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Updated: May 29, 2025
Simpson also reported that while on his way to join the flag he had fallen in, off the mouth of the river Loa, with the Peruvian warships Union and Pilcomayo, and that he had fought a running action of over two hours with them; his final escape being entirely due to his superior speed; as either of the Peruvian vessels would alone have been more than a match for his own little ship.
There were numerous rumours flying about the Blanco as to the object of the cruise northward; but the one which obtained most credence was to the effect that the Chilian fleet had been instructed to find and destroy the Huascar, Union, and Pilcomayo, which were waging a destructive war against the Chilian commerce, and which, it was very strongly suspected, had been guilty of certain acts against Chilian and other craft which more nearly resembled piracy than civilised warfare.
The third division, under Captain Garcia y Garcia, comprised the Union, a wooden corvette of 1150 tons, and a very famous ship; the Pilcomayo, gunboat; and the Limena, a paddle-transport. Such was the Peruvian navy at the commencement of the war; and the whole fleet, in three divisions, as above, was under the command of Admiral Grau.
Directly the Chilians perceived this new move, the Angamos and Pilcomayo stood in to the support of their consort, and in a very few minutes Jim beheld the somewhat rare spectacle of a close fleet action in which the sides were well matched, for the two Peruvian monitors were of about equal strength to the three Chilian warships.
"It's by the bank of a little arroyo that runs into the Pilcomayo, some three or four miles above the big river. And, as I take it, not much further from where we are now. But we must make a cross-cut to reach it in the quickest time." This Gaspar says as they part from the barometer-tree.
The lands known as the 'Chaco' district, lying between the Paraguay and Pilcomayo rivers, are said to be the best for grazing purposes in all South America. Years ago they were considered worthless swamps, but this is all changed now. "Well, Lyman entered into negotiations with the president of this alleged republic and got his concession.
Although the known mouth of the Pilcomayo is almost within gun-shot of Assuncion the oldest Spanish settlement in this part of South America no Paraguayan ever thinks of attempting its ascent, and the people of the town are as ignorant of the land lying along that river's shores as on the day when the old naturalist, Azara, paddles his periagua some forty miles against its obstructing current.
But below, as with the Salado, where these rivers enter the region of the Chaco, they become as if they were lost to the geographer; even the mouth of the Pilcomayo not being known for certain, though one branch of it debouches into the Paraguay, opposite the town of Assuncion, the capital of Paraguay itself!
Fully commissioned and furnished with sufficient funds gold coin which passes current among the savages of the Chaco, as with civilised people the plenipotentiary had started off, and made his way up the Pilcomayo, till reaching the old town of the Tovas. Had Halberger's estancia stood on the river's bank, the result might have been different.
And they continue watching there till the sun goes down, and the purple of twilight spreads itself over the plain bordering the Pilcomayo; this succeeded by a mist rising from the river, and shrouding the deserted village in its murky embrace.
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