PREFACE. 



V 



find the book not altogether unworthy of a place among the 

 different accounts of a country to which recent events have 

 strongly directed the thoughts of Britons. 



He is sensible that many of his observations will be thought 

 minute; some of them, it may be, trifling ; but nothing is really 

 insignificant which directly bears, even in a small degree, on a 

 professed design. If the charge of over-minuteness be applied 

 to his commercial and nautical detiiils, he deems it sufficient 

 to reply, that he and his associates often found themselves in 

 situations where such minuteness would have been highly accep- 

 table and useful to them. 



Some will find his delineations on subjects of Natural 

 History deficient; but he does not pretend to a capacity of 

 representing such matters scientifically ; the pursuits of business 

 are not favourable to acquirements in Philosophical Knowledge, 

 and books are about to appear, he believes, professedly treating 

 on such topics. 



The paragraph relating to the intrinsic value of Gold Bullion 

 in page 467, seemed to be important in a general point of view, 

 and was therefore, during the last winter, presented to the Right 

 Hon. the Earl of Harewood, then Lord Lascelles, with a request 

 that he would transmit it to the Bullion Committee of the 

 House of Commons. 



In an Appendix, some few things are thrown together 

 which, though useful to be known, would have interrupted the 

 narrative if placed in the body of the work. The Signals for 

 entering the Port of Rio Grande do Sul are such as were in use 

 when the Author held last an opportunity of ascertaining them, 



4fj 



