spars, and in some places with stone, to prevent their falling in. We observed a variety of colours in the different soils; bright blue, green, and yellow; -the richest that was pointed out to us was of a colour like Roman ochre, and very soft; in other places it was a solid rock, in which the particles of ore sparkled from the light of our candles. The miners determine the limits of their property by compass and measurement, and that to such nicety, that there is seldom à dispute about a single yard.

In some places in which they were at work, we saw quantities of what is termed by the miners' bronce' (iron pyrites), and copper ore: the former is most abundant, and often mixed with large proportions of silver, but (as they informed us) it requires so much quicksilver in the amalgamation, and the labour of grinding it is so great, that the expense is more than the value of the silver extracted. A great many boys were employed in carrying up the ore, and assisting the elder miners in their operations: the ore is carried up in hide bags on the backs of the Indians, and the labour seems very severe.

The mines are very ill drained, and the difficulty of getting along in the cañones or passages was great. The miners seemed contented; they were seated in their niches, chewing cocoa, and beheld us with much indifference, except the desire of obtaining cigars, which they rarely failed to ask for. We found at the extremity of one of the galleries a little chapel, ornamented with gilt figures, dedicated to the patron saint of the mine; here we sat and rested ourselves, for we had been wandering about with our bodies doubled for nearly an hour, and were very glad to straighten our backs. In one part of the Socavon, the water fell in a cataract of fourteen or twenty feet, with a great noise, resounding through the passages. Sometimes, through the negligence of the miners, a "rumbo," or falling in of the earth takes place: an accident of this description occurred in a mine some years ago, and caused the death of three hundred people, since which the mine has not been worked, and now is known by the name of Matagente, or Kill-people. After wandering underground for two hours and a half, we had enough of mining, and joyfully hailed the pure air and cool breeze of the surface.' pp. 46-49.

The language spoken by the miners and lower orders is the Quichua or Peruvian, few of them being acquainted with Spanish. The English company that commenced working mines here in 1827 or 1828, completely failed. One of the steam-engines they erected, is entirely destroyed, and the other unserviceable.

On the 7th of October, our Travellers put themselves again in motion, though they already found themselves disappointed of the aid which they had been promised by the Government officials. On the 11th, they reached the episcopal city of Huanuco, situated in a beautiful valley, 6300 feet above the sea, at the junction of the Higueras and the Huallaga. Huanuco contains fourteen churches, including the cathedral, but all, except one, are miserable edifices. There is one coffee-house, where the men meet every evening to gamble. The inhabitants

of the city and suburbs, consisting of the descendants of Spaniards, Mestizoes and Indians, amount to about 10,000; and the population is believed to have been stationary for nearly three centuries. The causes for the non-increase are now principally, the small-pox and debauchery." The Quichua is generally spoken. What have fourteen churches done for Huanuco?

There is a post from Lima thus far, the conveyance of letters occupying a week; but now commenced the more adventurous part of the journey, the difficulties and perils of which were forcibly painted with a view to dissuade the strangers from their rash enterprise. Determined, however, to proceed, on the 21st of October, they started for Panao,-a small town, inhabited almost exclusively by Indians, seated on the Chirimayo. With considerable difficulty they here procured muleteers to carry their luggage forward; and on reaching the banks of the Pozuzu, after overcoming the toils and risks of a route all but impracticable, they had the mortification of being deserted by their carriers, who ran away in the night, afraid to proceed further. There was no help for it, but to retrace their steps over the mountains. On their return route, the Travellers had the mortification to meet great numbers of Indians, who had secreted themselves in the forest, to avoid being pressed into their service in prosecuting their journey, but who willingly offered their assistance to transport their luggage back to Panao; and on their leaving the latter place for Huanuco, the inhabitants testified their pleasure at their departure, by ringing the church bells till the party were out of sight. The reason of this inhospitable proceeding was afterwards ascertained.

The rich and cultivated valley of Chinchao is the source of the principal wealth of the city of Huanuco, from its production of coca. Most of the inhabitants own large plantations; and they feared that, if our expedition succeeded, and the road by Pozuzu became open and practicable for commerce, their estates would lose all their value, and they should be ruined. These notions originated with the higher class, who, while they were promising us every assistance, were secretly doing all they could to obstruct us, and persuading the Indians not to accompany us: indeed, they were so bent on preventing our success, that emissary after emissary was despatched to pervert the minds of the Indians (already disinclined to assist us) with most absurd stories, which, as has been seen, succeeded too well.'

pp. 112, 113.

Compelled to adopt a different route, our Travellers proceeded to the banks of the Chinchao, and embarking at its port in canoes, descended that stream to the Huallaga, by which they were now to prosecute their course. Entering the latter river, they were rapidly borne down the impetuous current; but their navigation

VOL. XVI.-N.S.

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was continually arrested by formidable rapids, which compelled them to unload and transport the canoes for a short distance. At Juana del Rio, a village first settled in 1830, they found themselves beyond the limits of the Quichua language, the natives speaking a dialect called the Ibita. At a village called Uchiza, two leagues up the tributary stream of the Malliza, they first saw natives with their faces smeared red and blue to heighten their charms. Here, in the night, they heard the melancholy cry of a little bird called the alma perdida (lost soul): the 'first note is long and shrill, and is followed by three more of 'the same length, gradually deepening in tone. The Peruvians 6 say, it is bewailing the dead.' On reaching the mouth of the Mayo, our Travellers ascended that stream to make an excursion to Tarapoto, the chief town in that part, comprising, with its suburbs, about 4000 inhabitants. British manufactures were here found exposed to sale in no inconsiderable quantities; printed cottons, green baize, ribands, coarse cutlery, and glass beads. Indeed,' says Lieut. Smyth, through the whole of our 'journey, we never entered a place that was more than a small village, in which we did not meet with some of the manufactures of our own countrymen.' A day's voyage below the mouth of the Chasuta, the mountains end, and the river flows on, without interruption from rapids, to the Amazons. The object of the expedition, however, was to explore the Ucayale; and, leaving the Huallaga, our Travellers ascended the Chipurana to the port of Yanayacu, and thence made their way over-land, for about thirty miles, through hilly forests, to Santa Catalina, a small village situated on a stream which falls into the Ucayale. With vivid sensations of delight, they at length entered the waters of that magnificent stream, and ascending it for several leagues, reached Sarayacu, the seat of the only remaining Mission in the fertile Pampa del Sacramento, where they met with a hospitable reception from the presiding Padre.

.

6

Lieut. Smyth's original purpose was, instead of descending the Huallaga, to make his way from Pozuzu, where he was turned back, to Mayro, on the Pachitea, and to have descended by that river to the Ucayale. The distance between Pozuzu and Mayro is only ten or twelve days. At Sarayacu, he hoped to be able to procure the assistance requisite to enable him to ascend the Ucayale to the mouth of the Pachitea, and to reach Mayro from the eastward. But in this also he was doomed to be disappointed. According to the Padre's account, it would have required a strong land party of two or three hundred men to protect the navigators against the natives, while ascending the river; and there were no means of purchasing three months' provisions for so large a body. As it is very evident that the worthy Padre was not particularly desirous that they should effect their purpose, in opening, or as

certaining the practicability of this route, we shrewdly suspect that there was a little exaggeration in his statements. It appears that, not having received any official communication from the Lima Government for nine years, nor received any salary, he had, in order to support himself and the Mission, commenced a trade with Tavatinga and San Pablo, sending thither native cloth, sarsaparilla, and turtle oil, and receiving in exchange iron, beads, cottons, and a few luxuries for his own table. He had no longer any motive for desiring a more open communication with the Government by which he had been neglected. To make the attempt without his concurrence and assistance, was, however, impossible. The Padre, who had resided there four and thirty years, exercised a patriarchal sway over all the settlements within his reach upon the Ucayale and in its neighbourhood; and his influence alone could have raised the requisite supplies. It was therefore determined, that the Peruvian officers who had thus far accompanied the expedition, should return to Lima by the way of Moybamba and Truxillo, (Lieutenant Maw's route,) while Lieut. Smyth and Mr. Lowe availed themselves of the Padre's offer to send them, with the first cargo of sarsaparilla, by the Mission canoe, to San Pablo. They were detained at Sarayacu exactly a month, during which they were most hospitably entertained, but the Padre did not seem inclined to encourage their exploring the river, or making any excursions in the neighbourhood; always meeting with some excuse their request to be furnished with the assistance of the Indians for this purpose.

Lieut. Smyth has collected some interesting information respecting the country and its wild and half-tamed natives, but of course chiefly derived from hearsay. The Padre had paid little attention to the education of his flock; and our Author thinks it probable that not an Indian in the whole Mission knows the alphabet. They attend the church with great regularity, and join in the responses of the service, which is partly in Latin, partly in Italian; but as to their morals, both sexes are very much addicted to intoxication,' and little natural affection appears to exist between parents and children or other relatives.

6

The voyage down the Ucayale presented nothing very remarkable. The distance from Sarayacu to its mouth, according to the course of the stream, which is very winding, is 279 miles; the direct distance only 158. It varies in breadth from half a mile to a mile and a half, runs between three and four miles an hour, and has an average depth, when at its height, of twelve feet. There are no impediments to its navigation. On the ninth day after entering the Marañon *, they reached the Brazilian frontier

* The Marañon, Lieut. Smyth says, 'is at least half as broad again as the Ucayale, at the point of their confluence.' Condamine repre

at Tavatinga. On the 29th of May, they arrived at Para; the whole time occupied by the expedition from their quitting Lima, being eight months and ten days.

The Volume of which we have given this brief abstract, is commendably free from pretence or affectation of any kind; and it possesses the genuine interest of an adventurous journey pleasingly narrated.

Art. IV. The Manner of Prayer: an Inquiry relative to the best Means of discharging the Duties of Public and Social Devotion. By W. Walford, late Tutor in the Academy at Homerton. Foolscap 8vo, pp. 289. London, 1836.

THERE

HERE are circumstances connected with the appearance of this book, which, to those acquainted with the respected Author, invest it with something like sacredness. We know not, however, that we should have alluded to them, but for the following passage, in which they are referred to in a manner to us, at least, inexpressibly touching, and which, we are not ashamed to confess, we found it difficult to read without tears:-it occurs in the Dedication', and is addressed to 'Dr. Smith and to the ministers who were educated jointly by him and the Author.'

6

The numerous instances in which your sympathy was shown, during my long continued and desolating affliction, afforded me as much solace as my overwhelming calamity admitted. A remembrance of them is still very grateful to me, now that I am, through the singular mercy of God, restored to as much health of body and tranquillity of mind as I can reasonably hope to enjoy during the short remaining period of my life.

"Labuntur anni: nec pietas moram

Rugis et instanti senectæ

Afferet, indomitæque morti."

Horat. Od. lib. ii. 14.

Thrice happy! that we are not destined to exist always in so frail, so troubled, and so inconstant a condition as the present state is found by us all to be; but that we have, through the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, a blessed hope of immortality in his presence. That we all may be guided by his wisdom, and guarded by his power, as long as we are passing through this land of shadows, is the earnest hope and fervent prayer of

Your ever affectionate Friend.'

sents the Ucayale as the broader stream of the two, and he is inclined to consider it as the main branch; we think erroneously. Lieut. Maw passed this confluence in the night; and it was too dark to admit of any observations.