Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/196



166 A DAY AT BUENOS AIHES.

and he and Lis turn their steps towards the National Treasury. Next morning a new Governor and a new Government appear in order^ and that is all. With Presi- dent Sarmiento my sincere wishes are that he may pass gloriously through all the perils of his pre-eminence.

At Buenos Aires I met an old acquaintance^ Mr. Gould. In 1856 we had agreed to dine together in 1860^ but fate deferred that dinner till 1868. He had just returned from his visit to the camp of Marshal-President Lopez ; he was wholly Brazilian in sympathy,, and he confidently predicted the speedyconclusionof the war. Thus he was completely in unison with Mr. Buckley-Mathew, whilst Mr. Lettsom, Mr. Consul Hutchinson^ and others lent a willing ear to the other part. Mr. Gould showed me a map by Count Lucien de Brayer (1863), and allowed me to compare it with the most modern plans in his possession. He gave me an introductory letter to the officer commanding H.M.S. Linnet ^ and watching British interests in Paraguayan waters. The cruiser had been sent up " because the presence of one of H.M.^s ships would greatly strengthen an appeal for the liberation of our fellow-countrymen.^^ He introduced me to the Brazilian Envoy Extraordinary, the highly distinguished M. de Amaral, who resigned, it is said, his post because he could not honestly advance the cause. I owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Gould, but this must not prevent my differing with him upon the subject of Paraguay.

I was also then and there presented to one of the most prominent personages in South America, President D. Bartholome Mitre. He had lately escaped an impeachment for having plunged the country into a war, but the acquittal of President Johnson also acquitted him. Beginning life as an artiUery cadet, he became successively a military teacher, a newspaper editor, a local deputy, and in due course of time an exile. He was an Artillery Commandant at the