>n 



idiom, are owing' merely to fortuitous circum- 

 stances, are points of curious inquiry, and such 

 as will aflbrd an ample field for conjecture. 



The autlior of the present work, Don Juan 

 Ignatius Molina, was a native of Chili, distin- 

 guished for his literary acquirements, and parti- 

 cularly his knowledg:e of natural history, large 

 collections in which he had made during his re- 

 sidence in that country. On the dissolution of 

 the celebrated order of the Jesnits, of which he 

 was a member, he shared the general fate of that 

 community, in being expelled from the territories 

 of Spain, and was, at the same time, deprived 

 not only of his collections in natural history,, but 

 also of his manuscripts. The most important of 

 the latter, relative to Chili, he had, however, 

 the good fortune to regain by accident, some 

 lime after his residence in Bologna, in Italy, 

 whither he had gone on his arrival in Euiope. 



Furnished with these materials, he applied 

 himself to writing the history of that country, 

 which was published at two different periods; 

 the first part, comprising the Natural History, 

 in the year 1787, and the second, containing the 

 Civil, for reasons mentioned in his Preface, not 

 D.ntil some years after. This w ork, which was 

 written in kalian, has obtained a very high re- 

 putation on the continent of Europe, where it 

 has been translated into the French, German, 

 and Spanish languages. The celebrated Abb6 



b2 



