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COOKE, Captain EDWARD. A Voyage to the South Sea, and Round the World...in the Years 1708, 1709, 1710, and 1711...Wherein an Account is given of Mr. Alexander Selkirk...upon the uninhabited Island of Juan Fernandes. London: Printed by H.M. for B. Lintot, et al, 1712. 8o (195 x 115 mm.) 4 engraved maps and plans including 2 folding maps engraved by John Senex, and 16 engraved plates including many of birds and fish, advertisement leaf at end. Modern half speckled calf and buckram (upper cover detached but present). FIRST EDITION.
Contains the first account of Alexander Selkirk's years on Juan Fernandez Island (and includes a map of the island); it is generally accepted that Daniel Defoe used this work for his Robinson Crusoe, his copy of this work containing extensive manuscript notes. A second volume of Cooke's narrative of this buccaneering expedition with the ships Dutchess and Duke (under the command of Capt. Woodes Rogers) was published later in the year.
Apparently there was considerable rivalry between the publishers of Cooke's account and those of Rogers' account to be the first to market, resulting in a one-volume edition with the second portions of the voyage compressed at the end. A two-volume set quickly followed, the latter part of the voyage being contained in the second volume. "This [first] volume was issued separately, with no indication--as in the second edition--that it was Vol. I of an issue of two volumes, but both Sabin and Wagner incorrectly enter it as Vol. I of a two-volume edition"--Streeter sale IV, 2427. Cooke, second-in-command of the Dutchess, went on shore in California in December 1709, and gives an account of the country, with plates showing natives and fish. See Gosse, My Pirate Library pp. 27-28; Hill, p. 64; Howes C733; Sabin 16303; Wagner, Spanish Southwest 77.
Contains the first account of Alexander Selkirk's years on Juan Fernandez Island (and includes a map of the island); it is generally accepted that Daniel Defoe used this work for his Robinson Crusoe, his copy of this work containing extensive manuscript notes. A second volume of Cooke's narrative of this buccaneering expedition with the ships Dutchess and Duke (under the command of Capt. Woodes Rogers) was published later in the year.
Apparently there was considerable rivalry between the publishers of Cooke's account and those of Rogers' account to be the first to market, resulting in a one-volume edition with the second portions of the voyage compressed at the end. A two-volume set quickly followed, the latter part of the voyage being contained in the second volume. "This [first] volume was issued separately, with no indication--as in the second edition--that it was Vol. I of an issue of two volumes, but both Sabin and Wagner incorrectly enter it as Vol. I of a two-volume edition"--Streeter sale IV, 2427. Cooke, second-in-command of the Dutchess, went on shore in California in December 1709, and gives an account of the country, with plates showing natives and fish. See Gosse, My Pirate Library pp. 27-28; Hill, p. 64; Howes C733; Sabin 16303; Wagner, Spanish Southwest 77.