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The Paraguayan fleet now held command of the river system up-stream of Corrientes. On June 11, 1865, the allied naval forces, steaming up the Paraná, came into contact with the hostile fleet. A battle was fought, which ended in the defeat of the Paraguayan squadron, which was forced to retreat, crippled and damaged, to the north.
All this brought about without any great difficulty, or only such as was easily overcome by the Paraguayan plenipotentiary. Having reached the Tovas town that where the tribe is now in permanent residence only a day or two after Naraguana's death, he found the Indians in the midst of their lamentations; and, through their hearts rendered gentle by grief, received friendly reception.
There settled down, he did not give his hours to idleness; nor yet altogether to his favourite pursuit, the pleasant though somewhat profitless one of natural history. Instead, he devoted himself to cultivation, the chief object of his culture being the "yerba de Paraguay," which yields the well-known mate, or Paraguayan tea. In this industry he was eminently successful.
At the time the Paraguayan army was, numerically, the most formidable in South America. It had, moreover, been brought to an unusual degree of efficiency. The condition of the Brazilian forces was very different.
Here he and his Indian legions levied terrific toll upon the lives of their enemies who pressed onward, up or down the rivers and through tropical swamps and forests. Inch by inch he contested their entry upon Paraguayan soil. When the able-bodied men gave out, old men, boys, women, and girls fought on with stubborn fury, and died before they would surrender.
I was fortunate in gaining the favor of the tribe living near the river, and because of certain favors conferred upon them, was adopted into the family. Because of this formal initiation, I was privileged to travel where I chose, but to the native Paraguayan or Argentine the Chaco is a forbidden land.
With a view of alienating the sympathies of the oppressed subjects of the Dictator from their tyrannical leader, the allies caused it to be widely proclaimed that the war they were waging was not directed against the Paraguayan people in general. It was against Lopez alone that they were fighting, they asserted. The claim was true enough, since this was in reality the position of affairs.
He would lay the blame, where most part of it properly belongs, on the shoulders of the Paraguayan, and, indeed, intends doing so. But he would rather have the latter with him to meet the storm, should there be such, by explaining in his own way, why he killed the other white man.
Kermit had with him two of his novels, and I had read one of his books dealing with a disastrous retreat during the Paraguayan war. Next morning, the 25th, the canoes were brought down.
It being desirable to ascertain the fitness of the river La Plata and its tributaries for navigation by steam, the United States steamer Water Witch was sent thither for that purpose in 1853. This enterprise was successfully carried on until February, 1855, when, whilst in the peaceful prosecution of her voyage up the Parana River, the steamer was fired upon by a Paraguayan fort.
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