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.
