Letters from the Battlefields of Paraguay. Richard Francis Burton
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Thus D. Antonio Carlos Lopez became President of Paraguay for ten years. '^ El Ciudadano,^^ as he loved to call himself, was then about forty-four years old. Educated at the College of Asuncion, he had lectured in theology and philosophy ; he had studied jurisprudence, and after making a few dollars by the law^, he had retired to a country place some forty leagues from the capital. He rarely visited town, and spent most of his time in reading books and mastering agriculture. Although he had never left his native land, he was looked upon as an enlightened man, and he had acquired, in comparatively early life, a general
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reputation for patriotism,, special knowledge^ and adminis- trative aptitude.
The elder Lopez has been carefully portrayed by Dr. L. Alfred Demersay C^^Histoire physique, economique, et poli- tique du Paraguay.^ Paris, 1864. Vol. ii.) He is also known by the work of Colonel du Graty. English readers and writers mostly take their opinions from Captain J. Page, late United States Navy (" La Plata, the Argentine Con- federation, and Paraguay ") : upon the spot it is considered the best authority. Mr. Charles B. Mansfield, whose gene- ral crotchettiness merged into an absolute enthusiasm for Paraguay, has left sketches and descriptions of the Guardia, of the hide-hammock, and of the first of the Presidents. The woodcuts of Messrs. Page and Mansfield make him hideous, burly and, thick-set, as Dictator Francia was thin and lean. With chops flapping over his cravat, his face wears, like the later George IV., a porcine appearance, which, however, as in the case of Gibbon, is not incompatible with high intellect. On the other hand. Colonel du Graty presents a stout but respectable looking citizen. He generally received strangers sitting in an arm-chair, pro- bably to conceal the fact that one leg was shorter than the other, and he wore, honoris causa, his hat, which was a little cocked on one side. At times he would astonish visitors by his courtesy in asking them to sit down in the presence.
President Lopez I. married in early life D. Juana Paula Carrillo, who was almost as fat as himself. The issue con- sisted of five children. Francisco Solano, the actual President, said to have been born at Asuncion in 1827,* was the eldest.
In 1852, Mr. Mansfield calls him a "young lad of twenty or so, the
General of the Army." This would make the date of his birth 1832, and his present age thirty-seven. But if born in 1832, he could hardly have commanded a corps d'armee in 1845. It is well known that his birthday was July 24th, and Augustus-like, he caused July to be styled "the month of Christian Lopez."
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The second, Venanncio,, was made a colonel in the army, and commanded the garrison of Asuncion. The youngest, Benigno, who was ever the father's favourite, became a major in the army, and admiral of the fleet ; but he pre- ferred idling and " woman -hunting " at home. The elder daughter, D. Ynocencia, was married to General Barrios, afterwards Minister of War, and the younger, D. Rafaela, became the wife of the treasurer, D. Saturnino Bedoya. The Presidentess and her daughters dressed in the usual imitation Parisian; they were fond of society, and they never neglected to make a little money. The Presidential salary was only $4000 per annum.
President Lopez had no light task before him. The Dictatorship had left only ruins : he had to create ; he was to be the organizer as Francia had been the founder of Paraguay; he was to assume the relation of Brigham Young to Joseph Smith. He wished to break the chains which his predecessor had forged, to draw Paraguay from her shell. Yet freedom was, he knew, dangerous after the slavery of ages, and an exaggerated liberalism might, it was feared, in due course of reaction take the place of conservative terrorism. He required to steer between the Scylla of iso- lation and popular lethargy, and the Charybdis of neology in religion and politics. And if he governed somewhat too much, assumed " Asiatic airs, and neglected the pre- cepts " laissez faire" and laissez passer," still his intentions were apparently good, and his success was as great as could be expected.
The difficulties of the new ruler were increased by the hostility of Buenos Aires, which required him to create and to provide for the maintenance of an army. He began with 3000 soldiers, enlisted for only three years, and pre- sently he could muster a force of 8000 regulars, an effective militia of 30,000 men, and a levee en masse in their rear.
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Again, early in 18i5, wlien President Lopez had de- clared the country open to foreigners both for commerce and residence, Dictator Rosas refused transit to Paraguay, as long as the latter should keep aloof from the Argentine Provinces ; and he presently decreed the prohibition of all her exports, even in neutral bottoms, thus hoping to cut her off from her principal customer, the Brazil. The stout-hearted President feeling insulted by this proceeding replied on December 4, with a formal declaration of war beginning,
^^ Long live the Republic of Paraguay ! Independence or death,^^* and threatened an invasion. He reinforced his vanguard, the Province of Corrientes, which had lately captured Argentine shipping, and at once sent against Oribe, the lieutenant of Rosas, his first corps d^armee under his eldest son Brigadier Francisco Solano Lopez, then a youth of eighteen. This force was attacked by the Buenos Airean army of operations in January, 1846, and was compelled to retreat "^ re infecta,^ behind the Parana River, chiefly, it is said, by the treachery of the Correntino Governor, Madariaga. In September, 1846, President Lopez ended the affair with a declaration that Paraguay would definitively remain neutral, leaving the Argentine Republic to settle its own disputes.
Presently the mediation of the LTnited States caused transit and commerce to be re-established between Para- guay and Buenos Aires. The arrangement, however, had no positive guarantee. At the battle ofVences, in 1847, General Urquiza conquered Corrientes, and new troubles arose about Border questions. Thereupon President Lopez
This is part of the old Paraguayan motto, and very possibly Dom
Pedro I. of Brazil, who was well versed in South American history, had heard of it before he raised the " grito de Yporanga."
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again looked to liis army^ and created there camps of in- struction. The Juiz de Paz was ordered to register all the males between 18 and 30^ and to forward to head-quar- ters so many per district. Within three months were thus collected twelve infantry battalions of 700 rank and file^ six corps of cavalry^ each 100 sabres, and one corps of artiUery. The elder Lopez^ though charged with being an unscru- pulous diplomatist, was an active organizer, and though his temper was hot, he was not wanting in cool vigour. One of his first acts was to propose as Bishop of Asuncion his brother, D. Basilio Lopez, a Franciscan Monk, not well spoken of, and the nomination was accepted by Pope Gregory XVI. He deported in 1846 the two Jesuits who had taken charge of the Chairs of Latinity and Philosophy in the so- called Literary Academy, or new College. He shot the sergeant Espaiiola for the crime of tearing up stamped paper, and he deported a Frenchman who had practised mesmerism without his permission. To the National Congress which met in 1849 he could announce the creation of an army and a naval force, the establishment of Guardias and forts against the Indians of the Gran Chaco ; the foundation of an arsenal, of a manufactory of arms and gunpowder, and of the Ibicuy foundry (definitively worked in 1853) ; the organization of the clergy ; the construction throughout the country of churches, cemeteries, and schools for primary instruction ; the issue of an official newspaper ; the building of quays and other public works ; the opening of roads and canalizing of rivers ; the encouragement of agricultm'e and exportable industry, especially of Yerba and Tobacco, and finally, the guarantee of patents, the protection, the free admission, and the favourable nationalization of strangers. The latter, however, were not allowed to travel, to enjoy any international rights, to hold real property in the Re- public, or to marry Paraguayans without especial license ;
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moreover,, no Paraguayan woman could leave ^^ La Rcpub- lica/^ except by express order — again China. The naturalized foreigner of course having no protection from his consid, and being sworn like one of the natives to the Constitution and to the Government, was not permitted to quit Paraguay except by particular order. Under these circumstances.