Un testigo en la alborada de Chile, 1826-1829 Open Access

This is a profusely illustrated and excellently edited translation of the first volume or Chilean portion of Reise in Chile, Peru und auf dem Amazonenstrome während der Jahre, 1827-1832 (2 vols., Leipzig, 1835). It places in ready circulation the travel notes of a very perceptive German natural scientist. Excellently trained in medicine at Leipzig and widely traveled in Europe, Cuba, and the United States, Eduardo Poeppig provides a wealth of detail for the early history of Chile, not only of physical aspects but also of social and political problems. Poeppig’s biographer, the German geographer Friedrich Ratzel, called his descriptions superior to those of Humboldt, and they certainly justify placing them alongside Humboldt as an inspired and faithful student of the New World. Justifiable also is the claim of his translator that much of the history of the 1820s will have to be rewritten on the basis of a better knowledge of his work. Among historians only José Toribio Medina has utilized extensively his findings. What will particularly attract the student of Chile is that this is no travelogue written from the vantage point of Santiago or Valparaiso or based on a few conversations with Chilean statesmen and politicians. Rather it is a portrait of the countryside and of Chile from south to north and is based on contact with the people, including the most humble. The translator has added valuable aids: occasional notes of clarification on political or economic detail; a wide selection of sketches by Juan Mauricio Rugendas dating from the 1830s and numerous photographs taken by the translator himself; and a long index of proper names, places, and subjects.