18th CENTURY AMERICAN SEA CAPTAIN'S JOURNALS OF VOYAGES TO HAWAII, CHINA, AND SOUTH AMERICA. Thi...

18th CENTURY AMERICAN SEA CAPTAIN'S JOURNALS OF VOYAGES TO HAWAII, CHINA, AND SOUTH AMERICA. This lot features 7 manuscript albums of Captain William Trotter (1769-1822), as follows: VOLUME 1: Folio (12.5 x 8 in), half calf with marbled boards, front board detached. Volume signed and dated by Trotter to pastedown ('Workington, Cumberland, England 27 October 1787'). Approx. 165 pp covering journeys from 1789-1793. The earliest of Trotter's journals, this one opens with 13 pp of lessons on the calendar, geometry, plane sailing, traverse sailing and middle latitude sailing; the next section includes accounts of journeys to Balboa, Cape Verdean Islands, Boston, China, Macao and the North Pacific aboard the ships Betsy, Mercury, Massachusetts, the Snow Eleanora and Amelia, and a return from Bonavista Island back to Boston aboard the Mercury. The entries are detailed and include maps, sketches of landscape features, pencil sketches of ships and other occasional drawings. VOLUME II: HAWAII AND THE PACIFIC. Pre-printed ship's log with daily sheets bound in full reversed sheep with ticket from London stationer Frederick Gardner pasted to inside front board, Trotter's signature to inside gutter of f.f.e.p., approx. 240 manuscript pages covering journeys from 1794-1796. This journal begins with a voyage from Canton to Providence abord the Halcyon followed by journeys of the snow Susan to Botany Bay, Hawaii, Tonga and the Northwest Coast of America. In addition to the ship's log information about the voyage, weather, and maintenance of the ship, Trotter also includes lengthy narratives of interactions with natives, including details about trading and other onshore activities of the crew. From November of 1796: 'Snow Susan from Tongataboo toward O.Why.Hee / Off the coast of Hawaii: 'A double canoe came off manned with Europeans the Natives being Tabooed amongst whom was John Young and A.M. Southerland, one of Capt. Henry Barber's officers of Bengal who had the misfortune to be cast away on the Island of OWhahoo ... The vessel totally lost but the Cargo saved.' And a few months later, on the Northwest Coast of America in the Susan: 'we were visited by three canoes from whom I purchased a few skins for blanket coats ... on the 23rd we were visited by five Canoes from whom I bot 13 skins for Cloath, Blankets, filed fish hooks, needles, etc. On the 24th we began our wood cutting & got a log from shore to saw into board....' VOLUME III: HAWAII AND CHINA. Folio (13 x 7.75 in). Manuscript ledger ruled by hand in red, 200 pp, bound in half calf with paper-covered boards, cloth ties; spine deteriorating, in need of paper restoration. This volume continues the Pacific Northwest voyage of the snow Susan, begun in the previous volume, traveling from there to Hawaii in August of 1797, followed by a trip to China in 1798. The first section of the volume features ship's log information and narratives; the final section features navigational calculations. From September 7, 1797: 'at 8 a.m. the King ... came off in a large double canoe and accompanied us down to WyPeea, in hopes of getting off some hogs for which he was to receive Duck at 12 hogs ... but it blew so fierce no Canoes could come off the ship....' VOLUME IV: BUENOS AIRES. Folio (14.75 x 9.25in.). Full calf. Pre-printed ship's log accomplished in manuscript, 100 pp, June 1799 to November 1800. This journal opens with a detailed description of how to enter the Rio de la Plata accompanied by a finely drawn map and a 12 pp description of Buenos Aires from September of 1799, followed by the details of a journey from Santiago, Cape Verde to Rio de Janeiro up the River Plata to Buenos Aires, Providence, and then to Madeira. Trotter gives a detailed description of life in 'Buones Aires' including diet: 'few of them eat anything for breakfast, the men taking a cup of Chocolate or coffee and the women a matte, as they call it, which is a strong extraction of the Paraguy Herb, which they draw, or suck, through a tube of silver or other metal, and boiling hot, which by habit has no more effect on the mouth than luke warm liquid, when it gets cool enough for a person not used to hot soup eating, they send it away and have a fresh one brot in.' Trotter also gives extensive details about the lifestyles of the wealthy slave-owning citizens of Buenos Aires, describes corruption in the marketplace and the smuggling of contraband goods and specie. He also gives an eyewitness report of the slave trade, watching Brazil import enslaved people from Angola, 'from which place they import vast numbers of their unhappy fellow Creatures, and likewise transport, too, numbers of their countrymen who have been guilty of crimes and misdemeanors in Brasil. Brasil furnishes the Articles of Trade of Angola very cheap being mostly rum and Tobacco. While I lay at Riojaneiro a small vessel, not more than one hundred and fifty tons, arrived there from Africa with four hundred and ninety seven slaves having lost but three on the passage ... The Portuguese seem to be as fond of the Contraband trade as their neighbours, and put those slaves on board the Spanish vessels when out of their harbours in a clandestine manner, no slaves being allowed to be Exported from Brasil. Nevertheless great numbers are sent ... from thence to the Spanish Settlements.' VOLUMES V-VII: ACCOUNTS AND DAY BOOKS. 3 volumes. Small folio. 1790s-1800. Two bound in vellum, one in contemporary half calf over paper boards. Wear to all. These volumes consist of accounting, day books, and transcriptions of correspondence to and from Trotter. A careful accounting of Trotter's trade missions, including detailed information about the quantity, disposition, and value of the goods he transported. Provenance: Sold Skinner, Books and Manuscripts, May 27, 2015, lot 237. William Trotter (1769-1822) was born in Lancashire, England and raised in Workington, Cumberland County. At the age of 9 he was bound to a ship-master as a cabin boy. In spite of reports that his master was cruel, he stayed for 10 years before emigrating to the United States to seek employment. He landed at Clark & Nightingale of Providence, RI, a trading company. He quickly rose from boatswain to Captain, engaging in trade with Europe, South America, and even Hawaii. Trotter reputedly raised the first U.S. flag at Buenos Aires during a visit there. While engaged in foreign trade, he accepted payment for his goods in hides and other lawful commodities as well as gold and silver. Spanish colonists, however, were not allowed to exchange gold and silver with any but other Spanish citizens. Trotter's biography (written by a distant relative) relates a story about smuggling Spanish specie onto his boat 'in a clandestine manner, generally in belts beneath their clothes. On one occasion Mrs. Trotter had got her pocket so heavily laden that, as she was about to go on board, her pocket string broke, and she instantly fell, appearing to have fainted away, when the Captain, with some of his men, who understood the case, immediately gathered her up, taking care to keep her skirts closely wrapped about her, and carried her on board without exciting suspicion.' Trotter's 'clandestine trade' was so successful that he was able to retire from the sea by 1800 with a fortune of $40,000. He bought a house in Attleboro, MA and later a home and farm in Bradford, VT. He opened a cotton factory and a distillery but neither business was successful, though his farm and grist mill were. He served as a village selectman and during the war of 1812 again For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing