6 



* 



INTRODUCTORY. 



Valparaiso, and Santiago, the capital of Chili. This time, however, 

 was not thrown away: my residence in these cities improved my 

 knowledge of the Spanish language, and gave me information regarding 

 the Bolivian tributaries of the Amazon which I probably could have 

 got nowhere else. 



The commander of the English naval forces in the Pacific, Admiral 

 Hornby, was much interested in my mission, and searched for me, 

 through his valuable library, for all that had been written upon the 

 subject. I am indebted to him, and the officers of his fleet, for much 

 personal kindness. 



I must also return thanks to Messrs. George Hobson, H. V. Ward, 

 George Cood, and Commodore Simpson, of the Chilian navy, for the 

 loan of books and maps which assisted me in forming my plans, and 

 deciding as to route. 



Mr. Bridges, an English florist and botanist, who had descended the 

 Chapare and Mamore, tributaries of the Madeira, as far as the mouth 

 of the Beni, and who sent the first specimen of the Victoria Eegia to 

 England from this country, gave me such a description of it as enabled 

 me to point out to Mr. Gibbon the most practicable route to the head 

 waters of those streams. 



I also had long conversations with General Ballivian, ex-President of 

 Bolivia, then an exile to Chili. He lent me a map of Bolivia, 

 executed under his orders whilst President of that republic, of which 

 I took a tracing, but which I had afterwards the misfortune to lose. 



At Santiago I received information regarding the river Beni, and 

 the interior of Bolivia and Peru, from a French gentleman named 

 Pissis, an engineer in the employment of the Chilian government ; and 

 also from a gentleman named Smith, an employe in the large mercan- 

 tile house of Huth, Griming, & Co., who had travelled much in those 

 countries. 



To Don Jose Pardo, charge d'affaires of Peru to the republic of 

 Chili, I owe much for information and advice. He gave me copies of 

 letters from Vicente Pazos, a citizen of Buenos Ayres, who has always 

 manifested much interest in the improvement and advancement of 

 South America, and who, in 1819, published a series of papers on the 

 affairs of that country, directed to Henry Clay. These letters I deem 

 of sufficient interest to give a translation of. 



