Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/333



FROM CORRIENTES TO HUMAITA. 303

tree denotes the spot where the Brazilian batteries stood. This site, the first solid ground seen after the Confluence, smells of death ; here lie some 10,000 men, victims of cholera and small-pox, fever, and Crimean diarrhoea. Here- abouts were fought the battles of Yataity-Cora and Potreiro- Sauce, with the great actions, or rather surprises, of July 10-18, 1866, and of November 3, 1867.

Nearly opposite, but a little above the Piris opening, is the Atajo River — in fact, the eastern arm of the Paraguay. The bank is low, and the vegetation, after thinning out, becomes more luxuriant, large trees looming in the distance. The palm-groves of the Gran Chaco are now bare of mon- keys, its oldest inhabitants.

Three hours' steaming from Corrientes placed us off the historical site of Ciu'uzii — the Cross. It is a new outpost of Humaita, a short trench, whose right rested upon the Paraguay, and its left upon a water which communicates with the great Laguna Chichi. The river-bank is here broken, and four to five feet high. The current varies from two to three miles, and a little below it is a small nameless island : the right shore, as usual in such places, is low and clear, except of willow scrub. We saw the wreck of La Poriena, an American ship taken up as an hospital : she was here burnt with some eighty sick on board. Yellow mounds show where the now dismantled batteries once were, and cattle feed amongst the debris of earthworks. A wooden cross near the water marks the Brazilian Campo Santo ; and to the north of it are tree-clumps and an en- closure where General Argolo, Commanding 2nd Corps d'Armee, built his star-shaped redoubt.

Here, again, the fighting was fierce. The allied fleet began September 1, 1866, to bombard Curuzu, the southern- most outwork proper of Humaita. The defenders replied with spirit. The ironclad Rio de Janeiro was blown up by