Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/132



102 MONTE VIDEO.

merly a wall crossed the neck of the ridge_, running about one mile from the sea outside to the port inside. This was in due time knocked down, the old citadel being converted into a market ; whilst the new town, which bends to a due east and west direction, stretches far out into the country over a clay soil resting npon stone. The houses seem battlemented even to the turrets, which are of every shape; they are mostly coloured, especially with all the yellows from drab- yellow to gamboge ; many are white, a few are red with sloping tiled roofs, and dark chocolate tints are not unknown.

We may not land until duly permitted by the health officer and the captain of the port. The latter, a normal Iberian pest, is a King Stork, a personage of great and ar- bitrary power. His duty is to settle disputes, to point out anchorage ground, to prevent smuggling, to make ships pay their debts, and to ascertain that dues are not shirked. Harbour- master must show his importance, will obtrude his personality, no matter what may result to the public service ; he can forward little but he can obstruct much, and he cer- tainly will obstruct until he has recalled to the suitor's common sense the words addressed to Zaccheus. The doctor is as usual an elderly King Log, in white hair and black clothes, serious as a mute, grave as an undertaker, possibly toothless. His boat wants paint, his flagstaflP is evidently a curtain-rod â€” the wee Republic shows signs of impecu- niosity.

Knowing nothing of the land I follow a young leader, whose two sheep-dogs engross all his thoughts, and are voted by his friends precious bores. He asks me to visit his estancia or cattle estate, distant a few leagues. After due inquiry, I determine not. In this liberty -land the honoured guest may bear a hand at shearing sheep, or in tiling the gaipon-shed, but it is not pleasant when he is