SOCHT, but THAIR AWIN PARTICULAR PROFIT; quhairthrow to all men of haill judgment it may appere, her Grace perferrit nocht his efchaiping and impunitie, to her awin honour; for quhatfoever was left ondone, it may maist juftlie be laid to thair awin charge*".

This is unanfwerable. It was indeed not Bothwell that they fought, but the fovereign power, which they foon obtained by the Queen's forced refignation of the crown, and the advancement of Murray to the regency; objects which the apprehenfion and trial of Bothwell would probably have placed beyond their reach, by evincing their guilt, and the Queen's

innocence.

(To be concluded in our next.)

ART. IV. The prefent State of Peru: comprising its Geography, Topography, Natural Hiftory, Mineralogy, Commerce, the Cuftoms and Manners of its Inhabitants, the State of Literature, Philofophy, and the Arts, the Modern Travels of the Miffionaries in the heretofore unexplored mountainous Territories, &c. &c. The whole drawn from original and authentic Documents, chiefly written and compiled in the Peruvian Capital; and embellifhed by twenty Engravings of Coftumes, &c. 4to. 487 pp. 21. 2s. Phillips. 1805.

OF

F the real internal ftate of Peru, its topography, natural hiftory, cuftoms, and manners, very little indeed has hitherto been known, as the Spanish authors who have written on the subject, such as Garcilafo, Herrera, &c. have rather been hiftorians of their own exploits than accurate describers of this interefting region. Neither muft the reader expect any regular and fyftematic information on the fubject from the prefent volume, the hiftory of which is literally as follows: a periodical work, printed at Lima, under the title of "El Mercurio Peruano," or Peruvian Mercury, fell into the hands of the editor, by the capture of the St. Jago, bound from Callao, the port of Lima, to Cadiz. This appears to have been in the nature of one of our monthly Magazines, and to have treated on the various fubjects of literature, natural hiftory, topography, and philofophy, in a concife and defultory way; to have confifted indeed of detached miscellaneous

* Whitaker, vol. i. p. 276.

effays.

effays. This book, therefore, poffeffes thefe effays arranged and methodized by the editor, but the book has also a number of coloured prints, refpecting the coftume of Peru. This circumftance is thus explained:

"The ofd English saying, " to shoot at a pigeon and kill a crow", was, however, verified by him, when he obtained the fet of Peruvian Mercuries, the felection from which forms the bafis of his work. He was in queft, not of books, but of a valuable Peruvian remedy belonging to the vegetable kingdom (the carahuala), little known in this country. To the end that the adventure might be complete, he ftumbled on a painting, which he has employed, partly with a view to illuftrate the fubject matters of his work, and partly to render the work itself more agreeable to the reader, where fuch illuftration was not abfolutely neceffary. The painting in queftion, the production of an untutored native, denied the advantages which the high cultivation of the arts in Europe affords, is in many of its parts finely executed, as will appear by the fubjects that have been taken from it on the prefent occafion. It reprefents the Indian feftival, in the great fquare of Lima, on the event of the acceffion of his prefent Catholic Majefty, Charles the Fourth, to the throne. In the engravings, the defign of the artift has been ftrictly adhered to; and it ought therefore to be noticed, that, as he was planted on an eminence, his picture prefents what is termed by painters a bird's-eye view. The curve of the petticoat in fome of the female figures, may, with other peculiarities of a fimilar kind, be thus explained." P. ix.

Such is the hiftory of this volume, which certainly contains a great deal of entertaining matter on the fubject of Peru, mixed with a large fhare of extraneous detail, and written in a ftyle by no means remarkable for its fimplicity or elegance. In his Preface, the editor talks of having recourfe to reticences and any mifreprefentation. To prevent fome of our country readers from having recourfe to their dictionaries, we venture to inform them, that by reticences the writer probably means concealments. Indeed, the ftyle is throughout turgid and affected. We fhall, however, enable the reader to judge for himfelf. The work is divided into eight parts, with an Appendix, which is by no means the least important part of the volume. It gives an account of different Itineraries into the interior as well as mountainous territories of Peru. The first part of the volume difcuffes the fubject of the Peruvian territory; the fecond, its natural hiftory; the third, its mineralogy; fourth, the commerce of Peru; the fifth, the Peruvian capital; the fixth, the Indian and other inhabitants of Peru; the feventh, its topography; the eighth, fubjects of literature and philofophy.

We have been fomewhat at a lofs whence to take our specimen, but perhaps the following may fuffice: Mm 2

"Account

"Account of the Costumes, Superflitions, and Exercifes, of the Indians of the Pampa del Sacramento, and Andes Mountains of Peru.

"Of the three claffes of men who exift in the universe, destined to invent fables, and to obtrude them on the credulity of their fellowcreatures, it is uncertain which has been the boldest and most fertile in inventing them, or the moft fuccefsful in inducing their belief. They have all of them inundated the earth with vifions, and have alike gained over profelytes. Thefe are, the poets, the philofophers, and the travellers. The firit infinuate falfhood even into the heavens, and cause it to be adored by ftupid mortals: the fecond difpofe tyrannically of Nature and her magnificent works, and draw into their Jures the republic of the learned the third feign marvels at their will, and imprefs with a belief of them, both the monarch and the minifter

of flate.

"With the conqueft of the Americas, fuch a fwarm of the latter defcription was raifed in the western continent, that if all the empires and opulent cities of which they dreamed had been real, the planet of the earth would not have contained them, and it would have been neceffary to place a part of them in that of the moon. In those times, Manoa was the first and most celebrated city. It was conjectured to be the capital of the empire of Dorado, fo called, becaufe gold not only glittered in the temples, palaces, and gardens, as in Peru, but likewife, according to report, in every part of its vaft territory, infomuch, that the banks and profound depth of the lakes, nay, the groves even, were covered with that precious metal. One of its difcoverers, who was enabled, by the difperfion of the advanced bodies of troops ftationed to defend the frontiers, to reach a point whence he defcried the above-mentioned capital, reported that its walls were crowned with ftatues and turrets of the fineft gold, which was infinitely more flattering to the view, than were the gardens with which Semiramis adorned the walls of Babylon, and even than the Elyfium of the poets. So grateful a piece of intelligence, to which the fpoils of Atahualpa and Montezuma attached fome degree of credit, made a rapid progrefs from America to the north of Europe. While the Pizarros, in Peru, Ordaz, in Quito, and Quezada, in the new kingdom, made preparations for its conqueft; and while the court of Madrid glowed with pretenfions founded on a priority of claim, and fitted fhips in the ports of Spain, the active English, and other powers, opened their coffers, and redoubled their efforts, with a view to be the foremost to feize on the prize. But this prize, like the enchanted palaces of fairy tales, fled from province to province, mocking those by whom it was purfued. The imagination, and the eyes, view ob jects in a different manner. To the latter they diminish with the diftance, and augment in proportion as they are approached but to the former, on the other hand, they enlarge in the ratio of the fpace by which they are feparated, and decrease in the fame manner by the proximity, until they entirely difappear. Thus it happened to Raleigh, and to all thofe who engaged in the conquest of Dorado. "Far happier would have been the lot of Don Francifco Bohorquez, had his reveries been realized. In the year 1635 he discovered Enim, reached

reached its confines, and ordered his arrival to be announced to the monarch. His lofty ftature, his valour, his fine perfonal qualities, and his difcretion, procured him an accefs to the capital. Its plan, its fuperb pillars, the order and difpofition of its palaces and fquares, and the refined policy of its inhabitants, would have terrified any other than Bohorquez. He was, notwithstanding, overpowered by furprize at the fight of the imperial alcazar, or caftle. It was built on a multitude of columns of porphyry and alabafter, and had its flooring fkirted by a fpacious gallery, at the extremities of which the cedar and the ebon were fculptured in a thoufand forms. The majefty of the portico could not be defcribed, unless by faying that Nature and Art had challenged each other at that spot, to vie in the production of its beauties. The ftaircafes and entrances were most fumptuous. In all the inner apartments the energy of the pencil was difplayed on jafpar, in portraying the auguft heroes, the lords of this favoured region. The floors were covered with the richeft carpets of feathers, and the air perfumed with the most fragrant aromatics. Our adventurer having been ushered into the royal cabinet, found the fovereign reclined on a throne of ivory, and furrounded by his principal courtiers, who occupied various eftrades of gold, fuperior to that

of Arabia.

"He was received with every token of humanity, and placed next to the throne. The ceremonials, feftivals, and tournaments by which the monarch, in exhibiting his own magnificence, endeavoured to afford him pleasure, were effentials which required, for their defcription, the pen of Homer, or of Virgil, or, rather, that of Miguel Cervantes Saavedra. The diverfions being concluded, and he being defirous to fet out on his return, the eldest daughter of the king, into whose bofom the god Cupid had introduced the violent flame of love, enveloped in the graceful form of the ftranger, made a tender to him of her perfon. But our Bohorquez, in whom the madness of Don Quixote must have been blended with the addrefs of Cacus, chose rather to be the depredator, than the peaceful poffeffor of the new empire. After having beguiled Peru with his fabulous Enim, he entered that territory, accompanied by thirty-fix Spaniards, in the year 1643, to achieve its conqueft; but was guilty of fo many piracies, not only among the barbarians, but likewife in Jauxa and Tarma, that the viceroy was under the neceffity of fending a detachment of troops to apprehend him. This having been fuccefsfully accomplifhed, he was banished to Valdivia, with another individual, named Villa-Nueva, his captain-general. Don Antonio, and Don Benito Quiroga, inhabitants of la Paz, were not more fuccefsful in the conqueft of Gran Paititi, in their endeavours to accomplish which they confumed a very flourishing capital, and were left in an impoverished ftate. This reward was justly due to an infatiable ambition.

"Time has flowly diffipated these chimeras, which have been in one refpect useful, inafmuch as they have ftimulated certain miffionaries to explore the mountains. From their relations we can collect, that throughout the whole extent of them, in Manoa, and in the immente plains which feparate them from the cordillera of Brafil, there are not any other treasures, beside thofe that will be pointed

out

out in illuftrating the peregrinations of fathers Sobreviela and Girbal; nor any greater degree of civilization and policy than that which is exhibited in the account we now proceed to give, of the coftumes, fuperftitions, and exercises of the barbarians who inhabit them.

They live difperfed in the forefts and woods, and are collected, under the direction of one or two caciques, into fmall tribes, each of which confiders itself as a distinct nation, and even hoftile to the others. They are ufually tall, robuft, and well made, it being the invariable cuftom, whenever any male child is born, with the limbs distorted, or with any remarkable defect, inftantly to deprive the infant of life, as an inaufpicious birth. Their complexion is fairer than that of the Peruvians, and fome of them, the Conivos, for inftance, would even vie in that refpect with the Europeans, if the erratic life of the mountains, the unguents, and the punctures of the fand-flies and mofquitoes, did not give them a fwarthy hue. All their attention is bestowed on preferving a firm texture of the body, and on flattening the forehead and hinder part of the head, with a view of refembling, as they fay, the full moon, and of becoming the ftrongest and moft valiant people in the world. To attain the former of thefe aims, they bind the waift, and all the joints, of their male offspring, from their tender infancy, with hempen bands. With a view to the latter, they wrap the forehead in cotton, and lay on it a fmall fquare board, applying another fimilar board to the occiput, and adjufting them with cords until the intention has been answered. Thus the head is elongated above, and flattened both before and behind. This practice cannot fail to alter the functions of the brain; and, accordingly, the reproach of ftupidity is attached to the bonzes, or Japanese pricfts, at whofe birth the head is compressed, until it acquires the fhape of a fugar-loaf, to the end that it may serve as an altar on which the minifter may kindle the facred fire, as a token of their being admitted into the priesthood. In reality, our Indians of the mountains are remarked to be the people the most devoid of thought any where to be found.

They go in a great measure naked, but with fome distinction. The men wear a short cotton fhirt, painted with a variety of colours, and provided with a half fleeve; this covering, which reaches to the middle of the thigh, is named ufti. The married women are invariably clad in a pampanilla of the fame ftuff, or, in other words, in a fhort petticoat, open at the fides, which barely reaches from the waift to the knees. In feating themselves, both men and women carefully cross the skirts of their garment between the legs, to cover the parts which decency obliges them to conceal. The unmarried females, however, appear like Eve in Paradife. When we reflect that, among the nations in queftion, there must be many virgins in a state of puberty, we cannot fail to be perfuaded, that cuftom is a fpecies of antidote against the darts of the impure god of the gardens, whofe wounds beneath the torrid zone, give an impulfion to the fexes, and hurry them on blindly in furias, ignefque ruunt. There are other tribes in which all the individuals of either fex prefent themselves, like the ablete, the wrestlers at the Olympic games, who, after the accident that befel Orcippus, appeared entirely naked. This cuftom, which

was