A Buccaneering Classic
A Collection of Voyages. In Four Volumes.
Dampier, William.
London: James and John Knapton, 1729.
Price:
$8,500.00
About the item
63 engraved maps and plates (36 engraved maps by or after Herman Moll [19 folding], 27 engraved plates [4 folding]). 4 vols. 8vo. Contemporary panelled calf, spines gilt, red morocco lettering piece, spines a bit darkened, repairs at joints. Bookplate removed from the front pastedowns. Hill 422; Sabin 18373-18377; NMM 1:92, 93, 95, 96; Borba de Moraes, pp. 242-43; European Americana 729/69.
Item #377760
A solid set of the most complete version of these important voyages. Dampier is generally described as the first Englishman to set foot on the Australian continent. This is first collected edition, and the best textually, of Dampier's voyages. The sectional titlepage in the first volume designates this the "7th edition, corrected, with the third volume identified on the title as the third edition and the other two volumes unstated.
Dampier's first voyage to the Pacific was in 1680, raiding on the Spanish coast of South America, then crossing the Pacific to the East Indies. Throughout the next two decades he travelled extensively in the Pacific, at various times visiting Tierra del Fuego, the west coasts of South and Central America, Guam, the Philippines, the East Indies, China, the Campeche coast, Southeast Asia, and the Caribbean.
In 1688, Dampier touched on New Holland, or Australia, for the first time, making a survey of the coast near King Sound. In 1698, after the first volume of his voyages had been published and received great acclaim, the Admiralty gave him a commission as a captain in the Royal Navy and command of the Roebuck. With it he undertook another expedition to Australia, the second British expedition to go there and the first to have that destination as its objective. He explored the south coast of New Guinea, discovered New Britain and Dampier Strait, and explored along the western coast of Australia. Although hampered by illness among his crew, he ultimately completed the circumnavigation in 1701.
Dampier was the best known, and probably the most intelligent, of the famous group of buccaneers who tormented the Spanish in the South Sea from 1680 to 1720. "This collection of Dampier's works is considered by many to be the best edition. However, Dampier obviously did not write the whole work...[as it also] includes the narratives of Lionel Wafer and William Funnell as well as the whole book of William Hacke" (Hill). His books were a great success and were frequently reprinted, as well as emulated by some of his less literate companions, often to his disgust.
