Lest this gentleman should appear exceptionally uninformed, I may mention that, as I had subsequent opportunities of ascertaining, even some men holding high office in the Royal Geographical Society--who were familiar with the latest discoveries near the North Pole and in the interior of Africa, with Central Asia, and with Australia--had somehow in their range of study overlooked South America. In writing history, one man necessarily builds upon another man’s foundation. It was my first intention to compose a wholly original work, comprising the history of the several states of South America from the discovery of that Continent to the present day; but reflection convinced me that the execution of such a plan would require the labour of many years, even were all circumstances favourable. Various writers have formed schemes, the labour entailed by the magnitude of which has led to their collapse. As one example amongst many may be mentioned the scholar Muñoz, who employed nearly fifty years in amassing materials for a history of Spanish discovery and conquest in America, but who had scarcely finished the first volume when he died. Even were one to attempt to produce an entirely original history of the early Portuguese South America, it would necessarily prove defective in comparison with Southey’s “History of _Brazil_.” In the preface to his work, that author says of it, under date of 1810, “For the greater part of the last century printed documents almost entirely fail. A collection of manuscripts not less extensive than curious, and which is not to be equalled in England, enables me to supply this chasm in history. The collection was formed during a residence of more than thirty years in Portugal, by a relative. Without the assistance which I have received from him, it would have been hopeless to undertake, and impossible to complete it.” With the above instances before me, I have felt it necessary to content myself with writing a historical Review respecting the several Spanish and Portuguese Colonies from which sprang the various countries which collectively form political South America. R. G. W. _London, 1884._ CONTENTS OF VOL. I. PAGE CHAPTER I. DISCOVERY OF THE MAINLAND OF SOUTH AMERICA: 1498-1503 1 CHAPTER II. DISCOVERY OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN: 1508-1514 22 CHAPTER III. THE COLONY OF DARIEN; FATE OF VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA: 1514-1517 46 CHAPTER IV. LAS CASAS; HIS COLONY ON THE PEARL COAST: 1515-1521 65 CHAPTER V. DISCOVERY OF BRAZIL, LA PLATA, AND PARAGUAY: 1499-1557 86 CHAPTER VI. DISCOVERY OF PERU: 1521-1528 105 CHAPTER VII. CONQUEST OF PERU: 1529-1542 118 CHAPTER VIII. CONQUEST OF CHILI: 1535-1550 142 CHAPTER IX.