Adventure & Exploration Library of Steve Fossett

4 parts in one, small 4to (183 x 143 mm). Engraved portrait frontispiece, separate title-pages, woodcut initials and head-pieces. Early 20th-century gilt- and blind-ruled levant, edges gilt, by Riviere; half red calf slipcase.FIRST COLLECTED EDITION of Drake's voyages, the four parts comprising: Sir Francis Drake Revived, the voyages of 1570-71 and 1572-73 describes Drake's privateering expeditions to the West Indies, the raid on Nombre de Dios in 1572, when he captured a fortune of Spanish silver from the center of the Spanish New World empire. The World Encompassed, the voyage of 1577-80. Compiled by Francis Drake, nephew of the late explorer, it narrates Drake's memorable voyage, in which his five vessels raided Spanish outposts and supply routes on the Pacific coast, claimed California ("New Albion") for the British crown and returned via the Pacific and Indian Oceans, making Drake the first English captain to circumnavigate the globe. A Summarie and True Discourse of [his] West Indian Voyage, the voyage of 1585-86 that was begun by Bigges, an officer under Drake, and finished after his death, probably by his lieutenant, Master Croftes. Drake's expedition to the Spanish Indies was the first major British naval foray into the Caribbean and was sanctioned by a commission from Queen Elizabeth with letters of marque. As well as capturing and sacking a number of cities he also rescued the 103 colonists remaining on Raleigh's Roanoke Island Virginia colony and returned them to England along with a shipment of potatoes and tobacco. A Full Relation of Another Voyage to the West Indies, a narrative of his last voyage of 1595-1596, to the West Indies, during which Drake died. Church 526; ESTC R1410; Hill, pp. 86 and 211; Sabin 20840, 20855, 20843, and 20830; Wing D2122.