him to the thanks of all who are engaged in trade and commerce with the South American States.

It is difficult, indeed, to estimate the vast importance of these great hydrographical works, as they may tend to influence the future development of the resources and trade of the new States of America; but when we add to them the further results in the invaluable contributions to general science of such able and zealous labourers in the cause as Mr. Darwin, and others who, following his example, have gone out with our more recent expeditions, I think we may well take pride in them as a national work tending to the advancement of science and the circulation of useful knowledge, and, in the countries to which they more especially refer, so strikingly contrasting with that restrictive policy of Old Spain, which, in acquiring information, seemned only anxious to conceal it from the rest of the world.

Nor has the French nation been behind-hand in a laudable desire to rival us in these labours. Their surveys of the coasts of Brazil, forming the " Pilote de Brésil,” are nearly as important to the hydrography of those portions of the shores of the old Portuguese American possessions which they have laid down, as ours are to those of the old Spaniards.

If we can boast of Mr. Darwin's labours, a work has been lately completed in Paris under the auspices of the Government by M. Alcide d'Orbigny, the well-known zoologist, originally sent to South America to collect objects of natural history, which contains not only the results of the talented author's own observations upon those branches of science which have been his own particular study, but, like most works published under the patronage

Voyage dans l'Amérique Méridional (le Brésil, la République Orientale de l'Uruguay, la République Argentine, la Patagonie, la République du Chili, la République de Bolivia, la République du Pérou). Exécuté pendant les années

1826, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, et 33. Par Alcide d'Orbigny. Ouvrage dédié au Roi, et publié sous les auspices de M. le Ministre de l'Instruction Publique. Paris, commencé 1835. 1847. 8 vols. quarto.

of the French Government of late years, a résumé of almost everything which has been written by others upon the countries described. Little short of an Encyclopædia in bulk and matter, it is a splendid example of the liberality with which the Government of France is always ready to patronize and contribute to works of art and science; but it consists of eight large quarto volumes, and costs more than 50%. sterling, which is a serious impediment to its circulation and utility to the great mass of readers.

Mr. Darwin's "Journal of his Researches into the Natural History and Geology of the Countries visited during the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle round the World" may be purchased for a few shillings, and a more instructive and interesting book can hardly be placed within the reach of all classes.

In my former volume I gave an account of the discovery of the remains of some of the great extinct quadrupeds of the Pampas. Subsequent acquisitions having furnished us with better means of describing them, I have re-written the chapter which treats of them, and have further inserted in the Appendix a particular account of the osteology of the most remarkable of these fossil monsters, which Professor Owen has been kind enough to draw up at my request, expressly for this work.

His labours, and those of other learned individuals who have described them, unravel the fabulous traditions handed down by the aborigines respecting a race of Titans, whilst they prove indisputably that the vast alluvial plains in that part of the world at some former period were inhabited by herbivorous animals of most gigantic dimensions, and of forms greatly differing from those of all animals now in existence.

Whilst on this subject it is perhaps not unworthy of observation that amongst the various remains of extinct animals which we have as yet obtained from the Pampas,

no instance, I believe, has been satisfactorily proved of the discovery in that formation of any portion of a carnivorous animal.

The fourth and last part of this work, which contains some account of the commerce and debt of Buenos Ayres, is founded upon information which I collected whilst in South America, and upon official returns subsequently published in this and other countries on their trade and commerce with the Rio de la Plata. They show the great and growing increase of the trade of that part of the world, and its importance to the manufacturing interests of Europe, and especially to those of Great Britain.

The particulars respecting the debt are given upon the best data I have been able to procure-the statements from time to time printed by authority at Buenos Ayres, and the accounts of the English loan kept by Messrs. Baring in this country.

In the Appendix I have put together some documents which may be useful to whoever, in due time, may attempt to write the history of these countries from the dawn of their political independence, and to give an account of the various schemes of different parties for their political organization. The most important of them would in all probability never have become known but for party struggles at Buenos Ayres and at Rio de Janeiro, in the course of which they were brought to light, one faction thinking to discredit another by giving them publicity.

The secret instructions of the late Emperor of Brazil will perhaps be read with the most interest, as throwing some light upon what may be the objects of the new Brazilian intervention in the affairs of the Banda Oriental and the adjoining states.

London, February, 1852.

INTRODUCTION.

xli

POSTSCRIPT.

THE political news received from the Rio de la Plata by the February mail induced me to suspend the publication of this volume in the expectation of intelligence of a new and important crisis in the affairs of that part of the world. Those accounts announced that a Brazilian naval force, without any previous declaration of war, had entered the Paraná, and were engaged in assisting the Provinces on the left bank of the river to throw off the authority of General Rosas, against whom Urquiza, the chief of Entre Rios, had risen, backed by the troops which Rosas himself had sent over from Buenos Ayres to assist Oribe in the Banda Oriental, and which had been left without a leader upon that chief's giving up all further struggle for the establishment of his own power.

It would appear that Rosas has been unable to withstand this new combination against him, and that after a hard fight he has succumbed to a force originally of his own creation, as did his predecessor, General Dorrego, who was deposed and put to death by the Buenos Ayrean troops, upon their return from the Banda Oriental, after the war with Brazil. More fortunate than Dorrego, General Rosas has saved his life by taking refuge on board a British ship of war.

Little else is known beyond the fact of the battle in question having been fought in the vicinity of Buenos Ayres on the 3rd of February, and that the city in consequence was to be surrendered under articles of capitulation to the victorious party.

Rosas has fallen; but who or what is to follow? Is it to be “après moi le déluge," or will the experience of the

last thirty years have sufficed to satisfy the Provinces that the federation they set up in 1820 has proved altogether a fallacy, containing, as I think I have sufficiently shown in Chapter VII. and other parts of this volume, nothing but the elements of discord and disunion? Are they prepared now in earnest to join with Buenos Ayres in substituting constitutional for extraordinary powers, and to make their confederation at last something more than a name? In that case we may look for better things in that part of the world.

March 20, 1852.