Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-06-24
A GLIMPSE OF PARAGUAY.
Blighted Ropes and wrecked Palaces
The GrAni River and L. f,rnnnhaIna

writer in MdmcdlaaS Magazine
gives an interesting sketch of trip from
Montevideo to Paraguay, from which the
following is taken: Keeping straight on
to the north we have left the wide eNpanse
to the detected Parana behind us on our
right, and are now between the compare
lively high and densely wooded banks of
the Paraguay river, hereabouts turbid and
swollen by the dIscol0red waters of the
Nermeio or %Red' river, its tributary from
the Western Chaco, and the Bolivian hills
far away. With stream seldom subdi-
yided, and width equaling on an aver
age that of the Lower Danube at Widen
or ROustchOuk, the Paraguay has, at
least to a European eye, much more of
the appearance of river than the SEEM
ingly shoreless Plata or the indefinitely
ramitied Parana. The banks too are much
more varied in character than those of the
last-named stream; clay, rock, sandstone,
limestone, basalt, succeeding each other
in abrupt alienation; the vegetation is
also more abundant and diversified: forest
trees of great height and extent ofbranch,
attesting the tOughness of their wood
fibre, and among them palms of every
kind, some ieathery, as the COCO, some
fan-leaved. some densely tufted, tall bam-
boos, tree ferns, resembling those of the
Antilles, and a close underground of
shrub and plant now starred with spring
flowers. among which the white and pink
predominant, as the yellow in many dis
tricts of China and the blue in European
uplands.
Along the banks, among weed and
driitwood, half in, half out Of water. lie
huge. mud-colored alligatOrs. am told
that they are not alligators but crOcodIles;
1t may be so. though in what precisely an
alligator differs from crocodile do not
know; anyhow these amphibia of the
Paraguay are, in outward appearance the
very cOunterparts Of their cOngeners in
Siam. They watch us with dull, heavy
eyes; every now and then a piglike
"carpinchO,' a sort OF wOuld.be-hippOpO-
Janus, drives out Ofsight at our approach:
and we hear much of tigers, or rather
panthers, said to abound hereabouts and
to be good swimmers, but we do not meet
any. To make up we see abundance Of
water-snakes, ugly speckled things, said
to be poisonous; and birds of every size,
description and color. Frequent, too, on
either side Of the river. but most so on
the eastern, are the signs Of human habi-
tatiOn; pOt-herb gardens, where gourds
abound, fruit trees, orange groves, now
more golden than green in the lavish
abundance of their sweet fruit; little,
almost country English looking, Gotta ges,
singly or in small groups, with neighbor-
ing Enclosures for cattle, perched on the
upper banks at safe distance from the
yearly water rise, while, mOOred under
the shade Of overhanging bTushwood and
creepers lie boats with mast or oar;
canoes, too, with paddles, Indian fashion,
are not rare.
Such for a hundred miles and more up
ward from its junction with the Paranais
the general aspect of the Paraguay and
its shores. OF the war that ranged so
tiercelv over and along this very river dis
trict 1S66.6S, of the terrible combat of Bel
lacO, when the flower Of the PaTaguayan
nationality, and indeed, whatever was yet
available OF the Paraguayan army, pitted
in utter defiance, alike Of strategy and of
tactics, against an enemy thrice over
their superior in numbers, and ten times
so in arms and every appliance a war,
with all the advantage, too, OF a strongly
intrenched position, persisted in its reck-
less Misunderstanding quarter or surren-
der almost to a man. or the battle OF
Curapati. a little higher up, and the
fierce onslaught of Tuyuti, where some
eight thousand Paraguayan recruits, the
halt of them mere boys of II to Is years,
QEON6 UbluIG Lutius puuiO-Hbi AbhChs puC
best of the allied armies. burnt and sacked
their camp, and reduced them to an mac
ton of months before they ventured on
further advance, and Of the countless
skirmishes, ambuscades, surprises, bonn
bardments, land fights, river fights, which,
in league with famine, fire and plague,
made of these fair valleys on vast char
mel house for at least 100000 cOrpses, not
a visible trace now remains.
Soon, however, we come on break in
the scene. The river, hemmed in to mar
rowness by the high banks on either side,
makes a sharp bend, or, rather, folds
round upon itself. changing it's direction
from north to southeast, then south, then
due east, then by west to the north again;
and amid these wIndings each shore, but
principally the Paraguayan, is Scared by
the traces of ruined batteries, range
above range; while some ruins of broken
walls, that once were barracks and store
houses, amid dismantled field lines and
earthwOrks, are oyertopped by the tall
ruins of a stately church-nOw shattered
shell of brick and stone. This is all that
remains Of Hlmaita. the important river
position fortified by Lopez to he the Cron-
stadt or Chatham of Paraguay, the outer
most and strongest bulwark OF
the interior and its capital Asun-
ciOn. Nor could better site
have been chosen, had the means of de
Tense been proportiOnate by land or
water TO the natural advantages of the po-
sitiOn itself. Here. in 1868, a native garri-
son, scarce 1900 strong, held out, not by
the strength Of the OutwOrks, which they
We're numerically insufficient TO man,
nor by strength of artillery, of which, as
Of ammunition, they had little at com
mand. and that of the worst quality, but
by sheer logged resolution and hand-to-
hand fighting for four months Of continual
bombardment; carried on by a besieging
force OF az least 10000 men, backed from
the river ny a numerous feet OF irOn-clads
and monitors, Brazilian and Argentine,
well supplied with whatever modern in
genuitY has supplied 10 destructiyeness,
nor yielded till starvation compelled the
surrender of the survivors. nov less than
"a third Of their original number, and who,
at the time Of their caDitulntion, had been
four DAYS without food Of any sort.
Never was "A ruler, chief, better served
by his subjects than SOlano Francisco
I.opez, second OF the family name; and
never did any one personally less deserve
such deyOtedness and fidelity.
But saddest OF all sights I'm AsunciOn IL
the very first and most conspicuous Oh
iect seen from the river, the enormous
palace Of Francisco SolanO Lopez, barely
completed before its lords own downfall,
now an empty shell, fronting the stream
in long rows Of dsmantled portals and
windows, black, ragged holes, like the
eye-sOekets Of a skull. It's shattered tur-
,ste ehfvqrod corufces and broken para.