Root, Joel:

$4,250 · Offered by William Reese Company

A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD MADE BY JOEL ROOT 1802 - 1806 [cover title]. A very interesting narrative of a voyage made by Joel Root (b. 1770), a native of Southington, Connecticut, as supercargo and director of a voyage on the ship Huron, which left New Haven in April 1802 in search of hair seals for the American market and fur seals to be sold in China. Clearing Cape Horn in January 1803, they arrived at the Mocha, Lobos, and St. Mary's islands off the coast of South America, where they found a large population of seals. Root and a small party were blown off course in a whale boat and temporarily separated from the Huron. After being briefly imprisoned at Concepcion, they rejoined the Huron on Feb. 25. The captain headed for the Lobos Islands off the coast of Peru, while Root chose to stay behind on St. Mary's Island off the coast of Chile. With part of the crew he was able to take ten thousand seal skins. On the return of the Huron, they set sail on Sept. 25 for the island of Massafuero, one of the Juan Ferdinand Islands, also off the coast of Chile. There Root proposed to take fur seals for the China market, while the Huron returned to the U.S. with its cargo of nineteen thousand skins. "Mr. Root was surprized to find on the island more men than seals....In all there were about 150 men." These were lone sealers left behind by various ships. Root himself took about 4,000 skins, and purchased another 5,000 or more from the loners who had been threatened by the Viceroy of Peru

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