First edition of a highly entertaining work on buccaneers. This account of the author's two years of buccaneering (1684-86) in the West Indies and the Pacific coast between Guatemala and Chile, presents both the romantic and bleak sides of pirate life. The work includes interesting details of the countries visited, as well as the habits of the local people. These detailed descriptions make the present work one of the best buccaneer travel accounts of its time.
Raveneau de Lussan (ca. 1663-?) was born into a wealthy French family, but sailed to Santo Domingo in 1679 to serve as an indentured servant. Apparently money was tight, because in 1684 he became a buccaneer in order to obtain money to pay back his creditors. He sailed first with Laurens de Graff (1653-1704), but joined different bands of pirates when his fortune did not come fast enough. Together with the pirates of François Grognier (d. 1687) and Pierre le Picard (1624-ca. 1689) he captured Granada in Nicaragua and Guayaquil in Ecuador, before returning to France in 1689.
De Lussan was a man of principle, as he attended mass before a looting, and would not allow his crew to molest priest and nuns or rob churches. The present work is his only work. It was often added to Histoire des avanturiers as a third volume, as is the case here, because the two works have been bound in near-identical bindings. De Lussan's text is the only account of the pirate groups under the command of Grognier and Le Picard, and is said to have been used by Daniel Defoe as a source for the adventures of Robinson Crusoe.
The boards are slightly rubbed. The work is somewhat browned throughout, with some leaves affected more than others. Otherwise in good condition. Alden-Landis IV 689/152; Cox II, p. 270; Howgego I, p. 654; Maggs, Bibl. Nautica 615; Sabin 67983; USTC 6124746 (1 copy); cf. cat. NHSM, vol. II, p. 877 (other ed.); Leclerc 487 (other ed.).