Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/376



346 TIMb6— ESTABELECIMENTO NOVO.

which is supposed to grow only from Corrientes to Paraguay. Here in early February^ 1868, the Marshal-President sent from Curupaity eight 32 -pounders and six 8-inch guns under Captain Ortiz. During the fall of Humaita it was gallantly commanded by General Caballero, the preux che- valier of the Paraguayan army. A young and handsome man^ distinguished by dash and reckless bravery, he and his aide- de-camp were captured by the enemy at the Battle of the Lomas, but both escaped. The Marshal-President knew his value ; he was the only Paraguayan who could safely under- take upon his own responsibility such a movement as the evacuation of Timbo.

Timbo, on the Chaco side, is the usual simple redoubt, in a shallow bend with the left, resting upon the river, and the right, as is shown by the smooth treeless grass, upon a dwarf banado. The bank being here barely four feet high, the gun -platforms required to be raised. Of these there were forty-one facing the east, west, and south ; eight old iron pieces remained, but all the field-guns had been car- ried oflF. Few cartridges and shells were lying about ; in fact, the leisurely evacuation was a perfect contrast to that of Humaita. The only extensive work was a triple line of zanjas, or wet ditches, parapets, and abatis facing to the south, and this the Brazilians were levelling. Hides were scat- tered about, and apparently had been i^sed for many dif- ferent purposes, for coracles, strengthened by wooden frame- works, and for sponging-tanks ; the latter were in " bangue " form, like saltpetre strainers mounted upon four dwarf uprights. The mat-huts and sheds had been burnt down. The Marshal-President is apparently determined to make every abandoned place a small Moscow. The normal electric wire had not been forgotten. We avoided entering the hot, damp powder-magazines ; they are full of the common flea, and of its penetrating kin [pulex penetrans), the bicho