24 



SCIENTIFIC REVIEWS. 



Journal of a Passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic, crossing 

 the Andes, in the Northern Provinces of Peru, and descending 

 the river Maranon or Amazon. By Henry Listeb Maw, 

 Lieutenant R. N. London. Murray. 1829. 



We are somewhat late in noticing this interesting work ; but 

 though the press of materials may have made us tardy, it was of 

 too much importance to have ever been entirely neglected, Mr. 

 Maw is the first Englishman who ever descended the course of the 

 Maranon, through its windings of 3000 leagues, and at the time of 

 the attempt was not aware of its having been in part accomplished 

 by the French academicians Bouguer and Condamine. Few tra- 

 vellers can therefore be traced through a more novel, and, from the 

 characters and productions of the country, more interesting tract. 

 Step by step we recede from the light of civilization, to pass to 

 people little advanced from a state of savage wildness; amongst 

 whom the utensils they need, or the ornaments they admire, are re- 

 ceived in payment for natural productions, or for personal services 

 —whose vices are those only of savages. We then arrive at marks 

 of civilization, not, as our author says, marks of European civiliza- 

 tion, but of European demoralization, where the uneducated, un- 

 enlightened branco, finding himself unchecked by those laws and 

 authorities that existed in the country he has left — finding himself 

 amongst a people inferior to his countrymen, and not comprehend- 

 ing the advantage or necessity of restraining his inclinations, assumes 

 arbitrary power, and commits uncontrolled enormities ; whilst the 

 unfortunate wretches amongst whom he fixes suffer from his tyran- 

 ny, and acquire his vices, till slowly and with difficulty we pass 

 through this state of things, to meet with a more general com- 

 merce, and to experience the benign influence of social order. 



Peru, in the direction which our author crossed it, he says con- 

 sists of three distinct territories. From the coast to the first Cor- 

 dillera may be termed the mining district. From the first cordil- 

 lere to the Montana, or Avoods on the eastern side of the Andes, ^ is 

 a district that not merely appears capable of agriculture, but which 

 has evidently at some period supported a considerable population, 

 as is proved by numerous traces of old Peruvian cultivation. At 

 present it is comparatively uncultivated and depopulated. 



From the commencement of the Montana to the frontier is a dis- 

 trict naturally rich in vegetable productions, gums, balsams, dyes, 

 and medicinal plants, also various tropical fruits, including cocoa, 

 and there are said to be some spices ; and if cultivation was carried 

 on, and a demand commenced, it is said to be capable of raising flax 

 or hemp, cotton, coffee, sugar, rice, with various other productions. 



The journey up that acclivity of the Andes which pours its wa- 

 ters into the Pacific Ocean was accomplished without material ob- 



