ultivation, the chief object of his culture being
the "yerba de Paraguay," which yields the well-known _mate_, or
Paraguayan tea. In this industry he was eminently successful. His
amiable manners and inoffensive character attracted the notice of his
neighbours, the Guarani Indians--a peaceful tribe of proletarian
habits--and soon a colony of these collected around him, entering his
employ, and assisting him in the establishment of an extensive
"yerbale," or tea-plantation, which bid fair to become profitable.

The Frenchman was on the high-road to fortune, when a cloud appeared,
coming from an unexpected quarter of the sky--the north. The report of
his prosperity had reached the ears of Francia, Paraguay's then despot
and dictator, who, with other strange theories of government, held the
doctrine that the cultivation of "yerba" was a right exclusively
Paraguayan--in other words, belonging solely to himself. True, the
French colonist, his rival cultivator, was not within his jurisdiction,
but in the state of Corrientes, and the territory of the Argentine
Confederation. Not much, that, to Dr Francia, accustomed to make light
of international law, unless it were supported by national strength and
backed by hostile bayonets. At the time Corrientes had neither of these
to deter him, and in the dead hour of a certain night, four hundred of
his myrmidons--the noted _quarteleros_--crossed the Parana, attacked the
tea-plantation of Bonpland, and after making massacre of a half-score of
his Guarani _peons_, carried himself a prisoner to the capital of
Paraguay.

The Argentine Government, weak with its own intestine strife, submitted
to the insult almost unprotestingly. Bonpland was but a Frenchman and
foreigner; and for nine long years was he held captive in Paraguay.
Even the English _charge d'affaires_, and a Commission sent thither by
the Institute of France, failed to get him free! Had he been a
lordling, or some little _viscomte_, his forced residence in Paraguay
would have been of shorter duration. An army would have been despatched
to "extradite" him. But Aime Bonpland was only a student of Nature--one
of those unpretending men who give the world all the knowledge it has,
worth having--and so was he left to languish in captivity. True, his
imprisonment was not a very harsh one, and rather partook of the
character of _parole d'honneur_. Francia was aware of his wonderful
knowledge, and availed himself of it, al