It was as the agent of a mining company that Captain Head made his tour in La Plata and Chile, and in his Introduction he draws rather a discouraging picture of the South American mining associations in England. Great mistakes have been committed by precipitancy, and especially by setting companies on foot, and taking measures for carrying their objects into effect, without any knowledge of the country in which the mine was situated, or of local circumstances. Ignorance, and a rage for speculation, two very blind guides at all times, have been the causes of much mischief in forming these companies, by raising false hopes, and deluding people into the folly of becoming share holders. Determined to guard against the rock on which many had been wrecked, an association for working the gold and silver mines in the provinces of La Plata, despatched Captain Head to that country with instructions to examine the mines, and gain all the requisite knowledge for commencing operations upon them to advantage. His Rough Notes were drawn up during this tour. They consist of a broken narrative of events, loose hints, remarks, and observations, thrown together without regard to method, or settled design. They are written in a hurried, unpolished style, but with a good deal of animation, and occasionally with a graphic power of description, not often attained by the higher and practised order of writers. He pretends to nothing more than he accomplishes, and every reader may draw entertainment and instruction from his book. Its chief fault is a tinge of exaggeration, arising not so much from any purpose of the author, as apparently from the natural tendency of his mind to perceive new objects through a magnifying medium. He is not one of your querulous, grumbling travellers, meeting with shocking accidents and perilous adventures every post, starving at every meal, and bit or stung to death by ravenous, unmannerly vermin every night; he experiences enough of these calamities to give due interest to his narrative, but he bears them patiently, and talks of them like a man of courage and sober resolution. As to the success of his expedition, we are left somewhat in the dark. He visited mines without number, both of gold and silver, in the plains of La Plata, among the Andes, and in Chile, and, as he says, ' went to the bottom of them all,' but it does not appear that he reported favorably of any to his employers. He has devoted a chapter to the enumeration of difficulties to be encountered by an English association, in working mines in the provinces of Rio de La Plata, and he arranges them under the three formidable divisions of physical, moral, political. The ardor of speculation must be unusually great, that would not be damped by the list of obstacles under each of these divisions. The author assures us, moreover, that there are all sorts of English speculations in South America,' and that mining companies are not the only ones that fail. 'Besides many brother companies,' he says, which I met with at Buenos Aires, I found a sister association of milkmaids.' Some acute observer of the manners of nations, it seems had made the discovery, that the inhabitants of Buenos Aires and the neighboring provinces had no butter, notwithstanding the vast number of excellent cows, and the abundance of pasturage. It was forthwith determined, that a butter company, or, as our author terms it, a churning company, to manufacture and supply an article of so necessary use, would be an admirable enterprise. The company was formed without delay, and in a few months a cargo of Scotch milkmaids was landed at Buenos Aires, in complete readiness to commence operations. But here they were met with serious and unexpected obstacles at the very threshold. "The difficulties which they experienced were very great; instead of leaning their heads against patient domestic animals, they were introduced to a set of lawless wild creatures, which looked so fierce that no young woman, ever sat upon a three legged stool, would dare to approach, much less to milk them. But the Gauchos attacked the cows, tied their legs with strips of hide, and as soon as they became quiet, the shops of Buenos Aires were literally full of butter.' This was only a prelude to the disasters that followed. After all the difficulties of milking and churning had been conquered, ' it was discovered, first, that the butter would not keep; and secondly, that somehow or other, the Gauchos and natives of Buenos Aires liked oil better!' Thus vanished the bright hopes of the company, and the milkmaids were glad to return to their native Caledonian hills. who Captain Head's journey extended from Buenos Aires across the great plains called the Pampas, to Mendoza, and thence over the Andes to Santiago in Chile. The distance from Buenos Aires to Mendoza, at the foot of the Andes, is about nine hundred miles, and the whole distance to Santiago is thirteen hundred and sixtyfive. This route may be travelled by a courier in twelve days, being more than a hundred miles a day on an average. There are post houses throughout the whole line, and relays of horses across the Pampas. The Andes are commonly passed on mules. In our further remarks we shall consult, in addition to Captain Head's book, the manuscript Journal of Colonel William G. D. Worthington, who travelled over the same ground nine years ago, as special agent from the government of the United States to Buenos Aires, Chile, and Peru, and with the perusal of whose papers we have been favored. We shall also select some interesting particulars from a paper now before us, being the manuscript of a gentleman who has resided several years in Chile, and to whose pen the public has already been indebted for valuable and curious information respecting that country. We are happy to acknowledge our obligations to these authentic and highly respectable sources. It is not our purpose, however, to present our readers with anything more, on the present occasion, than a few desultory remarks, communicating general facts in some degree illustrative of the habits, manners, and character of the people. We have heretofore promised more than we have been able to perform, in regard to the South American republics. We hoped to have it in our power to draw up, from time to time, something like a connected history of the revolutions and recent changes in those countries, but we have hitherto found this impossible. Although we have sought materials from every quarter, and been successful in collecting them, yet they are for the most part unsatisfactory, and very imperfectly suited to historical purposes. There are as yet almost no books written in South America; the newspapers are meagre, referring rarely to the events of history; and the reports of the public officers to the congresses, which are important documents in themselves, are confined to the passing incidents and circumstances of the year. There was so little printing in the Spanish provinces during the first years of the revolution, that very few facts were recorded, and a full and accurate history must depend for many of its details on the recollection of living witnesses. Such a history of the revolution in Colombia has been written by Mr Restrepo, and it is hoped will shortly come before the public. When the same shall be done in the other republics, by men of equal eminence and qualifications, we shall have all that is desired, and not before. Meantime, we think the concerns of South America so important in connexion with our own country, that we shall not fail to give them the full share of attention which they may justly claim in a work like ours, designed for various ends, and for none more, than the advancement of our national honor and dignity, and the defence of liberty and free institutions in whatever clime they may appear. the The great plain of the Pampas, over which Captain Head travelled, reaches from Buenos Aires to the Andes, covering a space of about nine hundred miles. This plain is intersected with rivers and streams, which have their sources among perpetual snows of the Andes, and empty themselves into lakes in the interior, or find their way into the ocean through the great rivers Paraná and Rio de La Plata. The regions of the Pampas are inhabited by a scattered population of wild and warlike Indians in the south, and of Gauchos, a people of Spanish descent, in the middle and north. These plains are fertile, and, under good agricultural management, might support a dense population. They afford luxuriant pasturage and abound in cattle and horses, the former of which afford the natives their principal food, and the latter they ride on all occasions. Our author divides the Pampas into what he calls the regions of clover and thistles, long grass, and low trees and shrubs. The clover and thistles commence at Buenos Aires and extend one hundred and eighty miles; then succeeds the long grass, which prevails four hundred and fifty miles further; and last of all the trees and shrubs, which reach to the base of the Andes. As these shrubs are evergreens, their appearance is hardly changed with the seasons, and the long grass only turns its color from green to brown; but the clover and thistle country puts on a new aspect several times in a year, as crops of each spring up successively from a rich soil, grow to maturity, wither, and decay. There are two modes of travelling across the Pampas, one in carriages of a strong heavy construction, and the other on horseback. A carriage is taken at Buenos Aires for the whole route, and relays of horses are obtained on the way at post houses kept for the purpose by the Gauchos. These horses are commonly wild and restiff, but six or eight of them are attached to the carriage, and each one is ridden by a peon with enormous spurs, goading the sides of the poor animal. They are thus all hurried forward at a quick gallop, and the traveller is carried rapidly along from Buenos Aires to Mendoza. The post houses are usually at a suitable distance for exchanging, but in some instances they are thirty, and even fifty miles apart. In these cases, the Gauchos accompany the carriage with a drove of horses, which are often changed on the way. Captain Head considers the mode of travelling on horseback much the more independent and expeditious, where the traveller has strength to endure the fatigue. Horses are obtained at the post houses in the same way as for carriages, and a Gaucho goes from one post house to another as a guide. The Gauchos have some peculiar traits of character. They are described by the author as a people much attached to their native soil, seldom wandering far from the hut in which they were born, and in which their fathers had been born; hospitable and highminded, possessing few wants, cheerful, and contented, their food is of the simplest kind, consisting chiefly of beef and water, and their habitations are little better than such as are seen in the first stages of civilization. They are huts built of mud, and thatched with long yellow grass. The following description, from the pen of the author, will let the reader a little into the internal economy of one of these tene ments. 'In winter the people sleep in the hut, and the scene is a very singular one. As soon as the traveller's supper is ready, the great iron spit on which the beef has been roasted, is brought into the hut, and the point is stuck into the ground. The Gaucho then offers his guest the skeleton of a horse's head, and he and several of the family on similar seats, sit round the spit, from which with their long knives, they cut very large mouthfuls. The hut is lighted by a feeble lamp made of bullock's tallow, and it is warmed by a fire of charcoal. On the walls of the hut are hung upon bones two or three bridles and spurs, and several lasos and balls. On the ground are several dark looking heaps, which one can never clearly distinguish; on sitting down upon these when tired, I have often heard a child scream underneath me, and have occasionally been mildly asked by a young woman what I wanted. At other times up has jumped an immense dog. While I was once warming my hands at the fire of charcoal, seated on a horse's head, looking at the black roof in a reverie, and fancying I was quite by myself, I felt something touch me, and saw two naked black children leaning over the charcoal in the attitude of two toads; they had crept out from under some of the ponchos; and |