20 Dr. Francia, the Dictator of Paraguay. [JAN. 



attending a congress in which they felt very little interest, and, more 

 especially, alarmed by the presence of a strong body of troops devoted 

 to Francia, he was appointed dictator for three years, by an immense 

 majority of the votes ; while, at the moment, there was probably not 

 twenty individuals in all Paraguay who understood the precise nature 

 of the title of dictator, assigning no other meaning to it but that of 

 governor. 



The congress assigned to Francia the title of " Excellency," with an 

 allowance of 9,000 dollars ; of which sum he consented to receive only a 

 third, observing, that the state stood more in need of money than he 

 did an example of moderation worthy of imitation, and one from which 

 he has never since departed. 



His elevation to the head of affairs wrought a complete revolution in 

 his own life. Women and play were for ever abandoned ; and his moral 

 conduct was marked by more than monkish austerity. The morning was 

 devoted to business the evening to reading, especially such French 

 authors as he was able to procure, having studied that language a short 

 time previous to the revolution. Belles-lettres, history, geography, and 

 mathematics, were particularly the objects of his application. The medi- 

 cal science being but little understood in Paraguay, he read Buchan and 

 Tissot, and made an experiment of their prescriptions upon his own per- 

 son. But it was to the military science that his attention was principally 

 directed, fully sensible that upon the effective organization of his army 

 depended the existence of his country and the duration of his authority. 

 His first care was, therefore, to officer it by creatures of his own, and to 

 enforce the most rigid discipline ; and, as he felt his power increased in 

 strength, changes were gradually brought about both in the civil and 

 ecclesiastical administrations. The three years of his dictatorship were 

 on the eve of expiring, and a new congress was assembled in 1817* in 

 which he so effectually intrigued that they finally chose him dictator for 

 life. Having now attained the summit of his ambition, Francia boldly 

 threw off the mask, and signalized the commencement of his career by 

 acts of the most atrocious despotism. Whenever he rode out, he was 

 attended by a strong escort of cavalry, to whom were given orders to cut 

 down all those who should appear in the streets through which he passed. 

 The most trivial offences were visited by imprisonment and fetters. Two 

 Spanish friars were treated very unceremoniously : the dictator threw 

 them into a dungeon, having first ordered them to be dressed in yellow 

 jackets, and their heads shaved, " to prepare them," as he said, " for 

 their crown of glory." 



Another Spaniard, Don Jose Caussimo, was treated in a manner still 

 more cruel. The chains which he wore absolutely lacerated his flesh ; 

 and when Francia was informed of the circumstance, he replied, " If 

 he wants other chains, he must get them himself;" and, in fact, the wife 

 of the unfortunate prisoner had the sad office to perform of procuring 

 other irons, with which her husband was to be manacled. 



It was at this period that our Swiss travellers reached Assumption ; 

 and the particulars of their first audience with the dictator are extremely 

 interesting. " He is a man," says Reugger, " with regular features, 

 and those fine dark eyes which so eminently characterize the Creoles of 

 South America. The expression of his countenance was singular, com- 

 bining shrewdness . with distrust. He was dressed in the embroidered 

 uniform of a Spanish general officer, and, although in the sixty-second 



