SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

711AvELS,

Travels in Pent, during the years 1838-42, on the Coast, in the Sierra, across the cor- derMas and the Andes, into the Primeval Forests. By Dr. J. J. Von Tschudi.

Translated from the German by Thomasina Ross Bogue. TSEoLoaT, The Religions of the World and their Relations to Christianity, considered in Eight Lectures, founded by the Right Honourable Robert Boyle. By Frederick Den- nison Maurice, M.A., Chaplain of Lincoln's Inn, and Prator of Divinity in King's

College. London Parker.

MANNERS AND CUAILACTER,

The Statesmen of America in 1846. By Sarah Ifytton Maury... • .Longtrum and Co.

DR. VON TSCHUDI'S TRAVELS IN PERU.

Dz. Von IECHUDI is a German naturalist, who passed four years in Chili and Peru, sojourning in the towns, traversing the coast districts, visiting the Sierras or fertile vallies in the mountains, but much above the level of the sea, climbing the Andes, and penetrating the forests on the Eastern or Brazilian side. Zoology was the traveller's primary pursuit, but

he has a sufficient knowledge of other branches of natural history, and a

competent acquaintance with geology and metallurgy, as well as medicine.

He has also studied the history and antiquities of Peru, and is an observer of character and manners ; so that he has the knowledge to travel with ad- vantage in a region like Peru, to which his explorations were chiefly confined.

Dr. Von Tschudi has also the personal qualifications of a traveller : prudent in conciliating people or avoiding useless danger, bold in en- countering that which must be met to accomplish his objects ; capable, it would appear, of bearing fatigue and privation ; quick in observing the characteristic features of nature, individuals, and society ; and judicious in the conclusions he forms, holding a due medium between the stiffnesu_ _ preconceived opinions and the laxity of no principles at all. -His style is appropriate and various ; plain and clear upon level subjects ; rising to eloquence in his descriptions of the va8t and wild magnificence of the

Andes and the Corderillas, the teeming vegetation of the lower lands, and

the strange and various creatures by whom the region is tenanted. The plan and execution of his book are not the best fitted to display to full advantage the qualities of the author to English readers ; because the structure and sometimes the matter are not such as we are accustomed

to, or indeed as the wants of the reader altogether require. The work is

neither a book of travels nor the results of travel, but a combination of the two not well planned. From the time the author quits Havre until he arrives at Lima, the narrative is continuous : the subsequent tours are also narrations, but they are not presented independently; so that a want of distinctness is felt in the plan ; and the advance is sometimes "sus- pended for a description of towns, which smacks more of the guide-book

or gazetteer than we expect in books of travel,—though it may be fit for the German public, who may not have those publications in such profusion as

we have. There is, too, a want of chronology ; we know the excursions are taking place, but we hardly know when or how : and the absence of a map will render it difficult for a reader who is not acquainted with the geography of Peru to follow the traveller. None of these remarks ap- ply to those chapters on general results which are illustrated by incidents.

The adventure of Dr. Tschudi when he lost his way in the mountains

during a fog was driven to shelter himself in a cave, with what turned out to be a dead body for a pillow, and his mule perished from eating

poisonous plant during the night, well illustrates the subject it is designed to enforce—the danger of mountain travelling. In like manner, force and life are continually given to general descriptions, by the introduction

of individual eases. We do not exactly understand from the preface of

the translator whether she has made any omissions in the original text, but we think this might have been done with advantage, and some little editorial attention been paid to introduce the sections, and accompany

them with skeleton-maps, so as to get rid of German peculiarities, and

adapt the volume to the taste of English readers,—for whom, it should be remembered, the work was not originally written.

The various races and crosses of Peru—the half-castes amounting to twenty-two in number—is a subject extensively treated by Dr. Yon Tschudi, both directly and incidentally ; and a very bad account he gives

of the whole brood. The only men with energy seem to be the few old

Spaniards, and other foreigners : the Creole Whites are lazy, sensual, and effeminate; the half-castes partake of the vices of both ancestors, and

very little more; the Negroes, suddenly freed before they were fitted

for freedom, are as lazy as the Creole Whites, and more sensual, while their greater strength and energy rather show themselves in robbery than in

lawful industry. The native Indians are broken by long oppression and

the compact and steadily-acting power of civilization : they are also kept

in a state of virtual slavery by their propensity for spirituous liquors' and

a species of fraudulent tally system. Dr. Tschudi (and he seems to have lived much amongst them) describes them as retaining traditions of their former power and independence, and nourishing schemes of revenge against the Whites. It is also his opinion that the Creole Spanish dominion is in

danger from this side ; that an Indian insurrection may probably came an extinction of the race by a general massacre. This looks wild; and

the opinion is not sufficiently supported to the reader by particu- lar facts or means of action. It should be remembered, however, that in Guatemala an Indian at the head of his hordes, in the hands of a priest

and assisted by a faction, overcame the Whites, took the capital, and,

but that his moral feeling.; were much better than those of the civilized Creoles, might have swept them from the land. At the same time, an

insurrection of the Indians in Peru or elsewhere could only destroy. Bad as industry, society, and government may be at present, they would then cease to exist save as in a state of nature. There is some truth in the

Yankee view, only they are too greedy and unprincipled in carrying it out : the Spanish races throughout the two continents are doomed to " an-

nexation " or "absorption" as soon as they cease to be protected by cir-

cumstances; intrinsic power of resistance they have not. The matter relating to natural science in Dr. Tschudi's book is on the whole the most certain and complete. The following is a curious ana- lysis of the different kinds of earthquakes and their respective effects. "Of the movements, the horizontal vibrations are the most frequent; and they cause the least damage to the slightly-built habitations. Vertical shocks are most severe; they rend the walls, and raise the houses out of their foundations. The greatest vertical shock I ever felt was on the 4th of July 1839, at half-past seven in the evening, when I was in the old forests of the Chanchamoyo territory. Before my hut there was an immense stem of a felled tree, which lay with its lower end on the stump of the root. I was leaning against it and reading, when suddenly, by a violent movement, the stern rose about a foot and a half, and I was thrown backwards over it. By the same shock, the neighbouring river, Aynamayo, was dislodged from its bed, and its coarse thereby changed for a con- siderable length of way. "I have had no experience of the rotatory movements of earthquakes. Accord- ing to the statements of all who have observed them they are very destructive, though uncommon. In Lima, I have often felt a kind of concussion, which ac- cords with that term in the str:ctest sense of the word. This movement had no- thing in common with what may be called an oscillation, a shock, or a twirl: it was a passing sensation, similar to that which is felt when a man seizes another unexpectedly by the shoulder, and shakes him; or like the vibration felt on board ship when the anchor is cast, at the moment it strikes the ground. I believe it is caused by short, rapid, irregular horizontal oscillations. The irregularity of

the vibrations is attended by much danger; for very slight-earthquakes of that kind tear away joists from their joinings, and throw down rods, leaving the walls standing, which, in all other kinds of commotion, usually suffer first, and most severely."

There is a curious account of the effects of atmospheric pressure on ani- mals of burden brought from the lowlands ; for the natives of the moun- tainous region get acclimated. Here is its operation on man and cats.

"The first symptoms of the vete are usually felt at the elevation of 12,600 feet above the sea. These symptoms are vertigo, dimness of sight and hearing, pains in the head, and nausea. Blood flows from the eyes, nose, and lips. Fainting- fits, spitting of blood, and other dangerous symptoms, usually attend severe at- tacks of vets. The sensations which accompany this malady somewhat resemble those of sea-sickness; and hence its Spanish name mareo. But sea-sickness is

usvsesompanied by the distressing difficulty of breathing experienced in the vets. This disorder sometimes proves fatal; and I once witnessed a case in which death

was the result. Inhabitants of the coast, and Europeans, who for the first time visit the lofty regions of the Cordillera, are usually attacked with this disorder. Persons in good health and of a spare habit speedily recover from it; but on plethoric and stout individuals its effects are frequently very severe. After an abode of some time in the mountainous regions, the constitution becomes inured to the rarefied atmosphere. I suffered only two attacks of the veto; but they were very severe. The first was on one of the level heights; and the second on the mountain of Antaichalma. The first time I ascended the Cordillera, I did not experience the slightest illness, and I congratulated myself on having escaped the

vets; but a year afterwards I had an attack of it, though only of a few hours' duration. The vets is felt with great severity iiisome districts of the Cordillera, whilst in others, where the altitude is greater, the disorder is scarcely percep-

tible. Thus it would seem that the malady is not caused by diminished atmo- spheric pressure, but independent on some unknown climatic circumstances. The districts in which the veta prevails with greatest intensity are, for the most part, rich in the production of metals; a circumstance which has given rise to the idea that it is caused by metallic exhalations. "I have already described the effect of the Puna climate on beasts of burden. Its influence on some of the domestic animals is no less severe than on the human race. To cats it is very fatal; and at the elevation of 13,000 feet above the sea, those animals cannot live. Numerous trials have been made to rear them in the villages of the upper mountains, but without effect; for after a few days' abode in those regions, the animals die in frightful convulsions: but when in this state they do not attempt to bite: I had two good opportunities of observing the dis- ease at Yanli. Cats attacked in this way are called by the natives azorochados, and antimony is alleged to be the cause of the distemper. Dogs are also liable to it; but it visits them less severely than cats, and with care they may be re- covered."

Of the priests our author gives a deplorable account. With all the vices of laxity that Stephens ascribes to them, we hear, little of their bon- hommie. On the contrary, the Doctor paints them as oppressors and cheats of the poor Indians. Here is one of them. "The Padre Itequena sketched to me a terrible picture of his Indioa brutoa; but truly, under the guidance of such a shepherd it were unreasonable to expect the flock to be very good. This venerable cant was a fair type of the Peruvian priesthood. He was passionately fond of hunting; and for the enjoyment of that recreation he kept a number of excellent horses and several packs of hounds, par- ticularly galgos, (greyhounds,) for some of which he paid 150 or 200 dollars. In the most shameless way he violated the ecclesiastical vow of celibacy: and he was usually surrounded by several of his own children; who called him uncle, addressing him by the appellation of do, the term usually employed in Peru to express that sort of relationship. The Padre used to boast of his alleged friend- ship with Lord Cochrane, in which he affected to pride himself very greatly. He died in a few weeks after his return to Huacho. He refused so long to make his confession, that the Indians uttering furious menaces, assembled in crowds about his house. Some even compelled a priest to go in to him, to represent the awful consequences of his obstinacy. On the approach of death, he declared that the thought which most occupied him was his separation from his hounds; and when Ins hands were becoming cold, he called to his Negro to fetch a pair of buckskin hunting-gloves, and desired to have them drawn on."

These specimens will give an idea of the translation. It reads through- out with the same ease ; which is a better test than verbal consideration. It does not, however, fail in this, so far as a judgment can be formed in the absence of the original. The epithets and precise terms are well chosen.