Scottish settlement in post-independence Latin America has attracted little popular or scholarly attention to date, in sharp contrast to the level of interest bestowed upon Welsh and Irish pioneers. Although relatively few Scots ventured to the former Spanish and Portuguese dominions, their cultural and economic importance to these emerging nations often belied their numerical deficiency. This volume brings together for the first time two records of the experiences of early Scottish emigrants to Argentina, one relating the journey made by a party from Leith to Buenos Aires in 1825 (William Grierson, ’The Voyage of the Symmetry’), and the other taking the form of an autobiographical account of the lifetime spent there by a member of this group (’Faith Hard Tried’: The Memoir of Jane Robson). To complement Grierson’s chronicle, a light-hearted poetic rendition of the settlers’ voyage is included as an Appendix. The editor’s Introduction provides historical surveys of the young Argentine Republic, with particular emphasis upon the ramifications of political developments for foreign citizens, and of the Scottish agricultural colony at Monte Grande, as well as commentary on the texts themselves.
Iain Stewart is Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Spanish at the University of St Andrews.
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