Hawkins, Sir Richard:

$30,000 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

THE OBSERVATIONS OF SIR RICHARD HAWKINS KNIGHT, IN HIS VOYAGE INTO THE SOUTH SEA. ANNO DOMINI 1593. "One of the most graphic and readable of all Tudor narratives...a dramatic story of a gallant failure, written with strong descriptive power and imagination" - Penrose. After Hawkins's adventure, more than 100 years would pass before there were any further English trading voyages in the Pacific. "The original account of a famous English voyage. Hawkins set forth with the intention of circumnavigating the globe, trading with Japan, the Philippines, the Moluccas, China, and India. He did not complete his circumnavigation, however. After entering the Pacific in 1594, Hawkins and the men of the Dainty plundered the Spanish settlement at Valparaiso. Later in the year, he was trapped by two Spanish ships carrying a force outnumbering his own by ten to one in the Bay of San Mateo in Peru. A three-day fight ensued, but defeat was inevitable. Hawkins was released by the Spanish in 1602. Shortly before this volume was published, he died suddenly in the Council Chamber in London. This work gives an excellent account of his life at sea in the Elizabethan age" - Hill. This copy bears the armorial bookplate for the "North Library" of the Earls of Macclesfield at Shirburn Castle as well as the embossed stamp of the library on the titlepage. The Macclesfield library ranked as one of the finest country house libraries in Britain, with both the first and second Earls of Macclesfield acquiring bo

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