No. 56.
Mr. Partridge to Mr. Fish.
(Petropolis,) Rio de Janeiro, February 22, 1872.
(Received March 21.)
Sir: The only act of the government of Brazil which has awakened any attention lately here, has been the treaty negotiated at Asuncion, with Paraguay, by the Baron de Cotegipe, sent from here for that purpose. The treaty has not been published, and is still under the consideration of the council of state. It has already been approved by the Paraguayan Congress. It is said that it provides for the recognition of the boundary always claimed by Brazil, (the river Apa,) and for the responsibility of Paraguay for (a certain portion of) the indebtedness of Brazil caused by the war. By the triple alliance, (against Paraguay,) it was [Page 92] provided that the final treaty of peace should be negotiated conjointly by the alliance, (Brazil, Argentine Confederation, and Uruguay,) of one part, and Paraguay of the other; that no separate treaty should be made; and that no benefit should accrue to either one of the allies without the concurrence and equal participation of the others.
It appears that the Argentine minister, finding he could not secure his claim to the “Gran Chaco,” the unsettled country west and south of the Paraguay River, (which both Paraguay and Bolivia have claimed,) abandoned the negotiation, and returned to Buenos Ayres. Upon exaggerated reports there of what the Brazilian treaty was, there was a great ferment, and many journals, believing that it provided for a cession of a part of Paraguay to Brazil, assumption of (a portion of) the war debt, stated at $360,000,000, and a Brazilian armed occupation of Paraguay for ten years, were loud in their denunciations, and said war with Brazil was the only mode of answering such perfidy.
The news caused some excitement here, especially when it became known that the Argentines had actually taken possession of the “Gran Chaco,” opposite the city of Asuncion, and were erecting forts for a military occupation.
We shall probably know the exact terms of the Brazilian treaty before long. In the mean time several journals here declare that Brazil, having paid the expense and borne the brunt of the war with Paraguay, has at last been overreached by the Argentines, who alone have gained an enormous territory by the result or the failure of the negotiations at Asuncion.
The secret motive on both sides seems to be the desire of each to overreach the other, to gain its own end, and also defeat the pretensions of the other.
Unquestionably it is the hope of many Brazilian statesmen to absorb Paraguay, so as to control the left bank of that river as far as Corrientes, and if they could succeed also to whatever claim Paraguay had to the territory of the “Gran Chaco” between the right bank opposite Asuncion and the Rio Yermelho on the southwest, it would enable them to control the whole upper navigation of the Paraguay.
The Argentines, on the other hand, hope that Paraguay will be forced to enter their confederation, and, by seizing the “Gran Chaco,” they think they have taken the first step toward such annexation.
I am, &c,