,

of the Guard. The Guides were specially charged with watching over the personal safety of the General-inChief, and had, moreover, the same effect in battle as the squadrons on duty afterwards had under the Emperor; because both were under his immediate direction, and ordered forward at critical moments; and be cause a handful of these veteran troops, opportunely set on, could not fail to produce important results.

The next operation undertaken by the French Army was the siege, or rather the blockade of Mantua. With this view, it became necessary to occupy the line of the Adige, and the bridges of Verona and Legnago. On the 3d of June, Massena took possession of that city, since become so famous in the annals of despotic and allied diplomacy; Porto-Legnago was armed, and the Army of Observation took up a position, having its left at Montebaldo, its centre at Verona, and its right on the lower Adige, so as completely to cover the intended operation. It was hoped, that this important undertaking would be accomplished before the new Austrian Army would debouch, from the passes of the Tyrol; "but what battles, what events, what dan gers were first to be encountered!"

Mantua is situate amidst three lakes, formed by the waters of the Mincio, which springs from the Lake of Garda, at

Peschiera, and runs into the Po near Governolo. The city then communicated with the town by means of five dykes; the first, that of La Favorite, which se parated the upper from the middle lake, is a hundred toises in length; it is of stone; the mills of the town are built against it; it has two flood-gates for discharging the water; at its outlet is the citadel of La Favorite, a regular pentagon, tolerably strong, and protected, on several of its fronts, by inundations. It is by this causeway that people leave Mantua to go to Roverbello, and thence to Verona and Peschiera. The causeway

of Saint-George is sixty toises long; it leads into the faubourg Saint-George; it is the road to Porto Legnago. This causeway, was closed by a stone gate, and in the middle of the lake by drawbridges, The third dyke is the causeway of Pie toli; the lower lake is there only eighty toises wide; but the ground between the lake and the place is occupied by an entrenched camp under the place, with

ditches full of water. The fourth dyke is that of the gate of Ceresa, which leads to Modena; it was closed by a stone gate; the lake at that part was of considerable breadth. Lastly, the fifth dyke or causeway was that of Pradella; it is two hundred toises long, and is the road to Cremona, defended by a horn-worn placed in the midst of the lake. Thus, of the five causeways, that of La Favo rite, or Roverbello, was the only one defended by a citadel; the four others were without defence; so that if the besiegers placed a handful of men at the extremities of these causeways, they could blockade the garrison. The Seraglio is the space com. prised between the Mincio, Mantua, the Po, and La Fossa Maestra, a canal which runs from the Lake of Mantua into the Po at Borgo-forte; it is a triangle of five or six square leagues, an island. Mantua requires a garrison of at least 12,000 men; this garrison ought to maintain itself as long as possible in the Seraglio, te make use of the resources which are to be

found there, the land being very fruitful,

and in order to continue masters of the the right bank of that river. course of the Po, and draw supplies from

Such was the place of which Napoleon now undertook the siege, an operation which was destined to form one of the most important and interesting episodes in this eventful campaign. The garrison, who were fully sensible of the importance of maintaining themselves at the head of the five causeways, proceeded with great activity in constructing retrench

ments. But the French did not al

low them sufficient time for the completion of these works. On the 4th, of June, the General-in-Chief carried the faubourg Saint-George, after a brisk action, and drove the enemy back into the place with such rapidity, that they had scarcely time to raise the drawbridges of the dyke Augereau gained possession of the Ceresa gate, after a firm resistance; and the enemy evacuated Pietoli, and retired into the hornwork. The heads of the four dykes, the garrison French being thus masters of the could now make no sortie except by the citadel of La Favorite, and might be kept in check by an inferior force. The direction of the blockade was intrusted to Serrurier, who fixed his head-quarters at Roverbello, opposite the citadel of La Favorite, where 3600 men were placed in observation;

In our last Number, we gave some account of the extensive countries of New Granada and Peru. We shall now endeavour to lay before our readers a brief sketch of the Viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres, in South America, and of Mexico, in North America.

The viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres is a vast country. The provinces of Charcos and Chiquitos, formerly belonging to Peru, were united to it in the year 1778; and by the union of this additional territory, it forms a compact body of land, nearly square, stretching through 26 degrees of south latitude. It was erected into a viceroyalty in 1778. It may be generally denominated a level country; two great chains of mountains, the one on the side of Brazil, and the other on the side of Peru, form its eastern and western boundaries. From the city of Buenos Ayres, westward, it stretches backward to the lofty ridges of the Andes, which divide it, on the west, from Peru and Chili. The height of the Andes is the dividing ridge from which Chili and Peru slope westwards, down to the Pacific Ocean, while Buenos Ayres slopes eastward, towards Brazil, from which it is divided by the Brazilian Andes. Towards the north, it is bounded by desert tracks of mountainous country, which give rise to numerous streams, that flow in every direction, to join the great streams which pour through the country, from regions imperfectly known. It may be considered as a vast amphitheatre, shut in, laterally, by the Brazilian and Peruvian mountains, by the heights of land which, on the north, disembogue their waters through the mouths of the Amazons and the Orinoco,-on the south, by the widely-expanded Plata, and by a branch of the Cordillera of Chili, that runs across to the Atlantic, leaving, towards the south-east, the immense opening of the Rio de la Plata, as a wide and magnificent portal, proportioned to the grandeur, to the importance, and to the extent of the regions to which it gives access. It is divided into five governments, or provinces.

I. Buenos Ayres, or Rio de la Plata, of which the chief towns are Buenos Ayres, 200 miles from the mouth of the Plata, containing 40,000, or, according to some, 60,000 inhabitants; Santa Fé, a small place at the confluence of the Salado and the Paraguay; Monte Video, 120 miles E. N. E. of Buenos Ayres, containing 20,000 inhabitants. Maldonado is a port on the Plata.

II. Paraguay, of which the chief town is Assumption, on the eastern bank of the great river Paraguay, 18 miles above the junction of the first mouth of the Pilcamayo. It contains 500 families of Spaniards, and several thousand Indians.

III. Tucuman, of which the chief towns are Tucuman, 1170 miles in a direct line from Lima; San Iago del Estero, 650 miles N. N. W. from Buenos Ayres, on the great road to Lima, containing 500 families; Cordova, 468 miles N. N. W. from Buenos Ayres, and containing 1500 Spanish inhabitants, with about 4000 negroes; Xujuy, or Zujuy, in long. 66° 4' W., lat. 23° 5' S.; Salta, or San Miguel de Salta, containing 400 houses, long. 64° 130′ W., lat. 24° 17' S.

IV. Los Charcos, and Potosi, formerly part of Peru, among the eastern ridges of the Andes, of which the chief towns are La Plata, or Chuquisaca, containing 14,000 inhabitants. Potosi once contained above 100,000 inhabitants, but they have now declined to 30,000; it is 1617 miles N. W. of Buenos Ayres, and 1215 N. E. of Lima; Santa Cruz de la Sierra is a pretty large and populous town, lat. 14° 20' S.; La Paz is 612 miles south-east of Lima, containing 20,000 inhabitants; its great staple article of trade is Paraguay tea, for which 200,000 piastres, or about £.45,000, are received annually.

V. Chiquito, or Cuzco, formerly part of Chili, of which the chief towns are Mendoza, in a plain at the foot of the Andes, with 6000 inhabitants; and San Juan de la Frontera, 94 miles N. by E., from Mendoza.

The Rio de la Plata, with all its tributary streams, such as the Para

guay, the Parana, the Uruguay, the Pilcomayo, the Vermejo, the Salado, is the great drain by which the waters of this immense country are carried to the ocean. The country, with the exception of the western provinces of Los Charcos, Potosi, &c. presents a track of land so nearly level, that many of its principal rivers, unable to roll themselves forward with sufficient impetus, form large shallow lakes. Such is the extreme flatness of the country, that, according to barometrical observations, the great river Paraguay is not estimated to fall one perpendicular foot within a space of 400 miles. The country being so perfect a level, it is found impossible to execute any artificial canal or conduit, so as to distribute an artificial supply through it, because no place being higher than another, there is no declivity along which the water will flow. In Buenos Ayres, accordingly, and other towns, it is found necessary to resort to machinery, in order to bring the water which is in the neighbourhood to the level of the houses. There is no other way of introducing water into these places, from the adjacent level. In consequence of the extreme flatness of the country, many of the numerous streams which flow down the eastern declivity of the Andes, stagnate in the plains below, and there form lakes, or marshy ground. In the flat plains of La Plata, the Los Xarayes is formed by the collected waters of the torrents which flow during the rainy season, from the mountains of Chiquitos; and the Paraguay, swelling over its banks at that period, inundates an expanse of flat land under the 17° of S. lat., to an extent of 330 miles in length, and 120 in breadth. When the waters of the Paraguay abate, this lake becomes a marsh, infested with alligators. Its banks swarm with tigers, monkies, stags, &c., and with venomous reptiles and insects. Besides this lake, there are many others of a great size; and several smaller ones, which are formed by the rivers, which cannot continue their course without inundating the land in the vicinity of their banks.

It is one remarkable feature of this flat country, that it contains an immense track, 600 or 700 miles in

length, and 150 in breadth, the soil of which is saturated with fossil salt, and in which there is neither rivulet, lake, nor well, which is not brackish. At the city of Assumption, a considerable quantity of salt is refined from the earth; and between Santa Fé and Cordova, as far as St. Jago del Estero, the whole ground is covered with a white incrustation of salt, even to the foot of the Cordillera. The ground also appears white with saltpetre, after a shower of rain, and the feet are chilled with it excessively. To the south-west of Buenos Ayres, from 400 to 450 miles, the country abounds with salt lakes, which produce very fine crystallinegrained salt. Journies are frequently undertaken from Buenos Ayres to these salt lakes, and two or three carts are annually loaded with it. The country to the south of the great river of Patagonia is also spread out into extensive plains, which extend in almost uninterrupted continuity.

These immense levels present a vast expanse of waving grass, extending for 900 miles, and covered with a strong and luxuriant herbage. No hill rises, in this immense level, to a greater elevation than 600 feet above the plain, so that, if placed on one of these eminences, the eye wanders over a space resembling the ocean, uninterrupted, save by the dark spots formed here and there, by the grazing of cattle, or by the travelling waggons and escorts. The nutritive herbage with which they are covered affords pasture to those innumerable herds of cattle that rove, unvalued and unowned, over a great portion of South America, and whose hides and tallow alone are occasionally sought after by the Spanish hunters, and form a principal article of the trade of Buenos Ayres. This country is not inhabited either by the Indians or by the Spaniards, though it is occasionally traversed by both; in these trackless deserts, there are no land-marks or traces by which the road can be discovered, for many hundred miles, and the rout is therefore pursued by the compass.

From Buenos Ayres, the great road to Potosi and Lima passes through Tucuman.

In 1748, regular stages were built

all the way, post-houses were erected, and relays of horses and carriages provided.

The method of travelling is in covered waggons, drawn by oxen or horses, in which the traveller can recline, and must necessarily exercise much patience; but the silver and gold from the mines, as well as all kinds of merchandize, are conveyed along this road on the backs of mules. Its extent from Buenos Ayres to Potosi is 1617, or, according to some accounts, 1873 miles, 400 of which are over the elevated chains of the Andes, and are impassable for the waggons from Potosi to Lima; the route continues 1215 miles more. The road passes over the highest ridges of the Andes, and the traveller who undertakes so arduous a journey is exposed to various hardships and privations, not only from being exposed to the utmost extremes, both of heat and cold, but from the exceeding rugged and impracticable nature of the country through which he has to pass. About the distance of 500 miles from Buenos Ayres, in a north-west direction, the ground begins to rise considerably; and at the distance of other 500 miles, at the town of Salto, in W. long. 64° 1', and S. lat. 24° 17', all the less elevated ridges terminate. In a few hours, the traveller suddenly passes from the scorching heat of the unsheltered plains, to the perpetual winter which reigns amid the snowy summits of the Andes; and the health of the most robust European is undermined by the effect of this violent transition. The road continues among the Andes for 400 miles. The thick woods of Tucuman are then lost; but the swarms of locusts, crickets, ants, mosquitoes, toads, frogs, serpents, and alligators, also disappear, the traveller having now entered the temperate region; the road then winds amid abrupt and frightful precipices and chasms, and sometimes with so narrow a footway, that the mules can scarcely move. The path is here indented with deep holes, in which the animals place their legs, and thus prevent the danger of slipping over the precipices at other places where the road inclines at a great slope. These sagacious creatures place themselves with their

fore and hind feet close together, and inclining forward, as if about to lie down, they slide with inconceivable velocity to the bottom. These mountains, in some parts, are traversed at the bottom by narrow and perpendicular clefts, where, if the animal falls, his rider must infallibly be crushed.

The passage of the many torrents and rivers is also another difficulty: across those which are shallow, very large and high horses are used, which are trained for the purpose; over the deeper ones, rope bridges are thrown; and it is only in summer that this journey can be attempted, as the swelling of the rivers in the winter torrents render them impracticable. Even in summer, when the snow in the higher regions suddenly melts, the torrents are swoln to such a degree, and dash with such force from the mountains, that many an unhappy traveller perishes. The country is here mountainous, cold, and barren, rising frequently so high, that the climate is adverse to all vegetation. But these regions are rich in mineral treasures; they abound in silver, and frequently in gold, which is sometimes procured by mining, and in other parts is gathered from the sands, or collected from the streams. The whole country, as it rises from the plains, is rich in mineral ore, and both silver and gold mines abound. Those of Potosi have been long celebrated, though they are not so rich as formerly. This city is built on a ridge of the Andes, in an elevated situation, where the climate is cold, and the environs barren. The mines are in the same mountain on which the city is built. They are composed of a yellow, very firm argillaceous slate, full of veins of ferruginous quartz, in which silver ore, and sometimes brittle vitreous ore, are found interspersed. These rude ores were found by Helms, the German mineralogist, who visited these mines, by order of the King of Spain, to contain from six to eight ounces of silver in every caxon, or fifty hundred weight. There was also a solid silver ore, which yielded for every fifty hundred weight about twentyfour pounds of silver. Nothing, according to Helms, could equal the ignorance and carelessness which prevailed in the conduct of these mines.