Journal du Voyage fait a la Mer de Sud, avec les Flibustiers de l'Amerique en 1684. & annees suivantes. 

Jean Baptiste Coignard, Paris, 1690, 12mo, title with woodcut device, , contemporary sprinkled calf gilt.

First printed in Paris in 1689, with the same imprint. According to Brunet’s listing of the 1689 and this 1690 edition “C’est cette [1690] edition que, jusqu’a preuve contraire, nous considerons comme le premiere”, the 1693 edition stating ‘second edition’ on the title.

Account of the aristocratic author’s two years buccaneering in the West Indies, and the Pacific coast between Guatemala and Chile, presenting both the romantic and bleak sides of the life of a pirate. His principles would not allow him to let his crew molest priests, nuns and churches, and after taking a Spanish town, they would all attend Mass before looting.

An adventurer of aristocratic descent, Raveneau de Lussan sailed at the age of 22 in 1679 from Dieppe to Santo Domingo. To pay off his debts, he joined a band of buccaneers and sailed for almost two years with them (from November 1684 to February 1686). The relation of his adventures is realistic and even brutal.

This, his only book, was used by Daniel Defoe as a source for the adventures of Robinson Crusoe, according to Gilbert Chinard.

The King, Louis XIV supported the buccaneers, using them against the Spanish galleons. Eight years after the Journal was published, he enrolled them in the French navy for an expedition against Cartagena, allowing them a contractual share of a third of the booty. The King however proceeded to betray the buccaneers as soon as the expedition was completed, and their power thereafter declined rapidly.

‘A rare and charming book […]. He details both the romantic and bleak sides of the buccaneering profession, interwoven with colourful descriptions of the natives of the region and a clear picture of the Spanish colonies on the Pacific’ (Hill).

Brynkinalt Library bookplate, Sabin 67984; Leclerc, 487. Hill, 1423.