[ 1002 J 



Account of Books for 1805. 



The present Stute ofPcru^ S)C.dra-iCn 

 Jrom Original Ducvvicnls^ ckiijh/ 

 wriHeii in the Peruvian Capital, 

 icitk Engravings, i^c. -llo. 



THE war now existing with 

 Sjiain, and the probability of 

 its operations being cxteiulod into 

 the wide spread, but little known 

 regions of South America, induce 

 us to regard the publications which 

 have appeared, in tlie course of the 

 year, relatini;, in any degree, to the 

 Spanish empire in that division of 

 the new world, as peculiarly in- 

 teresting to the British reader, and 

 wortliy, in an eminciitdcgroe, of our 

 early and most marked attention. 



The preface to the work now be- 

 fore us, to which is signed the 

 nanieof " Joseph Skinner," gives 

 us to understand, that it has been 

 wholly compiled from a most valu- 

 able body of materials, which ori- 

 ginally appeared at l^inia, in the 

 form of a periodical work, entitled, 

 " El Mercurio Peruano,''* and 

 which fell into the editor's hands by 

 the chance of war. 



An academical society, established 

 in the capital ofPeru, appears, about 

 the commencement of the year 

 1791, to have determined upon 

 publishing a scries of essays, the 



main tendency of which M'as to 

 elucidate the moral, political, and 

 natural fealures of that country, 

 •and also to lay the > foundation ofa 

 regular system of future national 

 improvement. 'I he result of their 

 labours were given, at stated times, 

 to the world, and Irom those essays 

 which appeared during the lirst six- 

 teen months, Mr. Skinner has com- 

 posed this singular volume, not 

 without, he says, having also re- 

 ferred himself, in the progress of his 

 under(aking,to various other authen- 

 tic sources of information. 



" Whatever can tend to interest 

 or amuse the British reader, has been 

 selected, and given, in amoreor less 

 abridged form, according to the re- 

 lative importance and curiosity of 

 the objects ot inquiry." But an 

 event, which befell iMr. Skinner, in 

 the course of his pursuits, with a 

 view to render the Peruvian Mer- 

 curies intelligible to his country- 

 men, put it in his power to render 

 the work, at once, much more en- 

 tertaining, instructive, and orna- 

 mental. His stumbling on a painting 

 representing the Indian festival, in 

 the great square of Lima, on the 

 event of the accession of his present 

 Catholic majcsty,Charles the fourth, 

 to the throne. '* The painting in 



The Peruvian Mercury. 



question, 



