Page 18 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

16 GENERAL GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI

surprise the Saladero farm of Galpon where they were staying, in the heart of
a forest. Garibaldi’s presence of mind, his magnificent bravery and that of the
few men he had with him and his characteristic ability to come up with strat-
agems to get out of the most critical situations, proved of use in warding off
in time and then averting the forceful enemy offensive. The short and bloody
episode highlighted for the first time the singular leadership abilities on land
that in the person of Garibaldi merged wonderfully with his established qual-
ities of sailor and brave commander of a fleet.
After a fruitless attempt by the Rio Grande troops to recapture their cap-
ital of Porto Alegre, still occupied by the enemy, the commanders of the
insurgents decided to carry out a large armed expedition in the Brazilian
province of Santa Catarina, that is, in the mountainous and woodland dis-
trict spreading north of the Rio Grande do Sul territory, where there had
been some revolutionary insurgency by the republican party hostile to the
Brazilian government. In this way it was hoped to trap between two lines of
fire the Brazilian army that was still camping in the oriental region of the Rio
Grande province.
Once again Garibaldi had to deal with a difficult maritime task: that of
supporting, through sea operations, going up the Brazilian ocean coast, the
expedition that the people from Rio Grande were conducting on land, under
the command of their general Canabarro, up to the city of Laguna, capital of
the province of Santa Catarina.
But Garibaldi’s fleet that, with the booty they had made, could now count
on four armed cutters, was still in the big lagoon of Los Patos, from which it
could not go out into the open sea because, as explained before, the only
access from the lagoon to the ocean, that of San José do Norte, was blocked
by sea and land by the Brazilian forces.
What could be done?
Here too Garibaldi’s unfailing ingeniousness and astuteness came to the
rescue.
At the northeast extremity of the big lagoon there was a small cove, into
which flew a small stream, the Capibari and 54 miles upstream, until beyond
the sources of the river, it was possible to get down to the Tramanday lake,
that flew into the ocean through a steep and rocky estuary.
Garibaldi had the audacity of thinking and sending at least two of his