Bucaniers of America: Or, a true Account of the Most Remarkable Assaults Committed of Late Years Upon the Coasts of The West Indies, by the Bucaniers of Jamaica and Tortuga, Both English and French… The Second Volume Containing The Dangerous Voyage and Bold Attempts of Captain Bartholomew Sharp, and others…

Second English Edition of Volume I and First Edition of Volume 2, [12], 115,[1], 51, [1], 124, [12]; [16], 212(215), [24], 4 parts bound in 2 vols ., , 9 plates (3 folding) and three engraved texts illustrations in volume one, 17 engraved maps and plans (2 folding) in volume two after Bartholomew Sharp, numerous woodcut text illustrations, 4to (240 x 185 mm), contemporary mottled calf, morocco title-piece, London, for William Crooke, 1684-1685 THE GREATEST EARLY BOOK ON BUCCANEERING & PIRACY The English Edition of Exquemelin with the scarce first edition by Basil Ringrose describing the Voyages of Captain Bartholomew Sharp. The primary contemporary source in English for the History of the English and French Buccaneers, or more politely “privateers” who harassed and attacked the Spanish colonies chiefly in the Caribbean during the seventeenth century. Exquemelin’s account of the adventures, life, morals, looting, plundering, and taking prisoners for ransom or slavery of the pirates roaming the seas in the later part of the seventeenth century, together with a full description of the Caribbean where they mainly operated. Our prevailing image of the pirate is based on the buccaneer, or filibuster, active in the West Indies in the later 17th century. The story of Alexandre Olivier Exquemelin is the earliest first-hand account on these pirates, written by just such a one of these reluctant desperadoes, from which all others seem to spring. Alexandre Olivier Exquemelin (1646-1717), called Oexmelin by the French, was long considered to be a Dutchman, as the first edition of his seminal and now extremely rare book De Americaensche Zee-Roovers (The Buccaneers of America) published in Amsterdam 1678 was in Dutch. But Exquemelin was born in 1646, at the Northern French port of Honfleur, descending from Huguenot apothecaries. He started his eventful life as a chemist before spending several years with the pirates as a ship’s surgeon. He took part in their daring exploits, like the expeditions of the notorious English buccaneer Henry Morgan, one of the most famous names in the annals of piracy (called John in the book), including his raid on Maracaibo in 1669, or a year later his attack on Panama. By 1674 Exquemelin had joined the Dutch Navy, serving with De Ruyter’s fleet in the wars against the French. Following the Admiral’s death in 1667 he returned to Amsterdam, was granted citizenship and gained his qualification as a ship surgeon in October 1679. The author had throughout all these adventures kept his original manuscript that was published by the Paris printing house of Jacques le Febvre in a first French edition in 1686, titled Histoire des Avonturiers qui se sont signalez dans les Indes. It is marginally less rare than the Dutch one, and being produced in two volumes it contains much additional material, especially botanical descriptions. Managing to return to France in 1687 to find his book a roaring success, he brought out a second edition, but the next sighting reveals him taking part in a French attack on Cartageña in Columbia in 1697. Accepted in his native land at last, Exquemelin spent his final years recording all his experiences since 1678, and these became the third French edition of his book, published in 1699 as Histoire des Avanturiers Flibustiers. His book remained a bestseller in France, growing to four volumes over new editions in the years 1744, 1774 and 1775 . These editions contain material not by Exquemelin, including:- (Vol. 3) Raveneau de Lussan’s tales of his Pacific buccaneers, in which the Scot Alexander Selkirk who is generally regarded as the model for Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, and- (Vol. 4) The elusive Captain Johnson’s book published in 1728 and 1728 combined historic fact with such luminaries of pirate folklore as Captains Avery, Kidd and Tew, Black Sam Bellamy, and the female filibusters Mary Read and Anne Bonny.…