It was after we had thus forced ourselves into intercourse with the Paraguayans that I saw an instance of want of tact which struck me as most remarkable.  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.  I always remarked that the pretty young Brazilian girls liked dancing with the fresh young English sailors better than with their mud-coloured companions of the male sex, the inhabitants of the country.

At the time I write of the English were not liked by the Brazilians, partly on account of the raid we were then making on the slave trade, partly through the usual jealousy always felt by the ignorant towards the enlightened.  So with the men we were seldom or ever on good terms, but with the girls somehow sailors always contrive to be friends.

It was at one of the dances I have spoken of that the scene I am about to describe took place.

Among the pretty girls who attended the ball was one prettier perhaps than any of her companions; indeed, she was called the belle of Rio Janeiro.  I will not attempt to portray her, but I must own she was far too bewitching for the peace of heart of her many admirers, and unhappily she was an unmitigated flirt in every sense of the word.

Now there was a young Brazilian nobleman who had, as he thought, been making very successful progress towards winning this girl’s heart—­if she had a heart.  All was progressing smoothly enough till these hapless English sailors arrived.