Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/237



LETTER VIII.

UP THE URUGUAY RIVER THE SIEGE 0Â¥ PAYSANDU,

SALTO, CONCORDIA, URUGUAYANA.

Buenos Aires, October 20, 1868.

My dear Z ,

A stormy night delayed the up-steamer till 7.15 A.M. (October 9), at which time we began the short trip ^' aquas arriba.^^ Nearly opposite Concepcion is the Saladero-Estancia of M. de la Morvonnais_, a Breton gentle- man who knew this country when an oflScer in the French navy. I deeply regretted not being able to accept his hospitable invitation. The river here showed little of interest. It was in unusual flood,, but the traveller is used to the "unusual.^^ For instance, Buenos Aires declares her present year's climate to be the worst of the last decade. Tree-trunks grew out of the water; snags pricked us with their points ; floating islands attempted to choke us ; sawyers bobbed up and down, and the huts on the lower bank â€” as usual, one was higher than the other â€” facing the taller re-entering angle of the stream, were half- submerged. Estancias were scattered about the uplands â€” a sure sign of good ground ; and the various craft that we met and passed made the Uruguay anything but a silent highway of the nations.

Presently remnants of batteries on the right bank showed the place where Urquiza had prepared to receive Garibaldi and his fighting " cooks." Paysandii town is on the oppo- site bank ; the buildings, massed in amphitheatre-shape, crowned by the Dutch-tiled dome, are picturesque, and