The History of Paraguay: With Notes of Personal Observations, and Reminiscences of Diplomacy Under Difficulties / by Charles A. Washburn. Vol. 1

Excerpt from The History of Paraguay, Vol. 1 of 2: With Notes of Personal Observations, and Reminiscences of Diplomacy Under DifficultiesTill within a few years the country of which I propose to write was so little known that but few people could tell anything more of it than that a region called Paraguay existed, and was to be found on all the maps of South America. Of the general aspect of this country and its history the popular knowledge was limited to traditions of its settlement by Spanish colonists, of the establishment of a religious order within its borders, which flourished for a time and was then expelled, to be succeeded by the reign of a gloomy despot, who made the land one vast prison-house, over which he ruled with a rod of iron.