THE ENGLISH-AMERICAN HIS TRAVAIL BY SEA AND LAND: OR, A NEW SURVEY OF THE WEST-INDIAS [sic], CONTAINING A JOURNALL OF THREE THOUSAND AND THREE HUNDRED MILES WITHIN THE MAIN LAND OF AMERICA...

London: R. Cotes, 1648.. [10],220,[12]pp. Small folio. 19th-century three-quarter red morocco and marbled boards, spine gilt. Bookplate of Edward Ayer on front pastedown. Light dampstaining to lower half of text. About very good. Important collector and bibliographer Edward Ayer's copy of the first edition of one of the most celebrated travel books of its day. Gage was an Englishman raised in Spain. He entered the Dominican Order and set out for the New World, traveling by way of the Philippines and across the Pacific. He spent most of the next twelve years in Central America, the West Indies, Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Panama. When he finally returned to England and converted to the Church of England, he wrote this book to urge British seizure of the Spanish empire in America. Since the Spanish had jealously guarded foreign access to their dominions, this was the first detailed description to reach Europe of the regions visited by Gage, and it was widely reprinted and translated. This copy was presented by Ayer to the Newberry Library in 1911, and deaccessioned by them some eighty years later in 1993. The Streeter copy sold for $250 in 1966. HILL 665. PALAU 96480. STREETER SALE 193. EUROPEAN AMERICANA 648/68. JCB (3)II:369. SABIN 26298. WING G109. BEINECKE LESSER ANTILLES COLLECTION 38. ESTC R22621.