Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/364



334 A VISIT TO THE GRAN CHACO.

in the Platine bosom. This affair was called the "Battle of Acaynasa" — the "tangled bonghs ; " and Marshal-Presi- dent Lopez made of it a great victory.

Terrified by the determined reconnaissance pushed into the Hnmaita enceinte by General Osorio (July 16^ 1868), the Paraguayans resolved as usual to evacuate it, but this time they were somewhat too late. Of the Commanding Triumvirate, Colonels Alen, (not Allen, as the home papers wrote him), formerly Chief of Staff to General Robles, Francisco Martinez, and Captain Procopio Cabral, the former had blown away part of his face in attempted suicide, and the command had thus devolved upon the second ; D. Pedro Gill being then made third in command. A small ration of maize was issued to each man before embarkation, and the half-famished garrison began on July 23 the evacua- tion, which ended July 25. Their numbers had been 4600, families included : they were now reduced to 4000, of whom only about 2500 were fighting men. The women and children were first ferried over, running the gauntlet of the ironclads ; and sundry field-pieces were rafted up a trench which they had cut from the Albardon Point to an inner lagoon.

The stout-hearted fugitives at once threw up hasty earth- works on dry land between the waters. But their position was hopeless. North-east lay the Allied redoubt, Andai, backed by two ironclads ; to the south-west were also two ironclads, whose shot crushed through the thin wood, and crossing with the fire of the Andai, cut off their retreat to the west ; and finally, on the south-east stood the Chaco fort held by the Brazilians. The Allied force numbered some 12,000 men, of whom 2000 were Argentines. Yet the wretches fought for eleven days, losing 800 of their number ; amongst them Colonel Hermosa,who was killed by Lieutenant Saldanha, the nephew of the Portuguese grandee. Some 200 to 300 cut a path through the enemy^s lines and escaped