Paraguay. By W. H. Kocbel. (T. Fisher Unwin. 10s. 6d.
net.)— This book—the thirteenth volume of a South American series—gives an interesting account of the history and resources of Paraguay, " the most romantic State in South America." Sebastian Cabot, who served our Tudor Kings, discovered the Paraguay River for Spain, and the present capital, Asuncion, was founded by a Spaniard in 1536. The much-discussed Jesuit missions, which brought peace and happiness to the Guaranis, flourished in the eighteenth century. When Spanish rule disappeared, Paraguay was for fifty years, until 1870, under the rule of three Dictators : Francis and the elder and younger Lopez, who kept her isolated from the world. The younger Lopez, like the Kaiser, devoted the whole resources of the State to his Army, challenged Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay to fight, and was killed at the end of a long war in which two-thirds of the Paraguayans perished. Lopez, like a modern Prussian, kept men in reserve to shoot down the front lines if they gave way or surrendered, so that the carnage was appalling. Yet Paraguay survived, and to-day appears to be a thriving agricul- tural community, despite its remoteness from the sea. The ill-fated Australian Socialist community of Cosme was one of numerous modern European efforts to colonize this seeming Paradise.
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