X 



PREFACE. 



brevity prevails throughout the work, which is writ- 

 ten in a plain and unaffected manner, without be- 

 wildering myself with vague conjectures and hazar- 

 dous hypotheses, which would have been deviating 

 altogether from the limits that I had prescribed to 

 myself. 



I have frequently quoted those authors who have 

 written upon Chili, and have judged this precaution 

 the more necessary, as, in treating of a country so re- 

 mote and so little known, I could not expect to be 

 believed on my own unsupported assertion ; but the 

 passages that I have selected will evince that 1 have 

 not exaggerated in my accounts of the salubrity of 

 the climate, and the excellence of the soil, and that 

 I might have been justified in saying still more. 



With respect to this work, it is no more than a 

 compendium, or an abridged history of many of 

 the natural productions of Chili. The reflecting rea- 

 der will not look in it for a complete natural history 

 of that country ; such a work would have required 

 much greater means than I possess, and such as- 

 sistance as I have not been able to procure. 



Those acquainted with M. de Pauw's philosophi- 

 cal inquiries respecting the Americans, will per- 

 haps be surprised to find in my work some re- 

 marks which do not correspond with what that 

 author has said respecting America in general. 

 But whatever I have asserted respecting Chili is 

 founded upon personal experience and attentive 

 observation during a residence of many years in that 

 country, and, in support of what I have advanced, I 

 have cited the authority of several respectable au- 



