THE
GEOGRAPHICAL,
NATURAL, AND CIVIL HISTORY
OF
CHILI

BY

ABBE DON J. IGNATIUS MOLINA,

WITH NOTES
FROM THE SPANISH AND FRENCH VERSIONS,
AND
AN APPENDIX,
CONTAINING COPIOUS EXTRACTS FROM THE ARAUCANA
OF DON ALONZO DE ERCILLA

TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL ITALIAN
BY AN AMERICAN GENTLEMAN'

IN TWO VOLUMES

VOLUME II
THE CIVIL HISTORY
OF
CHILI

Middletown ( Conn.), Printed For I. Riley By R. Alsop, 1808. First Edition.
Volume II only.
Full brown leather, gilt spine decorations and lettering, octavo, viii, 305 , [1 p. errata] + iv, 69 pages.
Note. The map referenced in the title page was bound in Volume I which is not included in this listing.

The Appendix has its own title page and is recorded as separate imprint

AN APPENDIX
TO THE
CIVIL AND POLITICAL
HISTORY OF CHILI,
CONSISTING OF A SKETCH OF THE ARAUCANA
OF
DON ALONZO DE ERCILLA.
WITH COPIOUS TRANSLATIONS FROM THAT POEM, BY
WILLIAM HAYLEY, ESQ. AND THE REV. H. BOYD

New York, Alsop, Brannan and Alsop, 1808.

It consists of extensive annotated extracts from the epic poem The Araucana of Don Alonzo de Ercilla .

The Geographical, Natural, and Civil History of Chili is an important work by the Jesuit priest Giovanni Ignazio Molina (1740–1829), first published in Italian as two separate works in 1782 and 1787, which were later translated into English. The work provides a comprehensive look at Chile's natural environment, diverse geography, wildlife, and its history up to the time of its writing, drawing from contemporary sources and including valuable notes from other explorers. Some of the sources Molina drew upon are now lost.
The subject of Volume II, a translation of Saggio sulla storia civile del Chili (1787), is the civil history of Chile, written during Molina's forced exile in Italy.
The anonymous translator was Richard Alsop (1761-1815) [See below].

The last chapter is an essay on the original language of Chile - Araucanian, or Chili dagu).

The term "Araucanians" refers to the Mapuche people, an Indigenous group of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, who are known for their historical resistance to Spanish and Chilean rule. While the Spanish used "Araucanian" to refer to various groups, it most commonly applies to the Mapuche who lived between the Choapa and Biobío rivers and resisted colonization for over 350 years. Today, the term is sometimes considered outdated or offensive, with "Mapuche" being the preferred name.

Fr. Juan Ignacio Molina ((June 24, 1740 – September 12, 1829) was a Chilean-Spanish Jesuit priest, naturalist, historian, translator, geographer, botanist, ornithologist, and linguist. He is usually referred to as Abate Molina (Abbot Molina), and is also sometimes known by the Italian form of his name, Giovanni Ignazio Molina.

He was one of the precursors of the theory of the gradual evolution of species, 44 years before Darwin, who repeatedly quoted him in "The Origin of Species"

Exile
In 1768 he was forced to leave Chile due to the Suppression of the Society of Jesus. He settled in Italy where, thanks to his linguistic skills, he obtained the chair of Greek language at the University of Bologna. He soon achieved a good reputation as a historian and geographer, due to his Saggio sulla Storia Naturale del Chili (1778) and Saggio sulla Storia Civile del Chili (1787). Finally he became a professor of Natural Sciences (1803), given his studies in that area. For example, he published (1782) the Saggio sulla Storia Naturale del Cile, in which he described the natural history of Chile for the first time and introduced numerous species native to that country to science. Furthermore, in that work he is also the first to mention the Paramillos de Uspallata mines, of lead, silver and zinc. All of these works were translated, attracting considerable attention, into German, Spanish, French, and English. In botany, it is regulatory and permissible to simply write "Molina" when a reference is made to any of his descriptions. He also reached the rank of member of the Royal Italian Institute of Sciences, Letters and Arts and the high dignity of the first American academic of the learned Academy of the Institute of Sciences. He became so renowned, that even Alexander von Humboldt visited him.

Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga (7 August 1533 – 29 November 1594) was a Spanish soldier and poet, born in Madrid. While in Chile (1556–63) he fought against the Araucanians (Mapuche), and there he began the epic poem La Araucana, considered one of the greatest epics of the Spanish Golden Age. This heroic work in 37 cantos is divided into three parts, published in 1569, 1578, and 1589. It celebrates both the violence of the conquistadors and the courage of the Araucanians.

Ercilla's great work is La Araucana, an epic poem of thirty-seven cantos, describing the difficulties encountered by the Spaniards during the insurrection in Arauco, and the heroic deeds of the natives as well as his companions. The epic partakes of the character of history, and the author adheres with such strict fidelity to the truth, that subsequent historians characterize his work as thoroughly trustworthy. In it the difficult art of storytelling is carried to perfection. Places are admirably described, dates are given with accuracy, and the customs of the native faithfully set forth, giving to the narrative animation and colouring.

The poem was published in three parts, of which the first, composed in Chile and first appearing in 1569, is a versified narrative adhering strictly to historic fact; the second, published in 1578, is encumbered with visions and other romantic machinery; and the third, which appeared in 1589-1590, contains, in addition to the subject proper, a variety of episodes mostly irrelevant.[2] Nevertheless, many scholars[who?] consider it the most successful Renaissance epic in the Classical mode written in Spanish. The best editions are those published by the Spanish Academy in 1776 and 1828.

Richard Alsop was born to a prosperous merchant in Middletown, Connecticut. As a youth, Alsop was tutored privately and then sent to a school in Norwich, Connecticut. Early on, he showed a talent for literary analysis. After his father’s death, Alsop sporadically attended Yale University. While he was at Yale, Alsop became a member of an informal student group called the “Connecticut Wits,” also known as the “Hartford Wits.” This informal group included, at various times, Timothy Dwight, John Trumbull, David Humphreys, Lemuel Hopkins, and Joel Barlow. The “Connecticut Wits” were originally formed to promote the modernization of the university. However, their greatest accomplishments were the satirical verses in which they criticized their more liberal colleagues. These satirical verses were printed in two volumes, The Political Green-House for the Year 1798 and The Echo, with Other Poems. The “Connecticut Wits” are credited with creating a type of literature that was unique to Connecticut. Further, they established a national literary tradition while expressing their conservative political and religious views. Alsop is known for a poem that eulogized George Washington, aptly titled Poem Sacred to the Memory of George Washington. He he also wrote several other verses and edited Captivity and Adventures of J. R. Jewett Among the Savages of Nootka Sound. Alsop was also a natural linguist and spoke several languages, a skill that allowed him to translate works into English. Later in life, his popularity and literary eminence helped him garner an honorary master of arts degree from Yale in 1798. >From 1801 until his death, Alsop published works and sold books in New York and Connecticut.

CONDITION: The front board joint with the spine is split and the joint of the rear board has a two-inch split, but both boards are securely attached, The boards’ corners and the spine ends are worn and the boards are scuffed and rubbed, The spine gilding is rubbed.
The endpapers and pastedowns are stained and have darkened margins. The Contents are complete and intact except for one leaf with a torn corner and no loss of text. The text is clean except for some darkening of the title page, infrequent pages with a marginal spot, and about 6 or 7 leaves with a damp stain at the blank lower margin.

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