Les Voyages De Lionel Wafer Contenant Une Description Tres-Exacte De L'Isthme De L'Amerique & De Toute La Nouvelle Espagne

Calf binding, wear to corners and covers. 1 inch top and lower spine split. 5 bands on spine, paste down is attached firmly, gilt lettering. Both fold out maps are firmly attached. 398pp. Minor markings on flyleaf, no signatures or bookplates. First edition of the French translation, it is decorated with two folding engraved maps drawn by Nicolas De Fer. Lionel Wafer, craft surgeon practice several years in Jamaica, due to an injury, he was abandoned on the Isthmus of Darien with four of his English companions. Thus he lived with the wild, feeding on hunting and fishing. He finally left the Isthmus in 1684. His journey printed first in English (1699), contains the story of those years on the Isthmus of Darien, valuable information on the manners and customs of the Indians who live there as well as its natural productions. There is also a lot of interesting features, and excellent comments on the New Spain. This text is the first and best description of the Isthmus of Panama. It has also inserted the account of the expedition of Captain Davis to the gold mines that illustrate these three years of piracy that the author spent with him between 1685 and 1688.