Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/342



812 TO humaitA.

propelled by the puny paddle — a shallow^ round wooden spoon. Some of these flat-bottomed and wall-sided craft, fitted with a troja, or hide hoiise^ could carry 200 tons.

An expedition of about 1200 men, armed with swords and hand-grenades_, was told off' under Captain Xenes, and after much fun and merriment they were dismissed with presents of cigars by Madame Lynch, who told them to " go and bring me back my ironclads.'^ They paddled off* on a very dark night in some forty-eight canoes, lashed in pairs by ropes about eighteen to twenty yards long, and each carrying twenty-five men.* By this contrivance they hoped to make sure of boarding, but the swiftness of the current carried many of them past the objects of attack into the very middle of the fleet. About half the number hit the mark and sprang on board almost unperceivedc The crews rushed below hatches and into their turrets — not, however, before some fifty of them were killed. The Paraguayans attempted to throw hand-grenades into the port-holes, and ran about seeking ingress, like a cat attacking a trapped mouse. The Lima Barros and the Cabral were thus virtually taken. Presently two other ironclads steamed up alongside their consorts, and cleared the decks with volleys of grape and canister. Nothing remained for the Paraguayan sur- vivors but to swim for life.

It is surprising that no attempts were made to blow up the ironclads. A heavy shell swung between two beams projecting like antennae from the bow of a canoe would have had every chance of success. But the object of the Paraguayans was not so much to destroy as to appropriate; and it was the general opinion that with a single captured ironclad at their disposal they would have cleared the river.

twelve men." But in the next page (254) he informs us that " the Para- guayans lost more than two hundred men."
 * Lt.-Col. Thompson says " there were twenty-four canoes, each carrying