SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

TRAVELS,

Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas. and Yucatan. By John I.. Ste- phens. Author of " Incidents of Travel in Egypt. Arabia Petrtea, and the Holy Laud," &c. &c. Illustrated by commons engravings. In two volumes..Murroy. TRAVELS, Medical Advice to the Indian Stranger. By John M'Cosh, M.D., &c. Sm.. late Lecturer in Clinical Medicine, New Medical College, Calcutta Allen end Co. Ficrtorr, The Old Earl and his Young Wife. In three volumes Bentley.

The Thousand and One Nights, commonly called, in England. the Arabian Nights' Entertainments. A new translation from the Arabic. with copious Notes. By Edward William Lane, Author of" The Modem Egyptians." Illustrated by many blanked engravings on wood, from original desigus by William Harvey. In three

volumes Kiiight and co.

STEPHENS'S TRAVELS IN CENTRAL AMERICA.

MR. STEPHENS is favourably known to the English reading public, for some lively, rattling, off-hand Incidents of Travel in Egypt, Asia Minor, Russia, &c., which have attained the unprofitable honour of two or three rival reprints from the American edition. The present work, however, is of a much higher character than its predecessors, possessing all the dashing vivacity and animation of the author, mollified by experience, with the great advantage of being exercised in a new field and under highly-favourable cir- cumstances. If sufficient interest was imparted to travels through countries forming part of the grand tour, by a sprightly and pic- turesque style, inclining towards a florid eloquence, and reflecting in every page the personal character of the writer, to induce book- sellers to send forth all but simultaneous editions, and some of them intended for popular circulation, the additional attraction these qualities derive from being exercised in a country new in all senses may be readily imagined. The personal characteristics of Mr. STEPHENS, which seemed strange at the least in Europe, were more in place in Central America. His familiarity, wearing an air of what would be deemed impudence in an European, appears to have beet) adapted to the thin colonial population of Spanish Creoles and interminable races of Indians and mixed breeds; his perpetual- motion propensities, which seemed so singular in Europe, alone got him through his travels in the primitive forests, swamps, and monn- tains of Central America, where part of the main road between the capital and the principal seaport was a "narrow gulley, worn by the tracks of mules and mountain-torrents so deep that the sides were higher than our heads, and so -narrow that we could barely pass through without touching," and sometimes impassable altogether; and a pushing disposition, not too nice in its requisitions, was ne- cessary to deal with Spanish inertness, increased by the lassitude of the Tropics, and the suspicions of ignorance, in a country almost shut out from the world, and distracted by civil war.

Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan, the regions Mr. STE- PHENS explored, form the greatest part of that very irregularly- shaped neck of land which unites the two Americas, terminating on the North in Mexico, and on the South just excluding the Isthmus of Darien. Those who have not a modern map at hand, will form an idea of their position by hearing that they lie on the mainland opposite to the West Indies. Chiapas nominally belongs to Mexico ; so did Yucatan, but had just set up for itself when Mr. STEPHENS got there. The political condition of Guatemala or Central America may be inferred from the fact that our author was an accredited agent for the United States, and travelled with Mt credentials and a diplomatic dress-coat all through the country is search of a government, without being able to find one.

Yucatan is an alluvial flat, without rivers or springs ; and the water of the rainy season is preserved in large tanks, which has caused a curious kind of feudalism : the Indians being too improvi. dent to take heed for the morrow, render suit and service to the great Spanish proprietors, on condition of being supplied with water, and are adecripti aquwe instead of glebie. Guatemala and Chiapse have much more varied features.

Although the Andes have not in these countries the gigantit character they possess in South America, they rise to a height sill& cient in the high table-lands to form a temperate climate—a per- petual spring within the Tropics. In the loftier ranges numerous active volcanos are found; mineral wealth is said to exist in them, and of course there is a British Company engaged in exhuming IV; the loftiest mountain-peaks are sterile, but most other parts of the soil are fertile in vegetation of every kind ; the plains and vallies teem with the rank luxuriance of the Tropics; the table- lands produce the vegetables, fruits, and grain of a temperate clime ; and in short, between the highest and lowest points of vegetation, almost every plant can be grown which depends upon climate only. The great natural advantage of Guatemala, however, is the all but ready=made connexion of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The great Lake of Nicaragua, having an average depth of fifteen fathoms, is within sixteen miles of ° the Pacific ; the only known outlet of this inland sea is the river San Juan, navi- gable for craft drawing four feet water, to the Atlantic Oceae, in despite of rapids, and capable of being improved for the passage of ships. At present no commerce is carried on upon this remark- able line of navigation ; it might almost be said that nothing floats upon it. As soon, however, as a settled country and stable go- vernment can give security to commerce and capitalists, it is may to see that this water-line will be the seat of an extensive transit- trade: whether it will ever answer the full expectations of sanguine men and supersede Cape Horn, is very questionable, as regards coarse and bulky commodities. This magnificent country, capable of supplying the whole world with tropical produce if the existing marts were struck with barren-

wits, is thinly peopled, miserably poor in all except the productions grown upon the spot, and torn by intestine divisions, which have nearly destroyed or banished the more respectable families, and seem to render government impossible. We have already seen the nature of their ways ; indeed, except in the vicinity of the large towns, where a rock foundation gives a via ready made, there is no such thing as a road ; and on the main track of the country the traveller may ride for two or three days without meeting a village, sometimes without even a settler, and the villages are in general merely a collection of hovels—what substantial buildings there are in the country date from the first period of the Spanish conquest.

To this land Mr. STEPHENS was sent on a special confidential mission, by Mr. VAN BUREN, in October 1839, with liberty to travel on his own account, when he had either succeeded or failed for the public. Apparently, Mr. STEPHENS had been studying the descriptions and disquisitions by HUMBOLDT and others on the aboriginal ruins and antiquities of the country formerly included in old Mexico ; for he engaged Mr. CATHERWOOD, an artist, to accompany hint on his journey. The two friends sailed direct to the British settlement of Honduras ; whence, like Mr. MONTGO- MERY, his predecessor of the year before, the diplomatist steamed to Izabel, the port of Guatemala, the capital.- On his journey, he heard that there were a couple of governments in the country ; but which had the best claims either d,e jure or de facia, was no easy matter to decide. He also heard that there were at Copan, a few days' journey out of his road, some ruins of that primeval archi- tecture which is the puzzle of antiquaries; and largely interpreting his travelling-clause, thither he and his artist-companion went, en- countering many hardships and adventures on their way, from the nature of the country, the ignorance and suspicions of the people, and the disturbed state of public affairs. Arrived at the city of Guatemala, Mr. STEPHENS found the Government driven out which he had been accredited to, but some expected it would return with its army. The people who were uppermost, of course, claimed to be the true Government ; but Mr. STEPHENS had doubts about the fact ; the British Consul-General was equally sceptical, with plainer speech, for he wrote to know if the Government was in existence ; and if it were, there was a military adventurer dic- tator over it. Mr. STEPHENS therefore determined to examine the other Government, at St. Salvador : but here a new difficulty arose; for the ways were beset by a gentleman with a flag of his own, who fleeced all parties that fell in his way, without regard to polities. Luckily, however, the captain of a French vessel, which lay off St. Salvador, had made the land journey and been hunted for his life, having only escaped by riding sixty miles in one day through a mountainous country. Sick of travel- ling in Central America, M. Ds NOUVELLE sent off a native cou- rier to order up his ship, merely to take him back again ; and offered Mr. STEPHENS a passage. After many adventures, he at last found a Vice-President ; but the Government he was in search of depended upon a victory which eventually happened to he a defeat. How- ever, the upshot was, Mr. STEPHENS rode the whole length of Cen- tral America, turning aside to examine any natural curiosity or ruined work of art ; surveyed the line of canal that had been planned to connect Lake Nicaragua with the Pacific, cutting his way through the wood ; was present at the last contest, which seems likely to establish anarchy in the state of Guatemala, he and his party being the sole occupants of a town in which the " affair " was fought out, except the clergy and people whose age or infirmity prevented their running away. Arrived again at Guatemala, the victorious Government were too much afraid of their military protector even to ask Mr. SrEencas for his credentials ; and he departed, taking his return through the Northern part of Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan, in order to visit the ruined aboriginal cities of Palenque and Usmal.

The volumes before us have a threefold character-1. The usual characteristics of a book of travels, personal adventures, with sketches of people, manners, and scenery : and in this point of view it is the best work that has lately appeared ; any errors or defects of taste being more than counterbalanced by the hearty pleasantness of manner, the vivacity of the style, and the novelty of the sub- ject,—for Mr. MONTGOMERY'S journey was very much less extended, and his powers both of writing and observation very inferior to those of Mr. STEPHENS. 2. There is a curious chapter, and what may turn out to be a very critical one in the history of Guatemala, and indeed of Spanish America ; the present military dictator being an Indian, his army consisting of Indians, and the aristocratical party and priests, who made use of him to destroy the Liberals, beginning to suspect they have done a foolish thing in making the Indians ac- quainted with their strength. 3. The work contains a sufficient description with graphic illustrations of the most striking remains of the cities of the aboriginals of America, which have excited so much of learned speculation ; and STEPHENS'S Central America will offer the popular reader by fir the pleasantest and the best idea of the subject.

The travels of Mr. STEPHENS begin at Belize, the chief and only town of our settlement of Honduras; whose mahogany renders the name familiar to many who know nothing of its geography; and from his sketch of it we will take a picture of COLOURS AT BELIZE.

By this time I had twice passed the whole length of the principal street, and the town seemed in the entire possession of Blacks. The bridge, the market- place, the streets and stores, were thronged with them, and I might have landed myself in the capital of a Negro republic. They were a fine-looking race, tall, straight, and athletic, with skins black, smooth, and glossy as velvet, and well dressed; the men in white cotton shirts and trousers, with straw hats, and the women in white frocks with short sleeves and broad red borders, and

adorned with large red ear-riogs and necklaces ; and I could not help remarking that the frock was their only article of dress, and that it was the fashion 01 these sable ladies to drop this considerably from off the right shoulder, and to carry the skirt in the left band, and raise it to any height necessary for crossing puddles.

On my way back I stopped at the house of a merchant, whom I found at what is called a second breakfast. The gentleman sat on one side oLthe table and his lady on the other. At the bead was a British officer, and opposite him a Mulatto ; on his left was another officer, and opposite him also a Mulatto.. By chance a place was made for me between the two Coloured gentlemen. Someof my countrymen, perhaps, would have hesitated about taking it, but I

did not; both were well dressed, well educated, and polite. They talked of their mahogany-works, of England, hunting, horses ladies, and wine ; and be- fore I bad been an hour in Belize I learned that the great work of practical amalgamation, the subject of so much angry controversy at home, had been going on quietly for generations ; that colour was considered mere matter of taste; and that some of the most respectable inhabitants had black wives, and mongrel children, whom they educated with as much cam and made money for with as much zeal as if their skins were perfectly white.

In all Spanish America the Government and the Church seem to have been the great builders, and the great civilizers, such civilization as it is. Churches, public offices, with here and there a bridge, are met with upon a much larger scale of grandeur than in our colonies; and in a few cities, where the grandees congre- gated, the houses are well built : but all this labour for endurance has passed for the present, and the country is on the decline.

A PICTURE OF DESOLATION.

At six o'clock we rose upon a beautiful table of land, on which stood another gigantic church. It was the seventh we had seen that day ; and coming upon them in a region of desolation, and by mountain-paths which human hands had never attempted to improve, their colossal grandeur and costliness were startling, and gave evidence of a retrograding and expiring people. This stood in a more desolate place than any we had yet seen. The grass was green, the sod unbroken even by a mule-path ; not a human being was in sight, and even the gratings of the prison had no one looking through them. It was, in fact, a picture of a deserted village. We rode up to the cabildo ; the door of which was fastened and the shed barricaded, probably to prevent the entrance of straggling cattle. We tore away the fastenings, broke open the door, and, un- loading the mules, sent Augustin on a foraging expedition. In half an hour he returned with axe egg, being all that he was able to procure ; but he had waked up the village, and the alcalde, an Indian with a silver-headed cane, and several alguazils with long thin rods or wands of office, came down to examine us. We showed them our passport, and told them where we were going ; at which, with their characteristic indifference of manner, they expressed no sur- prise. They could not read the passport, but they examined the seal and re- turned it. We asked them for eggs, fowls, milk, &c.; to all of which they an- swered, what afterwards became but too familiar, "No hay "—"There is none," and in a few minutes they retired and left us to ourselves. CUSTOMS OF THE COUNTRY.

The proprieties of life are matters of conventional usage. Our host was si don ; and when we presented our letter, he received us with great dignity, in a single garment, loose, white, and very laconic, not quite reaching his knees. The dress of his wife was no less easy; somewhat in the style of the old- fashioned short-gown and petticoat, only the short-gown and whatever else is usually worn under it were wanting, and their place supplied by a string of beads, with a large cross at the end. A dozen men and half-grown boys, naked except the small covering formed by rolling the trousers up and down in the manner I have mentioned, were lounging about the house; and women and girls in such extremes of undress, that a string of beads seemed quite a covering for modesty. Mr. C. and I were in a rather awkward predicament for the night. The general reception-room contained three beds, made of strips of cow-hide inter- laced. The don occupied one : he had not much undressing to do, but what little he had he did by pulling off his shirt. Another bed was at the foot of my hammock. I was dozing, when I opened my eyes and saw a girl about seven- teen sitting sideway upon it, smoking a cigar. She bad a piece of striped cotton cloth tied around her waist, and falling below her knees: the rest of her dress was the same which Nature bestows alike upon the belle of fashionable life and the poorest girl; in other words, it was the same as that of the don's wife, with the exception of the string of beads. At first, I thought it was something I had conjured up in a dream ; and as I waked up, perhaps I raised my head, for she gave a few quick puffs of her cigar, drew a cotton sheet over her bead and shoulders, and lay down to sleep. I endeavoured to do the same. I called to mind the proverb, that "travelling makes strange bedfellows." I had slept pellmell with Greeks, Turks, and Arabs. I was beginning a journey in a new country : it was my duty to conform to the customs of the people, to be pre- pared for the worst, and submit with resignation to whatever might befall me.

As guests, it was pleasant to feel that the family made no strangers of as.

The wife of the don retired with the same ceremonies. Several times during the night we were waked by the clicking of flint and steel, and saw one of our neighbours lighting a cigar. At daylight, the wife of the don was enjoying her morning slumber. While I was dressing, she bade me good morning, removed the cotton covering from her shoulders, and arose dressed for the day.

SHOEMAKING AT GUATEMALA.

At the moment of starting, our remaining attendant said he could not go

until he had made a pair of shoes ; and we were obliged to wait ; but it did not take long. Standing on an untanned cow-hide, he marked the size of his feet with a piece of coal, cot them out with his machete, made proper holes, and, passing a leather string under the instep, around the heel and between the great doigt du pied and the one next to it, was shod.

CURATES OF GUATEMALA.

In the course of the day I had an opportunity of seeing, what I afterwards observed throughout all Central America, the life of labour and responsibility passed by the cum in an Indian village, who devotes himself faithfully to the people under his charge. Besides officiating in all the services of the church, visiting the sick, and burying the dead, my worthy host was looked up to by every Indian in the village as a counsellor, friend, and father. The door of the convent was always open' and Indians were constantly resorting to him : a MR who had quarrelled with his neighbour, a wife who bad been -badly treated by her husband, a father whose son had been carried off as a soldier, a young girl deserted by her lover, all who were in trouble or affliction came to him for advice and consolation, and none went away without it. And besides this, he was principal director of all the public business of the town ; the right-hand of the alcalde; and had been consulted whether or not I ought to be considered a dangerous person. But the performance of these multifarious duties, and the excitement and danger of the times, were wearing away his frame. Four years before, he gave up the capital, and took upon himself this curacy ; and durii g that time he had lived a life of labour, anxiety, and peril; cut off from all the delights of social intercourse that make labour welcome; beloved by the Indians, but without any to sympathize with him in his thoughts and feelings.

SIGHT OF THE TWO OCEANS.

Beyond this we came into an open region, where nothing but cedar and thorns grew; and here I saw whortleberries for the first tune in Central

America. In that wild region there was a charm in seeing any thing that was familiar to me at home, and I should perhaps have become sentimental, but they were hard and tasteless. As we rose we entered a region of clouds;

very soon they became so thick that we could see nothing; the figures of our OWD party were barely distinguishable, and we lost all hope of any view from the top of the volcano. Grass still grew, and we ascended till we reached a

belt of sand and lava; and here, to our great joy, we emerged from the region tilts; and saw the top of the volcano, without a vapour upon it, seem o mingle with the clear blue sky; and at that early hour the sun was not big enough to play upon its top.

Mr. Lawrence, who had exerted himself in walking, lay down to rest, and the doctor and I walked on. The crater was about two miles in circumference, rent and broken by time or some great convulsion : the fragments stood high, bare, and grand as mountains, and within were three or four smaller craters. We ascended on the South side by a ridge running east and west till we reached a high point, at which there was an immense gap in the crater impossible to cross. The lofty point on which we stood was perfectly clear, the atmosphere was of transparent parity; and looking beyond the region of desolation below us, at a distance of perhaps two thousand feet, the whole country was covered with clouds, and the city at the foot of the volcano was invisible. By degrees the more distant clouds were lifted, and over the immense bed we saw at the same moment the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. This was the grand spectacle we had hoped, but scarcely expected to behold. My companions had ascended the volcano several times, but on account of the clouds had only sten the two MIA once before. The points at which they were visible were the Gulf of Nicoya and the harbour of San Juan, not directly opposite, but nearly at right angles to each other, so that we saw them without turning the body. In a right line over the tops of the mountains neither was more than twenty miles distant, and from the great height at which we stood they seemed almost at our feet. It is the only point in the world which commands a view of the two seas ; and I ranked the sight with those most interesting occasions when from the top of Mount Sinai I looked out upon the Desert of Arabia, and from Mount Hor I saw the Dead Sea.

THE CARRIAGE OF THE COUNTRY.

We bad brought the sills with us merely as a measure of precaution, without much expectation of being obliged to use it ; but at a steep pitch, which made any head almost burst to think of climbing, I resorted to it for the first time. It was a large, clumsy arm-chair, put together with wooden pins and bark strings. The Indian who was to carry me, like all the others, was small, not more than five feet seven, very thin, but symmetrically formed. A bark strap was tied to the arms of the chair ; and sitting down, he placed his back against the back of the chair, adjusted the length of the strings, and smoothed the bark across his forehead with a little cushion to relieve the pressure. An Indian on each side lifted it up; and the carrier rose on his feet, stood still a moment, threw me up once or twice to adjust me on his shoulders, and set off with one man on each side. It VMS a great relief; but I could feel every movement, even to the heaving of his chest. The ascent was one of the steepest on the whole toad. In a few minutes he stopped and sent forth a sound usual with Indian carriers, between a whistle and a blow, always painful to my ears, but which I never felt so disagreeably before. My face was turned backward; I could not see where he was going, but observed that the Indian on the left fell back. Not to increase the labour of carrying me, I sat as still as possible; but in a few minutes, looking over my shoulder, saw that we were approaching the edge of a precipice more than a thousand feet deep. Here I became very anxious to dismount ; but I could not speak intelligibly, and the Indiana could or would not understand my signs. My carrier moved along carefully with his left foot first, feeling that the stone on which he put it down was steady and secure be- fore he brought up the other, and by degrees, after a particularly careful move- ment, brought both feet up within halt a step of the edge of the precipice, stopped, and gave a fearful whistle and blow. I rose and fell with every breath, felt his body trembling under me, and his knees seemed giving way. The precipice was awful, and the slightest irregular movement on my part might bring us both down together. I would have given him a release in full for the rest of the journey to be off his back ; but he started again, and with the same care ascended several steps, so close to the edge that even on the back of a mule it would have been very uncomfortable. My fear lest he should break down or stumble was excessive. To my extreme relief the path turned away; but I had hardly congratulated myself upon my escape before he descended a few steps. This was much worse than ascending: if he fell, nothing could keep me from going over his head ; but I remained till he put me down of his own accord. The poor fellow was wet with perspiration, and trembled in every limb. Another stood ready to take me up, but I had had enough. Pawling tried it, but only for a short time. It was bad enough to see an Indian toiling with a dead-weight on his back; but to feel him trembling under one's own body, hear his bard breathing, see the sweat rolling down him, and feel the in- security of the position, made this a mode of travelling which nothing but con- stitutional laziness and insensibility could endure. Walking, or rather climb- ing, stopping very often to rest, and riding when it was at all practicable, we reached a thatched shed where we wished to stop for the night; but there was 110 water.

Although many of the sketches of civil war and its effects have an intrinsic interest, the main interest of the historical passages of Mr. STEPHENS'S work arises from the peculiar character of this revolution,—an ignorant Indian domineering over the country, without even the slight regard to forms under which a dictator generally veils his power ; not, it would appear, from any willing disregard of White usages, but simply from not knowing better, for Mr. STEPHENS thinks that he means well, and would act rightly if he knew how. CARRERA, for so he is named, was originally a drum-boy under the aristocratic party ; but retiring in disgust when a revolution placed the Liberals upper- most, he turned pig-driver. The measures of the dominant party in respect to the church, coupled with the devastations of the cholera, the hatred of foreigners, and the intrigues of the clergy, induced the Indians to rise en masse • and with CARRERA at the head of those of his district, they murdered several of the authorities, and cut to pieces a party sent to treat with them. Defeated by the Government troops, themselves were scattered, their villages burned, and among other excesses the last outrage was perpetrated on CABRERA'S wife. Vowing vengeance, he commenced a buccaneer- ing or partisan warfare at the head of a few followers, who gra- dually increased in number; and, under the advice of a profligate priest, he issued proclamations, demanding, among other things, a return to old usages and customs. In the mean time, dissensions broke out among the party in power. One faction rose against their quondam friends ; the aristocratic party, or such of them as were left, either remaining quiescent or joining the rebels. CAR- ERA was applied to by the weaker ; and thus was laid the founda- tion of his rapid advance, through the internal dissension$ of the

Spaniards, and their want of spirit and power of combining together to resist, when resistance was almost sure of success. The strange mixture of native energy, passion, and intelligence in CABRERA'S character, with the naive simplicity and ignorance of an uneducated Indian, strangely contrasting with his position—as well as the strange events in his career, and the steps by which be attained his power— must be read in Mr. STEPHENS!S volumes. Bur we will take one passage—his first entry into Guatemala, when the insurgent in- habitants of Antigua, despairing of success,' had called upon CABRERA to join them.

CABRERA'S ENTRANCE INTO GUATEMALA.

On Wednesday, Carrera joined the rebels. Be had sent his emissaries to the villages, rousing the Indians, and promising them the plunder of Guate- mala; and on Thursday, with a tumultuous mass of half-naked savages, men, women, and children, estimated at ten or twelve thousand, presented himself at the gate of the city. The [rebel] Antiguanos themselves were struck with consternation, and the citizens of Guatemala were thrown into a state border- iu„, on distraction.

Efforts at negotiation failed.

" In the mean time, Carrera's hordes were advancing. The commandant of the Antiguans asked him if he had his masses divided into squares or com-

panies; he answered, 'No entiendo nada de eso. Todo as (' I don't understand any thing of that. It is all the same.') Among his leaders were Monreal and other known outlaws, criminals, robbers, and murderers. Be himself was on horseback, with a green bush in his hat, and hung round with pieces of dirty cotton cloth covered with pictures of the saints. A gentleman who saw them from the roof of his house, and who was familiar with all the scenes of terror which had taken place in that unhappy city, told me that he never felt such consternation and horror as when be saw the entry of this immense mass of barbarians ; choking up the streets, all with green bushes in their hats, seeming at a distance like a moving' forest ; armed with rusty muskets, old pistols, fowling-pieces, some with locks and some without; sticks formed into the shape of muskets, with tin-plate locks; clubs, machetes, and knives tied to the ends of long poles; and swelling the multitude were two or three thousand women, with sacks and alforgas for carrying away the plunder. Many, who had never left their villages before, looked wild at the sight of the houses and churches, and the magnificence of the city. They entered the plaza, vociferating 'Viva la religion, y muerte a los etrangeros Carrera himself, amazed at the immense ball he had set in motion, was so embarrassed that he could not guide his horse. Ile afterwards said that he was frightened at the difficulty of controlling this huge and disorderly mass. The traitor Barundia, the leader of the Opposition, the Catiline of this rebellion, rode by his aide.on his entry into the plaza.

" At sun-down the whole multitude set up the Salve, or Hymn to the Virgin.

The swell of human voices filled the air, and made the hearts of the inhabit- ants quake with fear. Carrera entered the Cathedral; the Indians, in mute astonishment at its magnificence, thronged in after him, and set up around the beautiful altar the uncouth images of their village mints. Monreal broke into the house of General Pram, and seized a uniform coat, richly embroidered with gold; into which Carrera slipped his arms, still wearing his straw-hat with its green bush. A watch was brought him, but he did not know the use of it. Probably, since the invasion of Rome by Alaric and the Goths, no civilized city was ever visited by such an inundation of barbarians.

"And Carrera alone had power to control the wild elements around him.

As soon as possible some of the authorities sought him out, and in the moat abject terms begged him to state on what conditions he would evacuate the city. He demanded the deposition of Galvez, the chief of the state, all the money, and all the arms the Government could command. The priests were the only people who had any influence with him ; and words cannot convey any idea of the awful state of suspense which the city suffered, dreading every moment to hear the signal given for general pillage and massacre. The in- habitants shut themselves up in their houses; which, being built of stone, with iron balconies to the windows, and doors several inches thick, resisted the assaults of straggling parties; but atrocities more than enough were committed, as it seemed, preliminary to a general sacking. The Vice-President of the Republic was murdered ; the house of Flores, a Deputy, sacked, his mother knocked down by a villain with the butt of a musket, and one of his daughters shot in the arm with two balls.

"The house of Messrs. Klee, Skinner, and Co., the principal foreign mer- chants in Guatemala, which was reported to contain ammunition and arms, was several times attacked with great ferocity : having strong balconied win- dows, and the door being secured by bales of merchandise piled up within, it re- sisted the assaults of an undisciplined mob, armed only with clubs, muskets, knives, matchetes. The priests ran through the streets bearing the crucifix, in the name of the Virgin and saints restraining lawless Indians, stilling the wiliness of passion, and saving the terrified inhabitants. "Pending the negotiation, Carrera, dressed in Prem's uniform, endeavoured to restrain his tumultuous followers; but several times he said that he could not himself resist the temptation to sack Klee's house, and those of the other Ingleses. There was a strange dash of fanaticism in the character of this lawless chieftain. The battle-cry of his hordes was "Viva la religion !" The palace of the Archbishop had been suffered to be used as a theatre by the Liberals ; Carrera demanded the keys, and putting them in his pocket, de- clared that, to prevent any future pollution, it should not be opened again until the banished Archbishop returned to occupy it.

"At length the terms upon which he consented to withdraw were agreed upon,—viz. eleven thousand dollars in silver, ten thousand to be distributed among his followers and one thousand for his own share, a thousand muskets, and a commission as Lieutenant-Colonel for himself. The amount of money was small as the price of relief from such imminent danger, but it was an im- mense sum in the eyes of Carrera and his followers, few of whom were worth snore than the rags on their backs and the stolen arms in their hands : and it was not easily raised ; the treasury was bankrupt, and the money was not verycheerfully contributed by the citizens. The madness of consenting to

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put n the hands of Carrera a thousand muskets was only equalled by the absurdity of making him a Lieutenant-Colonel. "On the afternoon of the third day the money was paid, the muskets de- livered, and Carrera was invested with the command of the province of Mita, a district near Guatemala. The joy of the inhabitants at the prospect of his immediate departure was without bounds ; but at the last moment an awful rumour spread, that the wild bands had evinced an uncontrollable eagerness, before leaving, to Back the city. A random discharge of muskets in the plaza confirmed the rumour, and the effect was dreadfuL An hour of terrible suspense followed; but at five o'clock they filed off in straggling crowds from the plaza. At the Plaza de Toros they halted, and firing their muskets in the air, created another panic. A rumour was revived that Carrera had de- mended four thousand dollars more, and that unless he received it he would return and take it by force. Carrerahimself did actually return, and demanded a field-piece, which was given him ; and at length, leaving behind him a %leen- ment requiring the redress of certain grievances, to the unspeakable joy of Al the inhabitants he left the city."

We have no wish to undervalue the grounds the citizens had fur their panic, or to defend the atrocities of the Indians, from the seizure of General Pazst's uniform-coat up to the sacking of the house of Senor FLORES. At the same time, looking at the doings of civilized soldiers when they take towns—Badajoz and St. Sebastian, for example—and bearing in mind the personal injuries which their Itidian leader had suffered, we doubt whether CARRERA with his "hordes" might not besafer visitants of a city than Wzramsorosi and Iiiinheroes, or any other Marshal of them all. The length to w=11 this notice has extended prevents our en- tering upon the subject of the ruined cities Mr. STEPHENS sur- veyed, and'the more striking monuments of which Mr. CATHER- woon has drawn to illustrate the prose descriptions or exhibit the arts of an aboriginal people : for we are disposed to agree with our author in his conclusion, that these buildings were the works of Americans, and if not erected by the nation which COTES found on his invasion of Mexico, yet by a similar race. *In getting rid, however, of the antediluvian style of building which some have discovered in these monuments—or the Chinese, or Hindoo, or Egyptian, to which others have had recourse—one difficulty still remains, namely, the origin of this American civilization,' such as it was. We say such as it was, for our inspection of the drawings of Mr. CATHERWOOD confirms the opinion we expressed when reviewing Mrs. HAMILTON GRAY'S Sepulchres of Etruria, "that nothing perishes which is worthy to live." In looking at these buildings, viith their statues, columns, and various ornaments, we see nothing from which the Old World could have derived any im- provement—nothing, indeed, which it had not outgrown three thousand years ago. Mr. STEPHENS, notwithstanding the enthu- siasm of an explorer, candidly admits, that in style of art, and in power over mechanics, they are inferior to the Egyptian monu- ments. To us they appear to exhibit an inferiority in intellect : the mechanical execution, the mere cutting, appears to have been finished to a high degree ; but so is the workmanship of the paddles, prows of canoes, &c. of backward and almost barbarous nations. In style, we do not look for the ideal; but this people seemed scarcely to have arrived at the point of endeavouring to re- present things as they actually are. Their human face is grotesque in form and expression ; the extremities of the limbs only exhi- bited, the intermediate parts being nondescript monstrosities ; not from any want of mechanical power to express the parts, but from a mental weakness, a vicious style, which seemed-to distrust na- ture. The chief exceptions to this criticism are in the bas-reliefs at Palenque ; which would appear to show that Mexican art was in its decadence during its later period, if the inference of Mr. STEPHENS is correct, that Palenque was a ruined city in the age of CORTES. The clearest point about them is the combined labour required for their erection, arguing despotic power of some kind, monarchical, priestly, or in the system of castes; either or all of which may be deduced from the accounts of the first invaders.