New Publications

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NEW PUBLICATIONS

LA PLAYA: THE ARGENTINE CONFEDERATION, AND PARAGUAY. By Thos J. Page, U. S. N. New York: Harper & Brothers.

This exceedingly honourable work is comprised in one volume, large octavo, with a map and numerous illustrations. It is a narrative of the exploration of the Tributaries of the River La Plata and adjacent countries, during the years 1853, '5d, '55 and '56, under the orders of the United States Government. The narrative is, as the title indicators, an official one, and it gives the sole authentic account which we have of one of the most important expeditions ever sent out from this country. In 1858 the steamer "Water Witch" was placed under the command of the author, with instructions to explore the rivers of La Plata and report upon their navigability and adaptation to commerce. In the prosecution of his duty, Lieutenant Page¹ made explorations which embrace an extent of 3600 miles of river navigation and 4400 miles of journey by land in Paraguay and the Argentine Confederation. Ample information is given respecting the soil, climate and productions of the country and the manners, habits and customs of the people. The most lucid account which we have yet read, is given of the origin of our unfortunate difficulty with Paraguay, and it is shown to the satisfaction of every intelligent reader that the attack upon the "Water Witch" was utterly unwarranted and unjustifiable. Not the least interesting part of the book is the account of the Jesuit Missions in La Plata, which is appended to the narrative. The illustrations are numerous and good, comprising portraits of Lopen, Urquiza, Francia and Loyola, beside numerous engravings of scenery. The portrait of that extraordinary man, once President Dictator, Dr. Francia, is especially characteristic and is evidently a likeness.

It would be impossible in the space allotted us to give a tolerable notion of the great variety of subjects embraced in the present narrative or to present our readers with even the briefest condensation of the details of the explorations of the expedition throughout the vast extent of territory allotted them. Those who can afford it should buy the work and judge for themselves. It is enough to say that the climate is reported to be highly salubrious; the country not only richly fertile, but singularly picturesque and beautiful; and the natives, with the exception of a few wild, nomadic tribes, kindly in disposition, peaceable in their habits and hospitable in the extreme. The importance, in a commercial point of view, which is attached to this new field of operations is most strikingly placed before the reader. Undoubtedly Paraguay promises a most lucrative commerce to any people that may become engaged in it, producing as she does in such abundance, tobacco (of exquisite quality), cotton, medicinal plants, dye-stuffs, indigo, and a variety of woods for ship-building and ornamental purposes; and the reader who may hereafter refer particularly to the present work and the very large and excellent map that accompanies it, will perceive that in ascending the Paraguay two thousand miles from the Atlantic the expedition reached the frontiers of some of the richest provinces of Brazil, provinces whose products had before no outlets but the port of Rio Janeiro—a port reached by a costly and dangerous land travel over mountain paths accessible only to the sure-footed mule. It will be seen also that the State of Bolivia—a part of the old empire of the Incas—is vitally concerned in the results of the exploration. Cobija being her only port on the Pacific, and an indifferent one at that and being separated even from this by the Cordilleras of the Andes, it is only be her rivers that the wealth of her mines and forests can be brought into the Atlantic trade. A splendid field is opened in these rich regions for the manufactories of Europe and the United States. With the navigability of her great interior water courses once established, La Plata will have received a development of centuries and we may very safely anticipate a vast tide of immigration which is yet to set into that valley. Lieutenant Page says:—"Without being visionary, we foresee a future which in the history of the world will only be surpassed by the growth of the United States of North America." Again, he remarks: "In offering to immigrants the temptations of a country even richer in all natural, mineral, pastoral and agricultural resources than the great basins of the Orinoco and Amazon, we have shown that she offers a climate genial and unrivaled for its salubrity, and a population sufficiently large and advanced in civility to form at one the basis of extensive commerical operations."

It is, at all events, certain that the most flattering compliment has been paid this government by the people of the Argentine Confederation in their having adopted our Constitution as the model of their's in every particular, save some few where it would have been totally inoperative. These countries are worthy of our highest consideration, and it is highly important that we should be fairly represented among them in diplomatic relations, and that no slight misunderstandings should interrupt and frustrate an international comity so earnestly to be desired.

Lieutenant Page's narrative is written in a flowing and graceful style, and his sketches of the social life of the inhabitants are especially fresh, vivid and interesting. His book, considering the present disturbed condition of our relations with Paraguay, and the large space which the South American republics seem destined soon to fill in the public vision in most apropos and will, without doubt, be largely circulated and read.

THE LAIRED OF NORLAW. A Scottish Story, New York. Same Publishers.

The author of "Margaret Maitland" has here presented us with one of the most forcibly written and cleverly constructed Scottish novels which we have seen for a long time. It is not only far above the ordinary run of mawkish love tales, but it is not in the least degree like even the better class of sentimental and passionate fiction represented by Miss Muloch, Grace Aguilar, Miss Sewall and the like. What is termed Love, par excellence, by young people and novelists who write for young people, forms only an incident of this narrative. The illustration of family affection—honest, hearty, unaffected family affection, and the manifold beauties that cluster around that home feeling, forms the true thesis of the book. The plot possesses the merit of a refreshing novelty and there are two or three characters which are very much alive indeed—no small merit in the fictions of now a days. There is some vigorous writing too in the fore part of the volume descriptive of the night burial of Livingstone of Norlaw by his sons. A very readable book, altogether, and one to be recommended.

THE HOUSE: A Pocket Manual of Rural Architecture: or, How to Build County Housees and Out Buildings. New York: Fowler and Wells,² Publishers, 208 Broadway. Price, in paper, 30 cts.; in muslin, 50 cents.

This work closes the popular series of Rural Manuals to which it belongs, and we greatly mistake if it be not destined to command even a more generous patronage and a wider circulation than those favorites of the public, "The Garden," "The Farm," and "Domestic Animals." It is a thoroughly practical work, written in a style which the people can understand, and while containing everything that one will expect or desire to find in such a work, is brought, by its size and price, within the reach of all. The designs, commencing with a log cabin, embrace houses of all degrees of cost (particular attention being given to those of low price, such as the great mass of the people must want) and of every desirable style of architecture. No one who ever expects to build, if it be only an icehouse or a cistern, should fail to consult this manual. It might well have been entitled, "Every Man His Own Architect."

THE THIRD VOLUME of Dr. Barth's Discoveries in North and Central Africa has been issued by the Harpers. The previous volumes we have already favorably noticed as they appeared. The work is now complete, and forms, perhaps, the most important contributions to geographical and ethnographical science that has been made in our times. It is not a book to be dismissed, or even discussed, in a newspaper paragraph. Barth is not only one of the most intrepid of explorers, but one of the foremost of European savans. His work is simply a clear, matter-of-fact and scientific narrative of his journeyings and discoveries in desert wastes and among strange tribes. He tells what he has seen without an atom of exaggeration either in style or in matter, and those who look for thrilling descriptions of wild adventure in the style of certain modern explorers will be considerably disappointed, in these volumes. Nevertheless, to those who are capable of grouping together the valuable facts presented by him and to appreciate the patience, perseverance and resolution displayed by the author, every chapter will present matter of more original interest than an ordinary volume of travels. Of course the library of no scholar can be deemed complete without it.

The Westminster Review, for January, has been republished by Leonard Scott and Co.,³ in their reprints of British Magazines. The Westminster is the organ of the advanced radicalism of the day, without being committed to the social 'isms and eccentricities which impair one's respect for the literary ability of its compeer the Atlantic Monthly⁴. The contents of the present number are—Reform of Parliament: Religious policy of Austria, Sanitary condition of the Army; Chloroform and Anaesthetics: Spiritual Destitution in England; Carlyle's Friedrich II: Recent cases of Witchcraft; and Contemporary Literature.

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