JOURNAL DU SR. GABARET LIEUTENANT GNÁL DES ARMÉES NAVALLES DU ROY DE SON VOYAGE AUX ISLES DE L'AMÉRIQUE EN 1679. [with:] AUTRE VOYAGE DU S. GABARET EN 1680 EN L'AMERIQUE....
Gabaret, Jean, Sieur d'Angoulins:
[Np]. 1679-1681. A total of [52]pp. of neat manuscript written in French on folded sheets. Folio. Original ribbon ties. Overall in excellent condition. In a half morocco and cloth box. From the papers of Michel Bégon (see below). This French manuscript records two separate voyages to the Caribbean by Lieut. Gabaret during 1679-81. Gabaret, a member of a family prominent in French naval affairs of this period, served with distinction in the European wars of the previous decade. He was sent to the Antilles aboard Le Bon, leaving Brest with a squadron of other vessels including Le Triomphant, L'Opiniastre, and Le Tigre. The Comte Destrées, vice admiral of France, apparently led the expedition to the American islands. The squadron arrived in Martinique on June 22, 1679, sighted Jamaica on July 18, entered the port of Havana to request the return of French prisoners, and coasted Jamaica, noting navigational details. They departed Jamaica on Aug. 26, the French vessels struggling through a hurricane from Sept. 5 to 15, and then sighting Florida. In October the expedition returned to Brest with four vessels. The second expedition, covering the period from April 20, 1680 through March 2, 1681, was also sent to retrieve French prisoners in the Spanish Caribbean possessions. It consisted of several vessels under the command of Destrées, including L'Excellent, L'Hasardeux, La Diligente, Le Marin, La Tempeste, and Les Seux. Land was first sighted on June 23. On July 4 the group set out for St. Croix from Fort St. Pierre in Martinique. Arriving on July 7, they anchored at St. Croix and subsequently set out for explorations and mapping. On July 12 the expedition asked for prisoners at Cap de Cansede and were told they had been sent away. After arriving at Cartagena on July 20, a conference with the Governor's envoys was recorded: "...la raison de son voyage demandoit les prisoniers et particulier le Capne. Champagne prisonier depuis lannée soixante huit...." A description of the Cartagena garrison is given, which mentions a company of free black soldiers and another of slaves. Later in the fall they visited Grenada and Marguerite. By late November the French ships were searching for the entrance to the "Golfe de pavia" between "isle de la Trinité et la grande terre." The Spanish refused to allow the French vessels to land at Trinidad, so an emissary was sent to talk to the island governor. The major had 150 muskets fired and sent a shallop to help out a Dutch boat, whose passengers asked for water which had been denied them by the Spaniards. The final departure from Grenada was on Dec. 11, and the ships had a particularly long and difficult passage home. Michel Bégon, with whose papers this manuscript was discovered, was a veteran French colonial administrator who served in Canada in the 1670s and early '80s, then in the French colonies in the Caribbean for another decade. In the 1690s he became intendent of the port of Rochelle, and in that capacity he gathered much data on French commerce and actions overseas, and advised the government extensively on matters of trade and commerce until his death in 1710. Very few detailed voyage accounts of any sort survive from 17th-century voyages to America. This report was probably prepared by Gabaret shortly after the voyage. It is a clean draft, written in several neat hands, possibly made specifically for Michel Bégon, then governor of Martinique. A fascinating manuscript record of two early French voyages to the Caribbean. La Roncière, HISTOIRE DE LA MARINE FRANÇAISE (Paris, 1919) 5:696,703.
(Item ID: WRCAM25192) $27,500.00