17. RELIGION. The religion is almost universally the Catholic. It was provided however by treaty with England that the English at Rio might erect a church, without a bell, and after the manner of a private dwelling. The constitutional charter confirms the same privilege under some restrictions to all denominations. Though Brazil is a catholic country, there are few convents for nuns, and only two at Rio, one of which has but 21 sisters. The clergy are supported by the government, which formerly made a composition with the court of Rome, and on release of the payment of tythes contracted to give a stipend of 200 dollars to the ecclesiastics. This at present is an insufficient salary, and the clergy would live in poverty, were not many of them skilful cultivators. This may be the reason why so many blacks are in orders. Had the tythes been retained, the clergy would now be the most opulent class. There is one archbishop and 6 bishops, who are paid on the some economical scale, and their best support comes from fees in the ecclesiastical tribunals. The regular clergy are not numerous: the richest order is that of the Benedictines and the ancient Carmelites; the others make vows of poverty. The wealth of the rich orders however is in peril, if not already confiscated to the use of the state. The Benedictines have more than 700 houses in Rio alone, and at their convents so much food and alms are distributed that there is little mendicity in the streets, and a beggar is seldom seen. Besides the regular orders there are brotherhoods of trades-people, and others who hold large funds, to buy masses, found hospitals, and bury the dead. The benefits they confer in charity are immense, and as there are no laws to restrain mortmain, much money is left to them by will.

The observance of the sabbath is exemplary in Brazil, though it has none of the display that is made on the saints' holidays. Public or private devotion is attended to by all classes of people, though the shops are open in the after

noon.

Marriages are contracted at early years, and disparity of ages seems to be no obstacle, as it is not uncommon to see a man of 60 married to a girl of 16. The burials are peculiar : those of infants are celebrated with rejoicing, for, as it is thought that such are translated at once into a blissful life, it is held improper to mourn for them. All funerals are ostentatious, for the Brazilians are as fond as the Chinese of splendid funerals. Rich coffins are let out for hire the body is carried in them to the grave, where it is deposited naked, or wrapped in a cloth. Few relatives attend the interment; and when they do, they often behave with levity. At Rio the bodies of the poor are laid on a platform till enough are collected, when the service is performed over them, and all are thrown into a trench, and for closer stowage, the feet of one is laid by the head of another. Negroes are carted through the streets with scarcely the covering of a mat. People of higher classes are sometimes buried under the pavement of a church, if it can be called burial; the stones are removed, and a small cavity made, often insufficient to hold the body, which is pounded down to a mass, and the stones often replaced over it with some part of the corpse in sight. Anatomical students may take the bodies of slaves and some others without fear of penalty or prejudice. In fact, the people are to a great degree careless of the disposal of their deceased friends, though their bones are sometimes kept as relics. There is a festival in commemoration of the dead generally, in the great church of Francisco de Paula. In a large garden surrounded by cloisters, is an immense number of cases of different shape and size, some no larger than tea chests: all have locks and inscriptions, such as Pray for our brother Thomas;'Here lie the bones of our brother Stephen,' and 'here dry the bones of brother Paulo.' These boxes contain the bones only, the flesh having been consumed in quick lime.

The Brazilians are much inclined to make vows, in danger, and often im

pose on themselves strange penalties. A fisherman in Rio made a vow that if he should escape a present peril, he would marry the first unengaged female he should meet. He performed his vow, though he found a wife little to his taste or advantage. Though this people are less attached than the Spaniards to relics, they yet believe at Rio that they have the descendant of the cock which crowed when Peter denied his Master. Dr. Walsh was favored with a sight of him, and describes him as an ungainly bird of great size, and with a sort of croak in his crowing that was quite monitory.

Among the strange creeds is that of the Sebastianists, who believe that king Sebastian, who lost his army in 1577, at the battle of Alcazar, and who was, they believe, carried away by Providence and concealed in a desert where he is still alive, will reassume the throne of his ancestors. On this subject there are many oracles. There are 2,000 Sebastianists in Brazil, and some of them will enter into bonds to pay, or remit payment of money, if the king should fail to appear by a certain time.

Though the laws are often contradictory, and the forms of proceeding not the best, yet a greater evil is, that the salaries of the judges are insufficient to secure them from the temptation of a bribe, so that the suitor who pays the most, too often has the strongest case. In fact, the judges with a stipend of 300 milreis, spend about 10,000, and bribes are administered without concealment or delicacy. The executions are similar to those in Spain.

18. HISTORY. Brazil was formerly a Portuguese colony-subsequently it was raised to the dignity of a kingdom under the same sovereign with Portugal, and in 1825 it was declared independent of Portugal, and the sovereignty was transferred by the king to his son Don Pedro, who was acknowledged Emperor under the title of Pedro I. Various grievances, real or alleged, proved a source of misunderstanding betwixt the Emperor and his subjects; and on the 7th of April, 1831, Don Pedro abdicated in favor of his son, a child of five years of age; and a regency was nominated by the Brazilians. This regency at present continues to exercise the sovereign authority, but the government is said to be tending rapidly towards a republic.

CHAPTER XLVIII. PERU.

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.

1. BOUNDARIES AND EXTENT. This country is bounded N. by Colombia and Brazil; E. by Brazil and Bolivia; S. by Bolivia and the Pacific Ocean, and W. by the Pacific Ocean. It has an area of 230,000 square miles.

2. MOUNTAINS. The western Andes extend through the country from N. to S. Their highest summit is the cone of Chuquibamba, rising majestically above the valley of that name, to the north of Arequipa, to the height of 22,000 feet. The elevation of the celebrated volcano of Arequipa, called Omati, exceeds 18,000 feet. In the volcanic regions of the Andes, trachyt ic pitch stones, obsidians, and other vitrified products of volcanoes are extremely rare. In the eastern Andes, remains of mining excavations for oriferous earth are found, at an elevation of 16,600 feet on the northern slope of the Kimani. They were wrought by the Peruvians under the Incas, long before the arrival of the Spaniards. The entry of the gallery of San Miguel and of Pomare, in the province of Lampa, is close to the region of eternal

snow.

Besides the immense chains of the Andes, with its accompanying sierras or secondary ridges, there are other ranges of various extent, intersecting the country in different directions.

3. PLAINS. Exclusive of Peru proper, which is merely a narrow stripe, bounded by the Andes and the sea, and also of the various chains of mountains which contain between them broad and extensive valleys, watered by gigantic streams, this country contains immense plains, or pampas, as they are called by the Spanish, extending from Montana Real, as far east as the Portuguese frontier, 600 miles in direct distance, and in some places of equal breadth from S. to N. The Maranon rolls its mighty stream through the centre of this continental steppe. These plains are so abundantly watered that they are every where fertile and clothed with immense and impenetrable forests. The most noted of the plains watered by the Maranon, is called the Steppe of the Holy Sacrament;' a tract not entirely level, containing upwards of 60,000 square miles, and capable of supporting 5,000,000 inhabitants.

4. RIVERS. The streams which flow from the western side of the Andes into the Pacific are small and of little importance. The great river Amazon or Maranon, rises in this country, in a number of head streams among the Andes.

5. CLIMATE. Peru may be said to have four climates; that of the coast, or Low Peru, constantly dry and temperate; that of the sierras, mild, moderately humid, and variable; that of the Andes, piercingly cold; and that of the pampas, warm and excessively humid. The climate of the sierras is the most healthy, perhaps in the world, if we can judge from the longevity of its inhabitants. In the province of Caxamarca, containing 70,000 persons, there were eight persons alive in 1792, whose respective ages were 114, 117, 121, 131, 132, 135, 141, and 147 years; and in the same province a Spaniard died in 1765, aged 144 years, 7 months, and 5 days, leaving 800 lineal descendThe plain of Caxamarca is elevated 9,382 feet above the level of the sea, and produces crops of barley; but the climate of the pampas is far from being healthy. The warmth and extreme humidity render them almost uninhabitable, and even the few Indian tribes on the rivers rarely see a man of the age of fifty.

ants.

6. SOIL. Except in the uplands, there is little fertile soil in this country, and from the almost total sterility of the coast, and difficulty of communication with the interior, agriculture is, generally speaking, in a wretched state. 7. NATURAL PRODUCTIONS. Cotton is found in great abundance, in a wild state, in the Montana Real, on the Guallaga, and on the banks of the Mara

non.

Flax is common, but the Indians leave the stems to perish, and make a kind of beer of the seeds. In the southern parts, the cacao tree is very abundant. A species of cochineal and coffee, of an indifferent quality, abound in some districts. The Peruvian pimento is excessively strong, and there is some cinnamon stronger than that of Ceylon, though not so valuable. Many herbs, and a great variety of aromatic balsams, oils, and gums distilled from the trees are produced here.

In the description of Peru, Estalla enumerates the cedar, the olive, the wild orange, the incorruptible algorob, the palm, the willow, and many other trees. On the coast and western slopes of the Andes, are produced the cabbage-palm, the cocoa-nut, the chocolate-nut, the cotton-shrub, the pine-apple, turmeric, plantain and sugar-cane. The large flowered jessamine and datura arborea diffuse their evening fragrance round the vicinity of Lima, and form beautiful ornaments when braided in the hair of the women. No less than twenty-four species of pepper and five or six of capsicum are considered na

tives of Peru. Tobacco and jalap abound in the groves at the foot of the Andes.

Immense forests of acacias and mangoes, brooms and ferns in prodigious variety, tall aloes and other succulent plants, clothe the maritime plains and those on the east of the Andes. The ferula or gigantic fennel grows to a surpri sing size. The chief shrubs on the uplands of the Andes are the different species of cinchonas, or the salutary Peruvian bark The caoutchouc, or common elastic gum, is procured from the inspissated juice of a variety of different vegetables.

They

8. MINERALS. The mountains of Peru abound in metallic wealth. are interspersed with veins of gold, and with veins of silver ore, in which pieces of pure silver, solid copper, and lead ore occur, frequently intermixed with white silver ore, and virgin silver in threads. In many parts are rich veins of gold ore in quartz, and gold is also obtained by washing the mud found in the beds of the rivers. The ores are extremely rich, yielding from 5 to 50 lbs. of silver for every hundred weight of ore. A large number of the silver mines are neglected. This is owing to their being inundated by water, which has gradually gained on them, so as to completely choke them.

The Peruvian gold partly comes from the districts of Pataz and Huailas, where it is extracted from veins of quartz traversing primitive rocks, and partly from lavaderos, or washing grounds, established on the banks of the Alto Maranon, in the district of Chachapoyas. Nearly the whole silver is extracted from the great mines of Lauricocha, (commonly called the mines of Pasco and Cerro de Bombon), Gualgayoc or Chota, and Huantajaya.

The mines of Lauricocha were discovered in 1630, by an Indian shepherd; and though very badly wrought, they annually furnish near 2,500,000 dollars. The mines of Gualgayoc were only discovered in 1771, by an European Spaniard. From 1774 to 1802 they furnished the provincial treasury with an annual income of about 130,000 pounds sterling. The mines of Huantajaya, surrounded with beds of rock-salt, are celebrated for the great masses of native silver which they contain. The value of the annual produce of these mines is from 595,000 to 680,000 dollars. These mines are near the shore, in the district of Arica. In 1758 and 1789, two masses of native silver were found in two of its mines, the one weighing 800 pounds and the other 200 pounds.

Humboldt calculates the mean produce of the gold and silver at 6,000,000 dollars annually. He however adopts 5,300,000 as the mean annual term of registered gold and silver in Peru; a sum which does not amount to one fourth of the mineral produce of Mexico, the annual average of which is 23,000,000 dollars. To this sum of Peruvian gold and silver must be added the fraudulent exportation of the silver, or what is denominated unregistered produce, on which no duty has been paid. This was estimated at 940,000 dollars; making the whole amount of gold and silver, registered and smuggled, 6,240,000 dollars.*

Peru is the only part of Spanish America where mercury is found in considerable abundance; and here it is met with in various districts. The famous mercury mine of Guancavelica is situated in the mountain of Santa Barbara. The bottom of this mine is 13,805 feet above the level of the sea; so that the miners work in a point 1,640 feet higher than the summit of the

✦ The mining district of Puno, on the western borders of the Titicaca lake, seems to have escaped the notice of the indefatigable Humboldt. The mines in this region were once astonishingly productive, and though abandoned since the commencement of the present century, are considered among the most valuable in Peru, and as possessing a combination of advantages rarely to be found in mining speculations. In its geological disposition and metallic minerals, this district presents a great resemblance to the rich mines of Mexico.

peak of Teneriffe. The mercury in the environs of Guancavelica is found in two different forms, in beds and in veins. The great mine is divided into three stories, and it is estimated that 50 quintals of tolerably rich mineral yield, by distillation, from 18 to 12 pounds of mercury. For the last 16 years, the metalliferous bed of the great mine of Santa Barbara has been completely abandoned, owing to the falling in of the uppermost of the three stories of the mine.

The other minerals are numerous. White granite, basalt of a brown color, in beautiful square columns, and rock salt of various colors, are found in several parts of the country. What is denominated the stone of the Incas is found in different parts of the Andes, being a compact marcasite, capable of a high polish.

There are many obstacles to successful mining in Peru. One great obstruction is the ignorance of the miners in the science of amalgamation. Another is the comparative want of capital; the speculator being generally a person in necessitous circumstances, who is obliged to borrow money on very exorbitant interest to enable him to commence his works, and to sell the produce of his mines at a great loss, in order to carry them on. The labor of the mines is chiefly carried on by the Mestizoes and Indians, as they only are able to stand the fatigue and unwholesomeness of the employment.

9. FACE OF THE COUNTRY. Peru is diversified with almost every variety of surface; sandy deserts, mountains and naked rocks, verdant forests, and cultivated fertile plains and valleys.

POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY.

1. DIVISIONS. Peru is now divided into seven intendancies; Lima, Tarma, Arequipa, Cuzco, Guamanga, Truxillo, and Guancavelica.

2. CITIES. Lima, the capital of Peru, situated in the valley of Rimac, was founded by Pizarro in 1534, and by him denominated Los Reyes, or the City of the Kings.' Its situation is pleasant, and, considering the latitude, its temperature is cool. The river which crosses the city is pure and transparent, watering the whole valley. It is four miles long by two broad, and is surrounded by brick walls with ramparts and bastions. The streets are handsome and straight; but the houses, which are built chiefly of wood, are generally only one story high, on account of the frequent earthquakes to which they are exposed. Like all the other Spanish cities, Lima has a great square in the centre, where all the principal streets terminate, and where stands the vice-regal and archiepiscopal palaces, the cathedral, the university, the treasury, the arsenal and the town hall. Trees are planted all round the houses. The churches and convents are extremely rich. In 1810 the population of Lima was estimated at 87,000; of which number above 20,000 were whites.

This city is visited by frequent and tremendous earthquakes, which occasion great destruction to property and life. The last was on the 20th of March 1828, and though only of thirty or forty seconds duration, it destroyed and injured houses and public edifices to the amount of six millions of dollars. About thirty persons perished.

Cuzco may be considered as the inland capital of Peru. It is a very ancient city, and boasts of having recovered its origin from the first of the Incas. Situated amid the Andes, on the skirts of various mountains, it is watered by the little river Guatenay. In size it is nearly equal to Lima, and it has a population of more than 20,000 souls. It has a college; a nunnery on a spot where the virgins of the sun formerly lived; and a large, rich and handsome cathedral. The houses are mostly built of stone, and covered with very red tiles.