The Phyfical Geography of Peru, 
ts vaft territory. In tracing with his 
pen, amid the fpoils and ravages of time 
and of war, the degree of cultivation 
this famous nation had attained, when, 
without the help either of the Egyptians, 
the Pheenicians, or the Grecks, it efta- 
blithed wife laws, and made, in certain 
points of view, great advances in the 
arts and fciences, he finds it indifpenfibly 
neceflary to examine the foil on which the 
ruins, that are to guide and direct him 
in his refearches, areplaced. The gran- 
deur of the works erected by the hand of 
man is not to be eftimated folely by the 
fad remnants to which they are reduced : 
it is eflential that the proportions of ‘the 
land, which ferved them as a fupport, 
fhould alfo enter into the calculation. 
The canal which waters the moft fertile 
valley, does not difplay the fame magni- 
ficence in itfelf, nor manifeft an equal 
effort and {kill on the part of the artifi- 
cer, as that which, running between 
formidable precipices, rifes to the fum- 
mit of the mountain, and pierces the deep 
cleft, which in magnitude equals its 
arm, or falls into the valley from be- 
tween the brink and the declivity of lofty 
hills. On the other hand, as the qualities 
and circumftances of regions influence 
the genius and character of thofe by 
whom they are peopled, without the 
phytfical knowledge of Peru, it would be 
impoflible to trace out the eminent ad- 
vantages of its former or prefent inha- 
bitants. 
It is true that we gave a general idea 
of Peru*, on the happy day when, in 
publifhing our firft Mercury, we made a 
gracious offering to the tutelar angel of 
thefe territories: but this is not what we 
are about tocopy. We then confined 
ourfelves chiefly to the plans which had 
been fuggefted, in dividing, peopling,and 
cultivating Peru, by the different views 
and interefts of its, glorious conguerors. 
We prefented to our readers a prefatory 
introduétion, a leifure compofition, in 
which, noticing rapidly and in fubftance 
whatever this country owes to man, we 
prepared them for the elucidation of each 
of the parts contained in that valuable 
ketch of our political geography. We 
now follow a different courfe.. At the 
moment while we are naming Peru, we 
banith from our view its.inhabitants and 
its cities, and annihilate even the fuperb 
towers of opulent. Lima. The plains 
‘which our forefathers laboured and ferti- 
lized difappear; and the delightful en- 

* See our Magazine for Novembeg laf. 
ig 
virons of Rimac-prefent no other orna= 
ment than a multitude of fhrubs: and 
green meadows, which, agitated by the 
gentle breeze, rival the undulations and 
murmurs of the Pacific Ocean as it 
wathes its banks. r; 
Having penetrated into the obfcure 
ages which have long ceafed to exift, in 
fearch of the fragments of the edifices of 
the Yncas, to complete the hiftory of their 
monuments, we now fix our attention on 
thofe times when the human footftep had 
as yet left no print on the fands of this 
fayoured region, when its fertile plains 
were ftill uncultivated. Natwre alone 
appears, wrapt up in a myfterious fi- 
lence. Her powerful hand is about to 
give the laft perfeétion to the globe, and 
to fupport its equilibrium by forming 
two diftinét worlds in one fingle conti- 
nent. It would appear that after the had 
exercifed herfelf on the burning fands of 
Africa, on the leafy and fragrant groves 
of Afia, and on the temperate and colder 
climates of Europe, fhe aimed at atfem- 
bling together in Peru all the produgtions 
fhe had denied to the other, three quare 
ters, to repofe there majeftically, fur- 
rounded by each of them. Such and fe 
great are the riches this admirable king. 
dom contains! In defcribing its phy- 
fical geography, it will not be inexpe- 
dient to adopt certain divifions. We 
fhall, in the firft place, treat of the 
general defign of the two worlds which 
compofe the two principal parts of Peru 
---of thofe two worlds which form the 
auguft temple of our mother and liberal 
benefa&trefs. Their limits, their diree- 
tions, their correfpondencies; their re- 
fpective advantages over the reft of the 
terraqueous globe; and their preponde- 
rance and influx in the equilibrium of 
this globe, are objeéts which, prefent- 
ing themfelves on a large feale, will lead 
and accuftom us, without fatigue, to 
the detailed examination of whatever 
each of them in particular contains. Of 
that any one could poffefs the divine and - 
‘energetic pencil of nature, to give tohis 
portraits the colouring and delicacy with 
which fOe has beautified the original! 
Peru, the limits of which are traced 
out by the great phenomena by which it 
divides the provinces of its univerfal em- 
pire, forms without doubt the whole of 
the fouthern part of the burning zone, 
which runs north and fouth from the 
equator to the tropic of Capricorn, and 
weft and eat from the borders of the Pa- 
cific fea to the forefts and defarts of the 
country of the Amazons, by which the 
eaftern 
