Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/457



TRIP TO ASUNCION. 427

broken by orange groves and coquito palms in small clearings, clothes the ground, and the section of the tree- clad cliflf that faces the river is of ruddy sandstone deeply gashed by the streams that intersect it. An islet, a few hovels, and slanting telegraphic posts mark the mouth of the deep narrow Arroyo Itororo. The name has been wrongly written Itonoro : it is translated " tumbling water/^ from Tororo, a jet d^eau, or cascade. The little wooden bridge where the slaughter took place is about half a mile from the mouth.

At Itororo took place the fierce battle of December 6. The Brazilians, having effected a landing, marched south- wards upon La Villeta, and were compelled to cross the Arroyo. Field-Marshal Argolo led the attack with the second corps d^armee; the first being kept in reserve, and the third, under General Osorio, having been detached to the left in order to outflank the enemy. General Caballero commanded the Paraguayan force, and Major Moreno had charge of the artillery — twelve field-pieces. A hand-to-hand fight ensued, and three times the bridge was taken and re- taken. At last Marshal Caxias led in person his first corps d'armee, which, uniting with the second, easily cleared the bridge and captured six of the guns. The fight must then have been well nigh over, for of his staff" of thirty-three officers none were killed and only one was wounded. In this affair the Brazilians had upwards of 3000 hors de combat. The brave Colonel Fernando Machado de Souza was killed, and Field- Marshal Argolo was struck in the neck and thigh.

At a short distance northwards of the Itororo appeared Santo Antonio, of old the principal port for loading oranges. The " Capitania^' — export officers^ quarters — still remains ; a fresldy whitewashed barn with a roof of blackened tiles, and a huge flagstaff. Here the Brazilians skilfully effected