Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/490



460 AGAIN TO THE ALLIED FRONT.

train had started before its time ; apparently the departures are never exacts except when you reckon upon their in- exactitude. We passed the time in inspecting the fine barracks of San Francisco, and the " banquillo" or benchlet, facing east, a seat between two posts,, where criminals were shot at daybreak against a dead wall. Traitors, as usual in these lands, were fired into from behind.

The Major had promised us places by the third train, which leaves at 10 a.m., and for this time we were careful not to be late. Every appliance was of the rudest description. The asthmatic little engine — which, after serving its time upon the Balaklava line, and being condemned as useless at Buenos Aires, had been shipped ofi" to Paraguay — was driven by a Brazilian officer in goggles. Passenger-carriages there were none; and the shallow waggons piled three stories high with sacks of maize and bales of pressed alfalfa, each weighing 300 to 400 lbs., formed a perch from which a fine act of flying into the nearest field could be performed. Something of the kind happened to the next batch of travellers, with due fracture of nose, limb, and head.

Dr. Newkirk was accompanied by his faithful servant, a Correntino, who hardly lost a moment in getting drunk, and in addressing us generally with japii — a lie. After the usual delay, we wound slowly through the eastern suburbs, hard stared at by a few ^' half-sarkit â€¢" and cotton drawered natives, an ill-favoured race, of whom no ^' pathetic fallacy^^ could make a provisional government. Our eyrie was lined with a body of Paraguayan dames and damsels, all more or less tinged by red-skin blood. They screamed lustily when the smoke and steam combining to blow in our faces, spotted skin and raiment with blacks, as though we had been peppered. The dress was a red or white cloth over the shoulders, a tipoi or chemisette very open in front, and a petticoat with lace flounces ; shoes were rare, and