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The Rio de la Plata region was one of the most contested areas in the Atlantic World during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Both Spain and Portugal claimed the area and it was an area of interest to the British. Montevideo–the best port and...
In 1718 Joseph-François Lafitau claimed to have discovered ginseng in Canada. Working in the mission to the Mohawk at Kahnawá:ke/Sault Saint Louis between 1712 and 1717, the Jesuit missionary had first heard of the plant that he would try to name Aureliana canadenis (a name...
As fellow at the JCB library during the summer of 2008, I examined the documentation and worked on preparing an English critical edition and translation of the first book published on the discovery of America, the Libretto de tutta la nauigatione de Re de Spagna...
The image below is the frontispiece to one of the most well-known Indian captivity stories. It shows Peter Williamson in the dress of a Delaware Indian and illustrates the book he wrote titled, French and Indian cruelty: exemplified in the life, and various vicissitudes of fortune, of...