Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/43

 Argentine land the Luso-American is always talked of as Macáco, the ape. Travellers have noticed the manifold contradictions of the national mind—such as its "Indian" reserve mixed with kindness and seeming frankness; its hospitality to, and dislike of, foreigners; the safety of the purse, not of the throat, throughout the Republic; and its excessive distrust, méfiance, and suspicion, concealed by apparent openness and candour. Some of our countrymen employ Paraguayan captives as shepherds and labourers;  they are found to work well, but the man will, if possible, lie all day in his hammock or about the hut, and send his wife afield. Personally, I may state that in every transaction with Paraguayans—of course not the upper dozen—they invariably cheated or robbed me, and that in truthfulness they proved themselves to be about on a par with the Hindu. Even the awful Marshal President was not safe from their rascality.

It is pretended by his enemies that Dr. Francia, the better to sustain his despotism, brought about amongst a  semi-Republican, semi-patriarchal race, a state of profound immorality, in the confined sense of the word, and that to the encouragement of low debauchery he added that of gambling. The fact is, he ruled the people by systematising the primitive laxity and the malpractices which he found amongst them; and in autocracies generally, the liberty conceded to society is in exact inverse ratio to the strictness with which political latitudinarianism is curbed. Dr. Francia rose to power over a nation of whom each member was profoundly satisfied with his family, his native valley, his country; with his government, which he adored, and with his religion, to him the only one upon earth. The contempt of mankind was the beginning of his wisdom. He asserted, as do his friends, that Paraguay has no other fault but that of being the strongest and the most prudent of