Four Travel Journals: The Americas, Antarctica and Africa, 1775-1874 (Works issued by the Hakluyt Society, Third Series, Volume 18) by Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra; Pringle Stokes; Joseph Henry Kay; Jacob Wainwright; Herbert K. Beals (Editor); R. J. Campbell (Editor); Ann Savours (Editor); Anita McConnell (Editor); Roy Bridges (Editor) - 2007

London: Ashgate for the Hakluyt Society, 2007. Works issued by the Hakluyt Society, Third Series, Volume 18. Hardcover. First Edition. Blue cloth over boards with gilt titles to spine and vignette of sailing ship Victoria on front board. As New book in Near Fine jacket (jacket spine slightly faded). x + 404 pages, 50 plates, 8 maps.

The annotated texts of four previously unpublished travel journals from the period 1775-1874, treated separately with biographical and historical introductions, bibliographies and indexes:

1. The 1775 Journal of Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra compiled during a Spanish survey sent from Mexico to explore the north-west coast of America. Edited by Herbert K. Beals. Bodega's journal records the voyage's travails, hardships, discoveries, and eventual return. His small schooner, Sonora, was not designed for open-ocean voyaging; a landing party was attacked and killed; midway into the voyage the Sonora became separated from her flagship; and later she was nearly capsized by a massive wave.

2. The 1827 Journal of HMS Beagle Commander Pringle Stokes in the Strait of Magellan. Edited by R. J. Campbell. This is an account of a detached operation, in very difficult weather conditions, in the western part of the strait. The introdution includes remarks on the hydrographic history of the strait from its discovery to the inception of the survey.

3. Journal kept by Midshipman Joseph Henry Kay during the voyage of HMS Chanticleer, 1828-31. Edited by Ann Savours and Anita McConnell. The voyage was to make observations in the South Atlantic to determine the shape of the Earth and to ascertain the longitudes of a number of ports. Kay's lively diary describes the Chanticleer's encounters with warships of the Brazilian navy, largely manned by Englishmen, and his struggles to take observations during gales, snowstorms, fierce squalls and constant chilling rain, nevertheless remaining cheerful in the company of his fellow midshipmen.

4. Jacob Wainwright's Diary of the Transportation of Dr Livingstone's Body to the Coast, May 1873 to February 1874. Edited by Roy Bridges. Wainwright was the young African freed slave who carved the inscription on the tree beneath which David Livingstone's heart was buried. This diary covers his journey back to the coast with the body. The remarkable record throws important light on conditions in East Africa in the 1870s as well as on the tragic life of Wainwright himself. Now published for the first time in English, it also throws some odd lights on Victorian missionary and publishing activities.