Voyage of the Water Witch: A Scientific Expedition to Paraguay & the LA Plata Region

Rating:
Summary: gunships and explorations
Review: Wood's book is a very informative account of a little known episode in US and Paraguayan history. The exploration of the Water Witch was central in a set of events that followed: the opening of the river waterways, the end of the isolation of Paraguay and, as a consequence, its diminished safety, that led to its destruction in the 1865-1870 war. The limits of the book are its lack of context (Perry's expedition to Japan for instance, the US expedition against Paraguay in 1855, the consequences of the opening of the riverways), some imprecisions (the battle of Monte Caseros is placed some 500 km. from where it was fought) and the poor quality of the illustrations.