First published in 1930.
'The Broadway Travellers consolidates its already high reputation by issuing this volume...' Spectator
This is the first translation of the Commentarios since original publication in 1647. Copies of the original are very rare yet the work covers an historically significant period, describing the operations leading up to the capture from the Portuguese of Ormuz, in the Persian Gulf, by an Anglo-Persian force. Of importance in the history of the rise of the Indian Empire, this is the first printed account of the Portuguese version of the affair.
The appendices include many previously unpublished Portuguese documents, the most important of which is the full Journal of Edward Monnox, who was present throughout the operations.

First published in 1930. 'The Broadway Travellers consolidates its already high reputation by issuing this volume...' Spectator This is the first translation of the Commentarios since original publication in 1647. Copies of the original are very rare yet the work covers an historically significant period, describing the operations leading up to the capture from the Portuguese of Ormuz, in the Persian Gulf, by an Anglo-Persian force. Of importance in the history of the rise of the Indian Empire, this is the first printed account of the Portuguese version of the affair. The appendices include many previously unpublished Portuguese documents, the most important of which is the full Journal of Edward Monnox, who was present throughout the operations.

The relationship between God and Mammon forms a recurring theme in this volume, the third collection of Professor Boxer's articles to be published by Variorum. The previous two traced the Portuguese expansion through the Indian Ocean to South-East Asia, and in this one he moves on further, to the Far East, to deal with the China-Japan trade, based on the cities of Macao and Nagasaki. Yet there, as elsewhere, commerce was not disassociated from religion: not only were the missionaries so enthusiastically despatched to convert the Japanese dependant on the merchants for shipping, but the Jesuits, the principal of those missionaries, themselves played an active part in the trade, and the fortunes of both merchants and missionaries proved inextricably linked. In these articles the author describes the successes and tragedies of the Portuguese during the period when they dominated European activity in the Far East, and assesses their influence in what has come to be called the 'Christian century' in Japan.

Although later than the Portuguese in reaching the coasts of Asia, the Dutch became in the 17th and 18th centuries the most important of the European nations engaged in the Asian trade - in terms both of the quantity and value of the cargoes shipped, and the number of ports involved. In those centuries the V.O.C., the Dutch East India Company, was the greatest mercantile corporation in the world, and these articles deal with its activities in Asia, from the Indian Ocean to the Far East. They look at the company's failures, successes and conflicts: the loss of Formosa to the Chinese in 1662, the wealth it drew from the Japan trade and the extent of its influence there, and the rivalry with other European nations, notably the English and the French. The final studies, on the failing years of the V.O.C., look also at the career of Isaac Titsingh, at once a successful servant of the V.O.C. and one of the few to take a seriously scholarly interest in the Orient.

These articles deal with the functioning, and malfunctioning, of the Carreira da India, the round voyages made between Portugal and its possessions in India that began after Vasco da Gama had opened up the route round the Cape of Good Hope in 1497-99. On such voyages was the Portuguese colonial empire built, and these studies illustrate the conditions under which they operated - the ships, the crews, their navigation and their cargoes. For instance, details are given of the medicines carried on board and the hospital established at the way-station of MoAambique in an attempt to combat the perennial scourge of disease. The principal hazard, however, remained that of loss through shipwreck or enemy action, events all too common in the history of the Carreira, which are brought to life most vividly in the Portuguese literary classic, the HistA(3)ria TrA!gico-MarA tima; the early printed editions of such tales form the subject of two of the articles and the backdrop to much of the volume.

An expert on perils of the high seas, British native Boxer (1904-2000) translated the Portuguese collection of accounts, originally published as pamphlets, The Tragic History of the Sea 1589-1622 in 1959 and Further Selections from the Tragic History of the Sea 1599-1565 in 1968. They were published

Originally published in 1930, this book presents an English translation of the 1639 journal of Dutch naval commander Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp (1598-1653), who led the Dutch fleet in a decisive victory over the Spanish at the Battle of the Downs during that year. Translation of the journal was carried out by Charles Ralph Boxer (1904-2000), a renowned specialist in Dutch and Portugese naval history and the early colonial expansion of European nations. Created in response to 'an increasing interest shown by English historians in naval matters', the text provides both an insight into Dutch naval strategy and a revealing portrait of Tromp's character. A highly detailed introduction, illustrative figures and a bibliography are included. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in European and Maritime history.

The distinguished historian C. R. Boxer devoted years of research and reflection on European expansion overseas into the Americas and Asia. In "The Church Militant and Iberian Expansion, 1440-1770," his analytical survey of the role of the Portuguese and Spanish missionaries of the Roman Catholic Church in the overseas expansion of the Iberian powers, he finds that the lasting results vary enormously. "They range,"he writes, "from enduring mass conversions in some regions, of which sixteenth-century New Spain is the prime example, to the total failure in other countries, such as Cambodia, where the number of indigenous converts could be counted on two hands."

Considering the church as "a human as well as a divine institution,"the author focuses on four types of organizational problems: relations between the regular and the secular clergy; the mission as a frontier institution in many climes and many cultures; the close and inseparable connection between Cross and Crown; and the role of the Inquisition overseas. Boxer finds that "the mere survival of these Christian minorities through the vicissitudes of over three centuries is a tribute to the work of the dedicated missionaries of the Church Militant in times past."

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1962.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1962.