Revieii), 169 



guide him, has deformed his History of America with 

 the most palpable falsehoods and errors, concerning the 

 physical condition of this continent, and of its inhabi- 

 tants ! -We blush for Sir Walter Raleigh, whose 



learning, and talents, and taste, enabled him to write a 

 stupendous and elegant work on the history of the world, 

 when we read his account of whole nations of Ame- 

 rican Indians, who were entirely destitute of heads. 



What shall we think of the learned Spanish historio- 

 grapher, Herrera, who tells us, that ' the Trochilus, or 

 Humming-bird, feeds like a bee on flowers, and the 

 dew that lies on them, and when the rains cease, and 

 the dry season comes on, clings to the trees by its 

 beak, and dies ; but again returns to life, the following 

 year, upon the return of the rainy season.' These 

 (some of them, at least) are fit subjects for the rich 

 genius and the warm imagination of a poet at his 

 ease, amid the spicy groves or the flowery meads of 

 Iran, or of Hindustan. Others of them, again, might, 

 without the aid of much imagination, be employed as 

 new subjects in the work of some future Ovid. All of 

 them must be rejected by the Naturalist : he will 

 even reject them with a species of disdain ; and, indeed, 

 it is not without some difficulty, that we can prevail 

 upon ourselves to attach a high authority, in any thing, 

 to men who were capable of believing, and of publish- 

 ing, such fables as I have mentioned. 



" There is, however, some apology for credulity in 

 matters of natural history. The works and ways of 

 God are, indeed, wonderful, and many things, appa- 

 rently fabulous, are strictly true. Perhaps, there is no 



VOL. III. part i. r 



