Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/366



336 A VISIT TO THE GRAN CHACO.

mangruUos, or look-outs^ were attached to the taller trees. Presently we readied a clearing where the forest had been felled to admit the fire of the Brazilian ironclads. Our next step was to the Andai_, or Chaco Camp^ the redoubt thrown up by General Rivas. I met this gallant Argen- tine at Humaita. In appearance he was rather Italian than South American; a stout man of medium stature^, with straight features^ and rather bushy goatee and mustachios. Over his uniform he wore a weathered poncho of vicuna or guanaco wool, here costing some three gold ounces, not the usual cheap, tawdry imitations made in England; and the long riding-boots gave him the aspect of a man of action. He was then doomed to temporary idleness, his left wrist having been pierced by a ball during the disastrous attack of Curupaity.

The right flank of the Andai rested upon the river, and the left upon the Laguna Vera; whilst its front and rear were sufficiently protected from a coup de main either of cavalry or of infantry. At the approaches were three, and in places four, ranges of trous de loup {bocas de lobo), each armed with a sharpened stake. The abatis was picketed down according to rule, not loose-strewn after the Paraguayan fashion, which wants only a horse and a lasso to open a gap. A deep ditch and a parapet, with fascines and sandbags, com- pleted the defences. Inside were tall and effective earthen traverses, and strong bomb-proof magazines made of mould heaped upon layers of tree-trunks. The direct distance from Humaita was not more than two miles, and the Paraguayans had done their best to gall the garrison with shot and shell.

I here for the first time saw Brazilian soldiers in camp. About 600 men were throwing up inner works to contract the arc ; this was probably done to give them some em- ployment, for after the evacuation of Timbo the use of the place was gone, and the redoubt was presently dismantled. The camp appeared clean in the extreme, owing to the