This poem incorporates the result of serious historical reading, including Anne Plumptre
's translation of Kotzebue
's Die Spanier in Peru and William Robertson's History of America, 1777.
The dialogue in these books is stilted and unnatural. The children (of whom Charlotte, the only girl, is outnumbered by half a dozen brothers) are represented as intensely eager to hear all about these heroes...
Textual Production
Elizabeth Helme
Helme's Translator's Preface explains that she has replaced Campe's group of pupils with a whole family and their parents, observing that children will find that more interesting.
The only book-length, all-original work issued by Margaret Hodson (formerly Margaret Holford the younger
) after her marriage was another translation: Lives of Vasco Nunez de Balboa
and Francisco Pizarro, from Spanish.
The book covers the earlier part of their South American journey, through mountainous Peru during September and December 1978, in (or close to) the footsteps of the conquistador Francisco Pizarro
on his victorious march through...