Travels in the Interior of Brazil particularly in the Cold and Diamond Districts of that Country, by Authority of the Prince Regent of Portugal; Including a Voyage to the Rio de la Plata, and an Historical Sketch of the Revolution of Buenos Ayres
Author: John Mawe (1764-1829)
Year: 1821
Publisher: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown
Place: London
Description:
x+493 pages with frontispiece, five plates and map, appendix and index. Octavo (8 1/2" x 5 3/4") bound in half leather with five raised spine bands with black labels lettering tin gilt over blue marbled boards with marbled end pages. Second edition.
John Mawe was a British mineralogist who became known for his practical approach to the discipline. In 1793, Mawe was apprenticed to the Derby mason Richard Brown (1736–1816). Brown & Mawe was the name of the retail business near Covent Garden in 1797 which sold objects created from Derbyshire marble at the factory in Derby. Mawe was manager of this business. This business was established in 1794. Geological diagrams of Derbyshire strata which are made from Derbyshire minerals were once thought to have all been created by White Watson but it is now thought likely that some of these objects in Derby Museum were actually created by Mawe & Brown.
In August 1804 he started on a "voyage of commercial experiment" to Rio de la Plata funded by Portugal's Prince Regent. His missions was to assess the value of the gold and diamond industries that might revitalize Brazil's ailing economy. Mawe had reached Cadiz when war broke out between England and Spain, and he was blockaded in the town where he was taken ill and nearly died. He sailed from Cadiz in March 1805 for Montevideo, and on reaching that town was imprisoned as an English spy. He procured his liberty soon after, but was interned, and did not obtain his release till the capture of Montevideo by William Beresford in 1806. He accompanied the expedition under John Whitelocke to Buenos Aires, and on his return to Montevideo purchased a schooner and sailed to Brazil, putting in at various ports on the way, including the island of Santa Catarina. He was well received in Brazil by the prince regent, who gave him permission to visit the diamond mines of Minas Gerais and other parts of the interior during 1809–10, and also granted him access to the government archives.
Condition:
Rebound with pages I-x inserted before title. Some light foxing else very good.