TRAVELS IN SOUTH AMERICA.

The following interesting passages are taken from the recent publications of the celebrated Humboldt; the first, from his Researches in South America; the second and third, from his Travels in that country.

man.

“There is no proof, that the existence of man is much more recent in America than in the other continent.

Within the tropics, the strength of vegetation, the breadth of rivers, and partial inundations have presented powerful obstacles to the migration of nations.

The extensive countries of the north of Asia are as thinly peopled as the savannahs of New Mexico and Paraguay; nor is it necessary to suppose, that the countries first peopled are those, which offer the greatest mass of inhabitants.

The problem of the first population of America, is no more the province of history, than the questions on the origin of plants and animals, and on the distribution of organic germs, are that of natural science.

History, in carrying us back to the earliest epochs, instructs us that almost every part of the globe is occupied by men who think themselves aborigines, because they are ignorant of their origin.

Among a multitude of nations, who have succeeded, or have been incorporated with each other, it is impossible to discover with precision, the first basis of population, that primitive stratum beyond which the region of cosmogonical tradition begins.

“The nations of America, except those which border on the polar circle, form a single race, characterized by the formation of the skull, the colour of the skin, the extreme thinness of the beard, and straight and glossy hair.

The American race bears a very striking resemblance to that of the Mongul nations, which include the descendants of the Hiong-Nu, known heretofore by the name of Huns, the Kalkas, the Kalmucks, and the Burats.

It has been ascertained, by late observations, that not only the inhabitants of Unalashka, but several tribes of South America, indicate, by the osteological characters of the head, a passage from the American to the Mongul race.

When we shall have more completely studied the brown men of Africa, and that swarm of nations, who inhabit the interior and north-east of Asia, and who are vaguely described by systematic travellers under the name of Tartars and Tschoudes, the Caucasian, Mongul, American, Malay, and Negro races, will appear less insulated, and we shall acknowledge, in this great family of the human race, one single organic type, modified by circumstances which perhaps will ever remain unknown.

“Though the nations of the new continent are connected by intimate ties, they exhibit, in the mobility of their features, in their complexions, tanned in a greater or less degree, and in their stature, a difference as remarkable as the Arabians, the Persians, and Sclavonians, who are all of the Caucasian race.

The hordes who wander along the burning plains of the equinoctial regions have, however, no darker skins than the mountaineers of the temperate zone; whether it be that in the human race, and in the greater part of animals, there is a certain period of organic life, beyond which the influence of climate and food have no effect, or that the deviation from the primitive type becomes apparent only after a long series of ages.

Besides, every thing concurs to prove, that the Americans, as well as the people of the Mongul race, have less flexibility of organization than the other nations of Asia and Europe.”

southern constellation.

“From the time we entered the torrid zone, we were never wearied with admiring, every night, the beauty of the southern sky, which, as we advanced towards the south, opened new constellations to our view.

We feel an indescribable sensation, when, on approaching the equator, and particularly on passing from one hemisphere to the other, we see those stars which we have contemplated from our infancy, progressively sink, and finally disappear.

Nothing awakens in the traveller a livelier remembrance of the immense distance by which he is separated from his country, than the aspect of an unknown firmament.

The grouping of the stars of the first magnitude, some scattered nebulæ, rivalling in splendor the milky way, and tracks of space remarkable for their extreme blackness, give a particular physiognomy to the southern sky.

This sight fills with admiration even those, who, uninstructed in the branches of accurate science, feel the same emotion of delight in the contemplation of the heavenly vault, as in the view of the beautiful landscape, or a majestic site.

A traveller has no need of being a botanist, to recognize the torrid zone on the mere aspect of its vegetation; and without having acquired any notions of astronomy, without any acquaintance with the celestial charts of Flamstead and de la Caille, he feels he is not in Europe, when he sees the immense constellation of the Ship, or the phosphorescent clouds of Magellan, arise on the horizon.

The heaven, and the earth, every thing in the equinoctial regions, assumes an exotic character.

“We saw distinctly, for the first time, the Cross of the South only in the night of the 4th and 5th of July, in the sixteenth degree of latitude; it was strongly inclined, and appeared from time to time between the clouds, the centre of which, furrowed by uncondensed lightnings, reflected a silver light.

“The pleasure we felt on discovering the Southern Cross, was warmly shared by such of the crew as had lived in the colonies.

In the solitude of the seas, we hail a star as a friend, from whom we have long been separated. —

Among the Portuguese and the Spaniards peculiar motives seem to increase this feeling; a religious sentiment attaches them to a constellation, the form of which recalls the sign of the faith planted by their ancestors in the deserts of the new world.

“The two great stars which mark the summit and the foot of the Cross having nearly the same right ascension, it follows hence, that the constellation is almost perpendicular at the moment when it passes the meridian.

This circumstance is known to every nation that lives beyond the tropics, or in the southern hemisphere.

It has been observed at what hour of the night, in different seasons, the Cross of the South is erect, or inclined.

It is a time-piece that advances very regularly near four minutes a-day, and no other group of stars exhibits to the naked eye, an observation of time so easily made.

How often have we heard our guides exclaim, in the Savannas of Venezuela, or in the desert extending from Lima to Truxillo, “Midnight is past, the Cross begins to bend!”

How often those words reminded us of that affecting scene, where Paul and Virginia, seated near the source of the river of Lataniers, conversed together for the last time, and where the old man, at the sight of the Southern Cross, warns them that it is time to separate.

canary birds.

“As we approached the town of Orotava, we met great flocks of canaries.

These birds, well known in Europe, were in general uniformly green; some had a yellow tint on their backs; their note was the same as that of the tame canary.

It is nevertheless remarked, that those which have been taken in the isle of the Great Canary, and in the islet of Monte Clara, near Lanzerota, have a stronger, and at the same time the most harmonious song.

Under every zone, among birds of the same species, each flock has its peculiar note.

The yellow canaries are a variety which has taken birth in Europe; and those we saw in cages at Orotava and Santa Cruz had been bought at Cadiz, and in other ports of Spain.

But of all the birds of the Canary Islands, that which has the most heart-soothing song is unknown in Europe; this is the capirote, which no effort has been able to tame, so sacred to his soul is liberty.

I have stood in admiration at his soft and melodious warbling, in a garden at Orotava; but I have never seen him sufficiently near, to know to what family he belongs.