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British travelogues of independence-era Spanish America
British travellers, soldiers, settlers, merchants, diplomats, artists and naval officers visited Spanish America during the independence period. Many recorded their impressions in memoirs and travelogues.
These accounts reveal British attitudes towards revolutionary Spanish America and reflect an interest in changing circumstances, indigenous groups, the revolutions, geographical wonders, burgeoning patriotic culture and everyday life. Some observers illustrated their texts with engravings and sketches.
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Source: Sketch by Maria Graham, Journal of a residence in Chile, during the year 1822; and a voyage from Chile to Brazil, in 1823. (Appendix. A ... relation of facts ... connected with the family of the Carreras, in Chile; with some account of the last expedition of Brigadier-General ... J. M. Carrera ... by M. Yates.), London, 1824, p. 268. |
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Image:
Streets of San Domingo, Santiago de Chile with
Flags [BL 567.h.21.] |
Caption: In 1821 Maria Graham accompanied her second husband, naval officer Thomas Graham, to South America. He died in Chile in 1822 and Maria Graham declined to return to Britain, remaining in the country until departing for Brazil later that year.
Extract: "This event brings us within a very few years of the period when the South American colonies of Spain began to claim, first, equal privileges with the mother country....." read full excerpt 
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Source:
Gilbert Farquhar Mathison, Narrative of a Visit
to Brazil, Chile, Peru and the Sandwich Islands during the years
1821 and 1822. With miscellaneous remarks on the past and present
state, and political prospects of those countries, p. 233. |
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Image:
Females of Lima [BL 10492.dd.10.] |
Caption: "The annexed drawing
exhibits a lady dressed according to the national costume, and in
the act of pulling back the manto to accost an acquaintance,
who is dressed in another costume, most usually worn at night. The
sash across the shoulders is the Banda Patriotica, as recently
worn by some females in honour of the newly established patriotic
government." p. 233.
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Source:
[John Constance Davies?] Letters
from Buenos Ayres and Chili, with an original history of the
latter country. Illustrated with engravings. By the author of
Letters from Paraguay , London, 1819, title page. |
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Image:
A Cacique in his Dress of Ceremony
[BL 279.k.13.] |
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Source:
William Bullock, Six Months in Mexico;
containing remarks on the present state of New Spain, its natural
productions, state of society, manufactures, trade, agriculture,
and antiquities, &c. with plates and maps, London, 1824,
p. 78. |
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Image:
Superior Indians in the Holyday Dresses, p. 78 [BL
917.2 *632* DSC] |
Caption: “As we approached
Puebla, we met several groups of Indians, making a much more respectable
appearance than any we had before seen; they were provided with
candles, fire-works, artificial flowers, shrubs, &c., it being
the eve of Palm Sunday: these were the preparations for the approaching
festival of Easter.”
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Image:
Indian Water Carrier & Female Brush-Wood Carrier,
of Quito, p. 260 (vol. 2) [BL 1050.h.19-21] |
Image:
Male and Female Indians of the Malaba, p. 385 (vol.
2) [BL 1050.h.19-21] |
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Source: William Bennet Stevenson, A Historical
and Descriptive Narrative of Twenty Years’ Residence
in South America ... containing travels in Arauco, Chile,
Peru, and Columbia; with an account of the revolution, its
rise, progress, and results, London, 1825, 3 vols.
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Image:
Chilean Farmer, title page (vol. 3) [BL 1050.h.19-21] |
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Source:
James H. Robinson, Journal of an expedition 1400 miles up
the Orinoco, London, 1822, p. 139. |
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Image:
A Native Soldier, p. 139 [BL 1050.h.14] |
Extract: General Monagas' Army
These squalid troops presented a very motley group. They were of every age, from eight years to fifty, or even more. Some were completely naked; some had a hair rope bound round their body, to which was attached a piece of cloth, behind and before, which passes between the thighs, called Yayuco, or Guayuco; some had a jacket; some, a kind of short...." read full excerpt
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