PREFACE. 



ixxvii 



lair in the sixty-fourth number of the Edinburgh 

 Review, it is hoped the author will be pardoned by 

 the reader. It certainly appears, from this passage 

 of the Quarterly Review, that the critic was really 

 ignorant that the theory of St. Pierre was and is 

 considered, if not ridiculous, at least visionary and 

 extravagant. The author was not satisfied, as to 

 the true cause of volcanic eruptions, and therefore 

 did not pretend to account for them. 



As respects the charge of having neglected those 

 objects in Natural History, &c. which are said to 

 abound in these Islands, it cannot escape the con- 

 sideration of the reader, that it is in a great degree 

 unfounded. The only remarkable animals found 

 there, are the turtles and guanas, both which have 

 been described, but in a manner, it would seem, not 

 at all to satisfy our critic, who is assuredly difficult to 

 please, since he equally finds fault with what the 

 author says, or omits to say. The business of the 

 author was, however, of a different nature than that 

 of making researches in natural history or philoso- 

 phy. He sailed from his country in a ship of war, 

 in time of war, and with objects exclusively war- 

 like. He carried with him no college of learned 

 men, to give Latin names to the herb of Paraguay, 

 or to detect the operations of nature in the hidden 

 recesses of volcanic reservoirs. He went to wage 

 war against the enemies of his country, and to 

 destroy their means and resources; and he suc- 

 ceeded beyond his expectations. What inquiries 

 he did make, were principally as a navigator, and 

 to navigators he appeals, whether the observations 

 he made, and the directions he has given, are not 

 only correct, but useful. 



Were the author to select and remark upon every 

 instance of deplorable ignorance, downright and 

 wilful misrepresentation, or sneering malevolence. 



