Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/417



TO THE BRAZILIAN FRONT. 387

The Brazilian infantry — as has been the case with certain Continental armies, and happily not of ours — appeared to be the refuse of the other arms. The veteran who commands well knows how to handle them ; he always masses his men in heavy columns,, and he gives the enemy an " indigestion de negres" generally sending 20,000 to attack 7000. Mr. Consul Hutchinson ( " The Parana, with Incidents of the Paraguayan War, and South American Revolutions from 1861 to 1868 ") gives the portrait of a certain Sergeant Gonzalez, who,

" Terrible de port, de moustache, et de cceur,"

fought, single-handed, ten men. Negroes, however, will ad- vance when they are led, and these men become, after their blood is warmed, '^ teimosos " (stubborn and obstinate) as the Egyptians, who proved themselves such good soldiers in the Mexican campaign. But at all times the officer must say "Venite, non ite," like those of our Sepoy corps, whose dis- proportionate loss, compared with the officers of home regi- ments, has often been commented npon.

The battalions began with being 600 to 700 strong, and the light infantry 500 ; they may now average 400 to 500. The Paraguayans originally numbered the same, but soon fell off to half. Perhaps the most distinguished corps was the 7th Paulista Volunteers. In the first flush of the war it was joined by men of family and fortune, till it melted away amongst the swamps and fens of Lower Paraguay. It took part in almost every great action, till death and sickness so reduced it that the remnant was incorporated with other regiments. Amongst the number was an ex-officer of the British Navy, Alferez (Ensign) John King, who had been transferred to the 53rd Volunteers. I made inquiries about him, but he was not to be found, having been Iv^ounded in a late action and left in the Humaita hospital.

25—2