244 



NATURE 



IJan. 28, 1875 



Echarati, he embarked in a canoe on the Ouillabamba or 

 Urubamba, and sailing down this river and its continua- 

 tion, the Ucayali, reached Nauta, opposite the mouth of the 

 latter, on the Amazon ; getting a boat at Nauta, Marcoy 

 sailed down the Amazon to Barra, at the mouth of the 

 Rio Negro, completing his journey from that point to 

 Para in a sloop. 



The first part of his journey after leaving Islay is dreary 

 enough, over desert pampas and barren mountain regions, 

 and the weary iteration of the trivial incidents in each 

 day's journey becomes in the end positively tedious. In con- 

 nection with Cuzco, the author gives considerable details 

 concerning Peruvian antiquities, some of the remains of 

 which he appears to have carefully and minutely studied, 

 and of which he gives some valuable illustrations — sculp- 

 ture, statuary, fortifications, pottery ; and lastly, what pro- 

 fesses to be a series of the thirteen Incas and their wives 

 from Manco Capac downwards, who reigned over Peru 

 from the foundation of Cuzco to the Spanish Conquest. 

 They are beautifully executed, but we fear their historical 

 value won't count for much. M. Marcoy has a very 

 complete theory as to the peopling of America by the 

 ancestors of the native races who at present inhabit 

 America. He recognises two different types as including 

 nearly all the peoples both of North and South America — 

 the JMongolo-American type and the Irano-Aryan type, of 

 which the former, the colonising or swarming element, as 

 he calls it, is by far the more numerous. Both races, he 

 seems to believe, entered America from Asia at a very 

 remote period, probably by Behring Strait, which at the 

 time of the migration he appears to think was bridged 

 over by an isthmus. He endeavours to connect the 

 Irano-Aryan type at least with the ancient civilisation 

 of India and Egypt, with modifications and additions 

 acquired by the migrants from the various peoples with 

 v,'hom they came into contact in their progress north- 

 eastwards through Asia. The Quichuas, Aymaras, 

 Amis, and Chontaquiros, tribes of Peru, he con- 

 nects with this civilising element, as he calls it, to 

 which he apparently attributes most of the wonder- 

 ful monuments that now remain. That there are two 

 distinct tvpes among the native inhabitants of Peru 

 the latest and most trustworthy researches seem to prove, 

 as also that there has been more than one immigration 

 from Asia, but that right across the Pacific, and not by 

 Behring Strait ; but that the Incas were the authors of 

 the wonderful works of which so many remains still exist, 

 seems in the highest degree doubtful. We fear the 

 theories of M. Marcoy on this point will be considered 

 rather wild by the scientific investigator, who we daresay 

 will prefer the sober hypotheses of Mr. Hutchinson, based 

 as they are on a broad basis of facts. But more of this 

 when we come to the work of the latter. 



M. Marcoy gives many interesting details concerning 

 the social life of the various cities and towns of Peru 

 through which he passed on his way to Echarati. The 

 picture presented is on the whole a sad one, and we 

 should hope that since he made his journey there has 

 been a great reformation, and that since railways and 

 steamers have brought the people more into contact with 

 the busy world of Europe and North America, industry, 

 morality, and education have attained a higher platform. 



The real interest of M. Marco/s Journey begins when 



he launches on the river Quillabamba, probably the 

 most tortuous river in the world, and so studded with 

 rapids that navigation, except in canoes, is utterly im- 

 practicable. M. Marcoy gives much scattered infor- 

 mation, helped considerably by the artistic illustrations, 

 of the vegetation on the banks of this and the other rivers 

 down which he passed. The traveller was nothing 

 if not an artist ; and the work before us, in the eyes 

 of most readers, will derive half its value from the beauti- 

 fully executed and graphic illustrations, which enable one 

 to realise the scenes through which the author passed, 

 better than any amount of description. So his sketches 

 of the native Indians give one a good idea of the different 

 types met with along his route. Most of these, we should 

 think, are portraits, and some allowance, no doubt, must 

 be made for the author's tendency to artistic exaggeration. 

 Some of these portraits, as well as some of the sketches 

 illustrating the social life and habits of the natives, we 

 recognise as having been used (without acknowledgment) 

 in a recent popular work on anthropology. This suggests 

 the idea that the publication, so far as scientific purposes 

 are concerned, is rather late ; we should think it likely 

 that whatever the work contains of value bearing on the 

 ethnology, geography, and natural history of the Amazo- 

 nian region, has already found its place in those sciences 

 through the French edition. 



Although the author enumerates many tribes to be 

 met with on the Ucayali and its tributary rivers, the 

 members of these tribes at the time he visited were 

 very few, and the region through which he passed on 

 his way to the Amazon appeared to be but thinly 

 inhabited, notwithstanding the abundance of food, 

 both vegetable and animal. Indeed, the native 

 races of South America, like those of North America, 

 seem to be dying out before the advance of the 

 white man, though not so rapidly, for the simple 

 reason that the spread of the white man over the 

 southern continent is much more slow, and the whites 

 themselves seem to be nearly as lazy as the Indians. 

 Perhaps the fostering care of the Jesuit missionaries may 

 also have helped somewhat in preventing the rapid ex- 

 tinction of the Indian tribes. These missionaries have 

 been at work more or less ever since the Spanish conquest 

 of Peru, and the " converts " may be counted by thou- 

 sands, though M. Marcoy thinks, and he is not singular 

 in the opinion, that the missionaries have succeeded only 

 in producing a degraded type of Indian, differing from 

 his heathen brother simply in having lost his indepen- 

 dent spirit. Vl. Marcoy appears to be thoroughly ac- 

 quainted with the history of the Jesuit missions in Peru, 

 and one of the most pleasant episodes in his work is 

 the account of his long stay at a mission station on the 

 Sarayacu, a tributary of the Ucayali. 



The tribes whom the author names as inhabiting the 

 banks of the Ucayali and Ouillabamba are the Quichuas, 

 the Antis, the Chontaquiros, the Conibos, the Sipibos, 

 and the Schetibos, Of these, only the first three, along 

 with the Aymaras, and two or three tribes scattered 

 through the valleys of Bolivia, does he recognise as 

 representing his " Irano-Aryan " race. Most of the 

 other tribes he believes represents his Mongol or Tatar 

 race, the colonising element ; while the Carib, Tupi 

 Guarani, and other races, are in his opinion only various 



