ΤΟ

BUENOS AYRES,

PERFORMED

IN THE YEARS 1817 AND 1818,

BY ORDER OF THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT,

By H. M. BRACKENRIDGE, Esq.

SECRETARY TO THE MISSION.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR SIR RICHARD PHILLIPS AND Co.

BRIDE-COURT, BRIDGE-STREET.

ADVERTISEMENT

THE Public Interest excited by the political state and social prospects of South America, rendering every account of those countries in a peculiar degree interesting, the Editor of this Journal has availed himself of the late mission from the United States to the Provinces of LA PLATA, and here introduces to his reader the narrative part of the published details of Mr. Brackenridge.

That gentleman has presented to the world two luminous volumes on the subject of South America, in which many valuable disquisitions, historical and political, have been mixed with his personal adventures and local observations,-but, in the pages which follow, the former have been rejected, and only the latter preserved.

The selection has been made with reference to the objects and character of this Journal, for Mr. Brackenridge is on all subjects worthy of attention; and we can recommend his entire work, which has been handsomely reprinted in London, to the attention of every enlightened political enquirer.

The present Number completes the THIRD VOLUM of this series, and we feel it our duty to acknowled the liberal support with which the monthly numbe and half-yearly volumes have been honoured; and add, that our persevering exertions shall be continue to maintain the interest and character of the work.

Altho' it has been found necessary to raise the pric of the Numbers to 3s. 6d., to enable us to do justice! the valuable and splendid works which we are calle upon to present to the public, yet the volumes of si Numbers will be sold at a guinea, in elegant half-binding

August 1820.

INTRODUCTION.

PE

DERHAPS no sovereigns ever possessed an empire of such vast extent and importance as that of the kings of Spain in America. The South American continent alone, when considered with relation to its capacities and future destinies, is probably equal to all the rest of the habitable globe. Its geographical surface is less, indeed, than that of Africa, but when we consider how small a part of that continent is capable of sustaining human life, how bad its climate, and how deficient in rivers, the veins and arteries of the earth, it sinks in the scale far below the new world. Of Europe, much is given up to excessive cold; and of Asia, immense portions are barren and uninhabitable.

The position of South America, as relates to the United States, to Europe, Africa, and Asia, holds out the most singular advantages for commerce. When the commerce of the east comes to receive that direction which seems to be pointed out by nature, through the Carribean sea and the gulf of Mexico, America will then be the acknowledged centre of the earth.

Spanish America is distributed into four viceroyalties; New Spain, New Grenada, Peru, and Rio de la Plata; and into the captain-generalships of Yukatan, Guatimala, Venezuela, Chili, and Cuba. The islands belonging to, or claimed by Spain, are Cuba, Porto-Rico, Margarita, and St. Andrews. In the Pacific, she possesses the Archipelago of Chiloe, and the island of Juan Fernandez, with some others on the coast of Chili. With the exception of Peru, (sometimes called Lima from its capital), all Spanish America has been the theatre of revolutionary struggles, or is now actually in possession of the patriots. The viceroyalty of Grenada, a territory more extensive than our old thirteen states, was for several years the scene of a bloody contest for independence. The incidents of this contest in the provinces of Carthagena, Santa Martha, Choco, Popayan, and Quito, are familiar to most readers. The blaze has subsided, but the fire is not yet extinguished, nor will be, until there cease to be any combustible materials. The incidents of the war in Venezuela, are also tolerably wellVOYAGES and TRAVELS, No. 6. Vol. III.

B