López. Hopkins started a sawmill and a cigar factory which — thanks to López — were allowed to operate on favorable terms, e.g. they were manned by cheap conscript labor. The commercial viability of the venture entirely depended on the goodwill of López. President López was an irascible, corpulent dictator; furthermore, a micromanager. Even so, he is now acknowledged as one of Paraguay's better rulers — a modernizer. López was gradually bringing Paraguay out of its long period of isolation. Because their country had an insecure history, Paraguayans were xenophobic and touchy. In colonial times Paraguay had had to struggle against endemic Indian and Portuguese raids; after its independence, with Brazilian and Buenos Aires bullying. Dealing with López called for diplomatic tact and patience; yet the man entrusted with the task was Edward A. Hopkins, whose arrogance began to irritate the President. Hopkins "made no secret of his mission to 'civilize' Paraguay". Thus, according to John Hoyt Williams, he asked to be made an admiral in the Paraguayan navy. He would build a ship to his own design. He and a crew of Americans would sail the ship to Buenos Aires and kidnap dictator Rosas. "All he needed was 100,000 pesos." López was not impressed. One day Hopkins' brother and the wife of the French consul were out riding in the countryside when they encountered three Paraguayan soldiers herding cattle. The soldier in charge ordered the couple to move aside so as not to frighten the animals, but he was ignored and the cattle stampeded. Enraged, the soldier struck Hopkins' brother with the flat of his sword. Whereupon, wrote Professor Ynsfran A different source found that Hopkins boasted that he "forcibly entered the audience chamber of President López, in his riding dress, whip in hand, despite the remonstrance of the guard". Hopkins made it worse. Even though López had ordered the soldier to receive 300 lashes for exceeding his authority, Hopkins demanded that Paraguay apologise in its official newspaper. A different source — a resident Spanish journalist — wrote that Hopkins had demanded that the soldier be shot, but he was only sentenced to a spell in jail. Hopkins possessed certain documents which he was supposed to deliver up before leaving the country. He refused, and in defiance of López was conveyed out of Paraguay aboard a visiting American vessel USS Water Witch. An infuriated López banned all foreign warships