TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 



THE difcovery of America conftitutes one of the mofi: 

 remarkable seras of the world ; and the hiftory of 

 it fubje^i: not only curious but univerfally interefting, 

 from its various connections with almoft every other part 

 of the globe. The Spanifh hiftorians of the two preced- 

 ing centuries have done little towards elucidating this 

 point. Partiahty, prejudice, ignorance, and credulity, 

 have occafioned them all to blend fo many abfurdities and 

 improbabilities with their accounts, that it has not been 

 merely difficult, but altogether impoffible, to afcertain 

 the truth. To colleCi: from their fcattered materials 

 whatever wore the face of probability, that was natu- 

 rally curious, or politically interefting, fo as to form one 

 uniform confiftent relation of the whole, was a tafl^ in 

 which, for a long time, no modern writer dared to engage. 

 Dr. Robertfon at laft undertook, and executed it with 

 the applaufe due to his beauty of ftile, his induftry and 

 his judgment. 



But notwithftanding the affiduity of his refearches, 

 and the pains he has taken to extricate fafts from the 

 confufion of different authors, as what is true does not 

 always appear poffible, and what appears probable is not 

 always true, he has not entirely fucceeded, though he 

 has done all that could be expelled. The want of many 

 effential documents, which are preferved in archives of 



the 



