Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE WAR IN PARAGUAY, Leaving for the moment the narrative form, I devote a chapter to this lamentable struggle, which has entailed such serious consequences on Brazil, and which at the time I am writing is yet undetermined. Writers have differed much as to the origin of the war, but none have shown how it could have been avoided. I may observe en passant that so far from having entertained any prejudices against Paraguay, my sympathies have always been in favour of that country as evinced during my visit to the River Plate in 1853, at which period the elder Lopez was alive, and there appeared to be dawning in the future, not only an era of internal development for a very fine, fertile territory, but also a relaxation of the iron rule under which the people had so long groaned, by encouraging, to a limited extent it might be, commercial relations with other countries. Lopez had joined Brazil in putting down the tyranny of Rozas and in restoring a free government to the Argentine provinces ; the rivers were to be opened by treaty to all nations, and an era of peace and prosperity appeared to be the natural result of these arrangements. The visit of the younger Lopez to Europe, it was thought, would have instilled into his mind the fact that all the wealth he saw there emanated from commerce, and that his first object would be to render Paraguay acommercial country. Unfortunately, however, he seems to have become more enamoured with the martial attitude of France than anything else, and determined on his return home to develop the military instead of the commercial resources of Paraguay. His ambition was centered in organizing a large army, fortifying the river approaches to Asuncion, and creating a small but efficient steam fleet. The experience of the past 'as thrown away, and o...