Mark Meuwese addresses three important historiographic needs with his new translation of a 1646 Dutch travel narrative. First is the need for more background information about Dutch incursions into the Pacific. A second is the need for more sources about the indigenous people of Chiloé. Third is a need for more English-language primary sources about colonial South America. This volume begins with Meuwese's extensive “Introduction to the Journal and History of the Brouwer Expedition to Valdivia, 1643,” an anonymous account by a member of the expedition published in Amsterdam in 1646. The Journal and History is an account of a specific West India Company expedition, organized and led by veteran explorer Hendrick Brouwer. Brouwer would sail to Chile, land near the coastal town of Valdivia, and seek an alliance with the Reche-Mapuche indigenous group. Meuwese describes the extensive planning and sagacious strategy employed in Dutch-controlled Recife, after which the fleet would set out for the Strait of Le Maire in January of 1643.

After initial success at meeting and trading with Hulliche natives in Chiloé, we see that Brouwer's death in August of 1643 produced a succession crisis, and ultimately caused the fleet to return to Brazil two months later. What follows is an interesting discussion of the decision to publish the narrative that admittedly had “very little to celebrate” (17). Finally, Meuwese reminds us that the Journal and History remains relevant in the historiography, as it contains information about the ambitions of the West India Company, describes the “persistence of indigenous power” in Chile, “sheds light on seventeenth-century print culture,” and details the harsh nature of oceanic travel (26).

This publication of the Journal derives from versions found in the Dutch Royal Library and Utrecht University. A Spanish-language edition was published in Chile in 1892, but this is the first complete English translation. The Journal picks up in November of 1642 with preparations at Texel, and follows across the Atlantic with stops at the Canary Islands and Madeira. The Journal proceeds to provide important details on Dutch activities in Pernambuco, like harbor improvements, slave import, and administrative structure. Rarely do we see Portuguese or Spanish sources providing such extensive information on what they may regard as an interlude of Dutch possession. After a difficult passage around Cape Horn, the expedition finally arrived off the coast of Chiloé in early May. For the rest of May, the Dutch fleet explored the harbors and channels around Chiloé, finding little luck at alliance building. This continued into June, the beginning of winter in Chile, when Brouwer became very ill. He would die in early August, and his replacement, Elias Herckmans, determined that the Valdivia plan would remain in place. The fleet set sail for Valdivia on August 21.

The Journal dedicates a few pages to the author's overall impressions of Chile, describing the quality of the harbors, the manner of the people, the Spanish encomienda system, and the richness of the soil. The author observed that Dutch seeds may not have done well in Chilean soil, but instead potential Dutch settlers may have more luck with a root called the “potatoe,” which he described as colorful and nutritious (79). The expedition arrived at the mouth of the Valdivia River on August 25. On the 29th, General Herckmans landed upriver near the Valdivia town square where he met with seventy “Chileans” (presumably Reche-Mapuche since this town had been abandoned by the Spanish) and informed them of his plans to bring more trade goods and to set up a fort there (85).

The Journal describes the expedition's two-month stay in Valdivia, where they cemented alliances with the Mapuche but learned that they could not count on them for supplies. In these two months the Dutch also observed the complexity of the Spanish-Mapuche relationship, ultimately deciding that the threat of a rumored Spanish expedition force combined with the tenuous Dutch position (five sailors were executed after deserting) required that the remaining fleet return to Pernambuco. (The viceroy of Peru was, in fact, preparing a fleet to expel the Dutch from Valdivia, but it did not arrive until 1645. The Spanish strategy that did succeed at inhibiting the Dutch was the sending of messages via Mapuche allies—messages claiming the Dutch could not be trusted, as they planned to force the Indians to mine for gold.) The fleet set sail toward Brazil via Chiloé on October 28, and arrived in Recife on 28 December 1643.