The reason here given for the wretched condition of these people seems more candidly than might be expected from a Spaniard, to take the load of responsibility from them and cast it on the government; and the perusal of the succeeding pages will but too well confirm the propriety of the censure. Note XII.--Page 36. Sonnerat asserts, that among the mild inhabitants of the fertile plains on the west border of the Lake Bay, adultery is the only crime punished with death; but it seems more reasonable to conclude, that of the two the Spaniard is most to be relied on. Note XIII.--Page 37. The striking resemblance of this to the price exacted by Laban from Jacob for his two daughters, will not be passed over by the reader unnoticed; and we are obliged to conclude either that such similarity of customs must originate in a common source, or that a certain state of social life, in certain climates, will produce manners mutually approximating. Note XIV.--Page 42. Without, in any respect, detracting from the merit of the propagators of the Christian faith in these islands, or claiming any superiority for our own tenets or practice, I fear we need not travel beyond the pillars of Hercules to the southward, and the Ultima Thule to the northward, to discover such perversion of human intellect, although, I trust, it is no proof that we are very bad Christians. The influence of traditional superstitions is too generally known and admitted to require to be descanted on. Its operation commences with the first dawn of reason, and very rarely is it found that even all the strength of the human mind, aided by religion and philosophy, can thoroughly eradicate the impressions it makes. The water kelpie of the north of Scotland differs from the Patianac and Tigbalang, only as being a good natured and very useful being; and we are all familiar with the mythologic machinery of our ancestors, for we will take leave to entertain a belief that Fingal and Ossian did once exist, and that the latter pourtrayed the manners, customs and opinions of his time. Note XV.--Page 46. It is curious to observe the progress of science and discovery, and still more deserving our notice is the transitory nature of power. The magisterial authority assumed by the Pontiff on this occasion might possibly have saved the effusion of human blood, and its interposition at that crisis, as a mediator between the most powerful nations then in existence, if it was beneficial in no other respect, seems to have stimulated the Spaniards to attempt the discovery of a passage into the Pacific by the southern coast of America. Note XVI.--Page 65. This must either be a mistake, or we must conclude that the intercourse of the Portuguese with these islands had furnished them with the European improvements. Notes XVII. and XVIII.--Pages 106-7.