"THE CLASSIC OF BUCCANEERING BOOKS"

"Curasao, Tortuga, and Jamaica have been inhabited by English, French, and Dutch, and bred up that Race of Hunts-men, than which, no other ever was more desperate, nor more mortal Enemies to the Spaniards, called Bucaniers."

--Esquemeling, Bucaniers of America.

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 . . . . The Second Edition . . . . [together with] BUCANIERS OF AMERICA. The Second Volume. Containing the Dangerous Voyage and Bold Attempts of Captain Bartholomew Sharp, and others . . . . From the Original Journal of the said Voyage . . . . London: For William Crooke, 1684-85. Two volumes in one. 4to. Nineteenth century mottled calf by Francis Bedford, spine gilt extra in six compartments. Quarter morocco folding case. [x], 55 [50-51, 54-55 misnumbered], 80, 84, [xii], [xiv], 216 [140, 144-216 misnumbered], [24] pages. Eight engraved plates, three folding maps, illustrations in the text. Short crack at foot of top joint. A superb copy in a fine binding.

FIRST COMPLETE EDITION, containing all four parts of these first unabridged accounts in English of the pirates and buccaneers of the New World. "This work became the inspiration of a vast number of novels, plays, imaginary voyages, and doubtless inspired many an adventurous spirit to turn sea-rover . . . . It has well been called the classic of buccaneering books" (Cox). Among the engraved plates in Bucaniers of America are portraits of the notorious pirates Bartolomew Portugues, Rock Brasiliano, Francis Lolonois and Sir Henry Morgan.

Esquemeling, whose name is variously reported as John Esquemeling, John Exquemeling or Alexandre Olivier Exquemelin, "wrote the first three parts [of Bucaniers of America] in Dutch, which, within ten years, were translated into most of the European languages. A Spanish doctor, Alonso de Buena Maison, translated the book into Spanish and published it in Cologne in 1681. From this version it was anonymously translated into English" (Hill). He began his buccaneering career shortly after a voyage to Tortuga in 1666 aboard a ship in the service of the French West India Company. Esquemeling's own description of himself on arrival in Tortuga was as "a servant under the said Company; in whose Service I came out of France" (Part I, p. 10). He ultimately gained his freedom but, "[b]eing now at liberty, though like unto Adam when he was first Created by the hands of his Maker, that is, naked, and destitute of all humane necessaries, nor knowing how to get my living, I determined to enter into the wicked Order of the Pirates, or Robbers at Sea. Into this Society I was received with common consent . . ., and among them I continued until the year 1672" (Part I, p. 11).

Bucaniers of America "forms the basis of all the popular accounts of [Sir Henry] Morgan" (DNB) and contains one of only two known engravings of Morgan (shown above). "Exquemeling, himself a buccaneer who served under Morgan, and took part in some, if not all, of the achievements he describes, seems to be a perfectly honest witness. His dates are, indeed, very confused; but his accounts of such transactions as fell within the scope of his knowledge agree very closely with the official narratives . . . . They differ, indeed, as to the atrocities practised by the buccaneers; on which Exquemeling's evidence, even with some Spanish colouring, appears preferable to the necessarily biassed and partial narratives handed in by Morgan" (Id.). Apparently, Sir Henry took exception to the less sanitized accounts of his activities reported in Bucaniers of America. Sabin reprints from other sources the information that Morgan sued the publisher, William Crooke, for libel, and that Crooke was forced to settle by "his Submission and Acknowledgement in Print" (See Sabin 23479).

The fourth part of Bucaniers of America was written by the English buccaneer, Basil Ringrose, who "seems to have gone out to the West Indies in quest of fortune in 1679" (DNB). By 1680, he had thrown in his lot with the buccaneers under the command of Bartholomew Sharp. "For two and one half years Sharp's party of French and English buccaneers ranged up and down the western coast of South America, sacking and burning towns, capturing ships, ransoming and killing, often quarreling among themselves, and gradually dwindling in number until it was no longer possible to carry on against the Spanish forces. Eventually the crew disintegrated under pressure from the King's navy, and Captain Sharp was killed by the Spanish at Cape Corrientes in 1697" (Hill). Ringrose's "important share in the transactions was the keeping [of] a detailed journal, in which he described not only the events of the warfare which they waged, but the internal history of their force - the hardships, labours, quarrels, jealousies, and divisions - simply but graphically. To all this he added descriptions of the natives they consorted with, of the places they visited, charts of the harbours, sketches of the coasts, headlands, or objects noteworthy for the mariner, forming a record which, though much less extended, may compare with the narratives of William Dampier" (DNB). When he returned to England, Ringrose prepared his journal for publication, and it appeared in 1685 as the second volume of Bucaniers of America - one of the prime sources of historical information about the activities of Sharp, Dampier and other buccaneers on the Spanish Main. Cox II, p. 207. Hill, p. 100. Sabin 23481. BT000001.

Provenance: Armorial bookplate and signature, dated 1863, of C. W. H. Sotheby.

$14,000

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