the  R.  Geog.  Society,  Jan.  23,  1860,  by  Allan  Campbell, 
Esq.,  C.E.)  was  turned  by  President  General  Mitre  in  April, 
1863.  It  is  the  first  great  link  of  interoceanic  communica- 
tion, and  it  will  affect,  when  finished^  one  half  of  Argentine- 
land,  an  area  exceeding  the  total  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland,  France  and  Spain,  and  fitted  to  support  a  hundred 
millions  of  inhabitants.  The  initial  section  will  probably 
reach  Cordoba  some  time  this  year,  thanks  to  President 
Sarmiento,  who  there  decreed  an  Industrial  Exhibition,  with 
a  view  of  pushing  on  the  works.  From  Rozario  to  Cordoba 
the  direct  distance  is  73|  leagues  (232  English  miles),  and 
the  line  adopted  measures  247  miles,  of  which  240  are 
straight,  seven  are  curved,  and  only  four  run  over  broken 
surfaces.  The  profile  of  the  country  is  one  vast  plain,  an 
ocean  of  land,  till  it  approaches  the  Sierra,  where  the  higher 
levels  are  well  wooded.  Thus,  while  the  railway  mile  in 
the  Brazil  costs  20,000/.,  and  proves  the  folly  of  expensive 
works  in  young  countries  with  sparse  populations,  here  it 
can  be  completed  for  6400/.  This  is  the  sum  upon  which 
the  Government  guarantees  7  per  cent.,  and  the  total  of 
247  miles  wiU  not  attain  1,500,000/.  The  law  of  1857 
increased  the  previous  concession  to  one  square  league 
(3*25  miles)  on  each  side  of  the  line  from  Rozario  to 
Cordoba,  except  the  four  leagues  near  these  two  great 
termini,  and  breaks  of  one  league  about  Frayte  Muerto  and 
Villa  Nueva.  Thus,  when  the  works  touch  the  foot  of  the 
Andes,  the  company  will  own  a  little  kingdom  of  3600 
square  leagues — fine  arable  and  grazing  ground,  to  be  held  in 
plenary  possession  on  the  condition  of  its  being  colonized. 
They  should  have  military  settlements  echelonnes  at  every 


248  ACTUALITIES    OF    ROZARIO    (SANTA    TE). 

ten  miles,  and  send  out  emigrants  who  mnst  be  prepared 
at  any  moment  to  exchange  the  plough  for  the  sword. 
Properly  managed,  this  place  would  afford  a  Hegira  to  the 
paupers  of  Europe,  and  in  its  turn  this  splendid  and  luxu- 
riant waste  will  begin  the  life  of  civilized  regions. 

An  error  of  detail  made  in  this  line  at  one  time  threatened 
serious  trouble.  I  quote  it  as  a  warning  to  future  specu- 
lators. The  Government  ought,  immediately  after  passing 
the  bill,  to  have  purchased  the  six  and  a  half  square  miles 
which  cross  the  railway  longiter,  and  a  very  small  sum  might 
have  made  them  its  proprietors.  Every  month  saw  active 
men  pressing  in  to  exploit  the  land,  the  public  funds  could 
not  afford  $25,000  (5000/.),  sometimes  demanded  for  a 
single  square  league,  and  for  years  the  only  ground  given 
over  in  the  Cordoba  Province  was  the  *'  Indian  country^' 
about  Tortugas.  It  was  once  expected  that  the  authorities 
would  be  compelled  to  offer  to  the  Company,  in  lieu  of  the 
land  conceded,  a  round  sum  say  of  $500,000,  that  this 
would  be  refused,  that  the  question  would  become  inter- 
national, and  that  the  railway  would  not  reach  its  terminus 
in  1870.  All  these  difificulties,  however,  have,  I  am  in- 
formed, been  satisfactorily  arranged. 

We  will  now  return  to  the  Yi.  A  ^'  tormenta^^  or  dust- 
storm  threatens,  and  we  must  hurry  on  board  whilst  we 
may.      Adieu. 


LETTEE  XT. 

FROM  ROZARIO  TO  CORRIENTES. 

August  20,  1868. 

My  dear  Z J 

"Above  Rozario/^  says  the  South  Ame- 
rican Pilot,  '^  there  is  nothing  in  the  river  to  interest  the 
stranger/^     A  turn  of  the  world  has  changed  all  that. 

Before  we  go  further  let  us  cast  a  geographical  glance  at 
this  Parana  River,  which  has  been  compared  with  the  Ohio 
of  the  United  States.  The  total  length  is  laid  down  at 
2040  miles — namely  500  of  the  Brazilian  Bios  Grande  and 
Paranahyba,  1000  of  the  upper  stream  to  its  junction  with 
the  Paraguay,  and  540  before  it  becomes  the  Bio  de  la  Plata. 
"We  crossed  in  Minas  Geraes,  you  may  remember,  its  upper 
waters,  known  as  the  Bio  das  Mortes  Pequeno.  The  stream 
between  the  mouth  and  the  Misiones  district  is  calculated 
to  flow  at  2J  knots  an  hour ;  but  this  rate  appears  to  be 
exaggerated.  It  is  by  no  means  easy  to  average  the  current : 
it  is  rapid  where  high  converging  banks  form  narrows,  and, 
of  course,  slowest  between  inundated  shores.  The  annual 
diff"erence  of  its  level  is  supposed  to  be  twelve  feet,  but  evi- 
dently this  will  not  be  the  same  in  all  places.  Its  low 
water  is  caused  by  the  spring  and  winter  of  the  southern 
hemisphere ;  high  water  is  in  its  summer  and  autumn. 
From  this  time  to  September  it  shrinks,  and  in  October  it 
sometimes  falls  one  to  four  inches  in  twenty-four  hours.  It 
will  wax  lower  till  December,  and  about  January ;  when  the 
thermometer  shows  its  maximum  (60°  to  95°  Fahr.)  it  will 
begin  to  flood.    The  stream  is  high  and  steady  from  January 


250  FROM    ROZARIO    TO    CORRIENTES. 

to  June  (the  minimum  of  temperature  being  in  June  and 
July  30°  to  5G°  Falir.)  ;  during  this  semestre  the  Parana 
first  drains  the  torrential  rains  of  the  Brazilian  highlands, 
discharged  through  the  great  affluents,  and  next  the  Paraguay- 
is  fed  hy  the  Xarayes  marshes ;  while  somewhat  later  the 
Bermejo  and  the  Pilcomayo  bring  down  the  melted  snows 
of  the  Bolivian  Andes.  At  this  season  the  inundations  are 
frequently  severe,  the  Parana  acting  upon  the  Paraguay  by 
damming  it  up,  and  the  floods  of  1868-9  materially  afi'ected 
the  war  operations  of  the  Allies.  Modern  travellers  know 
little  of  the  upper  bed  of  the  Parana :  navigation  is  arrested 
by  the  Salto  del  Apipe,  780  miles  from  Buenos  Aires,  and 
few  living  Europeans  have  visited  La  Guayra  (1070  miles), 
described  by  old  authors  as  an  awful  cataract,  but  really  a 
succession  of  rapids  some  twelve  leagues  long. 

Adieu  to  llozario  of  the  Bats  :  the  last  we  see  of  it  is  the 
little  red-tiled  Methody  chapel,  the  brickwork  of  the  big 
station,  and  the  wooden  shoot  leading  to  Mr.  Wheelwright's 
wharf,  where  ships  bringing  material  for  the  railway  are 
discharged.  There  has  been  a  terrible  "  seca^'  or  drought 
hereabouts,  lasting  from  April  to  August.  It  accounts  for 
the  prairie  fire  by  night  and,  by  day,  for  the  smoke  forming 
in  all  directions  lurid  dust-clouds  ;  these,  solid  to  sight  as  a 
wall,  sweep  up  from  the  right  of  the  river  and  linger  in  our 
rear.  The  warm,  unpleasant,  nerve-trying  Viento  Norte, 
the  norther  which  causes  murders  from  Buenos  Aires  to 
Pernambuco,  has  gradually  changed  to  a  steady  Pampero, 
and  sends  flying  up  under  a  press  of  canvas  the  mob  of 
palhabotes  and  goletas  (schooners)  which  are  often  delayed 
grumbling  for  weeks.  Here  square-rigged  craft  are  the 
fashion — the  wind  regular  as  a  trade,  blowing  up  or  down 
stream,  and  mostly  up,  as  the  palms  bending  to  the  north 
pro\'e.  However  good  for  navigation,  a  strong  south-wester 
about  Rozario  makes  the  Parana  very  dangerous.      The  gale 


FROM    ROZARIO    TO    CORKIENTRS.  251 

meeting  at  an  angle  the  swift,  deep  current  raises  an  angry 
sea ;  at  niglit  the  breeze  bites,  and  the  cold  high  wind 
makes  the  cloudy  sky  feel  as  if  there  were  "  snow  in  the 
air."  And  so  there  is,  the  snow  of  the  distant  Patagonian 
Andes  to  the  south-west  :  the  nearest  place  where  that 
meteor  can  be  seen  is  the  Sierra  de  Cordoba,  called  the 
"  Argentine  Alps,"  and  not  "  Alps"  at  all. 

The  Convent  of  San  Carlos,  at  San  Lorenzo,  appeared 
to  us  as  a  white  fa9ade  and  tympanum  facing  the  river, 
flanked  by  four- storied  white  steeples,  and  backed  by  dark 
dwarf  dome  and  brown  adjuncts,  huts  and  trees.  This 
building  has  of  late  years  been  sketched  and  described :  it 
will  be  classic  ground  where  in  1810  General  San  Martin 
fought  his  first  fight  against  the  Spaniards,  and  defeated 
them  with  a  handful  of  cavalry.  San  Carlos  is  now  occupied 
by  about  a  dozen  old  Franciscans,  whom  foreigners  charge 
wdth  admitting  women,  and  other  irregularities.  It  caused,  in 
combination  with  the  Odium  Theologicum,  the  Santa  Fe 
Revolution  of  December  1867 — March  1868.  Between 
1864-7  the  Provincial  Governor  was  D.  Nicasio  Orono, 
lawyer,  merchant,  landed  proprietor,  and  man  of  progres- 
sive ideas.  He  extended  the  limits  of  his  little  state  over 
thirty-eight  leagues  of  the  Gran  Chaco,  and  annexed  some 
500  square  leagues  of  the  most  fertile  soil;  he  persuaded 
the  Congress  to  sanction,  on  September  26,  1867,  a  civil 
marriage  ;  and  then  he  attempted  to  disestablish  the  Convent 
of  San  Carlos,  to  provide  elsewhere  for  the  monks,  and  to 
convert  the  building  into  an  agricultural  establishment  and 
college  for  poor  boys.  The  good  Franciscans  said  no,  and 
discoursed  about  the  sin  which  shall  not  be  forgiven.  The 
banker,  D.  Mariano  Cabal,  saw  his  opportunity :  at  his  in- 
stigation 1000  to  1500  gauchos,  headed  by  Sor  Jose  Fidel, 
Colonel  Patricio  Rodriguez,  and  Lieut. -Colonel  Nelson — 
what  a  name  for  such  a  miseria  ! — occupied  the  town^  and 


252  FROM    ROZARIO   TO    CORRIENTES. 

^'  pronouncement "  was  carried  out  in  the  most  orthodox 
and  approved  modern  fashion. 

A  little  above  the  monastery  is  the  spot  where,  in  1527, 
Cabot  built  the  Antigo  Fortin  del  Espirito  Santo  (Sancti 
Spiritus),  which  was  thus  senior  to  Asuncion  and  Buenos 
Aires.  It  was  abandoned  when  the  great  explorer  returned 
to  Europe,  and  the  Tapiales  or  mud  walls  must  long  ago  have 
melted  away.  We  read  in  Wilcocke  and  older  writers  the 
pathetic  tale  of  Lucia  Miranda  and  Sebastian  Hurtado  : 
how  Mangora,  Cacique  of  the  Timbuez  (Timbu  tribe),  at- 
tacked for  love  of  her  Fort  Holy  Ghost,  and  how  his 
brother  Siripo,  equally  bewitched,  burnt  her  alive  in  a  wild 
fit  of  jealousy,  and  caused  her  husband  to  be  shot  to  death 
with  arrows.  Buenos  Aires  has  also  its  romantic  tale,  of 
which  one  Maldonata  was  the  heroine :  she  had  made  her- 
self useful  to  a  lioness,  and  the  grateful  beast  supported  her 
during  a  terrible  famine,  and  saved  her  life  from  the  savagery. 

Beyond  the  Antigo  Fortin  lay  that  of  Corpus  Christi, 
built  by  Ayolas,  to  control  the  Timbii  "  Indians'"'  of  the  Car- 
carana  or  Rio  Tercero,  a  western  influent  of  the  Parana. 
Here  the  river  settles  into  its  normal  aspect.  One  shore 
is  a  barranca  or  tall  bank,  which  now  appears  to  the  east, 
and  sometimes  clean  disappears  :  the  other  shore  is  a  low, 
grassy,  and  often-flooded  point.  The  wavy  outline  of 
the  barranca  is  scattered  with  copse  and  trees,  and  spread 
with  a  carpet  of  gramma,  plisse  as  it  were,  and  often  divided 
into  two  webs  ;  one  green,  smooth,  and  low ;  the  other  yellow 
and  long-piled.  Its  height  is  sometimes  eighty  feet,  and  the 
profile  is  a  perpendicular  silt-scarp,  cut  as  if  with  a  knife 
above,  sloping  below,  and  fissured  laterally  in  all  directions 
by  rain  and  rivulet.  This  regularity  of  outline  we  shall  trace 
far  up  into  the  Paraguay,  and  by  it  we  shall  presently 
explain  the  one  unvarying  style  of  Paraguayan  defence,  and 
the  similar  monotony  of  the  Allied  attack. 


FROM    ROZARIO    TO    CORRIENTP^S.  253 

The  cliff  section  is  lined  with  long  horizontal  bands  of  stra- 
tified mnd,  like  courses  of  masonry ;  here  whitish,  there 
yellowish,  and  there  ruddy :  these  denote  the  process  of 
deposition  raised  by  secular  upheaval.  The  fine  dark  humus 
varies  in  depth  from  one  to  three  feet.  You  may  imagine 
its  antiquity  when  Humboldt  makes  seven  lines  of  humus 
the  work  of  a  century  in  the  temperates.  It  rests  upon 
sandy  silt,  the  latter  is  supported  by  red  or  white  tosca, 
calcareous  clay,  sandstone,  or  marl,  and  the  base  is  strewn 
with  boulders,  arenaceous  heaps,  and  tree-trunks,  the  spoils 
of  the  mighty  river- god.  The  oyster  cliffs  at  Parana 
on  the  eastern  side  contain  gryphsea,  O.  acuminata, 
O.  deltoidia,  and  O.  exogyna :  below  the  line  lie  ochreish 
clays,  and  sands  green  and  yellow,  whose  principal  fossils 
are  Astarte  elegans,  Pecten,  and  Plagiostomus.  On  the 
western  shore  the  succession  is  vegetable  mould.  Pampas 
earth,  and  conchylian  limestone. 

As  a  rule,  upward-bound  craft  hereabouts  hug  the  left 
bank.  On  board  the  Yi,  however,  cautiousness  prefers  the 
torrential  mid- stream  to  the  slack  water  on  both  sides,  and 
self-sufficiency  disdains  to  take  a  hint.  Our  commander 
declares,  although  the  stations  are  printed  upon  the  card, 
that  being  ordered  to  return  on  the  27th  instant,  he  will 
halt  only  when  he  wants  beef.  A  curious  party  of  pleasure  ! 
about  as  free  as  yonder  red-shirted  Paraguayan  prisoners 
who  pass  us  in  the  steamer  dashing  down  stream,  and  who 
affect  us  with  immense  excitement.  M.  Varela  and  a  ridi- 
culous being  called  Canstatt  make  after-dinner  speeches. 

Presently  we  sight  a  narrow  in  front.  The  left  bank  is 
Punta  Gorda,  called  Diamante  by  General  Urquiza,  when 
(February  3,  1852)  he  here  reviewed  his  cavalry,  12,000 
strong,  before  crossing  the  river  and  going  to  glory  at  the 
battle  of  Monte  Caseros.  The  troops  were  ferried  over  in 
boats   and   rafts.      On   the   Entre    Riano    side   a  tall    and 


254        FROM  ROZARIO  TO  CORRIENTES. 

regular  cliff  of  reddisli  clay  shows  three  distinct  distances  of 
parallel  bluff  in  long  perspective — the  nearest  fines  to  a 
point  which  projects  far  out  to  meet  the  lowland  on  the 
other  side.  North  and  south  of  it  are  swampy  grounds, 
and  it  forms  the  apex  of  the  larger  delta^  beyond  which  the 
stream  is  one.  A  sail  to  starboard  apparently  going  across 
country  shows  us  the  eastern  branch,  the  Rio  Paranan- 
cito,  upper  waters  of  the  Ibicuy.  Where  the  brown  silt 
scarp  is  disposed  in  a  gentler  talus,  there  is  thick,  furze-like 
monte,  leafless  now,  but  dark  green  in  the  right  season, 
whilst  a  rich  fringe  of  ever-verdant  willow  bends  over  the 
water.  A  Puerto  for  canoes  is  connected  with  a  ribbon 
of  path  which  winds  round  the  bulge  of  mud  precipice,  often 
double  and  parted  by  wild  vegetation,  and  which  slopes  up  the 
grassy  dorsum  leading  to  the  line  of  white  houses  and 
plantations  that  comprise  the  little  settlement.  It  is  by 
far  the  best  building  site  that  we  have  seen  yet — higher 
and  more  open  than  that  of  Rozario.  The  sole  disadvantage 
is  its  one  league  distance  from  the  river.  The  choice  of  place 
dates  from  the  days  of  the  Payagua  water-  thieves,  and  suggests 
a  valley  on  the  Upper  Congo  River.  Houses  mostly  with 
sloping  roofs,  "tejos^^  opposed  to  ^^azoteas,'^  and  with  walls  of 
tapia — the  taipa  of  the  Brazil  and  the  pise  of  Brittany,  not 
unknown  to  the  country  parts  of  England — are  crowded  about 
the  white  chapel.  The  cemetery  is  about  a  league  from 
the  settlement,  a  good  plan  here  generally  adopted.  About 
the  village  are  corrals  or  cattle  pens,  and  "  ramadas,^^  poles 
supporting  shady  roofs  of  thatch,  which  must  be  renewed 
every  year.  The  peach  plantations  already  showing  pink, 
and  patches  of  dark-leaved  oranges  set  in  rows,  from  afar 
resemble  coffee.  Black  cattle  wander  amongst  the  taillis, 
and  the  bouquets  de  bois  rabougris,  chiefly  the  Nandubay,  the 
tala,  and  the  mimosa.  Animals  breed  here  better  than  in 
the   Brazil  north   of  the  Parana  province,  where  artificial 


FROM    ROZARIO    TO    CORRIENTES.  255 

salt  licks  must  be  made,  and  where  the  uncaponized  bulls 
drive  the  cows.  The  horses  of  Entre  Rios  are  said  to  be 
large  and  good.  Their  habits  and  soft  hoofs,  however, 
render  them  useless  on  stony  ground. 

AVe  passed  Parana  city  at  night,  but  I  afterwards  fre- 
quently revisited  it.  The  approach  from  Diamante  is  pic- 
turesque ;  the  barranca  in  places  is  high  on  both  sides ;  the 
inlets  of  wooded  ground,  and  the  open  slopes  of  grassy 
downs,  like  velvet  with  frayed  nap,  are  a  repose  to  the  eye. 
Islands  and  sandbanks  now  become  numerous ;  the  former 
are  of  brown  earth,  supporting  luxuriant  grass  and  thick 
shrubbery  ;  there  is  little  driftwood  upon  them,  and  here- 
abouts no  forest  supplies  snags.  The  extraneous  matter  is 
brought  down  from  the  upper  stream,  and  forms  many  a 
"  bank  of  patience.^^  These  features  will  become  very 
common  above  Bella  Vista. 

The  Bajada,  or  landing-place  of  Parana  city,  is  the  usual 
gap  in  the  tall  cliff  fronting  a  willow- grown  islet,  off  which 
the  current  is  at  times  a  four-knot.  The  bush-crowned 
barranca  shows  lines  of  semi-fossilized  strata,  not  the 
muddy  alluvium  of  Pampasia.  Near  the  water  calcareous 
marls  and  clays  alternate  with  hard  shell-limestone,  and 
higher  up  the  cliff-face  are  two  "  calheiras^' — holes  which 
supply  white  nodular  calcaire.  From  these  shells  the  Para- 
guayans extracted  the  "  nacar^^  or  mother-of-pearl  with  w  hich 
they  made  their  once  celebrated  inlaid  work.  This  is  an 
"  Indian^^  art,  apparently  now  lost. 

Off  the  port  lie  a  little  steamer  and  four  ships,  awaiting 
cargo.  There  are  about  a  dozen  whitewashed  houses,  the 
rest  being  mere  '^'jhompris^^  or  hovels.  Here  lives  Mr.  Myers, 
formerly  Montague,  once  in  the  Royal  Navy,  but  since 
1816,  Independence  year,  an  Argentine  with  a  decided  turn 
for  Rosista  politics ;  wherefore  he  is  a  steamer-agent,  and 
full   of  old   local   knowledge.      Carts   and    carriages    com- 


256        FROM  ROZARIO  TO  CORRIENTES. 

municate  witli  the  town^  whicli  is  a  good  league  inland^  and 
about  200  feet  higher  than  the  river.  From  above  and 
below  the  Bajada  we  see  its  churchy  San  Miguel^  domi- 
neering the  rabble  of  low  buildings.  For  eight  years 
Parana  was  the  Federal  capital — very  well  placed  for  General 
Urquiza^s  interests^  very  badly  for  those  of  the  Confederation, 
being  at  least  390  miles  from  Buenos  Aires.  The  national 
^''Caravan  Government'^  abandoned  it  in  September  1861. 

From  Parana  a  little  steamer  runs  up  to  Santa  Fe, 
crossing  the  stream  ai)d  threading  a  network  of  lagoons. 
Here  begin,  on  the  west  bank,  the  long  lines  of  riverine  islets 
formed  by  the  true  Parana  and  its  western  channel,  or  rather 
the  lateral  loop,  making  a  stream  six  leagues  broad  known 
as  the  Rio  de  San  Javier.  To  the  north  of  it  is  that  geo- 
graphical puzzle,  the  Saladillo  Dulce,  which,  according  to  the 
rise  and  fall  of  the  Parana,  flows  either  to  the  east  or  the 
west,  now  becoming  an  influent,  then  an  affluent. 

West  of  the  Saladillo  stream  runs  the  Salado,  representing 
the  Red  River  of  the  Mississippi  valley ;  it  separates  the 
province  of  Santa  Fe  from  El  Gran  Chaco  or  Chaco 
Gualamba — a  wild  Guarani  word,  from  which  we  are  sup- 
posed to  guess  the  aspect  of  the  place.  The  name  of  this 
"  hell  of  Spaniards  and  Paradise  and  Elysium  of  savages^''  is 
translated  yi^oq,  a  lair,  a  great  wild  chase  :  it  means  a  herd 
of  Vicunas  and  Guanacos.  According  to  Guevara,  the 
term  was  originally  applied  to  the  doab  formed  by  the 
Bermejo  and  the  Pilcomayo.  It  was  then  extended  to  the 
area  of  216,000  square  miles — big  enough  for  an  empire,  or 
for  four  South  American  republics — stretching  10°  north  of 
Santa  Fe,  and  6°  west  from  the  Paraguay  River.  Helms 
(1806)  asserts  that  Chaco,  the  ancient  name  of  the  land  about 
Chuquisaca  or  Sucre  city,  gradually  extended  to  the  southern 
loAvlands.  An  abundance  of  old  Spanish  and  Jesuitic  litera- 
ture describes  this  unoccupied  paradise,  which  is  still  as  it  was. 


VROM    ROZARIO    TO    CORRIENTES.  257 

a  ranclieria  of  wild  ^^  Indians."  Colonel  Arenales,  afterwards 
to  be  alluded  to^  wrote  a  dull^  but  circumstantial  book  about 
it  in  1833.  Part  of  the  luxuriant  waste  was  visited  by  Dr. 
Weddell,  the  companion  of  the  Count  de  Castelnau,  and  it 
was  skirted  by  Messrs.  Mansfield  and  Hutchinson.  It  still 
awaits  a  serious  exploration,  which  ought  not  in  these  days 
to  present  any  great  difficulties.  Externally,  the  mysterious 
land  at  which  travellers  gaze  with  wonder  and  curiosity  as 
the  yet  empty  cradle  of  a  mighty  people,  is  a  low  and 
thickety  jungle,  with  here  and  there  a  swelling  "  lomaria" 
or  ridge,  bulging  above  the  dark  fringe  of  impenetrable 
forest.  The  general  aspect  of  the  interior  as  far  as  visited, 
is  said  to  be  that  of  western  Texas,  except  that  it  has  more 
rivers  and  lakes,  and  that  its  Selvas  (forests)  are  far  richer 
and  fairer.  It  is  spoken  of  as  an  Eden  flowing  with  mUk 
and  wild  honey,  where  people  fatten  upon  game  and  popped 
corn,  toasted  and  spread.  But  I  have  ever  found  milk 
among  pastoral  tribes  rare  during  the  greater  part  of  the 
year,  as  is  fresh  fish  on  board  ship.  The  Chaco  is  politically 
claimed  by  the  Argentines  to  nearly  22°  south  latitude, 
above  which  Bolivia  asserts  her  rights.  The  eastern  and 
riverine  part  is  bespoken  for  Paraguay,  and  in  a  short  time, 
but  for  the  present  war,  the  grand  proportions  of  the  Great 
Wild  Chase  would  have  been  sadly  curtailed. 

On  the  morning  of  August  20  we  were  off  Santa  Elena 
Point,  where  is  the  white  estancia^  of  D.  Mariano  Cabal, 


*  The  estancia  is  a  planter's  (estanciero's)  farmhouse,  farm,  and  cattle 
grazing  ground.  The  tenement,  the  sheds  (galpones),  and  all  the  ofl&ces  are 
called  poblacion.  The  hacienda  (in  Bolivia  hata,  and  in  the  Brazil  fazenda) 
is  an  estate  for  cattle  breeding  and  grazing  exclusively,  unless  otherwise 
specified,  as  hacienda  detrigo  (wheat),  de  mineral  or  de  bemficio  (mining). 
The  quinta  is  a  suburban  villa,  a  small  farm,  or  a  country  house.  The 
chacra  is  a  grain  or  vegetable-growing  farm.  The  puesto  is  a  shepherd's 
(puestero's)  hut,  generally  with  its  rodeo  (from  rodear,  to  round  up  stock), 
a  bare  piece  of  ground  for  mustering  cattle. 

17 


258         FROM  ROZARIO  TO  CORRIENTES. 

the  intrusive  President  of  Santa  Fe.  The  next  place  of 
importance  was  La  Vaz,  distant  270  miles  from  Corrientes. 
It  is  a  hamlet  prettily  situated  upon  a  promontory  forming 
placid  bays  in  places  almost  land-locked  from  the  river, 
whose  flow  here  increases.  About  the  Puerto  canoes  were 
drawn  high  up  the  golden  sands  :  the  upper  part  is  the 
usual  sprinkle  of  whitewashed  houses  and  adobe  huts.  It 
is  known  in  old  books  as  Cavallo  Cutia,  the  white  horse — 
cutia  meaning  in  Guarani_,  primarily  white;  secondarily,  paper 
and  silver.  In  front  are  three  distances  of  woodland,  and 
presently  the  river  opens  a  sea  horizon.  The  land  opposite 
La  Paz  will  be  laid  out  in  colonies  to  connect  with  those 
of  Santa  Fe,  on  the  very  edge  of  the  dangerous  Chaco.  Its 
nearest  neighbour  would  be  the  Swiss  colony  La  Esperanza, 
the  most  northerly  of  the  three;  the  others  being  San  Carlos 
and  San  Geronimo,  echelonnes  to  the  west.  These  agi'icolo- 
military  colonies  will  be  found  most  useful  against  the  raids 
of  Chaco  Indians.  All,  I  repeat,  should  be  fighting  men, 
and  they  should  be  assisted  in  extending  the  frontier  and  in 
freeing  the  land,  without  sentimentality,  from  the  wolfish 
savages  that  infest  it.  The  Argentine  Confederation  will 
presently  extend  the  benefit  to  their  vast  Pampasian  limits. 
Here  the  vegetation  palpably  changes.  We  notice  for  the 
first  time  bamboo-clumps  (tacuaras)  near  the  water,  giving 
to  the  scene  a  tropical  aspect.  Large  palms  are  scattered 
over  the  higher  bank.  The  species  is  here  called  coquito — 
in  the  Brazil  coqueiro  (C.  butyracea).  There  is  a  greater 
luxuriance  of  growth:  we  have  now  trees  not  brushwood, 
towering  above  the  tall  Pampas  grass.  Flowers  begin  to 
form  a  feature,  and  brilliant  Brazilian  epiphytes,  dwarf 
copies  of  those  further  north,  adorn  the  boughs ;  not  only 
on  the  dead  trunks  live  columns  of  convolvulus,  even  the 
willows  are  tapestried  with  creepers  from  branch  to  root. 
Here  the  drift  wood  is  heaped   up  on  the  Chaco  or  right 


FROM    ROZARIO    TO    CORRIENTES.  259 

bank — a  sign  that  the  stream  swings  towards  it :  Captain 
Alvim  observed  the  same  opposite  Humaita,  and  probably 
there  are  local  diflferences  of  action.  Mr.  Crawford,  our 
engineer,  believes  that  the  stream  encroaches  eastward, 
thi'own  by  the  motion  of  the  globe.  Captain  Page  (p.  153) 
agrees  with  him,  and  attributes  the  islets  invariably  formed 
in  the  Chaco  to  the  agency  of  the  eartVs  revolution.  M. 
Elisee  Keclus  opines  that  the  Parana,  like  almost  all  the 
meridional  rivers  of  the  southern  hemisphere,  cuts  into  the 
left  bank.  When  treating  of  the  Rio  de  S.  Francisco,  I 
have  alluded  to  this  subject,  which  is  highly  important  when 
treating  of  engineering  works. 

About  noon  we  passed  on  the  east  bank  the  Rio  de  la  Punta 
Brava,  a  river  which  has  made  its  name  in  history.  When 
Garibaldi  was  expelled  by  General  Oribo  from  Montevideo, 
together  with  his  patron  the  Caudillo  General,  Fructuoso 
Ribera,  President  of  the  Banda  Oriental,  he  proceeded  upon 
sundry  "Corsair^^  expeditions.  The  Liberator  of  the  Farrapos 
had  only  three  vessels — the  barque  Constitucion,  the  brigan- 
tine  Pereira,  and  another.  Hotly  pursued  by  Admiral  Brown, 
a  lieutenant  of  Rosas^,  he  ran  up  this  stream,  burned  his 
ships,  and  marched  inland  to  Montevideo;  thence  he 
travelled  overland  to  Rio  Grande  do  Sul.  This  province  pro- 
claimed its  autonomy  as  the  Republic  or  Free  State  of 
Piratinim,  which  lasted  through  nine  years,  and  afterwards 
made  a  complete  ^fl^co.  This  admiral  was  an  Irishman  of 
the  good  old  fighting  stamp,  and  he  now  lies  under  a 
splendid  monument  in  the  Recoleta  of  Buenos  Aires.  The 
Argentines  do  not  deny  his  gallantry,  but  they  are  not  dis- 
posed to  like  or  to  laud  the  foreign  employe.  Concerning 
Garibaldi,  then  an  obscure  adventurer,  local  accounts  differ  : 
many  say  that  he  plundered  hard  to  support  his  forces  ;  almost 
all  agree  that  he  took  nothing  for  himself.  But  the  ques- 
tion is^  "  What  business  had  he  to  fight  at  all  V     Better 


260  FROM    ROZARIO    TO    CORRIENTES. 

was  candle-moulding  in  New  York^  and  then  poetical  justice 
would  not  liave  been  done  upon  him  in  the  shape  of  a  dra- 
matic biography  by  ^t.  Alexandre  Dumas  pere. 

The  next  place  of  importance  was  La  Esquina — the 
^'  corner^^ — which  must  not  be  confounded  with  La  Esquina 
del  Dourado  further  south.  At  this  point  the  southern  Rio 
Corrientes^drainingjthey  say,  the  Ybera  Lake,  joins  the  Espi- 
nilla  or  Guayquiraro,  the  "  home  of  the  fat  boy,"  which 
separates  the  Entre  Rios  province  from  its  northern  neigh- 
bour Corrientes.  The  settlement  lies  on  the  left  bank, 
about  three  miles  distant  in  a  true  line ;  the  site  is  a  loma 
or  ridge,  and  the  shape  is  a  long  scatter  of  white  houses 
with  dark  patches  of  orange-grove.  A  falua  boat,  flying 
the  Argentine  flag,  suddenly  came  out  of  the  creek,  showing 
that  water-way  is  not  wanting.  The  masts  of  a  ship  rose 
from  the  river.  AYe  were  told  that  she  was  the  Prince 
Albert,  a  Nova  Scotia  collier,  which  struck  upon  a  snag,  or 
had  a  hole  cut  in  her.  Opposite  La  Esquina  is  Pajaro  Blanco, 
a  place  of  savages  and  montaraces,  where  Mr.  Perkins 
would  plant  another  colony  to  lead  the  ^'^vida  fronteriza." 

Early  on  the  next  morning  we  passed  the  Costa  Tala, 
where  the  river  widens  to  an  enormous  girth ;  and  at  7  a.m. 
we  reached  Goya.  Here  both  banks  are  very  flat,  the 
bright  green  vegetation  is  very  tall,  and  the  stream  is  three 
and  a  half  leagues  wide — a  long  riverine  island,  one  of  a 
mighty  many,  splitting  it  into  an  eastern  and  a  western 
channel.  Large  ships  ascend  the  latter  ;  the  former  is  com- 
paratively shallow.  Many  craft  go  up  the  Bocas  de  Abajo 
or  lower  mouth  to  the  port,  and  descend  again,  losing  six  to 
seven  leagues,  rather  than  encounter  the  Boca  de  Arriba.  The 
name  Goya  is  a  corruption  of  Gregoria,  the  wife  of  a  Portu- 
guese settler,  and  must  not  be  made  with  Mr.  Mansfield 
'^  Goyaz,"  a  province  of  the  Brazil.  Dating  from  1820,  it 
is  one  of  the  most  thriving  places  in  the  upper  Parana,  and 


FROM    ROZARIO    TO    CORRIENTES.  261 

the  Correntinos  look  upon  it  as  a  small  Buenos  Aires.  I 
afterwards  visited  the  Puerto^  on  a  sandy  spit^  close  north  to 
the  Arroyo  de  Goya.  Here  are  the  large  white  capitania 
and  flagstaflP,  and  six  or  seven  brick  houses ;  the  rest  are 
shedsj  including  a  large  graseria  (where  fat  is  boiled  down), 
and  a  kind  of  chalet,  which  receives  steamer-passengers. 
Carts  and  horses  transport  them  to  the  Pueblo,  a  mile  or  so 
up  stream,  where  an  obelisk  and  white  towers  rise  above  the 
green  orchards.  It  is  an  industrious  commercial  little  hive 
of  3000  souls,  who  export  their  hides  and  wool,  oranges  and 
cheeses  :  the  latter  are  famed  through  the  land,  and  so  are 
the  "china^^  gii'ls^  who  are  said  to  press  them  by  the  simple 
process  of  supersession.  The  climate  is  feverish,  and  the 
place  is  too  near  the  lowlands  of  the  Sta.  Luzia  River. 

Goya  has  been  named  of  late,  being  the  most  southerly 
point  reached  by  the  Paraguayan  invader,  and  it  readily  sub- 
mitted to  200  men.  Both  here  and  at  La  Esquina  the 
soldiery,  it  is  said,  behaved  roughly,  and  did  not  leave  a  good 
name.  On  the  opposite  bank  is  the  Rio  del  Rey,  where  an 
old  settlement  was  founded  in  1748  and  abandoned  in  1813. 
This  stream,  even  in  our  most  modern  maps,  is  confounded 
with  a  western  branch,  the  Rio  de  San  Geronimo. 

Six  leagues  above  Goya,  near  a  long  point,  the  Rincon 
de  Soto,  also  called  de  los  Sotos  (of  the  Fools),  is  the  large 
Saladero,  formerly  belonging  to  Mr.  Samuel  Lafone,  of 
Montevideo,  and  afterwards  to  a  Buenos  Aires  Company. 
We  know  it  by  its  tall  chimneys  ;  the  better  houses  are 
whitewashed,  the  huts  are  of  wattle  and  dab  with  dull 
sloping  thatches,  and  the  place  of  business  has  a  zinc  roof. 
A  gaily  dressed  party  of  both  sexes  stands  upon  the  water- 
edge  marvelling  at  our  size.  The  Paraguayans  here 
billeted  themselves,  when  it  was  managed  by  D.  Emilio 
Quevedo  and  Mr.  Thomas  O^Connor,  now  of  Paysandu. 
The   latter  had    a  narrow  escape  ;    the   Paraguayan  officer 


262  FROM    ROZARIO    TO    CORRIENTES- 

repeatedly  declaring  a  velleite  for  shooting  him,  as  he  was 
evidently  a  malignant  and  an  ill-wisher  to  the  holy  cause 
of  Marshal-President  Lopez. 

Beyond  the  Rincon  is  an  historic  site,  the  Bateria  de 
Cueva,  the  name  of  a  fighting  old  Portuguese  estanciero, 
sometimes  erroneously  written  Cuevas,  Cuevo,  and  Cuevos.^ 
As  will  afterwards  appear,  it  is  the  typical  Paraguayan 
position  of  defence.  Here  the  Chaco  shore  is  low,  while 
the  high  left  or  eastern  bank  is  a  little  sloped;  a  well- 
wuoded  gap  or  dwarf  glen  cuts  the  barranca,  and  up  it 
winds  a  green  path.  Evidently  the  guns  should  here  have 
been  placed  a  fleur  d'eau,  and  they  would  have  done  great 
execution,  as  the  river  unusually  narrows  to  about  150 
yards.  But  routine  carried  the  day  against  common  sense ; 
the  Paraguayans  placed  their  artillery  upon  the  high  ground, 
where  their  plunging  fire  did  the  least  damage. 

The  lively  little  episode  is  as  follows.  After  their  victory 
at  Riachuelo  (June  11,  1865)  the  Brazilian  squadron  again 
proceeded  up  stream  and  attempted  to  pass  Corrientes, 
then  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  General  Bruguez,  the 
Paraguayan  leader,  made  the  usual  plan  to  capture  or  destroy 
it.  Marching  suddenly  from  Bella  Vista  with  several 
thousand  men  and  guns,  variously  stated  to  be  thirty-five  or 
fifty,  he  commanded  the  enemy's  fleet  off*  Bella  Vista. 
The  invader  ran  the  gauntlet  about  six  miles  down  stream, 
when  Bruguez,  by  another  forced  march,  again  placed  his 
flying  batteries  on  the  lower  river.  On  August  12,  five 
days  before  their  decisive  victory  of  Yatay  on  the  Uruguay, 
the  Brazilians  rushed  out  of  the  trap  down- stream  with 
closed  hatches.  The  Paraguayan  infantry  lying  on  their 
bellies  delivered  from  the  bank  volleys  of  musketry,  whilst 
the  gunners  poured  fire   upon   the  Vice-Admiral   Barrozo. 


*  Lt.-Col.  Thompson  (chap,  vii.)  calls  the  site  Cuevas, 


FROM    ROZARIO    TO    CORRIENTES.  263 

The  Amazonas  received  forty-one  caunou  balls,  the  Ivutry 
twenty-two,  and  the  Guardia  Nacional  (the  flag-ship  of  the 
Argentine  Admiral  Muratori)  twenty-seven.  Presently, 
when  Leonidas  Estigarribia  had  surrendered  Uruguayana 
(September  18,  1865),  the  Brazilian  army  marched  upon 
Corrientes,  and  General  Resquin  with  his  Paraguayans 
retired  (November  4)  towards  the  Paso  la  Patria.  It 
is  said  that  here  he  left  some  quaker  guns,  which  succeeded 
in  keeping  the  enemy  at  bay ;  for  five  days  the  latter  knew 
nothing  of  the  evacuation  till  informed  of  it  by  an  Italian 
schooner  going  down  from  Corrientes.  In  the  point  of  push- 
ing their  successes  the  Brazilians  have  ever  failed  ;  they 
are  like  the  losing  order*  of  gambler,  who  will  back  his  ill- 
luck  but  who  fears  to  run  his  good-luck. 

Presently  we  passed  the  chain  of  scarped  and  detached 
bluffs,  supporting  the  upsloping  green  bank.  Amongst 
them  is  the  Barranca  de  Bella  Vista;  it  well  deserves  its 
name,  but  it  must  not  be  compared,  as  a  late  writer  has 
done,  with  Genoa  the  Superb,  nor  with  famed  Palermo,  nor 
with  sweet  Messina  and  hoary  Etna  in  the  background, 
nor  even  with  the  oft-sung  and  little-deserving  Bay  of 
Dublin.  Over  the  lines  of  riverine  trees  we  see  the  hamlet, 
a  streak  of  white  houses  crowning  the  ridge,  and  sprinkled 
over  the  hill  side  amidst  clumps  of  tropical  forest  and  black 
blocks  of  orange  trees,  dotted  like  a  tall  tea  plantation. 
This  "  Norfolk  Island  of  Corrientes'^  began  its  career  in 
1826  as  a  settlement  of  convicts,  sent  by  General  Ferre. 
Here  the  Brazilian  fleet  running  down  the  river  suffered 
severely  from  the  flying  batteries  of  the  Paraguayan  General 
Bruguez;  they  had  placed  their  infantry  on  the  decks  and 
in  the  tops,  where  they  could  be  swept  away  by  grape  and 
rifle  bullets.  Similarly  situated  is  "  Empedrado,''  another 
small  Correntino  town,  commanding  a  glorious  view  of  the 
Gran  Chaco,  and  distant  thirty-six  miles  from  Corrientes,  the 


264        FROM  ROZARIO  TO  CORRIENTES. 

capital.  At  this  place  General  Robles^  who  with  3000  men 
had  occupied  Corrientes  (April  18) ;,  and  had  taken  Goya 
(3rd  June),  retired  immediately  after  the  battle  of 
Riachuelo,  and  (23rd  July)  was  arrested  by  General 
Barrios^  the  minister  of  war_,  and  sent  up  to  Humaita  in 
close  confinement.  The  Paraguayan  army  was  taught  to 
believe  that  he  had  made  an  agreement  to  deliver  them  up ; 
others  asserted  that  his  offence  was  wasting  time  at  Goya 
and  Bella  Vista^  instead  of  attacking  the  Argentine  General 
Paunero^  who  was  only  sixteen  to  twenty  leagues  to  the 
south ;  others  that  he  doubted  the  success  of  the  cause^  and 
blamed  the  measures  of  Marshal-President  Lopez.  He  was 
shot  by  the  sentence  of  a  secret  court  martial^  at  Paso 
Pucu_,  after  the  sentence  had  been  read  to  the  army  formed 
in  three  sides  of  a  square.  He  must  not  be  confounded — 
as  some  newspapers  have  done — with  his  brother  (?),  Com- 
mandante  Robles  of  the  Tacuari  steamer^  who,  after  the 
battle  of  Biachuelo,  tore  the  dressings  from  his  wounds  and 
died  a  hero_,  saying  he  preferred  loss  of  life  to  loss  of 
liberty. 

We  hurriedly  rose  from  the  mess-table  as  the  Yi 
steamed  up  the  eastern  channel  of  the  Parana,  two  to 
three  miles  below  Corrientes.  Here  the  scheme  which 
was  to  place  upon  the  brow  of  Marshal-President  Lopez 
an  Argentine  crown  of  his  own  device  was  shattered  by 
the  incapacity  of  his  officers  and  the  rashness  of  his  men. 
At  this  place  the  Parana,  running  north-south,  and  some 
nine  miles  wide,  is  studded  with  sundry  islands,  of  which 
two  are  large  and  well  wooded.  The  eastern  bank,  about 
the  southern  end  of  the  longest  holme,  is  broken  by  the 
Boca  del  Riachuelo,  which  is  masked  by  another  islet.  Here 
the  channel  is  some  500  yards  broad,  widening  above  and 
below,  and  the  low  sandy  and  bushy  ground  south  of  the 
Riachuelo,  and  called  the   Rincon    de    Lagrafia,  is  backed 


FROM    ROZARIO    TO    CORRIENTES.  2G5 

by  fine  trees  and  broken  by  bays  and  projections.  North 
of  the  ''  Streamlet/'  where  the  quinta  of  Santiago  Derqui 
fronts  tlie  Rincon  de  Santa  Catalina,  rises  a  tall  ruddy 
barranca,  striped  and  patched  with  yellow  and  bistre- 
colonred  clay,  irregular  in  outline,  and  topped  by  a  slope  of 
dull-tinted  grass  and  clumps  of  monte.  All  the  ground 
described  forms  the  Paraguayan  position. 

In  April,  1865,  the  first  Brazilian  naval  division  steamed 
up  towards  Corrientes  ;  at  that  season  the  water  was  so  low 
that  an  attack  upon  Paraguay  was  deemed  impracticable. 
Admiral  Tamandare  was  wasting  his  time  at  Buenos  Aires 
and  Montevideo,  imitating  the  only  part  of  Nelson's  career 
which  caused  his  friends  to  blush.  The  fleet  was  entrusted 
to  the  Commandante  Gomensoro,  and  afterwards  to  Vice- 
Admiral  Barroso,  and  it  anchored  almost  in  sight  of  Cor- 
rientes, and  close  to  the  Chaco  or  western  bank  of  the  river. 
It  consisted  of  nine  fine  river  steamers,  fully  manned  ;  these 
were  the  flagship  Amazonas,  the  only  paddle  (6  guns)  ;  the 
Jequitinhonha,  the  Belmonte,  the  Mearim  and  Beberibe  (each 
8  guns) ;  the  Paranahyba  (6),  the  Ipiranga  (7),  the  Iguatemi 
(5),  and  the  Araguay  (3  guns) — the  total  of  artillery  being 
59,  which  report  exaggerated  to  upwards  of  100. 

Thereupon  Marshal -President  Lopez,  nothing  doubtful  of 
success,  resolved  to  tackle  and  carry  off"  the  prey.  He  could 
muster  an  equal  number  of  ships,  but  only  34  bouches 
a  feu,  and  his  vessels  were  mere  river  craft,  roughly 
fitted  to  carry  guns,  and  with  boilers  exposed  above 
the  water-line  to  every  shot.  Of  the  paddles  were  the 
Tacuari,  flagship,  and  the  only  war  ship  (6  guns), 
the  Ygurei  (5  guns),  the  Paraguari,  Ypora,  Marquez  de 
Olinda  (4  each),  and  the  Jejuy  (2)  ;  the  screws  were  the 
Salto  Oriental  (4  guns),  the  Pirabebe  (1  gun),  and  the  Yberd 
(4  guns) — the  latter  prevented  from  entering  action  by  an 
accident.      The  weak  squadron  was,  however,  reinforced  by 


266  FROM    ROZARIO    TO    CORRIENTES. 

six  "  chatas/^  or  ^^  chalanas/^  barges  or  flat-bottomed  boats_, 
wbich  the  Paraguayans  used  tbroughout  the  campaign  to 
great  effect.  I  know  not  who  claims  the  honour  of  having 
suggested  the  idea.  The  "  chata "  was  a  kind  of  double- 
prowed  punt^  strengthened  with  sundry  layers  of  two-inch 
planking,  undecked,,  drawing  a  few  inches  water^  and  standing 
hardly  half  a  foot  above  the  surface^  with  just  room  enough 
for  men  to  serve  a  single  gun,  either  mortar,  68-pounder,  or 
8-inch.  Thus  the  chata  could  not  only  thread,  by  poling 
or  by  being  towed,  the  shallow  streams  ;  it  could  also  inflict 
considerable  damage  upon  an  ironclad ;  and  it  was  hard  to 
hit_,  as  only  the  gun-muzzle  appeared  above  the  surface. 
These  gunboats  often  singly  engaged  the  whole  fleet.  It  is 
a  feature  of  considerable  naval  interest,  and  well  adapted  to 
defend  or  to  attack  the  inner  water  communications  of  a 
country  like  Paraguay.  The  Paraguayan  fleet  was  placed  upon 
command  of  Captain  Mesa,  with  Captain  Cabral  as  second. 
Consciousness  of  inferiority  suggested  to  General  Bruguez  an 
accompaniment  of  flying  batteries  to  ply  along  the  beach 
below  the  barranca  to  the  north  of  the  Riachuelo,  and 
boarding  parties,  consisting  of  500  picked  men,  were  sent  on 
board  the  ships. 

Captain  Mesa  had  been  ordered  to  run  past  the  Brazilians 
at  daybreak  ;  to  turn  short  round  ;  to  lay  each  of  his  ships 
alongside  one  of  the  enemy ;  to  pour  in  a  broadside,  and  to 
take  the  prizes  in  tow.  Amongst  other  things,  grappling- 
irons  were  forgotten.  It  reminds  me  of  a  certain  Anglo- 
Indian  attack  upon  Sikh  batteries,  when  the  engineers 
neglected  to  bring  spikes.  The  action  was  unjustifiably 
delayed  till  9.30  a.m.  (June  II),  and  the  Paraguayans,  after 
exposing  themselves  to  a  vastly  superior  artillery,  actually 
ran  down  to  the  mouth  of  the  Riachuelo  before  turning  up 
stream.  Thus  they  gave  the  Brazilians  time  to  make  ready 
and  to  go  down  to  meet  them.      The  fight  began  well  for 


FROM  ROZARIO  TO  CORRIENTES.         267 

tlie  Paraguayans.  The  Jeqidtinhonkaj  with  two  68-pounder8 
and  aWhitworth,  grounded  on  a  bank  in  front  of  the  shore, 
and,  peppered  by  the  land  batteries,  was  abandoned.  The 
Paranahyba  had  her  wheel  cut  away,  and  was  boarded  and 
seized.  The  Belmonte,  riddled  with  balls,  was  obliged  to  be 
run  ashore  to  prevent  her  sinking. 

At  that  moment  the  chief  pilot  of  the  Brazilian  fleet,  one 
Bernardino  Gastavino,  a  Correntino,  the  son  of  an  Italian, 
who  had  probably  never  heard  of  the  Athenians  and  Pelo- 
ponnesians  at  Naupactus,  or  the  Kearsarge  off  Cherbourg, 
but  possibly  of  Admiral  Tegethoff  at  Lissa,  bethought  him- 
self of  a  manoeu\Te  which  changed  the  fortunes  of  the  day. 
Guiding  the  Amazonas  towards  the  Paranahyba,  he  cleared 
her  decks  with  grape,  and  striking  the  Paraguan  in  the  middle 
ran  her  down.  The  Salto  and  the  Marquez  de  Olinda  had 
their  boilers  shot  through,  and  the  Jejuy  was  sunk  by  gunnery. 
The  battle  lasted  eight  hours,  and  the  assailant  lost  half  his 
ships — the  Tacuari,  the  Ygurei,  the  Ypord,  and  the  Pirabebe 
being  obliged  by  the  injuries  they  had  received  to  escape 
and  take  refuge  under  the  guns  of  Humaita.  They  must 
inevitably  have  been  captured  had  they  been  pursued  by 
Vice- Admiral  Barroso  ;  but,  though  boasting  that  he  went 
to  ^^seek  for  danger,^^  he  neglected,  as  usual,  in  his  terror  of 
the  destructive  flying  batteries,  to  push  his  victory.  For 
very  equivocal  conduct  he  was  made  Barao  de  Amazonas ; 
whilst  the  pilot,  who  did  all  the  work,  became,  I  believe, 
a  lieutenant.  Such  is  mostly  the  gratitude  that  the  Bra- 
zilians show  to  foreign  employes.  Captain  Mesa  was 
mortally  wounded  by  a  single  bullet  from  one  of  the  enemy's 
tops,  otherwise  he  probably  would  have  been  shot,  as  he  de- 
served. Both  sides  claimed  a  victory,  as  usual;  struck  medals, 
and  sang  Te  Deums.  The  Paraguayans  own  to  200  men  hors 
de  combat,  while  the  Brazilians  swell  to  1500  and  even 
3000.      The  Brazilians  assert  a  loss  of  300,  which  the  enemy 


268  FROM    ROZARIO    TO    CORRIENTES. 

exaggerates  to  800.  On  both  sides  there  were  instances  of 
heroism^  and  it  is  pleasant  to  remember  the  name  of  the 
Brazilian  midshipman — Enrique  Martins — shot  by  the  Pa- 
raguayans when  he  refused  to  give  up  his  flag. 

The  defeat  at  Riachuelo  was,  I  repeat,  fatal  to  the  success 
of  the  offensive  portion  of  the  Paraguayan  plans.  The  Bra- 
zilian squadron  could  now  blockade  the  river  above  as  well 
as  below  Corrientes,  and  by  threatening  to  cut  off  its  rear  it 
could  compel  the  corps  of  the  Parana  to  retreat  from  want 
of  food,  instead  of  communicating  with  the  corps  d'armee 
of  the  Uruguay.  Then  it  directly  brought  about  the  fall  of 
Uruguayana,  surrendered  by  Leonidas  Estigarribia  (Septem- 
ber 18,  1865).  The  affair  of  Cueva  (12th  August)  was 
intended  by  the  Paraguayans  to  retrieve  their  fallen  for- 
tunes ;    but  that  attack,  as  has  been  seen,  also  failed. 

Steaming  above  the  long  island  we  saw  the  trucks  of  the 
Jequitinhonha  still  topping  the  water.  The  tall  cliffs  gra- 
dually sank,  and  the  stream  became  an  archipelago  of 
charming  green  isletry ;  these  disappearing,  and  leaving  an 
open  bank  as  we  approached  Corrientes.  To  the  west  the 
Bio  Negro  winds  up  a  great  gap  in  the  majestic  flood 
here — at  900  miles  from  Buenos  Aires — some  2500  metres 
wide.  On  the  left  bank  are  yellow  cliffs,  partly  of  argile, 
partly  arenaceous,  with  sand  plants  at  their  foot,  and 
crowned  with  the  richest  verdure ;  whilst,  far  over  a  clear- 
ing for  cultivation,  we  sight  spires,  domes,  and  a  memorial 
column.  On  a  cliff  projecting  into  the  stream  is  the  pretty 
quinta  of  Dr.  Vidal,  with  its  thatched  roof,  and  white  walls, 
and  orange  avenue  leading  to  the  door.  Beyond  it  is  the 
Brazilian  military  hospital,  occupying  the  saladero  formerly 
owned  by  Messrs.  Stock  and  Hughes,  of  Buenos  Aires. 
Turning  the  broken  point,  exposing  a  tanning  establishment 
and  a  timber-yard,  we  pass  towards  the  little  bay  fronting 
the  north.      The  water  is  here  forty- five   fathoms  deep,  and 


FROM    ROZARIO    TO    CORRIENTES.  269 

the  anchor  of  our  floating  hotel  is  liable  to  drag.  We 
therefore  go  well  in,  fronting  the  Custom  House  and  arsenal, 
the  Colegio,  or  Government  House,  the  tall  towered  Cabildo, 
and  other  big  buildings  that  emerge  from  a  mass  of  vile 
huts  parted  by  foul  streets,  and  nestling  under  glorious 
trees,  palms  and  oranges.  The  general  appearance  is  more 
like  a  Hindu  town,  say  Calicut,  than  a  Christian  city. 

On  my  return  I  spent  a  week  with  a  couple  of  ac- 
quaintances at  Corrientes,  and  perhaps  you  will  like  to  hear 
something  of  life  in  a  country  capital  of  an  Argentine 
Province. 


My  dear  Z- 


LETTEE  XIE 

A    WEEK    AT    CORRIENTES. 

September  5-12,  1868. 


Corrientes  rests  upon  the  margin  of  her 
noble  river^  here  bending  eastward^  and  showing  to  the 
north  a  lake-like  expanse.  As  usual;,  the  landward  slope 
of  the  bank^  a  talus  leading  to  a  plateau  60  feet  above  the 
Parana,  makes  her  appear  from  the  water  poor  and  scat- 
tered, showing  only  Cabildo  and  church  towers,  tree-tops 
and  dingy  brown  tiles  and  thatches  now  outnumbering  the 
Southern  "  azotea.^^  Inside,  ^'  Taraqui "  the  "  green  lizard/'' 
as  the  Guaranis  call  the  place,  is,  like  Rozario,  large  and 
compact.  Held  to  be  the  fourth  or  fifth  city  of  the  Re- 
public, it  claims  for  its  population  16,000  to  20,C00  souls, 
which  I  should  take  the  liberty  of  reducing  to  10,000.  It 
is  a  parallelogram  of  at  least  a  mile  each  way,  numbering 
60  to  70  cuadras.  In  1863  it  was  represented  by  '^'^  about  1500 
palm- thatched  ranchos,  200  tiled  roofs,  100  azoteas  of  one 
to  two  stories,  3  miradores,  24  pianos,  20  carriages,  6 
flagstaves,  and  6  schools.^'  Now  double  all;  the  schools 
alone  excepted. 

We  land  upon  a  pier  of  two  planks,  about  midway  in 
the  northern  front,  at  a  dwarf  sandy  inlet,  studded  with 
boulders  of  porous  oxidized  sandstone,  coarse  and  honey- 
combed, abundantly  weather-worked  and  water-washed. 
On  the  bank  above  is  the  Capitania  del  Puerto,  at  once 
theatre  and  promenade ;  the  idlers  gather  to  see  passengers^ 
luggage  opened,  and  to  grin  at   the  overcharges  of  the  ras- 


A    WEEK    AT    CORRIENTES.  271 

cally  boatmen.  After  the  usual  examination,  whose  results 
pronounced  me  to  be  an  "  agrimensor/^  we  entered  the 
Calle  Rioja,  going  south  ;  it  corresponds  with  the  Riva- 
davia  or  Regent  Street  of  Buenos  Aires.  There  is  a  pain- 
ful regularity  in  the  names.  The  fourteen  that  open  upon 
the  northern  face  are  called  after  the  Argentine  provinces  ; 
but  that  on  the  north-eastern  corner  is  "  Paraguay  ^''^by 
anticipation.  Those  running  east-west  have  been  baptized 
after  local  heroes — e.g.,  Vera  and  Bolivar,  Belgrano  and  San 
Martin  ;  after  battles,  as  Junin  and  Ayacucha ;  or  after 
patriotic  subjects,  for  instance,  Sud-America,  Confederacion, 
and  Independencia.  The  names  are  carefully  painted  upon 
boards,  but  no  one  knows  them ;  you  must  ask,  after  the 
old  fashion,  for  the  street  of  Don  A.  B.^  which  is  ridiculous. 

The  usual  little  bit  of  thoroughfare  is  paved  ;  the  rest 
have  a  surface  of  country  soil  overlying  loose  sand.  They 
are  about  fifty  feet  wide,  and  here  and  there  wooden  scant- 
ling shores  up  scraps  of  brick  trottoir,  so  narrow  that  you 
must  walk  in  Indian  file.  At  intervals  cross-bands  of  stone 
or  tree-trunks  act  as  bridges,  and  prevent  the  street  being 
washed  bodily  away.  After  heavy  rains  some  thorough- 
fares are  cascades  and  others  are  pools :  both  gradually 
pass  from  a  stifi"  \dscid  mud  to  a  state  of  ^'  hardbake,^'  and 
lastly  to  a  mobile  black  dust,  which  dirties  the  hands  like 
the  atmosphere  of  a  railway.  Carts  cannot  progress  with- 
out the  tallest  of  wheels,  and  three  horses  in  a  kind  of 
unicorn.  There  is  no  gas  above  Rozario,  nor  are  the 
streets  bombees.  As  in  the  older  French  towns,  they  de- 
cline towards  a  central  gutter,  and  only  the  happy  water- 
slope  of  the  town  prevents  the  horrors  of  Lima  and  Mexico. 
Beyond  the  centre  of  population,  these  thoroughfares  fine 
off  into  alleys  of  scattered  ranchos,  rough  as  newly-ploughed 
fields. 

The  house  is  of  the  normal  headless  Arab  type ;  a  long 


272  A  WEEK    AT    CORRIENTES. 

box,  unplastered  as  tlie  streets  are  unpaved,  parapetted 
and  embrasured  at  the  top.  The  best  are  mostly  supplied 
with  a  tile  cornice  breaking  the  stuccoed  "  dickeys/^  and 
with  fayades  rising  high  and  proud  towards  the  firmament. 
They  afi'ect  the  Argentine  silver  and  azure.  The  walls  are 
either  of  brick  or  of  the  small  unbaked  adobe,  and  the 
latter  are  often  set  in  a  framework  of  timber,  as  you  see  in 
the  Brazil  and  in  old  English  farmhouses.  The  numbers 
are,  as  usual,  odd  on  one  side  of  the  street,  even  on  the 
other  :  all  are  apparently  parts  of  an  immense  whole,  620, 
for  instance,  or  490 — the  lower  ciphers  being  omitted  by 
request.  The  blocks  are  supposed  to  measure  150  varas 
(yards)  each  way ;  but  they  are  very  irregular.  None  are 
complete,  and  even  in  the  heart  of  the  settlement  thatched 
hovels  and  gardens  cover  the  greater  part  of  the  surface. 

The  older  houses  of  "  Taraqui "  are  quaint  and  pic- 
turesque ;  recessed  ground-floors,  fronted  by  verandahs  on 
posts  with  carved  capitals.  The  outside  windows  look  heavily 
barred  as  any  gaol ;  and  from  the  street  you  see  the  occu- 
pants of  the  sitting-room,  whose  sofa  and  two  perpendicu- 
larly-disposed parallels  of  chairs  are  correct  Iberian  style. 
The  inner  portion  is  prettily  disposed  in  dwarf  gardens  and 
grass  plots,  with  seats  among  the  red  and  white  roses, 
shaded  by  orange  trees  and  tall  cypresses ;  often  there  is  a 
vinery,  and  in  one  I  saw  a  hydrant.  The  best  buildings  are 
flat-faced,  altos  or  sobrados,  double- storied,  with  miradores  ; 
very  few  have  verandahs  projecting  over  the  trottoir,  and 
affording  shelter  from  sun  and  rain.  Mostly  they  are 
'^  half-sobrados,^^  that  is  to  say,  raised  on  masonry  founda- 
tions above  the  damp  ground.  The  architecture,  as  well 
as  the  vegetation,  here  inclines  more  to  the  tropical,  to  the 
Brazilian.  The  ranchos  have  sloping  tile  roofs  to  pour  off" 
the  rain,  and  the  poorer  tenements  prefer  the  hollow  trunks 
of  the  ^^  palma  de  tejo  ^^  (tile-palm)  split,  cut  into  pieces  six 


A   WEEK    AT    CORRIENTES.  273 

feet  long,  placed,  like  the  tiles,  side  by  side,  one  line  convex, 
the  other  concave,  but  not  fixed  with  mortar  at  the  edges ; 
indeed,  apparently  not  fastened  at  all. 

The  outskirts  show  mere  "  ramadas,"  sheds  and  flying 
roofs,  tenanted  mostly  during  the  daytime  by  big  mastiffs, 
savage  as  the  dogs  of  Petropolis.  We  find  in  the  choking 
nionte  a  luxuriance  of  castor-shrub ;  a  tangle  of  sarsa- 
parilla ;  yellow  dhatura  with  gigantic  trumpets ;  the  cylin- 
drical cactus,  here,  as  at  Buenos  Aires,  a  gnarled  tree  ; 
the  monster  aloes  ;  the  tuna,  and  the  edible  tunita  (the 
Mexican  tenoch),  which  awaits  an  improved  breed  of  the 
indigenous  cochineal.  A  few  cotton  plants  linger  about 
the  bush.  Messrs.  Robertson  found  the  Corrientes  pro- 
vince well  fitted  for  the  shrub ;  but  the  industry  has  never 
been  exploited.  Of  the  larger  trees  are  the  ^^  carandai  '* 
and  the  palms,  used  for  roofing  and  paling;  various  acacias 
and  mimosas,  especially  the  algarroba,  carob,  locust,  or  St. 
John's  bread.  It  is  in  this  region  an  indigenous  species, 
and  the  people  do  not  ferment  it  to  chicha.  Oranges,  here 
valuable,  because  apparently  the  staple  produce  and  export 
of  the  land,  are  plentiful,  sweet,  and  good  without  a  '^  hand's 
turn''  being  done  to  them.  The  tree  takes  about  eight 
years  to  grow,  after  which  it  is  worth,  now  that  everything 
is  exceptionally  expensive,  one  silver  dollar  per  annum. 
The  Paraguayans  make  orange  wine,  but  it  is  too  sweet 
and  luscious  for  human  nature's  daily  drink.  And  neither 
Correntinos  nor  Paraguayans  have  learned  to  preserve  the 
fruit,  which  at  once  decays.  Some  of  the  naranjales  farms 
or  orchards  are  of  great  size,  containing  thousands  of  trees, 
which  produce  half  a  million  to  800,000  fruits  per  annum. 

From  Rioja  Street  we  turned  left  down  the  second  best, 
the  Calle  de  Julio  (9th  July,  1816,  National  Independence 
proclaimed  at  Tucuman),and  visited  M.  Carlos  Candido  Prytz, 
who   is   living   between  two   boot    signs,  black  and  yellow. 

18 


274  A    WEEK    AT    COREIENTES. 

These  symbols  abound.  A  Grand  Turk_,  painfully  transmo- 
grifiedj  here  and  there  occupies  a  corner  shop^  and  in  these 
towns  the  "  esquina  '^  pays  twenty-five  per  cent,  more  than 
its  neighbours.  "  Peluqueria  "  is  everywhere  the  rule,  and, 
since  the  Brazilians  and  their  gold  have  left,  "  liquidacion ''^ 
(selling  off)  is  by  no  means  rare.  The  only  posters  are 
those  of  a  "  Silforama/^  which  promises  views  of  the  Monitor 
and  Merrimac,  Fort  Sumpter,  Vicksburg,  and  so  forth. 

M.  Prytz  is  the  son  of  a  Danish  Baron  who  settled  in  the 
Brazil  and  became  an  admiral.  Born  at  Pernambuco,  and 
physically  a  thorough-bred  Scandinavian,  he  is  a  furious  and 
ferocious  ^'  Brazileiro.^^  He  is  ready  to  quarrel  about  the 
obsolete  Abrantes-Christie  affair ;  and  as  for  the  Argentines, 
he  would  be  down  upon  them  in  arms  at  once.  To  call 
him  a  countryman  of  Hamlet  would  be  grossly  to  insult 
him.  It  is  remarkable  that  whereas  in  Europe  most  men 
born  abroad — for  instance,  English  boys  in  France,  and  vice 
versa — tenaciously  cling  to  the  nationality  of  their  parents, 
the  reverse  is  the  case  throughout  the  western  hemisphere. 
I  presume  the  reason  is  that  to  Youth  a  world  with  a  Future 
is  far  more  sympathetic  than  one  with  a  Past.  M.  Prytz 
has  been  Brazilian  Consul  at  Corrientes  for  the  last  three 
years  ;  he  is,  however,  a  rabid  Conservador,  and  this  may 
promote  him.  I  found  his  nationality  too  irritable  for  com- 
fort;  you  instinctively  feel  that  all  aggressive  claims 
to  superiority — one  of  the  characteristics  of  un-English 
England — are  virtual  confessions  of  inferiority.  Far  more 
companionable  was  M.  Edouard  Peterkin,  a  Belgian  of 
Scotch  descent.  There  is  no  material  reason  why  he  should 
be* here ;  but  "  quitter  son  pays,^'  says  the  great  traveller 
Confucius,  "■  pour  visiter  Texterieur  e'est  accomplir  sa 
destinee."  He  contracted  to  supply  the  Brazilian  army 
with  Belgian  copies  of  that  ''venerable  gas-pipe,""  the 
Enfield  ;  and  with  Whitworths.     Of  these  the  average  size 


A    WEEK    AT    CORRIENTES.  275 

was  bought  at  35,000  francs,  including  15  per  cent,  to  the 
agent.  M.  Peterkin  has  been  made  Inspector  of  Arms, 
with  the  rank  of  Captain  of  Infantry. 

We  sallied  out  to  see  the  sights,  and  first  of  all  the 
market-place.  I  asked  for  the  bath.  Point !  Yet  I  hear 
simultaneously  four  grind-organs  that  are  actually  paid  to 
play.  The  Plaza  del  Mercado,  at  which  the  Calles  Rioja 
and  Julio  meet,  is  by  far  the  most  interesting,  and,  indeed, 
the  only  lively  spot  at  Corrientes.  The  bazar  is  now 
"  hot,'^  and  when  not  so  the  place  is  terribly  dull.  In  the 
centre  stands  a  "  galpon,^^  a  tiled  shed,  some  fifty  yards 
long,  where  flesh,  which  here  means  beef,  is  sold — ^'  Car- 
neiro  no  es  carne,^^  mutton  is  not  meat,  says  the  gaucho. 
The  butchering  is  slovenly,  and  the  badly-cut  joints,  if  they 
can  so  be  called,  are  mere  hunks  of  animal  matter.  There  is 
no  milk,  the  country  being  pastoral ;  butter  is  very  rare,  and 
all  things  are  dear;  even  eggs  command  four  sous  apiece. 
The  square  is  surrounded  by  pulperias,  an  Italian  panaderia 
(bakery),  and  stores  of  wet  and  dry  goods — especially 
blankets  and  saddlery.  Of  course  the  Circo  de  los  Gallos 
is  not  forgotten. 

"  That  man-'s  throat  should  be  cut,^^  said  to  M.  Peterkin 
an  old  woman,  recognising  in  me  a  Paraguayan  officer- 
prisoner.  Many  of  her  sisterhood  sat  at  squat  before 
benches  or  napkins  upon  which  were  spread  their  wares, 
cane  and  tobacco,  gourds  and  melons,  potatoes  and  maize- 
heaps,  with  fruits,  vegetables,  and  sweetmeats  of  sorts. 
Far  more  "  Indian  ^'  than  Christian — say  three-fourths 
coloured — they  are  remarkable  for  personal  cleanliness,  and 
there  is  a  merry  smile  upon  many  a  wheat-coloured  face. 
The  skin  is  well  lit  up,  the  eyes  large  and  dark,  and  the 
forehead  lies  low  under  volumes  of  blue-black  hair,  coarse 
as  a  horse's  mane,  and  looking  as  if  once  wet  it  would 
never  dry  till  the  day  of  death.     The  fuU  mouths  and  the 

18—2 


276  A   WEEK    AT    CORRIENTES. 

heavy  chins  reveal  the  savage  type.  Amongst  them  hob- 
bled an  old  ''  Minas  ''  negro,  probably  of  Moslem  origin, 
carrying  a  grimy  little  San  Balthazar  in  plaster.  Each  she- 
devotee  took  the  doll^  crossed  herself  with  it^  kissed  its  feet_, 
and  rewarded  it  with  a  few  oranges^  cigars,,  or  corn  cobs ; 
those  who  would  not  lend  to  the  saint  were  treated  by  the 
old  beggar  to  a  sharp  word  and  a  vicious  sneer.  The  hard- 
staring  foreigners^  French  and  English^  Yankees  and  Ger- 
manSj  and  the  ruffian  Italians,  only  laughed  at  the  place 
where  his  negro  beard  should  have  been. 

In  the  open  day  turbulent  boys  and  half-^*^ china '^  children 
roll  with  the  dogs  about  the  sand  under  a  sun  that  peels 
your  nose.  Black  soldiers  will  loaf  about  till  some  fine  day 
the  market  will  be  closed,  the  pulperias  will  be  shut  to 
insure  sobriety,  and  four  or  five  hundred  of  them  will  be 
marched  off  to  put  down  the  ^'^rebelde  i  malvado  Caceres^^  (the 
rebel  and  villain  Caceres)  "  i  su  complice  i  automata  Evaristo 
Lopez .^^  I  found  out  that  a  revolution  was  going  on  only 
by  asking  about  a  picquet  of  cavalry  stationed  in  the  church 
porch.  The  Most  Excellent  Seiior  Governor  had  called  out 
the  National  Guard  at  the  instance  of  D.  Nicolas  Ocampo 
and  D.  Raymundo  F.  Reguera.  Corrientes  Province  became 
a  prey  to  civil  war  when  ci-usading  against  Kosas,  and 
apparently  has  never  recovered  tranquillity.  The  latter  of 
the  two  worthies  above  mentioned  is  the  ex-President  who 
defended  Goya  against  the  Paraguayans  :  he  can  sign  his 
name,  but  he  signs  it  "  Baristo.^"*  The  first,  D.  Nicanor 
Caceres,  also  made  a  name  when  retiring  from  the  invader ; 
his  literary  attainments  rival  those  of  his  accomplice ;  and 
resembling  a  certain  king, 

"  He  quite  scorned  the  fetters  of  four-and-twenty  letters, 
And  it  saved  him  a  vast  deal  of  trouble." 

President  Sarmiento  says  of  Tucuman,  "  it  is  well  to  men- 
tion that  the  Assembly  of  Representatives  was  composed  of 


A   WEEK    AT    CORRIENTES.  277 

men  wlio  did  not  know  how  to  read/'  What,  however,  can 
be  expected  here  when  in  Spain,  the  mother  country,  out  of 
15,673,000,  some  12,000,000  are  unalphabetie  ?  D.  Nicanor, 
an  exalted  "  Federal  appears  in  photographs  like  a  thick- 
set little  Cardiganshire  peasant  by  the  side  of  a  Patagonian 
spouse.  When  I  returned  to  Corrientes  in  April,  1869, 
both  these  rebels  were  clean  forgotten.  You  are  beginning 
to  understand  in  England  why  the  King  of  Naples  was  ex- 
pelled, why  Otho  I.  fled  from  Greece,  and  why  Queen 
Isabel  found  herself  at  Pau.  But  these  South  American 
"pronunciamento^^  movements  are  beyond  even  the  traveller. 
Read,  for  instance,  the  history  of  Columbia,  or  even  of  New 
Granada. 

The  Gaucho  and  Gauchito  are  also  here,  lounging  about 
on  animals  in  correct  native  costume — flowers  stuck  behind 
the  ears,  ponchos,  and  chiripa- kilts,  their  short,  stiffly- 
starched  calzonzillos  of  white  or  scarlet  stufi^ — hideous  de- 
generacy from  the  broad  flowing  Turkish  Shalwar — show  the 
tops  of  civilized  Wellingtons.  All  the  montures  are  poor  and 
many  are  hammer-headed — the  horsemanship  is  better  than 
the  horse.  The  felt  or  straw  head-covering  alone  distinguishes 
these  people  from  the  wild  Indians  of  the  Gran  Chaco, 
who  are  paddled  over  every  morning  by  their  squaws  in 
canoes,  which  they  easily  manage  despite  the  current.  They 
bring  fruits,  manioc,  and  billets  of  the  wood  nandubay,  used 
for  fuel.  The  staple  of  trade,  however,  is  the  "  Chaco  grass,'* 
coarse  and  thick  as  a  wheat  stalk,  which,  in  the  absence  of 
alfalfa,  serves  to  fatten  cattle.  The  men  disdain  to  do  any- 
thing beyond  loafing,  drinking,  and  stalking  about  to  sell 
bunches  of  ostrich  feathers,  for  which  they  ask  a  dollar 
when  the  value  is  twenty  cents.  The  Great  Chaco  swarms 
with  rascals,  and  these  are  not  exceptions.  The  pretty 
squaws  are  left  behind,  and  the  old  women  attain  a  pitch  of 
ugliness  unknown  to  civilization,  which  repau's  the  damages 


278  A   WEEK    AT    CORRIENTES. 

of  time.  The  wavy  hair  argues  that  some  of  them  are 
mixed  breeds .  they  wear  rugs  and  blankets^  earrings  and 
necklaces  of  beads;  many  are  ornamented  with  the  real 
tattoo^  which  cannot  be  effaced.  A  few  affect  black  patches 
round  the  eyes ;  these  "  dos  ochitos^^  are  signs  of  mourning. 
Christianity  is  evidenced  by  the  crosses  which  the  mis- 
sionaries teach  them  to  prick  along  and  across  their 
noses. 

The  rest  of  the  city  we  may  easily  see.  The  Liberty 
Square  (Plaza  25  de  Maio)^  which  has  altered  little 
during  the  last  two  centuries^  is  a  grassy  manzana^  whose 
blighted  palms  and  short  posts  surround  a  sixty-feet  column. 
This  supports  a  diminutive  female  armed  with  a  lance  and 
blackened  as  to  the  eyes^,  with  a  suite  of  plaster  heroes  in 
yellow  epaulettes  and  broad  blue  ribbons  across  their  breasts. 
The  old  cathedral  is  a  savage  caricature  of  the  leaning 
monster  at  Tuscan  Pisa.  A  bell- tower,  seventy  feet  high, 
rises  by  the  side  of  a  low  little  bare  ;  it  is  evidently  senior 
to  the  fane,  and  was  built  to  call  the  people  nowhere,  be- 
cause conspicuous  and  likely  to  collect  subscriptions.  There 
is  nought  to  interest  you  in  the  Cabildo,  municipality,  law 
court,  and  prison :  the  substantial  building,  once  plastered 
white,  now  peeled  and  scaly,  dates  from  1812,  when  Deputy- 
Governor  Lazuriaga  ruled.  A  fine  view  of  the  river  may 
be  had  from  the  Belvidere  that  tops  the  tall  solid  square 
turret :  this  structure,  not  of  "  Moorish  build,"  is  provided 
with  balcony,  machicolis,  and  finials  at  the  corners,  which 
suggest  pepper-castors  or  donkeys^  ears.  Perhaps  they  are 
emblematical — "  burro"  (ass)  "  as  a  Correntine  alcalde"  is  a 
saying  fathered  upon  General  Artigas — no  fool,  but  a  great 
knave.  Further  to  the  west  is  an  old  Jesuit  convent,  now 
the  Casas  de  Gobierno,  the  offices  for  the  usual  three  great 
departments  of  State,  of  Treasury,  and  of  War.  Here  are 
the  Governor  and  Ministers,  the  Gefe  Politico  (Chief  Magis- 


A   WEEK    AT    CORRIENTES.  279 

trate  or  Lord  Mayor),  the  Judges,  civil,  criminal,  and  com- 
mercial ;  together  with  the  Bank  and  the  Custom-house. 

We  have  not  yet  '^  done ''  the  churches,  which  in  this 
country-capital  are  many,  whilst  none  are  wholly  mass-less 
and  the  canoe-hat  abounds  in  the  streets.  Fronting  the 
Cabildo  are  the  church  and  cloistered  convent  of  La  Merced, 
a  domeless  brick  building  with  Doric  portico,  and  towers  as 
much  too  low  as  the  cathedral  belfry  is  too  tall.  The 
regular  orders  are  the  Mercedarios  and  the  Franciscan 
friars  ;  the  latter  have  two  houses  in  a  "  city^'  which  has 
not  yet  dreamed  of  a  book-store.  Both  are  sent  to  bepreach 
the  Indians,  and  the  payers  complain  that  they  prefer  the 
comforts  of  town  to  the  Christianization  of  the  Gran  Chaco. 
By  the  side  of  La  Merced  is  a  gloomy  prison-like  old  house, 
dated  1698,  with  the  tall  ornamental  gateway — here  rare^  but 
common  at  Santiago  and  Lima — the  property  of  a  priest 
some  ninety-eight  years  old  :  it  lately  lodged  Dr.  Santiago 
Derqui,  first  civilian  President  of  the  Argentine  Republic 
and  failure.  Two  squares  to  the  north-east  is  San  Francisco 
Solano,  whose  two  steeples,  bran-new  but  still  unfinished, 
are  not  set  square  to  the  front,  and  are  ridiculously  thin 
compared  with  the  old  barrel-roof  farcically  broad.  The 
Azulejos,  or  blue-glazed  tiles,  are  being  slowly  applied  : 
they  come  from  Portugal,  and  they  cost  money.  The  simple 
inside  consists  of  nave  and  aisles,  formed  by  five  substantial 
whitewashed  piers  :  the  high  altar  is  painfully  flat,  and  there 
is  a  sacristy  but  no  transept.  The  earlier  shell,  some  twenty 
feet  high,  is  evidently  old  ;  the  superstructure  dates  from 
the  days  when  the  Brazilian  Pedrinho — cant  name  for  the 
local  Napoleon — represented  a  crown,  and  when  the  pretty 
Correntinas  made  money  by  means  that  no  one  would  guess. 
Finally,  the  new  cathedral  of  San  Juan  Bautista,  ex-chapel  of 
the  Rozario,  fronts  an  open  space,  known  as  El  Piso,  grand 
in  size,  but  bare  except  of  mud  or  dust,  and  being  gradually 


280  A   WEEK    AT    CORRIENTES. 

invested  by  low  tenements.  Here  huge- wheeled  carts^  drawn 
by  restive  cattle^  offer  for  sale  grass  and  firewood.  Begun 
by  President  D.  Juan  Puyol  in  1854-56,  and  abandoned  in 
1858,  this  promoted  fane  had  cost  in  1863  some  $130,000. 
With  heavy  Doric  portico,  single  double-storied  tower,  and 
dome  bristling  with  scafibld,  it  would  readily  fall  but  for  the 
strength  of  the  bricks,  which  are  set  with  lime  outside,  and 
inside  with  mud.  And  it  runs  other  dangers :  a  cannon 
ball  has  cracked  the  belfry.  Evidence  of  a  foreign  hand 
appears  in  the  clerestory  and  in  an  embryo  transept  rounded 
off  at  both  ends ;  all,  however,  is  unfinished,  except  the  tem- 
porary wooden  chapel,  where  collections  are  made. 

We  must  visit  the  cemetery,  which,  as  usual,  commands 
a  charming  view.  As  at  Venice  the  defunct  are  the  best 
lodged,  so  in  South  America  the  Cities  of  the  Dead  usurp 
the  finest  sites.  We  make  it  by  a  road  through  a  dried-up 
marsh  that  becomes  a  slimy  ''  pantano''  after  a  day's  rain, 
despite  the  ardent  sun ;  and  presently  we  reach  the  Plaza  de 
la  Cruz  del  Milagro.  The  auspicious  site  is  like  the  square 
of  a  Brazilian  village,  a  common  of  gramilla  or  pasto  tierno, 
with  here  and  there  a  wretched  rancho,  or  a  half-roofed 
hut,  growing  up  around  it.  Evidently  the  burial-ground  is 
much  too  near  the  homes  of  the  living;  meanwhile  we 
greatly  enjoy  the  distant  prospect  of  the  city  and  the 
graceful  inland  slope  of  the  grassy  and  well- wooded  river- 
bank.  Before  the  turreted  chapel  stands  a  wooden  dial, 
inscribed  ''  F.  Johannes  Nepumecinus  Alegre,  1857.''  The 
graveyard  is  badly  kept  as  the  Recoleta  of  Buenos  Aires, 
and  Joao  de  Barros  the  thrush  impudently  sits  upon  the 
Emblem  of  Man's  Salvation.  The  tombs  are  heavy,  taste- 
less masses,  which  topple  over  as  soon  as  possible ;  some  are 
oven-shaped  ;  a  family  vault  resembles  a  Californian  steam- 
bath  sunk  in  the  ground  ;  there  is  a  quaint  monument  with 
its   iron  railing  mighty  like  a  bottomless   camp  bedstead. 


A    WEEK    AT    CORRIENTES.  281 

aud    upon    anotlier    a    neat    woman    mourns    in    Italian 
marble. 

Three  squares  to  the  south  lies  the  Alameda^  sometimes 
used  as  a  raee-course,  but  being  a  sheet  of  water  ankle-deep 
in  rainy  weather^  it  is  not  a  favourite  promenade.  Here  is 
a  built-up  obelisk,  the  effeet  of  El  Pueblo  Correntino^s  piety 
in  1828.  The  base  shows  a  cross  surrounded  by  flames,  with 
the  date  April  3,  1588 ;  on  one  side  is  inscribed  "  Dextera 
Domini  facit  virtu tem  ''  (Psalm  cxvii.  16) ;  the  other  face 
bears  a  long  legend  alluding  to  an  event  of  the  Conquista- 
dores  days.  The  city  was  founded  in  1587-88  by  D.  Alonzo 
de  Vera,  distinguished  as  "El  Tupi^^  from  his  ugly  name- 
sake, whose  cognomen  was  Cara  de  Perro — dog's  face.  He 
called  it  after  his  uncle  the  Gobernador,  "  Ciudad  de  San 
Juan  (Torres)  de  Vera  de  las  Siete  Corrientes,'''  either  from 
the  seven  points  of  rock  jutting  out  into  the  Parana,  or 
because  the  mighty  river  there  formed  seven  great  currents. 
Others  say  that  Alonzo  and  Juan  were  brothers.  The  first 
settlement,  which  numbered  only  twenty-eight  fighting  men, 
was  attacked  in  force  by  the  Guaycurus;  the  Spaniards 
covered  themselves  with  a  palisade  and  a  mud  bastion  about 
half  a  mile  from  the  barranca  under  whose  shelter  lay  their 
ship.  Outside  the  fort  was  a  tall  cross  of  hard  green  wood, 
to  which  the  besieged  addressed  their  prayers;  this  the 
Indians,  believing  it  to  be  a  charm,  carried  away  and  tried 
in  vain  to  burn.  They  then  attacked  the  stockade,  and  were 
dispersed  by  a  terrible  storm,  whereupon  the  Cacique  and  his 
six  thousand  followers  begged  to  be  baptized.  Excavations 
made  in  1856  found  remnants  of  the  old  clay  entrenchment 
and  an  Indian  arrow-head,  which,  says  a  pious  Catholic  tra- 
veller, "  seems  to  confirm  the  tradition.^''  Moreover,  a  bit 
of  the  said  miraculous  cross  is  preserved  in  a  neighbour- 
ing chapel;  and  if  this  cannot  convince  you,  nothing 
will. 


282  A    WEEK    AT    CORRIENTES. 

Beyond  tlie  Alameda  is  the  Brazilian  military  hospital  of 
San  Francisco,,  which  caused  so  much  excitement  throughout 
the  empire  when  the  evil-minded  report  was  spread  that  the 
Correntinos  were  plotting  to  burn  it.  Its  commanding 
position  upon  the  tall  bank  was  admirably  chosen.  It  is, 
however,  now  being  dismantled.  Much  of  the  timber  has 
been  plundered,  but  the  energetic  Peterkin  stops  such  pro- 
ceedings with  a  strong  hand.  A  Brazilian  officer  involved 
in  this  ugly  affair  was  duly  punished. 

The  climate  of  Corrientes  is  subject  to  brutal  variations 
of  temperature.  Sometimes  for  days  together  the  mercury 
will  stand  at  106°  to  108°  (F.)  in  the  shade ;  then  it  will 
suddenly  fall  to  82°.  The  people  declare  that  their  city  is 
not  unhealthy,  yet  they  suffer  from  languor,  chuchu"^  (ague, 
the  Brazial  sezao),  heart  disease,  and  "pasmo  real  ^'  or  tetanus 
— here  common  as  in  Paraguay.  I  often  see  the  hearse  de- 
corated with  besoms  of  ostrich  feathers.  The  nights  are  cool 
and  always  dewy  :  in  early  mornings  the  land  smokes  with 
damp,  whilst  the  sky  of  noon-day  is  perfectly  pure.  Mid- 
winter (July  to  August)  has  a  few  hardly-perceptible  frosts, 
always  when  the  sun  is  down  ;  so  in  Sao  Paulo  the  people 
count  in  the  year  two  freezing  nights.  On  August  13, 
the  date  of  the  great  Peruvian  and  Ecuadorian  earthquake, 
there  was  a  hurricane  violent  as  those  of  Buenos  Aires  and 
Montevideo.  September  8  honoured  us  with  a  bad  storm 
of  thunder  and  rain  from  the  east,  that  swamped  the  land, 
and  made  the  street-mud  slippery  as  oil :  the  next  day  was 
hot  and  sultry  weather,  the  morma90  of  the  Brazil.  On 
September  10  the  sky  cleared,  and  the  people  expected 
some  twenty  days  of  charming  spring.  In  November  there 
are  often  torrents  of  rain ;  and  the  citizens,  having  no  fire- 


*  Not  chucho,  which  is  a  kind  of  poisonous  grass,  found  upon  the  Pam- 
as.  Much  less  chucha.  Some  write  the  word  chu-chu,  and  translate  it 
cold-heat,"  i.e.,  ague  and  fever. 


A   WEEK    AT    CORRIENTES.  283 

places,  must  bury  themselves  up  to  their  noses  in  the  folds 
of  their  ponchos. 

A  day  at  Corrientes,  when  the  novelty  wears  off,  is 
not  lively.  The  people  rise  early,  eat  oranges,  and  suck 
mate.  They  breakfast  or  dine  at  11  to  12  a.m.,  as  in 
Egypt,  Syria,  and  the  Andine  provinces  generally ;  and  they 
dine  or  sup  at  8  to  9  p.m.  Office  hours  are  between  5  to 
10  A.M.  and  4  to  7  p.m.  The  siesta  is  of  course  universal. 
Half  the  day  is  spent  in  sleep,  and  the  "  balance "  in 
eating,  drinking,  and  smoking  home-made  cigars,  which  the 
fair  ones  roll  up,  preferring  the  femoral  muscles  to  the 
unelastic  wood-slab.  We  also  rise  betimes,  but  when  it  is 
fine  we  walk.  We  feed  at  the  Cafe  Restaurant  de  la  Paz, 
Calle  de  la  Independencia,  where  an  itinerant  band  also  re- 
freshes itself.  The  Carte  du  Jour,  lithographed  in  Buenos 
Aires,  a  reminder  of  the  days  when  money  was  coined  at 
Corrientes,  offers  the  usual  allowance  of  potages,  entrees 
rotis,  legumes,  and  desserts. 

After  breakfast  we  say,  Flanons  !  On  Sundays  there  is 
the  sortie  de  TEglise,  where  youth  and  beauty  runs  the 
gauntlet  between  two  rows  of  men.  The  "lady^^  walks  to 
church  leading,  in  sign  of  dignity,  an  Indian-file  of  half  a 
dozen  servants,  or  rather  slave  girls.  They  carry  her 
prayer-book  and  the  rug  which  is  to  be  spread  upon  the 
nave  floor.  Poorly  treated,  and  purposely  kept  in  profound 
ignorance,  they  must  stand  before  their  owners  in  the 
abject  position  of  crossed  arms.  A  redskin  boy  may  still 
be  here  bought  for  $80  or  $100;  and  the  many  foreigners, 
especially  the  Basques,  set  in  this  point  the  worst  example. 

Pretty  faces  are  not  rare.  At  a  large  ball  lately  given 
the  amount  of  beauty  which  cropped  out  from  the  far  inte- 
rior surprised  all  the  strangers.  The  "  upper  ten"  appeared 
in  a  variety  of  Parisian  toilette ;  hence  one  remarked  that 
'^  even   Buenos  Aires  looms  out  in  the  distance  as  a  beacon 


284  A    WEEK    AT    CORllIENTES. 

of  civilization  compared  with  Corrientes/^  The  poorer 
classes  aflPect  white  or  coloured  petticoats,,  and  blue  or 
red  shawls^  thrown^  like  the  "^rebozo"'''  of  ancient  days^  over 
the  head.  They  are  cunning  at  making  shirts^  drawers, 
and  neatly-embroidered  counterpanes^  while  they  excel  in 
pillow  lace.  Their  cut-work  and  drawn-work  were  formerly 
familiar  to  us;  but  Honiton  and  Valenciennes  have  ren- 
dered them  obsolete  as  passement^  crown  lace,  bone  lace, 
Spanish  chain,  byas,  parchment,  billament,  diamond  chain, 
and  point  tresse.  Here,  however,  they  are  expensive  and 
valueless,  as  in  the  Brazil.  Formerly  Corrientes  was  a 
great  cotton  field,  and  every  plantation  had  its  wooden  gin. 
Now,  despite  the  great  efforts  made  in  1863,  the  industry 
has  fallen  low.  Egyptian  and  Sea  Island  failed,  as  might 
be  expected,  for  want  of  sea  air ;  and  little  is  now  culti- 
vated save  the  arboreal  cotton,  which  averages  per  annum 
about  1  lb.  of  tree-wool. 

A  positive  aversion  to  marriage  extends  from  Panama  to 
Buenos  Aires, — I  have  noticed  it  when  writing  about  the 
Brazil.  "  Concupinage,^^  as  the  Teuton  calls  it,  is  the  rule  ; 
and  the  piscoeiro  or  cicisbeo  is  an  institution  when  wanted. 
Most  men  prefer  the  "  china  ''  girl,  who  is  easily  witched  by 
TLQ,  or  by  "  qui  que  ce  soit,^^  and  who  disdains  the  regular 
approaches  of  hesitant,  priant,  ecoute,  and  drutz,  or  ami. 
"  Tutior  at  quanto  merx  est  in  classe  secunda ''  is  the 
ruling  idea.  Colour  prejudice  appears  rare,  and  the  people 
have  forgotten  the  old  distinctions  of  mestizo  (white 
and  red  skin)  ;  of  cuarteron  (mestizo  and  white)  ;  of  octeron 
and  of  puchuelo,  or  one-sixteenth  of  "  Indian ''  blood,  which 
can  hardly  be  distinguished,  except  by  a  yellowish  white- 
ness, from  the  pure  breed. 

Before  the  siesta  we  pay  our  visits,  beginning  with 
D.  Victorio  Torrent,  ex-Deputy  and  actual  Governor.  His 
house  is  a  modest  ''  terrea,"  guarded  by  four  or  five  "■  In- 


A   WEEK    AT    CORIIIENTES.  285 

diaticos,"  with  gun  on  slioulder  and  big  knife  in  belt.  The 
Brazilians  declare  that  they  are  '^  bugres/^  or  savages 
trapped  in  the  chase.  We  are  made  welcome  by  M. 
Bossut^  a  Belgian  watchmaker,  who,  having  filled  his  purse, 
is  now  going  home.  For  a  very  simple  operation  he  charged 
me  1/.,  frankly  declaring  it  his  lowest  charge.  M.  Dumanet, 
the  photographer,  determines  that  we  shall  sit,  and  supplies 
us  bountifully  with  copies  of  his  "  Indians,"  and  other  local 
subjects.  After  a  time  we  stimulate  at  the  store  of  Mr. 
T.  H.  Mangels,  Calle  Rioja,  a  collector  of  botanical  curiosi- 
ties :  he  kindly  gave  me  sundry  duplicates,  which  proved 
useful  at  home.  To  him  Marshal -President  Lopez  paid 
$10,000  by  way  of  indemnity  for  his  losses  during  the 
Paraguayan  occupation.  We  are  introduced  to  the  Town 
Major,  Commandante  Piquet,  relative  to  the  La  Mothe 
family.  He  fought  under  the  Generalissimo  Caxias  against 
the  Liberals  at  St.  Lusia,  in  the  Brazil;  and  now  he  is  en 
route  to  Humaita.  We  call  upon  D.  Juan  Decoud,  editor 
of  El  Liberal,  the  most  advanced  paper ;  he  has  fled  his 
country  (Paraguay),  where  he  owes  a  long  tale  of  vengeance. 
Of  this  distinguished  family  one  was  put  to  death  by  the 
elder  Lopez,  and  another  commands  a  Paraguayan  brigade 
in  the  Allied  service — D.  Juan  may  look  forward  to  be- 
coming Minister  and  even  President.  The  other  periodical 
is  the  Voz  de  la  Patria,  far  too  moderate  to  be  popular. 

Politics  run  high  here,  as  in  other  parts  of  the  Confede- 
ration. Difference  of  private  interests  and  personal  ambi- 
tions engender  fierce  feuds,  that  become  old  ingrained 
hates.  ^^  To  be  deemed  a  man  of  worth  is  enough  to  be 
one  of  them  ^'  (your  party)  ;  and  the  less  scrupulous  you 
are  in  their  service,  the  more  you  are  valued.  Imagine  a 
combination  of  the  ready  kniveing  of  the  Highlander  in  the 
sixteenth  century  combined  with  the  political  feeling  of  the 
Englishman  in  the  early  portion  of  the  nineteenth.      There 


286  A   WEEK    AT    CORRIENTES. 

are  perpetual  troubles  between  the  two  great  parties.  The 
Blancos  or  Gauchos  of  Monte  Video  here  become  the  Cocidos 
or  Federals  who^  in  the  days  of  Rosas^  were  known  as 
Degolladores  (cut  -  throats)  and  Mashorqueros,  from  mas 
horca,  "  more  gibbet/^  expressing  the  animus  of  the  party ; 
or  mazorca,  the  corn-cob  with  which  they  abominably  tor- 
tured their  victims.  They  would  make  the  Republic  a  con- 
federation or  union  of  the  old  provinces,  forming  inde- 
pendent states  —  a  system  of  Government  which  may 
have  succeeded  amongst  the  Anglo-Americans^  but  which 
has  ever  failed  in  Iberia.  Chile  owes  the  greater  part  of 
her  success  to  having  steered  clear  of  this  rock.  Opposed 
to  them  are  the  Crudos,"^  Liberals  or  Unitarios,  the  Colo- 
rados  of  Uruguay _,  who  wish  a  consolidated  central  govern- 
ment, with  a  district  Columbia — not  Buenos  Aires,  if  pos- 
sible— for  headquarters.  This  sterile  dualism  surprises  us 
by  its  power  to  make  men  cut  throats  and  torture  one 
another;  till  we  remember  that  reasoning  beings  can  wor- 
ship the  snake  and  the  iguana.  Meanwhile  all  interests 
and  dearest  desires  are  wrapped  up  in  creeds,  political  and 
religious  :  the  cosmopolitan,  with  his  "  sublime  indifference,^' 
has  not  yet  appeared.  Hence,  distance  from  the  centres  of 
civilization,  chronic  misrule  and  stupid  superstitions,  are 
effectual  obstacles  to  all  immigration,  except  that  a  main 
armee.  This  is  evidently  the  sole  way  to  protect  the 
frontier,  and  if  duly  carried  out  it  might  succeed  in  re- 
pressing revolutions. 


*  Crudos  and  cocidos  (raw  and  cooked,  or  mature)  are  words  now  six  years 
old  and  growing  obsolete.  The  principal  divisions  known  are  the  Nationals, 
who  look  to  consolidation  and  a  capital  at  Buenos  Aires  ;  the  Provincials, 
or  pure  localists,  who  desire  conciliation  and  a  district  Columbia ;  and 
the  Federals,  or  Rosas  men,  malcontents  opposed  to  the  two  others,  and 
agreeing  with  the  Blancos  of  Monte  Video.  The  old  feud  between  pastoral 
province  and  city  is  well  nigh  extinct.  President  Sarmiento  has  well  de- 
scribed  it  in  his  "  Civilization  and  Barbarism,"  and  has  illustrated  it  by  an 
admirable  sketch  of  the  "  gaucho  malo,"  General  D.  Juan  Eacundo  Quiroga. 


A   WEEK    AT    CORRIENTES.  -  287 

From  1  to  3  p.m.  all  Corrientes  sleeps.  After  rising  we 
sip  our  mate  at  the  house  of  D.  Carmeu  and  D.  Pepa, 
friends  of  Pcterkin.  The  gourds  are  handed  round  by  the 
girls  of  the  family ;  and  in  houses  where  this  tea  is  much 
drunk,  the  "  cebador/'  as  the  mate -brewer  is  called,  finds  his 
time  fully  taken  up.  They  chaff  us,  teach  us  Guarani  as 
spoken  in  Corrientes,  laugh  at  our  errors,  and  hand  us 
cigars,  which  they  roll  np  in  the  usual  way.  We  greatly 
prefer  the  Correntine  tobacco,  coarsely  prepared  as  it  is,  to 
the  wretched  "  Havannas,^^  which  cost  $40  the  thousand. 
The  '^  weed  '^  is  full  of  nicotine,  although  it  appears  at 
first  to  be  weak,  and  the  good  flavour  is  much  improved  by 
long  keeping.  It  is  imported  in  various  shapes ;  from 
Paraguay  in  loose  "  pricks,"  and  from  Tucuman  in  sausage- 
shaped  rolls  of  "  bird^s-  eye,"  with  a  coarse  stalk  and  full  of 
saltpetre  as  the  Syrian  Jebayli.  The  citizens  complain  that 
Paraguayan  tobacco  and  mate,  the  best  of  their  kind,  are 
no  longer  to  be  had. 

Towards  sunset  we  repair  to  the  river  side  and  watch  the 
fishermen ;  here  they  can  always  throw  in  a  line  and  find  it 
weighted  with  at  least  2  lbs.  After  dinner  we  visit  our 
"  tertuliano,"  Dr.  Charles  F.  Newkirk,  who  owns  the  only 
wooden  chalet  in  Corrientes — without  him  the  soiree  would 
have  been  unpassable.  A  Canadian-born  Briton,  he  had 
been  fined  for  practising  without  licence  ;  now,  however,  he 
is  en  regie,  and  he  makes  money  despite  all  the  rival  mata- 
sanos  or  carabins.  I  was  glad  afterwards  to  meet  him  at 
Asuncion. 

The  return  home  at  night,  though  only  down  three  squares, 
was  never  safe.  The  Correntinos,  unless  you  interfere  unduly 
in  the  matter  of  the  chubby-faced  Correntinas,  are  a  peaceful 
race.  Not  so  the  villain  camp-followers — the  Basque  and 
the  Neapolitan  jackals  which  follow  the  track  of  the  Brazilian 
lion.     There  is  such  a  thing  as  a  Gefatura  or  Police  Office, 


288  A  WEEK   AT    CORRIENTES. 

at  whose  door  loll  men  in  fancy  uniforms,  and  the  Gefe 
Politico  isj  as  everywhere  in  Argentine-land,  more  arbitrary 
than  the  Prefet  of  the  Seine.  Yet  a  revolver  at  night  is  as 
necessary  as  shoes ;  and  if  an  unknown  ask  you  for  a  light, 
you  stick  your  cigar  in  the  barrel  and  politely  offer  it  to  him 
without  offence  being  given  or  taken.  Dr.  Newkirk,  during 
my  stay,  was  set  to  work  upon  a  cut  frontal  artery  and  a 
stab  in  the  belly.  Peterkin  having  once  been  stopped  by 
two  men,  took  the  hint,  and  upon  a  second  trial  let  fly  and 
winged  the  bird.  He  easily  got  away  before  the  drowsy 
sereno  was  aroused  by  the  report. 

This  province  has  long  been  connected  with  the  name  of 
Bonpland,  who  died  aged  eighty-four  at  his  estancia  in  the 
Misiones,  near  Mercedes,  50  leagues  from  this  city.  Four 
square  leagues  had  been  made  over  to  him  by  the  Provincial 
Government  when  President  Puyol  ruled.  The  latter  also  ap- 
pointed him  Director  to  the  Agricultural  Colony  of  Sta.  Ana, 
and  ''  Chief  of  the  Museum  of  Natural  Products,  Corrientes 
Province.''^  He  lived  his  last  years,  died,  and  was  buried, 
at  La  Restauracion ;  and  his  herbarium  of  3000  plants,  col- 
lected between  1816  and  1854,  was  left  to  the  public,  and 
disappeared.  The  old  Republican  seems  to  have  been  a 
poor-spirited  soul,  who  would  voluntarily  have  returned  to 
his  prison  quarters.  The  Messrs.  Robertson,  who  must  have 
known  the  truth,  tell  a  romantic  tale  of  the  devoted  wife  and 
her  desperate  adventures  to  procure  the  liberation  of  a  fond 
husband.  "  Madame  Bonpland  ^^  is  a  *^^  china ■'^  woman  with  a 
large  family,  and  she  never  left  her  native  province. 

In  1811,  the  young  Republic,  after  defeating  General 
Belgrano,  occupied  Corrientes,  the  "  vanguard  of  Paraguay.''^ 
She  repeated  the  process  in  1849,  with  the  view  of  securing 
a  free  transit  for  her  arms  and  ammunition.  Corrientes  city 
was  also  the  theatre  of  action  in  the  early  part  of  the  present 
war.      On  17th  April,  1865,  five  Paraguayan  steamers  ran 


A   WEEK    AT    CORRIENTES.  289 

into  port,  surprised,  fired  into,  boarded,  and  took  two  old 
merchant  vessels  belonging  to  the  Argentines,  the  Gualeguay 
and  the  25  de  Maio.  The  prizes  thus  piratically  made  were 
repaired,  and  were  made  to  figure  in  the  Marshal-President^s 
flotilla.  The  outrage  was  hailed  as  a  triumph  by  the  out- 
rager,  and  the  indignation  caused  in  Buenos  Aires  by  the 
"  vandalic  and  treacherous  aggi'ession ''  was  of  the  fiercest. 
"VVar  was  at  once  resolved  upon,  and  both  combatants,  Para- 
guayans and  Argentines,  be  it  noted,  were  firmly  persuaded 
that  the  campaign  would  be  a  mere  military  promenade. 
The  same  was  the  case  with  us  in  the  Crimea,  despite  the 
Napoleonic  precept  and  the  world-wide  axiom  touching  the 
estimation  due  to  an  enemy. 

On  the  day  following  the  capture,  the  Paraguayan  Gene- 
ral Robles,  a  veteran  who,  in  1863,  received  the  epaulette 
of  Brigadier,  occupied,  as  has  been  said,  Corrientes  with  3000 
infantry,  and  was  presently  reinforced  by  800  cavalry,  men 
from  the  Paso  la  Patria.  Thereupon  Bobles  marched  south- 
wards, committing  the  usual  error  of  weakening  his  force  by 
leaving  under  Major  Martinez  three  steamers,  two  small 
guns,  and  two  battalions.  The  people  w^ere  not  unfriendly  to 
the  invaders,  and  the  city  was  well  treated.  Some  assert  that 
white  men  were  forced  to  kneel  in  the  streets  before  the  in- 
vader's sentinels,  and  that  the  women  escaped  insult  and 
outrage  with  some  difficulty;  others  declare  that  the  Para- 
guayans abused  their  power  only  at  Bella  Vista,  and  in  the 
country  parts. 

After  this  move,  D.  Jose  Berges,  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs, 
was  sent  by  Marshal-President  Lopez  to  govern  Corrientes 
with  the  assistance  of  a  triumvirate.  That  officer's  name  is 
still  remembered  with  gratitude.  He  succeeded  in  curbing 
military  licence,  and  passports  were  freely  given  to  those  who 
desired  to  expatriate  themselves.  Governor  Lagrana  of 
Corrientes^  also  retiring  south,  called  out  a  lands  turm;    and 

19 


290  A  WEEK   AT   CORTIIENTES. 

on  the  3rd  April  the  Brazilian  squadron,,  under  the  Com- 
mandante  Gomensoro^  left  Buenos  Aires  to  attack  the  in- 
vader. They  occupied  forty- two  days  in  making  600 
miles.  Gomensoro  and  Lagrana  met  with  the  view  of  com- 
bining operations;  meanwhile  General  Caceres,  a  resident 
triumvir^  brought  into  the  field  600  soldiers^  and  thus 
General  Wenceslao  Paunero^  the  Argentine  who  commanded 
the  land  forces^  found  himself  at  the  head  of  1 600  men. 

On  25  th  May,  1865,  took  place  the  "  Battle  of  Cor- 
rientes/^  under  cover  of  the  Brazilian  artillery,  which  fired 
at  friend  as  well  as  foe.  General  Paunero  landed  his  men 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Arroyo  del  Poncho  Verde,  also 
called  the  Manancial  :  it  is  the  northern  one  of  the  two 
nullahs  which  traverse  the  town.  The  Paraguayans  de- 
fended the  old  stone  causeway,  or  bridge  with  one  round 
arch,  which  leads  over  the  fiumara  to  the  settlement,  till,  losing 
about  400  men  and  seeing  the  cause  hopeless,  they  fell  back 
during  the  night  about  a  mile  to  the  south.  For  this 
offence  the  Paraguayan  Colonel  Martinez  was  subsequently 
shot  at  Paso  la  Patria.  Paunero  occupied  the  Plaza  25  de 
Maio,  and  busied  himself  in  embarking  the  wounded  and 
those  partisans  who  wished  to  leave  the  country.  It  is 
said  that  a  stampede  of  horses  in  the  dark  caused  the  assai- 
lants to  make  for  the  squadron,  and  that  in  so  doing  many 
of  the  Allies  were  drowned.  After  a  single  day^s  occupation 
Paunero  and  his  expedition  returned  to  the  main  army,  and 
Berges  with  his  triumvirate  once  more  occupied  the  city. 

The  loss  of  the  Argentines  in  this  action  about  equalled 
that  of  the  Paraguayans.  The  latter  fought  with  a  rare 
ferocity.  "  No  tengo  orden,-*^  replied  a  solitary  soldier  re- 
solved to  die,  when  summoned  to  surrender.  Another 
swarmed  up  an  orange-tree,  and  had  to  be  shot  down  like  a 
bird.  "  Quero  morir  V'  cried  a  disabled  man,  cutting  at 
those  who  would  save  him.      I  was  shown  a  boy  ten  years 


A    WEEK    AT    CORRIENTES.  291 

old  who  had  been  wounded,  and  who  was  taken  prisoner  by 
the  Allies  when  they  entered  Curupaity  in  force;  he  had 
drawn  his  knife  and  defended  himself  with  it  till  it  was  struck 
from  his  hand. 

We  may  visit  the  site  of  the  action,  which  is  about  one 
mile  beyond  the  town.  Under  the  old  bridge  the  Para- 
guayan dead  were  buried  ;  and  beyond  it,  to  the  left,  are  the 
Correntino  barracks,  still  pitted  with  shot  and  fronted  by  an 
orange  grove.  Here  was  an  old  battery,  afterwards  turned 
into  a  caserne  and  drill-ground  ;  and  guns  had  been  planted 
on  the  fiumarabank  before  1863.  Strongly  made  of  brick, 
the  building  was  easily  to  be  defended  by  one  battalion 
300  strong.  The  ground  then  forms  a  charming  slope, 
swelling  high  above  the  rocky  bank,  and  dotted  with  bom- 
bax  and  with  oranges  planted  in  straight  lines.  The  soft 
green  turf  is  bright  with  flowering  plants,  which  seem  to 
prefer  the  tent-ruts ;  and  this  season — early  September — is 
the  collector's  opportunity.  Our  walk  is  limited  to  the 
Brazilian  ^larine  Hospital,  which  was  rapidly  being  dis- 
mantled, and  which  had  entirely  disappeared  before  April, 
1869.  The  frontage  was  adapted  to  the  wind,  not  to  the 
sun  as  Europe  requires ;  the  wards  were  independent  pavi- 
lions for  better  isolation,  and  the  material  was  whitewashed 
American  pine-lumber,  raised  on  piles,  and  roofed  with  wood 
and  painted  tarpaulin.  It  could  admit  3000  men ;  and 
each  patient  had  usually  1200  cubic  feet  of  space.  Here, 
as  in  other  hospitals,  the  French  system  was  carried  out, 
and  ours  found  no  favour.  There  were  curious  tales  of 
malversation  and  embezzlement  of  stores,  especially  in  the 
matter  of  ''  fios  ''  or  '^  charpy,'-*  at  which  the  ladies  of  the 
Brazil  worked  so  patriotically. 

For  the  moment,  adieu  !     More  of  interest  in  the  next. 


19—2 


LETTEE  XIII. 

FROM    CORRIENTES    TO    HUMAITl. 

Humaita,  August  22,  1868. 


My  dear  Z , 

We  now  enter  upon  tlie  proper  scenes  of 
the  Paraguayan  war.  I  will  tantalize  your  impatience  for 
a  while  by  recounting  our  life  on  board  the  good  ship  Yi. 

The  Yi,  I  have  told  you_,  is  a  bran  new  "  floating  hotel/^ 
with  her  plated  silver  dazzling,  her  napkins  stiff-starched, 
and  her  gilt  mouldings  upon  the  untarnished  white  panels 
clean  as  a  new  sovereign.  A  common  English  passenger 
steamer  would  have  been  far  plainer,  but  proportionally 
much  more  comfortable.  The  splendid  saloon  all  along  the 
second  deck  will  presently  wax  dingy,  and  there  is  no  pos- 
sible walking  in  the  open  air.  The  tables  draw  out  and 
collapse  cleverly,  but  with  trouble.  The  three  stewards  are 
expected  to  do  the  work  of  one  man  ;  they  are  exceedingly 
civil,  and  they  do  nothing.  Of  course,  this  is  the  fault 
of  the  comisario,  or  purser,  a  small  Spanish  bantam,  or 
rather  "hen-harrier,"'^  who  spends  all  his  time  in  trifling 
with  the  feminine  heart.  The  captain,  Don  Pedro  Lorenzo 
riores — do  not  forget  the  Don,  and  if  you  want  anything 
say  Sefior  Don — was  an  ex-item  of  that  infinitesimal  body, 
the  national  navy  of  the  Banda  Oriental.  He  brought 
out  Yi  for  its  Company  from  the  United  States,  and  he 
avenges  himself  upon  Northern  and  Anglo-American  coarse- 
ness by  calling  all  Yankees  "  rascals."''  His  chief  duty  is  to 
bale  out  the  soup,  to  pass  cigars,  and  to  send  round  sherry 
after  dinner.     This  must  be  done  to  everybody  at  table. 


FROM    CORRIENTES    TO    HUMATTA.  293 

or    the    excluded  will    take    offence    and    sulk   like  small 
boys. 

Pleasantly  enougli  passes  the  sc'nnight — perhaps  I  should 
call  it  a  fortnight.  Every  twenty-four  hours  contains  two 
distinct  days  and  two  several  nights.  First  day  begins  at 
dawn  with  coffee  and  biscuits,  by  way  of  breakfast,  and  a 
bath,  patronized  chiefly  by  the  ''  yaller ''  Brazilian  pas- 
sengers. A  mighty  rush  follows  the  dinner-bell,  which 
sounds  with  peculiar  unpunctuality,  between  9  and  10  a.m. 
(mind).  Upon  the  table  are  scattered  hors  d'oeuvres,  olives, 
ham  and  sausage,  together  with  the  gratis  wines,  sour 
French  "  piquette^'  called  claret,  and  the  rough,  ready  Cata- 
lonian  Carlo,  here  corrupted  to  Carlon.  Port,  and  similar 
superior  articles,  are  ridiculously  dear;  for  instance,  $8 
(325.)  per  bottle,  and  of  course  for  a  bad  bottle.  Like  the 
Chilian,  the  Argentine  often  calls  not  for  the  best,  but  for 
the  most  expensive  drink,  and  makes  the  call  last  out  the 
week.  We  have  no  soup,  but,  en  revanche,  we  have  that 
eternal  puchero,  bouilli,  ragmeat,  which,  combined  with 
vegetables — potatoes,  cabbages,  and  courges  (zavallos) — 
composes  the  antiquated  oUa  podrida.  It  is  the  national 
dish,  the  feijoada  of  the  Brazils,  here  held  to  be  heavy  and 
indigestible.  The  rest  is  hotel  fare.  The  coffee  must  be 
made  "  coffee  royal ''  if  you  would  drink  it ;  and  the  tea  is 
the  pot-house  (''  pulperia ")  style,  facetiously  termed  by 
foreigners  ''  cowslip  '^  and  "  orange  Pekoe  :"  those  who  want 
the  real  Chinese  must  bring  it  for  themselves. 

Tobacco  and  a  small  bout  of  gambling  bring  in  the  first 
night,  which  lasts  from  noon  to  3  p.m.  During  this  period 
all  the  world  of  men  dressed  in  faded  black  is  dead  and 
gone.  Here  the  siesta  is  the  universal  custom,  to  the 
severe  injury  of  picnics.  At  the  mystic  hour  you  see  every 
eye  waxing  smaller  and  smaller,  till  closed  by  a  doze  with 
a   suspicion   of  nasal   music.      At   home,  people   regularly 


294  FROM    CORRIENTES    TO    HUMAITA. 

"  turn  in  ;'^  and  if  you  have  a  visit  to  pay  or  a  favour  to 
ask,  do  not  interrupt  the  day-night.  Strangers  soon  fall  into 
the  habit,  and  it  is  evidently  required  by  those  climates  in 
which  men  sit  up  late  and  rise  early.  I  have  found  it  an 
excellent  plan  in  hot  countries  when  hard  mental  labour 
was  required,  and,  as  every  policeman  knows,  it  is  a  mere 
matter  of  habit.  In  the  Brazil  the  siesta  is  not  the  rule, 
but  the  Brazilians  rarely  begin  the  day  at  Bengal  hours. 
On  this  parallel,  the  further  we  go  westward,  and  the 
more  backward  becomes  the  land,  the  longer  will  last 
the  siesta;  the  cause  being  simply  that  the  population, 
having  nothing  to  do,  very  wisely  allows  its  arteries  to 
contract. 

The  second  day  opens  with  a  breakfast  of  mate.  It  is 
drunk  en  cachette ;  if  not,  it  must  be  handed  all  round. 
Lunch  is  absolutely  unknown  ;  the  unsophisticated  English 
stomach  therefore  clamours  for  an  insult  to  breakfast  and 
an  injury  to  dinner,  in  the  shape  of  sherry  and  biscuits. 
The  second  full  feed  is  at  4  p.m.,  and  exactly  resembles  the 
first:  it  lasts  an  hour  and  a  half.  Candles  and  cigars  are 
then  lighted,  and  preparations  are  made  for  the  soiree 
according  to  tastes.  Some  watch  the  night  upon  the  poop ; 
others  converse  or  mope  alone;  others  play  and  sing,  or 
listen  to  music.  By  far  the  favourite  amusement,  however, 
is  hearty,  thorough,  whole-souled  gambling,  which  makes 
the  fore  saloon  a  standing  hell.  One  passenger  is  said  to 
have  lost  during  the  excursion  $8000.  The  Brazilians  are 
the  hottest  players,  pushing  on  far  into  the  small  hours. 
Politely  admitting  the  fact  that  we,  thereabouts  lodged, 
may  be  asleep,  or  may  wish  to  sleep,  they  open  conversation 
in  a  half  whisper.  This  loudens  under  excitement  to  an 
average  tone,  and  the  latter  speedily  gamuts  up  to  a  shout 
and  a  howl,  stintless  and  remorseless.  My  only  resource 
was  letting  a  cold  draught  through  the  skylight   at  their 


FROM    CORRIENTES    TO    HUMAITA.  295 

feet  and  ankles,  and  thus  only  the  roaring,  bawling 
gamblers,  who  sat  lengthening  out  the  night,  were  cleared 
away. 

We  are  now  about  to  leave  the  main  branch  of  the 
riverine  system,  and  to  eviter  the  Paraguay  proper,  con- 
cerning which  you  may  wish  to  have  a  few  geographical 
details.  The  same  authority  that  announces  the  topo- 
graphical homology  of  the  Parana  and  the  Ohio  compares 
the  Paraguay  with  the  Missouri,  and  its  great  western 
influents,  the  Salado,  the  Bermejo,  and  the  Pilcomayo,  with 
the  Red  River,  the  Arkansas,  and  the  Platte.  It  rises — 
according  to  a  late  explorer,  the  Cavagliere  Bossi,  who 
kindly  sent  me  a  copy  of  his  work — two  leagues  from  the 
Arinos  of  the  Amazonian  valley,  and  the  source  may  be 
reached  without  passing  through  the  wild  and  plundering 
Gnarani  tribes.  It  floods  properly  in  March  to  June, 
w^hen  the  supersaturated  lands  along  the  upper  course  dis- 
charge their  surplus.  The  inundation  of  December- January, 
1868-9,  which  precipitated  the  operations  of  the  Brazilians 
against  La  Villeta,  was  caused  by  the  Parana,  which,  forcing 
back  and  heaping  up  the  waters  of  the  Paraguay,  poured  them 
over  both  banks,  whereas  that  to  the  east  generally  suff'ers. 
As  a  rule,  the  discharge  of  the  upper  bed  is  clear  and  that  of 
the  lower  is  muddy.  At  the  junction,  ships  prefer  to  fill  with 
the  Parana,  and  higher  up  the  crews  drink  of  the  springs 
and  fountains.  The  free  navigation  of  the  Paraguay  is  a 
political  necessity  for  the  Brazilian  Empire,  which  has  had 
a  line  of  steamers  upon  it  since  1857.  In  six  weeks 
they  make  Matto  Grosso,  some  2000  to  2200  miles  from 
Buenos  Aires;  and  in  case  of  necessity  they  can  easily 
efi'ect  the  passage  in  twelve  days  and  nights,  at  the  rate  of 
eight  miles  an  hour.  For  sailing  craft  at  least  six  months 
must  be  allowed,  and  some  have  occupied  seven  in  reaching 
Humaita;    whereas  the  round  trip  from   Buenos  Aires  to 


296  FROM    CORRIENTES    TO    HUMAITA. 

Asuncion  and  back  has  lately  been  done  in  ten  days.  I 
had  once  formed  the  project  of  riding  from  Sao  Panlo  to 
Cuyaba^  and  I  found  that^  with  fast  mules^  the  journey 
would  have  occupied  me  two  and  a  half  months. 

Even  during  peaceful  days  the  Paraguayans  prepared  for 
an  attack  along  the  line  of  their  river,  and  the  general  idea 
is  that  the  Allies  fell  into  the  trap  prepared  for  them,  thrust 
their  heads  into  the  lion^s  jaws,  and  entered  the  den  at  a 
point  where  the  approach  had  long  been  prepared  to  receive 
them.  The  public  has  persistently  asserted  that  the  attack 
should  have  been  via  Candelaria  and  Itapua,  at  the  south- 
eastern angle  of  the  Lower  Parana,  some  250  miles  above  the 
confluence,  and  within  a  few  marches  of  the  Brazilian  frontier. 
From  this  point  the  invader  could  easily  have  made  Villa 
Kica,  and,  having  struck  at  the  heart  of  the  country,  he 
would  have  been  master  of  Asuncion.  We  may  quote  the 
high  authority  of  Lieut. -Col.  Thompson  (Chap.  XIV.)  for 
believing  that  had  General  Porto  Alegre  or  Osorio  entered 
Paraguay  via  Encarnacion,  ^^  the  war  must  have  been  ended.''' 
On  the  other  hand,  I  heard  a  very  diflPerent  account  from 
President  Mitre,  the  biographer  of  D.  Manuel  Belgrano,  who 
was  possibly  somewhat  biassed  by  the  defeat  which  his  hero 
sustained  on  the  Itapua  line  (January  18, 1811).  He  observed 
that  the  direct  route  to  Villa  Rica  lay  through  a  swamp  and 
desert,  where  even  provisions  must  have  been  transported  by 
land  j  and  that  to  give  up  the  advantage  of  a  double  attack 
by  land  and  water,  especially  with  ironclads,  which  had  not 
been  dreamed  of  when  Humaita  and  other  works  were  thrown 
up,  would  have  been  the  merest  folly.  My  present  belief  is 
that  the  Allies  knew  far  too  well  the  strength  of  the  Para- 
guayan army  and  the  valour  of  its  soldiers  to  have  attacked 
the  small  Republic  without  the  aid  of  a  fleet ;  and  moreover, 
that  had  they  done  so  their  raw  levies  would  have  been 
annihilated. 


FROM    CORRIENTES    TO    HUMAITA.  297 

At  9.30  A.M.  yesterday,  leaving  Corrientes,  where  some 
twenty  ships  lay,  we  steamed  past  the  arched  causeway  under 
which  sleep  the  dead.  The  river  banks  were  faced  with 
dwarf  clifts,  detached  blocks,  and  fallen  masses  of  friable 
sandstone,  showing  lines  of  stratification  and  deposit.  The 
colours  were  those  of  Sao  Paulo — yellow,  red,  brick-red,  and 
blood-red  (Sangre  de  boi).  Some  parts  were  crumbling  as 
"  horse-bone ''  limestone,  others  were  hard  as  granite,  and 
all  were  more  or  less  porous.  Bits  of  mica  appeared  in  it, 
but  we  vainly  sought  for  fossils,  the  great  want  of  these 
lands.  The  rock  makes  good  building  material,  which  cuts 
well  and  hardens  readily. 

Presently  we  were  shown  the  site  of  that  failure  of  failures, 
the  French  colony  of  S.  Juan,  and  the  spot  where  the  Siete 
Corrientes  gave  a  name  to  the  city.  Though  the  day  was 
before  fine,  rain  and  lightning  put  in  an  appearance — it  is 
said  that  here  they  are  rarely  absent.  Six  leagues,  traversed 
in  two  hours,  placed  us  at  the  glorious  confluence  of  the 
Parana  and  Paraguay,  which  here  equal,  says  Azara,  a  hun- 
dred of  the  biggest  rivers  of  Europe,  and  yet  are  250  leagues 
from  the  mouth.  Compared  with  these  majestic  proportions, 
and  this  mighty  sweep  of  waters,  the  meeting  of  the  Rios  de 
Sao  Francisco  and  das  Veluas  seemed  to  my  memory  insignifi- 
cant. The  doab  or  water-peninsula,  which  has  been  com- 
pared with  Illinois,  is  a  vast  plain  of  wet  and  dry  mud,  such 
as  a  drained  harbour  bottom  would  represent.  It  is  mostly 
below  the  mean  level  of  both  streams,  which  are  here  con- 
tained between  those  natural  dykes  their  elevated  banks, 
and  these,  being  of  friable  earth,  allow  full  freedom  of  per- 
colation. In  fact,  the  whole  country,  from  the  Parana  south 
to  the  Tebicuary  north  is  a  "  no  man^s  land,"*^  or  an  "  any 
man^s  land,'^  where  the  "  Carrisales  '^  of  earth  and  water  are 
"  pretty  much  mixed."  In  1620  this  confluence  formed  the 
limit  between  the  old  Governments  of  Paraguay  and  of  the 


298  FROM    CORRIENTES   TO    HUMAITA. 

E-io  de  la  Plata  ;  this,  however,  claimed  tlie  whole  country 
up  to  the  Tebicuary. 

The  curves  approaching  the  place  where  the  two  rivers 
meet  in  their  might  are  divided  by  a  long  narrow  spit  of 
land  frequently  flooded.  The  surface  of  the  country  is  com- 
posed of  swamps — not  "  salt-swamps/-'  as  some  have  written 
— rejoicing  in  a  variety  of  names,  whose  use,  however,  differs 
in  the  several  places.  The  "laguna^^  is  a  real  pool  or  lakelet, 
replenished  by  floods,  and  retained  by  a  hard  clay  floor.  The 
"  banado ''  is  a  field  of  deep  adhesive  mud  and  stagnant  water, 
somewhat  wetter  than  the  ''  pantano/^  or  morass.  The  "  es^ 
tero,^-'  erroneously  said  to  be  a  Quichua^  word,  but  derived 
from  the  piri  or  South  American  papyrus,  and  the  esteros 
(rushes),  which  line  it,  is  a  stream  sluggishlj^  flowing  through 
a  big  swamp.  Thus  our  maps  show  the  northern  and  the 
southern  Estero  bellaco — not  "  Terovellaco,''  as  Mr.  Mans- 
field has  it  (p.  310) — to  be  the  meridional  strip  of  the  great 
Neembucu  bog,  which  extends  from  east  to  west  parallel  with 
the  right  bank  of  the  Paraguay  river.  These  waters  are  di- 
vided by  "  lomas,^^  or  "  lomadas,^"*  waves  of  ground  rising  a 
few  feet  above  the  flood  level  of  the  quagmires.  They  sup- 
port an  almost  impassable  jungle,  composed  of  monte,  or 
thorn  thicket ;  "  isletas,^''  or  bosques  of  trees ;  "  macegales," 
small  shrubberies ;  "  pajonales  ''  and  "  canaverales,^^  beds  of 
reedy  grass  six  feet  tall,  and  "  palmares,''  or  "  palmazales," 
where  rise  ^'  alamedas,''  or  avenues  of  lofty  whispering  palms. 
And  a  mixture  of  all  these  pleasant  features  is  termed  a 
"  carrisal,''  as  opposed  to  tierra  firma. 

The  only  settlements  in  the  carrisal  are  '^'^  capillas,''  or 
wretched  huts  surrounding  churches  of  noble  elevation,  and 
decorated  with  carved  pulpits,  fancy  roofs,  frescos,  ornamental 


*  "  It  is  called  estero,  which  in  the  Quichua  tongue  signifies  a  lake." — 
Guidebook. 


FROM    CORRIENTES    TO    HUMAITA.  299 

doors,  and  marble  altars,  which  are  now  all  destroyed.  The 
"  fighting  men  "  are  upon  the  war-path,  and  the  ''  campe- 
sinos^'  or  country  folks  have  been  driven  northwards  by  the 
retreating  Paraguayans.  Everywhere  the  land  is  wild  of 
man ;  you  will  presently  see  that  such  has  been  the  system 
from  the  confluence  to  the  capital.  The  same  tactic  was 
adopted  in  1811  by  Colonel  D.  Bernardo  Velasco  when  op- 
posing the  advance  of  Belgrano.  All  the  "  chapels,^^  rem- 
nants of  Jesuit  rule  now  reduced  to  mud-walled  hamlets, 
were  connected  by  threads  of  path,  and  he  who  stepped  off 
these  sunk  waist-deep  in  unhealthy  morass  and  boggy  pool. 
A  glance  at  any  map  upon  a  large  scale  will  explain  to  you 
how  it  was  that  two  years  were  spent  in  battling  over  nine 
square  miles  of  ground.  This  swamp  fighting  was  an  essen- 
tial part  of  ''  Indian  '^  warfare.  The  Spaniards,  under  Men- 
doza,  their  Adelantado,  suffered  severely  on  February  2, 
1535,  from  being  entangled,  by  the  wild  Querandis,  in  a  marsh 
near  Buenos  Aires. 

This  reach  of  the  Parana  is  called  in  old  maps  Quatro 
Bocas.  Looking  up  the  sea-like  mouth  we  see  about  the 
centre  of  the  stream,  where  it  narrows,  a  dark  dot,  the  Isleta 
dez  de  Abril,  alias  do  Coronel  Carvalho.  Here  the  Brazilians 
had  erected  an  8-gun  battery,  the  better  to  destroy  Guardia 
Carracha,  also  known  as  ^^  Fort  Itapiru.^'  It  was  attacked 
on  April  10,  1866,  by  the  Paraguayans  under  Lieut. -Colonel, 
afterwards  General,  Diaz,  a  noted  lance,  who  was  at  last 
killed  by  the  shell  fired  by  an  ironclad  whilst  he  was  recon- 
noitering  for  a  canoe  attack.  The  fight  was  fierce;  fifteen 
out  of  twenty-six  canoes  were  sunk,  and  of  1200  Paraguayans 
only  400  wounded  men  returned.  It  was  the  first  of  the 
many  reckless  actions  in  which  Marshal- President  Lopez 
frittered  away  his  devoted  forces.  Opposite  it,  and  hidden 
by  a  long  point  of  yellow  sand,  on  the  northern  river-bank, 
were    the    ruins    of    Fort    Itapiru  —  the    weak    or    rotten 


300  FROM    CORRIENTES    TO   HUMAITA. 

stone* — which  in  1855  fired  upon  the  U.S.  steamship  Water- 
witch,  Captain  Page.  Before  the  war  it  was  a  neat  little  semi- 
circular brick  fort  mounting  two  to  three  guns  en  barbette, 
and  built  at  the  root  of  a  promontory  backed  by  a  sandy 
beach.  The  Paraguayans  armed  it  with  two  8-inch  guns, 
and  for  some  forty  days  kept  at  bay  the  Allied  army  and  the 
Brazilian  fleet — eighteen  steam  gunboats  and  four  ironclads. 
It  was  the  key  of  the  position^  yet  it  was  carelessly  abandoned 
by  Marshal-President  Lopez_,  who  had  here  cornered  his 
enemy.  A  photograph  of  the  place  now  shows  a  broken 
tower,  in  whose  shade  placidly  reposes  a  cow. 

Opposite  Itapiru  the  Parana  narrows  to  1^  mile;  and 
then  flaring  out  into  a  bay,  it  is  divided  into  two  channels 
by  sundry  banks  and  islets.  Of  these  the  most  important 
are  the  Banco  de  Toledo,  the  Isla  Caraya,  or  Howling 
Monkeys'  Island,  and  the  Isla  de  Santa  Ana.  Almost  due 
south  of  it  on  the  Correntine  shore  is  the  village  Corrales, 
alias  the  Campamiento  del  Paso,  built  in  1849.  It  is  also 
called  the  Correntine  Paso  la  Patria,  that  is  to  say  Public 
Pass,  where  homeward  travellers  were  ferried  over  in  canoes. 
At  this  place  the  Brazilians  raised  heavy  batteries  to  bombard 
Fort  Itapiru.  Under  the  tall  barranca,  or  falaise,  we  descry 
a  few  ranchos,  and  a  little  flotilla  embarking  cattle.  The 
pueblo,  or  village,  is  hidden  from  sight.  On  the  northern 
bank,  about  two  miles  higher  up,  was  the  Paraguayan  chapel- 
village — Paso  la  Patria — some  five  hours'  steam  from  Cor- 
rientes,  and  seventy  leagues,  or  eight  days'  journey  from 
Asuncion.  Here  Marshal-President  Lopez  had  thrown  up 
a  fine  work,  with  redans  and  curtains,  resting  on  two  lagoons 
and    impassable   carrisal,   and   mounting  thirty  field  guns. 


*^  The  Brazilians  translate  the  name  "pedra  fraca;"  and  similarly  Cun- 
hapira,  a  shan-van-vogh,  or  "  weak  old  woman."  Lt.-Col.  Thompson  says 
*'  Itapiru :  ita,  stone  ;  pirii,  dry  ;  dry  stone."  According  to  that  officer  the 
rock  is  volcanic. 


FROM    CORRIENTES    TO    HUMAITA.  301 

Yet  he  abandoned  it  precipitately  the  moment  his  enemy- 
landed  upon  Paraguayan  ground.  The  invaders  established 
in  this  place  their  hospitals  and  bazars^  of  which  no  traces 
now  remain,  and  it  became  the  base  of  operations  for  two 
years. 

The  landing  was  effected  on  the  16th  of  April  (1866),  by 
Generals  Osorio  and  Flores.  They  chose  the  mouth  of  the 
Paraguay  river,  a  few  hundred  yards  above  the  confluence,  and 
they  immediately  entrenched  some  10,000  men.  Learning 
this,  and  finding  himself  outflanked,  Marshal-President  Lopez 
hastened  to  abandon  Itapirii  and  Paso  la  Patria,  whose 
trenches  he  might  have  held  for  months,  if  not  for  years. 
Upon  this  subject  both  Paraguayans  and  Argentines  agree. 

We  now  dash  amongst  floating  trees  and  rippling  isles  of 
grass  and  reed  up  the  Paraguay  river,  which  suddenly  nar- 
rows from  a  mile  and  a  half  to  400  yards,  and  appears  to  be 
a  small  influent.  The  cause  is  the  Isla  del  Atajo,  the 
'^stopper^^  (of  the  current),  a  long  thin  island  to  our  left, 
disposed,  as  usual,  with  its  length  down  stream.  It  is  a 
flat  steep  covered  with  lush  verdure,  light  green  and  dark 
green,  and  the  trees  of  good  hard  wood  are  colligated  by 
bush-ropes.  A  gentle  grassy  slope,  some  sixty  to  seventy 
feet  high  in  the  centre  of  its  eastern  side,  leads  to  a  cottage 
with  posts  and  verandah,  the  old  Guardia  Cerrito,  and  its 
watch-tower. 

A  little  beyond  the  mound,  and  situated  upon  a  barren 
muddy  bank,  which  was  flooded  in  November,  1868,  is  the 
Cerrito  Station,  where  the  Brazilians  built  hospitals,  store- 
houses, coalsheds,  and  workshops  for  repairing  engines.  Of 
old  it  was  claimed  by  the  Argentine  Confederation,  but  the 
Paraguayans  seized  it  and  made  it  a  guardia.  The  clearing 
shows  a  scattered  village  of  huts  and  long  lines  of  thatched 
wattle  and  dab ;  the  best  are  of  boarding,  roofed  with  zinc  or 
straw.     There   is  a  whitewashed    chapel^   and    the    Hotel 


302  FROM    CORRIENTES    TO    HUMAITA. 

Brazil^  whose  dwarf  frontage  is  pierced  for  a  door  and  two 
windows.  Cranes  and  piers  break  the  bank,  which  is  here 
four  feet  high,  and  in  the  deep  water  alongside  appear  flotillas 
of  bazar  boats,  and  an  ironclad  acting  sentinel. 

Leaving  Cerrito  we  sweep  round  to  the  north-west,  and 
pass  the  Tres  Bocas.  The  name  has  been  erroneously  trans- 
ferred by  some  to  the  confluence,  by  others  to  a  place  below 
it,  where  the  Parana  and  the  Parana  Mi  (the  northern 
channel)  meet  the  Paraguay.  Properly  speaking,  Tres  Bocas 
is  in  the  latter  river,  where  it  is  split  into  two  by  the  Atajo 
islet,  and  receives  in  its  left  bank  the  Laguna  Piris,  which 
drains  the  western  part  of  the  Northern  Estero  bellaco.  In 
old  days  the  name  sounded  joyful  to  those  flying  from  the 
"reign  of  terror.''''  Lieutenant  Day's  chart  (1858)  shows 
five  armed  ships  watching  the  Tres  Bocas ;  and  opposite  the 
Boca  del  Atajo  was  the  Primera  Guardia,  or  first  guard- 
house. Captain  Page  here  found  the  Admiral  of  the  Navy 
of  the  Republic  of  Paraguay,  and  a  squadron  of  five  small 
vessels. 

We  run  rapidly  past  ground  whose  every  mile  cost  a 
month  of  fighting.  To  our  right  is  the  Laguna  Piris,  flow- 
ing from  the  north-east.  The  river-like  lagoon  is  not  re- 
markable, and  there  are  many  similar  on  the  eastern  bank, 
treacherously  lurking  under  papyrus  and  water-lilies.  It 
proved,  however,  most  useful  to  the  Allies  by  admitting 
their  gunboats  and  stores. 

Further  east  are  the  sites  of  the  great  actions  fought  on 
the  2nd  and  the  24th  of  May,  1866.  A  graceful  line  of 
rising  surface,  clothed  in  the  napindii  grass,  which  is  used 
as  'Hie-tie,*'  and  scattered  with  fan-palms,  shows  the 
loma   of  Tuyu-ti  —  barro  duro,  or  dry   mud.^     A   single 


*  "  White  mud,"  says  Lt.-Col.  Thompson.  The  word  Tuyu,  pronounced 
Tuju,  is  found  in  Tijuca,  or  Tyjuca,  near  Kio  de  Janeiro,  and  is  usually 
translated  "  dry  mud." 


FROM    CORRIENTES   TO    HUMAITA.  303 

tree  denotes  the  spot  where  the  Brazilian  batteries  stood. 
This  site,  the  first  solid  ground  seen  after  the  Confluence, 
smells  of  death ;  here  lie  some  10,000  men,  victims  of 
cholera  and  small-pox,  fever,  and  Crimean  diarrhoea.  Here- 
abouts were  fought  the  battles  of  Yataity-Cora  and  Potreiro- 
Sauce,  with  the  great  actions,  or  rather  surprises,  of  July 
10-18,  1866,  and  of  November  3,  1867. 

Nearly  opposite,  but  a  little  above  the  Piris  opening,  is 
the  Atajo  River — in  fact,  the  eastern  arm  of  the  Paraguay. 
The  bank  is  low,  and  the  vegetation,  after  thinning  out, 
becomes  more  luxuriant,  large  trees  looming  in  the  distance. 
The  palm-groves  of  the  Gran  Chaco  are  now  bare  of  mon- 
keys, its  oldest  inhabitants. 

Three  hours'  steaming  from  Corrientes  placed  us  off  the 
historical  site  of  Ciu'uzii — the  Cross.  It  is  a  new  outpost 
of  Humaita,  a  short  trench,  whose  right  rested  upon  the 
Paraguay,  and  its  left  upon  a  water  which  communicates 
with  the  great  Laguna  Chichi.  The  river-bank  is  here 
broken,  and  four  to  five  feet  high.  The  current  varies  from 
two  to  three  miles,  and  a  little  below  it  is  a  small  nameless 
island :  the  right  shore,  as  usual  in  such  places,  is  low  and 
clear,  except  of  willow  scrub.  We  saw  the  wreck  of  La 
Poriena,  an  American  ship  taken  up  as  an  hospital :  she 
was  here  burnt  with  some  eighty  sick  on  board.  Yellow 
mounds  show  where  the  now  dismantled  batteries  once  were, 
and  cattle  feed  amongst  the  debris  of  earthworks.  A 
wooden  cross  near  the  water  marks  the  Brazilian  Campo 
Santo ;  and  to  the  north  of  it  are  tree-clumps  and  an  en- 
closure where  General  Argolo,  Commanding  2nd  Corps 
d'Armee,  built  his  star-shaped  redoubt. 

Here,  again,  the  fighting  was  fierce.  The  allied  fleet 
began  September  1, 1866,  to  bombard  Curuzu,  the  southern- 
most outwork  proper  of  Humaita.  The  defenders  replied 
with  spirit.     The  ironclad  Rio  de  Janeiro  was  blown  up  by 


304  FROM    CORRIENTES    TO    HUMAITA. 

a  torpedo^  and  lost  her  captain  and  crew.  The  Tvahy  and 
other  Brazilian  ships  were  sorely  injured.  On  the  3rd  of 
September  General  Porto  Alegre^  having  landed  8300  men 
amongst  the  corn-fields  about  three-fourths  of  a  mile  below, 
gallantly  stormed  it  by  rounding,  through  four  feet  of  water 
exposed  to  enfilade  fire,  the  flank  that  rested  upon  the 
lagoon.  The  losses  were  about  equal  on  both  sides.  Un- 
happily the  victor  did  not  follow  up  his  advantage ;  after  a 
short  pursuit  he  returned  to  his  lines  ;  whereas  all  are  agreed 
in  believing  that  a  single  rush  would  have  carried  Curupaity 
and  even  Humaita. 

Another  quarter  of  an  hour  showed  us  the  lines  of  Curu- 
paity. Lieutenant  Day  gives  the  Isla  da  Palma  near  the 
right  bank,  and  on  the  left  the  Guardia  "  Cuvu  Paip,^"*  or 
"  Curipeiti.^^  The  word  means  the  place  of  the  curupai  tree 
(acacia  adstringens,  the  sebil  of  Tucuman).  Its  site  is  like 
that  of  Curuzu,  a  hollow  curve  on  the  eastern  bank,  bounded 
south  by  a  projecting  angle ;  the  right  of  the  works  resting 
upon  the  river,  the  left  upon  the  Laguna  Lopez,  which  com- 
municates with  the  Laguna  Chichi.  The  bank  slopes  to- 
wards the  inner  estero,  and  from  the  river  we  see  only  the 
profile  of  half- levelled  earthworks  extending  ten  or  twelve 
squares  down  stream.  Along  the  bank  were  moored  cutters 
and  schooners,  tugs,  steam-launches,  and  a  variety  of  more 
dignified  craft,  which  had  been  freighted  down  stream.  We 
shall  afterwards  visit  the  comercio,  or  bazar.  At  present 
I  will  only  remark  that  those  winged  fiends,  the  mosquitoes, 
despite  of  oil,  raise  wounds  upon  our  foreheads,  and  that 
the  jejens,  or  sand-flies,  bite  like  furies.  Even  in  the 
keen  north-east  wind  Curupaity  was  a  hard  nut  for  the 
Allies  to  crack,  and  it  broke  certain  of  their  teeth. 

After  the  capture  of  Curuzu,  the  Paraguayans  had  retreated 
to  the  second  outwork  of  Humaita,  and  on  September  8 
they  began  to  dig  the  trench,  which  was  about  two  thousand 


FROM    CORRIENTES    TO    HUMAITA.  305 

yards  long.  But^,  despite  the  energy  of  the  troops,  matters 
looked  desperate  till  Marshal-President  Lopez,  two  days 
afterwards,  hit  upon  the  notable  expedient  of  proposing  on 
interview  with  the  Allied  Generals.  The  Commander-ic. 
Chief,  President  Mitre,  fell  into  the  trap — not  so  General 
Polidoro,  the  Brazilian,  who  had  succeeded  General  Osorio. 
Letters  passed  under  flags  of  truce  ;  the  two  Presidents  and 
General  Flores  had  a  long  palaver,  drank  some  brandy- 
pawnee,  exchanged  riding-whips,  and  parted  without  agreeing 
upon  the  conditions  of  a  peace.  The  "Conference  of  Yataity- 
Cora  ^'  has,  however,  the  merit  of  gaining  two  days  for  the 
works  at  Curupaity ;  and  by  20th  September  the  strongest 
position  of  the  whole  campaign  was  ready  to  be  fought. 

The  assault  was  given  at  noon  on  September  22,  and 
Curupaity  proved  itself,  under  General  Diaz,  and  afterwards 
Colonel  Alen,  a  Pei-ho.  Instead  of  attacking  by  nighty 
en  chemise,  the  Allies  pushed  recklessly  across  an  open  plain 
under  a  terrible  fire  of  grape  and  canister,  delivered  by 
eight-inch  guns  at  point-blank  range.  The  Brazilians  suf- 
fered the  least,  as  they  attacked  and  carried  a  small  out- 
work on  the  right  which  was  partially  concealed  by  bush. 
The  Argentines  gallantly  struggled  up  to  the  trenches 
despite  mud  knee-deep,  and  then  found  that  they  had  for- 
gotten their  scaling-ladders.  Nothing  remained  to  the 
assaulter  but  a  disastrous  retreat,  leaving  behind  him  5000 
killed  and  wounded,  whilst  the  Paraguayans  had  but  fifty- 
four  hors  de  combat.  The  mishap  filled  the  Argentine 
Confederation  with  rage  and  grief,  and  the  Allies  de- 
clined further  operations  during  the  ten  months  between 
September  22,  1866,  and  July,  1867.  Finally,  Cu- 
rupaity was,  like  many  other  posts,  evacuated  by  the  de- 
fenders, who  left  quaker  guns  to  deceive  the  assailants. 

We  have  now  seen  two  of  the  four  river  positions — Curuzii, 
Curupaity,  Humaita,  and   Angostura — which  did  the  Para- 

20 


306  FROM    CORRIENTES    TO    HUMAITA. 

guayans  good  service.  From  Cueva  to  Asuncion^  from  1865 
to  1868,  we  shall  find  that  they  had  but  one  plan  for 
defence.  They  chose  for  their  stand-point  some  place  where 
the  stream  was  narrowest  and  flowed  the  swiftest,  also  where 
the  deepest  water  was  from  45  to  150  yards  off"  their  guns, 
and  where  a  passing  ship  must  expose  her  prow,  broadside, 
and  hull.  They  placed  their  guns  at  the  toe  of  a  horse- 
shoe-shaped clifi",  a  re-entering  angle  generally  in  the  left, 
or  eastern  bank,  whose  high  and  regular  wall  shows  the 
flood-mark.  The  cliff",  a  natural  earthwork,  varied  from 
twenty  to  fifty  feet ;  the  upper  half  was  usually  per- 
pendicular, and  composed  of  stiff"  clay  and  sand,  assuming 
the  natural  angle  below,  and  off"ering  no  facility  for  scaling. 
It  was  generally  bounded  north  and  south  by  carrisal  and 
impassable  jungle.  The  ojoen-gorged  batteries  extended  all 
along  the  bank  so  as  to  sweep  the  stream  up  and  down  . 
they  often  aff"ected  a  crossing  or  converging  fire,  and  some- 
times, as  at  Asuncion,  where  the  current  hugs  the  side, 
the  guns  could  not  be  depressed,  and  the  defenders  had  to 
depend  upon  musketry.  On  the  Gran  Chaco,  or  western 
side,  they  chose,  if  possible,  a  low  marshy  spit  subject  to 
inundation,  and  they  felled  the  trees,  so  that  the  enemy 
was  compelled  to  act  upon  open  ground.  Thus  they  obviated 
the  danger  of  rifle-pits  and  artillery  duels. 

None  of  the  works  could  be  called  permanent  fortifica- 
tions. The  Paraguayans  ignored  the  bastion,  or  Italian 
system  (of  Turin,  1461)  afterwards  perfected  by  Vauban, 
and  only  in  one  place  did  they  attempt  the  casemates  of 
Albert  Diirer  (sixteenth  century)  ;  hence  the  polygonal,  or 
German  system^  which  afterwards  became  popular  through- 
out Europe,  was  unknown.  A  redan,  or  a  ravelin,  to 
sweep  the  face  of  the  curtain,  was  the  height  of  their  art  in 
field  fortification,  and  the  heaviest  gun  was  generally  placed 
upon  the  apex. 


FROM    CORRIENTES    TO    HUMAITA.  307 

"  I  want/'  said  Napoleon,  "  men  behind  walls,  but 
soldiers  in  tlie  field/'  The  Paraguayans  could  hardly  be 
called  soldiers,  but  they  stood  manfully  to  their  guns,  and 
proved  themselves  behind  cover  better  artillerists  than  their 
invaders.  They  avoided  the  "  necessary  evil  '^  of  embrasures 
by  the  rough  and  ready  expedient  of  placing  all  their  guns 
€11  barbette.  Thus  they  secured  freedom  of  lateral  range  ; 
but  the  gunners  had  no  cover ;  every  third  shell  ought  to 
have  swept  them  away.  The  casemates  of  the  protected 
system  would  have  been  to  them,  as  has  been  proved  in 
modern  warfare,  mere  slaughterhouses. 

The  great  strategical  error  committed  by  the  Paraguayans 
was  that  of  the  Confederate  States — an  attempt  to  fight 
long  extended  lines.  Instead  of  holding  along  the  stream 
a  succession  of  outposts,  which  were  all  lost  by  direct  attack 
or  by  evacuation,  they  should  have  concentrated  themselves 
at  fewer  places,  and  should  have  rendered  them  doubly  and 
trebly  strong.  To  defend  only  a  few  points,  and  to  defend 
them  well,  is  the  recognised  general  principle  in  these  days 
of  short  sharp  wars. 

The  Brazilian  attack  was  necessarily  as  monotonous  as 
the  Paraguayan  defence.  The  assailants,  after  occupying 
the  enemy's  front  in  force,  also  ensconced  themselves  behind 
lines  of  earthwork.  The  next  step  was  to  run  the  ironclad 
squadron  past  the  position,  and  to  land  a  corps  d'armee  in 
the  Gran  Chaco.  A  "  picada,""  or  rough  path,  was  cut  with 
immense  trouble  and  loss  of  life,  through  the  tangled  vege- 
tation of  the  low  marshy  soil,  and  thus  the  flank  was  turned 
both  by  land  and  water.  Seeing  this,  the  Paraguayans, 
fearing  to  be  surrounded,  retreated  leisurely  northwards, 
and,  after  a  few  miles,  they  readily  found  another  line  of 
defence,  fronted  perhaps  by  a  bog  or  a  stream,  and  resting 
upon  the  river  and  a  swamp. 

This  is  a  brief  history  of  the  second  part  of  the  campaign. 
20—2 


308  FROM    CORRIENTES    TO    HUMAITA. 

At  Curupaity  we  took  on  board  the  Commander-in-Chief 
of  the  Argentine  army,  who  came  to  meet  his  daughter. 
General  Don  Juan  A.  Gelly  i  Obes,  said  to  be  of  Para- 
guayan descent^  began  life  as  an  auctioneer.  He  fought 
in  the  Montevidean  affairs^  and  after  a  long  banishment  to 
the  Brazil  in  the  days  of  Rosas,  he  became  Minister  of  War 
and  Marine  at  Buenos  Aires;  and  since  he  replaced  the 
Coraandante  Amadeo,  he  has  been  the  life  and  soul  of  his 
motley  force,  ever  in  the  saddle,  and  ever  au  grand  galop.  But 
this  active  and  energetic  soldier  has  not  been  fortunate,  and 
his  enemies  have  soundly  abused  him  for  failing  to  do  some 
great  deed.  In  appearance  he  is  an  Aymerican  Sir  Charles 
Napier  (of  Sind),  the  eagle  type,  with  hooked  nose,  black 
eyes,  long  white  beard  and  waveless  grey  hair.  A  spare 
and  lithe  veteran  in  magenta-coloured  kepi  with  gold 
braiding,  blue  frock,  and  long  riding-boots,  he  was  an  effec- 
tive, soldier-like  figure.  I  feel  grateful  to  him  for  the  cour- 
tesy with  which  he  answered  all  my  questions,  and  for 
his  readiness  in  assisting  me  to  inspect  the  environs  of 
Humaita. 

In  my  next  you  will  hear  about  the  "  Sebastopol  of  the 
South.''      Adieu. 


My  dear  Z- 


LETTEE  XIV. 

TO    HUMAITA. 

Humaita,  August  23, 1868. 


From  Curupaity  we  have  still  two  leagues, 
which  others  lengthen  to  nine  miles,  between  us  and  the 
now  historical  Humaita.  The  dark  sandstone  which  sup- 
ports the  crumbling  bank,  and  which  we  first  remarked  one 
day  below  Corrientes,  explains  the  name  ''  black  stone."*^"^ 
On  the  proper  right  bank  is  Port  Elizario,  once  a  camp  of 
10,000  men.  This  was  the  terminus  of  the  railway,  which 
ran  some  three  and  a  half  miles,  through  swamp  and  lagoon, 
to  the  northern  side  of  the  Albardon  fronting  Humaita. 
Thus  it  became  easy  to  provision  the  ironclads,  instead  of 
exposing  the  squadron  to  severe  damage  by  passing  and 
repassing  the  batteries.  The  contractor  was  Sr  Sabino 
Reyes,  and  the  Opposition  was  severe  upon  the  so-called 
"  job  /^  yet  it  was  even  more  useful  than  the  Balaklava 
Railway. 

At  the  Riacho  {alias  Boca)  de  Oro,  the  Paraguay  begins 
its  great  sweep  to  the  south-east,  forming  the  approach 
to  Humaita.  Ofi"  the  mouth  are  islets,  which  vary  in 
number  according  to  the  flood.  At  present  we  find  one 
large  and  two  small.  The  former,  unnamed  in  our  chart, 
is  known  as  the  Isla  de  Humaita.  It  forms  a  tolerably 
regular  triangle,  with  the   apex  pointing  southward ;  and. 


*  Huma  (with  the  aspirated  h),  black ;  in  the  Tupi  dialect  una,  e.g. 
Kio  Una  (Blackwater  Eiver)  ;  and  ita,  a  stone.  Lt.  Col.  Thompson  gives 
"  Hu  (nasal),  black  ;  ma,  now  j  ita,  stone.    The  stone  is  now  black." 


310  TO  humaitA. 

curious  to  say,  it  was  not  occupied  by  either  combatant. 
The  Paraguayan  telegraph-posts,  of  fine  hard  wood,  still 
linger  on  the  bank,  each  having  its  lightning-conductor 
protruding  from  the  top — a  "  wrinkle ''  offered  to  the 
Brazilian  lines.  Both  combatants  adopted  in  this  point 
the  practice  of  Napoleon  III.,  as  we  did  during  the  Indian 
Mutiny,  when  telegraphic  lines  accompanied  the  Com- 
mander-in-Chief. Marshal-President  Lopez  passed  the 
greater  part  of  his  days,  like  Lord  Panmure,  sending  and 
receiving  messages  about  the  most  trivial  matters.  On  the 
western  side  remain  a  pleasure-house  and  a  garden,  built 
for  the  Brazilian  officers  in  June,  1868,  as  a  relief  to  the 
grimness  of  their  occupations.  Here  also  was  the  usual 
watch-tower — a  signalling  system  well  known  to  Paraguay, 
as  in  China  and  Japan.  It  is  the  guerite  of  the  Cossacks, 
the  Portuguese  mangrulho,  and  the  Spanish  mangruUo, 
locally  pronounced  "  mangrujo."''  The  rough  contrivance, 
varying  from  forty  to  sixty  feet  in  height,  is  composed  of 
four  or  more  thin  tree- trunks,  planted  perpendicularly,  and 
supplied  with  platforms  or  stages  of  cross-pieces,  mostly 
palms,  the  whole  being  bound  together  with  the  inevitable 
raw  hide.  The  look-outs  are  ascended  by  notched  palm- 
trunks,  or  ladders,  which,  after  a  little  neglect,  become 
dangerous.  A  few  are  solidly  made  of  squared  timbers, 
roofed  over.  In  so  flat  a  country  the  mangruUo  acts  well. 
Before  the  war  it  formed  a  part  of  the  national  espionage, 
and,  like  the  dauk  of  Hindostan,  long  before  telegrams 
were  invented,  it  could  transmit,  in  a  few  hours,  a  message 
from  the  frontier  to  the  capital.  The  President  being  alone 
entitled  to  buy  and  sell  without  permission,  it  was  necessary 
to  keep  a  sharp  watch  upon  exports  and  imports.  The 
mangruUo — like  the  andrumara,  or  elevated  four-poster, 
sometimes  horizontal  at  other  times  sloping,  as  in  Unya- 
muezi — was   also    used   to    sleep   above   the   mean  level  of 


TO  humaitA.  311 

mosquitoes,  and  for  that  purpose  one  was  attached  to  every 
guardia. 

The  guardias,  or  guard-houses,  were  regularly  established 
in  1849,  and  in  1853  eight  of  them  lay  along  the  eastern 
bank  of  the  Paraguay,  besides  those  on  the  southern  side  of 
the  Apa  River,  or  northern  frontier.  They  formed  a  com- 
plete cordon  militairey  equally  useful  as  resguardo,  or  coast- 
guard, and  as  obstacles  to  Indian  raids  from  the  Gran 
Chaco.  In  1853  the  western  frontier  numbered  eight,  but 
since  the  war  they  have  multiplied  exceedingly.  The 
Guardia  was  a  strong  stockade  surrounding  a  patch  of 
maize,  manioc,  oranges,  and  other  useful  vegetation ;  there 
was  also  a  rancho  for  an  officer  and  his  guard,  some  thirty 
^'quarteleros.-'-'  Between  every  two  were  "piquetes/^  or  smaller 
establishments  of  a  sergeant  and  fifteen  men.  Both  were 
expected  to  patrol  by  water  and  land,  and  to  communicate 
daily  with  one  another  in  canoes,  so  as  to  watch  Paraguayans 
and  strangers.  Most  of  the  strong  points  fought  during 
the  war  were,  of  old,  guardias  and  piquetes. 

On  the  right  bank  lay  remnants  of  the  canoes  which  had 
the  audacity  to  assault  the  Lima  Barros  and  the  Cabral 
ironclads  on  the  night  of  March  2,  1868.  These  desperate 
attempts,  showing  a  heroic  and  barbarous  devotion,  were  often 
repeated,  but  never  successfully.  After  the  canoe  attack 
upon  the  ironclad  Bar7'oso  and  the  Monitor  Rio  Grande, 
off  Tayi  (July  9,  1868),  the  Brazilians  thought  it  safer  to 
throw  a  boom  across  the  stream.  The  peculiar  shape  is 
derived  from  the  old  Payaguas,  and  even  foreign  ships  of 
war  seemed  to  take  to  them  kindly.  Two  planks,  twenty 
or  thirty  feet  long,  form  the  gunwales,  and  are  fitted  with 
a  flooring,  which  is  strengthened  by  lines  and  cross-pieces. 
The  stem  and  stern,  blunt-muzzled  as  a  punt,  describe  the 
arc  of  a  circle,  and  thus  only  a  small  central  section  touches 
the  water,   gliding  and    skimming   the  surface,  and   easily 


812  TO  humaitA. 

propelled  by  the  puny  paddle — a  shallow^  round  wooden 
spoon.  Some  of  these  flat-bottomed  and  wall-sided  craft, 
fitted  with  a  troja,  or  hide  hoiise^  could  carry  200  tons. 

An  expedition  of  about  1200  men,  armed  with  swords  and 
hand-grenades_,  was  told  off'  under  Captain  Xenes,  and  after 
much  fun  and  merriment  they  were  dismissed  with  presents 
of  cigars  by  Madame  Lynch,  who  told  them  to  "  go  and 
bring  me  back  my  ironclads.'^  They  paddled  off*  on  a  very 
dark  night  in  some  forty-eight  canoes,  lashed  in  pairs  by 
ropes  about  eighteen  to  twenty  yards  long,  and  each 
carrying  twenty-five  men.*  By  this  contrivance  they  hoped 
to  make  sure  of  boarding,  but  the  swiftness  of  the  current 
carried  many  of  them  past  the  objects  of  attack  into  the 
very  middle  of  the  fleet.  About  half  the  number  hit  the 
mark  and  sprang  on  board  almost  unperceivedc  The  crews 
rushed  below  hatches  and  into  their  turrets — not,  however, 
before  some  fifty  of  them  were  killed.  The  Paraguayans 
attempted  to  throw  hand-grenades  into  the  port-holes,  and 
ran  about  seeking  ingress,  like  a  cat  attacking  a  trapped 
mouse.  The  Lima  Barros  and  the  Cabral  were  thus  virtually 
taken.  Presently  two  other  ironclads  steamed  up  alongside 
their  consorts,  and  cleared  the  decks  with  volleys  of  grape 
and  canister.  Nothing  remained  for  the  Paraguayan  sur- 
vivors but  to  swim  for  life. 

It  is  surprising  that  no  attempts  were  made  to  blow  up 
the  ironclads.  A  heavy  shell  swung  between  two  beams 
projecting  like  antennae  from  the  bow  of  a  canoe  would 
have  had  every  chance  of  success.  But  the  object  of  the 
Paraguayans  was  not  so  much  to  destroy  as  to  appropriate; 
and  it  was  the  general  opinion  that  with  a  single  captured 
ironclad  at  their  disposal  they  would  have  cleared  the  river. 


*  Lt.-Col.  Thompson  says  "  there  were  twenty-four  canoes,  each  carrying 
twelve  men."  But  in  the  next  page  (254)  he  informs  us  that  "  the  Para- 
guayans lost  more  than  two  hundred  men." 


TO    HUMAITA.  313 

The  war,  indeed,  was  altogether  premature  :  had  the  cuirassed 
ships  and  the  Whitworths  ordered  by  the  Marshal-President 
begun  the  campaign_,  he  might  now  have  supplied  the  place 
of  Mexico  with  a  third  great  Latin  empire. 

We  pass  to  the  west  of  the  islet  below  Humaita.  Lieut. 
Day  (1858)  shows  eleven  feet  the  minimum  depth  near  the 
left  bank.  Then  sweeping  eastward  we  sight  the  noble 
curve  called  the  "Vuelta  de  Humaita/^  some  1500  metres 
long,  with  a  stream  200  metres  broad;  the  current  is  2'8 
and  in  places  3  knots  an  hour,  diflScult  to  stem  and  dan- 
gerous to  torpedoes.  From  afar  appears  the  white  church- 
tower  which  suggests  the  earliest  stage  of  the  Malakoff. 
We  lumbered  through  a  fleet  of  merchant  steamers  and 
sailing  craft ;  here  and  there  lay  an  ironclad,  and  every- 
where the  steam-launches,  lately  introduced  amongst  us,  flew 
buzzing  about  like  flies.  In  the  heart  of  South  America 
all  is  modern  and  civilized.  Who  shall  say  that  war  is  not 
one  of  the  great  improvers  of  mankind  ?      Farewell. 


LETTEE  XV. 

HUMAITA. 


My  dear  Z- 


Hamaita,  August  24,  1868. 


After  a  stare  of  blank  amazement,  my 
first  question  was — where  is  Huraaita  ?  Where  are  the 
''regular  polygons  of  the  Humaita  citadel?''  Where  is 
"  the  great  stronghold  which  was  looked  upon  as  the  key- 
stone of  Paraguay  ?'*  I  had  seen  it  compared  with  Silistria 
and  Kars,  where  even  Turks  fought ;  with  Sebastopol  in  her 
strength,  not  in  the  weakness  attributed  to  her  by  General 
Todleben  and  Mr.  Kinglake  ;  with  the  Quadrilateral  which 
awed  Italy ;  with  Luxembourg,  dear  to  France ;  with  Rich- 
mond, that  so  long  held  the  Northerners  at  bay ;  and  with 
the  armour-plated  batteries  of  Vicksburg  and  the  shielded 
defences  of  Gibraltar.  Can  these  poor  barbettes,  this  en- 
trenched camp  sans  citadel — which  the  Brazilian  papers  had 
reported  to  have  been  blown  up — be  the  same  that  resisted 
40,000  men,  not  to  speak  of  ironclads  and  gunboats,  and 
that  endured  a  siege  of  two  years  and  a  half?  I  came  to 
the  conclusion  that  Humaita  was  a  monstrous  ''  hum,''  and 
that,  with  the  rest  of  the  public,  I  had  been  led  into  be- 
lieving the  weakest  point  of  the  Paraguayan  campaign  to  be 
the  strongest. 

As  so  much  that  is  erroneous  has  been  written  about 
Humaita,  you  will  not  object  to  a  somewhat  prolix  true 
description. 

The  site  of  the  "  Blackstone"  batteries  is  the  normal  re- 
entering angle  of  the  eastern  bank,  but  the  sweep  is  more 


humaitA.  315 

than  usually  concave,  to  the  benefit  of  gunnery  and  the 
detriment  of  shipping.  Nothing  more  dangerous  than  this 
great  bend,  where  vessels  were  almost  sure  to  get  confused 
under  fire,  as  happened  at  Port  Hudson  to  the  fleet  com- 
manded by  Admiral  D.  G.  Farragut.  The  level  bank,  twenty 
to  thirty  feet  above  the  river,  and  dipping  in  places,  is 
bounded  by  swamps  up-stream  and  down-stream.  Earthworks, 
consisting  of  trenches,  curtains,  and  redans,  disposed  at 
intervals  where  wanted,  and  suggesting  the  lines  of  Torres 
Vedras,  rest  both  their  extremities  upon  the  river,  whose 
shape  here  is  that  of  the  letter  U,  and  extend  in  gibbous 
shape  inland  to  the  south.  The  outline  measures  nearly 
eight  miles  and  a  half,  and  it  encloses  meadow  land  to  the 
extent  of  8,000,000  square  yards — a  glorious  battle-field. 
This  exaggerated  enceinte,  which  required  a  garrison  of  at 
least  10,000  men,  was  laid  out  by  a  certain  Hungarian 
Colonel  of  Engineers,  Wisner  de  Morgenstern,  whom  we 
shall  see  at  Asuncion.  He  was  not  so  skilful  as  Mr.  Boyle 
with  the  billiard-room  of  Arrah. 

Humaita,  in  1854,  was  a  mere  Guardia  in  the  Department 
de  los  Desmochados  (hornless  cattle),  a  river  plain,  wooded 
over  like  the  heights  of  Hampstead  and  Highgate  in  the 
olden  time.  When  Asuncion  was  threatened  in  1855  by 
the  Brazilian  fleet,  and  troubles  were  expected  from  the 
United  States,  the  elder  Lopez  felled  the  virgin  forest, 
leaving  only  a  few  scattered  trees,  grubbed  up  the  roots, 
and  laid  out  the  first  batteries,  to  whose  completion  some 
two  years  were  devoted.  The  place  does  not  appear  in  Mr. 
Charles  Mansfield's  map  of  1852-53.  In  1863,  Mr.  M. 
Mulhall  describes  ''  a  succession  of  formidable  batteries 
which  frowned  on  us  as  we  passed  under  their  range ;  they 
are  placed  on  a  slight  eminence,  and  seem  guns  of  large 
calibre.  First,  four  batteries  a  la  harhette,  covered  with 
straw  shed,  which  can   be   removed  at  a  moment's  notice ; 


316  humaitA. 

then  a  long  casemate  (the  Londres)^  mounting  sixteen  guns, 
with  bomb-proof  roof;  and  finally,  two  more  barbette  bat- 
teries, making  up  a  total  of  seventy-eight  batteries.  As  the 
canal  runs  close  to  the  bank,  any  vessel,  unless  iron-plated, 
attempting  to  force  a  passage  must  be  sunk  by  the  raking 
and  concentrated  fire  of  this  fortification,  which  is  the  key 
to  Paraguay  and  the  upper  rivers."  (p.  84).  At  the  beginning 
of  the  war  it  had  only  ninety  guns  in  seven  batteries. 
An  exaggerated  importance  was  always  attached  to  it  by 
the  Paraguayan  Government ;  it  became  a  great  mystery, 
and  strangers  were  not  allowed  to  visit  a  settlement  which 
was  considered  purely  military.  Mr.  William  Thompson,  of 
Buenos  Aires,  narrowly  escaped  some  trouble  by  strolling 
about  to  admire  the  pretty  park-like  scenery  and  the  soft 
beauty  of  Humaita,  a  site  then  so  amene  and  tranquil. 

We  will  now  land  and  inspect  the  river-side  works,  be- 
ginning up  stream  or  at  the  easterly  end. 

We  passed  through  the  merchant  fleet,  then  numbering 
some  270  hulls,  supplying  the  3000  booth-tents  on  shore ; 
this  number  includes  the  pontoons  of  the  proveduria  or 
commissariat.  There  is  a  line  of  shop-boats,  whose  masts 
support  green  waterproof  awnings  ;  each  carries  a  woman 
and  an  anchor,  and  they  sell  all  small  wants  and  notions — 
thread,  mirrors,  and  so  forth.  Two  chatas,  or  barge  gun- 
boats, lie  alongside  the  land,  one  carries  a  iO-inch  mortar, 
the  other  an  8-inch  iron  gun.^  It  was  a  hard  scramble  up 
the  stiff  bank,  which  ignored  steps  or  even  a  ramp. 

At  the  eastern  end  we  found  the  corral  of  commissariat 
cattle  occupying  the  place  where  stood  the  coal  sheds  and 
the  iron-foundry.  Here  had  been  cast  the  gun  '^^  Cristiano," 
lately  sent  as  a  trophy  to  the  Brazil,  weighing  twelve  tons. 


*  The  calibres  of  the  8-inch  gun  and  the  English  CS-pounder  are  the 
same,  but  the  former  weighs  65  cwt.,  the  latter  95. 


humaitA.  317 

and  made  of  bell-metal  taken  from  the  churches ;  it  fired 
a  round  shot  of  150  lbs.  One  trunnion  was  inscribed 
'^  Arsenal  Asuncion^^  (where  it  was  rifled),  1867 ;  on  the 
other  appeared  the  patriotic  legend  "  La  Religion  k  el 
Estado" — Church  giving  to  State,  somewhat  a  reversal  of 
the  usual  rule.  Next  to  the  Fundicion  de  Nierro,  a  ragged 
orange-grove  showed  where  the  Paraguayan  barracks  had 
been  ;  those  of  the  infantry  lay  further  to  the  south-west. 
The  sheds  called  barracks  which  lodged  the  escort  of  the 
Marshal- President  were  a  little  north  of  the  church  of  San 
Carlos  (Borromeo),  a  namesake  of  the  elder  Lopez  ;  on 
January  1,  1861,  it  had  been  consecrated,  amidst  general 
rejoicings,  by  the  Bishop.  Originally  it  resembled  the 
Cathedral  of  Asuncion,  as  represented  by  Captain  Page 
(p.  224) ;  the  colours  are  blue  and  white,  whilst  the  cornices 
and  pilasters  evidence  some  taste.  We  read  in  1863 — "  The 
church  is  a  splendid  edifice  with  three  towers,  the  middle 
one  being  120  or  150  feet  high  ;  the  interior  is  neat,  and  a 
colonnade  runs  round  the  exterior;  there  are  four  large 
bells,  hung  from  a  wooden  scaffolding,  one  bearing  the 
inscription,  Sancte  Carole,  ora  pro  nobis.^^  It  is  now 
a  mere  heap  of  picturesque  ruins,  with  hardwood  timber 
barely  supported  by  cracked  walls  of  brick  ;  the  latter  is 
unusually  well  baked,  and  the  proportions  are  those  of  the 
old  Romans — twelve  or  fourteen  inches  long,  eight  broad, 
and  two  thick.  One  belfry,  with  the  roof  and  fa9ade,  has 
been  reduced  to  heaps  ;  the  south-eastern  tower  still  rises 
above  the  ruins,  but  in  a  sadly  shaky  condition.  The  Bra- 
zilians banged  at  the  fane  persistently  as  an  Anglo-Indian 
gunner  at  a  flagstaff;  and  the  Paraguayans  at  times  amused 
themselves  with  repairing  it.  The  church  of  S.  Carlos  lies 
in  Lat.  S.  27"  2',  Long.  W.  (G.),  61°  30^  and  here  the 
variation  is  7°  50'  E. 

Near  it  is  the  Presidential  "  palace,'^  a  ground-floor  shed 


318  HUMAITA. 

of  brick,  witL.  tiled  roof,  three  doors,  four  windows,  and  a 
tall  whitewashed  entrance  in  token  of  dignity,  leading  to  a 
pretty  quinta,  above  whose  brick  walls  peep  oranges  and  a 
stunted  "  curii^^  (Araucaria  Brasiliensis).  The  ^'^  three 
enormous  tigers,^^  which  each  ate  a  calf  for  breakfast,  are 
gone ;  the  front  is  bespattered  and  pierced  with  shot, 
and  I  see  no  signs  of  the  bomb-proof  "  taniere^^  in  which, 
they  say,  the  Marshal- President  used  to  lurk.  The 
quarters  occupied  by  Madame  Lynch  are  far  to  the  rear,  in 
the  ^^  women's  encampment/^  The  main  sala,  whence  he 
drove  away  with  kicks  and  cuffs  the  officers  who  announced 
to  him  the  destruction  of  his  hopes  by  the  fall  of  Uru- 
guayana,  was  shown  to  us  :  here  the  Argentines  found  un- 
packed boxes  containing  furniture  from  Paris.  This  was 
their  only  civilized  ^^loot;''  the  rest  was  represented  by 
rusty  guns,  by  lean  mules,  by  100  cases  of  bottles  containing 
palm  oil,  and  by  some  fifty  tercios  or  sacks  of  mate,  each 
holding  eight  arrobas,  and  here  worth  $4. 

Westward  of  the  "  palace'^  lie  the  quarters  of  the  staff, 
the  arsenal,  the  Almoxarifado  (Custom-house,  &c.),  and  the 
soap  manufacture.  These  are  the  "  magnificent  barracks'' 
for  12,000  men  of  which  we  read  in  the  newspapers,  long, 
low,  ground- floor  ranchos,  with  mud  walls,  and  roofed  with 
a  mixture  of  thatch,  tile,  and  corrugated  iron.  Never  even 
loopholed,  they  had  been  much  knocked  about  and  torn  by 
shot.  The  arsenal  has  now  been  turned  into  commissariat 
and  ammunition  stores.  It  is  fronted  by  a  guerite  or 
raised  sentry-box,  and  by  a  huge  flagstaff  bearing  the 
Brazilian  flag. 

The  batteries  are  eight  in  number,  and  again  we  will 
begin  with  them  up-stream.  After  a  scatter  of  detached 
guns,  some  in  the  open,  others  slightly  parapeted,  we  find 
the  Bateria  Cadenas,  or  chain-battery  of  thirteen  guns, 
backed  by  the  Artillery  Barracks.      The  chain,  which  con- 


humaitA.  319 

sisted  of  seven  twisted  together,  passed  diagonally  through 
a  kind  of  brick  tunnel.  On  this  side  it  was  made  fast  to  a 
windlass  supported  by  a  house  about  100  yards  from  the 
bank.  Nearer  the  battery  stood  a  still  larger  capstan :  the 
latter,  however,  wanted  force  to  haul  taut  the  chain. 

Crossing  by  one  of  three  dwarf  bridges  the  little  nullah 
Arroyo  Humaita  somewhat  below  the  Presidential  "  palace,^' 
we  come  upon  the  Bateria  Londres,  that  Prince  of  Humbugs. 
M.  Elisee  Reclus,  whose  papers  in  the  Deux  Mondes  (October 
15,  1866,  and  August  15,  1868)  are  somewhat  imaginative, 
makes  the  London  battery  deliver  fire,  even  as  he  carries  in 
his  pen  the  railroad  to  Villa  Rica.  It  was  built  for  the 
elder  Lopez  by  a  European  engineer.  The  walls  were 
twenty-seven  feet  thick,  of  brick  (not  stone  and  lime).  It 
was  supposed  to  be  rendered  bomb-proof  by  layers  of  earth 
heaped  upon  brick  arches,  and  there  were  embrasures  for 
sixteen  (not  twenty-five)  guns.  Of  these  ports  eight  were 
walled  up  and  converted  into  workshops,  because  the  artil- 
lerymen were  in  hourly  dread  of  their  caving  in  and 
crumbling  down. 

The  third  battery  is  the  Tacuary  of  three  guns.  Then 
comes  the  Coimbra  mounting  eight  bouches  a  feUj  and 
directed  by  the  Commandante  Hermosa.  The  three  next 
are  the  Octava  or  Madame  Lynch,  with  three  guns 
en  barbette ;  the  P  esada,  five  guns,  and  the  Itapirii,  seven 
guns — all  partly  revetted  with  brick.  Being  the  western- 
most and  the  least  exposed  to  fire  they  have  sufifered  but 
little.  Lastly,  at  the  Punt  a  de  las  Piedars  stands  the  Humaita 
redoubt,  armed  with  a  single  eight-inch  gun. 

Beyond  this  point  begins  the  entrenched  line  running 
south- south-west  along  the  Laguna  Concha,  alias  Amberi- 
caia,  and  then  sweeping  round  to  the  east  with  a  gap  where 
the  water  rendered  an  attack  impossible.  The  profile  is  good 
simply  because  defended  by  impenetrable  bush.      The  guns 


320  humaitA. 

stand  in  pairs,  witli  a  Paiol  or  magazine  to  every  two,  and 
they  had  been  provided  with  200  round  of  grape,  shell,  and 
case.  The  wet  ditch  is  still  black  with  English  gunpowder ; 
some  fine,  mostly  coarse. 

The  batteries  were  being  rapidly  dismantled  ;  the  cade- 
nas  and  its  two  neighbours  had  been  to  a  certain  extent 
spared.  The  guns  were  all  en  barbette^  an  obsolete  system, 
showing  the  usual  wilful  recklessness  of  human  life.  Re- 
doubts and  redans,  glacis  and  covered  ways,  caponnieres 
and  traverses,  gorge  works  and  epaulements,  citadel  and  en- 
trenchment, were  equally  unknown,  whilst  embrasures  were 
rare,  although  sods  for  the  cheeks  might  have  been  cut 
within  a  few  yards.  Where  the  ramosia  or  abatis  was  used, 
the  branches  were  thrown  loosely  upon  the  ground,  and  no 
one  dreamed  of  wooden  pickets.  Though  the  stockade  was 
employed,  the  palisade  at  the  bottom  of  the  cunette  or  ditch 
was  ignored.  Thus  the  works  were  utterly  unfit  to  resist 
the  developed  powers  of  rifled  artillery,  the  concentrated  dis- 
charge from  shipping,  and  even  the  accurate  and  searching 
fire  of  the  Spencer  carbine.  The  Londres  work,  besides  being 
in  a  state  of  decay,  was  an  exposed  mass  of  masonry 
which  ought  to  have  shared  the  fate  of  the  forts  from 
Sumpter  to  Pulaski,  and  when  granite  fails  bricks  cannot 
hope  to  succeed.  Had  the  guns  been  mounted  in  Monitor 
towers,  or  even  protected  by  sand- bags,  the  ironclads 
would  have  suffered  much  more  than  they  did  in  running 
past  them. 

Lieutenant  Day  (1858)  gave  to  the  eight  batteries  on  his 
chart  45  guns ;  to  the  casemate  (Londres)  15  ;  and  to  the  east 
battery  50  ;  making  a  total  of  110.  In  1868  the  river 
and  batteries  had  58  cannons,  11  magazines,  and  17  brick 
tanks  (depositos  de  agua).  The  whole  lines  of  Humaita 
mounted  36  brass  and  144  iron  guns  :  these  180  were 
increased  to  195  by  including  the  one  eight-inch  gun  and 


HUMAITA.  321 

the  fourteen  32-pounders  found  in  the  Gran  Chaco.  The 
serviceable  weapons  did  not  however  exceed  sixty.  Many 
of  them  had  been  thrown  into  deep  water^  and  will  be 
recovered  when  the  level  shall  fall.  Five  lay  half  buried  at 
the  foot  of  the  bank^  and  ten  remained  in  position  :  of  these, 
three  were  eight-inch,  four  were  short  32  or  36  pounders, 
and  two  were  long  32-pounder  carronades. 

The  guns  barely  deserve  the  name  ;  some  of  them  were  so 
honeycombed  that  they  must  have  been  used  as  street 
posts.  They  varied  generally  from  4-pounders  to  32- 
pounders,  with  intermediate  calibres  of  6,  9,  12,  18,  and 
24.  Not  the  worst  of  them  were  made  at  Asuncion  and 
Ybicuy,  whose  furnaces  and  air  chimneys  could  melt  four 
tons  per  diem.  Some  had  been  converted,  but  it  was  a 
mere  patchwork.  A  few  rifled  12-pounders  had  been  cast 
at  Asuncion.  There  were  sundry  quaint  old  tubes  bearing 
the  arms  of  Spain ;  two  hailed  from  Seville,  the  San  Gabriel 
(a.d.  1671)  and  the  San  Juan  de  Dios  (1684).  The  much 
talked-of  "  breech-loading  Armstrong "  was  an  English 
95  cwt.  gun,  carrying  a  68-lb.  ball,  and  rifled  and  fitted  at 
Asuncion  with  a  strengthening  ring  of  wrought-iron.  The 
breeching  lay  like  a  large  mass  of  pie-crust  behind  it :  the 
bursting  had  probably  been  designed,  as  the  shot  remained 
jammed  inside.*  The  captured  guns  are  now  being  divided 
into  three  several  parts,  each  one  of  the  Allies  taking  about 
forty,  which  may  be  useful  for  melting  up  into  trophies  and 
memorials.  I  was  told  that  the  Oriental  share  was  twenty- 
eight  guns,  of  which  seven  were  brass. 

I  landed  with  my  Blanco  friends,  who,  charmed  by  my 
disappointment,  despite  the  natural  joy  of  once  more  seeing 


*  This  is  possibly  the  "  Aca  vera,"  the  56-pounder,  bored  and  rifled  to 
throw  150-pound  shots,  described  by  Lt.-Col.  Thompson  (chap,  xiv.)  It 
was  called  "  shining  head,"  from  the  soft  expanding  rings  of  brass,  which 
were  fitted  with  square-headed  bolts. 

21 


322  humaitA. 

camp  life,  chaffed  me  bitterly  about  this  "  chef  d^oeuvre  of 
an  encampment/'  this  Sebastopol.  They  were  hardly  civil 
to  a  courteous  Brazilian  officer  of  rank — it  proved  to  be 
General  Argolo — who,  riding  past  with  his  staff,  invited  us, 
though  perfect  strangers,  to  drink  beer  at  his  quarters. 
They  would  not  even  inspect  the  lines  of  the  Macacos,  as 
they  called  their  Imperial  Allies.  Again  and  again  they 
boasted  the  prowess  of  their  own  party,  stating  how  500  of 
them  had  defended  Paysandii  against  a  host. 

In  front  of  the  Marshal- President's  "  palace^'  we  found  a 
dozen  Whitworth  muzzle-loaders,  whose  shapely  lines  and 
highly-finished  sights  made  them  look,  by  the  side  of  other 
weapons,  like  racers  among  cab-horses.  Without  engaging 
in  the  ^'  battle  of  the  guns,'''  I  may  merely  state  that  a  few 
Armstrongs  had  been  tried  by  the  Brazilians,  but  were  not 
found  to  succeed  ;  the  Krupp,  like  the  Lahitte,  was  ap- 
proved of,  and  the  Woolwich  gun  was  unknown  to  the  Allies. 
The  motley  armature  of  the  Paraguayans  was  a  curious 
spectacle.  By  the  side  of  some  Blakely's  self-rifling 
shells  and  balls,  hand-grenades,  which  were  found  useful 
in  the  triumphant  Abyssinian  campaign,  and  the  HalPs 
rotating  rockets,  without  the  sticks  which  merely  steer  them 
into  the  eye  of  the  wind,  lay  huge  Guarani  wads,  circles  of 
twisted  palm,  like  those  which  Egyptian  peasant-women 
place  between  the  head  and  the  water-pot ;  case-shot  in 
leather  buckets  so  quaintly  made  that  it  could  hardly  be 
efficient  at  the  usual  300  to  400  yards ;  canister  composed  of 
screws  and  bar-iron  chopped  up,  and  grape  of  old  locks  and 
bits  of  broken  muskets,  rudely  bound  in  hide  with  llianas 
or  bush  ropes.  To  be  killed  by  such  barbaric  appliances 
would  add  another  sting  to  that  of  death.  Here  were  large 
piles  of  live  shells,  some  of  them  lightly  loaded  with  ten  to 
eleven  ounces  of  powder,  for  the  purpose  of  firing  tents  and 
levelling    defences.      The    conquerors    had    not    taken   the 


humaitA.  323 

trouble  to  wet  them,  and  an  old  gentleman  of  the  party 
distinguished  himself  by  scraping  the  spilt  gunpowder 
with  his  boot-toes.  I  ran  from  him  as  I  never  ran 
before.  During  the  last  three  days  several  explosions  took 
place ;  these  extemporized  soldiers  were  careless  as  Zanzibar 
blacks. 

During  the  day  I  saw  a  review  of  a  Brazilian  cavalry 
corps  numbering  six  full  troops;  and  shortly  afterwards 
all  the  Argentine  army,  or  rather  contingent,  marched  past. 
The  first  at  once  took  my  eye ;  they  were  mostly  Brazilians, 
Rio  Grandenses,  not  liberated  negroes.  These  Provincials, 
riders  from  their  babyhood,  are  reputed  as  the  best  cavaliers 
throughout  the  Empire,  where  the  "  man  on  horseback^'  is 
universal.  Some  were  lancers ;  their  heavy  wooden  weapons, 
not  nearly  so  handy  as  the  bamboo  of  Hindostan,  were  deco- 
rated with  white  stars  on  red  pennons;  they  carried  regulation 
sabres  and  coarse  horse-pistols,  and  the  European  trappings 
made  them  look  much  more  soldier-like  than  the  infantry. 
The  lance,  so  worthless  in  the  hands  of  raw  levies,  may  be 
used  to  great  effect  by  practised  troopers :  the  Poles  at 
Albuera  proved  it  upon  Colborne^s  brigade  of  British  infantry. 
The  dragoons  had  swords,  Spencer  (8-round)  carbines,  and 
in  some  cases  pistols.  As  Confederate  General  Lee,  how- 
ever, truly  remarked,  "  The  sabre  is  timid  before  a  good 
revolver,*^  and  the  carbine  is  not  to  be  recommended  on 
horseback.  General  Beatson  foresaw,  when  commanding 
the  much-abused  Bashi  Buzeuks  in  the  Crimean  campaign, 
that  the  revolver  is  the  real  arm  for  cavalry,  and  it  should 
be  accompanied  by  the  yataghan,  to  be  used  when  ranks 
lock.  In  due  course  of  time  it  will  be  supplanted  by  the 
single  or  double-barrelled  breechloader.  I  have  lately  tried 
the  Albini  or  Belgian  rifle,  cut  short,  and  provided  with  a 
short  and  heavy  saw-handle,  and  I  have  had  every  reason 
to  be  pleased  with  it. 

21—2 


324  HUMAITA^ 

The  cattle  was  in  excellent  condition;  you  could  play- 
cards  or  count  money,  as  the  Spaniards  say,  upon  their 
backs.  The  animals,  however,  like  the  men,  were  light ; 
they  would  be  efficient  opposed  to  Cossacks,  but  used 
against  heavy  cavalry  they  would  dash  up,  recoil  and  shatter, 
as  a  wave  is  shivered  by  a  rock. 

As  a  rule  the  Brazilian  cavalry  has  not  seen  much  ser- 
vice in  this  war  of  earthworks.  Their  principal  use  has 
been  in  raids,  reconnaissances,  and  attacks  of  outposts. 
"With  few  exceptions  they  have  behaved  remarkably  well, 
and  have  been  ably  and  gallantly  handled  by  their  officers, 
who  acted  upon  the  well-known  axiom,  that  cavalry  should 
never  surrender.  They  are  now  somewhat  in  the  position 
of  the  Crimean  cavalry  after  the  Charge  of  Balaklava. 
The  Argentines,  as  a  rule,  were  poorly  mounted,  and  being 
mostly  foreigners,  were  inferior  riders.  The  Paraguayans 
at  the  beginning  of  the  war  had  good  cattle,  but  they  were 
soon  annihilated;  horses  here  are  rare,  and  the  country 
supplies  for  the  most  part  only  a  diminutive  Yaboo.  They 
charged  furiously,  not  with  the  fine  old  Spanish  war-cry 
"  Santiago  y  a  Elles!''  but  with  the  Zagharit  of  Egypt  and  the 
Kil  of  Persia,  a  kind  of  trille  here  directly  derived  from  the  Bed 
Indians.  They  exposed  themselves  with  upraised  blades,  like 
Mamelukes,  careless  of  what  they  took,  and  determined  only 
to  give.  Their  lances  are  stout  weapons  of  hard  heavy  wood, 
eight  feet  long,  with  iron  heels  measuring  two  and  a  half 
spans,  and  the  heads  are  those  of  Anglo-Indian  boar-spears, 
not  exceeding  two  inches,  and  ending  in  bars  that  defend  it 
against  the  sabre. 

The  Argentine  army  was  variously  reported — by  its  friends 
as  an  able  and  efficient  arm ;  by  its  enemies  as  a  montonera, 
or  horde  of  thieves  and  brigands,  who  have  never  had  a  siege 
gun  in  position.  They  began  with  15,000  men,  which 
speedily  fell  to  9000,  of  whom  some  6000  were  Argentines, 


humaitA.  325 

and  as  there  is  no  recruiting  in  election  times,  they  now 
probably  do  not  exceed  5000.  This  is  a  small  proportion 
to  be  supplied  out  of  nearly  2,000,000  souls — in  1867  it 
was  1,500,000 — whom  the  Brazil  expected  to  produce  the 
personnel  whilst  she  contributed  the  materiel.  Yet  all  are 
agreed  that  in  case  of  a  war  with  the  Empire,  the  Con- 
federation could  turn  out  50,000  men  at  arms.  The 
Argentine  losses  in  killed,  wounded,  and  missing,  are  up  to 
this  time  2227 — their  own  calculation. 

After  hearing   much  '^'' bunkum"    at   Buenos  Aires,  and 
reading  many  diatribes  against  the  ''  Marshal  of  the  Army" 
Caxias,  who  preserved  upon  this  subject  a  discreet  silence, 
I  was   disappointed  by   the    appearance  of  the  force.      The 
Argentine  "  Contingent"  gave  the  impression  of  being  fine 
men,  large  and  strong ;  the  rank  and  file,  however,  showed  a 
jumble  of  nationalities :   the  tall,  raw-boned,  yeUow-haired 
German,    the  Italian    Cozinhero,  and  the  Frenchman,  who 
under  arms  always  affects  the  Zouave,  marched  side  by  side 
with  the  ignoble  negro.      Sizing  and  classing  were  equally 
unknown  ;    uniforms  were    of  every   description,    including 
even  the  poncho  and  chiripa,  and  the  style  of  progress  much 
resembled  that  of  a  flock  of  sheep.      The  corps  of  the  four- 
teen Provinces,  or  rather  their  remnants,  were  separated  by 
drums  and  bands  foully  murdering  "  Tu  che  k  Dio."      The 
best   were    evidently   the    Santa    Fecinos,  known   by  their 
double    tricolor    flag;    this    province  has  fighting  colonies 
of  Frenchmen,  Swiss,  and  Germans,  who  have  been  accus- 
tomed  to   hold    "  Indians"  in   check.      The    ofiicers,   some 
mounted,  others  on  foot,  were  mostly  Argentines,  and  they 
rivalled  their  men  in  variety  of  dress  :     of  nether  garments, 
for  instance,   there  were  underdrawers,  pink  trousers,  dark 
overalls,    knickerbockers     and    gaiters,     riding    boots,    and 
sandals.       Par  parenthese,   the   Argentines    have    only   to 
adopt  their  national  colours,  silver  and  light  blue,  for  an 


326  humaitA. 

army  uniform,  which  would  be  neat  and  handsome  as 
that  worn  by  the  cavalry  of  the  defunct  East-Indian 
Company. 

The  Argentines  move  easily :  they  have  little  commis- 
sariat, and  foul  hides  take  the  place  of  the  neat  Brazilian 
pal-tents.  A  change  of  camp  is  periodically  necessary,  the 
ground  soon  becoming  impure  in  the  extreme.  The  men 
carried,  besides  ammunition,  arms,  and  accoutrements,  poles 
to  support  their  mats  and  skins,  raw  beef,  chairs,  tables, 
and  round  shot  to  make  hearths.  They  were  followed  by 
women  on  horse  and  foot,  the  hideous  lees  of  civilization, 
and  by  carts  whose  wheel-spokes  were  bound  with  hide,  and 
which  bore  huge  heaps  of  household  "  loot.'^  Being  badly 
paid,  and  often  not  paid  at  all,  the  men  must  plunder  to  live. 
As  might  be  expected  from  a  force  of  the  kind,  there  is  no 
ardour  for  the  cause,  and  esprit  de  corps  is  utterly  unknown. 
As  will  be  seen,  they  do  not  even  take  the  trouble  to  bury 
their  dead.  They  are  kept  in  order  only  by  the  drum- 
head court-martial,  and  by  the  platoon  ready  at  a  minute's 
notice. 

As  for  the  ''  Oriental "  army,  I  failed  to  find  it.  The 
force  commenced  under  General  Flores  with  5600  men, 
and  he  handled  it  so  recklessly  that  600  were  sent  home, 
and  4600  were  killed  or  became  unfit  to  serve.  The  rem- 
nant of  300  to  400  is  further  reduced  by  some  authorities 
to  forty  to  fifty,  of  whom  most  are  officers  under  a  certain 
General  B.  Enrique  Castro,  who  is  characterized  as  a 
'^  gaucho  ordinario.''' 

The  alliance  of  the  Allies  is  evidently  that  of  dog  and 
cat.  The  high  authorities  have  agreed  not  to  differ,  but 
the  bond  of  union  is  political,  not  sympathetic.  An  exces- 
sive nationality  amonst  the  Brazilians  is  kept  up  by  their 
great  numerical  superiority  ;  whilst  the  Argentines,  like  our- 
selves in  the  Crimea,  are  sore  about  playing  a  part  so  palpably 


humaitA.  327 

"  second  fiddle/'  Hence  the  war  is  nowhere  popular  on 
the  Plata,,  and  troubles  may  be  expected  to  accompany  its 
termination.  During  my  first  visit  to  Humaita,  I  found 
that  a  long  entrenched  line^  with  berm,  parapet,  and  other 
requisites,  had  been  dug  to  separate  Brazilians  from  Argen- 
tines. The  reason  of  the  proceeding  assigned  to  me,  and 
probably  to  the  Home  Governments,  was  that  the  general 
commanding  was  fond  of  keeping  his  men  at  work. 
Are  you  tired  of  Humaita  ?     Then,  a  rivederci  ! 


LETTEE  XVI. 

A   VISIT    TO    THE    GRAN    CHACO. 

Humaita,  August  26,  1868. 

My  dear  Z , 

Mr.  Gould  had  given  me  an  introductory- 
note  to  Lieutenant — now  I  am  glad  to  say  Commander  C. 
Percy  Bushe,,  commanding  H.M.^s  steamer  Linnet.  A  man-of- 
war  in  miniature^  and  the  only  neutral  ship  here  present,  she 
is  remarkable  for  trimness  and  neatness^  discomfort  and  in- 
utility. The  commander  could  hardly  stand  upright  in  his 
state  cabin,  and  several  of  the  crew,  amongst  whom  I 
recognised  an  old  West  African,  suffered  from  fever.  The 
"  homey  element "  strongly  asserted  itself,  and  all  were 
tired  of  the  service — no  wonder,  after  a  monotonous  diet  of 
salt-junk,  tired-beef,  half-baked  bread,  and  now  and  then  wild 
duck  and  '^  partridge.^^  The  Linnet's  guns  could  have 
done  little  against  a  single  8-inch,  and  a  few  68-pounders 
could  easily  have  sunk  her. 

Lieutenant-Commander  Bushe  had  been  ordered  up  in 
February,  1868,  with  the  view  of  protecting  the  so-called 
British  '^  detenus/'  Interested  motives  had  spread  evil  report 
against  ]\^rshal- President  Lopez,  and  with  few  exceptions  the 
press  of  Europe  was  so  well  packed  that  even  Our  Own  Cor- 
respondent, the  Consul  of  Rosario,  was  not  permitted  to  print 
a  line  in  favour  of  Paraguay.  The  war-loan  of  Sor  Riestra, 
made  against  all  neutrality  laws,  was  to  be  supported  per  fas  et 
nefas.  After  the  Abranteso-Christie-nigger  affair,  the  Brazil 
was  to  be  treated  with  soft  sawder.  There  was  talk  of  another 
loan,  but  war — a  game  at  which  in  these  days  subjects,  not 


A    VISIT    TO    THE    GRAN    CIIACO.  329 

sovereigns,  will  play  —  was  costing  the  Empire  about 
$200,000  per  diem— a  trifle  of  14,400,000/.  per  annum. 

The  imagination  of  the  anti-Lopists  made  notable  dis- 
coveries. The  Marshal-President  of  Paraguay  had  refused 
to  treat  direct  with  a  junior  naval  officer  when  the  British 
Minister  Plenipotentiary  at  Buenos  Aires  was  also  ac- 
credited to  him.  Presently  appeared  in  the  papers  a  long 
order,  purporting  to  have  been  issued  by  the  Chief 
Magistrate  of  Paraguay,  and  directing  the  Linnetj 
in  case  of  her  making  warlike  demonstrations,  to  be 
sunk. 

In  September,  1867,  Mr.  Gould  took  the  affair  in  hand. 
It  was  a  hopeless  errand.  His  mission  in  H.M.^s  ship 
Doterelj  Lieutenant  Mitchell,  was  looked  upon  as  a 
direct  slight,  especially  after  the  personal  visit  of  the  French 
Minister  M.  de  Vernouille — I  need  hardly  say  that  in 
Paraguay  everything  of  the  kind  coming  from  Buenos  Aires 
is  deeply  resented.  He  came  to  take  away  with  him  certain 
English  employes  whose  contracts  had  expired.  But  many 
had  voluntarily  renewed  their  engagements,  and  all  were  in 
an  exceptional  position.  It  was  hardly  reasonable  to  expect 
that  the  Marshal-President  should  dismiss  a  score  of  men — 
of  whom  sundry  were  in  his  confidence  and  knew  every 
detail  which  it  was  most  important  to  conceal  from  the 
enemy.  Ensued  another  complication.  Deceived  by  a 
noted  intriguer,  whose  sole  object  was  evidently  to  ascertain 
the  animus  of  the  political  visitor,  Mr.  Gould  drew  up 
certain  conditions  of  peace  between  the  Allies  and  Paraguay. 
Amongst  less  important  items  was  the  voluntary  exile  of 
Marshal-President  Lopez — he  might  as  well  have  been 
asked  to  take  up  Paraguay  and  walk.  The  Chief  Magis- 
trate was  thus,  according  to  the  Paraguayan  view  of  the 
matter,  requested  to  withdraw  from  his  home,  his  native 
land,  the  country  that  had  elected  him  as  ruler ;   to  abdicate 


330  A    VISIT    TO    THE    GRAN    CHACO. 

the  dignity  conferred  upon  him  by  the  nation  ;  to  fail  in 
his  duty^  to  act  the  coward. 

Mr.  Gould  left  Paraguay  in  no  pleasant  way,  and,  by  a 
regrettable  accident,  the  British  widows  and  children  given 
up  to  him  were  allowed  to  land  at  Montevideo  and  to  tell 
all  they  knew.  Returned  to  Buenos  Aires  (September  10, 
1867)^  he  expressed  a  very  unfavourable  opinion  of  Para- 
guayan resources  and  of  the  Bepublic^s  prospects  in  the 
present  war  :  this  was  a  most  delicate  subject^  upon  which 
a  word  in  Paraguay  cost  a  man  his  life.  The  document 
doubtless  soon  reached  Asuncion,  by  means  of  the  Para- 
guayan refugees,  fugitives,  and  malcontents,  who  muster 
strong  in  the  Argentine  Confederation.  Moreover,  to  the 
utter  perplexity  of  European  readers,  it  differs  in  all  essen- 
tial points  from  the  despatch  (Sept.  30,  1867)^  forwarded  to 
the  Admiralty  by  Lieut. -Commander  Mitchell. 

Mr.  Gould — directed  by  another  Minister  Plenipotentiary 
who  also  had  not  presented  his  credentials  to  the  Govern- 
ment of  Paraguay — proceeded  a  second  time  up  the  river 
on  Sept.  4,  1868  ;  but  for  some  months  before  this  period 
frightful  reports  concerning  the  "  atrocities  of  Lopez '' 
appeared  in  every  print,  and  it  was  not  judged  advisable  to 
disembark  from  the  Linnet.  M.  de  Kerjegu,  the  French 
Secretary,  landed,  and  visited  the  Marshal-President  at 
head-quarters.  Mr.  Gould  suffered  from  Chuchu,  and  again 
returned  re  infectd.  His  belief  that  the  Paraguayan  cause 
had  completely  broken  down  proved  utterly  erroneous,  and 
he  left  for  England  on  October  26,  1868. 

Presently,  in  August,  and  again  in  October  and  Novem- 
ber, Captain  Parsons,  H.M.S.  Beacon,  steamed  up  the  river, 
and  was  courteously  received  by  the  Marshal-President,  of 
whom  his  impressions  were  highly  favourable.      He  left  on 


*  Correspondence  respecting  Hostilities  in  the  River  Plate  ( ! )  presented 
to  both  Houses  of  Parliament.     1868. 


A    VISIT    TO    THE    GRAN    CHACO.  331 

November  18,  1868,  with  fifteen  of  the  so-called  detenus ^ 
who  were  given  to  him  under  parole  that  he  would  not 
suffer  them  to  communicate  with  those  on  shore.  Amongst 
them  was  a  Dr.  Fox,  who,  having  abjectly  begged  a  passage 
down  stream,  afterwards  insisted  upon  being  landed.  Cap- 
tain Parsons,  however,  shipped  off  all  his  live  freight  at 
Montevideo.  A  Mr.  Nesbitt,  mechanical  engineer, having  seen 
his  wife  and  family  on  board,  declared,  in  his  own  name 
and  for  a  dozen  fellow-workmen,  that,  having  ever  been 
well  paid,  fed,  and  treated,  they  would  not  abandon  Marshal- 
President  Lopez  in  his  difficulties.  This  was  unanswerable  ; 
but  those  who  wished  to  embroil  us  in  an  ignoble  war  de- 
clared that  Mr.  Nesbitt  was  forced  to  say  what  he  did  by 
the  fear  that  his  mates  would  be  shot,  and  others  shrewdly 
opined  that  the  fate  of  poor  King  Theodore  had  changed 
the  aspect  of  affairs.  Again  they  were  stultified  by  General 
Macmahon,  the  United  States  Minister  who  had  replaced 
Mr.  Charles  A.  Washburn.  The  anti-Lopists  all  declared 
him  to  be  in  durance  vile  amongst  the  mountains,  and 
possibly  compelled  to  superintend  the  preparations  for  a 
guerilla  warfare.  Despite  these  predictions,  however,  he 
returned,  about  the  middle  of  1869,  to  Buenos  Aires,  bring- 
ing good  news  of  the  British  "  captives,^^  who  remitted,  with 
his  assistance,  money  to  their  families. 

For  the  honour  of  the  British  name,  I  rejoice  that  we 
were  not  drawn  into  a  disreputable  broil  with  the  gallant 
but  overmatched  little  Republic.  Even  as  it  is,  Marshal- 
President  Lopez  was  justified  in  complaining  that  we  should 
be  more  strict  in  enforcing  the  laws  of  neutrality.  The 
Brazil  was  allowed  to  buy  ironclads  in  England  as  well  as 
in  France  ;  though  the  case  of  the  Alabama  should  long  ago 
have  taught  us  better.  British  and  other  foreign  craft 
crowded  the  river,  affording  every  possible  assistance  to  the 
Allies.      Marshal-President  Lopez  had  surely  a  right  to  re- 


332  A    VISIT    TO    THE    GRAN    CHACO. 

ceive  his  letters  from  Europe ;  they  were  detained  in  the 
Consular  Post-office  at  Buenos  Aires. 

Mr.  Maxwell  and  I  landed  with  Lieutenant-Commander 
Bushe  in  the  Gran  Chaco  to  inspect  the  site  of  the  much 
talked-of  chain.  Thrown  over  the  stream  where  it  narrowed 
to  800  metres,,  it  was  a  twist  composed  of  one  large  (1*75  inch) 
and  six  smaller  diameters  (1'25  inch)^  and  it  rested  upon  three 
chatas  (barges),  which  were  soon  sunk  by  the  Brazilian  guns. 
The  heavy  obstacle  then  sank  below  the  surface  with  a  deep 
sag,  and  as  there  was  no  donkey-engine  to  tighten  it,  the 
Monitors  might  have  passed  safely  over  the  bend.  But  it 
lay  at  the  point  where  all  the  battery-fires  converged,  and 
no  attempt  was  made  either  to  blow  up  the  chain-house, 
to  remove  it  with  gunpowder,  or  to  cut  the  obstacle  with 
cold  chisels,  as  an  active  enemy  would  have  done.  More- 
over, the  Paraguayans — who  knew  that  no  fort  can  hinder 
the  transit  of  wooden  vessels,  even  at  the  slowest  speed, 
unless  the  channel  be  perfectly  obstructed  by  scuttled  craft 
or  sunken  cribs  of  stones,  or  unless  the  ships  be  detained  under 
a  heavy  fire  by  chains  or  cables,  booms,  barriers,  or  similar 
obstructions  —  had  provided  it  with  those  "  mischievous 
things/^  torpedoes.  They  were  coarse  frictional  affairs ;  the 
employment  of  electricity  as  an  igniting  agent  being  un- 
known. One  ironclad,  however,  had  already  been  suc- 
cessfully torpedoed,  and  in  the  Brazil,  as  elsewhere,  even 
disciplined  men  feel  a  natural  horror  of,  and  are  easily  de- 
moralized by,  hidden  mysterious  dangers  so  swiftly  and  com- 
pletely destructive.  At  last,  on  February  18,  1868,  when 
an  unusual  flood  of  nine  feet  quite  submerged  the  chain, 
the  ironclad  squadron  took  heart  of  grace,  ran,  without 
suffering  material  damage,  the  gauntlet  of  the  Humaita 
and  Timbo  guns,  and  anchored  off  Tayi  up  stream.  Thus 
the  chain  proved  useless. 

The  narrow  spit  of  ground  which  the  Gran  Chaco  here 


A    VISIT    TO    THE    GRAN    CHACO.  333 

projects  from  the  north-west  to  the  south-east,  and  which 
forms  the  salient  angle  opposite  the  concave  of  Humaita,  is 
called  the  "  Albardon"'' — neck  or  peninsula.  Lieutenant  Day- 
makes  it  far  too  broad  and  massive.  As  usual  in  this  swampy- 
region,  accidents  of  ground  are  very  complicated,  and  can 
hardly  be  explained  without  detailed  plans.  At  the  first 
sight  it  is  evident  that  the  Brazilians  should  have  cut  a  deep 
channel  across  the  Albardon,  which  is  nowhere  six  feet 
above  the  water  level :  this  would  probably  have  changed  the 
(bourse  of  the  stream,  when  Humaita  would  have  become  an 
inland  defence.  The  plan  was  suggested  by  Dr.  McDonald, 
Surgeon  -  Major  in  the  Argentine  service,  and  naturally 
enough  he  was  much  derided  by  ignorant  men. 

In  April,  1868,  the  Allied  armies,  having  driven  the  Para- 
guayans into  Humaita,  determined  to  complete  the  invest- 
ment of  their  stronghold  by  surrounding  it  on  the  Gran 
Chaco  side,  and  by  cutting  off  all  its  supplies  of  provisions. 
General  Rivas,  with  1200-1500  Argentine  troops,  landed  on 
April  30  at  the  Riacho  de  Oro  to  the  south,  marched  north- 
wards, and  after  repulsing  a  Paraguayan  sortie  from 
Humaita,  met  on  the  third  day  2500  Brazilian  troops  under 
Colonel  Falcao.  The  latter  had  landed  to  the  north  below 
Timbo,  whose  defenders  had  attacked  him  to  no  purpose. 
The  two  corps  amalgamated  on  May  3,  and  tlirew  up  the 
redoubt  "  Andai.''^  The  Paraguayans,  also  pushing  on  from 
Timbo,  opposed  this  with  a  new  work,  the  '^  Cora.^^  General 
D.  Ignacio  Rivas,  determining  to  dislodge  them,  sent  an 
attack  headed  by  Colonel  Campos  and  Martinez  de  la  Hoz,  a 
man  of  family  and  reputation.  His  '^  gallant  rashness,*'' 
however,  served  him  an  ugly  turn  :  the  men  fled,  and  both 
commanders  were  taken  prisoners.  An  Argentine  flag- 
bearer  ran  into  the  water,  and  his  colours  were  picked  up 
by  the  Monitor  Para :  she  refused  to  restore  them  without 
taking  a  receipt,  and  the  proceeding  bred  abundant  iU-wiU 


334  A   VISIT    TO    THE    GRAN    CHACO. 

in  the  Platine  bosom.  This  affair  was  called  the  ''  Battle 
of  Acaynasa^^ — the  '^  tangled  bonghs ;  "  and  Marshal-Presi- 
dent Lopez  made  of  it  a  great  victory. 

Terrified  by  the  determined  reconnaissance  pushed  into 
the  Hnmaita  enceinte  by  General  Osorio  (July  16^  1868), 
the  Paraguayans  resolved  as  usual  to  evacuate  it,  but  this 
time  they  were  somewhat  too  late.  Of  the  Commanding 
Triumvirate,  Colonels  Alen,  (not  Allen,  as  the  home  papers 
wrote  him),  formerly  Chief  of  Staff  to  General  Robles, 
Francisco  Martinez,  and  Captain  Procopio  Cabral,  the  former 
had  blown  away  part  of  his  face  in  attempted  suicide,  and 
the  command  had  thus  devolved  upon  the  second  ;  D.  Pedro 
Gill  being  then  made  third  in  command.  A  small  ration 
of  maize  was  issued  to  each  man  before  embarkation,  and 
the  half-famished  garrison  began  on  July  23  the  evacua- 
tion, which  ended  July  25.  Their  numbers  had  been  4600, 
families  included  :  they  were  now  reduced  to  4000,  of  whom 
only  about  2500  were  fighting  men.  The  women  and  children 
were  first  ferried  over,  running  the  gauntlet  of  the  ironclads  ; 
and  sundry  field-pieces  were  rafted  up  a  trench  which  they 
had  cut  from  the  Albardon  Point  to  an  inner  lagoon. 

The  stout-hearted  fugitives  at  once  threw  up  hasty  earth- 
works on  dry  land  between  the  waters.  But  their  position 
was  hopeless.  North-east  lay  the  Allied  redoubt,  Andai, 
backed  by  two  ironclads ;  to  the  south-west  were  also  two 
ironclads,  whose  shot  crushed  through  the  thin  wood, 
and  crossing  with  the  fire  of  the  Andai,  cut  off  their  retreat 
to  the  west ;  and  finally,  on  the  south-east  stood  the  Chaco 
fort  held  by  the  Brazilians.  The  Allied  force  numbered 
some  12,000  men,  of  whom  2000  were  Argentines.  Yet  the 
wretches  fought  for  eleven  days,  losing  800  of  their  number ; 
amongst  them  Colonel  Hermosa,who  was  killed  by  Lieutenant 
Saldanha,  the  nephew  of  the  Portuguese  grandee.  Some 
200  to  300  cut  a  path  through  the  enemy^s  lines  and  escaped 


A    VISIT    TO    THE    GRAN    CIIACO.  335 

to  Timbo  ;  they  bore  witb  tbem  Colonel  Alen,  who  was 
reported  to  have  been  wounded  in  the  forehead  by  the 
splmter  of  a  shell,  and  two  English  army-surgeons,  Drs. 
Stevens  and  Skinner.  Colonel  Martinez  and  Captains  Cabral 
and  Pedro  Gill  surrendered  to  the  enemy  ;  and  it  is  reported 
that  the  wife  of  the  first-named  officer  was  cruelly  murdered 
by  Marshal-President  Lopez,  because  her  husband  had  suc- 
cumbed after  so  glorious  a  resistance. 

We  will  now  inspect  the  scene  of  action.  At  the  tongue 
or  tip  of  the  Albardon,  a  little  north  of  where  the  chain 
had  been  made  fast  to  posts  and  tree-trunks,  we  found  the 
little  Chaco  redoubt  which  defended  the  chain.  It  was  held 
by  the  Allies  to  check  the  Paraguayan  "  dispersos,^^  or  fugi- 
tives, who  were  at  bay  in  the  wood  to  the  north-west.  Three 
guns  were  inside  and  two  outside ;  the  fosse  was  unflanked 
and  of  no  importance.  To  the  north-west  we  saw  the  gleam 
of  the  Laguna  Ybera,  or  Vera,  the  shining  water,  with  its  Isla 
Poi,  or  narrow  islet.  The  large  pond  is  connected  by  a  long 
ypoeira  (Canoe  channel)  with  the  Riacho  de  Oro ;  and  when 
the  floods  withdraw,  it  divides  into  three  or  more  sections. 
Nothing  can  be  better  adapted  for  ambuscades  than  this 
mass  of  tangled  shrubby  and  reedy  vegetation. 

Advancing  parallel  with  the  right  bank  of  the  Paraguay 
River  we  entered  a  patch  of  jungle,  abounding  with  snakes, 
pigeons,  and  woodpeckers.  The  large  vegetation  was  com- 
posed of  acacias  and  mimosas  ;  the  smaller  growth  of  the 
candelabrum-tree,  the  umbahuba  of  the  Brazil  {Cecropia 
peltata),  now  becoming  common,  and  the  tall  cane,  known 
as  the  "  paja  brava.'^  The  boughs,  adorned  with  orchids 
and  small  pink-flowered  parasitic  bromelias,  were  con- 
nected by  the  guembe,  or  tie- tie,  which  the  learned  Azara 
confounded  with  the  guembetaya,  that  fine  trumpet-flower 
followed  by  a  maize-like  fruit.  A  scatter  of  wooden  crosses 
showed  where   luckless    skirmishers   had   been   buried,  and 


336  A    VISIT    TO    THE    GRAN    CHACO. 

mangruUos,  or  look-outs^  were  attached  to  the  taller  trees. 
Presently  we  readied  a  clearing  where  the  forest  had  been 
felled  to  admit  the  fire  of  the  Brazilian  ironclads.  Our 
next  step  was  to  the  Andai_,  or  Chaco  Camp^  the  redoubt 
thrown  up  by  General  Rivas.  I  met  this  gallant  Argen- 
tine at  Humaita.  In  appearance  he  was  rather  Italian  than 
South  American;  a  stout  man  of  medium  stature^,  with 
straight  features^  and  rather  bushy  goatee  and  mustachios. 
Over  his  uniform  he  wore  a  weathered  poncho  of  vicuna  or 
guanaco  wool,  here  costing  some  three  gold  ounces,  not  the 
usual  cheap,  tawdry  imitations  made  in  England;  and  the  long 
riding-boots  gave  him  the  aspect  of  a  man  of  action.  He  was 
then  doomed  to  temporary  idleness,  his  left  wrist  having  been 
pierced  by  a  ball  during  the  disastrous  attack  of  Curupaity. 

The  right  flank  of  the  Andai  rested  upon  the  river,  and 
the  left  upon  the  Laguna  Vera;  whilst  its  front  and  rear 
were  sufficiently  protected  from  a  coup  de  main  either  of 
cavalry  or  of  infantry.  At  the  approaches  were  three,  and  in 
places  four,  ranges  of  trous  de  loup  {bocas  de  lobo),  each 
armed  with  a  sharpened  stake.  The  abatis  was  picketed  down 
according  to  rule,  not  loose-strewn  after  the  Paraguayan 
fashion,  which  wants  only  a  horse  and  a  lasso  to  open  a  gap. 
A  deep  ditch  and  a  parapet,  with  fascines  and  sandbags,  com- 
pleted the  defences.  Inside  were  tall  and  effective  earthen 
traverses,  and  strong  bomb-proof  magazines  made  of  mould 
heaped  upon  layers  of  tree-trunks.  The  direct  distance  from 
Humaita  was  not  more  than  two  miles,  and  the  Paraguayans 
had  done  their  best  to  gall  the  garrison  with  shot  and  shell. 

I  here  for  the  first  time  saw  Brazilian  soldiers  in  camp. 
About  600  men  were  throwing  up  inner  works  to  contract 
the  arc ;  this  was  probably  done  to  give  them  some  em- 
ployment, for  after  the  evacuation  of  Timbo  the  use  of  the 
place  was  gone,  and  the  redoubt  was  presently  dismantled. 
The   camp    appeared   clean  in  the  extreme,   owing  to  the 


A    VISIT    TO    THE    GRAN    ClIACO.  337 

stringent  orders  of  Marshal  Caxias_,  who  well  knows  that 
cholera  is  to  be  prevented  by  drainage,  and  that  water 
impregnated  with  sewage  and  decay  breeds  fever.  This 
purification  takes  the  Brazilians  some  time,  whereas  the 
Argentines  never  attempt  it.  The  men  were  under  canvas, 
comfortably  lodged  in  the  gipsy  "  pals/^  which  are  here 
everywhere  used  ;  they  are  better  than  our  bell-tents,  but 
inferior  to  the  French  tente  d^abris.  As  each  holds  only 
one  officer  or  two  soldiers,  they  occupy  much  ground,  and 
they  are  slow  to  pitch  and  to  strike.  On  the  other  hand,  they 
serve  in  this  dangerous  climate  to  prevent  infectious  disease. 

The  men  were  in  excellent  condition,  well  clothed,  well 
fed,  and  only  too  well  armed.  Meat  lay  all  about,  and  the 
half-wild  dogs  were  plump  as  the  horses.  Poorly  azotised, 
uncastrated,  and  killed  after  two  or  two  and  a  half  years, 
the  flesh  is  here  spongy,  but  still  far  more  nutritious  than 
in  the  Brazil.  All  must  be  of  the  best  quality  procurable, 
and  the  contracts  are  published  yearly  in  an  annex  to  the 
Relatorio  or  Report  of  the  Minister  of  War.  The  cost 
of  feeding  each  soldier  is  now  about  $1  200  (milreis).* 
Besides  meat  the  men  receive  per  six  head  a  daily  bottle  of 
cacha9a  (Brazilian  rum) ;  and  they  think  with  the  Irishman, 
that  if  bread  be  the  stafi"  of  life,  whisky  is  the  life  itself. 

The  cavalry  was  armed  as  I  have  before  described ;  the 
artillery  with  sabre  and  carbine,  often  the  Spencer ;  and  the 

*  Cavah'y  and  infantry  in  camp  receive  per  diem  one  bullock  to  seventy 
or  eighty  men,  averagino^  3|  to  4|  lbs.  per  head ;  farinha  (mandioc  flour), 
one-eightieth  of  the  alqueire;  mate,  three  ounces;  salt,  one  ounce ;  and 
tobacco,  half  an  ounce.  Cavalry  on  the  inarch  have  an  increased  ratio  of 
meat,  one  bullock  to  sixty  men.  Infantry  on  the  march  have  one  bullock 
to  seventy  head  ;  farinha,  one-sixtieth  of  the  alqueire ;  mate,  two  ounces ; 
and  salt  and  tobacco  as  in  camp.  Charqui  (jerked  meat)  is  served  out 
on  Wednesdays;  and  bacalhao,  or  stock-fish,  on  Fridays.  The  diet  is 
varied  with  Brazilian  lard  (toucinho),  black  beans  (feijao),  rice  and  vege- 
tables. In  the  morning  bread  and  coffee,  and  before  night  coffee,  is  served 
out.  Of  course  the  army  has  not  always  thus  been  living  in  clover, 
and  at  times  it  has  suffered  from  severe  privations. 

22 


338  A    VISIT    TO    THE    GRAN    CHACO. 

infantry  with  Belgian  Enfields  and  sword-bayonets.  Most 
of  the  latter,  being  liberated  slaves,  wonld  have  dune  better 
work  with  the  smooth-bore  Brown  Bess  and  with  the  old  tri  - 
angular  bayonet.  This  weapon  has  played  an  important 
part  in  the  war;  the  yataghan-shaped  modern  tool  is  too 
heavy  for  such  unhandy  soldiers,  and  our  lately  invented 
saw-sword-bayonet  would  have  been  worse  still.  The  arms 
were  piled,  and  the  sentries  objected,  despite  the  uniform, 
to  our  passing  inside — a  precaution  not  useless  in  a  country 
where  the  enemy  has  proved  himself  so  desperate. 

After  a  pleasant  visit  and  a  short  chat  with  the  officers, 
we  retraced  our  steps  to  the  clearing,  and  then  plunged  into 
the  densely  tangled  thicket  to  the  west-north-west.  Here 
we  found  the  redoubt  thrown  up  by  the  fugitives  from 
Humaita ;  its  right  flank  resting  upon  an  arm  of  the  Laguna, 
and  the  remainder  surrounded  by  wood  and  scrub.  There 
were  platforms  for  their  five  brass  guns,  two-pounders  and 
four-pounders  ;  they  had  dug  pits  for  shelter  in  the  uneven 
floor,  and  when  a  man  was  killed  he  at  once  found  a  ready- 
made  grave.  The  fightiog  had  been  fierce ;  the  trees  around 
were  cut  and  torn  by  cannon,  and  in  one  moderate-sized 
trunk  I  counted  six  scars. 

Here  the  wretches  defended  themselves  from  the  assailant 
between  July  24  and  August  4.  Though  half  mad  with 
hunger  and  delirious  with  night- watching,  they  fired  upon 
two  flags  of  truce.  The  Allies  could  have  easily  destroyed 
them,  but,  to  thsir  honour  be  it  recorded,  the  nobler  part  was 
chosen.  A  Spanish  chaplain  in  the  Brazilian  navy — Padre 
Ignacio  Esmerata — devoted  himself  to  the  cause  of  humanity, 
and  approached  them,  cross  and  white  flag  in  hand.  Still 
the  desperadoes  refused  to  surrender,  till  their  officers  proved 
to  them  that  nothing  could  be  gained  by  self-destruction. 
This  bulldog  tenacity  of  the  Paraguayan,  which  is  bred  in 
his  Guarani  ("  warrior '')  blood,  may  be  found  in  the  his- 


A    VISIT    TO    THE    GRAN    CllACO.  339 

tories  of  Mexico  and  Peru.  Thus^  when  an  "  Indian  ''  Ca- 
cique prisoner  was  sent  by  Cortes  to  Guatiraocin,  "as  the 
captive  began  to  speak  of  peace,  his  lord  ordered  him  in- 
stantly to  be  killed  and  sacrificed/^  (Third  letter  of  Cortes, 
Collecion  Lorenzana.)  At  length  1450*  men,  95  officers,  and 
two  Franciscan  friars  included,  yielded  themselves  up  to 
General  Rivas,  who  swore  on  the  hilt  of  his  sword  that  they 
should  be  safe  ;  they  came  forth  from  their  forest  den,  and  piled 
arms  in  the  clearing  which  we  have  just  visited,  the  officers 
retaining  their  swords,  and  the  men  being  saluted  by  the 
Brazilian  troops.  The  victors  gained  only  four  flags  and  a 
few  worthless  arms,  with  canoes,  hides,  and  sheepskins — 
a  richer  plunder  might  be  found  in  Dahome. 

Fresh  traces  of  the  death-struggle  still  lay  around,  and 
everything  spoke  of  the  powerful  and  vehement  nationality 
of  Paraguay  ;  the  miserable  remains  of  personal  property 
told  eloquently  of  the  heart  which  the  little  Republic  had 
thrown  into  the  struggle.  The  poor  rags,  ponchos  of  door- 
rug,  were  rotting  like  those  that  wore  them ;  and  amongst 
fragments  of  letters  we  picked  up  written  instructions  for 
loading  heavy  guns.  All  were  in  the  same  round  hand, 
legible  and  little  practised  ;  it  is  said  that  in  Paraguay  the 
writing  drill  is  regular  as  any  other.  There  was  a  stand  of 
broken  sabres  and  bayonets  ;  stirrups  of  wood  and  metal, 
mere  buttons,  like  those  of  Abyssinia,  to  be  held  between 
the  toes  ;  and  brass  military  stirrups,  made  wide  to  admit 
the  boot.  The  short  cloth  kepis  had  been  worn  by  infantry, 
and  the  tall  leather  cavalry  caps,  off  which  a  sabre  might 
glance,  bore  the  national  tricolor,  the  inverse  of  the  Dutch, 
blue  being  the  uppermost. 

I  felt  a  something  of  the  hysterica  passio  at  the  thought  of 
so  much  wasted  heroism.    And  this  personal  inspection  of  the 


*  The  Argentine  papers  reduced  the  number  to  1200 ;  amongst  them  they 
placed  a  few  women  and  children.     Some  do  not  mention  the  two  friars, 

22— ii 


340  A    VISIT    TO    THE    GRAN    CHACO. 

site  where  the  last  struggle  had  lately  ended  impressed  me 
highly  with  Paraguayan  strength  of  purpose^  and  with  the  pro- 
bability of  such  men  fighting  to  the  last.  Lieut. -Commander 
Bushe,  following  Mr.  Gould^  believed  that  Marshal-President 
Lopez  was  utterly  exhausted_,  or  that  he  would  not  have 
suflPered  Humaita  to  fall ;  that  the  weight  of  the  Allies  must 
soon  bring  about  the  "  unconditional  surrender ; ''  that  the 
success  of  the  Brazil  upon  the  river^  like  the  campaign  of 
the  Mississippi^  had  cut  the  Republic  in  two ;  and  that  Para- 
guay^ like  Africa  and  the  Confederate  States^  however  hard- 
shelled  outside,  w^ould  be  found  soft  within.  In  vain  the 
Paraguayan  prisoners  declared  that  the  war  had  only  begun, 
and  that  none  but  traitors  would  ever  yield.  One  of  them 
asked  the  medical  officer  of  the  Linnet  why  the  ship  was 
there.  "  To  see  the  end  of  the  struggle/^  was  the  reply. 
''  Then/''  rejoined  the  man,  with  a  quiet  smile,  "  ustedes 
han  de  demorar  muchos  anos.'^ 

The  Brazilians  affected  likewise  to  look  upon  the  fall  of 
Humaita  as  the  coup  de  grace,  the  turning-point  of  the  cam- 
paign. This  Jock  once  broken,  the  river  door  must  soon 
open.  About  the  same  time  reports  of  certain  barbarities 
committed  in  Paraguay  had  assumed  consistency,  but  often 
in  a  truly  ridiculous  form.  H.M.  steamship  Linnet  was 
supplied  with  many  a  telegram  announcing  that  "  Lopez 
continues  his  atrocities  :  he  has  shot  his  sister,  his  brothers, 
and  the  Bishop.''^  These  ''  shaves,"  so  familiar  to  me  during 
three  years'  residence  in  the  Brazil,  were  officially  reported 
to  headquarters.  Whatever  may  have  happened  since,  the 
assertions  were  then  decidedly  false.  The  next  mail  brought 
the  report  that  Bishop  Palacios,  instead  of  being  shot  as  he 
deserved,  had  received  a  war-medal  or  a  Grand  Cross  of  the 
National  Order  of  Merit,  a  kind  of  Legion  d^Honneur,  bor- 
rowed from  France, and  established  when  the  campaign  began. 

And  now,  "  till  the  next/'  as  men  here  say. 


LETTER  XVII. 

VISITS  TO  timb6  and  to  estabelecimento  novo  (alias 

THE    CIERVA    REDOUBi).       GENERAL    ARGOLO. 

Humaita,  August  26,  1868. 
My  dear  Z , 

I  bore  from  Corrientes  an  introductory  letter  to 
Commodore  Francisco  Cordeiro  de  Torres  Alvim,  Chef  de  Es- 
tado  Mayor  da  Esquadra  Imperial.  This  Captain  of  the 
Fleet — who  is  its  arm  as  well  as  its  brain — has  the  bluff, hearty 
manner  of  an  old  sailor,  and  speaks  excellent  English^  which 
he  learned  in  the  United  States.  He  had  hoisted  his  flag 
on  board  the  Cannonheira  Mearim,  but  he  appears  to  be 
ubiquitous.  During  the  three  years'  campaign  he  had  been 
wounded  in  three  places  by  the  Chata-shell,  which  did  such 
havoc  in  the  casemate  of  the  Tamandare  ironclad.  On 
Sunday,  August  24,  he  came  in  the  little  steam-launch  on 
board  of  which  he  seems  to  live,  and  offered  Lieutenant- 
Commander  Bushe  and  myself  a  passage  up  stream  as  far 
as  Timbo — three  to  three  and  a  half  leagues. 

A  two-knot  current  was  against  us,  and  La  Mouche  ran 
gingerly  on  account  of  floating  torpedoes  and  fixed  infernal 
machines.  Many  had  been  fished  up  by  the  Linnet  as  well 
as  by  other  craft,  but  not  a  few  still  remained.  They  did, 
on  the  whole,  very  little  damage.  A  torpedo-brigade  was 
of  course  unknown,  and  after  the  original  maker,  Mr.  Bell, 
of  the  United  States,  died  at  Asuncion,  no  one  was  found 
capable  of  turning  out  an  efiicient  article.  Cases  contain- 
ing charges  of  900  lbs.  of  gunpowder  were  tried  :  they  always 
proved  wet.    The  system  was,  I  have  told  you,  frictional  and 


342  TIMBO ESTABELECIMENTO   NOVO. 

of  the  simplest.  A  charge  of  40  to  50  lbs.  of  gunpowder^  in  a 
cast-iron  cylinder^  was  ignited  by  bolts  at  each  end  striking 
a  small  flask  of  sulphuric  acid  imbedded  in  chlorate  of  potash. 
The  case  was  placed  in  a  copper-sheathed  cask  which  acted 
floatj  and  was  protected  by  a  framework  of  four  iron  bars 
or  rods_,  which^  of  course^  lay  up  and  down  stream.  This 
apparatus  was  apparently  borrowed  from  the  Confederate 
States,  who  thus  improved  upon  the  older  system  of  dis- 
charging common  gun-tubes,  with  long  trigger-lines  pulled 
by  an  operator  on  shore,  or  by  the  passing  ship.  But  the 
Paraguayans  neglected  to  apply  to  torpedo-canoes  the  out- 
rigger apparatus*  which  has  rendered  the  once  ridiculed  in- 
vention of  the  Anglo-American  Fulton  an  established  offensive 
armament  at  sea,  and  a  cheap,  convenient,  and  formidable  de- 
fence for  rivers  and  harbours.  It  would  certainly  have  done 
damage,  for  the  ironclads  had  no  picket-Monitors,  and  in 
an  attack  they  never  penned  themselves  round  when  at 
anchor  with  30-feet  logs.  An  English  engineer  in  the 
Brazil  proposed  a  projecting  fender,  two  scantlings  provided 
with  iron  teeth  like  a  large  garden  rake,  to  precede  the  ex- 
ploring vessel ;  his  suggestion  was  not,  I  believe,  adopted. 

Up  stream  the  scenery  was  charmingly  soft  and  homely; 
well  wooded  on  the  Gran  Chaco  side,  and  clear  to  the  east, 
showing  the  presence  of  banados  and  esteros,  which,  filled 
by  high  rains,  remain  stagnant.  Upon  the  west  bank  lay 
the  curious  contrivances  of  the  Timbo  garrison  when  attempt- 
ing to  throw  provisions  into  Humaita.  They  killed  half  a 
dozen  bullocks,  and  lashed  them  cross-wise  to  a  jangada 
(raft)  of  bamboos  or  palm-trunks,  thatched  over  with 
grass  and  pistia,  so  as  to  resemble   a  ''  camalote.^"*       This 


*  Rear- Admiral  T.  A.  Dahlgren  recommended  "  long,  slender  pine  poles 
thirty  to  fifty  feet  long,  lashed  by  pairs  in  the  middle  to  form  an  X,  into 
which  enters  the  bow  at  one  end,  heels  secured,  and  from  the  stern  depends 
a  net ;  the  whole  to  float" — the  torpedoes. 


TIMb6 ESTABELECTMENTO    NOVO.  343 

word  properly  signifies  a  species  of  waterlily,  with  fleshy 
leaves  of  metallic  green^  aud  with  a  blue  flower-spike ; 
it  is  popularly  applied  to  the  floating  islets  that  stud  after 
floods  the  surface  of  the  Platine  streams^  and  which  are 
nowhere  larger  than  on  the  rivers  of  West  Africa,  especially 
the  Benin.  Unfortunately,  the  current  here  sets  to  the 
west,  and  most  of  the  rafts  were  lost  upon  the  Gran  Chaco 
shore. 

The  left  bank  was  riddled  by  Parrots  ;  and  lying  under 
the  trees  as  they  fell  were  the  corpses  of  the  Paraguayans 
who  had  been  killed  by  the  Monitors,  and  of  the  Argentine 
Voluntary  Legion  who,  in  early  May,  had  been  led  into  a 
fatal  ambush  by  General  Caballero.  The  former  were  dis- 
tinguished by  their  fighting  gear,  regimental  caps,  cross- 
belts  that  carried  their  ammunition  pouches,  and  a 
piece  of  half-tanned  leather  wrapped  round  the  loins.  The 
latter  lay  in  uniform,  except  where  it  had  been  removed  by 
the  vultures.  This  want  of  decency  did  little  credit  to  the 
service  :  the  Augustines  remained  masters  of  the  ground, 
and  a  small  fatigue-party  would  have  buried  the  unhappy 
mercenaries  in  a  few  hours. 

We  steamed  up  to  the  east  of  the  long  barren  Isla  de 
Guaycuru.  In  the  smaller  branch  that  divided  it  from  the 
Gran  Chaco  were  the  remnants  of  two  Paraguayan  steamers, 
sunk  by  the  Brazilian  monitors.  Admiral  Carvalho,  created 
Barao  da  Passagem  for  running  past  the  batteries  of  Hu- 
maita,  had  neglected,  like  the  Barao  de  Amazonas  at 
Riachuelo,  to  pursue  the  flying  enemy,  and  had  allowed 
four  or  five  of  their  craft  to  take  lefuge  in  the  streamlets 
above  Asuncion. 

Presently  we  reached  the  timber  slope,  down  which  the 
Paraguayans  had  shunted  the  guns  of  Timbo  into  the 
river.  The  thirty-two  pounders  had  been  fished  out  by  a 
pair  of  Monitors,   the  Alagoas,  (Captain  Maurity),  and  the 


344  TIMb6 — ESTABELECIMENTO   NOVO. 

Piauhy  (Captain  Wandenkolk) .  Botli,  second  lieutenants 
when  the  war  began^  are  distinguished  officers,  especially 
the  former,  who,  standing  upon  his  quarter-deck,  twice 
fronted  the  hot  fire  of  the  Humaita  batteries.  We  inspected 
the  Alagoas,  a  most  efficient  river-craft,  drawing  four  feet 
ten  inches,  with  high-pressure  engines,  which  pant  and 
puff  like  those  of  a  railway,  and  armed  like  the  Rio 
Grande  and  the  Para,  with  70-pounder  muzzle-loading 
Whitworths,  whilst  the  others  had  120-pounders.  The 
crews  numbered  thirty-six  to  thirty-nine  men,  of  whom  four 
work  the  turret  and  four  the  guns.  The  turret,  whose  in- 
vention belongs  to  Captain  Cowper  Coles,  was  made  oval, 
an  improvement,  according  to  the  Brazilians,  upon  the  cir- 
cular tower.  The  thickness  of  the  iron  plates  varied  from 
a  minimum  of  four  and  a  half  inches  to  a  maximum  of  six 
inches  about  the  gun,  whose  muzzle  fitted  tight  to  its  port. 
This  skin  was  backed  by  eighteen  inches  of  Brazilian  sucu- 
pira  and  peroba,  more  rigid  and  durable  than  our  heart  of 
oak.  The  bolts  were  often  started,  and  the  plates  were 
deeply  pitted  by  the  68-pounders,  like  plum-pudding  from 
which  the  ''  plums ''  had  been  picked  out.  In  some  cases 
they  were  dented  and  even  pierced  by  the  Blakely  steel- 
tipped  shot,  of  which  Marshal-President  Lopez  had  but  a  small 
supply.  Our  naval  officers  have  reported  that  the  cast-iron 
projectiles  impinging  upon  the  armour,  shivered  into  irregu- 
lar fragments,  which  formed  a  hail  of  red-hot  iron,  and  left 
the  gun  without  a  gunner  to  work  it.  The  battery  men 
always  knew  when  a  ball  struck  the  plates  at  night,  by  the 
bright  Hash  which  followed  the  shock. 

At  this  time  the  Brazilian  squadron  in  the  Paraguay 
River  consists  of  a  total  of  39  keel,  and  186  guns. 
Ten  are  ironclads,  with  plated  batteries,  some  carrying 
wooden  bulwarks,  others  stanchions  and  chains.  There  are 
six  monitors,  and  three   more  building :  in  fact,  every  pro- 


TIMb6 ESTABELECIMENTO    NOVO. 


345 


vince  will  be  represented  by  one.  The  rest  consists  of  eleven 
gunboats,  seven  steamers,  one  corvette,  two  bombketcbes, 
one  patacbo  (schooner),  and  one  brig.^  The  fleet  is  to  be 
increased  by  four  new  gunboats  from  Europe,  which  will 
be  stationed  in  the  Upper  Uruguay. 

The  Monitors  and  some  of  the  ironclads  were  built  at 
Rio  de  Janeiro ;  the  rest  were  supplied  by  France  and  the 
Thames  ironworks.      A  curious  form  of  showing  neutrality  ! 

We  landed  at  the  redoubt  Timbo,  lately  evacuated  when 
the  fall  of  Humaita  took  away  its  occupation.  It  is  called 
after  the  old  Piquete  Timbo,  whose  deserted  ranchos  and 
orange-grove  may  still  be  seen  someway  up  stream.  The  name, 
as  is  often  the  case  in  these  rude  regions,  is  taken  from  a 
tree  which  supplies  wood  for  tables  and  indoor   objects,  and 


*  The  following  is  the  official  list : 



Ironclads  (10)  :- 

- 

Salvado,            8 

gun 

5,130  men. 

Brazil, 

8 

juns 

,  145  men. 

Monitors  (6) : — 

Tainandar^, 

6 

>5 

120 

jj 

Alagoas,           1 

J) 

60     „ 

Barroso, 

7 

}> 

149 

>> 

(now 

36  to  39) 

Bahia, 

2 

>> 

147 

j> 

Rio  Grande,     1 

}) 

60     „ 

Herval, 

2 

» 

134 

>» 

Para,                 1 

)} 

60     „ 

Lima  Barros 

4 

» 

171 

5» 

Piauhy,             1 

jj 

60    „ 

Colombo, 

8 

}> 

132 

„ 

Ceara,               1 

» 

60     „ 

MarizeBarros,2 

» 

124 

» 

Sta.  Catherina,! 

)> 

60     „ 

Cabral, 

8 

i) 

130 

» 

Gunboats  (11)  :— 

Belmonte, 

8 

„ 

129 

>> 

OnzedeJunho,2 

» 

83     „ 

Paranahyba, 

8 

jj 

141 

)f 

Lindoya,           1 

3» 

22     „ 

Maracana, 

8 

J> 

89 

i» 

E.  Martins,      6 

J> 

108    „ 

Mearim, 

8 

J> 

187 

)f 

Greenhalgh     2 

>> 

100     „ 

Mage, 

8 

J5 

140 

» 

Bomb-ketches  (2)  :- 

- 

Itajahy, 

6 

»> 

79 

>t 

Pedro  Affonso,  3 

J> 

43     „ 

Beberibe, 

8 

>J 

164 

}> 

F.deCoimbra,3 

»» 

52     „ 

Iguatemy, 

5 

» 

120 

)} 

Corvette,Biihiana,22 

» 

166     „ 

Aragaary, 

8 

>» 

82 

SJ 

Schooner,  Iguassii 

Ivahy, 

6 

» 

101 

•> 

(carries       the 

Ypiranga, 

8 

)) 

79 

» 

Commodore),  4 

}> 

37    „ 

Steamers  (7) : — 

Brig,  Peperi-assii,  1 

)> 

33     „ 

Taquary, 

2 

if 

96 

J> 

Chuy, 

2 

» 

73 

>> 

Total,     186 

^uns 

3719  men. 

Tramandahy, 

2 

)f 

44 

» 

346  TIMb6— ESTABELECIMENTO   NOVO. 

which  is  supposed  to  grow  only  from  Corrientes  to  Paraguay. 
Here  in  early  February^  1868,  the  Marshal-President  sent 
from  Curupaity  eight  32 -pounders  and  six  8-inch  guns 
under  Captain  Ortiz.  During  the  fall  of  Humaita  it  was 
gallantly  commanded  by  General  Caballero,  the  preux  che- 
valier of  the  Paraguayan  army.  A  young  and  handsome  man^ 
distinguished  by  dash  and  reckless  bravery,  he  and  his  aide- 
de-camp  were  captured  by  the  enemy  at  the  Battle  of  the 
Lomas,  but  both  escaped.  The  Marshal-President  knew  his 
value  ;  he  was  the  only  Paraguayan  who  could  safely  under- 
take upon  his  own  responsibility  such  a  movement  as  the 
evacuation  of  Timbo. 

Timbo,  on  the  Chaco  side,  is  the  usual  simple  redoubt,  in 
a  shallow  bend  with  the  left,  resting  upon  the  river,  and 
the  right,  as  is  shown  by  the  smooth  treeless  grass,  upon  a 
dwarf  banado.  The  bank  being  here  barely  four  feet  high, 
the  gun -platforms  required  to  be  raised.  Of  these  there 
were  forty-one  facing  the  east,  west,  and  south  ;  eight  old 
iron  pieces  remained,  but  all  the  field-guns  had  been  car- 
ried oflF.  Few  cartridges  and  shells  were  lying  about ;  in 
fact,  the  leisurely  evacuation  was  a  perfect  contrast  to  that 
of  Humaita.  The  only  extensive  work  was  a  triple  line  of 
zanjas,  or  wet  ditches,  parapets,  and  abatis  facing  to  the  south, 
and  this  the  Brazilians  were  levelling.  Hides  were  scat- 
tered about,  and  apparently  had  been  i^sed  for  many  dif- 
ferent purposes,  for  coracles,  strengthened  by  wooden  frame- 
works, and  for  sponging-tanks  ;  the  latter  were  in  "  bangue  " 
form,  like  saltpetre  strainers  mounted  upon  four  dwarf 
uprights.  The  mat-huts  and  sheds  had  been  burnt  down. 
The  Marshal-President  is  apparently  determined  to  make 
every  abandoned  place  a  small  Moscow.  The  normal  electric 
wire  had  not  been  forgotten.  We  avoided  entering  the 
hot,  damp  powder-magazines  ;  they  are  full  of  the  common 
flea,  and  of  its  penetrating  kin  [pulex  penetrans),  the  bicho 


TIMBO ESTABELECIMENTO    NOVO.  347 

do  pe  of  the  Brazil,  the  nigua  or    chigua  {"  a  meat-bag  ") 

of  the  Spanish  Antilles,  and  the  jigger  of  the  West  Indies, 

here  called  pique  or  chique.      The  pest  extends  everwhere 

from  Corrientes,  where  it  is  worst,  to  Asuncion  ;  and  I  heard 

of  a  person  suffering  severely  from   a  jigger  that  had  fixed 

itself  in   his   eyeball   whilst    a   roll  of  tobacco  was    being 

opened.    There  were  plenty  of  curios  for  the  curious  :  brass 

spurs,  cavalry  blades,  and  broken  flint-muskets,  remnants  of 

saddles  rude  as  those  used  by  the  Pampas  "Indians/^  and 

drums  with  tricolor  bands,  and  inscribed — 

"  Republico  del  Paraguay 
Veneer  o  morir." 

A  Paraguayan  bitch,  thin  as  a  shadow,  still  haunted  the 
deserted  scene ;  as  we  whistled  to  her  she  slunk  away  like 
a  cimaron  or  wild  dog. 

On  the  next  day  Lieutenant-Commander  Bushe  took  me  in 
his  gig  to  the  Arroyo  Hondo,  "  the  deep  channeV^  which 
bounds  the  Humaita  bank  immediately  to  the  north.  Up 
this  stream  the  Brazilians  had  sent  their  light  craft  to  cut  off 
the  Paraguayan  garrison  from  the  capital.  On  the  right  the 
land  was  swampy^  extending  a  few  yards  to  the  Laguna 
Cierva,  the  southern  fork  of  the  Arroyo ;  rice  might  here 
be  produced  in  abundance.  Pistia  grew  near  the  water ; 
behind  it  stood  the  red-leaved  Mangui  hibiscus,  whilst  within 
were  tall  trees,  acacias  and  mimosas,  festooned  with  the 
parasitic  HervadosPassarinhos  (a polygonum), and  dead  trunks 
converted  into  pyramids  of  verdure  by  a  convolvulus  bearing 
flowers  of  dark  pink.  After  rowing  some  two  hours  we 
came  to  a  widening  of  the  bed  where  the  Arroyo  headed 
in  a  lagoon.  To  our  right  was  an  earthwork  called  by  the 
Brazilians  '^  Estabelecimento  Novo,^^  and  by  the  Paraguayans 
the  Cierva  redoubt.  The  Marshal-President  had  armed  it  with 
nine  field-pieces  served  by  some  1600  men,  under  command 
of  Major  Olabarrieta.     On  the  morning  when  the  ironclads 


348  TIMBO ESTABELECIMENTO    NOVO. 

ran  past  Humaita_,  Marshal  Caxias  attacked  it  with  about 
6000  troops.  The  Brazilians  charged  gallantly,  facing  a 
storm  of  grape  and  canister  at  close  quarters,  up  to  the 
trench,  and  were  four  times  beaten  back  with  the  loss  of 
some  476  hors  de  combat.  After  exhausting  his  ammu- 
nition, Major  Olabarrieta  retreated  on  board  the  Tacuari 
and  Ygurei  steamers,  and  landed  his  men  at  Humaita.  He 
lost  his  guns  and  about  150  soldiers :  but  he  will  be  remem- 
bered by  this  beau  fait  d'armes.  There  is  nothing  to  be 
described  in  the  earthworks;  they  were  «3ven  more  broken 
than  those  of  Timbo.  The  land  around  was  a  desert ;  not  a 
living  Paraguayan  remained  in  this  part  of  Paraguay ;  it  was 
odorous  of  carnage,  like  the  Crimea,  and  the  enceinte 
showed  only  two  long  lines  of  graves. 

Evening  came  on  in  the  deepest  silence,  and 

*'  calm  was  all  nature  as  a  resting  wheel." 

Towards  sunset,  however,  the  air  became  alive  with  mosqui- 
toes, which  replaced  the  swarming  sandflies,  and  which  piped 
a  treble  to  the  hoarse  bass  whoop  of  the  frog.  The 
sanguinary  culex  punctured  us  with  her  bundle  of  stilet- 
toes, till  we  were  obliged  to  defend  ourselves  with  twig 
wisps.  The  plagues  are  said  to  bite  through  the  closest 
cloth,  and  the  soldiers  must  have  suffered  tortures  from 
them  in  this  campaign  of  swamps. 

My  companion  was  a  keen  sportsman,  and  he  had  lately 
had  an  adventure  which  recals  the  Spanish  proverb, 
'^  Escaping  from  the  bull  one  falls  into  the  brook.^"*  The 
land  now  begins  to  be  rich  in  game.  As  a  rule,  the  Para- 
guayan guardias  and  piquetes  were  not  allowed  to  waste 
ammunition.  The  sky,  which  contains  too  much  vapour 
ever  to  be  dark  blue,  became  vocal  with  the  whistling  duck 
{Fato  Silbador  or  Anas  Penelope)  and  its  congeners,  now 
emigrating    southwards.       Blue-rocks    clove    the    air   high 


GENERAL   ARGOLO.  349 

overhead,  and  the  parroqucts  whirled  past  us  with  loud 
screams  aud  shivering  flight.  As  usual,  we  were  annoyed 
by  the  Pampas  peewit,  a  sworn  enemy  to  sportsmen.  It 
seems  to  delight  in  warning  its  feathered  friends  that  danger 
a])proaches,  and  its  persistent  clamour  makes  impatient  the 
most  patient.  Fine  snipe  and  dark  grey  snippet  ran  along 
the  ground,  in  company  with  water-hens,  and  jacanas  or 
lily-trotters  { parr  as)  ^  of  brilliant  plume.  Carrion  birds 
abounded,  with  fish-hawks,  and  other  accipitres;  caracaras,  the 
forefathers  of  the  Guaycuru  tribe;  and  the  common  Bra- 
zilian urubii,  or  turkey-buzzard — I  heard  of  the  celebrated 
urubii-rey,  but  I  never  saw  it  here.  The  most  splendid 
spectacle,  however,  was  the  colthereira  or  spoonbill  (ibis 
rubra),  the  guara  of  the  Guaranis.  Flights,  varying  in 
number  from  seven  to  twenty,  formed  long  triangles,  and 
their  wings  of  the  finest  rose,  merging  into  a  dark  pink, 
caught  the  reflection  of  the  sun,  who  sank  "  like  a  cloven 
king  in  his  own  blood.^^  The  pure  light  of  heaven,  absorbed 
by  transparent  vapour  and  by  the  impurities  of  the  lower 
atmospheric  strata,  glowed  with 

•*  Flaming  gold,  till  all  below 
Grew  the  colour  of  the  crow." 

Then  the  weird  grey  shadow,  simulating  a  cloud-bank,  rose 
in  the  west,  and  the  moon  saw  us  safely  home. 

Our  next  visit  was  to  that  distinguished  soldier,  General 
Alexandre  Gomez  de  Argolo  (not  Argollo)Ferrao,  commanding 
Humaita.  Born  at  San  Salvador  da  Bahia  of  a  distinguished 
family  that  refused  to  recognise  him,  he  at  first  served  in  the 
police  under  a  civilian  with  whom  he  could  not  agree.  He 
began  in  early  life  to  study  tactics,  by  no  means  a  favourite 
pursuit  in  the  Brazil ;  and  when  he  went  to  the  war  his 
friends  predicted  that  he  would  do  great  things.  They 
were  right.      He  set  out  a  major  of  infantry  :  he  returned 


350  GENERAL    ARGOLO. 

a  Field  Marshal  and  Visconde  de  Itaparica.  After  this 
change  of  life,  his  father  was  pleased  to  recognise  him. 

General  Argolo  is  a  Liberal  in  politics;  and  Liberals  are 
apt  to  look  after  their  own.  In  appearance  he  is  of  the 
bird  of  rapine  type  :  short,  thin,  and  small,  with  high  nose 
and  hawk^s  eyes ;  a  tall,  broad  forehead,  straight  hair  and 
beard  waxing  grey ;  he  may  already  have  turned  the  half- 
century.  Cool  in  the  extreme  under  fire,  he  is  deliberate 
in  act  and  slow  in  speech :  his  drawling  tones  give  you  des 
crispations.  He  is  loved  as  a  father  by  his  men,  but  he  is 
by  no  means  a  favourite  with  the  Argentines.  General 
Osorio,  whose  salt  humour  and  quaint  sayings  made  me 
involuntarily  think  of  Coeur  de  Lion,  called  him,  in  wicked 
pleasantry,  ''  Macio,  miudo  e  massante  " — a  bony  bit  of  a 
bore. 

We  visited  the  quarters  of  this  "  model  marshal  of  the 
generalissimo  Caxias.^^  The  lodging  was  in  the  roughest 
state,  and  the  tenant,  ever  ready  for  action,  sat  in  long 
boots  and  chain-spurs.  He  pressed  us  to  accept  a  cam- 
paigning dinner,  and  we  soon  saw  the  means  by  which  he 
wins  the  hearts  of  men.  He  seated  by  his  side  a  Brazilian 
private  who  had  lost  both  his  arms  in  the  Curupaity  affair, 
and  he  fed  the  cripple  with  his  own  hands.  Not  the  least 
pleasing  part  of  the  spectacle  was  to  see  the  perfect  self- 
possession  of  the  young  Mineiro.  After  dinner  entered  a 
neatly-dressed  Paraguayan  boy  whom  Marshal  Argolo  had 
adopted.  When  taken  by  the  Brazilians  as  they  entered 
Humaita,  the  youngster  asked  who  was  the  commanding 
officer,  and  walked  up  to  him,  saying,  "  General !  you  must 
be  my  father.^^ 

General  Argolo  accepted  the  charge,  and  I  have  no  doubt 
that  the  orphan  has  found  a  home  for  life.      Farewell ! 


LETTER  XVIII. 

RIDE   ROUND    THE   HUMAITi.    "  QUADRILATERAL.'* 

Humaita,  August  27,  1868. 

My  dear  Z , 

Wishing  to  see  the  contour  of  Humaita, 
we  applied  to  General  Gelly  i  Obes,  who  most  courteously- 
lent  us  his  own  chargers,  and  sent  with  us  one  of  his  officers  ; 
the  latter  had  the  appearance  of  a  Bashi  Buzuk  Irregular, 
but  he  did  not  wear  the  sword  of  a  private. 

Our  first  visit  was  to  the  comercio,  or  camp  bazar, 
situated  immediately  behind  the  tattered  church.  The  flags 
of  all  nations  waved  over  board  huts,  mat  hovels,  and 
canvas  tents,  which,  foul  in  the  extreme,  formed  a  hollow 
square  round  a  pool  of  filthy  water.  Some  of  them  bore 
the  ambitious  names  of  Hotel  rran9ais,  de  Bordeaux,  and 
de  Garibaldi.  In  these  places  you  may  get  a  bed  and 
perhaps  a  bit  of  breakfast  for  the  normal  1/.  I  may  say 
that  I  saw  for  the  first  time  the  coinage  of  the  Brazil  in  the 
valley  of  La  Plata  :  during  my  three  years"  experience  of 
the  great  Empire  a  gold  piece  was  never  in  my  possession ; 
silver  never,  except  when  wanted  for  a  journey ;  and  the 
heavy  copper  "  dump"'  never  whilst  paper  could  be  carried. 
In  the  unclean  lines  which  represented  streets,  idle  ruffians 
were  lounging  about,  drunken  cut- throats  gave  ear  to  guitar 
or  accordion,  and  everywhere,  on  foot  and  on  horseback, 
appeared  the  petticoats  and  the  riding-habits  of  an  unmis- 
takable calling.  The  favourite  dress  was  bright  silk,  and 
many  were  robed 

"  In  chintz,  the  rival  of  the  showery  bow." 


352  THE    HUMAITA   "  QUADRILATERAli." 

Some  of  this  class  made  fortunes  like  the  more  prudent 
kind  of  "  Californian  widow."  I  heard  of  one  that  obtained 
from  a  Brazilian  officer  the  honorarium  of  35/. — it  was 
enough  to  bring  water  into  the  mouths  of  the  honest. 

We  then  turned  south-east  to  the  hospitals^  of  which  two 
are  large  and  one  small_,  the  Hospital  dos  Colericos.  After 
the  terrible  attack  of  the  last  year^  all  indigestions  and 
cholerines  were  set  down  as  the  true  Asiatic  epidemic. 
About  a  dozen  graves  were  being  dug^  of  course  for  cholera 
patients.  But  sporadic  cases  may  be  expected^  and  General 
Argolo  told  us  of  a  man  who  had  died  of  pure  fright.  This, 
however,  is  the  hot  season,  and  even  the  river  is  not  un- 
wholesome, despite  the  generation  of  filth.  A  few  suffer 
from  bad  colds,  the  result  of  the  raw  south  suddenly  re- 
placing the  tepid  north  wind ;  and  here  the  currents  are 
meridional,  instead  of  being  diagonal  like  the  north-east, 
the  south-east,  and  the  south-west  of  the  coast.  As  a  rule, 
the  fevers  are  simple  intermittents  ;  during  six  months  the 
medical  officer  of  the  Linnet  saw  only  one  purely  remittent 
case.  The  percentage  of  sick  amongst  the  Brazilians  is 
SJ,  whereas  in  large  armies  it  averages  from  10  to  12. 
The  ^^carabins"  and  apothecaries  were  booted  to  the  fork, 
as  in  the  Crimea,  but  here  they  were  civil :  one  great  swell 
sported  a  bridle,  crupper,  and  saddle  all  silver,  with  the 
Argentine  stirrup,  of  which  at  least  four- fifths  are  under- 
foot. Many  of  the  horses  start  and  buck,  and  few  are 
so  easily  managed  as  in  Buenos  Aires,  where  the  lightest 
hand  is  required,  and  where  the  pressure  of  the  reins  upon 
the  neck  turns  the  animal. 

Still  bending  south-east,  I  enjoyed  for  the  first  time  in 
the  southern  hemisphere  a  long  hand-gallop  over  the  cool, 
soft,  springy  turf.  It  was  scattered  with  the  Solanum 
called  Cepa  de  Cavallo,  and  with  a  pink-lined  mushroom 
which  the  people  term  "  toad^s  meat."   In  places  were  dwarf 


THE  humaitA  "quadrilateral."  353 

pools,  which  the  clayey  ground  long  retains ;  here  the 
puddles  that  disappear  after  the  third  day  in  the  Brazil 
last  a  fortnight ;  the  result  is  a  bad  mud  or  an  unpleasant 
marsh.  The  orange  trees,  planted  by  Presidential  orders, 
had  mostly  been  felled,  and  a  pile  of  five  fruits  costs  a 
shilling  instead  of  a  cent.  The  few  survivors  were  webbed 
over  with  the  nets  of  a  sociable  spider  dressed  in  black  and 
red  coat ;  it  gives  a  strong  yellow  silk  which  will  make 
gloves  and  dresses,  and  some  of  it  has  been  exported  from 
Corrientes  to  Paris :  I  found  a  far  stronger  and  more 
brightly-tinted  material  on  the  shores  of  the  Gulf  of  Guinea. 
The  ground  was  everywhere  sprinkled  with  Whit  worths 
'^^  anti-w^ar  bolts,^'  40,  120,  and  150-pounders,  and  costing 
each  from  20/.  to  50/.  Very  few  had  exploded,  and  a 
pointed  stick  soon  told  the  reason  why :  they  had  been 
charged,  not  with  gunpowder,  but  with  a  single  one  of  its 
constituents,  charcoal.  The  Paraguayans  soon  made  for 
them  a  gun,  the  Criollo,  rifled  for  150-pounders,  and  sent 
thousands  of  the  shot  back  to  w^hence  they  came. 

Passing  the  military  prison,  an  open  space  round  which 
patrolled  a  few  guards,  and  from  which  the  guarded  could 
readily  have  "  made  tracks,^^  we  reached  the  cemetery.  A. 
neat  gate,  bearing  aloft  the  cross,  is  pierced  in  the  stout 
brick  wall  ;  the  Brazilians  and  Argentines  rest  outside  it, 
and  to  the  west  is  a  space  set  off  by  the  Marshal- President 
for  the  benefit  of  the  heretic  engineers  who  fell  at  Riachuelo. 
The  tombs  were  mostly  new,  with  a  mosaic  of  little  red  tiles 
by  way  of  slab ;  some,  probably  children's  monuments,  ap- 
peared very  dwarfish.  The  inscriptions  showed  a  people  that 
carried  warlike  discipline  even  beyond  the  grave  :  one  of 
them  reads,  "  Sirvio  a  la  Patria  por  veient  aiios  con  lealdad  i 
constancia.^'  Evidently  such  a  race  wanted  only  the  newest 
appliances  of  civilization,  and  such  ministering  angels  as 
Whitworths    and    Armstrongs,    Lahittes    and    Blakelys,  to 

23 


354  THE  humaitA  "quadrilateral." 

make  their  cause,,  despite  the  want  of  gros  bataillons^  please 
the  gods.  But  Fate  was  resolved  not  to  countenance  such 
an  anachronism. 

This  cemetery  was  evidently  the  site  for  a  citadel  :  a 
strong  central  work  surrounded  by  mines,  and  able  to  sweep 
the  whole  enceinte,  which  now  utterly  lacks  defence.  Com- 
manding the  rear  of  the  batteries,  both  those  of  the  river- 
side and  of  the  interior,  it  could  have  converted  what  is  now 
a  feeble  partly  entrenched  camp,  an  Aldershott  or  a  Curragh, 
into  a  place  forte.  There  was  every  facility  for  making 
the  work,  and  the  waste  of  labour  which  raises  entrench- 
ments of  sods  and  palm-trunks  round  eight  and  a  half  miles 
of  enceinte,  would  have  been  well  employed  upon  a  refuge 
where  the  soldier,  driven  from  his  outer  defences,  could 
have  found  shelter  and  could  still  have  baffled  his  enemy. 

We  then  visited  the  place  to  the  north-east  of  the  church, 
where,  on  July  16,  1868,  the  gallant  General  Osorio 
first  entered  Humaita.  Further  north  there  is  a  still  weaker 
point,  and  as  a  rule  the  entrenchments  opposite  the  swampy 
grounds  were  quite  neglected.  It  had  been  reported  that 
boats  full  of  armed  men  were  crossing  from  Humaita 
to  the  Gran  Chaco,  and  orders  were  at  once  issued  to 
bombard  the  stronghold,  whilst  Osorio,  with  a  vanguard  of 
10,000  men,  was  directed  to  make  a  reconnaissance  in  force. 
Compelled  by  the  "  wolves^  mouths  "'■'  to  dismount  his  ca- 
valry, the  General  crossed  the  ditch  and  climbed  the  parapet, 
despite  the  frantic  efforts  of  the  few  besieged.  He  sent  at 
once  to  Marshal  Caxias  for  reinforcements,  but  none  were 
forthcoming  ;  the  only  shadow  of  an  excuse  being  that  the 
forces  were  much  scattered,  and  that  the  over-cautious  vete « 
ran  would  not  risk  all  fortunes  upon  a  single  throw. 
Osorio,  furious  with  disappointment,  seized  a  musket  from 
a  soldier,  and  as  usual  joined  personally  in  the  affray ;  but 
he  presently  found  himself  compelled  to  retire.      The  Para- 


THE  humaitA  ''quadrilateral."  355 

guayans  at  once  returned  to  their  guns,  which  had  not  been 
spiked,  and  poured  in  a  shower  of  grape  and  canister. 
The  Brazilians,  who  had  six  hundred  men  hors  de  combat^ 
did  not  "  retreat  with  banners  flying  and  bands  in  front,  as 
though  marching  on  parade/^  According  to  the  Semanario 
the  Paraguayan  garrison  received  the  gold  cross  of  the  Order 
of  Merit. 

The  Commander-in-Chief  had  doubtless  been  influenced 
by  the  terrible  check  at  Curupaity,  and  he  with  his  troops 
naturally  believed  that  so  strong  an  outpost  must  cover  a 
formidable  bulwark.  At  any  moment  a  simultaneous  assault 
upon  any  three  or  four  places  would  certainly  have  taken 
Humaita,  with  perhaps  the  loss  of  some  500  men.  The  eva- 
cuation, however,  was  allowed  to  be  carried  on  in  peace  and 
quiet,  and  the  camp  story  was,  that  a  French  baker — others 
say  an  Italian  pedlar — was  the  first  to  enter  the  land  side 
of  the  highly  ridiculous  ''  Sebastopol  of  the  South.^^  Simi- 
larly, we  may  remember  how  fifty  Russians  in  Petropavlofsky 
drove  oif  a  French  and  English  admiral  with  a  squadron  of 
five  ships ;  and  when  a  second  attack  was  made  by  a  com- 
mander of  a  different  trempe,  only  three  dogs,  instead  of  a 
swarming  garrison,  were  found  in  the  place. 

This  part  of  the  profile  is  very  poor  :  an  Irish  hunter 
might  scramble  over  it.  The  only  outworks  were  the  usual 
loose  abatis  of  branches  and  brushwood  defending  a  sloping 
trench  nowhere  five  feet  deep,  with  at  most  eleven  inches  of 
water.  There  were  no  inner  defences  but  a  shallow  drain 
eighteen  inches  deep  and  four  feet  wide :  the  earthwork 
parapet  barely  four  feet  high,  and  not  more  than  nine  feet 
thick,  was  propped  up  by  palm  trunks  and  provided  with  a 
banquette.  I  need  hardly  say  that  to  be  safe  against  a 
coup  de  main  the  escarp  should  be  about  thirty  feet  tall, 
swept  by  the  flanking  tire  of  artillery,  and  defended  in  front 
by    a   high  counterscarp.      There    is    nothing  of  the  kind 

2^—2 


356  THE    HUMAITA    ''QUADRILATERAL." 

here.  The  guns  are  wretched  3.2-pounders_,  and  each  had 
300  rounds  of  gunpowder^  grape,,  case^  and  shell ;  solid  shot 
being  little  used.  Embrasures  are  wanting^  and  the  maga- 
zines are  round-topped  like  ovens,  so  as  to  hold  the  bomb 
and  to  admit  rain  water.  Some  are  open;  others  have 
been  exploded  by  shells ;  and  the  trench  shows  the  usual 
waste  of  cartridges  and  powder-bags. 

Issuing  from  the  enceinte^  we  turned  down  south  upon 
the  Curupaity^  or  rather  the  Angulo  road.  It  was  crowded 
with  cartSj  horses,  and  camp  followers,  all  moving  up  to 
Humaita.  The  tanks,  large  and  small,  were  beautiful  with 
the  waterlily,  which  grows  even  in  the  trenches ;  and 
the  long-legged  Parra  trotted  over  the  broad  fleshy  leaves 
of  the  Victoria  Regia.  This  splendid  nymphsea,  the  abati 
irupe  or  water-maize  of  the  Guaranis,  produces  an  edible 
fecula,  like  those  of  the  Sind  talabs.  It  is  astonishing 
that  the  Brazilians,  as  they  were  regularly  besieging  the 
"  stronghold,''^  did  not  lay  out  approaches  and  flying  zigzags. 
They  excused  themselves  by  declaring  the  land  too  swampy ; 
but  the  lines  of  thorny  trees  that  streaked  the  grass  and 
reeds  of  the  baiiados,  proved  that  solid  ground,  if  sought 
for,  might  have  been  found. 

After  a  mile  and  a  half  we  reached  the  Brazilian  lines  of 
circumvallation  thrown  up  by  General  Argolo  :  they  were 
on  a  much  more  extensive  scale  than  the  works  of  the  place 
invested.  The  embrasures  stood  faced  with  fascines,  and 
their  cheeks  were  revetted  with  sods;  the  berm  was  care- 
fully traced,  and  the  expense  magazines  (Polvorinas),  though 
wanting  the  sloping  roof,  appeared  sufficiently  solid.  As 
the  lines  were  never  made  a  base  of  operations,  the  labour 
was  wantonly  wasted — it  beat  even  the  Russian  batteries  in 
the  Crimea. 

A  hand-gallop  of  half  an  hour  took  us  to  Paso  Pucu,  alias 
Brites,  from  a  hacienda  or  estate  that  once  was  here.      Mar- 


THE    HUMAITA    '' QUy\DUILATERAL."  357 

shal- President  Lopez  made  this  spot^  the  key  of  the  second 
line^  his  headquarters,  and  long  defended  it  after  the  first  or 
outermost,  which  skirted  the  north  bank  of  the  Northern 
Estero  bellaco,  had  fallen  into  the  enemy^s  hands.  At  this 
important  central  point  converged  ten  radii  of  telegraph  wires 
coming  from  all  parts  of  the  so-called  '*  Quadrilateral/' 
The  house  occupied  by  the  President  of  Paraguay  and  his 
family  was  in  a  small  orange  grove;  and  the  low-thatched 
barn  with  whitewashed  walls  had  been  scribbled  over  by 
visitors  in  uncomplimentary  style.  It  contained  two  small 
rooms  :  one  for  reception,  and  a  dark  hole  for  a  sleeping 
berth.  Opposite  the  door  were  the  remnants  of  a  rancho, 
in  which  balls  and  dancing  parties  had  been  given  by 
"  Supreme "  direction.  To  the  south  was  the  Bishop''s 
hovel,  which  had  fallen  down ;  and  that  of  his  assistants, 
Franciscan  friars,  was  following  its  example.  The  ^'  esporon" 
or  bomb-proof,  called  a  "  cavern  '^  by  the  newspapers,  had 
been  levelled  ;  it  was  built  by  Lieut. -Col.  Thompson,  with 
six  feet  of  earth  above  and  on  both  sides,  and  here  it  is  said 
the  Marshal-President  used  to  conceal  himself.  Being 
within  a  few  hundred  yards  of  the  enemy^s  batteries,  the 
barn  was  defended  by  three  traverses,  and  without  them  it 
would  certainly  not  have  been  commonly  safe.  We  could  not 
but  remark  the  tall  mangruUo,  with  its  ladders  surrounded 
by  hides  and  matting,  an  unusual  precaution  intended  to 
conceal  petticoated  ankles  :  I  was  assured  that  from  this 
point  the  undaunted  Madame  Lynch  used  to  direct  bellicose 
operations. 

We  ascended  the  largest  traverse,  which  contained  422,080 
cespedes  or  sods ;  these  were  usually  0.25  centimetres  square 
by  0.10  thick.  A  total  of  nearly  five  millions  had  been  ap- 
plied to  the  works,  not  including  those  upon  the  Tebicuary, 
and  of  these  about  one  million  were  around  Paso  Pucii. 
Here,  in  the  clear  night  air,  we  enjoyed  a  glorious  view  of 


358 


THE    HUMAITA    ''quadrilateral/ 


a  country  which  had  been  fought  over  for  two  years  ;  and 
the  first  glance  proved  that  the  Quadrilateral  was  a  long 
oval  whose  conjugate  extended  from  Humaita  north  to 
the  south-western  point  of  the  Upper  Estero  bellaco^  whilst 
its  transverse  section  ran  from  Paso  Espinillo  to  the  Para- 
guay river.  The  former  had  a  direct  length  of  six  and  a 
half  miles,  and  the  latter  of  nearly  four  and  a  half.  The 
grand  total  of  the  lines  defended  by  the  Paraguayans  be- 
tween the  beginning  of  the  war  and  March  22,  1868_,  was 
56  kilometres.  It  is  evident  that  the  extension  was  a  grand 
mistake.^ 

Behind  us_,  to  the  north,,  is  the  enceinte  of  Humaita,  form- 
ing the  third  or  innermost  line.  This  is  connected  with  the 
second  or  middle  line  by  a  zigzag  running  north  and  south  ; 
and  it  skirts  the  difi*erent  "  passes  ^^  or  swamp- fords,  known 


*  The  following  are  the  figures  of  the  broken  oval,  supplied  to  me  by 
Lt.-Col.  Chodasiewicz : — 


Eastern  Line. 

Distance, 

Length  of 
advanced 
Trenches. 

Espla- 
nades. 

Maga- 
zines. 

1.  PasoBenitez  to  P.  Espinillo 

2.  To  the    Augulo    redoubt, 

third  line 

3.  To  Sauce  (south-west  end 

of  third  line)     .... 

4.  Sauce  towards  Curupaily  . 

Western  Line. 

1.  Line  along  Lagunas  Chichi, 

Lopez,  &c 

2.  Line  facing  Curuzu  .     .     . 

3.  Curupaity  Hiver-frunt  .     . 

Second  Line. 

1.  From  P.   Espinillo   to  La- 

guna  Chichi 

2.  Base  of  so-called   Quadri- 

lateral      

Totals     .     .     . 

6    kilom.  475  metres 

2      „       417      „ 

6       „       427       „ 
2      ,,       614      „ 

4       „       460       „ 
1       „       929      ,, 

1  „       988      „ 

6       „       376      „ 

2  „       485      „ 
35  kilom.  115  metres 

8  m.  895 

4  „  955 

2  „  883 
2  „  168 

1  ,,"240 
20  m.  901 

91 
71 

111 

38 

42 

52  +  14 

28 

126 
3 

576 

48 

32 

63  +  64 
32 

28 

36  +  6 

27 

23 

310 

The  Trihuna  estimated  the  trenches  of  Humaita  fronting  the  river  at 
3600;  to  the  south,  3600;  east,  3000;  and  west,  2100:  a  total  of  12,300 
metres. 


THE  humaitA  ''quadrilateral."  359 

as  Pasos  Benitez,  Yasi  (of  the  moon),  Tanimbu  (of  ashes), 
and  Espinillo,  so  called  from  a  thorny  tree.  At  this  latter 
place  the  second  line  sets  off  to  the  west  with  southing,  along 
a  lorn  a  fronted  with  marshes,  which  communicate  with  the 
Laguna  Chichi.  The  third  or  outermost  line  runs  south  by 
Paso  Mora  to  the  Angulo  Redan ;  thence,  sweeping  after  a 
sharp  angle  to  the  south-west,  it  passes  almost  parallel  with 
the  second  line  by  the  Estero  Rojas,  a  branch  of  the  northern 
Bellaco,  by  the  Madame  Lynch  redoubt,  and  by  the  Paso 
Gomez  to  the  Sauce  redoubt,  and  the  Linha  Negra,  upon 
which  it  abuts.  Here  the  anti-fosse  was  provided  with  a 
Tajamar  or  dam  that  raised  the  water  one  metre,  and  thus 
succeeded  in  destroying  some  of  the  Allied  ammunition. 

To  the  north-west  of  Paso  Pucu,  and  apparently  six  to 
seven  miles  distant,  we  see  the  monte  and  orange  groves  of 
Tuyu-cue — ^'  mud  that  was.^^^  This  position  was  long 
occupied  by  the  Brazilians.  Further  north  on  the  high 
road  to  Asuncion,  and  also  buried  in  monte  and  orange 
grove,  lies  San  Solano,  an  estancia  belonging  to  the  state. 
The  extreme  left  of  the  Allied  camp  during  the  earlier 
attacks,  it  lies  nearly  due  east  of  Humaita,  five  leagues  from 
Paso  Pucii,  and  seven  leagues  from  El  Pilar.  Looking 
towards  the  south,  and  about  two  hours'  ride,  we  descry  the 
Loma  and  palm  forest  of  Tuyu-ti — a  point  so  long  held  by 
the  second  division  of  the  Brazilians. 

From  our  vantage-ground,  which  commands  a  fine  view 
of  swamp,  grassy  plain  and  tree-mottes,  we  can  easily  master 
the  excellent  plan  of  attack  proposed  by  Col.  Chodasiewicz. 
He  would  have  carried  with  20,000  men  Paso  Pucu,  the 
key  of  the  position.  At  the  same  time  10,000  were  to  have 
marched   up  from   Tuyu-ti  after  a  few  hours  of  bombard- 


*  Cue  is  translated  "  fue"  or  "  ha  sido,"  "  was"  or  "  has  been."    It  enters 
into  several  bastard  names  of  places,  as  Canipamento-cue. 


360  THE  humaitA  "quadrilateral." 

ment^  and  anotlier  10_,000  would  have  issued  from  Curuzu 
and  attacked  Curupaity  along  the  line  of  river-bank  which 
was  previously  to  be  mined.  This  could  have  prevented  the 
disaster  of  September  22_,  1867_,  and  the  combination  would 
probably  have  carried  the  works.  But  the  Allies  knew 
nothing  of  mining ;  the  plan  was  allowed  to  lie  upon  the 
Generalissimo  Mitre^s  desk^  and  the  attack  was  made  in  the 
bull-headed  style  before  described. 

Major  Costa_,  commanding  a  detachment  of  Argentine 
cavaliy  posted  at  Paso  Pucu_,  kindly  lent  us  a  guide  to  the 
Angulo  Redan.  Passing  out  of  the  second  line  at  Paso 
Espinillo^  we  found  the  approaches  strongly  guarded ;  there 
were  bocas  de  lobo  even  under  water.  At  this  j^oint  the 
enemy  had  been  more  than  usually  active  :  the  parapet  and 
covered  way  were  often  built  over  swamps  for  many  yards^ 
and  plank  bridges  (pontilhoes)  had  been  carefully  laid 
down. 

Presently  we  reached  the  Angulo  :  its  site  is  a  felled 
palm-grove,  whose  stumps  still  remain,  and  the  rolling 
"  loma'^  upon  which  cattle  were  grazing  commands  the  whole 
country.  Outside  it  reeks  the  mass  of  esteros  and  baiiados 
which  communicate  with  the  northern  Bellaco.  The  works 
were  composed  of  two  bastions  enfleclie  to  the  front,  and  of  a 
curtain  with  a  smaller  bastion  closing  the  gorge.  Outside 
is  a  shallow  trench,  and  a  deep  ditch  requiring  ladders.  The 
garrison  numbered  200  men,  who  worked  only  two  of  their 
sixteen  guns  :  there  were  a  few  magazines  and  traverses  of 
little  importance.  The  Brazilians  attacked  the  Angulo, 
whilst  the  Argentines  took  up  their  position  further  north 
near  the  Paso  Espinillo  where  the  position  was  weakest. 
General  Emilio  Mitre  commanded,  they  say,  7000  men ;  the 
Brazilians  reduce  the  force  to  5000  ;  and  they  here  stood  for 
two  hours  at  a  distance  of  three  squares. 

At  the  Angulo  we  found  a  brother  of  our    guide,  with 


THE    HUMAITA    '' QUADRILATERAL.'  3GI 

troopers  hutted  under  hides.  A  profusion  of  raw  meat  was 
hung  up  to  dry,  and  the  place  was  not  without  caiia.  Leaving 
the  redan  we  rode  along  the  outer  line  of  entrenchments. 
Here  we  saw  the  same  kind  of  work,  trenches  18  feet  wide 
and  deep ;  and  platforms  for  guns,  14  feet  6  inches  square 
and  3  feet  6  inches  high ;  magazines  at  every  36  to  42  feet, 
traverses,  sod-revetted  parapets  6  feet  tall  and  equally  thick, 
a  single  cavalier,  and  a  ruined  farmhouse.  The  main  diffi- 
culty of  the  attack  was  the  nature  of  the  ground.  To  the 
south  an  arenal  or  sand- wave  hides  from  us  Fort  Itapiru. 
Northwards  is  the  bouquet  de  bois  that  marks  the  head- 
quarters of  the  Marshal-President.  Presently  we  struck 
northwards  from  the  outer  to  the  middle  line,  crossing  per- 
pendicularly three  several  esteros.  The  water  was  girth-deep, 
and  the  bottom  was  black  mud  fetid  with  organic  matter. 
Hence  the  name  Paso  Pucii,  the  Long  Ford. 

We  then  turned  to  the  north-west,  and  soon  reached  the 
far-famed  lines  of  Curupaity.  The  works,  running  nearly 
north  and  south,  were  much  stronger  and  better  made  than 
any  that  we  had  yet  seen.  Unfortunately  for  the  defenders 
it  could  be  shelled  by  the  ironclads,  which  were  only  thirty 
feet  below  it.  The  works  were  composed  of  glacis,  fosse, 
and  parapets  of  adobe  revetted  with  sods.  Inside  was  a  ditch 
three  or  four  feet  broad,  with  a  wall  of  about  the  same  height, 
which  acted  covered-way  and  drained  the  terre-plein.  The 
position  is  the  plateau  of  Humaita :  a  tree-clad  bank  rising 
some  twenty  feet  above  the  ponds  and  swamps  which  front 
it.  The  attack  in  front  offered  peculiar  difficulties.  On 
the  right  (north)  was  the  copse  where  the  Brazilians  ad- 
vanced and  were  delayed  by  coming  upon  a  small  outpost : 
hence  their  loss  was  small,  and  they  were  accused  of  having 
saved  themselves  at  the  expense  of  their  Allies.  The  left 
flank  rested  upon  a  deep  lagoon,  and  between  this  and  the 
monte  lay  the  putrid  knee-deep  mire  which  the  Argentines 


362  THE   HUMAITA    "QUADRILATERAL." 

attempted  to  cross.  Our  guide  pointed  oat  the  place  where 
the  brave  Colonel  Charloni^  commanding  the  Italian  Legion^ 
after  receiving  a  musket-ball  through  the  lungs^  was  killed 
by  a  canister  shot ;  and  amongst  the  fatal  casualties  was  the 
only  son  of  President  Sarmiento^  aged  twenty-one. 

Behind  the  earthworks  a  little  Pueblo  lay  in  ruins.  We 
then  rode  to  the  comercio  or  bazar  of  Curupaity.  It  sug- 
gested past  scenes  at  Balaklava  and  Kadi  Keui.  The  timber 
walls  and  canvas  roofs  were  bigger  and  more  substantial 
than  usual.  The  sutlers  did  not  wish  or  expect  to  take 
Humaita  so  quickly.  There  was  nothing  for  them  now,  how- 
ever, but  to  follow  the  army  ;  and  the  bustle  of  soldiers  and 
of  camp  followers  who  were  removing  piles  of  wood  and 
boarding,  sacks  of  provisions,  heaps  of  old  arms,  and  hillocks 
of  hides,  showed  that  they  did  not  wish  to  be  left  far 
behind. 

We  then  galloped  up  the  dusty  road  through  the 
Brazilian  lines,  shook  hands  with  our  guide,  and  thanked 
General  Gelly  i  Obes  for  the  loan  of  his  chargers.  We 
had  gone  round  about  two-thirds  of  the  so-called  "  Quadri- 
lateral,^^ or  twenty  miles  in  five  hours,  and  there  were  no 
traces  of  '^  saddle-sickness.^^     Good-bye. 


LETTER  XIX. 
FROM  humaitA  to  guardia  tacuAra. 

Guardia  Tacuara,  August  29,  1868, 

My  dear  Z , 

I  was  not  sorry  to  leave  Humaita  as  soon 
as  its  interest  was  sucked  dry.  Two  men  had  deserted  from 
the  Linnet,  and  doubtless  joined  the  service ;  one  unfortu- 
nately had  been  drowned^  and  the  steward  was  missing  for 
some  days.  All  looked  forward  with  anxiety  to  the  next 
six  months.  On  the  26th  of  August  the  wet  season  began  to 
break  up^  and  the  change  was  heralded  by  a  storm  of  sheet 
lightning.  At  3  a.m.  on  the  27th  there  was  a  blaze  of 
forked  lightning,  which  lit  up  the  thick  black  clouds^  and 
which  was  accompanied  by  loud,  sharp  thunderings,  here 
said  to  be  rare.  The  United  States  screw-steamer  Wasp, 
Lieutenant-Commander  Kirkland,  arrived  in  the  evening,  and 
steamed  off  for  Asuncion.  All  was  darkness  and  mystery  : 
the  soldier  and  the  sailor  politician  are  usually  extra  political. 
They  are  converts  opposed  to  old  churchmen,  volunteers 
contrasted  with  the  regulars.  Although  there  is  a  letter- 
bag  for  the  British  detenus  on  board  the  Linnet,  I  could  not 
find  out  their  names,  and,  as  for  their  numbers,  it  was 
succinctly  and  roundly  said  that  the  English-speaking  em- 
ployes might  number  one  hundred,  and  the  total  of  foreigners 
one  thousand. 

The  chart  gives  thirty-two  miles  between  Humaita  and 
Tacuara ;  but  we  shall  cover  fifty-two  between  10  a.m.  and 
night.  The  current  may  average  1'5  knots  per  hour. 
Passing   the  Andai   redoubt,  we  saw  that  the  ditches  were 


864  FROM    HUMAITA    TO    GUARDIA    TACUARA. 

■filled^  the  parapet  was  levelled^  the  abatis  was  pulled  up,,  and 
the  garrison  was  being  shipped  off.  After  Timbiithe  banks 
became  lower_,  and  were  not  so  easily  to  be  defended.  About 
noon  we  steamed  past  Tayi^  pronounced  Taji :  it  is  so 
named  from  a  tree  also  called  the  Lapacho,,  one  of  the 
BignoniacisBj  which  supplies  a  fine  cabinet  wood.  Here  on 
the  eastern  bank  were  batteries  subtending  the  normal 
horseshoe  :  it  had  been  judged  necessary  to  dislodge  from 
them  the  Paraguayans  in  order  to  surround  and  completely 
to  cut  off  the  communications  of  Humaita  The  line  sweeps 
to  the  east  and  forms  a  narrow;  its  tall  barranca  is  about 
one  mile  long^  and  falls  above  and  below  into  woods  and 
lowlands.  Being  shelving^  and  not^  as  usual_,  perpendicular, 
it  is  easier  to  attack  ;  still  it  commands  the  mouth  of  the 
Bio  Bermejo,  and  it  sweeps  the  stream  with  a  cross  fire  up 
and  down  from  two  to  two  miles  and  a  half :  the  settle- 
ment shows  nothing  but  a  dwarf  cross  and  a  tall  mangrullo 
on  a  bald  point  of  land ;  its  few  wattle  and  dab  tents  and 
hovelsj  near  the  whitewashed  church,  are  abandoned  by  all 
living  things  save  the  vulture.  There  is  also  a  little  bridge 
on  the  high  road  to  the  capital.  At  the  far  side  of  the 
river  is  the  paddle-wheel  of  another  small  Paraguayan 
steamer  sunk  by  the  Brazilians. 

Here  again,  on  July  9,  1868,  two  ironclads,  the  Barroso 
and  the  Rio  Grande,  were  attacked  by  twenty-four  canoes, 
each  carrying  ten  "  bogabantes,''^  as  the  corps  trained  to 
such  service  was  called.  The  affair  repeated  that  of 
Humaita ;  and  the  crew  of  the  Rio  Grande,  when  boarded 
by  the  enemy,  shut  themselves  up  under  hatches,  and  the 
Barroso,  which  had  been  passed  by  the  assailant,  came  up 
and  cleared  the  decks  of  her  consort  with  grape  and 
canister.  After  this  affair  the  Brazilians  thought  it  wise 
to  bar  the  stream  with  a  boom. 

We  then  passed  a  narrow  gap  in  the  eastern  bank,  an 


FROM  humaitA  to  guardia  tacuAra.         305 

entrance  to  the  lagoon  wliicli  forms  a  short  cut  to  El  Pilar. 
This  feature  is  the  '^  furado/'  the  *^  parana-mirim/'  and  the 
"  ypoeira ''  of  Brazilian  rivers.  In  Lieutenant  Day's  chart 
it  is  laid  down  as  the  Rio  and  Guardia  of  Monte  Rico,  an 
error  for  La  Monterita — the  Little  monte.  At  12'40  p.m. 
we  sighted  that  classical  and  important  influent  the  Rio 
Bermejo  (Red  River),  alias  Rio  Grande.  Here,  in  1528, 
"  El  buen  Gaboto  ^'  first  saw  the  savages  adorned  with  gold 
and  silver,  and  imagined  the  grand  misnomer  "  Rio  de  la 
Plata.''  The  valuables,  according  to  Herrera,  were  taken  by 
the  Payaguas,  who  had  entered  into  the  dominions  of 
Huana  Ceapac :  Charlevoix,  however,  asserts  that  they 
were  the  spoils  of  the  Portuguese  Alexis  Garcia,  who  crossed 
the  continent  from  the  Brazil  to  Peru,  and  who  was  killed 
in  Paraguay  by  the  Payaguas,  not  without  suspicion  of 
foul  play  on  the  part  of  the  Spaniards. 

The  general  opinion  now  is  that  the  streams  feeding  the 
main  artery  from  the  west  run  through  red  saliferous  marls 
and  sandstones,  whereas  that  the  waters  of  the  Parana  are 
clear,  sweet,  and  wholesome.  But  DobrizhofFer  declares 
that  the  Bermejo  is  especially  salubrious  in  cases  of  vesical 
disease  ;  and  all  the  travellers  who  have  lately  investigated 
it  assert  that  the  colouring  matter  is  merely  oxide  of  iron 
from  the  red  clay,  probably  the  drift  of  Professor  Agassiz. 
The  Bermejo  draining  the  Eastern  Andes  and  the  Gran 
Chaco  plain,  averages  five  feet  deep  from  Oran  in  the  Salta 
Province  to  the  Paraguay.  About  ]  856  Sor  Arce,  a  Bolivian^ 
navigated  2000  miles  with  a  raft,  and  in  1862-3,  Captain 
Lavarello  took  up  the  steamer  Gran  Chaco. 

The  mouth  of  the  great  influent  is  about  200  yards 
across.  The  southern  or  right  jaw  is  low,  sandy,  and 
densely  grown  with  bush  :  that  opposite  is  high  and  per- 
pendicular, and  the  two  contain  a  small  delta  of  monte 
and   water-grass.      Fine  timber   appears   up  stream,   where 


360         FROM  htjmaitA  to  guardia  tacuAra. 

the  land  is  evidently  on  a  higher  plane.  A  reddish-yellow 
line  crosses  the  mouthy  and  for  a  short  distance  forms  a 
distinct  vein  along  the  right  bank  of  the  Paraguay. 

Above  the  Bermejo  the  vegetation  is  on  a  larger  scale : 
the  current  of  the  main  artery  slackens,,  and  the  vrater 
becomes  limpid  as  that  of  the  Parana.  The  eastern  bank 
is  concealed  by  the  long,  narrow  river-curves  which  the 
furado  forms.  Presently,  where  Lieutenant  Day^s  chart 
(1858)  shows  "  narrow  pass,  21  to  24  feet/^  we  found  an 
island  splitting  the  channel,  and  growing  trees  twenty-five 
feet  high.  This  place  adds  a  fresh  instance  to  Dobriz- 
hofPer^s  chapter  upon  "  The  creation  of  fresh  islands,  and 
the  destruction  of  old  ones."  The  extent  of  physical  change 
may  be  estimated  by  comparing  the  chart  with  the  running 
survey  of  Captain  Sullivan,  R.N.,  between  Parana  and 
Corrientes,  in  1847 ;  and  a  careful  study  of  the  current-action 
might  detect  some  natural  law  governing  the  oscillatory 
movements  of  meridional  waters. 

About  three  miles  above  the  newly  created  island  is  the 
little  town  with  the  long  name.  Villa  de  Nuestra  Senora 
del  Pilar  de  Neembucu,  which  formerly  was  tout  bonnewent 
Neembucu.  The  latter  word,  also  written  Nembucu,  is 
the  name  of  a  large  estero  lying  to  the  east  of  the 
Paraguay,  and  it  is  translated  "  palavra  larga," — a  long 
word,  possibly  from  the  extent  of  the  swamp.  Between  El 
Pilar  and  the  Parana  river,  the  surface  of  7  to  8  Paraguayan 
leagues,*  forming  the  Guazucua  Department,  is  said  to  be 
all  mud  and  water.  The  distance  from  Humaita  is  computed 
at  fifteen  miles  along  the  land  road,  and  seven  leagues  by 
the  river.  Between  El  Pilar  and  the  Estancia  de  Yacare, 
where  the  Brazilian  headquarters  now  are,  is  a  seven- 
league  march. 


*  The  Paragua3'an  league  reckons  5000,  and  the  Correntine  6000  varas  : 
both,  however,  are  estimated,  not  measured. 


FROM  humaitA  to  guardia  tacuAra.         367 

During  the  days  of  Dr.  Francia,  El  Pilar,  I  have  told 
you,  was  the  terminus  of  ship  navigation  and  the  gaol  of 
foreigners.  With  its  3000  souls,  which  travellers  have 
exaggerated  to  8000  and  9000,  it  ranked  third  amongst  Para- 
guayan towns;  Asuncion  and  Villa  Rica  taking  higher  rank. 
The  solid  land  immediately  about  it  grows,  besides  oranges, 
small  maize,  porongos  or  pumpkins,  and  excellent  cotton : 
it  might  also  be  made  to  produce  rice. 

El  Pilar  was  occupied  on  September  20, 1867,  by  the  late 
Brigadier  the  Barao  do  Triumpho  (Jose  Joaquim  de  Andrade 
Neves)  and  by  the  Argentine  General  Hornos.  About  200 
Paraguayan  defenders  were  killed,  and  two  guns  were  cap- 
tured ;  it  is  said  that  when  the  enemy  entered  he  found 
some  women  shot.  It  had  before  been  a  Paraguayan 
hospital,  and  almost  every  house  bore  upon  it  the  word 
"  enfermeria.^^  Here,  as  well  as  at  Asuncion  and  all  other 
places  where  there  was  anything  to  plunder,  the  Brazilians 
are  said  to  have  committed  outrages.  This  is  possible ; 
some  2243  serviles  were  bought  for  the  army  between 
November  13,  1865,  and  April  20,  1868.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  is  certain  that  the  Basque  and  Italian  sutlers  and 
camp-followers  were  the  vilest  of  the  vile,  and  they  were 
still  murdering  one  another  when  we  passed.  Our  own 
countrymen  also  distinguished  themselves  :  one  walked  off 
with  a  church  bell ;  and  two  others,  having  dressed  up  a 
life-sized  image  from  a  crucifix  in  blue  jacket  and  duck 
pants,  walked  down  with  it  arm-and-arm  to  the  port,  pre- 
tending that  their  comrade  was  much  the  worse  for  liquor. 

At  El  Pilar  the  bank  lowers,  and,  as  usual,  slopes  inland. 
The  riverward  face  shows  a  few  straggling  white  huts,  only 
one  being  an  azotea,  and  the  rest  thatched  or  tiled  roofs. 
The  capitania  is  a  mere  bungalow,  and  its  neighbouring 
tenement  has  come  to  grief,  probably  by  a  shell.  Over  the 
foreground  move  a  few  carretas,  or  Cape  waggons,  drawn  by 


'S6S  FROM    HUMAITA    TO    GUARDIA    TACUARA. 

six  oxen.  There  is  no  sign  of  fortification.  The  main 
features  of  the  interior  are  a  church  dedicated  to  the  Virgin 
of  El  Pilar^  an  elemental  square,  and  a  long  grass-grown 
street^  the  Calle  del  catorce  de  Maio^  running  parallel  with 
the  barranca.  It  is  backed  by  orange  groves,  with  sweet 
fruit.  In  the  stream  lie  two  wrecks,  and  one  Brazilian 
cannoniere  rides  at  anchor. 

Resuming  our  way  from  El  Pilar  of  the  Oranges,  we 
passed  on  the  left  bank  the  Arroyo  Neembucii  and  the 
Laguna  de  Oro.  About  four  miles  above  the  town,  and 
thirty  below  our  destination,  was  the  bad  bend,  the  Cancha 
de  Gadea.  Here,  on  September  4,  the  Linnet  ran  aground 
in  a  falling  river,  and  narrowly  escaped  detention  during 
the  dry  season.  A  cold  south  wind  set  in,  and  before  night 
we  anchored  off  the  Guardia  Tacuara — '^  the  bamboo,^^  which 
Lieutenant  Day  corrupts  to  "  Tacuava.^^  The  port  did  not 
look  so  busy  as  that  of  Humaita,  but  the  appearance  of  the 
craft  was  much  more  business-like.  Here  lay  the  mass  of 
armoured  fleet,  fourteen  in  number.  Five  ironclads  and 
floating  batteries  anchored  up  stream,  looking  much  like 
dredges,  with  all  but  the  central  bit  of  bulwark  cut  away. 
From  afar  they  resembled  coffins  or  hearses  upon  gondolas 
or  half-swamped  barges.  There  were  two  double- turret 
ships,  with  150-pounder  Whit  worths,  and  the  rest  were 
monitors.  Battered  chimneys,  deeply-pitted  towers,  and 
bows  pierced  by  steel-pointed  cones,  told  the  staunchness  of 
the  Paraguayan  gunners;  whilst  the  strong  boarding-nets 
spoke  volumes  for  the  valour  of  the  enemy.  The  flanks 
of  the  Brazil  had  been  severely  peppered  by  the  shot 
of  Curupaity,  while  the  Lima  Barros  had  her  bulwarks 
converted  into  lace-work  by  the  grape  of  her  consort, 
which  relieved  her  of  Paraguayan  boarders.  Higher  up 
the  river  were  steamers  embarking  the  wounded  for  the 
several    hospitals    down    stream ;    and    the    proveduria    or 


FROM    HUMAITA    to    GUARDIA    TACUARA.  369 

commissariat   Inilks  awaited  the  bread  and  meat  boats  from 
Humaittl. 

We  lost  no  time  in  visiting  the  transport  which  bore  the 
flag  of  the  late  Vice- Admiral  Jose  Joaquim  Iguacio.  As 
the  lack  of  surname  shows,  he  did  not  owe  his  promotion 
to  high  family;  in  fact,  he  was  a  Portuguese,  and  he  was 
succeeded  by  a  fellow-countryman,  Vice- Admiral  Elisiario. 
Upwards  of  sixty  years  old,  he  was  one  of  Lord  Dundonald^s 
(as  w'ell  of  Lord  Howe's)  boys ;  still  active,  despite  the  hard 
work  which  he  had  seen,  a  veteran  with  stiff  grey  hair, 
weather-beaten  face,  and  burly  form.  The  old  soldier  of  a 
sailor — absit  verbo  invidia — received  me  with  courtesy, 
though  much  occupied ;  sent  my  card  to  the  Commander-in- 
Chief,  whom  I  was  anxious  to  visit,  and  gave  us  both  a 
general  invitation  to  dinner.  Lieutenant-Commander  Bushe 
was  very  popular  in  the  Brazilian  fleet,  and  he  has  ably  kept 
up  the  position  of  a  neutral.  It  is  no  easy  task  to  stand  firm 
when  so  many  influences  are  brought  to  bear  upon  one  man — 
the  public  at  home,  the  Admiralty,  the  diplomates  at  Buenos 
Aires,  and  last,  but  not  least,  the  combatants. 

The  Vice- Admiral,  speaking  fluent  English,  began  to  en- 
large upon  the  "  atrocities  of  Lopez,'"*  and  the  necessity  of 
the  Brazil  carrying  on  the  war  to  the  bitter  end.  Popular 
rumour  declares  that  he  is  not  fond  of  going  to  the  front, 
and  that  once,  after  receiving  two  shots  in  his  hull,  he 
retreated.  "  You  really  must  not  expose  yourself  so  reck- 
lesslyj  my  dear  Admiral  \"  said  to  him  a  facetious  French 
Secretary  of  Legation.  "  Where  would  be  the  Brazil  if  any 
accident  happened  to  you  ?"  "  No,  I  really  must  not !"  was 
the  reply.  He  is  well  known  for  a  series  of  predictions 
that  the  campaign  could  not  last  above  six  weeks.  Upon  one 
point  he  was  then  very  sore.  The  U.S.  steam-ship  TVasp 
had  received  orders  to  remove  from  Asuncion  the  American 
Charge  d'Affaires.      Her  commander,  however,  was  not  per- 

24 


370         FROM  humaitA  to  guardia  tacuAra. 

mitted  to  pass  the  Brazilian  lines  without  promising  that 
the  neutral  flag  should  not  cover  Marshal-President  Lopez, 
whom  all  naively  expected  to  run  away  from  their  valours ; 
or  to  convey  his  treasure,  which  was  afterwards  reported  to 
have  been  embarked  in  the  French  gunboat  La  Decidee. 
In  this  matter  the  Brazilians  acted  unwisely  :  they  should 
have  been  the  first  to  build  the  golden  bridge  for  a  flying 
foe.  But  the  old  salt  well  knew  that  the  President  of 
Paraguay  would  make  capital  out  of  the  appearance  of  the 
Wasp,  and  that  other  nations  would  also  send  up  cruisers 
to  visit  their  representatives  ;  effectively  the  North  American 
craft  was  followed  by  four  others  within  a  few  weeks. 

Lieutenant-Commander  Kirkland  objected  to  pledge  him- 
self, and  a  reference  was  sent  to  Rio  de  Janeiro.  There 
the  U.S.  representative,  General  Webb,  whose  friends  urged 
him  not  to  endure  Brazilian  outrecuidance,  and  whose 
enemies  accused  him  of  a  passion  for  ultimatums,  declared 
that  he  would  suspend  relations  unless  Mr.  Washburn  was 
communicated  with  by  a  U.S.  cruiser.  The  Empire  vainly 
off'ered  to  embark  the  Minister  at  Paraguay  in  one  of  the 
Imperial  vessels,  but  this  was  rejected;  and  finally,  in  her 
hour  of  need,  she  yielded  to  the  Republic,  or  rather  to  its 
representative. 

Lieutenant-Commander  Kirkland  then  came  up  the  river 
in  triumph.  He  had  lived  long  and  had  married  in  Monte 
Video,  where  he  was  considered  to  be  a  sympathizer  with  the 
Blanco  party — that  is  to  say,  with  Paraguay  against  the 
Allies.  Arrived  at  Guardia  Tacuara,  he  called  upon  the 
Vice-Admiral,  and  officially  requested  to  be  accompanied 
by  a  Brazilian  ship  of  war  carrying  a  white  flag :  when 
this  was  refused  he  dropped  a  few  words  touching  his  being 
uncourteously  hindered  in  the  performance  of  his  duty. 
This  offence,  of  course,  rankled  deep.  Moreover,  he  steamed 
slowly  up  stream,  anchoring  (August  29)  off  the  Tebicuary 


FROM  humaitA  to  guardia  taciAra.         371 

River,  where  hostilities  were  actually  going  on,  with  the 
object,  said  the  Brazilians,  of  impeding  their  progress. 

After  his  return  to  Monte  Video,  Lieutenant-Commander 
Kirkland  was  of  course  discreet.  But  greatly  to  the  an- 
noyance of  the  Paraguayans,  he  took  up  with  him  a  friend, 
acting  interpreter,  and  Mr.  Charles  F.  Davie  did  not  hold 
himself  equally  bound  to  silence.  From  him  it  was  gene- 
rally understood  that  the  President  of  Paraguay  expected  to 
be  driven  by  the  superior  weight  of  the  Allies,  from  La 
Villeta  his  last  resistance-point  upon  the  river,  but  that  he 
would  then  retire  into  the  interior  and  offer  all  the  new 
difficulties  of  a  guerilla  warfare.  This  style  of  campaign  is 
here  called  guerra  de  recur sos — sem  recursos  (without  ma- 
terials of  war),  added  the  Brazilians. 

At  Guardia  Tacuara  I  was  surprised  by  the  Brazilian  free- 
and-easy  system  of  operations.  The  fall  of  Hiimaita  has  left 
their  squadi'on  free  to  advance,  and  yet  they  have  moved 
during  the  last  month  only  half  a  direct  degree.  Their 
ironclad  vanguard  squadron  have  already  thrown  shot  into 
Asuncion.  Why  do  they  not  do  it  again — or  rather,  why  do 
they  not  occupy  the  capital?  It  is  reported  that  Marshal- 
President  Lopez  is  falling  back  fiom  La  Villeta.  Why  do 
they  not  reconnoitre  ?  Some  petty  hostilities  are  going  on 
along  the  line  of  the  Tebicuary.  The  ironclads  unbank  fires 
every  morning,  breakfast,  leisurely  steam  up  stream,  bang 
away  with  their  big  guns  at  everything  they  see — we  dis- 
tinctly hear  their  distant  thunder — return  before  dark,  dine, 
and  sleep  in  all  possible  coziness. 

This  is  comfort,     Mais  ce  n'est  pas  la  guerre  ! 

Farewell. 


24—2 


LETTEE  XX, 

TO    THE    BRAZILIAN   FRONT. 

Guardia  Tacuara,  August  31,  1869. 

My  dear  Z , 

I  visited  the  front  sundry  times^  and  tlius 
had  an  opportunity  of  inspecting  the  Brazilian  forces  and 
of  conversing  with  the  chief  officers.  You  shall  have  in  this 
letter  an  account  of  my  last  day. 

The  first  thing  was  to  reconnoitre  Guardia  Tacuara.  Its 
site  resembles  that  of  Curupaity,  but  it  is  even  stronger. 
The  E/ibera,  or  left  bank^  perpendicular  above  and  sloping 
below^  is  tall  and  curving,  whilst  the  stream  is  narrower  and 
swifter  than  below.  The  Albardon  or  spit  on  the  Gran 
Chaco  opposite  is  an  impassable  swamp,  with  mud  to  the 
neck.  North  of  the  eastern  shelf,  where  it  is  broken  by 
swamps  and  hollows,  are  the  old  guard-house,  the  orange 
clumps,  and  the  mangrullo,  without  any  attempt  at  a  forti- 
fication. The  corral  is  composed  of  single  or  double  palm- 
trunks,  and  the  entrances  are  barred  with  three  or  four 
cross-pieces  mortised  into  bevelled  holes ;  these  easily-made 
stockades  are  very  efficient.  The  pise  walls  are  tunnelled 
by  the  house  wasp  (Vespa  Polistes  of  Latreille),  the  Lechi- 
guana  of  Dobrizhoffer,  and  the  modern  Echiguano  and 
Lecheguana.  The  thatch  is  made  of  the  flat  stalks  of  the 
Sape  cane  (d,  saccharum),  laid  close  upon  laths  below^  and 
plastered  outside  with  clay. 

Beyond  the  bank -ridge  the  plain  is  flaky  with  the  last 
year's  mud,  and  the  fine  new  green  grass  appears  to  be  ex- 
cellent fodder ;  it  is,  however,  bitter  and  acrid,  and  it  killed 


TO  THE  BRAZILIAN  FRONT.  373 

off  the  horses  of  the  Brazilian  cavalry.  In  some  cases  the 
bellies  clove  to  the  backs,  as  if  the  animals  were  starved  ;  in 
others  the  stomachs  were  enormously  distended.  As  a  rule, 
any  sudden  change  of  Querencia*  (place  of  birth  or  habitual 
pasturage)  is  dangerous  to  animals  :  here  it  is  deadly.  More- 
over, it  abounds  in  poisonous  plants,  locally  known  as  Ro- 
marillo,  Chucho,  and  Mio-mio.  Many  Brazilian  officers 
of  cavalry  assured  me  that  such  was  the  case;  yet  M.  Ben- 
jamin Poucel  (Le  Paraguay  Moderne,  Marseille,  1867),  re- 
marking upon  the  assertion  of  an  English  newspaper,  ''  The 
very  grass  of  Paraguay  is,  I  am  told,  poisonous,^^  refers,  in 
derision,  ce  monsieur  the  author,  to  the  "  first  Gaucho  venu,^^ 
and  pathetically  laments  the  manifold  evils  arising  from  "  I 
am  told/' 

The  common  capim  is  undoubtedly  deadly  ;  the  "  capim 
peludo  ■■'  being  the  only  grass  used  for  forage.  This  is,  how- 
ever, rare ;  and  the  Brazilians  found  it  necessary  to  import 
up  stream  from  Buenos  Aires,  Rozario,  and  other  ports, 
countless  cargoes  of  pressed  alfalfa  {medicago  sativa).  In 
favourable  places  down  the  river  three  crops  a  year  are 
produced.  The  article  was  cheap,  but  it  soon  rose  to  8/. 
per  ton.  It  was  terribly  wasted  by  exposure  to  wind  and 
weather,  and  in  places  I  have  seen  it  used  to  bridge  swamps. 
This  unexpected  obstacle  added  prodigiously  to  the  diffi- 
culties and  to  the  expenses  of  the  invader. 

I  passed  an  estancia,  deserted  since  the  war  began — a  long, 
low  barn  like  that  of  the  Guardia.  Attached  to  it  was  an 
extensive  potrero  or  paddock,  made  of  palm-trunks:  the  term 
is  sometimes  applied  to  natural  clearings  in  a  forest.  The 
potrero  is  larger  than  the  corral,  and  it  is  a  familiar  feature 
in  a  land  whose  main  industry  is  breeding.      Here  the  camp- 


*  Hence,  aquerenciado  is  said  of  cattle  confined  to  particular  grazing 
grounds. 


374  TO  THE  BRAZILIAN  FRONT. 

road  enters  the  bush ;  it  is  already  trodden  into  dust  and 
mirC;  with  ruts  eighteen  inches  deep.  Of  course,  the  freights 
are  enormously  high. 

Entering  the  ''  bush/^  I  found  a  familiar  vegetation.  The 
grassy  soil  of  the  highest  levels  was  scattered  over  with  tree 
mottes,  called  Islas  or  Isletas  de  monte.  Most  of  them 
were  thorny  aromas  and  aromitas  (perfumed  mimosas),  bear- 
ing purse- nets  that  swung  in  the  fresh  breath  of  morning, 
and  hung  with  fluffy  golden  balls,  whose  scent  recalled  the 
Fitnah  of  Egypt.  Many  were  leguminous,  especially  the 
algaroba — the  French  carroubier  and  the  carobbe  of  Italy — 
and  the  nandubay  (acacia  cavenia),  which  is  found  petrified 
in  the  Uruguay  waters.  Tillandsias  were  rampant  upon  the 
bough,  and  on  the  ferns  sat  pink-flowered  bromelias,  so  com- 
mon in  the  Brazil.  The  absence  of  inundation  was  shown 
by  huge  ant-hills,  low  domes  of  loose  dark  earth.  Where 
the  floods  did  not  extend  regularly  the  surface  was  spotted 
with  the  wax-palm  (Copernicia  conifera).  Its  fan-shaped 
and  thorn-fringed  leaves  were  those  of  the  curnahuba,  as  it 
appears  upon  the  Rio  de  Sao  Francisco ;  but  the  trunk  was 
prickly  only  in  the  upper  part,  denoting  a  diff"erence  of 
species.  Here  it  is  termed  carandai,  or  palma  blanca,  op- 
posed to  the  carandai-hu,  or  palma  negra.  Of  the  ^'  vege- 
tation rabougrie,^^  the  cactus  and  the  caraguata  bromelia  ap- 
peared to  be  the  most  general.  The  birds  were  the  anum 
(coprophagus),  ^partridges  f  a  large  woodpecker,  parroquets, 
and  vultures  soaring  in  search  of  carrion.  Three  snakes  lay 
dead  upon  the  path,  and  many  snailshells  were  scattered 
about. 

The  road  was  easily  told  by  broken-down  commissariat 
carts  and  dead  cattle ;  a  thousand  head  had  been  expended 
by  the  Brazilian  Government  between  Humaita  and  this 
place.  Here,  as  in  the  Brazil,  the  railway  must  take 
the  place  of  the  common  highway.      Further  on,  the  road 


TO  THE  BRAZILIAN  FRONT.  375 

became  worse ;  deep  bailados  had  to  be  passed  on  ox-skulls, 
billets  of  wood,  and  bundles  of  pressed  hay.  Of  these 
bridges  each  provedor  made  his  own,  and,  after  a  few  hours' 
use,  the  loads  floundered  through  the  mire.  Carts,  drawn 
by  six  to  eight  teams  of  bulls  or  bullocks,  were  tended  by 
drivers  on  foot  and  on  horseback,  goading  and  flogging  with 
shout  and  noise  even  louder  than  the  creakings  of  the 
greaseless  axles  ;  disputing  the  way,  and  not  unfrequently 
using  their  daggers.  The  noisiest  and  most  violent  w^ere 
the  negroes, 

"  a  black  infernal  train  : 
The  genuine  oflfspring  of  th'  accursed  Cain." 

After  trudging  northward  one  short  league  from  the 
Guardia  Tacuara,  I  found  a  long  field  of  black  viscid  mire 
which  led  to  the  Arroyo  del  Yacare — of  the  Cayman.  This 
is  a  streamlet  averaging  four  to  five  feet  deep,  and  about 
fifty  broad,  which,  after  forming  sundry  swamps,  discharges 
into  the  Tebicuary,  the  main  drain  of  the  valley.  Here 
carts  were  hopelessly  stuck,  and  wretched  bullocks,  with 
patient  faces,  slowly  dying  of  hunger  and  thirst,  sad- 
dened the  eye.  The  din  of  war  became  tremendous — all 
spoke,  none  listened.  The  pontoon  bridge  having  been 
removed,  I  persuaded  a  fellow,  by  means  of  a  dollar,  to  let 
me  cross  the  waist-deep  ford  upon  his  horse's  crupper. 

The  right  bank  of  the  Arroyo  showed  the  remnants  of 
earthworks.  To  this  point  extended  the  much  talked-of 
reconnaissance  made  (June  4,  1868 J  by  General  Menna 
Barreto.  That  dashing  officer,  with  3000  cavalry,  reaching 
the  Yacare  from  Tuyucue,  fell  in  with  and  cut  up  a  picquet 
of  some  50  Paraguayan  troopers,  Presently  a  larger  body  of 
Paraguayan  horse,  supported  by  infantry  and  backed  by  field 
fortifications,  coming  up,  he  was  compelled  to  retreat  with 
a  trifling  loss.  Such  is  the  Brazilian  account.  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Thompson  (Chap.  XX.)  gives  a  very  different  version. 


376  TO    THE    BRAZILIAN    FRONT. 

Beyond  the  Yacare  extends  east  and  west  along  the 
southern  bank  of  the  Tebicuary^  a  loQg  and  swelling  line  of 
loma^  broken  and  fronted  by  banados.  Upon  the  crest  of  the 
land-wave  stood  the  h  e  ad  quarter  s_,  and  below  it  the  tents 
of  the  body-guard.  This  was  a  mixed  corps  of  Brazilians 
and  foreigners^  commanded  by  a  Prussian  officer,,  Comman- 
dante  Meyer,  who  is  in  high  favour  and  well  spoken  of. 
The  Commander-in-Chief  had  occupied  the  Estancia  Yacare, 
or  de  la  P atria,  a  State  property,  or,  as  the  Brazilians 
called  it,  the  Fazenda  of  Marshal-President  Lopez.  Tt  was 
a  mere  Paraguayan  farmhouse,  a  stockade  surrounding  half 
a  dozen  ranchos  or  sheds,  and  rooms  walled  with  wattle  and 
dab.  Near  it  rose  a  very  solid  mangrullo,  whose  three  sets  of 
ladders  commanded  a  view  to  the  mouth  of  the  Tebicuary, 
distant  about  four  miles. 

A  few  orderly  officers,  seated  under  a  verandah  facing 
north,  eyed  me  as  the  pioii-piou  often  does  the  pekin.  My 
letters,  one  introductory  and  public  from  the  Coun- 
cillor Paranlios,  and  tlie  other  containing  a  few  private  lines 
from  certain  relatives,  were  delivered,  and  presently  an 
aide-de-camp  told  me  to  walk  in,  as  the  Commander-in-Chief 
was  visible. 

The  room  wore  an  aspect  of  Spartan  plainness  ;  its  only 
articles  of  furniture  were  a  few  chairs,  a  camp-bedstead,  and 
a  table  covered  with  foolscap,  clean  and  unclean.  The 
tenant  received  me  courteously,  not  cordially;  glanced  at 
the  letters,  ordered  "  du  PeFel,^''  which  we  drank,  a  la  Bresi- 
lienne,  in  silver  cups,  and  began  to  chat. 

The  "  octogenarian  lieutenant'^  numbers,  they  say,  seventy- 
two  summers,  and  appears  hale  and  vigorous  as  if  fifty-two. 
This  "  Rish  safed,'"*  or  whitebeard  of  the  Allied  army,  remark- 
ably resembles  the  excellent  portrait  of  the  late  Lord  Clyde  by 
the  late  Mr.  Phillips.  I  recognised  the  forehead  with  deep 
transverse  lines,  the  stiff  grey  hair,  the   white,  bristly  mus- 


TO    THE    BRAZILIAN    FRONT.  377 

tachiOj  the  hard  network  of  wrinkles  contrasting  with  the 
fresh,  ruddy  complexion,  and  the  trick  of  bending  slightly 
forwards  as  if  to  seek  information.  The  brow  of  the 
Generalissimo  is,  however,  narrower,  and  the  eyes  are  closer 
set.  Tough  and  spare,  well  knit,  and  of  moderate  height,  he 
can  endure  great  fatigue,  and  sit  his  horse  for  twelve  hours 
together. 

The  career  of  Marshal  Caxias  is  well  known  ;  at  least  in 
the  Brazil.  He  fought  at  Monte  Caseros  Feb.  3,  1852,  and 
the  next  year  he  was  employed  in  reducing  Monte  Video. 
He  has  ever  been  a  devoted  Conservative,  personally  hostile 
to  the  Liberal  party ;  and  he  took  the  field  against  them  in 
the  provinces  of  Sao  Paulo  and  Minas  Geraes.*  His  enemies 
openly  declare  that  he  would  not  strike  a  decisive  blow 
whilst  his  friends  were  out  of  office,  and  while  his  partisans 
were  being  recruited  in  a  lawless  manner.  It  is  hard  to 
say  of  any  general  that  he  wittingly  commits  high  treason : 
in  the  Brazil,  however,  men  are  not  particular,  and  the  army 
Marshal  has  certainly  given  a  handle  to  scandal.  I  have 
spoken  of  General  Osorio^s  success  at  Humaita,  and  I  shall 
have  to  speak  of  Marshal-President  Lopez'  escape  from  Loma 
Valentina.  Moreover,  the  Generalissimo  gave  up  his  high 
office  in  an  unofficer-like  way;  after  entering  Asuncion  he  de- 
clared that  the  war  was  ended,  that  he  had  fulfilled  his  en- 
gagement, and  that  he  was  determined  to  retire  on  a  certain 
day.  The  excuse  was  a  fainting-fit  caused  by  the  heat  of  a 
buttoned-up  uniform  at  mass ;  the  public  impression,  how- 
ever, was  that  his  illness  was  by  no  means  serious,  and, 
despite  all  official  honours,  he  had  no  honour  at  home. 

Like  "  Lord  Khabardar,''  Marshal  Caxias  has  been  ac- 
cused of  being  painfully  slow  in   his   military  movements. 


*  I  have  alluded  to  this  subject  in  Vol.  II.,  "  The  Highlands  of  the 
Brazil." 


378  TO    THE    BRAZILIAN    FRONT. 

His  friendsj  however,,  reply  that  if  slow  he  is  sure  ;  and 
that  he  has  never  failed  in  the  long  run  to  succeed. 
Again^  he  is  charged  with  great  arrogance^  and  with  being 
a  hater  of  foreigners.  His  entourage  of  mediocrities  is 
accounted  for  by  his  wishing  to  stand  alone  in  his  glory  ; 
he  objects  to  be  supplied  with  brains^  as  Marshal  Pelissier 
was  with  General  de  Martinprey.  Doubts  have  lately  been 
cast  upon  his  personal  gallantry^  but  these,  I  believe,  are 
simply  hostile  inventions.  He  aj)pears  to  want  initiative, 
the  power  of  sudden  action  ;  and  amongst  the  Paraguayans 
he  was  famed  for  selecting  the  strongest  point  to  attack. 
The  principal  merit  of  the  "  Wellington  of  South  America  " 
is  that  of  being  an  excellent  organizer.  Before  he  took 
charge,  the  Brazilian  army  was  in  the  worst  possible  condi- 
tion ;  now  it  can  compare  favourably  as  regards  the  appli- 
ances of  civilization  with  the  most  civilized. 

The  Commander-in-Chief  remarked  that  the  strength  of 
the  country,  and  the  temerity  of  the  enemy,  had  made  the 
campagna  a  war  sui  genei'is,  an  affair  of  earthworks,  a 
succession  of  sieges,  and  not  "  des  sieges  a  Veau  de  rose.'* 
He  compared  the  difficulties  of  obtaining  transport  with  those 
of  our  march  from  Silistria,  and  he  assured  me  that  the 
Brazilians  had  lost  by  cholera  four  hundred  men  in  one  day. 
He  estimated  his  disposable  men  (July  31)  at  28,000 — the 
general  opinion  being  35,000.  The  Paraguayans  might  be 
14,000,  which  the  chief  engineer  reduced  to  12,000. 
General  Gelly  i  Obes  increased  the  total  to  15,000,  and  was 
followed  by  the  Standard;  whilst  General  Urquiza  said 
20,000 — probably  the  most  correct  estimate.  He  repeated 
what  I  had  often  heard,  namely,  that  the  Paraguayan  bull- 
dogs, who  fight  so  fanatically  for  their  Marshal-President, 
and  who  die  rather  than  accept  quarter,  when  once  made 
prisoners,  and  well  treated,  generally  volunteer  to  serve 
against    El    Supremo ;  adding  that   he  preferred  deporting 


TO   THE   BRAZILIAN   FRONT.  370 

them  down  stream  to  encouraging  so  "  immoral  ^'  a  pro- 
ceeding. On  the  other  hand,  I  could  observe  that  none  of 
the  information  given  by  the  spies,  deserters,  or  captives  was 
ever  to  be  relied  upon,  especially  when  it  concerned  Marshal- 
President  Lopez.  Possibly  this  arose  from  the  fixed  belief 
that  their  country^s  cause  would  ultimately  be  successful, 
and  from  fear  of  engaging  in  open  treason ;  and  it  is  also 
probable  that,  once  made  prisoners,  they  do  not  want  to 
return.  Moreover,  they  have  found  out  that  they  are  ex- 
ceptionally well  treated  at  Rio  de  Janeiro  and  Sta.  Catherina. 
M.  Duchesne  de  Bellecourt  is  certainly  not  justified  in 
asserting  that  the  Brazil  applies  her  Paraguayan  prisoners 
to  painful  labour,  that  they  may  die  the  sooner  of  ^'  misery, 
or  nostalgia '' — these  men  are  certainly  not  made  of  such  soft 
stuff.  The  semi-"  Indians  "  affect,  when  under  examina- 
tion, a  peculiar  simplicity,  or  rather  stupidity  of  manner, 
which  effectually  conceals  their  cunning.  To  my  question 
about  the  battalions  of  women.  Marshal  Caxias  replied  that 
the  rumour  had  gone  abroad,  but  that  nothing  of  the  kind 
had  appeared  in  the  field. 

The  papers  salaried  by,  or  interested  in,  the  Brazilian 
cause  had  printed  upon  the  subject  of  '^  Amazons  ''  sundry 
solid  and  circumstantial  lies,  ending  by  way  of  colophon 
with  deductions  and  morals  squeezed  out  of  the  premisses 
which  they  had  themselves  invented.  It  is  amusing  enough 
to  see  at  the  same  time  El  Cabichui,  the  Punch  of  Para- 
guay, caricaturing  Her  Imperial  Majesty  the  Empress  of 
the  Brazil,  recruiting  and  reviewing  a  body  of  soldieresses 
intended  for  the  war. 

I  cannot  see  any  serious  objection  against  the  use  of 
feminine  troops,  especially  in  a  country  where,  as  in  Mexico 
and  other  parts  of  South  America,  it  is  said  El  Fraile,  the 
priest,  is  the  captain  of  the  gun,  and  the  woman  is  the 
gunner.       The   mythical   Amazons   were   the   first   cavalry. 


380  TO    THE   BRAZILIAN   FRONT. 

Amongst  the  Arabs  of  Chivalry^  the  Hadiyah^  a  young  girl 
of  good  family  and  chosen  for  courage,  rode  her  dromedary 
in  the  front  of  war,  "  stigmatizing  the  cowards  and  making 
braver  the  brave/'  Indeed,  the  Virgo  bellatrix  or  Vira 
belli,  has  always  been  an  institution  amongst  semi-barba- 
rous peoples.  The  ladies  of  Sienna  did  not  disdain  to  assume 
the  uniform.  The  Iberian  peninsula  has  supplied  some  select 
heroines,  witness  the  Padeira  of  Aljubarrota  and  the  artil- 
leryman^'s  widow,  known  to  history  as  the  Maid  of  Saragossa. 
In  South  America  the  sex  had  often  imitated  the  example 
of  the  Chilian  Araucanians,  whose  ranks  when  cleared  of 
males,  were  refilled  by  their  wives  and  sisters.  In  Peru, 
the  adjutant  of  a  certain  corps  summoned  at  roll-call  the 
women  of  Cochabamba,  who  were  headed  by  the  Governor's 
spouse.  "They  are  dead  upon  the  field  of  honour  !"  re- 
plied a  Serjeant.  D.  Juana  Azurduy,  wife  of  D.  Manuel 
Asencio  Padrilla,  took  at  Laguana,  with  her  own  hands,  the 
Spanish  banner.  In  England  we  have  heard  of  the  heroine 
concerning  whose  captain  it  was  sung, 

"  And  he  made  her  first  lieutenant 
Of  the  gallant  Thunder-bomb." 

In  the  Brazil  the  case  of  Maria  da  Ponte  and  of  many 
others,  proves  that  popular  enthusiasm  would  have  produced, 
if  encouraged,  a  copious  crop  of  feminine  volunteers. 

The  Paraguayan  woman  has  always  been  the  man  of 
the  family  ;  she  tilled  the  ground  and  she  got  in  the  crop. 
Enthusiastically  patriotic,  and  devoted  to  the  cause  of  the 
Marshal-President,  the  ladies  of  Asuncion  even  gave  up  to 
him  their  jewels,  just  as  the  Santiageilas,  in  1818,  stripped 
themselves  voluntarily  of  all  their  plate  as  an  offering  to  the 
safety  of  their  country.  As  young  women  in  Prussia  have 
lately  learned  to  tend  the  wounded  campaigners,  so  possibly 
their  sisters  in  Paraguay  formed,  when  men  began  to  be 
scarce,  an  army- works  corps,  and  perhaps  they  adopted  some 


TO   THE    BRAZILIAN    FRONT.  381 

quasi-military  dress.  But  the  arming  and  fighting  of  4000 
"  Amazons  "  ended  there.  I  should  have  been  strongly- 
tempted  by  the  remembranee  of  "  our  mothers/^  the  Ama- 
zo]is  of  Dahome,,  to  have  raised — when  the  guerilla  stage  of 
the  war  began — a  corps  d'armee  of  some  25^000^  and  to 
have  fallen  upon  Asuncion  and  other  half-defended  posts. 
I  would  also  have  been  answerable  for  the  success  of  the 
movement. 

The  Commander-in-Chief  ended  with  an  offer  of  horses 
and  sundry  courteous  expressions.  I  then  proceeded  to  the 
tent  occupied  by  the  Chief  of  Staff  and  a  relative  of  the 
Marshal^  Brigadier- General  Joao  de  Souza  da  Fonseca  Costa. 
He  was  a  handsome  soldier-like  man  of  thirty-eight  or  forty, 
with  slightly  greyish  hair  and  sympathetic  expression;  his 
aquiline  features  and  plain  uniform  gave  him  the  look  of  a 
United  States  officer.  He  told  me  of  the  affair  which,  as 
the  booming  of  the  guns  proved,  was  actually  going  on. 
The  Brazilians  were  clearing  the  tete  de  pont,  a  straight  cur- 
tain with  cunettes  that  defended  the  neck  of  the  Albardon 
or  land-point  projected  from  the  right  bank  of  the  Tebi- 
cuary  river.  Here  is  the  main  pass  which  leads  across 
the  stream  to  the  Estancia  of  San  Fernando,  where  the 
President  of  Paraguay,  after  quitting  Humaita,  established 
his  headquarters  in  March,  1868.  The  Brazilians  succeeded 
(August  28)  with  a  total  ioss  of  203  officers  and  men  killed 
and  wounded.  Marshal-President  Lopez  sacrificed  on  this 
occasion  seven  officers  and  seventy-four  men  killed,  five 
officers  and  105  men  wounded,  and  three  guns,  of  which 
one  was  rifled,  without  mentioning  horses  and  cattle.  He 
is  not  only  a  general  a  dix  mille  hommes  par  semaine,  he 
seems  to  take  a  pride  in  this  unmeaning,  hopeless  waste  of 
life.      Yet  he  cannot  afford  to  expend  a  drummer-boy. 

An  orderly  then  led  me  to  the  tent  of  Lieutenant-Colonel 
R.  A.  Chodasiewicz,  now  in  the  Braziliaj)  engineers.     When^ 


382  TO   THE   BRAZILIAN    FRONT. 

in  May  1853^  a  certain  Prince  GortschakofF,  leading  a 
miglity  host  across  the  Pruth^  occupied  Wallachia,  and 
awoke  Europe  by  the  roar  of  the  cannon  at  01tenitza_,  he 
thought  fitj  being  a  Pole,  to  quit  the  Kussian  army. 
He  was  made  a  captain  in  the  Secret  Service  Department 
of  the  British  Crimean  force,  and  he  still  possesses  the 
commission  and  the  medal  granted  to  "  Captain  Robert 
Hodasiwich  '' — the  simplified  form  of  the  name.  In  1857, 
going  to  England,  he  published  "  A  Voice  from  the  Walls 
of  Sevastopol/^  and  then  he  went  further  afield.  He  served 
with  the  Turks  during  their  campaign  in  El  Hcjaz,  and 
afterwards,  becoming  a  citizen  of  Philadelphia,  he  fought  in 
the  ranks  of  the  Federal  army.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
Paraguayan  war  he  joined  the  Argentine  service  as  a  major, 
and  he  narrowly  escaped  with  his  life  at  the  "  battle  of 
Acayuasa."*^  Nothing  saved  him  in  that  sauve  qui  pent  but 
his  presence  of  mind  :  he  threw  himself  into  the  bush  and 
allowed  the  enemy  to  rush  past  him  in  pursuit  of  the 
fugitives.  As  the  Argentines  would  not  pay  him — they 
still  owe  300/. — he  transferred  his  services  to  Marshal 
Caxias,  who  was  sensible  enough  to  appreciate  them. 

Lieutenant-Colonel  Chodasiewicz  received  an  order  from 
the  Generalissimo  to  show  me  his  surveys  of  the  forts,  his 
plans  of  the  first  campaign,  and  his  projects  for  the  future. 
I  only  hope  that  His  Imperial  Majesty  of  the  Brazil  will 
cause  these  excellent  illustrations  to  be  printed  on  a  large 
scale,  with  detailed  letter-press.  Thus  alone  can  this  most 
memorable  campaign  be  made  thoroughly  intelligible  to  the 
present  generation  and  to  posterity. 

At  breakfast,  under  the  little  tent,  the  ex-British  officer — 
whose  nickname,  by-the-bye,  is  *^  O  Balao  '' — gave  me  some 
details  touching  the  balloons  which  had  been  tried  in  the 
earlier  part  of  the  campaign.  The  first  of  these  articles 
was  brought   by   P.  L.  D.  Doyen.      It  cost  ten  contos  of 


TO  THE  BRAZILIAN  FRONT.  383 

Reis  (say  1000/.),  and  was  made  of  silk :  the  dimensions 
were  19.8  metres  in  length  by  12.6  in  diameter :  the  total 
weight  was  395  lbs.  (viz.  250  silk  +  25  basket-boat  +  120 
netting) ;  it  was  973  kilogrammes  lighter  than  the  atmo- 
sphere, and  it  was  easily  managed  by  four  men.  Unfor- 
tunately, it  was  utterly  spoilt  by  being  burnt  in  varnishing. 

Messrs.  James  Allen  and  Brother,  citizens  of  the  United 
States,  afterwards  brought  two  balloons,  which  were  both 
"  captive  "^ — the  '^  free  ^^  form  was  not  tried  here.  One 
was  small.  The  other  measured  12  metres  +  9,  weighed 
143-59  kilogrammes  (viz.,  5920  silk  +  9*15  boat  +  1377 
ballast -h  39*47  netting,  and +22*0  for  the  strong  stays),  and 
its  specific  gravity  was  190*37  kilogrammes  lighter  than  air. 
It  was  so  constructed  as  to  become  a  parachute  if  struck 
by  a  shot.  The  hydrogen  was  made  with  flakes  and  filings 
of  thin  iron,  placed  in  two  connected  wooden  tanks,  and 
presenting  the  greatest  amount  of  surface  to  the  diluted 
sulphuric  acid.  The  latter  came,  like  the  tanks  and  bottles, 
from  New  York. 

This  balloon  effected  some  fourteen  or  fifteen  ascents  at 
Tuyu-ti  and  Tuyu-cue.  It  rose  from  twelve  to  eighteen 
metres,  and  Lieutenant-Colonel  Chodasiewicz,  who  accom- 
panied the  owners,  could  easily  discern  that  Marshal-Presi- 
dent Lopez  had  about  200  guns  in  position  and  100  field- 
pieces.  After  it  had  made  the  first  profile  reconnaissances, 
the  Paraguayans  began  to  fire  at  it;  and  they  fired  so  well 
that  a  shell  burst  within  fifty  yards  of  the  boat.  They 
presently  learned  to  defeat  its  object  by  burning  large  piles 
of  damp  grass.  Presently  Major,  or  Doctor,  Amaral — here 
all  engineers  are  doctors  (of  mathematics) — finding  the  sway 
of  the  wind  a  somewhat  nervous  matter,  reported  it  useless, 
and  the  Aliens  took  their  departure.  The  Generalissimo 
did  not  approve  of  the  moveable  mangrullo — a  Cossack 
revival,,  proposed  to  him  by  the  Polish  engineer. 


S84  TO    THE    BRAZILIAN    FRONT. 

I  took  the  opportunity  of  calling  upon  Crigadier-General 
the  Barao  do  Triumpho.  A  son  of  Rio  Grande  do  Sul, 
though  upwards  of  sixty  years  old  and  six  feet  in  height,,  he 
is  celebrated  as  the  best  horseman  of  the  Brazilian  army. 
He  could  sit  without  stirrups  any  "  bucker,  ''  and  use  his 
sabre  as  if  on  foot  with  two  pieces  of  money  between  his 
thighs  and  the  saddle.  After  a  glorious  career^  he  died  on 
December  21^  1868,  of  a  typhus  fever  and  a  complication 
of  disorders  supervening  upon  a  slight  wound  received  at 
the  Loma  Valentina.  Some  months  afterwards,  when  visiting 
Asuncion,  I  unexpectedly  saw  his  unfinished  tomb,  inscribed 
"  O  Barao  do  Triumpho/''  No  man  was  more  regretted, 
and  Marshal  Caxias  justly  called  him  "  O  bravo  dos  bravos 
do  exercito  Brazileiro." 

"  We  hang  this  garland  on  his  grave." 

I  also  missed  General  da  Motta,  a  ripe  Guarani  scholar, 
who  could  have  assisted  me  in  explaining  Paraguayan  names 
of  geographical  features.  All  are  significant,  and  deserving 
of  record.  It  will  be  a  pity  to  imitate  Chile,  which  has 
forgotten  the  meanings  of  Aconcagua  and  Tupungato. 

En  revanche,  I  saw  General  Osorio,  commanding  the  third 
corps  d'armee,  the  most  popular  man  and  the  most  brilliant 
officer  in  the  Allied  army.  He  was  made  Barao  do  Herval 
because  he  first  landed  upon  the  shores  of  Paraguay  proper, 
and  his  subsequent  services  qualified  him  to  become  a  Vis- 
conde.  The  title,  I  may  explain,  is  taken  from  the  Serra 
do  Herval — of  the  mate-tea  plantation :  it  lies  in  lat.  32° 
south,  and  is  a  continuation  of  the  Serra  Geral  of  Parana, 
whose  eastern  declivities  have  many  "  hervales." 

General  Osorio  was  lodged  in  a  small  thatched  house,  a 
little  to  the  west  of  the  headquarter  farm.  An  orderly 
took  in  my  card,  and  I  found  him  sitting  with  a  few  friends. 
He  was   slippered  and   suffering  from  osthexy,  and  thus  he 


TO  THE  BRAZILIAN  FRONT.  385 

is  compelled  to  be  driven  about — no  small  mortification. 
After  seeinf^  so  much  of  half-civilian  oHiccrs,  it  was  a  plea- 
sui'e  to  hear  his  soldierly  greeting,  "  Entre,  caballcro  '/'  and 
the  cordiality  of  his  manners  made  me  at  once  incline 
towards  him.  He  is  a  stout,  portly  man  of  fifty  to  fifty- 
two,  with  the  noble  bearing  of  the  Rio  Grandense  gentle- 
man. Despite  grey  hair  and  beard,  his  eye  is  bright  and 
young;  and  his  straight,  handsome  features  bear  the  frankest 
and  most  kindly  expression.  He  is  the  only  general  uni- 
versally loved  and  respected  by  the  Argentines  as  well  as 
the  Brazilians,  and  this  popularity  has,  it  is  said,  excited 
the  jealousy  of  his  chief — certainly  General  Osorio^s  name 
does  not  appear  in  orders  as  it  deserves  to  appear.  He 
is  brave  to  temerity ;  horse  after  horse  has  been  shot  under 
him,  and  the  soldiers  declare  that  he  bears  a  charmed  life, 
and  shakes  after  battle  the  bullets  out  of  his  poncho.  The 
Brazil  need  never  despair  of  success  when  she  can  show 
such  a  noble  example  of  gallantry  and  spirit  as  General 
Osorio. 

It  was  early  in  the  day,  and  I  had  not  broken  fast  when 
the  Generars  servant  brought  me  half  a  tumblerful  of  gin 
in  a  silver  mug.  It  would  hardly  have  been  soldier-like  to 
hang  fire  in  presence  of  the  commander  of  the  third  corjjs 
d'armee,  more  especially  as  another  "  tot "  was  handed  to 
him.  He  complained  of  his  legs,  but  declared  that  they 
should  not  force  him  from  Paraguay  till  the  last  moment. 
A  cloud  came  over  his  countenance  as  he  spoke  of  his 
crippled  state.  Moreover,  he  anticipated  but  little  difficulty 
in  a  campaign  beyond  the  Tebicuary,  where  the  land  is  solid 
and  the  fighting  would  be  straightforward.  Ill-omened 
words  !  The  worst  action  was  yet  to  come,  and  he  was 
fated  to  be  shot  through  the  mouth  at  the  Loma  Yalentina. 
After  December  11,  1868,  he  was  compelled,  by  exfoliation 
of  the  palate  bone,  to  revisit  his  native  province.      He  re- 

25 


386  TO    THE    BRAZILIAN    FRONT. 

mained  there,  however,  for  the  shortest  possible  time,  and 
he  at  once  returned  to  take  part  in  the  closing  scene  of  Act 
No.  2. 

In  the  cool  of  the  evening  we  strolled  about  the  camp, 
to  see  what  we  could.  Women — Brazilian  mulatresses  and 
Argentine  "  Chinas" — seemed  to  abound.  Almost  all  were 
mounted  en  Amazone,  and  made  conspicuous  by  mushroom 
straw  hats,  with  the  usual  profusion  of  beads  and  blossoms. 
They  distinguish  themselves  as  the  hardest  riders,  and  it  is 
difficult  to  keep  them  out  of  fire.  They  are  popularly 
numbered  at  4000,  but  this  surely  must  be  an  exaggera- 
tion. It  is  bad  enough  to  have  any  at  all.  Some  of  them 
have  passed  through  the  whole  campaign,  and  these  "  brevet 
captains  "  must  fill  the  hospitals.  My  Brazilian  friends 
declared  them  to  be  a  necessary  evil.  I  can  see  the  evil, 
but  not  the  necessity.  Anything  more  hideous  and  revolting 
than  such  specimens  of  femininity  it  is  hard  to  imagine. 

The  artillery  park  stood  to  the  north-west  of  the  head- 
quarters. I  counted  twenty  Whitworths — all  kept  in  apple- 
pie  order,  as  if  by  Hindu  gunners.  We  saw  the  men  of  a 
field  battery  preparing  to  march  with  their  twelve  guns  : 
larger  and  stronger  than  the  soldiers  of  the  line,  they  were 
very  heavily  laden.  They  are  said  to  equal  Paraguayans 
on  the  plain,  but  their  enemies  seldom  meet  them  without 
throwing  up  an  earthwork  covering. 

The  Brazilian  cavalry,  the  "  eyes,  feelers,  and  feeders  of 
the  army,"  were  here  in  as  good  condition  as  those  whom  I 
saw  at  Humaita.  The  Carbineers  had  mostly  the  Spencer 
rifle,  and  had  learned  to  use  it  tolerably  w^ell.  They  wore 
upon  the  chest  the  cartridge  belts  which,  after  becoming 
obsolete  in  Europe  and  confined  to  Turks  and  Arnauts,  are 
now  being  revived  by  the  breechloader.  The  regiments  con- 
sist of  400  men,  as  did  those  of  the  Paraguayans  before  the 
war ;  but  the  latter  gradually  dwindled  out  of  existence. 


TO    THE    BRAZILIAN    FRONT.  387 

The  Brazilian  infantry — as  lias  been  the  case  with  certain 
Continental  armies,  and  happily  not  of  ours — appeared  to  be 
the  refuse  of  the  other  arms.  The  veteran  who  commands 
well  knows  how  to  handle  them  ;  he  always  masses  his  men 
in  heavy  columns,,  and  he  gives  the  enemy  an  ''  indigestion 
de  negres/^  generally  sending  20,000  to  attack  7000.  Mr. 
Consul  Hutchinson  ( "  The  Parana,  with  Incidents  of  the 
Paraguayan  War,  and  South  American  Revolutions  from 
1861  to  1868  ")  gives  the  portrait  of  a  certain  Sergeant 
Gonzalez,  who, 

"  Terrible  de  port,  de  moustache,  et  de  cceur," 

fought,  single-handed,  ten  men.  Negroes,  however,  will  ad- 
vance when  they  are  led,  and  these  men  become,  after  their 
blood  is  warmed,  '^  teimosos  "  (stubborn  and  obstinate)  as  the 
Egyptians,  who  proved  themselves  such  good  soldiers  in  the 
Mexican  campaign.  But  at  all  times  the  officer  must  say 
*'  Venite,  non  ite,''''  like  those  of  our  Sepoy  corps,  whose  dis- 
proportionate loss,  compared  with  the  officers  of  home  regi- 
ments, has  often  been  commented  npon. 

The  battalions  began  with  being  600  to  700  strong,  and 
the  light  infantry  500  ;  they  may  now  average  400  to  500. 
The  Paraguayans  originally  numbered  the  same,  but  soon 
fell  off  to  half.  Perhaps  the  most  distinguished  corps  was 
the  7th  Paulista  Volunteers.  In  the  first  flush  of  the  war 
it  was  joined  by  men  of  family  and  fortune,  till  it  melted 
away  amongst  the  swamps  and  fens  of  Lower  Paraguay.  It 
took  part  in  almost  every  great  action,  till  death  and  sickness 
so  reduced  it  that  the  remnant  was  incorporated  with  other 
regiments.  Amongst  the  number  was  an  ex-officer  of  the 
British  Navy,  Alferez  (Ensign)  John  King,  who  had  been 
transferred  to  the  53rd  Volunteers.  I  made  inquiries  about 
him,  but  he  was  not  to  be  found,  having  been  Iv^ounded  in  a 
late  action  and  left  in  the  Humaita  hospital. 

25—2 


388  TO    THE    BRAZILIAN    FRONT. 

As  a  rule^  the  Brazilians  rejected  foreigners^  and  they  did 
right  in  preferring  to  fight  their  own  battles.  At  the  be- 
ginning of  the  war  the  Empire  might  easily  have  enlisted 
experienced  officers  fresh  from  the  Southern  States,  and 
these  would  soon  have  provided  her  with  men.  Foreign 
legions  have  been  repeatedly  proposed  and  rejected ;  in  this 
the  Brazil  certainly  chose  the  nobler  part_,  and  her  spirit  and 
consistency  under  the  most  adverse  circumstances  will  ever 
be  remembered  in  her  honour. 

Besides  Mr.  King,  1  knew  of  four  English  subjects  that 
were  allowed  to  enlist.  One  was  a  runaway  Maltese  sailor ; 
another  was  a  mutinous  British  seaman  who  had  been  im- 
prisoned for  the  trifling  off^ence  of  ''  cutting  '^  (i.e.  stabbing) 
the  cook  ;  and  the  other  two  were  ne^er-do-weels,  apparently 
of  respectable  family,  who  had  absconded  from  their  ship  at 
Rio  de  Janeiro.  Each  of  these  received  the  normal  $200, 
the  price  of  a  substitute,  and  one  of  them  addressed  to  me 
sundry  insolent  letters,  claiming  British  protection,  and 
threatening  to  "  write  to  the  Times  "  if  I  failed  to  procure 
his  discharge.  His  sole  reason  for  claiming  it  was  that  he 
had  twice  deserted  from  the  English  Army. 

I  have  instructed  you  upon  the  matter  of  Brazilian  rations. 
The  men  are  also  well  dressed.  Their  fatigue  suits  are 
blouses  and  overalls  of  brown  drill,  besides  the  kepi  and 
strong  highlows ;  in  grand'  tenue  they  wear  tunics  and  pants 
of  good  broadcloth,  with  red  facings  and  black  leathers — 
pipe-clay  not  being  here  a  favourite.  On  the  march  they 
carry  light  knapsacks,  and  wear  white  forage  caps  with  red 
bands,  and  white  or  blue  trousers,  tucked  up,  not  tucked  in. 
Amongst  them  I  saw  the  disgraceful  spectacle  of  soldiers 
begging.  And  yet  the  pay  of  the  linesman  is  fixed  at  $6 
(say  twelve  shillings)  per  mensem,  whilst  the  volunteer  has 
$30.  In  the  United  States  war  the  men  drew  about  the 
same  ($16) ;  but  here  half  only  is  given  in  cash,  and  the 


TO    THE    RRAZILIAN    FRONT.  381) 

rest  is  made  to  pay  the  etapa  or  etape^,  rations,  and  other 
necessaries.  Hence  many  assured  me  that  they  received 
only  a  dollar  and  a  half  per  mensem,  and  that  even  this  was 
irregularly  paid.  The  officers  appeared  to  have  full  pockets, 
and  the  pedlars  made  little  fortunes  by  selling  silver  spoons, 
mugs,  and  similar  notions.  The  campaign  is  everywhere 
termed  a  ''  guerra  de  negocios,^^  a  war  upon  the  Brazilian 
Treasury  ;  and  many  are  said  to  make  money  out  of  the  un- 
happy soldier.  The  War-upon-the-Treasury  system  is  known 
to  us  as  to  other  people.  Witness  Mr.  Calvert,  with  his 
little  gang  of  thieves,  at  the  Dardanelles ;  he  was  supported 
at  home  till  he  began  to  insure  non-existing  ships.  Here, 
however,  it  is  believed  that,  with  some  brilliant  exceptions^ 
no  rank  is  free  from  corruption  ;  and  it  is  popularly  asserted 
that,  whilst  he  had  money.  Marshal- President  Lopez  could 
purchase  from  his  enemies  whatever  he  wanted. 

I  had  taken  a  letter  of  introduction,  by  no  means  one  of 
the  least  useful,  to  Sor  Leonardo  Mendoza,  an  employe  of 
the  Commissariat  Department.  All  the  "  provedores,"  with 
whom  contracts  were  made  at  so  much  a  head,  are  under 
an  Intendente — Commissary-General  and  Chief  of  the  Re- 
parti9ao  Fiscal  (Treasury)  and  the  Caisse  Militaire.  The 
first  arrangements  were  concluded  with  Messrs.  Cabal  (of 
Santa  Fe)  and  Benitez,  who  gave  general  satisfaction.  In 
those  days,  however,  pasto  or  fodder  w^as  little  required. 
About  three  years  ago  they  were  succeeded  by  Messrs.  Lezica 
and  Lanuz,  of  Buenos  Aires,  who,  as  ^^  fornecidores  ^^  for  the 
Brazilian  and  Argentine  Armies,  fairly  amassed  large  fortunes. 
At  the  same  time,  Messrs.  Cabal  and  Bravo  (a  supposed 
partner)  supplied  the  pressed  hay,  till,  on  March  21,  1869, 
this  contract  was  taken  up  by  Messrs.  Molina  and  Co. ;  the 
latter  have  not  found  it  pay.  Besides  these  great  houses, 
there  were  many  Brazilian  and  other  ^'  fornecidores,^^  each 
of  whom  has  '^  made  his  pile.^' 


390  TO    THE    BRAZILIAN    FRONT, 

The  waste  appeared  extensive  even  to  an  eye  familiar  with 
the  loss  and  recklessness  of  the  Crimean  campaign.  Boxes 
of  preserved  sugar  were  spread  upon  mats  in  the  high  wind, 
and  bales  of  yerba  (tightly  packed  in  hides,  each  weighing 
225  lbs.)  were  chopped  open,  allowing  half  the  dust  to  fly 
away.  T.  &  F.  MartelFs  cognac  flowed  like  water,  and 
AUsopp  and  Tennent  were  more  common  than  tea. 

I  dined  with  the  employes  of  the  Proveduria  in  their 
large  tent,  and  heard  a  fine  collection  of  camp  boias  and 
cucos,  "  shaves^^  and  "  yarns."  Chauvin  and  Dumanet  are 
well-known  characters  here.  The  "  Amazons'*^  were  on  the 
line  of  the  Tebicuary  River,  and  on  July  21th,  some  7000 
of  them  had  mutinied.  The  Bishop  was  in  jail.  General 
Resquin  was  the  only  superior  officer  not  shot  by  Marshal- 
President  Lopez,  who  was  killing  forty  to  fifty  per  diem. 
The  Paraguayan  forces  were  composed  of  14,000,  chiefly 
boys,  and  all  were  dying  for  want  of  salt.  Caceres  and  ex- 
Governor  Lopez  (another  Lopez)  were  marching  upon 
Corrientes ;  the  women  of  Entre  Bios  were  herding  cattle, 
whilst  5000  of  the  men  were  proceeding  under  General 
Jordan  to  aid  the  two  traitors.  All  severely  blamed  a 
circumstance  which  had  lately  occurred.  Two  troopers  be- 
longing to  the  Barao  do  Triumpho^s  command  had  bravely 
swum  across  the  Tebicuary  River,  and  at  imminent  risk 
had  reconnoitred  San  Fernando.  Instead  of  being  made 
sergeants  or  receiving  the  V.  C.,  they  had  been  tipped  with 
two  sovereigns,  one  from  Marshal  Caxias,  the  other  from 
General  Fonseca. 

I  slept  comfortably  in  M.  Mendoza's  tent,  and  after 
coming  to  the  front  on  foot,  I  returned  on  horseback. 
Adieu. 


LETTEE  XXI. 

TO   THE   TEBICUARY    RIVER. 

Off  the  Tebicuary  River,  September  3,  1868. 

My  dear  Z , 

On  September  Ist^  at  2  p.m.^  the  Brazilian 
sqnadron  moved  up  to  the  mouth  of  the  l^ebicuary,  whose 
line  had  lately  been  abandoned  by  Marshal-President  Lopez. 
The  Linnets  resolved,  before  following-  their  example, 
to  honour  the  day  by  spending  it  amongst  what  Anglo- 
Indians  call  the  "  janwars.^''  We  heard  shots  all  around 
as  if  we  had  been  in  Western  Europe,  but  here  '^  sport^^  was 
accompanied  by  much  tailoring  and  wounding  of  game. 

The  river  views  above  Tacuara  are  of  the  loveliest,  a  vista 
of  successive  lakes,  diversified  with  isles  and  islets,  with 
coves  and  inlets,  soft  as  the  scenery  of  a  West  African 
stream.  The  vegetation  consists  of  the  normal  gnarled  hard- 
wood trees,  diversified  by  tall  figs  and  a  palm  resembling 
the  well-known  cabbage-palm  yatai  (Areca  oleracea)  :  the 
undergrowth  is  a  lively-looking  broom,  a  composite,  in  the 
Brazil  called  "  vassoura.^"*  The  frechilla  or  arrow-caue 
grass,  whicli  much  resembles  the  uba  (a  saccJiarum)  of  the 
Empire,  shelters  prodigious  clouds  of  insects,  especially 
sandflies ;  it  also  supplies  an  oat-like  seed  said  to  fatten 
cattle  as  well  as  alfalfa. 

We  began  by  operating  upon  the  caymans,  with  which 
the  banks  swarmed  :  one  of  them  was  seen  floating  with 
bleached  body  and  supine  like  a  woman,  whilst  a  vulture  was 
pulling  at  it  as  though  the  Paraguay  had  been  the  corpse- 
bearing  bosom  of  Mother  Ganges.      The  "  yacare^' — in  the 


392  TO   THE   TEBICUARY    RIVER. 

Tupi  "  jacare^^ — is  said  to  be  largest  and  fiercest  about  the 
Laguua  Piris.  The  red  species_,  confined  to  the  marshes  of 
the  interior^  and  known  to  devour  children,  is  probably  the 
"  papo  amarello  (yellow  throat)  of  the  Brazil.  When  we 
had  collected  enough  hide  to  make  alligator  boots,  we  soon 
wearied  of  blowing  off  the  skullcaps  of  the  big  lizards. 
One  full-grown  specimen  gave  us  a  little  excitement :  the 
crew  of  the  captain's  gig  took  it  in,  and,  luckily  enough, 
lashed  it  tightly  by  both  ends  to  the  thwarts.  Presently 
Jacare  began  to  recover,  and  soon  afterwards  he  became 
lively  enough,  causing  much  merriment  by  clapping  his  fine 
set  of  teeth  and  wagging  his  tail,  which  had  a  raised  crest 
like  the  eel's. 

We  then  began  to  operate  upon  the  water-hog,  known  in 
the  Urazil  as  capivarha  or  capibara,  and  here  capincho — 
not  carpincho.  Its  soft  and  highly  porous  leather  is  a 
favourite  tor  the  tirador  or  drawer,  a  belt  universally 
worn,  and  best  bought  at  special  shops.  It  is  so  called 
because  the  lasso  is  held  against  it  to  prevent  the  man's 
side  being  cut  by  the  dragging  of  the  hide  rope.  The  next 
idea  was  to  support  the  loins  when  riding,  for  which  purpose 
it  is  made  six  inches  broad  and  even  wider.  Three  pockets 
with  flaps  were  added,  so  as  to  act  as  purse,  portfolio,  and 
cigarette-case.  Lastly,  came  the  ornamentation,  a  compli- 
cated affair.  The  usual  style  is  to  have  front  buttons  com- 
posed of  the  various  dollars  from  Spain  to  Mexico,  and  in 
some  cases  the  leather  is  hidden  by  a  scale-armour  of  silver 
overlapping  like  the  armadillo's.  Englishmen  sometimes 
send  for  plates  engraved  with  their  crests — not  unlike  car- 
rying about  one's  card.  One  man  whom  you  know  used,  by 
way  of  buckle,  electrotyped  facsimiles  of  his  medals.  He 
was  threatened  with  death  at  the  hand  of  the  Gaucho,  who 
always  covets  everything  new  in  the  shape  of  accoutrements ; 
but  he  was  careful  to  carry  his  revolver  to  the  fore. 


TO    THE    TEBICUARY    RIVER.  393 

"  Capinchos/'  we  are  assured  by  the  South  American 
Pilot  (p.  194),  "are  about  the  size  of  our  pigs,  and  their 
flesh  is  of  fair  taste,  but  they  are  reported  as  being  un- 
healthy/' Captain  Page  (p.  93)  found  the  carpincha's 
savoury  odour  very  tempting,  and  seems  to  have  enjoyed  it. 
In  this  subtropical  climate  the  boatmen  eat  the  hydro- 
chserus,  of  course  when  young.  These  porcines  live  upon 
vegetable  substances,  and  here  represent  the  hippopotamus. 
They  are  larger  than  in  the  Brazil;  I  have  seen  one  old 
hog  weighing  130,  and  I  heard  of  J^OO  lbs. ;  the  male  may 
average  100,  and  the  female  90  lbs.  My  10/.  householder 
on  board  the  Arno  told  me  that  he  had  shot  capinchos  as 
big  as  cows.  Irritated  by  an  expression  of  dissent,  he  as- 
sured us  that  it  was  his  project  to  establish  a  graseria  for 
extracting  the  fat  of  the  said  water-hog;  he  might  as  well 
have  talked  of  building  a  boiling-house  for  grizzly  bears  in 
the  Rocky  Mountains. 

This  excess  of  imagination  supports  a  theory  which  long 
ago  I  had  worked  out  upon  the  North  American  prairies. 
The  Pampa  plains,  immense  and  limitless,  those  mysterious 
sea-like  horizons  of  the  solid  land,  stimulate  the  fancy  like 
the  unknown,  and  cause  her  to  express  herself  in  glowing 
language  and  exaggerated  ideas.  Such  is  the  inspiration  of 
the  Argentine  poet.  On  the  other  hand,  the  paucity  of 
objects  upon  which  the  eye  of  sense  can  rest,  the  grand 
monotony  of  general,  and  the  dwarfing  of  animal  nature — 
here  seals  take  the  place  of  whales — compel  the  brain  or  mind 
to  seek  a  stimulus  within  itself.  "  How  bridle  the  imagi- 
natioDs,'''  says  President  Sarmiento  (Life  in  the  Argen- 
tine Republic)  "  of  those  who  inhabit  an  illimitable  plain, 
bordered  by  a  river  whose  opposite  bank  cannot  be  seen  V 
Hence,  in  the  prairies,  we  read  of  a  man  riding  a  hundred 
miles  to  accoucher  of  a  lie.  We  find  upon  the  Pampas 
the   same  phenomenon  in  an  exaggerated  form.      The  glo- 


394  TO   THE   TEBICUARY   HIVER. 

rious,  unblushing,,  unmitigated  ''  economists  of  truth  /' 
Kit  Carson  himself  would  have  "  kow-towed  "  to  them  ! 

And,  curious  to  say,  great  mountains  have  the  same 
moral  eflPect  upon  those  living  in  their  recesses.  The  moun- 
tain is  nearer  and  dearer  to  man  than  the  plain.  JHe 
dwells  in  the  bosom  of  his  hills — his  hand  can  almost  touch 
the  horizon  of  his  world.  Thus  with  him  also,  the  visible 
has  little  of  variety;  his  imagination  is  excited  by  the 
aspect  of  the  greater  heights  which  he  does  not  inhabit,  and 
which  often  he  cannot  visit.  I  found  the  Andine  liar  by 
no  means  inferior  to  him  of  Pampasia. 

Return  we  to  our  hogs,  which  looked  like  a  blending  of 
the  guinea-pig  and  the  hare.  With  bluff  muzzles  and  brown 
skins  they  stared  at  us  anxiously,  and  not  without  a  comic 
air  of  defiance.  Lieutenant-Commander  Bushe,  having  ex- 
hausted his  bullets,  tried  at  close  quarters  a  charge  of  buck- 
shot, which  only  made  the  pachyderms  wriggle  in  their  leaps 
like  vicious  mules.  The  crew  sighted,  in  our  absence,  a 
ciervo  (stag),  which,  at  a  distance,  they  mistook  for  a  horse. 
This  is  the  cua9U  guazu,  or  cua9u  pucu,  the  big,  or  long 
deer  (C.  paludosus),  that  haunts  river  banks;  a  fine  animal 
with  reddish-yellow  coat,  good  for  rugs.  Though  uneatable, 
it  is  the  noblest  game  in  this  region.  Mr.  Darwin  was 
fortunate,  when  failing  to  shoot,  he  drove  off  the  ciervo  by 
throwing  stones  :  the  male  deer  is  apt,  at  seasons,  to 
charge  home  with  its  large  horns,  and  an  onslaught  might 
have  left  the  glorious  Darwinian  theory  in  its  earliest  stage 
of  development. 

There  are  three  other  kinds  of  deer,  which  all  give  good 
meat.  The  cua9u  mini  (small  stag)  prefers  plains,  whilst 
the  cuagu  pita  (Cervus  rufus)  and  the  cuafiibira,  or  cabra 
de  los  bosques,  is  generally  found  in  the  woods.  Mborevi 
(the  tapir)  la  grande  bete,  the  largest  of  South  American 
ruminants,  has  been  killed  out ;  and  guara  or  Aguara,  the 


TO    THE    TEBICUAUY    RIVER.  395 

wild  dog,  fancifully  described  by  the  ancieuts  as  half  wolf, 
half  bear,  is  uo  longer  common.  Ounces  (jaguars)  are 
numerous  as  in  the  sporting  grounds  of  the  Brazil  :  they 
live  in  the  islands,  and  dine  upon  the  capinehos.  I  in- 
quired about  the  black  ounce,  a  rare  variety,  which  seems 
to  correspond  with  the  black  leopard  of  the  Niger.  The 
jaguar-ete-hun  is  very  uncommon  and  expensive  in  the 
Brazil;  during  my  three  years  of  residence  I  saw  only  one 
skin — black,  like  a  cat's,  with  red  spots  perceptible 
only  in  the  light  :  it  was  said  to  have  been  brought 
from  Northern  Paraguay.  In  these  parts  the  people  ignore 
it,  and  the  only  Englishman  who  could  tell  me  anything 
about  it  was  Mr.  Bichard  Hughes,  of  Paysandii.  The 
albino  ounce  is  as  uncommon  as  its  negro  brother.  Chin- 
chilla rats  are  said  to  be  found  here,  but,  as  in  the  Banda 
Oriental,  the  skins  are  not  valuable  :  they  are  well  developed 
only  in  the  frigid  regions.  Very  common,  however,  is  the 
opossum  (didelphus),  the  gamba  of  the  Brazil  and  the 
comadrija  of  the  Plate,  known  to  the  Guaranis  as  micure  : 
it  is  a  deadly  enemy  to  poultry.  The  viscacha  (lagostomus 
visaccia)  is  unknown  :  it  has  never  crossed  the  Paraguay 
river,  whilst  the  Pampas,  to  the  west,  are  riddled  by  it. 
Several  times  I  saw  the  nutria  (otter),  a  term  also  applied 
to  the  seal  and  to  the  sea-lion  (otis)  :  it  is  probably  of  two 
species,  large  and  small,  like  the  cuiya  (Intra  Brasiliensis). 
The  mataco  (or  tatu)  peludo  (Euphractus)  and  mnlita, 
various  species  of  armadillos,  abound  ;  some  are  eaten,  the 
others  are  rejected  as  menschen-fresser. 

We  heard  in  the  woods  the  nnmistakeable  roar  of  the 
guariba,  here  called  caraja  (Stentor  ursinus,  or  simia  belze- 
buth) ;  but  the  mud  and  water,  combined  with  the  cortadera 
or  long  razor-grass,  and  the  bushy  flowered  aguararuguai  or 
"  fox-taiy  prevented  our  getting  within  shot.  The  other  two 
common   simiadse  are   the  red-furred   bujus,  the   bugios  of 


396  •  TO   THE   TEBICUARY    RIVER. 

the  Brazil,  and  the  pretty  little  oustiti  now  so  well  known 
at  home.  Miss  Popkin,  of  Monte  Video,  had  charged  me 
to  bring  back  for  her  one  of  these  dwarfs,  but  they  are 
confined,  I  was  assured,  to  the  upper  country. 

The  birds,  like  the  other  fauna,  are  those  familiar  to  the 
Brazilian  traveller.  Of  that  foul  cheiropter,  the  vampire, 
here  named  Mbopi  (vespertilio  spectrum),  thirteen  species 
have  been  described  by  Azara.  The  iiandu  ostrich  (rhea 
Americana)  does  not  inhabit  the  swamps.  The  red  Ibis 
is  common,  but  men  complain  that  its  flesh  smells  of 
ginger.  That  ciconian  giant  with  the  black  head,  here 
known  as  yabiru,  and  in  the  Brazil,  jabiru,  (Mycteria 
Americana,  or  Ciconia  pillus),  is  often  seen  standing 
sentinel-like  at  the  mouths  of  influents  where  fish  travel. 
Under  the  name  perdiz  (partridge),  are  confounded  many 
species  such  as  nothura,  tinamus,  crypturus,  eudomia,  and 
rhyncotus.  They  are  mostly  of  two  kinds,  the  large  and 
small;  the  former  rises  two  or  three  times,  and  is  then 
caught  by  dogs  and  mounted  men;  whilst  the  latter, 
objecting  to  fly,  is  noosed  as  in  Sind.  I  saw  but  one 
specimen  of  the  penelope,  which  Mr.  Mansfield  (page  311) 
calls  a  pheasant ;  the  natives  have  it  as  pavo  del  monte, 
bush  peacock,  and  yacu-hun,  the  black  jacii.  It  wore  a 
dull  grey  coat,  unfamiliar  to  me  in  the  Brazil,  but  the  genus 
was  not  to  be  mistaken.  Lieutenant-Commander  Bushe  often 
brought  back  in  the  evening  a  varied  bag  of  eighteen  brace, 
no  small  assistance  where  eggs  command  sixpence  each,  fowls 
$2.50  (ten  shillings),  and  sheep  $4  to  $5,  when  they  would 
barely  fetch  $1  at  Buenos  Aires. 

Amongst  the  birds  were  two  of  great  interest.  One  was 
the  ipeg-guazu,  alias  pato  real,  a  truly  royal  duck.  It  is 
evidently  the  parent  stock  of  the  domesticated  Moscovy 
{i.e.  musque)  or  Manilla  duck  (anas  moschata),  and  it  is 
readily  known  by  its  size,  and  by  the  white  markings  of  the 


TO   THE   TEBTCUARr   RIVER.  397 

black  winga.  It  flies  high,  and  carries  off  a  full  charge  of 
shot ;  the  flesh  is  excellent,  and  the  weight  is  often  9  lbs. 
I  have  heard  even  of  13  lbs.,  rivalling  a  full-sized  goose. 
A  well- stuffed  specimen  may  be  found  in  the  museum  of 
Buenos  Aires.  The  other  is  the  Brazilian  palamedea 
cornuta,  here  known  as  ja-kha,  "  let  us  go  ! "  "  vamos !  "  a 
good  imitation  of  its  dissyllabic  cry,  by  us  corrupted  to 
chakhan-chaja,  jaja,  and  even  tajan.  Mr.  Mansfield  (page 
282)  believes  it  to  be  a  turkey,  and  it  is  probably  the 
''  wild  turkey ''  or  the  "  huge  blue-grey  bustard  ^^  of 
Mr.  Ross  Johnson.  It  chooses  the  tops  of  the  tallest  trees, 
keeping  a  sharp  look-out  from  under  its  erectile  crest,  but 
its  loud  cry  soon  betrays  it.  This  bird  is  said  to  eat 
serpents  like  the  Brazilian  siriema,  which  so  much 
resembles  the  South  African  secretary  (Geronticus  nu- 
difrons  and  ccerulescens.)  Captain  Johnston  of  Arazaty, 
a  good  observer,  who  has  opened  dead  palamedeas,  declared 
to  us  that  he  never  found  anything  but  vegetable  substances 
in  their  crops.  He  easily  domesticated  them  when  in 
captivity;  they  are  far  better  to  look  after  poultry 
than  the  irritable  agami  (psophia),  and,  being  armed  with 
a  pair  of  strong  wing-spurs,  they  are  not  afraid  of  dogs. 

The  other  birds  are  of  little  importance.  Gulls  (larus) 
appear  everywhere  up  the  river.  Ducks,  water-hens, 
(fulica),  and  parras  abound  in  the  swamps,  and  the  mirasol 
(paddy-bird),  so  ugly  in  captivity,  stands  like  a  hunch- 
backed Narcissus  to  admire  his  own  white  image  in  the 
water.  Familiar  to  me  are  the  scissor-bird ;  Joao  de  Barros, 
the  oven-bird ;  the  pretty  viuava  or  widow,  robed  in  jet  and 
snow,  as  if  just  from  the  latest  mourning  establishment ; 
the  neat  little  swallow  ;  the  woodpecker,  the  two  species  of 
the  anura,  coprophagus  ,  and  the  pert  tico-tico.  Amongst 
the  parrots  and  parroquets,  of  which  seven  or  eight  kinds 
are  known,  I  saw  nothing  remarkable.      According  to  old 


398  TO   THE   TEBICUARY    RIVER. 

travellers  the  Paraguayans  had  preserved  their  ancestral  art 
of  artificially  colouring  the  plumes. 

At  one  p.M.^  Sept.  2,  H.M.S.  Linnet  steamed  up  the 
broadening  river  and  sighted  sundry  islets  which  are  not 
on  the  chart.  The  faint  wind  which  relieved  us  of 
the  morraa90  or  stifling  calm  was  very  pleasant, 
and  we  sincerely  wished  for  a  heavier  sky  than  the 
thin  windsbaume  or  cirrus  which  the  Brazilians  call 
algodao  batido — whipped  cotton.  Trying  even  to  the 
seasoned  is  the  sudden  change  from  raw  cold  to  dry  heat, 
and  more  trying  still  are  the  immundicities,  Messrs. 
Borachudo  So  Co.  The  weather,  which  I  have  said  here 
mainly  depends  upon  the  wind,  will  gradually  gain 
warmth  from  a  minimum  of  45  deg.  in  the  cold  or  south 
wind  horizon  to  85  deg.,  and  even  100  deg.  when  Boreas, 
whose  blustering  is  here  gone,  shall  prevail. 

The  country  still  appeared  mean,  as  that  about  Pekin 
described  by  travellers.  After  steaming  two  leagues  we 
sighted  five  of  the  ironclads — the  Monitors  having  been  sent 
higher  up — anchored  ofi*  the  mouth  of  the  Tebicuary  River. 
This  is  usually  laid  down  in  south  latitude  26°  39'  and  east 
longitude  (G.)  58°  10';  at  a  distance  of  108  miles  from 
Corrientes.  Lieutenant  Day  writes  the  word  Tebiquari; 
Lieutenant- Colonel  Thompson,  Tebicuary  or  Tibicuary.  Two 
derivations  were  given  to  me  :  one  from  Tebi  the  rear  centre 
of  the  human  frame,  and  Cuari  broad :  the  compound  word 
being  the  name  of  a  Cacique  or  a  tribe.  Others  translate  it 
Tebi,  cua  source,  and  yg  water — i.e.  water  flowing  from  a 
source  which  resembles  a  certain  part  of  man.  It  is  now  a 
river  with  a  name — a  historic  stream  which  has  received  its 
bapteme  de  sang. 

The  Tebicuary  is  the  largest  river  wholly  owned  by  Para- 
guay. It  rises  in  two  branches  from  the  Cuchilla  Grande 
or  great  knife-like  ridge  north  of  Villa  Bica,  not  from  the 


TO   THE   TEBICUAHY    RIVER.  39v) 

Yerbales  or  mate  fields  of  the  Misiones.  As  in  sundry  of 
the  ueo-Latiu  languapjes  tlie  feminine  form  denotes  something 
larger  than  the  masculine,  cuchillo,  and  this  knife-shape 
"would  be  opposed  to  Sierra,  a  saw-like  ridgy  range.  Thence 
it  flows  southward,  and  bending  west  it  drains  the  Laguna 
Ypoa,  the  '^  lucky  lake,"  which  appears  to  have  two — an 
upper  as  well  as  a  lower  outlet.  All  declared  it  navigable 
for  four  leagues  from  the  mouth  with  a  width  of  200  to  400 
metres.  Others  asserted  that  canoes  have  landed  men  at 
Villa  Rica.  This  may  be  the  case  at  certain  seasons,  but 
lately  a  light-draught  Monitor  grounded  about  five  leagues 
up,  and  was  not  got  off  without  difficulty.  Our  home  papers 
boldly  asserted  that  "  the  Tebicuary  is  navigable  for  many 
miles  above  Villa  Rica." 

After  the  Linnet  had  roosted  we  crossed  in  the  gig  the 
mouth  of  the  Tebicuary.  It  was  boiling  and  swirling  as  if 
very  deep,  and  the  flood  rushed  violently  around  the  tree- 
trunks  that  formerly  stood  upon  its  banks.  As  usual,  at 
the  confluence  of  the  various  tributaries,  there  are  shoals  and 
gatherings  of  fish,  the  young  ones  being  probably  brought 
down  by  the  smaller  streams. 

Striking  over  to  the  right  jaw  of  the  great  affluent  we 
landed  upon  the  only  quay,  a  few  stakes,  piles,  and  boards 
found  useful  at  high  river.  The  ground  is  here  a  false 
delta,  or  rather  an  island  bearing  the  name  of  Fortin : 
it  is  formed  in  the  south  by  the  Tebicuary  proper,  and 
northwards  by  a  carrisal  wet  with  the  percolation  of  the 
same  stream. 

At  the  angle  where  the  Fortin  fronts  the  Paraguay  river, 
was  an  eleven-gun  battery,  in  which  the  defenders  had  copied 
the  invader.  Here  we  saw  gabions  for  the  first  time  ;  there 
were  traces  of  sod-revetted  embrasures,  not  mere  platforms 
en  barbette;  curtains  were  raised  behind  to  traverse  side 
shots,  and  epaulements  prevented   the  works   being   raked 


400  TO   THE   TEBICUARY   RIVER. 

from  the  south-west.  Facing  the  Tebicuary,  disposed  at  a 
right  angle  and  connected  with  the  former  by  rifle-pits_,  was 
a  second  battery  of  three  field-pieces ;  whilst  about  200  feet 
higher  up  the  stream  a  ditch  and  a  small  earthen  parapet 
defended  the  ford,  where  a  landing  might  have  been  effected 
at  low  water.  In  the  rear  of  each  battery  was  a  separate 
magazine,  rough  but  useful.  The  quarters  for  the  soldiers 
had  been  fired,  and  the  ill-savoured  hides  that  covered  them 
were  charred :  the  whitewashed  walls  had  been  pulled  down 
by  the  captors,  and  the  ruins  were  occupied  by  vermin. 
The  mangrullo  and  the  large- sized  cross  alone  remained 
intact.  Pots  and  pans,  bones  and  bullock- skulls,  strewed 
the  ground,  but  not  a  gun  had  been  left— not  a  cartridge 
had  been  wasted.  These  trivial  defences,  evidently  the 
work  of  a  few  men,  had  been  leisurely  evacuated,  probably 
a  sign  that  Marshal-President  Lopez  now  deemed  it  neces- 
sary to  economize  material. 

Walking  up  the  Paraguayan  side  we  observed  that  here 
the  stream  above  the  confluence  of  the  Tebicuary  narrows 
to  300  yards,  and  its  increased  swiftness  compels  ascending 
ships  to  hug  as  usual  the  left  bank,  which  is  low  and  sub- 
ject to  floods.  Remnants  of  a  boom,  intended  to  delay  the 
ironclads  in  the  face  of  the  battery,  lay  upon  the  ground  : 
it  was  composed  of  huge  hard- wood  trunks,  iron-bound  and 
connected  by  bolts,  rings,  and  shackles,  and  it  was  sufficiently 
resilient  as  it  sagged  down  stream  to  yield  before  craft  at- 
tempting the  up-passage.  Near  it  we  found  cut  blocks  of 
sandstone,  intended  probably  for  anchoring  torpedoes.  The 
material  was  a  kind  of  coticular  itacolumite  from  the  upper 
bed :  a  little  above  Asuncion  mica  schist  appears,  and 
eighteen  leagues  from  the  capital  granite,  like  that  of  the 
Brazil,  was  worked  by  the  natives. 

Still  further  up  the  left  bank  of  the  Paraguay,  and  connected 
by  rifle-pits  with  the  south-western  work,  was  a  third  battery, 


TO    THE    TEBICUARY    RIVER.  401 

built  for  six  guns.  The  floor  and  platforms  had  been  raised 
to  keep  them  above  the  mean  level  of  inundation.  All  was 
of  the  poorest  and  simplest  tracing.  I  afterwards  saw  a 
Brazilian  sketch  of  these  Tebicuary  batteries,  which  under 
the  artistes  hand  had  grown  to  regular  fortifications  revetted 
with  masonry,  and  vomiting  volumes  of  smoke. 

The  carrizal  behind  this  north-eastern  work  appeared  to 
be  somewhat  higher  than  the  river,,  and  its  fetid  waters  were 
fit  only  for  the  habitation  of  man''s  pest,  gnat  and  mosquito. 
The  narrow  strip  of  dark  humus  between  it  and  the  stream 
showed  little  plots  of  beans  and  vegetables,  cotton  and 
stunted  maize.  Such  is  Paraguay  proper  immediately  to 
the  north  of  the  Tebicuary  River,  and  there  is  very  little  to 
say  in  its  praise.  Higher  up,  however,  about  Angostura, 
''  infield ''''  will  take  the  lead  of  "  outfield  "  or  moorland, 
and  in  the  central  region,  around  Villa  Rica,  the  soil  is, 
I  am  told,  exceptionally  rich. 

Every  strategist  supposed  that  Marshal- President  Lopez 
would  mass  his  forces  and  fight  the  invader  behind  the 
frontier-line  of  the  Tebicuary.  But  he  knew  that  the 
mouth  was  open  to  Monitors,  and  that  thus  his  force  would 
have  been  placed  between  thi'ee  fires.  Moreover,  as  he 
had  laid  out  a  road  with  the  normal  ''  lightning-dauk,''^ 
through  the  Gran  Chaco  opposite,  he  foresaw  that  the 
enemy  might  soon  become  master  of  it  and  cut  off  his  com- 
munications with  the  rear.  He  therefore  hastened  to  with- 
draw his  men  and  to  concentrate  himself  higher  up  stream 
behind  defences  which  were  fated  to  give  the  Allies  much 
trouble  and  to  cause  them  severe  losses.  Meanwhile  he 
established  his  provisional  capital  at  Luque,  a  village  seven 
to  eight  miles  west  of  Asuncion. 

My  visit  was  now  ended,  and  it  afforded  no  opportunity  of 
passing  over  to  the  Paraguayan  lines.  Mr.  Gould  was  again 
expected  in  the  Parana,  and  the  cabin  of  the  Linnet  could 

26 


402  TO   THE    TEBICUARY    RIVER. 

hardly  accommodate  two  guests ;  I  was  also  imwilling  to 
tax  any  further  Lieutenant-Commander  Bushels  hospitality. 
Moreover  the  Brazilian  authorities  were  opposed  to  private 
visits  amongst  their  enemies^  and,  after  the  frankness  and 
courtesy  with  which  they  had  received  me,  it  was  impossible 
to  ignore  their  wishes.  Finally,  I  knew  too  well  that, 
after  the  many  tales  told  concerning  the  maltreatment  of 
strangers  by  the  Paraguayans,  a  report  of  my  captivity,  per- 
haps of  my  torture  and  death,  would  have  at  once  been 
spread  by  a  host  of  "  friends,^^  and  that  the  "  sick  leave,"*^ 
so  freely  granted  to  me,  implied  the  condition  that  it  must 
be  used  with  due  prudence. 

At  that  time  also  an  evil  report  was  current  concerning 
a  certain  Baron  von  Veren,  whom  the  Tribuna  of  Buenos 
Aires  called  Major  Barsen.  This  Prussian  officer  wishing 
to  see  service  in  the  Far  West,  left  Bordeaux,  and  was  at 
once  arrested  at  Rio  de  Janeiro  upon  the  charge  of  intending 
to  levy  war  against  the  Empire.  When  set  free  at  the 
instance  of  his  minister  he  j)^ii'sued  his  journey  to  Buenos 
Aires,  where  again,  upon  a  similar  count,  he  found  himself 
in  the  same  predicament.  Compelled  to  give  his  word  that  ■! 
he  would  not  at  once  visit  Paraguay,  Baron  von  Versen 
crossed  the  Pampas,  and,  retracing  his  way,  presented  him- 
self to  the  President  of  Paraguay.  For  the  third  time  he 
was  arrested  as  a  spy,  and,  on  this  occasion,  only  the  action 
of  December  27,  1868,  saved  him  from  being  shot.  After 
which  he  thought  proper  to  revisit  Europe.  The  fact  is  that 
almost  all  so-called  pasados,  or  deserters  from  the  Para- 
guayan army,  are  told  off  by  their  government  to  collect 
information,  and  the  authorities  naturally  believe  that  all 
unknown  strangers  who  visit  them  are  in  a  similar  category. 
Thus  my  trip  to  the  upper  waters  was  deferred  hasta  mejor 
opportunidad. 

On  the  evening  of  September  3  I  bade  a  regretful  fare- 


TO    THE    TEBICUARY    RIVER.  403 

Avell  to  my  kind-hearted  hosts,  and  transferred  myself  very 
unwillingly  on  board  the  Clyde  steamer,  Vale  of  Boon, 
Captain  Smith.  Early  on  the  next  morning  wc  ran  up  the 
Tebicuary.  The  flooded  mouth  was  a  mass  of  islets,  and 
the  huge  figs,  which  formed  the  avenues  of  the  sides,  seemed 
to  be  growing  like  mangroves  in  the  water.  Presently 
passing  the  mouth  of  the  Yacare  influent  the  bank  rose  two 
feet  high,  and  the  tree  bare  trunks  were  bunchy  with  para- 
sites like  the  mistletoe.  At  last  the  ledge  became  tall  and 
perpendicular,  where  the  stream  runs  as  that  of  the  Para- 
guay, whilst  that  opposite  was  low  and  flooded.  On  the 
northern  margin  appeared  an  incipient  sandstone  with  strata 
and  cleavage. 

The  course  was  tortuous  in  the  extreme,  and  the  channel 
was  so  narrow  that  at  every  turn  we  scraped  the  bush  and 
forest.  After  a  tight  loop,  bulging  to  the  south-east,  and 
a  run  of  some  three  miles,  we  came  to  a  big  bend  where  the 
northern  bank  projected  southwards.  It  was  a  mere  tongue 
of  land  opposite  the  pass  described  to  you  in  Letter  XX.,  and 
here  the  Brazilians  had  crossed  to  carry  the  works  of  San 
Fernando.  Vultures  rose  from  the  bloated  carcases  of 
cattle ;  and  Paraguayan  corpses,  in  leathern  waist- wraps, 
floated  face  downwards,  rising  and  falling  after  a  ghostly 
fashion,  w^ith  the  scour  and  ripple  of  the  stream.  At  the 
apex  of  the  re-entering  angle  of  the  southern  bank  were 
the  Brazilian  earthworks ;  a  kind  of  tete  de  pont  was  fronted 
by  the  best  abatis  that  I  had  yet  seen.  Opposite  it,  and 
not  connected  by  a  bridge,  was  the  lately  captured  redoubt 
which  defended  the  San  Fernando  Pass,  with  the  usual  bar- 
racks and  mangrullo. 

I  chanced  upon  an  animated  scene :  it  will  ever  be 
remembered  by  me  with  pleasure.  At  the  '^  port ''  five  iron- 
clads were  ferrying  across  the  troops,  who  were  that  day  to 
be  followed  by  their  Commander-in-Chief.    On  the  left  bank 

26— a 


404  TO    THE   TEBICUARY    RIVER. 

of  the  Tebicuary  stood  outposts  and  videttes,  the  comercio  or 
camp  bazar,  and  the  host  of  women  without  which  apparently 
the  Brazilian  camp  cannot  move.  The  glorious  sun  flashed 
through  the  clear  morning  air,  gilding  helmet  and  lance- 
headj  bayonet  and  sabre,  and  the  young  day  smiled  upon 
the  pomp  and  circumstance  of  war.  Superior  oflicers,  each 
followed  by  his  staff,  moved  slowly  across  the  green  plain, 
whilst  adjutants  and  orderlies  dashed  about  in  all  directions. 
With  bands  playing  and  colours  flying,  infantry  in  heavy 
marching  order  debouched  upon  the  bank,  marching  in 
the  loose,  lithe  French  style,  which  looks  so  soldier-like  after 
the  heavy  tread  and  stiff  progress  of  our  Islandry. 
After  the  signal  of  boot  and  saddle,  cavalry  corps  came 
up  at  the  trot,  their  round-backed  horses  neighing  with 
excitement ; 

"  While  trumpets  sound  their  loudest  point  of  tone." 

There  was  a  rumble  of  field-guns  and  a  loud  hum  of  men, 
and  the  absence  of  shout  and  clamour  showed  that  military 
discipline  had  done  its  best.  The  sailors  of  the  squadron, 
neatly  clad  in  Glengarrys,  with  overalls  and  shirts  of  light- 
blue  serge,  not  without  the  normal  white  flap  or  faliing  collar, 
worked  their  hardest.  Four  thousand  cutlasses  are  not  to 
be  despised  in  such  guerilla  warfare,  and  it  is  surprising 
that  the  Brazilian  authorities  refused  to  adopt  the  naval 
brigades  which  amongst  us  did  such  good  service  in  India 
and  elsewhere.  The  spectacle  was  pleasing  in  the  extreme, 
and  all  the  men  appeared  to  enjoy  the  best  health,  and 
spirits  in  proportion. 

As  the  Vale  of  Doon  was  about  to  turn  her  head  down 
stream,  a  passenger  came  hurriedly  up  to  me,  and  asked  if  I 
would  land  to  see  a  ^'  barbaridade.^^  Captain  Smith,  how- 
ever, was  behind  his  time,  and  he  could  not  afford  us  another 
minute.  Close  to  the  River  Pass,  according  to  report,  were  six 
corpses  laid  out  straight^  with  their  feet  towards  the  enemy. 


TO    THE    TEBICUARY    RIVER.  405 

and  each  bearing  pinned  to  his  breast  a  paper  inscribed 
— ''  Asi  perecen  los  traidores  !  " — "  Thus  perish  the  traitors."" 
Amongst  them  was  a  hue,  tall  man,  with  gloved  hands,  and 
large  black  beard  falling  upon  his  breast.  It  was  variously- 
suggested  to  have  been  Vice-President  Sanchez,  General 
Bruguez,  or  Sr  Jose  Maria  Leite  Pereira,  the  Acting 
Portuguese  Consul,  arrested  5  p.m.,  September  11,  at  Asun- 
cion. Before  I  reached  Buenos  Aires  the  figure  of  6  had 
grown  to  17,  and  included  women  and  children:  it  there 
advanced,  temporarily  halting  at  64  (Lieutenant-Colonel 
Cunha),  at  70,  and  at  400  to  800  victims  (Colonel  Choda- 
siewicz),  sacrificed  to  the  furious  suspicions  of  Marshal- 
President  Lopez. 

I  shall  retura  to  this  subject  in  the  next  letter,  meanwhile 
— Adieu ! 


LETTEE  XXII. 

RETURN   TO   BUENOS   AIRES. THE    CONSPIRACY.— THE 

"atrocities    of  LOPEZ." 

Buenos  Aires,  September  20, 1868. 


My  dear  Z , 

Nothing  remained  for  me  after  my  short 
but  most  interesting  visit  but  to  run  down  south  and  to 
await  the  course  of  events,  incertus  quo  fata  f event.  A  single 
day  sufficed  for  the  forty-two  leagues  between  S.  Fernando 
and  Corrientes;  and  a  week  or  so  at  the  latter  afforded 
me  a  trip  to  the  mysterious  Gran  Chaco.  The  old  city  was 
a  return  to  civilization  after  a  fashion,,  and  once  more  my  ear 
was  regaled  with  the  cry  of  the  gallo,  and  tortured  by  certain 
'^  solos  and  snatches  of  song ''''  happily  unknown  to  camp. 

From  Corrientes  I  embarked  upon  the  Argentine  steamer 
Proveedor,  paying  Ql.  IQs.  for  a  two  days'  run.  Concurrence 
on  Thursdays  reduces  this  to  half-price,  whereas  we  Sunday 
travellers  were  charged  double.  The  diet  was  the  usual 
thing,  macaroni  soup  without  Parmesan,  the  eternal  pu- 
chero,  caoutchouc-like  mutton,  peas  fit  for  revolver  balls, 
mangled  fowl,  and  hard  stringy  salad.  I  deeply  regretted 
the  succulent  feeds  of  the  17.  An  awful  man  of  dignity 
was  the  skipper,  and  even  the  unwashed  purser  was  a  swell 
whose  smile  was  a  matter  of  favour.  The  ship  went  well, 
but  our  lives  were  literally  in  the  hands  of  the  drunken  sots 
that  drove  her,  and  who  passed  their  time  draining  the 
bottle  or  dancing  bear-like  to  the  colic-causing  strains  of 
travelling  Italian  zampognari. 

*  *  *  -x-  -Jf 

You  might  have  been  spared  this  letter  had  Lieutenant- 


RETURN    TO    BUENOS    AIRES.  407 

Colonel  Thompson  (Chap.  XXV.)  been  explicit  upon  the 
subject  of  the  alleged  confederacy  and  atrocities.  But  that 
officer  frankly  tells  you,  "  I  know  very  little  about  the 
subject  myself,  and  probably  hardly  any  one  knows  much.^' 
It  is  therefore  necessary  to  seek  information  out  of  Paraguay, 
and  for  that  purpose  to  compulse  even  common  report. 

It  would  appear  that  shortly  after  February  22,  1868, 
when  the  Brazilian  ironclads  had  fired  into  Asuncion,  many 
Paraguayans  began  to  despair  of  the  cause.  General 
Bruguez,  who  had  risen  to  that  rank  in  June,  1866 ; 
others  say  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Afi'airs,  Don  Maria 
Jose  Berges,  was  deputed  by  the  citizens  to  perform  the 
pleasant  operation  which  is  popularly  called  '^  belling  the 
cat.^^      I  have  already  told  you  the  result  of  the  attempt. 

Shortly  after  this  time  the  Allied  Army  began  to  hear  a 
succession  of  rumours  touching  the  tortures  and  executions 
of  Paraguayans,  and  of  foreign  employes,  as  well  as  refugees. 
The  subject  was  new.  Up  to  that  time  the  Marshal-Pre- 
sident had  preserved  a  certain  character  for  moderation,  and 
despite  the  reports  which  are  always  set  on  foot  concerning 
an  enemy,  he  could  not  be  accused  of  cruelty.  In  July, 
1864,  we  read  in  Mr.  M.  Mulhall  ('^  The  Cottonfields 
of  Paraguay  and  Corrientes/-'  p.  106)  :  "  I  thanked  the 
President  for  his  kindness,  and  withdrew  very  much  disposed 
to  view  favourably  a  country  with  so  intelligent,  affable, 
and  progressive  a  ruler.'"'  He  also  remarked,  "  The  govern- 
ment of  President  Lopez  is  not  only  the  best  adapted  for 
the  people  of  Paraguay,  but  a  model,  moreover,  of  order 
and  progress,  from  which  the  Argentine,  Oriental,  Bolivian, 
Chilian,  Peruvian,  Venezuelan,  Columbian,  and  other  South 
American  administrations,  might  advantageously  borrow 
an  idea.^^  (p.  91).  After  the  fatal  check  at  Riachuelo, 
we  learn  from  Lieutenant-Colonel  Thompson  (Chap.  VII.)  : 
"  A  sailor  was  shot  for  cowardice  the  evening  the  steamers 


408  RETURN    TO    BUENOS    AIRES. 

returned  to  Humaita^  having  gone  into  the  hold  during 
action.  Lopez  gave  some  foreigners  to  understand  that  he 
was  very  much  vexed  it  had  been  reported  to  him,  but  that, 
such  being  the  case,  he  had  no  other  course  to  pursue/^ 

The  suspicion  of  treason,  and  the  tirm  resolve  to  fight 
his  last  man,  seem  to  have  acted  unfavourably  upon  the 
Marshal- President.  Moreover,  it  is  generally  believed  that 
about  this  time  he  had  become  addicted  to  port  wine  and 
piety  ;  to  mass-going  and  hard  drinking.  When  T  first  visited 
the  Allies  (August  to  September,  1868),  all  were  talking  of 
the  butcheries  which  disgraced  his  rule,  and,  as  usual,  they 
talked  so  much  that  the  less  credulous  portion  of  the  public 
began  to  disbelieve  the  reports  generally.  The  victims 
were  killed  and  brought  to  life  again  half  a  dozen  times 
during  the  course  of  the  year,  and  when  I  last  left  Paraguay, 
men  still  hesitated  how  much  to  credit.  True,  the  Tri- 
buna  of  Buenos  Aires  had  published  (Feb.  20,  1869)  a  long 
list  of  the  dead  and  slain,  purporting  to  be  an  extract  from 
General  Resquin^s  diary,  which  began  with  May  31,  1868. 
But  even  this  paper  was  looked  upon  with  suspicion.  It 
might,  after  all,  be  nothing  but  a  ruse  de  guerre. 

The  next  important  witness  is  the  Honourable  Charles 
A.  Washburn,  United  States  Minister,  and  the  only 
Foreign  Minister  accredited  to  Paraguay.  In  September, 
1865,  1  was  introduced  to  this  gentleman  at  Rio  de 
Janeiro,  before  his  departure  for  his  post.  After  meeting 
with  some  obstructions  from  the  Brazilians,  or  rather  from 
the  Allies,  he  reached  Asuncion,  and  was  favourably 
impressed  by  the  cause  and  by  the  President  of  the  small 
llepublic.  He  afterwards  left  his  post  early  in  1865,  on 
home  leave ;  and  when  he  returned  to  it  on  November  1 
of  the  same  year,  he  had  to  force  the  blockade  in  a  ship  of 
war,  the  Shamokin,  against  the  wish  of  the  Generalissimo 
Mitre,  and  under  protest  from  Admiral  Tamandare.  In 
early  March,  1867,  he  ofi'ered  to  act  as  mediator  between 


RETURN    TO    BUENOS    AIRES.  409 

the  combatants,  and  he  passed  three  days  in  the  Allied 
camp.  Tlie  negotiations,  however,  were  broken  off,  and 
the  Minister  once  more  retired. 

The  ill  feeling  between  Marshal-President  Lopez  and 
Mr.  Washburn  began  early  in  1868,  when  Asuncion  was 
placed  under  military  law,  and  Luque  was  erected  into  a 
provisional  capital.  The  United  States  Minister  received 
an  invitation  to  quit  his  hotel,  and  he  positively  refused  to 
obey  it,  arguing  that  the  Legation  w^as  part  of  the  United 
States  territory.  I  hardly  think  that  such  a  proceeding  would 
have  been  adopted  by  European  diplomatists.  Asuncion 
had  been  proved  dangerous ;  it  might  have  been  attacked 
at  any  moment  by  a  squadron  of  ironclads,  and  the  Marshal- 
President  of  the  Republic  was  to  a  certain  extent  answerable 
for  the  lives  of  foreign  agents  accredited  to  him. 

Thus  the  Minister  was  drawn  into  a  by  no  means  dig- 
nified correspondence  with  the  Paraguayan  Cabinet,  espe- 
cially with  the  acting  minister  Gumesindo  Benitez,  who  was 
shot,  or  reported  shot,  before  the  question  was  settled ;  and 
with  his  successor,  the  notorious  Luis  Caminos.  He  was 
subjected  to  all  manner  of  injurious  imputations;  of 
harbouring  foreign  traitors,  when  he  had  only  given  a  home 
to  two  or  three  Americans  and  twenty-two  English;  of 
furthering  his  fortunes  by  receiving,  in  consideration  of  a 
percentage,  "  trunks,  boxes,  and  iron  safes  ''  of  moneys  and 
valuables  which  belonged  to  the  State ;  of  being  ''  bribed  by 
the  Marquis  de  Caxias ;  ^^  of  covering  with  his  seal  treason- 
able correspondence  forwarded  to  the  Allied  Army;  and  lastly, 
of  being  "  implicated  in  a  vast  conspiracy  '^ — in  fact,  of  high 
treason.  His  only  excuse  for  tolerating  and  replying  to 
such  insolent  charges,  was  that  he  feared  not  only  death, 
but  torture  for  himself  and  his  wife  and  child.  Such  a 
confession  could  hardly  be  palatable  to  the  proud  Republic 
which  he  represented. 


410 


RETURN    TO    BUENOS    AIRES. 


On  August  31,  1868,  Mr. Washburn  received  his  passports, 
and  early  in  the  next  month  the  U.S.  steamer  Wasp,  Lieut.- 
Commander  Kirldand,  was  sent  up  to  remove  him.  As 
the  gunboat  lay  about  one  league  below  the  capital,  the 
Paraguayan  steamer  Rio  Apra  was  placed  at  his  disposal. 
Whilst  the  Minister  was  embarking,  two  of  the  employes 
at  the  Legation,  Messrs.  Bliss  and  Masterman,  were  violently 
arrested  for  high  treason  in  the  streets  of  Asuncion.  In 
the  case  of  these  individuals  he  admits  a  certain  duplicity 
of  "  fencing  and  fighting  "  besides  flattering  his  antagonist. 
But  when  Mr.  Washburn  was  safely  on  board  the  Wasp, 
he  heard  that  Marshal- President  Lopez  had  threatened 
Lieutenant-Commander  Kirkland  to  keep  him  a  prisoner  ; 
and  instead  of  returning  to  his  post  and  compelling  the 
restitution  of  his  attaches,  he  addressed  (September  12)  a 
violent  letter,  menacing  to  put  the  President  of  Paraguay 
under  the  ban  of  the  civilized  world.^ 

In  the  early  autumn  of  1868,  I  again  met  Mr.  W^ash- 
burn  at  Buenos  Aires.  Physically,  he  was  much  changed; 
he  had  been  living  in  a  state  of  nervous  excitement,  in  an 
atmosphere  of  terror  and  suspicion,  happily  unfamiliar  to 
the  free  air  of  the  United  States.  Many  of  his  assertions 
were  those  of  a  man  who  was  hardly  responsible  for  his 
actions.  He  declared  that  all  the  foreigners  at  Asuncion 
were  in  prison,  and  that  doubtless  most  of  them  would  be 
killed,  on  the  principle  that  '^  a  dead  cock  does  not  crow.''^ 
He  asserted  that  Marshal-President  Lopez  was  fighting 
wild,  like  an  exhausted  pugilist,  furiously  hitting  right 
and  left.  He  explained  the  ^'  atrocities ''''  as  the  results  of 
systematic  plunder.     A  ''  hole   in  the  treasure  chest  '^  had 


*  Of  this  missive  Lieut.-Col. Thompson  remarks:  "Mr.  Washburn  sent 
from  on  board  the  Wasp  a  letter  to  Lopez,  which  would  probably  have  had 
the  etTect  of  my  receiving  orders  to  fire  at  her  as  she  went  down,  had  he 
received  it  before  that  took  place." 


RETDRN    TO    BUENOS    AIRES.  411 

been  found  at  Luque.  The  funds  were  never  in  the  hands  of 
a  competent  bookkeeper;  consequently,  the  wealthy  part  of 
the  community  was  accused  of  theft,  and  was  ironed, 
tortured,  and  put  to  death,  with  the  sole  view  of 
confiscation. 

On  September  29,  1865,  Mr.  Washburn  published,  in  a 
supplement  to  the  Buenos  Ayres  Standard,  Diplomatic  Notes 
concerning  foreigners  in  Paraguay,  beginning  with  a  letter 
addressed  to  H.B.M.^s  Minister  Plenipotentiary.  It  after- 
wards appeared  in  Paris,  much  to  the  wonderment  of  civilized 
man  ;  and  I  regret  to  say  Lieutenant-Colonel  Thompson 
has  largely  quoted  from  a  document  which  breathes  in  every 
line  a  spirit  of  fierce  hatred  against  a  quondam  friend.  Mr. 
Washburn  complains  of  being  watched  by  forty  policemen;  of 
living  in  a  ^'  deep  and  funereal-like  gloom^'  in  a  "  Dionysius 
Gallery.^'  Such  an  existence,  he  says,  "  is  enough  to  render 
even  the  sleep  of  a  brave  man  fitful  and  uneasy,  and,  of  a 
man  like  me,  without  such  pretensions,  utterly  inadequate 
to  '  knit  up  the  ravelled  sleeve  of  care.^ ''  This  commendable 
candour  is  surely  rare  in  the  annals  of  diplomacy.  He 
quotes  Vattel,  Martens,  and  Mr.  Wheaton,  "  his  own  coun- 
tryman, generally  regarded  as  the  highest  authority  of 
modern  times  on  matters  of  international  law.^^  What  do 
his  fellow-citizens  call  speaking  to  Buncombe  ? 

I  read  with  surprise  these  ^'^  windy  notes.^^*  They 
are  a  curious  specimen  of  the  "  dense  cloud  of  oflScial 
verbosity^^  which  envelopes  every  official  correspondence  in 
Paraguay.  The  whole  savours  curiously  of  want  of  truth, 
and  it  is  evidently  the  Guarani  habit,  like  the  Chinese,  to 
"  make  a  summary,^^  and  during  the  course  of  the  report  to 
insert  as  many  sneers   and  insinuations   as  possible.      All 


*  Mr.  Washburn's  would  have  made  up  240  pages  of  a  volume  like  this, 
and  were  judged  too  lengthy  for  publication. 


412  RETURN    TO    BUENOS    AIRES. 

purely  complimentary  terms  of  expression  are  accepted  with 
the  utmost  gravity ;  any  slip  of  the  memory  or  of  the  pen, 
however  trivial,  is  dwelt  upon  at  a  suspicious  length  ;  and 
lastly,  the  confessions  of  men  who  were  probably  tortured 
to  confess  are  treated  as  the  confidential  communications  of 
political  criminals.      Good-bye. 


LETTEE  XXIII. 

TRIP    TO    ASUNCION,    THE    CIUDAD. 

April  10,  1869. 

My  dear  Z , 

On  September  4^  1868,  I  left,  you  may 
remember,,  the  Allied  Army  crossing  the  Tebicuary,  and 
marching  northwards  to  dislodge  Marshal-President  Lopez 
from  his  last  river-stronghold,  Angostura- cum -La  Villeta. 
As  they  followed  the  high  road  up  stream  for  some  thirty- 
three  to  forty  leagues  from  San  Fernando,  a  few  skirmishes 
occurred^  especially  on  November  25.  This  was  distinguished 
by  a  reconnaissance  en  force  by  land  and  water,  in  which 
Marshal  Caxias  and  Admiral  Ignacio  led.  From  San 
Fernando  to  the  Guardia  de  las  Palm  as  the  invader  spent 
eighteen  days :  he  found  seven  "  ports  '^  where  the  ships 
could  touch,  and  one  at  which  his  force  could  be  provisioned. 
The  Brazilian  army  had  carried  out  its  usual  system  of  cutting 
a  road  through  the  Gran  Chaco,  and  of  throwing  troops  on 
the  enemy's  rear.  Four  great  actions  had  been  fought 
between  December  21  and  27,  1868,  and  the  Marshal- 
President  had  been  driven  by  immense  odds  from  the  river- 
line  which  he  had  defended  with  such  obstinacy.  As  I  have 
told  you,  the  arch  enemy  having  fled  to  the  interior,  the 
war  had  been  officially  reported  "  ended.^^  The  second 
phase  had,  it  is  true,  passed  away,  but  the  third  and  final — 
the  guerilla — was  still  to  be  fought,  and  the  croakers 
declared  that  the  real  difficulties  of  the  campaign  were  now 
to  commence. 

Meanwhile,  Mr.  William  C.  Maxwell  and  I  had  wandered 


414  TRIP    TO    ASUNCION. 

about  quaint  Cordoba^  the  ex-Jesuit  Seminary^  one  of  the 
oldest  of  the  scattered  cities  with  which  the  Spaniards  had 
built  up  a  kind  of  skeleton  civilization.  In  company  with 
Major  Ignacio  Kickard^  R.A._,  we  had  inspected  the  Sierra  de 
San  Luiz,  and  visited  the  scene  of  the  terrible  earthquake 
at  Mendoza.  We  then  crossed  the  Andes  by  the  Uspal- 
lata  Pass,  enjoying  two  views  which  amply  requited  us  for 
all  our  little  hardships.  We  rested  at  Santiago  de  Chile, 
known  to  you  by  the  fire  in  the  Jesuit  church,,  which 
destroyed  some  2000  of  the  fairest  of  the  fair  Chilenas. 
We  then  embarked  at  Valparaiso  for  Peru,  and  saw  what 
we  could  of  the  ports  ruined  by  the  last  "  sea-quake/^  per- 
haps the  most  destructive  recorded  in  history,  running  some 
risk  from  the  deadly  typhus,  called  yellow  fever,  but  really 
engendered  from  the  putrefaction  of  unburied  dead,  human 
and  bestial.  Finally,  we  returned  to  the  Plata  River  via 
Magellan,  whose  glaciers  and  contrasts  of  scenery, 

"  Where  Chili  bhifFs  and  Plata  flats  the  coast," 

— the  western  half  Andine,  the  eastern  Pampasian — were  a 
splendid  novelty,  a  wonder,  a  delight,  that  electrified  the 
most  jaded  of  fellow-travellers. 

At  Buenos  Aires,  finding  myself  just  too  late  for  the 
homeward-bound  Royal  Mail,  I  embarked  on  Sunday,  April  4, 
1869,  on  board  a  former  acquaintance,  the  Proveedor. 
She  had,  meanwhile,  been  much  improved  by  the  new  com- 
mander. Captain  Carboneschi.  On  this  trip  the  party  con- 
sisted of  Messrs.  Curtis  and  Palmer,  of  the  United  States, 
and  my  old  friend,  Mr.  Charles  H.  Williams,  of  Bahia,  who, 
having  suffered  a  four-years^  infliction  of  newspaper  leaders, 
wished  to  judge  for  himself  the  "  crusade  in  Paraguay.'^ 
One  of  the  first  to  greet  me  on  board  was  my  quondam 
host  of  San  Fernando,  D.  Leonardo  Mendoza,  who  had 
accompanied  the  Allied  forces  on  their  up-march  to  Asun- 


TRIP    TO    ASUNCION.  415 

cion,  and  whose  local  knowledge  was  invaluable.  We  car- 
ried also  D.  Francisco  Martinez^  a  Commissary  General  of 
the  Argentine  Contingent  ;  and  a  pretty  Bostonian  (N.  E.) 
with  two  small  girls  en  route  to  join  her  husband,,  an  army 
surgeon. 

The  rest  on  board  were  the  veriest  ruffians,  riff-raff,  raga- 
muffins, that  I  had  seen  in  South  America,  even  at  Monte 
Video.  The  feminine  camp-followers  were  clad  in  calico 
dresses,  glowing  shawls,  and  satin  bottines.  The  masculine, 
surly  because  not  permitted  to  be  first  class,  slept  on  the 
quarter-deck,  indulged  in  "  eye-openers,^^  expectorated  to 
windward,  and  smelt  rancidly  of  cabbage  and  garlic,  of 
sausage  and  bad  ^baccy.  Each  travelled  with  his  catre,  or 
scissors-bed,  his  big  bag,  his  bunch  of  bananas,  and  another 
article  which  must  not  be  mentioned  until  we  shall  have 
learned  to  call  a  spade  a  spade.  There  were  never  less  than 
three  Italian  grind-organs — in  the  mysterous  heart  of  South 
America — and  when  one  set  landed,  another  came  on  board ; 
they  stunned  us  during  dinner,  and  they  had  the  impudence 
to  dun  us  for  dinning  ns.  As  the  rain  often  confined  us 
to  the  cabin  we  suffered  immoderately. 

Running  swiftly  past  well-remembered  spots^  we  halted 
some  three  hours  at  Rozario.  All  the  rain  of  the  lower  fir- 
mament had  apparently  combined  to  raise  the  mighty  Parana. 
The  memorable  ''  Flood  of  1868-69  "  began  in  November- 
December  last,  and  the  water  was  still  twelve  feet  above  the 
usual  mark.  The  surface  was  everywhere  green  with  cama- 
lotes  or  grass  islets,  some  numbering  a  few  inches,  others 
large  enough  to  carry  a  ship  down  stream.  They  undulated 
in  the  wake  of  our  steamer  with  a  grace  which  doubtless 
suggested  the  chinampas  or  moving  gardens  of  Mexico,  and 
those  that  did  not  hitch  to  the  banks  floated  out  to  sea  via 
Monte  Video.  In  old  days  Buenos  Aires  was  full  of  tales 
about  ^'  tigers  '^  and  other  ravenous  beasts  being  landed  by 


416  TRIP    TO    ASUNCION. 

them  in  her  streets.  The  lower  town  was  obliterated,  the 
Custom-house  seemed  an  ugly  bit  of  Venice,  the  gasworks 
threatened  to  fall,  the  jetty  was  denoted  by  a  hillock  of  coal 
rising  black  from  the  rushing  brown  swirl,  and  nothing  but 
the  emerald- tinted  weeping  willows  seemed  to  enjoy  the 
mighty  footbath.  The  land,  before  all  sere  and  sunburnt, 
was  now  beautifully  fresh  and  grassy,  and  the  uplands  were 
dotted  with  thickly -tufted  trees.  Here  we  landed  for  a  few 
minutes  in  company  with  my  colleague,  Mr.  Consul  Hutchin- 
son, whom  I  had  not  met  since  1861.  During  these  long 
years  he  had  lived  at  Rozario — verily  he  must  have  as  many 
lives  as  Realmah. 

We  anchored  off  Corrientes  city  on  a  rainy  day.  How  dull, 
and  low,  and  miserable  it  looked,  with  its  foul  tanneries  to  the 
south,  and  its  muddy  lines  of  so-called  streets  !  I  could  not 
forget  the  pleasant  time  passed  there,  but — never  return  to 
a  place  where  you  have  been  happy  !  Then  the  Proveedor 
span  by  the  Cerrito  Island  and  the  Tres  Bocas  ;  and,  late  at 
night,  delayed  for  a  few  minutes  at  the  once  redoubtable 
Humaita.  She  passed  the  Tebicuary  mouth  also  during  the 
hours  of  darkness.  This  shows  how  little  a  man  may  see 
when  travelling  far  by  steamer ;  my  American  friends,  un- 
lucky during  the  down  trip,  never  sighted  these  two  most 
important  positions.  Better,  far  better,  under  such  circum- 
stances, is  the  boat. 

I  rose  betimes  on  Friday,  April  9,  for  now  we  were 
ploughing  strange  waters.  We  had  run  out  of  the  "  sour 
mornings  ^^  of  Buenos  Aires.  The  dawn  was  crystal  clear, 
and  the  river  had  changed  its  muddy  grey-brown  for  the 
limpid  sarsaparilla,  like  the  black  hue  of  the  Upper  Missis- 
sippi. Glassy  smooths  alternated  with  ruffled  streaks,  where 
wavy  ripples  played  with  the  fresh  breeze  ;  and  our  stern 
drew  after  it  the  apex  of  a  cone  which  spread  out  behind  in 
a  double  line  of  dancing  wavelets.      The  banks  were  curtains 


TRIP    TO    ASUNCION.  417 

of  tliiu-leaved  willows,  fantastic  clumps  of  creepers  investing 
dead  trunks,  and  leas  of  the  broad  succulent  pistia,  that 
show  whence  come  the  floating  isles.  We  hailed  with  de- 
light, after  the  arid  growth  of  the  Pampas  and  the  scanty- 
clothing  of  the  desert  Chilian  shore,  the  fair  Brazilian  flora, 
tall  mangui-hibiscus,  cecropia  or  candelabrum-tree,  and 
convolvulus,  here  white,  there  pink. 

"  Such  towns  are  these  V'  said  M.  Mendoza,  as  he  pointed 
to  the  few  long  white-walled  Ranchos,  known  as  Villa 
Franca.  Its  site  is  a  clearing  in  the  eastern  bank,  where  it 
is  somewhat  higher  than  usual ;  above  and  below  it  the 
raised  ground  falls  into  tree- clad  hollows,  and  a  long  island 
occupies  the  centre  of  the  stream.  More  interesting  was 
the  Vuelta  Hermosa,  which  all  remarked  before  they  had 
heard  its  name — a  regular  ''  horseshoe  bend,^''  in  the  western 
barranca,  whose  fifteen  perpendicular  feet  of  stiff"  clay  under- 
lie sixteen  inches  of  dark  vegetable  mould,  clad  in  grass  and 
well-grown  palms.  It  is  a  splendid  site  for  a  colony,  but 
still — it  is  in  the  Gran  Chaco.  The  only  Paraguayan  build- 
ings are  in  their  clearings  on  the  low  shore  opposite^ 
tattered  stockades  and  tiled  ranchos,  almost  swept  away  by 
the  inundations.  Such  are  the  deserted  Guardias  of  Gatrapi 
and  La  Zanjita. 

Our  attention  was  then  called  to  Villa  Oliva,  another 
deserted  hamlet,  consisting  of  a  chapel,  El  Rozario^  a  white 
and  tiled  house,  and  half  a  dozen  sunburnt  ranchos  :  deserted 
all,  and  rising  from  a  drowned  land,  at  whose  edge  half  a 
dozen  pistia-islets  were  cutting  themselves  adrift.  Carts, 
ambulances,  and  ammunition  waggons,  left  by  the  Allies  for 
want  of  draught,  lay  broadcast  o\^er  the  country  ;  and  in 
striking  contrast  rose  the  Marshal-President^s  telegi'aph 
posts  of  well-trimmed  hardwood  (madera  de  ley).  North 
of  Villa  Oliva  was  found  a  single  bridge,  and  the  swampy 
ground  proved,  Paraguayan-like,  very  unsound  and  treache- 

27 


418  TRIP    TO    ASUNCION. 

rous  to  the  invader.  The  same  words  may  describe  Villa 
Mercedes.  It  had  its  subtending  pistia-swamp,  its  flat  open 
clearing  of  carandaypalm^  its  scatters  of  carts  and  ambulances, 
its  church — N.  S.  de  las  Mercedes,  a  whitewashed,  red- 
roofed  shed — and  its  three  big  tiled  ranchos.  Here  the  line 
of  telegraph  was  double  :  one  running  along  the  stream,  the 
other  striking  inland. 

And  now  the  weather  becomes  fitful  :  the  purple  cloud 
at  times  discharges  a  few  drops,  and  then  a  glowing  sun- 
shine bursts  upon  the  scene  and  gives  the  landscape  life. 
This  is  the  best  of  backgrounds  for  the  new  prospect  which, 
after  more  than  a  thousand  miles  of  luxuriant  vegetation  in 
the  deadest  flat,  discloses  itself  about  3  p.m.  The  country 
again  suggests  that  about  Monte  Video  :  its  low  rolling  downs 
are  truly  refreshing,  like  a  draught  of  water  to  a  thirsty 
throat :  we  feel  as  if  sighting  land  after  a  long  sea  voyage. 
You  will  think  these  expressions  exaggerated,  but  the  im- 
pression was  almost  universal.  Low  on  the  north-eastern 
horizon,  with  the  subtended  angles  diminished  by  distance, 
rose  five  blue  points,  which,  according  to  the  pilots,  may  be 
seen  from  Villa  Franca.  Some  called  them  Cerro  de  San 
Antonio,  others  Lambare,  others  the  Peaks  of  Paraguari, 
whilst  the  best  informed  judged  them  to  be  the  Altos,  or 
southern  outlines  of  the  great  Paraguayan  Cordillera.  In 
this  direction  the  heights  best  known  are  the  Cerros  of 
Itaugua,  which  meet  the  Cordillera  of  Itaipacua ;  the  peak 
of  Mbatovi ;  the  range  of  Santo  Tomas,  containing  a  cave 
inhabited  by  that  Apostle  ;  the  Cerro  Porteno,  near  Para- 
guari, where  Belgrano  was  defeated;  the  cones  of  Acai, 
near  Villa  Eica;  and  Yaguaron,  where,  in  1755,  the  Jesuits 
built  the  mission  of  St.  Bonaventura. 

Nearer,  and  swelling  above  the  tall  tree-curtain  of  the 
river  bank,  are  Las  Lomas — the  ridges — grassy  slopes,  best 
fitted  for  the  shock  of  armies,  thwaites,  and  bits  of  stubbly 


TRIP    TO    ASUNCJON.  419 

ground,  golden  and  ruddy ;  yellow  with  grass  below,  and, 
higher,  dark  with  monte  and  capoeira,  gently  rolling  up  to 
the  hill-crest.  Both  plain  and  land-wave  are  scattered  with 
"  quinta/'  Here  the  term  is  applied  to  groves  of  palms 
and  oranges,  whether  accompanied  by  a  house  or  not.  To 
the  north  appears  Loma  Valentina — a  reddish  black-dotted 
upland,  still  topped  by  galpons  or  sheds  ;*  a  single  tree 
showing  the  headquarters  on  the  south-western  slope,  which 
commands  the  landscape  like  a  map. 

On  this  spot  some  4000  Paraguayans  and  3000 
Brazilians — some  have  increased  the  number  to  15,000,  and 
others  even  to  20,000 — fattened  the  soil.  It  was  the 
hardest  fighting  in  the  whole  war. 

"  No  man  gave  back  a  foot ;  no  breathing  space 
One  took  or  gave  within  that  dreadful  place." 

Marshal-President  Lopez  once  more  here  risked  his  for- 
tunes, and  lost ;  whilst  the  Allies,  especially  the  Brazilians, 
w^on,  and  gained  nothing  by  their  splendid,  sterile  victory. 

The  afiair  at  Loma  Valentina  is  a  mystery,  and,  I  may 
say,  one  of  the  ugliest  of  the  many  ugly  facts  that  have 
disfigured  this  war.  After  a  week^s  hand-to-hand  fighting, 
a  terrible  bombardment,  and  perpetual  rifle-firing,  the 
Allies,  headed  by  the  Argentines,  marched,  on  the  morning 
of  December  27,  1868,  into  the  heart  of  the  Marshal- Presi- 
dent's lines.  They  found  the  artillery  completely  dis- 
mounted, and  the  few  Paraguayans  who  remained  after  the 
sauve  qui  pent  were  cut  down  or  bayonetted.  The  arch- 
enemy never  expected  to  escape  :  he  had  placed  his  family 
under  the  care  of  General  Macmahon ;  he  rose  from  break- 
fast to  mount  his  horse,  and  he  left  behind  him  his  personal 


*  The  sheds  were  probably  the  remains  of  the  immense  house  which, 
according  to  Lt.-Col.  Thompson,  the  President  built  at  Ita  Yvati  (the  high 
store}'),  about  four  miles  from  the  river,  and  two  in  rear  of  the  Pikysiry 
trenches. 

27—2 


420  TRIP    TO    ASUNCION. 

baggage  and  female  slaves^  his  private  carriage,  and  even 
his  clothes  and  papers.  Dr.  Stewart  and  others  had  sur- 
rendered to  the  enemy,  but  Marshal-President  Lopez  dashed 
through  the  scattered  Brazilian  forces  and  rode  off  accom- 
panied, some  say  by  twenty,  others  by  ninety  men,  to 
Cerro  Leon,  his  hill  stronghold. 

The  Brazilian  General  J.  M.  Menna  Barreto  had,  before 
the  action^  volunteered  to  capture  the  arch-enemy.  During 
that  day  there  were  some  5000  Brazilian  cavalry  in  the 
field,  and  hardly  one-half  of  them  had  drawn  a  sabre.  Yet 
Marshal  Caxias  refused  to  detach  a  troop  in  pursuit.  His 
friends  excuse  him  by  saying  that  he  had  been  forty-eight 
hours  on  horseback ;  that  his  forces  had  been  demoralized 
by  the  frightful  fighting,  and  so  forth.  Similarly,  when  he 
returned  on  sick  certificate  to  Rio  de  Janeiro,  they  declared 
that  he  was  on  the  point  of  death  when  he  was  seen  by  the 
public  riding  a  spirited  horse  about  Tijuca  and  Andarahy.  At 
length  the  Generalissimo  detached  Lieut. -Colonel  Cunha 
and  the  54th  Volunteers — infantry  to  catch  a  man  on 
horseback  !  This  battalion  marched  as  far  as  Potrero  Mar- 
iQore,  where  a  large  family  of  half-naked  Paraguayans 
assured  them  that  about  two  hours  before  Marshal-President 
Lopez  had  mounted  a  fresh  horse.  Having  failed  to  throw 
salt  on  the  fugitive,  the  pursuers  sensibly  returned  to  camp. 
Comment  upon  such  a  proceeding  as  this  is  useless. 
Any  service  in  the  world  would  have  called  upon  Marshal 
Caxias  to  justify  himself  before  a  court-martial,  and  a  strict 
service  like  the  French  or  the  Austrian  vrould  probably  have 
condemned  him  to  be  shot.  In  the  Brazil,  he  was  created 
a  Duke — the  only  Duke — on  March  23,  1869,  and  he  was 
relieved  from  the  command-in-chief  on  the  following  22nd  of 
April. 

A  little  gap  in  the  eastern  bank  shows  the  mouth  of  the 
Suruby  rivulet — Surubi-hy,  the  stream  of  the    Surubi  fish. 


TRIP    TO    ASUNCION.  421 

There  was  fierce  fighting  at  this  spot;  and  on  September 
23,  an  ambuscade  of  Parag^uayans  fell  upon  the  Bra- 
zilian vanguard,  destroying  many  of  it,  and  annihilating  a 
whole  battalion.  As  we  advanced,  hove  in  sight  the 
Guard ia  de  las  Palmas,  the  usual  horseshoe  in  the  eastern  or 
left  bank  here,  three  to  four  feet  high,  and  declining  to  the 
north  and  south.  The  large  clearing  showed  a  forest  of 
poles  and  sticks;  stretchers  sheltered  by  remnants  of  roofs; 
grass  still  mangy  and  worn;  green-painted  litters  and  am- 
bulances, and  long  lines  of  broken  huts  and  hovels  ;  in 
fact,  the  remnants  of  a  big  encampment.  Here  stood  the 
general  comercio  or  bazar,  and  the  camp  of  the  Argentines, 
who  threw  up  a  redoubt  before  attacking  the  Marshal 
President's  last  line  of  defence.  The  second  mangruUo  to 
the  north  denoted  the  Brazilian  quarters,  then  sheltering 
some  20,000  men,  and  the  Generalissimo  Caxias  occupied 
the  Ildoriaga  estancia  not  in  sight  of  the  stream. 

The  Gran  Chaco  side  appeared  low  and  wet,  and  a  ruined 
Bancho  denoted  the  station  of  the  Brazilian  telegraph. 
After  Las  Palmas  both  banks  sank,  and  presently  the 
eastern  rose  to  three  feet,  whilst  the  stream  broadened, 
forming  a  channel  island.  The  latter  sheltered  the  Para- 
guayan canoes,  which  attacked  the  Allied  Commissariat. 
About  this  point.  Marshal  Caxias  began  the  road  through 
the  Great  Chaco,  three  leagues  long,  and  intended,  as  usual, 
to  take  the  enemy  in  rear.  The  operation  was  laborious 
in  the  extreme,  but  it  proved  exceptionally  successful. 
A  little  higher  up  we  could  distinctly  see  to  the  north-west 
the  Loma  Cumbarity  (the  "  Cumbari  pepper-plantation  ^'), 
separated  from  the  Loma  Valentina  by  a  swampy  tract. 
Here,  early  in  September,  Marshal- President  Lopez  took  up 
his  headquarters,  some  four  miles  from  the  river,  and 
hence  he  could  command  a  perfect  view  of  Las  Palmas  and 
of  the  Angostura  batteries. 


422  TRIP    TO    ASUNCION. 

Again  a  gap  in  the  eastern  bank  shows  the  mouth  of 
the  ArroyOj  or  Estero  Pikysyry.*  It  drains  the  northern 
Laguna  Ypoa  (lucky  water) — the  Laguna  Ypao  of  Mr.  Mans- 
field— and  it  falls  into  the  Paraguay  river  just  below  the 
first  or  southern  battery  of  Angostura.  Unfordable^  and 
some  sixty  feet  broad,  it  completely  defended  these  works 
from  the  south,  and  connected  them  with  the  Loma 
Valentina.  The  important  and  strongly-fortified  tren- 
cheira,  or  line  of  the  Pikysyry,  is  9104  metres  in  length,  with 
142  gun-platforms,  not  including  those  on  the  river  side, 
thirty-three  magazines,  and  thirty-four  drains  under  the 
parapet.  Lowlands  flank  the  stream,  and  the  Paraguayans 
had,  according  to  custom,  thrown  over  its  mouth  two 
reprezas  or  dykes — not  three,  as  has  been  stated — and  had 
thus  raised  to  nearly  five  feet  the  waters  overlying  the 
swamps  to  the  south  and  east.  On  the  north-east  of  the 
Pikysyry  is  the  rising  ground  communicating  with  the  Loma 
Valentina,  and  a  little  north  of  the  dykes  was  a  redoubt, 
which  the  Paraguayans  were  too  hard  worked  to  finish 
building.  When  the  main  force  of  the  Allies  crossed  over 
to  the  Gran  Chaco,  they  here  left,  in  front  of  the  Paraguay 
lines  which  they  intended  to  turn,  the  Argentines,  the 
Orientals,  and  the  Brazilian  brigade  of  1500  men.  The 
defenders  of  the  lines  may  have  amounted  to  4000 — not, 
as  has  been  reported,  to  7000  and  9000. 

The  end  of  a  long  march  brought  us  to  the  celebrated 
Angostura,  or  ''  narrowing  ■"  (of  the  river).  Here  the 
atream  shrinks  to  600  yards  ;  there  is  a  strong  current,  more 
like  a  rapid,  in  the  great  bend  to  the  east,  and  the  channel 
is  full  of  remansos,  or  dead  water.      I  was  told  by  an  Eng- 


*  The  word  is  written  in  various  ways  :  Pequisiry,  Piquisari,  Pykjciry, 
and  so  forth.  Lt.-Col.  Thompson  translates  it  "  Shrimp-stream,"  from 
piky,  a  shrimp  :  and  syry,  a  stream.  May  it  not  he  the  "  water  of  the  Pequi 
shrub  ?"     I  have  alluded  to  this  tree  in  "  The  Highlands  of  the  Brazil." 


TRIP    TO    ASUNCION.  423 

lish  engineer,  who  had  worked  on  board  the  steamer  Salto, 
that  he  had  once  seen  the  river  only  four  feet  deep  at  the 
"  gut/^  but  it  is  doubtful  if  this  was  ever  the  case  of  late 
years.  In  1863,  vessels  have  had  to  throw  out  two  anchors, 
and  to  be  dragged  over  the  bank  into  deep  water.  The 
much-feared  ^'  bitter  batteries  "  occupied  the  usual  position 
at  the  toe  of  the  horseshoe,  and  where  they  could  also 
flank  the  front  of  the  land-lines  :  a  few  shapeless  heaps 
upon  a  bank  some  four  feet  above  the  river  were  their  only 
vestiges.  The  first,  or  southernmost  "  Bateria  de  Angos- 
tura,^' the  "  left  battery ''  of  the  Paraguayans,  mounted 
eight  guns,  of  which  one  was  the  "  CrioUo,''  a  150-pounder, 
cast  in  the  arsenal  of  Asuncion.  The  northern,  or  right 
battery,  separated  by  a  distance  of  700  yards,  was  armed 
with  seven  guns,  and  others  were  placed  singly,  making  a 
total  of  fifteen,  and  eleven  magazines.  The  works  were 
hurriedly  built,  and,  as  everywhere  in  Paraguay,  they  were 
open  in  the  rear.  After  the  flight  of  Marshal-President 
Lopez,  they  were  surrendered  at  noon,  December  30,  1868^ 
to  the  Allied  generals,  by  Lieutenant-Colonels  George 
Thompson  and  Lucas  Carillo,  the  commanders,  and  the 
gallant  garrison  marched  out  with  their  arms  and  all  the 
honours  of  war. 

Behind  the  heaps  remained  a  few  rugged  huts,  and  inland 
rose  the  mangruUo  and  the  ranchos  occupied  by  the  Bra- 
zilians. Here  we  were  boarded  by  a  canoe  crew  of  negro 
sailors  belonging  to  an  ironclad  on  guard.  This  ship  was  a 
great  contrast  to  the  Henry  H.  Davisofij  a  Mississippi  boat 
bought  for  the  navigation  of  the  Bermejo,  which  presently 
came  rushing  past  us.  As  a  rule,  only  the  refuse  of  steamers 
has  been  sent  up  to  the  war.  Hereabouts  the  ground  is 
much  more  simple  and  intelligible  than  that  round  Itapirii 
and  Humaita.  We  were  shown  to  the  eastward  the  hill 
scattered    with    rude  quintas,    where    the    late    Barao    do 


424  TRIP    TO    ASUNCION. 

Triumplio  (General  Andrade  e  Neves)^  leading  2500  cavalry, 
surprised  and  captured^  at  1  a.m._,  December  21, 1868,  during 
a  cessation  of  the  rain  whicli  had  poured  two  days,  the  out- 
lying picquets  of  the  enemy.  This  feat  enabled  General 
Menna  Barreto  to  take  the  Pikysyry  trenches  in  the  rear,  and 
to  open  communication  with  the  left  of  the  Allied  forces 
north  of  Las  Palmas. 

About  one  league  to  the  north  of  Angostura,  and  on  the 
left  or  eastern  bank,  we  see  La  Villeta  rising  above  the 
avenued  trees  of  the  bank.  It  is  a  classical  place.  Upon 
its  Arroyo,  called  the  "  Paray^'  by  Lieutenant-Colonel  Jose 
Arenales,  the  Payagua,  or  Canoe  Indians,  violently  attacked, 
in  1536,  D.  Juan  de  Ayolas,  who  followed  in  the  footsteps  of 
Cabot.  The  gallant  Spaniard,  after  almost  annihilating  his 
assailant,  founded  La  Villeta.  It  is  the  normal  village  :  a 
single  square,  open  towards  the  river  front,  and  the  white- 
washed and  tiled  houses  have  verandahs,  but,  as  usual,  no 
back  doors,  so  that  each  one  may  the  better  spy  his  neigh- 
bour. The  "  Palace"  of  the  Marshal-President  is  a  larger 
building  than  the  rest,  fronting  north ;  and  the  pauper 
church,  with  detached  tower,  has  been  turned  into  a  hospital. 
Outlying  tenements  lie  scattered  amongst  wasted  gardens 
and  torn  orange  groves,  once  so  highly  prized.  On  the 
bank  is  a  battery,  hastily  thrown  up  by  Marshal-President 
Lopez,  who  expected  that  the  enemy,  after  the  customary 
fashion  of  running  his  head  at  the  hardest  place,  would  here 
land.  This  is  the  only  sign  of  the  "  selected  and  carefully 
prepared  fortifications"  here  found  by  the  Buenos  Airian 
journalist.  Behind  the  earthwork  stands  the  white  gate  of 
the  cemetery,  and  on  the  crest  of  the  loma  lies  the  quinta 
occupied  by  General  Osorio  when  he  marched  upon  Loma 
Valentina. 

On  the  western  or  opposite  bank,  partially  masked  by  one 
of  many  islands,  is  the  Puerto  del  Chaco.  Behind  it  appears  a 


TRIP    TO    ASUNCION.  425 

^niandsome  country"  of  flat  meadow-land,  dotted  with  tree- 
mottes  and  with  the  tallest  carandai  palms  yet  remarked. 
At  present  it  is  mostly  under  water,  and  the  flood  extends 
north  to  the  Rio  Confuso.  After  Marshal  Argolo  had  cut 
his  painful  way  through  the  Gran  Chaco,  the  Brazilians 
reached  this  place  on  November  25,  1868.  The  river  rising 
rapidly,  threatened  to  drown  out  the  camp  :  this  precipitated 
operations  in  a  manner  not  usual.  The  ironclads,  which  had 
run  past  the  Angostura  battery,  at  once  embarked  8000 
infantry  and  artillery,  but  not  for  La  Villeta,  as  had  been 
expected ;  they  chose  San  Antonio,  four  to  five  miles  further 
up.  The  vanguard  was  followed  by  others  till  the  force 
rose  to  25,000  men.  According  to  some  of  the  Paraguayan 
prisoners.  Marshal  Caxias  here  completely  outwitted  Marshal- 
President  Lopez.  This  I  greatly  doubt :  moreover,  the  in- 
tended landing  at  San  Antonio  appeared  in  the  Buenos 
Aires  papers  several  days  before  it  was  efi'ected. 

North  of  La  Villeta  is  the  wooded  line  of  the  "  Abay,^** 
wrongly  written  Ivahy  stream.  The  word  means  "Indian 
water^^  (Aba-yg).  Here  also,  on  the  11th  December,  in  the 
midst  of  a  violent  storm,  hard  fighting  took  place.  Some 
5000-6000  Paraguayans  and  eighteen  guns,  under  General 
Caballero,whom  I  have  mentioned  as  the  most  gallant  of  their 
ofl&cers,  held  their  ground  for  nearly  five  hours,  until  sur- 
rounded and  cut  up  by  the  enemy^s  cavalry.  The  Brazilians 
captured  seventeen  guns,  and  carried  oflP  800  unwounded, 
besides  600  wounded  prisoners,  many  of  them  officers  of  rank. 
Of  these  several  at  once  escaped — General  Caballero,  Major 
Moreno,  commanding  the  artillery,  Major  Mongelos,  and 
others.  The  Brazilians  had  also  some  4000  men  hors  de 
combat,  and  amongst  these  was  the  gallant  General  Osorio, 
who,  badly  wounded  in  the  mouth  by  a  musket-ball,  was 
compelled  to  leave  the  field. 

Here  the  Cerro  de  Santo  Antonio,  which  from  Angostura 


426  TRIP    TO    ASUNCION. 

appears  a  tumulus  dark  with  monte_,  and  springing  from  a 
yellow  plain,  becomes  a  mere  swell  in  the  loma  or  upland. 
To  the  north-east  we  are  shown  theCapella  delpane,,  orYpane, 
where  in  peaceful  times  the  citizens  of  Asuncion  enjoyed 
their  picnics.  The  word  signifies  "  crooked  water'^  (y-pane), 
and  the  streamlet  must  not  be  confounded  with  the  large 
tributary  of  the  Paraguay,  at  whose  mouth,  in  S.  lat.  23°  30', 
is  Villareal,  the  port  whence  the  Yerba  used  to  be  embarked 
for  Asuncion.  Near  this  place  the  Brazilian  army  en- 
camped after  the  battle  of  Itororo. 

Further  to  the  north-east  a  brown  house  in  the  bush  was 
pointed  out  to  me  as  the  Potrero  Baldovino,  which  won  for 
itself  a  name  on  December  6.  My  informant  "as  a  Para- 
guayan soldier  of  five  years^  standing;  he  looked  hardly 
sixteen ;  he  had  been  speared  in  the  Gran  Chaco  fights ;  he 
could  show  a  silver  Cross  of  the  Order  of  Merit,  and  he  was 
then  in  the  service  of  M.  Mendoza.  A  great  bend  to  the 
east  presently  placed  us  in  front  and  south  of  the  Cerro 
de  Lambare.  It  was  the  scene  of  the  historic  fight  be- 
tween 40,000  "  Indian^^  braves  and  D.  Juan  de  Ayolas, 
before  he  disembarked  at  Asuncion  on  August  15,  1536. 
The  name  was  that  of  a  Cacique,  and  also  of  a  well-known 
river-fish.  It  is  a  flat-topped  hill — a  truncated  cone,  whose 
table  is  143*25  metres  above  the  river  level.  Clad  in  dark 
monte,  and  said  to  be  basaltic,  it  much  resembles  the  curious 
knots  which  I  have  described  as  buttressing  the  course  of  the 
Rio  de  Sao  Francisco.  I  had  read  ^'  The  Peak  of  Lambare 
is  enchanting,  with  its  cone-like  elevation  clad  in  luxuriant 
foliage,  raising  its  lofty  form  to  the  skies" — and  I  was  of 
course  disappointed.  Here  was  once  a  chapel,  and  people 
used  to  extract  salt  from  the  river  mud. 

Evidently  we  are  now  approaching  a  city.  A  made  road, 
with  avenues  of  trees,  threads  a  succession  of  quintas,  and 
runs    over  the   hill   on  the    eastern  bank.       Dwarf  forest. 


TRIP    TO    ASUNCION.  427 

broken  by  orange  groves  and  coquito  palms  in  small 
clearings,  clothes  the  ground,  and  the  section  of  the  tree- 
clad  cliflf  that  faces  the  river  is  of  ruddy  sandstone  deeply 
gashed  by  the  streams  that  intersect  it.  An  islet,  a  few 
hovels,  and  slanting  telegraphic  posts  mark  the  mouth  of 
the  deep  narrow  Arroyo  Itororo.  The  name  has  been 
wrongly  written  Itonoro  :  it  is  translated  "  tumbling  water/^ 
from  Tororo,  a  jet  d^eau,  or  cascade.  The  little  wooden 
bridge  where  the  slaughter  took  place  is  about  half  a  mile 
from  the  mouth. 

At  Itororo  took  place  the  fierce  battle  of  December  6. 
The  Brazilians,  having  effected  a  landing,  marched  south- 
wards upon  La  Villeta,  and  were  compelled  to  cross  the 
Arroyo.  Field-Marshal  Argolo  led  the  attack  with  the 
second  corps  d^armee;  the  first  being  kept  in  reserve,  and 
the  third,  under  General  Osorio,  having  been  detached  to  the 
left  in  order  to  outflank  the  enemy.  General  Caballero 
commanded  the  Paraguayan  force,  and  Major  Moreno  had 
charge  of  the  artillery — twelve  field-pieces.  A  hand-to-hand 
fight  ensued,  and  three  times  the  bridge  was  taken  and  re- 
taken. At  last  Marshal  Caxias  led  in  person  his  first 
corps  d'armee,  which,  uniting  with  the  second,  easily  cleared 
the  bridge  and  captured  six  of  the  guns.  The  fight  must 
then  have  been  well  nigh  over,  for  of  his  staff"  of  thirty-three 
officers  none  were  killed  and  only  one  was  wounded.  In 
this  affair  the  Brazilians  had  upwards  of  3000  hors  de 
combat.  The  brave  Colonel  Fernando  Machado  de  Souza 
was  killed,  and  Field- Marshal  Argolo  was  struck  in  the 
neck  and  thigh. 

At  a  short  distance  northwards  of  the  Itororo  appeared 
Santo  Antonio,  of  old  the  principal  port  for  loading  oranges. 
The  "  Capitania^' — export  officers^  quarters — still  remains  ; 
a  fresldy  whitewashed  barn  with  a  roof  of  blackened  tiles, 
and  a  huge  flagstaff.      Here  the  Brazilians  skilfully  effected 


428  TRIP    TO    ASUNCION. 

a  landing.  It  is  generally  believed,  however,  that  Marshal- 
President  Lopez  had  purposely  left  the  place  undefended 
after  stationing  at  Asuncion  M.  Luiz  Caminos,  his  War 
Minister,  with  a  flying  column  of  2000  men  and  eighteen 
guns  ready  to  fall  upon  any  corps  that  might  land.  There 
is  little  doubt  that  so  strong  a  force  attacking  in  the  bush 
would  have  thrown  the  Brazilians  into  complete  confusion. 
But  the  "  Grouchy  of  the  Paraguayan  Waterloo,^^  as  M. 
Caminos  is  now  called,  preferred  retreating  with  his  com- 
mand upon  Cerro  Leon,  where  the  mountains  promised  him 
safety.  M.  Cuverville,  the  French  Consul  at  Asuncion,  so 
often  reported  to  have  been  imprisoned  by  the  ''  bloodthirsty 
tj^rant,^^  declares  that  when  Marshal-President  Lopez  and 
Madame  Lynch  first  met  him  after  the  flight  from  Loma 
Valentina,  the  latter  exclaimed,  in  great  agitation,  "We 
have  had  a  terrible  disaster"  (un  affreux  desastre) — "  we 
owe  it  to  M.  Caminos."  Of  course  it  was  reported  that 
M.  Caminos  had  been  shot. 

And  now,  as  we  have  been  working  up  stream,  whereas 
the  fighting  came  down  it,  you  may  like  to  read  an  abstract 
of  the  events  which  distinguished  the  December  of  1868. 
On  the  5th  the  Brazilian  army  disembarked  at  Santo  Antonio, 
whereas  the  enemy  expected  it  at  La  Villeta.  The  battle  of 
Itororo  occurred  as  the  invader  was  marching  southwards 
to  attack  the  headquarters  of  Marshal-President  Lopez. 
Victorious  at  this  point,  the  Generalissimo,  having  encamped 
at  Ipane,  pressed  forwards,  and,  December  11,  won  the 
battle  of  Abay.  On  December  21  General  Menna  Barreto 
cleared  the  trenches  of  Pikysyry,  and  completely  cut  ofi'  the 
Angostura  batteries  from  the  headquarters  at  Loma  Valen- 
tina. Marshal  Caxias  then  drove  the  enemy  from  the  strong 
point  of  Ita  Yvnti  to  a  position  in  the  woods  about  one  mile 
further  to  the  rear.  On  December  25  Marshal  President 
Lopez  lost  his  cavalry,  and  found  himself  reduced  to  1000 


TRIP    TO    ASUNCION.  429 

meiij  against  20,000  of  the  enemy.  On  the  27th  he  fled  to 
Cerro  Leon.  It  is  the  general  opinion  that  Marshal  Caxias 
"was  determined  not  to  capture  the  arch-enemy :  he  is 
known  to  be  beyond  the  considerations  of  material  fortune, 
but  unhappily  there  are  many  in  the  Brazil  with  whom 
party  feeling  is  stronger  than  conscience,  or  even  than  self- 
interest. 

We  now  pass  the  fine  landmark  Lambare.  Here  the 
current  becomes  a  rapid,  a  cachoeira,  with  a  swish  and  a 
swell  which  again  suggests  past  experiences.  Nearly  oppo- 
site it  is  the  "  Curuai/^  or  southern  arm  of  the  Delta  of  the 
Pilcomayo  (Bird  river),  the  northern  being  a  little  below 
Asuncion.  This  river,  also  called  Araguay,  the  "wise 
water,^^  or  the  water  of  "understanding/^  because,  according 
to  Garcilazo,  care  and  experience  are  required  to  canoe 
through  its  curious  mazes,  is  the  second  in  importance  from 
the  west,  draining  the  base  of  the  Andes,  and  it  is  under- 
stood to  be  of  little  utility.  Uncertain  like  the  Salado,  it 
spreads  out  wide  over  the  plains  :  Bolivia,  however,  looks 
to  it  as  her  future  line  of  communication,  which  will  super- 
sede that  via  Cobija  on  the  Pacific  nearly  600  miles  from 
Sucre,  her  capital.  At  present  the  mouths  of  the  Pilcomayo 
can  hardly  be  distinguished,  owing  to  a  lagoon  on  the  left 
bank.  At  Asuncion  no  one  seemed  to  know  anything  of 
it;  in  fact,  the  pilots  difi*ered  about  the  position  of  its 
debouchure;  and  in  maps  we  may  notice  the  same  dissi- 
dence,  some  placing  its  infiuence  north,  and  others  south,  of 
Asuncion. 

Hereabouts  we  cannot  disembark.  The  dead  Paraguayans 
still  lie  unburied  around  La  Villeta,  and  the  live  are  prowling 
about,  despite  the  ironclads,  picking  up  in  all  directions  arms 
and  ammunition  from  those  who  want  them  no  more.  All 
manner  of  "pasados^^  (deserters)  are  hanging  about;  and 
there  is  a  report  that  in  the  Gran  Chaco  opposite   exists  a 


430  TRIP    TO    ASUNCION. 

large  quilombo^  or  maroon  settlement,  where  Brazilians  and 
Argentines,  Orientals  and  Paraguayan  fugitives,  dwell  to- 
gether in  mutual  amity,  and  in  enmity  with  all  the  world. 
The  ground-plan  of  the  campaign  is,  however,  as  I  have 
said,  simple ;  and  this  glance  from  the  steamer-deck  explains 
to  us  the  scene  of  the  last  seven  months'  lighting  since 
April  10,  1869. 

I  hope  that  you  have  found  this  difficult  letter  intelligible, 
and  that  you  will  let  me  say,  temporarily — Farewell. 


LETTER    XXIV. 

DESCRIBING  ASUNCION,  EX-CAPITAL  OF  PARAGUAY. 

Asuncion,  April  15,  1869. 

My  dear  Z , 

You  will  patiently  endure  a  somewhat 
detailed  description  of  the  ex-capital  of  "  Prester  John's 
Country  in  the  South.''  Unique  in  this  world  of  Hanseatic 
cities^  it  is  one  of  the  most  characteristic^  and,  allow  me 
the  word_,  idiomatic  of  towns :  a  glance  reads  its  history, 
and  yet  the  plumitifs  who  called  it  the  "most  go-ahead 
city  on  the  continent/'  seem  to  have  missed  the  peculiarities 
of  its  physiognomy. 

It  is  old  for  these  lands,  being  founded  on  the  Feast  of 
the  Assumption  of  the  Virgin  (August  15,  1536).  Ayolas,  its 
Romulus,  had  evidently  a  nice  eye  for  sites.  The  Paraguay 
river,  here  800  to  1000  yards  broad,  sags  to  the  eastward, 
forming  a  bay  or  port  of  still,  dead  surface,  like  a  little 
lake,  and  the  bight  is  land-locked  by  a  natural  breakwater, 
a  long  green  islet  upon  which  cattle  graze.  Ships  anchor 
in  perfect  safety  along  the  shore,  and  extend  in  lines  high 
up  stream.  Their  presence  adds  not  a  little  to  the  beauty 
and  amenity  of  the  scenery,  which  has  all  the  softness  and 
grace,  without  the  monotony,  of  the  fair,  insipid  shores 
about  Humaita. 

It  is  comparatively  defenceless :  even  the  half-river 
stockade  shown  in  the  maps  of  1857  had  been  allowed  to 
disappear.  True,  the  invader  must  run  the  gauntlet  of  the 
Tacumbu  ten-gun  battery,  which  lies  below  a  palm-tasselled 
hill,  and  separated  by  a  neat  glacis  from  the  tall,  red  sand- 


432  ASUNCION, 

stone  cliflP,  which,  scarped  in  case  of  attack,,  commands  the 
river.  The  old  brick  outwork,  however,  is  open  behind,  and 
is  raised  so  high  that  its  plunging  fire  is  little  to  be  feared. 
On  the  east  of  it  is  a  redoubt,  with  platforms  for  four  guns, 
of  which  only  two  had  been  mounted :  it  shares  all  the 
defects  of  its  larger  neighbour,  and  both,  at  the  time  of 
my  visit,  were  thoroughly  dismantled.  Here,  I  suppose, 
are  the  two  casern ated  batteries  which  the  older  charts 
caused  to  front  the  mouth  of  the  Pilcomayo.  In  imme- 
diate rear  of  the  guns  stood  ruins  of  the  usual  powder- 
magazines,  not  sloped  as  they  should  have  been.  Behind 
the  works  the  green  ground  is  made  swampy  by  an  unclean 
rivulet  draining  to  the  east ;  and  about  200  yards  further 
are  tattered  sheds  on  the  principle  of  the  Humaita  bar- 
racks. 

The  most  striking  object  is  the  unfinished  palace  of  the 
Marshal- President :  it  might  have  been  built  to  great 
advantage  upon  higher  ground,  but  it  is  evidently  intended 
to  attract  the  first  glance  of  the  arriver,  and  to  be  the  last 
upon  which  the  departing  eye  dwells.  It  is  an  extravagant 
construction — a  kind  of  Buckingham  Palace,  built  upon  the 
abrupt  slope  of  the  river,  from  which  only  a  narrow  terrace 
divides  it ;  consequently,  the  inland  fa9ade  is  not  nearly  so 
tall  as  that  which  looks  riverwards.  An  utter  absurdity, 
considering  the  size  of  the  town,  it  consists  of  a  body  and 
two  wings  projecting  southwards  into  a  small  square,  provided 
with  a  fountain.  The  centre  is  capped  by  a  substantial 
square  tower,  one  of  whose  four  pinnacles  has  been  knocked 
away  by  the  Brazilian  ironclads :  a  little  damage  has  also 
been  done  to  the  west  flank.  A  fine  broad  staircase,  boldly 
planned,  enters  the  middle  of  the  fa9ade,  and  abuts  upon  a 
terrace  evidently  intended  to  command  the  square,  for  the 
purposes  of  speechifying  and  of  sight-seeing.  Here  are 
some   wondrous    attempts    at  art,  emblematical   sculptures, 


EX-CAPITAL    OF    PARAGUAY.  433 

such  as  a  Liberty  cap  on  a  pole,  supported  by  Religion  and 
Patriotism.  Also  a  pair  of  heraldic  lions ;  the  lion  of 
Paraguay,  be  it  observed,  is  a  jaguar,  not  a  Britisher,  nor, 
as  M.  Demersay  says,  a  leopard.  It  is,  in  fact,  the  Icon  de 
Ibera,  a  beast  almost  as  harmless  as  an  "  Essex  lion.'' 
Still,  the   Argentine   National    Hymn   refers    to  it  in   the 

line — 

"  Y  a  sus  plantas  rendido  un  leon." 

These  lions  are  made  of  Country  grit ;  they  are  grotesque 
with  a  witness,  and  they  carefully  present  their  posteriors 
towards  the  master  of  the  house.  The  wings  are  laid  out 
in  large  saloons  and  ball-rooms  below,  and  above  in  about 
a  score  of  small  apartments,  some  of  which  have  fire-places. 
The  architect  was  an  English  master-mason,  Mr.  Taylor, 
and  his  workmen  were  Paraguayan  lads  and  recruits,  hired 
at  eighteen- pence  a  day ;  all  things  considered,  they  have 
not  done  badly. 

Mr.  Taylor  was  one  of  the  unfortunates.  One  night,  late 
in  1868,  when  he  was  returning  quietly  home,  he  was  led  off 
to  the  Capitania  (Port  Captain's  office),  where  irons  were 
rivetted  to  his  legs.  Without  a  word  of  accusation,  he  was 
tormented  by  being  thrown,  back  downwards,  in  the  sun, 
and  by  being  cowhided  when  he  called  for  water.  Some 
are  of  opinion  that  these  brutalities  were  the  unauthorized 
work  of  underlings  ;  others  again  assert  that  nothing  of  the 
kind  could  take  place  without  the  cognizance  of  the  chief 
authority.  However,  after  the  decisive  defeat  at  the  Lomas, 
Marshal- President  Lopez  happened  to  ride  past  where  Mr. 
Taylor  and  the  chief  of  the  telegraph  office,  Mr.  Fischer 
von  Treuenfels,  a  Prussian  of  talent  and  education,  hap- 
pened to  be  lying  in  irons.  They  appealed  to  him  for 
mercy :  he  professed  not  to  remember  them — doubtless 
their  imprisonment  had  worked  great  changes — and  he  at 
once,  ignoring   their  offences,  ordered   them  to   be   set    at 

28 


434  ASUNCION, 

liberty.  Mr.  Taylor  retired  to  Buenos  Aires^  leaving  in 
the  camp  of  Marshal-President  Lopez^  his  wife,  an  English- 
woman,  and  three  children,  of  whom  one  was  at  the 
breast. 

A  few  minutes  more  place  us  off  an  apology  for  a  plank 
pier  where  men  land.  Opposite  it  is  a  small  redoubt,  dis- 
mantled like  the  rest,  and  supporting  a  few  dirty  little 
"  pal  ^■'-tents,  and  huts  called  hotels  :  these  are  inscribed 
"  Garibaldi,''  ''  Au  Petit  rran9ais,''  ''  Le  Sapeur,''  and  so 
forth.  It  is  a  kind  of  suburb  of  the  comercio  or  bazar, 
which  lies  hard  by  to  the  south-west. 

Here  we  have  a  general  view  of  "  La  Ciudad,''  the  capital 
townlet,  seated  upon  its  amphitheatre  of  red  bank,  which 
slopes  gracefully  down  to  the  lake-like  stream :  formerly 
it  fronted  due  north  ;  but  Dr.  Francia,  with  his  own  hands, 
changed  the  orientation  to  25°  east.  Thus  it  occupies  the 
riverward  side  of  a  hill,  or  rather  the  section  of  a  ridge 
which  is  bounded  by  low  drains  to  the  east  and  west.  The 
length  from  the  pier  to  the  railway  station  is  about  three 
quarters  of  a  mile,  and  the  depth  from  the  river  to  Calle 
Pilcomayo,  which  crowns  the  ridge-top,  is  from  500  yards 
to  half  a  mile.  It  may  still  be  extended  to  the  south, 
where  six  streets  only,  out  of  a  total  of  thirteen  on  paper, 
have  been  partially  laid  out  and  named.  Beyond  them  the 
ground  droops  towards  a  shallow  valley,  and  the  thorough- 
fares are  mere  holes  or  piercings  in  the  dense  bush,  with 
here  and  there  a  rancho.  The  ridge-crest  is  seventy-five 
metres  above  the  river.  At  present  there  is  no  plan  of  the 
city,  but  this  want  will  soon  be  supplied. 

On  the  right  of  the  landing-place,  between  the  two 
redoubts,  is  the  much  talked  of  Asuncion  arsenal,  where  the 
*'busy  iron  islanders,''  about  thirty  in  a  total  of  150  hands, 
are  said  to  have  cast  upwards  of  a  hundred  guns.  The 
large  sheds,  raised  upon  the  site  of  an  old  convent,  are  of 


EX-CAPITAL   OF   PARAGUAY.  435 

fine  brick,  cased  at  the  corners  with  the  red  porphyritic 
rock,  here  coarse  and  micaceous,  there  fine  as  gneiss,  which 
crops  out  of  the  Tacumbii  hill.  The  building,  inscribed 
R.P.  (my  friends  read  "  Rip  '^),  is  well  provided  with  a  dry 
dock,  with  a  floating  dock,  with  slips  for  shipbuilding,  with 
boiler-houses,  and  with  machinery,  of  which  few  vestiges 
remain.  Even  in  1857  this  dockyard  was  building  two 
steamers  of  500  tons :  it  had  furnaces,  steam-hammers,  and 
portable  engines,  for  working  wood  and  iron.  In  1863  it 
had  built  six  of  the  eleven  steamers  which  composed  the 
Republican  fleet.  Mr.  M.  Mulhall  remarked  of  it, 
"  When  the  new  offices  are  completed,  this  will  be  a  grand 
arsenal,  and  the  fire-eaters  of  Buenos  Aires,  who  may  be 
suffered  to  pass  Humaita,  can  learn  an  instructive  lesson 
in  this  'retrograde^  country'''  (page  88).  Many  English 
employes  have  served  in  this  arsenal.  Six  years  ago  it  was 
managed  by  Mr.  Marshall,  with  Mr.  Grant  as  foreman. 
They  were  stabbed  by  a  native,  and  the  latter  was  shot. 
The  medical  officer  was  Dr.  Barton,  who  was  allowed  to 
leave  the  country  some  two  years  before  my  visit.  The 
next  superintendent  was  Mr.  Whytehead,  a  mechanical 
inventor  not  unknown  in  England  :  he  is  said  to  have 
suicided  himself;  and  his  successor  is  Mr.  Nesbitt,  who,  I 
told  you,  volunteered  to  remain  in  the  country. 

Between  the  landing-place  and  the  arsenal  is  the  Pro- 
veduria  or  Commissariat,  a  large  rambling  barn  of  brick 
and  tile.  It  fronts  the  comercio,  now  laid  out  in  streets  ; 
the  booths,  which  sell  everything,  and  over  which  wave 
all  manner  of  flags,  the  English  included,  are  mostly 
double-poled  canvas  tents  upon  wooden  foundations, 
raised  some  four  feet  high.  They  are  composed  in  due 
succession  of  stolen  doors,  windows,  and  other  furniture, 
then  of  cask  staves,  and  lastly  of  lumber  brought  up  by  the 
ships.     Foul  with   offal^  these  pest-houses  are  fit  to   lodge 

28—2 


436  ASUNCION, 

only  the  flies  bred  by  the  horses  and  the  meat,  whilst  the 
chorus  of  drunken  voices  and  the  twanging  of  guitars  tell 
all  the  low  debauchery  of  a  camp.  We  pass  on,  humming 
"  She  was  a  harlot,  and  I  was  a  thief,''  to  the  new  Custom- 
house opposite — a  strip  of  whitewashed  building  conspicuous 
from  the  river,  and  therefore  showing  sign  of  shot.  The 
long  western  face  is  arched,  but  not  with  ''  Moorish  arches,'' 
as  a  late  traveller  says ;  and  the  depth  being  built  up  a 
slope  which  has  not  been  levelled,  gives  to  the  arcade  a 
peculiarly  crooked  and  tumble-down  aspect. 

The  landing-place  is  deep  and  slushy,  with  loose  reddish 
sand  contrasting  well  with  the  greenery,  and  with  water  in 
almost  equal  proportions.  Here  begin  the  tramway  and 
telegraph  posts,  running  eastward,  and  passing  a  casemated, 
stone-revetted  battery  of  ten  guns,  which  commands  the 
landing-place  and  the  river.  It  concludes  the  system  of 
defence,  and  you  would  find  it  hard  to  explain  how  such 
miserable  works  put  to  flight  a  squadron  of  Brazilian  iron- 
clads. The  tramway  runs  up  the  Calle  de  Asuncion,  alias 
de  la  Iglesia,  the  chief  street  near  the  river.  As  the  road 
has  been  graded  down,  many  houses  are  perched  upon  tall 
detached  blocks  of  stiff"  red  clay  and  incipient  sandstone. 
The  formation  of  the  Asuncion  hill  is  of  grit  and  pudding- 
stone,  often  covered  with  a  cape  of  iron ;  the  rock  is 
evidently  ferriferous,  and  the  metal  occurs  pure  in  pyriform 
grains.  The  surface  is  a  sand  composed  of  fragmentary 
quartz,  milky  and  coloured  pale -red  by  oxide:  the 
pieces  are  all  more  or  less  polished,  and  water,  often 
chalybeate,  bursts  through  the  covering.  The  streets  of 
Asuncion  are  the  streets  of  Buenos  Aires,  only  these  are  on 
a  flat,  and  those  are  on  a  slope ;  moreover,  the  latter  usually 
lack  side-paths.  Where  they  lead  to  the  river  the  thorough- 
fares are  deeply  gashed  by  rain,  and  in  some  places  water 
stained  with  oxide  gushes  from  the  ground,  making  them  mere 


EX  CAPITAL  OF   PARAGUAY.  437 

nullahs.  I  thought  involuntarily  of  the  streams  that  are 
taught  to  run  down  the  wide  avenues  of  Salt  Lake  City.  They 
arc  divided  by  bands  of  the  roughest  yellow  or  red  sandstone 
grit  (sangre  de  boi),  sections  of  a  mountain  torrent,  into 
parallelograms  of  sloppy  mud  and  ooze,  where  guns  and 
cattle  stick.  Here  and  there  is  a  paved  ramp  of  impracticable 
slope,  and  nowhere  can  a  carriage  be  used.  Offals  lie  all 
about :  there  is  a  dead  animal  in  each  line ;  and  where 
carts  pass  the  wheels  are  often  bogged  in  the  quag- 
mire. The  Brazilians  declare  that  they  have  improved  the 
streets,  which  they  found  overgrown  with  grass  and  weeds. 
Like  all  public  works  at  Asuncion,  nothing  can  be  viler  than 
the  thoroughfares,  and  remember  that  I  visited  them  in  the 
heart  of  the  ''  dries. "^ 

A  few  paces  lead  us  to  the  old  Cathedral,  now  the  Encar- 
nacion  Church.  Curious  to  say,  no  fane  has  been  raised 
to  San  Bias,  patron  of  Paraguay,  and  even  San  Francisco 
Solano,  who  in  1589  reached  Asuncion,  has  not  won  the 
honour  of  a  chapel.  The  shape  is  truly  Paraguayan;  a 
single  belfry  to  the  south  boasts  of  more  than  usual  pic- 
turesqueness  :  the  simple  old  Spanish  fa9ade,  pointing  east, 
with  the  spacious  tiled  atrio,  and  the  three-arched  porch 
leading  to  the  doors,  has  the  improvement  of  a  more  massive 
cornice  than  is  usual  in  South  America,  and  the  body  is  a 
long  dorsum  of  red  tiles.  The  colours  are  pink  and  blue 
upon  a  white  ground,  forming  the  national  tricolor,  which 
we  everywhere  see  at  Asuncion,  and  the  material  is  brick 
upon  ashlar  of  boulders.  To  the  north  is  a  garden  and 
lodgings  for  the  Sor  Cura,  but  both  are  sadly  dilapidated. 
Inside  the  church  the  naves  appear  far  too  wide,  and  the 
rules  of  proportion  are  evidently  ignored.  The  pulpit,  font, 
and  confessionals  are  of  quaint  forms,  manifestly  not  modern. 
During  mass,  the  worshippers,  as  everywhere  in  these  regions, 
were    separated   by  sex;    similarly    St.  Charles   Borrcmseus 


438  ASUNCION, 

divided  his  temple  into  male  and  female.  At  otlier  times 
there  were  so  few  voices  and  so  many  echoes  that  imagina- 
tion took  the  mors  au  dents.  I  was  once  startled  by  the 
impudence  of  a  French  "  Frere  ignorantin/'  who^  disturbed 
in  fierce  love-making  to  a  pretty  Paraguayan,  stared  fiercely 
at  me  from  his  stray  corner,  as  if  I,  forsooth_,  had  been  the 
ofi'ender.  Here  reposes  the  terrible  Doctor  Francia ;  he 
never  decreed  for  himself  a  monument,,  holding,  probably, 
that  "  pourrir  sous  du  marbre  on  pourrir  sous  la  terre,  c^est 
toujours  pourrir/^ 

A  few  steps  lead  to  the  main  square,  the  Plaza  de  la 
Cathedral,  or  de  Gobierno,  the  nucleus  of  the  old  town, 
which,  however,  has  lost  all  its  antique  aspect.  In  the 
raised  centre  reviews  were  held,  the  public  rejoiced  in 
Christmas  *^*^  tamashas,"*^  such  as  races  of  200  yards,  fire- 
works, the  sortija  or  running  at  a  ring,  and  the  gomba  or 
<(  nigger-dance  -"  here  Toros  fought  in  real  earnest,  not  like 
the  bull-play  of  Lisbon  and  other  places.  It  was,  in  fact,  the 
site  for  spectacula  and  circenses.  Facing  the  river  side  is 
the  Cabildo,  a  ponderous  two-storied  building  of  the  parallelo- 
pipedonic  order.  The  central  pediment  bears  the  usual  two 
medallions  ;  the  upper  one  has  ''  Republica  de  Paraguay"  in- 
scribed in  crescent  shape  over  a  vulgar  "  lone  star^^ — here 
with  eight  rays,  and  in  other  places  with  six — their  sup- 
porters being  crossed  branches  of  yerba  and  tobacco,  which 
show  but  little  difference.  The  lower  oval  has  the  same 
external  legend,  half  circling  a  medallion,  whose  rim  bears 
the  yerba  and  tobacco,  whilst  the  centre  is  inscribed  with 
"  Paz  y  Jastiza,^'  bisected  by  a  pole  which  bears  a  Liberty 
cap  and  stands  upon  a  lion  passant.  This  Paraguayan  coat 
of  arms  here  appears  everywhere,  in  place  and  out  of  place, 
from  the  buttons  of  the  soldiers^  uniforms  to  the  fa9ade  of 
the  cathedral.  The  Cabildo  is  supported  by  piers ;  whilst 
under  it  are   dungeons  more  terrible  than   the  Piombi    of 


EX-CAPITAL    OF    PARAGUAY.  439 

Venice.  In  the  second  story  heavy  pilasters,  forming  ten 
arches,  make  a  deep  verandah,  equally  efficacious  against  sun 
and  rain,  and  provided  with  strong  wooden  balconies.  The 
outlying  sentry-boxes  and  the  large  flag-staff  are  painted 
tricolor,  and  remind  us  that  wearing  the  national  colours 
was  once  obligatory. 

South  of  the  Cabildo,  and  facing  west,  is  the  terrible 
"  Palace  "  of  Dr.  Francia.  It  was  originally  a  retreat  for 
Jesuits'  lay  brethren,  and  after  their  expulsion  it  became 
the  Government  House.  The  whitewashed  ground-floor 
tenement  has  verandahs  about  eight  feet  broad,  with  eighteen 
columns  fronting  the  river,  and  ten  facing  the  main  square. 
These  pillars,  circular  in  the  fayade  and  angular  at  the  cor- 
ners, support  heavy  hard-wood  beams,  on  which  rest  rafters, 
laths,  and  tiles.  All  the  windows  are  jealously  barred.  It 
is  literally  hemmed  in  by  barracks,  the  largest  lying  to  the 
west,  opposite  the  main  entrance  ;  and  there  was  hardly  any 
difference  between  the  palace  of  the  Dictator  and  the  quar- 
ters of  his  Prsetorians,  Formerly  it  was  backed  by  the 
public  gaol,  of  which  we  read  horrid  descriptions ;  and  all 
the  barracks  had  State  prisons,  "  grillos/^  oubliettes,  and 
underground  ^^  puisards.^^ 

Facing  the  ''  Palace,'^  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  square, 
is  the  new  cathedral.  It  was  built  in  1845  by  the  elder 
Lopez  upon  the  site  of  a  chapel  which  he  pulled  down.  Seen 
in  profile,  it  is  the  normal  barn,  with  the  three  distinct  tiled 
slopes  of  nave,  aisle,  and  sacristy  or  verandah.  The  fa9ade, 
approached  by  a  spacious  atrio  and  steps  of  brick  and  stone 
slabs,  has  two  white  towers  banded  with  red ;  the  pilasters 
are  in  low  relief,  the  weathercocks  are  extravagant,  and  the 
Cross  rests  upon  the  arms  of  the  Republic.  The  doors  are 
usually  shut ;  but  a  few  Franciscans,  with  neuter-sex  coun- 
tenances, hover  about  the  building  like  birds  of  prey.  The 
interior  is  a   gloomy  barn,  whose  piers  support  a  flat  roof 


440  ASUNCION, 

of  common  painted  wood.  The  chapels  are  not  recessed, 
and  the  sacristy  looks  poor  and  humble.  The  only  remnants 
of  antiquity  are  the  gilt  pulpit  and  the  high  altar,  now  a 
mass  of  tinsel.  The  river  bank  opposite  the  cathedral  is 
here  thirteen  metres  high;  and  the  stranger  who  lingers  there, 
delighted  with  the  view,  would  not  suppose  that  he  is  stand- 
ing upon  the  arched,  oven-shaped  dungeons  where  captivity 
was  more  deadly  than  in  the  cells  of  Harar.  They  were 
probably  under  some  barrack,  which  has  long  disappeared. 
The  discovery  created  much  excitement  amongst  the  Bra- 
zilians, but  now,  I  supppose,  the  holes  have  been  filled  up. 

At  right  angles  with  the  cathedral  is  the  palace  of  the 
elder  Lopez  and  of  La  Seiiora,  Madame  Mere,  as  the  Sora 
Presidenta,  his  wife,  was  always  called.  Fantastic  and  Para- 
guayan, its  upper  story  is  supported  by  fifteen  pink  pillars, 
with  quaint  Egyptian-like  capitals,  forming  the  normal  deep 
verandah.  A  green-painted  balcony,  a  back  wall  of  pierced 
bricks,  and  a  flying  roof,  distinguish  the  Paraguayan  "  "White 
House."  The  lower  story,  tinted  to  resemble  marble,  has 
two  doors  and  twelve  windows,  looking  over  the  square 
upon  the  beautiful  river.  The  palace  is  connected,  as  usual, 
by  long  walls,  with  a  substantial  two-storied  building  in 
the  rear,  the  property  of  General  Barrios.  Most  of  these 
houses  having  adobe  walls  are  tiled  down  the  weather  side 
to  prevent  washing  away.  All  have  aljibes  or  tanks  to  col- 
lect the  rain  and  to  breed  mosquitoes  :  here  the  cistern  sup- 
plies the  best  drink ;  well-water  being  hardened  by  saltpetre. 
The  rest  of  the  Cathedral  square  is  occupied  by  four  ground- 
floor  bungalows,  like  that  of  Dr.  Francia ;  the  south-western 
whitewashed  building  is  the  old  theatre;  the  rest  were  in- 
habited by  the  Ministers  and  other  dignitaries. 

A  few  paces  beyond  the  cathedral  lead  us  to  the  Hotel  de 
la  Minute.  The  house  once  belonged  to  a  Paraguayan  of 
importance.      It  fronts  a  new  theatre  of  ambitious  size,  said 


EX-CAPITAL   OF    PARAGUAY.  441 

to  be  built  upon  the  model  of  "  La  Scala/^  and  fitted  for  1000 
spectators.  Its  flanks  are  one  hundred  yards  long ;  in  fact, 
it  occupies  a  whole  "  cuadra.''''^  The  brick  walls  that  back 
the  three  tiers  of  boxes  are  four  feet  thick;  they  must  be 
fearless  of  fire,  and,  after  the  usual  theatres  of  South 
America,  they  suggest  the  Coliseum.  The  building  was  un- 
finished, and  of  course  a  dead  mule  occupied  the  inside. 
South  of  the  theatre  is  the  plain  ground-floor  house  of 
Madame  Lynch,  who  did  not  live  in  the  palace  of  the  Mar- 
shal-President, and  she  had  bought  the  next-door  house  in 
order  to  establish  an  hotel.  In  Paraguay  money-making  is 
a  passion  even  more  passionate  than  love-making. 

Following  the  tramway,  we  presently  reach  the  railway 
station,  also  built  by  Mr.  Taylor.  It  occupies  a  whole 
"  manzana/'  and  is  not  without  pretensions.  A  tall  central 
clock-tower,  topped  by  a  balconied  Belvidere,  the  highest  in 
the  city,  forms  its  fourth  story  ;  the  long  upper  rooms  are 
used  as  ofiices,  and  there  are  quaint  turrets  at  each  of  the 
corners.  It  is  somewhat  in  the  reduced  Tuileries  style, 
now  afi'ected  by  New  London  between  Westminster  and 
Hyde  Park  Square.  The  zinc  roofs  of  the  ^^gare"  and 
towers  have  been  stripped  ofi"  to  make  canister  shot,  but  the 
timbers  are  almost  as  hard  as  metal.  Altogether  it  is  a 
good  solid  building,  far  superior  to  anything  at  Buenos 
Aires. 

Returning  to  the  main  square,  we  bisect  the  city's  depth 
by  means  of  the  filthy  Calle  de  la  Cathedral,  which  runs 
from  north  to  south.  Looking  down  the  Calle  de  la  Palma, 
the  Oxford  opposed  to  Regent  Street,  we  see,  towering  over 
the  line  of  hut  and  hovel,  the  unfinished  palace  of  D.  Benigno 


*  The  cuadra  of  Asuncion  varies.  It  is  here  assumed  to  measure  100  vares. 
Travellers  make  the  blocks  eighty  yards  square  and  the  streets  fifteen  yards 
wide.  The  "  manzana"  I  have  already  explained  to  mean  a  cuadra  cuadrada, 
or  square  cuadra. 


442  ASUNCION, 

Lopez^  in  wliicli  the  Paraguayan  type  has  been  somewhat 
skilfully  blended  with  Palladian  architecture.  Having 
become  the  headquarters  of  the  Argentines,  it  is  fronted 
by  a  fine  lakelet  of  liquid  mud.  Cathedral  Street  here  abuts 
upon  the  now  deserted  Plaza  del  Mercado,  a  large  space  of 
deep  sand,  surrounded  by  ground- floor  tenements.  At  one 
corner  is  the  "  casa  terrea  '^  of  Marshal-President  Lopez ; 
the  exterior  is  mediocre,  but  the  inside  is  comfortable  enough. 
Here  General  Osorio  took  up  his  quarters  before  occupying 
the  house  of  Dr.  Francia ;  and  here,  in  March  last,  the 
Brazilian  Consul  received  the  Councillor  Jose  Maria  da 
Silva  Paranhos.  Ten  years  before  (1858)  the  latter  had 
been  welcomed  to  the  same  house  as  Brazilian  Ambassador 
by  President  Lopez,  senior. 

West  of  the  building,  and  fronting  the  "  Caile  25  de  De- 
cembre,^''  is  the  unfinished  chapel  of  S.  Francisco.  The 
brick  dome,  of  scantiest  diameter,  still  bristles  with  its  chetif 
scafiblding  of  bamboo  and  palm-trunk.  I  cannot  understand 
how  Senor  Homem  de  Mello  (Viagem  ao  Paraguay,  February, 
March,  1869)  calls  this  thing  a  "  magnifica  basilica.''^  Further 
west  again  is  a  long  ground-floor  barn,  the  "  Club  Nacional,-" 
as  we  read  upon  the  lamps  that  front  its  entrance.  It  was 
once  civilized — as  far,  at  least,  as  lodging  its  members 
at  the  rate  of  sixteen  riyals  (six  shillings)  per  day ;  and 
during  fetes  it  was  always  well  filled.  The  newspaper 
literature,  however,  was  confined  to  the  SemanariOy  or 
weekly  organ  of  the  Government ;  and  to  the  Correo  de 
Ultramar.  The  library  contained  a  few  volumes  of  silly 
stories,  and  Colonel  du  Graty^s  "  Paraguay  -"  whilst  upon 
the  table  lay  pictures  of  Parisian  fashions  ;  in  fact,  the  Petit 
Courrier.  Billiards  and  cards  were  of  course  encouraged. 
Sentinels  are  now  at  the  door,  and  the  soldier  seems  lord 
of  all  he  surveys  at  Asuncion.  He  is  accused  of  excessive 
"  looting,^^   and  not   a  few  of  the   officers  are   supposed  to 


EX-CAPITAL   OF    PARAGUAY.  443 

have  lent  him  a  ready  hand.  But  there  could  have  been 
little  to  plunder,  and  the  noise  made  about  an  old  piano 
taken  from  the  club  suggests  far  more  smoke  than  fire.  And 
why  should  not  the  soldier  be  allowed  to  plunder  a  deserted 
place  ?  Why  cut  away  from  him  half  the  inducement  to 
fight  ?  Prize-money,  all  the  world  over,  enriches  mostly 
the  non-combatant ;  and  the  barefaced  way  in  which  it  is 
habitually  "  shroffed^'  has  made  the  very  word  a  scandal. 
Those  who  abuse  the  Brazilians  will  do  well,  before  throw- 
ing the  stone,  to  remember  certain  glass-houses  at  Hydera- 
bad, Sind,  and  the  Summer  Palace,  China. 

Passing  through  the  market-place  we  find,  further  south, 
a  third  and  a  more  extensive  square,  formed  by  smaller  and 
meaner  tenements.  It  is  considerably  larger  than  any- 
thing at  Buenos  Aires.  Formerly  the  place  '^  presented  a 
most  picturesque  aspect  at  sunrise,  several  hundreds  of 
women  dressed  in  white  being  assembled  to  dispose  of  their 
different  wares — fruits,  cigars,  cakes,  and  other  comestibles.^' 
At  present  all  is  barren.  In  it  is  the  United  States  Legation, 
which  Mr.  Washburn  had  insisted  upon  not  transferring  to 
Luque.  The  house  is  now  the  Gran  Hotel  de  Cristo — devo- 
tional-sounding, but  unusual.  The  Calle  Pilcomayo  hard  by, 
on  the  ridge  crest  falling  to  the  south,  would  be  the  finest 
site  for  a  palace,  and  it  commands  a  magnificent  view  of 
plain,  hill,  and  river.  The  large  whitewashed  building  to 
the  south-west  has  become  the  Brazilian  military  hospital. 

The  population  of  Asuncion  was  made  by  Du  Graty 
48,000.  Mr.  Mulhall  reduces  the  figure  to  one-half,  in- 
cluding the  suburbs.  Mr.  Mansfield  lets  it  down  to  20,000  ; 
and  I  would  further  diminish  it  to  12,000.  We  have  now 
learned  the  ropes  and  mastered  the  peculiarity  of  its 
physiognomy.  It  is  the  true  type  and  expression  of  Para- 
guay—of a  people  robbed  and  spoiled.  The  Presidential 
House  would  have  paid  the  paving  of  half  the  town.    Public 


444  ASUNCION. 

conveniences  are  nowhere;  the  streets  are  wretched ;  drainage 
has  not  been  dreamed  of;  and  every  third  building,  from 
the  chapel  to  the  theatre,  is  unfinished.  The  shops  were 
miserable  stores,  like  those  of  the  '^  camp-towns  '^  in  the 
Argentine  Republic.  The  post-office  consisted  of  two  small 
rooms  in  a  private  house.  The  barracks  and  churches,  the 
dungeons,  and  the  squares  for  reviews,  are  preposterous. 
Every  larger  house  belongs  to  the  reigning  family  Lopez. 
The  lieges,  if  not  in  the  caserne  or  the  violon,  must  content 
themselves  with  the  vilest  ranchos,  lean-tos,  and  tiled  roofs 
supported,  not  by  walls,  but  by  posts.  Nor  may  they  dis- 
play their  misery  :  it  must  be  masked  from  the  eye  of 
opulence  by  the  long  dead  brick  walls  that  connect  palace 
with  palace.  A  large  and  expensively-built  arsenal,  river- 
side docks,  a  tramway,  and  a  railway,  have  thrown  over  the 
whole  affair  a  thin  varnish  of  civilization  ;  but  the  veneer- 
ing is  of  the  newest  and  the  most  palpable  :  the  pretensions 
to  progress  are  simply  skin-deep,  and  the  slightest  scratch 
shows  under  the  Paraguayan  Republic  the  Jesuiticized 
Guarani. 

I  had  expected  to  find  Asuncion  the  last  of  the  many 
little  Moscows  by  which  the  Marshal-President  marked  the 
line  of  his  retreat.  Possibly,  in  their  overweening  national 
self-confidence,  the  Paraguayans  e^spected,  despite  all  dis- 
asters, soon  to  come  to  their  own  again.  Even  the  railway 
had  not  been  pulled  up,  and  was  allowed  to  save  the  Allied 
Army  some  two  months'  work.      Farewell ! 


LETTER  XXV. 

AT    AND    ABOUT   ASUNCION. 

Asuncion,  April  13,  1869. 


My  dear  Z , 

I  found  at  headquarters  a  complete  change 
of  masters.  Marshal  the  Duke  de  Caxias  had  given  up  the 
command  to  General  Guilherme  Xavier  de  Souza,  and  had 
departed  with  his  staff,  including  Brigadier  Fonseca.  Osorio 
and  Argolo  had  left  Paraguay  badly  wounded;  and  of  the 
old  hands  only  General  Menna  Barreto,  who  had  fought 
through  the  war,  remained.  In  the  fleet,  Admiral  Carvalho, 
the  Barao  da  Passagem,  who  succeeded  the  Visconde  de 
Inhaiima  (at  Rio  de  Janeiro,  March  8,1869),  had  been  re- 
emplaced  by  Admiral  Elisiario,  one  of  the  best  officers  now 
sent  up  when  no  longer  of  use ;  and  the  able  and  energetic 
Captain  of  the  Fleet,  Commodore  Alvim,  was  no  longer  to 
the  fore.  The  Councillor  Jose  Maria  da  Silva  Paranhos, 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  in  the  Cabinet  of  Sao  Christovao, 
had  returned,  after  inspecting  Asuncion,  to  the  labours  of 
his  especial  mission  at  Buenos  Aires.  This  able  diplo- 
matist, committed  to  a  war  policy,  they  say,  since  1858, 
had  been  sent  from  the  Brazil  with  orders  to  establish  at 
the  capital  of  Paraguay  a  provisional  government,  with  an 
acting  President. 

For  the  chief  magistracy  there  were  many  candidates. 
Those  foremost  in  the  field  were  Dr.  Serapio  Machain,  an 
invalid  hardly  expected  to  live ;  sundry  members  of  the  in- 
fluential and  deeply-iujuredDecoud  family;  Colonel  Iturburii, 
who  long  commanded  the  Paraguan  Legion  in   the  AlJied 


446  AT    AND    ABOUT   ASUNCION. 

Army ;  Seiior  Egisquiza_,  who  was  believed  to  be  a  ^'  Lopizta/^ 
and  D.  Carlos  Saguier,  an  Argentine  raercbant^  son  of  a 
French  settler,  and  born  in  the  little  Republic.  The 
latter 's  brother  was  the  D.  Adolfo  Sagnier,  an  Argentine 
captain  who  had  distinguished  himself  by  a  highly  sensa- 
tional report  concerning  the  "  atrocities  of  Lopez /^  It  is 
to  be  feared,  however,  that  Paraguayan  blood  will  always 
lapse  into  the  path  of  Francia  and  Lopez.  Moreover,  a 
President  without  subjects  enough  to  form  a  ministry — as 
is  at  present  the  case — would  be  a  palpable  absurdity,  and 
M.  Paranhos  could  not  lend  himself  to  the  farce  of  creating 
a  nation  out  of  a  few  war-prisoners. 

Messrs.  Prytz  and  Peterkin  were  absent  on  leave.  M.  and 
Madame  Auguste  Chapperon,  of  the  Italian  Consulate,  had 
run  down  to  Buenos  Aires.  The  Portuguese  Consul  had 
been  shot,  they  say,  by  "  Supreme ''  order.  M.  Cochelet, 
Consul  de  France,"^  had  been  succeeded  by  M.  Cuverville, 
ex-Eleve  Consulaire.  I  did  not  seek  the  acquaintance  of 
this  young  person,  who  wore  upon  his  arm  four  of  the  very 
broadest  gold  stripes — where  will  the  broadcloth  be  when 
he  shall  become  Consul  General  ?  An  ugly  story,  involving 
a  serious  breach  of  confidence,  was  current  about  him  and 
the  family  of  the  unfortunate  Mr.  Taylor.  Moreover,  he 
was  in  the  habit  of  setting  afloat  apocryphal  tales  which 
found  their  way  into  the  papers.  One  was  touching  a  silver 
handbell,  with  fleur-de-lis,  which  belonged  to  Madame 
Lynch,  and  which  had  been  treated  with  especial  distinction 
by  M.  Paranhos  :  the  latter  assured  me  that  he  had  bought 
it  at  Buenos  Aires. 

The  United  States  Minister,  General  Macmahon,  was  in 
the  mountains  with  Marshal-President  Lopez :  no  com- 
munication from  him  had  reached  the  sorrowing  sisters  at 


*  M.  Libertal,  the  chancelier,  universally  reported  to  have  been  tor- 
tured and  shot,  was  removed  from  Asuncion  by  the  French  gunboat. 


AT    AND    ABOUT    ASUNCION.  447 

Buenos  Aires.  The  Brazilian  party  thereupon  declared 
that  he  was  in  durance  ;  but  Paraguay  was  not  likely, 
under  the  circumstances,  so  gratuitously  to  offend  her  power- 
ful sister  Republic.  The  anti-Brazilians  asserted  that  his 
letters  had  been  intercepted  by  the  Allies.  Commander 
Parsons,  of  Her  Majesty's  steamship  Beacon,  which  had 
relieved  the  Linnet^  was  awaiting  permission  to  visit  the 
Marshal- President,  and  to  carry  off  the  last  of  the  English 
detenus.  I  have  before  referred  to  the  success  of  this 
officer's  first  mission  :  he  had  not,  however,  been  supplied 
with  a  list  of  all  the  British  employes,  and  at  the  moment 
of  his  reception  by  the  President  of  Paraguay,  Messrs. 
Valpy  and  Burrell  were  within  two  to  three  miles  of  him. 
The  Argentines  favoured  his  visit.  The  Brazilians  refused 
a  flag  of  truce ;  and  although  they  would  have  perforce 
allowed  passage  through  their  lines,  they  would  have  left 
him  alone  and  unescorted  to  find  his  way  across  the 
deserted  tract  separating  them  from  the  enemy.  Their 
overweening  self-confidence  in  their  own  prowess  gives  them 
an  arrogance  which  is  becoming  very  offensive  to  foreigners. 
The  bullying  manner  of  the  subaltern  officers,  especially 
with  strangers,  contrasts  most  unfavourably  with  the  cour- 
tesy of  the  Generals  and  Marshals.  If  any  ridiculous  asser- 
tion concerning  ^^  Lop'z,''  as  they  pronounce  the  name,  be 
received  with  the  least  reserve,  they  raise  their  voices,  and, 
with  open  sneer,  deprecate  any  "defence  of  the  tyrant.'' 
I  have  before  warned  you  not  to  confound  this  negraille 
— these  sweepings  of  second  and  third  class  negroes  and 
negroids — with  the  noble  Brazilian  nation.  They  all  believe 
that  such  a  campaign  has  never  been  fought ;  that  such 
hardships  have  never  been  endured  ;  that  such  battles  have 
never  been  won.  The  Empire,  for  a  couple  of  generations, 
has  been  essentially  pacific,  and  the  ignorant  have  of  course 
no  idea  of  what  is  war. 


448  AT    AND    ABOUT    ASUNCION. 

The  Allies  knew  nothing  about  the  plans  or  position  of 
Marshal-President  Lopez.  He  might  have  been  at  his  pro- 
visional capital  Pirebebm,  the  "  light  skin/^  east  of  the 
Pirajii  terminus  of  the  railway ;  or  at  Cerro  Leon,  south-east 
of  the  Ypacaray  Lake,  whilst  others  placed  his  actual  camp 
at  Asciirra,  further  to  the  north-east.  All  these  are  places 
on  the  Cuchilla  or  ridge  communicating  with  the  main 
rangC;,  and  between  ten  to  fifty  miles  distant.  Of  the  geo- 
graphical features,  only  the  names  were  known.  Some 
declared  that  the  Paraguayan  position  could  be  surrounded, 
which  is  not  probable ;  others  that  Ascurra  is  a  table-land, 
upon  which  cavalry  attacking  from  the  river  could  operate. 
None  could  explain  what  there  was  to  prevent  the  enemy 
retiring  into  the  mountain  fastnesses. 

Marshal-President  Lopez,  on  the  other  hand,  was  perfectly 
well  informed  by  his  many  spies  of  all  that  happened  in  the 
Allied  camp.  A  certain  Hungarian  Colonel  (in  the  Para- 
guayan army),  Wisner  de  Morgenstern,  who  printed  his 
family  arms  upon  his  card,  and  who  had  become  a  great 
landowner  in  the  Republic,  had  been  imprudently  allowed 
to  reside  at  Asuncion.  This  is  the  individual  who  is  said, 
in  conjunction  with  Madame  Lynch  and  the  Coadjutor 
Bishop  Palacios,  to  have  tempted  the  Marshal -President  to 
attack  his  neighbours,  and,  as  chief  military  engineer,  to  have 
laid  out  the  absurd  entrenchments  of  Humaita.  He  was 
made  prisoner  by  the  enemy  in  due  time,  and  he  kept  a 
small  pulperia  at  the  street  corner,  where  officers  came  for 
their  periodical  dram,  and  visited  a  pretty  daughter,  who  was 
reported  to  reward  important  intelligence.  The  Brazilians 
also  confided  unduly  in  two  chief  officers  of  the  rebel  Para- 
guayan Legion,  Colonels  Iturburu  and  Baes.  The  latter 
was  a  man  of  the  kill-you-and-eat-you  order.  He  had  re- 
peatedly volunteered  to  set  out  with  a  few  troopers  under 
pledge  to  capture  and   to  capouize  the   arch-enemy.      All, 


AT    AND    ABOUT    ASUNCION.  449 

however,  believed  that  he  was  most  unwilling  to  see  the 
offer  accepted. 

Shortly  before  my  arrival,  the  Paraguayan  outposts  had 
attacked  the  Brazilians  with  a  '^  railway  battery"  of  two 
guns,  and  had  killed  and  wounded  some  forty  men.  The 
steam-engine  w^as  charged  by  the  Rio  Grandenses,  lance  in 
hand  ;  and  no  one  had  the  presence  of  mind  to  lay  a  log,  or 
to  cut  the  throat  of  a  horse  across  the  rails  in  rear.  The 
Paraguayans,  after  doing  damage,  leisurely  retired,  and  stopped 
the  train  to  pick  up  two  of  their  wounded  who  had  fallen 
out  of  it.  After  my  departure  they  fell  upon  a  vedette  of 
cavalry,  and  drove  off,  it  is  said,  all  the  horses.  For  the 
first  few  weeks  after  the  "  affreux  desastre,"  they  numbered 
at  most  2500  men  and  youths,  most  of  them  hurt  and 
wounded.  The  wonderful  "  morosidade"  of  the  Allies 
allowed  the  prisoners — the  lost  and  those  placed  hors  de 
combat — to  return  to  their  colours;  and  in  April,  1869, 
Marshal-President  Lopez  was  supposed  to  have  6000  troops, 
which  others  exaggerated  to  8000  to  9000.  Arms  and  ammu- 
nition had  become  exceedingly  scarce,  but  the  former  could 
always  be  picked  up  fi'om  the  enemy's  field  of  victory,  whilst 
the  women  were  kept  to  hard  labour  making  cartridges. 

A  good  new  hotel — de  Paris — is  preparing  at  Asuncion. 
We  lodged  at  the  Hotel  de  la  Minute,  which  has  succeeded 
the  "  Hotel  de  Francia,  a  fifth-rate  inn,  with  exorbitant 
charges  for  small  rooms."  We  paid,  everything  included, 
$3*50  per  diem — a  moderate  charge  for  unexpected  good 
treatment.  The  French  owner  was  an  old  soldat  d'Afrique, 
and  he  was  chafing  under  an  insulted  nationality,  having 
been  lately  "  shopped"  under  the  pretext  that  he  was  re- 
ceiving stolen  goods,  when  he  was  only  buying  furni- 
ture for  his  inn.  At  the  same  time  sundry  tobacco-bales, 
the  property  of  a  foreigner,  were  confiscated  because  he  had 
carried  arms  against  the  Allies.      This  gave  rise  to  a  report 

29 


450  AT    AND    ABOUT    ASUNCION. 

that  tlie  invaders^  who  professedly  declared  war  against  the 
Government  of  Paraguay  only,  were  about  to  appropriate 
the  belongings  of  all  who  had  opposed  them  in  the  field. 
As  the  whole  of  the  Paraguayan  population  was  in  this 
category,  the  result  would  have  been  general  spoliation. 
Nothing  of  the  kind  was,  I  believe,  intended;  but  it  was 
impolitic  in  the  extreme  to  raise  any  such  question. 
Marhal-President  Lopez  could  hardly  fail  to  make  capital 
out  of  the  report,  and  to  show  his  vassal-citizens  that  they 
had  nothing  to  expect  except  by  fighting  to  the  last.  Mean- 
while, money  was  being  coined.  I  was  asked  if  my  claim 
upon  Paraguay  had  been  settled,  and  was  assured  that  by 
the  easy  sacrifice  of  half  of  what  did  not  belong  to  me,  the 
rest  could  be  recovered  in  hides  or  in  yerba.  Afterwards,  on 
board  the  Arno,  I  met  a  Brazilian  ^^  fornecidor,^^  who, 
accompanied  by  his  Traviata  and  his  Traviata^s  mamma  and 
daughter,  openly  boasted  that  in  three  days  he  had  cleared 
30,000  silver  dollars.  This  "  flogs"  even  the  Anglo-Indian 
commissariat  officer  whom  we  subalterns  used  to  greet  with 
the  stock  question  about  the  date  when  he  expected  trans- 
portation. 

At  Asuncion  I  again  met  Lieutenant-Colonel  Chodasie- 
wicz :  he  was  amiable  as  ever,  and  ready  to  impart  his 
stores  of  information ;  but  his  position  had  not  improved 
after  the  departure  of  his  patron  Marshal  Caxias.  He  had 
proposed  to  attack  the  last  Paraguayan  position  on  the 
Lomas,  by  marching  up  stream  10,000  men  and  twelve 
guns,  escorted  by  the  Monitors.  The  rest  of  the  army 
having  for  base  the  line  of  the  Tebicuary  river,  would  have 
advanced,  not  by  the  Gran  Chaco,  but  eastward  of  the  Laguna 
Ypoa,  and  by  Caapucu,  till  they  reached  the  apex  of  the 
triangle,  Ita,  which  lies  in  the  rear  of  Angostura.  But 
such  combined  movements  are  hazardous,  even  when  at- 
tempted by  the  best  troops. 


AT    AND    ABOUT    ASUNCION.  451 

Fortunately  for  me,  my  good  friend  Dr.  Newkirk,  for- 
merly of  Corrientes,  had  shifted  his  quarters  further  north. 
He  had  enjoyed  an  excellent  practice,  and  in  one  month 
was  able  to  clear  600/.  Now  he  complained  that  the  cli- 
mate, which  to  me  appeared  odious,  was  exceptionally 
healthy.  Asuncion,  situated  in  the  southern  third  of  the 
western  length  of  Paraguay,  is  nearly  on  the  parallel  of  Rio 
de  Janeiro.  Yet  here,  when  we  landed,  the  raw,  uncomfort- 
able south  wind,  which  prevails  in  the  cold  season,  made  me 
remember  ague  for  the  first  time  upon  the  river.  It  was 
presently  succeeded  by  a  burst  of  the  tremulous  molecular 
action  called  heat,  damp  and  stifling  as  that  of  Panama, 
with  a  copious  evaporation,  which  generally  ends  in  fearful 
storms  of  thunder,  lightning,  and  rain.  At  3  p.m. 
96°  (F.)  in  the  shade,  and  at  11  a.m.  97°,  are  not  uncom- 
mon. The  north  wind,  which  prevails  during  the  wet  half 
of  the  year,  is  as  full  of  misery  as  a  norther  at  Buenos 
Aires.  At  the  springs  and  changes  of  the  moon,  the  people 
expect  tempests  and  shifting  of  winds.  Bad  weather  at 
these  epochs  sometimes  lasts  through  the  quarter.  It  is 
popularly  said  here,  as  in  the  Brazil,  that  summer  and 
winter  meet  in  one  day,  and  that  Paraguay  combines  the 
four  seasons  in  twenty-four  hours.  Between  midnight  and 
6  A.M.,  it  is  spring ;  summer  then  extends  to  noon :  the 
third  quarter  is  autumn ;  and  from  6  p.m.  to  midnight  it 
is  winter.  As  in  Sao  Paulo,  the  whole  season  between 
March  and  September  is  the  only  time  to  travel.  Furious 
tempests  and  torrents  of  rain  are  usual  about  the  end  and 
beginning  of  the  year. 

Dr.  Newkirk  occupied  in  Calle  Liber  dad  the  house  be- 
longing to  Dr.  Stewart,  formerly  Physician-General  to  the 
Paraguayan  forces.  This  gentleman  had  married  a  rich 
native,  the  niece  of  Colonel  Baes,  who  brought  him  also  a 
neat  quint  a  or  finca,  and  some  half  a  dozen  estancias^  large 


452  AT    AND    ABOUT    ASUNCION. 

cattle  farms.  No  stranger,  I  may  observe,  may  hold  landed 
property  in  the  Republic  ;  and  those  who  marry  Para- 
guayan women  become  de  facto  naturalized  citizens  and 
subjects.  Dr.  Stewart  had  yielded  himself  prisoner  after 
the  battle  of  the  Lomas,  when  Marshal-President  Lopez 
dashed  away  from  or  through  the  enemy.  He  afterwards  re- 
turned  to  England,  landing  at  Buenos  Aires  and  at  Rio  de 
Janeiro,  where  he  was  honoured  by  the  Emperor  with  a 
lengthened  interview.  His  low  estimation  of  the  Marshal 
President  found  its  way  into  the  newspapers,  and  thus,  it  is 
feared,  the  safety  of  his  wife  and  children,  who  were  marched 
north  with  the  Paraguayan  headquarters,  may  be  terribly 
compromised. 

Mr.  Williams  met  at  Asuncion  an  old  Bahiano  acquain- 
tance, Lieutenant-Colonel  da  Cunha,  commanding  54th 
Volunteers.  He  had  been  badly  wounded  in  the  action  of 
December  21, 1868,  and  only  four  of  his  twenty-one  officers, 
and  90  out  of  560  men,  remained  unharmed.  These  figures 
prove  that,  when  manfully  led,  the  Brazilian  negro  will 
fight.  He  praised  the  steadiness  of  the  Paraguayans  under 
arms  ;  also  their  intelligence,  of  which  I  could  not  discern 
a  trace.  He  was  severe  upon  the  ferocity  of  their  officers, 
and  he  spoke  of  the  Duke  de  Caxias  pretty  much  in  the 
tone  adopted  by  our  cavalrymen  in  the  Crimea  when  dis- 
cussing Lord  Cardigan. 

We  were  presently  introduced  to  the  foreigners  at  Asun- 
cion, and  I  owe  the  subjoined  list  of  present  prices^  to  the 


*  Tug  steamers  are  paid  according  to  the  tonnage  of  what  they  tow, 
400Z.  being  the  general  sum  from  the  sea  to  Asuncion.  The  ton  pays  $16 
(f.)  from  Montevideo  to  Asuncion  ;  a  ton  of  coal  from  Eozario  the  same. 
Pressed  hay  6/.  per  fardo  of  20  arrobas  (each  25  lbs.).  Washing,  per  shirt, 
3*.  Riding  horse,  per  trip,  2/.  Provisions  are  dear.  Two  lean  chickens 
are  worth  $2  to  $5  (f.) ;  the  arroba  of  beef,  |3  (f.) ;  the  sheep  (small  and 
poor)  fetches  $6  (f.)  ;  cabbages  (half  grown)  per  dozen,  |5  to  $10  (f.). 
Meat  averages  6c?.  per  lb.  wheu  at  the  cheapest.      Bread  is  1  piastre 


AT    AND    ABOUT    ASUNCION.  453 

kindness  of  Mr.  Wingaard^  a  Swede,  and  Mr.  Bertram,  who 
had  a  Casa  de  Remate,  or  auctioneer's  office,  in  the  Calle  de 
la  Palma.  Of  the  two  staples,  yerba  and  tobacco,  the  first- 
named  once  formed  half  the  exports  of  the  Republic  j  now 
it  is  procured  with  difficulty  at  the  rate  of  $2  per  lb. 
The  latter  is  equally  scarce.  Before  the  war  the  comercio, 
or  common  quality,  ranged  between  9  ryals  and  $1  40 
(f.).  The  ^' amestizado '^  was  worth  $2  (f.).  The  species 
most  prized  in  Paraguay  are  the  pety-hobi,  or  "  green  to- 
bacco,^^  which  is  cultivated  about  Villa  Rica,  and  the  pety- 
par^,  a  "  spotted "  or  "  speckled ''  petun.  The  latter, 
known  by  the  large  yellow  discolorations  which  appear 
with  the  flower,  grows  only  in  certain  places.  The  plant  is 
carefully  topped,  and  the  leaves,  selected  by  the  "  acopia- 
dor,'"  were  tied  up  into  small  bundles.  A  man  lately 
bought  for  $5  (f.)  an  arroba  of  the  latter^  but  it  was  pro- 
bably stolen.  The  canela,  or  cinnamon-coloured  variety, 
was  ever  so  rare  that  it  could  be  purchased  only  by  making 
interest  with  a  village  chief:  the  value  was  $4  to  $6  (f.) 
per  arroba.  Little  care  was  taken  in  curing  the  weed.  My 
friend  Mr.  George  Thompson,  of  Buenos  Aires,  gave  me 
several  varieties  of  small  specimen  cigars,  made  about  1860, 
and  then  costing  1/.  126*.  per  thousand.  One  of  them  had 
a  smooth  greenish  leaf,  like  the  Manilla;  another  had  a 
"  capa '"'  of  pety-hobi  wrapped  round  common  ^'  comer- 
cio."*'      All  were  too  rough  in  appearance  to  suit  the  Eng- 


(8  riyals)  per  twenty-four  rolls,  each  of  \\  oz.  Paraguayan  diet  chiefly 
consists  of  maize  and  manioc,  oranges  and  mate.  All  prices  are  in  "  pata- 
coons"  of  ten  ri\'als  each.  The  Boliviano,  or  Bolivian  dollar,  is  worth  two 
riyals  less,  or  almost  three  shillings.  Wanting  small  change,  the  common 
people  have  chopped  up  these  pieces  into  two  and  four  bits ;  and  the  half 
dollar  is  popularly  termed  a  "  Boliviano."  House-rent  formerly  varied 
from  one  to  three  dollars  per  month,  and  a  pair  of  lodging-rooms  could  he 
had  for  $6  to  $7  (f.).  Furniture  is  rare;  the  citizens  mostly  slept  in  ham- 
mocks lushed  to  rings  built  in  the  wall. 


454  AT    AND    ABOUT    ASUNCION. 

lish  markets,  and  though  mild  in  flavour  were  very  heady. 
Yet,  as  you  know,  certain  connoisseur  friends  in  London 
did  not  dislike  them. 

We  wished  to  visit  the  French  colony  of  Nueva  Burdeos, 
which  I  have  said  proved  an  utter  failure.  The  site  of  this 
place  and  of  other  small  towns  on  the  far  hank  of  the  river 
may  be  seen  from  the  uplands,  but  they  may  not  be  visited 
without  the  permission  of  the  Brazilian  Admiral,  who  is  apt 
to  refuse,  judging  the  trip  unsafe.  We  ascended  the 
highest  ground  behind  Asuncion,  despite  the  dreadful 
effluvia  from  the  carcases  of  cattle,  and  enjoyed  a  charming 
view  of  the  little  city,  the  noble  expanse  of  the  river  valley, 
the  grand  sweep  of  the  stream,  and  the  sinuosities  of  the 
Pilcomayo's  mouth.  On  the  summit  is  a  mangrullo,  with  three 
ladders  and  a  solid  roof,  guarded  by  a  detachment  of  Bra- 
zilians, and  behind  it  is  a  cemetery,  small  and  new. 

We  visited  more  than  once  Dr.  Stewart^s  quinta,  east- 
ward and  out  of  town.  The  road  runs  by  the  railway 
w^orkshops,  which  are  unimportant ;  and  past  the  little 
church  of  S.  Boque,  a  single-steepled  aff*air,  like  most  of 
the  others.  It  then  crosses  two  small  wooden  bridges 
thrown  across  the  "  Chorro,"  a  rivulet  of  spring  water,  at 
whose  mouth  ships  fill  their  tanks,  and  under  whose  dwarf 
falls  the  citizens  in  happier  days  enjoyed  their  douches.  Then 
leaving  the  railway  to  the  left,  our  route  winds  across  deep 
sand,  and  we  pass  the  house  occupied  by  the  Oriental  army  of 
150  men,  under  General  Castro.  They  are  detained  here  by 
the  general  want  of  transport.  On  the  right  is  the  garden 
in  which  are  encamped  350  Paraguayan  soldiers  in  charge 
of  two  brass  guns.  I  confess  that  Asuncion  appeared  at 
that  time  eminently  open  to  a  coy p -de -main.  The  garrison 
consisted  of  some  thousand  Brazilians,  dispersed  in  barracks  ; 
in  case  of  a  surprise  these  men,  who  are  subject  to  panics, 
however  stoutly  they  may  have  stood  up  in  the  field,  would 


AT    AND    ABOUT    ASUNCION.  455 

probably  have  barricaded  themselves ;  and,  if  not,  they  cer- 
tainly would  have  marched  up  too  late.  A  few  corps  of 
Paraguans  might,  I  believe,  have  entered  Asuncion  before 
dawn,  cut  the  throats  of  the  unarmed  residents,  and  retired 
with  plenty  of  booty :  they  would  probably  have  been 
joined  by  the  420  men  under  Colonel  Baes. 

Beyond  the  Oriental  headquarters  we  passed  dwarf  trin- 
cheiras,  or  earthworks,  supported  by  palm-trunks,  and 
commanding  the  land  approach,  with  platforms  for  two 
guns ;  of  these  barricades  many  are  scattered  across  the  seve- 
ral roads.  Fording  a  stream  and  giving  a  wide  berth  to  a 
dead  mule,  we  turned  into  the  gardens  that  lay  on  our 
left.  It  was  impossible  not  to  remark  how  Brazilian  the 
fauna  and  flora  had  become.  The  chattering  ainuns,  the 
parroquets  with  thrilling  flight,  and  the  bem-te-vis  were 
noisy  as  ever;  the  charming  white  and  black  viuva  flitted 
from  bush  to  bush  as  on  the  banks  of  the  Rio  de  Sao  Fran- 
cisco ;  and  the  tame  little  doves  ran  along  the  ground,  whilst 
the  large  blue  pigeons,  swifter  than  the  hawk,  winged  their 
arrowy  flight  high  above.  The  quaint  staccato  voice  of 
the  frog  contrasted  with  the  monotonous  chirping  of  the 
nyaciingra  or  chicharra,  a  large  cicada.  Here  and  there  we 
started  a  lizard  or  an  iguana,  resembling  the  dragon  of 
Saint  George  in  pictures.  There  were  beetles  of  many  kinds, 
and  achatina  shells,  mostly  tenantless  at  this  season  ;  the 
spider  wove  on  almost  every  tree  her  large  web-like 
nest,  and  the  ant  was,  as  usual,  busily  engaged  in  useless 
labour. 

The  monarchs  of  the  woods  were  the  flgs,  especially  the 
bunchy  Ympomen  and  the  Tavumen,  with  dark-coloured 
fruit.  The  characteristic  trees  were  mimosas  and  acacias, 
especially  the  inga,  the  quebracho,  and  the  jacaranda,  or 
palo  de  rosa.  Of  these  woods  a  beam  has  been  found 
bearing  the  date   ''  Octobre  xx.   1633.''      I   recognised   the 


456  AT    AND    ABOUT    ASUNCION. 

cedro_,  thougli  young,  by  its  hard  fruit ;  and  saw  a  tree  wLich 
much  resembled  the  ibirapitanga,  or  true  Brazilian  dye- 
wood.  Mr.  Mulhall  (p.  99)  mentions  "  a  tree  called  by  a 
Guarani  name,  signifying  '  red  wood.'  "  The  napinday,  a 
prickly  mimosa,  which  closes  its  leaves  at  sunset  and  before 
showers,  was  pointed  out  to  me.  The  palms  were  the 
coquito,  with  the  usual  raceme,  and  the  fan-leaved  carandai, 
that  useful  ceroxylon,  which  is  cut  for  house-roofs  only 
when  the  moon  wanes.  Here  and  there  a  Persian  lilac, 
"margoso,'^  or  Nini  tree  grew  well,  whilst  the  Brazilian 
araucaria  did  not  thrive.  The  myrtle  and  papaw,  the  ara9a 
and  caju,  flourished  wild  in  the  bush;  and  there  was  an 
abundance  of  the  banana,  whose  fruit  before  the  war  was 
looked  upon  as  "basura"'  or  sweepings.  The  orange  tree 
is  here  fifty- five  feet  tall,  far  exceeding  that  of  the  Brazil, 
and  even  of  Corrientes ;  till  thirty  years  old,  it  is  half- 
grown,  and  when  arrived  at  full  age  it  averages  per  annum 
500  fruits.  I  have  heard  of  its  producing  thousands.  These 
aristocrates  du  regne  vegetal  are  intolerant  of  neighbours 
as  the  European  conifers.  Every  traveller  remarks  how 
clear  of  grass  is  the  ground  which  they  shadow ;  but  none 
explain  whether  the  soil  becomes  barren  by  imbibing  the 
acid  juice  of  the  fallen  fruit,  or  whether  it  results  from 
some  deleterious  emanation. 

The  shrubs  were  the  fedegoso,  so  well  known  in  the 
Brazilian  interior ;  arrowroot ;  wild  indigo,  now  seeding  ; 
the  verbena ;  the  white  oleander,  here  a  stranger ;  the  wild 
prickly  solanum,  or  "  Devil's  tomatoes  •"  the  castor-oil 
plant;  the  lantana;  the  pinhao  bravo,  which  gives  croton 
oil ;  wild  tobacco  ;  the  broca,  or  burr  ;  and  the  vidreira  from 
the  Gran  Chaco,  a  juniper-like  plant,  whose  ashes  reduced  to 
a  calx  are  used  by  the  glass-maker.  There  are  not  less  than 
seven  species  of  cactus,  chiefly  the  cylindrical  and  the 
quadrangular.     The   wild  flowers   are  the  familiar   vincas. 


AT    AND    ABOUT    ASUNCION.  457 

whose  lustrous  green  leaves,  contrasting  well  with  its  pink 
blossoms,  have  recommended  it  to  Europe,  and  even  to 
Egypt ;  and  the  diamela,  or  Paraguayan  jasmine,  which 
resembles  a  small  white  camelia,  with  a  rich  but  feeble 
perfume.  The  sensitive  plant  clothed  the  campo  like  clover 
or  lucerne ;  its  flower  is  a  pink  catkin ;  and  its  stem, 
armed  with  small  thorns,  resembles  the  feathery  mimosa. 
Convolvulus  hung  upon  the  dead  stumps ;  air  plants  sat 
upon  the  tree-forks  ;  and  the  birds  had  planted  the  red- 
berried  parasite  wherever  it  could  take  root.  There  was  an 
abundance  of  sarsaparilla  ;^  of  the  red-stemmed  sugar- 
cane ;  of  melons  ;  of  the  arachis  or  ground-nut,  which  here 
takes  the  place  of  the  olive  ;  of  mandioca,  the  local  parsnip  ; 
of  oats,  which,  formerly  unknown  by  name  in  the  Republic, 
now  grow  wild ;  whilst  the  cotton,  which  at  one  time  pro- 
mised to  become  a  staple  of  Paraguayan  export,  was  black 
with  neglect. 

The  house  was  the  normal  quinta  of  the  country ;  strong 
and  substantially  built.  A  deep  verandah,  fronting  a  lawn  to 
westward,  and  commanding  through  the  shady  trees  a  fine 
view  of  the  city,  led  to  a  hall  and  four  rooms  remarkable 
for  nothing  but  their  ceilings.  The  offices  were  to  the 
south,  and  the  interior  was  in  disorder  :  torn  books  lay  in 
the  corners,  a  huge  mirror  had  been  smashed,  and  the  fur- 
niture was  represented  by  the  foul  beds  of  the  Paraguayan 
"  care-taker ''  and  his  friends — ruffians  like  himself,  who 
sleep  all  night  and  half  the  day.  He  has  given  up  the  tene- 
ment to  these  "  four  great  orders  of  knighthood  " — 

"  The  earwig,  the  midge,  the  bedroom  B., 
Never  forgetting  the  gladsome  flea." 

A  companion,  Mr.  M'Nab,  gave  him  a  sovereign  to  fetch 


*  From  "  zarza,"  a  thorn ;  and  "  parilla,"  a  vine  :  not  a  gridiron,  as  Do- 
brizhoffer  has  it. 


458  AT    AND    ABOUT    ASUNCION. 

an  "  asa^o  "  for  breakfast.  He  returned  after  three  hours, 
swearing  that  the  coin  had  slipped  out  of  his  pocket.  Even 
a  negro  would  hardly  have  done  this. 

Thence  we  walked  northwards  to  the  house  of  the  Seiiora 
Dona  Macedonia,  a  niece  of  General  Berges,  aged  eighteen, 
and  a  great  favourite  with  foreigners.  As  she  was  absent 
we  entered  the  pulperia,  or  drinking-shop,  upon  the  ground- 
floor,  and  failed  to  buy  a  tin  of  sardines,  because  the  house 
had  no  change  for  a  gold  piece.  All  about  were  pretty 
^'  villas  /'  and  the  roads,  which  were  adorned  with  the  noble 
palma  real,  so  much  admired  at  Rio  de  Janeiro,  showed 
signs  of  careful  hedging. 

We  also  visited  the  finca  of  Madame  Lynch,  which  was 
said  to  grow  some  two  hundred  arrobas  of  coffee.  The  bun- 
galow was  neat,  and  fronted  by  a  lawn  through  which  brick 
conduits  led  to  a  plunge-bath  in  a  grassy  hollow.  The 
Mocha  was  not  forthcoming,  but  there  was  a  vinery  which, 
trained  to  arbours,  as  are  all  in  these  regions,  must  have 
produced  a  quantity  of  grapes.  The  aged  stems  lay  help- 
less upon  the  ground,  and  all  was  desolation ;  the  only 
inhabitants  were  a  few  Paraguayan  peasants,  who  were  eat- 
ing their  chipas,  or  coarse  brioches  and  chocolo,  the  "  buta^^ 
of  Hindostan,  young  maize  roasted  or  boiled. 

Our  excursions  about  Asuncion  were  always  short.  The 
climate,  to  strangers  at  least,  is  exceedingly  enervating; 
and  very  few  miles  in  deep  sand  suffice  for  the  best-girt 
walker.      Adieu. 


My  dear  Z- 


LETTER  XXVI. 

AGAIN    TO    THE    ALLIED    FRONT. 

Asuncion,  April  15,  1869. 


There  are  two  ways  of  making  Luque,  the 
ex-provisional  capital  village,  where  the  Allied  headquarters 
lie  :  by  horse  along  the  old  road,  or  by  the  railway  which 
I  told  you  the  Paraguayans  neglected  to  tear  up.  It  is 
believed  that  the  whole  is  open  as  far  as  Pirayii  terminus, 
54  miles,  which  would  lead  into  the  heart  of  Lopez-land; 
and  that  the  enemy  contented  himself,  after  sending  down 
his  locomotive  battery,  with  destroying  three  bridges,  in- 
cluding the  Juquery,  which  is  one  league  and  a  half  beyond 
the  headquarters. 

We  had  been  warned  that  the  journey  by  rail  would  not 
be  pleasant,  and,  expecting  nothing,  we  were  not  dis- 
appointed. The  first  daily  train,  at  6  a.m.,  is  held  dangerous. 
Of  late,  certain  waggoners  have  been  arrested  for  cutting 
the  trestles,  holding  that  the  caminho  de  ferro  spoils  their 
trade.  Every  train,  in  fact, 'does  the  work  of  nine  carts, 
which  can  carry  only  two  bales  of  pressed  hay  each,  and 
without  the  iron  road,  the  Brazilian  operations,  I  have  told 
you,  would  have  been  greatly  delayed. 

Mr.  Williams  and  I  were  introduced  to  the  Major,  who, 
stick  in  hand,  ruled  the  station.  Under  the  military  system 
of  Marshal-President  Lopez,  all  the  railway  officials  were 
captains  and  lieutenants,  and  a  military  band  played  on 
each  arrival  of  the  train.  We  found  M.  Petersen,  a  Dane, 
and   inspecting    engineer,  exceedingly  civil.     The    second 


460         AGAIN  TO  THE  ALLIED  FRONT. 

train  had  started  before  its  time ;  apparently  the  departures 
are  never  exacts  except  when  you  reckon  upon  their  in- 
exactitude. We  passed  the  time  in  inspecting  the  fine 
barracks  of  San  Francisco,  and  the  "  banquillo"  or  benchlet, 
facing  east,  a  seat  between  two  posts,,  where  criminals 
were  shot  at  daybreak  against  a  dead  wall.  Traitors,  as 
usual  in  these  lands,  were  fired  into  from  behind. 

The  Major  had  promised  us  places  by  the  third  train, 
which  leaves  at  10  a.m.,  and  for  this  time  we  were  careful  not 
to  be  late.  Every  appliance  was  of  the  rudest  description. 
The  asthmatic  little  engine — which,  after  serving  its  time 
upon  the  Balaklava  line,  and  being  condemned  as  useless  at 
Buenos  Aires,  had  been  shipped  ofi"  to  Paraguay — was  driven 
by  a  Brazilian  officer  in  goggles.  Passenger-carriages  there 
were  none;  and  the  shallow  waggons  piled  three  stories 
high  with  sacks  of  maize  and  bales  of  pressed  alfalfa,  each 
weighing  300  to  400  lbs.,  formed  a  perch  from  which  a 
fine  act  of  flying  into  the  nearest  field  could  be  performed. 
Something  of  the  kind  happened  to  the  next  batch  of 
travellers,  with  due  fracture  of  nose,  limb,  and  head. 

Dr.  Newkirk  was  accompanied  by  his  faithful  servant,  a 
Correntino,  who  hardly  lost  a  moment  in  getting  drunk, 
and  in  addressing  us  generally  with  japii — a  lie.  After  the 
usual  delay,  we  wound  slowly  through  the  eastern  suburbs, 
hard  stared  at  by  a  few  ^'  half-sarkit  •"  and  cotton  drawered 
natives,  an  ill-favoured  race,  of  whom  no  ^'  pathetic  fallacy^^ 
could  make  a  provisional  government.  Our  eyrie  was 
lined  with  a  body  of  Paraguayan  dames  and  damsels,  all 
more  or  less  tinged  by  red-skin  blood.  They  screamed 
lustily  when  the  smoke  and  steam  combining  to  blow  in 
our  faces,  spotted  skin  and  raiment  with  blacks,  as  though 
we  had  been  peppered.  The  dress  was  a  red  or  white 
cloth  over  the  shoulders,  a  tipoi  or  chemisette  very  open  in 
front,  and  a  petticoat  with  lace  flounces  ;  shoes  were  rare,  and 


AGAIN  TO  THE  ALLIED  FRONT.  461 

the  hair  was  plaited  behind,  and  formed  into  two  bunches, 
somewhat  like  the  coiffures  of  Harar.  They  spoke  Guarani 
to  one  another,  Spanish  to  us.  Amongst  the  detached 
houses  one  was  shown  to  me  where  the  redoubtable  Francia 
had  passed  a  considerable  portion  of  his  manhood,  poring 
over  a  scanty  library,  meditating  upon  the  future,  and, 
doubtless,  eating  his  ambitious  heart,  as  must  have  been  the 
case  with  a  certain  contemporary  of  ours  who  also  rose  to 
a  throne.  The  curves  were  exaggerated  ;  the  light  engine 
seemed  to  jump  rather  than  to  run ;  the  canting  over 
caused  our  fair  neighbours — officially  called  fair — to  clutch 
at  us  with  iron  fingers,  and  I  never  felt — even  while  racing 
against  time  over  the  unstuffed  pots  of  the  "  Santos  and 
Jundiahy^^ — that  we  were  doing  better  to   secure  a  spill. 

The  worst  part  was  up  a  swelling  loma  that  extended  nearly 
to  the  half-way  village.  La  Trinidad.  Its  single-steepled 
church,  whose  belfry  spreads  out  above  to  support  a  huge 
vane,  contains  under  a  long  triple  profile  of  tile-roof,  the 
mortal  spoils  of  the  late  President  Lopez  (senior). 
Around  this  are  scattered  the  picturesque  "  Summer 
Palaces,^'  with  quintas  and  naranjales,  laid  out  by  the 
reigning  family  for  their  conquerors,  and  huts  smothered 
in  dense  copse  and  glorious  trees.  Trinity  was  celebrated 
for  cock-fights,  and  still  stood  there  a  single  large  rinadero 
(pit),  in  the  normal  shape  of  a  skeleton  wooden  circus, 
bared  of  its  thatch.  The  scatter  of  upright  poles  and  torn 
mattings,  all  now  deserted,  showed  where  the  Argentine 
forces  had  lately  been  encamped.  From  this  point  the 
little  city  looks  exceedingly  well.  At  no  great  distance  to 
the  right  of  the  road  is  the  Recoleta,  or  original  cemetery, 
so  called  from  the  "  Recolets  '^  of  old  authors. 

Beyond  La  Trinidad  the  road  greatly  improved,  and  its 
long  straight  lines  spanned  in  perspective  the  Campo  Grande, 
a  charming  grassy  plain,  with  rare   "  rolls"   and   "  dips," 


462  AGAIN    TO    THE    ALLIED    FRONT. 

Tips  and  downs.  Upon  its  further  side  rises  the  loma,  which 
shows  the  Luque  village^  a  neat  place  seen  from  a  distance. 
Here  the  bridges  were  in  good  repair ;  the  stations  were 
for  the  most  part  remarkably  substantial,  as  if  made  to  last 
for  ever ;  and  that  opposite  La  Trinidad  was  a  neat  chalet. 
The  carpenters  will  not  take  the  trouble  to  whittle  down 
their  extremely  hard  timber^  and  building  material  every- 
where abounds. 

After  a  run  of  little  more  than  seven  miles  in  thirty 
minutes,  during  which  the  levels  rose  to  2(^0  feet,  we 
reached  the  Luque  station,^  and  were  greeted  by  one  of 
the  employes,  Sefior  Cordeiro,  who  remembered  my  former 
visit  to  the  front.  This  gentleman  gave  me  two  parchment- 
bound  volumes,  containing  the  Life  and  Miracles  of  Saint 
Ignatius  de  Loyola.  I  also  managed  to  procure  a  mutilated 
translation  of  Colonel  du  Graty,  with  notes  by  D.  Carlos 
Calvo.  This  work  was  officially  recommended  to  all  good 
patriots,  and  hundreds  of  copies  were  found  in  store  at 
Asuncion.  The  literature  affected  by  foreigners  in  Paraguay 
seems  mostly  to  have  consisted  of  grammars,  dictionaries, 
and  ready  letter- writers.  Travellers  remarked  that,  although 
all  the  natives  could  read  and  write,  a  village  often  con- 
tained only  a  single  book. 

We  found  Luque  the  normal  settlement  derived  from  the 
Jesuit  ages ;  a  single  quadrangle  surrounded  by  some  forty 
or  fifty  ground-fioor  houses,  with  deep  verandahs  or  corridors 
on  wooden  posts,  whitewashed  walls  and  red-tiled  roofs.  All 
opened,  for  better  espionage,  upon  the  grassy  space  in  front. 
To  the  east  was  a  mean  little  chapel,  and  on  the  west  was 
the  great  comercio,  or  camp-bazar.  We  chose  the  Hotel 
de  Paz,  a  kind  of  booth,  where  for  a  sovereign  we  break- 


*  For  the  rest  of  the  line,  as  far  as  Itaugua  (twenty-five  miles),  and  a 
visit  to  Pirayu,  Paraguari,  Yaguaron,  and  Ita,  Mr.  M.  Mulhall  (page  95) 
may  be  consulted  to  advantage. 


AGAIN  TO  THE  ALLIED  FRONT.  463 

fasted  decently,  with  bread  and  vin  de  paya,  a  stewed  fowl, 
and  the  best  beef  that  we  had  eaten  in  Paraguay.  Drunken 
soldiers  were  loungiug  about,  and  Dr.  Newkirk,  after  in- 
specting the  accounts  of  his  fraudulent  apothecary,  at  once 
recognised  the  brand  of  a  favourite  charger  belonging  to  Dr. 
Stewart.  The  trooper  who  rode  it  was  of  the  San  Martin 
corps,  but  a  dollar  and  a  card  sent  to  the  commanding 
officer  soon  caused  the  restoration  of  the  stolen  property. 

The  country  about  Luque  consisted  of  landwaves  dotted 
with  ant-hills  and  tussocky  grass  ;  and  belts  of  wood,  espe- 
cially thorn-coppice,  dividing  open  esteros,  rivulets  here 
called  caiiadas,  and  marshes  and  mud-pools  floored  with 
hard  clay.  Here  and  there  a  bunch  or  bouquet  of  vegeta- 
tion somewhat  better  than  usual,  showed  the  "  copuera,^"*  or 
countryman's  house.  In  this  part  of  Paraguay  the  "  capilla^'- 
village  is  not  known  ;  the  people  live  in  detached  farms 
with  mud  walls,  and  open  ranchos  surrounded  by  oranges, 
palms,  and  mamones,  as  papaws  are  named  after  the  shape 
of  their  fruit.  Cotton  was  formerly  grown  here  in  fields 
neatly  kept  as  gardens,  and  some  contained  300  lineos,  or 
20,000  hills.  The  shrub  has  now  been  allowed  to  run  wild. 
Marshal-President  Lopez  had  made,  much  like  Mohammed 
Pasha  of  Egypt,  the  planting  of  tree- wool  obligatory,  and  with 
20,000  troops  at  his  command,  hands  were  never  wanting. 
The  soil  is  distinctly  poor :  the  Brazilians  declare  that 
they  are  fighting  for  a  country — unspoiled  *^^  Arcadia  of 
English  capitalists,^'  the  "  most  interesting,  loveliest, 
pleasantest  in  the  world '' — which  they  would  not  accept  as 
a  gift.  At  present  the  surface  is  tolerably  pure ;  presently 
it  will  become  a  sheet  of  offal  and  garbage,  and  the  waters 
will  be  turned  into  cess,  and  sink,  stagnant  and  putrid,  into 
animal  and  vegetable  decay. 

After  breakfast  we  crossed  the  railway  in  order  to  call 
upon  the  Exmo.  Sr  General-in-Jefe  del  Ejercito  Argentino, 


464         AGAIN  TO  THE  ALLIED  FRONT. 

the  Brigadier- General  D.  Emilio  Mitre,  to  whom  we  car- 
ried letters  from  President  Sarmiento,  and  from  his  dis- 
tingnished  brother,  D.  Bartholome.  I  was  astonished  to 
find  that  officer  in  proximity  with  the  Brazilians,  the 
Saturday  Review,  usually  so  well  informed,  having  lately 
"  virtually  dissolved  the  triple  alliance  of  the  two  Plate 
(sic)  Republics  with  the  Empire." 

The  Argentine  camp  lay  north-west  of  the  comercio. 
The  site  was  a  pleasant  slope  facing  eastward,  where  stood 
the  lines  of  the  several  corps,  most  of  the  tents  being 
bushed  in  with  branches  of  orange  trees  mercilessly  hacked 
down.  Altogether  you  could  hardly  imagine  a  more 
pleasant  place  for  a  picnic  in  fine  weather — in  rain  it  must 
be  hideous.  There  was  an  unmistakeable  improvement  in 
the  aspect  of  things  ;  the  men  were  cleaner ;  their  uniforms 
were  more  uniform ;  they  did  not  look  discontented  ;  and 
their  foul  tents  of  hides  had  been  exchanged  for  canvas. 
Still,  however,  almost  all  those  we  saw,  officers  excepted, 
were  foreigners  :  Frenchmen,  Germans,  and  Spaniards,  and 
not  a  few  who  wore  the  easily-detected  look  of  the  runaway 
British  seaman,  completed  the  '^  collection  of  human  zoology.'^ 
After  the  late  events  at  Loma  Valentina,  there  has  been 
even  less  of  entente  cordiale  between  the  Allies  than  before ; 
and  the  Argentines  smart  under  the  conviction  that  they 
had  been  robbed  of  their  credit  by  the  Generalissimo  Caxias. 
I  heard  of  but  one  Englishman,  Colonel  Fitzmorris,  who 
bore  a  commission,  but  doubtless  there  are  others. 

We  gave  our  cards  to  a  sentinel  who  was  pacing  in  the 
perfumed  shade  of  the  naranjal,  and  an  aide-de-camp  pre- 
sently led  us  up  to  where  D.  Emilio  was  sitting  in  uniform 
upon  his  easy-chair.  Near  him  rose  his  small  campaigning 
tent,  and  opposite  it  stood  a  carriage-bed,  a  kind  of  four- 
gon,  somewhat  like  the  old  waggon  of  the  Suez  road,  cap- 
tured from  Marshal-President  Lopez,  after  the  flight  from 


AGAIN  TO  THE  ALLIED  FRONT.         465 

Loma  Valentina,  aud  containing  as  you  will  see,  a  wealth 
of  damaging  documents.  Good  horses  were  tethered  to  the 
tree-stumps  around.  The  General  welcomed  us,  glanced  at 
our  letters,  and  asked  if  we  had  breakfasted — it  is  his  generous 
practice  to  keep  open  house  or  tent.  He  then  produced  a 
box  of  the  best  Havannas,  which  were  followed  by  cups  of 
the  fragrant  Yungaz  coffee.  Originally  from  Mocha,  this 
Bolivian  variety  is  justly  held  in  the  highest  esteem ;  unfor- 
tunately it  is  rare  as  it  is  delicious.  I  first  tasted  it  in  the 
hospitable  house  of  the  Messrs.  Duguid  at  Buenos  Aires^ 
and  the  perfumed  flavour  faintly  suggested  the  odour  of 
incense. 

The  guest-rite  concluded,  we  sat  down  to  a  table  spread 
with  charts,  especially  an  enlarged  copy  of  Captain  Mou- 
chez^s  excellent  map,  into  which  details  taken  from  various 
informants  had  been  filled.  D.  Emilio  pointed  out  to  us 
what  he  thought  should  be  the  future  of  a  campaign,  con- 
cerning which  I  can  only  say  that  it  still  drags  its  slow 
length  along  when  it  should  have  finished  in  the  beginning 
of  1869.  Commanding  the  Argentines  during  the  latter 
part  of  the  war,  he  has  seen  much  service,  and  he  wdll  pro- 
bably see  more.  He  is  one  of  the  few  Platines  that  have 
ever  shown  aptitude  for  la  grande  guerre,  and  his  country 
has  done  wisely  to  employ  him.  D.  Emilio  is  a  tall, 
stout  figure,  well  known  for  personal  strength,  and  he  has 
the  jovial  look  which  often  accompanies  great  physical 
force  ;  his  beard  is  dark  and  full ;  his  hair,  though  not  grey, 
is  becoming  scanty  at  the  poll,  and  yet  he  appears  much 
younger  than  his  brother,  D.  Bartholome.  Altogether  he 
is  a  prepossessing  and  military  figure,  which  must  com- 
mend itself  to  the  sex  whose  commendation  he  mostly 
values.  His  men  are  thoroughly  satisfied  with  him,  and  he 
has  something  to  say  in  favour  of  their  dash,  but  little 
about   that   solidarite   which   he   so  much    admires   in   the 

30 


466  AGAIN    TO    THE    ALLIED    FRONT. 

Paraguayans.  They  must  win  by  the  first  charge,  and  they 
have  a  holy  horror  of  playing  long-stop  to  besieged  bowlers. 
The  foreign  portion  has  probably  never  fought  before. 
Gaucho  warfare  consists  of  scattering  before  the  fight,  gal- 
loping about,  banging  guns  and  pistols  in  the  air,  shouting 
the  Redskin  "  slogan/^  and  foully  abusing  one  another^s 
feminine  relatives.  The  infantry  take  shelter,  and  ad- 
vance under  cover  so  as  to  steal  a  march  upon  the  enemy. 
Both  cavalry  and  infantry  retire  when  a  few  men  have  been 
wounded  or  killed ;  and,  after  the  "  battle ''  the  throats  of  all 
prisoners  are  cut,  according  to  the  fashion  of  the  Mohawks. 
D.  Emilio  praised  the  persistency  of  the  Brazilian  whites, 
who,  in  this  particular,  apparently  resemble  the  Russians. 
He  numbered  his  men  at  5000,  and  he  did  not  seem  to 
think  an  increase  probable  ;  many  a  '^  tropilla  ^'  of  horses 
must  be  forthcoming  before  even  these  can  move. 

On  our  taking  leave,  D.  Emilio  gave  us  a  general  invita- 
tion to  dine  with  him,  and  in  this  case  it  is  equivalent  to 
a  particular.  Returning  to  the  Luque  village,  we  called 
upon  Colonel  Ferreira,  Chief  of  Camp  Police.  His  quarters, 
situated  a  little  behind  the  only  square,  have  been,  to  judge 
from  the  rudimental  arms  of  the  Republic  painted  upon  the 
walls,  an  official  residence.  Then  proceeding  to  the  State 
House,  at  the  north-eastern  angle  of  the  Plaza,  we  sent  m 
our  cards  to  the  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Allied  Army, 
Marshal  Guilherme  Xavier  da  Souza.  His  adjudante  d^ordens 
(aide-de-camp)  courteously  asked  us  to  sit  down  whilst  the 
Generalissimo  was  finishing  some  official  business.  Presently 
we  entered,  and  found  him  in  a  camp  chair  before  a  plain 
deal  table,  which  bore  materials  for  making  cigarettes.  A 
tall  thin  man,  with  pallid,  not  to  say  yellow  skin,  high 
features,  and  straight  thin  black  hair,  together  with  an  ex- 
pression of  countenance  peculiarly  Brazilian,  his  nationality 
is  not   to  be   mistaken.      He  was   dressed  in   mufti,  black 


AGAIN  TO  THE  ALLIED  FRONT.         467 

from  head  to  foot,  without  any  sign  of  his  rank,  or  even 
of  his  profession.  Dr.  Newkirk  declared  that  he  had  never 
seen  him  look  so  well ;  I  thought  his  appearance  almost 
corpse-like.  He  is  evidently  suffering  from  liver  complaint, 
and  at  times  sudden  faintness  compels  him  to  dismount 
from  his  charger.  His  enemies  declare  that  his  ill-health 
began  with  a  fall  upon  parade,  when  he  struck  with  his 
sword  at  an  officer.  They  also  injuriously  call  him  General 
da  Corte — but  what  else  was  the  gallant  Lord  Raglan  ? 
Moreover,  the  Generalissimo  is  only  acting  temporarily,  like 
a  certain  ''  Jemmy  Simpson"^  who  was  sent  to  uphold  in 
the  Crimea  the  honour  of  the  British  arms,  when  nearly  a 
decade  before  he  was  pronounced  superannuated  in  Sind. 
The  Marshal  spoke  freely  of  the  war.  He  numbers  his  men 
at  20,000,  forming  the  two  corps  d'armee,  commanded  by 
Generals  Machado  Bittancourt  and  the  highly-distinguished 
Menna  Barreito ;  and  he  would  fain  have  a  third  of  10,000 
more.  The  vanguard  consisted  of  4000  men,  under  the 
Brigadier  Vasco  Alves,  who  held  the  Juquery  bridge.  He  was 
very  severe  upon  the  climate  of  Paraguay,  with  its  immense 
variety  of  "  immundicies,"'^  but  he  expected  that  the  approach- 
ing winter  would  do  him  good. 

From  the  Quartel  General  we  walked  about  the  camp, 
which  is  kept  in  far  better  order  than  the  city;  and  we 
inspected  the  men,  who  seemed,  like  mulatto  children,  to 
grow  darker  every  month.  Except  here  and  there  an  officer 
or  a  bandsman,  all  appeared  to  be  deeply  tarred.  Again 
we  found  the  unpleasant  spectacle  of  begging  soldiers,  even 
amongst  the  highly-paid  volunteers.  Mr,  Williams  was 
assured  by  a  liberated  African  whom  he  had  seen  at  Bahia 
that  the  men  had  been  in  arrears  for  nine  months.  The 
officers  could  not  wholly  deny  the  fact,  but  they  justify  the 
non-payment  for  three  to  four  months,  as  proposed  by  the 
Duke  de  Caxias,  on  the  grounds  that  the  soldiers  have  all 

30— :i 


468  AGAIN    TO   THE   ALLIED    ERONT. 

they  want_,  and  that  the  issue  of  money  is  a  signal  for  all 
manner  of  disorders.  When  recounting  my  experience  to 
high  authorities  at  Uio  de  Janeiro^  I  found  that  this  style 
of  procedure  was  there  unknown. 

At  Luque  we  witnessed  the  unloading  of  three  railway 
waggons^  under  charge  of  a  furious  major  of  infantry,  acting 
conductor.  The  maize  sacks  and  hay  bales  were  tossed  one 
by  one  upon  the  muddy  ground,  and  were  slowly  rolled  up 
the  bank  of  the  little  cutting  by  a  score  of  negro  Sepoys  in 
fatigue  suits.  As  usual  in  these  lands  of  liberty,  every  boy  gave 
his  opinion,  and  obtained  at  least  as  good  a  hearing  as  his 
seniors.  In  France  or  Englandsome  seven  hundred  men  would 
have  been  told  off,  and  they  would  have  done  in  ten  minutes 
the  work  which  here  occupied  nearly  an  hour.  This  typical 
slowness  in  small  matters  illustrates  the  whole  course  of  the 
long  campaign.  The  Juquery  bridge  took  nearly  a  month 
to  repair,  and  a  facetious  editor  at  Buenos  Aires  allowed 
the  Brazilians  half  a  year  before  they  could  prepare  a  fresh 
base  of  operations. 

As  we  left  Luque  in  an  unloaded  train,  pushed  by  the 
engine  at  the  rate  of  twenty-five  miles  an  hour,  we  were 
cheered  by  a  characteristic  incident.  Suddenly  in  the 
evening  air  appeared  a  bundle  of  something  describing  a 
parabola  :  it  was  a  Brazilian  soldier  in  uniform,  who  thought 
jumping  the  readiest  way  to  leave  the  waggon.  All  sup- 
posed him  a  dead  man,  but  his  African  head  had  alighted 
like  a  shell  upon  the  loose  sandy  surface.  He  rolled  over 
as  might  a  toy  tumbler,  and  at  last,  seated  upon  his  broadest 
breadth,  with  highlows  extending  skywards,  he  displayed  at 
us  flashing  ivories  and  widely-open  eyes  which  recalled  the 
inlayings  of  some  Lower  Empire  statue. 

We  were  not  sorry  to  find  ourselves,  sound  in  limb,  once 
more  within  the  walls  of  the  Hotel  de  la  Minute. 

Farewell. 


LETTER  XXVII., 

AND    LAST. 


My  dear  Z- 


Buenos  Aires,  April  21,  1869. 


H.R.H.  the  Comte  d^Eu,  with  that  devo- 
tion to  the  interests  of  his  adopted  country  which  has  ever 
characterized  his  career^  volunteered  his  services  as  Com- 
mander-in-Chief of  all  the  Brazilian  forces  operating  in  the 
Republic  of  Paraguay^  and  they  had  been  accepted  on  March 
22,  1869.  It  was  popularly  said  in  the  Brazil  that  only 
His  Imperial  Majesty  and  the  people,  supported  through  thick 
and  thin  the  war  policy,  whilst  the  Conservatives  who  were 
in  office  showed  signs  of  wishing  to  conclude  an  honourable 
peace.  Many  therefore  believed  that  the  gallant  and  amiable 
young  Prince,  still  only  twenty-seven,  was  a  victim  to  poli- 
tics, and  fated  to  fail.  They  predicted  for  him  an  enthusiastic 
reception — a  banquet,  with  speechifying,  boasting,  and  pro- 
mising in  foison  ;  much  hurry,  bustle,  and  confusion ;  a  move- 
ment rather  circular  than  progressive ;  and  at  last,  ill-health 
and  resignation.  The  husband  of  the  Princess  Imperial, 
however,  accepted  without  hesitation  the  task  of  pushing  on 
the  fight  to  which  he  was  virtually  pledged,  and  persevered 
with  stout  heart  and  all  the  energy  of  his  house.  On  April 
6,  1869,  he  reached  Monte  Video,  accompanied  by  his  staff, 
whose  chief,  by-the-bye,  was  the  ex-Minister  of  War,  Gene- 
ral Polidoro  da  Fonseca  Uuintanilha  Jordao.  That  officer, 
you  may  remember,  succeeded  (July  10,  1866)  General 
Osorio  in  command  of  the  Brazilian  forces  :  he  left  in  Para- 
guay a  name  by  no  means  popular  with  either  army. 


470  CONCLUDING    LETTER. 

On  April  14  the  Comte  d^Eu  showed  his  promptitude  by- 
hearing  a  salute  at  Asuncion,  and  by  occupying  the  Cuartel 
General  three  days  afterwards  at  Luque.  Thence  he  ad- 
dressed to  his  men  the  following  proclamation  : — 

"  Having  been  appointed,  by  an  Imperial  decree  of 
March  22nd  ult.,  Commander-in-Chief  of  all  the  Brazilian 
forces  operating  against  the  Goyernment  of  Paraguay,  I  this 
day  undertake  the  arduous  task. 

"  Upon  the  heroic  troops  now  united  under  my  command 
the  Brazil  has  reposed  her  dearest  hopes. 

"  It  is  for  us  to  attain,  by  a  supreme  effort,  the  full  end 
which  placed  under  arms  the  Brazilian  nation ;  to  restore 
to  our  beloved  country  the  peace  and  security  indispensable 
to  the  full  development  of  her  prosperity. 

''  With  such  holy  objects  presented  in  our  minds,  each  of 
us  will  ever  do  his  duty. 

"This  is  the  anniversary  of  the  day  when,  led  by  a 
general  of  indescribable  heroism,  you  effected,  in  face  of  the 
enemy,  one  of  the  most  daring  of  military  operations. 

"  Numberless  proofs  of  bravery  and  endurance,  displayed 
before  and  after  that  ever-memorable  date  by  the  Army, 
the  Navy,  and  the  Volunteers,  have  shed  deathless  glory 
upon  the  Brazilian  arms. 

"  The  God  of  Armies  will  not  allow  the  fruits  of  so  many 
sacrifices,  of  so  much  perseverance,  to  be  in  vain.  He  will 
again  crown  our  efforts  and  those  of  our  loyal  Allies  ;  a  final 
triumph  will  secure  for  four  nations  the  benefits  of  peace 
and  liberty,  and  victorious  we  will  see  again  the  delicious 
sky  of  our  native  land. 

"  Comrades  !  you  will  find  me  ever  ready  to  advocate 
before   the  powers  of  the   State  your  legitimate  interests. 

"  Obliged,  when  I  least  expected  it,  to  take  the  place  of 
generals  whose  experience  had   guided  them   through   the 


CONCLUDING    LETTER.  471 

trials  of  a  prolonged  war,  I  trust  to  receive  from  one  and  all 
of  you  the  most  cordial  co-operation. 

'^  Your  support  will  enable  me  to  fulfil  all  the  demands 
of  the  arduous  commission  imposed  upon  me  by  my  deep 
devotion  to  the  greatness  of  Brazil. 

"  Long  live  the  Brazilian  nation  ! 

"  Long  live  the  Emperor  ! 

"  Long  live  our  Allies  ! 

(Signed)  ^'  Gaston  d^Orleans, 

"  Commander-in-Chief." 

I  will  only  say  of  this  "  Order  of  the  day"  that  it  shows 
the  best  intentions,  but  that  it  lacks  flavour  and  originality, 
whilst  the  appeal  to  the  "  God  of  Armies"  is  an  antiquated 
practice  rapidly  falling  into  decent  disuse. 

My  task  was  now  at  end.  I  had  now  seen  all  the  most 
interesting  sites  of  the  most  heroic  struggle  known  to  the 
world  since  the  "^  Beggars"  of  the  Lower  Provinces  arrayed 
themselves  against  Philip  of  Spain.  My  companion  and  I 
had  only  to  intone  the  pleasant  words — 

"Tralala — lalala,  partons  I 

Oui,  partons  ! 
Prenous  nos  attributs." 

We  ran  down  to  the  river  in  the  Osorio,  Captain  Smith, 

an  old  acquaintance ;  and  enjoyed  ourselves  in  the  company 

of  the  ''  raw  Scotch  laddie ;"  whilst  Mr.  Cawmell,  the  purser, 

could  complain  only  of  over-fatigue — perhaps  he  was  born 

tired — induced  by  perpetually  handling  the  "  swizzle-stick." 

The  next  day  saw  us  at  Humaita,  whose  batteries  had  clean 

disappeared,  whilst  the  church  had  not  been  repaired.      The 

rive]'  bank  looked  low  after  the  falaise  of  Asuncion,  even  as 

the  grand  proportions  of  Bio  (de  Janeiro)  Bay  and 

"  The  tow'ring  headlands  crowned  with  mist. 
Their  feet  among  the  billows," 

are  dwarfed  by  contrast  with  the  Platine  mouth.    Corrientes 


472  CONCLUDING    LETTER. 

again  looked  exceedingly  mean  and  unclean,  and  we  then 
transferred  ourselves,  in  a  violent  squall,  to  the  neat  little 
steamer  Goija,  Captain  Bellesi. 

The  Goya  landed  as  at  Buenos  Aires,  not  without  a 
trifling  adventure  which  might  have  turned  out  serious.  When 
night  was  about  its  noon  on  Saturday,  April  17,  we  were 
suddenly  thrown  clean  out  of  our  berths.  The  crushing  and 
crashing  of  spars  told  us  that  a  collision  had  taken  place. 
We  ran  on  deck,  expecting  an  ugly  swim  and  cold  dreary 
night  amongst  the  mosquitoes.  But  I  was  once  more  in 
luck,  having  just  escaped  the  Santiago  wrecked  at  mid- 
night in  Mercy  Bay,  Straits  of  Magellan.  Large  loomed 
a  hull,  the  Itapicuru  steamer,  which  had  just  crossed  our 
bows.  Fortunately,  however,  as  we  were  making  thirteen 
knots  an  hour,  the  captain  and  the  two  English  engineers 
were  on  the  alert,  and  "  Stop  'er  V  and  "  Back  ^er  V  were 
ordered  and  obeyed  in  a  few  instants.  We  swept  away  the 
enemy^s  three  boats,  whilst  several  of  our  plates  were 
destroyed;  the  stanchions  were  twisted  as  if  by  machinery, 
and  we  sustained  a  total  of  damage  estimated  at  $3000  (f.). 
We  followed  the  foe,  whistling  her  to  stop,  which  of  course 
she  did  not,  and  the  results  of  the  affair  were  legal  pro- 
ceedings, in  which  the  Goya  will  be  happy  if  she  receives 
half  her  claims. 

My  most  obliging  and  accomplished  friend,  Mr.  G.  P. 
Crawfurd,  at  once  carried  me  off  to  the  office  of  the  Buenos 
Aires  "  Tribuna,"  where  I  renewed  acquaintance  with  a 
fellow  traveller,  D.  Hector  Varela,  and  was  introduced  to 
his  brother,  D.  Rufino.  The  latter  allowed  me  to  inspect  the 
documents  taken  at  Loma  Yalentina  from  the  private  carriage 
of  Marshal-President  Lopez  ;  and  these  prove  him  to  be 

"  Cunning  and  fierce — mixture  abhorred." 

They  range  through  upwards  of  a  decade,  and  throw  a  fierce 


CONCLUDING    LETTER.  473 

light  upon  the  shades  of  Paraguayan  civilization.  Thus,  whilst 
sundry  partisans  brazenly  assert  that  the  Republic  decreed 
that  from  January  1,  1843,  "  the  wombs  of  female  slaves 
should  be  free"  and  manumitted  all  her  serviles  before  1851, 1 
found  a  document,  stamped  '^  Sello  Cuarto/''  and  dated  April 
19,  1858,  in  which  serviles  were  sold  to  D.  Miguel  (now 
Colonel)  Baes  for  125  (f.)  a  head.  The  dollars  were  of  full 
value,  but  in  paper,  as  Paraguay  lacked  silver.  Again,  the 
Esclavos  del  Estado  are  alluded  to  in  a  rescript  dated  1862. 
With  these  papers  before  me  it  was  easy  to  understand 
how  desertion  from  the  Paraguayan  army  was  next  to  im- 
possible. The  soldiers  never  went  out  of  camp  alone,  or  in 
a  lesser  number  than  four ;  and  each  answered  for  the  other 
three  with  his  life.  A  General  Order,  dated  Paso  la  Patria, 
March  25,  1866,  and  signed  by  one  of  the  most  sanguinary 
officers,  Francisco  Z.  Resquin,  thus  establishes  the  award  of 
"  levanting,"  and  even  of  sleeping  whilst  on  duty.  The 
culprit  was  shot.  The  two  men  that  stood  on  parade  to  his 
right  and  left  received  each  twenty-five  "palos" — lashes 
with  a  bulFs  hide.  The  cabo  or  corporal  of  the  section 
was  degraded  to  the  ranks  for  two  months,  and  ran  the 
gauntlet  till  some  forty  blows  were  dealt  to  him  "^  en  cir- 
culo."  To  the  sergeant  of  the  company  were  awarded  fifty 
"  palos  de  paradu,"  on  foot ;  moreover,  he  was  ordered  to 
serve  one  month  as  a  soldier,  and  one  as  a  corporal.  The 
commissioned  officer  was  "  remitted  to  his  Excellency  the 
Marshal- President,"  and  his  penalty  was  arbitrary:  usually, 
the  oft'ender  was  reduced  to  march  in  the  ranks  with  naked 
feet ;  sometimes  he  forfeited  life.  All  ofiences  committed 
in  the  vanguard  came  under  the  especial  jurisdiction  of  the 
President,  and  none  ever  found  mercy.  It  was  rumoured 
that  in  the  most  obstinate  attacks  the  Paraguayans  were 
formed,  Roman-like,  in  three  lines  ;  and  that  if  oue  fled  the 
corps  immediately  to  the  rear  was  ordered   to  fire  upon  its 


474  CONCLUDING    LETTER. 

comrades  in  arms.  This  also  appeared  to  be  confirmed  by 
a  General  Order.  The  mothers  or  wives  of  the  bravest 
officers,  who  were  compelled  by  the  fate  of  war  to  yield 
themselves  prisoners^  were  forced  publicly  to  disown  their 
sons  and  husbands  as  traitors  to  the  country;  and  failing 
to  do  so  they  were  imprisoned^  exiled,,  or  flogged  to  death. 
It  is  generally  believed  that  the  Draconian  edicts  issued 
against  desertion  became  with  time  still  more  bloodthirsty, 
and  that  shooting  the  collateral  offenders  was  preferred  to 
flogging. 

An  original  and  sundry  copies  of  courts  martial  (consijos 
de  guerra)  were  given  to  me  as  specimens.  They  were  of 
the  most  summary  and  drum-head  nature.  Paper^  like  salt, 
had  become  exceedingly  rare,  one  of  the  reasons  being  that 
affairs  of  the  most  trivial  nature  were  lengthily  documented, 
and  forwarded  to  headquarters.  Two  pieces  about  the  size 
of  your  hand,  coarsely  made  out  of  caraguata,  or  fibre  of 
the  wild  bromelia,  and,  to  judge  from  the  red  lines,  torn 
from  some  account-book,  were  tacked  together  and  covered 
with  writing.  A  man's  life  is  in  each  one  of  them,  and 
the  tenor  usually  is  as  follows  : — 

"  Long  live  the  Republic  of  Paraguay  ! 

"  Relation  of  the  soldier  Candido  Ayala,  of  the  company 
of  Grenadiers,  and  of  the  battalion  No.  3,  and  it  is  as 
follows  : — 

"  The  said  soldier,  when  standing  at  night  around  the 
fire  with  other  men  of  his  own  company,  repeated  to  them 
the  sayings  and  the  offers  made  to  him  by  the  enemy,  as  he 
was  going  in  the  vanguard  under  Serjeant-major  Citizen 
Benito  Rolon,  on  occasion  of  finding  himself  where  he  and 
they  could  hold  communication.  One  of  them  said  to  him, 
^  Come  you  amongst  us;  throw  away  your  hide-ponchos;  here 


CONCLUDING    LETTER.  475 

we  are  well,  you  will  want  nothing,  and  forget  your  Presi- 
dent, an  Indian,  old  and  pot-bellied  ! '  And  the  moment 
that  the  commandant  of  the  corps  happened  to  be  near  them 
and  heard  their  conversation,  he  reproved  them  and  cut  them 
short,  saying  '  Silence !  who  authorized  you  to  repeat  such 
words  uttered  by  that  canaille  ?  and  how  dare  they  speak 
against  or  insult  our  Marshal,  he  being  the  handsomest  and 
most  gracious  (gracioso)  sovereign  in  all  the  American 
continent  ? '  Upon  which  he  called  up  the  soldier,  and 
asked  him  with  what  idea  he  had  repeated  a  conversation 
which  tended  to  wound  and  personally  to  injure  our  Lord 
(  Senor)  President.  The  other  replied  that  he  had  repeated 
it  without  evil  thought,  not  knowing  it  to  be  blameable, 
and  at  once  he  was  placed  in  the  stocks  at  the  colour 
guard,  where  he  remains,  the  report  being  thus  sent  to  the 
Commandant  of  the  Division. 

"  Encampment  of  San  Fernando,  April  4,  1868. 

Signed,  ''  Julian  N.  Godoy.'' 

"  By  order  of  the  Most  Excellent  Lord  Marshal  President 
of  the  Republic,  and  General-in-Chief  of  its  Armies,  let  the 
above-named  soldier,  Candido  Ayalo,  of  the  battalion  No.  3, 
be  shot  (pasese  por  las  armas),  and  let  the  individuals  of 
his  company  who  were  with  him,  listening  to  his  words,  be 
chastised  with  fifty  blows  (palos)  ;  the  execution  of  this 
sentence  being  committed  to  the  sergeant-major  commandant 
of  the  said  corps,  who,  in  carrying  out  the  order,  will 
ascertain  the  names  of  those  chastised  with  blows,  for  the 
purpose  of  reporting  them. 

"  Encampment  at  Tebicuary,  April  4,  1868. 

Signed,  "  P.  Z.  Resquin.'' 

"  In  carrying  out  the  present  order,  received  with  due 
respect,  to  shoot  the  soldier  Candido  Ayala,  of  the  battalion 


476  CONCLUDING    LETTER. 

No.  3,  for  the  reason  above  stated,  I  had  this  done  to-day 
according  to  command,  and  I  caused  to  be  chastised  with 
fifty  blows  the  sergeant  Faustino  Sanabria,  and  the  corporals 
Jose  Jiqueredo  and  Bias  Jimenes,  and  the  soldiers  Baltazar 
Medina,  Mathilde  Piro,  Tomas  Duarste,  Cecilio  Maciel,  and 
Canuto  Galeano,  who  had  given  ear  to  the  provoking  words 
of  the  said  Ayala ;  and  as  the  soldier  Canuto  Galeano  was 
chastised  by  some  mistake  of  the  corporal  with  forty-nine 
blows,  I  ordered  the  fifty  to  be  completed,  upon  which  he 
turned  to  me  as  if  ofiended,  and  asked  me  to  chastise  him 
still  more  if  necessary.  For  which  insolence  I  had  him 
chastised  with  twenty-five  more  blows,  and  left  him  in  the 
stocks. 

All  which  I  respectfully  report  to  your  Lordship  (V. 
Senoria). 

"Encampment  at  S.  Fernando,  April  4,  1868. 

Signed,  "  Julian  Nicanor  Godoy.''^ 

In  almost  all  cases  the  men  were  shot  for  leaving  camp 
to  visit  their  families  or  relatives.  On  April  20,  1868, 
private  Pedro  Guanto  was  charged  by  two  boys,  respectively 
aged  twelve  and  fifteen  years,  with  having  asserted  some 
months  before  that  Paraguay  was  not  strong  enough  to 
support  the  war — "  parece  que  vamos  a  perder ''  He  was 
"passed  under  arms.'^  Amongst  the  orders  was  one  dated 
August  15,  1868,  by  the  Secretary  of  War  and  Marine, 
degrading  General  the  Citizen  Vicente  Barrios,  married  to 
D.  Ynocencia,  the  President's  elder  sister,  and  transferring 
his  rank  to  the  honorary  Colonel  Luis  Caminos,  officer  of 
the  National  Order  of  Merit.  Another,  dated  December, 
1868,  acquits  and  releases  D.  Venancio  Lopez,  whom  all  at 
Buenos  Aires  had  "  put  to  death  by  that  species  ol"  torture 
known  as  the  Cepo  Uruguayana.^'  After  September  10, 
1868,  nothing  transpired  concerning  the  fate  of  D.  Benigno 


CONCLUDING    LETTER.  477 

Lopez.  Some  declare  that  on  the  road  to  execution  he  said 
to  an  acquaintance,  "  Take  my  hat ;  a  man  about  to  die 
wants  no  head  covering/'  Others  reported  that  he  had  been 
flogged  to  death  by  Aveiros,  a  government  clerk,  and  by 
Matias  Goiguru,  a  captain  of  cavalry ;  while  others  assert 
him  to  be  still  living.  The  same  is  the  case  with  Vice- 
President  Sanchez  ;  whilst  a  few  saw  his  body  at  San  Fer- 
nando, many  are  convinced  that  he  still  breathes  the  upper 
air. 

The  women  of  Paraguay  were  not  less  arbitrarily  treated. 
I  saw  one  order  for  700  of  them,  and  another  810,  to 
proceed,  guarded  by  an  officer  and  thirty  troopers — who 
probably  had  no  sinecure — with  all  possible  despatch  to  the 
Capilla  de  Caacupe,  where  they  were  to  "  occupy  themselves 
usefully  in  agriculture,^'  maize  and  mandioca.  The  Allies 
may  therefore  give  up  all  hopes  of  starving  out  this  stubborn 
foe.  Another  document  (S«pt.  26,  1867),  establishes  a 
central  commission  for  receiving  money,  or,  that  failing, 
jewellery  and  precious  stones,  required  for  the  defence  of 
fatherland.  La  Senora,  the  President's  mother,  subscribes 
fifty  ounces,  and  D.  Elisa  Alicia  Lynch,  one  hundred. 
It  is,  therefore,  vain  to  say  that  Marshal-President  Lopez 
must  put  his  subjects  to  death  in  order  to  plunder  their 
property. 

Yet  amidst  the  papers  of  sternest  import,  the  instruments 
of  tyranny  which  riveted  chains  upon  a  free  people,  are 
others  which  show  heart  of  a  softer  stuff.  The  President  of 
Paraguay,  compared  with  Tiberius  and  Nero,  is  anxious 
about  his  eldest  son  "  Panchito"  (F.  Lopez),  who  was 
so  often  reported  to  have  been  slain  in  battle  when  only 
about  thirteen  to  fourteen  years  old.  He  shows  much 
tenderness  to  his  youngest  child  Leopoldo.  I  saw  the 
original  of  the  following,  which  he  addressed  before  the 
affair  of  Loma  Valentina,  to  Major-General  Macmahon  : — • 


478  CONCLUDING    LETTER. 

"Piquisiri,  December  23,  1868. 

"  Sir, — As  the  representative  of  a  friendly  nation,  and 
to  provide  against  all  that  may  happen,  allow  me  to  entrust 
to  your  care  the  subjoined  document,  by  which  I  transfer 
to  Doiia  Elisa  Lynch  all  my  private  effects  of  whatever 
description. 

"  I  beg  you  will  have  the  goodness  to  keep  the  document 
until  it  can  be  securely  delivered  to  the  aforesaid  lady,  or 
returned  to  me,  in  the  unforeseen  event  of  my  having  no 
personal  communication  with  you. 

''  Allow  me  also  to  entreat  you  from  this  moment  to  do 
all  in  your  power  to  put  into  effect  the  intentions  named 
in  the  document. 

"  Receive,  beforehand,  all  the  thanks  I  can  give  you. — 
Your  faithful  servant, 

"  Francisco  S.   Lopez/^ 


[same  to  same.] 

"  Sir, — As  you  have  had  the  extreme  goodness  to  offer 
to  take  charge  of  my  children,  I  now  recommend  them  to 
your  protection  should  anything  happen  to  me. 

"  I  authorize  you  to  adopt  any  means  in  their  favour 
you  may  consider  best  for  the  welfare  of  those  poor  little 
creatures,  more  particularly  Leopoldo,  whose  tender  age 
fills  me  with  anxiety. 

^^  You  will  thus  gain  my  eternal  gratitude,  since  the  fate 
of  those  children  is  what  will  most  trouble  me  in  the  ter- 
rible period  I  dedicate  to  the  fortunes  of  my  country. 
They  will  be  safe  under  the  protection  of  a  gentlemau 
whose  qualities  I  have  been  able  to  appreciate,  not,  indeed, 
during  a  long  acquaintance,  but  to  me  a  happy  one. 

^'  It  is   thus.    General,   I  venture  to   trouble  you,  with 


CONCLUDING    LETTER.  479 

motives  which  make  no  other  call  than  in  that  gentlemanly 
feelins:  I  congratulate  myself  in  having  found  in  your 
Excellency,    to    whom   I   now   oflfer   my   friendly   acknow- 

gmen  s.  ^^  Francisco  S.  Lopez/' 

Another  was  a  paper  (December  23,  1868)  in  which  he 
appoints  Madame  Lynch  universal  legatee.  This  will  is, 
I  am  informed,  illegal,  the  mother  in  Paraguay  being  under 
such  circumstances  heir-at-law.  He  is  said  to  be  not  an 
unaffectionate  son,  although  public  report  made  D.  Juana 
a  suicide,  and  Mr.  Washburn  declared  at  Buenos  Aires 
(Sept.  20,  1868)  that  "  Lopez"  had  imprisoned,  flogged,  and 
tortured  his  mother  and  his  sisters. 

This  letter  is  a  curious  mixture  of  sympathy,  of  stern- 
ness, and  of  natural  grief.  It  evidently  alludes  to  the 
much  talked-of  conspiracy,  and  it  proves,  if  credible,  that 
D.  Benigno  Lopez  was  then  living,  although  his  death  had 
often  been  reported. 

And  the  following  is  a  literal  translation  : — 

"  To  the  Senora  Da.  Juana  Paula  Carrillo  de  Lopez. 

''  September  10,1868. 
"  My  dear  Mother, 

"  I  have  received  your  welcome  letter  of  the 
3rd  instant,  and  I  still  live  to  acknowledge  this  upon  the 
sixth  anniversary  of  my  father's  death,  through  the  mercy 
of  God,  who  has  vouchsafed  to  spare  me,  despite  so  many 
machinations  of  my  own  ones  and  of  strangers. 

"  Several  weeks  have  elapsed,  it  is  true,  since  my  last  letter 
to  you,  and  I  highly  prize  your  affectionate  reproach,  when 
on  other  occasions  a  longer  neglect  would  be  of  no  im- 
portance. My  silence  is  owing  partly  to  my  bad  negligent 
habits,  but  now,  especially,  to  the  moral  suff'erings  which 
have  for  some  time  been  my  lot.       The   singular  circum- 


480  *        CONCLUDING    LETTER. 

stances  which  have  taken  place  in  our  house  make  me 
stand  ashamed  before  the  world ;  and,  but  for  your  letter,  I 
should  perhaps  have  felt  a  repugnance  to  taking  up  my  pen 
and  to  tracing  a  word  upon  subjects  as  monstrous  as  they  are 
horrifying.  You  invoke,  however,  the  sad  memories  of 
the  day,  and  you  ask  me  to  write  to  you.  This  overcomes 
my  objections,  and  I  still  write,  although  hardly  knowing 
what  to  say. 

"  I  cannot  express  to  you,  mamma,  all  the  pain  with  which 
I  read  your  letter,  because,  after  all  my  requests  to  Senor 
Sanchez,  that  he  would  disclose  to  you  from  me  the  know- 
ledge which  I  possess  of  the  unhappy  affair  to  which  you 
refer,  I  should  have  expected,  however  hard  it  might  have 
been,  something  more  natural  and  frank.  Poor  mamma  ! 
You,  perhaps,  do  not  know  that  I  have  already  passed 
through  every  possible  bitterness  in  this  monstrous  affair 
without  daring  to  complain.  But,  I  thank  you,  my  mar- 
tyrdom reached  its  crisis  when  I  learned  the  facts.  I  fear 
on  my  part  further  to  embitter  this  day  by  dwelling  upon 
a  subject  not  less  bitter  than  the  worst  which  happened 
six  years  ago.  Useless  were  all  my  endeavours,  and 
vain  were  all  my  hopes  ;  and  again  I  explain — or  rather 
others  explain  for  me — the  cause.  All  arrayed  themselves 
against  me,  and  none  busied  himself  save  with  his  victim. 
But  God  permitted  light  to  shine  through  the  darkness ; 
my  enemies  were  confounded,  and  I  am  still  here.  I  am 
all  in  all  to  you,  and  would  to  heaven  ! — would  to  heaven  ! 
that  I  could  be  so  for  all  those  who  did  not  think  to  require 
my  help. 

'^  Venancio,  Benigno,  and  Ynocencia,  are  in  good  health. 

"  "Were  I  allowed  a  word  of  advice,  I  would  recommend 
you  not  to  show  excessive  alarm  concerning  all  that  is  hap- 
pening :  it  would  hardly  be  prudent,  although  a  mother's 
tender  heart  requires  some  expansion. 


CONCLUDING    LETTER.      •  481 

"  I  receive  your  welcome  letter  rather  as  that  of  a  mother 
to  her  son,  than  as  of  a  suppliant  to  the  magistrate  :  the 
latter  case  would  only  do  harm. 

"  Please  convince  yourself,  mamma,  of  all  the  love  with 
which  your  blessing  is  begged,  by 

'^  Your  most  obedient  son, 

(Signed)  ^^F.  S.  Lopez.'^ 

A  few  hurried  last  hours  amongst  friends  in  Buenos 
Aires,  the  open-hearted,  made  me  regret  that  such  a  distance 
was  to  separate  us.  Once  more  on  board  the  comfortable 
Arno,  Captain  Thwaites,  I  found  myself  at  home.  Followed 
a  glance  at  the  old  familiar  scenes  of  Rio  de  Janeiro,  which 
you  have  been  told  were  somewhat  stunted  by  contrast  with 
the  Plate,  the  Andes,  and  Magellan.  And  lastly,  by 
way  of  finale,  three  weeks  on  board  the  Douro,  bound  to 
Southampton,  with  365  passengers,  of  whom  86  were  at  an 
age  delightful  only  to  their  mammas.  The  passengers 
were  mostly  Portuguese,  whose  main  characteristic  was 
expectoration ;  and  the  feeding  was  worse  than  anything  I 
had  yet  seen  on  board  a  Paraguayan  river-steamer.  The 
cabins,  with  their  berths  disposed  athwartship,  were  stuffed 
full  :  the  kitchen — I  should  say  galley — and  the  store- 
room were  not. 

With  which  parting  grumble  I  bid  you — Farewell ! 
*  *  *  ^  -x-  •}«• 

Thus  much  I  have  written  out  where  as  the  Arab  says, 
the  warm  south  is  blowing ;  the  cool  waters  are  flowing ; 
the  flowers  and  fruits  are  growing ;  and  Nature  looks  up  to 
the  All-Knowing.  Adieu  !  bright  skies  of  the  Bourbonnais, 
and  fair  valley  of  the  AUier,  and  park  vocal  with  the 
rustling  music  of  the  broad-leaved,  green-berried  palm-trees. 
Adieu,  Vichy  !  and  may  the  world  treat  thee  as  thou  hast 
treated  the  passing  guest. 

31 


INDEX. 


Adams,  Mr,,  warned  against  harming  tlie 

bricks  of  a  fallen  building,  110 
Adventure,   an,   which  might  have  been 

serious,  472 
Alegre,    General,     at    the    storming    of 

Humaita,  304 
Alen,  Colonel,  his  attempt  at  suicide,  334 
Allied  armies  invest  Humaita,  333 
Alvim,  Commodore,  visit  to,  341 
American  Gran  Hotel,  imposing  grandeur 

of,  106 
American  Mineral  Water  Establishment 

at  Buenos  Aires,  181 
Andrade,  the  Portugal  patriot,  death  of, 

142 
Angostura  battery  surrendered,  423 
Angulo  Eedan  attacked  by  the  Brazilians, 

360 
Animated  scene,  remembrance  of  an,  403 
Anti-Lopists,  false  reports  of  the,  329 
Argentine  army,  weapons   of  the,    323  ; 

various  reports  on  the,  324 
Argentine  camp  at  Luque,  aspect  of  the, 

464 
Argentine  Contingent  ajumble  of  nationa- 
lities, 325 
Argentine  railway,  machinery  for  making 

the,  246 
Argentine  soldiers,  loss  of,  at  the  battle 

of  Corrientes,  290 
Argentine  Voluntary  Legion   led  into   a 

fatal  ambusb,  343 
Argolo,  General,  and  his  staff  boasting  of 
their  prowess,  322  ;  visit  to,  349  ;  the 
predictions  of  his  friends,  350  ;  his  in- 
vitations to  a  campaigning  dinner,  350 
Arroyo  Hondo,  visit  to  the,  347 
Artesian  well  in  Buenos  Aires,  150 
Assembly  of  Representatives,    ignorance 

of,  276 
Asuncion,  the  seat  of  the  first  diocess, 
24;  General  Congress  at,  41;  meeting  of 
an  Extraordinary  Congress  at,  55  ;  fired 
into  by  Brazilian  ironclads,  407 ;  de- 
tailed description  of,  431  ;  palace  of 
the  Marshal  President  at,  432;  the 
architect  of  the  palace  cruelly  tor- 
mented, 433  ;  pest-houses  at,  435  ; 
landing-place  and  river  at,  436  ;  bad 
state  of   the  streets  at,  436  ;    pictu- 

31 


resqueness  of  the  old  cathedral  at,  437 
the  much  talked  of  arsenal  at,  435 
the  terrible  palace  of  Dr.  Francia  at, 
439  ;  deadly  dungeons  at,  440  ;  fan 
tastic  palace  of  the  elder  Lopez  at,  440 
palace  of  D.  Benigno  Lopez  at,  441  ; 
plundering  the  Club  Nacional  at,  442 
various  estimates  of  the  population  at 

443  ;  no  pretensions  to  civilization  at 

444  ;  complete  change  of  masters  at 
head-quarters,  445  ;  candidates  for  the 
chief  magistracy  at,  446  ;  the  French 
consul  removed  from,  446  ;  confisca- 
tion of  the  property  of  a  foreigner  at, 
449  ;  its  changeable  climate,  -452  ; 
prices  of  provisions  and  house-rent  at, 
452  ;  produce  of  the  orange-trees  at, 
456  ;  unprotected  state  of,  454  ;  rude 
appliances  of  the  railway  at,  460 

Atrocities  of  Lopez  grossly  exaggerated, 
128  ;  frightful  reports  concerning  the, 
330 
Attempts  to  assault  two  ironclads,  311 
Ayolas,    D.     Juan,    attacked    by    canoe 
Indians,  424 


Bajada,  mother-of-pearl  found  at,  255 

Balloons  tried  in  the  early  part  of  the 
campaign,  382 

Banda,  miserable  state  of  the  mixed  popu- 
lation in,  134 

Barracas  artesian  well,  curious,  150 

Barranca  de  Bella  Vista,  a  settlement  of 
convicts,  263 

Barreto,  General,  cuts  up  a  piquet  of 
troopers,  375  ;  his  retreat  from  the 
banks  of  the  Arroyo,  375 ;  he  volunteers 
to  capture  the  enemy,  420 

Barrios,  Vicente,  degradation  of,  476 

Barros,  Jose  de,  duped  by  a  farcical  pro- 
ject, 141 

Barrosa,  Vice-Admiral,  neglects  to  push 
his  victory,  267 

Basque  and  Italian  sutlers  murdering  one 
another,  367 

Bateria  de  Cueva,  the  Paraguayan  posi- 
tion of  defence,  262 

Bateiia  Londres,  the  Prince  of  Humbugs, 
319 


484 


INDEX. 


Batlle,  Colonel,  seizure  of,  114 
Battalions  of  women,  rumours  about,  379 
Batteries  of  Humaita,  various,  319 
Battle  cf  Abay,  hard  fighting  at,  425 
Battle  of  Acayuasa  a  great  victory,  334 
Battle   of  Corrientes,  loss  of  Argentines 

and  Paraguayans  equal,  290 
Battle   of  Cueva,    failure   of  the   Para- 
guayans at,  268 
Battle    of    Curupaity,    serious    loss    of 
soldiers  at,   305;  scaling  ladders  for- 
gotten by  the  Argentines,  305 
Battle  of  Itororo,  loss  of  Brazilian  sat,  427 
Battle  of  Loma  Valentina,  loss  of  Para- 
guayans and  Brazilians  at,   419  ;  the 
whole  affair  a  mystery,  419 
Battle  of  Monte  Caseros,  fall  of  Dictator 
Rosas  at,    61  ;  General  Urquiza  going 
to  glory  at,  253 
Battle  of  Paysandu,  between  the  Blancos 

and  Colerados,  211 
Battle  of  Potreiro- Sauce,  surprises  of  the, 

303 
Battle    of    the   Lomas,    and    escape    of 

General  Caballero,  346 
Battle  of    Riachuelo,    arrest   of  General 

Robles  at,  264 
Battle  of  Veuces,  and  conquer  of  Corrien- 
tes, 59 
Battle  of  Yataity-Cora  in  1866,  303 
Battle  of  Yatay,  defeat  of  Colonel  Duarto 

at,  221 
Belgrano,  General,  defeat  of,  at  Corrien- 
tes, 288 
Berges,  D.,  sent  to  govern  Corrientes,  289 
Berro,  D.  Bernardo,  grotesque  appearance 

of,  114  ;  murder  of,  115 
Biscayans  emigrating  to  PotosI,  104 
Blancos,  rise  of  the,  114 
Bliss  and  Masterman  arrested  for  high 

treason,  410 
Blood  thirstiness  of  Montevideans,  122 
Bonpland,    herbarium    of,    288;    taken 

prisoner,  51 
Bonpland,  Madame,  desperate  adventures 

of,  288 
''Botany  Bay"  of  Dr.  Francia,  7 
Brazilian  army,  wrinkle  offered  to  the,  310 
Brazilian  cavalry,  review  of,  323 
Brazilian    consul     forgets     his     mother 

tongue,  219 
Brazilian  infantry  stubborn  and  obstinate, 
387  ;  the  soldiers  not  free   from  cor- 
ruption, 389 
Brazilian  forces,  inspecting  the,  372 
Brazilian  Marine  Hospital,  embezzlement 

of  stores  at,  291 
Brazilian  negroes,  manly  fighting  of  the, 

452 
Brazilian  officers    maltreated  by  Blanco 
girls,  119 


Brazilian  soldier,  curious  antics  of  a,  468 

Brazilian  soldiers  in  camp,  clean  ap- 
pearance of,  336  ;  cost  of  feeding  them, 
337 

Brazilian  squadron,  official  list  of  the, 
345 

Brazilian  subaltern  officers,  bullying  man- 
ners of,  447 

Brazilian  treachery  and  indiscriminate 
massacre,  213 

Brazilians  and  Argentines,  their  alliance 
not  sympathetic,  326 

Brazilians'  confidence  in  two  Paraguayan 
officers,  448 

Brazilians,  oversight  of  the,  449 

Brazilians  refuse  a  flag  of  truce,  447 

Brown,  Admiral,  successful  feat  of,  191 

Bruguez,  General,  lively  little  episode  of, 
262 

Buceo  admired  by  bathers,  94 

Buenos  Aires,  revolutionary  committee 
established  at,  65  ;  Fenian  club  at,  94  ; 
thirty  people  drowned  in  a  storm,  127  ; 
salting  houses  in,  147  ;  irregularity  of 
steamers  at,  152  ;  savage  mob  at,  153; 
dangerous  state  of  the  new  Muelle  at, 
153;  the  kiosk  mania  at,  154;  injury  to 
merchandize  at,  155  ;  difficulties  in 
constructing  a  port  at,  155  ;  various 
opinions  for  constructing  a  port  at,  156; 
Coghlan's  project  for  improving  the 
channel  at,  156  ;  increase  of  popula- 
tion at,  158;  how  Sunday  is  passed  at, 
159;  dangerous  state  of  streets  at,  160  ; 
prevailing  winds  at,  162  ;  street 
scandal  inexcusable  at,  162  ;  thorough- 
fares imperfectly  named  at,  163  ;  epi- 
demic disoi'ders  at,  163  ;  abusive  and 
indecent  writings  on  the  wall  at,  165  ; 
how  a  revolution  begins  at,  165  ;  hotels, 
abominably  bad  and  dear,  172  ;  an 
Englishwoman's  lodging-house  at,  173  ; 
hideous  Methodist  chapel  at,  173  ; 
Merced  convent  at,  170  ;  Church  of 
England  temple  at,  173 ;  beauty  and 
solidity  of  the  buildings,  174  ;  hideous 
relic  of  antiquity  at,  176  ;  scarcity 
of  public  vehicles  at,  179  ;  Cabildo, 
court  of  justice  at,  179  ;  impunity  of 
crime  at,  180  ;  Mineral  Water  Estab- 
lishment at,  181  ;  museum  of  San 
Ignacio  Church,  182  ;  free  club  for 
travellers  at,  183  ;  a  good  opening  for 
London  publishers  at,  183  ;  fashionable 
shops  in,  183  ;  statue  of  General  San 
Martin  at,  183  ;  attempts  to  burn  the 
dead  at,  184  ;  familiarity  at,  187  ;  hos- 
pitality of  the  natives  at,  188 

Buenos  Aires  to  Southampton,  parting 
grumble  of  the  voyage  from,  481 

Butter,  preserving  for  two  years,  205 


INDEX. 


485 


Caballero,    General,    captured    at   the 

Battle  of  Lomas,  346 
Cafe  de  Paris  at  Buenos  Aires  the  great 

resort   for  bachelors,  184  ;  dining   at 

the,  169 
Californian  widows,  how  they  make  for- 
tunes, 352 
Calle   Florida,   the   fashionable  part   of 

Buenos  Aires,  183 
Caminos,  M.,  reported  to  have  been  shot, 

428 
Camp  and  City  men,    difference  in  the 

habits  of,  120 
Campos  and  Martinez  de  la  Hoz  taken 

prisoners,  333 
Capella  de  Ipane,   the    place   to    enjoy 

picnics,  426 
Carvalho,  Admiral,  his  neglect  to  pursue 

the  flying  enemy,  343 
Castle  of  S.  Joseph,  view  of  the  ruins,  99 
Cattle  estate  not  pleasant  to  visit,  102 
Caxias,  Marshal,  repulsed  at  the  Cierva 

redoubt,    348  ;    his  career,   377  ;    his 

fight  at  Monte  Caseros,  377;  employed 

in  reducing  Monte  Video,377;  accused  of 

being  slow  in  his  military  movements, 

377  ;  famous  for  selecting  the  strongest 

point  of  attack,  378 
Cemetery  at  Humaita,  353 
Census  of  Paraguay,  8 
Cerriio    station,    flooding  of   the,    301  ; 

seizure  of,  by  Paraguayans,  301 
Cerro  de  Lambare  the  scene  of  au  historic 

fight,  42t) 
Cerro,  the,  a  fine  view  of  Montevideo,  100 
Chaco,  paradise  and  elysium  of  savages  at, 

256;  wants  a  serious  exploration,  257 
Chaco  islets  attributed  to  the  agency  of 

the  earth's  revolution,  259 
Chain  at  Gran  Chaco,  uselessness  of,  332 
Charloni,  Colonel,  death  of,  362 
ChS,teau  des  Fleurs,  the  familiar  devil's 

acre,  243  ;  it  has  the  genuine  look  of  a 

penny  gaff",  243 
Chilenas    ladies  destroyed  by  fire  in  a 

Jesuit  church,  414 
Chodasiewicz,  Colonel,  his  proposed  plan 

of  attack  on  Paso  Pucu,  359  ;  plans  of 

his  first  campaign,   382  ;  his  projects 

for  the  future,  382 
Christie,  Mr.,   sent  as  Plenipotentiary  to 

Asuncion,  64  ;  fails  in  his  mission,  64 
Club  for  travellers  free  at  Buenos  Aires, 

183 
Club  Nacional,  Brazilian  soldiers  plunder- 
ing the,  442 
Club   Progreso  and  its  invitations,  186 ; 

dancing  at  the,  187 
Colon  theatre  mean  and  ugly,  170 
Colonel  du  Graty,  a  mutilated  translation 

of  procured  at  Luque,  462 


Colonel  Thompson's  Guarani  vocabulary,  3 

Colonizing  in  the  River  Plate,  88 

Colonia,  La,  short  description  of,  143 

Commerce  of  Paraguay,  18 

Comte  d'Eu  volunteers  his  services  as 
Commandei'- in-Chief,  469;  his  prompti- 
tude on  hearing  a  salute,  470  ;  his  pro- 
clamation at  Luque  to  his  men,  470  ; 
his  Order  of  the  Day  not  original,  471 

Concepcion  del  Uruguay,  description  of, 
196  ;  provisions  at,  197  ;  interesting 
prairie  gallop  at,  198 

Convent  of  San  Carlos,  pronouncement  of 
the,  251 

Cordillera,  supposed  rise  of  the,  5 

Cordoba,  wandering  about  the  quaint  city 
of,  414 

Corpus  Christi  built  to  control  the  Timbu 
Indians,  252 

Correntine  tobacco  preferable  to  Ha- 
vannahs,  287 

Corrientes,  arrival  of  the  Brazilian  fleet 
at,  265  ;  ridiculous  fashion  of  naming 
the  streets  at,  271  ;  savage  mastiffs  at, 
273  ;  orange-farms  at,  273  ;  Turks 
painfully  transmogrified  at,  274  ;  scar- 
city of  provisions  at,  275  ;  relitiious 
superstition  at,  276  ;  family  vaults  in 
the  cemetery  like  a  Californian  steam- 
bath,  280  ;  miraculous  cross  at,  281  ; 
variations  of  temperature  at,  282  ; 
female  beauty  at,  284  ;  their  aversion 
to  marriage,  284  ;  bitterness  of  political 
parties  at,  285  ;  revolvers  at  night 
necessary,  288  ;  war  at  once  resolved 
at,  289  ;  piratical  seizure  of  ships  at, 
289 

Crabtree,  Mr.,  prevents  serious  national 
troubles,  165 

Costa,  Brigadier-General,  visit  to  the  tent 
of,  381 

Courts  marshal,  specimens  of  sundry 
copies,  474 

Cuchilla  de  los  Palmares,  glorious  view 
from,  208 

Curious  party  of  pleasure,  253 

Curious  reports  in  Paraguay,  30 

Curupaity,  far-famed  lines  of,  361 

Curuzu,  bombardment  of,  by  the  Allies, 
3U3  ;  capture  of,  304 

Cuverville,  M.,  ugly  story  concerning,  446 


Dairy,  experiments  for  a  model,  204 
Derivations  of  the  word  Paraguay,  2 
Diamente,  formation  of  banks  of  patience 

at,  255 
Diaz,  General,  killed  by  a  shell  from  an 

ironclad,  299 
Discontent,   suggesting    a  mode  to  pre- 
vent, 82 


486 


INDEX. 


Discovery  of  an  infernal  machine  to  blow 

up  the  Ministry,  113 
Documents  taken  at  Loma  Valentina,  in- 

spectiug  the,  472 


Elisiario,  Vice-Admii-al,  popular  ru- 
mour of,  369  ;  his  predictions  on  the 
campaign,  369 

El  Pilar,  the  gaol  of  foreigners,  367  ; 
Brazilian  outrages  at,  367 

Emigrants,  outward  bound,  description 
of,  86 

Emigrants'  colony,  utter  failure  of  the,  6Q 

Emilio,  General  D.,  visit  to,  464  ;  his 
aptitude  for  warfare,  465  ;  his  prepos- 
sessing and  military  figure,  465  ;  his 
praise  of  the  Brazilian  whites,  466 

English  cruisers,  uselessness  of,  100 

English  subjects  enlisting  in  the  Brazi- 
lian army,  388 

Esmerata,  Padre,  his  devotion  in  the 
cause  of  humanity,  338 

Extractum  carnis,  a  detestable  kind  of 
beef-tea,  193 


Feminine  volunteers,  courage  of,  380 

Ferreira,  Colonel,  his  quarters  an  official 
residence,  466 

Floating  hotel,  life  on  board  a,  292 

Flores  and  his  son,  violent  altercation 
between,  113 

FJores,  D.  Manuel,  supposed  poisoning  of, 
by  the  Blancos,  116 

Flores,  Don  Pedro,  his  duties  on  board 
ship,  292 

Flores,  General,  origin  of  the  murder  of, 
110  ;  the  banishment  of  his  three 
sons,  117 

Fogs  in  the  Boca  del  Guazu,  229 

France  annoyed  by  the  treatment  of  her 
subjects  in  Paraguay,  66 

Francia,  Dr.,  his  remarkable  character, 
39;  how  England  derived  her  knowledge 
of,  43  ;  origin  of  his  family,  47 ;  elected 
perpetual  Dictator,  47 ;  his  remarkable 
administration,  48  ;  diplomatic  rela- 
tions with  foreign  powers  cut  off  by, 
50  ;  his  deeds  of  generosity,  51  ;  his 
death,  52  ;  resting-place  of,  438 

Fulton's  formidable  defence  for  rivers,  342 


GalvIO  and  his  gallant  wife  fought  to 
death,  144 

Gastavino,  Bernardino,  successful  ma- 
noeuvre of,  267 

Garay,  D.  Juan  de,  the  restorer  of  Buenos 
Aires,  233 


Garibaldi  considered  an  obscure  adven- 
turer, 259 
Garibaldi's  loss  of  his  legion  of  cooks,  211 
Gaucho  and  Gauchito,  hideous  costume 

of  the,  277 
Gaucho  warfare,  what  it  consists  of,  466 
Gauchos  of  Rozario,  ugliness  of  the,  243 
Gelly,  General,  his  courtsey,  351 
Gold  mines  in  Uruguay,  34 
Gould,    Mr.,  his    predictions,  166;    his 
hopeless  errand,  329  ;  his  conditions  of 
peace  between  the  Allies  and  Paraguay, 

329  ;    his   departure  from   Paraguay, 

330  ;  his  unfavourable  opinion  of  Para- 
guayan resources,  330 ;  his  second 
mission  to  Paraguay,  330 ;  his  erro- 
neous opinions  on  the  Paraguayan 
cause,  330 

Gomi-z  and  Braga  shot,  214 
Gomez  demanded  by  the  Colorados,  213 
Goya  famous  for  oranges  and  cheeses,  261 
Gran  Chaco,  the  visit  to,  after  the  action, 

338 
Grass  of  Paraguay  poisono  ii  s  to  animals,  373 
Great  Chaco,  loafing  and  di'inking  of  the 

men  at,  277 
Guard-houses  on  the  Paraguay  established 

to  watch  strangers,  311 
Guardia  Tacuara,  free-and-easy  system  of 

operations  at,  371  ;  reconnoitring  the 

ground  at,  372 
Guayquiraro,  the  home  of  the  fat  boy,  260 
Guazu  river,  opinions  on  the  formation  of, 

227 
Guerilla  warfare  determined,  79 
Guns  of  the  Paraguayans  a  curious  spec- 
tacle, 322 


Handbook  of  the  River  Plate  deserving 

of  patronage,  108 
Hawaii,  terrible  earthquake  at,  127 
Health-officer  of  Monte  Viddo,  arbitrary 

powers  of,  102 
Henley,  Mr.,  his  uncertain  prospects  of 

flax-growing,  217 
Holy  week,  worship  of  the  Montevideans 

in,  127 
Hopkins,  Mi\  E.,  his  claims  for  compen- 
sation ignored,  63 
Horses  storming   fortified  and  insulated 

posts,  191 
Hotel  de  la  Minute,  its  proprietor  charged 

with  receiving  stolen  goods,  449 
Hotham,    Sir    Charles,     his    arrival    at 

Asuncion,  61 
Humaita  invested  by  the  Allied  armies, 

333 ;    a   Paraguayan    sortie    repulsed 

from,  333  ;  true  description  of,    314  ; 

its     importance     exaggerated,      316  ; 

merchant  fleet  at,  316  ;  line  of  shop- 


INDEX. 


487 


boats  at,  316  ;  wants  and  notions  sold 

at,   316 ;    absurd    entrenchments     of, 

448  ;  disappearance  of  the  batteries  at, 

471 
Human  Zoology,  collection  of,  at  Luque, 

464 
Hunting    farmed    out     by  the  Oriental 

government,  93 
Hutchinson,     Mr,,     his    heroic    services 

during     the     cholera     plague,     244 ; 

caricatured  at  Rozario,  244  ;  presented 

with  a  medal,  244 


Infernal  machines,  fishing  up,  341 

Ironclads  attacked  by  Cimoes,  364 

Isla  de  las  Flores,  fragrancy  of  its  wild 

vegetation,  94 
Island  of  Liberty,  imprisonment  in  the, 

100 
Italian  porters  in  Monte  Video  not  to  be 

trusted,  104 
"Itapiru  carelessly  abandoned  by  Lopez, 

301 


Jesuits  in  Paraguay,  their  influence,  26 
Juquery  bridge  held  by  Brigadier  Vasco 
Alves,  467 


KiRKLAND,  Lieut.,  a  sympathizer  with 
the  Blanco  party,  370  ;  hindered  in 
the  performance  of  his  duty,  370 


La  Ciudad,  view  of,  434 

La  Paz,  a  useful  colony  against  the  raids 

of  Chaco  Indians,  258 
La  Plata,  great  increase  in  the  trade  of, 

151 
La  Trinidad    celebrated  for  cock-fights, 

461 
La  Union,  bull-fights   held  at,  110 
La  Villeta,  operations    hastened  by  the 

inundation  of,  295 
Lasso,  the,  how  to  avoid,  148 
Law  and  justice  in  the  River  Plate,  91 
Libertat,  M.,  accused  of  conspiracy,  131 
Liberty  Square  at  Corrientes,  a  savage 

caricature,  278 
Libraries,    billiard    rooms,  and  drinking 

houses  at  Buenos  Aires,  185 
Lines  defended  by  the  Paraguayans,  353 
Loma  Valentina,  Lopez's  documents  taken 

at,  472 
Lomas,  proposal  to  attack  the  last  Para- 
guayan position  on  the,  450 
Lopez,  D.  Antonio  Carlo,   President  I., 

elected  in  1845  56  ;  his  marriage  with 


D.  Juana  Paula  Carillo,  57;  conspiracy 
to  shoot  him  in  a  theatre,  64  ;  sends 
to  London  for  explanations,  65 ; 
undertakes  negotiations  with  the  Holy 
See,  66  ;  his  death  in  1862,  67 

Lopez,  D.  Francisco  Solano,  President  II., 
elected  in  1862,  67  ;  his  first  meeting 
with  Madame  Lynch  in  Paris,  72 ; 
actively  prepares  for  war,  75;  his 
atrocities  greatly  exaggerated,  128; 
unfit  for  guerilla  warfare,  128;  his 
scheme  shattered  by  the  incapacity  of 
his  oflicers  and  men,  264  ;  prizes  pira- 
tically made  figuring  in  his  flotilla, 
289  ;  abandons  Paso  la  Patria  when 
the  enemy  appears,  301 ;  he  proposes 
an  interview  with  the  Allied  Generals, 
305  ;  muzzle-loaders  found  in  front  of 
his  palace,  322  ;  he  is  asked  to  abdicate 
his  country,  329  ;  reports  concerning 
his  atrocities,  330 ;  his  complaint  of 
the  laws  of  neutrality,  331  ;  his  letters 
detained  at  Buenos  Aires,  332  ;  his 
victory  at  Acayuasa,  334  ;  the  wife 
of  Colonel  Martinez  murdered  by,  335  ; 
he  arms  the  Cierva  redoubt  with  field 
pieces,  347  ;  his  defence  of  Paso  Pucu, 
357 ;  his  place  of  concealment,  357  ; 
he  expects  to.  be  drawn  from  La 
Villeta,  371 ;  he  concentrates  his 
forces  at  the  Tebicuary  river,  401 ; 
his  government  a  model  of  order  and 
progress,  407  ;  his  ill  feeling  with  Mr. 
"Washburn,  409  ;  his  escape  from  Loma 
Valentina,  419  ;  takes  up  his  head- 
quarters at  Loma  Cumbarity,  421  ; 
his  palace  at  La  Villeta,  424  ;  he  pur- 
posely leaves  Santo  Antonio  undefended, 
427  ;  the  loss  of  his  cavalry  at  the 
battle  of  Itororo,  428  ;  he  releases  the 
architect  of  his  palace  from  imprison- 
ment, 433 ;  ignorance  of  the  Allies 
concerning  his  movements,  448 ;  he 
makes  all  the  railway  officials  captains 
and  lieutenants,  359  ;  his  documents 
taken  from  his  private  carriage,  472  ; 
his  tenderness  to  his  children,  477  ; 
his  letters  to  Major-Gen,  Macmahon, 
478  ;  he  appoints  Madame  Lynch  uni- 
versal legatee,  478  ;  his  sympathy, 
sternness,  and  grief,  479 

Lopez,  D.  Benigno,  doubts  concerning  the 
fate  of,  476 

Lopez,  D.  Venancio,  acquitted  and  re- 
leased, 476 

Luque,  journey  by  rail  to,  dangerous, 
459  ;  the  normal  settlement  of,  462 

Lynch,  Madam,  her  trials  throughout  the 
campaign,  71  ;  birth  of  her  first  child, 
73  ;  miseries  of  the  captives  mitigated 
by,  74  ;  her  ambition,  74  ;  her  present 


488 


INDEX. 


to  Captain  Xenes'  soldiers,   312  ;  her 
quartei's  at  Humaita,  318 


M 'Donald,  Dr.,  suggests  a  plan  for  a 
channel  across  the  Albardon,  333 

M'Mahon  demands  the  release  of  Messrs. 
Bliss  and  Masterman,  130 

Madariaga,  Grovernor,  treachery  of,  59 

Maldonata  and  the  lioness,  romantic 
tale  of,  252 

Mamelukes  of  S.  Paulo,  plunder  by  the, 
10 

Mariette,  Captain,  arrest  of,  115 

Maroon  settlement  at  La  Villeta,  430 

Marshall  and  Grant  stabbed  by  a  native, 
435 

Martin  Garcia  and  her  batteries,  192 

Martin  Garcia,  an  island  only  fit  to  travel 
on  stilts,  228 

Martin,  General,  his  defeat  of  the  Spa- 
niards in  1810,  251 

Martinez,  Colonel,  shot  at  Paso  la  Patria, 
290  ;  his  wife  murdered  by  Lopez, 
335 

Martins,  Enrique,  shot  for  refusing  to 
give  up  his  flag,  268 

Masterman  and  Bliss,  violent  and  illegal 
arrest  of,  129 

Memorial  from  the  married  women  of 
Buenos  Aires  to  the  Archbishop,  186 

Mendoza's  tent,  collection  of  yarns  in, 
390 

Menna  Barreto,  General,  his  head-quar- 
ters, 212 

Mercado  del  Puerto,  market-place  of,  99 

Mesa,  Captain,  mortally  wounded,  267 

Metropolitan  cemetery  at  Buenos  Aires, 
184 

Military  and  mob  law,  struggles  of,  115 

Military  correspondent  constituted,  80 

Misiones  first  established  in  Paraguay,  26 

Mission  of  Paraguay,  military  organiza- 
tion of  the,  32 

Missions  system,  remarkable  features  of, 
32 

Mitre,  President,  a  prominent  personage, 
166 

Money  a  signal  for  disorders  among  Bra- 
zilian soldiers,  468 

Monte  Video,  terrific  gales  in,  84  ;  short 
sketch  of,  95  ;  Cerro,  the  best  view  of, 
100  ;  uselessness  of  English  cruisers  at, 
100  ;  importance  of  knowing  the  cur- 
rency of,  103  :  extortions  of  travellers 
at,  103  ;  Italian  porters  at,  104  ; 
tramway  in,  105  ;  dishonesty  of  cus- 
tom-house officers  in,  105  ;  their  lodg- 
ing houses,  105;  bad  roads  in,  107  ; 
drainage  unknown  in,  107  ;  old  Spanish 
houses  in,  107  ;  impoverished  look  of 


the  tenements  at,  108  ;  General  Oribe's 
nine  years'  siege  of,  110  ;  the  cause  of 
the  revolution  of  1868  at,  110  ;  mur- 
der of  General  Flores  at,  111  ;  danger 
from  soldiers  in,  122  ;  an  Englishman's 
head  laid  open  by  one  of  the  vicious 
"  bobbies"  at,  123;  theatres  and  amuse- 
ments in,  123  ;  the  fair  sex  partial  to 
bull-fighting  at,  124 ;  soldiers  and 
priests  in  the  cockpit  at,  124  ;  prize- 
fighting and  fair  play  at,  125  ;  public 
institutions  at,  126  ;  attempt  to  form 
an  English  club  at,  126;  Gormandi- 
zing club  at,  126  ;  terrific  storm  and 
loss  of  life  at,  127  ;  worship  on  Holy 
Saturday  at,  127 

Monte  Video  and  Humaita,  sketch  of  the 
route  between,  136  ;  names  of  tiie 
various  writers  on,  149 

Montevidean  shops,  glitter  and  attractions 
of,  118 

Montevidean  soldiers,  danger  of,  122 

MontevideansandPortenos,  their  jealousy, 
96 

Morvonnais,  M.  de  la,  regret  at  not  being 
able  to  accept  his  invitation,  207 

Mosquitoes,  sufferings  of  the  soldiers 
from,  348 

Mothers  and  wives  of  officers  forced  to 
disown  their  sons  and  husbands,  474 

Murder  of  two  Spanish  subjects,  116 

Music  Hall  at  Buenos  Aires,  nightly 
revels  at,  185 


Newkirk,  Dr.,  and  his  drunken  servant, 
460  ;  his  fraudulent  apothecary,  463  ; 
his  lucrative  practice,  451 

Nueva  Burdoes,  failure  of  the  French 
colony  of,  454 


Obes,  Commander-in-chief  of  the  Argen- 
tine army,  308 

O'Connor,  Mr.,  his  narrow  escape  from 
being  shot,  261 

Oliveira,  Admiral,  out-generalled  by  Lopez, 
63 

Oriental  army  reduced  to  a  remnant,  326 

Osorioand  Argolo  badly  wounded,  445 

Osorio  and  Flores  laud  upon  Paraguayan 
ground,  301 

Osorio,  General,  repulsed  rom  the  Gran 
Chaco,  354  ;  his  popularity,  384  ;  his 
soldierly  greeting,  385  ;  his  charmed 
life,  385  ;  his  examples  of  gallantry, 
385  ;  shot  through  the  mouth  at  the 
Loma  Valentina,  385 ;  not  popular 
with  either  army,  469 

Otters  and  sea- wolves  in  the  Parana 
river,  232 

Outbreak  of  the  pronunciamento,  117 


INDEX. 


489 


Palacios,  Bishop,  not  shotas  he  deserved, 
340 

Pampa  palace,  invitation  to  enter  the,  199 

Pampas  peewit,  the  enemy  to  sportsmen, 
349 

Paraguay,  derivation  of  the  word,  2  ; 
geography  of,  3  ;  latitude  of,  4  ;  area 
of,  5;  political  distribution  of,  6  ; 
official  census  of,  7  ;  education  in,  16; 
newspaper  first  established  in,  17  ; 
commerce  of,  18  ;  imports  of,  21  ; 
taxes  and  revenue  of,  22  ;  imports  and 
exports  of,  22  ;  discovered  by  Sebastian 
Cabot,  23  ;  roads  in,  23  ;  historical 
sketch  of,  23  ;  divided  into  two  govern- 
ments, 25  ;  missions  established  by  the 
Jesuits  in,  26  ;  ignorance  of  the  clergy 
in,  26;  travellers  deluded  in,  28; 
pleasures  and  labours  in,  30  ;  cere- 
monies of  worship  in,  30  ;  celebration 
of  the  Saint's-day  in,  30  ;  birth  of  a 
Republic  in,  37  ;  improvement  of,  by 
Dr.  Francia,  45  ;  its  system  of  govern- 
ment, 54 ;  free  navigation  of,  a  political 
necessity  for  the  Brazilian  Empire, 
295  ;  geographical  details  of,  295  ;  re- 
ported barbarities  in,  340  ;  passion  for 
money  making  at,  441  ;  scarcity  of 
literature  in,  462 

Paraguay  women,  arbitrary  treatment  of, 
477 

Paraguayan  army,  how  desertion  from 
impossible,  473 

Paraguayan  coat-of-arms,  indiscriminate 
nse  of,  43 

Paraguayan  garrison  surrendered,  222 

Paraguayan  gun-boats  a  feature  of  naval 
interest,  266 

Paraguayan  officers,  their  ferocity,  452 

Paraguayan  race,  mixture  of  breed  in  the, 

10  ;  character  of  the,  12  ;  diet  of,  12  ; 
education  of,  16  ;  independence,  ratifi- 
cation of,  55 

Paraguayan  soldiers,  heroism  of,  14  ; 
their  deficient  intelligence,  15 ;  their 
ferocity  at  the  battle  of  Corrientes,  290 

Paraguayan  subscriptions  for  defence  of 
fatherland,  477 

Paraguayan  women,  patriotism  of,  380 

Paraguayans,  their  plan  of  defence,  306  ; 
their  hopeless  position,  334  ;  their 
desperate  fighting,  434  ;  their  escape 
to  Timbo,  334  ;  grand  total  of  the  lines 
defended  by  the,  358  ;  rumours  of  the 
tortures  and  executions  of,  407 

Paraguay©,  description  of  the  prisoners  of, 

11  ;  their  deformities,  11 

Parana  abandoned  by  the   Caravan  Go- 
vernment, 256 
Parana  river,  dangerous  for  navigation,  250 
Parana  river,  its  chief  lines  of  navigation, 


224  ;  geographical  glance  at  the,  249  ; 
memorable  flood  of  the,  415 

Parsons,  Captain,  favourable  impressions 
of,  330 

Paseo  de  Julio,  uneducated  inhabitants 
of,  159 

Paso  la  Patria  abandoned  by  Lopez,  301 

Paso  Pucu,  an  important  central  point  of 
the  war,  357 

Passenger  steamer,  foul  play  suspected  to 
a,  135 

Passengers'  lives  in  the  hands  of  drunken 
sailors,  406 

Paysandu,  population  of,  209 ;  native 
mutiny  at,  210  ;  murdering  a  Sereno 
at,  210  ;  head-quarters  of  D.  Leandro 
Gomez  at,  210  ;  Maua  bank  demolished 
at,  211 ;  the  battle  ground  of  the  Blan- 
cos  and  Colorados,  211  ;  campaign, 
siege,  and  civil  war  at,  211  ;  hopeless 
attitude  of  her  defenders,  211  ;  fall  of, 
213  ;  massacre  of  women  and  children 
at,  213  ;  attacked  by  cholera,  215  ; 
people  buried  at,  215  ;  imports  and 
exports  of,  215 ;  Mr.  O'Connor's  salt- 
ing-house at  215  ;  female  indulgences 
at,  216  ;  flax-growing  not  profitable  at, 
217 

Paulista  Volunteers  a  distinguished  corps, 
387 

Paupers  of  Europe,  where  they  should  go, 
248 

Peterkin,  M.,  contractor  for  guns  to  the 
Brazilian  army,  274 

Plaza  de  la  Cathedral,  amusements  in 
the,  438 

Plaza  de  la  Victoria,  the  business  part  of 
Buenos  Aires,  175;  dark  and  dingy 
aspect  of,  176  ;  pronouncements  pre- 
pared at,  177  ;  indignation  meeting  at, 
177 ;  ridiculous  obelisk  at,  177 ; 
architecture  of  the  reformed  cathedral 
at,  178 

Political  prisoners,  amnesty  of,  55 

Political  quarrel  by  the  people  of  S. 
Paulo,  33 

Portena  beauty  not  dazzling,  170 

Portuguese  squadron  destroyed  by  a  siege, 
142 

Potosi,  remarkable  emigrating  to,  104 

Prize-fighting  on  the  Cerro,  125 

Progreso  balls  frequented  by  celebrities, 
186 

Project  for  improving  the  channel  at 
Buenos  Aires,  157 

Prospect  of  emigrants  to  the  Eiver  Plate, 
91 

Prytz,  M.,  the  furious  and  ferocious 
Brazilian,  274 

RiACHUELO,  defeat  of  the  navy  at,  221 


490 


INDEX. 


Railway  at  Asuncion,  rude  appliances  of, 

460 
Eeid,  Dr. ,  in  charge  of  the  British  Hospi- 
tal, 151 
Eepublicof  Uruguay,  three  hostile  parties 

in,  112 
Resquin,  Francisca  Z,,  his  severe  General 

Order,  473 
Eio  Bermejo,  salubriousness  of  its  waters, 

365 
Rio  de  la  Plata,  first  Viceroy  of,  36 
Rio  Grande  and  their  savages,  365 
Rio  Paranancito,  vegetation  of,  254 
Rio  Uruguay,  on  board  the,  189 
Rivas,  General,  his  personal  appearance,  336 
River  Paraguay  the  reservoir  of  a  thousand 

streams,  138 
River  Plate,  colonizing  in  the,  88 
Rivera,  D.,  his  flight  to  the  Brazil,  211 
Robles,  General,  tried  by  a  secret  court- 
martial,  264  ;  prefers  loss  of  life  to  loss 
of  liberty,  264 
Rosas,    Dictator,   outrages  of,    180  ;  op- 
poses the   English  and   French  squa- 
drons, 233 
Royal  mail  steamers,  reduction  of  fares 

in  the,  83 
Rozai'io,    arrival    at,     235  ;    perspective 
view  of,    236  ;  prodigious  growth   of, 

236  ;  its  site  superior  to  Buenos  Aires, 

237  ;  new  laws  introduced  in,  237  ; 
value  of  land  at,  237  ;  column  of 
Liberty  at,  238  ;  hideous  attempt  at 
classical  art  at,  239  ;  female  beauty 
not  interesting  at,  239  ;  baiting- yards 
on  the  Sabbath  at,  240  ;  limited  ca- 
pacity of  newspapers  at,  241  ;  hairless 
dogs  used  instead  of  warming-pans  at, 
243;  organ-grinders  might  be  put  to 
honest  labour,  242 


Sailoks  demoralized  by  torpedoes,  332 

S.  Juan,  failure  of  the  French  colony  at, 
297 

SS.  Philip  and  James,  peculiar  places  of 
worship,  98 

Saladillo  Dulce  a  geographical  puzzle,  256 

Saltenos  better  in  temporal  than  spiritual 
matters,  218 

Salto,  thepicturesqueterminusof  Uruguay 
navigation,  218  ;  blockaded  by  Com- 
modore Pinto,  218  ;  its  surrender  to 
General  Flores,  219  ;  precious  stones 
found  at,  220 

Salto  and  Concordia,  rivalry  between  the 
two  villages,  220 

San  Ignacio  church,  art  and  science  taught 
at,  182 

Sanchez,  Vice-President,  supposed  to  be 
still  breathing  the  upper  air,  477 


Santo  Antonio,  skilful  landing  of  the  Bra- 
zilians at,  427 

Sarmiento  and  Mitre  compared  with 
phrenology  and  physiognomy,  168 

Sarmiento  elected  President  of  Buenos 
Aires,  164 

Sebastian  Cabot,  Paraguay  discovered  by, 
23 

Serviles  sold  to  D.  Miguel,  473 

Sheep  farming  in  the  River  Plate,  89 

Shooting,  civilized  style,  in  a  waggonette, 
145 

Sketch  of  the  campaign,  short  abstract  of 
the,  76 

Soldiers  causing  explosions  at  Humaita, 
323 

Solis,  De,  discoverer  of  the  Parana,  137  ; 
slaughtered,  roasted,  and  eaten,  by  the 
Charruas  savages,  190 

South  America,  terrible  earthquake  in, 
127 

Souza,  Marshal,  visit  to  the  State  House 
of,  466  ;  his  nationality  not  to  be  mis- 
taken, 466  ;  the  injurious  talk  of  his 
enemies,  467 

Spanish  forbidden  to  be  taught  in  Para- 
guay, 31 

Speculators  threatened  with  serious 
trouble,  248 

Squatters  kind  of  campaigning  life,  231 

Stewart,  Dr.,  yields  himself  prisoner,  452; 
his  interview  with  the  Emperor  at 
Rio  de  Janeiro,  452  ;  his  wife  and 
children  in  danger,  452  ;  restoration 
of  the  stolen  charger  of,  463  ;  he 
surrenders  to  the  enemy,  420  ;  his 
house  given  up  to  the  five  great  orders 
of  knighthood,  457 

Stocks  in  Paraguay,  tortures  of  the,  132 

Stores,  free  importation  of,  21 

Suarez,  D.  Gregorio,  his  revenge  for  an 
old  private  feud,  214 

Suggesting  a  mode  to  prevent  discontent, 
82 

Swamp  fighting  an  essential  part  of 
Indian  warfare,  299 


Taji,   batteries    at,   364  ;    Paraguayans 

dislodged  at,  364 
Tamandare,    Admiral,     serious    charge 

against,  212 
Taraqui,  quaint  and  picturesque  houses 

of,  272 
Taxes  and  revenue  of  Paraguay,  22 
Taylor,  Mr.,  brutal  treatment  of,  433 
Tebicuary  batteries,  sketch  of,  400 
Tigers  and  wild  beasts,  legends  of,  231 
Timber,  growth  of  in  Patagonia,  230 
Timbo,  appearance  of,  after  the  evacua- 
tion, 346 


INDEX. 


491 


Timbo    garrison,  curious  contrivance  of 

the,  342 
Torpedoes,  construction  of,  342 
Torpedoes  provided  by  the  Paraguayans, 

332 
Travellers  deluded  in  Paraguay,  28 
Travellers  made  comfortable  by  the  Ar- 
gentines, 188 
Travelling  to  the  Upper  Uruguay  thwarted, 

221 
Tres    Bocas,    a   retreat  for  those  flying 

from  the  reign  of  terror,  302 
Triumpho,    Brigadier-General,     glorious 

career  of,  384 
Tuyu-cue  occupied  by  Brazilians,  359 
Tupy-Gruarani  language,   three  years  at 

work  at  the,  208 


Urqtjiza,  General,  introduction  to,  199  ; 
description  of,  200  ;  the  improvements 
on  his  estate,  200  ;  his  large  amount 
of  cattle,  200;  the  value  of  his  property, 
201  ;  a  bad  paymaster,  201  ;  curio- 
sity excited  in  conversation  with, 
201  ;  fresco  representations  of  his 
battles,  202  ;  his  predictions  on  the 
campaign,  203  ;  his  going  to  glory, 
253  ;  reviewing  his  cavalry  at  Punta 
Gorda,  253 

Urquiza,  Madame,  her  appearance  at  the 
dinner-table,  204  ;  her  handsome  pre- 
sent, 205 

Uruguay,  gold  mines  in,  34;  the  best  place 
for  Irish  emigrants,  94  ;  not  fit  for 
English  emigrants,  133  ;  patriarchal 
marriage  not  the  law  of  the  land  at, 
133  ;  her  richness  in  metals,  133 

Uruguay  river,  studying  the  features  of, 
193  ;  fed  by  the  rains  of  the  Empire  of 
the  Southern  Cross,  194 

Uruguayan  national  flag,  description  of 
the,  100 


Uruguayan  navigation  compared  with  the 
Rhine,  218 

Varela,    D.,  compelled  to  quit  France 

through  a  duel,  223 
Velasco,  Colonel,  tactics  of,  299 
Vences,  battle  of,  in  1847,  59 
Veren,  Baron  von,  evil  report  of,  402  ; 

three  times  arrested  as  a  spy,  402 
Villareal,  Brazilian  army  encamped  at,4 26 

War-loan  of  Sor  Riestra,  328 
Wars  teach  nations  their  geography,  139 
Washburn,  Hon.    Charles   A.,   nonsensi- 
cal abuse  of,    129  ;    introduction   to, 
408 ;    he   acts   as   mediator    between 
the  combatants,    409  ;    his  ill  feeling 
with  Lopez,   409  ;  receives  an  invita- 
tion to  quit  his  hotel,   409  ;  removed 
by    Commander    Kirkland,  410  ;  his 
violent  letter^o  the  President  of  Para- 
guay, 410  ;  his  diplomatic  notes  con- 
cerning foreigners  in  Paraguay,  411 ; 
watched  by  forty  policemen,  411 
Water-hog,  operations    upon   the,  392  ; 
excess  of  imagination  on    the,    393  ; 
their  comic  air  of  defiance,  394 
Watch-towers  used  for  signalling,  310 
Webb,  General,  his  passion  for  ultimatums, 

370 
Wheelwright,  Mr.,   his  trading  notions, 

245 
Whytehead,  Mr.,  suicide  of,  435 
Wild  maize,  where  grown,  6 

Xenes,  Captain,  his  night  expedition,  312 


Yataitt-Cora,  merit  of  the  Conference 

of,  305 
Yungaz    coffee   fragrant  and   delicious, 

465 


THE    END.