Another Old South American River City, Part 1

Let's admit that the country of Paraguay, in the very center of the South American continent, is hardly ever in the news.  It is one of two land-locked countries in South America, the other being Bolivia.  In the April, 1933, issue of National Geographic Magazine, an author familiar to me, Harriet Chalmers Adams, writes River-Encircled Paraguay, an account of her travel there.

Mrs. Adamss begins by telling us of La Plata River, which runs 1,000 miles north from the eastern coast, between the countries of Urguay and Argentina to the large capital city of Ascuncion.  The city dates from 1526 when explorer Sebastian Cabot discovered it for Spain.  It took the author fully four days in a river steamer to travel from Buenos Aires, Argentina, at the mouth of the river, to Ascuncion.

"The colonial Spaniards showed rare judgment in selecting their sites for cities.  Here (Ascuncion) they chose a high bank of the river, safe from floods, at a point where a peninsula, jutting out into the wide stream, forms a little bay. . . The winter climate is not unlike that of southern California," (p. 389).

There are always the old churches in these colonial cities.  "The Cathedral, near the river, beautiful old church of the conquistadores, is the heart of the old town I love," (p.  392).  Paraguay obtained independence from Spain in 1811.  From then until 1865 the country had a series of dictators as rulers; they isolated the country from the rest of the world.  Then a war with nearby countries nearly destroyed the country. "The population was reduced to one-fifth of its pre-war numbers," (p. 392).

In the time when Mrs. Adams visited, the 1930's, the population was a mingling of Spanish with the native Guaranis.  Also native to Paraguay were Ostrich birds, but they were nearly wiped out then, for their large, colorful feathers.  The Spanish language was spoken by the educated classes, but the others spoke Guarani.  "Dancing is its chief diversion," (p. 396) although soccer, from the British, was the national sport.  "Cattle-raising has become the chief industry of the country," (p. 396).

There was a very large land west of Paraguay that was wanted by Paraguay and its neighboring countries.  Let's leave it at there for now and resume our study tomorrow.