Through alien eyes : the visit of the Russian ship Rurik to San Francisco in 1816 and the men behind the visit

Author(s)

Bibliographic Information

Through alien eyes : the visit of the Russian ship Rurik to San Francisco in 1816 and the men behind the visit

Edward Mornin

(North American studies in nineteenth-century German literature, v. 32)

Peter Lang, c2002

  • : US

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Note

Includes English translations of reports (originally in German and French) of the October 1816 visit of the Russian ship Rurik to San Francisco by the ship's captain, Otto von Kotzebue, naturalist Adelbert von Chamisso, and on-board artist Louis Choris

Includes bibliographical references (p. 121-125)

Contents of Works

  • Excerpt from Voyage of discovery / Otto von Kotzebue
  • Excerpt from his Diary / Adelbert von Chamisso
  • Excerpt from Remarks and opinions / Adelbert von Chamisso
  • Excerpt from Picturesque voyage around the world / Louis Choris
  • Lithographs of California / Louis Choris

Description and Table of Contents

Description

During the month of October 1816, San Francisco received a visit from the Russian brig Rurik, only the third non-Spanish vessel to call at what was then a small colonial garrison and mission town on the extreme edge of Spanish North America. In this book the author provides English translations of reports of the visit (originally in German and French) by the ship's captain Otto yon Kotzebue, naturalist Adelbert von Chamisso, and on-board artist Louis Choris. Eleven illustrations by Choris are also reproduced, including celebrated scenes and portraits of California mission Indians. Edward Mornin provides biographical sketches of the three reporters, a historical account of Rurik's round-the-world voyage, and a critical discussion of the observations of Kotzebue, Chamisso, and Choris, with their ideological and cultural determinants, especially with regard to the Indians under the control of the Spanish missionaries. The book shows how the narrative accounts of Kotzebue, Chamisso, and Choris, together with Choris's graphic record, continue to fascinate not only for their engaging portrayal of San Francisco's early inhabitants and the circumstances of their lives, but as shadow portraits of the reporters themselves and of the European cultures that Produced them.

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