Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/322

 LETTEE XIII.

FROM CORRIENTES TO HUMAITl.

Humaita, August 22, 1868.

My dear Z ,

We now enter upon the proper scenes of the Paraguayan war. I will tantalize your impatience for a while by recounting our life on board the good ship Yi.

The Yi, I have told you_, is a bran new " floating hotel/^ with her plated silver dazzling, her napkins stiff-starched, and her gilt mouldings upon the untarnished white panels clean as a new sovereign. A common English passenger steamer would have been far plainer, but proportionally much more comfortable. The splendid saloon all along the second deck will presently wax dingy, and there is no pos- sible walking in the open air. The tables draw out and collapse cleverly, but with trouble. The three stewards are expected to do the work of one man ; they are exceedingly civil, and they do nothing. Of course, this is the fault of the comisario, or purser, a small Spanish bantam, or rather "hen-harrier,"'^ who spends all his time in trifling with the feminine heart. The captain, Don Pedro Lorenzo riores — do not forget the Don, and if you want anything say Sefior Don — was an ex-item of that infinitesimal body, the national navy of the Banda Oriental. He brought out Yi for its Company from the United States, and he avenges himself upon Northern and Anglo-American coarse- ness by calling all Yankees " rascals." His chief duty is to bale out the soup, to pass cigars, and to send round sherry after dinner. This must be done to everybody at table.