Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/296



266 FROM ROZARIO TO CORRIENTES.

six " chatas/^ or ^^ chalanas/^ barges or flat-bottomed boats_, wbich the Paraguayans used tbroughout the campaign to great effect. I know not who claims the honour of having suggested the idea. The " chata " was a kind of double- prowed punt^ strengthened with sundry layers of two-inch planking, undecked,, drawing a few inches water^ and standing hardly half a foot above the surface^ with just room enough for men to serve a single gun, either mortar, 68-pounder, or 8-inch. Thus the chata could not only thread, by poling or by being towed, the shallow streams ; it could also inflict considerable damage upon an ironclad ; and it was hard to hit_, as only the gun-muzzle appeared above the surface. These gunboats often singly engaged the whole fleet. It is a feature of considerable naval interest, and well adapted to defend or to attack the inner water communications of a country like Paraguay. The Paraguayan fleet was placed upon command of Captain Mesa, with Captain Cabral as second. Consciousness of inferiority suggested to General Bruguez an accompaniment of flying batteries to ply along the beach below the barranca to the north of the Riachuelo, and boarding parties, consisting of 500 picked men, were sent on board the ships.

Captain Mesa had been ordered to run past the Brazilians at daybreak ; to turn short round ; to lay each of his ships alongside one of the enemy ; to pour in a broadside, and to take the prizes in tow. Amongst other things, grappling- irons were forgotten. It reminds me of a certain Anglo- Indian attack upon Sikh batteries, when the engineers neglected to bring spikes. The action was unjustifiably delayed till 9.30 a.m. (June II), and the Paraguayans, after exposing themselves to a vastly superior artillery, actually ran down to the mouth of the Riachuelo before turning up stream. Thus they gave the Brazilians time to make ready and to go down to meet them. The fight began well for