This is the first of a pair of volumes publishing the full reports of Schomburgk's travels in Guiana between 1835 and 1844, previously available only in greatly abridged and heavily edited versions. Robert Schomburgk left his native Germany for North America in 1828, aged twenty-four. A year later he was in the Caribbean, where, after various business failures, he devoted himself to the investigation of natural history, especially botany. Although he had no previous contact with the Royal Geographical Society in London, the work he submitted to it was of such a quality that he was able to...