HERRERA, Antonio de

Description des Indes Occidentales...

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Emanuel Colin, Amsterdam, 1622. Folio, engraved and printed title-pages, and 17 folding engraved maps; small defects in outer portions of first few leaves neatly made good; an excellent copy in handsome dark calf by Aquarius. Herrera's highly important account of the New World, including the first true publication of the Journal of the Le Maire-Schouten expedition around the world. Their voyage in search of Terra Australis is described in full in the second part of the book (Iournal, & Miroir de la Navigation Australe), which publishes for the first time the "correct" narrative of the expedition.

Sailing through Le Maire Strait, and rounding Patagonia via Cape Horn, this voyage had an enormous effect on future navigation, helping to put an end to the idea of the imaginary Southland. This is one of three versions published in the year of first publication: Latin, French, and Dutch language versions all appeared at the same time, using the same engravings; all editions are now rare. (The Dutch version was recently republished in the Australian Maritime Series.)

An earlier narrative of the expedition had been published by Admiral Spilbergen, who had taken Le Maire and Schouten back to Europe after their capture by the VOC in the Dutch East Indies. Spilbergen had used much of Le Maire's journal to create his narrative, but not until this publication by Herrera did the original account of the crucial voyage appear in full.

Partly inspired by Quiros and motivated by Dutch trading zeal, this was the essential precursor to Tasman's voyage; indeed Tasman made great use of their mapping of the ocean. The last of the seventeenth-century expeditions to search for the unknown continent from the east, it was responsible for extensive discoveries in the Pacific, shown in excellent detail on the various maps published here. There are also four fine engraved views, three of which show the Eendracht at anchor in the Solomon and Cocos Islands.

The first and last parts of the book concentrate on knowledge of the New World, with a magnificent series of double-page maps, thirteen of which show north, central and south America, while the other four are particularly important mappings of the Pacific adding considerable new information to geographical knowledge. One in particular, larger than the others, shows Le Maire's route through the ocean with detailed mapping of the Pacific island groups visited and of New Guinea. Le Maire's voyage made significant Pacific discoveries, and established at last that New Guinea was not part of a great continent extending indefinitely to the east. This entirely altered European knowledge of the archipelago, which had been unchanged since 1545.
Borba de Moraes, I, 400; Kroepelien, 561 (Latin edition); Medina, 'Hispanic America', 455; no copy recorded in either the Hill, Church or Herschel Jones catalogues; Palau, 114296; Schilder, 'Australia Unveiled', 'pp. 32-36; see Sharp, 'Discovery of the Pacific Islands', pp 73-8, and Schilder, Australia Unveiled, pp 32-36 and passim for a full account of the voyage and its importance, pp. 73-8; Tiele, pp. 56-7, 314-316; Wagner, 'Spanish Southwest', 12.

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