A dynamic army officer and sportsman, Sir Richard Levinge (1811 84) was an unlikely chronicler of nature. However, service during the suppression of the French Canadian uprising of 1837 8 led to a personal fascination with the people, flora and fauna of the Canadian colonies. Published in 1846, this two-volume description of travel through eastern Canada and the United States reflects the author's passion for hunting and the outdoor life. In Volume 2 readers are introduced to the American swamps, Montreal, the Great Lakes and Niagara Falls, as well as the continent's exotic fauna in the form...

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...

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...

First published in book form in 1899, and reissued here in the 1928 Macmillan edition, this two-volume collection contains a series of letters and travel reports originally written for newspapers by the young Rudyard Kipling (1865 1936) on his journeys around India, Burma, China, Japan and the United States between 1887 and 1889. The 1907 Nobel Prize winner's characteristic fluid writing style is already apparent in these funny, poignant and vivid articles and short stories. Providing revealing insights into Kipling's notions of imperialism and Englishness, the works also reflect the writer's...

First published in book form in 1899, and reissued here in the 1928 Macmillan edition, this two-volume collection contains a series of letters and travel reports originally written for newspapers by the young Rudyard Kipling (1865 1936) on his journeys around India, Burma, China, Japan and the United States between 1887 and 1889. The 1907 Nobel Prize winner's characteristic fluid writing style is already apparent in these funny, poignant and vivid articles and short stories. Providing revealing insights into Kipling's notions of imperialism and Englishness, the works also reflect the writer's...

First published in 1825 and based on his diaries, this two-volume account by Alexander Caldcleugh (1795 1858) of his experiences in Brazil, Buenos Aires, and Chile portrays a diverse and changing continent. London-born Caldcleugh was posted to South America in 1819 as private secretary to the British minister at the Portuguese royal court (based in Brazil 1808 21). Following that two-year mission, he returned to South America in 1829 and remained there until his death. Caldcleugh's book appealed to the avid interest of European readers in the 'New World'. It was well-received upon publication...

First published in 1825 and based on his diaries, this two-volume account by Alexander Caldcleugh (1795 1858) of his experiences in Brazil, Buenos Aires, and Chile portrays a diverse and changing continent. London-born Caldcleugh was posted to South America in 1819 as private secretary to the British minister at the Portuguese royal court (based in Brazil 1808 21). Following that two-year mission, he returned to South America in 1829 and remained there until his death. Caldcleugh's book appealed to the avid interest of European readers in the 'New World'. It was well-received upon publication...

Alexander von Humboldt (1769 1859) was one of the most respected scientists of his time; Darwin called him 'the greatest scientific traveller who ever lived'. From 1799 Humboldt spent five years exploring the Americas, reporting his findings in thirty volumes, published over a period of more than twenty years from 1805. His Essai Politique, describing northern New Spain, particularly Mexico, was one of the first studies of a single country written to take account of both its history, its society and its political development. In 1824, the English mining engineer John Taylor published this...

During 1834 5 the British naval officer and artist William Smyth (1800 77) and his fellow officer Frederick Lowe (1811 47) went on an expedition to Peru and North-Eastern Brazil. This account of their journey, first published in 1836, combines a travel narrative with anthropological observation. Their objective was to explore the river Pachitea in Peru and investigate its potential as a route from the Andes via the Amazon to the Atlantic Ocean that could reduce journey times and benefit Peruvian exports. The tone of the book is typical of early nineteenth-century European travel literature,...

In 1844 Charles Dickens (1812 70) and his family moved to Italy for a year, eventually settling in Genoa. This book, Dickens' second travel memoir, describes his experience of travelling through France and exploring Italy. Based on letters to friends, particularly John Forster, it was first published in instalments from January to March 1846 in the Daily News (a new radical newspaper which Dickens himself founded and briefly edited). The edition in book form reissued here appeared in May 1846. The main focus of the book is the northern regions of Italy, including Tuscany, Milan and Venice. It...