Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/319



A WEEK AT CORRIENTES. 289

into port, surprised, fired into, boarded, and took two old merchant vessels belonging to the Argentines, the Gualeguay and the 25 de Maio. The prizes thus piratically made were repaired, and were made to figure in the Marshal-President^s flotilla. The outrage was hailed as a triumph by the out- rager, and the indignation caused in Buenos Aires by the " vandalic and treacherous aggression " was of the fiercest. "War was at once resolved upon, and both combatants, Para- guayans and Argentines, be it noted, were firmly persuaded that the campaign would be a mere military promenade. The same was the case with us in the Crimea, despite the Napoleonic precept and the world-wide axiom touching the estimation due to an enemy.

On the day following the capture, the Paraguayan Gene- ral Robles, a veteran who, in 1863, received the epaulette of Brigadier, occupied, as has been said, Corrientes with 3000 infantry, and was presently reinforced by 800 cavalry, men from the Paso la Patria. Thereupon Bobles marched south- wards, committing the usual error of weakening his force by leaving under Major Martinez three steamers, two small guns, and two battalions. The people w^ere not unfriendly to the invaders, and the city was well treated. Some assert that white men were forced to kneel in the streets before the in- vader's sentinels, and that the women escaped insult and outrage with some difficulty; others declare that the Para- guayans abused their power only at Bella Vista, and in the country parts.

After this move, D. Jose Berges, Minister of Foreign Affairs, was sent by Marshal-President Lopez to govern Corrientes with the assistance of a triumvirate. That officer's name is still remembered with gratitude. He succeeded in curbing military licence, and passports were freely given to those who desired to expatriate themselves. Governor Lagrana of Corrientes^ also retiring south, called out a lands turm; and

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