We are well aware that at a distance from the seat of even an energetic government, abuses will exist which may sometimes be beyond its reach; but the instance before us, gives us at once an insight into that system of oppression and abuse of power which prevails in the Spanish settlements, and originated in the invariable practice of the Spanish court, of furnishing the opportunity to their dependants in the mother country to enrich themselves during a temporary residence in the colonies. Note III.--Page 12. The most authentic communications on this subject to the translator, are, that during the months of March, April, and May, the heat is sometimes oppressive; June, July, August, and September, forms the rainy season; the month of October of a doubtful character; November, December, January, and February, a heavenly spring: and that the climate in the whole is uncommonly healthy, the natives living to a great age. Note IV.--Page 13. If it were not sufficiently ascertained that the author of this work was not a foreigner, but a monastic Spaniard, it might be concluded from this expression, that he meant to cast a strong reflection on the Spanish government; but in the progress of the work the reader will discover that he is fully justified. Note V.--Page 14. "The fishermen place their net zig-zag-ways in from eight to eighteen fathom water; at each angle they have several chambers, and over every angle they have a boat moored, with two or three fishermen in it, who are always watching the fish when they enter the chambers, and with a line, supported on the surface by a buoy, they draw a net across the chamber door." Vide Jackson's Mediterranean Commerce, p. 103-4. Note VI.--Page 18. The diversity of opinion as to the substance of which these nests are composed, is such, that to this hour we are left on the wide field of conjecture, and without any clue which may be absolutely relied on for unravelling the mystery. The intelligent Sonnerat, as a judicious naturalist, is entitled to every attention on the subject, and he, by admitting into his work the following quotation from "Transactions philosophiques de la societe Batave, etablie dans l'isle de Java pour l'avancement des arts et des sciences, vol. iii." gives us reason to suppose that he adopts the opinion of that writer. He prefaces his introduction of the subject by the following scientific description of the bird: "La salangane (hirundo esculenta, Lath. sp. 26. Lin. Rumph. herb. vi. pag. 183. tab. 75. fig. 4. Forster.)" And then proceeds with the extract thus: