"The government of Buenos Ayres, as the authorities charged with the general interests of the Republic, from their general intercourse with the people of other countries, ought to be fully able to appreciate the immense benefits which steam-navigation has produced elsewhere, and how greatly it has tended to promote prosperity and civilization of other nations. It is in their power to extend those blessings to their own countrymen in the heart of the South American continent, and to produce a really United Confederation of the Provinces, instead of that which is now little more than nominal, from the vast distance which intervene, and operate as a bar to almost any intercourse between them. With the establishment of steam navigation, distance will cease to be distance, and the upper provinces will find a cheap and ready vent for an abundance of productions which are now not worth the heavy expenses of sending down by land-carriage to Buenos Ayres."

We do not, however, regard with such sanguine hopes, at least as to early accomplishment, the results contemplated by Sir Woodbine Parish, as he appears to do. First of all, the immense territories in question are but thinly peopled; not more than a million, it is believed, inhabiting the united provinces. But secondly, the stock is bad constitutionally as well as owing to the vitious effects of what was Spain's colonial usual rule, and the present inability of the people to govern themselves. Were a few hundred thousands of the British or of the citizens of the United States of America to colonize Patagonia, the banks of the Colerado, the Negro, &c., steamers would not only be sure to plough in every direction these stately and far-rolling rivers, but marvellous would be the addition to the products which at present call for the facilities of water-carriage; and till some such enterprising population be scattered over such almost measureless tracts of land, and till whatever is Spanish be superseded, we cannot confidently hope to see a gratifying change in either one way or another rapidly realized. We proceed to introduce a few notices of some of the aboriginal tribes which roam the regions spoken of. Concerning the Puelches Sir Woodbine thus writes :

"Nothing could exceed the laziness and brutality, in general, of the men, who, looking upon the women as inferior beings, treated them as the most abject slaves. Not only were they obliged to attend to all the ordinary duties of a family, but upon them, also, devolved the care of their husbands' horses, and even the tending of the sheep and cattle. Polygamy was permitted, and, according to his means, it appeared that a man kept more or less wives; which, so far from causing jealousy, seemed generally a source of satisfaction to the ladies themselves, inasmuch as it led to the lightening by subdivision of their domestic labours. Unless engaged in some predatory excursion, or hunting deer and guanacoes, and other smaller animals, for their skins, the men seemed to pass their whole time in sleeping, drinking, and gambling, the habitual vices of all the tribes :-they are passionately fond of cards, which they obtain from the Spaniards, and will play for ever at dice, which they make

themselves ingeniously enough; and, like gamesters in other parts of the world, will stake their all upon a throw, reckless of reducing their families to utter destitution. In each toldo, or tent, which is made of hides stretched upon canes, and easily removable from one place to another, five or six families, barely separated from each other, perhaps twenty or thirty persons in all, were closely huddled together in the most horrible state of filth imaginable; indeed, in many respects, they were but little removed in their habits from the brute creation. If fuel was scarce, as was often the case in the pampas, they cared not to cook their meat, but ate it raw, and always drank the warm blood of every animal they killed : -like beasts of prey, there was no part, even to the contents of the stomach and intestines, which they will not greedily devour. They were superstitious in the extreme, and the credulous dupes and tools of a few artful men, who are to be found in every tribe, and in reality direct all its concerns by pretending to foretell the future, and to divine the cause of every evil. They are called machis, or wizards, and there is no tribe without them, and which does not implicitly submit to their decisions and advice. Their word is law, and the cacique even, equally with the rest, submits to it."

Of the Huilliches, with whom, as well as with other tribes, Buenos Ayrean commissioners, after their declaration of independance, wished to enter into some amicable arrangements, we are told

"This tribe presented even a more martial appearance than the others, and Colonel Garcia, describing them, says, no regiment of cavalry could have made a more regular or better figure than these strikingly fine men. They were naked from the waist upwards, and wore a sort of helmet surmounted by feathers (a distinguished feature in the dress of this tribe), which added to their extraordinary stature. Their Cacique Llampilco, or the black, was upwards of seven feet high, and many others were equal to him, and even taller. Most of them were armed with very long lances, and, like the pampas tribes, had their faces bedaubed with red and black paint; but their language was different, and Garcia says, identical with that of the people from the southern part of Patagonia, from whom he imagines them to have sprung, and to the old accounts of whose height he refers. He speaks of them as a superior and finer race of men in every respect than the others; admirable horsemen, and brave in war, without the cruelty of the pampas tribes, sparing their prisoners, and treating strangers with kindness and hospitality. They had come from the lands south of the Ventana, about the rivers Colorado and Negro, where they had located themselves, according to their own account, to avoid collision with the Spaniards, with whom they professed their great desire to establish a solid peace. They spoke with contempt and detestation of the marauding habits of the pampas tribes and of the Ranqueles, and offered at any time to assist in chastising them. This party consisted of 420 fighting men, They conducted themselves very differently from the others, and with great propriety, receiving thankfully what was given to them."

We conclude with some particulars in which Naturalists will take an especial interest. Sir Woodbine says :

"I regret that I lost, during my residence at Buenos Ayres, the opportunity of making what too late I learnt would have been very acceptable additions to our zoological collections; but I never imagined that our public museums were so entirely destitute, as I found them upon my return, of specimens of the commonest objects of natural history, from a country with which we had been so many years in, I may say, almost daily intercourse. Mr. Darwin, and the officers of his majesty's ship Beagle, have since done much to supply these deficiencies; but we still want, I believe, specimens of by far the greater part of the birds and beasts of which Azara gave us the description nearly forty years ago. The collections of some of the museums on the contineut are, I believe, much more complete; especially those of Paris, to judge from the accounts of the acquisitions made by M. Alcide d'Orbigny, the fruits of many years spent in those countries, to which he was sent in 1826, expressly, I believe, to collect information and specimens for the Museum of Natural History. Instigated first by Dr. Buckland, I made those inquiries for fossil remains, the results of which I flatter myself have been of no common interest both to the geologist and comparative anatomist. The examination of the monstrous bones which I sent to this country, by the learned individuals who have taken the pains to describe them, assists us to unravel the fabulous traditions handed down by the aborigines respecting a race of Titans, whilst it proves indisputably that the vast alluvial plains in that part of the world, at some former period, the further history of which has not been revealed to us, were inhabited by herbivorous animals of most extraordinary dimensions, and of forms greatly differing from those of the genera now in existence. To the account of the megatherium, and other extinct animals, I am now enabled, by a delay which has unavoidably occurred in the publication of this volume, to insert the representation of another extinct monster, the glyptodon, which has been very recent discovered at no great distance from the city of Buenos Ayres, apparently in a very perfect state, and which I trust ere long will be in England."

ART. VI.-The History of the Navy of the United States of America. By J. F. COOPER, Esq. 2 Vols., 8vo. London: Bentley.

IN common with several of our fellow journalists, we have found less of partiality in these volumes than, judging from the author's strong prejudices, especially against England, so often and ridiculously evinced in his former works, we expected. But even here he is by no means free from the indulgence of his besetting sins of pique and nationality, though not so observable in what he really does say of the British or the American navy separately, as when the two sides are compared-the disproportion of particulars and the warmth of style being then seen to be remarkable. The very obvious effort to stand clear of the charge of unfairness proves to us that his mind

is not sufficiently calm upon a subject, much of its special interest belonging to recent events, and to a service in which Mr. Cooper himself has been bred, to do it perfect justice. The very fact of the work first making its appearance in England, or at least issuing from the house of a London publisher, looks as if the author would defy any one in this country to impugn him of unfairness. Still the fact indicates that he has felt strongly about an anticipated danger and allegation, so as to convince us that it was impossible for him to guide his researches and the powers of his pen with a uniform share of deliberation, amplitude, and candour, whatever might be the ship, the nation, and the events that have engaged him. His strivings to find satisfactory reasons for the disasters in the history of his own country's naval engagements, and, on the other hand, to leave the case of similar facts when Great Britain is concerned, in the shape of dry and bare announcements, cannot escape the notice of the acute and impartial reader. He is very ready to account for the fate of the Chesapeake, for example, by attributing it to the inferior composition of the crew. But the fact is, that America never having waged a long protracted maritime war, and during her struggles with this country never having fleets deserving the name of mighty naval armaments, and never having taken part in a great pitched battle between large forces in the style of a general action, was enabled to pick her men, in the selection of whom for the service she has ever been most scrupulous, the crews being what are called crack, and the pay high; whereas England had an immense marine, had been at war for many years with the most formidable foes, and necessarily had among her sailors the refuse of society, and always many inefficient and unwilling hands, such as landsmen, and the impressed, as well as the sweepings of the prisons. Another most important fact is overlooked by Mr. Cooper, so far as we have been able to discover, viz., that many British seamen were attracted by the higher wages to the American navy; and, as has often been stated, fought most desperately against the country to which they avowed allegiance, for it was with halters round their necks. Besides, the Americans have been and are still essentially British in blood, prowess, and daring; and, in all their achievements at sea, the nationality of our own country will find matter to gratify pride and to throw as a challenge to the world.

Nothing could be more vain and unjust than to strive to disparage the exploits of the marine of America, or to deny that it has evinced the highest qualities that have distinguished the nation from which the people of the United States have mainly sprung. But, as already intimated, these exploits have been confined to incidental engagements, with hardly an exception, and to contests between single ships; ships, too, for the most part, in so far as Britain has been concerned, not properly matched either as re

spected construction and size, or the composition of the crews. Captain-Marryat, in his late work on America, has said, speaking of the ratings of their ships, that these ratings will much mislead people as to their real strength. The seventy-fours and the eighties he declares," are, in weight of broadside equal to most three-decked ships; the first class frigates are double-banked of the scantling, and carrying the compliment of men of our seventyfours. The sloops are equally powerful in proportion to their ratings, most of them carrying long guns. Although flush vessels, they are little inferior to a thirty-six-gun frigate scantling, and are much too powerful for any that we have in our service under the same denomination of rating." He also intimates that the American style of marine architecture is superior to ours, merchant vessels being built in this country so as to evade, as far as can be done, the tonnage duties, while the model and construction of the ships in our navy, for other assigned reasons, do not equal those of our rivals..

But it is time that we come to some of Mr. Cooper's details, which, whatever may be thought of his leanings, exhibit, as far as regards the manner of the narrative, his extraordinary vigour and perspicuity. All the world knows that he is the Scott in the treatment of nautical adventure and incidents; nor do we think that in any of his novels, having the ocean for their field, has he ever disdisplayed higher powers and qualities in the way of lifelike repre

sentation.

The first part of Mr. Cooper's narrative belongs to the period when the Americans were the colonists of Great Britain. And throughout this portion of the work, the graphic pen of the earnest author is particularly visible, there being less of those details that have no historical importance, or that divert the mind from the main points of development, often to be met with in the succeeding divisions, and which detract from the philosophy of the performance, consisting, as many long descriptions do, merely of personal adventures, stirring and strange, no doubt in themselves, but in no way advancing the spirit or light of national history.

The passages now to be extracted by us will support and illustrate some of our preliminary observations-our purpose being rather to accomplish this end, and to afford characteristic specimens of the writer's manner, than to attempt any connected view of the rise and progress of the navy of America. Here is a notice of the first decked vessel built in the United States, of which any account has been found by Mr. Cooper, with some other notices. He says, it was constructed by

"Schipper Adrian Block, on the banks of the Hudson, and probably within the present limits of New York, during the summer of 1614. This