Chili : Sketches of Chili and the Chilians during the
War. By R. Nelson Boyd. (W. H. Allen.)—There is abundance of practical in- formation in this volume, though it does not tell us anything but what we had already heard about the war. Mr. Boyd went, we gather, for purposes connected with commerce, and very wisely kept away from the scene of hostilities. About the material revenue of Chili, her mineral wealth, her agriculture, and the prospects which it offers to the European immigrant, he is evidently an excellent authority. Ile has taken plenty of trouble to inform himself, and he Las the qualifications and the knowledge which give to his observa- tions a real value. There is much to make the country—at least one portion of it—suitable for European enterprise. It may be doubted, indeed, whether any other region of South America can compare with it in this respect. Of what may be called traveller's experiences, the most noteworthy thing in Mr. Boyd's volume is his visit to the Araucanian Indians, a powerful race, which may be favourably com- pared to any savage tribe with which white men have come into con- tact. "Their men are brave, and their women chaste." The only weak spot is the fatal inability to resist the attractions of "fire- water," a poison which the Chilian Government does not, it seems, take any pains to keep from them.
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