Limited edition: 142 pages, folding frontispiece, title page vignette, folding map, 5 full page black and white illustrations, uncut fore edge and bottom edge, orange cloth boards with gilt vignette on the upper cover, quarter vellum titled gilt on the spine, a very good copy.
The colophon reads: This edition is the Tenth publication of the Argonaut Press, and is limited to 525 copies on Japon Vellum, numbered 1 to 525.
The original wood cut appearing on the title page is by William Monk.
This volume has been printed by Morrison and Gibb Ltd., Edinburgh in the year 1930.
This copy is number 33
From the Preface by N.M. Penzer: In accordance with its programme, the Argonaut Press, in the present publication, is not confining its activities to the reprinting of travels of men whose names have become household words. In presenting the work of a nameless Spanish author of the late eighteenth century, it is not only bringing to the notice of scholars a work that has never been before translated into English, but is reprinting the account of a voyage of very considerable geographical importance. Narratives of voyages to discover a North-West Passage from the Atlantic side are familiar to all, but the efforts of the Spaniards to find such a passage from the Pacific are much less known.
The account of the expedition of the schooners Sutil and Mexicana to the north-west coast of America was printed in 1802 by Martin Fernandez de Navarrete. The narrative is anonymous, but internal evidence suffices to prove that it was written by one of the officers attached to the expedition, and that this officer was in the Sutil. There is some reason for thinking that this unknown officer was probably the cartographer attached to that vessel.
Navarrete prefaced his edition with a lengthy introduction which has been here summarised. His purpose was very largely to answer the attacks made by certain French writers upon the conduct of the Spanish explorers and to defend his fellow-countrymen against the charge of having invented voyages and of having exaggerated their contributions to the advance of knowledge. In actual fact, there is no doubt that for their share in exploring the north-western coast of the continent, the Spaniards deserve the very greatest credit, and that more especially in the case of their later expeditions, their aim was rather altruistic than selfish.
- Overall Condition: Very good
- Size: 4to (270 x210mm)
