This work makes no pretentions to literary merit, but, as its title indicates, is simply a narrative descriptive of the progress of the countries specially referred to, which, though England has long maintained intimate commercial relations with them, are still but very imperfectly known to the British public. In the Old World generations follow each other without any very perceptible alteration being observable in the characteristic surroundings, but in the New World, as America is still termed, a few years often effect changes of the most important and striking description. This is notably the case as respects Brazil and the River Plate, the growth of which has been very remarkable. (Summary taken from the Preface)
