DOWN STREAM. 
161 
town in the daytime, only taking care to be back 
at our quarters before dark. The town was in 
the hands of the barefooted police, and as many 
of them could only 
talk Guarani, one ran 
some risk of being shot 
whilst explaining one’s 
inoffensiveness in care¬ 
ful Spanish. 
The little straggling 
town is rather charm¬ 
ing, built on a slope 
overlooking the 
wide stretches of 
the river Para¬ 
guay ; there are 
few large buildings, 
and avenues of orange 
trees border the tram 
lines. The houses on 
the outskirts of the 
town stand in beauti¬ 
ful gardens of palms 
and trees covered with 
brilliant flowers. The 
roads are very red in 
colour, and are less 
like roads than the 
dry beds of mountain torrents. They are 
seamed with crevasses, and tilted at all angles. 
But it doesn’t seem to matter much in Asuncion. 
L 
