SKETCHES FROM THE PAINTERS. THE subject of this picture is taken | bracing its giant bole in her slender clasp poem with the same title; a work of delicate fancy and felicitous epithet-of the former even more so than is usual with the poet, remarkable as he is for that quality. A lover approaching a giant oak in the park of his mistress's family, apostrophises it to obtain news of the fair one; whereupon the tree, "tall oak of summer chase," in murmurous tones replies that she had but lately come to the very spot upon which he stands, and playfully emVOL. XIII.-8 which he had carved upon its bark. The period of the poem chosen by the artist is the moment when the lady finds the carven letters of her name, and delightedly recognizes the hand of him she loves. The picture was exhibited at the British Institution in the early part of this year, and has since been purchased by the Glasgow Art Union; a society remarkable for the excellent taste and good judgment evinced in the choice of their engravings. THE CORDILLERAS AND THE ANDES. COCHA YOCHABAMBA is a beautiful city, in latitude 170 south, and close to the south side of a range jutting out from the main Andes trunk, and shooting off southeasterly two hundred miles into the Madeira Plata. The streets run at right angles, and opposite the plaza is a large cathedral, with a fountain in front, fed by the waters from a snow peak on the ridge near by. Bolivia has a population of about one million and a half, most of whom are Indians. Its public force consists of a national guard or militia, and a police. The standing army is three thousand strong, with one officer to every six soldiers. Indians are not enlisted, as they are considered the agriculturists of the country. It costs not less than a million of dollars per annum to maintain this army, and the sum is drawn from the labor of the aborigines. This must be an enormous tax. In this region the country is well cultivated, and during the month of December, flowers are in full bloom, strawberries almost ripe, with peach, orange, and fig trees bearing fruit. The gardens are carefully worked, with beds of onions, cabbages, lucerne, and grapevines. Cochabamba Valley has been called the granary of Bolivia. Wheat, maize, and barley are transported to the Potosi and other mines. The apple, pear, and quince also produce well. Bolivia has a Congress, composed, like ours, of two houses, representatives and senators, elected by the people for four years. No man can be chosen a senator unless he has an income of at least one thousand dollars a year, and a representative must have fifteen hundred dollars. The president is elected for five years, but has seldom been chosen by the people, most times coming into office by revolutionizing the government. This is more easily effected, from the fact that Bolivia rests her power and influence upon her armed force. The voting population is thinly scattered over an extensive country, and the army is very large. Religious processions are very common through the streets of Cochabamba. Padres, with wooden images and bands of music, parade the town, praying for rain, whenever the crops are suffering in the neighboring valley. As they pass along, the Indians join the religious march. A grand procession is also made for a dying man, if his family can afford the expense, which is usually about two hundred dollars. The street in front of his house is carpeted, and fire-works arranged on reed frames. Neighbors come in, and the lady of the house receives them, as if to a ball. Her daughters are dressed with flowers, while the dying father lies in the next room. The procession now approaches, with a large wooden female image on a platform, a company of regular soldiers, young padres, priests, and lighted candles. As it marches along, showers of flowers are thrown from the balconies of the houses. When the image reaches the afflicted dwelling, she rests upon the carpet, the priests kneel, the church bells ring, and the people uncover and pray for the dying man. A hymn is sung, and all march away to the music. The carpets are now removed, and when night approaches the fire-works commence, and are connected, by wires, from the sick man's room to the altar of the church. Flying messages of superstitious fire are thus carried to and fro, amid the brilliant display of the framework. The bishop of Cochabamba anxiously asked an American citizen, in 1855, if the people of the United States wanted to navigate the rivers of Bolivia. He was answered that they desired to trade with the Bolivians. But he opposed the proposition, because, if once granted, “it would be the cause of declaring liberty.” Shocks of earthquake are felt in these elevated regions, and at night they are alarming. The people hurry out of their beds and houses, and the whole population is aroused in a moment. Dogs howl all over the city, the horses, terribly frightened, wildly rush through the coval, while the people, trembling, await and fear another shock from the mighty Andes. Some of the useful arts are pursued at Cochabamba. Weavers make beautiful cotton and woolen cloths; hats are formed from the vicuna wool, a very good article. There are blacksmiths, carpenters, and cabinet makers; still, mule-trains are passed in the Andes, loaded with canebottomed chairs manufactured in NewYork, and iron bedsteads from Paris. The mechanic here needs a proper teaching in the useful trades. While his apprentice awkwardly handles a Philadelphia chisel, the Spanish master stands at the door of the shop, dressed in a broadcloth coat, with a porcho over it! There are tinners; and notwithstanding tin is found in the neighboring Titicaca basin, the metal is carried over the Cordilleras, shipped around Cape Horn, manufactured by Yankee tinkers, doubles the Cape again, and passing the mouth of the mines, crosses the Andes, and is sold in this place for pans, coffee-pots, and funnels ! What a journey! The merchants here make their remittances to the sea-ports by packing up twenty-two hundred dollars of silver in bags, covered with leather, and forty-four hundred dollars make the mule load. Signing the bill of lading, the amico then arms himself against robbers on the road, and when the load is delivered at Tacna, Peru, he receives sixteen dollars per mule, the trip consuming fourteen days. The trains are seldom robbed in the uninhabited regions of the Andes and Cordilleras, where the driver sleeps by himself in the deep gorges, or upon the mountain top. The funerals are very singular among the Bolivians, and preceded by a man with a five-gallon jar of chica on his head. At the corners of the streets, when those carrying the corpse are tired, they all take a drink and sing, until, at times, the whole party are intoxicated and not able to reach the graveyard, when the funeral is postponed until the next day. This is the case only among the mestizos, the Indians exhibiting a more quiet, serious, and respectful feeling. Often will they sit silently in rows by the dead body all night, mourning the loss of a fellow-native with heartfelt grief. The small silver lamb in the left hand. coffin is lined with deep blue silk, and a little couch placed within, which hangs upon bands of blue and white ribbons, where rests the body. Six little boys, dressed in black, hold the ribbons, and carry the child to the church. Then follow the ladies, headed by the commadre, god-mother, and after them the friends, on foot. As the boys move on the Indians crowd around, to admire the finery, and the bearers are cautioned to watch the jewelry from being stolen. This is removed after the body leaves the church for the grave. Great care, too, has to be taken that the coffin itself, and especially an expensive one, is not stolen. Instances have been known where the same coffin has been sold several times for eight dollars. Returning from such a funeral to the house of the mother, the ladies spend the evening sociably, as if nothing afflictive had happened. The custom of the country, universally, is to have music and dancing in the house before the corpse is taken to the church and buried. In the distribution of vegetable life throughout these elevated regions, nature places the potato the highest; then in this order quinna, barley, wheat, coffee, and sugar-cane. Hence the inhabitants on the east side of the Andes have a supply of these self-sustaining products. Then they also have mutton and wool from the highlands, with beef and tallow of the steppes, on which the most dense popula tion exists. The Indian understands the art of dis tilling. Generally he cannot be considered intemperate, considering his partiality for chica; except on saints' days, when it seems to be understood that much drinking is allowable. If any good is instilled into their minds by the religious services or mass, on Sunday morning, it is generally lost, under the effects of strong drink, at night. This is a most debasing custom. The women dance to music all the way home from the church, and the frolic continues most of the night. There is not The funeral of a wealthy Creole is attended by gentlemen in black, invited by cards, and who carry long tallow candles, with music. Franciscan friars, with portable altars, follow, and masses are said between the house of the deceased and the church. In the funeral bills, charges are made for chica, coca, wine, cigars, the cooking apparatus, and other Church expenses, amounting altogether to almost three hundred dollars. These items al-much difficulty in keeping the Indians from most resemble the list of mess stores for an old sailor, cruising around Cape Horn. When a little child dies, the ladies dress it in a white silk frock, fastened by diamond rings, and trimmed with gold and silver threads, the head and feet bare. A In many sections saltpeter is found, and golden cross is placed in the right, and a the aborigines understand the art of manu an immoderate use of chica during the week, but they will indulge freely at the time of religious worship, which the Jesuits have fixed permanently, after six day's labor. bold fisherman ventures with his canoe into the calm ocean beyond the troubled breakers. But here are no inhabitants; there never were any; nor are there any ruins of former ages among these primitive forests. Few animals are seen, and no birds except our national one, the wild turkey, which, undisturbed, walks through the bushes, and feeds on the berries. The easterly winds, striking the broad side of the Andes, do not glide upward, but the current is sometimes divided, the lower half sweeping down over the forests, with such force as to bend and break the stoutest trees. facturing fireworks for the Romish | ing from the rocks of the coast. The Churches. The rockets sent up toward the heavens amid the solemn shades of night, was one means used by the early Jesuits to attract the serious attention of the wild man, roving in his native forests. They were a peaceful race, and gunpowder was thus used to light up the imagined way to heaven! The Indians, too, have learned the art of casting church bells from the brass, copper, and zinc of the Titicaca basin, but are unacquainted with the process of melting the ore for cannon. They also gather the gums and sell them to the priests for incense, and supply the traders with copal, balsams, the roots of jalapa, ipecacuanha, and sarsaparilla. Many valuable ornamental and dye woods are now only known to them, but will be to the world when the trade and waters of the beautiful La Plata are open to the common sea. The heights of the Eastern Andes are among the most sublime and terrific portions of our globe. They seem to correspond with the rocky shores of the ocean, where the waves beat heavily against their banks. Trees, vines, creepers, and mosses are heaped up, as sea-weed is seen hang Descending the Andes some distance, the first sign of animal life are swarms of the ring-tailed monkeys. They travel at a rapid rate along the tree-tops, swinging to the limbs by their feet and tails. When frightened, the young one calls for its mother, who promptly attends, and the cunning little animal, jumping on her back, holds on to her hind leg with his tail, and off she gallops to the next tree. They make a deafening noise if fired at with shot and powder, and are not easily killed. The muleteers are very fond of their meat, and it is quite amusing to see them luxuriating upon the hind leg of a ring-tailed monkey, taking alternately with it grains of parched corn. They say the tail is the most delicate part, when properly singed. Monkey meat is thought to keep longer than any other in that elevated climate. From the skins the amicas make pouches for their coca, beans, and parched corn, suspended by the tail to a strap round the waist, and the legs tied together. The greatest favor to a traveler in the Andes regions, is the present of a biscuit, which, when hard baked, without salt, will best stand that moist climate. Many other things melt or spoil. Rice, too, is valuable, and a wild turkey, well dissected and well boiled in it, with a little lump of Potosi salt, is a most refreshing meal after a hard day's travel across these lofty eminences. The arrieros usually carry a bag of roasted or parched corn, like our own North American Indians. Every man has his flint and steel, but it is often very difficult to make a fire, from the soaking of the dead wood by the snow and rains. The arrieros will sleep soundly, their heads in the rain and feet in the warm ashes. The condition of both the Peruvian and Brazilian Indians is sad indeed, as they make but little progress in Christian civilization. | paid great attention, and passing the Well-meaning and zealous padres alone attempt to improve them, and these are contented to teach them obedience to the Church and her ceremonies, and to repeat like a parrot the "Doctrina." One spiritual father in the Andes exhibited a little plaster image of the Virgin, which they had not seen before. Then he endeavored to explain that this figure represented the mother of God, whom he had before taught them to worship and adore, that through her intercession the sins and crimes of men might be forgiven. The Indians image from hand to hand. one of them stopped the priest in his discourse, and asked if the image were a man or woman. The poor friar gave up his illustration in despair, and fell back upon the sensestriking ceremonials of the Romish Church, which, we doubt not, made a far more lasting impression than his discourse possibly could. These Indians are proverbially docile and teachable, and the government of Peru should commence their civilization at once. They might be concentrated in a few villages, with a simple |