1591. Robert Southey to John Rickman, 1 March [1809] ⁠* 

My dear Rickman

The Printer has sent me a proof xxxx xxxx straight thro the post against all fitness, & I inclose it to you because it belongs to the most amusing chapter in the volume, [1]  – if you see any needful amendment make it, & put it unpaid, into the Twopenny Post, directed to Mr Pople <Printer>, Old Boswell Court – Strand. This & the chapter immediately following, (on which I am now at work) will contain every thing that is known concerning the most numerous of the old Brazilian tribes. As I was about to write to you on the subject of the map I thought it worth while to put the sheet in, not for the sake of franking it (for they all go back under cover to Longman the M P. – )

There will be so much to alter & so much to add that I do not think this map ought to serve. [2]  Do you think it is best to cut off the xxxxx knuckle of the shoulder of mutton, just below the Plata ([MS torn] of which I have no business) for the sake of increasing the scale? – I will correct as many of these names as I can, & the return of the map, – thxx xxx that they may be inserted in my outline; – it will xx be easier then to add the rest. But it must travel to my Uncle, for his mss. maps will enable him to correct many which more than I can do. – The different tribes must be marked in their situations – how will it be best to distinguish them? a + will be the fit mark for a Missionary settlement. Maps of the several Captainships x xxx <had better> not be given, unless I could give xxxxxx all – & how many my Uncle has I do not know. If he writes a statistic account of Brazil that will be a fitter place for them.

We gain nearly a third by cutting off the knuckle. There is no occasion to fear any thing more than the few principal towns N. & E. of Brazil & Paraguay, – with the rivers & mountains.

I have written to Bedford to review the Cid, [3]  – he xx will do it quite as well as it would otherwise be done, – & as for any points of Spanish information he may apply to his in that respect – better. – Do if it be possible let Aaron hunt out Dobrizhoffer, [4]  he says he has corrected many errors on his maps, – & he is to be believed for the confession which immediately follows – that very likely; his own may in other points require correction also. But I think he is more to be relied upon than most his brethren, being a far abler man.

RS.

Wednesday. March 1^st? – or Feby 29?. –