During his lifetime he was 'El Supremo,' and after he was dead
for generations he was referred to simply as 'El Difunto.'"
[Footnote:
Robertson's "Reign of Terror."]
Paraguay, of all countries, has been most under the teaching of the
Jesuit priest, and the people in consequence are found to be the most
superstitious. Being an inland republic, its nearest point a thousand
miles from the sea-coast, it has been held in undisputed possession.
Here was waged between 1862 and 1870 what history describes as the
most annihilating war since Carthage fell. The little republic,
standing out for five and a half years against five other republics,
fought with true Indian bravery and recklessness, until for every man
in the country there could be numbered nine women (some authorities
say eleven); and this notwithstanding the fact that the women in
thousands carried arms and fought side by side with the men. The
dictator Lopez, who had with such determination of purpose held out
so long, was finally killed, and his last words, "Muero con la
patria" (I die with the country) were truly prophetic, for the
country has never risen since.
Travellers agree in affirming that of all South Americans the
Paraguayans are the most mild-mannered and lethargic; yet when these
people are once aroused they fight with tigerish pertinacity. The
pages of history may be searched in vain for examples of warfare
waged at such odds; but the result is invariably the same, the weaker
nation, whether right or wrong, goes under. Although the national
mottoes vary with the different flags, yet the Chilian is the most
universally followed in South America, as elsewhere: "Por la razon o
la fuerza" (By right or by might). The Paraguayans contended
heroically for what they considered their rights, and such bloody
battles were fought that at Curupaita alone 5,000 dead and dying were
left on the field! Added to the carnage of battle was disease on
every hand. The worst epidemic of smallpox ever known in the annals
of history was when the Brazilians lost 43,000 men, while this war
was being waged against Paraguay. One hundred thousand bodies were
left unburied, and on them the wild animals and vultures gorged
themselves. The saying now is a household word, that the jaguar of
those lands is the most to be dreaded, through having tasted so much
human blood.
"Lopez, the cause of all this sacrifice and misery, has gone to his
final account, his soul stained with the blood of seven hundred
thousand of his people, the victims of his ambition and cruelty."
Towns which flourished before the outbreak of hostilities were sacked
by the emboldened Indians from the Chaco and wiped off the map, San
Salvador (Holy Saviour) being a striking example. I visited the ruins
of this town, where formerly dwelt about 8,000 souls. Now the streets
are grass-grown, and the forest is creeping around church and
barracks, threatening to bury them. I rode my horse through the high
portal of the cannon-battered church, while the stillness of the
scene reminded me of a city of the dead. City of the dead, truly - men
and women and children who have passed on! My horse nibbled the grass
growing among the broken tiles of the floor, while I, in imagination,
listened to the "passing bell" in the tower above me, and under whose
shade I sought repose. A traveller, describing this site, says: "It
is a place of which the atmosphere is one great mass of malaria, and
the heat suffocating - where the surrounding country is an
uninterrupted marsh - where venomous insects and reptiles abound." San
Salvador as a busy mart has ceased to exist, and the nearest approach
to "the human form divine," found occasionally within its walls, is
the howling monkey. Such are the consequences of war! During the last
ten years Paraguay has been slowly recovering from the terrible
effects of this war, but a republic composed mostly of women is
severely handicapped. [Footnote: Would the suffragettes disagree with
the writer here?]
Paraguay is a poor land; the value of its paper currency, like that
of most South American countries, fluctuates almost daily. In 1899
the dollar was worth only twelve cents, and for five gold dollars I
have received in exchange as many as forty-six of theirs. Yet there
is a great future for Paraguay. It has been called the Paradise of
South America, and although the writer has visited sixteen different
countries of the world, he thinks of Paraguay with tender longing. It
is perhaps the richest land on earth naturally, and produces so much
mate that one year's production would make a cup of tea for every
man, woman and child on the globe. Oranges and bananas can be bought
at six cents a hundred, two millions of cattle fatten on its rich
pasture lands; but, of all the countries the writer has travelled in,
Mexico comes first as a land of beggars, and poor Paraguay comes
second.
CHAPTER VIII.
ASUNCION.
Being in England in 1900 for change and rest, I was introduced to an
eccentric old gentleman of miserly tendencies, but possessed of
$5,000,000. Hearing of my wanderings in South America, he told me
that he owned a tract of land thirteen miles square in Paraguay, and
would like to know something of its value. The outcome of this visit
was that I was commissioned by him to go to that country and explore
his possession, so I proceeded once more to my old field of labor.
Arriving at the mouth of the River Plate, after five weeks of sea-
tossing, I was, with the rest, looking forward to our arrival in
Buenos Ayres, when a steam tug came puffing alongside, and we were
informed that as the ship had touched at the infected port of Bahia,
all passengers must be fumigated, and that we must submit to three
weeks' quarantine on Flores Island.
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