Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/165



LETTEE IV.

TO THE COLONIA AND BUENOS AIRES.

Buenos Aires, August 15, 1868. My dear Z ,

Happily for me a passenger steamer had been told off to run between Monte Video and Humaita â€” you "will remember a word so frequently repeated till it nauseated us. The ship was the Yi (pronounce Ji^ so- called after an influent of the Rio Negro), 1300 tons, said to average ten to twelve knots an hour, and costing 30,000/., here a marvel, but in the United States some ten years behind the age. Built like her consort the America, by Messrs. M'^Kay and Alders, of Boston, E.U., she is â€” rather she was â€” the usual two, or properly three-storied floating hotel, with the normal walking- beam engine. Poor Yi ! the last time I saw her the walking-beam barely projected above the muddy brown river off Buenos Aires. She was burnt for over-success to the water^s edge, and the suspected foul play might have been brought home, but was not.

I paid $70 (say 14/.) for the " go" to Humaita, $120 being the price of the " go and come" â€” heavy price, but cheap. We embarked on Saturday, August 15, at nightfall, and were received by Mr. Crawford, New Englander and engineer. I say " we," my fellow passenger was D. Carlos M'Kinnon, F.R.G.S., an old resident on the river, full of information, and right ready to " rip himself up." There was confusion on board ; the cook had bolted in fear of enlistment ; the steward had also fled, having locked up the pantry ; in fact, the party of pleasure began, as usual, pam-