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BULKELEY, John and John CUMMINS. A Voyage to the South Seas, In the Years 1740-1. Containing A faithful Narrative of the Loss of His Majesty's Ship the Wager on a desolate Island...their passage through the Streights [sic] of Magellan...their safe arrival at Brazil after sailing One Thousand Leagues in a Longboat...with many Things not published in the first Edition. Philadelphia: Reprinted by James Chattin, for the Author, 1757.
8o (175 x 113 mm). (Small printing flaw on F4 affecting a few letters on every line on F3r, spotting, occasional browning, a few trifling marginal repairs.) Contemporary polished calf (very slight rubbing). Provenance: Elizabeth Franks (inscription on flyleaf, who presented the book to); John Clerk (signature dated 1760 on title).
FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, with significant additions to the 1743 London first printing. A vivid shipwreck narrative compiled by two survivors, a gunner and a carpenter on the ill-fated vessel. The account is dedicated to Pennsylvania Lt. Governor William Denny (Bulkeley had evidently emigrated to Pennsylvania after 1743) and to Vice-Admiral Edward Vernon; it features an unusually extensive American subscribers list (16pp). The H.M.S. Wager ran aground on a desolate island off the western coast of South America; part of its surviving crew, including Bulkeley and Cummins, after many misfortunes succeeded in sailing a longboat through the Straits of Magellan and up the coast to safety at Rio de Janeiro. (See previous lot.) Borba de Moraes I:133 ("rare, and...more complete"); Evans 7859; Hildeburn 1519; Hill 211 ("one of the main accounts of the wreck of the Wager...part of Anson's fleet"); Sabin 9109.
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FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, with significant additions to the 1743 London first printing. A vivid shipwreck narrative compiled by two survivors, a gunner and a carpenter on the ill-fated vessel. The account is dedicated to Pennsylvania Lt. Governor William Denny (Bulkeley had evidently emigrated to Pennsylvania after 1743) and to Vice-Admiral Edward Vernon; it features an unusually extensive American subscribers list (16pp). The H.M.S. Wager ran aground on a desolate island off the western coast of South America; part of its surviving crew, including Bulkeley and Cummins, after many misfortunes succeeded in sailing a longboat through the Straits of Magellan and up the coast to safety at Rio de Janeiro. (See previous lot.) Borba de Moraes I:133 ("rare, and...more complete"); Evans 7859; Hildeburn 1519; Hill 211 ("one of the main accounts of the wreck of the Wager...part of Anson's fleet"); Sabin 9109.