Beschreibung:

Title: Narrative of the Adventures and Sufferings of John R. Jewitt; Only Survivor of the Crew of the Ship Boston, During a Captivity of Nearly Three Years Among the Savages of Nootka Sound: With an Account of the Manners, Mode of Living, and Religious Opinions of the Natives Author: Jewitt, John R. Place: New York Publisher: Printed for the Publisher Date: [c.1815] Description: 166 pp. Edited by Richard Alsop. With 10 wood engravings, including 8 vignettes within the text, 1 vignette on the title page, and full-page frontispiece view of the Ship Boston taken over by the "Savages at Nootka Sound, March 22nd, 1803." 16.7x9.5 cm (6½x3¾"), original cloth-backed printed pictorial boards, paper spine label. Amplified by Alsop from Jewitt's original Journal Kept at Nootka Sound (Boston: 1807). Jewitt was armourer on the ship which had two officers and a crew of 24, and which was seized by Indians at Nootka Sound as a result of an insult to their chief. He survived, along with apparently another crew member (despite his description in the title as the lone survivor), and was rescued in 1805. Hill affirms that "with the exception of Dana's book, the best known and most popular of the early narratives of adventure and experience on the western coast was that of Jewitt." Affords many particulars of the life and habits of Jewitt's Indian captors and includes a vocabulary of the Nootka language. Early ink ownership signature of Johnathan [sic] Wales, Woonsocket Falls, R.I., to front free endpaper. Provenance: Merritt, 9/97 References: See Hill 887; Howes A189; Holbrook "The Columbia," p.51; Sabin 36123. Lot Amendments Condition: Boards and spine label rubbed, wear to extremities; contents darkened, a few signatures sprung; very good, uncommon in the original boards. Item number: 271840