CHAPTER XIV.
PARAGUAY.
Sources of information.—General Pacheco.—Inaccuracies of Sir Woodbine Parish.—Navigability of the Parana by large vessels.—Decrees of the government of Paraguay on the treatment of foreigners.—Decrees relative to inventions and improvements.—Mr. Drabble’s commercial mission, and its results.—Cultivation of cotton.—Drawbacks to its extension.—Scarcity of labour.—Provisions of the treaty between Great Britain and Paraguay.—The commercial resources of the country little known in this.—Navigability of the Paraguay and the Uruguay.—Obligation of the Brazilian and Buenos Ayrean governments to remove impediments.—Population of Paraguay.—Public works undertaken by the Consular Government.—Salubrity of the climate.—Fertility of the soil.—Pasturage illimitable.—Character of the Paraguayans.—President Lopez.—Diplomatic mission of Sir Charles Hotham.—General Lopez.—State of the country at the death of Francia.—First measures of the Consular Government.—Revenue of Paraguay.—Administration of justice.—Revision of the tariff.—Release of political prisoners at the termination of Francia’s Reign of Terror.
SIR CHARLES HOTHAM, K.C.B., LATE HER MAJESTY’S PLENIPOTENTIARY TO PARAGUAY.
As indicated at the conclusion of the last chapter, my ascent of the Parana ceased at Rosario, whence I descended to the mouth of the Plate, on the return voyage to Europe; consequently, what I am about to say of Paraguay is not the result of actual personal experience in that strange land. Nevertheless, I offer the annexed observations with considerable confidence, as the fruits of diligent inquiry among several who had been there, some for many years, some very recently; and as the fruits also of the perusal of nearly all accredited works on the subject, of one of which in particular,[104] whose merits and reliability are vouched for by the distinguished Uruguayan soldier and administrator who has edited it—General Pacheco—I have availed myself to some extent, having been also assured by other competent critics that it is most trustworthy in its data and most dispassionate in its views. The paucity of works on this country is not surprising, but the inaccuracy of that which, being the most recent, is naturally accepted as the most authoritative in England, is indeed marvellous. The obligations of all interested in Platine affairs are so great to Sir Woodbine Parish, and as regards Paraguay in particular, members of his family long ago afforded so much invaluable information then derivable from no other source, that it is with the utmost reluctance I say a word calculated to diminish the deference due to the veteran diplomatist and author; nor should I attempt to impugn his statements if he spoke from his own individual knowledge. Still, his predilection in favour of Rosas, to which I have adverted in the introductory chapter (page 30), and his antipathy to everybody and everything inimical to the regime and the system of the Buenos Ayrean Dictator, are, or at least in 1852 were, so potent as completely to run away with his otherwise excellent judgment. On what other grounds can we account for his lending all the emphasis of italics to such passages as these, for which he quotes Colonel Graham, the United States Consul, who proceeded on an official mission to Paraguay, in 1845, and who is apparently regarded by Sir Woodbine as an indisputable authority, viz.:—
‘Were its resources developed, and encouragement given to the industry of its inhabitants, it might become a comparatively wealthy part of South America, but it could never support an active trade excepting with the adjoining States. Yerba, the tea of Paraguay, its chief product, is only consumed in South America; its fine woods would not bear the expense of transport to Europe; its sugar, tobacco, cotton, and rice, on account of the distance which they would have to be conveyed from the interior, even were the Parana open, could never enter into competition with those of Brazil and the United States. If the Parana were declared open to all nations, the United States could not carry on any direct intercourse with Paraguay under its own flag. The vessels adapted for crossing the ocean would not go up the Parana, and merchandise would have to be re-embarked at the mouth of the river in craft suitable to its navigation, and owned by parties resident in the country. Mr. Graham’s observations are equally applicable to the shipping of European nations, and they cannot too often be repeated for the information of parties embarking in trade with those remote countries.’
The best answer to all this is what I have already said in the preceding chapter respecting Colonel Graham’s fellow-countryman, Mr. Hopkins; and as to ‘vessels adapted for crossing the ocean not going up the Parana,’ Sir Woodbine must surely have been well aware, even at the time Graham wrote, saying nothing of subsequent experience, of the facts borrowed from Sir W. Gore Ouseley, in the note to the illustration of Corrientes (see p. 324), respecting the ascent, not merely of the Parana, by British vessels of war, but of the Paraguay, as far as Assumption, by the French war steamer Fulton, commanded by Captain Mazeres; also that for upwards of 300 miles beyond Assumption the navigation of the Paraguay is even better than it is below the capital, as was lately exemplified, since my return to England, by the voyage of the American steamer Waterwitch, far beyond the limits previously understood to be navigable, except to the small river craft of the country.
It may be said that Colonel Graham could not have known these latter facts when he wrote what Sir Woodbine has quoted. But Sir Woodbine himself must have known them, and should not, therefore, have quoted the Colonel; and he must have known also that public notification had been given, in the following document, which I also take the liberty of printing in italics, that there had been an end put to the isolation in which Paraguay had so long been kept by Francia; and that ‘one Lopez,’ as Sir Woodbine calls the present enlightened President, had made every advance to the external world years before the world became persuaded that the system of Francia had been buried with him.
Decrees as to the Treatment of Foreigners in Paraguay, and the Privileges and Recompenses to be Awarded to Those who shall Contribute to Develope and Encourage Industry and the Material Improvement of the Country.