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which was given me b}' the Portugiieze ambassador at London, 

 gained me the notice and protection of his brother, the Conde de 

 Linhares, who had tlien just arrived with the rest of the Court, and 

 who recommended me to the Prince Regent, as a person devoted 

 to mineralogical pursuits, and desirous of exploring the ample 

 field for investigation which his rich and extensive territories pre- 

 sented. His Royal Highness was graciously pleased to further my 

 views, not only by granting me letters to the public functionaries 

 of the various places I wished to visit, but by ordering an escort of 

 soldiers, and every other necessary provision for performing the 

 journey. I had the more reason to be grateful for this munificent 

 patronage, because 1 knew that a decree existed prohibiting all 

 foreigners from travelling in the interior of Brazil, and that no 

 other Englishman had ever begun such an undertaking with those 

 indispensible requisites to its success, the permission and sanction 

 of the Government. 



Observations, made, in the course of these Travels, on the 

 country and on its inhabitants, conftitute the main part of the 

 volume now offered to the public. Whatever be their faults or their 

 merits, they relate to a subject at present extremely interesting, 

 both in a political and a commercial point of view ; they profess 

 to develope the physical resources of a colony which, through 

 recent changes, is likely to become an empire ; and in part, to 

 portray the character of a nation which is now the most ancient, 

 and has ever been the most faithful, ally of Great Britain. 



In the year before-mentioned, pursuant to my design of visiting 

 the Rio de la Plata, I obtained His Majesty's licence to go thither 

 in a vessel (my own property by a bottomry-bond) under Spanish 

 colours, a precaution rendered necessary by our being at war with 

 France, and by^ the hourly expectation of a rupture with Spain. 

 My licence was, strictly speaking, a special one, " protecting all I 

 " had on board the Spanish vessel, if, in case of a rupture with 

 " Spain, she should be taken by any of our ships of war, priva- 



