thought trustworthy, to proceed in the vessel with a packet of letters for Madame Godin, acquainting her with the circumstances of the case, and desiring her to join him at Cayenne. The fellow, instead of proceeding to Quito, betrayed his trust, followed his own private affairs, turned over the packet to a reverend father Jesuit going to Quito, who gave it to another father Jesuit, who handed it over to a third-so that it never reached its owner. Madame Godin, meanwhile, heard rumours of what was intended for her, and resolved at once to send a faithful negro in search of the man to whom the packet of letters had been originally intrusted. He found him, at a place on the river, trafficking on his own account. Having ascertained the fact, and that the Portuguese vessel was waiting at Tabatinga, the Portuguese frontier on the Amazon, she resolved at once to set out, attended by her two brothers and a nephew about ten years old, three female domestics, mestees or Indians, and a young student of medicine. She also took with her a French physician and his companion: —these were added to the party at the request of her brothers, who thought they might be useful on so long a journey, but the arrangement was in fact the main cause of all her misfortunes. The first proceeding was to cross the Cordilleras; and on arriving at Canelos, they embarked on the Borbonasa which falls into the Pastesa, as this does into the Amazon. The small-pox having visited Canelos, the whole population had fled, with the exception of two Indians, who undertook to navigate their canoe down the river; but on the third morning they too had disappeared. The party, however, resolved to proceed, and the first day passed over without accident. On the second, they fell in with an Indian in a hovel made of branches, just recovering from a fit of illness, who consented to go with them, and to steer the canoe. On the third day, while trying to pick up the hat of the French doctor, the poor Indian followed the hat overboard and was drowned. The canoe, deprived of its helmsman, soon became unmanageable and was swamped, but the river being narrow the party all got on shore. Being only five or six days from Andoas, the Frenchman and his companion determined to make their way by land to that place, promising most faithfully that, in the course of a fortnight at farthest, a boat properly manned should be sent to bring the rest thither. Five-and-twenty days, however, having passed away without any tidings of release, they set about constructing a raft in the best manner they could-placed themselves, their effects, and what provisions had been saved from the canoe, upon it, and launched into the stream. The raft, being carried down it at random, soon struck against a sunken tree, upset, and all their goods went to the bottom, themselves escaping with difficulty. Madame Godin twice sunk, but was saved by the exertions of her brothers. Their whole property, with every article of provisions, being destroyed by this accident, nothing now remained for them but to traverse on foot the bank of the river, in the hope of reaching the missionary station of Andoas. The long coarse grass, the thick shrubbery, and the multitude of creeping plants greatly impeding their progress, and the banks, moreover, winding so as much to prolong the journey, they determined to strike into the wood, in the hope of thereby shortening the distance; but in this attempt they were soon completely bewildered. Excessively fatigued from forcing their way through a thick forest, barely pervious even to its natives, their feet torn by briars and thorns, no sustenance remaining, oppressed by hunger and thirst, their only resource consisted in some seeds, wild fruits, and the palm-cabbage. At length, utterly worn out and exhausted, the lady's companions laid themselves down on the ground, from whence they were doomed never to rise again. There,' says M. Godin, they were destined to wait for their last moments; and in the course of three or four days the men all expired, one after the other.' Madame Godin, stretched by the side of the dead bodies of her brothers and servants, remained eight-and-forty hours in a state of stupor and delirium. length a merciful Providence, which decreed her preservation, gave her courage and strength to crawl along, and to seek for that safety which awaited her. She was almost naked; her clothes, torn in tatters by the thorns and briars, scarcely afforded her any covering; she had cut the shoes from her dead brother's feet, and attached their soles to her own. 6 At It was on the ninth or tenth day (uncertain which) after this only surviving sufferer had quitted the place where she had beheld her brothers and domestics breathe their last, that she succeeded in reaching once more the shore of the Borbonasa. M. Godin says, what may well be believed-The remembrance of the long and horrible spectacle of which she had been the witness, the horror of the solitude, increased by the darkness of the nights in the wilderness-the terror of death constantly before her eyes —a terror which every moment must have augmented—had made such an impression on her constitution, as to cause her hair to become grey. In traversing the woods she had happily fallen in with a few wild fruits, and some fresh eggs, apparently of a species of partridge, but, owing to the long privation of food, it was with the greatest difficulty she could swallow. Arriving on the bank of the Borbonasa, she saw two Indians launching launching a canoe into the stream. She asked them to take her to Andoas; they readily consented, received her with great kindness and conducted her in safety to that village. Here a poor Indian woman gave her a cotton petticoat, which, with the sandals made from her poor brother's shoes, her husband says, 'she preserves with great care-mournful tokens, rendered dear to me as they are to herself.' Having reached Laguna, Madame Godin's unfortunate situation received every attention, and this was unabated throughout the remainder of her long voyage to Cayenne. It is now time we should revert to our two authors. Mr. Maw being about to return to England, from his majesty's ship Menai, of which he was one of the lieutenants, when on the coast of Lima in 1827, was informed that the Peruvian government and the British resident merchants were desirous of having the interior explored, more particularly that part of the Marañon which is contained within the limits of Peru; and he asked and obtained leave from the senior officer in the Pacific to undertake a voyage down that river, conceiving that such an undertaking would suit himself better than a landsman, and that its accomplishment might essentially benefit his fortunes at a period when opportunities of obtaining distinction, or meriting promotion were rare. A few years afterwards Lieutenant Smyth, having also obtained leave to return to England by the same route, was encouraged by the Peruvian government and the English merchants, to undertake the examination of a more specific and defined object than that of Lieut. Maw; his scheme was to proceed, in the first instance, to Mayro, to ascertain if the river Pachitea, which rises near that place, was navigable to its confluence with the Ucayali, by which, if found to be so, the most direct communication would be obtained from Lima to the Marañon or Amazon, and by that river with Europe; an object which the several Peruvian republics have considered of the first commercial importance. present they have only the choice of two modes of conveyance for their produce, both of them objectionable; the one is by the long, circuitous, and stormy voyage round Cape Horn-the other across the isthmus of Panama, requiring two transhipments of goods besides the land journey; the produce of the mines, moreover, must cross the Cordilleras before it can be shipped. Mr. Smyth's attempt will enable us to estimate the probable advantages of this third measure, though he did not accomplish all that was intended. We may here state that, in crossing the Andes from Lima or Truxillo, these mountains are split into three Cordilleras; that the the Marañon branch flows to the northward between the first and second chain; the river Huallaga, between the second and third, running parallel to the former; that beyond the third, the great river Ucayali sweeps through the immense plain of Santo Sacramento-and that all three in different places fall into the Amazon. Mr. Maw and his companion departed from Truxillo on the 10th December, proceeded up the valley of the Chicoma, and having crossed the first cordillera, came to Caxamarca, celebrated for its hot springs, and for the residence of the Inca Atahualpa, who met the destructive Spaniards, carried on a throne of solid gold, which the Peruvians, to prevent its falling into the hands of the invaders, are said to have thrown into the crater of the boiling springs. The descendants of these invaders have in vain attempted to possess themselves of this and many other treasures, supposed to have been immersed in that boiling cauldron. From the summit of the cordillera, Mr. Maw got the first sight of that branch of the Amazon which gave to it the name of Marañon. I cannot,' says Mr. Maw, conceive anything on earth or water could exceed the grandeur of the scenery; nor do I believe any person capable of describing it justly. The rain was clearing off, whilst a perfect and brilliant rainbow was extended across the river, which, about sixty yards in breadth, rushed between the mountains, whose summits, on both sides, were hid in the clouds, on which the extremes of the rainbow rested.' Having crossed this river on a balsa or raft, Mr. Maw proceeded by land, for it is not navigable, to Toulea and Mayobamba, and embarking on the Cachi Yaco, which falls into the Guallaga, (or, as Mr. Smyth has it, Huallaga,) he descended this river to its mouth, where it joins the Amazon at Laguna; and here we will leave him until we have traced the route of Lieutenant Smyth, who, proceeding from Lima, passed the cordilleras of the Andes, in a part where their peaked summits would appear to rise to a height much exceeding that where Lieutenant Maw crossed. Lieutenant Smyth and his companion quitted Lima on the 20th of September, 1834. On the former part of their route they passed Concon, a ruined town of the Incas, the walls of which, of the height of nine or ten feet, are still standing. They slept at a tambo, a miserable sort of inn, where they were accommodated with a stone bed, an old chair, a table, a candle, and a bowl of vegetable soup, called chupé. The next day brought them to Santa Rosa de Quibé, a solitary post, where travellers are obliged to put up with a shed, and the annoyance of swarms of mosquitos and sand-flies; this place is stated to be 3766 feet above the sea. Next to this is the small village of Yaso, of about ten ten huts, a chapel, and a cemetery, at an elevation of 4803 feet. The road was now perilous-along the precipitous edge of deep ravines at one time, then at the bottom of defiles, with rapid streams working their way among large blocks of granite, and crossed here and there by bridges of logs. The next village was that of Obragillo, perched on an elevation of 8937 feet, containing about fifty families of Indians, with a slight mixture of Spanish blood, speaking a mixture of the Quichua (Peruvian) and Castilian languages; their houses built of mud, thatched, and without windows or chimneys. Here they were joined by three Peruvian officers, appointed by the government to accompany them as far as Mayro. also they made arrangements for six additional mules and their drivers, to transport their luggage to Cerro Pasco, on the eastern side of the Great or Second Cordillera, which they were about to cross. Here The mountains now assumed a more rugged aspect, rising to stupendous heights; the ravines were rough and contracted, the air felt very cold; and though,' says Lieutenant Smyth, we had put on warmer clothing on leaving Obragillo, yet still we felt the change sharply, and experienced what is vulgarly called the veta, or marea (sea-sickness), which is an acute pain passing through the temples to the lower part of the back of the head, and which completely disables the person affected' Beyond this is the village of Culluay, with about three hundred and fifty inhabitants. It is stated to be 11,991 feet above the sea, and yet stands at the bottom of a basin, surrounded by lofty mountain-peaks. Emerging from this ravine, they got sight of the highest point of the Cordillera, at that part of it where they were to cross. The view was most magnificent, and as they mounted towards the lofty summit, the thermometer in a hail-storm descended to 39°. We crossed several streams, and worked our way up to the top by zigzag paths, covered with large blocks of granite. After an hour's hard toil for the mules, we, at a quarter before three, gained the top or pass, called the Portachuelo de la Viuda, at an elevation of about 15,500 feet above the sea, the highest part of the mountain being 15,968. Here we saw beneath us mountains surrounding a beautifully transparent lake, over which a violent wind was driving huge masses of cloud. The scene was inexpressibly grand, and the words of Campbell flashed across our minds, most beautifully verified, "Where Andes, giant of the western star, Looks from his throne of clouds o'er half the world."' In descending they were overtaken by a heavy snow-storm, which sunk the mercury in the thermometer to 31°. The ground was so completely covered with snow, and the road SO |