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This 1840 work was the first detailed account of the colony of British Guiana. Schomburgk surveyed and helped determine its boundaries with Brazil and Venezuela, and explored the interior, discovering many new plant species. He also studied the native tribes, who were suffering from attacks by the Brazilians.

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.

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.

The daughter of a naval officer, throughout her life Maria Graham (later Callcott) combined her passion for adventure with a diligent attention to scholarship and self-improvement. A talented linguist, children's author, travel writer and self-confessed 'tomboy', by the time Journal of a Voyage to Brazil was published in 1824 she had already penned successful travel diaries for both India and Italy. A perceptive observer, her accessible style made her popular with readers in Britain. Here, Graham combines a history of Brazil with her personal impressions of the politics and people of Madeira, Tenerife, and South America. A friend of Turner and Eastlake, her own artistic talents are evident in the numerous plates that punctuate her vivid account. From slave markets to dragon trees and graveyards, every significant aspect of her personal experiences and observations is relayed to the reader in an absorbing succession of words and images.

Naval officer Basil Hall (1788-1844) joined the Royal Navy at the age of thirteen and had postings around the globe. This is the two-volume revised 1824 third edition of his 1823 account relating to his final commission to South America and Mexico. Darwin later had it with him aboard the Beagle.

Published in 1824, this two-volume English translation covers Spix and Martius's Brazilian expedition up to May 1818. As well as discussing the region's natural history, the work provides a valuable contemporary account of indigenous peoples and their customs, including observations on agriculture and industry.

The British naval officer George Francis Lyon (1795-1832) survived extremes of African heat and Arctic cold during his colourful career. In 1826 he sailed to Mexico as a commissioner for an English mining company. This vivid and often entertaining two-volume account of his experiences was published in 1828.

Although the author Anthony Trollope (1815-82) enjoyed much success as a novelist, he was also a perceptive travel writer. This account of his voyage to the Caribbean - including stops in Jamaica, Cuba and Panama - was published in 1859, and provides a vivid picture of a diverse and fascinating region.

Thomas Falkner (1707-84), an English Jesuit missionary, lived for nearly forty years in South America. Originally published in 1774 and believed to have been used by Charles Darwin on board the Beagle, this is a first-hand account of the geography, customs and language of Patagonia and its peoples.

Prince Sanders (1775-1839) was an African-American teacher who became an adviser to King Henri Christophe (1767-1820) of Haiti. This collection of laws and correspondence, published in 1816, was part of an attempt to show white Europeans that former slaves were capable of running their own country.

Juan Ignacio Molina (1740-1829) was a Jesuit priest born in Chile who later lived in Italy. His 'natural and civil histories' of his homeland were published between 1782 and 1786, and translated into this two-volume English edition in 1809. Volume 1 covers the natural history of Chile.

This three-volume work, published in 1825, describes W. B. Stevenson's colourful experiences in colonial Chile, Colombia and Peru as a traveller, a prisoner, a provincial governor and a revolutionary. It gives a dramatic account of society and culture in South America as the movement for independence from Spanish rule gathered pace.

Antonio de Ulloa (1716-95) was a Spanish scientist who joined the French geodesic mission to South America between 1735 and 1744. These volumes contain the English translation of his description of South America (first published in 1758), in the fourth edition of 1806.

The naturalist Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) travelled to South America in 1799. Five years of research there resulted in numerous publications. This seven-volume English translation of his Relation historique du voyage (1814-25) appeared between 1814 and 1829. Volume 7 (1829) focuses on Cuba and Colombia.

Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) was a respected scientist whose meticulous approach to scientific observation greatly influenced later research. This two volume work, published in French in 1810 and in English translation in 1814, vividly describes his travels in Latin America and the landscapes and indigenous cultures he encountered there.

John Miers' Travels in Chile (1826) is the account of his travels and residence in Chile between 1818 and 1825 and his investigations into the cultural, political, and geographical aspects of the country. It is a rich source for botanical information and offers an insight into Victorian perceptions of Chile.

This account of the Schomburgk brothers' expedition to British Guiana, to survey and collect, between 1840 and 1844, was published in Germany in 1847-1848. They penetrated deep into the interior, and studied native tribes as well as flora and fauna. The account of the latter was considered particularly important.

Eminent Victorian historian James Anthony Froude travelled around the British West Indies in 1886-1887. These observations on the people of the different islands (first published in 1888), and views on how they should be governed, were highly controversial, implying that former slaves were not yet capable of self-government.

This 1848 volume gives a comprehensive picture of the history, geography and political economy of the British colony of Barbados. Schomburgk had been knighted in 1844 for his survey work in British Guiana, and was conscious of the importance of Barbados to Britain's trading interests in the West Indies.

This 1837 work provides a comprehensive survey of the British West Indies, by the Inspector of Hospitals. While it shows a particular interest in disease and climate, Halliday discusses the history, religion, administration and economic life of the islands, shortly after the abolition of slavery.

This journal, translated into English in 1771, is an account by naturalist and writer Antoine-Joseph Pernety (1716-96) of the 1763-4 French expedition to colonise the Falkland Islands. Included also are writings on subsequent voyages to Patagonia and the Straits of Magellan.

This report on the Spanish colony of Puerto Rico was published in 1834. It portrays the West Indies in a positive light, at a time of transition due to the abolition of the slave trade. He describes in detail the island, its geography, resources and people.

H. C. Prinsen Geerligs (b. 1864) was a Dutch microbiologist and a leading authority on the scientific and manufacturing aspects of the sugar cane industry. This volume, first published in 1912, is a comprehensive examination of the history, economics and politics of an industry that remains powerful to this day.

The journals of the foot soldier Bernal Diaz (1492-1584) are the fullest surviving eyewitness account of the Mexican conquest led by Hernan Cortes. In this first volume, Diaz recounts his first expeditions to the Yucatan coast and the beginning of his service in Cortes' army.

The acclaimed Prussian naturalist Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) was referred to by Charles Darwin as 'the greatest scientific traveller who ever lived'. During his voyage aboard the Beagle, Darwin acquired a copy of this two-volume 1811 New York edition of Humboldt's account of the land and people of Mexico.

In 1903 the Norwegian ethnographer and explorer Carl Lumholtz (1851-1922) published this two-volume account of the five years he spent living among indigenous tribes in the remote mountains of north-west Mexico. Volume 1 focuses on his search for the Tarahumare people, who inhabited mountainside cave dwellings.

This two-volume 1904 edition of Diaz del Castillo's history of the Spanish conquest of Mexico was based on the original manuscript. Diaz del Castillo's highly accessible eyewitness account, written from the viewpoint of a common soldier, first appeared in 1632 and became even more successful than the official chronicles.

Romantic poet Robert Southey (1774-1843) was poet laureate from 1813 to 1843. He was also a noted Portuguese scholar and between 1810 and 1819 published this influential three-volume work. Volume 1 begins with the discovery of Brazil by the Portuguese in 1500 and concludes in 1639.

First published in 1825, this account, by a British diplomat posted to Brazil, describes the geography, politics, trade, and peoples of a continent undergoing rapid change. Volume 1 focuses on agriculture and everyday life, and records Caldcleugh's impressions of the province of Buenos Aires and of Chile.

A Franciscan missionary to the Aztecs in 1529, Friar Bernardino Sahagun is considered 'the father of ethnology', as his study was the first to derive from the subjects' own point of view. The largest and most richly detailed account of the Aztecs' customs, religion and language before the Spanish conquest.