dies have led a dreary life of constraint and silence, without education or society, the husband making a nun of his wife after the old bigoted Portuguese notion; but during the last twenty years the doors have been opened. Brazil attained her independence in 1823; Brazilian women in 1848.

Here, in this virgin valley, where every plant is an evergreen, possessing the most agreeable and enjoyable climate in the world, with a brilliant atmosphere, rivaled only by that of Quito, and with no changes of seasons-here we may locate the paradise of the lazy. Life may be maintained with as little labor as in the Garden of Eden. Perhaps no country in the world is capable of yielding so large a return for agriculture. Nature, evidently designing this land as the home of a great nation, has heaped up her bounties of every description-fruits of richest flavors, woods of finest grain, dyes of gayest colors, and drugs of rarest virtues; and left no sirocco or earthquake to disturb its people. Providence, moreover, has given the present emperor a wise and understanding heart; and the government is a happy blending of imperial dignity and republican freedom. White, Negro, half-caste, and Indian may be seen sitting side by side on the jury-bench. Certainly "the nation can not be a despicable one whose best men are able to work themselves up to positions of trust and influence."

God bless the Empire of the South!

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CHAPTER XXIII.

How to Travel in South America.-Routes.-Expenses.-Outfit.-Precau

tions.-Dangers.

THE most vague and incorrect notions prevail in respect to traveling in South America. The sources of trustworthy and desirable information are very meagre. Murray has not yet published a "Hand-book for the Andes;" routes, methods, and expenses of travel are almost unknown; and the imagination depicts vampires and scorpions, tigers and anacondas, wild Indians and fevers without end, impassable rivers and inaccessible mountains as the portion of the tourist. The following statements, which can be depended upon, may therefore be acceptable to those who contemplate a trip on the Andes and the Ama

zon.

The shortest, cheapest, most feasible, and least interesting route across the continent is from Valparaiso to Buenos Ayres. The breadth of South America is here only eight hundred miles. By railroad from Valparaiso to the foot of the Andes; thence a short mule-ride by the Uspallata Pass (altitude 12,000 feet), under the shadow of Aconcagua to Mendoza; thence by coach across the pampas to the Rio Plata. The Portillo Pass (traversed by Darwin) is nearer, but more lofty and dangerous.

Bolivia offers the difficult path of Gibbon: From the coast to Cochabamba; thence down the Marmoré and Madeira. There are three routes through Peru: First, from Lima to Mayro, by way of Cerro Pasco and Huánaco, by mule, ten days; thence down the Pachitea, by canoe, six

days; thence down the Ucayali to Iquitos, by steamer, six days (forty-five hours' running time). When the road from Lima to Mayro is finished the passage will be shortened four days. No snow is met in crossing the Andes in summer, but in winter it is very deep. Second (Herndon's route), from Lima to Tinga Maria, by way of Huánaco, by mule, fifteen days, distance three hundred miles (the passage is difficult in the rainy season); thence by canoe fifteen days down the Huallaga to Yurimaguas. Third and best, by mule from Truxillo to Caximárca, five days (note the magnificent ruins); thence to Chachapoyas, seven days (here are pre-Incarial relics); thence to Moyabamba, eight days; thence on foot to Balsa Puerto, four days; thence by canoe to Yurimaguas, two days. Price of a mule from Truxillo to Moyabamba is $30; canoe-hire, $10. The Peruvian steamers arrive at Yurimaguas the fifth of every month and leave the seventh; reach Nauta the ninth and Iquitos the tenth; leave Iquitos the sixteenth and arrive at Tabatinga the nineteenth, to connect with the Brazilian line. Going up, they leave Tabatinga the twenty-first and arrive at Iquitos the twenty-fourth, stopping six days. Running time from Yurimaguas to Tabatinga, forty-eight hours; fare, $70, gold; third-class, $17. La Condamine's route, via Loxa and the Marañon, is difficult; and Md. Godin's, via the Pastassa, is perilous on account of rapids and savages. The transit by the Napo we will now give in detail.

Six hundred dollars in gold will be amply sufficient for a first-class passage from New York to New York across the continent of South America, making no allowance for stoppages. For necessary expenses in Ecuador, take a draft on London, which will sell to advantage in Guayaquil; so will Mexican dollars. American gold should be taken for expenses on the Amazon in Brazil; at Pará it commands

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a premium. On the Marañon it is below par; Peruvian gold should therefore be bought at Guayaquil for that part of the route. Also French medios, or quarter francs; they will be very useful every where on the route, especially on the Upper Amazon, where change is scarce. Fifty dollars' worth will not be too many; for, as the Scotchman said of sixpences, "they are canny little dogs, and often do the work of shillings." Take a passport for Brazil. Leave behind your delicacies and superfluities of clothing; woolen clothes will be serviceable throughout. A trunk for mountain travel should not exceed 24 by 15 by 15 inches— smaller the better. Take a rubber air-pillow and mattress: there is no bed between Guayaquil and Pará. A hammock for the Amazon can be bought on the Napo.

The Pacific Mail steamships, which leave New York on the first and sixteenth of each month, connect at Panama without delay with the British Steam Navigation line on the South Pacific. Fare, first-class, from New York to Guayaquil, by way of Panama and Paita, $215, gold; second-class, $128. Time to Panama, eight days; to Paita, four days; to Guayaquil, one day. A coasting steamer leaves Panama for Guayaquil the thirteenth of each month. There are two so-called hotels in Guayaquil. "Los tres Mosqueteros," kept by Sr. Gonzales, is the best. Take a front room ($1 per day), and board at the Fonda Italiana or La Santa Rosa ($1 per day). Here complete your outfit for the mountains: saddle, with strong girth and crupper; saddle-bags, saddle-cover, sweat-cloth, and bridle ($40, paper), woolen poncho ($9), rubber poncho ($4), blanket ($6), leggins, native spurs and stirrups, knife, fork, spoon, tea-pot, chocolate (tea, pure and cheap, should be purchased at Panama), candles, matches, soap, towels, and tarpaulin for wrapping up baggage. Convert your draft into paper, quantum sufficit for Guayaquil; the rest into silver.

Besides this outer outfit, an inner one is needed—of patience without stint. You will soon learn that it is one thing to plan and quite another to execute. "To get out of the inn is one half of the journey" is very appropriately a Spanish proverb. Spaniards do nothing d'appressado (in a hurry), but every thing mañana (to-morrow). You will find fondas, horses, and roads divided into the bad, the worse, and the worst, and bad is the best. But fret not thyself. "Serenity of mind," wrote Humboldt, "almost the first requisite for an undertaking in inhospitable regions, passionate love for some class of scientific labor, and a pure feeling for the enjoyment which nature in her freedom is ready to impart, are elements which, when they meet together in an individual, insure the attainment of valuable results from a great and important journey."

The journey to Quito must be made between May and November; in the rainy season the roads are impassable. From Guayaquil to Bodegas by Yankee steamer; fare, $2; time, eight hours. At Bodegas hire beasts at the Consignacion for Guaranda; price for riding and cargo beasts, $4 each. No extras for the arriero. A mule will carry two hundred and fifty pounds. Buy bread at Bodegas and Guaranda. The Indians on the road are very loth to sell any thing; buy a fowl, therefore, at the first opportunity, or you will have to live on dirty potato soup, and be glad of that. At the tambos, or wayside inns, you pay only for yerba (fodder). Never unsaddle your beast till it is cool; an Indian will even leave the bridle on for a time. To Guaranda, three full days. There take mules (safer than horses in climbing the mountains) for Quito; $6 25, silver, per beast; time, five days. Be sure to leave Guaranda by 4 A.M., for in the afternoon Chimborazo is swept by furious winds. Also start with a full stomach; you will get nothing for two days. Drink sparingly of the snow-water