Th. PREFACE, 
rere Recetnis, pa whofe Manufcripts they were by the Lynée 
Publifhd at Rome, Anno 1649. They were chang'd from their 
firf order, as appears by the Spanifh-Copy, Printed at Mexico ; and 
‘tis pity that they were alter'd, and are fo fhort and abfetire : Meee 
with many of the Plants he defcribes in Jamaica, I had a Zreat mind to 
‘be fatisfied about them, and being told that the Original Draughts were 
in the King of Spain’s Library, in the Efcurial near Madrid, I wrote 
to Mr. Aglionby when he was Envoy from the late King William to 
the Court of Spain, to procure a Sight of that Work, and give me an 
Account of it. He was fo obliging as to take the Pains to go thither, 
and was told that the Book was there, and that he fhould fome time or 
other fee it ; which, tho he endeavour'd feveral Times, yet he could never 
effect. Neither had other curious ‘Travellers, better Fortune ‘ for when 
they had heard of this Book, and (knowing of what importance it would be 
to fee thefe Originals) did endeavour to procure a Sight of them, the Li- 
brary-Keepers were fo ignorant, to produce to them, fome other Book, rio 
ways to the Purpofe. Upon the whole matter, I dm apt to think the 
Originals were carried to Rome, where the Hiftory was Publifhd, and 
that they remain’d there with Recchus his Nephew; where, If my Me 
mory fail me not, Fabius Columna fays he faw them, lind that they 
are either to be found there, or at Naples, where Coltitnds liv'd, that 
wrote Notes on them, or that they are loft. However, it went with the 
Sande, from which that at Rome was publifh'd ; there was 
a Gopy printed at Mexico in Spanifh, in-the-Year vOT5.” Francifco 
Ximenes, one who attended the Sick of the Hofpital in that Gty, pub- 
lifh'd it then, with Emendations, Notes, and the Additional Obfervaz 
tions he had made of feveral Simples he bad found in Efpaniola, or 
Sto. Domingo, and other I/lands of the Weft-Indies. John de Laet 
mentions this Book in Latin, and’ from bim Vander Linden, in bis.. 
Book de Scriptis Medicis has, I fuppofe, taken its Title bat I verily 
believe it was never printed in any other Language than Spanifh. J ohn 2 
de Laet takes many things out of bim, and puts them very often in \a 
wrong Place, as additional to the Obfervations of Marcgsrave in Brafile, 
in the Edition of that Author, publifh ‘d. by bim in 1648. But that Fault 
may beeajily pardon 'd, ‘in one who was no more than a Collettor and Editor 
i Books wherein be did not pais to any tay Roe 
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