[TRAVEL & EXPLORATION]. -- ROGERS, Woodes. A Cruising Voyage Round the World: First to the South Sea, thence to the East Indies.... Second edition. London: For Andrew Bell and Bernard Lintot, 1718.

8vo (195 x 107 mm). 5 copper engraved maps. (6 1/2-in tear to world map repaired verso). Contemporary calf (old rebacking to style, upper joint starting, some overall wear).  

Second edition, preceded by the first edition of 1712. Rogers' privately funded voyage was more financially successful than any since Drake and Cavendish; Rogers maintained good order despite a "mongrel crew and with officers often mutinous." Privateer William Dampier was pilot and navigator (see lot 53). After they rounded Cape Horn, they sheltered at Juan Fernandez; there, they rescued Alexander Selkirk, whose story (as told by Rogers) was an inspiration for Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. Their attack on Spanish ships on the west coast of Mexico and South America resulted in the taking of an Acapulco galleon (among others), whose bounty included important information in the form of maps. Included here are 5, taken by Rogers from "The best Spanish manuscript draughts." Hill 1479; Sabin 72754; Wagner-Camp 78a.


Property from the Collection of Dr. Brant Mittler

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