Beschreibung:

GEORGE ANSON, BARON ANSON (1697-1762) A Voyage round the world, in the years MDCCXL, I, II, III, IV... compiled... by Richard Walter. London: John & Paul Knapton for the Author, 1748. Royal 4° (29 x 22.8cm). 42 engraved plates, charts and maps (9 double-page, 32 folding). (Without 12pp. subscriber's list, some light offsetting on plates, small tear to the second folding map, appreciable spotting to one plate and one chart.) Contemporary red morocco gilt, g.e. (rebacked, old label laid down, inner hinges reinforced). LARGE PAPER COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION, describing Anson's voyage in the Centurion. The red morocco binding and the absence of the subscribers' list perhaps imply that the present work is a presentation copy. The reasons for undertaking the voyage were warlike: Anson sailed in 1739 with orders to attack Spanish possessions in the Pacific, and the work includes a description of the capture of the Spanish Manilla-to-Acapulco treasure galleon on 20 June 1743. He eventually returned to Britain in 1744, mooring off Spithead in June, Anson's share of the £500,000 treasure made him a wealthy man. Sabin states, in his notes on the later editions of this work, that "The copies of the first edition, on royal paper... were superior to any book of the kind which had been hitherto published." Sabin 1625.