Note 14 — INTRODUCTION.

The History of Brazil—his opus majus, a work on which he hoped to base the remembrance of his name—now appeared, the most conspicuous and elaborate of his works, and written con amore. It forms a branch of the more extensive History of Portugal, which he had no leisure to complete. The materials from which this work was constructed had been collected by his uncle, the Rev. Herbert Hill, were unrivalled in value, and accessible to him alone. No political bias interrupted the straightforwardness and breadth of his judgment; and his poetic fervour found scope in the character of the clime, the productions of the soil, and the features of savage life, which he describes in the most glowing colours.—Life of Southey, by Charles T. Brown.—London: Chapman and Hall. 1854.