The Stevens-Church Copy: ‘So I Determined ... to Enter into the Order of the Pirates’

Bucaniers of America: Or, a true Account of the Most remarkable Assaults Committed of the late years upon the Coasts of The West-Indies, By the Bucaniers of Jamaica and Tortuga, Both English and French. Wherein are contained more especially, The unparallel'd Exploits of Sir Henry Morgan, our English Jamaican Hero, who sack'd Puerto Velo, burnt Panama, &c. ... [With:] RINGROSE, Basil. Bucaniers of America. The Second Volume, Containing the Dangerous Voyage and Bold Attempts of Captain Bartholomew Sharp, and others; performed upon the Coasts of the South Sea, for the space of two years, &c. From the Original Journal of the said Voyage.

London: for William Crooke, 1684–85.

Price: $25,000.00

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First editions in English of both volumes. Four parts in one. Four engraved portraits, four engraved plates (2 double-page), three folding maps, numerous maps, charts, and illustrations to text. [xii], 115, [1], 151, [1, catalogue], 124, [12, table]; [xvi], 212, [17, table], [7, catalogue] pp. 4to. Nineteenth-century red morocco gilt, bound by Samuel Tout, marbled endpapers, gilt edges, minor wear. Minor repaired tears to folding maps, second volume title, and a few other leaves. Housed in a burgundy morocco pull off case. Provenance: Henry Stevens (bookplate with Montpelier imprint to endpaper); E.D. Church (bookplate). Sabin 23479; Field 504; Church 689 (this copy); NMM 4:51-3; Wing E-3894.

Item #371670

The first English edition of the first extensive account of the pirates of the West Indies, with all plates and map present. Unusually, this copy is bound with the first edition of the first part, and the first edition of the second volume (or fourth part), issued separately the following year and containing an account of South Seas adventures from the journal of Basil Ringrose. This adds the adventures of Captain Cooke, Sharp, and others who "lately setting forth from Jamaica, penetrated into the South-Sea, and there ransack't and pillaged...all they could meet."

Esquemeling spent twelve years with the buccaneers after arriving in Tortuga in 1666 and took part in many campaigns, including Captain Morgan's brutal sack of Panama City in 1671. His work is filled with accounts of buccaneer raids, descriptions of the West Indies landscape, and detailed and harrowing examples of violence, torture, and pillage. Esquemeling dedicates half his work to the Englishman Henry Morgan and his raids into the Spanish Main, and recounts the careers of Bartholomew Portugues, Roche Brasiliano and Francis O'llonais. The second volume, written by Basil Primrose, who sailed with Bartholemew Drake and kept an important diary of his exploits, follows the buccaneers to the South Seas. The work was first published in Dutch in Amsterdam in 1678, followed by a Spanish edition in 1681; this first English edition appeared in 1684.

One of the most interesting pieces of early English Americana, this work has served as the basis for countless novels, stories, and dramas, as well as establishing the popular legends of many famous pirates. One pirate, Sir Henry Morgan, followed a very modern course and sued the author for defamation. He was awarded £200 for damages. "Perhaps no book in any language was ever the parent of so many imitations, and the source of so many fictions as this" (Sabin). Many of the plates are startling close-up portraits of now famous buccaneers.

Describing this copy, Church makes note of rarity of finding both parts present as first editions: "The first editions of both volumes are not often found bound together. It is more usual to find Volume I of the First edition alone; or Volume I of the Second edition with Volume 2 of the First."

A lovely copy with esteemed provenance of a seminal work on Caribbean piracy, and an important part of any collection of voyages. "Frequently described as the greatest early book on piracy" (NMM).