CURRENT LITERATURE.
Two Years in Peru. By Thomas L Hutchinson. 2 vols. (Sampson Low and Co.)—Here are two stout volumes, full of antiquarian learning, shrewd observation of men and things, and useful information on matters mercantile and political, which yet will hardly obtain the recognition due to their merits. The fact is that the multifarious knowledge which Mr. Hutchinson has acquired is mixed up in such away that it loses much both of its utility and its attractiveness. The ancient civilisation of Peru, the destructive habits of the Incas (Mr. Hutchinson believes that the Incas did little else in Perri except destroy), the value and probable duration of the guano deposits, the prospects and aspects of Peru, in commerce and politics, succeed each other in a way which is somewhat bewildering. Many readers who have a lively interest in the question of the extinct civilisa- tions of South America are wholly indifferent to the guano ques- tion, not having lands to be fertilised with that product, or Peru- vian bonds secured upon the produce of its sale. There are others, again to whom guano is one of the profoundest and most absorbing of human interests. A third section of readers, for tastes cannot be accounted for, may find an interest in Peruvian politics. These will all find something about their favourite subject, but they would probably have been better pleased, and Mr. Hutchinson would certainly have been able to do himself more justice, if each had been treated separately and continuously. Our author brings many notable facts to light. One about the mortality of coolie labourers imported from Macao to Callao is perfectly frightful. Of 14,494 taken on board at Macao, there died on the voyage no less than 1,114. Surely it is time that all these detest- able imitations of the slave trade should be put down. A mortality of more than 7 per cent, during a voyage of a few weeks ! Could there have been anything much worse in the middle passage of African slavery ?
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