INTRODUCTION. 



had belonged to the Jesuits of Cordova, were per- 

 mitted to be set up, for the benefit of the foundling hos- 

 pital; but very little use was made of it. It is re- 

 markable that the establishment of the press has every 

 where attended the first revolutionary movements in 

 South America. This blessing, so carefully denied the 

 South Americans, appears to be intimately connected 

 with their independence, and at the same time, evinces 

 the enlightened spirit of liberty, by which they are 

 animated. A remarkable instance of this is related 

 by Guerra, in his history of Mexico; the Mexicans 

 being unable to procure presses and types, taxed their 

 own ingenuity, and although totally unacquainted with 

 the art but from description, made types of wood, and 

 succeeded in printing with a kind of ink made of in- 

 digo. The writer before mentioned, states that he 

 had in his possession several of their gazettes, very 

 neatly printed. There is no circumstance which 

 speaks more strongly the love of free and rational in- 

 stitutions, than their eagerness for the establishment 

 of presses. There is an inseparable alliance between 

 liberty and letters, because they give strength to pub- 

 lic opinion; and this may be rendered more powerful 

 than armies or kings. The rapid progress of literature 

 in South America, wherever the Spanish power has 

 been cast off, is truly wonderful. The kings of Spain 

 aware of this dangerous thirst for knowledge, in his 

 American subjects, had of late years neglected no- 

 thing that might tend to check it. There are many 

 in the city of Baltimore, who recollect the circum- 

 stance which took place in 1804; a corvette was des- 

 patched from Havana, to bring home fifteen or twenty 

 young men, who had been placed by their parents at 



