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This series focuses on colonial Latin America and the Caribbean. It includes historical and statistical reference works from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, reports describing scientific, archaeological and ethnological expeditions and editions of accounts from the earliest period of European settlement.

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66 results in Cambridge Library Collection - Latin American Studies

Page 1 of 4

Historia Verdadera de la Conquista de la Nueva España
  • Volume 2
  • Bernal Díaz del Castillo
  • Edited by Genaro García
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    26 August 2010
    First published in:
    1904
  • Bernal Díaz del Castillo (1492–1584) was a foot soldier in the army of Mexico's conqueror Hernán Cortés. The first edition of his True History of the Conquest of New Spain (as it was entitled in a later English translation) was published in Madrid in 1632 from a manuscript copy sent to Spain shortly after the author's death. Written in a highly accessible style, and describing the experiences of the troops themselves rather than seeing events from an officer's perspective, the work became even more successful than the official accounts and went through many editions and translations. The two-volume edition reissued here was first published in 1904 and is considered a more reliable text, as it was based on the original manuscript preserved in Guatemala City. Volume 2 contains chapters 140–214 and the index to both volumes.

Researches, Concerning the Institutions and Monuments of the Ancient Inhabitants of America, with Descriptions and Views of Some of the Most Striking Scenes in the Cordilleras!
  • Volume 2
  • Alexander von Humboldt
  • Translated by Helen Maria Williams
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    02 June 2011
    First published in:
    1814
  • Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) was an internationally respected scientist and explorer whose meticulous approach to scientific observation greatly influenced later research. He travelled the world, once staying at the White House as a guest of Thomas Jefferson, and is commemorated in the many species and places which bear his name. This two volume work, published in French in 1810 as Vue des Cordillères, and in this English translation in 1814, was one of the many publications that resulted from Humboldt's expedition to Latin America in 1799–1804. It describes geographical features such as volcanoes and waterfalls, and aspects of the indigenous cultures including architecture, sculpture, art, languages and writing systems, religions, costumes and artefacts. This approachable, closely observed travelogue vividly recounts a huge variety of impressions and experiences, and reveals Humboldt's boundless curiosity as well as his scientific and cultural knowledge.

The True History of the Conquest of New Spain
  • Volume 2/3
  • Bernal Díaz del Castillo
  • Edited by Genaro García
  • Translated by Alfred Percival Maudslay
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    26 August 2010
    First published in:
    1910
  • Bernal Díaz del Castillo (1492–1584) was a foot soldier in the army of Mexico's conqueror Hernán Cortés, and participated in the campaigns that led to the fall of the Aztec empire in 1521. This 1928 translation of his journals derives from the 1904 edition by the Mexican historian Genaro García - the first edition based on the original manuscript. Written as a corrective to accounts that overemphasised Cortés' exploits, Díaz's epic focuses on the experiences of the common soldier. The most complete contemporary chronicle of the Mexican conquest, this important historical document is also a captivating adventure narrative that combines factual accuracy with many dramatic anecdotes. This volume focuses on the complex relationships that developed between the Spaniards and the Aztec emperor Montezuma on the army's arrival in Mexico. It contains chapters 82–136 and a key to the maps that appear at http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9781108017060.

Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España
  • Volume 2
  • Bernardino de Sahagûn
  • Edited by Carlos Maria de Bustamante
  • Published online:
    05 August 2015
    Print publication:
    27 January 2011
    First published in:
    1829
  • Friar Bernardino Sahagûn was in 1529 one of the first Catholic missionaries to the Aztecs. During his sojourn in Mexico he came to speak Nahuatl (the native language) fluently and to understand the Aztec culture, customs, religion and infrastructure intimately. He compiled the largest and most richly detailed record of the Aztecs and their history before the civilisation was wiped out by the Spanish conquest, and Sahagûn is sometimes considered 'the father of ethnology', as his study was the first to derive from the subjects' own point of view, through using native informants in his research. The work, written in 1540, was originally an illustrated manuscript of twelve books in a combination of Nahuatl and Spanish; this version, in Spanish only, was first published in 1829. Volume 2 examines the government and monarchy, the gold and precious stone industry, sacrificial divination, and Aztec theology and moral philosophy.

Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain
  • Volume 2
  • Alexander von Humboldt
  • Translated by John Black
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    06 November 2014
  • The acclaimed Prussian naturalist Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) was referred to by Charles Darwin as 'the greatest scientific traveller who ever lived'. Several of his works were in the library aboard the Beagle, including the multi-volume Personal Narrative of Travels, two books on geology and Tableaux de la nature (all reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection). Darwin's copy of this two-volume 1811 New York edition of Humboldt's Political Essay (originally published in French earlier that year) is inscribed 'Buenos Ayres', suggesting he acquired it there in 1832–3, without its accompanying atlas (forthcoming). Humboldt had spent a year in Mexico in 1803–4, and was struck by its 'civilization' as compared to regions of South America that he had visited earlier on his expedition. Volume 2 of his account contains information about the population, language and key features of each district of Mexico, and about the country's agriculture.

The West Indies and the Spanish Main
  • Anthony Trollope
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    04 December 2014
    First published in:
    1859
  • Although the author Anthony Trollope (1815–82) enjoyed great success as a novelist, he was also an eager and perceptive travel writer. In this account of his voyage to the West Indies and Central America, published in 1859, he recounts the many places he visited, including Jamaica, Cuba, Barbados, Trinidad, Panama and Costa Rica. Trollope brings his eye for detail to these islands at an important time: slavery had been abolished in the British colonies, but persisted in Cuba, and he depicts this complex region and its people with all the vividness of his novels. Though sometimes reflecting the beliefs and prejudices of the Victorian period, the work remains essential and engaging reading for those interested in the nineteenth-century Caribbean. Trollope's writings on North America and on Australia and New Zealand are also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection.

Cuzco and Lima
  • A Journey to the Ancient Capital of Peru, and a Visit to the Capital and Provinces of Modern Peru
  • Clements R. Markham
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    13 November 2014
    First published in:
    1856
  • Clements R. Markham (1830–1916) began his career in the Royal Navy, sailing to South America, learning Spanish, and participating in the Arctic search for Sir John Franklin. In 1852, determined to succeed as an explorer and geographer, he travelled to Peru and visited the site of the ancient city of Cuzco, previously little known in Europe. Published in 1856, this is Markham's lively account of his travels. In his description of arriving in Panama we see a picture of the mid-nineteenth-century eagerness to explore (or exploit) Latin America. Markham's stay in Cuzco allowed him ample time to study the ruins and research the lost Inca civilisation, and also gave him his introduction to the properties of the cinchona plant, a source of quinine, which he later returned to collect and introduce to India, as described in his 1862 Travels in Peru and India (also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection).

Historia Verdadera de la Conquista de la Nueva España
  • Volume 1
  • Bernal Díaz del Castillo
  • Edited by Genaro García
  • Published online:
    05 March 2015
    Print publication:
    26 August 2010
    First published in:
    1904
  • Bernal Díaz del Castillo (1492–1584) was a foot soldier in the army of Mexico's conqueror Hernán Cortés. The first edition of his True History of the Conquest of New Spain (as it was entitled in a later English translation) was published in Madrid in 1632 from a manuscript copy sent to Spain shortly after the author's death. Written in a highly accessible style, and describing the experiences of the troops themselves, the work became even more successful than the official accounts and went through many editions and translations. The two-volume edition reissued here was first published in 1904 and is considered a more reliable text, as it was based on the original manuscript preserved in Guatemala City. Volume 1 contains an introduction by the editor, the influential Mexican historian and book-collector Genaro García (1867–1920), a table of variant readings, and chapters 1–139 of the text.

Journal of a Residence and Tour in the Republic of Mexico in the Year 1826
  • With Some Account of the Mines of that Country
  • Volume 1
  • G. F. Lyon
  • Published online:
    18 December 2014
    Print publication:
    17 July 2014
    First published in:
    1828
  • The British naval officer George Francis Lyon (1795–1832) survived extremes of African heat and Arctic cold during his colourful career. Remembered chiefly for the engaging journals he kept, and for his watercolours of the Arctic, he was fascinated by the indigenous peoples of the lands he explored, notably being tattooed by Inuit and eating raw caribou and seal meat with them. In 1826 he sailed to Mexico, then recovering from its war of independence, to serve as a commissioner for an English mining company. His vivid and often entertaining two-volume account of his experiences was published in 1828. In Volume 1, Lyon complains of his first nights being disturbed by 'dogs, pigs and restless cocks', and on his way to the mining area of Zacatecas he visits a church where a figure of Christ made him recall a 'creation of Frankenstein'.

Journal of a Residence and Tour in the Republic of Mexico in the Year 1826
  • With Some Account of the Mines of that Country
  • Volume 2
  • G. F. Lyon
  • Published online:
    05 December 2014
    Print publication:
    17 July 2014
    First published in:
    1828
  • The British naval officer George Francis Lyon (1795–1832) survived extremes of African heat and Arctic cold during his colourful career. Remembered chiefly for the engaging journals he kept, and for his watercolours of the Arctic, he was fascinated by the indigenous peoples of the lands he explored, notably being tattooed by Inuit and eating raw caribou and seal meat with them. In 1826 he sailed to Mexico, then recovering from its war of independence, to serve as a commissioner for an English mining company. His vivid and often entertaining two-volume account of his experiences was published in 1828. In Volume 2, Lyon encounters notorious bandits outside Guadalajara, ponders the potential navigation of rivers for commercial shipping, and writes of a visit to the Guadalajara theatre: 'had it not been for the universal smoking, and the silence and good manners of the audience, I might have almost fancied myself in England'.

Extracts from a Journal, Written on the Coasts of Chili, Peru, and Mexico, in the Years 1820, 1821, 1822
  • Volume 2
  • Basil Hall
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    31 October 2013
  • Officer and author Basil Hall (1788–1844) joined the Royal Navy at the age of thirteen and saw service during the Peninsular War. His subsequent career involved extended journeys to the East Indies, the Far East and South America. During these postings - encompassing elements of exploration, diplomacy and scientific observation - he kept a journal, and from his notes he published successful accounts of his voyages. This two-volume work, first published in 1823 and reissued here in its revised 1824 third edition, recounts his travels and first-hand observations during his final commission to South America and Mexico in command of the Conway. Sensitive to both physical and human geography, Hall's travelogue gives readers a sense of the continent's natural and cultural diversity as well as its contemporary political turbulence. Darwin notably had the book with him aboard the Beagle. In Volume 2, Hall traces his journey from Peru to Ecuador, Panama and Mexico.

Extracts from a Journal, Written on the Coasts of Chili, Peru, and Mexico, in the Years 1820, 1821, 1822
  • Volume 1
  • Basil Hall
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    31 October 2013
  • Officer and author Basil Hall (1788–1844) joined the Royal Navy at the age of thirteen and saw service during the Peninsular War. His subsequent career involved extended journeys to the East Indies, the Far East and South America. During these postings - encompassing elements of exploration, diplomacy and scientific observation - he kept a journal, and from his notes he published successful accounts of his voyages. This two-volume work, first published in 1823 and reissued here in its revised 1824 third edition, recounts his travels and first-hand observations during his final commission to South America and Mexico in command of the Conway. Sensitive to both physical and human geography, Hall's travelogue gives readers a sense of the continent's natural and cultural diversity as well as its contemporary political turbulence. Darwin notably had the book with him aboard the Beagle. Volume 1 covers Hall's travels along the coasts of Chile and Peru.

Travels in Brazil, in the Years 1817–1820
  • Undertaken by Command of His Majesty the King of Bavaria
  • Volume 1
  • Johann Baptist von Spix, C. F. P. von Martius
  • Translated by H. E. Lloyd
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    29 August 2013
  • First published in 1824, this is a two-volume English translation of part of the account by German naturalists Johann Baptist von Spix (1781–1826) and Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius (1794–1868) of their Brazilian expedition, one of the nineteenth century's great scientific enterprises. Despite debilitating conditions (which would contribute to Spix's premature death), they accumulated a spectacular collection of specimens, including dozens of live animals and over 10,000 other examples of flora and fauna. Although no further volumes appeared, this wide-ranging work formed part of the library aboard the Beagle during Darwin's famous voyage. Volume 1 recounts the early stages of the expedition, covering the voyage from Trieste to Rio de Janeiro. It contains studies of the flora and fauna of Malta, Gibraltar and Madeira. The volume concludes with the arrival at São Paulo on 31 December 1817.

The History of a Voyage to the Malouine (or Falkland) Islands
  • Made in 1763 and 1764, under the Command of M. de Bougainville, in Order to Form a Settlement There
  • Antoine-Joseph Pernety
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    27 June 2013
    First published in:
    1771
  • After the French and Indian War, in which France and England had fought over the control of North America, the French government decided to send an expedition to the Falkland Islands, or Isles Malouines, with a view to founding a colony where the Acadians expelled from Canada could settle. Under the command of Louis-Antoine de Bougainville (1729–1811), the 1763–4 expedition claimed these islands for France and established a base at Port Saint Louis. This work, translated from French and first published in English in 1771, is an illustrated account of this endeavour by Antoine-Joseph Pernety (1716–96), a naturalist and writer who took part in the expedition. Notably, it contains the first description of the geological phenomena of the stone runs on East Falkland. The latter part of the work is a compilation of letters and notes pertaining to subsequent voyages to Patagonia and the Straits of Magellan.

Travels in Brazil, in the Years 1817–1820
  • Undertaken by Command of His Majesty the King of Bavaria
  • Volume 2
  • Johann Baptist von Spix, C. F. P. von Martius
  • Translated by H. E. Lloyd
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    29 August 2013
  • First published in 1824, this is a two-volume English translation of part of the account by German naturalists Johann Baptist von Spix (1781–1826) and Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius (1794–1868) of their Brazilian expedition, one of the nineteenth century's great scientific enterprises. Despite debilitating conditions (which would contribute to Spix's premature death), they accumulated a spectacular collection of specimens, including dozens of live animals and over 10,000 other examples of flora and fauna. Although no further volumes appeared, this wide-ranging work formed part of the library aboard the Beagle during Darwin's famous voyage. Volume 2 covers the expedition's progress from São Paulo, through the state of Minas Gerais, to Villa Rica (now Ouro Preto) up to May 1818. One of the illustrations depicts the two indigenous children, Juri and Miranha, who were taken back to Munich. Several popular songs in Portuguese form an appendix.

A Description of Patagonia, and the Adjoining Parts of South America
  • Containing an Account of the Soil, Produce, Animals, Vales, Mountains, Rivers, Lakes, etc. of Those Countries
  • Thomas Falkner
  • Published online:
    05 March 2014
    Print publication:
    22 August 2013
    First published in:
    1774
  • Thomas Falkner (1707–84), one-time pupil of both Richard Mead and Isaac Newton, was an English Jesuit missionary who lived for nearly forty years in South America until 1767, when he returned to England following the Jesuits' expulsion from Córdoba. Originally published in 1774 in the hope that it 'might be of some public utility, and might also afford some amusement to the curious', this is a first-hand description of Patagonia, believed to have been consulted by Charles Darwin on board the Beagle. Illustrated with a map drawn from the author's knowledge and experience, it is an account of the dramatic physical geography of the area as well as the customs, beliefs and language of its inhabitants. Falkner's narrative ranges from a discussion of the virtues of American tea (in certain particulars 'far excelling the tea of China') to a detailed depiction of the role of wizards and rituals involving demons.

Haytian Papers
  • A Collection of the Very Interesting Proclamations, and Other Official Documents
  • Edited by Prince Sanders
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    18 April 2013
    First published in:
    1816
  • Prince Sanders (1775–1839) was an African-American teacher and advocate of black American emigration to Africa and Haiti. When Sanders was on a speaking tour of England he met abolitionist William Wilberforce, who encouraged him to go to Haiti and meet King Henri Christophe (1767–1820). Haiti during this time was divided, and Christophe ruled over the northern region. Sanders travelled to the island and was quickly hired as Christophe's adviser. In 1816 Sanders published this translation of documents, which include Christophe's land reforms, his establishment of a monarchy in Haiti, and some of his correspondence. This publication was part of an attempt by Christophe and Sanders to show white Europeans that former slaves could successfully run their own country without international interference. Although Haiti was reunited in 1820, after Christophe's death, these documents illustrate his efforts to protect the country during its fragile early years of independence.

History of Brazil
  • Volume 2
  • Robert Southey
  • Published online:
    05 August 2013
    Print publication:
    11 October 2012
    First published in:
    1817
  • Robert Southey (1774–1843), Romantic poet and friend of Coleridge, was poet laureate from 1813 to 1843. As well as being distinguished in verse, he also produced successful historical works and was a noted scholar of Portuguese. Between 1810 and 1819 he published this influential three-volume history, drawing on his extensive collection of Portuguese and Spanish books. Originally intended to be part of a larger work on the history of Portugal, this project evolved to focus on Brazil, beginning with its discovery and colonisation by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century and concluding with the relocation of the Portuguese court to Brazil during the Peninsular War. Volume 2 covers the period from 1640 to 1685 and concludes with a review of the state of affairs in Brazil in the seventeenth century. Included are details of slavery, commerce and expeditions into the interior at this time.

History of Brazil
  • Volume 1
  • Robert Southey
  • Published online:
    05 August 2013
    Print publication:
    11 October 2012
    First published in:
    1810
  • Robert Southey (1774–1843), Romantic poet and friend of Coleridge, was poet laureate from 1813 to 1843. As well as being distinguished in verse, he also produced successful historical works and was a noted scholar of Portuguese. Between 1810 and 1819 he published this influential three-volume history, drawing on his extensive collection of Portuguese and Spanish books. Originally intended to be part of a larger work on the history of Portugal, this project evolved to focus on Brazil, beginning with its discovery and colonisation by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century and concluding with the relocation of the Portuguese court to Brazil during the Peninsular War. Volume 1 begins with the discovery of Brazil by the Portuguese in 1500 and covers the events up to 1639. This includes the attempts of the French and Dutch to colonise Brazil, and the attempts of the Jesuits to convert the indigenous people.

Travels in the Interior of Brazil
  • With Notices on its Climate, Agriculture, Commerce, Population, Mines, Manners, and Customs
  • John Mawe
  • Published online:
    05 August 2013
    Print publication:
    28 February 2013
    First published in:
    1821
  • An important figure in British commercial mineralogy, John Mawe (1766–1829) first published this work in 1812; reissued here is the 1821 revised edition. Mawe and his wife ran a mineral-dealing business, based in Derby with a shop in London. Collecting specimens for the aristocracy, advising on explorations, and going on gathering tours, he also wrote on Derbyshire mineralogy, the South Seas, diamonds, geology and conchology. This book covers his voyage to South America in 1804, including his expedition in 1809 to the gold and diamond mining areas of Brazil. It also describes the local climate, people, natural history, trade and agriculture, and the splendour of such cities as Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro. A bestseller, found on library shelves across Europe - and aboard the Beagle with Charles Darwin - the book remains relevant in the history of mineralogy and will appeal to non-specialists interested in South American adventure.

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