Book excerpt: Excerpt from A Journey Across South America, Vol. 1: From the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean The journey of M. Paul Marcoy across South America, from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic, is one of the most remarkable of modern times; not so much for any serious peril the author encountered, as for the curious information he gathered among the mixed races and the savage tribes though whose territories he passed. To turn all the opportunities to account presented by such a journey it needed that the traveller should be as ready with his pencil as with his pen, and that he should possess something more than a general acquaintance with ethnology and several branches of natural history. In all these respects M. Panl Marcoy is, as his compatriot M. Emile Darier has observed, "a type of the model traveller," wanting no quality or talent which would enable him to use to the best advantage the succession of objects and of picturesque scenes that opened to his gaze. "A naturalist, ho describes with a master hand the fauna and flora of these countries; an archaeologist, he restores from the ruins they have left the temples and palaces, shattered monuments of the power of the Incas; an ethnologist, he carefully distinguishes each of the Indian tribes through whose territory he passes; a linguist, he gives a specimen of their idioms, showing the differences and analogies between them; a musician, he notes down their death-songs, their laments, their dance tunes; a draughtsman, lastly, his album has furnished the originals of the engravings with which, to the number of six hundred, M. Riou has enriched the published account of his journey." Further, I may be allowed to observe as his translator, that M. Marcoy has told the story of his wanderings in a very bur literary style, associating with exactness in detail a freedom of hand and breadth of colouring which every lover of nature must appreciate; and combining with a good humour which is proof against every mishap, and is often heightened by a grotesque incident, a sympathy with the "harmless savagery" of Indian life and character which shows his tine manliness. How far I have succeeded in reproducing these characteristics of the original narrative in English is for the reader to judge, but I may at least claim to have performed a somewhat arduous task conscientiously. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."