PREFACE. xi 



<iTTent of affairs in thofe countries. The fingular in- 

 ventions %f the natives for paffing great rivers, tranf- 

 porting their goods by the help of veflels of their own 

 conftrudtion, their adroitnefs in fome refpe(?bs, and 

 their ftupidity in others. From the due confideration 

 of this part of the work, the reader will perceive, that 

 in many things we have been impofed upon in former 

 accounts ; and that other things, in a long courfe 

 of years, are very much changed from what they 

 were. But inftead of old errors we fliall find many 

 new truths, and fome eftablilhed from example and 

 experience, that are of too great confequence not ta 

 be frequently remembered, and perfedly under ftood. 

 Such as, that countries are not the better, and, which 

 is ftill ftranger, are not the richer, for producing im- 

 menfe quantities of gold and filver 5 fmce this pre- 

 vents their being cultivated, expofes the natives to pafs 

 their lives in the fevereft drudgery, and, after all, 

 makes the digging of metal from the mine little more 

 than drawing water in a fieve ; fince in fuch countries 

 riches difappear almoft as foon as they are revealed. In- 

 duftry alone, in the old world and in the new, has the 

 power of acquiring and preferving wealth, and this too 

 without the trouble of mining. Befides, though not 

 infifted upon, it will be evidently feen, that feverity in 

 government, and fuperftition in religion, fubvert both 

 liberty and morals^ and are confequently in all refpefts 

 ' deftrudlive of the happinefs of mankind. 



The account given by our authors of the miflions 

 which the Jefuits have eftablilhed in Paraguay, is as 

 interefting as it is entertaining; and may be very 

 juftly confidered as one of the mofl: curious and be^ 

 written parts of the whole performance ; fince, at the 

 fame time that it breathes all the deference and re- 

 fpedt polTible for the fathers, it informs us of a great 

 variety of fadts of fo much the more confequence, as, 

 at the time it was written, nobody could forefee that 



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