Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/264



234 UP THE PARANA RIVER TO ROZARIO.

composed of a one and a quarter incli chain amidships, flanked by two one-inch chains on each side, and floated across the channel upon thirteen pontoons formed of small dismasted vessels. Commodores Hotham and Trehouart sent, on Nov. 20, 1845, Lieutenants Hope (now Admiral Sir James Hope) and de la Morvonnais^^ (whose estancia we passed upon the Uruguay river), and after the fleet had suffered severely by being detained under batteries which could not be turned, the cold chisel soon opened a way. This " beau fait d'armes " is at this moment especially in- teresting ; we are bound for Paraguay, and we become curious about chains and booms.

Now we approach S. Nicolas de los Arroyos, 185 miles from Buenos Aires, and famed as the prettiest part of the stream. The bottom is here sandy not muddy, and there are few snags or sawyers, the rare driftwood being gene- rally carried towards the western shore into which the stream is now biting. The vegetation begins to change^ the " ceibo " is finer though less common, and generally the leafage is larger. The left bank is low and flat : the right, tall and well raised, supports the townlet, which is limited by a creek on the north. All visible from the river is a string of new houses, mostly of brick and nearly finished : the lower town of S. Nicolas, in April, 1869, will be under water. Apparently all the traffic goes " aquas arriba" none down ; big ships lie at anchor, other ships run up before the " soldier's wind,"- and a steam-tug tows her three anchors, proud as a hen with chickens. The craft is of every kind, good, bad, and indifferent, all being equally fish to the war-makers, who prefer quantity to quality. At night the ships have an old habit of making fast to the trees, hence hoar and reverend jests put into the

the part taken by our French allies in this gallant enterprise.
 * I regret to see that English writers have chosen entirely to ignore