Lucio V. Mansilla (1831-1913), the widely traveled and cultured scion of a famous family, was a colonel in the Argentine army when he undertook an "excursion" to the Argentine interior in 1870 to visit natives in areas then largely unknown. Mansilla's uncle, dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas, dominated most of Argentina from 1829 to 1852 and had led successful military expeditions against the frontier Indians in 1852. Mansilla set out for a reconnaissance into the tense border region just after a peace treaty had been signed with the Indians. Over the course of this expedition, Mansilla sent to a...

Though Juan Manuel de Rozas has been the topic of several studies and discussions -many still going on in Argentina- this Ensayo Historico-Psicologico is particularly enlightening beyond the character, as it also sheds light upon the reasons why of the influence Rozas holds upon an important portion of the Argentine ruling class, and as such upon it's history, even recent. Lucio Victorio Mansilla was Roza's nephew, but he also was an illustrated, clear thinking personality, and admirer of social progress. These three qualities led him to support the ideas expressed by Juan Bautista Alberdi...

The encounter between Native American peoples and Europeans and their descendants has marked the history of every nation in the Americas, both North and South. Lucio Mansilla's Una excursion a los indios ranqueles, published in Argentina in 1870, is one of very few works in American letters that presents a vivid, firsthand account of a noncombative encounter between Native American and European civilizations.

This volume is the first English translation of Mansilla's classic work. Long noted for its humor, adventurousness, and narrative ingenuity, the book offers...