Voyage autour du Monde, commencé en 1708 & fini en 1711 par le Capitaine Woodes Rogers

First edition of the French translation. First published in English in 1712 under the title A cruising voyage round the world. Illustrated with 2 engraved titles, 14 engraved plates and 7 maps including 2 large format (Paraguay and Chile - mainland Peru and Brazil and the Land of the Amazons) and a world map.
Bound in full brown sprinkled calf, spine elaborately gilt, gilt roulettes on the edges, all red speckled edges. Expertly restored (corners, upper and lower part of joints). Two small restored tears on the world map, not affecting the image.
Ex-libris in ink "Sr Remy" to the upper left margin of the title-page.
A tear to the world map, not affecting the engraving.
The book that brought fame to Alexander Selkirk and inspired the character of Robinson Crusoe.
English captain and privateer Woodes Rogers undertook his "Voyage Around the World" between 1708 and 1711 at the request of buccaneer William Dampier during the War of the Spanish Succession. This account written on his return narrates the many difficulties encountered by the fleet: desertions, mutinies, scurvy epidemic...
Especially contains the rescue of Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk, after being marooned on the island of Más a Tierra in the Juan Fernández archipelago, more than six hundred kilometers from the Chilean coast. His ship stopped on this island to resupply with wood and water before returning to England after several failed attacks against Spanish fleet and cities in South America. Selkirk pointed out that the damaged ship needed to be refitted or it would likely sink. The captain refused and left the Scotsman on the deserted island. By the time Selkirk realized the absurdity and danger of his decision to stay there, it was too late, and the ship had already weighed anchor. Ironically, the ship later sunk, drowning half the crew. Four years and four months later, on February 2, 1709, Rogers and his crew landed on the island and met this "a Man cloth'd in goat skins, who look'd wilder than the first owners of them”. An engraving in our copy illustrates this chance encounter: "He had with him his clothes and bedding, with a firelock, some powder, bullets, and tobacco, a hatchet, a knife, a kettle, a bible, some practical pieces, and his mathematical instruments and books. He diverted and provided for himself as well as he could; but for the first eight months had much ado to bear up against Melancholy, and the Terror of being left alone in such a desolate place. He built two hutts cover'd them with long grass, and lin'd them with the skins of soats, which he kill'd with his gun as he wanted, so long as his powder lasted […] At his first coming on board us, he had so much forgot his language for want of use, that we could scarce understand him, for he seem'd to speak his words by halves”. Captain William Dampier who was there during Selkirk's abandonment, encouraged Rogers to hire him as foreman and the unfortunate Scot returned to England with them.
Rogers' account was a great popular success, mainly thanks to Selkirk's recue story. A close friend of Rogers, author Daniel De Foe used this incredible story and extended Robinson's stay on a desert island to twenty-eight years. His novel published in 1719 was a huge bestseller and remains one of the greatest works of literature to this day.