While the foregoing pages were in the press, a letter was received by Mr William Hodgson, from Captain A. Robson, from which I have been allowed to publish the following extract, which substantiates the opinion I have repeatedly expressed, of the great value of the mines at St Pedro Nolasco, and the severe loss which the association has incurred in this district, by Captain Head's conduct. It may be remarked, that both the writer of the letter and his correspondent are perfectly disinterested, neither of them being connected, directly or indirectly, with the Rio de la Plata Mining Association.

Santiago de Chili, Feb. 8th, 1827.—I have lately been, with Mr Humphrey Bunster, to his mines of St Pedro Nolasco; Mr Bunster has got out ores, that will give him upwards of 400,000 dollars.'— Lieutenant Grosvenor Bunster's Observations on Captain F. B. Head's Reports relative to the Failure of the Rio de la Plata Mining Associa tion, p. 146.

To be sure, if any man ever dreamt of working to a profit, the Mines of Peru, with day-labourers sent out from Cornwall or South Wales, at 9 or 10 shillings a-day, when the natives are thankful for 2, and will take 1, he has himself only to blame for his disappointment. Our author's friend has, like a man of common sense, employed only natives, who know the country, are inured to the climate, and yet can follow a master's directions as well, perhaps better, than an Englishman; and, at all events, much better than an Englishman can accommodate himself to the new circumstances of his situation, after he has been exported to the Andes. If labour be cheap, so are the cattle wanted in such works; the ordinary priced Mules selling for two, the best for six pounds. That there are rich Mines, which the Spaniards never had skill to exhaust, cannot be denied; for it is known, that with wretched machinery, the Mint coinage of Chili alone was between L.4 and 500,000 sterling; though the dislocation of capital consequent upon the revolution, had reduced it to between a fifth and a sixth of that sum in 1824. There is surely nothing more wanting to prove that those speculations afforded a very fair and rational opening to the employment of capital, and must have yielded a large profit, had they been set about deliberately, pursued with judgment, and persevered in with steadiness and patience.

Our author has not landed many hours at Buenos Ayres, before he finds proofs of that cordial and unaffected hospitality, which so eminently distinguishes the natives of every part of South America. He did not, however, stop longer than to make the necessary arrangements for his journey; and while so engaged, he found that the knowledge of our Mining mania had reached America before him, so that all the speculators there were busily occupied in buying up Mining property, with a view to make our joint-stock-companies pay sufficiently dear

for their adventures;-a notable illustration of the natural consequences of trade being carried on by members of public meetings, the dupes of newspaper puffing. The reader may desire to see in what manner Captain Andrews crossed the Pampas.

April 16th, everything being ready for my departure, I started for Cordova across the Pampas. My company consisted of a gentleman, an hijo del paiz of that city, and Mr Menoyo, my assistant upon the business upon which I went out. Our vehicle was well calculated to bear the concussions from stony roads, and pantanos, but in appearance old fashioned enough to exhibit as a curiosity of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. An additional horse was saddled occasionally, and we pursued our journey with five, each having a peon, at a most rapid rate. I calculated our progress at ten miles an hour. An immense body of baggage was stowed away both before and behind the body of the carriage, which was suspended upon straps of hides. Underneath was hung a hide apron, carrying four four-dozen cases of the Cordovese's wine, and a quantity of viands, sweetmeats, and other useful articles; in short, it was a cellaret and larder combined.

The inside of the foregoing carriage was cushioned, and crowded with pockets of all shapes and sizes, to receive guns, pistols, swords, books, and other items belonging to the traveller, while writing desks, baskets, and even trunks, bespoke the internal capacity of this waggon-loaded machine, to be equal to its external, and it had been made fully as useful.'

6

The account which he gives of the society and politics of Cordova, the place where he first stops, is exceedingly interesting. The partisans of the old system are, as might be expected, constantly on the watch to foment insurrection; and they are faithfully assisted by their fast allies, the priests, who take every means, by intrigues, threats, and anathemas, to improve any opportunity that presents itself into a handle, for restoring, what our author well terms, their old wealth without service, and ' uncontrolled power without responsibility.'-I. p. 62. It must give comfort to all friends of humanity and of true religion, to find such signs of that priesthood's approaching downfall, as the following account of a poor bishop's treatment contains. It must be observed, too, that Cordova is noted for having retained far more respect towards the church than any other place in that country.

'It was impossible not to remark the want of personal attention observable on the occasion of the Bishop of La Paz passing through the city on his route from Upper Peru, whence he had been driven to embark at Buenos Ayres for Old Spain. If it were reasonable to feel regret for the decay of any church, the object of which was its own temporal ambition and emoluments, and the oppression, and superstitious misleading of its people, it must have been felt here. The doctors, canons, and friars, more especially the Franciscans, to which or

der the prelate belonged, swelled his train, and did their best to inspire respect. Every effort of the expiring influence of the church was exerted. A grand Bishop's Mass was celebrated, with all the pomp, parade, and circumstance of the Romish ritual, the impressive grandeur of which was overawing to the senses; but the people were far more intent on examining the person of this mean-looking little ecclesiastic, during the ceremony of mitring and robing, than on any act of devotion. It had been so long since a service of this nature had been performed at Cordova, that the master of the ceremonies had become rusty from disuse. He was several times at fault in attiring the bishop, at which the latter was evidently embarrassed. At the close of mass, he hurried from the edifice, as if mortified with receiving no other show of deference, than a sly glance or two of adoration from an old Beatifica, and the beggarly implorings of some palsied kneeling Incurables. He was followed across the Plaza, by a few boys, yelping "El Obispo! El Obispo!" a degradation which the prelate should have been spared, by the provision of a carriage.'

But the poor bishop was doomed to undergo worse marks of disrespect; for having sent to a scrivener's to exchange fifty ounces of gold, that worthy enfrancisado put him off from day to day, pretending not to have collected the small coins, and, at last, being obliged to depart without either his gold or his change, when he sent a servant to beg a part of it, the knave returned him for answer a profane application of a text in Scripture; nor was his conduct at all reprobated; on the contrary, he was extolled for having tricked a Godo, a Loyalist.

After a stay of two months at Cordova, as Upper Peru was wholly cleared of the Royalist troops, by the defeat and death of Olancta, our author set out for that province. In the course of this journey, the plague of locusts' came across him in very formidable array.

On the 26th we breakfasted upon goat's milk, and started early in the morning. After a few leagues were passed, we got into a fertile country, though now barren. This seeming contradiction is explained by my stating that a flight of locusts had laid it waste. I had never before witnessed such a sight. Of all the plagues of Egypt, I now think that of locusts must have been the most horrible. This pest, which we had previously seen before us like a dense cloud upon the horizon, became, upon our arrival in contact with it, a serious impediment to our progress. The locusts struck the faces of our horses and peons with such force and in such numbers, that they could scarcely grope their way along. Every bush was alive with them, and in an instant looked dried up and dead from their devastations. Their appearance, three or four feet above the ground, resembled corn under the action of the wind, when glowing in a meridian sun, or the undulating vapour of the mirage, or the prismatic waving of a summer's sea. Our landlord had told us in the morning that a flight of locusts had passed by without visiting him, forgetting that his ground afforded nothing for them to settle upon, but rocks, and the prickly pear,

and torch thistle, upon which these giant grasshoppers showed no incli nation to impale themselves, not even for a collector of natural history, or the miller's amateur friends in that line of study!

• What an awful visitation to the country over which they pass, is the flight of these insects; before whose baleful influence

"The full-blown spring

Through all her foliage shrinks,

Joyless and dead, a wide dejected waste!"

A scene in the morning rich in verdure, and bursting into blossoms, is at night a dreary, profitless, hideous waste.

On the next morning not a green blade nor a leaf meets the eye, where yesterday nature revelled in luxuriance of beauty. Happy is England which this scourge never visits! It cost us full three hours to get clear of these marauders. We calculated that they must have extended fully twelve miles from north to south; how far in the lateral direction, "quien sabe!" as our capitaz said. We came to a patch of sterile, hilly country again, and there we parted from the insects, who seemed passing to the westward, preferring the valley. Never had I before seen, and Ï hope I never shall again see, such a district of utter desolation as we passed this day, during which we travelled sixteen leagues.'

A journey of nine days brought him to Santiago del-Estero, a distance of 115 leagues. The same kindness and hospitality awaited him here as everywhere else; but the city is reduced from its former grandeur, to a state of poverty and comparative depopulation. Its inhabitants are described as sunk in gross ignorance; and the priests are roundly charged with having sedulously kept them uninformed, and helped the other old Spaniards to introduce among them all the worst vices of Europe, without any of its refinement. Though our author treats this subject in a somewhat declamatory tone, we take for granted, from his manner of expressing himself in the following passage, that he has in his recollection facts, the details of which would justify the warmth he shows. He has just been reprehending the indecency of the dances encouraged and countenanced by the old Spaniards and their priests'—and which he witnessed with disgust.

All that could pander to their own sensual appetites in the aboriginal manners, they suffered the natives to retain, and where the glimmering light of nature had infused a consciousness of right and wrong-a conduct open and candid, they laboured to obliterate every trace of the manly virtues by enveloping the mind in the net of hideous superstition. It is impossible to reflect without horror on the cold, calculating vices of the Spanish clergy in the new world. Had hell let loose her worst fiends upon society, they could not have proceeded more deliberately to eradicate from the human soul every relic of that kindly and virtuous feeling, of which the most untutored have some share by nature. The conduct of the Spaniards in America, from the beginning, was a tissue of vice and cruelty, the details of which would be incredible, were there not too many damning evidences of the truth left, to blot the name of their country

with infamy. Let those who wish to be masters of the subject, read the "Noticias Secretas," &c. of Ulloa, and see if language has epithets of disgrace too strong for these demons. I observed much, and heard more, respecting manners with which my pen must not stain the paper-manners which they formed.'

Upon his arrival at Tucuman, Captain Andrews entered into a negotiation with the executive on behalf of the Company, his employers, and the terms of the treaty became immediately the subject of discussion in the Assembly. It was supported by the liberal or Government party, and opposed by the personal antagonists of the Governor, aided, of course, by the priests, partly because it was a Government measure, and therefore to be opposed by all true Ultras and Apostolicals, partly upon the avowed ground of preventing any foreigners, and especially the English, from holding any beneficial intercourse with the country. The debates which our author was permitted to attend, in order to explain any difficulties that occurred, are described as extremely well conducted,―animated, and extemporaneous, yet managed with great decorum and regularity. Our Royalist or Loyalist party (as the friends of antiquated abuse and despotic power have the assurance to call themselves, they being all the while the worst enemies of the Crown, and their adversaries its best friends) will be interested in seeing how faithfully their opinions are reflected in the Ultra-Oppositionists of the new world. It is not stated whether the venerable old gentleman described in this passage was one who had formerly been in office; but if he had grown grey in power, and been, in an unlucky moment, deprived of it, he could not have more accurately played the part of his fellow-sufferers among ourselves.

During these sittings an old Jesuit, said to be the only one left in the country, came to the Chamber of Representatives, and falling on his knees, beseeched the members most fervently, that if they valued their property, their wives and daughters, or had any respect for their holy religion, they would put a stop to all innovations, and prevent the admission of the English heretics. He added, that under the pretence of mining, they would play the same game in America which they had played in India, and subjugate the whole country. The chamber, on the other hand, in despite of the supporters of the wisdom of their ancestors, and the ecclesiastics, upheld the question on the proper basis and on the sound moral consideration, that the sooner the English settled among them, the earlier the body politic would be benefitted by their industrious habits and wholesome example.' It however became necessary to compromise matters, by withdrawing the more objectionable articles.'

It is a further affliction to the good old Jesuit, that he meets with no sympathy out of doors, any more than his suffering