Lot 3110: BULKELEY, JOHN

( FL. 1743) AND JOHN CUMMINGS ( FL . 1743).
A VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH SEAS, IN THE YEARS 1740-1. LONDON: JACOB ROBINSON, 1743

8vo (202 x 122mm.), xx, 220pp., illustration: woodcut intials, head- and tail-pieces, binding: contemporary polished calf gilt, spine in six compartments with raised bands richly gilt, title slightly discoloured at margins, leaf H with small hole in pagination, joints partly cracked

LITERATURE

Sabin 9108; Borba de Moraes p.133 (1757 edition); Hill p.38; Spence 209

NOTE

first edition (with the authors' names on the title). a very good copy.

"This book is one of the main accounts of the wreck of the Wager off the southern coast of Chile after passing through the Strait of Magellan. The ship was part of Anson's fleet, which was on its way to harass the Spanish. The gunner, John Bulkeley, and the carpenter, John Cummins conducted the mutinous part of the crew [across Patagonia, etc.] until they arrived safely in Rio de Janeiro" (Hill).

This account was a source for Lord Byron's Don Juan. Byron's grandfather John sailed as a midshipman aboard Anson's ship Wager and Byron used details of the shipwreck.