Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/369



A VISIT TO THE GRAN CllACO. 339

tories of Mexico and Peru. Thus^ when an " Indian " Ca- cique prisoner was sent by Cortes to Guatiraocin, "as the captive began to speak of peace, his lord ordered him in- stantly to be killed and sacrificed/^ (Third letter of Cortes, Collecion Lorenzana.) At length 1450* men, 95 officers, and two Franciscan friars included, yielded themselves up to General Rivas, who swore on the hilt of his sword that they should be safe ; they came forth from their forest den, and piled arms in the clearing which we have just visited, the officers retaining their swords, and the men being saluted by the Brazilian troops. The victors gained only four flags and a few worthless arms, with canoes, hides, and sheepskins — a richer plunder might be found in Dahome.

Fresh traces of the death-struggle still lay around, and everything spoke of the powerful and vehement nationality of Paraguay ; the miserable remains of personal property told eloquently of the heart which the little Republic had thrown into the struggle. The poor rags, ponchos of door- rug, were rotting like those that wore them ; and amongst fragments of letters we picked up written instructions for loading heavy guns. All were in the same round hand, legible and little practised ; it is said that in Paraguay the writing drill is regular as any other. There was a stand of broken sabres and bayonets ; stirrups of wood and metal, mere buttons, like those of Abyssinia, to be held between the toes ; and brass military stirrups, made wide to admit the boot. The short cloth kepis had been worn by infantry, and the tall leather cavalry caps, off which a sabre might glance, bore the national tricolor, the inverse of the Dutch, blue being the uppermost.

I felt a something of the hysterica passio at the thought of so much wasted heroism. And this personal inspection of the

placed a few women and children. Some do not mention the two friars,
 * The Argentine papers reduced the number to 1200 ; amongst them they

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