THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE CIVIL HISTORY OF CHILI. FOUR years have elapsed since I promised to publish the present Essay on the Civil History of Chili, as a continuation of the one formerly written on the Natural History of that country. Engagements of this kind are, however, from their nature, conditional. When I undertook this work, it was in full confidence of being in a short time in possession of the necessary materials to complete it. The first volume of the Abbé Olivares' manuscript I had then in my possession; this, with what works had appeared in print, supplied me with sufficient documents until the year 1665; and I was in constant expectation of receiving from Peru the second volume of the same author, in which he has brought the subject down to a late period. 167533 In this hope I was disappointed. This volume, on which I had so confidently relied, I have never received, and have been in consequence compelled to seek from various other sources the information which it would have given me. The wars of the natives with the Spaniards being, however, the only proper subject of Chilian History, and but two having occurred since the above period, the first in 1722, and the second in 1767, I have been enabled, by the aid of some of my countrymen now in Italy, who recollect the principal events, to supply in some measure the want of a regular detail, and to give a sufficiently accurate account of them. Having stated these circumstances, I shall merely observe that, without being influenced by national distinctions or prejudices, the chief merit to which I aspire in this narration is that of impartiality. I have related nothing but what I have either found in those writers upon Chili who have preceded me, or have received from persons of unquestionable veracity, and have thought proper to confine myself to a plain narrative of facts, and omit all reflections that might occur, in order not to appear to be too much influenced in favour of either of the contending parties. The attention of several philologists has of late years been directed to the examination of the barbarous languages. For this reason I have been induced to annex to this work some remarks upon the Chilian tongue, which, from its structure and harmony, well merits to be known. Several printed and manuscript grammars of this language are to be met with, but the one which I have principally used is that of Febres, printed at Lima, in the year 1765, and deserving of particular recommendation for its method and its clearness. |