The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-12-18

and wounded with them" On one such oc-
casion 400 Paraguayans we're absolutely
fighting with 720O of the allied troops" to
whom, after receiving a reinforcement, they
caused loss of 80 officers and 900 men killed
and wounded, losing only ITO themselves. 1t
would be positively tedious to attempt emu
merating the engagements in which the Para
guayans appear to have inflicted q loss on the
enemy-at the battle of Lomas Valentines,
December, 1868, in killed alone--equal TO
the total number of their own com
batants But of what avail could this be,
when, by the end of 1866, "nearly 100000
males had been drawn from a population of
less than q million, and of this number
scarcely 25, 900 remained-no less than $4,000
men having ''perished in the hospitals from
disease, or rather from bad and scanty food
and want of the commonest necessaries of
life, the rest through the other casualties of
war ?-desertion, indeed, excluded, since, as
Mr.. Masterman tells us, 'love of home and
of country is passion with them; and though
Paraguayan prisoners were forced by the
allies into ''Paraguayan legion, they took
every opportunity of passing over to their
countrymen, although certain of meeting
only with contumely, punishment, and often
death. Two years later, at Lomas Valentines
the 25,0B OF vlSGGwere reduced to 1900, and
without a SINGLE gun met 1000 Brazilians
besides ArgenfDes, with 90 guns and fought
still with their wonted determination.
Be it observed thot although often COM
PEELED to exhibit the heroism only of despair
this was by no means the type of Paraguayan
courage. Those who speak of them as mere
Indians, and would confound their resistance
with the stolid endurance of the North Anne
rican red-sllin, are wide as the poles from the
truth The late Charles Mansfield, in that
work of his, the real revelation to Europe of
this strange people, which has been so un-
accountably passed under silence both by
Colonel Thompson and Mr.. Masterman, had
fully appreciated the intense vitality and
vivacity Of the Paraguayan character Col
onel Thompson relates how, "when man
was rolling a wheelbarrow, percussion shell
struck his high morton and burst in it, SINCE
ing his hair and driving some grains Of pow
der into his forehead, without hurting him.
The moment it happened he dropped
his wheelbarrow, rushed after his morton and
put il on again, and selling the barrow began
wheeling it again with redoubled vigor, to
the great delight of his companions, who set
up yell of pleasure. On another occasion,
| 0-pounder shell, unburst, which mad been
placed uEder a cooking-pot, exploded and
sent the dinner of some cavalry men flying, to
| the ''intense delight of the expectant diners.
| AS late as SIS, ''the more their enemies X
the more the Paraguayans would laugh. They
used to play all sorts of pranks at night with
the Brazilian guards, shooting at them with
bows and arrows, and with balls of clay such
! as boys in Paraguay use to shoot parrots
| with Their contempt for the Brazilians
seems, indeed to have been unbounded till
| the last
| We do not, of course, wish to deny the
| existence of darker sides in the Paraguayan
| character; the outrages which accompanied
| their first offensive operations; the cruelties
| of fXUbi x is f1l of
which many Though clearly not ALL made
| themselves the far too willing instruments.
| But of outrage and cruelty trey had in the
| wax by no means the monopoly; the taint is
| one common to both the Spanish and Portu-
| ouege races and which blots many CHASTITY
page in the history whether Of braIu or OF
the South American republics Their worst
| faults in these respects appear to have been
| those of their race or of their ruler, whilst
observers such as Mr.. Masterman, whose per
| sonal sufferings should always be taken iptc
| account in weighing his harsher judgments
cannot help bearing testimony to ''thei
| unaffected kindness and charity to each other
| when no sh&dow Of the government was upoI
| them
So has perished . small people, in its fall
| at least never to be fCfpOtten 1t may be, as
Mr. Masterman says, that ''the sturdy Ger
man and the Anglo-Saxon will soon ill the
void this war of determination has made
| permanent prosperity will Danish all trace ot
its devastations." But that the noblest by
| far of all the South American peoples should
have so perished, self sacrificed to third-rat,
tyrant like Francisco Lopez, will remain on,
of the darkest moral riddles of history. It il
idle to talk of the Paraguayans as mere slaves
when they have shown so magnifcently tina
they could fight and die like freemen.
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