The Scourge of the Indies: Buccaneers, Corsairs, & Filibusters
London: George Routledge & Sons, Ltd., 1929. First UK edition. Hardcover. 1/960. Large quarto (11 3/4 x 9 1/4"). XII, 330, [4]pp. Original illustrated dust-jacket over burgundy cloth, with gold lettering to spine. Illustrated title page in red and black lettering. Book housed in its original paper covered slipcase.
This handsomely produced translation of Besson's "Les frères de la côte. Flibustiers et corsaires," is a captivating account of the lives and adventures of the most famous French buccaneers in the West Indies.
Maurice Besson tells us the kind of life the Filibusters led, of the women among them, and relates the exploits of such men as the Chevalier de Grammont, Nau l'Olonnais, and Ravenau de Lussan (whose diary of a voyage to the Southern Seas he reproduces in great part). Then the author leaves the West Indies and gives us a contemporary account of François Thurot who, at the end of the 18th century, caused considerable trouble and alarm to the English by his corsair expeditions in the seas around Great Britain.
"The Scourge of the Indies" ends with the interesting story of d'Albarade, a corsair who became Minister of Marine in the French Revolution.
This work is splendidly illustrated throughout with five full-page color plates and 140 half-tone illustrations in the text.
One of 960 unnumbered copies for the United Kingdom.
Slipcase age-toned and partly rubbed along edges. Some offsetting to endpapers. Dust-jacket somewhat darkened along spine. Slipcase in overall good- to good, dust-jacket in good+, binding and interior in very good condition. g to vg. Item #42137
Price: $175.00