22 MEMOIR OF 



nor their help, in the fear that I should abuse their 

 condescendence, I resolved to follow out my own 

 scheme, and to take the whole responsibility upon 

 myself; personally meeting also all the attendant 

 expenses, and travelling without their leave, while 

 at the same time I did not for a moment lose sight 

 of the grand object with which I was intrusted. 



The scheme to which Azara here alludes, and 

 which he determined if possible to execute, was 

 nothing else than a complete delineation and de- 

 scription of the vast Spanish dominions in the cen- 

 tral parts of South America, comprehending a region 

 of about fifteen hundred miles in length and about 

 nine hundred in breadth. True, he had now attained 

 the meridian of his days, and nearly twenty years 

 had been spent in the varied duties of a soldier's 

 life; he had acquired a more than usual share of 

 rank and distinction, and on this he might have 

 satisfactorily reposed, contented with the consci- 

 entious discharge of that honourable commission 

 with which he was intrusted. But views so limited 

 were wholly alien to his tastes and disposition. 

 Placed in a continent so much unknown to science, 

 and where his curiosity was every day provoked 

 by some new wonder, he could not remain at rest, 

 nor allow the occasion to escape without attempt- 

 ing to improve it. Deeply conscious of his want 

 of preliminary qualifications, he yet determined 

 to do what he could; and his history affords a 

 fine example of what a person of ordinary educa- 

 tion and intelligence may achieve, by dint of steadi- 



