A JOI71tNEV FROM LIMA. TO PARA.
THE two grandest and most feasible projects that have hitherto o.icupied the attention of 1 he world with respect to the ocean, is to connect the Mediterraiwan with the Red Sea by a canal across the Isthmus of Suez, and to join the Atlantic and the Pacific by cutting- through the Isthmus of Darien. The Joaracyfroot Lima to Para originated in a coneeption which, if realized, would be equally beneficial to commerce, and in the long run more so; whilst it possesses this advantage over both ;of the other plans, that Nature is to do the work and bear the charges.
If the reader look at a map of South America, he will sue at a glance the proximity of the Andes to tlia shores of the Pacific. Ile will also observe, that a branch of this maanificent mountain range runs down even to the sea-coast at Lima ; the ground on which that city stands being more than Gen feet above its port. About a hundred miles from Lima by the road, (which diverges considerably, on aetiount of winding round the bases of the moun- tains,) the height is 15.9tss feet above the level of the sea, or several . hundred feet higher than Mont Blanc. This branch of the Andes then declines gradually as it melts into the parent trunk ; giving rise to numberless streams, most of which contribute to form the river Huallaga, that finally falls into the Amazon. At some dis- tance below the town of Huanueo, the Huallaga may be said to be navigable; and thus a water communication with the Atlantic seems to lie brought within little more than 200 miles of Lima. This, however, is only seeming, as the Huallaga is useless fire practical purposes. If the river be navigable at all in the dry season, it is only so for canoes. To a.crend it from the Amazon, would appear to be impossible. The descent is difficult and dangerous, from the numerous rapids and falls, the trees growing in the stream, the drift timb..r floating on its surfitce, and the " snags"—which are trees carried away by the floods, and, having caught the bottom, remain with their branches above the water. It is sr.i I, however, on the authority of a mis- sionary, that, five day a' journey southward from Huanueo, there is a port called Mayro on the banks of the Pachitea, which river " is very commodisus for navigation." As the Acayali, into which it falls, is a c rust lerab!e 'tsibutary of the Amazon, and is stated (on the same authority) to be navigable for "vessels of great draught" much above tl:e junction with the Pachitea, there ap- pears to be nothing wanting save a confirmation of the reverend Father's account, to render the Amazon the Mississipi of South America, and to connect the Atlantic with the Pacific by a river navigation, which should not only avoid the dangers and expense of a voyage round Cape Horn, but scatter the seeds of commerce and civilization through the richest and most fertile countries in the world. To test the practicability of this magnificent plan, was the purpose of Messrs. SMYTH'S and LowE's Journey from Lima to Para. If a conjunction of unfavourable circumstances prevented them from fulfilling their mission, they are entitled to the credit of showing future adventurers how it may be accom- plished, and to the merit of calling the attention of the world to a very important subject.
The idea of' an expedition which should descend the rivers Pachitea and Ucayali to the junction of the latter with the Amazon, originated with Mr. Join; THOMAS, an English resident at Lima ; and having suggested the plan to Lieutenant W. SMYTH, during his sojourn at Callao on duty, that,gentleman, with his shipmate Mr. LOWE, ardently embraced the proposal. His superior officers earnestly entered into the plan ; our Consul rendered every assistance in his power; the Peruvian Govern- ment promised theirs, and even undertook to bear a part in the expedition. Their exertions were prompt enough as regarded the granting of passports and the appointment of officers who were to accompany Lieutenant SMVTH and Mr. LOWE; but when pressed, after many delays, to facilitate the departure of the mis- sion, it was candidly acknowledged that the treasury had no funds. Our countrymen, however, determined to undertake the journey with their own means and sonic assistance furnished by the British residents in Lima : and started alone, leaving. their Peruvian colleagues to follow, if they could get from their Go- vernment " the money necessary to enable them to move." After a short time, two months' pay was advanced; and with this scanty supply, and an order to the different Governors on their road to " forward " the party, the officers overtook Messrs. SMYTH and LOWE. The first great point of their journey was Huanueo; to which city, as it is called, the road presented no further obstacles than are to be found in all mountain regions which science has never improved : but the pecuniary and moral obstacles of the expedition soon developed themselves. The Governors scrupled to furnish the number of soldiers and the supplies demanded;: the natives, who were to serve as porters and guides, discovered great unwillingness to act, from a terror of cannibals and bed omens.; the commander of the expedition seems to have been indifferent, and he moreover fell sick ut an uefortunate crisis; whilst it was often, ands discovered that the principal inhabitants of a district, fancying they might be injured by the diversion of the traffic front its present route, spread all kinds of mischievous reports. In despite of these obstacles, however, the expedition started from Iluanuca ; and, alter a succession ofhardships from weather, way, and exposure, that call to mind the difficulties of the early Spanish conqueror- of America, reached Pozuzu, once a town, now consisting of a single hut, on the river of that name. This point was but two tleys• jetirney from Meyro, the bask of their journey of discovery. Once across the stream, the adventurers bad the means of advancing or retiting, entirely in their own potter; their attendvits would have bad nowhere to run to but the mouths Of the Cashilms. They set to svork in high spirits ; timber was fislled and prepared for a raft; the Poeuzu would be crossed in the morning ; but the Indians decamped in the night. To attempt pursuing them, would have been absurd; to proceed without them, impo.,sible; and there was nothing left but to retrace their steps as they could. But neither the Peruvian nor the English officers were dis- posed to abandon the plan whilst there was a chance of success. Leaving their leader to return to Lima, they themselves deter- mined to descend the Iluallcga in the canoes of the country ; make their way across the Pann•a del Sacramento to the mission of Sarayacu on the Ucayali, the Padre of which is the missionary formerly alluded to; and then ascend against the current to Nava), instead of descending with it from that place. In exe- cuting this intention, considerable hardships must have been undergone. Confinement for a month in a small, crowded, over- laden canoe, with a constant wettines, from rains or river water, and the necessity of frequently Making way through the morass or the f.orest on the banks of the stream, whilst the In- dians were passing the boat down the rapids, would be deadly work to many a member of the Traveller's Club. In addition to this, our adventurers had almost every night to sleep upon the ground, and wait whilst the but was built, if they had one to cover them : they were tormented by insects, deprived of all the comforts of civilized food; and on quitting the river, were obliged to make their way through the Indian pathways of a tropical forest in the rainy season. Yet we hear little of this except indirectly, and nothing in the way of complaint : youth and naval service, we suppose, had accustomed our countrymen to casualties, and the Peruvians were to the manlier born.
On meeting Padre PLAZA, the explorers were received with much hospitality. The worthy Father offered every assistance in his power, even to accompany the expedition, and rejoiced in the probable accomplishment of the early dream of his youth. One only doubt remained, and that concerned the needful—or, in the Father's own words, " the sufficiencv of the effects they had brought." This was not long undecided. Arriving at the mission, " the effects" were spread before Padre PLAZA. lie was told to barter every thing the adventurers possessed, except what was enough, in his opinion, to carry one party back to Lima and the other party forward to the sea-board of the Atlantic. After a minute examination, the arbitrator decided that there were not means enough to pay for the provisions required, let alone the neces- sary wages of the Indians, a large escort of whom was indispens- able to guard the banks of the rivers as the travellers advanced. In vain did they adjure the Padre, by the position he was occu- pying in the eyes of Peru, and that which, if successful, he would fill in those of posterity : in vain did they point out to him the benefits that would accrue to Peruvian commerce, and to his own station, if the enterprise succeeded. The most passionate plead- ings could not induce him to advance fifty pounds (if he had it ?) on the faith of being repaid by a remittance from the first place our countomen arrived at where a bill could be cashed : and as for the Indians, they never give credit. To be brief, the attempt was reluctantly abandoned.
Nothing now remained but to get home. And, after living with the Padre for a mouth, Messrs. SMYTH and LOWE departed, in one of his large cannes, fe. San Pablo, on the Amazon, leaving their companions to return to Lima. At San Pablo they pur- chase (1 another boat, and thence descended the main stream of the mightiest of rivers, until it became too like a sea for their frail bark, when they drifted as much as possible through the smaller channels formed by the islands. They arrived safely at the sea-port of Para, on the ?9th of May 1835; having occupied eight months and ten days in their journey frora the Pacific to the Atlantic. In the course of it they collected much (although general) information respecting countries and tribes of which we know nothing ; in despite of numerous drawbacks, they have added to geographical knowledge by their observations of the bearings of places; they have explored the river Ucayali to a considerable distance, and are the first Englishmen who ever floated on its waters. Finally, little as we now think of them, they have inseparably connected their names with a commercial route which in future ages will be one of the greatest trading highways in the world.
After this, it will be needless to say that the characters and ad- ventures of the authors are of more consequence than the book; which derives its interest from the importance of the view the expedition was undertaken to test, the zeal with which the ad- venture was persevered in, and the things observed or the facts collected during its progress. All claim to literary merit is es- chewed, and might readily be dill ense I with. But there is no oceasion for apology on this score. The volume is what it ought to be—a plain, characteristic. unaffected narrative of strange scenes in strange countries. Lientellala SMYTH, nx), can use his pencil as well as his pen. A number of lithographic sketches are interspersed throughout the book, which really illustrate the text. Two very excellent maps of the course of the travellers are also affixed to the volume.
We will extract a deseription of Cerro Pasco, the centre of the richest mineral district in Peru. It teaches us, by the way, that ‘wealth, like religion, may be of little use to those who distribute it from its original sources.
we arrived in cold rain, and our first impression of it was by no means, favourable : it being Sunday, the peeple were paddling about the muddy streets- di ',sett in all the (admit s of the tainhont. We passed in single file, making no snodl splash, and the wondering Indian, gazed at us in silence. Dr. Vablizan conducted us to an unoectiph d hem, belooging to his brother, whose kindness and hespitality to us were most filo', „I. The ten II, on enterieg it, much I esembles many of the villages in South NVales ; that is to say, it is it egolarlv built on very uneven ground, rising in hill. broken and ha ; the 11011,, a: e .‘s- bite- washed, and S01111! 01• then), besides the door, have a small glazed ‘eiretow ; the better sort have fire-places, for which luxury they are indebted to our count' ■ 1111-11, for before their al rival they only used Imseiiss," or pans coo-ail:nig heated coals. In some of the houses they have an idle and dirty plan of having a hole with a trap-door where the hearth should be, for the reception of coils : this is quite in accordance with the natu- ral indolence of the country, for the !ahem of bringing in a box of coals two or three times a day would be too severe a service ffir them to perform. Cerro Pasco is divided into three districts—Cheupitnarca, Yanacancha, and Santa Hasa ; each of these has its chure:1 and priest. The population fluctu- ates according to the state of the mimes ; for when a productive mine is dis- covered, the Indians flock in from the country round to work at it : the average number may be taken at from P2,000 to 16,000. There are two squares : the principal one is called Cheupimarea, the other is called the Square of Commerce, where the market is held, which is well supplied with meat, fruit, and vege- tables, from all the mutiny round for many leagues. In the square of Cheu- pimarea is the cathedral, a building much like an English barn in its exterior, except that the latter would be built with more architectural regularity. The inside is little better than the out, and is adorned with a few gilded saints. The streets are dirty and irregular, and run in every direction : the suburbs are no- thin;; more than a confused collection of dirty-looking mud cottages, which are hastily erected when required for the convenience of the miners, near any new mine that is opened, whilst those that are near a mine that has done working are deserted; consequently the town is constantly altering its form. The mouths Of the mines are frequently in the middle of the streets, which makes walking at night very dangerous, as there is no barricade or light hung near them. They are sometimes enclosed in the courts and yards of houses; in the house we occupied there was one turned to a very ignoble purpose. The weather during our stay was very wet, and the quantity of mud in every part of the town incredible : the inhabitants are obliged to wear wao ten diem the soles of which are nearly three inches thick ; without them some places would be impassable. The millets of the three districts are in perpetual hostility to each other ; and on the day following a festival they frequently assemble on the top of a hill and fight with sticks and stones : it seldom happens that their affrays take place without loss of life. One of tin-se engagements we witnessed, in which, (luring three or four hours, stones were slung by each party at the other ; but what mischief was done we were not near enough toss, but were infotmed that, after it ended, a poor woman belonging to one of the parties engaged, having to pass through the district of the opposite party, was brutally treated, and afterwards murdered. The government has but few soldiers; and the garrison, at the time of our visit, did not consist of more than twenty-three men ; they there- fore have not the power to put down these riots, which sometimes extend into the town, and oblige the inhabitants to shut their doors, no one daring to appear- in the streets while they rage. If any attempt is made to check these brutal proceedings, both sides immediately unite, and defy the power of the govern- ment: the hands of justice being ton weak to interfere, the most horrid and barbarous murders escape investigation, and the offenders are never sought after. There seems to be little society ; indeed the difficulty of going from one house to another prevents it, as the streets are impassablefor any description of vehicle, and, from their dirty state, walking is any thing but pleasant. We found that the elevation of this place produced a difficulty of breathing, particularly in ascending, which created an unpleasant tightness across the chest ; of this all
new comers are very sensible, and it is only after a residence of some time that the lungs become accustomed to the rare state of the atmosphere. We were in- formed that water boils here at 92 degrees Fahrenheit. and we had proof that
its power of scalding is very weak. Coal of all description is found in abun- dance a shoadistance from the town : we were told by an English resident that provisions were very dear. The Quichua language is generally spoken by the millers and lower orders, few of whom know Spanish.
A natural curiosity will be felt by many as to the practicabi- lity of opening up a river navigation to the vicinity of Lima. Fr, m the embouchure of the Amazon to the mission of Sarayacu, the expedition of our travellers has settled the question in the affirmative. Not only did they pass by water between these two points, but they conceive that "the Maranon (Amazon) and most of the rivers which fall into it are as well calculated for steam na- vigation as any waters in the world; and there is an inexhaustible store of fuel growing on the banks of all of them." As regards the navigability of the unsurveyed parts of the Ucayali and the Pachi- tea, what evidence exists is decidedly in its favour; but it is desi- rable, both in a scientific and commercial point of view, to have the fact ascertained. If order be once established in Peru, this will doubtless be soon settled. Or it might be done more quickly from the Atlantic. We see thousands daily squandered upon the most silly or worthless of objects: if any gentleman has money he is at. a loss what to do with, let him purchase a steamer adapted to the trip, procure the permission of the Brazilian authorities, and despatch Messrs. SMYTH and LowE to finish the undertaking they have so enterprisingly begun. It is not often that so cheap an opportunity occurs of achieving such permanent fame as must accrue to the introducer of steam navigation on the greatest of rivers.
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