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                BLACKWOOD'S

                 Edinburgh

                 MAGAZINE.


                 VOL. LX.

            JULY-DECEMBER, 1846.


              [Illustration]


    WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS, EDINBURGH
                    AND
       37, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.


                   1846


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BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.


No. CCCLXIX. JULY, 1846. VOL. LX


CONTENTS.


    PERU,                                               1

    LETTERS ON ENGLISH HEXAMETERS. LETTER I.,          19

    MARLBOROUGH'S DISPATCHES. 1708-1709,               22

    THE AMERICANS AND THE ABORIGINES. PART THE LAST,   45

    THE DEATH OF ZUMALACARREGUI,                       56

    NEW SCOTTISH PLAYS AND POEMS,                      62

    ELINOR TRAVIS. CHAPTER THE SECOND,                 83

    MORE ROGUES IN OUTLINE,                           101

    THE LAST RECOLLECTIONS OF NAPOLEON,               110


EDINBURGH:

WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET;

AND 37, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.

_To whom all Communications (post paid) must be addressed._

SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.


PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND HUGHES, EDINBURGH.




PERU.[1]


A clever book of travels, over ground comparatively untrodden, is in
these days a welcome rarity. No dearth is there of vapid narratives by
deluded persons, who, having leisure to travel, think they must also
have wit to write: with these we have long been surfeited, and
heartily grateful do we feel to the man who strikes out a new track,
follows it observantly, and gives to the world, in pleasant and
instructive form, the result of his observations. Such a traveller we
have had the good fortune to meet with, and now present to our
readers.

We take it that no portion of the globe's surface, of equal extent,
and comprising an equal number of civilized, or at least
semi-civilized, states, is less known to the mass of Europeans than
the continent of South America. Too distant and dangerous for the
silken tourist, to whom steam-boats and dressing-cases are
indispensable, it does not possess, in a political point of view, that
kind of importance which might induce governments to stimulate its
exploration. As a nest of mushroom republics, continually fighting
with each other and revolutionizing themselves--a land where
throat-cutting is a popular pastime, and earthquakes, fevers more or
less yellow, and vermin rather more than less venomous, are amongst
the indigenous comforts of the soil--it is notorious, and has been
pretty generally avoided. Braving these dangers and disagreeables, a
German of high reputation as a naturalist and man of letters, has
devoted four years of a life valuable to science to a residence and
travels in the most interesting district of South America; the ancient
empire of the Incas, the scene of the conquests and cruelties of
Francisco Pizarro.

"The scientific results of my travels," says Dr Tschudi in his brief
preface, "are recorded partly in my _Investigation of the Fauna
Peruana_[2] and partly in appropriate periodicals: the following
volumes are an attempt to satisfy the claim which an enlightened
public may justly make on the man who visits a country in reality but
little known."

We congratulate the doctor on the good success of his attempt. The
public, whether of Germany or of any other country into whose language
his book may be translated, will be difficult indeed if they desire a
better account of Peru than he has given them.

Bound for the port of Callao, the ship Edmond, in which Dr Tschudi
sailed from Havre-de-Grace, was driven by storms to the coast of
Chili, and first cast anchor in the bay of San