Curiosity & Discovery
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
HORDERN HOUSE Curiosity & Discovery Cover illustration: detail from Choris, Vues et Paysages (no. 120). Curiosity & Discovery HORDERN HOUSE RARE BOOKS • MANUSCRIPTS • PAINTINGS • PRINTS Curiosity & Discovery Voyages and Travels in the Spirit of Enlightenment 77 VICTORIA STREET • POTTS POINT • SYDNEY NSW 2011 • AUSTRALIA TELEPHONE (02) 9356 4411 • FAX (02) 9357 3635 www.hordern.com • [email protected] Curiosity & Discovery Voyages and Travels in the Spirit of Enlightenment Curiosity and Discovery, our new catalogue, takes as its theme the spirit of the Enlight- enment in terms of exploration and voyages. In doing so, this collection of printed and manuscript material explores the story of what might be considered the practical effects of the new spirit which animated the eighteenth century and its heirs. In terms of voyage history the Enlightenment era is typified by curiosity and enquiry in exploration, discov- ery, and travel writing, and needs to be allowed a particularly “long eighteenth century”. The earlier so-called Age of Discovery, often seen as lasting from the late fifteenth well into the eighteenth century, overlaps with the Age of Enlightenment; the two ages, both defined after the fact, resist precise timescales. Conveniently enough, however, the Age of Discovery encompasses much of the European exploration and discovery of new worlds to the north and west, while the history of exploration in the Enlightenment period is more that of voyages to and discovery in the east and south. The Age of Discovery re- vealed the Americas, from Columbus onwards, while the Enlightenment voyages would build on the preceding scattered discoveries (including those of Quirós, Mendaña, the Dutch explorers, Drake and Dampier described in our catalogue The Great South Land) to take on the wider exploration and opening up of the Pacific and its neighbouring regions. The successors to these pioneers were drawn to the new worlds opening up in south- east Asia, the Pacific, and the vague outlines of New Holland. The “double deed that consists of sailing round the world then writing an account of it” (Mary Louise Pratt) is a hallmark of the period and Enlightenment voyage literature, and this catalogue sets out to describe a representative selection. Alphabetical order conveniently starts with Anson’s famous mid-eighteenth century voyage into the Pacific. Just a few books in this catalogue predate the Anson voyage; these relate almost entirely to early descriptions of China and Japan, descriptions seized upon by the thinkers of the Enlightenment for their revelations of distant cultures, evolved without European influence, with strong underlying philosophies and largely secular social systems. The great explosion of late eighteenth century voyages is represented by important works by many of the key figures, naturally enough focussing on Cook and La Pérouse, but with all manner of works which reveal the ambition which underwrote them, whether it be the travels of Banks or Bougainville, Bligh or Baudin. It is sometimes easy to overlook the scale and the magnificence of these accounts, both in terms of the arduous voyages, but also the effort required to publish the beautiful official publications. Chronologically, the catalogue ends with two near contemporaries: Charles Darwin, a willing – if often very seasick – guest on the Beagle, and Jules Sébastien César Dumont d’Urville, commander of the Astrolabe. Darwin sailed on the second of the three voy- ages of the Beagle, and his first ever published book formed part of a four-volume work published in 1839. Ian Duncan (On Charles Darwin and the Voyage of the Beagle, online) has described the voyage as one of the last episodes in an Enlightenment tradition of circumnavigation: ‘Its openness to an encyclopedic variety of topics and discourses had made travel writing one of the major literary genres of the long eighteenth century; the journal of a voyage could accommodate philosophical observations of different lands and peoples (comprising “the world”) as well as the subjective account of its author’s experiences, sensations, and reflections.’ By the time that Darwin’s book was published the Beagle had already been dispatched on its last great survey voyage to Australia, and Dumont d’Urville was on his second great voyage, one in which territorial ambitions were once more overtaking scientific endeavours. By the early 1840s the true era of Enlightenment voyages was coming to a close, and a new era was beginning. If there is to be a fixed date for the end of the Enlightenment voyage period it may as well be 8 May 1842, the date of the infamous Versailles rail accident, one of the earliest and certainly the worst early train crash of the Age of Steam. The train was full of day-trippers returning from Versailles when it crashed and burst into flames, killing most of the pas- sengers on board, including the Pacific veteran Dumont d’Urville. Sail could hardly have given way to steam more dramatically. When the last commander of the Beagle, John Lort Stokes, returned to the Pacific in 1846, his account Discoveries in Australia just off the press, he was in command of a new steam-powered sloop, HMS Acheron. Curiosity and Discovery, the principles which guided the great wave of exploration in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, are therefore here taken to refer to two of the guiding principles of Enlightenment voyages, not least because the hunt for “artifi- cial curiosities” was a huge motivation for the budding scientists of the age (quite apart from the fact that Cook’s last command was HMS Discovery). The two terms continue to imbue what might be considered the “new” frontier that obsesses more recent scientific work: whether in the naming of the Mars Rover or a Space Shuttle. Hordern House 2015 One of the Royal Paper copies 1. [ANSON] WALTER, Richard and Benjamin ROBINS, editors. A Voyage Round the World, in the Years MDCCXL, I, II, III, IV. By George Anson, Esq… sent upon an Expedition to the South-Seas… Thick quarto, with strong impressions of all 42 folding engraved plates and maps, with the single leaf of directions to the bookbinder; later half calf over original marbled boards; a few stains internally but generally in extremely good condition. London, for the Author by Knapton, 1748. First edition, one of 350 large or ‘royal paper’ copies, much superior to the relatively ill-pro- portioned ordinary paper issue. Cox calls the present imprint “the genuine first” and notes two issues, one for the author and the genuine first, with p. 319 misnumbered, as here. This may also be a subscriber’s copy as it has the armorial bookplate of an E. Lloyd: four Lloyds appear in the List of Subscribers, one of them “Ellis Lloyd Esq”. Anson’s Voyage, ‘a masterpiece of descriptive travel’ (Hill) and one of the great publishing suc- cesses 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. ‘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, 1999). Borba de Moraes, I, 32; Cox, I, p. 49; Hill, 1817; Kroepelien, 1086. $12,500 Two veterans of Anson’s circumnavigation on HMS Centurion 2. ANSON, Lord George. Manuscript order addressed to Captain Philip Saumarez. Hand-written note signed by Anson, laid paper 160 x 205 mm., old folds; very good. At sea, 11 December 1746. Original order given by George Anson to his close associate from the Centurion circumnaviga- tion of 1741-44, Philip Saumarez. Saumarez had been first lieutenant on Anson’s flagship, and as acting commander saved the ship during the storm at Tinian when Anson was ashore. After the capture of the Manila galleon Anson paid Saumarez the great compliment of giving him com- mand of the prize, to sail her to China for sale. Saumarez’s original records of the Anson voyage, now in the National Library, were used as the basis of the 1973 publication Log of the Centurion. Anson had returned from his famous circumnavigation in June 1744, and joined the board of the Admiralty in 1745. In July 1746, as vice-admiral of the Blue, he took command of the Channel Fleet, hoisting his flag on board Yarmouth on 9 August. Although the fleet was short-handed, Anson was able to set out to sea, cruising off Ushant in the hope of intercepting the French. Anson soon transferred from Yarmouth to the Prince George, and both vessels would play an important part in the 1747 battle of Cape Finisterre, where the French fleet was decisively beaten. Saumarez had been appointed to the Nottingham in September 1746. In the note Anson gives his fellow captain a command relating to the chase of any French ship: “If at any time in Chasing you discover the Chase to be an Enemy, and I should not take notice of your Signal as in that case directed, you are to make the Signal for seeing a Fleet, provided the Chase is of a superior Force to your self. Given under my hand on board His Maj. Ship Yarmouth at Sea, the 11th of Decem.