by the author to add poignancy to her own chain of the Cordilleras, and the three giganremarks. We are disposed, however, to make some allowance for the circumstances under which the above was written when we find "Alas! I was scarcely in bed before I discovered that it was a perfect nest of fleas; till this moment I had not been inconvenienced: but now their stings inflamed my blood to fever. Madame Justo said to me with embarrassment, Mademoiselle, I did not dare tell you of what was requisite to diminish the inconvenience; but this evening I will teach it you. She placed four or five chairs in succession so that the last reached the bed. She made me undress on the first chair, I then passed to the second without my chemise, and Madame Justo carried all my clothes out of the room,-advising me to rub myself with a towel to get rid of the fleas sticking to me. I passed from chair to chair to the bed, where I took a clean chemise lavishly sprinkled with Eau de Cologne, and thus obtained two hours' rest; after which I was again assailed by thousands." A little more cleanliness, she observes, would much diminish the inconvenience which infests Peru to such a degree: at Islay these insects are seen on the sands; enjoying the breeze and each doubtless, like Chryses, tic volcanoes of Arequipa spread before our eyes. At sight of this magnificent scene I lost all sense of suffering: *** high mountains united earth with heaven and extended beyond the ocean of undulating sand whose course they stayed. My eye wandered along these silver waves till they were confounded with the azure vault, and then turned towards those traversers (marchepieds) of the skies, those mighty mountains whose range is boundless, whose thousand snow-covered tops sparkle with the solar refraction, and trace upon the Heavens the western limit of the desert in all the colours of the prism. Infinitude whelmed my senses in stupor; my soul was penetrated, and as once to the shepherd of Horeb, the Deity manifested himself before me in all his might, in all his splendour. My view next turned to the three volcanoes of Arequipa, united at their base, and presenting there chaos in all its confusion; raising to the clouds their three snow-cover. ed summits, reflecting the sun-beams and at times the earthly (volcanic) flames; an immense flambeau of three branches lighted for mystic solemnities, the symbol of a Trinity surpassing our powers of comprehension. I was in ecstasy, and sought not to discover the mysteries of creation. *** Never had sight so moved me; neither the waves of the vast ocean in their fearful rage, or when agitated and sparkling in light on tropical nights; nor the glorious sunset of the equinoctialline; nor the majesty of Heaven glowing Pacing alone by the border of the far-echoing with innumerable stars." ocean. From hence for Arequipa Madame Tristan set off on one of the worst of miserable mules, seated on a carpet covering a cushion stuffed with straw, called a torche, and in defiance of her friends' entreaties; for it seems she reposed on her moral strength and a resolution which has never forsaken her;" both of which, however, turned out but indifferent substitutes for a saddle. She had very sensibly equipped herself, despite the example of her companions, "as if for a journey from Paris to Orleans." She soon felt "excessive head-ache; the heat was becom- "We ascended the last mountain: arrived at its summit, the immensity of the desert, the She is witness to the effects of the mirage (a word, it is remarkable, familiar to Scandinavia as to the East;) and feels relief after sunset, when the breeze from the snowy mountains is as cold as the day was hot. They reach at length a miserable shed, built of bamboo, and divided into three chambers-one for the muleteers and their beasts; the second for travellers; and the third the dormitory, kitchen, and storehouse of the proprietor's family. Her male fellow travellers gave up the second chamber to her sole use and retired to the kitchen; but though everywhere attentive and regardful of her convenience, to their own delay and discomfort, the incessant censoriousness of the lady seems never to spare their slightest peculiarities. She lay awake and heard them discussing with the host the little chance of her surviving another day's jour. ney, and their intention of pushing forward, and sending back a litter for her: the host declaring however that his supply of water was exhausted, and that as he was not certain of another the next day she might perish of thirst, if she determined to proceed. They resumed their journey at four in the morning. "The aspect of the country was entirely changed; the pampa (which they had reach- | "If on the previous evening the sight of the ed the preceding evening) ended there, and bodies of animals that had died in these arid we entered a mountainous country destitute solitudes produced on me so strong an imof the slightest trace of vegetation. It was pression, it may be imagined how, on the folnature lying dead amidst all of deepest sad-lowing day, my sensitiveness, increased by ness. Not a bird flew in the air; not the the irritability of the nervous system, must smallest animal tracked the earth-nothing have been shocked by the spectacle of vicbut black and stony sand. Man by his jour- tims actually struggling wiih death in the nies has heightened the horrors of the spot. desert. We fell in with two wretched aniThis land of desolation is strewn with the mals, a mule and an ass, that, sinking under skeletons of animals that have died of hun- hunger and thirst, were dying in all the ago. ger and thirst; mules, horses, asses, and cat-nies of this horrible dissolution. No-I cantle. The Llama is never exposed to these scenes, which are far too severe for his organization. He requires plenty of water and a cold temperature. "The sun had risen; the heat became more and more burning-the sand under our feet was hot-and clouds of dust as fine as ashes rose, scorching our faces and drying up our palates." They reached the passes of the Quebradas, famed for their difficulties, where chasms on the side, and clefts crossing their narrow path, which lay often up enormous rocks from which the sand gave way under the feet of the mules, increased the danger and fatigue of travelling. Two cavaliers preceded the lady; the third, who had accoutred himself with bottles, clothing, and cloaks, and armed himself after the fashion of Don Quixote but without any intention of rivalling the valiant Manchegan, for it seems his warlike array was meant simply to inspire fear at first sight, came behind her; gallantly bringing up the rear in order to steer clear of those who might slip, and fall against them himself, should such mishap occur to him. Her courage too received little material support from his he roism under sufferings: "he cried out at every false step of his mule, recommended himself to God, cursed the road, the sun, the dust, and deplored his miserable lot." Yet he had traversed Mexico! not tell the effect they produced on me! The sight of these two beings expiring in such fearful torments; their low and feeble groans wrung from me such sobs as if I witnessed the death of two fellow-men. The doctor himself, despite his cold selfishness, was moved; for in these desperate spots the same dangers threaten all. I could not stir from the place, my feelings so chained me to that have seen the Death of the Deserts to recog⚫ heart-rending spectacle. *** One must nize the most fearful of his shapes." They passed a tomb on the last mountain and descended to the smiling plains of Congata, where we are favoured with a long dream, inserted, doubtless, for the sake of the reader's repose. At the hotel they find "fine porcelain, cut glass, damask tablelinen, wrought silver, and, what is rare in this country, English cutlery." The attendance, too, equals that in the best hotels of Europe. She received here a letter of invitation from her cousin Doña Carmen Pierola de Florez, who represented her uncle Don Pio, and invited her in his name to his house and she perceived at once by this letter that her cousin was clever and a manoeuvrer! The latter sent her at the same time" a beautiful horse with a superb English saddle, two Amazonian dresses, (riding habits?) shoes, gloves, and a variety of other things," as her boxes might have been left behind; four cavaliers also, relatives or "For myself I felt the same tortures as on friends, came to attend her. One of them the preceding evening-a spasmodic oppres sion of the chest and swelling of the veins of apprises her of the owners of all the estates the neck and forehead;-my tears flowed they pass; and as these belonged to her reinvoluntarily, my head sunk, and my limbs lations, it naturally recalls to the grateful were powerless; thirst, devouring thirst was demoiselle "the steward of the Marquis of the sole want that I was conscious of. D. Carabas." But her kinsman, "the good José, of a delicate temperament and sensitive Emmanuel," addressed her more to her to excess, was so affected by my condition taste, if he really said, that his face turned suddenly pale as death, and he fainted outright. The doctor was confounded; he was in despair, wept, and could afford no assistance; Don Balthazar alone preserved his recollection, and even gaiety." Having been restored by this young man's attentions, he and his relative supported Mad. Tristan between them, and the whole party descended the mountain on foot, the doctor taking charge of the beasts. "Dear cousin, our relations are the kings of the country-no family in France, neither the Rohan nor Montmorency, posesses by name or fortune so much influence, and yet we are republicans! Alas! their titles and immense riches may obtain them power indeed, but not affection. Hard and narrow. minded bankers, they are incapable of doing one act corresponding to the name they bear." Upon this the young lady who was reliev ed, accoutred, mounted, about to be received, and meant to live by their hospitality, and beg their money, pathetically but cordially exclaims "Poor boy! what generous sentiments! At this nobleness of soul my heart freely recognized him as a kinsman." They reached Arequipa, a distance of five leagues of fertile land from Congata; though it was nightfall the numerous cavalcade at tracted the curious to their doors. In the street St. Domingo they saw a mansion the front of which was lighted up in welcome. It was her uncle's. and feeling. "Being tired," as she says, "and not choosing to be looked at," (every where she declares herself the point de mire du monde,) she declines the supper got up expressly for her and waiting her signal to be served, though she saw that her conduct disappointed the whole party (contrarioit fort l'honorable société, as she chooses to term them); she was shown to her chamber and attended even into it by a great number of guests, the monks amongst them, who, laughing, offered to assist her in disrobing. She sent word to her cousin that she wished to be alone, and all the crowd retired. Left alone, or with only a negress to attend her, who soon fell asleep, the fatigued "A crowd of slaves stood at the door; at lady walked about examining the two chamour approach they rushed into the interior, bers assigned her; and as, notwithstanding eager to announce us. My entrance was a scene of pomp, such as is seen at the theatre. an English carpet covering the whole floor, The whole court was lighted up with torches the apartments were furnished in the old of resin fixed to the walls. The grand saloon Spanish style, "the avarice of her uncle" of reception was at the bottom of this court: very naturally "offered itself to her in its centre was a large door-way beneath thoughts." She rejected the usual form of rea portico, which forms a vestibule, and is ceiving visits the two next days, because her reached by an outside flight of four or five skin was tanned by the journey; and with a steps. The vestibule was illuminated with lamps, and the saloon resplendent with tact as delicate as seems to be her nature, lights from a handsome lustre and a multi- hearing that Peruvian ladies of quality com. tude of candelabra, holding tapers of various ing to a strange place first receive visits at colours. My cousin, in full dress to do me home, she insisted on going out. honour, advanced to the outside stair and re- As she exhibits Doña Carmen on all occeived me with all the ceremonials prescrib-casion attentive, affectionate, frank, and ami. ed by propriety and etiquette. I was touch-able, it was necessary that Madame Tristan ed; I took her hand, and thanked her in the should commence a description of her perfulness of my heart for her kindness to me. She led me to a sofa and sat down by my son, in a work written designedly to be read in Peru, in these words: side. vent. * "I was hardly seated when a deputation of five or six monks of the order of St. Domingo advanced towards me the Grand Prior made a long speech in which he told me of the virtues of my grandmother and the magnificent gifts she had made to the conOf the assembly the men, rather than the women, belonged apparently to the highest class of society. Each paid me a compliment in pompous terms, accompanied with offers of service, so exaggerated, that they could not have been the sions of a real feeling. It was evident that in case of need I must not rely upon them for the least assistance, and that their language was merely a servile homage to D. Pio de Tristan through his niece." expres. to truth, to declare that my poor cousin, Car"It is with regret I am forced, by regard men Pierola de Florez, is of an ugliness approaching even to deformity." This burst of amiability and sudden affection for truth is succeeded by an avowal that Doña Carmen nevertheless has "the smallest foot in Peru; a miniature, a love of a foot." Which foot and her leg are sufficiently fat and plump "notwithstanding the extraordinary meagreness of Doña Carmen.". It is always exhibited too in a silk stocking, for she is "très coquette," and her petticoat is too short; her dress is unbecoming." She had married a man who treated her To those acquainted with the style of com- brutally, but towards whom her conduct had pliment in southern countries, it will seem been most unchangeably exemplary and af hard that the highest society did not at once fectionate; though it appears "she had lost change their habits of speech and force their all regard for him," and "felt an abhor. services on the fair guest the moment she rence for the whole human race. Had my entered her uncle's house. What assist- cousin (says her charitable biographer) had a ance was she looking for then? But if they spark of religious feeling, instead of seeking were not sufficiently smitten with "the black out the vices of mankind to nourish her haeyes and long dark hair" of this "indepen-tred, she would have tried to discover their dent and very pretty personage," her first act propensity to good, and undertaken the task of was a satisfactory proof of equal good ser.se rendering them better. But God was never in her thoughts. She flattered others that she might be flattered." providence in the accident that left her at home to receive this alien, to country, to blood, to friendship, to feeling, and to faith; to all that is not wantonness, infamy, and abomination in woman. After ten years of dissipation, heartlessness, open insult, and unbroken neglect to wards a woman who, with one single exception at the beginning, "put forth no com. The earthquake which destroyed Tacna plaint, nor uttered a murmur," the ruined following, is made the immediate precursor gambler and profligate, in debt and disease, of a conversation which doubtless it was abandoned, cureless, penniless, and unsheit-alone sent to produce; and in which Doña ered, returned to his injured wife to beg an Carmen is, with disgusting vanity, made to asylum in his last moments. She received express her "admiration" of the superb him :-"not with affection, that feeling could" Florita," who, "elevated by the feeling not return to her heart, but with that secret that inspired her, had, by the tone of her pleasure which persons of her character voice and the expression of her eye, excited feel in exercising a noble vengeance which the surprise of" her cousin: the " superb exalts their own superiority." He lingered sentiment" which had done all this being sixteen months in deepest agonies; "during simply the sage advice of "the superb Flo all this time she never quitted his bedside for rita." That Doña Carmen should imitate her an instant; she was his nurse, his physician, example, by throwing herself penniless upon his priest."* "What a sight for her!- a foreign land resolving to be frce of all reHow she nourished her aversion and scorn straints!--and to all which sublimity Doña for the whole human race!"" "With a Carmen had just given the most effective anstrength of character that never failed for answer by pointing out the dependent position instant, she patiently bore the caprices, re- and personal weakness of the sex, and Flobuffs, and despairing frenzies of the dying ra's own ignorance of what she was talking man." This long illness "exhausting her about. last resources, she went with her child to live at her aunt's." No one can mistake the insinuations we have here marked in italics, and it is remarkable that not one of the assertions made in disparagement of this lady is contradicted by all the subsequent details. There is, we regret to say, but too much truth in the following. We trust the eye of the really great and good Protector has been upon such mockery of religion as these scenes of 1834. "On the 24th September, the festival of Our Lady, the city was traversed by a grand Her aunt "was hard and avaricious; and procession, one of those on which the clergy the helpless widow "from that time led a lavishes the most ostentation, these being life of incessant torments." For twelve years the sole amusements of the people. The she had vegetated, for twelve years conccal-festivals of the Peruvian Church give an idea ed her real misery under the appearance of of what the Pagan Bacchanalia and Saturnalia must have been. ** At the head of opulence. the procession marched bands of dancers In the woman she has thus, by her own and musicians, all disguised. Negroes and showing, unfeelingly and atrociously libelled, Sambos (mixed race) are hired for a real Madame Tristan professes to have discover-a-day to perform in this religious farce. The ed a kind of nobleness and superiority which Church dresses them up in a most burlesque attracted her own sympathy soon as she had attire, as clowns, harlequins, &c. and covers surmounted "the disagreeable effect produced their faces with bad masks of all colours.— The forty or fifty dancers made antics and by her dry manners and ugliness.' We will grimaces of cynical impudence, courted the not insult the reader's feelings by one word negresses and women of colour who looked of comparison between the woman so nobly, on, and addressed them with every indelicaso too severely tried, and her heartless slan- cy. These, mingling with the party, endeaderer, who insinuates her very virtues as voured to discover the masks. The whole faults. The cant of the Pharisee was but was a grotesque confusion, attended with the utterance of a moment; but here five screams and convulsive laughter from which years have elapsed between the writing and I turned disgusted. After the dancers came the Virgin magnificently dressed, in a velvet publication of this revolting calumny. Re-robe adorned with pearls. She had diamonds volting beyond common credence, and in ab- on her head, neck, and hands. Twenty or solute defiance of her own words and of the thirty negroes carried the Virgin, behind very facts she relates, both here and subse- whom came the bishop followed by the quently, of this lonely and desolate mourner; whole of the clergy, and then the monks of The authorities brought who fancied, with Flora herself, the finger of all the convents. up the official display, which followed the crowd, that laughed, screamed, and was at any thing but prayers. These festivals and their magnificence form the happiness of the * His priest (thus emphatized in the original) "without a spark of religion !" and "God never in her thoughts!" Peruvians. I doubt the possibility of spiritual- | part. Upon his next call she says to izing their worship." him-"You know my certificate of baptism I require does not suffice to legitimize me. another certificate, to prove my mother's marriage; if I do not produce it, my uncle You can bestow a will give me nothing. Get this marriage-certifimillion upon me. There is however nothing in all this that did not occur in Europe in the middle ages and amongst a people far more civilized than we generally conceive of the negroes at the present day, and yet European worship is spiritualized; though certainly not to the de.cate drawn up by some old missionary in California;" (he was going there) "let it be antedated; and for one hundred piastres we shall have a million. Such, Chabrié, is the condition on which depends my love and my hand." grees desired by some,of rendering it powerless over the doings of the body. The same may be said of the Mystery which followed; but it is remarkable that while Mad. Tristan seems to have fully comprehended the inde. cencies of the dancers, she could gather the tendency of the Mystery itself only "from words caught at random, and some explana. tions from the initiated." Her Spanish studies seem to have been limited. "He remained confounded; his elbow resting on the table, he gazed at me without speaking." She did After some further attempts, on his part, during which he satisfied himself that Here follow some sage remarks upon "the Madame Tristan was not mad, he quitted her necessity, in forming a republic, of cherish-in expressed abhorrence for ever. ing the civic virtues even in the lowest class- this to try him, she says; and we believe es;" leaving, we presume, religion entirely out of the question, as the fair author unquestionably does. In the highest classes, it appears, exists only a "haughty presumption joined to profound ignorance and boastfulness which would excite the pity of the lowest European sailor." The ladies in society come to show their dresses, and the gentlemen to kill time. "The conversation is cold, trifling, and mo. notonous turning on scandal, the state of health, or of the weather." We rejoice to find our own countrymen are not alone in the series of meteorological observatious that form the staple of English entertainment. As for evil-speaking, it being unknown in any other land, and in her volumes, we can imagine how it must have shocked a lady so spiritual and sensitive as to tell us in the very next page that M. Chabrié came to visit her, and that "she would rather a mournful death had permitted her to mourn him with delicious tears!"-Well might the bard inquire "Oh love! what is it in this world of ours "That makes it fatal to be loved?" her. It is well and touchingly observed by one of the profoundest masters of human nature living, that a single fault committed in the ignorance and thoughtlessness of youth, is bitterly visited by the world, and destroys a character for life. But here is a woman deliberately proposing forgery to her lover, on the eve, and as the condition of, marriage. A forge. Ty too, to an enormous amount, upon an uncle she hated because he preferred his own senses and the silence of a brother whom he knew, to the every-way suspicious assertions of an unknown and interested stranger. She did it, she pretends, to get rid of her lover, whose contempt she feared if she had confessed all her tissue of falsehoods. To preserve her character and his good opinion she proposes to make him an accomplice in forgery! If this miserable pretext be not a proof of her utter ignorance of common de. cency, common sense, and common shame, then we freely retract all censure of her in our pages. What an inimitable subject for the writer to whom we have alluded above, accustomed to trace with a pen of steel all the loathsome windings, hypocritical selfish. Iness, the meanness of base vanity and hardened, heartless effrontery in its Sayings and Doings. How would he hold up, writhing in the bitter sting of abhorrent and withering scorn, the moral and religious pretensions of this brazen serpent of St. Simonianism to cure all the evils of some modern misled Israel. The disgusting farce of sentimental vice in this part closes appropriately with its atro "The people of Arequipa are fond of the cious climax, which we shall condense; re-pleasures of the table yet unskilled to procure minding the reader that she tells her own sto- the aliments are indifferent, and the culinary its enjoyments. Their cookery is detestable, ry, and with the skill of long-practised decep- art in its infancy. * * tion, arranging it so as to meet any future at 9; the repast consists of rice with onions * They breakfast possible statement of facts on M. Chabrié's (dressed or raw, onions are in every thing) of And so tenderly, too; "for notwithstand ing the enormous faults of his character was sincerely attached to him, as he pressed my hands, placed his head on my knees, and fingered my hair-declaring he should choke." How she must have symphatized with this declaration !—but she talked to him of their marriage, nevertheless. |