X 



PREFACE. 



acquaintance with several intelligent natives of 

 that country, who contributed much to remove 

 the prejudices, which, in common with many of 

 my countrymen, I had formed against every 

 thing Spanish, whether European or American. 

 My feelings were thus at an early period enlist- 

 ed on the cause of South American emancipa- 

 tion; but I felt no other interest than this; I was 

 never either directly or indirectly connected 

 with the fortunes of any of the chieftains, or 

 other persons, actually engaged in the patriot 

 cause. I wished well to those who directed the 

 affairs of the patriots, and judged of them chief- 

 ly by their success, for I knew that any other 

 mode, at this distance from the scene of action, 

 could not be much relied on. If, by awy fatality, 

 1 should have been enlisted in the private views 

 and interests, of any of these chiefs, I would 

 honestly avow myself a partisan^ and leave to 

 others to judge, whether my testimony could be 

 impartial, I have uniformly condemned the 

 whole scheme of privateering in the name of the 

 patriot governments, especially of those that have 

 neither ships^ seamen^ nor even ports^ of their 

 own. I consider it as an abominable abuse, caU 

 culated to bring the patriot cause into disrepute 

 with good men, tending to demoralize our ma- 

 riners, and to gratify a thirst for plunder, in 

 many who care for little else. It is not more 

 than a year ago since some of the friends of the 



