444 | Wafer, Lionel Wafer, Lionel (?1660–1705) J.W. Kelly, 'Wafer, Lionel (D.1705)', ODNB, Accessed 11-02-2013 J.K. La
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Wafer stoutly maintained he had been a trader in the West Indies for the past seven years, and signed W himself in his depositions ‘Delawafer’. His case was made weaker by the fact that among his effects were found 37 silver plates, some silver lace and three bags of Spanish money marked with his initials. But he was nevertheless released in September 1689 and permit- ted to return to England. In 1692 it was agreed that Wafer, Lionel (?1660–1705) his property should be restored to him, but part of the J.W. Kelly, ‘Wafer, Lionel (d.1705)’, ODNB, accessed money was forfeited by Royal Order. 11-02-2013 ■ J.K. Laughton, ‘Wafer, Lionel (1660?– Ever after Wafer was looked upon as an expert on the 1705?), Dictionary of National Biography (1885–1900), Isthmus of Darien. The account he wrote about his Vol.58. stay there, A new voyage and description of the Isthmus of America (1699) retains an interest for modern anthro- The British surgeon and buccaneer Lionel Wafer was pologists because of its detailed descriptions of the probably born in or a little before 1660 and spent Cuna and Darien Indians. Wafer died in London in his boyhood in Scotland and Ireland. He described 1705. himself as ‘very young’ when he embarked on an Below we list the separate editions of Wafer’s narra- East India Company vessel as an assistant surgeon tive; many other editions are incorporated in the var- in 1677. He visited Sumatra and Borneo and returned ious editions of William Dampier’s Works, for these, to England in 1679, but soon left again for Jamaica see under Dampier. to visit a brother. After a brief period as a surgeon in Jamaica he joined the privateer captain Edmund Cook. 1699 Cook joined a squadron of buccaneering vessels and A new voyage and description of the Isthmus of America: Wafer met William Dampier*, they became friends. giving an account of the author’s abode there, the form and In April 1680 Wafer crossed the Isthmus of Darien as a make of the country, the coasts, hills, rivers, &c. woods, soil, member of a group of 330 buccaneers. The group, led weather, &c. Trees, fruit, beasts, birds, fish, &c. The Indian by Bartholomew Sharpe (c. 1650–1702), captured sev- inhabitants, their features, complexion, &c. their manners, eral armed vessels in the Bay of Panama, and scoured customs, employments, marriages, feasts, hunting, com- the Pacific Coast from Costa Rica to Southern Chile putation, language, &c. With remarkable occurrences in in search of booty. Dissatisfied with Sharpe’s lead- the South Sea, and elsewhere. London: James Knapton. ership, Wafer, Dampier and 52 others defected, and Description: [8], 224, [16], 4 fold. ll. of pl. reached the coast of Panama after a voyage of some ¶¶ 1704, A new voyage and description of the Isthmus of 1,000 km in open boats. Now they crossed the isthmus America, giving an account of the author’s abode there. To in the opposite direction. Wafer injured his leg badly which are added: The natural history of those parts, by a fel- when some gunpowder near him accidentally ignited, low of the Royal Society, and Davis’s expedition to the gold and he had to stay behind. He then lived for several mines in 1702. London: James Knapton. Description: months among the Cuna Indians, who healed his leg. [16], 283, [13], pl., map. In his turn Wafer was useful to them as a surgeon. But ¶¶ 1794, The voyage of Mr. Lionel Wafer, to the Isthmus when Wafer understood that they expected him to of America (or Darien): Giving a succinct narration of the settle permanently among them, he found a suitable remarkable incidents which happened him, while on the excuse go to the Atlantic coast. He had observed that isthmus; with a particular description of the isthmus, [...] the Cuna did not know the use of dogs for hunting, so With his departure from the isthmus, and voyage along he told them he intended to get some British hunting the coast of Peru and Chili. Glasgow: Robert Smith. dogs and then to return to Darien, a promise he did Description: 63, [1]. not intend to keep. On the coast he boarded a French ¶¶ 1903, A new voyage and description of the isthmus of vessel under captain Tristian. Dampier and others who America. Edited by George Parker Winship. (Reprint knew him before happened to be on this vessel, too, of the original edition of 1699). Cleveland, Ohio: The but initially did not recognize him, as he was painted Burrows Brothers Company. Description: 212, front., and scantily clad like an Indian. 1 pl., fold. maps; 23 cm. Wafer then cruised in the Caribbean and sailed with ¶¶ 1934, A new voyage and description of the Isthmus of Captain John Cook to Virginia. He left Virginia a year America; with Wafer’s ‘Secret report’(1698) and Davis’s later, still with captain Cook, in order to sail to the ‘Expedition to the gold mines’ (1704). Edited by L.E. Pacific Ocean. After some further buccaneering Wafer Elliott Joyce. Series: Works issued by the Hakluyt went back to Virginia in the last months of 1687. Society, second series 73. London: Hakluyt Society. In June 1688, while crossing Chesapeake Bay in a Description: lxxi, 221, [1], front. (fold. facs.) fold. pl., small boat with some others, he was arrested and fold. maps; 23 cm. imprisoned in Jamestown on suspicion of piracy. 444 | Wafer, Lionel German: (Naturwissenschaftliche Reisen im tropischen Amerika, ¶¶ 1759, Lionel Wafer’s merckwürdige Reisen nach der 1870). Erd-Enge Darien: auch durch die Sud-See und das mitta- Fortune smiled on him in 1862, the year he was gige Atlantische Meer: Nebst einer Reise Davis nach den appointed honorary professor of Geography and Spanischen Gold-Minen und Anhange der nusslichsten und Ethnography at the University of Munich, was elect- sonderbarsten Natur-Gaben. Halle: J. C. M. Vesters.1759. ed extraordinary member of the Bavarian Academy Description: xix, 356. of Sciences, and was made curator of the State ¶¶ 1767, Kurze Beschreibung der Reise des Herrn Lionel Ethnological Collections. In the last years of his life, Wafers zu Lande über den Isthmus von Darien nebst however, his health increasingly deteriorated, which einer nachricht von seiner sonderbaren Lebensart caused him to end his own life. unter den Indianern, in: Sammlung von Reisen und Wagner made large zoological, botanical and ethno- Entdeckungen in einer chronologischen Ordnung zusam- graphical collections. In particular he collected many mengetragen. Band 1, p. 499–520. Translated from the freshwater fishes. English by J. Barrow. Leipzig, J.J. Junius. He became an early defender of evolution in Germany, ¶¶ 1771, Kurze Beschreibung der Reise des Herrn Lionel before Ernst Haeckel.* Though he originally accepted Wafers zu Lande über den Isthmus von Darien, in natural selection as the mechanism driving evolution, Sammlung der besten und neueesten Reisebeschreibungen, however, he later became ever more critical of this Band 9, p. 481–504. Berlin: August Mylius. idea. Instead, he emphasized the importance of geo- French: graphical isolation for speciation; evolution, then, had ¶¶ 1706, Les voyages de Lionnel Waffer: contenant une to be understood in a Lamarckian sense. From then on description tres-exacte de l’isthme de l’Amerique & de toute Wagner, who was a fierce polemicist, maintained that la nouvelle Espagne. Translated from the English by De Darwin* had not sufficiently understood the impor- Montirat. Paris: Claude Cellier. Description: [8], 398, tance of geographic isolation. [4], 2 fold. ll. of pl., maps;17 cm. Spanish: 1841 ¶¶ 1960, Viajes de Lionel Wafer al Istmo de Darien Reisen in der Regentschaft Algier in den Jahren 1836, 1837 (cuatro meses entre los indios). Translated and anno- und 1838 [...]; nebst einem naturhistorischen Anhang tated by V. Restrepo. (With facsimiles). Panama: und einem Kupferatlas. 3 vols, atlas. Leipzig: Voß. Publicaciones de la revista ‘Loteria’. Description: 128, Description: xxviii, 482; vi, 358; xx, 296; atlas with pl. illus. Vol.3 also has a second title: Bruchstücke zu einer Fauna der Berberei, with contributions by several authors. Wagner, Moritz (1813–1887) F. Ratzel, ‘Wagner, Moritz’, ADB 40(1896), p. 532–543, 1848 online version. Reise nach dem Ararat und dem Hochland Armenien. Anhang: Beiträge zur Naturgeschichte des Hochlandes The German journalist, naturalist, ethnographer, Armeniens. Stuttgart & Tübingen: Cotta. Description: geographer and traveller Moritz Wagner was born in xii, 331. Bayreuth on 3 October 1813; he took his own life in Munich on 31 May 1887. 1848 After he left school at the age of fifteen he had several Der Kaukasus und das land der Kosaken in den Jahren jobs, working as a clerk in a bank and in a trad- 1843 bis 1846. 2 vols. Dresden & Leipzig: Arnoldische ing firm. He managed to obtain funds for travelling, Buchhandlung; Leipzig: Teubner’sche Officin. and was in Algeria from 1836 to 1838 (Reisen in der Description: xii, [2], 242; [2], 223. Regentschaft Algier, 1841). In 1838 he became second ¶¶ 1850, 2nd ed. This appears to be an unchanged editor for the political newspaper Allgemeine Zeitung; in reprint. later years he would also act as correspondent for this and other newspapers. 1850 From 1843 to 1845 he travelled in the region border- Reise nach Kolchis und nach den deutschen Kolonien ing on the Black Sea and in the Caucasus, Armenia, jenseits des Kaukasus. Dresden & Leipzig: Arnoldische Kurdistan and Iran, years which resulted in four Buchhandlung. Description: viii, 341. separate books: Der Kaukasus und das Land der Kosaken (1841), Reise nach Kolchis (1850), Reise nach dem Ararat 1852 und dem Hochland Armeniens (1848) and Reise nach Reise nach Persien und in dem Lande der Kurden.