The Captivity of Hans Stade of Hesse, in A.D. 1547-1555, among the Wild Tribes of Eastern Brazil [Hakluyt Society No. 51]

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good+. 1874. Printed for the Hakluyt Society. 1st Edition.

Translated from the 1557 Marburg edition by Albert Tootal, with preface, introduction, and annotations by Richard F. Burton.

Blue cloth covers, decoration of the ship Victoria and lettering in gilt,  edges rough-trimmed. Corners bumped, some slight and edgewear Note on endpaper mentions resewn with new end papers. Small tears on first few pages mended, albiet two with book tape. Interior otherwise clean and with very few flaws. Pages aer uncut.

An autobiography of a German soldier of fortune, who was captured by cannibalistic Indians in eastern Brazil during the sixteenth century. Originally published, in 1557, as Warhaftige Historia und beschreibung eyner Landtschafft der Wilden Nacketen, Grimmigen Menschfresser-Leuthen in der Newenwelt America gelegen (True Story and Description of a Country of Wild, Naked, Grim, Man-eating People in the New World, America). This edition published as no. 51, Part II, of the Hakluyt Society's First Series.

Burton wrote the introduction and added extensive footnotes. He discovered the text while on an extensive visit to Brazil to study the indigenous Indian languages, excavating early Portuguese forts, and searching for gold.

Stade's is one of the earliest descriptions of Brazil, detailing minutely the incidents of his long captivity, his intercourse and battles with the natives, his sufferings and final escape. Southey called it "a book of great value and all subsequent accounts of the Tupi tribes rather repeat than add to the information which it contains."