The author of this volume was uniquely prepared for his task by several earlier studies on Peter Il’s itineraries in Europe and Russia, and by his secretarial duties with several of the Brazilian embassies in the Old World. More important, the author had access to several pertinent sources of information for the present compilation, particularly the chronicles set down by James O’Kelly, the Irishman whom the famous newspaper publisher Gordon Bennett appointed to accompany the Imperial party from Rio de Janeiro to New York, and then on the itinerary throughout the United States and parts of Canada; and the Diário de Viàgem kept by Peter II, and now preserved in the National Museum at beautiful Petrópolis.

The Imperial party left Rio de Janeiro aboard the Brazilian ship Helvélius March 26, 1876, and arrived at New York approximately three weeks later. Here in the big city the Royal party was officially welcomed to the United States by a committee headed by Secretary of State Hamilton Fish, and then given a warm reception by the civic organizations of the great metropolis. Following brief initial visits to the Centennial City and the National Capital, came the long transcontinental trek via Chicago and Salt Lake to San Francisco and return to the east coast. The second long jaunt took the Royal party by train and boat to Cincinnati, St. Louis, New Orleans, and back to the east coast once more.

Among the many events that marked the extensive journeys of the Imperial party throughout the United States, only a few of the more significant can be noted in this summary. First, one is struck by the high quality and size of these manifestations in honor of the guests wherever they appeared. Second, one notes particularly the catholicity of interest on the part of the Emperor whether he was viewing Indian chieftains and their dress, hospitals and schools, theatrical performances, historical monuments, or parades. No event impressed him more than the Mormon Temple at Salt Lake City and the impressive services held therein in honor of the Imperial party.

Obviously, since they came specially for the event, the high point of interest for the visitors from the southland was the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, at which the Brazilian exhibit was one of the largest, if not the most elaborate, among the displays.

The visit to Niagara Falls and Montreal in Canada, to Boston in New England, to the military academies in the United States, and to the extended sojourn in the National Capital were all to be long remembered.

On the morning of July 12 the Royal party left the Buckingham Hotel in New York and went aboard the Russia of the Cunard Line for Europe.

Composed of so many parts, chiefly quotations and brief summaries, the compilation is scrappy and disjointed. Still the volume is nicely written, full of personal interest, and could serve to refresh many a memory in this epoch of our own history.