The Rear-Admiral, after concerting measures with the Governor of Entre Rios, General Don Justo Urquiza and the Count of Caxias, who again was at the head of the Brazilian army on the frontier of Monte Video, proceeded to occupy the rivers Uruguay and Parana, so as to impede the communication of General Oribe with Buenos Ayres. This measure entirely disconcerted the plans of the Governor of Buenos Ayres, Don Juan Manuel Rosas, who, not confiding in his own resources, counted on the assistance of Great Britain and France. These powers, however, preserved their neutrality, and in November the simultaneous advance of the forces of Entre Rios and Brazil, together with the position maintained by the Brazilian squadron, compelled General Oribe to surrender himself and his army to terms dictated by General Urquiza. Monte Video, thus freed from its enemies, the Argentine troops lost to General Rosas, and incorporated with the allies, nothing remained but to cross the river, and march on Buenos Ayres, where General Rosas was doing his utmost to levy and organize a new army. The vanguard of this army, under General Mansilla, occupied a position on the River Parana, at the Pass of Tonelero, which was fortified and armed with 16 pieces of cannon, provided with furnaces for hot shot. This passage was forced on the 17th Dec, by the Rear-Admiral, at the head of a division of steamers and corvettes, with trifling loss; and on the following days the allied army, 24,000 strong, under General Urquiza, crossed the Parana, and marched on Buenos Ayres. The battle of Monte Caseros, on the 3rd of February, 1852, the flight of General Rosas, and the conclusion of a treaty between Brazil, Buenos Ayres, Monte Video, and Paraguay, guaranteeing their respective rights, and opening the navigation of the Rivers Parana, Uruguay, and Paraguay, put an end to this short and glorious campaign. Rewards and promotion were liberally bestowed by the Brazilian Government on the victors. The Count of Caxias was made a Marquis; the Imperial Plenipotentiary Honorio Carnero Leon was created Viscount Parana, and Rear-Admiral Grenfell was made a Grand Cross of the Imperial Order of the Rose, and promoted to the rank of Vice-Admiral. In August, 1852, he resigned his command of the imperial squadron, and returned to his civil appointment in England.
THE REGION OF THE AMAZON.
Westward the course of empire takes its way,
The four first acts already past;
A fifth shall close the drama with the day:
Time’s noblest offspring is the last.
Each year we open upon new prospects in an increasing ratio, and among those which now present themselves as calculated to develope fresh fields for adventure and for an extension of traffic, are the navigation, just consummated, of 1,200 miles of the River Murray, and the expedition that is commencing to explore the Amazon.—Times’ Commercial Retrospect of 1853.
Wide o’er his isles the branching Orinoque