A Voyage to the South-Sea and along the Coasts of Chili and Peru, in the Years 1712, 1713, and 1714

The first reliable maps of the Chilean and Peruvian coasts were drawn by the French explorer Amedee-Francois Frezier (1682-1773). In 1712, he was sent on a spying mission to the Spanish ports and fortifications of South America, travelling along the Pacific coastline as far as Callao, the port of Lima. His maps were later used by two of France's most famous explorers, Bougainville and Laperouse. Frezier also took a keen interest in botany, mineralogy, economics and anthropology. His most celebrated achievement is the introduction to Europe of the Chilean strawberry, which was used to create the hybrid species known today as the garden strawberry. Frezier's observations and illustrations of the people, plants and animals he encountered on his South American travels are given in this popular account, published in Paris in 1716 and reissued here in the English translation of 1717.