VOYAGES EN AFRIQUE, ASIE, INDES ORIENTALES, & OCCIDENTALES.

The second edition of this important account of an early French traveller, with the Caribbean cannibalism plate. Mocquet, Keeper of the Cabinet of Rarities of the King of France, describes five voyages he made between 1601 and 1612. The second part of the book is comprised of his Caribbean travels, and describes his voyage to the West Indies in 1604, including to Guiana, the country of Yapoco, and the province of Cumana. Mocquet was impressed with the good nature of the natives he encountered and describes in detail their customs, lack of clothing, cannibalistic practices, and agricultural products. He also records important botanical and natural history information, describing the uses of aloes, odiferous gums, red-woods and other trees, and the honey from stingless bees. The American section ends with several remarkable woodcuts, depicting the Caribs hunting, dancing, rowing, and eating limbs. The remainder of the book describes travel in the Holy Land, Morocco, Lybia, and elsewhere. The first of Mocquet's African travels were in Morocco, where he lived from 1605 to 1607. At the end of that year, after returning to France, he embarked on a longer voyage to East Africa, visiting Mozambique and Ethiopia during 1608 and proceeding on to India in 1609, where he spent several years. After returning from India, Mocquet made a final voyage to Syria and the Holy Land, where he gathered more plants and curiosities for the Royal collection. An important and rare account of travel in the West Indies, as well as in Africa and Asia, highlighted by early depictions of islanders and early American botanical findings. OCLC locates only five copies in North America. BORBA DE MORAES II:65. BRUNET III:1728 EUROPEAN AMERICANA 645/83. JCB (3)II:332. SABIN 49790. Contemporary calf, spine gilt, edges sprinkled red. Boards rubbed, corners and edges worn, front hinge cracked, rear hinge starting. Early bookseller's notations in front endpapers. …