An historical & geographical description of the Great country & River of the Amazones in America... with a Mapp of the River, and of its Provinces, being that place which Sr Walter Rawleigh intended to conquer and plant, when he made his Voyage to Guiana by Pagan, Blaise Francois, Count de Merveilles - 1665

England is recommended to take possession of the Amazon. First English edition of one of the rarest works on the Amazon. 1661. London. John Starkey. In 8vo (162 mm x 103 mm). 2 [blank] + 15 ff. + 153 + 3 ff. + 2 [blank]. Recent and elegant half green morocco gilt, spine lettered in gilt, no traces of use. Very fresh, map restored with tiny loss of printed surface in the lower left corner, light spotting, unidentified contemporary notes of first and last blanks, a fine copy. First English edition, translated from the French by William Hamilton –first Paris 1656. Illustrated with a folding map entitled “Magni Amazoni Fluvii in America Meridionali nova delineate” of north South America, focusing on the Brazilian Amazon region and River. Sabin says the work includes “Several chapters… devoted to descriptions of the aborigines of the valley of the Amazon”; in addition there are topographical descriptions of the various regions, mentioning potential products suitable for commerce. There is evidence to suggest that the work is ostensibly a translation from Acuña´s Nuevo Descubrimiento del gran Rio de las Amazonas (Madrid, 1641). Of this latter, only a few copies are known since it was suppressed by order of the King, probably due to the fact that the relation by Acuña mentioned that the Amazon River was navigable from Quito to the Atlantic. “The value of Pagan´s work is shown in his dedication to Cardinal Mazarin, in which he urges him to take possession of the Amazon and establish several colonies… The map drawn by Pagan is of great importance as a proof of the French ambitions in the Amazon regions” (Borba de Moraes). In this English translation, William Hamilton (the translator), urges the King of England to take possession of Brazil. The work is one of the most important sources of information about the Amazon River and North Brazil. Pagan advocated the conquest of the Amazon by France, and in the dedicatory epistle of the present edition the translator suggests that England should attempt the same. JCBL says “…Pagan, Comte de Merveilles… was a distinguished soldier and military engineer whose blindness compelled him to drop the sword for the pen.” A very good provenance, Patrick Hume (1641 – 1724), Earl of Marchmont, Lord High Chancellor of Scotland with engraved armorial bookplate dated 1702; then sold at Sotheby Parke Bernet, 28 April 1981, lot 124, the library of Joseph M. Roebling and recently from the Wolfgang A. Herz library, his ex libris on front pastedown. Borba de Moraes, 646. Sabin, 58142. JCBL, III, p. 64.