Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/455



TRIP TO ASUNCION. 425

^niandsome country" of flat meadow-land, dotted with tree- mottes and with the tallest carandai palms yet remarked. At present it is mostly under water, and the flood extends north to the Rio Confuso. After Marshal Argolo had cut his painful way through the Gran Chaco, the Brazilians reached this place on November 25, 1868. The river rising rapidly, threatened to drown out the camp : this precipitated operations in a manner not usual. The ironclads, which had run past the Angostura battery, at once embarked 8000 infantry and artillery, but not for La Villeta, as had been expected ; they chose San Antonio, four to five miles further up. The vanguard was followed by others till the force rose to 25,000 men. According to some of the Paraguayan prisoners. Marshal Caxias here completely outwitted Marshal- President Lopez. This I greatly doubt : moreover, the in- tended landing at San Antonio appeared in the Buenos Aires papers several days before it was efi'ected.

North of La Villeta is the wooded line of the " Abay,^** wrongly written Ivahy stream. The word means "Indian water^^ (Aba-yg). Here also, on the 11th December, in the midst of a violent storm, hard fighting took place. Some 5000-6000 Paraguayans and eighteen guns, under General Caballero,whom I have mentioned as the most gallant of their ofl&cers, held their ground for nearly five hours, until sur- rounded and cut up by the enemy^s cavalry. The Brazilians captured seventeen guns, and carried oflP 800 unwounded, besides 600 wounded prisoners, many of them officers of rank. Of these several at once escaped — General Caballero, Major Moreno, commanding the artillery, Major Mongelos, and others. The Brazilians had also some 4000 men hors de combat, and amongst these was the gallant General Osorio, who, badly wounded in the mouth by a musket-ball, was compelled to leave the field.

Here the Cerro de Santo Antonio, which from Angostura