2 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



voured to make themselves acquainted with it by 

 extensive journeys into the interior. In this re- 

 "spect we are infinitely indebted to many enter- 

 prising travellers of former times, but more par- 

 ticularly to those of the last half century, through 

 whose immortal labours America has been more 

 successfully explored than any of the continents of 

 the Old World, Europe alone excepted. Notwith- 

 standing, however, the great advances we have 

 made in our acquaintance with this part of the 

 world, it still offers so wide a field for research and 

 discovery as would greatly extend the sphere of 

 human knowledge. This observation is peculiarly 

 applicable to Brazil, the heart of this new conti- 

 nent ; and which, although it is the most beautiful, 

 and most richly endowed portion, has been hither- 

 to but thinly peopled and imperfectly known. 



His Majesty the King of Bavaria, the generous 

 patron of the sciences, sensible of the advantages 

 which would accrue to them, and to the interests 

 of mankind in general, from a more accurate know- 

 ledge of America, directed the Academy of Sciences 

 at Munich, about the end of the year 1815, to 

 di'aw up, and lay before him, a plan for a literary 

 tour into the interior of South America. Among 

 others selected for this expedition, were the two 

 academicians, authors of the present narrative, Dc 

 Spix for zoology, and Dr. Martins for botany. The 

 original plan was, to proceed from Buenos Ayres, 

 by land, to Chili ; thence to travel northwards to 



