Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/94



C4 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

delimitation question should be settled within the precise period of one year. When the Brazil rejected the latter, Paraguay sent to Eio de Janeiro a plenipotentiary, who concluded (April 6, 1856) the treaty of commerce and navigation, fixing the period of determining the boundaries at six years, during which neither people might occupy the disputed lands."^ During January, 1858, took place the Convention of Asuncion between Paraguay and the Brazil, when the river was opened to the merchant shipping of all friendly peoples. Meanwhile, the Boundary question was complicated by the presence of the new batteries, whose strength was grossly exaggerated ; the Brazil began to collect military stores in Matto-Grosso, and a war was evi- dently brewing.

About the middle of 1858, Asuncion was visited by Mr. Christie; he came as Plenipotentiary to renew the com- mercial treaty whose limits were 1853-1860. At first all ran smoothly, and the Minister, when presenting his credentials, addressed President Lopez in flattering terms. Presently difficulties arose; Mr. Christie insisted upon ter- minating the business in twenty days, and wished to transact personally with the President the negotiation business opened with the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The testy Lopez then showed his temper, and the Plenipo- tentiary having failed in his mission returned, no friend to the Government of Paraguay.

This regrettable incident was followed in 1859 by the " Canstatt aff'air.'^ The President had thrown into prison some twelve, others say twenty, persons accused of having conspired to shoot him in the theatre. Amongst these was a certain Santiago Canstatt, who still lives, but without the

Rio A pa as her boundary, Paraguay the Rio Blanco.
 * To sum up the question of limits iu the north, the Brazil claimed the