^t6 ULLOA's voyage to south AMERICA. 



any degree of certainty. But by the accident of thefe gentlemen going thither, with no 

 other view than the improvement of knowledge, purfuing that view with the moft lively 

 zeal and affiduous application, and founding their reputation upon a plain and candid 

 communication of all that knowledge which, with fo much pains and labour, they had 

 acquired, we have now as clear, concife, and correct a reprefentation of thefe extenfive 

 regions as we can poflibly defire ; fuch a one, as will anfwer all the ends of information 

 and inftrudion, enable us to difcover the errors and partialities in former accounts, and 

 prevent our being amufed or mifled by any erroneous relations for the future, which are 

 certainly circumftances of very great confequence. 



The natural hiftory of thefe countries will be likewife/ound in the following fheets, in a 

 manner no lefs perfe6i: and pleafing. Thefe gentlemen went about it in a proper method, 

 and with the talents requifite to the complete accomplifhment of their defign. They 

 faw things with their own eyes, they enquired carefully, but they took nothing on trufl : 

 on the contrary, they difcovered, and they have difclofed, many errors of an old (land- 

 ing ; exploded various common notions that were ill founded, and have left others in 

 the ftate in which they ought to be left, as things not thoroughly proved, or abfolutely 

 difproved ; but which are referved for further examination. It is chiefly from the na- 

 tural hiftory that we colleft the value and importance of any country, becaufe from 

 thence we learn its produce of every kind. In thefe fheets we find the greateft care 

 taken in this particular ; all the riches of the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms 

 exhibited to our view, their places exadly affigned, their refpedive natures defcribed, 

 the methods of ufnig, improving, and manufacturing them pointed out ; and, exclufive 

 of a multitude of vulgar errors expofed, and miftaken notions refuted, an infinity of 

 new, curious, and important remarks are made, all tending to explain and illuftrate the 

 refpedtive fubjedts. Of thefe many inftances might be given ; but that would be to 

 anticipate the reader's pleafure, and arrogate to ourfelves the merits of the authors we 

 celebrate. 



In refpeft to the civil hiftory, the world in general was yet more in the dark than as 

 to the natural ; knowing much lefs of the inhabitants than of the commodities of thefe 

 countries ; and in this refpe6t our authors have been as candid, as circumftantial, and 

 as copious, as in the other. They not only acquaint us with the diftribution and difpo- 

 fition of the Spanifh governments ; with the nature, extent, and fubordination of thofe 

 who prefide in them ; but have alfo given us a regular plan of their ad minift ration, and 

 of the order and method in which juftice is difpenfed, and the civil policy maintained ; 

 the domeftic oeconomy of the Spaniards, their cuftoms, manner of living, their way 

 of treating the Indians, both fubje£ts and favages, are ftated with the fame freedom and 

 precifion. In like manner they give us a fuccindt account of the Creoles, that is, fuch 

 as are defcended from the Spaniards, and have been longer or later fettled in the Indies, 

 with whatever is peculiar in refpedt to the genius, humour, virtues, and vices of thefe 

 people ; and more efpecially the points in which they differ from the native Spaniards. 

 The ftate and condition of the Indians who live in fubjedion to the Spaniards, their 

 tempers, employments, good and ill qualities, labours, and diverfions. The habitations 

 of the free Indians, their cuftoms, drefs, manner of fpending their lives, exercifes, 

 talents, religion, and method of preferving the remembrance of paft tranfadtions, as 

 alfo the condition of the negroes and mulattoes, whether in the capacity of flaves, 

 domeftic fervants, or in poffeffion of their freedom, with whatever differences occur 

 in the ftate of any of thefe people in different provinces. 



But to the Englifh reader, perhaps, nothing in the following pages will be more ac- 

 ceptable, as indeed nothing feenis to have been more carefully confidered by the authors 



2 than 



