baffled his address, and stopped us on the edge of a fall, the water foaming against this new obstacle threatened to swamp us; this was the critical moment, the two men then leaped into the water, and thus lightening the canoe, held it with all their strength to hinder it from being ingulphed by the water, among precipices where it would have perished.

"Dangers of so novel a nature, of course, alarm the traveller ; imprisoned in the middle of the canoe, and motionless for fear of upsetting it, he mechanically sighs with pleasure after having passed over a shoal, or descended a rapid; this sometimes happened to myself. The negroes mistaking the expression of joy for a sigh of complaint, asked with the most laughable sang froid, Are you wet, Sir? In truth, I was wet through; the rain fell in torrents, and the sailor while intent upon avoiding the rocks, which every where obstruct the passage, was constantly striking his feet against each other, to throw out the water which filled the canoe."

In this way was the author transported to San Buonaventura, which is an inconsiderable village, but, from its situation at the mouth of the Dagua, and its convenience for the coasting-trade, it will become in a short time a populous and important town. The province of Choco is deluged with rain, which has intersected the immense plain with numberless canals, and enables the inhabitants to transport their productions by inland navigation to Panama; but the excessive humidity so injurious to health, is destructive to agriculture, and poverty is every where displayed with its most disgusting accompaniments; they have, however, very productive mines of gold and platina; the latter metal is here sold at from 11 to 15s. per pound! In Europe, it is worth nearly as many guineas. Gold is never found in Choco unmixed with platina, and both are usually met with at an elevation of 50 poises. Silver is found higher up, and copper and iron nearly at the summit of the mountains; the Cordilleras exhibit the spectacle of a pastoral people, who select for the rearing of their flocks the most elevated Paramas, which are just within the limits habitable by man, and are exposed to all the inconveniences of storms and excessive cold.

We have some very animated pictures of the female character of Columbia, sketched with considerable boldness and truth, but our limits will not allow us to follow the author on a subject which would extend our remarks beyond the length we have prescribed. We refer our readers to the work itself, for some interesting details on the natural pro ductions and commerce of Columbia. We observe that some Englishmen have obtained a charter for the establishment of steam-boats on the Magdalena, and are required to construct

merit. The author is a vigilant observer; he appears to roads in certain directions. The benefits to be derived from the judicious employment of capital in a country rich in natural productions, but defective in the means of transporting them, are fully appreciated by the Government, which affords to foreigners the same encouragement and protection in the establishment of public works, that it extends to the native Columbian.

The climate of Columbia exhibits all the variety of temperature and salubrity that irregularity of surface under a tropical sun can produce, but its general character is that of being unhealthy; there are, comparatively speaking, few districts in which the inhabitants are not more or less afflicted with goitres, and, in many parts, they are horribly disfigured by them; there are few mountainous tracts in any country, especially if it be rich in metals, in which this disease does not prevail, but, under the tropics, it assumes most formidable and distressing appearances, unknown in more temperate climes. The low state of the healing art affords the sufferer no chance of cure, nor even hope of alleviation;-in our own country it is seldom reduced, and still more rarely cured.*

There is, perhaps, no portion of the globe in which the effects of climate upon manners and morals are so manifest as in Columbia, nor any in which so great a diversity of dispositions is exhibited in the same race of men, but placed under different physical circumstances. Upon the whole, the picture which the author has drawn of Columbia is tinted with a sober hue, and, though there are some bright spots in the landscape, its general appearance is by no means inviting. The volume before us is rendered more useful by a good map, which should always accompany such a work, but which, from mistaken economy, is too often omitted. We were astonished to encounter a display of the greatest ignorance on the subject of Chemistry. Not having seen the original, we know not what share of the blame may rest on the head of the translator, but there is a lamentable deficiency somewhere; we have, by way of appendix, an analysis of Columbian minerals, after Berthier, which, from the obscurity of nomenclature, might well be ascribed to some venerable deciple of Stahl, labouring to adopt the simple language of Lavoisier.

Notwithstanding this and some other defects, the work has

* We are happy to say, that a Corresponding Member of the Philomathic Institution, and an intimate friend of ours, has lately used a preparation of Iodine among his Patients, in Derbyshire, with the greatest

success.

have as few prejudices as fall to the lot of most men, if we except a tolerable share of nationality. His industry has collected a great variety of information, of which he does not always make the happiest selection. But his errors are on the right side,-from a traveller we want not speculations, but facts.

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NEW WORKS JUST PUBLISHED.