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PREFACE. 



THE Author of the following Notes resided in Brazil, 

 with few interruptions, during the term of ten years, and enjoyed 

 there as great advantages for varied observation, as any of his 

 countrymen, in his own rank. Of the skill with which he used 

 these advantages, and of the judgment and taste with which 

 he has endeavoured to fit his descriptions of scenes and events 

 for publication, he is no adequate judge. The praise of equity 

 and impartiality he presumes to claim. His first object in 

 writing Notes was confined to his own amusement ; in selecting 

 and publishing those which he presents to the Public, nobler 

 views are indulged, he ventures to hope, that he may interest 

 and instruct. 



The order of time forms the great outline of his plan, and 

 while he was moving from one place to another, has been gene- 

 rally observed ; but a regular and lengthened Journal, would 

 probably have been unacceptable. He thinks select descriptions 

 most likely to afford general amusement, and to make the reader 

 «o acquainted with characters, scenes, events, and circumstances^ 



