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Author: Drury, Robert
Title: The Pleasant and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, During his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar
Place Published: London
Publisher:W. Meadows
Date Published: 1743
Description:

x, 470 pp. Large folding map and five engraved plates. (8vo) 20x12 cm (8x4¾") period full calf, gilt rule borders, red morocco spine label lettered in gilt. Third Edition.

Drury originally published his memoirs under the title Madagascar, or Robert Drury's Journal in 1729. Drury was an English sailor who left for India in 1701 aboard the Degrave. He reached India safely but was shipwrecked off the coast of Madagascar on the return trip. He was seventeen years old at the time. He would be trapped there for fifteen years. Upon returning to England he published his memoirs in 1729. It went through seven edition and was immensely popular. Soon after the publication of his memoirs Drury returned to Madagascar to become a slave trader. Though it was an instant success, the credibility of the details in the book would be put into question by later historians. Modern scholars have proven though that many details in the book are authentic and that the story itself is one of the oldest written historical accounts of life in southern Madagascar during the 18th century. Many believe to book to actually have been authored, or at the very least edited, by Daniel Defoe.

Binding worn, hinges repaired, two bookplates; light foxing; very good.