Contents of Volume I. (etext transcriber's note) |
SOUTH AMERICA.
More than her fell Pizarros once enchain’d;
Strange retribution! now Columbia’s ease
Repairs the wrongs that Quito’s sons sustain’d.”
Childe Harold.
SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE
S O U T H A M E R I C A
DURING
THE COLONIAL PERIOD.
BY
ROBERT GRANT WATSON,
EDITOR OF “MURRAY’S HANDBOOK OF GREECE,” FOURTH EDITION, 1872.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
LONDON:
TRÜBNER & CO., LUDGATE HILL.
1884.
[All rights reserved.]
{vi}
Ballantyne Press
BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO.
EDINBURGH AND LONDON
TO
S I R J A M E S H U D S O N, 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;
AND LIKEWISE
AS HAVING CONTRIBUTED IN A MARKED DEGREE TO THE UNIFICATION
AND FREEDOM OF ITALY,
These Volumes
ARE, WITH THE HIGHEST RESPECT, INSCRIBED.
PREFACE.
The following account of the Colonies from which sprang the States ofSouth America owes its origin to the want of such a work felt by myselfsome years ago. In 1866 I received the appointment of second Secretaryto Her Majesty’s Legation in the Argentine Republic and Paraguay. Myprevious experience having been in quite another part of the world, Ihad all to learn respecting the regions which I was about to visit. Theonly book which had been recommended to me was Sir Woodbine Parish’swork on Buenos Ayres. On reaching my destination, however, I foundthat this work was already out of date; I also found that there was aconsiderable amount of literature respecting South America. But thisliterature being partly in English, French, German, Dutch, Latin, orItalian, and partly in Spanish or Portuguese, was only accessible topersons possessing a reading knowledge of the above-named languages.
Of two years in South America I passed one as Secretary at BuenosAyres, and the other in a similar capacity at Rio de Janeiro. Dur