Second Dutch edition of Mocquet's travels in the West Indies, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe, translated from the French. In 1601, the king of France commissioned Jean Mocquet to collect specimens for the royal Cabinet of Rarities. For this purpose, Mocquet undertook five voyages searching for curiosities, knowledge, and adventure. He visited the West Indies, Morocco, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Goa, India, Syria, and the Holy Land. Upon his return to France in 1612, Mocquet decided to embark on a voyage around the world, hunting for yet more rarities. In Spain, however, he was refused to embark a ship headed for America and returned to France, where he was employed as the keeper of the king's Cabinet of Rarities.
Mocquet was a keen observer with a special interest in natural history and the manners of the peoples he encountered. He reflected on the cannibalistic practices of the Carib Indians of Guiana and the country of Yapoco and "recorded much important botanical and natural history information, describing the uses of aloes, odiferous gums, redwoords, and other trees, and the honey from stingless bees" (Howgego). The entertaining narrative, furthermore, contains much information on the Portuguese settlement in Goa with references to China, Japan, Malacca etc. and to the early Portuguese-Dutch battles in this area. One of the plates depicts a Native American woman offering a hand to a European to eat.
With some loss of vellum around the spine, partially restored, some leaves restored, slightly foxed and browned throughout. Otherwise in good condition. Borba de Moraes, pp. 576-577; JCB 223; KVK (3 copies); Sabin 49792; STCN 314720677 (3 copies); Tiele, Bibl. 758; cf. Howgego, to 1800, M145.