LO'PEZ, FRANCISCO SoLaico, 1827-70; b. Paraguay; educated abroad, and in 184,5 appointed commander-in-chief of the Paraguayan army. In 1854 he was sent to Europe on a diplomatic mission, and negotiated treaties with England, France, and Sardinia. In Europe he made the acquaintance of a Mrs. Lynch, the Irish wife of a French officer. Lopez took her to Paraguay with him, and made her his mistress. She was a woman of considerable talent and force of character, and exercised a great influence oyer Lopez. He at once took the office of minister of war, and began to prepare secretly for a forcible annexation to Paraguay of parts of Brazil, the Ai gentine Republic, and Bolivia. ln 1862 he succeeded his father in the presidency, and in 1864, tinder the pretense of pro tecting the " equilibrium" of the Plata river, he called on Brazil to withdraw her troops from Uruguay, where a civil war was in progress, in which Brazil had intervened. Upon the refusal of Brazil, he took possession of the Brazilia.n province of Matto Grosso. In 1865 he invaded the Brazilian province of Rio Grande do Sul, sending 8,000 troops through the territory of the Argentine Republic for that purpose, and, upon that gov ernment protesting, be declared war against it. Congress now conferred upon him
extraordinary powers, and lie invaded the Argentine Republic before the declaration of war had reached Buenos Ayres. Brazil, Uruguay, and the Argentine Republic entered into an alliance against him. and in 1866 invaiied Paraguay. The war continued four years, Lopez recruiting his forces by a conscription of all persons between the ages of 12 and 70. In 1868 the Brazilian fleet bombarded Assuucion, and the same year Lopez arrested and put to the torture many of the' civil officers of the government and the foreign diplomatic corps on a charge of conspiracy. A number were executed, and the lives of some of the members of the American mission were saved only by the timely arrival of an American squadron. Finally, Mar. 1, 1870, Lopez, who had gradually been driven into the n. of Paraguay, was overtaken by the Brazilian cavalry at the Aquidaban river, and, while trying to SWIM across, was killed. His last words were, " die for my country." IIis eldest son was also killed ; his mistress, Mrs. Lynch, WEIS spared, and returned to England. The remnant of his forces immediately surrendered.