History of the New World

Journal of Benzoni showing his travels in America and beyond from AD 1541 to AD 1556 with some particulars of the Island of Canary.. Originally published 1857. Illustrated.. In 1541 at the age of twenty-two Girolamo Benzoni set out from his birthplace Milan (Italy) to seek adventure and fortune in the New World. He was to spend fifteen years in the territories conquered and being exploited by the Spaniards travelling widely through the West Indies Central America and South America and visiting: the Caribbean (Greater and Lesser Antilles) Guatemala Nicaragua Mexico Panama Peru and Venezuela. After losing much of the ''few thousand ducats'' he had accumulated in a shipwreck on his way home he finally arrived back in the port town of San Lucar de Barrameda (Spain) on 13 September 1556 with nothing more than his wealth of experiences. Subsequently he returned to Italy but nothing is known of his life after his return to Europe.. Exactly what he was doing in the New World is not clear: he attached himself to various military expeditions though he was not by nature a fighting man; he reveals a good knowledge of political intrigue but does not apparently become involved in politics; he is informed about economics but does not discuss the commodities he traded in. In any case one thing that we can gather from his book is that any involvement in commerce was done with much difficulty since he was an Italian in a Spanish arena and trading by foreigners in the Spanish colonies was not looked upon with favor by the Spaniards..