Gage, Thomas:

$4,500 · Offered by William Reese Company

THE ENGLISH-AMERICAN HIS TRAVAIL BY SEA AND LAND: OR, A NEW SURVEY OF THE WEST-INDIAS [sic], CONTAINING A JOURNALL OF THREE THOUSAND AND THREE HUNDRED MILES WITHIN THE MAIN LAND OF ... Important collector and bibliographer Edward Ayer's copy of the first edition of one of the most celebrated travel books of its day. Gage was an Englishman raised in Spain. He entered the Dominican Order and set out for the New World, traveling by way of the Philippines and across the Pacific. He spent most of the next twelve years in Central America, the West Indies, Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Panama. When he finally returned to England and converted to the Church of England, he wrote this book to urge British seizure of the Spanish empire in America. Since the Spanish had jealously guarded foreign access to their dominions, this was the first detailed description to reach Europe of the regions visited by Gage, and it was widely reprinted and translated. This copy was presented by Ayer to the Newberry Library in 1911, and deaccessioned by them some eighty years later in 1993. The Streeter copy sold for $250 in 1966.

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.