This is the best source book for information on the Hartnell family on the Pacific Coast that has come to my attention. The book tells the fascinating story of how this unemployed Protestant Englishman came to Santiago de Chile after traversing the South American continent the hard way, over the Andes by stage, horses and even by foot, and how he eventually ended up being the alcalde of Monterey, California, seeing the town grow from being a Spanish outpost, to part of the new Mexican republic, to being part of the short-lived Bear Republic of California, to finally joining the non-slave-owning northern Union against the Confederacy. He converted to Catholicism, met Teresa de la Guerra, and daughter of one of the old Spanish Califonian families, and they wed in a huge wedding ceremony done in the old California style, had many children thanks to that hearty lady, was a landed gentleman rancher-trader-farmer-translator-councillor and started an early school in California. His relationship with the Franciscans and the demise of the old Spanish missions is also covered, as is his fruitless trip to Hawaii in search of justice for a bad loan. He spoke eight languages and acted in many capacities, 'adventurer, trader, schoolmaster, rancher, peacemaker, diplomat and politician,' as the dustjacket blurb puts it. I cherish this volume as a key document in the tracing of our family origins, which I believe went through this line of the Hartnell family. My present copy is borrowed from my cousin Peggy Ruggles (nee Hartnell). It is a hardcover book with the original dustjacket under a plastic cover. It contains 11 black and white illustrations, including two photos of old paintings by Leonardo Barbieri painted in 1853, one of Don William ('Guillermo') Hartnell serving as the frontispiece, and the other of his wife Dona Teresa de la Guerra Hartnell.