Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/166



136 TO THE COLONIA AND BUENOS AIRES.

fully. On board also came Mr. William C. Maxwell^ in whose pleasant society I was fated afterwards to see the glories of the Andes_, the Pacific Coast, and Magellan. Finally, we carried with us the three political creeds, and especially a party of Blancos hastening to gloat over the messes of their rival Colorados. Amongst these gentlemen were some whose professions were to be millionaires, and whatever one of them told me for my " carnet,"" to that another whispered the flattest contradiction â€” audi alteram partem therefore became a necessity.

We were fortunate in travelling by day, so as to see what is to be seen ; usually the Holyhead-Kingston trip of 150 miles is done by night. My business, I repeat, is now rather with men and manners, with events and politics, than with geography or topography ; yet, without a sketch of the route, you will barely be able to follow me.

The confusion of starting over, we cast a friendly look upon the dwindling scene â€” those big Montevidean ware- houses yellow and stone-tinted, the tall Concordia hospital near the San Jose Point, the forest of masts crowding the punchbowl bay, the houses a mixture of Spanish and Por- tuguese with a dash of Italian, and the bleached spars of wrecks protruding lightless from the silty wave. As we turn the Punta del Rodeo, slow sinks into the " Sweet Sea" the Guardsd Mount, here the Grand Vision, and our glances dwell lovingly upon the little crooked cone, the last that we shall see for nearly a thousand miles.

The Yi, being new and badly loaded, makes a kind of circular progress, and we have little to prospect save the river : that, however, is suggestive enough. The northern steeple of the great gate is the Cape St. Mary, which we passed in the Arm, and the southern is Cape St. Anthony, a triiie of 155 miles to the south-west, thus making the embouchure one of the broadest in the world. Some swell