LOPEZ

lopez, carlos antonio (1790-1862), paraguayan autocrat, was born at asuncion on the 4th of november 1790, and was educated in the ecclesiastical seminary of that city. he attracted the hostility of the dictator, francia, and he was forced to keep in hiding for several years. he acquired, however, so unusual a knowledge of law and governmental affairs that, on francia's death in 1840, he obtained an almost undisputed control of the paraguayan state, which he maintained uninterruptedly until his death on the 10th of september 1862. he was successively secretary of the ruling military _junta_ (1840-1841), one of the two consuls (1841-1844), and president with dictatorial powers (1844-1862) by successive elections for ten and three years, and in 1857 again for ten years, with power to nominate his own successor. though nominally a president acting under a republican constitution, he ruled despotically. his government was in general directed with wise energy towards developing the material resources and strengthening the military power of the country. his jealousy of foreign approach several times involved him in diplomatic disputes with brazil, england, and the united states, which nearly resulted in war, but each time he extricated himself by skilful evasions. his eldest son, francisco solano lopez (1826-1870), was born near asuncion on the 24th of july 1826. when in his nineteenth year he was made commander-in-chief of the paraguayan army, during the spasmodic hostilities then prevailing with the argentine republic. he was sent in 1853 as minister to england, france and italy, and spent a year and a half in europe. he purchased large quantities of arms and military supplies, together with several steamers, and organized a project for building a railroad and establishing a french colony in paraguay. he also formed the acquaintance of madame lynch, an irish adventuress of many talents and popular qualities, who became his mistress, and strongly influenced his later ambitious schemes. returning to paraguay, he became in 1855 minister of war, and on his father's death in 1862 at once assumed the reins of government as vice-president, in accordance with a provision of his father's will, and called a congress by which he was chosen president for ten years. in 1864, in his self-styled capacity of "protector of the equilibrium of the la plata," he demanded that brazil should abandon her armed interference in a revolutionary struggle then in progress in uruguay. no attention being paid to his demand, he seized a brazilian merchant steamer in the harbour of asuncion, and threw into prison the brazilian governor of the province of matto grosso who was on board. in the following month (december 1864) he despatched a force to invade matto grosso, which seized and sacked its capital cuyaba, and took possession of the province and its diamond mines. lopez next sought to send an army to the relief of the uruguayan president aguirro against the revolutionary aspirant flores, who was supported by brazilian troops. the refusal of the argentine president, mitre, to allow this force to cross the intervening province of corrientes, was seized upon by lopez as an occasion for war with the argentine republic. a congress, hastily summoned, and composed of his own nominees, bestowed upon lopez the title of marshal, with extraordinary war powers, and on april 13, 1865, he declared war, at the same time seizing two argentine war-vessels in the bay of corrientes, and on the next day occupied the town of corrientes, instituted a provisional government of his argentine partisans, and summarily announced the annexation to paraguay of the provinces of corrientes and entre rios. meantime the party of flores had been successful in uruguay, and that state on april the 18th united with the argentine republic in a declaration of war on paraguay. on the 1st of may brazil joined these two states in a secret alliance, which stipulated that they should unitedly prosecute the war "until the existing government of paraguay should be overthrown," and "until no arms or elements of war should be left to it." this agreement was literally carried out. the war which ensued, lasting until the 1st of april 1870, was carried on with great stubbornness and with alternating fortunes, though with a steadily increasing tide of disasters to lopez (see paraguay). in 1868, when the allies were pressing him hard, his mind, naturally suspicious and revengeful, led him to conceive that a conspiracy had been formed against his life in his own capital and by his chief adherents. thereupon several hundred of the chief paraguayan citizens were seized and executed by his order, including his brothers and brothers-in-law, cabinet ministers, judges, prefects, military officers, bishops and priests, and nine-tenths of the civil officers, together with more than two hundred foreigners, among them several members of the diplomatic legations. lopez was at last driven with a mere handful of troops to the northern frontier of paraguay, where, on the 1st of april 1870, he was surprised by a brazilian force and killed as he was endeavouring to escape by swimming the river aquidaban. lopez de gomara, francisco (1510?-1555?), spanish historian, was educated at the university of alcala, where he took orders. soon after 1540 he entered the household of the famous cortes, who supplied him with most of the material for his _historia de las indias_ (1552), and _cronica de la conquista de nueva espana_ (1552). the pleasing style and novel matter enchanted the spanish public, but the unmeasured laudation of cortes at the expense of his lieutenants and companions brought about a violent reaction. though the _historia_ was dedicated to charles v., both works were forbidden on the 17th of november 1553, and no editions of them were issued between 1554 and 1727. italian and french versions of his books were published in 1556 and 1578 respectively. lop-nor or lob-nor, a lake of central asia, in the gobi desert, between the astin-tagh (altyn-tagh) on the south and the kuruk-tagh on the north. previous to 1876 it was placed in nearly all maps at 42° 30 n., a position which agreed with the accounts and the maps of ancient chinese geographers. in the year mentioned the russian explorer przhevalsky discovered two closely connected lake-basins, kara-buran and kara-koshun, fully one degree farther south, and considerably east of the site of the old lop-nor, which lake-basins he nevertheless regarded as being identical with the old lop-nor of the chinese. but the water they contained he pronounced to be fresh water. this identification was disputed by baron von richthofen, on the ground that the lop-nor, the "salt lake" of the chinese geographers, could not be filled with fresh water; moreover, being the final gathering basin of the desert stream, the tarim, it was bound to be salt, more especially as the lake had no outflow. przhevalsky visited the lop-nor region again in 1885, and adhered to his opinion. but ten years later it was explored anew by dr sven hedin, who ascertained that the tarim empties part of its waters into another lake, or rather string of lakes (avullu-kol, kara-kol, tayek-kol and arka-kol), which _are_ situated in 42° 30 n., and thus so far justified the views of von richthofen, and confirmed the chinese accounts. at the same time he advanced reasons for believing that przhevalsky's lake-basins, the southern lop-nor, are of quite recent origin--indeed, he fixed upon 1720 as the probably approximate date of their formation, a date which von richthofen would alter to 1750. besides this, sven hedin argued that there exists a close inter-relation between the northern lop-nor lakes and the southern lop-nor lakes, so that as the water in the one group increases, it decreases to the same proportion and volume in the other. he also argued that the four lakes of northern lop-nor are slowly moving westwards under the incessant impetus of wind and sandstorm (_buran_). these conclusions were afterwards controverted by the russian traveller, p. k. kozlov, who visited the lop-nor region in 1893-1894--that is, before dr sven hedin's examination. he practically only reiterated przhevalsky's contention, that the ancient chinese maps were erroneously drawn, and that the kara-koshun, in spite of the freshness of its water, was the old lop-nor, _the_ salt lake _par excellence_ of the chinese. finally, in 1900, dr sven hedin, following up the course of the kum-darya, discovered--at the foot of the kuruk-tagh, and at the e. (lowest) extremity of the now desiccated kuruk-darya, with traces of dead forest and other vegetation beside it and beside the river-bed--the basin of a desiccated salt lake, which he holds to be the true ancient lop-nor of the chinese geographers, and at the same time he found that the kara-koshun or lop-nor of przhevalsky had extended towards the north, but shrunk on the south. thus the old lop-nor no longer exists, but in place of it there are a number of much smaller lakes of newer formation. it may fairly be inferred that, owing to the uniform level of the region, the sluggish flow of the tarim, its unceasing tendency to divide and reunite, conjoined with the violence and persistency of the winds (mostly from the east and north-east), and the rapid and dense growth of the reed-beds in the shallow marshes, the drainage waters of the tarim basin gather now in greater volume in one depression, and now in greater volume in another; and this view derives support from the extreme shallowness of the lakes in both sven hedin's northern lop-nor and przhevalsky's southern lop-nor, together with the uniformly horizontal level of the entire region. see delmar morgan's translation of przhevalsky's _from kuja across the tian-shan to lop-nor_ (london, 1879); von richthofen's "bemerkungen zu den ergebnissen von oberst-leutenant prjewalskis reise nach dem lop-nor" in _verhandl. der gesch. f. erdkunde zu berlin_ (1878), pp. 121 seq.; sven hedin's _scientific results of a journey in central asia, 1899-1902_ (vols. i. and ii., stockholm, 1905-1906), where kozlov's share of the controversy is summarized (cf. ii., 270-280). (j. t. be.)