the best edition
DAMPIER, William et al.
A collection of voyages. In four volumes. Containing I. Captain William Dampier’s voyages round the world … II. The voyages of Lionel Wafer; giving an account of his being left on the isthmus of America … III. A voyage round the world … By W. Funnell … IV. Capt. Cowley’s voyage round the globe. V. Capt. Sharp’s journey over the isthmus of Darien, and expedition into the South-Seas. VI. Capt. Wood’s voyage through the streights of Magellan. VII. Mr Roberts’s adventures and sufferings amongst the corsairs of the Levant …
London, for James and John Knapton, 1729.
4 vols, 8vo, pp. I: [10], vi, 550, [4 (ads)], with 4 maps (3 folding); II: [8], 184, 132, [4], 112, [76 (index)], with 4 folding maps; III: [16], 463, [9 (index)], with 3 folding maps and 34 plates (3 folding); IV: [16], 208, [8 (index)], 175, [9 (index and ads)], with 6 folding maps and 12 plates (1 folding); some creasing to first map of vol. 2, leaf I3 in vol. 3 bound out of place, light foxing and toning; overall very good in contemporary calf, rebacked, gilt-lettered spine labels; some wear to corners and edges and rubbing to spines; ink inscriptions of Arthur Vaughan to titles and his armorial bookplate to front pastedowns, armorial bookplate of Edward Disbrowe to rear pastedowns.
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A collection of voyages. In four volumes. Containing I. Captain William Dampier’s voyages round the world … II. The voyages of Lionel Wafer; giving an account of his being left on the isthmus of America … III. A voyage round the world … By W. Funnell … IV. Capt. Cowley’s voyage round the globe. V. Capt. Sharp’s journey over the isthmus of Darien, and expedition into the South-Seas. VI. Capt. Wood’s voyage through the streights of Magellan. VII. Mr Roberts’s adventures and sufferings amongst the corsairs of the Levant …
The first collected edition, ‘considered by many to be the best’ (Hill), illustrated with 17 maps and 46 plates.
The bucaneer and explorer William Dampier (1651-1715) was ‘thrice a global circumnavigator’, ‘a man of enormous endurance and resolve’, and ‘the most important explorer before Cook to sustain the nation’s interest in the south Pacific’ (ODNB). ‘His focus on natural history and ethnography helped to transform maritime travel writing while his prose style and descriptions of the struggle for survival in exotic places advanced the development of realistic fiction, notably in the novels of Defoe’, while Coleridge savoured him as ‘a rough sailor, but a man of exquisite mind’ (ibid.).
In addition to its numerous important maps, this edition contains plates depicting several coastal views, birds, fish, and plants, as well as a hippopotamus, and several representations of indigenous peoples e.g. ‘The Indians manner of bloodletting’; ‘The Indians in their robes in Councel, and smoaking tobacco after their way’; ‘The Indians marching upon a visit, or to feast’.
Provenance: armorial bookplate of Arthur Vaughan, of Trederwen, whose daughter Margaret married George Disbrowe; armorial bookplate of their son, the soldier and politician Edward Disbrowe (1754–1818), a close friend of King George III who served as Vice-chamberlain to Queen Charlotte.
ESTC T144458; Hill 422; Sabin 18373.
