A New Survey of the West-Indies being a Journal of Three thousand and Three hundred Miles within ... America …. fourth edition.

Benjamin Smith BARTON (1766-1815). - Thomas GAGE (c. 1597-1656).

A New Survey of the West-Indies being a Journal of Three thousand and Three hundred Miles within the main Land of America …. fourth edition.

London: printed by M. Clark for J. Nicolson and T. Newborough, 1699. Octavo. Pp. [i-vi]; 1-477[-496] including the final blank. 1 large folding engraved map by Francis Lamb ‘A New Mapp of the Empire of Mexico…’. (Upper blank margin of title shaved, some damage to inner blank margins of title, map close-shaved [see images], toned throughout.)

Contemporary paneled calf (worn, rebacked, upper joint repaired, damage to pastedowns).

Provenance: Edward Haistwell (armorial bookplate dated 1718); Riddell of Riddell (remains of armorial bookplate, possibly Sir James Buchanan Riddell, 8th Baronet, d. 1784); Benjamin Smith Barton (studied in Edinburgh from 1786 for two years, signature); American Philosophical Society (various inscriptions, including a note that the book was [‘Presented] by … Vaughan’ – possibly John Vaughan); Gabriel Furman (1800-1854, inscriptions and notes, one dated ‘Dec 10th 1828’).

An interesting association copy: Barton quoted from this book in a ‘Miscellaneous Facts and Observations’ section in the first volume of “The Philadelphia Medical and Physical Journal” (Philadelphia: 1804, vol.I, pp.140-141), and the book subsequently passed into the hands of bibliophile, Gabriel Furman of Brooklyn.

A classic account of 17th-century Mexico and Guatemala. Gage, a scion of an important English Catholic family initially trained with the Jesuits, but went on to serve for many years as a Dominican friar in Antigua and Guatemala. He finally rejected the Catholic faith entirely, and later became the Protestant chaplain to English forces stationed in Jamaica. First published in 1648 under the title “The English-American his Travail by Sea and Land” , this fourth edition is enlarged and includes a fine early map of the region by Francis Lamb.

The publication of this work "caused a remarkable sensation. His account of the wealth and defenseless condition of the Spanish possessions in South America excited the cupidity of the English, and it is said that Gage himself laid before Cromwell the first regular plan for mastering the Spanish territories in the New World... He was appointed chaplain to General Venables's expedition, which sailed under Venables and Penn for Hispaniola... The fleet failed at Hispaniola, but took Jamaica, where Gage died in 1656" (DNB). The text describes Catholic missions in Mexico, and contains many ethnographic observations, including a grammar of the Pokonchi language.

The provenance of this copy is particularly interesting as it seems to be the case that books from Benjamin Smith Barton’s library rarely come on the market, as the majority remain in the Am. Phil. Soc. Library: this example left the library at a relatively early date as Barton did not die until 1815, yet the book was in Furman’s possession by 1828.

Furman, an eccentric, opium addict, lawyer and author of the first important history of Brooklyn, was also a significant book collector: William Gowans (publisher of the ‘Bibliotheca Americana’) wrote of Furman that ‘as a book buyer, and consequently collector, it may be safely affirmed, that he had no equal in the country at the time …’. His financial difficulties forced him to sell his books (he apparently catalogued them himself) – his library was sold in 1846: "Catalogue of an extensive and valuable private library [belonging to G. Furman], collected during many years with great labor and expense, consisting of a very choice collection of rare, curious and valuable books. Sold at auction by Royal Gurley & Co., November 30 [1846], and the five days following.” (New York, 1846). I have not been able to check if the present work is listed.

European Americana 699/84; Palau 46481n; Sabin 26301.