His' , 



PEEFACE. 



The following Work is literally what 

 the title-page expresses, Extracts from a 

 copious Journal, written at very moment- 

 ous periods, during short professional vi- 

 sits to the principal ports on the western 

 coasts of South America and Mexico. 



It has no pretensions whatever to be 

 considered as a detailed account of those 

 countries. But, at the present moment, 

 when everything connected with the New 

 World engages so great a share of public 

 attention, it was thought that a few charac- 

 teristic sketches, by an eye-witness, of the 

 progress of the revolutions, and of the 



VOL. I. b 



