Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/241



UP THE URUGUAY RIVER. 211

only four 8-pounders, and a few discharges brought it about the gunners^ ears. The other posts were mere street bar- ricades, and the chief buildings hastily strengthened. The Maua bank was almost knocked to pieces, and required complete rebuilding. The plaster pilasters of the Gefatura or Police and Magistrates* offices on the " Calle 8 de Octo- bre " had been smashed, and the fayade had been much in- jured. The barricades were of the weakest, mostly com- posed of wool-bales and overturned carts, behind which the defenders fought every foot.

Paysandii has ever been a battle ground between Blancos and Colorados ; and the " very heroic city " is as accus- tomed to bombardments as though it had been in Belgium. The first was on December 6, 1846. D. Fructuoso Kivera, Gaucho, soldier, and first President of the Oriental Republic, was succeeded in 1834 by General D. Manoel Oribe. The latter having thrown himself into the arms of Dictator Rosas, executed a revolution headed by Rivera in 1836 : Oribe however held out till 1838, when despairing of success he resigned. Rosas refused to let him take this step, and thus began a campaign, a siege, and a civil war which lasted nine years. The Blancos fought under the banner of Oribe, the Colorados were led by Rivera, and the latter was assisted by the Republican rifi-raff of Europe. On this occasion Garibaldi organized his legion of 400, afterwards 800 " cooks," whose immense losses show how desperately they were handled. Rivera having collected some 5000 to 6000 men harried the country, and cannonaded his enemies out of Paysandii in about a week. He afterwards lost the decisive battle of India Muerta, and fled to the Brazil : he died in 1852 en route to Monte Video.

Standing in front of the Matriz we can see the hopeless attitude of the defenders of Paysandu, when it was last

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