Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/73



INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 43

sence of the crisis produced by the internal disorders of the Hispano- American States, he persuaded them to choose after the fasliion of the Roman Republic, a Dictator for three years, and to make him their Dictator. The troops under Yegros refused to acknowledge the civilian, but the storm was averted by the neglected triumvir Caballero, who went to the barracks and succeeded in appeasing the mutineers. Caballero, it is said, strangled himself in prison about 1821, and Yegros, according to the Robertsons, was afterwards shot or bayonetted by his successful rival.

Dictator Francia at once established himself in the palace of the ancient Spanish Governors, and began to govern in real earnest. The dark and mysterious figure, morally as well as physically, has excited abundant interest. Pen-and- ink portraits of him have been left by Rengger and Long- champs, by the Robertsons, and by D. Santiago Arcos (La Plata, Etude Historique, p. 295; Paris, 1865). He is alluded to by Sir Woodbine Parish, with whom he had an official correspondence touching some eighteen or nineteen British subjects; but he did not release them until 1826. The Pharoahnic practice of not letting the people go was found therefore, ready made in Paraguay by Marshal President Lopez, and in these days "circumstances" do not much encourage the type of British naval officer represented in 1815 by the very gaUant Captain the Honourable Percy Jocelyn of H.M.'s ship Hotspur, commanding H.B.M.'s ships in the river Plate.

England unfortunately derived her knowledge of Dr. Francia from the works supplied to the book-trade in an age when Negro Emancipation, Constitutional Government, the rule of the "Anglo-Saxon" race, and the mercantile " Civis sum Romanus " were rampant. " Dr. Francia's Reign of Terror"-' and "Letters from Paraguay," by the brothers Robertson are still our staple. The brothers were well