xxxviii 



regions ; &c. I had left Europe with the 

 firm intention of not writing what is usu- 

 ally called the historical narrative of a jour- 

 ney, but to publish the fruit of my inquiries 

 in works merely descriptive ; and I had 

 arranged the facts, not in the order in which 

 they successively presented themselves, but 

 according to the relation they bore to each 

 other. Amidst the overwhelming majesty 

 of Nature, and the stupendous objects she 

 present sat every step, the traveller is little 

 disposed to record in his journal what re- 

 lates only to himself, and the ordinary 

 details of life. 



I had composed a very brief itinerary 

 during the course of my navigation on the 

 rivers of South America, and in my long 

 journies by land, in which I regularly des- 

 cribed, and almost always on the spot, the 

 excursions which I made toward the sum- 

 mit of a volcano, or any other mountain 

 remarkable for it's height : but the compo- 

 sition of my journal was interrupted when- 

 ever I resided in a town, or when other 

 occupations prevented me from continuing 

 a work, which I considered as having only 

 a secondary interest. When I employed 



