The Javanese nobleman Radèn Mas Arya Candranegara V (1837–85), alias Purwalelana, journeyed across his homeland during the rapidly changing times of the nineteenth century. He travelled around 5,000 kilometres by horse and carriage between 1860 and 1875. His eye-witness account, The Travels of Purwalelana, gives an inside view of Java, at the time part of the Dutch East Indies. Candranegara explains habits and traditions of both the Javanese and the Dutch, he describes the architecture of cities and temples and he marvels about the beautiful tropical landscape as well as about the latest technological inventions such as steam trains, horse-drawn trams and gas lanterns. This Hakluyt publication, illustrated with contemporaneous images, presents the rare perspective of an Indonesian traveller living in colonial times. The author grew up as a member of a Javanese noble family in the hybrid world of the colonial upper class. He received a western-style education, but also learnt how to follow Javanese traditions and to be a good Muslim. In 1858 he was appointed to the high rank of Regent of Kudus by the colonial government. Candranegara wrote his book under the pseudonym Purwalelana, probably because he considered publishing to be an adventurous undertaking and possibly also because it gave him freedom to arrange the events in his own way. The Travels represents the first Javanese travelogue ever written and, as such, it broke with existing traditions. Candranegara used prose instead of poetry, wrote from a first-person perspective rather than a third-person, and he described present society rather than dwelling upon the common literary theme of kings in battle. The result is a lively story in which the armchair traveller shares his experiences on the road. It provides its readers with a range of people and topics pivotal to developments in nineteenth century Java, a treasure trove for historians and cultural anthropologists alike. The volume includes 24 colour illustrations.

Jerónimo Lobo was the last survivor of the small band of Jesuit Fathers who tried, with a measure of success, to reconcile Ethiopia to the Church of Rome. The narrative begins with Lobo’s ordination in 1621 and ends seventeen years later. Chosen to serve in India he reached that country after being involved with a naval fight against the Dutch and English off Mozambique. Selected for the Ethiopian mission, he made a remarkable attempt to reach the country from the Somali coast, and eventually made his way to Bailul in the Red Sea and across the Danakil desert. He spent nine years in Ethiopia, principally in the north and in the neighbourhood of the source of the Blue Nile. Exiled when the Emperor restored the authority of the Ethiopian Church, he was handed over to the Turks at Massawa. After suffering much hardship and danger he regained India. Sent to Europe to advocate intervention on behalf of the Ethiopian Catholics, his ship was wrecked on the South African coast. The castaways built two boats, one of which succeeded in rounding the Cape and arriving at Luanda. Here Lobo embarked on a ship carrying slaves to the Spanish main which was captured by the Dutch. Lobo was marooned on an island but contrived to make his way to Cartagena and Havana and so to Europe. His diplomatic business took him to Madrid and Rome, but his plea for armed assistance for the Ethiopian Catholics did not succeed. Translated by Donald M. Lockhart.

Trading Companies and Travel Knowledge in the Early Modern World explores the links between trade, empire, exploration, and global information trans>fer during the early modern period. By charting how the leaders, members, employees, and supporters of different trading companies gathered, pro>cessed, employed, protected, and divulged intelligence about foreign lands, peoples, and markets, this book throws new light on the internal uses of information by corporate actors and the ways they engaged with, relied on, and supplied various external publics. This ranged from using secret knowl>edge to beat competitors, to shaping debates about empire, and to forcing Europeans to reassess their understandings of specific environments due to contacts with non-European peoples. Reframing our understanding of trading companies through the lens of travel literature, this volume brings together thirteen experts in the field to facilitate a new understanding of how European corporations and empires were shaped by global webs of information exchange

Translation and edition. The additional documents, in translation, comprise a letter by Antoine Malfante, 1447, an account of the voyages of Diogo Gomes, c. 1456, and extracts from João de Barros, Decadas de Asia. This is a new print-on-demand hardback edition of the volume first published in 1937. Owing to technical constraints it has not been possible to reproduce the map of "North-western Africa in the fifteenth century" which appeared in the first edition of the work.

This is the first English translation of the journal of Louis-Antoine de Bougainville. Although he published an account of his voyage in 1771, and despite wide interest and controversy in Europe following reports of his reception in Tahiti and life on the island, the journal itself was not published until 1977.The Pacific Journal of Louis-Antoine de Bougainville follows his progress across the Pacific and northwards via the Solomon Islands and New Guinea, endeavouring to complete the inadequate charts of the time and leaving his name to a number of features, the best known of which is Bougainville Island.The Pacific Journal is published with extensive editorial notes and a full explanatory introduction. Also included are journals of other participants in the expedition.