PREFACE.
SINCE the first appearance of this work, nine years have elapsed, during which period translations of it have been published in France, Sweden, Germany, and Russia, as well as in Portugal and Brazil, and two editions of it have been given in the United States of America. Encouraged by these unequivocal proofs of approbation, and by the kind offers of assistance from several eminent persons in Brazil, and from others attached to the Portuguese interests in this country, I have at length, and I trust not prematurely, ventured again to submit it to the notice of the Public. In its present form, it is divested of some details, which however interesting at the period of its first publication, have ceased to be so; and their place has been supplied by matter of higher and more lasting importance, collected from official documents relative to Brazil, and from private memoranda communicated by persons well acquainted with the present state of that interesting country. For the opportunity of making many of these improvements, I have to offer my grateful acknowledgments to the Conde de Funchal, late ambassador from Portugal at the British Court; and I have also to express my sincerest thanks to A. F. J. Marreco, Esq. for the access which he has afforded me to various authentic and valuable sources of information, and for his kind and judicious suggestions to me while preparing the present edition for the press. How far I have profited by these estimable advantages, will best appear from the work itself, which I now submit to the equitable judgment of the Public. Conciseness, as far as is consistent with fidelity of description, has been my principal aim; and I trust that the reader will not think that I have trespassed too much on his time, when he compares this with the more voluminous productions which have recently been published on the same subject.