author

William Hadfield

1806–1887

A British travel writer with deep firsthand experience of South America, he is best known for lively 19th-century books about Brazil and the River Plate. His work mixes travel, commerce, and observation in a way that still gives modern readers a strong sense of the region he knew.

2 Audiobooks

Brazil and the River Plate in 1868

Brazil and the River Plate in 1868

by William Hadfield

Brazil, the River Plate, and the Falkland Islands With the Cape Horn route to Australia. Including notices of Lisbon, Madeira, the Canaries, and Cape Verde.

Brazil, the River Plate, and the Falkland Islands With the Cape Horn route to Australia. Including notices of Lisbon, Madeira, the Canaries, and Cape Verde.

by William Hadfield

About the author

Much of his early life was spent in South America, where he entered commercial work at a young age and built the firsthand knowledge that shaped his writing. He was closely involved with trade and transport, serving as the first secretary of the Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway and later as secretary to the South American General Steam Navigation Company.

That practical experience fed directly into his books. He became known as a British writer on Brazil, especially through Brazil, the River Plate, and the Falkland Islands (1854) and Brazil and the River Plate in 1868 (1869), works that combine travel narrative with attention to business, infrastructure, and social change.

He also edited Brazil. Stray Notes from Bahia by Vice-Consul James Wetherell. Rather than writing as a distant observer, he wrote as someone who had spent important years in the region, which gives his accounts an informed, on-the-ground quality.