Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/443



LETTEE XXIII.

TRIP TO ASUNCION, THE CIUDAD.

April 10, 1869.

My dear Z ,

On September 4^ 1868, I left, you may remember,, the Allied Army crossing the Tebicuary, and marching northwards to dislodge Marshal-President Lopez from his last river-stronghold, Angostura- cum -La Villeta. As they followed the high road up stream for some thirty- three to forty leagues from San Fernando, a few skirmishes occurred^ especially on November 25. This was distinguished by a reconnaissance en force by land and water, in which Marshal Caxias and Admiral Ignacio led. From San Fernando to the Guardia de las Palm as the invader spent eighteen days : he found seven " ports '^ where the ships could touch, and one at which his force could be provisioned. The Brazilian army had carried out its usual system of cutting a road through the Gran Chaco, and of throwing troops on the enemy's rear. Four great actions had been fought between December 21 and 27, 1868, and the Marshal- President had been driven by immense odds from the river- line which he had defended with such obstinacy. As I have told you, the arch enemy having fled to the interior, the war had been officially reported " ended.^^ The second phase had, it is true, passed away, but the third and final — the guerilla — was still to be fought, and the croakers declared that the real difficulties of the campaign were now to commence.

Meanwhile, Mr. William C. Maxwell and I had wandered