ACCOUNT OP BOOKS. 



739 



the versatile powers of his creative 

 fancy. We have to consider him 

 as the historian of an interesting 

 portion of the globe, concerning 

 which we have hitherto received 

 but h'ttle authentic information. 



Although Mr. Southey's work 

 professes to be a History of Brazil, 

 *' something more than the title 

 promises, is comprised in the pre- 

 sentwork. Itrelatesthefoundation 

 and progress of the adjacent Spa- 

 nish provinces, the affairs of which 

 are in latter times inseparably con- 

 ' nected with those of Brazil. The 

 subject may therefore be consi- 

 dered as including the whole tract 

 of country between the rivers Pla- 

 ta, Paraguay, and Orellana, or the 

 Amazons, and extending eastward 

 towards Peru, as far as the Por- 

 tuguese have extended their set- 

 tlements or their discoveries." 



Before we proceed in ^n ac- 

 count of this volume, it may be 

 proper to observe that Mr. S. has 

 diligently availed himself of every 

 authentic information which he 

 could procure ; and, by a careful 

 comparison of his materials, has 

 produced a highly interesting pub- 

 lication. 



Mr, Southey thus states the na- 

 ture of his undertaking : *' The 

 history of Brazil is less beautiful 

 than that of the mother country, 

 and less splendid than that of the 

 Portuguese in Asia ; but it is not 

 less important than either. Its ma- 

 terials differ from those of other 

 histories : here are no tangles of 

 crooked policy to unravel, no mys- 

 teries of state iniquity to elucidate, 

 no revolutions to record, nor vic- 

 tories to celebrate, the fame of 

 which remains among us long af- 

 ter their effects have passed away. 



Discovered by chance, and long 

 left to chance, it is by individual 

 industry and enterprize, and by 

 the operation of the common laws 

 of nature and society, that this 

 empire has risen and flourished, 

 extensive as it now is, and mighty 

 as it must one day become. In 

 the course of itsannals, disgust and 

 anger will oftener be felt than 

 those exalted feelings which it is 

 more grateful for the historian to 

 excite. I have to speak of savages 

 so barbarous that little sympathy 

 can be felt for any sufferings which 

 they endured, and of colonists in 

 whose triumphs no joy will be 

 taken, because they added avarice 

 to barbarity ; ignoble men, carrying 

 on an obscure warfare, the con- 

 sequences of which have been 

 greater than were produced by the 

 conquests of Alexander or Charle- 

 magne, and will be far more last- 

 ing. Even the few higher charac- 

 ters which appear, have obtained 

 no fame beyond the limits of their 

 own religion, scarcely beyond 

 those of their language. Yet has 

 the subject its advantages : the 

 discovery of extensive regions ; 

 the manners and superstitions of 

 uncivilized tribes ; the efforts of 

 missionaries, in whom zeal the 

 most fanatical was directed by 

 the coolest policy ; the rise and 

 the overthrow of the extraordinary 

 dominion which they established ; 

 and the progress of Brazil from 

 its feeble beginnings, to the im- 

 portance which it now possesses, 

 these are topics of no ordinary 

 interest.'' 



Brazil was accidentally disco- 

 vered seven years after the first 

 voyage of Columbus. Vicente 

 Yanez Pinzon, who had accom- 



3 B 2 



