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“Fall’n nations gaze on Spain; if freed, she frees More than her fell Pizarros once enchain’d; Strange retribution! now Columbia’s ease Repairs the wrongs that Quito’s sons sustain’d.”
EDITOR OF “MURRAY’S HANDBOOK OF GREECE,” FOURTH EDITION, 1872.
LONDON: TRÜBNER & CO., LUDGATE HILL. 1884. [_All rights reserved._]
Ballantyne Press BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO. EDINBURGH AND LONDON
_SIR JAMES HUDSON, G.C.B., ETC. ETC. ETC._
THE MOST DISTINGUISHED BRITISH DIPLOMATIST OF THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA,
AS HAVING BEEN THE MEANS OF PUTTING AN END TO THE SLAVE TRADE WITH BRAZIL;
AS HAVING CONTRIBUTED IN A MARKED DEGREE TO THE UNIFICATION AND FREEDOM OF ITALY,
ARE, WITH THE HIGHEST RESPECT, INSCRIBED.
The following account of the Colonies from which sprang the States of South America owes its origin to the want of such a work felt by myself some years ago. In 1866 I received the appointment of second Secretary to Her Majesty’s Legation in the _Argentine Republic_ and _Paraguay_. My previous experience having been in quite another part of the world, I had all to learn respecting the regions which I was about to visit. The only book which had been recommended to me was Sir Woodbine Parish’s work on _Buenos Ayres_. On reaching my destination, however, I found that this work was already out of date; I also found that there was a considerable amount of literature respecting South America. But this literature being partly in English, French, German, Dutch, Latin, or Italian, and partly in Spanish or Portuguese, was only accessible to persons possessing a reading knowledge of the above-named languages.
Of two years in South America I passed one as Secretary at _Buenos Ayres_, and the other in a similar capacity at _Rio de Janeiro_. During the first year I was sent up the _Uruguay_ and to the Province of _Santa Fè_; then to the Welsh colony on the _Chupat_ river in _Patagonia_; and, lastly, to the then seat of war in _Paraguay_: in the second year I went on a mission to the Province of _Minas Geraes_ in _Brazil_. I had thus opportunities of seeing different parts of the continent, and of becoming more impressed with the want of a work giving anything like a complete account of them.