Description
Book SynopsisA collection and translation of seventeenth-century narratives about Europeans travelling across the great Ocean Sea and encountering a people who had maintained an independent existence in the lowlands of Guatemala and Belize.
Trade Review“It is exciting to have a translation of these important early documents finally available. Feldman is widely regarded as one of the foremost scholars in Central American ethnohistoric studies. His grasp of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spanish and paleography is superior, his translations are accurate and faithful to the documents while being understandable to the nonspecialist, and the amount of cultural, geographic, and economic information contained in these documents is amazing.”—Karen Olsen Bruhns, San Francisco State University
“This is totally new, very important material. Specialists in the field will be very pleased to see it in print—Feldman has been known to have been burrowing in the archives for a long time now, and this is spectacular fruit.”—Norman Hammond, Boston University
Table of ContentsIllustrations xi
Note to the Reader xiii
Preface xv
1 Beginnings. 1574-1606 1
2 Georgraphy of the Lowlands: Gabriel Salazar, 1620 21
3 Across the Ocean Sea: Martin Tovilla, 1630 55
4 Borderlands: Martin Tovilla, 1635 85
5 Coming of the Soldiers: Martin Tovilla. 1635 116
6 The Lies of Friar Moran, 1636 151
7 Between Two Worlds ,1653-1654 158
8 The Rediscovery of the Manché Chol, 1676 170
9 The Itinerary of Friar Joseph Delgado, 1677 181
10 Collection and Removal, 1685-1700 187
11 Raids of the Mosquito Zambo, 1704-1733 217
Postscript and Further Readings, 1766-1733 221
Appendices 223
