Mt. SMITH'S PERU AS IT IS.

Tr! m: author or this work is a physician, who resided for seine years in Pcru, practising his profes,:ion at Lima ; part of the time pur- suing some agricultural speculations in the interior, and occasion- ally traversing, the country on business or pleasure. The results of the knowledge tints acquired he has put forward in two unaffected volumes, which, it' not very pro:ound or comprehensive, flunish a good deal of infbrmation respecting the climate, diseases, physical that urea, and natural capabilities of Peru. TIitr morals and man- ners of the people are rather glided over than exhibited; partly, we suspect, because the subject is not of a stature which bears probing, partly because Dr. Sat MI may not feel inclined to expose

a society front which he received much hospitality. The state of the government, the conduct of' the authorities, the oppression of the people, and the generally disorganized condition of society, are not expressly handled; but enough peeps out to show that all the good of the Revolution is yet to come, and that the mass of

the Paraguayans are not worse, if not better off', mkt. the Dictator- ship of Dr. FHA:sett, than the Peruvians under the sway of a free constitution administered by three and arms. Here is a specimen of the mode of recruiting.

"These Sunday exercises [of the were generally ill attended ; and,

of ten or twelve young men on an agrietiltural estate, it would be usually

enmmgh if two or flow altpeared at one tints in the ranks. Vim one occasion. however, when the captain of local militia in the village of Antbo had the honour of having the additional appoim molt of governor conferred on him, he called upon the writer when itoli-po,..ed and in Led. and, with great app:arance of svmpathy and confidential cordiality, congratulated himself up.m his pro- motion, because it would afford him the power, as he had the will. to serve his

neighbour. With many sack smooth expressions and assurances of kind and

hontst i dentions, calculated to pot even a misanthrope off his guard, he ended Lis visit by requesting that, as it uts most desirable to keep up the military spirit of the district, he would expect of the writer that he should use his in- Puecce iu persnading tine puling men on hi, hacienda to attend regularly at the a' hOmt earreises in the adjacent village ; a proposition to which lie readily acceded, as it was agreeable to the estahli.,hed laws of the country. On the first or second Sunday following, six tine young men went to atrend the exercises at A mho ; and were seized and put into prison, with many others, under strung guard, to he touched off next :lay as recruits for the line."

fly dint of his exertions and influence, the half-dozen kidnapped through Dr. SMITICS instrumentality were released, the others took

the fortune of war. for does the manner of levy appear to be un- usual. Force or chicanery seems the only mode of recruiting the army ; and as by the sixth article of the Constitution the common rights of citizenship are suspended "towards the notoriously va- grant, the gambler, the drunkard, and the married man who with- out cause abandons his wife, or who is divorced on account of his

own misconduct," it appears impossible for the poor to escape in a country where, according to a friend of Dr. SMITH, " no one need ever be put out of countenance tier any thing he can say or do ;" and where almost every one in it must ten under the head of being "nzal-caswlo," or habitually cohabiting with a woman to whom lie is not married. The Indians, who are too poor to pay the fees of the church, are especially obnoxious to this law, and are seized

upon for soldiers whenever they are wanted. The wealthy and in- fluential evade or defy it. The licentiousness which pervades all classes of European de-

scent, especially in Lima, has induced a feeble state both of mind and body. The digestive organs and the nervous system appear to be principally affected; and this weakness, aggravated by their mode of life, and perhaps by the anxieties and suffering inseparable from civil war, have caused a fearful rate of mortality, and a peculiarity of constitution, rarely, we should conceive, met with elsewhere. Dr. SMITH seems to consider that the number of' deaths intwenty years exceeds the number of the population living in Lima; which, if this ratio proceeds, must speedily be depopulated. To such a pitch of effeminacy have the Litnemans reached, that the snore de- licate, when indisposed, only wash under medical advice ; and that not entirely from fancy.

" When somewhat weakened by bad health, or a slight indisposition which confines him to his apartments for a few days, should he happen to shave and wash the face with cold water, he is thereby put in danger of being visited by a spasmodic atfection of one side of the month, or affected, as is more likely to take place, with a cold in the head, so that the inflammation thus induced in the nostrils and Ewes may- soon be observed to extend itself along time conti- nuous mucous membrane, and through the windpipe into the cavity of the chest ; and there it is hard to foretel what ravages it may commit. " We nest not therefiwe be surprised to hear the often reiterated query of the convalescent in the words, ' No me hart dano laver y afeytarme? —will it not do me harm to aliave and wash? or should we indulge in a smile at his ex- peose, as we see him gradually venture on the first degrees of ablation, by rub- bing over the hands and face with a cloth dipped in tepid water sharpened with ag ttardiente, or time common spirits of the country."

The various journies of Dr. Small, though introduced abruptly, and without authoreraft sufficient to render their opening very in- telligible: to the reader, contain a good deal of information upon the character and appearance of the interior, the state of agriculture, the condition of the mining districts, the remains of the ancient Pe- ruvian arts, and the present state and feelings of the Indians. There is also a valeable chapter or two upon the diseases of Peru and the adjacent countries, as well as on the grope mode of medical treat- ment. On some of these topics we will glean a few extracts.

Lux.in ti■amtENcE.

The maize crops the flirmers always harvest in the " menttante," or decrease of the imam ; thr it is a fact known to every husbandman, that if they collect the crop in the "crecicnte," or increase of the moon, it will nut keep free of moths Mr three months, even though allowed time advantage of being left in husk, in which state it is found to be least liable to damage. In the rallies around Lima the agriculturist is very careful not to sow in the eyeeiente, lest the seed should. become so diseased and injured as never to yield a healthy crop. The :acne attention to lunar influence is bestowed by the wood-cutter, who knows that timber cut in the creciente soon decays, and on this account is not of use for constructing houses, or for any other permanent purpose ; this is particularly the case with the willow and alder, as the writer had once OCCaSiOn to klIOW experimentally. Being disinclined to believe what he considered to be the prejudices of the natives respecting lunar influenee, he insisted upon roofing in part of a house with alder and willow cut in the ere- eieute ; and after a couple of years he was convinced of his own error, when Le saw the timber employed become quite brittle and useless, so as to need to be repl.teed or supported to prevent the roof from fidliug. The " arriero," or muleteer, scrupulously attends to the influence of the mottn on his cattle; for if he travels in the 1.Tc:ciente, and in a warm or (well temperate climate, Ile takes strict care not to unsaddle his riding-horses, nor to unpad his cargo-mules, until they have rested avhile and cooled sufficiently; and, if he should. neglect these precautions, lie would he sure to have his eat tie disabled by large inflammatory swellings, rapidly running on to suppuration, forming on thew shoulders or loins.

MOILtALS Or !t/INING.

We see the Pasco miners always in the midst of riches, and always embar- rassed : they are kt-pt in a. state of continued tantalization. The miner, it is true, sometimes 11:s immeitse and rapid gains, in spite of rogues and plunderers eveityw hero about him, at comparatively little expense of flow or money ; and this ocettsional success leads others to indulge in a hope of similar good fortune, which hurries the majority of speculators in 1111,, C11111111e1 into pecuniary dif- ficulties; for, as we have seen, the necessary outlay is often great without any compeutsation ; and when the capital is too limited, though in the main the undertaking be a good one, ruin is near. Shopkeepers and dealers in plata- pina are bunted by prospects of commemial advantage to lend money to the harassed mine-owner to enable him to thrward Ids works, and to repay the loan in pine tut so touch per mare. Such a lender is called "habilItadur ;" but it unluckily happens fur this capitalist that, by the custom and usage of the miner, the lost " Imabilitador" has a claim to he first pail. which lend: to the worst practical results. The miner is generally a reckh,,l,rmahler, who spends money as Gut as it comes to him, not in improving his mines, but indulging, his vices ; and in this manner the interest Of the first habilitadors may be soc- ces4vely p,,,,nponed to the elai lit 01 the :most recent, who frequently is distp- pointed in his turn ; while the difficulties of' lite miller are not removed, but merely prolonged ; and he is involved in everlasting disputes and litigation.

AGRICULTURE IN TUE VALE os RCANUCO.

The implements of husbandry are of the rude,n kind. The plough, which is slight and single-handed, is constructed mcrely of wood, without mould- board, which we have seen a one-handed persou manage with perfect dexterity. The ploughshare is a thick iron bltultt, only tied when required fur use by a picot of thong, or hist:0, on the point of the plough, which. divides lie earth very :41p:016:lily. AN here the iron is not at hand, as frequen!ly happ.ois, we Understand that the poor peasant a-t,, it.-teal, a share made of hard iron-wood that grows in the Muntana. Harrows they hat 0, properly speaking, none: if we remember well, they sometimes use, instead, large clumsy rakes ; and we have seen them use a green bought of a tree dragged over the sown ground. with a weight upon it to make it scratch the soil. In roam of the roller, of which they never experienced the advantage, they break down the earth in the field intended for cane-plants' after it has got eight or ten ploug;nings and cross-plonghings, with the heel of a short-handled true, which t hey calf" lamina ;'r it tool which they use with great dexterity in weeding the cane-fields and clearing aqueducts. For smoothin,g down the clods of earth, we have seen sonic Indians use a more antiquated instrunwnt. It consisted of a soft, flat, and round stone, about the size of a small cheese, which had it hole beaten through its centre by dint of blows with a harder and pointed stone. To the stone thus perforated they fixed a long handle, and as they swung it about, they did great execution in the work of " cuspiando," or field-levelling.

Lucerne, or WO% is daily cut down and used green, as scores of cattle and the working oxen for the plough and sugar-mills are to be fed by it ; yet the

scithe is not in use among the great planters, who find it necessary to keep two or three individuals at the sickle to cut down food for herds, in the daytime fed on irrigated pastures, but at night fed in corrals or pens.

Potato-ground they are accustomed to break up on the face of steeps with deep narrow spades, to which long ,Landles are attached, that afford good leverage. In the same manner the soil is turned up by those who have neither plough nor oxen, but who yet sow maize on the temperate flats on the hill- sides, and in the midst of thickets by mountain streams, where the soil is usually fertile, and materials for fencing are at hand. People thus circum- stanced make holes in the ground with a sharp-pointed stick, where they bury the seed secure.

If the neighbouring countries should advance in civilization, these worthies would no doubt be crying out for corn-laws.