Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/80



50 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

The Dictator,, apparently impassive and phlegmatic^ was most sensitive to anything like a claim of predominance, superiority, or influence of strangers ; he poignantly felt every insult of the foreign press, and he was ever ready to attribute to contempt the most indifferent actions of the " tagues" — that is to say, all who are not Paraguayans. He therefore encouraged the prejudices of the people, who soon learnt to look upon itself as the first in the world, to whom all others would, if permitted, do homage.

Diplomatic relations with foreign powers were mercilessly cut off. In 1840 the Argentine Government again de- spatched to Paraguay an envoy directed to apply for deputies to attend the coming sessions of the General Con- gress. This agent wisely remained at Corrientes, and for- warded his credentials by an emissary, who was at once thrown into prison. The diplomatic representative of the Brazil also received his passports.

In order to complete the blockade it was necessary to prevent the ingress of traders and travellers who might bring with them pestilent books and doctrines. The town of El Pilar or Nembucu, 154 miles from Asuncion, was made the terminus of ship navigation and the 7ie plus ultra of the foreign voyager. As late as 1845, Colonel Graham, the United States^ Consul, Buenos Aires, when on a special mission to Paraguay, was here delayed by Dr. Francia some twenty days. The strip of country between S. Borja and Ytapua, now Encarnacion, was constituted the sole place ac- cessible to land import, especially to Brazilian commerce, and no Paraguayan could repair thither without leave ; thus the post became the " mutual factory of a second China."

All who entered the Republic without permission were straightway imprisoned. The explorers of the Rio Bermijo were not only placed in durance vile, they were also plundered of their journals. When M. Aime Bonpland