Four Years In Paraguay : Robertson 1838 [ Dictator Francia ]
$650
In stock
Description
Robertson, J.P and W.P. Four Years In Paraguay: Comprising an Account of that Republic, Under the Government of the Dictator Francia. E.L. Carrey & A. Hart. Philadelphia. 1838
“Paraguay is less known, perhaps, to the English reader than any other part of the world into which European Civilization has been introduced.”
Arriving in Buenos Aires and traveling overland to Itapua, Paraguay this epistolary travelogue by two Scottish brothers takes a turn at the end of volume one. Leaving on a river trip after a celebration of the Feast of St John the Evangelist with local Jesuits and their parishioners, the authors return to find the country’s leader Don Gregario overthrown and the priest’s expelled under the arguable Latin American Robespierre, Jose Gaspar Rodrigo Francia. Titled “The Supreme and Perpetual Dictator of Paraguay” following his rise to power in 1814, the former lawyer turned dictator Francia was popularly called “El Supremo”, ruling until his death in 1840. A fascinating first-hand account of a turbulent, revolutionary period at the twilight of the Spanish empire with descriptions of geography, customs, politics and more.
First US edition printed by E.L. Carrey and A. Hart of Philadelphia shortly after the original publication in London. Possibly the personal copy of British ex-pat and New York Herald Tribune writer, A. E. Coleman, whose collection is held at the University of Toronto.
8vo 236pp + 220pp, two volumes bound together. Three quarter tooled leather over marbled boards, title and author gilt on spine. Some, scuffing, and wear to edges and faces. Marbled pastedowns and endpapers. Former ownership signature on second free endpaper. Top of title page clipped, with minor marks in margin. Occasional foxing. Pages aged but clean apart from darkening of title page and contents in Volume II. Good condition.
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