REVIEWS — THE GREAT DESERTS OV NORTH AMERICA. 51 



adopted and very partially naturalized in England. His publisher, 

 though naturally a little sensitive on the subject, stands acquitted of 

 all culpable share in the Gorilla-book manufactory ; and we hope is 

 resigned to the inevitable : finding it by no means a losing concern to 

 have undertaken the publication of so notorious a traveller's tale. 

 The index expurgatorius is generally the best of advertisements ; though 

 some men are squeamish enough to object to be pilloried, notwith, 

 standing the notoriety it secures. 



It is not, however, our purpose to follow in the wake of English 

 and German critics, in reviewing the apochryphal adventures and 

 superabundant chronology of Pierre Beloni Du Chaillu, or other such 

 literary freebooters ; but on the contrary, to invite our readers into 

 an exploration of the Great Deserts of the New World, under the 

 guidance of the well-accredited author whose name and credentials 

 figure at the head of this article. 



The Abbe Domenech, Titular Canon of Montpellier, and mem- 

 ber of the Tibernian Pontifical Academy, as well as of sundry 

 Parisian Scientific Societies, is already known as the author of " Mis. 

 sionary Adventures in Texas and Mexico," a work which all have 

 agreed to praise. The Eclectic Review commended its author as 

 one who has transferred to the territories on the banks of the San 

 Antonio and Rio Grande, that interest which the Abbe Hue knew so 

 well how to give to the scenery and life in China. The reviewer 

 does, indeed, confess to earlier doubts that the author was impudently 

 testing the powers of credence of his readers, and drawing on his 

 imagination for the details by means of which a genuine sketch was 

 stufied out into bibliopolic amplitude. But with some slight reserva- 

 tion he withdraws his earlier incredulity, and accords his praise to the 

 volumes, not as a romance, but as a traveller's narrative. The Satur- 

 day/ Review follows with the same readily suggested comparison 

 between the famous Chinese explorer, and this " good and brave young 

 Abbe Domenech," who now in his later volumes, addresses from 

 Paris his dedication, " To his Lordship, Charles Thomas Thibault, 

 Bishop of Montpellier, Roman Count, Assistant at the Pontifical 

 Throne, Commander of the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour, 

 and of the Religious and Military Order of Saints Maurice and 

 Lazarus, Knight of the Grand Cross of the Honourable Order of Christ 

 of Rome, of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre," &c. &c. There is some- 

 thing refreshing in escaping beyond regions of misty dubiety, within 



