F 3^7 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY ir'V ij,. g. FROM A FUND RECEIVED BY BEQUEST OF WILLARD FISKE 1831-1904 FIRST LIBRARIAN OF THIS UNIVERSITY : I868-1883 Digitized by Microsoft® Date Due aur ^' ,i$ ^^*C^ "AUfeo 10 1£53B?, 2 :959F NW- I i H I j c? ywFiwP'**''* m-rfs"^ 0Cf-2AJSt Digitized by Microsa This book was digitized by Microsoft Corporation in cooperation witli Cornell University Libraries, 2007. You may use and print this copy in limited quantity for your personal purposes, but may not distribute or provide access to it (or modified or partial versions of it) for revenue-generating or other commercial purposes. Digitized by Microsoft® LETTERS FBOM THE BATTLE-FIELDS OF PARAGTTAT. Digitized by Microsoft® The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924021115138 ■^ Digitize by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® LETTERS FROM THE BATTLE-FIELDS OF PAEAGTJAY. OSE CASEffi-DEEBiliaiDICIADCaTlEtESRACja) sa urufovraeiinico afta t\ dia de su mntrfe» ms LONDON:" TINSLBY BEOTHBRS, 18, CATHERINE STREET, STRAND. 1870. Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® L E T TB K S BATTLE-FIELDS OF PAKAGUAT. CAPTAIN RICHARD F. BURTON, F.E.G.S., ETC. AUTHOR OP "BXPLORATIOKS OF THE HISHLANDS OP THE BRAZIL," ETO. BTO. Mit^ a Pai; anir |llustrattaitg. " Le vrai est le pite qui engendre le boo, qui est le flls : d'oil procSde le beau, qui est le Saint-Esprit." — Chateatibbiand. LONDON : TINSLBY BROTHERS, 18, CATHERINE STREET, STRAND. 1870. [_AU rights of Tranelatiim and Reproduction are reserved,'^ i\ W t 1- I,""" , Digitized by microsoft® {] U \ \l \ f({> I I Y 1 ' , hhi. : A> 3^231? LOBDOM : SAVllL, KBWARDS AHD 00., rEIHTEES, OHAHUOS STBEBT, OOVIKT aARDBH. Digitized by Microsoft® jisnilrtli HIS EXCELLENCY DON DOMINGO FAUSTINO SAKMIENTO, CITIZEN OP THE UNITED PaOVINCBS OP THE RIG DB LA. PLATA, THE ABtJENTINE REPUBLIC, ONE WHO ADMIRES HIS HONESTY OF PURPOSE THE HOMAGE WHICH HE PAYS TO PROGRESS. Digitized by Microsoft® Mic Digitized by Microsoft® PREFACE. The principal object of these letters is to teU a new tale of modem Paraguay, to place before tbe public simple, un- varnislied 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 effects 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 mUes 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 Americanintelligence accept as authentic, and possibly act upon, such viridical information as that for instance sup- plied by the following clipping : — Digitized b^lkrosoft® viil 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 (P) the bishop (?) and prisoners (?) is confirmed. (No !) The Paraguayan population was returning to Assumption (Never !) which has been occupied by the Marquis de Caxias. And lastly, M. Elisee Reclus, 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 ; 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 j cut ofl' 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," Digitized by Microsoft® PREFACE. ir fighting 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 would 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 Eepublic 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 "TEmpire 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 :" * " Revue des Deux Mondes," of Pebruary 15th, 1865, and August 15tb, 1868, by M. Elis^e Reolus : November 15th, 1865, .by M. J. de Cazane, and September 15th, 1866, by M. Duchesne de Belleoourt. The ignorance of fact paraded in these papers is to be equalled only by the animus which jervades them. Digitized by Microsoft® X PEEFACE. they liold 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 nnllo discrimine agetor, 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- Parand- 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 fuerte, 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 opiaion, 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 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, da weU 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 Digitized by Microsoft® Xli PREFACE. process of annihilation. It is the Nemesis of Faith ; the death-throe of a policy laequeathed by Jesuitism to South America; it shows the flood of Time surging over a relic of old world semi-barbarism, a palaeozoic humanity. Nor is the semi-barbaric race itself without an especial interest of its own. The Guarani family appears to hare 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. The 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, comnaon 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, Digitized by Microsoft® PREFACE. XlU the capital of this "inland China;" Humait£, 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 offence 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 GueriUa 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. Digitized by Microsoft® XIV PREFACE. In making up the map, tlie trustworthy 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 fi?om 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-ofiBce, 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 Hio de Janeiro, of Buenos Aires, and of Monte Video. Nor wiU his account be aught but incomplete unless he be enabled to collate with those of the Allies the oflScial 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 versd. AH accounts which have hitherto appeared are neces- sarily one-sided: the Allies — Brazilian, Argentine, and Oriental — ^have told and re-told their own tale, whUst the Paraguayans have mostly been dumb perforce. Since these remarks were penned, I have had an Digitized by Microsoft® PREFACE. XV opportunity of reading, and I have read with the utmost intereist, " 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 afiairs 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 Robles, and 13,000 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. Digitized by Microsoft® XVI PREFACE. remains with a third corps d'arm^e 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 iu 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 aflbrded me a home. R. F. B. August, 1869. * Our periodicals mostly print the word Paraguay, thus confounding the little country town with the country. Digitized by Microsoft® CONTENTS. INTRODUCTORY ESSAY pn. 1 79 LETTER I. FROM RIO DE JANEIRO TO MONTE VIDEO . . . 80 94 LETTEE II. MONTE VIDEO THE MURDER OP GENERAL FLORES 95 117 LETTER IIL 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 ENGAGEMENT KEPT 152—171 LETTER VL A GLANCE AT BUENOS AIRES 172 188 LETTER VIL UP THE URUGUAY RIVER, AND VISIT TO GENERAL URQUIZA 189 206 LETTER VIII. UP THE URUGUAY RIVER THE SIEGE OF PAYSANDU, SALTO, CONCORDIA, UBU.GUAYANA .... 20.7 223 Digitized by Microsoft® xviii CONTENTS. LETTER IX. UP THE PARANA RIVER TO ROZARIO . . • PP- 233 335 LETTER X. ACTUALITIES OF ROZARIO (SANTA Pe') . . . • 336 248 LETTER XI. FROM ROZARIO TO CORRIENTES 349 369 LETTER XIL A WEEK AT CORRIENTES 270 391 LETTER Xm. FROM CORRIENTES TO HOMAITA 393 308 LETTER XIV. TO HUMAITA 309 313 LETTER XV. HUMAITA 314 337 LETTER XVL A VISIT TO THE GRAN CHACO 338 340 LETTER XVn. VISITS TO TIMBO AND TO ESTABELECIMENTO NOVO {alias THE CIERVA REDOUBT.) GENERAL ARGOLO 341 350 LETTER XVin. RIDE ROUND THE HUMAIli " QUADRILATERAL " . 351 — 363 LETTER XIX. FROM HUMAITa' TO guArdia tacuara . . . 363 — 371 LETTER XX, TO THE BRAZILIAN FRONT 372 390 Digitized by Microsoft® CONTENTS. XIX LETTER XXI. TO THE TEBICTJARY RIVER pp. 391 405 LETTER XXIL RETURN TO BUENOS AIRES. THE CONSPIRACY. THE '' ATROCITIES OF LOPEZ " .... 406 4*13 LETTER XXm. TRIP TO ASUNCION, THE CIUDAD , . . , . 413—430 LETTER XXIV. DESCRIBING ASUNCION, EX-GAFITAIi OF PARAGUAY 431—444 LETTER XXV. AT AND ABOUT ASUNCION 445 — 458 LETTER XXVL AGAIN TO THE ALLIED FRONT 459—468 LETTER XXVn., AND LAST 469 481 Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® MAP OF with U li V G r A Y AND PART OF THE AKGKNTINK KK PUBLIC LonJon Tin-il^y hrolhits Digitized by Microsoft® THE BATTLE-FIELDS OF THE PAEAGUAT AND UEUGUAY EIYERS. SECTION I. INTEODUCTOEY ESSAY — PABAGUAY. T HAD intended to spare my readers the mortification of -*- reading, and myself of writiDg, this essay. Returning^ howeverj 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. Erancia 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 topo^aphical knowledge of the scene of action, managed to invest a cam- paign whose grand movements are simple in the extreme H 1 Digitized by Microsoft® 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 " Oriental" 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. 93), " means ' River of feathers,' and was so called from the variety and brilliancy of its birds." " Paraguay," says P. Charlevoix, " signifies ' fleuve couronne,' from Pard,, 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. Par^, in fact, may mean ' spotted,' as in the name Petun Parfi, the speckled tobacco fanuliax 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 = vioh (strength or virtue) and " y," water. Digitized by Microsoft® 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, andy, water." "Paraguay," which in some old MSS. is written ParaqUay, says Rengger, " is simply ' sea-water hole,' from Pard, 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' (Par£, 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 J ythat 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 kiQglet) " Paragua." It is not easy to treat of the topography and geography of Paraguay. Some- portions, — ^for instance, the Paraguay river and the Parand, 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 CordiUera, which/running north 1— a Digitized by Microsoft® 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 27° 50' ; and she traces her frontier up the Parana after- its confluence with the Paraguay River to the Cordillera of the Misiones, 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, lianas between the ir'ai'ana and Paraguay Bivers ... 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 degree. Digitized by Microsoft® 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 vest, the Parand, 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 fax 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 gueriUa 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 Espinhajo, 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 Eepublic 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 ^^ames of Sierra de Amambay (the Tupi Samambaia, or poly- Digitized by Microsoft® 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'^ne, under the names of Nabi- leque, Caa-guazu (large Yerba), and Cuchilla Grande, the divortium aquarum which throws oflf 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 Parang River, the Bapids 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 angnlar and pointed grain, which gives the sweetest flour. Digitized by Microsoft® INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. T in 1857 of twenty-five departmentSj including one in the Gran Chaco, and the other on the left bant of the Paran^ 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 authors 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 Eort Bourbon or Olympo, the " Botany Bay " of Dr. Prancia ; and there are sundry minor places, as Encarnacion on the Paraiia, and La VUleta, 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 Paraguay by Mr. Brent, American Charg^ d' Affaires to the Argentine Coni'ederation. He was received with great suspicion, and he was long delayed at El Pilar. Digitized by Microsoft® 8 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 18-25 Messrs. Eengger and Longchamps suggest 200,000, of ■vrhom 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 185_6 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 r 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 Pass^ son Present et son Avenir; par un Etranger qui a v^cu longtemps dans le pays. Ouvrage public h Eio Janeiro en 1848, et reproduit en Prance, par le G^n^ral Oriental Pacheco y Obes. Paris : Laoombe. 1851." The general prefixed a preface to the work of a resident of more than six years' standing, probably a medical man. Digitized by Microsoft® INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 9 the army at first levied.* The Times newspaper adopts the figure Q00,000, with a fighting force of 20,000. And ' it is understood that Dr. Stewart and other ofiicers tho- roughly conversant with the country, further diminish it to 400,000. Colonel du Graty would make the population douhle in seventeen years j but this formula is also officially inspired, and is prohahly 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 spxes 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 affecting the procreatiye 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. V.), computes the Paraguayan army in April, 18^5, at about 80,000 men. Digitized by Microsoft® 10 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. tinct types. The few hundred "Whites" formiDg 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 mUes 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. * They may be called so from their original settlements, Ita-tin, mean- ing a white stone. Digitized by Microsoft® INTRODBCTORT ESSAY. 11 The Paraguayo — not ParaguenOj as some travellers write the word — is, then, a Hispano-Guaranij 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, and circular ; the cheekbones are high, and laterally salient; the forehead is low, remarkably contrasting with the broad, long, heavy, and highly-de- veloped chin J 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 soupgon 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 well as ebriosus, and his favourite " chicha" beer of maize or other grains, induces pin guef action. Until the late war, he was usually in good health. The only medicines known Digitized by Microsoft® 13 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. to the country were contained in various manuscripts of simple recipes, written by Sigismund Asperger, a Hungarian priest, 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 Kepublic 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 came" — 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 fruit, 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 " Eabilongos," the longrtailed (monkeys) ; and the Guarani speakers " Cambahis," or niggers. In Digitized by Microsoft® INTBODDCTORT ESSAY. 13 Argentine land the Luso-Ameriean is always talked of as Macdoo, the ape. Travellers have noticed the manifold contradictions of the national mind — snch 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 whom 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 Digitized by Microsoft® ]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 Vamhagen, she is constant : she always loves some one, but not the same. As everywhere in South America, marriage is not the rule, and imder Dr. Prancia 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 our 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 Encomiendas 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 corvSe of two months per annum to his feudal lord. Digitized by Microsoft® INTRODUCTORY ESSAT. 15 tlie triple line seems the invention of Ercilla^s Lantaro. If a point be carried by the enemy, the Paraguayan oflBcers 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 failure 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 Peruvian — 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 TAmerique, et dans un desert, gouverner c'est peupler." Man who lives with beasts rapidly brutalizes himself. A single day in the Gruacho's hut suffices to show how his cruelty is born and bred. The babies begin to " ball" and lasso the doga, cats, and poultry, and the Httle boy saws at the lamVs neck with a blunt Digitized by Microsoft® 16 INTRODUCTOKY ESSAY. knifcj 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 ybu 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 difference 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 to the 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. Unforbunately, it was not made purely secular. As usual in South America, Paraguay indulged herself in the luxury 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 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 h, I'Assomption," 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." It was published at the official capital, Asuncion, Luqlie, Paraguary, or wherever head-quarters might be ; forming a single sheet, 2 spans long, by 1-30, printed upon Caraguatd 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 18 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. officiel ; " 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 Pucii. The paper was of Caraguata, prepared by M. Treuenfeldt of the Telegraph OflBce, 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 Lambar4 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'y 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 Digitized by Microsoft® INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 19 one-half of tlie 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 j 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.)=i£ 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 piiroliased at one shilling per 25 lbs., and sold at 24-32*. 2— a Digitized by Microsoft® 20 IMTRODUCTORT ESSAY. comparatively rich though 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 efifected 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 Angoulfeme, who for thirty-six yekrs " navigua et p6r6grina." The modern Bretons, I believei pronounce the word "butun." Digitized by Microsoft® INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 21 are still sent from Hamburg to tlie Plate. The principal fibres are from thePiassaba 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 gumsj 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. Ashworth, 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 hardly 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. Prancia were re-established by President Lopez I.J " l^illustre 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 Re- 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, were of all the most important items of income, and this evil is apparently unavoidable in young lands. The demi-annatte or conceded Digitized by Microsoft® 22 INTKODUCTORT 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 brought in con- siderable sums : the highest class of $7 (f.) was used for patents of administration. As \ 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 :— Years. 1851 1852 1853 1854 1855 1856 1857* 1858 1859t 1860 EXPOETB. Yerba, tobacco, hides, wool, fruits, &c. $341,616 470,010 690,480 777,861 1,005,900 1,143,131 1,700,722 1,205,819 2,199,678 1,693,904 Impoets. Wet goods, dry goods, iron ware, &o. . $230^907 715,886 406,688 595,823 431,835 631,234 1,074,639 866,596 1,539,648 885,841 10 years. Total $11,229,121 $7,379,107 In 1861 the total revenue was estimated at 8 millions of francs, about 4^ 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 eren been asserted that in 1859 the export and import dues rose to 3,500,000 pataooons. , Digitized by Microsoft® INTROBUCTORr 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 difiBculties 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 Iguazu'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 OP Conquest (1538-1620) ; the Period op Colonial AND Jesuitic Rule (1620-1754) ; the Government op 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 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 : np new matter of any interest has, however, of late years, come to light. We still read, in all writers from Eobertson 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 ia command, the vio- lent and turbulent Felipe Cdceres, 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 Bio Grande do Sul, a conipetent judge, that Minuano is the correct form. Digitized by Microsoft® INTRODUCTORY ESSA.T. 25 the two Lopez, the spiritual was made subordinate to the temporal power. Ferdinand the Catholic obtained from Pope Alexander VI. the right of levying church 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 goveri^ments, 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 fanctionaries. Both Paraguay and the Argen- tine Provinces were governed for more than two centuries by the Vice-royalty of Peru, and the "Audience of Cbarcas," whose only peer was then that of Nueva Espana. 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; they culti- Digitized by Microsoft® 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 Parand 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 j 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 regai'ds 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 wiU that left nothing to a religious house was held an irreligious act in those days, and even now the prejudice is not quite obsolete. Moreover, every Digitized by Microsoft® INTRODTJCTOEY 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 hosom 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 stiU is, an autonlaton 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 corvies 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 28 INTEODUCTORY ESSAY. God-elected race, and delighted to be so patriarchally 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 Farand River. In each of the reduced villages was a "College" for two Jesuits — misiie 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, Cureta 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 oflBcers 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 CabUdos 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 Digitized by Microsoft® INTRODUCTORT ESSAY. 29 the establishments of the leathers 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 were 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 Osotokoq; 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 stuffs, 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 stuffs and ornaments for the Church. 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 30 INTBODUCTORT ESSAY. labourers. A curious report, alluded to at the time l^ 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 modem 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 f^tes 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, stiU 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 own 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 Digitized by Microsoft® INTROUTICTORT ESSAY. 31 taught them to read, to recite the Doctrina Christiana in Guaranij and to study certain books of piety. The people were forbidden to learn Spanish ; and when the Inquisition put " k VIndex" poor JRobinson 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 33 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-poiat, 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," Digitized by Microsoft® INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 33 the bold Brazilian Paulistas, the "sinful and miserable" Paulitians or Paulopolitans, whom Mnratori 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 Paulistasj 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 imperktm in imperio, which in 1750 could resist the several campaigns directed against it by the united arms of the Brazil, of Buenos Aires, and of Montevideo. We may stiU learn something from their military regulations j 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 — offensive 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." 3 Digitized by Microsoft® 34 INTRODUCTOKY 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 37, 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. Digitized by Microsoft® INTRODTJCTORT ESSAY, 35 Charles III. "estranged them from all his dominions." The peculiar secresy, the sealed orderSj 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 Parand 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 Viceroyalty of Peru, was slowly advancing in the colonial scale. Her port, Buenos Aires, advaiitageously situated , for the carrying trade between Europe and the Andine Kegions, became the nucleus of important commerce, and' demanded defence against the Portuguese. By royal rescript of Augnst 8, 1776, the King of Spain created the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata, independent of Peru, and , August 14, 1S68. 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 bomM, 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 churi dares to sport his oak. A lady, hearing that European entrances are kept closed, justly remarked that it must be " muy triste." 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- Digitized by Microsoft® montevid:i^ans — natives and fokeirners. 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 !" 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 !" 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 fiirthej 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, " Oriental" 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 120 MONTEVIDiANS : cuesta, a hill slope, becomes a "coast," and the orange " mount" of Mr. Mulhall is " monte," a grove, a hush, 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 I'intelligence. 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 iu 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 j by skin bronzed or freckled ; by " biled-rag" shirt ; by nails stUl 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, the effect of excitement at seeing once more his kind ; he is, however, a general favourite ; he flirts like a naval oflicer 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 Digitized by Microsoft® NATIVES AND FOEEIGNEKS. 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 chirip£ 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 fine, 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 ; — Digitized by Microsoft® 123 MONTEVIDEANS : " The tale of the world is nought but this. In such a year died such a one, another and another." At Monte Video the refrain is, " in 18 — such 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 ofiBcer of rank, who, during the last aflfair, 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 Mores. These things are told to me by Englishmen, in a painful whisper, as if they were talking politics in Bome 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 j 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 wiU 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 " GriEgo animal." The Brazil, you will Digitized by Microsoft® NATIVES AND FOREIGNERS. 133 reinember, 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 comer, 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 124 MONTEVIDi^ANS : 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 hull-ring, I told you, is outside the city, and the fights are always on f^tes 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 stiff leather. The Cockpit is stiU 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 Riaadero de Gallos, at Corrientes Circo de los Gallos, at Lima Coliseo, Digitized by Microsoft® NATIVES A'ND FOREIGNERS. 125 and at other places Aranadal de Gallos. It is usually a loosely made wooden circusj with three or four tiers of benches, rising from a sawdusted arena. The latter is shaped like a bathj 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 iContaining 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 crowings. 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 2001., and place " between 'ome and 'ome." Per- haps prizefighting is prettier sport than the " pronuncia- mento." Digitized by Microsoft® 126 MONTEVID^ANS : 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 biUs 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 Booms 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-houses, hence about Christmas time or Midsummer there is a portentous diflPusion 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 killed by slack- ness of business. The forced currency, and the failure of the banks are subjects well known. The Fomentos Montevideano, a Credit Mobilier 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 niue miles ofi', 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. Digitized by Microsoft® 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 thesame 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 Gross, 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 ^ent forth muffled thunder, crowds worshipped before the Digitized by Microsoft® 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 puflFy clouds of pink, green, and sulphuor-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 lipon Admiral C. N. Davis, an old and experienced oflScer commanding the United States squadron, and not Ukely to be imposed upon by mere " amiability and plausibility." Marshal-President Lopez had affected him favoui'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 Admiral's 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. Bliss. 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, Digitized by Microsoft® NATIVES AND FOREIGNERS. 129 and after editing the River Plate Magazine, he had drifted up, like other ne'er-do-weels, into Paraguay. When Mr. Washburn, 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 patienti^ nostr^?" (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 h, 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 — I saw a list of them in the Marshal- President's own writing. Nothing could be more simple, more ostrich-Uke, than thus to accuse oneself by a document bearing upon its face the signs of compulsion. But the Paraguayans are, like aU Indians, an eminently childish race ; when they could not shake their enemies' nerves with 9 Digitized by Microsoft® 130 MONTEVIDi^ANS : gunpowder they made them miserable by concerts of tutiirutus, or cowhorns 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 Kio de Janeiro General Webb would have had an armed demonstration agaiust 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 Mastermau. About the end of November, 1868, the squadron* steamed up stream, leaving at Monte Video only the Guerriere, flag- ship, that drew too much water. Happily things passed without trouble. The Brazilians and Allies, who had ques- tioned the Admiral's right to break the blockade, were startled at the aspect of the squadron, which practised as it advanced, and they knew that torpedos level diflferences. 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 Bquadron consisted of — The U.S.S. Pawnee, Captain Urben, 900 tons, H guns. „ Qameherg, 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 ; the Wasp acted flag ship. Digitized by Microsoft® NATIVES AND FOREIGNEBS, 131 honour, and a single battery of Paraguayans would easily have sunli 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 1] 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 Wasp 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 Prance, was sent as a prisoner on board a French cruiser despatched to bring him down j 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-a Digitized by Microsoft® 132 montevid:^ans : Honourable Mr. Washburn. Men said that he should have awaited fresh orders from home, as Marshal-President Lopez, 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 heavy 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 wUl 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. Digitized by Microsoft® 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. PinaUy, 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. Digitized by Microsoft® 134 MONTEVIDEANS — NATIVES AND FOREIGNERS. The mixed population, Spanish and Portuguese, Brazilian and Italian, French and English, with a dash of Yaiikee 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 impunityto 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 mflSan 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 I'Irlandaise, 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 fuU 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 j they cling to hut and hammock — more poetically, " pensile bed ;" 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. Digitized by Microsoft® 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 Humait^^ — ^you "will remember a word so frequently repeated till it nauseated us. The ship was the 11 (pronounce Ji, so- called after an influent of the Hio Negro), 1300 tons, said to average ten to twelve knots an hour, and costing 30,000Z., 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 Ye/ 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- Digitized by Microsoft® 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 ns 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 j 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 Moimt, 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 Arno, and the southern is Cape St. Anthony, a tnfle of 155 miles to the south-west, thus making the embouchure one of the broadest in the world. Some swell Digitized by Microsoft® 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, 3150 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- five 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.* Yon 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 Gruarani race," which is hideous. D. Juan Diaz de Solis, the discoverer of the Paran£ in 1515, truly, 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 * Pard, the sea, and na, for ana, comparative affix, " lilte." Some wrongly translate it "powerful as the sea;" and others "Paraanamd, pariente del mar." Para is one of those general Guarani words that extend throughout the eastern moiety of the Columbian continent. Digitized by Microsoft® 138 TO THE COLONIA AND BUENOS AIRES. on the waters; perhaps he means the crystals of selenite that 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 chum up yellow and thick brown water, which reminds us of the BrazDian 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 217,350,000 of cubic feet per annum, or seventy square miles of surface one foot thick. The stream is felt at an ofiBng 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 diflcrence 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 flo# is laid down at the mouth of the little Sta. Lucia River, 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 Digitized by Microsoft® TO THE COLONIA 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 tq believe that the Red Sea is 33^ 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 OA^er 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 afl'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 Digitized by Microsoft® 140 TO THE COLONIA AND BUENOS AIRES. anchor some 500 miles up the Paran£ 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 eflFervescing kindly under acids. The latter is useful as a compost to correct the humic 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 Parand 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^ kjs^^u^erly forgotten. Very TO THE COLONIA 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 annumj and when Portugal and England — such then was the precedence — did all the contraband trade of half a New World. Even in 1739 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 Carthagiuians 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 slaia 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 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 Rio 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 still 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 wUl throw overboard the Digitized by Microsoft® TO THE COLONIA AND BUENOS AIRES. 143 chronology of my journey, and will here introduce a short description of the most modern Coloniaj 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. Parallon, 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, I 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, i856. Digitized by Microsoft® 144 TO THE COLONIA. AND BUENOS AIRES. unpaved thoroughfare, 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 aU sides except the north : it mounted eighty pieces of artillery, and was gar- risoned by 935 men. Beyond the south-eastern end of the Flaza are the remains of two bastions, one for a single gun, the other for three bouches h, 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 daring 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 ruflBdn 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 rdti — a c6telette funeste, as the French play says of Eve. The sons of the Colonia are reported to be lazy and Digitized by Microsoft® TO THE COLONIA AND BUENOS AIRES. 145 roguish: you certainly 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 " monte," or a thick-headed, gouty-footed Ombii, 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 differentiator 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 wiahes thoroughly to enjoy the country about the Colonia has only to secure a letter of introduction for my most bo8|^able and agreeable host, Mr. William White, of Es- tanzmela. 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 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 wiU, 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 fiinny form, re- appearing even in modern maps; nor translate as does the gallant Sir Home Popham, " River Chuelo." Looms ahead a fprest 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 " nip," 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 gnarUngs 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. Digitized by Microsoft® TO THE COLON I A 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 a two-steepled ehurch. Thi? dead flat, a prolongation of the estuary bay is the spot where " Que buenos Ayres s& respiran en esta tierra !" 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, mired 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 oflSce." Such is the Gaucho, who has been hopelessly vulgarized by the last 10—3 Digitized by Microsoft® 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 difficidt 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 origmally 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 "Mdte," 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 "Cda," consult Mr. John Miers, F.R.S., Sec, "On the difierent 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 aU it knows about the river. The new handbook has already been quoted. By far the best account of the small Republic — her sons are Digitized by Microsoft® 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.j* Charlevoix ; Muratori ; Aguirre (1788) ; Lozano ; Guevara ; Helms ;f Azara ; and the Jesuit P. Thomas Faulkner. In the present century are Davie ;% 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) ; WeddeU (1851) ; Mansfield (1852) ; President Sarmiento (1853) j Captain Page ; Arsene IsabeUe j Amedee Jacques; II Demersay (1860-64) ; Hinchclifi'; Hadfield (two publications) j Colonel du Graty (1862) ; Dr. Martin de Moussy ; M. Charles Beck Bernard j^ 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, ft and it will be my care to avoid vain repetitions. * " A Eelation of Mr. E. M.'s Voyage to Buenos Ayres." London : John Darby. MDCCXVI. t "Travels from Buenos Ayres by Potosi to Lima (1789-93)." By Anthony Z. Helms (Mining Engineer). London : Richard Phillips. 1806. J " Letters from Paraguay." By J. Constance Davie, Esq. London : Kobinson. 1805. § "History of the Viceroyalty of Buenos Ayi-es," &o. By Samuel Hull Wilcocke. London : Symonds and Co. 1807. II "Excursions an Eio Salado." Par Amedee Jacques. Paris : Fillet. 1857. ^ " La Elpublique 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. Digitized by Microsoft® 150 TO THE OOLONIA AND BTTENOS 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 soU, 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 105 2-90 2-30 * 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) 4. Clay (plastic dark blue) 5. Tosca (with calcareous nodules) 6. Tellow 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 2030 8. Greensand, shells, and quartz 0'80 9. Calcareous shell stratum 0°45 10. Calcareous argile ........ 2'00 11. /SheUy grit . . . . . ". . . . 025 12. Green clay (sandy) 200 13. J Shelly grit 0-30 14.) White sandy grit 070 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. 5. "Tosca." 6. Fluid sand. 7. Plastic clay. 8. A mixture of several rocks. 9. Bed clay to 180 metres. Digitized by Microsoft® TO THE COLONIA AND BUENOS AIEES. 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 surroxmding 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 River, 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 francs 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. Digitized by Microsoft® LETTEE V. A DAY AT BUENOS AIRES — THE OLD ENGAGEMENT KEPT. Bnenos Aires, Sunday, August 16, 1868. My DEJiR 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 " Canal" 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 Jacari and the Baby, which come, or which come not, as they list. They axe never, as they should be, imder 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 Digitized by Microsoft® A DAT AT BUENOS AIRES. 153 and rheumatic horses sticks and dipsj rises and struggles painfully alongj 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 diSiculties 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 erf 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 " piyMah"), 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," buUt in 1855 for the local Government by the late Mr. Taylor, C.E., is a wretched aflair, 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 Pernando Po or the Puy de D6me, and I have seen a man badly hurt by it, his legs coming from under him as if on ice. Digitized by Microsoft® 154 A DAY AT BTJENOS 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 oflS.cers 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^. Ss., 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 Dobrizhoffer 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 Parand B,iver 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 Digitized by Microsoft® A DAT 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 Buenos 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 will, Augustus-hkcj leave her marble. Evidently, present amelioration is loudly called for> The barques and brigs, brigautines 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 TreeatTeneriffe — 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 bone's sake. The diflSculties 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 bank-s 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 156 A DAY AT BUENOS AIRKS. 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'ceuvre 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 Eiachuelo. At an expense of 787,860Z. — not one- sixth of what is thrown into many European harbours — he would convert the City Bank into an island, thus forming a Digitized by Microsoft® A DAY AT BUENOS AIRES. 157 deep channel and securing anchorage near the shore. He wouldj moreover, trace a suitable land-line by throwing out to double the length of the Moles (880 yards) embankments, "vrith 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 Farand 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 suflBcient. 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 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 stUl appears in Sir Woodbine Parish's 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. WUcocke (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 usefiil 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 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 JuUo, a mixture of Marine Parade and Wapping, badly paved and poorly lighted ; this is the city fronts 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 E,osas 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 C6rdoha, 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 hlocks) ; houses, 13,116; rooms, 64,670; inhabitants, 72,972; annual rental, 1,333,517?. Eesults: each cuadra averages 40 houses, 197 rooms, 222 souls ; the annual rent is 40001. ; it must, however, he observed that in making this calculation houses occupied by their owners, and forming a large proportion of the city, are not included. Digitized by Microsoft® 160 A DAY AT BUENOS AIRES. We enter by the Calle Cangallo, here pronounced Cajje Cangajjo, " oppidum seu pagus de Rio de la Plata " — stiU 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 iU 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. Digitized by Microsoft® A DAT 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 soU, 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 fiU. 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 Digitized byWicrosoft® 163 A DAY AT BUENOS AIRES. practice may lame you for a month (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 hoppiag 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 Digitized by Microsoft® A DAT 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 vehiclesj 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; 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 CaUe 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 methiuks 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— a Digitized by Microsoft® 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 16th* finally announced as President-elect Citizen D. Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, surnamed Cara- pachay (of the Car a tree), from the islands of the Parand,, 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- scrupidous 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 ; I F.u. begins the constitutional period. Digitized by Microsoft® A BAT AT BUENOS AIRES, 165 ^ill 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 23, 1868, nails were planted between the rails to throw oflf 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 occurred. 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. Digitized by Microsoft® 166 A DAY AT BUENOS AIRES. and he and his 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 completelyia 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 modem plans in his possession. He gave me an introductory letter to the oflBcer 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 diflFering 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 artillery 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 Digitized by Microsoft® A DAT AT BUENOS AIRES'. 167 battle of Monte Casieros, and in the same year (1852) be appeared as tbe biograpber of Belgrano. Like Ecbevarria, be is a poet, inspired, as were tbe Magyar Potoefi, tbe Russian Gogol, and tbe Nortb American Cooper, by tbe glory and grandeur of tbe Pampas, the Steppes, tbe Praiiies. 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 tbe billows, whilst grass bowing before the wind is the water, and tbe foam-fiakes are simulated by scatters of blossom. Man feels comparatively helpless in tbe tropical forest and in the sub-tropical valley, on tbe jungly mountain, and on the stony or icy bill. Mounted on bis Pampa horse, however, be 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 bis countenance, conveys the one idea of proud exultation. As a soldier, at tbe bead 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 be reminded me of H.I.M. of the Brazil ; as a bibliophile be astonished me by bis knowledge of books, not only of tbe 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, be received me like an old acquaintance, Digitized by Microsoft® 168 A DAT 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 Plores in attacking the Banda Oriental, the Brazil would have foimd 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. Digitized by Microsoft® A DAY AT BUENOS AIE,ES. 169 thickset, bilioso-nervous, with 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 •' Gaucto ;" the latter, fond of pleasure, play, and women, is by nature an aristocrat whom Pate 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. Digitized by Microsoft® 170 A DAY AT BUENOS AIRES. wines are poor, and the proprietor, coining gold, does not care a fig for public opinion. The Traiter, who in Chile and Peru waits at full gallop, here creeps the snail's 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 simdry 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 Roxalane ; 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 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 Grrisi 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. Digitized by Microsoft® LETTER VI. A GLANCE AT BUENOS AIRES. Buenos Aires, Augnst 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 Pais, 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 rufiBan 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 Caf6 de Paris, at your club, or at your friend's house — and ia this most hospitable of cities you will be asked to dine at some three places every evening. The Universal has the Digitized by Microsoft® A GLANCE 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-class 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 ceijitre 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 174 A GLANCE AT BUENOS AXEES. 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^ finemeut 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- Digitized by Microsoft® A GLANCE AT BUENOS AIRES. 175 ridors paved with white marhle, 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 axe 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 iaterfering 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 puU 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 aU 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 Rivadavia 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 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 lUac/' 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 j 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 ou Digitized by Microsoft® ■ 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, March 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 " 35 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, DubHuj concerning which a malignant wrote, — " 'Tis a polylithic obelisk that monolith should be, A needle insignificant of silly masonry : Tou upclimb its steps with toil, you descend them with a will, With a,facilis 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 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 eathe- dralj 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 effort exhausted the projectors. On the east of the tall pile is a neat palazzo of Falladian 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 Boman. Hence the Reve- rendissimo, an evil shoot from the Old World grafted upon a New 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- Digitized by Microsoft® A GLANCE AT BUENOS AIRES. 179 floor habitations^ contains the office of the Revista Journal, and is not to be removed. The Recoba Nueva, another row of uninteresting alcoves supporting dwelling-houses, 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 j 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 aU. 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 in his briquet, leather-pointed casquette, and dark uniform. Almost incredible in a city otherwise so highly civilized is the im- punity of crime ; you feel as if living in an affreuse tuerie, 12— a Digitized by Microsoft® 180 A GLANCE AT BUENOS AIRES. amidst a community of assassins — ^bandits in the country and murderers in the 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 j&iend'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 j 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, ^ij, of the Arabs), or ride with the wild " Indian" raiders. A permanent gaUows 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 mm for incontinence ; he murdered an English Digitized by Microsoft® A GLANCE AT BUENOS AIRES. 181 family J he had an English envoy horsewhipped in the streets J 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 alsoj 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. B,ivada via- 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. CranweU'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 wonderfiil Digitized by Microsoft® 182 A GLANCE AT BUENOS AIRES. specimen of a British library, and we glance at two huge piles, S. Francisco and Santo Domingo, which look some- what perilous to those passing by. This thoronghfare, 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 riyerine valley of the Riachuelo. I have pleasant reminiscences of Calle Defensa, Esquina Gar ay ; 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 visitor 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. Digitized by Microsoft® 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. Maekern'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 Retiro, 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 184 A GliANCE AT BTJENOS AIRES. the Bethlemite Convent, which after the extinction of its community was turned, in 1827, to some use. Being far too crowded, plans for enlarging it start up in crops, the Protestants would willingly have a " finger in the pie,^' but the Keformed 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 bum 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 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 h 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 veudor of dry goods. It is the venda further north which I have described in the " Highlands of the Brazil." Digitized by Microsoft® 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 j 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 — i " 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 J 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 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 chafiBng 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 yeUow 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 rushing 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 188 A GLANCE AT BUENOS AIRES. attacM shows his inevitable liveliness, or when some model Britisher shuffles ofif 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 aU, 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 weU 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 wiU 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, Digitized by Microsoft® LETTER VII. UP THE URUGUAY RIVER, AND VISIT TO GENERAL URQUIZA. Baenos 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 Paysandii 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 Gania or Scotch mist was down on the world, we boarded, plunging, rolling, and dashing, the Campania Saltena's steamer, Rio Uruguay, 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 Rios 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 off sky- rocketing to prepare for a sail up the Paraguay River. "We steam towards the Outer Roads, and the low stretch Digitized by Microsoft® 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 m 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 ;" 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 Soils. 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, TJ.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 Digitized by Microsoft® VISIT TO GENERAL URQDIZA. 191 handle — ^haa its own history. Here the War of Independence began in 1810^ and the islet was carried from a force of severity Spaniards and three guns 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 Mercurio, 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 Eosas by the French admiral, with the Galilean epigram " Glory to the Conquered." Two other Argentine soldiers, Mayer and ViUanueva, 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 aU means place it in this pocket Botany Bay. Martin Garcia once belonged to Banda Oriental, now she Digitized by Microsoft® 192 UP THE URUGUAY RIVER, AND is attached 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 fiag- staves, 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 B,io 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 tre 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 DevH." My learned friend Dr. J. M. Grutierrez translates Guk line, stripe, or blot; Guai, diminutive of painted, and Chiie, 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 " 1." The Fray, after a long hot youth of very dubious pro- priety, has of late years cut his wise teeth, and is novr greasy and redolent of the rdti, as becomes his cloth. He has taken up " Extractum Carnis," the great invention of the great Digitized by Microsoft® VISIT TO GENERAL UEQUIZA. 193 Professor Baron Justus von Liebig. It is a kind of liquid sirloin, 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 (td libitum. I tried Extractum Carnis, and found it detestable, gluey, empyreumatic, with an inde- scribable unzest like that of over-toasted bread. In large dose* 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, cwm 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 alfalfa, 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 water of the Uru bird— -the Charrua name of an aquatic. Every river, like every 13 Digitized by Microsoft® 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 Paran^, 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, Parani, 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. Parani, three-quarters rain to one-quarter snow, contains dirty dirt, salts washed &om 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 wiU 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 K. G. Society, wiU deal with me as did the rival editors with a certain old friend, Digitized by Microsoft® 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; weTnust 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 grey-dark, we have amongst us some twenty " colts/' 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 Sasques 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 Rios 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— a Digitized by Microsoft® 196 up THE rRUGTJAT RIVER, AND independence, robbery, and murder has somewhat depressed the spirit of the capital. Concepcion del Uruguay has a church 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 inevifSible obelisk, surrounded by stunted " Paradise trees," and furnished with brick wa.lk8, 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*hiere bandboxes, a long stiff 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 H6tel du Commerce, kept by a civil Frenchwoman, who has spent irwenty-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 v'ld, as exclaims the garyon 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 jnight be. Perhaps its very toughness and the meaty flavoti^ Digitized by Microsoft® VISIT TO GENEKAL XJRQUIZA. ' 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 yardj the venerablest patriarch of the goats : that takes long to masticate ; this has the highest hdut go4t. 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 Cajffe?" (Proh pudor !) Sir Trancis Head tells us that Asa'o and Yerba, the most " lasting" of diet, enabled him to ride 110 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. Gibbings bargains down, a carriage to three dollars Bolivian (each 3s. Zd.), 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 j 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 198 rP THE URUGUAY RIVER, AND trout J this 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 ombiis (Ficus ombii) shed their dense cool shade, suggesting from alar English oaks. The sun sucks the earth, but the clear, unght air shows distances well defined as those of Salisbury Downs on a fine October day. The one bad baiiado 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. Pufl&ng up their wings and tail plumes, male ostriches troop leisurely away from uSj 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'' win 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 tlie 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 — ruflBans kept in prime order by throat-cutting. Turkeys and other poultry strut about, the Laird being the only person that Digitized by Microsoft® 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 Proveduria, 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, andy 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 reniarkable 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 throughout 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 200 TIP THE URUGUAY RIVER, AND a treaty opening up the Rio ParanS to all flags — then a great desideratum. General Urquiza is a short, thickset man about sixty, of hUious-nervous complexion, rather dark, with light broTcn and very vivacious eyes, a closely fitting mouth, and broad strong jaws and chin. He wears his whisker h, I'Anglaise, which is in fact the Portuguese, Spanish, and old French sfyle 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 vnth 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 vrith 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-sufiicient 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. Digitized by Microsoft® VISIT TO GENEKAL URQTJIZA, 201 salt meat, hair and hides, raise this to 225,000Z., 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 Entre 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 ofi'ensive 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 Ee (1820-33, * The motto of General Bosas was — " Murien los selvajes Unitarios." That of General Urquiza— " Defendemos la ley Federal jurada, Son traidores los que la combaten." Digitized by Microsoft® 202 UP THE URUGUAY RIVER, AND poisoned), Ibarra of Santiago (1822-43), Quiroga of La Eioja (1825-37, assassinated), and Eosas of Buenos Aires (1830-53, banished)? I remembered with some amuse- ment the comparison of the tenacious, energetic, impetuous, unscrupulous Basque with the stiff, cold, ungenial, and Tiighljr 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 era Ute-a-tite 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 Corrientesj which he looked upon as a portion of his Digitized by Microsoft® 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 Tupya 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 Rio 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 34,000 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 204 rP 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 world ; 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, stiU 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 &om 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. Gibbinga 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 Itjilian. 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 (Signor Paolo) Cataldi is everything between a poet, writing Digitized by Microsoft® VISIT TO GENERAL URQUIZA. 305 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. Armed 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 battae, 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 wiU 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- Digitized by Microsoft® 206 TJP THE URCGUAT RIVEE. ' barbarians of the land will make it a Fandemonimu broken loose^ and lay low all the labonrs of peace with fire and steel. It must, however, be remembered that the same horrors were expected to accompany the expulsion of Dic- tator Bosas, 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 !" And now till the next — as they say here. Digitized by Microsoft® LETTER VIII. TTP THE URUGUAY RIVER — THE SIEGE OF PATSANDU, SALTO, CONCORDIA, URUGUATANA. 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 208 UP THE URUGUAY EIVEE. 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 j 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 * Paysandu is in S. lat. 32° 19' 3", and long. W. (G.) 58° 1' 16". The difference of London time is S"" 52°' 15.3" ; and the variation made by Mr. Alec. Mackinnon is 11° east. The Egido, or municipal lands, to be laid out in garden lots and ohacras 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 Rios 80. Digitized by Microsoft® TTP THE URUGUAY RiVEK. 209 " Itii (Frank) wllo was hanged." I will also remark that in the Guarani tongue " pai" also means to hang. Having landed at the unfinished pier of wood and masonry-j whose poor funds were diverted to other purposes by D. Leandro Gomez, we proceeded to the normal adjunct, a big custom-housCj in which our luggage was perfunctorily examined. Near the water the tenements are huts and boxes of brickj 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 Rios, 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 H6tel de France (M. Bertrande) full, and luckily for me an old acquaintance, Mr. Good, chief manager of the Maud Eank, 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 310 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 $25,000i 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 '' Oriental" 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 Rios. 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 Digitized by Microsoft® UP THE URUGUAY RIVER. 211 only four 8-pounderSj and a few discharges brought it about the gunners' ears. The other posts were mere street bar- ricadesj 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 fagade 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. Pructuoso Rivera, 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-rafif 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 Paysandii, when.it was last 14— a Digitized by Microsoft® 212 UP THE URUGUAY RIVEK. 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 oflf 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 artillery could change position about the ridge-crest. The Brazilian General, Menna Barreto, occupied the southern fiank 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 saladero buUt 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 Paysandii 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 Paysandii till the last, and daily to expect reinforcements. The notorious D. Juan Sda, an old lieutenant of Urquiza, and popularly known as " Lanza Seca,-"^ was directed to march with 3500 men upon the beleaguered town. After crossing thff Digitized by Microsoft® UP THE URUGUAY RIVER. 213 Rio Negro he contented himself with observing the out- posts of Colonel Caraballoj and he retired whenever General Floras went out to meet him. D. Leandro Gomezj nothing daunted, threw up battery and barricadCj 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 1900 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 Paysandii fell at 7 a.m. on Jan. 2, 1865. Lieut.-Colonel Thompson asserts (Chap. II.) that the Brazilians treaoheroasly 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 Gomez's murder upon the Brazilian oflBcers ; 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 214 UP THE URUGUAY BIVER. enemies, and was still retained by his captors; at the 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 Commandante Braga also cried out, " E yo con mi jente." They were placed for an hour or so in a ground- floor room of No. 55, Calle Orientales, at whose corner is the Maud. Bank, not, as is generally supposed, in the blue shattered house ppposite 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 " Caudillo" 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. Digitized by Microsoft® UP THE URUGUAY BlVER. 215 Hardly had Paysandii 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 " pronunciamentos" 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 Mau^ 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 Paysandii. 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 Mau£ Bank, I am indebted for much information and for sundry photographs of Paysandii. 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 mc 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 216 UP THE URUGUAY RIVEK. to find that here and elsewhere the blood is allowed to waste. Passed through a sieve, dried in vacuum pans, powdered and bottled, 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 Paysandii, 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 "doldrums.'*^ 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.j 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 brdle 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 Digitized by Microsoft® UP THli 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, Eio de Janeiro, in Bahia 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 ia 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 iilmic acid, require previous correction. The readiest way is to sow a few crops of maize and to burn down the stubbles, spreading the ashea 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 wiU 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, Digitized by Microsoft® 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 picturesque. After passing a neat, clean Swiss colony which shows signs of roads, we find on the left bank those sandstone bluffs that have made travellers compare Father Uruguay with Father Rhine. 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 Paysandu. 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 Saltenos appear more busy in temporal than in spiritual matters. The Hotel de la Concordia, kept by one Diogo Zavala ; an upper square ; a Maud'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 D. Ricardo Williams is the ruler. Salto was blockaded by the Brazilian Commodore, Joa- Digitized by Microsoft® UP THE URUGUAY RIVER. 219 quim Jose Pinto, with four gunboats, 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 Mores, 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 Urquiza, and doubtless by his order arbi- trarily made the doUar worth eight instead of ten rials. 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 Saltena — 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. Digitized by Microsoft® 2:20 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 tattle, 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 Rio de Sa5 Francisco. Amongst them are perfect petrifactions of tree trunk, bark, and heart, wood silicified Digitized by Microsoft® rP THE URUGUAY RIVER. 2:21 by infiltration : similarly petrified cowhoms are said to be found on the upper Parand. 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 vaUey, 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 Garua, 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 nowhere 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 222 UP THE URUGUAY RIVEB. Allies, and in due time, at 4 p.m. on September 18, the Paraguayan garrison, numbering witbout tbe sick 5103 oflBcers and men, or a total of 6000, surrendered to His Imperial Majesty of tbe Brazil, wbo 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 h, feu, 5000 stand of arms, 231,000 cartridges, and an altar with its furniture. Thus in defeat and disgrace ended tbe corps of the Uruguay, and the first phase of the Paraguayan campaign, the aggressive. Adieu. Digitized by Microsoft® LETTEE IX. UP THE PARANi RIVEjB TO ttOZARIO. 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. Arturo de Marcoartiij 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 mystudies of Paraguay. We also carried D. Segundo Flores, 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- Digitized by Microsoft® 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 oflFsets 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 Paran^ de las Palmas at Villa Constitucion. A smaller division still is bounded by the Parand Guazu and the Paran£ 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 Paran£. 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 ParanS 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 Digitized by Microsoft® UP THE PARANA RIVER TO ROZARIO. 225 few yards you strike this Lujan — a stream rising indepen deutly of, but falling into, the Parand.* Here we are * Itinerary by South American Pilot (Part I., taken from Captain Mouchez) : — Miles. Buenos Aires to Boca del Guazu 52 S. Pedro (First Delta) 150 S.Nicolas 185 Rozario 218 Parani (Guazii to Parana, 256, Sullivan) . 310 La Paz 392 Goya 517 Bella Vista . . . _ . . . .566 Corrientes (Guazii to Oorrientes, 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 Waierwitch, 1860 :— Statate miles. Buenos Aires to M. Garcia 45 the Guazu 24 S. Pedro 88 S. Nicholas 40 Obligado 10 Rozario . ... . . .54 San Lorenzo ....... 14^ Mouth of the Carcarana .... 22 Diamante 67 Parand 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 Guazu ..... S. Piedro Obligado S.Nicholas 40 Las Piedras 11 Rozario ....... 40 S. Lorenzo 23 Diamante (Second Delta) . . . .70 Parana 4i6 Miles, 45 14 103 11 403 15 Digitized by Microsoft® 226 UP THE PARANA EIVER 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— T-a more material matter — is still a moot point between the National and Provincial Governments. I 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 aU 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 Parand, 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, Paran^ 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.EduardoCosta. Higher up . is Z^rate, a mead fringed with the salix, and a half-finished dwarf pier for landing a few passengers, the Digitized by Microsoft® UP THE PARANA RIVER TO ROZARIO. 227 houses being concealed behind the water-slope. After this point conies S. PedrOj where the Paran^ de las Palmas anastomoses with the Parana Guazii. The Yi wiU run up this " Guazii/' 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 Umit 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 (between 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. Thi^ vast estuary is supposed to have been an inland sea with rbfcky 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— a Digitized by Microsoft® 228 JTP THE PARANA RIVER TO ROZARIO. and were consolidated by the torrential lowland and sea- board rains. Lest dust be considered an inadequate cause, lie 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 Paran^-Guazii. 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 Banda Oriental or eastern shore, along which we coasted when ascending the Uruguay river. These " lomas" 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 Parani ; but we do not relish entering them at night. Digitized by Microsoft® UP THE PARANA RIVER TO ROZARIO. 329 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 oflF the Boca del Guazu 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 Parand. Still flooded at high tides, it is a riverine Archipelago, formed by Arroyos and Arroyitos, Riachos and Canadas 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 tail 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 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 (SaUx Humboldtiana). Their exposed roots caused the South American Pilot (i. 5, 180) to discover " impenetrable mangroves" in the delta of the Faran^ ; 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 wiU 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 durazno 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, ^ith 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 Digitized by Microsoft® BP THE PARANA RIVER TO ROZARIO. 231 far inland shoWj 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 "tiger" 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 FlechiUa 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 dificrent 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 232 XJP THE PARANi KIVEK TO BOZARIO. and extends deep into the Pampas^ always following^ I believe, the watercourses ; and we shall find it high up on the Parand and the Paraguay. The channel winds wonderfiilly, 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 Aiv^zr, 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 "bob" 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 j the Paloma torcaza (properly torquaz or torquated) is large as a blue rock, and the torcassita equals the ringdove. There are swallows, red orioles (sangre de boi) ; " Calandrias" or singing thrushes, the Sabids of the Brazil ; black thrushes ; pajaritos de las animas, and two red-crested " Cardinals," Digitized by Microsoft® tJP THE PARANA RIVER TO ROZARIO. 233 large and small. Amongst the hawks appears the "Carancha," the Brazilian " Caracara/' an ignoble biit 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 refriesh 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 1580 D. Juan de Garay, the founder or restorer of Buenos Aires, divided amongst his followers, after killing the Chief Tabob^, 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 234 UP THE PARANA BIVEK 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 Trehonart 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 sufi'ered 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. AH 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 indifiierent, 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. Digitized by Microsoft® 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 he 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 kiUs 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 Paran£ 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 tant6t. Digitized by Microsoft® My dear Z- LETTER X. ACTUALITIES OF ROZABIO (SANTA tE). August 19, 1868. The Spaniard writes Rozario and pronounces Rosario ; the Portuguese writes Bosario 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 Pampasian formation. The outline viewed in perspec- tive is diversified by headlands and double distances, escarp- ments and underclifis, 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 ovii 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 2000 ; in 1855 it had 6000 j 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- Digitized by Microsoft® ACTUALITIES 01' ROZARIO (SANTA fi). 237 vinces of the interior. It is also connected 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 C6rdoba — 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 Rozario 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 foUowiag pro- ject :— "Art. 1. 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 natiqnal 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 biU was passed on September 18, 1868, by a majority of one — 30 to l9. 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 wUl doubtless stave off the measure during his term of office — six years. After that time Rozario will have the best of chances. Meanvfhile, the value of land has at least trebled, and the Central .\rgentine Railway will presently make it independent of its big neighbour. Digitized by Microsoft® 238 ACTUALITIES OP 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 Rozario 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 Regent 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 Hke 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- Digitized by Microsoft® ACTUALITIES OF ROZARIO (SANTA F^). 239 destal is indigo blue, the cornice is dirty gamboge yellow, 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 us 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 240 ACTUALITIES OF ROZARIO (sANTA F^). 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 Digitized by Microsoft® ACTUALITIES OF KOZARIO (SANTA F^). 241 Tarious 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 tiU 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 aU 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 flourish 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 jiist received a part of Hamburgh's 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 Federalista is politically aflSliated to the Nacion Argentina of Buenos Aires in oppo- sition to President Sarmiento, the Editor, Sor EmiHo 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 243 ACTUALITIES OP BOZARIO (SANTA FE). talk, victorious polemique, and a few apocryphal conversions. Finally, there is a truly civilized Preqo Corrienie 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 oflF at the place where presently wUl be the new H6tel 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 wiU 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 caU them " Re- medios" because they cure the rheumatics by sleeping Digitized by Microsoft® ACTUALITIES OF EOZARIO (SANTA ti). 243 upon the affected 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 calzoneillos, 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 thdrough-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 puir 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 Chdteau des Fleurs, It is the familiar Devil's Acre, cut up into long stra,ight walks and dwarf flower-beds, fronted by seats and tables under dark arbours and treUised vines. We graced the opening night, Saturday, November 28, and paid at the door $1 Bolivian (3s. 2d. — iid.) 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 Bigolboche (poor girl !) to abundant applause, " mas arriba" being the only objection where the foot was not raised sufBciently 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—3 Digitized by Microsoft® 244 ACTUALITIES OP ROZARIO (SANTA F^). An unhappy tenor, beginning to mangle his song without ruth or stint, was literally cheered off 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 abtmdance 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 suffering 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 fdture 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 Digitized by Microsoft® ACTUALITIES OF ROZAEIO (SANTA F!^). 245 even more divided than in 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 compUcations in the most limited of circles, especially when farther 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 Eozario 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. Prom 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 246 ACTUALITIES OF ROZARIO (sANTA F^): 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 offensive, 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 B.ailway incivility was Mr. Woods, Chief Uesident 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 " Gares" 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 cutting-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 Digitized by Microsoft® ACTUALITIES OP ROZARIO (SANTA V'^). 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 " Parani and Cordoba R. R.," a paper read at the meeting of the R. Geog. Society, Jan. 33, 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,O00Z., 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 248 ACTUALITIES OF ROZARIO (SANTA t£). ten mileSj and send out emigrants t^Iio must 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 coidd 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 difficulties, however, have, I am in- formed, been satisfactorily arranged. We wUl now return to the Yi. A " tormenta'' or dust- storm threatens, and we must hurry on board whilst we may. Adieu. Digitized by Microsoft® LETTEE XI. FROM ROZARIO TO CORRIENTES. August 20, 1868. My dear Z , " 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 Rios Grande and. Paranahyba, 1000 of the upper stream to its junction with the Paraguay, and 540 before it becomes the Rio de la Plata. We crossed in Minas Geraes, you may remember, its upper waters, known as the Rio das Mortes Pequeno. The stream between the mouth and the Misiones district is calculated to flow at 3f 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 difference 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° Pahr.) it will begin to flood. The stream is high and steady from January Digitized by Microsoft® 250 FROM ROZARIO TO CORRIENTES. to June (the minimum of temperature being in June and July 30° to 56° Fahr.) ; during this semestre the Parang first drains the torrential rains of the Brazilian highlands, discharged through the great affluents, and next the Paraguay is fed by the Xarayea 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 affected the war operations of the Allies. Modem travellers know little of the upper bed of the Paran^ : 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 awfiil cataract, but really a succession of rapids some twelve leagues long. Adieu to Rozario of the Rats : 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 Pemambuco, has gradually changed to a steady Pampero, and sends flying up under a press of canvas the inob of palhabotes and goletas (schooners) which are often delayed grumbling for weeks. Here square-rigged craft are the fashion — the wind regular as a tradej blowing up or down stream, and mostly up, as the palms bending to the north prove. However good for navigation, a strong south-wester about Rozario makes the Parand very dangerous. The gale Digitized by Microsoft® FROM ROZARIO TO CORRIENTES. 251 meeting at an angle the swift, deep current raises an angry sea ; at night 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 fagade 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 with admitting women, and other irregularities. It caused, in combination with the Odium Theologictim, 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, Coloner Patricio Rodriguez, and Lieut. -Colonel Nelson — what a name for such a miseria ! — occupied the town, and Digitized by Microsoft® 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 Huxtado : 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 Parand. 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 proflle 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. Digitized by Microsoft® FROM ROZARIO TO CORRIBNTES. 253 The cliff section is lined with long horizontal bands of stra- tified mud, 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. deltoi'dia, 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 hoats and rafts.. On the Entre Riano side a tall and Digitized by Microsoft® 254 FROM ROZARIO TO CORRIENTES. regular cliflF of reddish clay shows three distinct distances of parallel bluflf 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 Payagud 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, £rom afar rjsemble coflee. 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 Parand province, where artificial Digitized by Microsoft® FROM ROZARIO TO C0RRIENTB8. 255 salt licks must be made, and where the uiacaponized 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. We passed Parand 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-fossUized 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" — Wholes which supply white nodular calcaire. Prom these shells the Para- guayans extracted the '^nacar" or mother-of-pearl with which 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 fuH of old local knowledge. Carts and carriages com- Digitized by Microsoft® 256 JPBOM ROZAEIO TO COBRIENTES. tnunicate with the town^ which is a good league inland^ and about 300 feet higher than the river. From above and below the Bajada we see its church, San Miguel, domi- neering the rabble of low buildings. For eight years Paran^ 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 and 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 faU of the Parand, flows either to the east or the west, now becoming an influent, then an affluent. West of the SaladiUo stream runs the Salado, representing the Red River of the Mississippi valley j it separates the province of Santa Fe from El Gran Chaco or Chaco Gualamba — a wild Guarani word, from which we axe sup- posed to guess the aspect of the place. The name of this " hell of Spaniards and Paradise and Elysium of savages" is translated ijflocj 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 F^ 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 lowlands. An abundance of old Spanish and Jesuitic litera- ture describes this unoccupied paradise, which is still as it was. Digitized by Microsoft® FKOM ROZABIO TO CORBIENTBS. 257 a rqjicheria of wild "Indians." Colonel Arenales, afterwards to be alluded tOj wrote a dull, but circumstantial book about it in 1833. Part of tbe 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 atd fairer. It is spoken of as an Eden flowing with milk and wild honey, where people fatten upon game and popped corla, 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 offices 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 ohacra 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 258 PEOM ROZARIO TO CORRIENTES. tbe intrusive President of Santa Fe. The next place of importance was La Paz, distant 270 miles from Corrientes. It is a hamlet prettily situated upon a promontory forming placid bays in places almost land-locked from the riverj ■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 Cutidj the white horse — cutid 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 agricolo- 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 Digitized by Microsoft® FROM ROZARIO TO CORRIENTES. 259 bank — a sign that the stream swings towards it : Captain Alvim observed the same opposite Humait^, and probably there are local differences of action. Mr. Crawford, our engineer, believes that the stream encroaches eastward, thrown 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 earth's revolution. M. Elisee Reclus opines that the Parang, 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 Bio 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 Constiiucion, 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 ^a^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 tp fight at all ?" Better 17—3 Digitized oy Microsoft® 260 FROM ROZARIO TO CORRIENTES. was candle-moulding in New York, and then poetical justice would not have been done upon him in the shape of a dra- matic biography by M. 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, draining, they say, the Yberd Lake, joins the Espi- nilla or Guayquiraro, the " home of the fat boy," which separates the Entre Eios province from its northern neigh-t hour 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 housps 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. We 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 tail, 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 vrith Mr. Mansfield " Goyaz," a province of the Brazil. Dating from 1820, it is one of the most thriving places in the upper Parana, and Digitized by Microsoft® FROM ROZARIO TO CORRIENTES. 261 the Correntinos look upon it as a small Buenos Aires. I afterwards visited the PuertOj on a sandy spit, close north to the Arroyo de Goya. Here are the large white capitania and flagstaflfj and six or seven brick houses; the rest are sheds, including a large graseria (where fat is boiled down), and a kind of chMet, 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" girls, 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 300 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 j the Paraguayan officer Digitized by Microsoft® 262 FROM ROZABIO TO COB.RIENTBS. repeatedly declaring a veUeite for shooting Mm^ as he was evidently a malignant and an ill-wisher to the holy cause of MarshalrPresident 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 wUl 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- wooded gap or dwarf glen cuts the barranca, and up it winds a green path. Evidently the guns should here have been placed d, 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. ThjB 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. Digitized by Microsoft® FROM ROZARIO TO CORRIENTES.- 263 The Amazonas received forty-one cannon balls, the Ivatry twenty-twOj 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 Bai'ranca 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 Bmguez ; 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 mUes from Corrientes, the Digitized by Microsoft® 264 PROM KOZARIO TO CORRIENTES. capital. At this place General RobleSj 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 Pucii, 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 Riachuelo, 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 Parand, 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 Parand, 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 Lagrana, is backed Digitized by Microsoft® FROM ROZARIO TO CORRIENTES. 265 by fine trees and broken by bays and projections. North of the " Streamlet," where the quinta of Santiago Derqui fronts the Rincon de Santa Catalina, rises a tall ruddy barranca, striped and patched with yellow and bistre- coloured 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 Aragvay (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 Ygurd (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 Digitized by Microsoft® 266 FROM ROZARIO TO CORRIENTES. six " chatas," or " chalanas," barges or flat-bottomed boats, which the Paraguayans used throughout 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 11), 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 Digitized by Microsoft® FROM ROZARIO TO CORRIENTES. 267 the Paraguayans. The Jequitinhonha, with two 68-poriiiders and a Whitworth, 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 manoeuvre 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 Pirabeb^ being obliged by the injuries they had received to escape and take refage under the guns of Humaita. They must inevitably have been captured had they been pursued by Vice- Admiral Barrosb ; 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 usualj 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 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 oflfensive 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 Parang to retreat from want of food, instead of communicating with the corps d'arm^e 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 Rio 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 Digitized by Microsoft® FROM ROZARIO TO CORRIENTES. 369 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 Tile 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. Digitized by Microsoft® My deae Z- LETTER XII. A WEEK AT COKRIENTES. 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 Parand, 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 20,000 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 aU; 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 passengei's' luggage opened, and to grin at the overcharges of the ras- Digitized by Microsoft® 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 — c.^.,'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 stiflF viscid 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 j a long Digitized by Microsoft® 272 A WEEK AT GORRIENTES. box, unplastered as the streets are unpaved, parapetted and embrasured at the top. The best are mostly supplied ■with a tile cornice breaking the stuccoed " dickeys/' and with fa9ades rising high and proud towards the firmament. They affect 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 aVe 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 j 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 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 j indeed, apparently not fastened at all. The outskirts shqw mere " ramadas," sheds and flying roofs, tenanted mostly during the daytime by big mastifi's, savage as the dogs of Petropolis. We find in the choking monte 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, vrhich 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 274 A WEEK AT CORRIENTES, 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 rulej and, since the Brazilians and their gold have left, " liquidacion '^ (selling off) is by no means rare. The only posters axe 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 Fernambuco, and physically a thorough-bred Scandinavian, he is a furious and ferocious " Brazileiro.^' He is ready to quarrel about the obsolete Abrantes-Cbristie 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 versd — 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-Ei^lish 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 c'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 Digitized by Microsoft® 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 Bioja 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 fiesh, which here means beef, is sold—" Car- neiro no es came," 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 oflB.cer- 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 full mouths and the Digitized SyWcrdsoft® 276 A WEEK AT CORRIENTES. heavy chins reveal the savage type. Amongst them hob- bled an old " Mines " negro, probably of Moslem origin, carrying a grimy little San Balthazar in plaster. Each she- devotee took the doU, 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- mans, 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 wiU be shut to insure sobriety, and four or five hundred of them will be marched off to put down the "rebelde i malvado Cdceres" (the rebel and villain Cdceres) " 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 Sefior 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 crusading against Rosas, 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 C^ceres, also made a name when retiring from the invader ; his literary attainments rival those of his accomplice j 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 Digitized by Microsoft® A WEEK AT COKRIENTES. 277 men who did not know how to read." What, however, can be expected here when in Spain, the mother country, out of 15,673,000, some 13,000,000 are unalphabetic ? 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 chirip^- kilts, their short, stiffly- starched calzonzillos of white or scarlet stuff — ^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 jJaddled 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 repairs the damages Digitized by Microsoft® 278 A WEEK AT COBRIENTES. of time. The wavy hair argues that some of them are mixed breeds ; they wear rugs and blankets, earrings and necklaces of beads j 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 barn ; 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 : tljis structure, not of " Moorish build," is provided vidth 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^est is an old Jesuit convent, now the Casas de Gobiemo, 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- Digitized by Microsoft® A WEEK AT CORRIENTES. 279 trate or Lord Mayor), the Judges, civil, criminal, and com- mercial J together with the Bank and the Custom-house. We have not yet " done '' the churches, vchich 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 complaia 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 stiU 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 fla^ and there is a sacristy but no transept. The earlier shell, some twenty feet high, is evidently old j 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 280 A WEEK AT CORRIENTES. invested by low tenements. Here huge-wheeled cartsj 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 scaffold, it would readily fall but for the strength of the bricks, which are set with linie 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 ; aU, 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 gramiUa 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 Emiblem 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 Califomian steam- bath sunk in the ground ; there is a quaint monument with its iron . railing mighty like a bottomless camp bedstead,,. Digitized by Microsoft® A WEEK AT CORRIENTES. . 381 and upon another a neat woman mourns in Italian marble. Three squares to the south lies the Alameda^ sometimes used as a race-course, but being a sheet of water ankle-deep ia rainy weather, it is not a favourite promenade. Here is a built-up obelisk, the effect of El Pueblo Correntino's piety in 1828. The base shows a cross surrounded by flames, with the date April 3, 1588 j on one side is inscribed " Dextera Domini facit virtutem " (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 Gobemador, " 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 Guaycuriis; 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 j this the Indians, believing it to be a charm, carried away and tried in vain to bum. They then attacked the stockad^ 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 j and if this cannot convince you, nothing will. Digitized by Microsoft® 282 A WEEK AT CORRIENTES, Beyond the Alameda is the Brazilian military hospital of San Francisco, which caused so much excitement throughout the empire when the evil-miuded report was spread that the Correntinos were plotting to bum 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 aflfair was duly punished. The climate of Corrientes is subject to brutal variations of temperature. Sometimes for days together the ndercury 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- pas. Much less chucha. Some write the word chu-chu, and translate it " cold-heat," i.e., ague and fever. Digitized by Microsoft® 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 ■^gyptj 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 r6tis, legumes, and desserts. After breakfast we say, Flanons ! On Sundays there is the sortie de I'Eglise, 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 284 A WEEK AT CORRIENTES. of civilization compared with Corrientes." The poorer classes affect 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 dravra-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 ErazU. 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 Panamd to Buenos Aires, — I have noticed it when writing about the Brazil. " Concupinage," as the Teuton calls it, is the rule j and the piscoeiro or cicisbeo is an institution when wanted. Most men prefer the " china " girl, who is easily witched by Tig, 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 secundd " 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- Digitized by Microsoft® A WEEK AT CORRIENTES. 285 diaticos," -with gun on shoulder 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 f 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 Foz 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 286 A WEEK AT C0RRIENTE8. 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. * CrudoB 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 Vid^o. The old feud between pa.storal province and city is well nigh extinct. President Sarmiento has well de. scribed it in his " Civilization and Barbarism," and hajs illustrated it by an admirable sketch of the "gaucho malo," General D. Juan Facundo Quiroga. Digitized by Microsoft® 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. Carmen and D. Pepa, friends of Peterkin. 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 chaflF us, teach us Guarani as spoken in Corrientes, laugh at our errors, and hand us cigars, which they roll up 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 j 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, Digitized by Microsoft® 288 A WEEK AT CORKIENTES. at whose door loll men in fancy uniforms, and the Gefe Politico is, 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 easUy 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 Eestauracion ; 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 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 aggression " was of the fiercest. War 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 Robles 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 were 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 difiBculty; 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 Afikirs, was sent by Marshal-President Lopez to govern Corrientes with the assistance of a triumvirate. That oflScer'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 landsturm ; and 19 Digitized by Microsoft® 290 A WEEK AT COERrENTES. on the 3rd April tlie Brazilian squadron^ nnder the C!oni- 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 C^ceres, 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 25th May, 1865, took place the "Battle of Cor- rientes," under cover of the Brazilian artillery, which fired at friend as well as foe. General Pannero 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 ofience the Paraguayan Colonel Martinez was subsequently shot at Paso la Patria. Paunero occupied the Plaza 25 de Ma,io, 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 \" cried a disabled man, cutting at those who would save him. I was shown a boy ten years Digitized by Microsoft® 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 aqtiori, which is about one mile beyond the town. Under the old bridge the Para- guayan dead were buried j 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 boin^ bax and with oranges planted in straight lines. The soft green turf is bright with flowering plants, which seem to • prefer the tent-ruts; arid this season — early September's the collector's opportunity. Our walk is limited to the Brazilian Marine 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 inaterial 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 carrigd 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. Digitized oy Microsoft® LETTEE XIII. FROM CORRIENTES TO HTJMAITi.. Humaita, August 22, 1868. My dear Z , We now enter upon the proper scenes of tte 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 stiflf-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 Hore^; — do not forget the Don, and if you want anything say Senor 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- n,ess 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. Digitized by Microsoft® raOM CORRIENTES TO HtJMATTi.. 293 or the excluded will take offence and sulk like small boys. Pleasantly enough passes the se'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'cmvres, 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 ridiculoiisly dear ; for instance, $8 (32«.) 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 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 hy 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 b.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 soirie 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 Digitized by Microsoft® rROM CORRIENTES TO HUMAITi:. 295 feet and ankles, and thus only the roaring, liawling 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 enter 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 leagups from the Arinos of the Amazonian valley, and the source may be reached without passing through the wild and plundering Guarani tribes. It floods properly in March to June, when 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 sufiers. As a rule, the discharge of the upper bed is clear and that of the lower is miiddy. At the junction, ships prefer to fill with the Parand, 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 efiect 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 Humaiti; whereas the round trip from Buenos Aires to Digitized by Microsoft® 296 PBOM CORRIENTES TO HUMAITA. Asuncion and back has lately been done in ten days. I had once formed the project of riding from Sao Patdo to Cuyabi, 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 vid Candelaria and Itapua, at the south- eastern angle of the Lower Parang, some 250 miles above the confluence, and within a few marches of the Brazilian frontier. From this point the invader could easily have made ViUa Bica, 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 vid Encarnacion, " the war must have been ended.'' On the other hand, I heard, a very different 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 ; 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 Humait^ and other works were thrown up, would have beeu 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. Digitized by Microsoft® PROM COBRIENTES TO HUMAITi. 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 cliffs, 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. Juau, 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 298 FROM CORRIBNTES TO HUMAITi. Eio de la Plata ; this, however, claimed the 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, diflfers 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 sluggishly 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." — Guidehook. Digitized by Microsoft® FfiOM 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 lattd 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 Parand 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 Itapirii." It was attacked on April 10, 1866, by the Paraguayans under Lieut .-Colonel, afterwards General, Diaz, a noted lance, who was at last kUled 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 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 motinting 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 Paran£ narrows to \\ 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, hmlt 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 ranches, 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 fraoa;" and similarly Cun- hapir&, a shan-van-vogh, or " weak old woman." Lt.-Col. Thompson says " Itapiru : it4, stone ; pirii, dry ; dry stone." According to that officer the rock is volcauio. Digitized by Microsoft® FROM CORRIENTES TO HUMAITJt. 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 operaitions for two years. The landing was eflfected on the 16th of April (1866), by Generals Osorio and Mores. 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 Itapini 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 riverj 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 303 TROM COKRIENTES 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 Farand and the Farand, Mi (the northern channel) meet the Paraguay. Froperly 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 joyfiil 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 We run rapidly past ground whose every mile cost a month of fighting. To our right is the Laguna Firis, 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 "tie-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 Tuyn, pronounced Tuju, is found in Tijuca, or Tyjuca, near Rio de Janeiro, and is usually translated " dry mud." Digitized by Microsoft® PROM COURIENTES TO HUMAITA. 303 tree denotes the spot where the Brazilian batteries stood. This site, the first solid ground seen after the Conflnencej 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-Cor^ 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 Curuzii — 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 Portena, 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 3nd Corps d'Armee, built his star-shaped redoubt. Here, again, the fighting was fierce. The allied fleet bega;n September 1, 1866, to bombard Curuzij, the southern- most outwork proper of Humaita. The defenders replied with spirit. The ironclad Rio de Janeiro was blown up by Digitized by Microsoft® 304 FEOM COBRIBNTES TO HUMAITl; a torpedo, and lost her captain and crew. The Ivahy 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 fouj 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 Humaitd. 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 HumaitS., and on September 8 they began to dig the trench, which was about two thousand Digitized by Microsoft® 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 an interview with the Allied Generals. The Commander-in- Chief, President Mitre, fell into the trap — not so General Polidoro, the Brazilian, who had succeeded General Osoriq. 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- Cork " 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 night, 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 ftirther operations during the ten months between September 23, 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 — Curuzu, Curupaity, Humaita, and Angostura — which did. the Para- Digitized by Microsoft® 306 PROM CORBIENTES TO HUMAITi. guayans good service. Prom Cueva to Asuncion, from 1805 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 cliff, 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 offering no facility for scaling. It was generally bounded north and south by carrisal and impassable jungle; The open-gorged batteries extended aU along the bank so as to sweep the stream up and down ■ they often affected 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. Digitized by Microsoft® PROM CORRIENTES TO HUMAITi. 307 " I want," said Napoleon, " men behind walls, but soldiers in the 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 en 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. Digitized i^OwcAsoft® 308 PROM COKRIENTES 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. Gaily i Obes, said to be of Para- guayan descent, began life as an auctioneer. He fought in the Moutevidean 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 Comandante 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 Humaitd. In my next you will hear about the " Sebastopol of the South." Adieu. Digitized by Microsoft® 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. Off 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. * Hama (with the aspirated h), black ; in the Tupi dialect una, e.ff. Kio Una (Blackwater Eiver) ; and ita, a stone. Lt.Col. Thompson gives " Hu (nasal), black ; ma, now ; ita, stone. The stone is now black." Digitized by Microsoft® 310 TO HUMAITi. curious to sayj 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 mangrullo, 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 mangrullo 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 mangrullo — like the andruraara, or elevated four-poster, sometimes horizontal at other times sloping, as in Unya- muezi — was also iised to sleep above the mean level of Digitized by Microsoft® 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 militaire, 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 oEBcer 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 Barroso 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 Payaguls, 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 3] 2 TO HUMAITi. 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 house, could carry 200 tons. An expedition of about 1200 men, armed with swords and hand-grenades, was told oflp 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 unperceived. 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 voUeys 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." Digitized by Microsoft® 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 Humaitd. 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 Humait^/' some 1500 metres long, with a stream 200 metres broad j the current is 2*8 and in places 3 knots an hour, difficult 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 j 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. Digitized by Microsoft® LETTER XV. HTJMAITA,. Hamait&, August^*, 1868. My dear Z , After a stare of blank amazement^ my first question was — where is Humaita ? Where are the " regular polygons of the Humaita citadel 1" "Where is " the great stronghold which was looked upon as the key- stone of Paraguay J" 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 Humaiti 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 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 confased 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. Humaitd, 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 1853-53. 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 barbette, covered with straw shed, which can be removed at a moment's notice ; Digitized by Microsoft® 316 humaitA. tlien 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 10-inch mortar, the other an 8-inch iron gun.* It was a hard scramble up the stiflf 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 coalsheds 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 S-inch gun and the English 68-pounder are the same, but the former weighs 66 cwt., the latter 95. Digitized by Microsoft® 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 h, 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) J 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 scaflFolding, 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 fapade, 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 318 HUMAlTi. of brick, with 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 oflB.cers 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, tUe, 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- Digitized by Microsoft® 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 Defose 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 Ume). 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 feu, and directed by the Commandante Hermosa. The three next are the Octava or Madame Lynch, with three guns era barbette; the Pesada, five guns, and the Itapini, seven guns — all partly revetted with brick. Being the western- most and the least exposed to fire they have suflPered but little. Lastly, at the Punta 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 »imply because defended by impenetrable bush. The guns Digitized by Microsoft® 320 humaitA. stand in pairs, with a Paiol or magazine to every two, arid 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, caponni^res 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 j 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 Digitized by Microsoft® auMAiTA. 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 33 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 gun&arenow 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 822 humaitA. camp life, chaffed me bitterly about this " cbef 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 Macdcos, as they called their Imperial Allies. Again and again they boasted the prowess of their own party, stating how 500 of them had defended Paysandu 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 baUs, hand-grenades, which were found useful in the triumphant Abyssinian campaign, and the Hall's 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 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, B,io 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 Golborne'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. Digitized' cyMilirosoft® 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 he 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 ofBcers, 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 EUes!" but with the Zagharit of Egypt and the Kil of Persia, a kind of trille here directly derived from theEed 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 eflBcient arnj ; 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, Digitized by Microsoft® humaitA. 825 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, yellow-haired German, the Italian Cozinhero, and the Frenchman, who under arms always afiects 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 chiripd, 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 officers, 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 826 HUMAITA:. army uniform, -wliicli would be neat and handsome as that worn by the cavalry of the defiinct 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 hugp heaps of household " loot." Being badly paid, and often not paid at all, ihe 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 Mores 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 fiirther reduced by some authorities to forty to fifty, of whom most are officers under a certain General D. 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 Digitized by Microsoft® humaitA. 327 " second fiddle." Hence the war is nowhere popular on the Plata, and troubles may be expected to accompany its termiaation. During my first visit to Humaitd, 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 Humaitd ? Then, a rivederd ! Digitized by Microsoft® LETTEE XVI. A VISIT TO THE GRAN CHACO. Hnmaita, 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 remarkahle 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-caUed British " detenus." Interested motives had spread evil report against Marshal-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 Digitized by Microsoft® A VISIT TO THE GRAN CHACO. 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 Linnet, 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 Doterel, 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 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 'wa.j, 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 Republic'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. Digitized by Microsoft® A VISIT TO THE GRAN CHACO. 331 November 18, 1868, with fifteen of the so-caUed 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 complainiag 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 j 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- Digitized by Microsoft® 332 A VISIT TO THE GRAN CHACO. ceive his letters from Europe; they were detained in thtf 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 gimpowder, 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 frictioual aflfairs ; 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 sufiering material damage, the gauntlet of the Humaiti and Timbo guns, and anchored ofi" Tayi up stream. Thus the chain proved useless. The narrow spit of ground which the Gran Chaco here Digitized by Microsoft® 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 Humaitd, 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 i Alagoas, 1 *a 60 »» Barroso, 7 >t 149 JS (now 36 to 39) Bahia, 2 „ 147 » Rio Grande, j» 60 ,, Herval, 2 „ 134 w Para, „ 60 »J Lima Barros, 4 3t 171 31 Piauhy, it 60 it Colombo, 8 „ 132 » Ceara, >f 60 »» Marize Barro 3,2 )l 124 H Sta. Catherina »-L JJ 60 9* Cabral, 8 11 130 Gunboats (11) :— Belmonte, 8 )3 129 39 Onze de Janho,2 it 83 it Paranahyba, 8 „ 141. 33 Lindoya, 1 i» 22 tt Maracana, 8 tt 89 33 E. Martins, 6 )J 108 «l Mearim, 8 » 187 ,) Greenhalgh 2 it 100 t> Mage, 8 » 140 JJ Bomb-ketches (2 :— - Itajahy, 6 3) 79 ,j Pedro Affijnso, 3 „ 43 at Beberibe, 8 ), 164 JJ P. de Coimbra ,3 JJ 52 it Iguatemy, 5 J> 120 Corvette,Bahiana,22 j> 166 J» Araguary, 8 ,» 82 JJ Schooner, Iguassii Ivahy, 6 » 101 'J (carries th« ^ Ypiranga, 8 ts . 79 JJ Commodore), 4 JJ 37 tt Steamers (7): — Brig, Peperi-assii ,1 „ 33 It Taquary, 2 It 96 JJ — Chuy, 2 JJ 73 JJ Total, 186 »uns 3719 men. Tramandahy, 2 ), 44 JJ Digitized by Microsoft® 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 Humaitd 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 imder- take upon his own responsibility such a movement as the evacuation of Timbo. Timb6, 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 off. Few cartridges and shells were lying about ; in fact, the leisurely evacuation was a perfect contrast to that of Humaitd. 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 used 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 (jmlex penetrans), the bicho Digitized by Microsoft® TIMBO ESTABELECIMENTO NOVO. 847 do pe of the Brazil, the nigua or chigua (" a meat-hag ") of the Spanish Antilles, and the jigger of the West Indies, here called pique or chique. The pes1> 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 eyehall 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 — " Republioo del Paraguay- Veneer o ruorir." 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 channel," which bounds the Humaitd bank immediately to the north. Up this stream the Brazilians had sent their light craft to cut off the Paraguayan garrison from the capital. Qn 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(apolygonum),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 Digitized by Microsoft® 348 TIMb6 ^ESTABELECIMENTO NOVO, raa past Humaitd, 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 Taeuari 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 even more broken than those of Timb6. 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 uatare 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 {Pato Silbador or Anas Penelope) and its congeners, now emigrating southwards. Blue-rocks clove the air high Digitized by Microsoft® GENERAL ARGOLO. 349 overhead, and the parroquets whirled past us with loud screams and 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 approaches, 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 jacands or lily-trotters {parras), of brilliant plume. Carrion birds abounded, with fish-hawks, and other accipitres; car^caras, the forefathers of the Guaycuni tribe; and the common Bra- zilian urubu, or turkey-buzzard — I heard of the celebrated urubu-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 Ught 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 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 drawliiig 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 Humaitd, the youngster asked who was the commanding of&cer, 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 1 Digitized by Microsoft® LETTEB XVm. RIDE ROUND THE HUMAITA " QUADRILATERAL." Hnmaita, August 27, 1868. My dear Z , Wishing to see the contour of Humaitaj we applied to General Gelly i Obes, who most courteously lent us his own chargersj and sent with us one of his oflScers j 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 H6tel Franpais, 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 BrazU 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 ruflBans 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 how." Digitized by Microsoft® 352 THE HUMAITl " QUADRILATERAli. Some of this class made fortunes like the more prudent kind of " Californian wido.w." 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 southrcast 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 ^et 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 windj 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 8J, 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-Jined mushroom, which the people term " toad's meat." In places were dwarf Digitized by Microsoft® THE htjmaitA "quadrilateral." 353 poolsj whicli the clayey ground; long retains j 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 Whitworth^a "anti-war 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 CrioUo, rifled for 150-pounders, and sent thousands of the shot back to whence 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 anos 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 Digitized W Microsoft® 354 THE humaitA "quadrilateral. make their cause, despite the want of gros bataillons, please the gods. But Fate was resolyed not to couutenance 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 mUes 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 Humaitd. Further north there is a stUl 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 Humaitk 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- Digitized by Microsoft® thehumaitA "quadrilateral." 355 guayana at once returned to their guns, ■wMch 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 ofiF a French and English admiral with a squadron of five ships ; and when a second attack was made by a com- mander of a difierent 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 taU, swept by the flanking fire of artillery, and defended in front by a high counterscarp. There is nothing of the kind Digitized ^%mmSkoft® 356 THE humaitA "quadrilateral.' here. The guns are wretched 32-pouiider8, and «ach 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 carts, horses, and camp followers, all moving up to Humait^^ 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 banados, 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 Pucii, alias Brites, from a hacienda or estate that once was here. Max- Digitized by Microsoft® THE HUMAITA " QUADRILATEKAL." 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 beUaco, 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, an,d 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 " esporou" 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 withia 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 Pucu. Here, in the clear night air, we eiijoyed a glorious view of Digitized by Microsoft® 358 THE HUMAITA "quadrilateral. a country whicli had been fought over for two years ; and the first glance proved that the Quadrilateral was a long oval whose conjugate extended from Humait^ north to the south-western point of the Upper Estero bellaco, whilst its transverse section ran from Paso Espimllo 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 figufes of the broken oval, supplied to me by Lt.-Col. Chodasiewicz : — Eastern Line. Distance, Lengtli of advanced Trenches. Espla- nades. Maga- rines. 1. FasoBenitez toF.SBpinillo 2. To the Angulo redoubt, third line S. To Sauce (south-west end uf third line) .... 4. Sauce towards Carupaity . Western Line. 1. Line along Lagonas Chichi, Lopez, &c 2. Line facing Curuzu . . , 3. Curupaity River-front . . Second Line. 1. From F. Espinillo to La- guna Chichi 2. Base of so-called Quadri- lateral 6 kilom. 475 metres 2 „ 417 „ 6 „ 427 „ 2 „ 614 „ 4 „ 460 „ 1 „ 929 „ 1 „ 988 „ 6 „ 376 „ 2 „ 485 „ 8 m. 895 4 „ 955 2 „ 883 2 „ 168 1 ,,'240 91 71 111 38 42 52+14 28 126 3 48 32 63 + 64 32 28 36+6 27 23 Totals . . . 35 kilom. 116 metres 20 m. 901 676 310 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. Digitized by Microsoft® THE humaitA " qtjadrilateeal." 859 as Pasos Benitez, Yasi (of the moon), Tanimbii (of ashes), and Espinillo, so called from a thorny tree. At this latter place the second line sets oflF to the west with southing, along a loma fronted with marshes, which communicate with the Laguna Chichi. The third or outermost line runs south by Paso Mora to the Angulo Redan j 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 a,nd 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 Pucu, 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 Pucii, 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- * Cu^ is translated " fue" or " ha sido," " was'' or " has been." It enters into several bastard names of places, as Campamento-cue. Digitized by Microsoft® 360 THE humaitA "quadrilateral. ment, and another 10,000 would have issued from Curuzu and attacked Curupaity along the line of river-hank which was previously to he mined. This could have prevented the disaster of Septemher 32, 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 cavalry posted at Paso Pucii, 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 point 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 banados which communicate with the northern Bellaco. The works were composed of two bastions enfiiche 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 Digitized by Microsoft® THE HUMAITA "QUADRILATERAL/' 361 troopers hutted under hides. A profusion of raw meat was hung up to dry, and the place was not without cana. 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 Itapirii. Northwards is the bmiquet 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 Pucu, the Long Eord. 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 oflPered 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 363 THE humaitA "quadrilateral." attempted to cross. Our guide pointed out the place where the brave Colonel Charloni^ commanding the Italian Legion, after receiving a musket-baU 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 Humaitfi so quickly. There was nothing for them now, how- ever, but to foUow 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. Digitized by Microsoft® LETTEE XIX. FROM humaitA to guardia tacuAba. Guardia Tacuara, August 29, 1868, My deae 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 j 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 Humaitd 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 364 FROM humaitA to guardia tacuAra. filled, the parapet was levelled, the abatis was pulled up, and the garrison was being shipped ofi". After Timbu the 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 Bignoniaciae, 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 Humaitd 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 Rio 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 mangruUo on a bald point of land ; its few wattle and dab tents and hovels, 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 aflfair repeated that of Humaiti ; 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 Digitized by Microsoft® FROM humaitA to guardia tacuAra. 36 d entrance to the lagoon which forms a short cut to El Pilar. This feature is the " furado," the " parand-mirim/' and the " ypoeira " of Brazilian rivers. In Lieutenant Day's chart it is laid down as the Rio and Guardia of Monte RicOj an error for La Monterita — the Little monte. At 13-40 p.m. we sighted that classical and important influent the Kio Bermejo (Red River), alias Rio Grande. Here, in 1528, " El buen Gahoto " 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 Payagufis, who had entered into the dominions of Huana Ccapac : 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 Parand are clear, sweet, and wholesome. But Dobrizhofifer declares that the Bermejo is especially sallibrious in cases of vesical disease j and aU 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 1 856 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 360 FROM humaitA 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 water becomes limpid as that 6i 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- hofiFer'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 Parand, and Corrientes, in 1847 j 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 Neembucii, which formerly was tout bonnement Neembucii. The latter word, also written Nembucii, 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 Parand river, the surface of 7 to 8 Paraguayan leagues,* forming the Guazucua Department, is said to be all mud and water. The distance from Humaitd is computed at fifteen miles along the land road, and seven leagues by the river. Between El Pilar and the Estancia de Yacar^, where the Brazilian headquarters now are, is a seven- league march. * The Paraguayan league reckons 5000, and the Correntine 6000 varas : both, however, are estimated, not measured. Digitized by Microsoft® FROM humaitA to guardia taouAra. 367 During the days of Dr. Francia, El Pilar, I hare told jou, 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 Homos. 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 certaia that the Basque and Italian sutlers and camp-followers were the vilest of the vOe, 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 368 FROM HDMAITl TO GCABDIA TACTJARA. 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 Tacudra — " the bamboo,^' which Lieutenant Day corrupts to " Tacuava.^' The port did not look so busy as fliat of Humait^, 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 Cuxupaity, 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 Digitized by Microsoft® FROM HUMAITi. TO GUARDIA TACUARA. 369 commissariat hulks awaited the bread and meat boats from Humaita. We lost no time in visiting the transport which bore the flag of the late Vice-Admiral Jose Joaquim Ignacio. 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 Dundon|tld's (as well 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- lessly, my dear Admiral I" 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 Wasp had received orders to remove from Asuncion the American Charge d' Affaires. Her comma,nder, however, was not per- Digitized by mcrosoft® 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 ; eScctively 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 offered 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 Tacudra, 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 perfoftnance of his duty. This ofience, of course, rankled deep. Moreover, he steamed slowly up stream, anchoring (August 29) off the Tebicuary Digitized by Microsoft® FROM humaitA to guardia tactjAra. 371 River, where hostilities were actually going on, with the ohject, said the Brazilians, of impeding their progress. After his return to Monte Video, Lieutenant-Commandelr 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 VUleta 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 recursos — 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 Humaitd. has left their squadron 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 from 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 theiF distant thunder — return before dark, dine, and sleep in all possible coziness. This is comfort, Mais ce n'est pas la guerre ! Farewell. Digitized gjl^^icflpsoft® LETTEE XX. TO THE BRAZILIAN FRONT. Guardia Tacuira, August 31, 1869. My dear Z , I visited the front sundry times, and thus 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 Ribera, or left bank, perpendicular above and sloping beloWj 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 gU3,rd-house, the orange clumps, and the mangruUo, 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 Dobrizhofi'er, and the modern Echiguano and Lecheguana. The thatch is made of the flat stalks of the Sape cane ("a. 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 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 j 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- mariUo, Ghucho, 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 81. 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. Digitized by Microsoft® 374 TO THE BRAZILIAN FRONT. road enters the bushj it is already trodden into dust and mire, 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 (perfiimed mimosas), hear- ing purse-nets that swung in the fresh breath of morning, and hung with fluflfy 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 ciimahuba, as it appears upon the Rio de Sao Francisco ; but the trunk was prickly only in the upper part, denoting a diflFerence 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 caraguatd bromelia ap- peared to be the most general. The birds were the animi (coprophagus), 'partridges ;" a large woodpecker, parroquets, and vultures soaring in search of carrion. Three snakes lay dead upon the path, and many snaUshells 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 Humait^ and this place. Here, as in the Brazil, the railway must take the place of the common highway. Further on, the road Digitized by Microsoft® TO THE BRAZILIAN FRONT. 375 became worse ; deep banados had to be passed on ox-skulls, billets of wood, and bundles of pressed hay. Of these bridges each provedor made his OAvn, 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, goadiug 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 were the negroes, "a black infernal train : The genuine offspring 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,) 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. Digitized by Microsoft® 876 TO THE BRAZILIAN FKONT. Beyond the Yacare extends east and west along the southern bank of the Tebicuary, a loQg and swelling line of lomaj broken and fronted by banados. Upon the crest of the land-wave stood the headquarters, and below it the tents of the body-guard. This was a mixed corps of Brazilians and foreigners, commanded by a Prussian oflB.cerj 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. It 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 Paranhos, and the other containing a few private lines from certaiu 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 Pel'el," which we drank, h 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- Digitized by Microsoft® TO THE BRAZILIAN FRONT. 377 tachio, 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 j 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 Qaxias 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." Digitized by Microsoft® 378 TO THE BRAZILIAN FRONT. His friends, however, reply that if slow lie is sure ; and that he has never failed in the long run to succeed. Again, he is charged with great arrogance, and with heing 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 appears 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 generis, an affair of earthworks, a succession of sieges, and not " des sieges a I'eau 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 Digitized by Microsoft® TO THE BRAZILIAN FRONT. 379 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 Eio de Janeiro and Sta. Catherina. M. Duchesne de Bellecoxirt 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 stufi'. 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 Eraile, the priest, is the captain of the gun, and the woman is the gunner. The mythical Amazons were the first cavalry. Digitized by Microsoft® 380 TO THE BRAZILIAN FRONT. Amongst the Arabs of Chivalry, the Hddiyah, a young girl of good family and chosen for courage, rode her dromedary in the front of war, " stigmatizing the cowards and making hraver the brave." Indeed, the Virgo beUatrix 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 roU-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-homb." 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 Santiagenas, in 1818, stripped themselves voluntarily of all their plate as an ofiering 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 Digitized by Microsoft® TO THE BRAZILIAN FRONT. 881 quasi-military dress. But the aiming and fighting of 4000 " Amazons " ended there. I should have been strongly tempted by the remembrance of " our mothers/' the Ama- zons of Dahomej 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 t^te 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 Humaitd,, established his headquarters in March, 1868. The Brazilians succeeded (August 28) with a total loss 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 dios 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 Brazilian engineers. When, Digitized by Microsoft® 382 TO THE BRAZILIAN FRONT. in May 1853, a certain Prince Gortschakoflf, leading a mighty host across the Pruth, occupied Wallachia, and awoke Europe by the roar of the cannon at Oltenitza, he thought fit, being a Pole, to quit the Russian 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 Acayuas^,." Nothing saved him in that sauve qui petit 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 300Z. — 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 Digitized by Microsoft® TO THE BRAZILIAN FRONT. 383 Reis (say lOOOZ.), 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 + 130 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 -H 915 boat + 13-77 ballast -h 39-47 netting, and -1-22-0 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 mangruUo — a Cossack revival, proposed to him by the Polish engineer. Digitized by Microsoft® 384 TO THE BRAZILIAN FRONT. I took the opportunity of calling upon Brigadier-General the Barao do Triumpho. A son of Bio 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 revancJie, I saw General Osorio, commanding the third corps d'armie, 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 Digitized by Microsoft® TO THE BEAZTLIAN FRONT. 385 is compelled to be driven about— no small mortification. After seeing so much of half-civilian officers, it was a plea- sure to hear his soldierly greeting, " Entre, caballero \" 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 youngj 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 General's 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 corps 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 tiU 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 Valentina.. After December 11, 1868, he was compelled, by exfoliation of the palate bone, to revisit his native, province. He re- Digitized by Microsoft® 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 Humaitd. The Carbineers had mostly the Spencer rifle, and had learned to use it tolerably well. 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. Digitized by Microsoft® TO THE BRAZILIAN FRONT. 387 The Brazilian infantry — as has 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 coeur,'' 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 upon. 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 wounded in a late action and left in the Humaitd hospital. Digitized b^hwykoft® '388 TO THE BRAZILIAN FEONT. 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 easUy have enlisted experienced oflScers 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, I 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 offence 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. T have instructed you upon the matter of Brazilian rations. The men are alao 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 Digitized by Microsoft® TO THE RRAZILIAN FRONT. 389 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 eveiywhere 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- partigao Fiscal (Treasury) and the Caisse MiHtaire. The first arrangements were concluded with Messrs. Cabal (of Santa Fe) and Benitez, who gave general satisfaction. In those days, however, pasto or fodder was little required. About three years ago they were succeeded by Messrs. Lezica andLanuz, 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 SI, 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." Digitized by Microsoft® »■ 890 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. Martell's 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 bolas 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 2ith, some 7C00 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. C^ceres and ex- Governor Lopez (another Lopez) were marching upon Corrientes; the women of Entre Rios 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. Digitized by Microsoft® LETTER XXI. TO THE TEBICUARY RIVER. OflFthe Tebiouaiy Eiver, September 3, 1868. Mr DEAR Z- -, On September Ist, at 2 p.m.j the Brazilian squadron moved up to the mouth of the Tebicuaryj 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-cane grass, which much resembles the uba (a saccharum) 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 " yac^re" — ^in the Digitized by Microsoft® 392 TO THE TEBICUA.RY RIVER. Tupi " jacare" — ^is said to be largest and fiercest about the Laguna 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 oflF 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 Brazil as capivdrha or capib£ra, 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. Digitized by Microsoft® TO THE TEBICUART EIVER. 393 " Capinchos/' we axe 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 200 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- nations," 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 ?" 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 glp- Digitized by Microsoft® 394 TO THE TEBICUARY RIVER. 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 effect upon those living in their recesses. The moun- tain is nearer and dearer to man than the plain. He 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, aud 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 cua9U pifa (Cervus rufus) and the cua9ubira, or cabra de los bosques, is generally found in the woods. Mborevi (the tapir) la grande Mte, the largest of South American ruminants, has been killed out ; and guard, or Aguara, the Digitized by Microsoft® TO THE TEBICUARY RIVER. 895 wild dog, fancifully described by the ancients as half wolf, half beaf, is no longer common. Ounces (jaguars) are numerous as in the sporting grounds of the Brazil : they live in the islands, and dine upon the capinchos. 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 resideuce 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. Eichard Hughes, of Paysandu. 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 micurfe : 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 tatii) peludo (Euphractus) and mulita, various species of armadillos, abound; some are eaten, the others are rejected as menschen-fresser. We heard in the woods the unmistakeable 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-tail," prevented our getting within shot. The other two common simiadae are the red-furred bujus, the bugios of Digitized by Microsoft® 396 TO THE TBBICXJARY BIVER. 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 nandu 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, cryptums, 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 $3.50 (ten shillings), and sheep $4t 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 Digitized by Microsoft® TO THE TEBICUABY RIVEE. 397 black wings. 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 382) 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 coerulescens.) 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 j 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 anum, 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 398 TO THE TEBICTJART 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 morma90 or stifling calm was very pleasant, and we sincerely wished for a heavier sky than the thin windsbaume or cirrus which the Brazilians call algodSo 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 &; 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 off 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 Tebiquarij 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, cud 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 baptSme 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 Rica, not from the Digitized by Microsoft® TO THE TEBICUART RIVER. 399 Yerbales or mate fields of the Misiones. As in sundry of the neo-Latin languages the 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 Ypod, 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 diflSiculty. Our home papers boldly asserted that " the Tebicuary is navigable for many mUes 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 aflSuent 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 Tebicuaiy 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 400 TO THE TEBICtJART RIVER. from the south-west. Facing the Tehicuary, 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 sti-eam 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. Kemnants 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. Digitized by Microsoft® TO THE TEBICUARY RIVEA. 401 built for six guns, Tte 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 artist's 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 Yilla 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 three 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 line?. Mr. Gould was again expected in the Parang, and the cabin of the Linnet covli Digitized by Microsoft® 403 TO THE TEBICTJARY RIVER. hardly accommodate two guests; I was also unwilling to tax any further Lieutenant-Commander Bushe's 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 oflScer 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 pursued 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 ofiF 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 On the evening of September 3 I bade a regretful farer Digitized by Microsoft® TO THE TEBICTJART RIVER. 403 well to my kind-hearted hosts, and transferred myself very unwillingly on board the Clyde steamerj Vale of Doon, Captain Smith. Early on the next morning we 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, with 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 tite 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 mangruUo. I chanced upon an animated scene: it will ever be remembered by me with pleasure. At the " port " flve iron- clads were ferrying across the troops, who were that day to be followed by their Commander-in-Chief. On the left bank Digitized OfmcriSkoft® 404 TO THE TEBICUABT RIVER. of the Tebicuary stood outposts and videtteSj 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- head, bayonet and sabre, and the young day smiled upon the pomp and circumstance of war. Superior officers, 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 falling 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 Boon 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^ w^|h^eiT||et towards the enemy, TO THE TEBICUARY ElVER. 405 and each bearing pinned to his breast a paper inscribed — " Asi perecen los traidores ! " — " Thus perish the traitors." Amongst them was a fine, 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 return to this subject in the next letter, meanwhile ■r— Adieu ! Digitized by Microsoft® LETTEE XXII. RETUEN 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 fataferent. A single day sufl&ced 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 6^. 16s. 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 YL 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. ***** You might have been spared this letter had Lieutenant- Digitized by Microsoft® RETURN TO BUENOS AIRES. 40t Colonel Thompson (Chap. XXV.) been explicit upon the subject of the alleged confederacy and atrocities. But that oflScer 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 23, 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 Affairs, 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 i 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 40i8 RETURN TO BUENOS AIRES. returned to Humait&, 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 firm 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 j to mass-going and hard drinking. When I 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, I 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 Republic. 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,W^^e/ll"^C?f°Sft as mediator between RETURN TO BUENOS AIRES. 409 the combatants, and he passed three days in the Allied camp. The 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 was 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 inoment 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 j " 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. Digitized by Microsoft® 410 RETURN TO BUENOS AIRES. On August 31, 1868, Mr.Washbum received his passports, and early in the next month the U.S. steamer Wasp, Lieut.- Commander Kirkland, 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. Wash- 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 effect of my receiving orders to fire at her as she went down, had he received it before that togjjigj^g.;;^ Microsoft® BETDBN 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 ofScial 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. Digitized by Microsoft® 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. Digitized by Microsoft® LETTEE XXIII. TRIP TO ASUNCION, THECIUDAD. April 10, 1869. My deae Z , On SeptemlDer 4, 1868, I left, you may rememberj 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 Palmas 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 gueriUa — 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 414 TRIP TO ASUNCION. about quaint Cdrdoba, 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 Iguacio Rickard, E..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 vid Magellan, whose glaciers and contrasts of scenery, " Where Chili bluffs 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- Digitized by Microsoft® 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-raflf, 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 j they stunned us during dinner, and they had the impudence to dun us for dinning us. As the rain often confined us to the cabin we sufiered immoderately. Eunning 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 1868-6D " 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 vid Monte Video. In old days Buenos Aires was full of tales about " tigers " and other ravenous beasts being landed by Digitized by Microsoft® 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 oflFCorrientes 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 Humaitd. 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 Digitized by Microsoft® TEIP TO ASUNCION. 417 of ttin-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, tail mangui-hibiscTis, ciscropia or candelabrum-tree, and convolvulus, here white, there pink. " Such towns are these \" 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 Eozario, 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 orer the country ; and in striking contrast rose the Marshal-President's telegraph posts of weU-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- 37 Digitized by Microsoft® 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 caranday palm,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 ItauguS,, which meet the Cordillera of Itaipacua ; the peak of Mbatovi ; the range of Santo Tomas, containing a cave inhabited by that Apostle j the Cerro Porteno, near Para- guari, where Belgrano was defeated ; the cones of Acai, near Villa Rica ; 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 Digitized by Microsoft® TRIP TO ASUNCION. 419 ground, golden and ruddy ; yellow with grass below, and, higher, dark with monte and capoqira, 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, won, and gained nothing by their splendid, sterile victory. The affair 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 peut were cut down or bayonetted. The arch- enemy never expected to escape : he had placed his family imder 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 bailt at It4 Yvati (the high storey), about four miles from the river, and two in rear of the Pikysiry trenches. Digitized by Microsoft® 20 TRIP TO ASUNCION. aggage and female slaves, his priyate carriage, and even Ls clothes and papers.. Dr. Stewart and others had snr- jndered to the eneray, hut Marshal-President Lopez dashed irough the scattered Brazilian forces and rode off accom- anied, some say by twenty, others hy ninety men, to erro Leon, his hill stronghold. The Brazilian General J. M. Menna Barreto had, hefore le action, volunteered to capture the arch-enemy. During lat day there were some 5000 Brazilian cavalry in the eld, and hardly one-half of them had drawn a sabre. Yet larshal Caxias refused to detach a troop in pursuit. His iends excuse him by saying that he had been forty-eight ours on horseback ; that his forces had been demoralized y the frightful fighting, and so forth. Similarly, when he jturned on sick certificate to Rio de Janeiro, they declared lat he was on the point of death when he was seen by the ublic riding a spirited horse about Tijuca and Andarahy. At mgth the Generalissimo detached Lieut.-Colonel Cunha ad the 54th Volunteers^infantry to catch a man on orseback ! This battalion marched as far as Potrero Mar- lore, where a Mrge family of half-naked Paraguayans ssured them that about two hours before Marshal-President iopez had mounted a fresh horse. Having failed to throw alt on the fugitive, the pursuers sensibly returned to camp, lomment upon such a proceeding as this is useless. Lny service in the world would have called upon Marshal laxias to justify hiniself before a court-martial, and a strict ervice like the French or the Austrian would probably have ondemned him to be shot. In the Brazil, he was created Duke — ^the only Duke — on March 23, 1869, and he was slieved from the command-in-chief on the following 22nd of ipril. A little gap in the eastern bank shows the mouth of the uruby rivulet — Surubi-hy, the stream of the Surubi fish. Digitized by Microsoft® TRIP TO ASUNCION. 421 There was fierce fighting at this spot; and on September 23, an ambuscade of Paraguayans 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 mangrullo 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 Chaeo side appeared low and wet, and a ruined Rancho 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. Digitized by Microsoft® 422 TRIP TO ASUNCION. Again a gap in the eastern bank shows the mouth of the Arroyo, or Estero Pikysyry.* It drains the northern Laguna Ypod (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 stream 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, P^'ltyciry, and so forth. Lt.-Col. Thompson translates it " Shrimp-stream," from piky, a shi-imp j and syry, a stream. May it not l>e the " water of the Pequi shrub ?" I have alluded to tliis tree iu "The Highlands of the Brazil." Digitized by Microsoft® 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 fifteeipL, 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 oh guard. This ship was a great contrast to the Henry H. Davison, 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 Itapiru and Humaita. We were shown to the eastward the hill scattered with rude quintas, where the late Barao do, Digitized by Microsoft® 424 TRIP TO ASUNCION. Triumpho (General Andrade e Neves), leading 3500 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 piequets 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 Falmas. 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 Digitized by Microsoft® TRIP TO ASUNCION. 425 " handsome 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 Yilleta, 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 effected. North of La "Villeta is the wooded line of the " Abay," wrongly written Ivahy stream. The word means " Indian water*' (Abd-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 officers, 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 off 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 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 Paraguayj 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 was 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 Eio 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. Digitized by Microsoft® TRIP TO ASUNCION. 427 broken by orange groves and coquito palms in small clearings, clothes the ground, and the section of the tree- clad cliff 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'amnee; the first being kept in reserve, and the third, under General Osorio, having been detached to the left in order to outfiatik 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 freshly whitewashed barn with a roof .of blackened tiles, and a huge flagstaff. Here the Brazilians skilfuUy effected Digitized by Microsoft® 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, veith 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 tyrant," 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" (mm 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 £nemy 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 31 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 farther to the rear. On December 25 Marshal President Lopez lost his cavalry, and found himself reduced to 1000 Digitized by Microsoft® TRIP TO ASUNCION. 429 men, 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 vid 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 J in fact, the pilots differed about the position of its debouchure; and in maps we may notice the same dissi- dence, some placing its influence 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 aU 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 430 TRIP TO ASTJNCION. large quilombo, or maroon settlement^ where Brazilians and Argentines^ Orientals and Paraguayan fugitiyes, 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. Digitized by Microsoft® LETTEE 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 noissed 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 Humaiti. 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-guu battery, which lies below a palm-tasselled hill, and sepscrated by a neat glacis from the tall, red sand' Digitized by Microsoft® 432 ASUNCION, stone cliflF, which, scarped in case of attack, commands the river. The old hrick 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 caseraated 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 Humaitd 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 fapade 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. Digitized by Microsoft® EX-CAPITAL OF PABAGUAY. 433 such as a Liberty cap on a pole, supported by Religion and Patriotism. Also a pair of heraldic lions j the lion of Paraguayj be it observed, is a jaguar, not a Britisher, nor, as M. Demersay says, a leopard. It is, in fact, the leon de Iber4, a beast almost as harmless as an " Essex lion.'' StUl, the Argentine National Hymn refers to it in the line — " Y a BUS 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 oflSce, 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 434 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 oflF 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 Fran9ais," " 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 35° 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 wiU 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 Digitized by Microsoft® EX-CAPITAL 0¥ PARAGUAY. 435 fine brick, cased at the corners with the red porphyritie 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 suflPered to pass Humaitd, 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 stiperintendent 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 Commissariatj a large rambling barn of brick and tile. It fronts the cpmercio, 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 oflFal, these pest-houses are fit to lodge Digitized byKlicrosoft® 436 ASUNCION, only the flies bred by the horses aad 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 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 are divided by hands 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 sec 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 Borromseus Digitized by Microsoft® 438 ASUNCION, divided his temple into male and female. At other 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 comer, as if I, forsooth, had been the ofiender. 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 buU-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 ^how 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 Digitized by Microsoft® EX-CAPITAL OF PAKAGUAY. 439 Venice. In the second story heavy pilasters, forming ten arches, make a deep verandah, equally efl&cacious 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 Cahildo, and facing west, is the terrible " Palace " of Dr. Francia. It was originally a retreat for Jesuits' lay brethren, and after theu* 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 piUafs, circidar in the fagade 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 Praetorians. Formerly it was backed hy the public gaol, of which we read horrid descriptions j and all the harracks had State prisons, "grillos," oubliettes, and underground " puisards." Facing the " Palace," on the opposite side of the square, is the new cathedral. It was huilt 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 fa5ade, 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 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 Senora, 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 biiilding is the old theatre j 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 Digitized by Microsoft® EX-CAPITAL OF PARAGUAY. 441 to be built upon the model of " La Scala/' and fitted for 1000 spectators. Its flanks are oae 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 offices, and there are quaint turrets at each of the corners. It is somewhat in the reduced Tuileries style, now aflected by New London between Westminster and Hyde Park Square. The zinc roofs of the "gare^' and towers have been stripped off 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. Digitized by Microsoft® 442 ASUNCION, Lopez, in which 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 comer 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 " Calle 25 de De- cembre," is the unfinished chapel of S. Francisco. The brick dome, of scantiest diameter, still bristles with its chetif scafiTolding 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 fStes it was always well filled. The newspaper literature, however, was confined to the Semanario, or weekly organ of the Government ; and to the Correo de Vitramar. The library contained a few volumes of sUly stories, and Colonel du Graty's " Paraguay j" 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 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 allowied 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 " shroflfed" 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 difierent 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 CaUe 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 30,000 ; 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 444 ASUNCION. Conveniences are nowliere; the streets are ■wretched ; drainage has not been dreamed of j 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 ranches, 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 afiair 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 expected, 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 ! Digitized by Microsoft® My dear Z- LETTER XXV. AT AND ABOUT ASUNCION. Asuncion, April 13, 1869. 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 hadly 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 Inhatima (at Rio de Janeiro, March 8,1869), had been re- emplaced by Admiral Elisiario, one of the best oflScers 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-injuredDecoud family; Colonel Iturbunl, who long commanded the Paraguan Legion in the Allied Digitized by Microsoft® 446 AT AND ABOUT ASUNCION. Army; Senor Egisquiza, who was believed to be a " Lopizta/' and D. Carlos Saguier, an Argentine merchant, son of a French settler, and born in the little Republic. The latter's brother was the D. AdoKo 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 £uenos Aires. The Portuguese Consul had been shot, they say, by " Supreme " order. M. Cochelet, Consul de France,* had been succeeded by M. CuverviUe, 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 stoiy, 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 chanoelier, aniversaUy reported to have been tor- tured and shot, was removed from Asuncion by the French gunboat. Digitized by Microsoft® AT AND ABOUT ASUNCION. 447 Buenos Aires. The Brazilian party thereupon declared that he was in durance ; but Paraguay was not likely, under thd circumstanceSj so gratuitously to offend her power- M 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 ofiBcer's first mission : he had not, however, been supplied with a list of all the British employes, and at the moment of his receptidn 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 j 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. Digitized by Microsoft® 448 AT AND ABOUT ASUNCION. The Allies knew notliing about the plans or position of Marshal-President Lopez. He might have been at his pro- visional capital Pirebebui, 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 Ascurra, further to the north-east. All these are places on the CuchUla or ridge communicating with the main range, 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 Morgenstem, 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 Humaitd. 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-youand-eat-you order. He had re- peatedly volunteered to set out with a few troopers under pledge to capture and to caponize the arch-enemy. All, Digitized by Microsoft® AT AND ABOUT ASUNCION. 449 bowever, 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 was 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 from 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 " H6tel 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 450 AT AND ABOUT ASUNCION. that the invaders, who professedly declared -vrar 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 Ypod, and by Caapucii, till they reached the apex of the triangle, ltd, which lies in the rear of Angostura. But such combined movements are hazardous, even when at- tempted by the best troops. Digitized by Microsoft® 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 practicej and in one month was able to clear 6001. 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 herte, when we landed, the raw, uncomfort- able south wind, which prevails iii 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, diiinp and stifling, as that of Fanam^, 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 tetnpests 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 Liberdad 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 qtiinta or finca, and some half a dozen estancias, large Digitized ;§^t7ra%soft® 452 AT AND ABOUT ASUNCION. cattle farms. No straiiger, 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 iiorth 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 oflScers, 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, ,41001. 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 61. per fardo of 20 arrohas (each 25 lbs.). Washing, per shirt, ;3«. Riding horse, per trip, 21. 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.). sMeat averages 6d. per lb. when at the cheapest. .Bread is 1 piastre Digitized by Microsoft® AT AND ABOUT ASUNCION. 453 kindness of Mr. Wingaard^ a Swede, and Mr. Bertram, who had a Casa de Remate, or auctioneer's ofBce, in the Calle de la Palma. Of the two staples, yerba and tobacco, the first- named once formed half the exports of the Republic ; 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/. 12s. 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 1\ oz. Paraguayan diet ctiiejiy consists of maize and manioc, oranges and mat^. All p.vie^lMFS'ln " pata- coons" of ten riyals 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 be had for $6 to $7 (f.). Furniture is rare ; the citizens mostly slept in ham- mocks lashed to rings built in the wall. Digitized by Microsoft® 454 AT AND ABOUT ASUNCION. lish markets, and though mild ia flavour were very heady. Yet, as you know, certaiu 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 bank 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 efiBuvia 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 mangruUo, 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 workshops, which are unimportant; and past the little church of S. Roque, a single-steepled affair, 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 cj^^mped 350 Paraguayan soldiers in charge of two brass guns. I confess that Asuncion appeared at that time eminently open to a covp-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 Digitized by Microsoft® AT AND ABOUT ASUNCION. 455 joroljably have barric£!,ded themselves ; and, if not, they cer- tainly TTOuld have marched up too late, A few corps of Paxaguans 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- oheiras, 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 nyacungra 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 figs, especially the bunchy Ympomen and the Tdvumen, with dark-coloured fruit. The characteristic trees were mimosas and acacias, especially the inga, the quebracho, and the jacarandd,, or palo de rosa. Of these woods a beam has been found bearing the date " Octobre xx. 1633." I recognised the Digitized by Microsoft® 456 AT AND ABOUT ASUNCION. cedro, though young, by its hard fruit ; and saw a tree which 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 prictly 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 ara9d^ 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 taU, 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 vidreu'a 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 yincas. Digitized by Microsoft® 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 j 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 plabe 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 aU 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. Digitized by Microsoft® 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 Senora Doiia 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 vrere eat- ing their chipas, or coarse brioches and chocolo, the " b6ta" of Hindostan, young maize roasted or boiled. Our excursions about Asuncion were always short. The climate, to strangers at least, is exceedingly enervating j and very few miles in deep sand suffice for the best- girt walker. Adieu. Digitized by Microsoft® Mt deau Z- LETTER XXVI. AGAIN TO THE ALLIED FRONT. Asuncion, April IS, 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 Parg.guayans neglected to tear up. It is believed that the whole is open as far as Pirayu 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 tie 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 4G0 AGAIN TO THE ALLIED FRONT. train had started before its time ; apparently the departures are never exact, 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 descrijrtion. The asthmatic little engine — which, after serving its time upon the Balaklava Hne, and being condemned as useless at Buenos Aires, had been shipped off to Paraguay — was driven by a Brazilian oflBcer 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 drunkj 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 Digitized by Microsoft® Again to the allied *'fkont. 461 the hair was plaited behind, and fotmed 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 wheye 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. Prom 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,: Digitized by Microsoft® » 463 AGAIN TO THE ALlilED FRONT. Tips and downs. Upon its fiirther side rises the loma:; wMcTi 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 chMet. 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 200 feet, we reached the Luque station,* and were greeted by one of the employes, Senor 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 aU the natives could read and write, a village often con- tained only a single book. We found Luque the normal settlement derived fipom the Jesuit ages ; a single quadrangle surrounded by some forty or fifty ground-floor 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 Itaugna (twenty-five uiiles), and k visit to Pirayii, Paraguari, Yaguaron, and Ita, Mr. M. Mulhall (page 95) may be consulted to advantage. Digitized by Microsoft® AGAIN TO THE ALLIED FRONT. 463 fasted decently, witli bread a;iid vin de pays, a stewed fowl, and tiie best beef that we had eaten in Paraguay. Drunkei soldiers were lounging a,bout, 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 land waves dotted with ant-hills and tussocky grass j and belts of wood, espe- cially thorn-coppice, dividing open esteros, rivulets here called canadaSj and marshes and mud-poois floored with hard clay. Here and there a bunch or bouquet of vegeta- tion somewhat better than usual, showed the " copuera," or coiintrytnan'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 30,000 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 jiresent the surface is tolerably pure ; presently- it wUl become a sheet of oflfal and garbage, and the waters trill be tui-ned into cess, and sink, stagnant and putrid, into animal and vegetable decay. After breakfast we crossed the railway in order to Call upon the Exmb. Sr General-in-Jefe del Ejercito Argentino, Digitized by Microsoft® 464 AGAIN TO THE ALLIED FRONT. tte Brigadier- General D. Emilio Mitre, to whom we car- ried letters from President Sarmiento, and from his dis- tinguished 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 betweeii 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 Digitized by Microsoft® AGAIN TO THE ALLIED FRONT. 465 Loma Valentina, and 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 will pro- bably see more. He is one . of the few Platines that have ever shown aptitude fr.. 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 i 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 3,bout that solidarite which he so much admires in the 30 Digitized by Microsoft® 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 " tropUla " 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 oflScial residence. Then proceeding to the State House, at the north-eastern angle of the Plaza, we sent in 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 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 snflfering from liver complaint, and at times sudden faintness compels him to dismount from his charger. His enemies declare that his ill-health hegan with a fall upon parade, when he struck with his sword at an officer. They also injuriously caU 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 aU 30— a Digitized by Microsoft® 468 AGAIN TO THE ALLIED TRONT. they want, and that the issue of money is a signal for all manner of disorders. When recounting my experience to high authorities at Eio 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 Prance or England some 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. Digitized by Microsoft® LETTEE XXVII., AND LAST. My deab, 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 Eepublic 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 tluintanilha 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. Digitized by Microsoft® 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 Government 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 eflfected, 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 wiU secure for four nations the benefits of peace and liberty, and victorious we wUl 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 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'Orlbans, " 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 ! 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 river bank looked low after the falaise of Asuncion, even as the grand proportions of Rio (de Janeiro) Bay and " The tow'ring headlands crowned with mistj Their feet among the billows," are dwarfed by contrast with the Platine mouth. Corrientes Digitized by Microsoft® 473 CONCLUDING LETTER. again looked exceedingly mean and unclean, and we then transferred ourselves, in a violent squall, to the neat little steamer Goya, Captain Bellesi. The Goya landed us 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. Fortimately, however, as we were making thirteen knots an hour, the captain and the two English engineers were on the alert, and " Stop 'er \" and " Back ^er \" were ordered and obeyed in a fpw 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 aflair 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 ofi" 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 Valentina 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 Digitized by Microsoft® CONCLUDING LETTER. 473 light upon the shades of Paraguayan civilization. ThuSj 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 blbws were dealt to him " en cir- culo." To the sergeant of the company were awarded fifty " palos de parado," on foot j 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 offender was reduced to march in the ranks with naked feet ; sometimes he forfeited life. All offences 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 one fled the corps. immediately to the rear was ordered to fire upon its Digitized by Microsoft® 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 drimi-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 caraguatd, 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 foUows : — " 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 Digitized by Microsoft® CONCLUDING LETTER. 475 we are well, you will want nothing, and forget youi' 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 ascertaiu the names of those chastised with blows, for the purpose of reporting them. " Encampment at Tebicuary, April 4, 1868. Signed, " F. Z. Resquin." " In carrying out the present order, received with due respect, to shoot the soldier Candido Ayala, of the battalion Digitized by Microsoft® 476 CONCLUDING LETTER. No. 3, for the reason above stated, I bad tbis done to-day according to command, and I caused to be cbastised witb fifty blows tbe sergeant Faustino Sanabria, and tbe corporals Jose Jiqueredo and Bias Jimenes, and tbe soldiers Baltazar Medina, Matbilde 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 offended, 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 of torture known as the Cepo Uruguayana." After September 10, 1868, nothing transpired concerning the fate of D. Benigno Digitized by Microsoft® CONCLUDING LETTER. 477 Lopez. Some declare ttat 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 Per- nandOj 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 ofiBcer 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 (Sept. 26, 1867), establishes a central commission for receiving money, or, that failing, jewellery and precious, stones, required for the defence of fatherland. La Seiiora, 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 iree 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 : — Digitized by Microsoft® 478 CONCLUDING LETTER. " Piquisiri, December 23, 1868. " SiE, — As the representative of a friendly nation, and to provide against all that may happen, alloTr me to entrust to your care the subjoined document, by which I transfer to Dona Elisa Lynch aU 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.] " SiK, — 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 gentleman 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 Digitized by Microsoft® CONCLUDING LETTER. 479 motives which make no other call than in that gentlemanly feeling I congratulate myself in having found in your Excellency, to whom I now offer my friendly acknow- ^^^^ ^' " 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 deae 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 sufferings which have for some time been my lot. The singular circum- Digitized by Microsoft® 480 CONCLUDING LETTER. stances which have taken place in our house make me ■ «tand 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 stiU 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. Digitized by Microsoft® CONCLUDING LETTEB. 481 " I receive your welcome letter rather as that of a mother to her soiij 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 stufied full : the kitchen — I should say galley — and the store- room were not. With which parting grumble T bid you — Farewell ! ****** 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 Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® INDEX. Adams, Mr., warned against harming the bricks of a fallen building, 11 Adventure, an, which might have been serious, 472 Alegre, General, at the storming of Humait&, 304 Aleu, Colonel, his attempt at suicide, 334 Allied armies invest Hurnait^, 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 Bedan attacked bj 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 ajamble 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 Digitized by 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 tastio 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 lieaii -quarters. 445; randidatcsf ir the chief magistracy at, 446 ; tlte 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 Baja]>a, 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, cnts 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 Bateria Londres, the Prince of Humbugs, 319 — 3 Microsoft® 484 INDEX. Battle, Colonel, seizure of, 114 Battalions of women, rumours about, 379 Batteries of Humaitd, variouB, 319 Battle of Abay, hard fighting at, 425 Battle of Acayua8& 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 Itor6r6, loss of Brazilians at, 427 Battle of Loma Yalentina, loss of Para- guayans and Brazilians at, 419 ; the whole affair a mystery, 419 Battle of Monte Caseros, fall of Dictator £osas at, 61 ; Qeneral [Jrquiza going to glory at, 253 Battle of Faysandti, 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 Bobles at, 264 Battle of Vences, and conquer of Corrien- tes, 59 Battle of Yataity-Cor4 in 1866, 303 Battle of Yatay, defeat of Colonel Dnarto 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 Biscayaus emigrating to PotosJ, 104 Blancos, rise of the, 114 Bliss and Masterman arrested for high treason, 410 Blood thirstiuess of Montevideans, 122 Bonpland, herbarium of, 288 ; taken prisoner, 51 Bonpland, Madame, desperate adventures of, 288 "Botany Bay" of Dr. Prancia, 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, ofScial 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 Hag of truce, 447 ' Brown, Admiral, successful feat of, 191 Bruguez, General, lively little episode of, 262 Buc6o admired by bathers, 94 Buenos Aires, revolutionary committee established at, 65 ; Fenian club at, 94 ; thirty people drownedin 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; Goghlan'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 disorders 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 Sau Ignaoio 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 Digitized by Microsoft® INDEX. 485 CiBALLERo, General, captured at the Battle of Lamas, 346 Caf6 de Paris at Buenos Aires the great resort for baelielors, 184 ; dining at the, 169 Californian widows, how they make for- tunes, 352 Calle Florida, the fashionable part of Buenos Aires, 183 Gaminos, M., reported to hare been shot, 428 Camp and City men, difference in the habits of, 120 Campos and Martinez de la Hoz tal^en prisoners, 338 Capella de Ipan€, the place to enjoy picnics, 426 Carralho, 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 Casfiros, 377; employed in reducing Mnnte Video,377; accused of being slow in his military morements, 877 ; famous fur 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 an historic fight, 426 Cerro, the, a fine view of Monte Video, 100 Chaco, paradise andelysium 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 Chateau 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, 369 ; 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 Kacional, 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 Eiver Plate, 88 Colonia, La, short description of, 143 Commerce of Paraguay, 18 Comte d'Eu volunteers his services as Commander-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 C6rdoba, wandering about the quaint city of, 414 Corpus Christi built to control the Timbd 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 ; relisioua 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 Curuzli, bombardment of, by the Allies, 303 ; capture of, 304 CuvervUle, M., ugly story concerning, 446 Daikv, 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 486 INDEX. Diaoovery of an infernal machine to blow up the Ministry, 113 Socnments taken at Loma Yalentina, in- specting the, 472 Elisiakio, Tice-Admiral, 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, 66 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 Esmerala, Padre, his devotion in the cause of humanity, 338 Extraetum oamis, 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 Flores, 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 GuazH, 229 France annoyed by the treatment of her subjects in Paraguay, 66 Francia, Dr., his remarkable character, 89; 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 QalvXo 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 Gauoho 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 Gomez and Bragashot, 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 Paragu ay poiscno n s to animals, 373 Great Chaco, loafing and drinking of the men at, 277 Guard-houses on the Paraguay established to watch strangers, 311 Guardia Tacnira, free-and-easy system of operations at, 371 ; reconnoitring the ground at, 372 Guayquii-aro, the home of the fat boy, 260 Guazfi 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 Yid4o, arbitrary powers of, 102 Henley, Mr., his uncertain prospects of flax-growing, 217 Holy week, worship of the MontevidSans in, 127 Hopkins, Mr. E., his claims for compen- sation ignored, 63 Horses storming fortified and insulated posts, 191 Hdtel de la Minute, its proprietor charged with receiving stolen goods, 449 Hotham, Sir Charles, his arrival at Asuncion, 61 Humaiti 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- Digitized by Microsoft® 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 Eozario, 244 ; presented with a medal, 244 Inpeknai machines, fishing up, 341 Ironclads attacked by canoes, 364 Isla de las Floras, fragrancy of its wild vegetation, 94 Island of Liberty, imprisonment in the, 100 Italian porters in Monte Video not to be trusted, 104 Itapirti carelessly abandoned by Lopez, 301 Jesuits in Paraguay, their influence, 26 Juquery bridge held by Brigadier Vasco Alves, 467 EiRKLAHD, 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, 25S 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 Kiver 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, 358 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 66; 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 officers 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, 306 ; 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 AcayuasS,, 334 ; the wife of Colonel Martinez murdered by, 335 ; he arms the Cierva. redoubt with field pieces, 347 ; his defence of Paso Pncti, 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 It6r6r6, 428 ; he releases the architect of his palace from imprison- ment, 433 ; ignorance of the AlUes 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 Digitized by Microsoft® 488 INDEX. to Captain Xenes' soldiers, 312 ; her quarters at Humait&, 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, Gf^overnor, 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, Eniique,. shot for refusing to give up his flag, 268 Masterman and Uliss, 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 Aii-es, 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 ; Cen'o, the best view of, 100 ; uselessness of English cruisers at, 100; importance of knowing the cur- rency of, 103 : extortions uf travellers at, 103 ; Italian porters at, 104 ; tramway in, 105 ; dishonesty of cus- tom-house offlcers in, 105 ; their lodg- ing houses, 105 ; bad roads in, 107 ; diainage unknown in, 107 ; old Spanish houses in, 107 ; impoverished look of the tenements at, 108 ; General Orlbe'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 ; pnblia 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 ou Holy Saturday at, 127 Monte Yid^o and Hamait&, sketch of the route between, 136 ; names of tne various writers on, 149 Montevid^an shops, glitter and attractions of, 118 Montevidean soldiers, danger of, 122 Montevideans and Portefios, 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 Neweibe, Dr., and his drunken servant, 460 ; his fraudulent apothecary, 463 ; his lucrative practice, 461 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-generaUed by Lopez, 63 Oriental army reduced to a remnant, 326 Osorio and Argolo badly wounded, 445 Osorio and Flores land 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 Parani river, 232 Outbresik of thepronunoiamento, 117 Digitized by Microsoft® INDEX. 489 FaiiAoios, Bishop, not shotas he deserTed, 340 Fampa palace, invitation to enter the, 199 Pampas peewit, the enemy to sportsmen, 349 Paraguay, derivation of the word, 2 ; geography of, 8 ; latitude of, 4 ; area of, 5; political distribution of, 6 ; ofScial 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 Jesuite 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, 87 ; 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 Timb6, 334 ; grand total of the lines defended by the, 358 ; rumours of the tortures and executions of, 407 Paraguayo, description of the prisoners of, 11 ; their deformities, 11 ParanS, abandoned by the Caravan Go- vernment, 256 Paran4river,dangerousfor 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 Puofi, 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 Faysandfl, population of, 209 ; native mutiny at, 210 ; murdering a Sereno at, 210 ; head-quarters of D. Leandro G-omez at, 210; M&ua bank demolished at, 211 ; the battle ground of the Blan- cos and Colorados, 211 ; campaign, siege, and civil war at, 21 1 ; hopeless attitude of her defenders, 211 ; fall of, 213 ; massacre of women and children at, 218 ; attacked by cholera, 215 ; people buried at, 215 ; imports and exports of, 215 ; Mr. O'Connor's salt- ing-house at 216 ; 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 Portefia 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 River Plate, 91 Pi-ytz, M., the furious and ferocious Brazilian, 274 RiAOHUELO, defeat of the navy at, 221 Digitized by Microsoft® 490 INDEX. Kailway at Asuncion, rude appliances of, 460 Keid, Dr. , in charge of the British Hospi- tal, 151 Kepublicof Uruguay, three hostile parties in, 112 Kesquin, Fraucisca Z., his severe General Order, 473 Eio Bermejo, salubriousness of its waters, 365 Eio de la Plata, first Viceroy of, 36 Rio Grande and their savages, 365 Kio Paranancito, vegetation of, 254 Eio Uruguay, on board the, 189 Rivas, General, his personalappearance, 336 River Paraguay the reservoir of a thousand streams, 138 River Plate, colonizing in the, 88 Rivera, D., his flight to the Brazil, 211 Eobles, Genera], 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 Rozario, 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 ; hairltss dogs used instead of warming-pans at, 243; organ-grinders might be put to honest labour, 242 SiiLORS 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 SalteSos better in temporal thuu spiritual matters, 218 Salto, thepicturesque termin us of Uruguay navigation, 218 ; blockaded by Com- modore Pinto, 218 ; its surrender to General Floras, 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, sUlfiil 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 HumaitS, 323 Solis, De, discoverer of the Para,n4, 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 nadonality not to be mis- taken, 466 ; the injurious talk of bis 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 Tamandarfi, 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 Timb6, appearance of, after the evacua- tion, 346 Digitized by Microsoft® INDEX. 491 Tiinb6 garrison, curious contrivance of the, 342 Torpedoes, construction of, 342 Torpedoes provided by tlie Paraguayans, 332 Travellers deluded in Paraguay, 28 Travellers made comfortable by the Ar- gentines, 188 Travellingto 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-Guarani language, three years at work at the, 208 Ubquiza, 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 Funta 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 Tences, battle of, in 1847, 59 Veren, Earon von, evil report of, 402 ; three times arrested as a spy, 402 Yillareal, Brazilian army encampedat,426 Wab-loan of Sor Eiestra, 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 Eirkland, 410 ; his violent letter to the President of Para- guay, 410 ; hia 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 passionfor ultimatums, 370 Wheelwright, Mr., his trading notions, 245 Whytehead, Mr., suicide of, 435 Wild maize, where grown, 6 XlNES, Captain, his night expedition, 312 Yataitt-Cora, merit of the Conference of, 305 Yungaz coffee fragrant and delicious, 465 THE END. Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft®