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DAMPIER, William (1652-1715). A New Voyage round the World. Vol. I. The fourth edition corrected, [- Voyages and Descriptions. Vol. II. in three Parts; A Voyage to New Holland, &c. In the Year 1699, Vol. III]. London: Printed for James Knapton, 1699-1703. 3 volumes, 8°. 14 engraved maps, 9 folding, and 10 engraved plates, with all advertisement leaves (vol. I title chipped and browned at head, a few tears or paper flaws, one plate loose, one map repaired). 20th-century half calf over marbled boards, gilt leather lettering-pieces (spine ends and corners very lightly rubbed).
FIRST EDITONS OF VOLUME II AND III OF DAMPIER'S VOYAGES. Dampier, often called the 'precursor to Banks and Darwin in his keen observations' and an 'indefatigable navigator', was the first English navigator to record and collect natural history, and survived shipwreck, desertion and imprisonment. He made an unprecedented three circumnavigations and also was the first to correctly describe the winds and currents in the Pacific Ocean. His stated aim was discovery, not Spanish gold, in the islands of the East Indies not yet controlled by the VOC. Volumes I-II contain his earlier voyages to the West Indies from 1674-76 and his 1681-91 voyages from Virginia and Mexico around the Horn to the Philippines, China and Australia where, in 1688, he made the first English landing on the continent. It was his descriptions of the aborigines at King Sound which probably inspired Swift's 'Yahoos' in Gulliver's Travels. This fourth edition of volume I is an exact reprint of the first of 1697. Granted a naval commission in 1698 he embarked on a second voyage to Australia in the naval vessel Roebuck, a rotten, badly-provisioned and short-handed ship in which he surveyed the north coast of New Guinea, New Ireland and New Britain, proving them to be separate from Australia, discovered Dampier Strait, and concluded that Australia was not joined to Asia, Africa or America. Knapton's editorially suspect 4-volume edition of 1729 also included Funnell's account of his voyage with Dampier, 1703-04, but as Sabin quotes Henry Stevens: 'it is better to have Dampier undefiled, and therefore the best editions are his three volumes as originally published'. This set is without volume III, part II of his Voyage to New Holland published in 1709. Sabin 18374-18376; Cox I, pp. 42-43. (3)
FIRST EDITONS OF VOLUME II AND III OF DAMPIER'S VOYAGES. Dampier, often called the 'precursor to Banks and Darwin in his keen observations' and an 'indefatigable navigator', was the first English navigator to record and collect natural history, and survived shipwreck, desertion and imprisonment. He made an unprecedented three circumnavigations and also was the first to correctly describe the winds and currents in the Pacific Ocean. His stated aim was discovery, not Spanish gold, in the islands of the East Indies not yet controlled by the VOC. Volumes I-II contain his earlier voyages to the West Indies from 1674-76 and his 1681-91 voyages from Virginia and Mexico around the Horn to the Philippines, China and Australia where, in 1688, he made the first English landing on the continent. It was his descriptions of the aborigines at King Sound which probably inspired Swift's 'Yahoos' in Gulliver's Travels. This fourth edition of volume I is an exact reprint of the first of 1697. Granted a naval commission in 1698 he embarked on a second voyage to Australia in the naval vessel Roebuck, a rotten, badly-provisioned and short-handed ship in which he surveyed the north coast of New Guinea, New Ireland and New Britain, proving them to be separate from Australia, discovered Dampier Strait, and concluded that Australia was not joined to Asia, Africa or America. Knapton's editorially suspect 4-volume edition of 1729 also included Funnell's account of his voyage with Dampier, 1703-04, but as Sabin quotes Henry Stevens: 'it is better to have Dampier undefiled, and therefore the best editions are his three volumes as originally published'. This set is without volume III, part II of his Voyage to New Holland published in 1709. Sabin 18374-18376; Cox I, pp. 42-43. (3)
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