The present volume is not given to the public, because the Author supposes it presents a better account of certain parts of the immense Empire of Brazil, than is to be found in the works of other travellers, but because it contains a description of a large portion of that interesting country, of which no account has yet been presented to the world. It has been his object to give as faithful a picture as possible of the physical aspect and natural productions of the country, together with cursory remarks on the character, habits, and condition of the different races, whether indigenous or otherwise, of which the population of those parts he visited is now composed. It is seldom that he has trusted to information received from others on those points; and he hopes that this fact will be considered a sufficient reason for his not entering into desultory details more frequently than he has done.

Ample opportunities were offered for studying the objects he had in view, of which he never ceased to avail himself. Besides visiting many places along the coast his journeys in the interior were numerous; and, although he never ventured, like Waterton—whose veracity is not to be doubted—to ride on the bare back of an alligator, or engage in single combat with a boa constrictor, yet he had his full share of adventure, particularly during his last journey, which extended, north to south, from near the equator to the twenty-third degree of south latitude; and east to west, from the coast to the tributaries of the Amazon. The privations which the traveller experiences in these uninhabited, and often desert countries, can scarcely be appreciated by those who have never ventured into them, where he is exposed at times to a burning sun, at others to torrents of rain, such as are only to be witnessed within the tropics, separated for years from all civilized society, sleeping for months together in the open air, in all seasons, surrounded by beasts of prey and hordes of more savage Indians, often obliged to carry a supply of water on horseback over the desert tracks, and not unfrequently passing two or three days without tasting solid food, not even a monkey coming in the way to satisfy the cravings of hunger. Notwithstanding these, however, and one serious attack of illness, his enthusiasm carried him through all difficulties, and they have in some measure been repaid by the pleasure which such wanderings always afford to the lover of nature, and by the number of new species which he has been enabled to add to the already long list of organized beings.

The Author has only further to add, that the notes from which the Narrative has been drawn up, were, for the most part, written during those hours, which, under other circumstances, should have been devoted to sleep; and that the Narrative itself was principally compiled from them, during a voyage from England to the Island of Ceylon.

Kandy, Ceylon, January 1st, 1846.

The manuscript of Mr. Gardner’s ‘Travels in Brazil’ having been transmitted from Ceylon, and printed during his official residence in that island, the Publishers feel desirous of expressing the great obligation they are under to John Miers, Esq., in the absence of the Author, for his valuable assistance in correcting the technical, botanical, and Brazilian proper names, whilst passing through the press; they also desire to record their sense of the kind services rendered by Robert Heward, Esq., co-operating with Mr. Miers in reading the proofs.

London, October 1st, 1846.