Soldiers were posted at the corners of the deserted streets ever ready to pounce upon likely recruits, and so desperate was the need of the Government for men that even foreigners were in danger of being pressed into the service. I met a youth of Italian extraction a few minutes after he had escaped from the clutches of the Army Board. He had been stopped in the street by a couple of soldiers and carried off to the barracks, where he found many acquaintances who had been similarly captured. He was closely questioned, in Guarani, regarding himself, and had the presence of mind to feign complete ignorance of that language and to employ the Spanish in demanding the reason of his detention. A proficiency in Guarani would have been taken as practical proof that the speaker was a native. Fortunately this young Italian was provided with military papers which proved his nationality, and after an irksome and searching inquiry he was released. I continually met in the streets detachments of civilians under close guard on their way to the barracks, and found that shops were closed, cafés deserted, whilst the population, nervous and apprehensive, kept themselves in the background. The wharves bristled with armed men, whose wretched physique and poor clothing gave them anything but a military appearance, and they seemed more anxious to keep out of harm’s way than to run any risk of encounter with an enemy. When the steamers were leaving the port a number of officials went on board and carefully scrutinised the passengers, who had all to be provided with passports to enable them to leave the country, and it was not until the city was left far behind and the town of Villeta safely passed that the apprehensions of many passengers and fugitives were dispelled. This magnificent and rich country is still a wilderness awaiting development, for its progress during the last fifty years has been so slow that much remains to be done to bring it into line with the general advance made by the surrounding republics. CHAPTER XXII _A Glance at Brazilian History_ If geographical extent, length of seaboard, variety of resources, number of cities, constitute the importance of a country, then Brazil may fairly claim to be the most important State in South America.