PREFACE. it 



SO seasoned, as to hold out the promise of becoming in a greater 

 or less degree suitable to each palate : he has otherwise missed 

 the aim he had in view. 



The old English saying, " to shoot at a pigeon and kill a 

 crow," was, however, verified by him, when he obtained the 

 set of Peruvian Mercuries, the selc6lion from which forms the 

 basis of his work. He was in quest, not of books, but of a 

 valuable Peruvian remedy belonging to the vegetable kingdom 

 (the carahualaj, little known in this country. To the end 

 that the adventure might be complete, he stumbled on a paint- 

 ing, which he has employed, partly with a view to illustrate 

 the subjedl matters of his work, and partly to render the work 

 itself more agreeable to the reader, where such illustration was 

 not absolutely necessary. The painting in question, the pro- 

 du6lion of an untutored native, denied the advantages which 

 the high cultivation of the arts in Europe affords, is in many 

 of its parts finely executed, as will appear by the subje6ts that 

 have been taken from it on the present occasion. It represents 

 the Indian festival, in the great square of Lima, on the event 

 of the accession of his present Catholic Majesty, Charles the 

 Fourth, to the throne. In the engravings, the design of the 

 artist has been stri6tly adhered to ; and it ought therefore to be 

 noticed, that, as he was planted on an eminence, his pidture 

 presents what is termed by painters a bird's-eye view. The curve 



b2 of 



