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humaitA. 315

than usually concave, to the benefit of gunnery and the detriment of shipping. Nothing more dangerous than this great bend, where vessels were almost sure to get confused under fire, as happened at Port Hudson to the fleet com- manded by Admiral D. G. Farragut. The level bank, twenty to thirty feet above the river, and dipping in places, is bounded by swamps up-stream and down-stream. Earthworks, consisting of trenches, curtains, and redans, disposed at intervals where wanted, and suggesting the lines of Torres Vedras, rest both their extremities upon the river, whose shape here is that of the letter U, and extend in gibbous shape inland to the south. The outline measures nearly eight miles and a half, and it encloses meadow land to the extent of 8,000,000 square yards — a glorious battle-field. This exaggerated enceinte, which required a garrison of at least 10,000 men, was laid out by a certain Hungarian Colonel of Engineers, Wisner de Morgenstern, whom we shall see at Asuncion. He was not so skilful as Mr. Boyle with the billiard-room of Arrah.

Humaita, in 1854, was a mere Guardia in the Department de los Desmochados (hornless cattle), a river plain, wooded over like the heights of Hampstead and Highgate in the olden time. When Asuncion was threatened in 1855 by the Brazilian fleet, and troubles were expected from the United States, the elder Lopez felled the virgin forest, leaving only a few scattered trees, grubbed up the roots, and laid out the first batteries, to whose completion some two years were devoted. The place does not appear in Mr. Charles Mansfield's map of 1852-53. In 1863, Mr. M. Mulhall describes " a succession of formidable batteries which frowned on us as we passed under their range ; they are placed on a slight eminence, and seem guns of large calibre. First, four batteries a la harhette, covered with straw shed, which can be removed at a moment's notice ;