Trenton Falls, Picturesque and Descriptive; edited by N. Parker Willis; Embracing the Original Essay of John Sherman, the First Proprietor and Resident. New York: George P. Putnam. 1851. 16mo. pp. 60.

The Girlhood of Shakspeare's Heroines, in a Series of Fifteen Tales; by Mary Cowden Clarke. Tale IV. Desdemona, the Magnifico's Child. Tale V. Meg and Alice, the Merry Maids of Windsor. New York: G. P. Putnam. 1851. 16mo.

The Geology and Industrial Resources of California; by Philip T. Tyson; to which are added the Official Reports of Generals Persifer F. Smith and B. Riley. Baltimore: Wm. Minifie & Co. 1851. 8vo. First Impressions of England and its People. By Hugh Miller, Author of "The Footprints of the Creator," &c. Boston: Gould & Lincoln. 1851. 12mo. PP. 430.

The Course of Creation. By John Anderson, D. D. With a Glossary of Scientific Terms. Cincinnati: W. H. Morse & Co. 1851. 12mo. pp. 384.

A Modern Visit from the Devil. By One in Babylon. Second Edition, with a Postscript. London: E. Wilson. 1849. 8vo. pp. 28. Oxford Unmasked, or an Attempt to describe some of the Abuses in that University. By a Graduate. London: Aylott & Jones. 1850. 8vo. pp. 67.

Self-Education Self-Defeating a Chapter from Social Statics. By Herbert Spencer. London: John Chapman. 1851. 12mo. pp. 24. Report on the Poor and Insane in Rhode Island, made to the General Assembly at its January Session, 1851. By Thomas R. Hazard. Providence Joseph Knowles. 1851. 8vo. pp. 119.

The City of the Silent, a Poem. By W. Gilmore Simms. Delivered at the Consecration of Magnolia Čemetery, November 19, 1850. Charlestown: Walker & James. 1850. 8vo. pp. 54.

The Apology of an Israelite for not becoming a Christian. By a Fellow of the Royal and Antiquarian Societies. Sidmouth: T. Harvey. 1851. 12mo. pp. 12.

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Vandyck, a Play of Genoa. By A. B. Richards. London: Longmans. 1850. 8vo. pp. 128.

Speech of Judge Chambers on the Judicial Tenure, in the Maryland Convention, April, 1851. Baltimore: John Murphy & Co. 1851. 8vo. pp. 41.

Conscience and Law: a Discourse preached in the North Church, Portsmouth, N. H., on Fast Day, April 3, 1851. By Rufus W. Clark, Pastor. Boston; Tappan & Whittemore. 1851. 8vo.

Pp. 25.

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NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW.

No. CLIII.

OCTOBER, 1851.

8.th. Arnold

ART. I.-1. Constitucion de la Republica de Chile. Santiago. 1845.

2. Instruccion para los Subdelegados e Inspectores. Santiago. 1845.

3. Guia Jeneral de la Republica de Chile. Valparaiso.

1847.

CHILE is in many respects the most interesting country in South America. It differs from all its sister republics in numerous and important particulars. The details of its polity, the character of its people, its natural productions, the physical as well as political geography of the country, and its social system, all present decided points of dissimilarity with those of the other Spanish American States. In the majority of instances, these distinctions are in favor of Chile. The government has proved itself the most stable and efficient of all; the people display a degree of enterprise unusual in South America; the country is devoid of venomous reptiles or poisonous insects; while in its social aspect, in the sedate and earnest character of the nation, there is more to remind one of the United States than is found elsewhere on the Southern continent. Comparatively little attention has been paid to the history or geography of this portion of the world, and perhaps even less is known of the details of its social and political system. In this article it will be our object to communicate briefly some information upon these particulars. The author

ities upon which we rely are mainly the official documents above-named, together with personal observations made during a journey in that country.

In the antiquity of its traditionary history Chile yields the palm to Bolivia and Peru. The empire of the Incas was of far earlier date in those countries where it took its rise than in this, which was never but partially subject to it by conquest. From the archives of Cuzco we learn, that in the latter half of the fifteenth century, somewhat prior to the discovery of America, the Inca Ypanqui, the tenth in succession from Manco Caipac the reputed founder of the Empire, invaded Chile, and extended his dominions as far south as the river Rapel. There the determined opposition of the native tribes effectually resisted his further encroachment, and established this stream as the permanent boundary of the empire. The better portion of the country still remained in possession of the warlike aborigines. These retained undisputed supremacy till 1535, when the turbulent and ambitious spirit of Almagro, the earliest associate of Pizarro in the discovery of Peru, produced a feud between the conquerors, and led him to attempt, as a private enterprise, the invasion of Chile. With a handful of troops he accomplished the unexplored and perilous passage of the Andes, and undismayed by the terrors of the frightful desert of Atacama, which lay beyond, he pushed across it to be the first European who had ever trodden the soil of Chile. Again the valor of the Indians defended their territory successfully against the Spaniard, as it had done before against the Inca. After nearly two years of incessant and sanguinary conflict, Almagro was forced to abandon his purpose and return to Peru. He soon after perished on the scaffold, for heading a revolt against the authority of Pizarro. His associates, who, from their celebrated expedition, had acquired the name of "the men of Chile," afterwards avenged his death by the assassination of Pizarro in 1541. Shortly before this event, the conqueror of Peru had taken measures to annex Chile to the already extensive possessions of the Spanish crown in America. Don Pedro de Valdivia, a man illustrious as a statesman and a general, was sent, in 1540, at the head of 150 Spanish troops and a corps of Peruvian auxiliaries, to effect the conquest of Chile. Fighting his way through the heretofore unconquered tribes

who opposed his progress, in February, 1541, he encamped by the river Mapocho, flowing through a vast plain dotted with the huts of 20,000 Indians, and there founded the city of Santiago, the present capital of the republic. From this point he commenced a war which, for its duration, the gallantry of its exploits, and the desperate courage with which it was maintained, has never been surpassed in history. The conquest of the Araucanian Indians was an object which employed the troops and exhausted the means of the Spanish viceroys for 180 years. Through the whole of that long period, with but a single intermission, the conflict presented one continued series of achievements equal to any that made the conquest of Granada immortal in the annals of chivalry, and unrivalled by those which, in recent years, have made the war in Circassia conspicuous in the records of struggling freedom. Valdivia was more fortunate than any of the generals who succeeded him. At the end of twelve years, he had penetrated to the south of Chile, and founded several cities in the enemy's country; among them, the one now called by his name. But the prowess of Lautaro, a young Araucanian warrior, who terminated on the field of battle, at the age of nineteen, a brief but brilliant career, checked the progress of the Spaniards by the defeat and death of their leader. The war continued with varied success, although generally adverse to the Spaniards, till the year 1602, when the Araucanians possessed themselves of all the cities founded by Valdivia, completely reconquered their country, and restored its ancient boundary on the north,- - the river Biobio. After more than a century of further conflict, with but one short interval of peace, this stream, the largest in Chile, was finally admitted by a treaty between the contending parties, in 1722, as the limit of the Spanish dominions in America. So ended the most protracted and sanguinary contest ever waged on the western continent, a contest which has immortalized the name of Araucana and transmitted the same spirit of wild freedom, through the lapse of a century and a quarter, to the untamed tribes still inhabiting the impregnable fastnesses of the southern Cordilleras of Chile. The Araucanians of the present day retain unimpaired the heroic qualities of their ancestors. They are brave and warlike, attached to their country, and jealous of freedom to a degree that makes them reckless of life in its

defence. They are described as generous, prudent, and faithful in their dealings, but superstitious, and addicted to all the vices incident to a savage state. They believe in the immortality of the soul, and, recognize the existence of a Supreme Being, and likewise of several inferior divinities; but have no external forms of worship. They have no common government, but are divided into a great number of independent caciquedoms. As a whole, they are probably the finest race of Indians on the continent.

The treaty of 1722 with the Araucanians secured to the Spanish dominions in America a period of profound peace for nearly ninety years. This tranquillity was broken in 1810 by the first murmurs of revolt, which were soon to extend over the entire continent, and after fourteen years of ruthless and bloody war, to end in the independence of Spanish America. The French invasion of the Spanish peninsula, and the consequent captivity of the royal family, gave the signal of revolution. Its first development was in the form of rebellion against the French government in Spain. The sentiment of loyalty, for which the Spanish race have been illustrious above all other European nations, confined the movement in the first instance to this object. In La Plata, opposition to Napoleon was more exclusively the motive of rebellion than in Chile, so much so, that it was not till after the restored monarch, imprudently failing to reward the loyal spirit of the colonies by granting them some immunities, which under the circumstances should have been accorded, had shown a disposition to strengthen rather than relax the rigor of his government, that, in 1816, La Plata declared her independence of Spain. In Chile, the ultimate purpose was more speedily conceived and more promptly avowed. In July, 1810, the President Carrasco was deposed and another put in his place. Scarcely two months elapsed before this administration was supplanted by a provisional junta, assuming to govern in the name of the captive king, but which soon, transcending its ostensible object, proceeded to sever all connection with the mother country. The new government was unanimously recognized, and continued for several months in the quiet prosecution of its plans. In April, 1811, the first blood was spilt in the cause of Chilean independence. On the day appointed for the election of deputies to the first national