Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/361



A VISIT TO THE GRAN CHACO. 331

November 18, 1868, with fifteen of the so-called detenus ^ who were given to him under parole that he would not suffer them to communicate with those on shore. Amongst them was a Dr. Fox, who, having abjectly begged a passage down stream, afterwards insisted upon being landed. Cap- tain Parsons, however, shipped off all his live freight at Montevideo. A Mr. Nesbitt, mechanical engineer, having seen his wife and family on board, declared, in his own name and for a dozen fellow-workmen, that, having ever been well paid, fed, and treated, they would not abandon Marshal- President Lopez in his difficulties. This was unanswerable ; but those who wished to embroil us in an ignoble war de- clared that Mr. Nesbitt was forced to say what he did by the fear that his mates would be shot, and others shrewdly opined that the fate of poor King Theodore had changed the aspect of affairs. Again they were stultified by General Macmahon, the United States Minister who had replaced Mr. Charles A. Washburn. The anti-Lopists all declared him to be in durance vile amongst the mountains, and possibly compelled to superintend the preparations for a guerilla warfare. Despite these predictions, however, he returned, about the middle of 1869, to Buenos Aires, bring- ing good news of the British " captives,^^ who remitted, with his assistance, money to their families.

For the honour of the British name, I rejoice that we were not drawn into a disreputable broil with the gallant but overmatched little Republic. Even as it is, Marshal- President Lopez was justified in complaining that we should be more strict in enforcing the laws of neutrality. The Brazil was allowed to buy ironclads in England as well as in France ; though the case of the Alabama should long ago have taught us better. British and other foreign craft crowded the river, affording every possible assistance to the Allies. Marshal-President Lopez had surely a right to re-