BONPLAXD IN BRAZIL. 379 



science. The offer was too tempting to be resisted. He 

 had long dreamed of such a journey, but his plans for it 

 had been repeatedly thwarted and postponed. It had 

 seemed to him that it was never to be, but here when he 

 least expected it, when he had almost ceased to think of 

 it, was an opportunity such as might never occur again. 

 He at once accepted the offer. 



Besides the preparations which such a journey 

 demanded, he was busy with other important matters — 

 the books that he had in progress, some of which were 

 then passing through the press, and above all with the 

 unhappy case of his friend Bonpland. We left poor 

 Bonpland as far back as 1817, in Brazil, on his way into 

 the interior of that country. He ascended the Parana 

 until he reached the ancient mission of the Jesuits, which 

 was situated on the left bank of that river, at a little dis- 

 tance from Itapua. The possession of this region of country 

 was then a subject of dispute between Paraguay and the 

 Argentine Confederation. Aware of this fact, Bonpland 

 notified Dr. Francia, the Dictator of Paraguay, of his 

 presence there, and explained to him his intention of 

 cultivating tea, with the aid of a small colony of Indians 

 whom he had taken into his service. Francia wished to 

 have the monopoly of tea to himself, so he pretended to 

 take Bonpland for a spy, and sent four hundred men 

 across the Parana one dark night to fall upon him and 

 his Indians. The little colony was taken by surprise ; a 

 massacre ensued, many of the Indians were killed, most 

 were wounded, and Bonpland himself received a sabre- 

 cut on the head. He repaid this inhuman assault by 

 dressing the wounds of the soldiers. Two days after- 

 wards (the massacre took place on the night of the 3d 



