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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

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.

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.

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.

The World's Cane Sugar Industry
  • Past and Present
  • H. C. Prinsen Geerligs
  • Published online:
    05 November 2011
    Print publication:
    18 November 2010
    First published in:
    1912
  • H. C. Prinsen Geerligs (b.1864) was a Dutch microbiologist and Director of the Sugar Experiment Station in Java, an important research centre at the heart of the sugar industry. A leading expert in the production of sugar and the workings of the international market, Geerligs presents a detailed and comprehensive history of the industry, from its ancient origins through to the early twentieth century. Developing into a global industry during a time of great turbulence, the story of sugar interweaves with the history of slavery and colonial expansion, and into an age where science revolutionised production methods. As well as detailing the survival and growth of the industry through wars, piracy, conquest and social change, this book includes detailed country-by-country studies of the state of the industry in 1912 when the book was first published. A fascinating portrait of industrial and commercial history from an expert eyewitness.

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 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.

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.

Unknown Mexico
  • A Record of Five Years' Exploration among the Tribes of the Western Sierra Madre
  • Volume 1
  • Carl Lumholtz
  • Published online:
    05 February 2012
    Print publication:
    27 October 2011
    First published in:
    1903
  • Carl Lumholtz (1851–1922) was a Norwegian ethnographer and explorer who, soon after publishing an influential study of Australian Aborigines (also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection), spent five years researching native peoples in Mexico. This two-volume work, published in 1903, describes his expeditions to remote parts of north-west Mexico, inspired by reports about indigenous peoples who lived in cliff dwellings along mountainsides. While in the US in 1890 on a lecture tour, Lumholtz was able to raise sufficient funds for the expedition. He arrived in Mexico City that summer, and after meeting the president, Porfirio Díaz, he set off with a team of scientists for the Sierra Madre del Norte mountains in the north-west of Mexico, to find the cave-dwelling Tarahumare Indians. Volume 1 covers the start of the expedition and Tarahumare life, etiquette and beliefs, as well as details of the natural history of this little-explored region.

Unknown Mexico
  • A Record of Five Years' Exploration among the Tribes of the Western Sierra Madre
  • Volume 2
  • Carl Lumholtz
  • Published online:
    05 February 2012
    Print publication:
    27 October 2011
    First published in:
    1903
  • Carl Lumholtz (1851–1922) was a Norwegian ethnographer and explorer who, soon after publishing an influential study of Australian Aborigines (also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection), spent five years researching native peoples in Mexico. This two-volume work, published in 1903, describes his expeditions to remote parts of north-west Mexico, inspired by reports about indigenous peoples who lived in cliff dwellings along mountainsides. While in the US in 1890 on a lecture tour, Lumholtz was able to raise sufficient funds for the expedition. He arrived in Mexico City that summer, and after meeting the president, Porfirio Díaz, he set off with a team of scientists for the Sierra Madre del Norte mountains in the north-west of Mexico, to find the cave-dwelling Tarahumare Indians. Volume 2 focuses mainly on the neighbouring Huichols people, their daily life, and their religious practices, including shamanism.

The English in the West Indies
  • Or, The Bow of Ulysses
  • James Anthony Froude
  • Published online:
    07 October 2011
    Print publication:
    09 December 2010
    First published in:
    1888
  • James Anthony Froude was one of the foremost Victorian historians in England, though he was often controversial and opinionated, especially towards Catholicism. His biography of Carlyle in 1884, with his emphasis on Carlyle's weaknesses as well as his brilliance, caused lasting offence to many. He then began travelling in British colonies, which led to the publication of Oceana (1886) and The English in the West Indies (1888) which combined anecdotes and observations with Froude's opinions on the British Empire. The latter provoked many angry responses to his views on how the colonies should be governed. He favoured self-government, but feared that democracy would cause the British islands to go the same way as French Haiti, stating that black rule in Grenada would led to a rapid return to savagery. Apart from his political opinions, the book contains interesting and vivid descriptions of the islands and their inhabitants.

Dutch Guiana
  • William Gifford Palgrave
  • Published online:
    07 September 2011
    Print publication:
    23 December 2010
    First published in:
    1876
  • William Gifford Palgrave (1826–1888) was a renowned traveller and Arabic scholar. After graduating from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1846 he received a lieutenant's commission in the 8th Bombay Regiment of native infantry, but he converted to Roman Catholicism, and settled in Syria as a missionary in 1855, during which time he travelled across Arabia. After renouncing Catholicism in 1865, he began a career with the British foreign service, working in several positions in the Far East. This volume, first published in 1876, contains Palgrave's account of his visit to Dutch Guiana, now the South American country of Suriname. Arranging his material according to geographic location, Palgrave describes in detail the society and geography of the country, discussing the treatment of former slaves and describing the unique Maroon culture of former slaves and indigenous people. This volume provides fascinating information on the society and culture of this uniquely diverse country.

Last Rambles amongst the Indians of the Rocky Mountains and the Andes
  • George Catlin
  • Published online:
    05 May 2013
    Print publication:
    19 July 2012
    First published in:
    1868
  • The American artist George Catlin (1796–1872) travelled extensively and wrote about his experiences. After abandoning the legal profession, Catlin moved to Missouri in 1830 to launch his career as a painter of Native Americans with the express purpose of creating a gallery dedicated to America's indigenous population. He was greatly influenced by the Romantic ideal of the 'noble savage' and spent time living with various tribes, recording their everyday life and habits. In the 1850s, he also made three trips to South America and began to draw comparisons between the populations. He shares his thoughts in this work, published in 1868. Written for children and intended as a follow-up to his Life amongst the Indians (1861), the book is a mixture of legend, history, folklore and anecdotes of personal experience. Sometimes regarded as a pioneer of American anthropology, Catlin also outlines his ethnographical theories in the last few chapters.

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).

A Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro, with an Account of the Native Tribes, and Observations on the Climate, Geology, and Natural History of the Amazon
  • Alfred Russel Wallace
  • Published online:
    05 July 2011
    Print publication:
    11 February 2010
    First published in:
    1853
  • A friend of Charles Darwin and a social activist respected by John Stuart Mill, Alfred R. Wallace (1823–1913) was an outstanding nineteenth-century intellectual. Wallace, renowned in his time as the co-discoverer of natural selection, was a young schoolteacher when he began his exciting career as an explorer-naturalist, and set off for Brazil in 1848 with Henry Walter Bates. A Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro (1853) is the stimulating and engaging result of this first expedition and a precursor to his best-selling Malay Archipelago (1869). The depth and breadth of Wallace's observations in this book as naturalist, anthropologist and geologist are remarkable, and it is tantalising to learn that half his notes and 'the greater part of [his] collections and sketches' were lost at sea when his ship was burned on his voyage home.

The History of Barbados
  • Comprising a Geographical and Statistical Description of the Island; a Sketch of the Historical Events since the Settlement; and an Account of its Geology and Natural Productions
  • Robert Hermann Schomburgk
  • Published online:
    07 October 2011
    Print publication:
    09 December 2010
    First published in:
    1848
  • Sir Robert Hermann Schomburgk (1804–1865) was a German-born surveyor and traveller. In 1835–1839 he explored British Guiana for the Royal Geographical Society, and in 1840 he was appointed to define its boundaries with Brazil. Knighted for his work, he then visited Barbados for the Barbados General Railway Company, publishing The History of Barbados in 1848. This substantial work contains - unsurprisingly given his background - a great deal more than a chronological narrative of the settlement and history of the island. He begins with a geographical analysis, statistical information, and an examination of the political and sociological state of Barbados. The third part is on the geology, mineral resources, and natural history of the colony. Although physically small, Barbados was extremely important both to British imperial policies and to her economy, playing a key role in the Atlantic trade routes, particularly for sugar.

Reisen in Britisch-Guiana in den Jahren 1840–1844
  • In Auftrag Sr. Mäjestat des Königs von Preussen
  • Volume 3, Versuch Einer Fauna und Flora von Britisch-Guiana
  • Richard Schomburgk
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    09 December 2010
    First published in:
    1848
  • Richard Schomburgk (1811–1891) accompanied his brother Robert Hermann Schomburgk on his mission to survey the boundary of British Guiana (his account is also reissued in this series). Richard was commissioned by the Prussian government to find new flora, fauna and ethnographical specimens for the Berlin Botanic Gardens and the royal museums. The publication in 1847–1848 in Germany of this three-volume account of the expedition was supported by Alexander von Humboldt, who was a close friend. Schomburgk contracted yellow fever, and found the preservation and transportation of his specimens difficult in the climate, many perishing before they got to Germany. Schomburgk later emigrated to Australia, becoming director of the Botanic Garden, Adelaide. This third volume, which concentrated on flora and fauna, was written with the assistance of some of the most renowned natural scientists of the day, and was considered a major taxonomical work.

Reisen in Britisch-Guiana in den Jahren 1840–1844
  • In Auftrag Sr. Mäjestat des Königs von Preussen
  • Volume 2
  • Richard Schomburgk
  • Published online:
    07 September 2011
    Print publication:
    09 December 2010
    First published in:
    1848
  • Richard Schomburgk (1811–1891) accompanied his brother Robert Hermann Schomburgk on his mission to survey the boundary of British Guiana (his account is also reissued in this series). Richard was commissioned by the Prussian government to find new flora, fauna and ethnographical specimens for the Berlin Botanic Gardens and the royal museums. The publication in 1847–1848 in Germany of this three-volume account of the expedition was supported by Alexander von Humboldt, who was a close friend. The third volume epecially was considered a major taxonomical work. Schomburgk contracted yellow fever, and found the preservation and transportation of his specimens difficult in the climate, many perishing before they got to Germany. Schomburgk later emigrated to Australia, becoming director of the Botanic Garden, Adelaide. Volume 2 includes studies of the customs and languages of native tribes, and further explorations.

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