Adventure & Exploration Library of Steve Fossett

Folio (326 x 240 mm). Engraved vignette of the fleet ships on title-page, 25 engraved plates and maps (23 half-page, 2 full-page). (Title soiled, title and a few leaves with marginal restoration.) Modern half vellum. THE JOHN LANDWEHR COPY, OF VAN NOORT'S ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST DUTCH CIRCUMNAVIGATIONSecond French edition. Van Noort commanded fourth circumnavigation of the globe, after Magellan, Drake, and Cavendish. Throughout the voyage, nearly half the men mutinied, some 35 men were killed in skirmishes with the Fuegians, and another hundred died from disease. Van Noort arrived back in Holland "with only one battered ship and eight crew left (although some accounts suggest that forty-five crew survived). His voyage contributed little to the geographical knowledge of the time but had some effect in opening the way to the establishment of the Dutch in the East Indies...Van Noort's achievement, however, captured the imagination of his countrymen, and the published accounts sold well, the first appearing only eighteen days after his return. A more complete edition appeared later that year, followed by two amended editions in 1602" (Howgego). Alden & Landis 610/79; Borba de Moraes II:103; Howgego N37; Sabin 55438.