GAGE, Thomas (ca 1596-1656).
The English-American his Travail by Sea and Land: or, A New Survey of the West-India's, containing a journall of three thousand and three hundred miles within the main Land of America.
London, 1648. First Edition.

Comparables: Christie's, 2009 - $6,875; Christie's, 2007 - $4,800.

Folio (11 1/4" x 7 1/2"). (Some occasional spotting). 19th-century half black morocco, marbled boards (extremities rubbed).

Provenance: Bookplate and withdrawal label of the Newberry Library on the front paste-down, ink stamp at the foot of the title-page; the library of George M. Pflaumer.

First edition. Sent to Spain by his father in 1612, Gage travelled to the Philippines in 1625 "smuggled aboard ship in an empty biscuit barrel to circumvent the King of Spain's decrees against foreigners in the Spanish territories of the New World." (Hill). For the next twelve years he travelled extensively in the West Indies, Central America and the west coast of North America returning home to publish this sensational account of "...his Voyage from Spain to St. John de Ulhua; and from thence to Xalappa, to Tlaxcalla, the City of Angeles, and forward to Mexico; With the description of that Great City, as it was in former times, and also at these present. Likewise his Journey from Mexico through the Provinces of Guaxaca, Chiapa, Guatemala, Vera Paz, Truxillo, Comayagua; with his abode Twelve years about Guatemala, and especially in the Indian-towns of Mixco, Pinola, Petapa, Amatitlan. with his return through the Province of Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, to Nicoya, Panama, Portobelo, Cartegena, and Havana, with divers occurents and dangers that did befall in the said Journey" (title-page). Since the Spanish had guarded their territories with such secrecy this is essentially the first account of the New World available to Europeans. It "caused a remarkable sensation. His account of the wealth and defenseless condition of the Spanish possessions in South America excited the cupidity of the English, and it is said that Gage himself laid before Cromwell the first regular plan for mastering the Spanish territories in the New World... He was appointed chaplain to General Venables's expedition, which sailed under Venables and Penn for Hispaniola... The fleet failed at Hispaniola, but took Jamaica, where Gage died in 1656" (DNB). Alden & Landis 648/68; JCB (3) II:369; Sabin 26298; Wing G-109.