At the bottom of the flight of steps which led down to the water’s edge a noisy crowd of boatmen wrangled with their fares or contended with one another for favourable positions. One of these boats was occupied by an old man whose face and dress vividly recalled the well-known prints of the patriot Garibaldi, and that he was conscious of the likeness he bore to the distinguished Italian hero was obvious, for, in bright yellow letters, the name “Garibaldi” was painted upon the green stern of his tiny craft. Further inquiry elicited the fact that the owner of the likeness and the boat was one of the family of Italy’s wandering sons. Two battleships lay far out in the river, one flying the Argentine and the other the Brazilian flag, and the crews’ weekly washing. Small launches kept coming and going from and to these fourth-rate river cruisers, giving an air of warlike activity to the port. [Illustration: THE CUSTOM-HOUSE, ASUNCION.] There was no difficulty in going ashore; and, although passengers bound for stations in the interior found that the railway station was closed and under charge of an old watchman and a few old women who were resting upon the seats of the deserted terminus, they had no difficulty in obtaining rooms in the ill-kept and expensive hotels of the city. There is little life in the rugged streets of Asuncion at any hour of the day in normal times, but during the early mornings, when a revolution is in progress, a few dogs, cats, and fowls have undisturbed possession of the thoroughfares. The town is well enough laid out, and follows a regular plan; but the low, one-story buildings which line many of the streets, and the absence of many tall buildings, prevent the city from having an imposing aspect. The roads are bad, and the high pavements, which serve in most cases as balconies to the houses, often compel the pedestrian to use the rough roadways, which, however, are not quite so bad as those of Corrientes. In wet weather many of the roads are converted into rivulets, only to be negotiated by stepping from one to the other of the large stones which lie like boulders across the stream. The older houses are all built with “adobes” or sun-dried bricks, having substantial walls of more than a yard in thickness. The roofs are covered with double layers of red tiles of the “roman” pattern, and many of the external walls are panelled and framed in by columns or pilasters in low relief, the whole front being colour-washed in some fanciful shade, according to the owner’s taste. Blues, yellows, purples, greens, and buffs give a kaleidoscopic aspect to the streets, additional variety being lent by the heavy, massive doors and shutters of the entrances and windows, the former opening into vestibules which lead to the pillared and grassy patios beyond.