The True History of his Captivity 1557: Hans Staden

This edition first published in 1928. The first part of the book is a straightforward account of the author's personal experiences. The second part is a detailed treatise on the customs of the Tupinamba, their polity, trade, religion, manufactures and warlike undertakings, and of the flora and fauna of the country. In-depth information is given on rites and ceremonies (those on cannibalism are not for the faint-hearted reader), government and laws and religious observances.

1. the voyage to Portugal 2. My first voyage from Lisbon in Portugal 3. How the savages of the place called Prannenbucke (Pernambuco) rebelled and strove to expel the Portuguese from their settlement 4. the nature of our defences and how they fought against us 5. How we sailed away from Prannenbucke (Pernambuco) to a country called Buttugaris and engaged a French vessel 6. My next voyage from Seville in Spain to America 7. In what manner we reached America in latitude twenty-eight degrees without finding the harbour to which we had been directed, and how a great storm arose off the coast 8. In what manner we left the harbour to seek the country for which we were bound 9. How certain among us set off in a boat to inspect the harbour, and how we found a crucifix standing on a rock 10. In what manner I was dispatched with a boat full of savages to our ship 11. How the other ship arrived, in which was the chief pilot, and which we had lost at sea 12. How we took counsel and sailed for the Portuguese colony of Sancte Vincentre 13. How we learnt in what savage country we had been shipwrecked 14. the situation of Sancte Vincentre 15. How the place is named in which the enemy is chiefly gathered together, and how it is situated 16. In what manner the Portuguese rebuilt Brikioka, and later constructed a fort in the island of Sanct Maro 17. How and for what reasons it was necessary to keep watch for the enemy at one season of the year more than at other times 18. My capture by the savages and how it occurred 19. How my people came out when the savages were carrying me away, intending to recapture me, and how they fought with the savages 20. In what manner my captors returned to their own country 21. How they dealt with me on the day on which they brought me to their dwellings 22. How my two captors came to me and told me that they had presented me to one of their friends, who would keep me and slay me when I was to be eaten 23. How they danced with me before the huts in which their idols Tammerka had been set up 24. How, after they had danced, they brought me home to Ipperu Wasu who was to kill me 25. How my captors made angry complaint that the Portuguese had slain their father, which deed they desired to avenge on me 26. How a Frenchman who had been left among the savages came to see me and bade them eat me, saying that I was truly a Portuguese 27. How I suffered greatly from toothache 28. In what manner they brought me to their chief ruler, King Konyan Bebe, and how they dealt with me there 29. How the Tupin Ikins came with twenty-five canoes, as I had predicted, to the king, intending to attach the huts where I was kept 30. In what manner the chiefs assembled in the moonlight 31. How the Tupin Ikins burnt another village called Mambukabe 32. How a ship came from Brikioka enquiring for me, and of the brief report which was given 33. How the brother of the king Jeppipo Wasu returned from Mambukabe with the news that his brother and mother, and all the company had fallen sick, and entreated me to procure my God to make them well again 34. In what manner the sick king Jeppipo Wasu returned home 35. How the Frenchman returned who had told the savages to eat me, and how I begged him to take me away, but my masters would not suffer me to go 36. of the manner in which the savages ate a prisoner and carried me to the feast 37. What happened on the homeward journey after the man had been eaten 38. How once more a ship was sent after me by the Portuguese 39. How a slave, who had perpetually defamed me and desired to have me killed, was himself killed and eaten in my presence 40. How a French ship arrived to trade with the savages for cotton and Brazil wood, to which ship I tried to escape, but God did not intend it 41. How the savages went forth to war taking me with them, and what befe