Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/31



HAD intended to spare my readers the mortification of readings and myself of writing, this essay. Returning however to England, and once more restored to civilized society, my astonishment was great to find the extent of ignorance touching what has been called "La Chine Americaine" both grow tea, but that is their chief point of resemblance. I was mortified to see the want of interest attached to perhaps the most remarkable campaign fought during the present century, and I applied myself during my six weeks of leave to find out the cause of the phenomenon.

It proved on inquiry, that after the interest of Dr. Francia faded away, Paraguay had dropped clean out of general vision. Many, indeed, were uncertain whether it formed part of North or of South America; and it is, I need hardly say, impossible to take any interest about the fortunes of a race whose habitat is unknown. Moreover, the periodicals of Europe, wanting, like their public, accurate topographical knowledge of the scene of action, managed to invest a campaign whose grand movements are simple in the extreme