Les Voyages de Lionnel Waffer contenant une description très-exacte de l'Isthme de l'Amerique & de toute la nouvelle Espagne.
Paris: Chez Claude Cellier, 1706. [8], 398, [4] pp. Illus. with 1 [of 2] maps. 12mo. Contemporary full calf, five raised bands, comparments decorated in gilt, red morocco spine label. First edition. Front hinge split, boards rubbed, small chip to head of spine, with remnant of label, small label an notes on front pastedown, inked bibliographic notation in French on verso of free front endpaper, Brown University Library stamp on title page, deaccession marks, lacking the map of Mexico, small tear to inner margin of map, contents clean and good. Sabin 100944. Cox II, 248. Kapp. The Early Maps of Panama up to 1865 (MCC-73): 35. Item #45651
Traduits de l'anglois par Monsieur de Montirat. Lionel Wafer (1640–1705) was a Welsh explorer, buccaneer and privateer "best known today as the author of A New Voyage and Description of the Isthmus of America (1699), a work which retains interest for modern anthropologists because of its detailed descriptions of Darien and the Cuna Indians. .... A popular figure among the buccaneers, Wafer was a resilient man of unquestionable intelligence, who may have enjoyed connections with the Royal Society after his return to England." (DNB:ref:odnb/28392).
Lionel Wafer.. "left one of the first descriptions of Panama and its people. In 1681 during one of his trips, after a quarrel with members of his expedition, he was left marooned and wounded in the Isthmus of Darien, where he was nursed back to health by the Kuna Indians. During the four months he spent with them, Wafer gathered information about their culture, religion, customs, society, and also made note of the geography, climate, flora, fauna, etc. The result was a book he published in 1699 and to this day it continues to be an important resource for historians, anthropologists, and naturalists alike." Reference Guide to Panama Materials at the Library of Congress, p. 13.
Price: $350.00