Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/15

Rh L R L O R revolutionary struggle then in progress in Uruguay. No attention being paid to his demand, he treacherously seized a Brazilian merchant steamer in the harbour of Asuncion, and threw into prison the Brazilian governor of the pro vince of Matto Grosso who was on board. In the follow ing month (December 1864) he despatched a force to invade Matto Grosso, which seized and sacked its capital Cuyaba, and took possession of the province and its diamond mines. Lopez next sought to send an army to the relief of the Uruguayan president Aguirro against the revolutionary aspirant Flores, who was supported by Brazilian troops. The refusal of the Argentine president, Mitre, to allow this force to cross the intervening province of Corrientes, was seized upon by Lopez as an occasion for war with the Argentine Republic. A congress, hastily summoned and composed of his own nominees, bestowed upon Lopez the title of marshal, with extraordinary war powers, and on April 13, 1865, he declared war, at the same time seizing two Argentine war- vessels in the bay of Corrientes, and on the next day occupied the town of Corrientes, instituted a provisional government of his Argentine partisans, and summarily announced the annexation to Paraguay of the provinces of Corrientes and Entre Rios. Meantime the party of Flores had been successful in Uruguay, and that state on April 18 united with the Argentine Republic in a declaration of war on Paraguay, the news of the treacherous proceed ings of Lopez having then but just reached Buenos Ayres. On May 1st Brazil joined these two states in a secret alliance, which stipulated that they should unitedly prosecute the &amp;gt;*war &quot; until the existing government of Paraguay should be overthrown,&quot; and &quot; until no arms or elements of war should be left to it.&quot; This agreement was literally carried out. The war which ensued, lasting until April 1, 1870, was on the largest scale of any that South America had experienced, and was carried on with great stubbornness and with alternating fortunes, though with a steadily increasing tide of disasters to Lopez (see PARAGUAY). In 18G8, when the allies were pressing him hard before the various strongholds still remaining to him in Paraguay, his mind, naturally suspicious and revengeful, led him to conceive that a conspiracy had been formed against his life in his own capital and by his chief adherents. His bloodthirsty rage knew no bounds. In a short time several hundred of the chief Paraguayan citizens were seized and executed by his order, including his brothers and brothers-in-law, cabinet ministers, judges, prefects, military officers of the highest grade, the bishops and priests, and nine-tenths of the civil officers, together with more than two hundred foreigners, among them several members of the different diplomatic legations. Lopez was at last driven with a mere handful of troops to the northern frontier of Paraguay, where on April 1, 1870, he was surprised by a Brazilian force and killed as he was endeavouring to escape by swimming the river Aquidaban. His ill-starred ambition had in a few years reduced Paraguay from the prosperity which it had enjoyed under his father to a condition of hopeless weakness, and it has since remained a virtual dependency of Brazil. LORCA, a town of Spain, in the province of Murcia, on the right side of the Sangonera (here called the Guada- lentin), by which it is separated from the suburb or quarter of San Cristobal. It is situated about 38 miles west from Cartagena, and 37 south-west from Murcia, at the foot of the Sierra del Cano, The principal buildings are the col legiate church of San Patricio, with a Corinthian facade, and the parish church of Santa Maria, in the Gothic style. The principal manufactures are soda, saltpetre, gunpowder, and cloth ; the trade, apart from that which these articles involve, is insignificant. The population of the munici pality was 52,934 in 1877. Lorca (Arab. LurTca) is the Eliocroca of the Ttin. Ant., and pro bably also the Ilorci of Pliny (iii. 3). It was the key of Murcia during the Moorish wars, and was frequently taken and retaken. On April 30, 1802, it suffered severely by the bursting of the reservoir known as the Pantano de Puentes, in which the waters of the Guadalentin were stored for purposes of irrigation ; the Barrio de San Cristobal was completely ruined, and more than six hundred persons perished in the disaster. In 1810 it suffered greatly from the French. LORENZO MARQUES, or LOUEENCO MARQUES, the chief place, and indeed the only European settlement, in the district of its own name in the Portuguese province of Mozambique in south-eastern Africa, is situated on Delagoa Bay, at the mouth of the Lorenzo Marques or English River, in 25 58 S. lat. and 32 30 E. long. At the time of Mr Erskine s visit in 1871 it was a poor place, with narrow streets, fairly good flat-roofed houses, grass huts, decayed forts, and rusty cannon, enclosed by a wall 6 feet high recently erected and protected by bastions at intervals. In 1878 Governor Castelho returned the white population of all ths district (whose area is estimated at 210,000 square miles) as 458, and the natives as from 50,000 to 80,000. A commission sent by the Government in 1876 to drain the marshy land near the settlement, to plant the blue gum tree, and to build a hospital and church, only partly accomplished its task, and other commissions have succeeded it. In 1878-79 a survey was taken for a railway from Lorenzo Marques to the Transvaal (see Bol. da Soc. de Geogr. de Lisboa, 1880), and the completion of this enterprise will make the settlement (which already possesses the best harbour on the African coast between the Cape and Zanzibar) a place of considerable importance. It became a regular port of call for the steamers of the British India Steam Navigation Company in 1879, and for those of the Donald Currie line in 1880. Since 1879 it is also a station on the telegraph line between Aden and South Africa. Both Germany and England maintain consular agents in the settlement. See DELAGOA BAY, vol. vii. p. 40 ; and Lobo de Bulhaes, Les Colonies portugaises (Lisbon, 1878). LORETO, a city in the province and circondario of Ancona, Italy, is situated some 15 miles by rail south-west from Ancona on the Ancona-Foggia railway, 16 miles north-east from Macerata, and 3 from the sea. It lies upon the right bank of the Musone, at some distance from the railway station, on a hill-side commanding splendid views from the Apennines to the Adriatic. The city itself consists of little more than one long narrow street, lined with booths for the sale of rosaries, medals, crucifixes, and similar objects, the manufacture of which is the sole industry of the place. The population in 1871 was only 1241 ; but, when the suburbs Montereale, Porta Marina, and Casette are included, the population is given as 4755, that of the commune being 8083. The number of pilgrims is said to amount to about 500,000 annually. The principal buildings, occupying the four sides of the piazza, are the college of the Jesuits, the Palazzo Apostolico (designed by Bramante), and the architecturally insig nificant cathedral church of the Holy House (Chiesa della Casa Santa). The handsome facade of the church was erected under Sixtus V., who fortified Loreto and gave it the privileges of a town (1586) ; his colossal statue stands in the middle of the flight of steps in front. Over the principal doorway is a life-size bronze statue of the Virgin and Child by Girolamo Lombardo ; the three superb bronze doors executed under Paul V. (1605-21) are also by Lombardo, his sons, and his pupils. * The richly decorated campanile, by Vanvitelli, is of great height ; the principal bell, presented by Leo X. in 1516, weighs 11 tons. The