INTRODUCTION. 



49 



the editor became an actor in the scenes that followed, 

 and his journal fell into neglect, or rather gave place 

 to a new paper entitled the Gazette of Buenos Ayres, 

 established by the junta, which instead of essays on 

 the natural advantages of the country, on the different 

 kinds of soils, the proper modes of culture, 



—quo sidere terram 

 Vertere, MsecenaSjUlmisque adjungere vitis 

 Conveniat: que cura bourn, que cultus babendo 

 Sit pecore — 



was filled with politics, domestic and foreign news, 

 the manifestoes of the government, and declamations 

 on the liberty of printing, on the abuses of the colonial 

 system, the political regeneration, abstract disquisitions 

 qn the value of government and rights of man, to- 

 gether with professions of loyalty to their beloved so- 

 vereign Ferdinand. 



The progress in literature and science made by the 

 natives of America, in spite of all these disadvantages, 

 ought to give us a high opinion of their natural capa- 

 cities, and in these the travellers in South America, 

 have no difference of opinion. They all seem to 

 agree, that they are neither deficient in quickness of 

 perception, nor of perseverance in the most abstruse 

 studies. They have certainly exhibited a much higher 

 literary character, than we had any right to expect 

 from the circumstances under which they were placed, 

 so well calculated to keep them in a state of the most 

 profound ignorance. When left free to pursue their 

 own inclinations, I have no doubt they will produce 

 their full quota of eminenl men; to look for this under 

 the Spanish regime, would be to look for ^^grapes on 

 VOL. I. 7 



