Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/346



316 humaitA.

then a long casemate (the Londres)^ mounting sixteen guns, with bomb-proof roof; and finally, two more barbette bat- teries, making up a total of seventy-eight batteries. As the canal runs close to the bank, any vessel, unless iron-plated, attempting to force a passage must be sunk by the raking and concentrated fire of this fortification, which is the key to Paraguay and the upper rivers." (p. 84). At the beginning of the war it had only ninety guns in seven batteries. An exaggerated importance was always attached to it by the Paraguayan Government ; it became a great mystery, and strangers were not allowed to visit a settlement which was considered purely military. Mr. William Thompson, of Buenos Aires, narrowly escaped some trouble by strolling about to admire the pretty park-like scenery and the soft beauty of Humaita, a site then so amene and tranquil.

We will now land and inspect the river-side works, be- ginning up stream or at the easterly end.

We passed through the merchant fleet, then numbering some 270 hulls, supplying the 3000 booth-tents on shore ; this number includes the pontoons of the proveduria or commissariat. There is a line of shop-boats, whose masts support green waterproof awnings ; each carries a woman and an anchor, and they sell all small wants and notions — thread, mirrors, and so forth. Two chatas, or barge gun- boats, lie alongside the land, one carries a iO-inch mortar, the other an 8-inch iron gun.^ It was a hard scramble up the stiff bank, which ignored steps or even a ramp.

At the eastern end we found the corral of commissariat cattle occupying the place where stood the coal sheds and the iron-foundry. Here had been cast the gun '^^ Cristiano," lately sent as a trophy to the Brazil, weighing twelve tons.

same, but the former weighs 65 cwt., the latter 95.
 * The calibres of the 8-inch gun and the English CS-pounder are the