"They are skilful with the lasso and bolas, and also with their spears and bows. The whites try to prevent their obtaining fire-arms, but somehow they manage to get them through traders, and are not slow in learning how to use them. They shoot fishes in the streams with their bows and arrows, and though a fish may be three or four feet under water they rarely fail to pierce him. As with most Indian tribes, the men engage in hunting and breaking horses, and leave all the drudgery to the women.
"Passing the mouth of the Parana, we ascended the Paraguay River to Asuncion, the capital of the republic and its principal city. It has suffered terribly in the wars which Paraguay has waged with her neighbors, but is now fairly prosperous; if the country will not go to war again Asuncion may hope for a satisfactory future, as it has a good position, and is connected with the interior by a line of railway nearly two hundred miles long. We have heard many stories about the war which lasted from 1865 to 1870, and was very near making a complete ruin of Paraguay. Perhaps this is a good place to say something about it.
"General Lopez, who was then president and commander-in-chief of the armies, revived some old disputes with Brazil and the Argentine Republic concerning the boundaries between Paraguay and those countries. He began hostilities by capturing a Brazilian steamer which was passing Asuncion on a peaceful mission, and seizing two Argentine steamers near Corrientes. Then he surrounded that town with his army and threatened its capture, and he sent assistance to some revolutionists in Uruguay who were trying to overthrow the government of that country.
"The result of all this was that the three countries made war upon Paraguay, and they agreed not to stop fighting until they had completely conquered it, and made it powerless to go to war again. They carried out their programme completely; Asuncion was occupied, the army was defeated in several battles, and General Lopez was killed, in March, 1870. Then peace was declared, but it found the country prostrated, burdened with a heavy debt, and reduced in territory. Before the war the population of Paraguay was about half a million; it was estimated that 170,000 men were killed during the struggle, or died of disease consequent upon it, and that 50,000 women perished by famine and exposure in the forests and swamps. And all this for the ambition and avarice of one man, General Lopez!
A RIVER PORT DURING THE WAR.
"A gentleman who was here during the war tells us that all business was suspended, and the river was occupied by fleets of war-ships and gun-boats, and defended by forts. The few ports on the river were converted into military stations, and the expenditure of money and credit, as well as the loss of life, on both sides was something enormous. There were countless scenes of horror, such as are witnessed in every war, and the stories of bravery and cowardice, honor and treachery, devotion and suffering, would fill volumes. Before the war ended the soldiers of Lopez were barefooted, and almost without clothing, and many of their enemies were in an equally sorry plight. This gentleman visited the headquarters of Lopez one day, and found a soldier on duty there wearing nothing but a cloth around his waist and a cap on his head. Thus dressed, and with his gun on his shoulder, he paced in front of the general with the dignity of a Prussian grenadier.
