South America

South America is presented as a continent whose place in the book’s history is shaped by exploration, imperial transfer, and independence. The author reads these changes as part of Divine Providence: first they bring distant lands within reach, and later they open South America to the missionary circulation of the Bible. The account gives little attention to the continent’s inhabitants as historical voices; its emphasis falls instead on the religious purpose the author assigns to its changing political and geographical accessibility.

Discovery and Imperial Allocation

The book places South America within the rapid expansion of geographical exploration in the fifteenth century. Christopher Columbus, described as having been brought to Portugal by a particular Providence and furnished there with nautical expertise, undertook a voyage for Spain in search of India by sailing west. In 1492 he discovered the West India Islands, and in 1498 he discovered the American continent. The Portuguese reached India by the Cape of Good Hope in that same year. The author treats this near-convergence of discoveries and routes as a providential opening of distant regions to the friends of the Bible.

South America’s imperial association is expressed through the allocation of territories among European powers: the passage to India and the first influx of eastern riches went to Portugal, while the vast provinces of South America went to Spain. The contrast forms part of the author’s broader account of changing commercial power. Portugal and Spain, along with other European states, preceded Great Britain in commerce and discovery; England, the book says, had no significant place in either during the busy sixteenth century. South America thus appears in a history of exploration not as an isolated setting, but as one of the major territories assigned during Europe’s expansion overseas.

Independence and Missionary Prospect

The book later describes South America as having gained independence through Providence. That political change, in the author’s account, leaves the continent open to the circulation of Bibles. Independence is therefore presented not only as a change in political status but also as a new condition for religious activity: the author sees the removal of imperial rule as creating access for the Gospel.

This missionary interpretation is stated in forceful terms. The continent is imagined as open to an invasion of Bibles, language that casts the printed Scriptures as an advancing force. The account does not describe the course of South American independence, identify its leaders, or explain the different societies across the continent. Instead, it turns directly from the fact of independence to the religious opportunity the author believes that independence affords.

Place in the Providential Argument

South America serves as an example in the book’s larger claim that political and geographical changes can advance purposes beyond those of the human actors involved. Exploration is linked to the opening of previously distant regions, and independence to the possibility of distributing the Bible without the same imperial barriers. In this reading, the continent’s place in world history is measured chiefly by its availability to the worldwide proclamation of the Gospel.

The limits of that framing are also visible in what the account leaves out. South America is described through discoveries, European possession, and missionary prospects, while its peoples’ perspectives and their own accounts of independence are not supplied. The result is a providential narrative centered on access: the continent’s historical significance is made to culminate in the author’s expectation that its political opening will enable the Bible to reach it.