Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/238



208 UP THE URUGUAY RIVER.

withal present a perfect target to a bombarding squadron. The river here runs north and south ; the long streets are therefore disposed east to west so as the better to be enfiladed. Around it the country rises to the Cuchilla de los Palmares, which completely commands the landward side. These heights afford a glorious view, especially at sunset, of the noble river â€” here somewhat broader than the Paraguay. It is a stream of gold flowing through the liveliest green that spring can give ; and the beauty, the variety, and the soft- ness of the tints above can only be equalled by the pic- turesque diversity and amenity of the scene below. About one league to the north the uplands sink into the valley of the Arroyo Grande (de San Francisco), famous for fight and skirmish, and the Arroyo Sacra bounds the Egido or municipality about three quarters of a mile to the south."^

The name of the settlement is under dispute â€” pardon me if you are troubled with it ; but for the last three years I have worked at the Tupy-Guarani language, and it is evident to me that unless some one record them, all these interesting proper names will presently express nothing, and the traveller will vainly inquire the " unde derivatur." Generally the people translate Pay-Sandii by Father Sandii, Sawney or Alexander, and call themselves Sanduseros. General Urquiza, however, explained it to me as a corrup- tion of Pay Zaingo, Padre forcado, or the father (that was) hanged. Thus Ituzaingo alias the Battle of Rozario, where the Marquis of Barbacena was defeated by the Orientals, and saved only by the valour of the Paulistas, signifies

difference of London time is 3^" 52"" 15.3* ; and the variation made by Mr. Alec. Mackinnou is 11"^ east. The Egido, or municipal lands, to be laid out in garden lots and chacras represent a total of 9| square leagues + 400 manzanas = 346,000,000 superficial varas (short Argentine yards). Here the cuadra contains 100 varas, in Entre Eios 80.
 * Paysandii is in S. lat. 32Â° 19' 3", and lon^. W. (G.) 58Â° 1' 16". The