XII PREFACE. 



In lespect to the civil history, the world in general 

 was yet more in the dark, thati as to the natural ; 

 knowing much less of the inhabitants than of the com- 

 modities of these countries ; and in this respect, our 

 authors have been as candid, as circumstantial, and 

 as copious, as in the other. They not only acquaint 

 lis with the distribution and disposition of theSpanish 

 governments; with the nature, extent, and subordina- 

 tion of those who preside in them ; but have also given 

 us a regular plan of their administration, and of the 

 order and method in which justice is dispensed, and 

 the civil policy maintained ; the domestic oeconomy 

 of the Spaniards, their customs, manner of living, 

 their way of treating the Indians, both subjects and 

 savages, are stated with the same freedom and preci* 

 sion. In like manner they give us a succinct account 

 of the Creoles, that is, such as are descended from the 

 Spaniards, and have been longer or later settled in the 

 Indies, with whatever is peculiar in respect to the ge- 

 nius, humour, virtues, and vices of these people; and 

 more especially the points in which they differ from 

 the native Spaniards. The state and condition of the- 

 Indians who live in subjection to the Spaniards, their 

 tempers, employments, good and ill qualities, labours 

 and diversions. The habitations of the free Indians^ 

 their customs, dress, manner of spending their lives, 

 exercises, talents, religion, and method of preserving 

 the remembrance of past transactions, as also the 

 condition of the Negroes and Mulattoes, whethier in 

 the capacity of slaves, domestic servants, or in pos- 

 session ot their freedom, with whatever differences 

 occur in the state of any of these people in different 

 provinces. 



But to the English reader, perhaps, nol'hing in the 

 following pages will be more acceptable, as indeed 



nothing 



