After his return to Europe in 1555, the support of Dr. Johann Dryander in Marburg enabled Staden to publish an account of his captivity, entitled Warhaftige Historia und beschreibung eyner Landtschafft der Wilden Nacketen, Grimmigen Menschfresser-Leuthen in der Newenwelt America gelegen (True Story and Description of a Country of Wild, Naked, Grim, Man-eating People in the New World, America) (1557).[1]. The book became an international bestseller and was translated into Latin and many other European languages, reaching a total of 76 editions.
The Warhaftige Historia provided detailed descriptions of Tupinambá life and customs, illustrated by woodcuts. However, the aspect of the book that received the most attention, from the time of publication up to the present, was cannibalism. Staden claimed that the Tupinambá were cannibals, gave vivid eyewitness accounts of the killing, preparing and eating of war captives, and wrote that his captors would have eaten him as well, had he not escaped. According to one anecdote, the Indians at one point gave him a delicious soup; after finishing his dinner, he found in the bottom of the cauldron some small skulls, which he later found out to be those of the children in his choir.
Some scholars have challenged the book's reliability, arguing that Staden invented its sensational accounts of cannibalism.[2] Others defend the book as an important and reliable ethnohistorical source.[3]
Como Era Gostoso o meu Francęs (How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman), a 1970 film, was based on Staden's stories (but did not include him as a character) and adds a subplot about the main character's love affair with a young native woman.
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