In cases of sickness, these shepherds apply to a Christianized Indian man or woman, to one of themselves, or to any casual passenger; and they very scrupulously observe the prescription, which is usually either a drug or a plaster, as chance may direct. The furniture of their miserable cabins is generally limited to a water cask, a drinking horn, wooden skewers, and a small kettle, in which they may boil water, or infuse the Paraguay herb. Some of them have a pot, one or two chairs, or a bench, and even a rude bed: but most of them sleep on a cow's hide stretched out on the ground; and they sit either on their heels or on the skull of a horse or cow. They subsist entirely on the roasted flesh of cows: but, as they eat only particular portions of the carcase, the rest is allowed to putrefy about their doors, and to generate the most of fensive stench, and myriads of noisome insects. They are, nevertheless, a very robust and healthy race of men; independent; phlegmatick; insensible, on many occasions, to pain, and the approach of death; little susceptible of friendship; careless of promises and engagements; and addicted to petty thefts, but very hospitable to strangers.

Besides the shepherds, these plains are inhabited by many roaming freebooters, who will submit to no species of occupation but that of thieving, and who even carry off women to their retreats. "They drag them away into the recesses of the desert woods, where they construct for them a small hut, like those of the Charruas, and feed them with the flesh of the wild cattle in the neigh bourhood. When their scanty wardrobe is literally worn out, or when, they are urged by any other personal want, the man issues forth by himself, pilfers horses from the Spanish pastures, and sells them in Brazil, in exchange for the articles that are wanted." The author occasionally encountered some of these marau

ders, and the women whom they had carried off; particularly a young and beautiful Spanish girl, who had passed ten years of her life in their society, and quitted it with much regret.

Reflections on the political and statistical information which is contained in these pages might lead us into a wide and varied field of dis cussion. Suffice it to remark, as we proceed, that the laity have been more successful than the clergy in forming settlements; that the igno rance and selfishness of the subordi-" nate agents have often frustrated the wise and humane intentions of the Spanish government; and that, in those districts in which domestick slavery takes place, it is exercised with a degree of moderation and gentleness that is unknown to more enlightened regions. The general impression, which the author's ob servations leave on our minds, is unfavourable to any considerable extension of commerce and the arts in the provinces of Spanish America, until a new system of publick management, founded on liberal views of policy, and calculated to rouse and maintain the energy and activity of all classes of the population, shall be permanently established.

Don Haenke, who seems to have explored some tracts of this im mense territory with the eye of an intelligent chymist and naturalist, adverts to several articles of native produce, which may eventually contribute to the promotion of manufactures and trade. Such are, in the mineral department, three different modifications of alum, the sulfates of iron, magnesia, and soda, pure nitre, soda, verdegris, and orpiment, all of which he has observed to occur in great abundance. The neighbourhood of the Andes appears to be peculiarly adapted to the manu facture of white glass, since it furnishes at once inexhaustible supplies of timber for fuel, and all the requi site ingredients of the composition

in the greatest abundance and perfection. This gentleman next indicates three sources of wealth that are derivable from the animal. king dom; namely, the dung of the glama, guanaco, &c. from which excellent sal ammoniack may be prepared; the woolbearing quadrupeds, as the sheep, vicugna, alpaca, &c; and cochineal; on each of which topicks he descants with zeal, duly tempered by judgment. In the course of his observations, he thus celebrates the medical virtues of the muriate of ammonia:

"All the preparations of sal ammoniack [muriate of ammonia] are in very general use, but especially the famous Eau de Luce, as the genuine specifick against the bites of vipers and rattle snakes. The different plants which are vaunted in America, as powerful antidotes to these bites, such as the aristolocia, anguicida, bejuco, guaco, &c. probably owe their virtue to their greater or less quantity of ammonia, which is indicated by their dis

agreeable odour. A circumstance has lately occurred among the Yungas of the town of la Paz, which proves in a convincing manner, the power and efficacy of this remedy. An Indian, who was bitten by a rattle snake, was perfectly cured in a few days, by the external and internal use of volatile alkali alone, although he lay at the point of death, and betrayed the most dreadful symptoms. In no country in the world are people more exposed to the bite of these venomous animals than in the hottest part of America: but, at the same time, I believe, no place more abounds in the materials for proper remedies. Here thousands of quintals of the substances best suited to the manufacture of sal ammoniack, and its numerous prepara. tions, may be easily collected.

"On this occasion, I should invite the attention of physicians to the cure of hydrophobia; a disease which is very com mon in Europe, but hitherto unknown in America. It is notorious, that, when once the unequivocal symptoms of this dreadful malady have manifested themselves, all the famous medicines which have been ecommended for its cure, as atropa bella donna, meloe proscarabæus, mercury, &c, have been found deceptive and useless. If, as is supposed to be the case in vipe. rine poison, that of the mad dog, which is communicated to the blood by the bite,

be of an acid nature, no remedy can be more efficacious, nor exert a more direct action in the destruction of this poison the animal acid; but, hitherto, I believe, than ammonia, which would neutralize the experiment has not been made.”

The case of the Indian here reported, perfectly accords with some of those which were stated by Mr. Williams, in the second volume of the Asiatick Researches, and in which the exhibition of the caustick volatile alkali is mentioned to have cured the bite of the cobra di capello. It is reasonable, therefore, to infer, that the ammoniacal principle is hostile to serpentine poison: but that the latter is an acid is by no means proved. Fontana, on the contrary, was led to conclude that it is neither an acid nor an alkali. In following up the suggestions, however, which we have just quoted, it might be of some consequence to institute an accurate, comparative analysis between the serpentine virus, and the saliva of dogs that are affected by hydrophobia.

M. Haenke lends his favourable

were

testimony to the medical virtues of agave vivipara and begonia anemoïdes, and thus corroborates the result of the trials which sometime ago made in the publick hospital of Madrid, with regard to the efficacy of these plants, or of some of their congeners, in the removal of venereal complaints. He has also found the quinquina in many districts in which it was not formerly known to exist; and he particular izes various vegetable dies, some of which might be made the objects of culture in the warmer countries of Europe.

The second and third volumes of this publication contain M. Sonnini's translation of M. de Azara's account of the birds of Paraguay and La Plata. As the species described amount to four hundred and fortyeight, and the descriptions are accompanied by the requisite marginal annotations, we cannot presume to

attend on the observant traveller and his commentator through this interesting series of their labours, nor to do justice to their respective deserts. The circumstances of dimension, form, and colouring, are usually recorded with much apparent precision, and are occasionally enlivened with pleasing notices of the habits and dispositions of the different families which pass in review. These memoranda are the more precious, because they contain much new and authentick information on the ornithology of South America; a subject which is still far from being exhausted.

In this quarter of the world, the predacious tribes appear to be more varied and numerous than in the old continent, and, at the same time, less fierce in their dispositions; some of them being even susceptible of gentle and domestick habits.

"I had occasion to observe," says Don Felix, "during more than a year, an Iribu

which was fed in the house. He was extremely gentle, would recognise his master, and accompany him on a journey of eight or ten leagues, flying above him, and sometimes resting on the carriage. He always approached the person who called him by name, and never fed in common with those of his own species, taking only what was offered from the hand; provided, also, that it was cut into small pieces, for otherwise he would not taste it. Another Iribu, equally tame, would accompany his master in journeys of upwards of a hundred leagues, and as far as Monte Video; remaining and sleeping on the outside of the carriage: but, when he perceived that the carriage was directed homewards, he hastened to anticipate its arrival, and thus announced to his mistress the return of her husband."

Among the many non-descripts with which this Spanish traveller has regaled us, the little cock and the young widow are particularly deserving of attention. The manners of the latter are thus described:

"This bird, which at Buenos Ayres is called Cotorra, is, by some of the people of Paraguay, denominated young widow, on

account of the coif in which its forehead

and neck are enveloped. It is almost the only maracana which breeds in confinetaught to speak, and pronounces the words ment. It is by no means delicate, is easily with great distinctness. I never saw a more coquettish bird. From the moment that a young widow enters a house, if she finds not a companion of her own species, she seeks for one of another, and practises all her arts to win his affections, lavishing caresses and flirtation, kissing, scratching, and unceasingly tantalizing by her tender accents, her sighs, and her movements; until, at the end of a fortnight, the love lorn swain loses his heart's blood, and expires. The young widow seems not to be afflicted by a death of which she is the cause; for she never listens to the violent passion which she has excited: but if the male and female of this species be reared together, their amours are not so unproductive.

flocks in Paraguay, and even in the Pam"These birds congregate in numerous pas of Buenos Ayres. They do not make their nest in holes, but construct it in trees, with a great quantity of thorny branches, the whole forming a sphere, bristling with prickles, and measuring three feet and a half in external diameter, with the entrance on the side, and the interiour furnished with green herbs. They lay three or four eggs; and the young perfectly resemble their father and mother, which are, in all respects, similar to each other in appearance. The whole nestle in contiguous trees, and sometimes on the same, so that their nests touch one another; and it is even asserted that the same nest suffices for the produce of several females. Like the Neuduys, they search for flooded places, where they may drink. They haunt plantations and fields, and walk better than their congeners, being often assisted by their bill. They become very familiar, are fond of being caressed, and are better calculated than any other parrot to please their master."

In another place, the young widow.

again consoles us for the misfortune of our hoary locks, because, really, least ambitious of being jilted to, in plain English, we are not in the death. "They gave me a macarana of this species [Pavouane parrot] which spoke very distinctly, but would not allow himself to be touched, scratched, or caressed. He had the free range of my house, in which

move and run on the ground, like partridges, but probably because the boys in Cayenne, as in Paraguay, may be accustomed to give the name of partridge to every bird of which the plumage has a painted appearance. According to Manoncour, these birds live in bands, or troops; whereas they are always found solitary, or in pairs. He alleges that their tongue is furnished towards the point with small cartilaginous and fleshy filaments; while, on the contrary, its conformation is such as I have just described. He gives them a tail and wings so short as to be of little service in supporting and regulating their flight in the open air: but we must remark that, if the bataras of this traveller have a short tail, he must either have clipped it with scissors, or plucked it out, and put another in its place. His observation that the claw of the hind toe, in these anteaters, is longer and more arched than the fore claws, must appear ridiculous in the eyes of any person who is in the least accustomed to examine the feet of birds, because it is an almost general character.

He assures us that his ant-eaters shun in.

habited places; that they live in deep and remote forests, and, that, except the principal species, which are few in number, it is rare to find, among any of the others, two individuals perfectly alike; a circum stance which he ascribes to the facility with which the small species intermingle, and produce cross breeds. All this is false: the bataras generally haunt enclosures and bushes, either near to or remote from houses in the country, and never penetrate into extensive woods; and they constitute true species, whose colours, forms, and dimensions, are constant, and perfectly distinct. Sonnini alleges that the ant-eaters utter a cry, which varies in the different species, though in most of them it is very extraordinary; but these birds have no other cry than that which I have mentioned. He describes one nest for all the species; and thus we may judge of the confidence to which he is entitled. He affirms that the flesh of most of these birds is unfit for eating; that it has an oily and disagreeable taste; and that the digest ed mixture of ants and other insects, which they swallow, exhales a noisome odour, when they are opened. If such were the necessary results of insectivorous habits, they would not be limited to the bataras; since, generally speaking, all the birds of America feed on insects, in preference to any thing else. I never opened bataras, nor have I any desire to eat them; yet I do not believe the assertion of Sonnini de Ma. noncour; and I appeal to posterity, and

to those who have ready access to the Parisian Museum of Natural History, recommending chiefly to their attentive exa mination the alarum thrush, the coraya, and the other ant-eaters, the caica, the arada, and the Cayenne buzzard. I hope that they will perceive the marks of the scissors which have been employed in shortening the tails of these birds, the strokes of the pencil by which their plumage has been disguised, and the traces of the hand which has substituted an extraneous tail, instead of that which was pulled away."

Let us now listen to Sonnini's reply:

"Although Voltaire, who has ridiculed the theory of Button relative to the beds of marine shells which are discovered in the bosom of the highest mountains, acknowleges that the eloquent naturalist had treated him somewhat roughly, yet he professes his unwillingness to quarrel

about shells. I cannot reckon feathers a

more serious cause of altercation; and certainly I am not more disposed to be angry than the poet of Ferney, though M. de Azara, who is no more Voltaire than I am Buffon, has chosen not only to attack but to insult me. I have too much respect for the publick and for myself to reply in the same tone, and to make use of the same weapons; they are unknown to me, but familiar, it should seem, to M. de Azara, who has recourse to them on all occasions, in his eternal invectives against Buffon, consisting in a great measure of pretended discussions in ornithology; discussions which I have suppressed in my translation, because they always proceed on false data, and teach us nothing else than the fretful humour with which the Spanish traveller regarded the French naturalist: but whatever I may and ought to do, in the case of another, is strictly prohibited in my own; and, accordingly have neither altered nor retrenched a single syllable in this article of the bataras.

"I might naturally expect to share in the abuse which was directed at the individual whose labours I had participated; and most certainly I have not been disappointed. If, on the one hand, M. de Azara, in various parts of his work, pushes his discretion so far as not to ac knowledge that his observations confirm my own, he is, on the other hand, solicitous to punish me severely for the esteem with which Buffon honoured me, and for cer