On the 27th they towed the other gun-boat to the same place, and opened upon the Brazilian fleet again, and the ironclads renewed the same tactics as before. This time the Paraguayans had their boat very close in to the bank, and kept their cartridges on shore, to avoid being blown up. Most of their 68-pound shot struck the ironclads, but flew in pieces. Some penetrated, however. One struck the Tamandaré at the edge of a port, broke in pieces, and the fragments entered, killing every one in that part of the casemate, including the first and second Captains, three other officers, and eighteen men killed, and fifteen wounded. The Tamandaré was driven off by this shot. The two other ironclads kept up the fire, responded to by the Paraguayan musketry from the woods, and at nine o’clock at night the Brazilians retired, having effected nothing. Next day four ironclads and four wooden gun-boats came up to engage this doughty Paraguayan 8-pounder. On this day the ironclad Barroso got four holes through her plates, and all the rest of them were more or less damaged, until, at last, the Paraguayan gun was struck, and fairly broken in two. Strange to say, not a Paraguayan was hurt. On the night of the 29th, these irrepressible people, having recovered the 8-inch gun from the first scow, endeavored to bring a boat from Humáitá, to mount it upon. Their audacity was such that they towed it, with canoes, down the Paraguay to the confluence, and then up the Parana, and all this under a bright moonlight. At last the Brazilians saw them, before they had reached their goal, and the gun-boats steamed up, to capture an empty scow. The men had made off, in the canoes, up the Parana. These Paraguayan gun-boats thus constantly engaged the whole Brazilian fleet. But it must be remembered that a mere float, of this kind, bearing a gun, was very difficult to hit. For a week after this, the steamer Gualeguay went out every afternoon, and fired at the Brazilian fleet with her two 12-pounders. This was done principally for Lopez’ amusement, and he, at a safe distance, had excellent long glasses mounted, with which he watched the performances. The Brazilian fleet would dash up the water, all about the Gualeguay, with every kind of missile, from a 68 to a 150-pounder, and yet this steamboat never received any damage but one hole in her smoke-stack. In some of the subsequent bombardments, Lopez would take up his quarters in a secure bomb-proof, and receive exact reports of every gun fired; what it had effected, and so forth. But he never exposed himself for a moment.