eady been shown how
women and children died by thousands or survived to poverty and want.
But to understand the melancholy story at its worst, one should visit
the valley of the Aquidaban River, where Lopez fought his last fight, or
follow the line of his army's march from its camp at Panadero to the
encampment at Cerro Cora, where he perished miserably. A traveler in
that part of Paraguay--not M. Forgues, but Keith Johnston, the
geographer--who visited these localities in the summer and autumn of
1874, says that the march of the army in its final retreat can still be
traced by the heaps of human bones, with rusty swords or guns or
weather-stained saddles lying beside them, under every little
shade-giving tree. These skeletons he saw everywhere at very short
intervals. Cerro Cora is described as a splendid amphitheatre surrounded
by hills, with precipitous sides of red sandstone, and crowned with dark
forests. Here and there amid the undulations are grassy knolls flanked
by palm trees, and in one of these Lopez, driven to desperation, pitched
his tent with a handful of followers. Madame Lynch, his children and his
brother were with him. The single pass that led to this hiding-place was
guarded with cannon, but the Brazilian horsemen, strangely enough,
entered the retreat unperceived and surprised its occupants. Exactly how
Lopez died is a matter of dispute in Paraguay. There are those in that
country who revere his memory, and their story of his death represents
him as issuing from his tent at the approach of the enemy and valiantly
engaging them single-handed, while he bade his few adherents seek safety
in flight. According to this account, he fell gloriously after slaying
many Brazilians, refusing quarter and declaring his devotion to his
country with his dying breath. The generally accepted report, however,
is that he made a fruitless endeavor to escape from his encampment, and,
overtaken by a Brazilian horseman, died in a matter-of-fact way from a
lance-thrust. His grave is in that wild and lonely valley. At first a
wooden cross marked the spot where he lies, but this has disappeared,
and a bush, one of many that grow around, is pointed out as growing
above it.

Even at this day, though more than four years have elapsed since the
enactment of that tragedy, the scene remains as the Brazilians left it.
The wrecks of the camp lie thickly on every side--bones of men, broken
weapons, ammunition and the debris of gun-carr