308

TRUE AND FANCY SKETCHES.

to the edge of the narrow channel into ten feet water. When hauled upon deck, he declared she would be aground if the attempt to proceed were persevered in, and insisted upon backing her down.

She had by this time passed all but one of the six guns, and would soon have been out of range, but, in backing, was again exposed to the fire of the fort.

My first feeling of regret was that I had not, with the full complement of officers and crew, undertaken this corner of the work. Had it been so, this affair would never have taken place; for the detachment of officers and men from the Water Witch was doubtless as well known in Paraguay as to myself, and this hostile proceeding explained what had, I confess, claimed but a passing notice. For a day or two before our departure, a small Paraguay boat had been hovering about Corrientes, and as the Pilcomayo steamed off, this little craft passed close to us, and pulled rapidly up the river. She was doubtless a spy, and gave immediate information as to the division of our party.

That this outrage may appear in its true light, it must be borne in mind that the decree of the 3d of October, 1854, can not possibly be made to include those waters in which the Water Witch was when she was fired into. Indeed, no part of the River Parana is exclusively under the jurisdiction of Paraguay; and up to the fort Itapiru, and for one or two hundred miles beyond, that river is the common boundary between the Argentine Confederation (on the northern border of Corrientes) and Paraguay. The insult in itself is one that can not be tolerated; it is, however, eclipsed by the fraud which President Lopez attempts to impose upon the public through the columns of the Seminario, but, above all, in a dispatch to the United States government, inclosing a fancy sketch of the river, fort, and environs, representing the shots fired in defense by the Water Witch, after her helmsman was killed, as a hostile movement against the fort, and gravely requests that the officers in charge may be "severely punished.”

On the opposite page is a reduced copy of this sketch made by the order of President Lopez, and a true sketch of the River Parana, near the mouth of the Paraguay, from the chart of the Water Witch. The "fancy sketch" here offered is doubtless the work of a foreigner; for there is, I presume, not a native capable of making such a one, either from a survey or dictation; it was probably drawn by the ordnance officer of Itapiru, who, however

El Canal esclusivo del Campamento general del Passo de la Patria pertenece de costa à costa à la Republica, y cubre el Campamento, su transito está prohebido aun à los Buques mercantes Nacionales.

ORRIENTES

FANCY SKETCH OF LOPEZ.

Primer movimento.

Segundo movimento del Water Witch.

Water Witch aground. -Line on which the Water Witch was during the fire.

[Scale inch to the mile.]

TRUE SKETCH.

CORRIENTES

310

JURISDICTION OF THE PARANA.

skillful he may be in directing shot, shows that he knows little of hydrographic surveys. The President did not care to represent Nature's work, but to illustrate an Idea; and from his office, far removed from the scene, he dictated to the pliant draughtsman a drawing of a winding river, in which he was directed to introduce certain banks and shoals, until the "fancy sketch" represented a locality to suit the "Idea" he intended to present to the United States. But his Excellency, though an admirable diplomatist, is unfortunately as ignorant as his draughtsman of the first principles of hydrography. He neglects to put down the soundings, to run the line of the Water Witch aground on sandbanks instead of ending it in water of unknown depth, or to show how he has arrived at the peculiar obstructions of the Parana at that part of its course.

In continuing the exploration of that river, I do not suppose the idea had ever suggested itself to any human being out of Paraguay that the Water Witch would meet with the least opposition. However defiant the policy of that government to neighboring powers, even in Corrientes, it was not suspected of the monstrous pretension of controlling exclusively the navigation of the Parana. Our expedition had not only the sympathy of the Argentine Confederation, which claims concurrent jurisdiction over it, but I had a circular from General Urquiza to all persons in authority, directing them to offer me every facility in prosecuting the work; and from Señor Pujol, the governor of Corrientes, I had received only the day before my departure, expressions of deep interest in our labors, and the anxious hope that the exploration would develop a channel practicable for all purposes of commerce, without making the slightest reference to the decree of October 3d, or to the possibility of Paraguayan interference.

As I had, then, the full permission of the Argentine States to explore her waters, and the Parana was established and recognized as the common boundary between their territory and Paraguay, up to and beyond the Falls of Apipé, the propriety of my course in ordering a party from the expedition there will not admit of question.

I had on former occasions repeated conversations with President Lopez relative to our contemplated explorations in that quarter, but he never let drop the semblance of pretension to control or prohibit its navigation. He did on one occasion congratulate "the Republic" (for he is fond of using that word in speaking of Para

PRESIDENT LOPEZ'S ACCOUNT.

311

guay) that the "Salto Grande" (Falls of Guayra) was an insurmountable obstruction to the navigation of the river; and, as it was the first time that I had ever heard the idea advanced that an insurmountable obstacle to the navigation of a great river was a national blessing designed by Heaven, it made an impression upon me. I knew that he alluded to the much-feared encroachments of "Los Portugases," and looked to the Salto Grande as a bulwark against all attacks from that quarter.

As he does not presume to assert any entire jurisdiction over the river, it will naturally be asked on what grounds does he justify his act of firing into the Water Witch; for he admits that it was by his orders to the commander of Itapiru.

He says in his dispatch to our government, and in his message to the Congress of Paraguay,

pro

"The Water Witch ascended the Parana by the channel that is common to the Republic and the Argentine Confederation; but, having stopped almost in front of Fort Itapiru, the commander observed that from that point the Americans seemed occupied in taking some measurements, and then ceeded on, through the same common channel, to beyond the general encampment at the Paso de la Patria, and nearly to the upper point of the Island Ceraya,' whence she returned through the same channel, passing below Itapiru, and, turning the point of the south bank, which here exists, took that which leads directly by the Fort Itapiru to the port of the general encampment," etc.*

This explanation answered his purpose perfectly in Paraguay, for he wished to prove that the Water Witch was seeking the Fort Itapiru, and not the main channel of the river; that she was bound on a fighting, and not an exploring expedition; but he should have made out a stronger case; should have added a few more operations-it matters not what-to complete the romance. His after-mistake was a great one, in repeating the same statements to the Government of the United States.

It is needless to explain that the value of a survey depends * Extract from President Lopez's Message, 14th March, 1857.

"El 1 de Febrero de 1855, predicho Vapor Water Witch subio al Parana por el Canal comun de la Republica y de la Confederacion Argentina, pero habiendose detenido casi en fronte de la fortaleza de Itapiru, observa el Commandante de ese puerto que los Americanos paracien ocuparse en tomar algunas dimenciones, y luego seguieron por el mismo canal comun hasta mas ariba del campamento general del paso de la Patria, y casi hasta la punta superior de la Isla de Caryá, de donde vulvio á bajar por el mismo canal hasta mas abajo de Itapiru, y volviendo la punta de arena del banco qui alli existe, tomo el que conduce por la misma fortaleza de Itapiru al puerto del espresado campamento general."

312

ATTEMPTED JUSTIFICATION.

upon its accuracy, and the course, depth, current of the Parana channel could alone be determined by the Water Witch's entering it. She had a pilot who attempted to pass up near the Corrientes shore, in what President Lopez designates as the Canal Comun ("Common Channel"), and there ran aground. Is it reasonable to suppose that, had there been a channel on that side, the frightened pilot would have sought the other, of which he seems to have had a great dread? and when asked "where lay the main channel," would he immediately have pointed to that which led to the "General Encampment," instead of the Canal Comun?

Suppose there had been more than one channel--and the pilot, who should have known, said there was not, for he certainly made the effort to find another way-how would this have justified the attack? If the river is a common highway for the two countries, the whole of it is common throughout the extent of the territories. It is not a highway if President Lopez appropriate the available channel, where alone a vessel can pass up, and say, "You shall not come on my side of the river."

As to the actual course and distance made by the Water Witch, the accompanying "real sketch" will show; and until informed upon what data President Lopez constructed his chart, or until he produces the observations made by his surveyor on shore, to determine the track of the Water Witch, and establish beyond doubt the superior accuracy of his work to ours by a fair comparison, I must pronounce one a "fancy sketch," the other a reliable piece of "track survey.”

The President of Paraguay was evidently alarmed in anticipation of retaliation for this insult, and thundered forth in his little weekly organ, the Seminario. Its articles, intended to impose. upon the credulity of Paraguayans, generally excite much amusement in La Plata. Personal attacks upon myself-the burden of its editorials since the removal of the Americans-I did not notice, for I rather suspected that his Excellency wished to draw me into a paper war. But when, awakened to a sense of the enormity of his act, as one utterly in defiance of the law of nations, he attempted its justification by boldly claiming jurisdiction over the main channel of the Parana because it ran near his shores, and when he endeavored to make it appear that the Water Witch, in entering it, had violated a national right, I determined to expose this evasion or misinterpretation of every principle of international law, and in one of the leading papers