Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/344



LETTEE XV.

HUMAITA.

My dear Z-

Hamaita, August 24, 1868.

After a stare of blank amazement, my first question was — where is Huraaita ? Where are the "regular polygons of the Humaita citadel?" Where is " the great stronghold which was looked upon as the key- stone of Paraguay ?'* I had seen it compared with Silistria and Kars, where even Turks fought ; with Sebastopol in her strength, not in the weakness attributed to her by General Todleben and Mr. Kinglake ; with the Quadrilateral which awed Italy ; with Luxembourg, dear to France ; with Rich- mond, that so long held the Northerners at bay ; and with the armour-plated batteries of Vicksburg and the shielded defences of Gibraltar. Can these poor barbettes, this en- trenched camp sans citadel — which the Brazilian papers had reported to have been blown up — be the same that resisted 40,000 men, not to speak of ironclads and gunboats, and that endured a siege of two years and a half? I came to the conclusion that Humaita was a monstrous " hum," and that, with the rest of the public, I had been led into be- lieving the weakest point of the Paraguayan campaign to be the strongest.

As so much that is erroneous has been written about Humaita, you will not object to a somewhat prolix true description.

The site of the " Blackstone" batteries is the normal re- entering angle of the eastern bank, but the sweep is more