the first invading expedition
on the part of the Paraguayan armies, the war was fought out on
Paraguayan soil.

The capture by the Paraguayans of the Brazilian steamer _Marques de
Olinda_ demonstrated to South America that the moment of contest had
arrived. The position of the neighbouring States was far less
satisfactory from a military point of view than that of Paraguay. During
the two years of his reign Lopez had steadily continued to prepare his
forces for this event. At the time the Paraguayan army was, numerically,
the most formidable in South America. It had, moreover, been brought to
an unusual degree of efficiency.

The condition of the Brazilian forces was very different. In the first
place, little heed had been taken to make ready for anything of the
kind, and another factor which proved greatly to the disadvantage of the
fighting material involved lay in the difficulty of communication
between Rio de Janeiro and those portions of the great Empire which
bordered on Paraguay. Thus Lopez's invading army, when it swept through
the Brazilian province of Matto Grosso, met with practically no
resistance worthy of the name, and, in the absence of defending troops,
it might, undoubtedly, have taken possession of vast tracts of country,
and have continued to hold these indefinitely.

It was Lopez's bizarre and wild ambition which frustrated his own
schemes. A single tide of invasion was not sufficient to satisfy a mind
such as his. Gathering together a second powerful army, he determined to
strike at the south-eastern portion of Brazil in addition to its
province of Matto Grosso. In order to effect this he demanded in
arrogant tones from Argentina permission for his troops to cross the
Argentine province of Corrientes. To this, as neutrals, it was
impossible for the Argentines to consent. As a result, Lopez in a fury
declared war upon Argentina, and, as though even this did not suffice,
he next found himself at grips with the Uruguayan forces.

Thus Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay were now leagued together against
the armies of the despot Lopez. With a view of alienating the sympathies
of the oppressed subjects of the Dictator from their tyrannical leader,
the allies caused it to be widely proclaimed that the war they were
waging was not directed against the Paraguayan people in general. It was
against Lopez alone that they were fighting, they asserted. The claim
was true enough, since this was in reality the pos