8vo. [2], 327 pp. Original vellum, spine lettered in ink. A bit faded in last hundred pages, overall fine and legible.

Detailed account of a trip to South America and back by a Frenchman, Jean Quesnel, as a passenger for Valparaiso and Lima on the Nueva Señora de Pilar. His uncle, who had twice made the transatlantic voyage, was navigator under a Spanish Captain and supercargo.

Quesnel is an interested, literate, and curious amateur who records impressions and the facts he acquired along the way, including accounts of the inhabitants and natural history of the regions visited. He recounts the incidents of travel in 20 chapters in a regular hand, composed after the return to Spain by way of Panama, Cartagena, and Havana.

A rich and colorful unpublished narrative of travel, with many asides on practical observations, and a strange history of relentless persecutions, in a way anticipating the implacable hostility of the world experienced by Caleb Williams in Godwin’s Gothic novel Things as They Are (1794).

The journey and his observations:

The Nueva Señora de Pilar sailed on 3 January 1759, after having chased off stowaways with the assistance of a dozen soldiers. They stopped in Tenerife to take on water and were ordered to depart immediately.

Once further offshore, a significant number of stowaways were discovered (the sense of opportunity in the new world is a strong motivation). They crossed the Equator on January, and caught dorado and bonito and tuna to vary the diet. The discovery of thefts from the stores prompting searches of the crew's chests, and the stolen goods were recovered. When the Captain wanted to punish the culprits, there were murmurs of resistance. The Captain had promised furlough when they reach the island of St. Catherine off the coast of Brazil, but the ship had already passed that latitude. Scarcity of bread continued, and on 1 March revolt broke out. The crew were promised examination of the victuals, and of refitting at Montevideo. The abundance of fur seals is noted at Maldonado near Montevideo, and mention of considerable trade and consumption of the Paraguayan herb, maté (40), traded as far as Chile and Peru.

They spend several months in Buenos Aires and Montevideo, departing on 7 March 1760 from Montevideo, coasting along Patagonia, sighting lots of whales, seals, penguins; discussion also of the Patagonian giants. By Easter Sunday 6 April, they have reached 56º 6' latitude south (51). Cabo S. Diego “doesn't look as horrible as described by Anson or rather Walther in the account of that Admiral”; they arrive at Valparaiso in early May, and wait until 27 June before embarking for Callao. The captain travels to Santiago but JQ does not.

There then follows “a digression” from the travelogue, recounting an extraordinary sequence of events that shape the rest of the narrative (66-69). After the captain’s return from Santiago, he reported to the authorities that several cases of contraband goods had been taken on board at Montevideo. It was easy to dispel the complaint, the cases were furniture destined for the Judiciary at Lima. Neither the uncle nor the mate (maestre) were in any way concerned, but this is further evidence of the captain’s dispute with the mate. The first night out, the uncle and the second maestre complained of bad tasting water and the uncle sought to induce vomiting. Some hours later the captain invited the uncle for coffee, after a couple of sips the uncle asked what was with the sugar (which resembled bits of brown sugar in a bowl of white powder); he vomited and suffered an upset stomach throughout the night but with no lasting effects. On 1 July, they learn the details of the poison from a cabin boy, who saw an unknown powder being mixed with the sugar. An attempt to poison the second mate with water was also made, and then the captain took and poisoned the mate’s pouch of tobacco, but he was observed by a servant and the pouch was saved as evidence; the chocolate of several persons was also poisoned (some of this was also saved). It was corrosive sublimate (mercury chloride).

Once they reach Callao and Lima, proceeding are initiated in the matter of the poisoning, but the death of Ferdinand VI interrupts matters. The captain has an influential patron. The trial resumed in December 1760 and a ruling given on 12 January 1761, finding in favor of the Captain; upon appeal, the ruling was reviewed and affirmed; when appealed a second time, a third judge is appointed to the council and the ruling is overturned. The captain is dismissed from his post and a different captain is appointed by the court to sail the Pilar back to Spain with the cabin boy as a official witness 115-117). The substantial resources of the captain’s patron mean that threat of legal proceedings follow JQ and his uncle throughout the remaining stages of their travels.

With business matters and concern about the proceedings resolved, the narrator travels out of Lima, and sees the rope bridge of Lunaguana (eighty paces long). Chapter VIII (pp. 131-146) is a description Guancavelica, eighty leagues south east of Lima, and its mercury mines. JQ discusses the use of coca leaves (137-8), especially among Indians who work the mines, and the endurance of long-distacne messengers. He notes cultivation of papas (Spanish for potato) in agricultural areas; and chicha, a drink made from corn. The mercury mine, discovered 1566, is a royal monopoly, its production destined for the extraction of gold or silver. The mine is “an almost incomprehensible labyrinth” with several openings; ore is transported by llama to the extraction furnaces (the process is described). JQ stayed five months with the provincial governor, Don Antonio de Ulloa, a Spanish officer who had accompanied French scholars south of the Equator, “and moreover known in the Republic of letters”. He befriended the French doctor of the mining company, in whose library of anatomy and medicine JQ read, and despite lack of training served as locum tenens while doctor was away.

A new Viceroy is appointed in Lima; decrees restricting foreigners are applied with varying severity; they return to Valparaiso and Santiago, where the uncle is in such poor health that he was unable to travel on the frigate Hermione (which they later learn was “captured by the enemy”); the uncle determined to try bathing in the hot springs at Colina north of Valparaiso, but this did not help him. JQ’s uncle wanting to return to Europe when they learned that the St. Michel is to depart for Cadiz in August they left Santiago for Lima on 10 April 1763. In Lima their friend is Don Gaspar de Orue (secretary of the Inquisition). Restrictions on foreigners grow stringent, two French officers arriving on a Spanish vessel are sent back to Spain as prisoners on the ship thay came on. Departure of the St. Michel was delayed, so JQ and uncle decided to embark on a small vessel headed for Panama, and requested permission from the office of the Viceroy. All was in order awaiting only his signature, when one evening two men disguised in coats and with others in ponchos showed up with an order to arrest them, even though Don G.’s house was off-limits to the secular police (hence the disguises). The warrant was connected to the poisoning case. Carried to the the town hall they found a sympathetic ear and were released (7 October 1763), with many prominent persons attesting to them, and post a bond (caution). They are to be sent back to Spain with testimony of the Maestre for the Tribunal de la Contratation des Indes, and request permission to travel via Panama.

From Panama, they cross the Isthmus to Portobelo and take ship for Cartagena. Upon their arrival, Don Guillermo Raphael de Escobar, son of the Royal Treasurer, hearing that they were French, invited JQ and his uncle to the family house (he had been educated in France). JQ’s uncle reached an agreement for their passage with the mate and officers of the St. Jean Baptiste, and all was concluded. They were then detained on orders of the commandant of Cartagena and waited the months of May and June until the warship Brilliant was loaded with a cargo of a million and a half piastres in gold and silver, departing 14 July for Havana. Once there, it was found that the ship needed repairs that delayed departure until October. Upon arrival in Cadiz, they presented themselves to the Court and redeemed their bond. Their liberty was short-lived, for they were still persecuted by the Captain’s legal proceedings. The uncle went into hiding and made financial arrangements with merchants who were not subject to the jurisdiction of the President of the Contratation; learning that the decision from Madrid may take a long time, JQ made arrangements with friends for a house where he can get things ready for his uncle’s voyage. JQ has at this point been absent from France for ten years, and just wants to get back there. “It seems that Providence, at this time, has been creating obstacles to my return. While waiting for Providence to provide me the means to do so, I live quietly in one of the most agreeable cities in Andalusia”, Port Ste. Marie [i.e., Puerto de Santa Maria].

Provenance: Davis & Orioli, Booksellers; private collection in the U.S.; Doyle.