Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/96



66 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

Aires the squadron which had conveyed him : its presence in the port caused no little alarm till General Urquiza, then Provisional Director of the Republic, repaired to Asuncion and lent his influence in satisfactorily disposing of all dif- ferences. On February 4, 1.859, another treaty, superseding that of 1853, was concluded between the United States and Paraguay, and soon afterwards it was decided that the claims of Mr. Hopkins were null and void.

Some annoyance was also caused in France by the treat- ment of her subjects settled in Paraguay. A contract, signed at Bordeaux, created a colony, hence called Nueva Burdeos, and the emigrants were located at '^ Gran Potrero del Cerro."'^ This ill-selected ground is on the right bank of the Paraguay, exposed to malarious influences, to the attacks of the Gran Chaco " Indians,"^ and, worse still, to the hostility of the Paraguayan people and authorities. The attempt proved an utter failure : some of the unfortunate Frenchmen fled, others were imprisoned, and others lost their lives. Those who have received inducements to pane- gyrize the policy of President Lopez I. throw the blame upon the " Armateurs,"^^ who sent out unfit emigrants. The impartial will remember that the " fournisseur" and Juge de paix appointed to Nueva Burdeos, was the opponent of Mr. Gould, the accuser of Mr. Washburn, and the Grouchy of the Paraguayan Waterloo, M. Luiz Caminos, a name carrying with it no pleasant associations.

Paraguay had now taken her place amongst civilized peoples. In 1859, she ofi'ered her mediation between the Argentine Confederation and the Province of Buenos Aires, a mother and daughter that had been separated seven years. The reunion was compassed by the Convention of S. Jose de Flores. In 1860, President Lopez undertook negotiations with the Holy See, presenting two priests for episcopal ordination, one as titular of the diocese, the other as