Journael van de Nassausche vloot, ofte beschrijvingh van de voyagie om den gantschen aerd-kloot, gedaen met elf schepen onder 't beleyt van admirael Jacques L'Hermite

Key Properties

Format: Oblong 8vo

Binding: Newly bound in classical style, full calf with gilt lettering-piece to the spine

Illustration: 5 engraved maps and plates (Tierra del Fuego, Callao de Lima [2], Puna, Acapulco)

Collation: 79 pp., text in two columns

Language: Dutch

Source: Extracted from Commelin's collection of voyages

Collation & Technical Description

Oblong 8vo. 79 pp., the text set in two columns. With 5 engraved maps and plates (Tierra del Fuego; two views of Callao de Lima; Puna; and Acapulco). Newly bound in classical style: full calf, the spine with a red gilt lettering-piece.

Condition

Very good condition. Complete, the text and plates clean and well preserved, with only minor age toning consistent with the period. Recently rebound in classical style in full calf with a gilt lettering-piece, giving the volume a handsome and sound binding.

References & Bibliography

Landwehr, VOC, 250. European Americana, II, p. 453. Howgego, p. 615.

Description

First separate Dutch edition of the account of the Nassau fleet's circumnavigation of 1623-1626, one of the most notable Dutch naval expeditions aimed at disrupting Spanish and Portuguese dominance in the Pacific. The first official account of the voyage had appeared in 1626.

This punitive fleet of eleven ships, under Admiral Jacques L'Hermite and Vice-Admiral Gheen Huygen Schapenham, sailed to the coasts of South America to clear the westward route to the Pacific of Spanish and Portuguese shipping. It was outfitted under the auspices of the Dutch Republic, the two great trading companies, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and the Dutch West India Company (WIC), having little interest in the Pacific (Howgego, p. 615).

L'Hermite attacked Lima, burned a Spanish fleet at Callao, and sailed as far north as Acapulco, in one of the most spectacular raids ever mounted against Spanish shipping.

The work carries an important appendix: a description of Peru and Chile by Pedro de Madriga; Pedro Fernandez de Quiros's voyage to Australia; and a history of the Dutch conquest of Banda. It is illustrated with five engraved maps and plates, including Tierra del Fuego, two views of Callao de Lima, Puna and Acapulco, which give rare visual documentation of the Pacific coast in the early seventeenth century.

The text was later incorporated into the voyage collection of Johannes Commelin, but this Janssonius edition presents it as an independent publication.