DENNETT, PRINTER, LEATHER LANE, LONDON.
LETTERS
ON THE
MORAL AND RELIGIOUS STATE
OF
SOUTH AMERICA,
WRITTEN
DURING A RESIDENCE OF NEARLY SEVEN YEARS
IN
BUENOS AIRES, CHILE, PERU, AND COLOMBIA.
BY JAMES THOMSON.
PUBLISHED BY JAMES NISBET,
21, BERNERS STREET, LONDON.
Hatchard and Son, Piccadilly; Seeley and Son, Fleet Street; Hamilton, Adams,
and Co., and J. Duncan, Paternoster Row;
W. Oliphant; Waugh and Innes; and W. Whyte and Co., Edinburgh;
M. Ogle; and Chalmers and Collins, Glasgow;
R. M. Tims; and W. Curry and Co., Dublin.
M DCCC XXVII.
My Lord,
Knowing the warm, solicitude whichyour Lordship feels in regard to all endeavours,to promote the moral and religiouswelfare of the inhabitants of South America,I dedicate these Letters to your Lordship;and I beg of you to accept my sincere thanksfor your Lordship’s kind permission thus togive your name to the world, in connexionwith the best and highest interests of SouthAmerica.
I have the honour to be,
My Lord,
Your Lordship’s
Most obedient Servant,
JAMES THOMSON.
Soon after my return to England in 1825, I wassolicited by several friends to publish extracts fromthe letters I had written during my residence inSouth America. To enable me to do this, I waskindly furnished with these letters by the individualsto whom they were addressed. I have atlength attended to these solicitations, with this viewof creating a greater interest in this country onbehalf of that quarter of the world, and in theexpectation that this increased interest will turn outto the good of South America.
I have to beg the indulgence of my readers inregard to these letters, from the consideration thatthey were not written for publication. There willappear also some indistinctness, on account of theletters being addressed to various individuals, whilstthey are here classed simply in the order of time inwhich they were written. To which may be added,among their defects, the abruptness arising from thecircumstance of what is here given being only extracts.If, however, some interest should be excitedin regard to South America by the publication ofthese letters, and if there should arise from thissome good to that country, I shall not be sorryfor thus having given them to the public, notwithstanding[vi]the disadvantages under which theyappear.
I am now about to return to that quarter of theworld, and trus