DON FELIX D'AZARA. 75 



the home government of the Spanish transatlantic 

 possessions. From Spain he continued to correspond 

 with his friend Walckenaer, concerning the publi- 

 cation of his " Voyages/' In the year 1805 he 

 writes that the government had fixed him in Ma- 

 drid, and that though he had requested a short 

 leave, it could not be granted. The ambition of a 

 hero and tyrant now altered the political relations 

 of France and Spain, and exchanged the friendly 

 and peaceful intercourse of Naturalists and others, 

 for a deluge of misery, rapine, and blood. The last 

 notice we find in the correspondence, in January 

 1806, is in these striking words : " A good citizen 

 is his country's, and I am now useful to mine." 

 When his works were published in France, a copy 

 could not be transmitted to Madrid ; and no further 

 information, we believe, has been procured of his 

 declining years, or of his death.* 



Abused mortals, did you know 



Where joy, heart's ease, and comfort grow, 



You'd scorn proud towers, 



And seek them in these bowers ; 



* A curious mistake is made in the last edition of the En- 

 cyclopaedia Britannica, which, by the bye, contains the only 

 attempt of a notice of Azara's life we have seen, in any of the 

 popular Biographies or Encyclopaedias. He is here confounded 

 with his brother, Don Joseph Nicolas ; and a jumble is made 

 of the history of the two into one narrative, and under one 

 name, viz. Don Joseph Felix Nicolas de Azara. Hence Nicolas 

 is made a soldier and naturalist, and Felix an ambassador* 

 virtuoso, and scholar. We need scarcely add, that Don Felix 

 did not die in the year 1803 or 1804. 



