Covering all aspects of global exploration, from Antarctica to the North Pole, The Oxford Companion to World Exploration examines the lives and expeditions of heroic and influential explorers. This coverage includes biographies, including Lewis and Clark, Ferdinand Magellan, Cheng Ho, Hernan Cortes, Ibn Battuta, Vitus Bering, and Christopher Columbus; national expeditions, including Portuguese, British, French, Chinese, Dutch, and Spanish; and navigational and marine sciences, such as navigational techniques, ancient and medieval navigation, ocean currents and winds, longitude, cartography,...

Creolization, the process of cultural interchange--in this case, between peoples of the continents bordering the Atlantic Ocean--is an important aspect of the American experience. Language, literature, food, dress, and social relations are all affected by the interplay of cultures. Only recently, though, have scholars fully begun to understand creolization as a mutual exchange rather than the acculturation of colonized peoples to a dominant culture.
Focusing on diverse settings and different aspects of culture, five scholars here examine the process of creolization: its origins,...

Creolization, the process of cultural interchange--in this case, between peoples of the continents bordering the Atlantic Ocean--is an important aspect of the American experience. Language, literature, food, dress, and social relations are all affected by the interplay of cultures. Only recently, though, have scholars fully begun to understand creolization as a mutual exchange rather than the acculturation of colonized peoples to a dominant culture.
Focusing on diverse settings and different aspects of culture, five scholars here examine the process of creolization: its origins,...

This remarkable description of Jamaica in the late 1680s was written by a contemporary English observer, John Taylor, who spent some months on the island. The original manuscript is held by the National Library of Jamaica, and has rarely been used by scholars. It contains information about Jamaica under the Spaniards, about the English invasion of 1655 and about the formation of the subsequent society, including the treatment of slaves. There are sections on the island's settlement and architecture, including a particularly full description of Port Royal. John Taylor sets out fifty current...

This remarkable description of Jamaica in the late 1680s was written by a contemporary English observer, John Taylor, who spent some months on the island. The original manuscript is held by the National Library of Jamaica, and has rarely been used by scholars. It contains information about Jamaica under the Spaniards, about the English invasion of 1655 and about the formation of the subsequent society, including the treatment of slaves. There are sections on the island's settlement and architecture, including a particularly full description of Port Royal. John Taylor sets out fifty current...