Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/502



472 CONCLUDING LETTER.

again looked exceedingly mean and unclean, and we then transferred ourselves, in a violent squall, to the neat little steamer Goija, Captain Bellesi.

The Goya landed as at Buenos Aires, not without a trifling adventure which might have turned out serious. When night was about its noon on Saturday, April 17, we were suddenly thrown clean out of our berths. The crushing and crashing of spars told us that a collision had taken place. We ran on deck, expecting an ugly swim and cold dreary night amongst the mosquitoes. But I was once more in luck, having just escaped the Santiago wrecked at mid- night in Mercy Bay, Straits of Magellan. Large loomed a hull, the Itapicuru steamer, which had just crossed our bows. Fortunately, however, as we were making thirteen knots an hour, the captain and the two English engineers were on the alert, and " Stop 'er V and " Back ^er V were ordered and obeyed in a few instants. We swept away the enemy^s three boats, whilst several of our plates were destroyed; the stanchions were twisted as if by machinery, and we sustained a total of damage estimated at $3000 (f.). We followed the foe, whistling her to stop, which of course she did not, and the results of the affair were legal pro- ceedings, in which the Goya will be happy if she receives half her claims.

My most obliging and accomplished friend, Mr. G. P. Crawfurd, at once carried me off to the office of the Buenos Aires " Tribuna," where I renewed acquaintance with a fellow traveller, D. Hector Varela, and was introduced to his brother, D. Rufino. The latter allowed me to inspect the documents taken at Loma Yalentina from the private carriage of Marshal-President Lopez ; and these prove him to be

" Cunning and fierce — mixture abhorred."

They range through upwards of a decade, and throw a fierce