Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/239



UP THE URUGUAY RIVER. 209

" Itu (Frank) who was hanged." I will also remark that in the Guaraui tongue " pai" also means to hang.

Having landed at the unfinished pier of wood and masonry ;, whose poor funds were diverted to other purposes by D. Leandro Gomez, we proceeded to the normal adjunct, a big custom-house, in which our luggage was perfunctorily examined. Near the water the tenements are huts and boxes of brick, stone, and lime, connected by posts and wire. The old buildings are inland, and date before the days of steamers. I suppose Paysandii must be called a city. It contains 9000 souls, whereas the chief places in Entre Eios, Concepcion, Gualeguaichu, and Concordia average about 6000.

We walked up the long street "18 de Julio." Last night-'s rain had washed the fine bracing air sweet and clean ; at the same time it had made the rivulets impassable, and had filled the thoroughfares with a black mud, which, however, being based on sand, readily dries. After Con- cepion the place had a remarkable look of business, of bustle, of go-ahead. We found the Hotel de France (M. Bertrande) full, and luckily for me an old acquaintance, Mr. Good, chief manager of the Maua Bank, gave me hospitality and introduced me to the resident strangers.

The first walk of inspection led us eastward to the main or Matriz Square. All the line is up-hill, excellent for drainage, and to the north there is a hollow, beyond which the land rises again. The streets are strewed with agate and broken glass ; as in the Brazil, they are banded with ribs of rough stone to prevent the washing away of the rain, and the trottoirs are tall narrow ledges of brick. The Matriz, with a single tower like that of Humaita, was then under repairs, and the only peculiarities in it were a black saint and saintess, SS. Benito and Rosa. Having been connected with a gun battery it had been severely treated

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