Fighting being over, diplomacy stepped in, and a man of somewhat high rank in that service was sent to make friendly overtures to the authorities.

Can it be believed (I do not say it as a sneer against diplomacy, for this blunder was really _unique_), this big man had scarcely finished the pipe of peace which he smoked with the authorities, when he proposed to introduce vaccination and tracts among the people?
Badly as the poor fellows felt the licking they had received, and much as they feared another should they give trouble to the invaders, they so resented our representative's meddling that he found it better to beat a hasty retreat, and to send a wiser man in his stead.

But their fate was sealed, and from the moment the stranger put his foot into this interesting country dates its entire change.

The system that the Jesuits established was quickly done away with.

Paraguay is now a part of the Argentine Republic, it is generally at war with some of its neighbours, and its inhabitants are poor, disorderly, and wretched.
As I shall have, while telling the story of my life, to relate more serious events, I will, after recounting one more yarn, not weary my readers with the little uninteresting details of my youthful adventures, but pass over the next three years or so, at which time, after having returned to England, I was appointed to another ship going to South America, for the purpose of putting down the slave trade in the Brazils.
The adventure to which I have referred was one that made a deep impression on my mind, as being of a most tragic nature.
While at Rio de Janeiro we were in the habit of visiting among the people, attending dances, &c.