"An early and valuable narrative
of adventures on the Northwest Coast of America, Alaska, and Hawaii
by a common seaman."

CAMPBELL, ARCHIBALD. A VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD, FROM 1806 TO 1812; In Which Japan, Kamschatka, the Aleutian Islands, and the Sandwich Islands, Were Visited. Including a Narrative of the Author's Shipwreck on the Island of Sannack, and His Subsequent Wreck in the Ship's Long Boat . . . . Edinburgh: For Archibald Constable and Company, 1816. 8vo. Contemporary mottled calf with morocco spine label. Half-title. 288 pages. Folding map with route traced in red. Spine ends worn, with foot neatly chipped. Outer joints slightly rubbed, endpapers foxed. Very good.

FIRST EDITION. A Voyage Round the World is the story of "the six most eventful years" (p. 8) in the life of Archibald Campbell, "a common sailor" (p. 10), as told to James Smith, who wrote the Preface and edited the book. It is now recognized as "[a]n early and valuable narrative of adventures on the Northwest Coast of America, Alaska, and Hawaii . . ., being the first narrative from the viewpoint of a resident rather than as a visitor" (Forbes). Campbell was born near Glasgow in 1787, and apprenticed to a weaver at the age of ten. "Before the term of his apprenticeship had expired, however, a strong desire to visit remote countries induced him to go to sea" (p. 7).

In May of 1806, Campbell embarked as a seaman on an Indiaman bound for Canton, China, and began the adventure recounted in A Voyage Round the World. In Canton, Campbell transferred to an American ship sailing for the northwest coast of America. After making ports of call in Japan and Kamchatka, the ship was wrecked on a reef off the coast of Alaska. Clinging to masts and spars, Campbell and a handful of survivors reached Sannack Island. By a stroke of luck, they found the ship's longboat intact and later sailed it to Kodiak Island, where they were assisted by the governor and inhabitants of the Russian settlement of Alexandria. On their return to Sannack Island, the longboat foundered and was wrecked on the rocks. Although Campbell again survived, he suffered frostbitten feet before being rescued. Campbell was carried to a hospital in Alexandria where his feet were amputated by a Russian surgeon, "and from the unskilful manner in which amputation has been performed, the wounds have never healed" (p. 8).

In the hope of meeting with an American vessel in which he might return to Europe, Campbell sailed for the Hawaiian Islands. Campbell arrived in Hawaii in January of 1809, where he stayed for thirteen months. "Of great value is his description of the Hawaiian Islands" (Hill). After his appearance "attracted the notice, and excited the compassion of the queen" (p. 127), "Campbell became close to Kamehameha I, King of Hawaii, and became the king's sailmaker. He built the first loom made in those islands" (Hill).

With "the deepest regret" (p. 150), Campbell left Hawaii aboard another merchant vessel which rounded Cape Horn to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he spent nearly two years attempting to recuperate his wounds. This being unsuccessful, he returned to Scotland after an absence of nearly six years. There, Campbell met with more hardship but "he contrived to earn a miserable pittance, by crawling about the streets of Edinburgh and Leith, grinding music, and selling a metrical history of his adventures" (p. 8). James Smith found him playing the violin "for the amusement of the steerage passengers" (p. 9) on board one of the steamboats on the river Clyde. At first curious and then fascinated by the story, Smith caused Campbell's remarkable odyssey to be published in A Voyage Round the World "for the benefit of the poor fellow who is the subject of it" (p. 14), and "to rescue much of what is true and extraordinary from the oblivion to which the obscure condition and limited powers of the narrator would have condemned it" (Id.). Forbes I, 448. Hill, p. 45. BT000007.

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