[Travel & Exploration] Esquemeling, John, and Basil Ringrose Bucaniers of America: Or, a true Account of the Most remarkable Assaults Committed of late years upon the Coasts of the West-Indies...

First Edition in English of this Classic Text on Pirates

London: Printed for William Crooke, 1684-85. Four parts in two volumes. First edition in English; with: Ringrose, Basil, Bucaniers of America. The Second Volume (London: William Crooke, 1685). 4to. (xii), 115, (1), 151, (1), 124, (12) pp.; (xvi), 212, (24) (Table and ads) pp. First volume illustrated with four engraved portraits of famous pirates, four engraved plates (two folding), one engraved double-page map, engraved head-piece and two in-text woodcuts, and with an additional mounted engraved frontispiece portrait of Captain Morgan (not called for). Second volume illustrated with a large engraved folding map of South America and the Caribbean, one small engraved folding map of Hilo, 14 engraved full-page maps and plans, and 41 in-text woodcuts of coastal elevations. Full contemporary dark brown calf, rebacked, red morocco spine labels, stamped in gilt, boards and extremities rubbed and moderately worn; all edges trimmed; marbled endpapers; front hinge of first volume split; each title-page lightly toned; scattered minor spotting to text and plates; repair bottom edge, a2 in first volume; plate facing Ll1 in first volume repaired along gutter; double-page map of Panama in first volume trimmed and mounted on new stub; map of Hilo in second volume likely trimmed; closed tear in lower gutter of large folding map in second volume, not affecting image. With the illustrated book-plate of Frank L. Hadley on front paste-down of each volume. Church 689; Sabin 23479; Hill, pp. 99-100

"The classic of buccaneering books" (Hill), the first edition in English of Esquemeling's famed book on pirates, rarely found complete with the second volume by Basil Ringrose. Esquemeling offers a first-hand account of buccaneering in the Caribbean in the 17th-century, a valuable primary resource on the golden age of piracy. Ringrose's second volume narrates the travels Bartholomew Sharpe and others. Originally published in Dutch in 1678, this edition in English was translated from the 1681 Spanish edition, which tended to emphasize the worst aspects of English buccaneering, and that led to Captain Henry Morgan successfully suing the publisher for libel. Featuring magnificent engraved portraits of Rock Brasiliano, Bartholomew Portugues, Morgan, and Francis Lolonais, as well as several engravings of views and maps documenting the world of seafaring piracy.