colonisation; having every quality and feature to
attract the settler in search of a new home. Vast verdant savannas--
natural clearings--rich in nutritious grasses, and groves of tropical
trees, with the palm predominating; a climate of unquestionable
salubrity, and a soil capable of yielding every requisite for man's
sustenance as the luxury of life. In very truth, the Chaco may be
likened to a vast park or grand landscape garden, still under the
culture of the Creator!

But why not also submitted to the tillage of man? The answer is easy:
because the men who now hold it will not permit intrusion on their
domain--to them hereditary--and they are hunters, not _agriculturists_.
It is still in the possession of its red-skinned owners, the original
lords of its soil, these warlike Indians, who have hitherto defied all
attempts to enslave or subdue them, whether made by soldier, miner, or
missionary. These independent savages, mounted upon fleet steeds, which
they manage with the skill of Centaurs, scour the plains of the Chaco,
swift as birds upon the wing. Disdaining fixed residence, they roam
over its verdant pastures and through its perfumed groves, as bees from
flower to flower, pitching their _toldos_, and making camp in whatever
pleasant spot may tempt them. Savages though called, who would not envy
them such a charming _insouciant_ existence? Do not you, young reader?

I anticipate your answer, "Yes." Come with me, then! Let us enter the
"Gran Chaco," and for a time partake of it!

CHAPTER TWO.

PARAGUAY'S DESPOT.

Notwithstanding what I have said of the Chaco remaining uncolonised and
unexplored, I can tell of an exception. In the year 1836, one ascending
the Pilcomayo to a point about a hundred miles from its mouth, would
there see a house, which could have been built only by a white man, or
one versed in the ways of civilisation. Not that there was anything
very imposing in its architecture; for it was but a wooden structure,
the walls of bamboo, and the roof a thatch of the palm called
_cuberta_--so named from the use made of its fronds in covering sheds
and houses. But the superior size of this dwelling, far exceeding that
of the simple _toldos_ of the Chaco Indians; its ample verandah pillared
and shaded by a protecting roof of the same palm leaves; and, above all,
several well-fenced enclosures around it, one of them containing a
number of tame cattle, others under tillage--with maize,