Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/106



76 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

lost sight of when the neighbouring states are agitating questions which have more or less a direct influence upon her dearest rights/^ Moreover he felt poignantly in his inmost soul the ^' ribald articles/^ those edged tools with which the press of Buenos Aires delighted to play^ calling him for instance "cacique/^ and Asuncion his "wigwam."

The following is a simple abstract of the dates which render the five years' war remarkable. The precis may be useful to the reader, and I have given in the Preface the briefest possible sketch of the campaign in its two phases^ offensive and defensive.

October 16, 1864. — The Brazilian army invades the Banda Oriental, despite the protestations of President Lopez, who declared that such invasion would be held a casus belli.

December 4^, 1864. — President Lopez despatches an expe- ditionary column to invade the Brazilian province of Matto-Grosso.

April 13, 1865. — After vainly soliciting permission from the Argentine Bepublic to march his troops across Corrientes, in order to attack the Brazil, President Lopez seizes two Argentine ships of war in the port of Corrientes and occupies the city.

May 1, 1865.— The " Treaty of May 1^' concludes a triple alliance, oflPensive and defensive, between the Brazil, the Argentine Republic, and the Banda Oriental againÂ«t the government of Paraguay.

May, 1865. — Paraguay invades the Brazilian Province of Rio Grande do Sul, and her left corps d'armee marches down the valley of the Uruguay River.

June 11, 1865. — The Paraguayan fleet is defeated at the Battle of Riachuelo, and the right corps d'armeCy marching down the Parana, is compelled to retreat.