In 1550, the German adventurer Hans Staden was serving as a gunner in a Portuguese fort on the Brazilian coast. While out hunting, he was captured by the Tupinamba, an indigenous people who had a reputation for engaging in ritual cannibalism, and who, as allies of the French, were hostile to the Portuguese. "Staden's True History", first published in Germany in 1557, tells the story of his nine-month captivity among the Tupi Indians. It is a dramatic...

"Chronicling, in the main, the initial (albeit abortive) attempt to establish a spice trade in the Moluccas, the Diary of Richard Madox, Fellow of All Souls, covers a single calendar year. Since five months of that year were to pass before the flotilla of four ships rounded the Lizard, the Diary also records its author's winding up of his affairs at Oxford, his stay in London following upon the problems and false starts incident to departure, and...