370; 
that I hope you are pleased with 
each other, 
I am, with the greatest respect, 
Dear Sir, 
Your most obedient, 
And most humble servanr, 
Apam Ferguson, 
Mr. Gibbon to Dr, Robertson. 
Paris, 1777: 
Str, 
WHEN I ventured to assume the 
character of historian, the first, the 
most natural, but at the same time 
most ambitious, wish which I en. 
tertained, was to obtain the ap- 
probation of Dr. Robertson and of 
Mr. Hume; two names which 
friendship united, and which pos- 
terity wall never separate. I shall 
not therefore attempt to dissemble, 
though I cannot easily express, the 
pleasure which I received from your 
obliging letter, as well as from the 
intelligence of your most: valuabie 
present. The satisfaction which I 
should otherwise have enjoyed, in 
common with the public, wil! now 
be heightened by a sentiment of a 
more personal and flattering na- 
ture ; and I shall frequently whis- 
per to myself, that I have in some 
measure deserved the esteem of the 
writer whom I admire. 
A short excursion which I made 
to this place, during the summer 
months, has occasioned some delay 
in my receiving your letter, and 
‘will prevent my possessing, till my 
return, the copy of your history, 
which you so politely desired Mr. 
Strahan to send me. But I have 
already gratified the eagerness of 
my impatience; and although I 
wus obliged to return the book 
much sooner than 1 could have 
Wished, I have seen enongh to con- 
vince me, that the present publi. 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1796. 
cation will support, and, if pes. 
sible, will extend the fume of the 
author’; that the materials are cols 
lected with diligence, and arranged 
with skill ; that the first book con. 
tains a learned satisfactory account 
of the progress of discovery ; that 
the achievements, the dangers, and. 
the crimes, of the Spanish adven- 
turers are related with a temperate 
spirit ; and that the most original, 
perhaps the most ¢urious, portion’ 
of the history of human manners is 
at length rescued from the haads 
of sophists and declaimers. Lord 
Stormont, and the few jn this ca- 
pital, who have had ap opportunity 
of perusing the history of America, 
unanimously concur in the same) 
sentiments. Your work is already- 
become a favourite topic of public. 
conversation; and Mr, Suard is 
repeatedly pressed, in my hearing, 
to fix the time when his eranslation 
will appear, 
I flatter myself you will not 
abandon your design of visiring 
London next winter: as I already 
anticipate, in my own mind, the 
advantages which 1 shail derive 
from so pleasing and so honourable 
a connexion. In the mean whiley 
1 should esteem myse!# happy, if 
you could think of any Iiterary: 
commission, in the execution of 
which I might be useful ta. you at 
Paris, where I prepose to stay till 
very near the meeting of | Parlia- 
ment. Let me, for instane, «suy- 
gest an ingviry, which cannot, ve 
indifferent. to you, and» which 
might, perhaps, be within my 
reach. <A few -days ago I dined 
with Beniofski, the tamous» ad- 
venturer, who escaped from his 
exile at Kamschatska, | and returned 
into Europe by Japan and China. 
His narrative was amusing, though 
I know 
