The Happy Captive

Written in the seventeenth century after the author's capture in 1629, this narrative recounts how Francisco Núñez de Pineda y Bascuñán, a Chilean-born Spanish soldier, lived among the Mapuche following a defeat on the frontier. He describes his treatment, the households and war councils that held him, Mapuche custom and politics, and the arguments he heard against Spanish rule. The book mixes captivity memoir with a plea for a less destructive colonial policy. It is a primary colonial account from the Arauco frontier, not a romance of noble savages and not a later nationalist novel.

Quarter bound in maroon or orange leather with fawn art canvas covers blocked with a maroon image or bound in grey-brown cloth. Maroon textured slipcase.