Adventures and Encounters

South-East Asia has always confronted visitors with exotic cultures, strange lands, and proud monarchies. This anthology offers selections from the whole range of European writing--from accounts by sixteenth-century Portuguese and Spanish spice traders to those by nineteenth-century explorers, naturalists, and literary travellers. The writings express the fascination, the excitement, and sometimes the danger of personal adventures and encounters in South-East Asia. It is the work of a...
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South-East Asia has always confronted visitors with exotic cultures, strange lands, and proud monarchies. This anthology offers selections from the whole range of European writing--from accounts by sixteenth-century Portuguese and Spanish spice traders to those by nineteenth-century explorers, naturalists, and literary travellers. The writings express the fascination, the excitement, and sometimes the danger of personal adventures and encounters in South-East Asia. It is the work of a talented minority who found delight in a strange world of their time, a world which is rapidly changing and vanishing. These writers have left a vivid record for the entertainment of the modern reader.