EXQUEMELIN, Alexander Olivier. The History of the Bucaniers: being an Impartial Relation of all the Battles, Sieges, and other most Eminent Assaults committed for several years upon the Coasts of the West-Indies. By the Pirates of Jamaica and Tortuga. London: Malthus, 1684. 12o. Engraved portrait and 2 (of 4) reduced copies of the four portraits of pirates of the 1684 quarto edition. Contemporary sheep (rebacked, with portion of the old spine laid down). Provenance: William Marquis of Lothian (bookplate). RARE ADAPTATION OF THE FIRST EDITION. Sabin 23480; Wing E-3898. In his Epistle to the Reader, the publisher explains that the aim of this abridgement is to rectify the pro-Spanish bias of the original Dutch edition by presenting the mostly English buccaneers as "Instruments of the Divine Vengeance" against the Spaniards "for their inhumane usage of the poor and miserable Native Indian" (fol. A4v).