quinine, is a standard tonic throughout the world, and is used by every
physician, in every hospital, on every ship, and in every army, is a
product of Uruguay. The cans in which it comes are labelled as if their
contents were manufactured at Antwerp, where the original extract was
invented by Professor Liebig, the famous German chemist, and the
preparation was formerly made there; but in 1866, the patent having
passed into the control of an English company, the works were removed to
Uruguay, where cattle are cheaper than elsewhere, and the entire supply
is now produced at a place called Fray Bentos, about one hundred and
seventy miles above Montevideo, on the Uruguay River, whence it is
shipped in bulk to London and Antwerp, where it is packed in small tins
for the market. An attempt was made to do the packing in Uruguay, but
the Government of that republic imposed so high a tariff upon the tins
that the scheme was abandoned. The chemical process by which the juice
of the beef is extracted and mixed with the blood of the animal is
supposed to be a secret, but as the patent has long since expired, it
could be easily discovered, and thus the manufacture of an almost
necessary article would become general.
ASUNCION.
THE CAPITAL OF PARAGUAY.
The population of Paraguay and its products to-day are less than they
were one hundred years ago, when the present half-ruined city was the
capital of the southern half of the continent, and from it had been
issued the ecclesiastical and vice-regal edicts for over two centuries.
Then Asuncion was a gay and busy capital, and Buenos Ayres, with the
rest of the continent, paid tribute to the viceroy there. After the war
of independence, a Jesuit by the name of Francia secured control of the
Government, and nothing but death was ever able to loosen his grip.
Although the constitution was republican, Francia established himself as
“Perpetual President,” maintained a despotism as absolute and cruel as
any that ever existed, and erected around the country a wall that
prevented immigration and kept the people in ignorance. Foreign commerce
was monopolized by the President, and he exacted in the shape of tribute
from the people the products he shipped away. The revenues of the
Government went into his pocket, and public expenditures were made at
his will. His policy seemed to be to isolate Paraguay from the rest of
the world, for the good of its people; and being a religious fanatic, he
taught them nothing but obedience to the will of the Church. For
thirty-two years he ruled peacefully, and when he died, in 1840, he was
sincerely mourned.
His successor was Lopez I., a man who had all the bad qualities of
Francia, but none of his good ones. Selfish, lustful, brutal, his only
motive was to perpetuate his power, and enjoy the opportunities it gave
for the gratification of his passions. He continued the policy of
exclusion which Francia inaugurated, but for entirely different
reasons, considering it necessary for his own safety that the people
should be kept ignorant and isolated, lest they might learn that there
were justice and liberty elsewhere in the world. He ruled twenty-two
years, until death took the sceptre from him and gave it to his son.
[Illustration: GASPAR FRANCIA,
First President of Paraguay.]
If the father was bad, the son was worse, and Lopez II. seemed to be
inspired with an ambition to excel his sire in every crime the latter
had been guilty of. Filled with passion and lust, there was no form of
cruelty he did not practise, and no act of brutality that he did not
commit. He murdered his mother and brother, like King Thebaw, lest they
might conspire against his authority. He had men pulled to pieces by
horses, and invented a form of capital punishment before unknown to the
catalogue of horrors. People who offended him were sewed up in green
hides, which were hung up before a fire to dry. As the hides dried they
shrunk, and the victim was slowly crushed to death by a pressure that
human bones and flesh could not resist. The wives and daughters of his
subjects were his playthings, and his agents were busy in all parts of
the country collecting beautiful maidens to sacrifice to his lust. He
resisted immigration, and, like his two predecessors, kept the foreign
commerce of the country in his own hands. When steamers began to ascend
the Parana River, he chained logs together and obstructed navigation,
and when foreigners entered the country he drove them out.
[Illustration: STREET IN ASUNCION.]
The only outlet for the interior provinces of Southern Brazil is through
Paraguay, and the people of Brazil resented the obstruction to their
commerce. The Argentine Republic and Uruguay also had grievances, and in
1868 the three great nations, representing about half the population of
South America, called the tyrant Lopez to account. Then began a war
which has no parallel in history. For six long years the little State of
Paraguay held at bay the three combined nations whose territory
surrounded it. The war did not end until the population of Paraguay was
wellnigh exterminated, the country laid waste, and the tyrant Lopez
driven to the mountains, where he was finally killed in a cave in which
he sought refuge. The war cost Brazil, the Argentine Republic, and
Uruguay two hundred and fifty million dollars and twenty thousand lives,
while it cost Paraguay everything. There were scarcely enough survivors
to bury the dead. The entire country was practically destroyed and
depopulated.
[Illustration: LOPEZ, THE TYRANT.]
[Illustration: AFTER THE WAR.]
During the reign of the two Lopezes, father and son, the most
intelligent and the best men in the country were banished. Exile was the
penalty of all whose views differed from those of the tyrant, and who
would not submit to his exactions. More were murdered than banished, and
their families fled from the country. On the downfall of the despot the
exiles returned with enlarged intelligence, broader views, and an
education received in foreign lands which fitted them to restore their
almost ruined country, and to establish something like a liberal and
wise government. After the death of Lopez and the occupation of the
country by the allied armies, a junta was formed, consisting of three
citizens of Paraguay, two of whom had returned from banishment, and had
taken part in the war against the tyrant. Their powers were provisional,
and similar to those of the consuls of old Rome. These men called a
constitutional convention, which organized a permanent government, based
upon the plan of that of the United States. The constitution guarantees
religious and civil liberty, security of person and property, prohibits
the re-election of Presidents, endows the Congress with authority much
more extended than that of ours, and in every possible manner provides
against the repetition of the old dictatorships.
[Illustration: ASUNCION, FROM THE WEST.]
One of the first steps taken by Congress was to encourage immigration,
and agents were sent to Europe to organize colonies and offer
inducements to settlers. There was a strong effort made to secure German
colonies, but it was difficult to divert them from the United States. In
Italy and the Basque provinces of Spain the emigrant agents were more
successful, and about twenty thousand people from these countries have
settled in Paraguay during the last four years. Their prosperity and the
treatment they have received have been so encouraging that a steady
stream of immigration is now flowing from all the European States
towards
[Illustration: ASUNCION--THE PALACE AND CATHEDRAL.]
Paraguay; and the German Government has lately sent a commission to
explore the territory and report upon its advantages for the
establishment of colonies. Liberal inducements are offered to all
immigrants. The lands of the republic have been resurveyed and divided
into three classes--timber, pastoral, agricultural. At the end of five
years’ residence, each adult immigrant is entitled to a deed of eighty
acres of the latter class as a gift from the Government, and is
reimbursed from the public revenues to an amount equal to the cost of
his passage to Asuncion, the necessary farming implements, and a yoke of
cattle. In addition to these he has also the right to purchase not more
than four extra lots of agricultural lands of forty acres each. The
grazing lands are not given away, but are sold by the Government at the
price of eight, twelve, and fifteen hundred dollars per square league,
according to location, or are leased for a term of years at a nominal
rental. The timber lands are sold at higher rates, but as yet there is
little demand for them. The emigrants from Continental Europe usually
settle upon the agricultural lands, but large areas of the pampas are
being taken up by English, Irish, and Scotch, some of whom purchase upon
their own account, while others represent companies of considerable
capital. The British will soon monopolize the pastoral industries of the
La Plata countries, and Paraguay will be full of their cattle.
An enumeration made of his subjects by Lopez in 1857 showed the
population of Paraguay to be 1,337,439; at the close of the war in 1873,
a census demonstrated that this number had been reduced to 221,079
souls, of whom only 28,746 were men, 106,254 were women over fifteen
years of age, and 86,079 were children, the enormous disproportion
between the sexes, as well as the vast decrease of population, telling
the results of the war. In 1876 there were 293,844 inhabitants, showing
an increase of 72,765 in three years; and in 1879 the total was
increased to 318,018, two-thirds of the adults being women. It is said
that there are but three citizens of the United States in Paraguay--one
white man who keeps a drug store, and two negroes, both of whom are
reported to be fugitives from justice.
The Rio de la Plata, or the River Plate, as it is better known, is the
widest stream in the world, and, with the exception of the Amazon,
empties more water into the ocean than any other, draining a region of
1,560,000 square miles. With its tributaries, it affords more miles of
navigation than all the rivers of Europe combined, and more than the
Mississippi and its branches. The tide from the Atlantic reaches up a
distance of two hundred and fifty-eight miles, and there is a depth of
water sufficient to carry vessels of twenty-four feet draught one
thousand miles into the interior.
Above the mouth of the Uruguay River, which forms the
[Illustration: WRECK OF THE OLD CATHEDRAL.]
boundary line between the republic of that name and the Argentine
Republic, the River Plate is known as the Parana, and is so called as
far as its source, which lies not far from that of the Amazon in the
interior of Brazil, and is fed through a thousand channels by the rains
of the tropics and the melting snows of the Cordilleras. The Parana
flows for one thousand two hundred miles through a country--the interior
of Brazil--that has never been explored, and is inhabited by a race of
savages who have so far resisted all attempts to invade their domain. As
far as the river has been explored it is deep enough for navigation,
although at present the steamers only run to Cuyabá, a distance of 2500
miles. At Corrientes the Paraguay River enters the Parana, and the two
great streams form the western and eastern boundaries of the republic.
At Asuncion the Paraguay divides again, the main stream flowing through
the centre of the State, and the Pilcomayo continuing as its western
boundary. The Paraguay River is navigable for 1200 miles, and the
Pilcomayo for nearly as great a distance, almost to the mountains of
Bolivia. The chief affluents of the Pilcomayo are the Pilaya and
Paspaya; and the only city on its banks is Chuquisaca. With the removal
of obstructions which offer no obstacles to engineering skill, it is
said that the Pilcomayo might be put in such shape as to afford an easy
and convenient outlet for the products of Bolivia to the Atlantic ports,
and investigations are already in progress looking to that end.
Whoever obtains control of these natural lines of communication, and
supplements them by railways, will hold the key to the treasures of the
heart of South America, whose value has furnished food for three
centuries of fable. A section of country as large as that which lies
between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains lies there
practically unexplored. On its borders are rich agricultural lands, fine
ranges, unmeasured resources of timber, the diamond-fields of Brazil,
and the gold and silver mines of Bolivia and Peru. What exists in the
unknown region is a matter of speculation, but the farther man has gone
the greater has been his wonder. The tales of explorers who have
attempted to penetrate it sound like a recital of the old romances of
Golconda and El Dorado; but the swamps and the mountains, the rivers
that cannot be forded, and the jungles which forbid its search, the
absence of food, and the difficulty of carrying supplies, with the
other obstacles which now prevent exploration, will be overcome
eventually, and the secret which has tantalized the world for three
centuries will be disclosed by scientists. Almost every year expeditions
are sent into the wilderness by the Government of the Argentine
Republic, and each one goes farther than the last, so that the prospect
of a thorough exploration is encouraging.
[Illustration: STATION ON THE ASUNCION RAILWAY.]
The commerce of Paraguay is small, although rapidly increasing, and at
present is absorbed in that of Uruguay and the Argentine Republic. There
is one railroad in the country, which was built by Lopez II. for the
transportation of troops, and runs a distance of forty-five miles, from
Asuncion to Paraguay, an interior town of some importance. In 1877 the
railroad was sold to an English corporation for a million dollars, but
has not been well maintained. A street-car line connects the
railway-station with the steamboat landing at Asuncion. There are two
lines of steamers to Asuncion, one from Buenos Ayres and one from
Montevideo. It is a journey of 1700 miles, and usually requires about
fifteen days, as the stops along the route are numerous, and a great
deal of time is taken up in loading and unloading. The steamers on this
route are as good as any that ever floated upon the Mississippi River,
and are fitted up in the most elegant style. They compete actively for
passengers and furnish excellent meals and accommodations. One line
sails under the French flag, and the other belongs to an Argentine
company.
[Illustration: A VISIT TO THE SPRING.]
The Government is making an honest and patient effort to educate and
enlighten the people, and in comparison with its poverty and scanty
revenues, is expending a large amount of money in maintaining a system
of free schools; but until teachers are imported from abroad little
progress will be made, as the native instructors are incompetent.
The change from the tyranny of Lopez to the present liberal,
enlightened, and progressive administration was as sudden and radical as
a change from darkness to light. The people have accepted the blessings
with a genuine appreciation of their value, and have devoted themselves
assiduously to the restoration of their country, and are happy in the
enjoyment of peace.
The President of the republic is Dr. Caballaro, a man of education and
broad intellect. He has travelled in Europe, and during the reign of
Lopez II. was an exile, spending most of his time in the Argentine
Republic. He has a Cabinet of three ministers, and his Secretary of
State was educated in the Methodist Mission at Buenos Ayres. The latter
gentleman is a Protestant, understands English well, and is a man of the
most progressive ideas. It is largely owing to his efforts that Paraguay
is making such rapid progress; and as he is the ruling spirit of the
Government, he will probably be the next President.
[Illustration: THE PARAGUAYANS AT HOME.]
The people are quiet, submissive, and industrious, having a mixture of
Spanish blood and that of the Guarani Indians, who were the aboriginal
settlers of the country. Their kinsmen across the Paraguay River, in the
Argentine Republic, were a nomadic, savage tribe; but the tyranny of
Lopez, father and son, took the spirit out of the Paraguay Indians, and
they are now domesticated, and live in bamboo huts, cultivate the soil,
and raise cattle. There is said to be less crime in Paraguay than in any
other of the South American countries, and in 1883 there were but one
hundred and twenty-five criminal trials in the entire republic,
twenty-one of the defendants being foreigners. But for the tyranny of
its rulers in past years Paraguay might have been an Arcadia, for the
simple habits, the few wants, and the peaceable disposition of the
people made them contented and well disposed towards each other. As
nature has provided for all their wants, they have no great incentive to
labor, and the enterprise and thrift of the country is generally found
among the foreigners, from whom the people are, however, rapidly
learning the ways of the world and the value of money. The men and women
are of small stature, and the latter are usually very pretty when young,
but lose their beauty of feature and figure after maternity. They are
innocent, and childish in their amusements, are fond of dancing and
singing, and have native dances that are as graceful, and native songs
that are as melodious, as are the dances and music of the negroes of the
United States.
[Illustration: PARAGUAY FLOWER-GIRL.]
Asuncion, the capital of the republic, is the oldest settlement in what
is known as the valley of the River Plate. There were a considerable
number of people there, and it was the seat of civil and religious
authority, before the city of Buenos Ayres or the city of Rio de Janeiro
was founded. There was a time when Asuncion was the greatest city in
that part of the world, being the seat of the viceroys of Spain and the
centre of a great commercial business. But after the independence of the
republic, and during the reign of the despots Francia and Lopez, father
and son, who for sixty years exercised despotic sway over the country,
all immigration was shut out, and the people of the country were not
permitted to leave it lest they should learn ideas of civilization and
liberty that would excite them to revolution. At that time Asuncion was
a city of seventy-five thousand inhabitants, but during the war it was
almost depopulated, and three-fourths of the buildings are now in ruins.
[Illustration: REMAINS OF THE PALACE OF LOPEZ.]
In all tropical countries nature soon repairs or conceals the traces of
man’s wanton devastation. Fields corpse-strewn and blood-bathed,
blackened with fire and trampled by the hoofs of cavalry horses, within
six months’ time wave in the golden luxuriance of a harvest; and the
villages of the peasants, built of bamboo and palm-leaves, are quite as
soon restored. Paraguay’s rural territory shows no signs of the nine
years’ war and devastation; but in Asuncion and other cities the case is
different. Its spacious edifices, costly churches, and public buildings
are in ruins. Some which still stand are disused and deserted, more are
only partially occupied, and are in a state of half neglect, too large
for the shrunken populace; others, sad monuments of the vanity of the
Dictators, are shattered and shamefully defaced. Whole streets are lined
by empty shells of what were once costly dwellings, with here and there
open gaps that tell of the pillage and devastation that follow war.
The most conspicuous object in Asuncion is the immense palace of Lopez,
which covered four acres, and was completed at an enormous cost of money
and labor, wrung from an unwilling people shortly before the fall of the
tyrant. It is now an empty, roofless shell, towering, like one of the
ruined castles in Europe, over the river. With its long rows of
dismantled windows and black, ragged holes, it is as ghastly as the
eye-sockets in a decaying skull. Its shattered towers, shivering
cornices, and broken parapets disclose the results of a three weeks’
bombardment, and the destruction that followed its capture. The
Brazilian plunderers carried off all that was portable; what they could
not take away was burned, and what fire would not consume was defaced.
The palace is said to have cost two million dollars, and was built
exclusively by native workmen. The men are very skilful in the use of
tools, and in the manufacture of gold and silver ornaments, and the
women make a very fine lace which is called _nanduty_. The lace-making
art was taught the women by the Spanish nuns. They do not use cotton
thread, but the very fine fibres of a native tree, which are as soft and
lustrous as silk. Some of their designs are very beautiful, and the
fabric is indestructible. Lopez had his chamber walls hung with this
lace, on a background of crimson satin, and the pattern was an imitation
of the finest cobweb. It is said to have required the work of two
hundred women for several years to cover the walls, and that every one
of those women was a discarded mistress of the despot. The lace is
fastened to the wall by clamps of solid gold of the most unique
workmanship. There are four hundred of these clamps, each worth from
twelve to fifteen dollars.
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE LOPEZ PALACE.]
Near by the palace are the roofless walls of a spacious unfinished
theatre, an example of Lopez’s extravagance. The cathedral, and the
Church of the Incarnacion, where Francia sought, but did not find, a
final resting-place, are heavy, ungraceful constructions of Spanish
times. Nor have the Government buildings--many of which sheltered the
terrible Dictator, for he continually shifted from one to another, for
fear, it is said, of assassination--any pretension to beauty. Neither
are the remains of the old Jesuit college, now converted into a
barrack, anyway remarkable. The streets, wide and regular, are ill paved
and deep in sand, while the public squares are undecorated and bare. On
the other hand, the dwelling-houses--at least such of them as are
constructed on the old Spanish plan, so admirably adapted to the
requirements of the climate--are solidly built and not devoid of beauty.
They have cool courts, thick walls, deeply recessed doors and windows,
projecting eaves, and heavy, protected roofs.
[Illustration: THE CATHEDRAL, ASUNCION.]
The furniture of the dwelling-houses is of native wood-work, solid, and
tastefully carved. The pavement is generally of marble local or
imported. The hard woods of the native forests are susceptible of high
polish and delicate work, and the marbles, of various kinds and colors,
are not inferior in beauty to any that Italy herself can boast of; and
these will, when Paraguay is herself once more, take a high place on the
list of her productions and merchandise.
[Illustration: MARKET-PLACE AT ASUNCION.]
The majority of the houses are one-storied; but in some localities,
where a mania for European imitation, encouraged by Lopez, prevailed,
some uncomfortable and ill-seeming dwellings of two or three stories,
flimsy, pretentious, and at variance alike with the climate and the
habits of the people of Paraguay, have been erected.
The most cheerful, and almost the only active part of
[Illustration: A PARAGUAY HORSEMAN.]