The Great South Sea: English Voyages and Encounters, 1570-1750Yale University Press, 1997 M01 1 - 320 páginas From the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, English buccaneers, privateers, and naval expeditions sought fame and fortune in the distant reaches of the South Sea. Beginning with the voyage of Francis Drake in the 1570s and continuing through that of George Anson in the 1740s, a series of predatory English adventurers pursued Spanish treasure, and for a few the dream of riches came true. For most, the voyages ended in disappointment, and sometimes death. This engrossing book investigates these maritime adventures and how they were described in popular accounts of the time--accounts that affected English consciousness and perceptions of the wider world and that influenced the planning and nature of the later great voyages of James Cook and others. Glyndwr Williams, a leading expert on the exploration of the Pacific Ocean, draws on printed accounts of South Sea voyages as well as unpublished records--buccaneer journals, expedition papers, and government documents from public and private archives. For English seamen preying on Spanish trade and treasure, the South Sea was limited to the waters lapping the shores of Chile, Peru, and Mexico. But the vision was wider for others, Williams reveals. Cartographers at home in England, untrammeled by the constraints and dangers of actual voyaging, produced speculative maps with a vast Terra Australis Incognita, with fabulous Islands of Solomon, and with a promised short passage from Atlantic to Pacific. Satirical and utopian writers from Joseph Hall to Jonathan Swift found ample space in the wide ocean for their fictional travelers. And contemporary published voyage accounts--marvelous, though not necessarily reliable--further blurred the line between real and imaginary, contributing to the alluring, exotic image of the South Sea that took root in English folk memory and long outlasted the age of the buccaneers. |
Contenido
Drake and his Successors | 13 |
Geographical Enigmas and Literary Utopias | 48 |
They Were Not Come Out to Go upon | 76 |
I Speak as to the Compass of my | 106 |
The Cruising Voyages of Dampier and Rogers | 133 |
The Founding | 161 |
Castaways | 175 |
Voyages Real | 190 |
Ansons Circumnavigation | 214 |
Widening Horizons | 251 |
Bibliography | 274 |
Otras ediciones - Ver todas
The Great South Sea: English Voyages and Encounters, 1570-1750 Glyndwr Williams Sin vista previa disponible - 1997 |
Términos y frases comunes
Acapulco Admiralty Anson Anson's Voyage British Bucaniers buccaneers Cape Horn Captain captured Cavendish Centurion century Chancery charts Chile China coast command Cooke crew Cruising Voyage Crusoe Defoe discovery Documents Drake Duke Dutch East India Company England English European expedition exploration French galleon geographers gold Guam Hakluyt Harley Helen Wallis Herman Moll Holland Hope Hudson Bay Ibid Indians Indies Islands Isthmus John Juan Fernández Land later letter London Manila Manila galleon manuscript journal merchants Moluccas Narborough narrative navigation Northwest Passage Ocean officers owners Pacific Panama Peru ports Portuguese printed privateers prize published Quiros reached reported Ringrose Round the World route sailed seamen seems Selkirk Sharp Shelvocke ships Sloane South Sea Company southern continent Spain Spaniards Spanish America squadron St George Strait of Anian Strait of Magellan Tasman's Terra Australis Incognita trade venture vessels Voyage Round Wager Welbe William Dampier Woodes Rogers world map