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[ANSON] WALTER, Richard, compiler.
A Voyage Round the World , in the Years MDCCXL, I, II, III, IV. By George Anson, Esq; Commander in Chief of a Squadron of His Majesty's Ships, sent upon an Expedition to the South-Seas….
London, Printed for the Author by John and Paul Knapton, 1748.

Thick quarto, with strong impressions of all 42 folding engraved plates and maps, with the single leaf of directions to the bookbinder for placing the engravings; contemporary owner's signature 'John Towers 1748' on front flyleaf; a large and handsome volume in contemporary calf, spine banded and tooled in gilt, crimson morocco label, in extremely good condition.

A beautiful copy of the first edition, one of 350 large or 'royal paper' copies, much superior to the less well-proportioned issue on ordinary paper. Cox notes two issues, one for the author and this, the "genuine first", with p. 319 misnumbered. The inscription of the owner "Towers" is dated in the year of publication. Although his name does not appear in exactly the same form in the list of subscribers on e wonders whether he may have been connected with the subscriber "Thomas Tower Esq".

Anson's Voyage, 'a masterpiece of descriptive travel' (Hill) and one of the great publishing successes of the eighteenth century, was widely read and it is unusual to find copies in as excellent condition as this. The narrative, based on Anson's own journal, had an enormous popular success: for the mid-eighteenth-century reader, it was the epitome of adventure, and it was translated into several European languages and stayed in print through numerous editions for many years.

'Anson's voyage of 1740-44 holds a unique and terrible place in British maritime history. The misadventures of this attempt by Royal Navy ships to sail round the world make a dramatic story of hardship, disaster, mutiny and endurance… [When] Anson reached the coast of China in November 1742 he was left with one ship and a handful of men, some of whom had "turned mad and idiots". The most extraordinary part of the voyage was still to come, for despite his losses Anson was determined to seize the treasure galleon that made the annual voyage from Acapulco to Manila. Laden with Peruvian silver, she was the "Prize of all the Oceans". In June 1743 Anson intercepted the Nuestra Señora de Covadonga, and in a 90-minute action forced her surrender. After refitting at Canton he returned home the next year to find himself compared with Drake, and his exploits with the long-remembered feats of arms against the Spain of Philip II. The casualties were forgotten as the public celebrated a rare triumph in a drab and interminable war…, and in 1748 the long-awaited authorised account appeared under the name of Richard Walter, chaplain on the Centurion, and became a best-seller. Walter's volume has formed the basis of all accounts of Anson's voyage from the mid-eighteenth century to the present. The book, more fully illustrated than any similar work up to that time, was both a stirring story of adventure at sea and an exhortation to further Pacific enterprise' (Glyn Williams, The prize of all the oceans. The triumph and tragedy of Anson's voyage round the world, 1999, pp. xvii-xviii; and for the long-standing dispute over authorship see appendix I: Williams concludes that Walter may have commenced the work and saw it through the press, but Benjamin Robins, a talented and versatile mathematician and an experienced writer, was primarily responsible for its literary quality. There is, however, no doubt that Anson closely scrutinised the text and in everything except stylistic terms the narrative is Anson's own interpretation of events).

Borba de Moraes, I, 32; Cox, I, p. 49; Hill, 1817; Kroepelien, 1086.

Australian: $13,500 (Approx. US $14,086, Euro €9788) Quote ref.