Having arrived in Rio de Janeiro in 1819 as private secretary to Sir Edward Thornton, the British minister to the Portuguese court in Brazil, after leaving the city in January 1821, Alexander Caldcleugh embarked on a six-month tour of South America.

Travelling first to Montevideo before making his way to Buenos Aires, Caldcleugh would later travel up the Rio de la Plata (also known as the River Plate) to the city of Mendoza in the interior of Argentina. From there he crossed into Chile and then sailed for Peru. He only remained in Lima for a few days before he retraced the journey back to Rio de Janeiro, where he arrived in late June.

On his return to London in November 1821, Caldcleugh set about publishing an account of his travels based on the notes he had taken while on the journey. Interest in South America was high in the 1820s as new nations sought their independence from the crumbling Spanish empire and Caldcleugh’s account, printed in 1825, provided one of the best English-language accounts of the continent at this important period in its history.