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Huntington Library, RS 141. Not previously published.
These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer
For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Bodleian Library Oxford University; the British Library; Boston Public Library; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; Haverford College, Connecticut; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Hornby Library, Liverpool Libraries and Information Services; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; Luton Museum (Bedfordshire County Council); Massachusetts Historical Society; McGill University Library; the National Library of Scotland; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the New York Public Library (Pforzheimer Collections); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Public Record Offices of Bedford, Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and Fenland Museum; the University of Virginia Library.
A research grant from the British Academy made much of the archival work possible, as did support from the English Department of Nottingham Trent University.
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This great parcel requires some explanation. By my Uncles
advice I leave out a chapter,t Margarite, landed on the Spanish main,
& attempted to march to Peru & conquer it for himself.
This map is incorrigible. I have corrected as many names along the coast as I could find, – this part Aaronfive facts that have not yet appeared in the maps.
I am induced to suspect that all the maps make the Island de Joanes in the mouth of the Orellana,xxxx with his map? – There came fri some friars down the river from the place where Orellana set off
before them, – they were running away from the Savages. – & they reached Para, not knowing where they were, nor how they had got
there, such was their fright & fatigue. How should they get to Para by following the stream – if the maps be right? I believe the I
de Joanes is <made> four times as big as it ought to be, & that the space which is filled with this exaggeration should be
full of small islands & labyrinthine channels, the main stream flowing by Para. –
While I was writing your letter arrived. I accede to your argument for placing the map in the first volume, – expence
is of no consequence – Whatever the map costs will be considered in the price of the book, & my only concern in it is as a halver
of eventual profit.
This stoppage of proofs rather alarms me. By a blunder of Longmans my last package of MSS was not forwarded into Herefordshire as it ought to have been for previous examination by
my Uncle.
I live in hopes of a journey to Falmouth. The present spirit of reform look to nothing but paltry savings of
expenditure, – yet I do not think it can help according to better things, & believe that it will not be long before Parliament must
be reformed, or the Crown made absolute. In the one case England will be what I would willingly part with a few limbs to xx
make it, – in the other, – thank God there is a good climate in Brazil & I can speak Portugueze, for by Gods blessing if I am to
live under a Despotism it shall not be at home. But I have no heart for the ultimate result. There is a dolorous lack of talents among
the Rogues on both sides, & if there be any xxx truth in the classical adage Jupiter certainly designs to destroy
them.
I have had a week of great anxiety. Poor Herbert has had the
croupe, – & is now like a little Lazarus from the effects of blistering his throat. This bitter weather delays his recovery by
confining him still to the house. Thank God he has escaped the xxxx from the disease – but six ounces of blood taken from
the jugular vein – then blisters – & the eruption which it has occasioned on his face, – have made him a melancholy object, –
instead of the beautiful creature he was ten days ago. Still God be thanked he is recovered, & a few weeks of fine weather will
enable him to cast his slough.
Bedfords review was not duller than monthly ware in ordinary, tho
quite sufficiently so.some been ill-will in some unknown enemy, to whose ill will that Review for the
last ten years bears testimony.
This is the month of May – tell Mrs R. I hope we are not to be disappointed of seeing her this year. My boat is just caulked & I wait for your coming to lay in a stock of exercise for my next hybernation.