Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/464



434 ASUNCION,

liberty. Mr. Taylor retired to Buenos Aires^ leaving in the camp of Marshal-President Lopez^ his wife, an English- woman, and three children, of whom one was at the breast.

A few minutes more place us off an apology for a plank pier where men land. Opposite it is a small redoubt, dis- mantled like the rest, and supporting a few dirty little " pal ^â– '-tents, and huts called hotels : these are inscribed " Garibaldi," " Au Petit rran9ais," "Le Sapeur," and so forth. It is a kind of suburb of the comercio or bazar, which lies hard by to the south-west.

Here we have a general view of " La Ciudad," the capital townlet, seated upon its amphitheatre of red bank, which slopes gracefully down to the lake-like stream : formerly it fronted due north ; but Dr. Francia, with his own hands, changed the orientation to 25Â° east. Thus it occupies the riverward side of a hill, or rather the section of a ridge which is bounded by low drains to the east and west. The length from the pier to the railway station is about three quarters of a mile, and the depth from the river to Calle Pilcomayo, which crowns the ridge-top, is from 500 yards to half a mile. It may still be extended to the south, where six streets only, out of a total of thirteen on paper, have been partially laid out and named. Beyond them the ground droops towards a shallow valley, and the thorough- fares are mere holes or piercings in the dense bush, with here and there a rancho. The ridge-crest is seventy-five metres above the river. At present there is no plan of the city, but this want will soon be supplied.

On the right of the landing-place, between the two redoubts, is the much talked of Asuncion arsenal, where the "busy iron islanders," about thirty in a total of 150 hands, are said to have cast upwards of a hundred guns. The large sheds, raised upon the site of an old convent, are of