INTRODUCTION. 
27 
\\hile Lopez was erecting liis fortress Ilumaitii, and why it sliould never 
have thought of placing its army and navj" on a better footing, or, at 
^ least, of opening a road to the menaced Mato Grosso, so easily to be cut 
' off entii’ely. The imj)ortancc of such a way of communication was proved 
* but too clearly by the fate of a detachment of 3,000 men, inadvertently 
** * sent by land, even in th,e absence of roads, to the ill-fated province, which 
‘ had been devastated already by the Paraguayan hoi’des. Two-thirds of 
* ** them perished miserably on the way ; the rest arrived there, after eight 
’ • months of terrible sufferings, in such a condition that they had, all of 
■ tliem, to bo sent to the hosiiitals. Besides cholera and srnall-j)ox, hunger 
^ ' and privations of every kind made sad havoc among the Brazilians, cer- 
* • taiuly more than the Paraguayan bullets. 
‘ Notwithstanding several decided victories over the latter, the 
Brazilians never knew how to profit by them ; and the restless enem}^, 
»ii in whose ranks the Dictator had maintained the strictest discipline and 
unyielding courage in the face of all privations, always contrived to rally, 
to take up new positions of gi-eat strength, and to receive fresh auxiliary 
tritoxjs and provisions. The heaviest blame in this respect falls to the 
Marquez de Caxias, who was entrusted with the conduct of the Brazilian 
. ,|i army. His total want of energy and of militm-y talent, and his perpetual 
.1 ^ hesitations, caused the disastrous war to last five long years. Only when 
lie was superseded in the command by the Comte d’Eu, son-in-law of the 
^ ^ Emperor, were the operations carried on more actively ; and they suc- 
^ ^ ceeded at last in surroiuidiug the fugitive despot and rendering him 
inoffensive for the future. 
Well-nigh incredible to Europeans Avill appear' the cruelties of tlris 
petty tyrant ; who, under a gold-embroidered imifoi'm, bore the wild 
heart of the Pamxras Indian relishing the tortures of his fellow-men. 
Especially when he saw that ther'c was no help for it but to sm-render or 
to die, his fury became bormdlcss. No one better than a half- wild 
Guarani could hope to escajie his suspicious ; and rvhoever was srrspected 
was doomed. A German engineer (Mr. E. v. T.), a highly accomplished 
' yormg man Avho had been chief of the Paraguayan Telegraph system, 
’ assured me at Rio de Janeiro, whither he had been brought by the 
* Brazilians, that hundreds and hmidrcds of x^i'isoners of all nations, 
superior Pai'aguayan officers, ju-itists, and ladies, had been cruelly 
turtiued, Avhijqx'd to death, or shot, veiy often without th(! slightest 
shade of a reason. His woeful talc of sufferings was strictly confirmed 
w- 
