Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/250



220 UP THE URUGUAY RIVER.

Here we see the cause of republicanism^ of democracy, practically pleaded against that of despotism_, of alien rule. The former^ in this home of six-monthly revolutions^ in this theatre of battle, murder, and sudden death, in a society afflicted by a chronic acephalous disorder, and by exaspera- tions of the most savage anarchy, and where the citizen is unprepared either by education, by civilization, by tradition, or by civic virtues for self-rule and for the choice of his rulers, Salto, I beg to say, prospers, progresses, goes ahead. On the other hand Concordia, governed according to ancient principles, schooled to order, and disciplined into propriety, falls out of the race of life : the hand of a self-imposed ruler weighs heavy upon it; it sleeps, it swoons, it dies. We are encouraged by the experience of these two rival villages to believe in that future which is now mainly in the hands of poets, in the universal Republic, in the Fede- ration of peoples, and in the absolute self-rule which a progressive race will presently demand as its birthright.

The rapids above Salto are hardly passable during the dries. About mid-October cruisers cross them, but they must presently return, under pain of confinement to the upper river till the next year's flood. Admiral Tamandare was fortunate in passing over his four gunboats in August, 1865. Here the best agates of commerce (chalcedonies) are found, and about 200 tons are yearly exported to Havre and Antwerp : they occur detached or embedded in the amygdaloid, adhering to the hard sandstone like butter to bread. The noble quartzes appear in water-rolled pebbles, large and small ; there is the amethyst, the true agate, jas- per, cornelian, onyx, sardonyx, and jet : sign of diamonds is also not wanting. All these come from the highlands of the Brazil, and are identical with the formations of the great Kio de Sa5 Francisco. Amongst them are perfect petrifactions of tree trunk, bark, and heart, wood silicified