2506. Robert Southey to Herbert Hill, 28 November 1814 ⁠* 

I was a little vexed at Smiths blunder when I learnt from Bedford that he had sent you the bill with the bust & received payment for it [1]  – & by way of acquitting my conscience as near as may be to that amount I desired Longman would send my Aunt a copy of Wordsworths poem, [2]  which I hope she has received. You will read it with more pleasure when you know that except the Solitary & the Pastor, the characters are all drawn from the life, – & that all the church yard histories are true.

By this time you have another portion of the H of Brazil. I am close at work upon it. [3]  The Rio de Janeiro Magazine [4]  (the dearest book of its kind beyond all comparison that ever was published) has brought me some good materials. What a change in this respect! There is an end of all restraint upon publications of this kind, & the Portugueze will now take a pride in showing themselves freer & more liberal than the Spaniards. – In spite of all my applications I have not been able to procure Montoya, [5]  Lozano [6]  or Xarque, [7]  tho there is still some hope from Abella. The want of them compels me to be content with Charlevoix, [8]  & that provoking abridgement of Techo in Churchill which omits exactly those parts which xxx are most essential. [9]  As soon as the restoration of Pernambuco is compleated I give a miscellaneous chapter de moribus, which will have enough of the Flowers of Popery to render it amusing. [10]  Then I look back to the Plata & to Paraguay, giving the rise & progress of the Jesuit system there, & the affair of Cardeñas, [11]  which was the first great opposition that they encountered. I fear I shall be greatly in want of Seabras Provas for all this portion of the history. [12]  My mind is fully satisfied about the Jesuits. Almost impossible & unimaginable as it appears, their enemies were greater liars than they; – & no set of men were ever more <so> wickedly calumniated & treated, since the Templars. [13]  But their restoration [14]  is a great evil: the mischief in S America & in California has been done, & cannot be remedied, – the Demon of Revolution is got into all those countries, & this is a Devil with whom neither Xavier [15]  nor Anchieta [16]  himself could turn out, were they living to enter the lists with him. – After this chapter I pass in natural transition to the Jesuit affairs in Brazil, the transactions in Maranhan – the Paulistas &c – As far as Rocha Pitta [17]  goes there is a skeleton to build upon, & the catastrophe of the Jesuits comes opportunely in xxxx after his failure. – What a world of work is there before me! As soon as this volume is out of the press I ought to go in with the history of the Mother Country, of which there are at least two volumes in such a state that they require only to be remodelled in the act of transcription. [18] 

Among the subjects which I have thought of for anther long poem (as I must always have one in hand while the power remains) is the deliverance of Portugal by Joam I. [19]  I should like a Portugueze scene, for the manifold advantages which it would give me: & Nuno Alvares [20]  is as perfect a hero as it would be possible to imagine. But the story is too much; & it is very difficult, – perhaps impossible – where the historical interest is so powerful to blend with it individual & imaginary passion, so as to form a well combined whole. The only <best> way would be to limit the action to Aljubarrota, [21]  the difficulty then would be how to explain with proper skill as much of the previous history as is required. The thought is several years old, & I know not whether it will ever come to any thing. Meantime my New-England fable of Oliver Newman [22]  has grown into something like a skeleton; with a head & a tail, & the rudiments of the body, – & if my mind were made up respecting the metre I should probably begin. This choice is always a perplexing one, for however much I may desire to suit the metre to the story, the character of the story derives much of its cast & colouring from the metre.

Did I tell you that Canning called on me two or three months ago & offered me his services at Lisbon, & at Madrid, as far as they could extend there?

The Rio de Jan. Magazine (O Patriota) has a curious paper respecting Angola. [23]  It is very rich in Brazilian matter, both historical & geographical. And the Coimbra Journal has a most valuable diary of the Bp. of Para’s visitation. [24]  It is of considerable length & leaves me little to desire respecting that Captaincy & the Rio Negro. – W^m May was at S^t Pauls, & I have had his journal transcribed. [25] 

My love to my Aunt & to the Nursery of Peers. [26]  – I foresaw Harrys fate [27]  when I was in town, & intimated a fear lest the malady which has proved so fatal in one generation might should be transmitted to another. This dread would have been strongly before my eyes, – were it not for this I should think it a good connection, & much better for H. than if he had formed a more ambitious one.

Keswick. 28 Nov. 1814.