HADFIELD, William. Brazil and the River Plate 1870-1876. Sutton, Surrey, W. R. Church, 1877.
8vo. Original cloth, spine lettered in gilt, covers onamented in blind, front cover with Brazilian coat-of-arms in gilt; pp. [viii], 327, [16, advertisements for investors], tinted lithographic frontispiece-portrait, one further portrait after a photograph; light bubbling to cloth, spine dulled; light spotting to frontispiece and offsetting to opposite title; otherwise clean and fresh.
First edition. The Liverpool-born businessman, traveller, writer and long-term resident in Brazil William Hadfield (1806-1887) had travelled on business in Brazil early in his life. 'Hadfield resided in Brazil for several years, later moving to Argentina. While in Brazil, in addition to his association with the railway company, he attempted to establish steamer services on the Paraná, as well as to make links with neighbouring countries, and Europe. He set up the first steamship agency in Buenos Aires when he arrived there in 1852. Later, when the province of Buenos Aires temporarily broke away from the Argentine confederation, he developed contacts with General José de Urquiza, sometime president of the confederation, who was anxious to promote foreign investment in the region' (ODNB).
In 1854 he had published Brazil, the River Plate, and the Falkland Islands, of which title an updated edition appeared in 1868. The present work, much rarer than the previous one, is again an update on the economic, political and infrastructure developments since 1868, preceded by a travel diary from June 9, 1870 to January, 21, 1871, of a journey to and in Brazil (up to p. 198).
Borba de Moraes p. 389.
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