ward of the dead whale, which had in some measure saved them from the violence of the sea. They had only just been able to procure a light, having unfortunately upset all their tinder through the violent motion of the boats, by which it became wet--but which they succeeded in igniting after immense application of the flint and steel-or their lantern would have been suspended from an oar directly after sunset, which is the usual practice when boats are placed under such circumstances. After having secured the whale alongside, (which we expected to lose during the night from the roughness of the weather,) they all came on board, when the misfortune of poor Berry was spoken of with sorrow from all hands, while their own deliverance served to throw a ray of light amidst the gloom.'-pp. 167-173. 6 Our limits will not allow us to do more than hint at the account of 'fighting whales,' such as Timor Jack,' New Zealand Tom,' and others, famed as boat and even ship destroyers; for Mr. Beale tells us that it is a well-authenticated fact, that the American whale-ship Essex' was sunk by one of these monsters: nor can we enter into the cutting in' and 'trying out,' terms expressive of the important art of securing the spoil and taking off the blubber, a service, in some of its parts, of no small trouble and even danger: nor shall we be turned aside by the odoriferous ambergris, though it conjures up Sinbad and all his wonders to our mind's eye, and is a 'sair temptation,' further than to state, for Dr. Buckland's gratification, that Mr. Enderby possesses, as Mr. Beale informs us, a fine lump of this coprolite-like substance, which the doctor will, no doubt, carefully examine the next time he comes to town.* We cannot, however, close our notice of this most interesting book, without recurring to the pride every honest Englishman must feel in contemplating such a character as that of Mr. Enderby. Nor can we drop our pen without once more expressing our delight in the intrepid skill of the seamen employed in our South Sea whaling. It is gratifying to reflect that we have hundreds of these fine fellows constantly afloat; and indeed, looking at things in general, we must confess that we are not of those who dream that our navy is quite in a desperate state. Other countries may be building ships--so much the better:-British blue-jackets must be very much altered if, in the event of a war, they are not building them for us. May we take this opportunity of suggesting to Dr. B. the propriety of reforming certain proceedings of the Geological Society, which so frequently brings him, like other lights of the Universities, into our less sequestered scenery of the Strand? Why not give the annual oration before dinner instead of after? We are as tonished that an eminently convivial association should have so long tolerated the existing anomaly. ART, ART. III.-1. Letters on Paraguay, comprising a Four-Years' Residence in that Republic, under the Government of the Dictator Francia. By J. P. and W. P. Robertson. 2 vols. 2. Francia's Reign of Terror: Sequel to Letters on Paraguay. By the Same. 1839. 3. The Reign of Dr. Joseph Gaspardo Roderick de Francia in Paraguay; being an Account of a Six-Years' Residence in that Republic, from July, 1819, to May, 1825. By Messrs. Rengger and Longchamps. London. 1839. SOME fifty years ago, we happened to be acquainted with the captain of an East Indiaman-a keen, shrewd Scotchmanwho, when any of his passengers had related something bordering on the marvellous, was in the habit of stopping the narrator short, exclaiming Show me the book; I won't believe it unless I see it in print!' If being in the book' were the test of truth now-a-days, even the old captain would have quite enough to believe. It is far from our intention to impugn the veracity of Messrs. J. P. and W. P. Robertson; but we must suspect, with all deference, that many of their pages are much too highly coloured. Baffled as they were in their mercantile speculations, and expelled from the country where a fine field had opened to their prospects, it is natural enough that their hatred of the tyrant, who had persecuted them and their friends, should have survived even twenty or thirty years; but undoubtedly Mr. Rengger knew Francia much longer and later than they did, and we incline to prefer his more sober statement of facts, as well as of opinions. The territory of Paraguay, according to Arrowsmith's map, lies between 21° and 27° S. lat. and 54° to 58° W. long.; or, roughly, is 400 English miles from north to south and 200 from east to west. This fine tract of country is shut in by two magnificent rivers, the Paraguay on the west and the Paraná on the east, the latter of which, taking nearly a right-angled turn at the southern extremity of the province, joins the former at Corrientes, whence the united flood, continuing its course to the southward, under the name of Paraná, falls into the mighty Rio de la Plata: thus three of the sides of Paraguay are completely inclosed by two noble and navigable rivers. With respect to the northern frontier,' says Mr. Rengger, no one could attempt to pass in that direction without being amply provided for the journey, for there is a desert of more than one hundred and fifty leagues to be crossed.' The course of the Paraguay, from its source source in Matto Grosso, in Peru, to its confluence with the Paraná, is about 1200 miles; that of the united waters to the La Plata 750 miles-in all about 2000 miles. The numerous branches of the Paraná rise in the mountains of Brazil. The Uruguay, to the eastward of the Paraná, has also its sources in those mountains; and it also falls into the La Plata, after a course about equal to that of the Paraná. These two rivers include the province immediately to the southward of Paraguay, called Entre Rios, or the interfluvial country. The inhabitants of Paraguay, estimated by some at 200,000, but by others at 300,000, are composed of the old Spaniards, Creoles, and Indians. A very few of the latter are the descendants of those who formed the population of the Jesuit missions, which were dissolved, and the whole fraternity expelled from South America in 1767,-and whose place was supplied by Franciscan friars-a most unfortunate change for the Indians. But the Franciscans themselves were in their turn either secularised, or expelled the country, by Francia. The soil of Paraguay is generally good-intersected by numberless tributaries of the great bounding rivers. The climate also is delightful, and would be still better if the people were to drain the swamps. The products are various, but commerce has nearly been annihilated, between the caprice of the Dictator and his just-enough jealousies of the Buenos Ayres republic. The chief productions are tobacco, coffee, sugar, Indian corn, yuccaroot, lemons, oranges, pine-apples, grapes, apricots, and grain of different kinds; but the most valuable is the yerba-the herb (as it is called par excellence), and known generally by the name of Paraguay tea (Ilex Paraguayensis). It is chiefly met with in its native state among thick woods, just as the Assam tea, recently discovered, was found intermixed. One of the Robertsons visited the yerbales, and gives a long account of the process of preparation, which consists chiefly of roasting quickly the tender branches and twigs over a fire till the leaves are crisp, when they are crushed or pounded into a powder, and rammed into hide bags of 200 lbs. each. This tea, or maté, is in eternal use throughout the whole of South America. Another prime article is the lapacho, the most magnificent of all trees, in Mr. Robertson's estimation-superior even to English oak. The trunk of one, scooped out, formed a canoe, which carried eight men, a hundred bales of yerba, twenty packages of tobacco, and a great number of other articles. The grain of the wood is said to be so close, that neither worm nor rot can assail it; vessels built of it, when fifty years old, may still be called young. VOL. LXIII. NO. CXXVI. 2 A young. What name this remarkable tree may bear, in systematic botanical nomenclature, we are not aware. But we must hasten to the two brothers. Mr. J. P. Robertson sailed from Greenock in December, -1806, then fourteen years of age, anxious, he says, like other ardent young men, to visit a land so often described in glowing colours. His destination was Buenos Ayres; but on reaching the coast, he found the Spaniards had regained their ground there, having taken General Beresford and his army prisoners. The vessel, therefore, made the best of her way to Monte Video, then in possession of the English. Here the youth was well received in the best society, and invited to their evening tertulias-to get home from which, after he had torn himself from the señoras, was still, it seems, rather difficult. For, he says, 'Around the offals of carrion, vegetables, and stale fruit, which in huge masses accumulated there, the rats absolutely mustered in legions. If I attempted to pass near those formidable banditti, or to interrupt their meals or orgies, they gnashed their teeth upon me like so many evening wolves. So far were they from running in affright to their numerous burrows, that they turned round, set up a raven cry, and rushed at my legs in a way to make my blood run chill. Between them and myself many a hazardous affray occurred; and though sometimes I fought my way straight home with my stick, at others I was forced to fly down some cross and narrow path or street, leaving the rats undisputed masters of the field.'-vol. i. pp. 107, 108. He left Buenos Ayres in December, 1811, being now about nineteen years of age. The expedition was purely mercantile, and the ship that carried his adventure had before her 1200 miles of laborious navigation up the river Paraná, in sailing and warping alternately against a stream running at the rate of three miles an hour. As her passage, he was told, would occupy three months. while the distance might be performed on horseback in fifteen or sixteen days, he determined to travel by land. His equipment was something of the same nature as that of Sir Francis Head when he scoured the Pampas, and his fare on the road was not much different. He also had to pass through the cardales, as they are called, higher than the horse with the rider on his back;' but his brother found the thistleries' of the Pampas, compared with those of Scotland, as the serried ranks of the Brobdignagians. to a few scattered Lilliputians: they hemmed you in on either side as completely as if you were riding between walls fifty feet high.' But, according to him, the thistles are quite in keeping with everything else; which he illustrates by the reply of General Paroissien, a provincial officer, to a cockney, who asked him what sort sort of a country South America was? Sir,' said he, everything in these parts is on a grand scale. Their mountains are stupendous-their rivers are immense their plains are interminable their forests have no end-their trees are gigantictheir miles are three times the length of yours-and then' [here the General took a gold doubloon out of his pocket and laid it on the table] look at their guineas!' Though the face of the Pampas was not very inviting, the curate of Luxan, on his arrival, gave Mr. J. P. Robertson a good solid dinner, consisting of an olla podrida, followed by carne con cuero, or beef roasted in the skin, which he pronounces to be one of the most savoury dishes he had ever tasted. Proceeding from this place at the rate of ninety miles a day, he came to Santa Fé, distant from Buenos Ayres 340 miles. 'If asked what I saw after I left Luxan, I saw two miserable villages, three small towns, one convent, containing about twenty monks; and the post-house huts. I saw thistles higher than the horse with the rider en his back; here and there a few clumps of the Algarroba tree; long grass; innumerable herds of cattle, wild and tame; deer and ostriches bounding over the plain; bearded biscachas (a sort of rabbit) coming out at evening by groups from their thousand burrows: now the whirring partridge flying from under my horse's feet, and anon the little mailed armadillo making haste to get out of the way. Every now and then I came within sight of the splendid Paraná. But its broad pellucid surface was undisturbed by any bark. I saw a stream two miles broad and ten feet deep at the place from which I surveyed it, and that place was one hundred and eighty miles from the mouth of the Plate and two thousand from its source. There was no cataract to impede navigation -no savages sought to interrupt traffic. The land on both sides was as fertile as Nature could make it. The climate was most salubrious, and the soil had been in undisturbed possession of a European power for three hundred years. Yet all was still as the grave.'-vol. i. pp. 194-196. All the inhabitants of Santa Fé were sitting in the porches of the doors, or in the street on the shady side, the gentlemen in shirts, white trousers, and slippers, the ladies in primitive chemises,' a low vestment, and some loose and transparent upper garment, scarcely at all confining the body; every man, woman, and child either smoking cigars, sipping maté through a tube, or eating water-melons. Conceive,' he says, how much I must have been shocked to see, for the first time, a great proportion of the ladies openly and undisguisedly not only smoking, but smoking cigars of a size so large that those of their male companions bore no comparison with them.' The maté, the melon, the shirts, the chemises, might have been overlooked, but the large cigar in a female mouth-oh! it was a terrible shock to my nerves!' 2A2 Don |