TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 177 
On the Commercial, Industrial, and Natural Resources of Peru. By T. J. 
Horenrnson, /.2.G.S., P.RSL., MATL, late H.B.M. Consul for Callao. 
The author commented on our earliest knowledge of the history of Peru, observ- 
ing that the country, even in early times, was as famous for its commerce and in- 
dustry as for its precious metals. He considered the modern Peruvians to be the 
most industrious inhabitants of South America, as evidenced by their cultivation 
of cotton and sugar-cane, and dated the establishment of their commercial status 
from the Pacific Steam Navigation Company’s inauguration in 1840. The con- 
dition of native manufactures, joined to that of agriculturists, seemed to point 
unerringly to success, in a commercial point of view, for a nation as it were 
instinctively industrious. The author then proceeded to a notice of the enor- 
mous amount of mineral wealth in the Andes, now about to be opened to the world 
by means of railways. Hitherto these rocky mountain-masses had rendered 
intercommunication impracticable, from the difficulty of transport across their 
almost impassable barriers. Foreign Office Reports were quoted, as furnished 
through the Admiralty from Rear-Admiral Cochrane, the present Commander-in- 
Chief in the Pacific. Recent findings of guano show an approximate amount of 
9,294,500 tons, and exports of nitrates from Iquique have increased cent. per cent. 
in less than three years. In the author’s opinion, Peru seems likely to reach the 
position before many years of being one of the first South-American Republics, as 
regards commercial prosperity. Drawings of various cuttings and tunnellings of 
the railways (some of which are now finished by the contractor, Mr. Henry Meiges) 
accompanied this paper. 
Travels beyond three Seas, by Athanasius Nikitin, Merchant of Tver, 1466- 
1472. Compiled from Russian documents by T. Sresnrrrsky, of the Im- 
perial Academy of Arts and Sciences of St. Petersburg, and rendered into 
English by E. Drtmar Morean, F.R.GS. 
Much fresh explanatory matter is here added to Nikitin’s memoirs. They were 
first discovered by Karansin, who paid a high tribute to their importance in his 
‘ History of Russia,’ and have been critically reviewed in the Transactions of the 
Imperial Academy of Arts and Sciences by M. Sresneffsky, and translated by Mr. 
Major in one of the publications of the Hakluyt Society. 
The 15th century, remarkable in the annals of Western Iurope for a special 
desire to become acquainted and establish relations with the distant East, is not 
without its reminiscences to Russians, whose ancestors took their part in the pro- 
gress of the times and the march of events, as far as circumstances would allow. 
The development of the kingdom of Muscovy, following the overthrow of the 
Tartar power during the reign of Ivan III., opened out new countries to the enter- 
prise of Russian merchants; and, towards the close of the 14th and beginning of 
the 15th centuries, they traded with India, Persia, and Central Asia. Commercial 
intercourse was succeeded by closer political relations, and we read of interchanges 
of envoys between the Grand Dukes of Muscovy and the rulers of Transcaucasia 
and Persia. It was on the occasion of the departure of one of these embassies from 
Russia that Athanasius Nikitin, a merchant of Tver, started for the East. Taking 
with him his merchandize in two sailing-ships, he descended the Volga to Astrakan, 
where he was attacked by artars and lost all his goods; but, escaping in 
another vessel, after experiencing a violent storm in the Caspian Sea, he landed 
safely at Derbend. Here the travellers were in the dominions of the Shirvan 
Shah of Shamakha, who received them kindly, but refused to accede to their 
request to be sent home to Russia. After wandering about Daghestan for some 
time, Nikitin at length set sail for Persia from Baku in 1466 or 1467, and landed 
at Balfrush on the coast of Mazanderan. Thence he crossed Persia, visiting the 
most important towns and commercial centres, and arrived at Ormuz on the Per- 
sian Gulf. Three years later, on his return journey through Persia, he visited the 
“horde” of Uzum Hassan, of the Turkoman tribe of Ak-koinlu (white sheep), 
whose empire extended over the whole of Persia and a great part of Asia Minor, 
