[Rarebooks] fa: VOYAGES & ADVENTURES OF CAPT. RICHARD FALCONER - 1720 (Virginia, Indian Captivity, etc.)

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, along with other 17th-19th Century British books and  
pamphlets, auctions ending Sunday, May 2. Details and images can be  
found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://shop.ebay.com/arch_in_la/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p4340
OR
http://tinyurl.com/yhk74ma

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A., CA USA

[William Rufus Chetwood:] [The Voyages, Dangerous Adventures and  
Imminent Escapes of Captain Richard Falconer. Containing the Laws,  
Customs, and Manners of the Indians in America; his Shipwrecks; his  
Marrying an Indian Wife; His narrow Escape from the Island of  
Dominico, &c. Intermix’d with the voyages and adventures of Thomas  
Randal, of Cork, pilot; with his Shipwreck in the Baltick, being the  
only Man that escap’d: His being taken by the Indians of Virginia, &c.  
Written by himself, now alive. London: Printed for W. Chetwood, at  
Cato’s Head, in Russel-Street, Covent-Garden ; T. Jauncy, at the Angel  
without Temple-Bar ; A. Bettesworth, in Pater-Noster-Row ; J.  
Brotherton, W. Meadows in Cornhill ; and J. Graves, in St. James’s- 
Street, 1720.] FIRST EDITION...

Lacking the frontispiece and title-page, which appear never to have  
been bound in, otherwise matches in all points the collation of the  
uncommon 1720 first edition, including the eccentric pagination. Wear  
to the corners, edges and spine ends, rubbing to the boards, front  
board neatly detached, dust-soiling and darkening to the edges of the  
text block, some toning and mild foxing to the first and last leaf,  
scattered spotting here and there; else sound. Old bookseller's  
catalogue description and owner's bookplate ("Sleigh") affixed to  
front paste-down; owner's signature to p. 1.

A fictitious, or at least partly fictitious, shipwreck and captivity  
narrative with much of Americana interest. Wrecked off of Cape  
Charles, Virginia, in 1689, the narrator was captured by Indians and  
carried off to their village, where he was stripped and tied to a  
stake, and only saved himself by demonstrating the therapeutic wonders  
of "letting blood" to his captors. Mutiny, murder, pirates, and storms  
at sea also feature in the action-packed narrative. Though purportedly  
the memoirs of Capt. Richard Falconer, the work is generally  
attributed to W. Chetwood, the "bookseller" for whom it was printed.  
An imperfect, but essentially complete and sound copy of an uncommon  
and fascinating title.