A Voyage to South America

Antonio de Ulloa (1716–95) was a Spanish scientist and mathematician. In 1734 he was asked by Philip V of Spain to join the French geodesic expedition to measure the circumference of the Earth at the equator, and accordingly in 1735 Ulloa and his fellow scientist Jorge Juan y Santacilia (1713–73) travelled to South America, staying until 1744. These volumes contain the English translation of Ulloa’s account of South America, first published in 1758. The work was very popular, producing five subsequent editions: this reissue is of the fourth edition of 1806. It provides insights into the social, religious and economic institutions of colonial South America. Volume 2 contains descriptions of the cities and provinces of Lima, Concepción (in Chile) and Buenos Aires and of the British colony of Boston, visited on the return journey, together with the first ethnological description in English of the indigenous peoples of Brazil.