“THE CLASSIC OF BUCCANEERING BOOKS”: SCARCE FIRST EDITION OF EXQUEMELIN’S BUCANIERS OF AMERICA, 1684, ILLUSTRATED WITH NINE COPPER-ENGRAVED PLATES (THREE DOUBLE-PAGE)

EXQUEMELIN, Alexandre Olivier (a.k.a. ESQUEMELING, John). Bucaniers of America: Or, a True Account of the Most Remarkable Assaults Committed of the Late Years upon the Coasts of the West-Indies… Wherein Are Contained More Especially, the Unparallel’d Exploits of Sir Henry Morgan… London: William Crooke, 1684. Three parts in one volume. Quarto, 20th century full paneled reverse calf, raised bands, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt.

First edition in English of this classic account of the buccaneers, richly illustrated with nine copper-engraved plates: six full-page, three double-page (including a map of Panama) and in-text engraved chapter heading.

“Perhaps no book in any language was ever the parent of so many imitations, and the source of so many fictions as this” (Sabin). “It has well been called the classic of buccaneering books” (Cox). Here are the exploits of Henry Morgan, who sacked Panama and absconded without dividing the booty—a transgression of the pirate’s honor that Exquemelin could not applaud; here also the vicious Francis L’Ollonois, who tore out the hearts from his still-living victims and ate them. Countless tortures and robberies, raids and rampages, are here related by one of the most reliable witnesses: Alexandre Exquemelin, himself a pirate. Exquemelin had been sold into slavery in the West Indian plantations, beaten, tortured and nearly starved to death, and “so I determined, not knowing how to get any living, to enter into the order of the pirates or robbers of the sea.” His career lasted from 1666 until he saw the error of his ways and withdrew from the profession in “Exquemelin’s book gives a very reliable account of the principal exploits of the buccaneers down to their final disappearance, with the notable exception of their 1672 adventures in the South Sea, of which he makes no mention” (Introduction, 1898 reprint). His first-hand account originally appeared in Dutch in 1678, was translated into Spanish in 1681 and rendered here into English from the Spanish for the first time. Sir Henry Morgan, the ex-Jamaican privateer, one-time governor of Jamaica, and principal “hero” of the book, was offended by some parts in which he was described. In 1685, he brought a successful libel suit against the English publishers, Crooke (this edition) and Malthus (publisher of a pirated abridgement the same year). Morgan was awarded an indemnity of £200 and the publishers were instructed to rectify the facts in the preface of the next edition. Crooke’s corrected second edition appeared in 1685 along with a continuation volume by Basil Ringrose, whose account did not appear in this first edition. The Basil Ringrose continuation, separately published the following year, is not included here. With engraved frontispiece portrait of Morgan; engraved portraits of Bartolomew, Rasiliano and Lolonois; two full-page engravings; three double-page engraved plates: “The Spanish Armada destroyed by Captain Morgan,” “Map of the Country and City of Panama” and “Battel Between the Spaniards and the Buccaniers before the Citty of Panama”; in-text engraving (leaf D4v) and two small woodcuts of weaponry (3L3v, 3M1r). Publisher’s advertisement to verso ([2T4]). Wing E3894. Hill 578. Cox II, 207. Field 504. Church 689. Sabin 23479. Armorial bookplate. Owner inscription to A2; lengthy owner inscriptions to recto of leaf preceding frontispiece (a list of illustrations) and verso of penultimate leaf.

Scattered light foxing. Tiny marginal hole to [3K3], 3Q1, not affecting text. An about-fine copy, handsomely bound.