PBA Galleries

[8], xxxii, [4], 468 pp. With 3 (of 4) copper-engraved plates, 2 of them folding. (8vo) 20x12 cm (7½x4¾"), period calf with tooled design on front and back boards, raised spine bands. First Edition.

Shelvocke's account of his privateering voyage through the Pacific. "Captains Shelvocke and Clipperton led a privately financed expedition for attacking Spanish shipping. Shelvocke gave his superior officer the slip in a storm and proceeded to Brazil and thence to the west coast of South America, where in two months he sacked Payta, Peru, and captured several small prizes. His vessel was wrecked at Juan Fernandez Island, but a ship was built out of the wreckage and he sailed up the coast to Baja California. After crossing the Pacific via Guam and Macao, Shelvocke returned to England and was acquitted of piracy charges. He soon left for the Continent a wealthy man. Shelvocke wrote this account, in part, as a vindication of his conduct. In it he mentions the gold of California and the guano of Peru, one hundred and thirty years before their modern discovery. An incident in the narrative, describing the passage around Cape Horn, is said to have inspired Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner" - Hill. Cowan believed that "Shelvocke has the fullest account of California, the natives and other features, of any of the old voyagers," and notes that while gold was discovered by the party in abundance, the specimens they brought away were lost. Two of the plates are depictions of California natives. Cowan pp.581-2; Hill 1557; Howes S383.