One island is set apart as a burial
ground, one is for infected patients, and the other, at which we were
landed, is for suspects. On that desert island, with no other land in
sight than the sister isles, we were given time to chew the cud of
bitter reflection. They gave us little else to chew! The food served
up to us consisted of strings of dried beef, called charqui, which
was brought from the mainland in dirty canvas bags. This was often
supplemented by boiled seaweed. Being accustomed to self-
preservation, I was able to augment this diet with fish caught while
sitting on the barren rocks of our sea-girt prison. Prison it
certainly was, for sentries, armed with Remingtons, herded us like
sheep.
The three weeks' detention came to an end, as everything earthly
does, and then an open barge, towed by a steam-launch, conveyed us to
Montevideo. Quite a fresh breeze was blowing, and during our eleven
hours' journey we were repeatedly drenched with spray. Delicate
ladies lay down in the bottom of the boat in the throes of
seasickness, and were literally washed to and fro, and saturated, as
they said, to the heart. We landed, however, and I took passage up to
Asuncion in the "Olympo."
The "Olympo" is a palatial steamer, fitted up like the best Atlantic
liners with every luxury and convenience. On the ship there were
perhaps one hundred cabin passengers, and in the steerage were six
hundred Russian emigrants bound for Corrientes, three days' sail
north. Two of these women were very sick, so the chief steward, to
whom I was known, hurried me to them, and I was thankful to be able
to help the poor females.
The majestic river is broad, and in some parts so thickly studded
with islands that it appears more like a chain of lakes than a
flowing stream. As we proceeded up the river the weather grew warmer,
and the native clothing of sheepskins the Russians had used was cast
aside. The men, rough and bearded, soon had only their under garments
on, and the women wore simply that three-quarter length loose garment
well known to all females, yet they sweltered in the unaccustomed
heat.
At midnight of the third day we landed them at Corrientes, and the
women, in their white (?) garments, with their babies and ikons, and
bundles - and husbands - trod on terra firma for the first time in
seven weeks.
After about twelve days' sail we came to Bella Vista, at which point
the river is eighteen miles wide. Sixteen days after leaving the
mouth of the river, we sighted the red-tiled roofs of the houses at
Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay, built on the bank of the river,
which is there only a mile wide, but thirty feet deep. The river
boats land their passengers at a rickety wooden wharf, and Indians
carry the baggage on their heads into the dingy customs house. After
this has been inspected by the cigarette-smoking officials, the dark-
skinned porters are clamorously eager to again bend themselves under
the burden and take your trunks to an hotel, where you follow,
walking over the exceedingly rough cobbled streets. There is not a
cab for hire in the whole city. The two or three hotels are fifth-
rate, but charge only about thirty cents a day.
Asuncion is a city of some 30,000 inhabitants Owing to its isolated
position, a thousand miles from the sea-coast, it is perhaps the most
backward of all the South American capitals. Although under Spanish
rule for three hundred years, the natives still retain the old Indian
language and the Guarani idiom is spoken by all.
The city is lit up at night with small lamps burning oil, and these
lights shed fitful gleams here and there. The oil burned bears the
high-sounding trade-mark, "Light of the World," and that is the only
"light of the world" the native knows of. The lamps are of so little
use that females never dream of going out at night without carrying
with them a little tin farol, with a tallow dip burning inside.
I have said the street lamps give little light. I must make exception
of one week of the year, when there is great improvement. That week
they are carefully cleaned and trimmed, for it is given up as a feast
to the Virgin, and the lights are to shed radiance on gaudy little
images of that august lady which are inside of each lamp. The Pal, or
father priest, sees that these images are properly honored by the
people. He is here as elsewhere, the moving spirit.
San Bias is the patron saint of the country, It is said he won for
the Paraguayans a great victory in an early war. St. Cristobel
receives much homage also because he helped the Virgin Mary to carry
the infant Jesus across a river on the way to Egypt.
Asuncion was for many years the recluse headquarters of the Jesuits,
so of all enslaved Spanish-Americans probably the Guaranis are the
worst. During Lent they will inflict stripes on their bodies, or
almost starve themselves to death; and their abject humility to the
Pai is sad to witness. On special church celebrations large
processions will walk the streets, headed by the priests, chanting in
Latin. The people sometimes fall over one another in their eager
endeavors to kiss the priest's garments, They prostrate themselves,
count their beads, confess their sins, and seek the coveted blessing
of this demi-god, "who shuts the kingdom of heaven, and keeps the key
in his own pocket."
A noticeable feature of the place is that all the inhabitants go
barefooted.
