“…Original narratives of early American history.…”

Table of Contents: “…From the margins of history : gender and nationalism in Spanish American literature -- The return of the prodigal daughter : the new world discovery of la condesa de Merlin -- The view from the harbor : gender subversion in the literature of the second discovery -- A nation invented : imagining Cuba in Merlin and the Del Monte circle -- (In)versions and (re)writings : viaje a La Habana and the origins of Cuban literature -- Bound to the (male) book : gender, colonialism, and slavery in La Havane -- Creole women : the other as self -- La comtesse stares back : the many faces of Merlin in Cuban literature.…”

Table of Contents: “…Ancient Ghana and the customs of its inhabitants -- Ibn Battuta in the negrolands -- The founding of Timbuktu -- Timbuktu in 1526 -- The coming of Islam to Kano -- Kanem in the tenth century -- Bornu in 1823 -- The coming of brass-casting to Benin -- Funeral of a Yoruba king -- A Yoruba pantomime -- The eighteenth-century expansion of Dahomey, and the origin of the women's army -- The annual "king's customs" of Dahomey -- Reception of an English mission in Ashanti in 1817 -- Observations on African slavery -- The Christian kingdoms of the upper Nile -- Reception of a Portuguese Embassy at the Ethiopian Court in 1520 -- The city of Aksum in the sixteenth century -- Rites and customs of the Ethiopian crown -- An Ethiopian love feast -- Kabaka Juko I and Prince Kayemba of Buganda -- A naval battle on Lake Victoria in 1875 -- The village life of East Africa -- Portrait of the gentle King Rumanika of Karagwe -- The fattened princesses of Karagwe -- Heroic poetry of Ankole -- Dynastic poetry of Rwanda -- The court of the Christian kingdom of Congo in the sixteenth century -- The Jagas -- The officers of state of Lunda -- Social courtesies among the Marave -- Funeral of a Cheva chief -- The Monomotapa Empire in 1517 -- The kingdom of the Kiteve in the late sixteenth century -- The journey of the castaways of the St. …”