434 



GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS. 



video, is given in 1863 at 45,765. Its imports 

 in 1862 were said to amount to $13,568,330, 

 and the exports to $15,395,073. i One hundred 

 and fifty thousand of the inhabitants are said 

 to be of foreign birth. In June, 1863, the ter- 

 ritory of the republic was invaded by an army 

 from Buenos Ayres, under the command of a 

 former president of Uruguay, Venacio .Flores, 

 but after a struggle of several months he was 

 defeated and expelled from the country. 



Paraguay, under the government of Presi- 

 dent Lopez, and since his death under that of 

 his son, has attained a high degree of pros- 

 perity. An interior State, and without an ex- 

 tensive foreign commerce, it has, by the in- 

 dustry and intelligence of its inhabitants, and 

 the productiveness of its soil, maintained itself 

 in peace and comfort, has no public debt, and 

 has an annual revenue of about $2,500,000, 

 of which nearly two thirds arise from the 

 sale of the Yerba mate, or Paraguay tea, and 

 other products of the national domains. Its 

 population, according to official statistics, is 

 1,337,4*31, and that of the capital, Assumption, 

 48,000. M. Mouchez, a French geographer, 

 who has resided for many years in Paraguay, 

 and is the author of a series of excellent maps 

 of the republic, thinks the official estimate of 

 the population too high by one half. A work 

 on Paraguay, of great interest, and embodying 

 much valuable information in regard to the 

 country, by Dr. Demersay, was published in 

 1863. Messrs. Koner and Kiepert have also a 

 paper illustrated with a map by the latter on 

 the topography of Paraguay in one of the num- 

 bers of the Zeitschrift fur Erdkunde for 1863. 



There have been no further attempts during 

 the past year, to explore Patagonia, or the bleak 

 islands of the Fuegian Archipelago, but a very 

 interesting narrative of adventure in the latter 

 in October, 1855, has recently been given to the 

 public in "Harper's Magazine," by the captain 

 of a British schooner, sent to visit the inhabit- 

 ants of Tierra del Fuego, after the terrible dis- 

 aster which befell Capt. Allen Gardiner and his 

 party. He describes the Fuegians as generally 

 of tolerable height (ranging from 5 ft. 8 in. 

 to 5 ft. 7 in.), and well formed ; but as going 

 nearly nude, even in that severe climate, cover- 

 ing the skin with ochre and grease. They re- 

 semble the Esquimaux, but are less amiable 

 and honest than they. Their principal food 

 consists of shell fish and an edible fungus, 

 which grows upon the trees. They are canni- 

 bals, but mote from necessity, the captain thinks, 

 than from choice. They live in conical huts, 

 built over a hollowed pit in the ground, and 

 their tents are always filled with smoke. Their 

 condition seems very wretched, but they were 

 content, and exhibited strong attachment to 

 their families, and especially to their children. 

 An attempt made in 1857 to take some of them 

 away to educate and civilize them, led to a ren- 

 contre, in which the entire crew of an English 

 vessel, except the cook, was killed. 



Chili, happily separated by the Andes and the 



Atacaman desert from the other States of South 

 America, is almost wholly delivered from the 

 questions of boundaries, which have so often 

 given rise to desolating wars in some of the 

 States, and under a judicious government has 

 made rapid progress during the last ten or 

 twelve years in the arts of civilization. M. 

 Pigris, the South American geographer, has 

 communicated during the past year to the 

 French Academy several memoirs on the 

 Andes. He ascertained by careful geodesic 

 measurement the height of Aconcagua, the 

 most elevated of the yet known peaks of Sooth 

 America, as 22,210 feet. Three other peaks in 

 the same vicinity measured respectively, 22,097 

 feet, 21,213 feet, and 20,628 feet. In the north- 

 ern part of Chili, within the Atacama desert, 

 300 miles north of Copiapo, extensive mines of 

 silver of great purity have been discovered. 

 The region also abounds with the best copper. 



In Bolivia, the return of peace has been ac- 

 companied by the re-discovery of extensive 

 gold mines, all traces of which had been lost in 

 the years of civil war. They are situated near 

 the village of Baures, in the basin of the Beni. 



Peru has for many years been a favorite 

 region of geOjgraphical exploration and research, 

 and the past year has contributed its full share 

 of works relative to its geography and ethnol- 

 ogy. Professor Antonio Raimondi, a Peruvian 

 scholar, has presented to the Peruvian Govern- 

 ment a memoir entitled Apuntes solre la Pro- 

 vincia literal de Loreto, in which he gives a very 

 full and interesting account of the Indian tribes 

 in that vast, wild province, which covers more 

 square leagues than all the rest of Peru. This 

 memoir, it is understood, is but one of a series 

 on which Prof. Raimondi has been engaged for 

 many years, in which he will discuss the geo- 

 graphical, mineralogical, geological, botanical 

 and zoological features of Loreto. In the AN- 

 NUAL CYCLOPAEDIA for 1862, some account was 

 given of the Jivaros, one of the tribes inhabiting 

 the province. Prof. Raimondi gives a further 

 account of them, as well as the other tribes 

 which occupy that region, some of whom, as 

 the Mayornnas and Caschibos, are cannibals, 

 eating the old people of their tribes. Their 

 habits and customs, as well as their language, 

 differ materially from each other, and would 

 seem to indicate that they were sprung from 

 different sources; the Jivaros may have been 

 originally of the Quichna race, their language 

 and habits bearing considerable resemblance 

 to it, but the Caschibos, Setebos, Sipibos, and 

 Conibos speak dialects of the Pana language, 

 which abounds in aspirates and gutturals, and 

 has no affinities with the Quichua, the Jivaro, 

 the Piro or the Campo, which have an abund- 

 ance of vowels and are soft and musical. The 

 Conibos flatten the heads of their children be- 

 tween two boards, one applied in front, the 

 other behind. Prof. Raimondi estimates the 

 number of Indians in Loreto at about 90,000, 

 of whom about 40,000 are independent, having 

 never been subdued by the whites. The country 



