BYRON, John

The Narrative of the Honourable John Byron...

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S. Baker London, 1768. Octavo, with a frontispiece; some offsetting from frontispiece and a couple of spots, but a very good copy bound with the half-title in period-style panelled calf. First edition. 'Admiral Byron's narrative of the loss of the Wager is one of the most thrilling accounts in the language, and supplied his illustrious descendant with many particulars for the shipwreck in Don Juan' (Sabin). Byron, later a noted Pacific explorer and eventually governor of Newfoundland, was known as "foul weather Jack"; he was a midshipman aboard the Wager and his narrative provides a notable supplement to the main account of Anson's voyage.

Byron gives 'an account of pillaging, treachery, and murder by the crew, most of whom claimed that since their pay ceased the moment the ship was lost they were no longer subject to military discipline and it was every man for himself. It told of Byron's own living off the sea, without shelter or clothing, on the 'most unprofitable spot on the globe of the earth'; of his going without a full meal for thirteen months; of his living three years in the lands of the Spaniards... and of his eventual return to England... almost five years after the shipwreck' (R.E. Gallagher, Byron's Journal, Hakluyt Society, 1964).
Hill, 232; James Ford Bell, B642.

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• 订书号：: 508_072

• 书商: Hordern House (AUSTRALIA)