Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/453



TRIP TO ASUNCION. 423

lish engineer, who had worked on board the steamer Salto, that he had once seen the river only four feet deep at the " gut/^ but it is doubtful if this was ever the case of late years. In 1863, vessels have had to throw out two anchors, and to be dragged over the bank into deep water. The much-feared ^' bitter batteries " occupied the usual position at the toe of the horseshoe, and where they could also flank the front of the land-lines : a few shapeless heaps upon a bank some four feet above the river were their only vestiges. The first, or southernmost " Bateria de Angos- tura," the " left battery " of the Paraguayans, mounted eight guns, of which one was the " CrioUo," a 150-pounder, cast in the arsenal of Asuncion. The northern, or right battery, separated by a distance of 700 yards, was armed with seven guns, and others were placed singly, making a total of fifteen, and eleven magazines. The works were hurriedly built, and, as everywhere in Paraguay, they were open in the rear. After the flight of Marshal-President Lopez, they were surrendered at noon, December 30, 1868^ to the Allied generals, by Lieutenant-Colonels George Thompson and Lucas Carillo, the commanders, and the gallant garrison marched out with their arms and all the honours of war.

Behind the heaps remained a few rugged huts, and inland rose the mangruUo and the ranchos occupied by the Bra- zilians. Here we were boarded by a canoe crew of negro sailors belonging to an ironclad on guard. This ship was a great contrast to the Henry H. Davisofij a Mississippi boat bought for the navigation of the Bermejo, which presently came rushing past us. As a rule, only the refuse of steamers has been sent up to the war. Hereabouts the ground is much more simple and intelligible than that round Itapirii and Humaita. We were shown to the eastward the hill scattered with rude quintas, where the late Barao do