Deck and port, or, Incidents of a cruise in the United States frigate Congress to California: with sketches of Rio Janeiro, Valparaiso, Lima, Honolulu, and San Francisco

1850 Colton Voyages California San Francisco Brazil Slave Trade Peru Deck & Port

Walter Colton's 'Deck and Port' was an important historical account of the post-war voyages of the USS Congress. Following the War of 1812, this heavy frigate ship toured the western hemisphere, visiting ports in Brazil, Peru, Chile, and Hawaii. This voyage from The Gulf of Mexico, around South America ended in California.

Colton describes botanical and scientific discoveries near the equator, including animals and weather phenomena. However, the most interesting topics in this book include his perspective on the treatment of slaves and slave-trading in Brazil. He encounters religious ceremonies and rites, Indian doctors, ghost ships, and many more oddities.

This book also has one of the earliest descriptions of surfing. Colton states,

"Nothing here has amused me more than the surf-sports of the young chiefs. Each takes a smooth board, of some eight feet in length, leads it over the coral shallows far out into the sea, and when a tremendous roller is coming in, jumps upon it, and the roller carries him upon its combing top, with the speed of an arrow to the shore. A young American…ventured out a short distance, and as the roller came, jumped upon his plank, was capsized, and hove, half strangled onto the beach!"

Item number: #10250

Price: $550

COLTON, Walter

Deck and port, or, Incidents of a cruise in the United States frigate Congress to California: with sketches of Rio Janeiro, Valparaiso, Lima, Honolulu, and San Francisco

New York: A.S. Barnes & Co.; Cincinnati: H.W. Derby & Co., 1850. First Edition.

Details:

· Collation: Complete with all pages

o [4], 5-408

o 18 illustrations

12 in-text

6 engraved plates

· References: Sabin 14799; Howes C 624; Cowan, 237; Hill 340

· Language: English

· Binding: Leather; tight and secure

· Size: ~7in X 5in (17.5cm x 12.5cm)

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10250

Photos available upon request.