English emigrants disembarking from the Steampship Cisne at Asunción, with a Brazilian gunboat on the River Paraguay beyond

After the war against the alliance of Uruguay, Brazil and the Argentine Republic, Paraguay was established under a new constitution, and a president, Jovellanos, was appointed under the protection of its three neighbours. Paraguay undertook to pay the cost of the war to the alliance and took out two foreign loans, contracted through Messrs. Robinson, Fleming, & Company in 1871 and 1872. The same London bankers attempted to establish an English colony of so-called Lincolnshire farmers in Paraguay in 1873, probably the subject of the present painting.

The Brazilian army of occupation (evidenced in the presence of the Brazilian gunboat on the River Paraguay) remained in Paraguay until 1876.