Neue Reisen durch die Vereinigten Staaten, Mexiko, Ecuador, Westindien und Venezuela

Friedrich Gerstäcker (1816-1872) was a German writer, best known for his travel reports on North America. He led a tumultuous life: as the son of a celebrated tenor, a love for travel was almost ingrained in him from birth. In 1837, he traveled to the USA for the first time, where he worked as a lumberjack, cattle driver, stoker, and cook on a Mississippi steamboat, as well as a teacher and, above all, as a (big game) hunter. During his travels, he roamed through North and South America, the island world of the Pacific, and Australia. In Germany, Gerstäcker was actively involved in the political events of the 1848 revolutions; he lost his beloved wife and served as a war correspondent during the Franco-Prussian War. Friedrich Gerstäcker published a multitude of stories, novels, and especially accounts of his various travels, making him one of the most read and well-known authors in Germany. This work captures his new travels in the 1860s, with the present volume containing impressions from Mexico, the Isthmus, and the West Indies.