PREFACE. xi ' 



thors, who were eye-witnesses, and not hear-say re- 

 laters of what they have written. M. de Pauw, on 

 the contrary, not only never saw the country that 

 he has undertaken to characterize, but even appears 

 not to have been solicitous to consult those authors 

 who have written upon it, for although he frequently 

 mentions Frazier and Ulloa, he cites their opinions 

 only as far as they tend to confirm his theory. Both 

 those authors speak of Chili as very fertile, but M. 

 de Pauw has not thought proper to insert those pas- 

 sages, but only observes, in general terms, that wheat 

 cannot be raised except in some of the North Ameri- 

 can provinces. 



Led away by inferences drawn from an ideal sys- 

 tem of his own invention, he has carried his visionary 

 notions so far that his work partakes more of the na- 

 ture of a romance than a philosophical disquisition. 

 It is sufficient for his purpose to find, in the vast ex- 

 tent of America, some small district or unimportant 

 island labouring under the disadvantages of an unfa- 

 vourable climate or unproductive soil, to attribute 

 these circumstances as general to all the provinces of 

 that country. A wretched tribe of the most obscure 

 savages serves as his model of character for all the 

 Americans. Such is the logic of M. de Pauw — it 

 would be an endless task were I to endeavour to con- 

 fute the numerous erroneous opinions that he has 

 advanced respecting America; upon that subject 

 he has deduced his conclusions from the most un- 

 founded premises, and employed a mode of reason- 

 ing that might, with equal propriety, be applied to 

 the prejudice of any other portion of the globe ; a 



