The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-12-18
Thc Extinction OF a People.

over the signature of 81. nj. H., writes as
follows about affairs in Paraguay
1t is doubtful whether the whole annals OF
mankind present more extraordinary tragedy
than that which has been acted out in Para
quay during the last seven years. 1t stands
second, perhaps, only in horror TO the story
of the fall of Jerusalem before the arms of
Titus, though differing widely from that in
many of its features in perhaps none more
than this, that whereas in the latter case the
determination of the conquered was forced by
themselves on victor who fain would have
been clement, in the latter there seems strong
reason to believe that it was planned, though
not avowed, by the conquerors from the first.
Thus MIR. Masterman, who in his preface, in
deed, implies that the Paraguayans were "a
band of slaves, madly resisting the very men
who offer them freedom and independence,
in his appendix quotes the opinion of "a
gentleman recently returned from the Plate,
who has had unusually good opportunities of
forming % correct judgment, that 'the war
was intended, from the first to be one Of
utter determination" that it was ''intention-
ally protracted, in the hope that the unfor-
tunate Paraguayans would die from want and
disease; and that Brazil intends to absorb all
she has left of the Republic" SO Colonel
Thompson has stated that the Brazilians have
purposely allowed many of their prisoners to
go and join Lopez, ''as they are determined
not to leave q Paraguayan of any age or sex
alive" and that the allies, ''while processing
extreme humanity, have, under the cloak OF
civilized warfare, eXterminated the Para
puavan nation, and never once tried to get at
L0peg, the pretended object of their warfare"
the latter assertion, indeed, being appa-
rently scarcely correct, since the Comte d'Eu
took the supreme military command. Nor
do these statements stand without in
direct corroboraton. Those who have
followed the history of Paraguay know that
its independence has always been an eyesore
alike to Brazilians and Argentines, and that
the maintenance of that independence
primarily against the latter (wbose pretension
was to claim Paraguay as a mere member of
their federation) was the hinge on which the
lifelong policy of Francia and the elder
Lopez turned. Whilst the text of the secret
tripartite treaty of 1865, although binding
the allies ''to respect the independence, sove-
reignty, and territorial integrity of the Re-
public of Paraguay, really aims at its hope
less dismemberment, by tearing off from il TO
the north, for the benefit of Brazil the ye,6a
mate districts, Paraguay's chief source of
revenue as giving her the practical monopoly
of an article in great request throughout full
one-haf of South America; after which the
whole remainder of the country must sink
almost necessarily into province Of the Ar
gentine Republic
Now, the world has seen ere this-let Po-
q combination between three neighboring
powers, under pretexts the most hypocritical
for the physical or moral determination of q
fourth in their midst, and that determination
allowed to be carried out before the eyes of
civilized mankind without a finger being
IN n;sed to prevent it. The world has also SEEN
on thS part of the nation so to be externi-
nated-ies Poland again be the instance
resistance OF Tie most heroic character. under
tF,Hr ryo NV a
very emergencies IN which they found them
selves placed. nut wnat the world has not
seen is ths--a smaiI peopl5 thus hemmed in
on all sides by neighbors immeasIrably richer
than itself i'll men, money, physical resources
of all kinds, yet exhibiting such superior
courage and endurance to that OF its enemies,
8 heroism SO undaunted that its resistance
must have been successful, but for the inca
tpacity, the cowardice, the selfshness, the
cruelty of the chief, whom yet it followed
from first to last with absolutely unswerving
faithfulness.
Now that the records of the war are before
the world, it is perfectly clear that nothing
that has been said, in the pages of this jour
nal or elsewhere, in favor of the moral powers
of resistance of Paraguay has ever been ex-
aggerated. The one element that has not
been taken into account has been the chance
that all those powers might be utterly thrown
away, from being welded by Francisco
Lopez.
Nothing is more marvellous than Colonel
Thompson's account of the slender resources
upon which Paraguay entered upon the war.
An army of about so, 600 men; perhaps 100,
900 horses in the whole country, "only half
of which could gallop two or three miles,
much of the cavalry and almost all the in
fantry armed with mere hint-lock carbines
and muskets; the greater part of the artillery
consisting ''of old honeycombed iron guns,
probably taken by ships for ballast and
brought to Paraguay like the guns
which do duty as posts on Woolwich Com
mon;" the heavy artillery all smooth bores,
only few rified 12-pounders; a navy OF
seventeen steamers, all small, and all but two
passenger vessels; drugs scarce from the be
ginning. In the course of the war the artillery
was in great measure recruited at the cost of the
enemy, the Paraguayans, even on two occa
sions when defeated, bringing often witt
them pieces of larger calibre than any they
themselves out of all the church bells anC
copper saucepans in the country, two whole
batteries were cast expressly to fit 9-poundel
rifle shells, ''which the enemy sent over in pro
fusion, and the greater part of which did no
BURST" and another large gun to fit Whit
worth's l50-pounder shot, ''of which some
thousands were collected" During the whole
war paraguay never received supplies O
any kind from abroad, except those taken il
Matto Crosse and Corrientes.'
What could not, however, be supplied from
the stores of the enemy was-men. Thi
want the Paraguayans could only meet b,
showing themselves match for him at con