Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/458



428 TRIP TO ASUNCION.

a landing. It is generally believed, however, that Marshal- President Lopez had purposely left the place undefended after stationing at Asuncion M. Luiz Caminos, his War Minister, with a flying column of 2000 men and eighteen guns ready to fall upon any corps that might land. There is little doubt that so strong a force attacking in the bush would have thrown the Brazilians into complete confusion. But the " Grouchy of the Paraguayan Waterloo,^^ as M. Caminos is now called, preferred retreating with his com- mand upon Cerro Leon, where the mountains promised him safety. M. Cuverville, the French Consul at Asuncion, so often reported to have been imprisoned by the " bloodthirsty tyrant," declares that when Marshal-President Lopez and Madame Lynch first met him after the flight from Loma Valentina, the latter exclaimed, in great agitation, "We have had a terrible disaster" (un affreux desastre) — " we owe it to M. Caminos." Of course it was reported that M. Caminos had been shot.

And now, as we have been working up stream, whereas the fighting came down it, you may like to read an abstract of the events which distinguished the December of 1868. On the 5th the Brazilian army disembarked at Santo Antonio, whereas the enemy expected it at La Villeta. The battle of Itororo occurred as the invader was marching southwards to attack the headquarters of Marshal-President Lopez. Victorious at this point, the Generalissimo, having encamped at Ipane, pressed forwards, and, December 11, won the battle of Abay. On December 21 General Menna Barreto cleared the trenches of Pikysyry, and completely cut ofi' the Angostura batteries from the headquarters at Loma Valen- tina. Marshal Caxias then drove the enemy from the strong point of Ita Yvnti to a position in the woods about one mile further to the rear. On December 25 Marshal President Lopez lost his cavalry, and found himself reduced to 1000