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[ROCHEFORT, Charles de]
The History of the Caribby-Islands,
viz. Barbados, St. Christopher, St. Vincents, Martinico, Dominico, Barbouthos, Monserrat, Mevis, Antego, &c. in all XXVIII. In Two Books. The First containing the Natural; The Second, the Moral History of those Islands. Illustrated with several Pieces of Sculpture, representing the most considerable Rarities therein Described. With a Caribbian-Vocabulary. Rendred into English by John Davies of Kidwelly.
Publisher: London: Printed by J.M. for Thomas Dring and John Starkey, 1666
Stock code: 51223
Price: £3,000 Currency Conversion
First edition in English, originally published in French in 1658 with the aim of encouraging Huguenot emigration to the Caribbean, offering detailed information on the flora, fauna and indigenous peoples - including Eskimos - and concluding with a substantial "Caribbian Vocabulary." Attribution has been contested, in the preface to his Histoire Generale des Antilles, Paris 1667, Père du Tertre levels accusations of plagiarism, but in the preface of the original Rotterdam edition and here it is unambiguously identified as a compilation from the works of "Persons who had been Eye-witnesses of what they delivered, dis-interessed [sic], and of known integrity." The contributions of Père Raymond Breton are explicitly acknowledged: "the Authors made also great advantages of the private Discourses they had with one Father Raymond… this man having lived many years in those Islands, and had much conversation with the Caribbians of Dominico". Breton, a Dominican, was "one of the first four missionaries deputed to the island of Guadeloupe", and his Dictionnaire Caraibe-François was the source for the present vocabulary. Many bibliographies have credited Louis de Poincy, French governor of the Antilles, as compiler, but the most credible attribution seems to be to Charles de Rochefort, "pastor of the the French Protestant church at Rotterdam, who had resided several years in the West Indies" (Sabin). A contemporary inscription to the verso of the rear free endpaper reads; "For The Right Honourable The Earle of Finlater And Viscount off Seafield." This would seem to refer to James Ogilvy, 4th Earl of Findlater, (1663–1730), Solicitor General for Scotland, and Lord Chancellor of Scotland 1702-8, and "one of the key Scotsmen in the securing of the Union of 1707." (ODNB) The inscription is slightly ambiguous but seems to date to 1698-1701, during which period he held the latter title. Interestingly this is also the period during which his opposition to the Darien Scheme, Scotland's ill-fated Central American adventure, had "aroused the anger of the Edinburgh mob, and in June 1700 his Edinburgh lodgings were attacked." An unusual and uncommon work, in attractive contemporary condition with an appealing provenance.
Folio (275 × 170 mm) Contemporary sheep ?trade binding, blind panels to the boards, later manuscript label to the spine, edges sprinkled blue. 9 plates, 6 of them slightly cropped at the lower edge. A little rubbed, joints cracking towards the head, head-cap chipped, light browning, some plates a little trimmed, but overall a very good copy.
