i PREFACE. 



of the Creoles, that is, fuch as are defcended from the 

 Spaniards, and have been longer or later fettled in the 

 Indies, with whatever is peculiar in refped to the ge- 

 nius, humour, virtues, and vices of thefe people ; and 

 more efpecially the points in which they differ from 

 the native Spaniards. The ftate and condition of the 

 Indians who live in fubjedlion to the Spaniards, theif 

 tempers, employments, good and ill qualities, labours 

 and diverfions. The habitations of the free Indians, 

 their cuftoms, drefs, manner of fpending their lives, 

 exercifes, talents, religion, and method of preferving 

 the remembrance of paft tranfa6lions, as alfo the con- 

 dition of the Negroes and Mulattoes, whether in th& 

 capacity of flaves, domeftic fervants, or in pofTeffion 

 of their freedom, with whatever differences occur in 

 the ftate of any of thefe people in different provinces. 



But to the Englifh reader perhaps nothing in the 

 following pages will be more acceptable, as indeed no- 

 thing feeras to have been more carefully confidered by 

 the authors, than the commercial hiftory of thefe 

 countries. We find here, not only the principal com- 

 modities of every province diftindly enumerated ; but 

 we are alfo informed of the particular places where 

 they grow, their different qualities and degrees in va- 

 lue, the method of colleding and curing moil part of 

 them, the manufactures of cotton, wool, and other 

 materials, the produce of their mines and different 

 kinds of metal, their potteries, and whatever elfe is 

 the obje6l of induftry and flail. The manner of con- 

 veying them from one province to another, the great 

 roads, the inland and coafting navigation, their com- 

 merce with Spain, their contraband trade, the manner 

 of introducing, and the great confumption, of Euro- 

 pean commodities and manufadtures, the advantages 

 and difadvantages attending their prefent regulations, 

 the difcoveries that are yet to be made, and the im- 

 provtments which may ftill take place in the manage- 

 ment 



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