Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/438



408 RETURN TO BUENOS AIRES.

returned to Humaita^ having gone into the hold during action. Lopez gave some foreigners to understand that he was very much vexed it had been reported to him, but that, such being the case, he had no other course to pursue/^

The suspicion of treason, and the tirm resolve to fight his last man, seem to have acted unfavourably upon the Marshal- President. Moreover, it is generally believed that about this time he had become addicted to port wine and piety ; to mass-going and hard drinking. When T first visited the Allies (August to September, 1868), all were talking of the butcheries which disgraced his rule, and, as usual, they talked so much that the less credulous portion of the public began to disbelieve the reports generally. The victims were killed and brought to life again half a dozen times during the course of the year, and when I last left Paraguay, men still hesitated how much to credit. True, the Tri- buna of Buenos Aires had published (Feb. 20, 1869) a long list of the dead and slain, purporting to be an extract from General Resquin^s diary, which began with May 31, 1868. But even this paper was looked upon with suspicion. It might, after all, be nothing but a ruse de guerre.

The next important witness is the Honourable Charles A. Washburn, United States Minister, and the only Foreign Minister accredited to Paraguay. In September, 1865, 1 was introduced to this gentleman at Rio de Janeiro, before his departure for his post. After meeting with some obstructions from the Brazilians, or rather from the Allies, he reached Asuncion, and was favourably impressed by the cause and by the President of the small llepublic. He afterwards left his post early in 1865, on home leave ; and when he returned to it on November 1 of the same year, he had to force the blockade in a ship of war, the Shamokin, against the wish of the Generalissimo Mitre, and under protest from Admiral Tamandare. In early March, 1867, he ofi'ered to act as mediator between