Beschreibung
2 vol., fourth edition, stamp to titles blacked out, [10], vi, 550, [4]pp. 5 maps and plates (4 folding); [8], 184, 132, [4], 112, [76], 7 folding maps and plates, vol. 1 folding plates reinforced with linen, slight foxing, 20th C. half black calf over marbled boards, marbled endpapers, original end papers, 8vo, London, for James Knapton, 1699. One of the Most Famous of the Buccaneering Voyages. William Dampier, an orphan of Weymouth, England, spent twelve and a half years as a pirate, plundering ships in the West Indies and Central America, and eventually making his way across the Pacific to the Philippines, the East Indies, and Australia. Having set out in 1679, he returned home in 1691 and published his carefully-kept journal in 1697; it proved to be a sensation. Dampier may have been a buccaneer, but he was such an astute observer of people, places, and natural history and his works are often included with the publications of more explicitly scientific expeditions. William Dampier combined a swashbuckling life of adventure with pioneering scientific achievements. In 1676, he started his career as a buccaneer preying on ships on the Spanish Main and struggling through the impenetrable jungle of the Isthmus of Panama in search of gold. He could easily have ended up on the gallows. Poor and obscure yet determined to sail the world to make his fortune, he was to become the first person to circumnavigate the globe three times. Among his many extraordinary achievements, Dampier mapped the winds and the currents of the world s oceans for the first time. He inspired Darwin one hundred and fifty years later with his notes on the wildlife of the Galapagos islands and elsewhere. His portrait in London s National Portrait Gallery shows a lean, strong-featured man with a thoughtful expression, brown shoulder-length hair and a plain coat, holding a book in his hand. He is styled Pirate and Hydrographer but even that tells only part of his story. He was a pioneering navigator, naturalist , travel writer and explorer, as well as hydrographer who was, indeed, quite happy to seek his fortune as a pirate. Preston. It was his descriptions of the aborigines at King Sound which probably inspired Swift's 'Yahoos' in Gulliver's Travels. After years of adventure along the coasts of Spanish America Dampier joined Capt. Swan in the Cygnet in 1685. Swan was also eager to try his hand in the western Pacific, and after taking several small Spanish prizes among the East Indian Islands, they made for the vaguely known coast of New Holland, which was sighted on 4th June, 1688, near the Lacepede Islands. The vessel sailed along the coast to the entrance of King Sound, where she was repaired. Here Dampier made a full survey of the country and noted its inhabitants as the most miserable people in the world. As such, Dampier is regarded as being the first Englishman to set foot on the Australian mainland. This is the corrected 4th edition of Volume I, as issued with the first edition of Volume II. [Borba de Moraes, pages I:242-243; European Americana 699/57-58; Hill 419; Sabin 18374-5.]. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 6557
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