Boarding A Fleet Of Ironclads.

Marob. 2, 18G8, was the date of the most desperate board iug attack of modern times. The Paraguayans had no navy to cope with the well equipped Brazilian fleet, and Lope?,, the dictator of Paraguay, selected 1,200 of his flerce Indian warriors, the piek of his arniy, to attack the eneruy's ironclads in the river below Hnmanita. ïhe men were all good swimmers and divers, with the hardy habits of their race. Armed with carbines, revolvers, hatchets and hand greuades, the boarders erabarked in 48 canoes divided iuto eight seotions - one for each ironclad. Tho canoes were overhung with leafy branches to resemble the floating islands ocoasionally seen in the Paraguay river and just before daylighfc drifted uuder stealthy paddies toward the fleet. Thoy had alniost reached it when the islantl collided with a Brazilian guardboat. The guard backed off and puJled for the nearest irouclad, the doublé Uu-rot Lima Barrios, foilowed by the mad canoemen, who broke their sections, 14 canoes going at the Barrios, 12 at the Oabral and theothers scattering to assail the ones lying at a distance. The boarders swarmed over the sides of the Barrios, and ,i bloody fight took place around the turrets. The Braziiian officers were cut down on deck, and terrible slaughter was caused by hand grenades thrown into the crowded turrets and through the ports of the gun chanibers. The Cabral met the same fate as the Barrios, but the Brazil - a i ten gunner - having a head of steam, made for the cluster of vessels where i the battle was raging and swept the docks of the captive ships with grape. The Paraguayans who survived the fusillade jumped into the water and were given the choice of surrender or death. They chose the latter, and the Braziliane got but ' prisoners out of !)00 involved in the disaster. On the tlocks of the Lima Barrios and Cabral lay the bodies of 140 Paraguayans, and those killed by Brazilian marksmen while swimming away swelled the loss among the boarders to 400 killed. ,