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This hand-colored engraving of the Dutch colonial capital of Batavia (present-day Jakarta) was created by Jan Van Ryne in 1754. Van Ryne was born in the Netherlands, but spent most of his working life in London, where he specialized in producing engravings of scenes from the British and Dutch colonies. Located at the mouth of the Ciliwung River, Jakarta was the site of a settlement and port possibly going back as far as the fifth century A.D. In 1619, the Dutch captured and razed the existing city of Jayakerta (meaning "glorious fortress" in Sundanese) and built the walled township o...

In 1874-75, the Russian government sent a research and trading mission to China to seek out new overland routes to the Chinese market, report on prospects for increased commerce and locations for consulates and factories, and gather information about the Dungan Revolt then raging in parts of western China. Led by Lieutenant Colonel Iulian A. Sosnovskii of the army General Staff, the nine-man mission included a topographer, Captain Matusovskii; a scientific officer, Dr. Pavel Iakovlevich Piasetskii; Chinese and Russian interpreters; three non-commissioned Cossack soldiers; and the mission photo...

Documentos historicos relativos a la fundacion de la Republica de Panama (Historical documents relating to the establishment of the Republic of Panama) is a compilation of documents published in Panama in 1904, shortly after the province of Panama declared its independence from Colombia. In January 1903 the representative of the Colombian government in Washington, Tomás Herrán, and the United States secretary of state, John Hay, signed a treaty giving the United States the right to build a canal across the Isthmus of Panama. Public opinion in Colombia regarded the financial terms of the tr...

Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta, better known simply as Ibn Battuta (1304--circa 1377 AD) was a Berber Muslim scholar and traveler, who was born in Tangier, Morocco. He is considered one of the greatest travelers of all time, and is well known for the account of his travels and excursions. The full title of the book of his journeys is Tuhfat al-anzar fi gharaaib al-amsar wa ajaaib al-asfar (A gift to those who contemplate the wonders of cities and the marvels of traveling), but it is commonly referred to as Ibn Battuta's Rihla (rihla means journey). Propelled by the quest for adventure a...

This watercolor by Manuel María Paz (1820-1902) shows the different methods of fishing employed by people in Casanare Province (present-day Casanare Department), Colombia. The man identified as a mulatto has caught a large fish with a hook and line, while the Indian uses a bow and arrow. Another man in the background uses a fishing rod. The watercolor is typical of Paz's work, which captured the diversity of the population of Colombia and depicted the daily activities and traditional customs of the country's different ethnic, racial, and social groups. Paz was born in Almaguer in the...