Second, enlarged edition of this important and profusely illustrated collection of travel reports, with accounts of voyages to every part of the globe. Many of them appeared here in English, or even in print, for the first time. The work is noteworthy because it included the original, unedited accounts. While the first edition, published in 1704, consisted of four volumes, this second edition consists of six, and includes many important accounts not present in the first edition.
Compiled by the brothers Awnsham and John Churchill, the work includes the narratives of Martin Baumgarten (Egypt, Arabia, Palestine, Syria), Thomas Roe, Philipp Balde and Johan Nieuhoff (East Indies, including a detailed account of the north-eastern coast of Arabia), Giovanni Gemelli Careri (Turkey, Persia, India), Nicholas Rolamb (Constantinople), John Barbot (West Africa, with a chapter on "Mahomet and his Alcoran"), as well as of Yemen and various journeys to China, Korea, Greenland, Iceland, Africa, North and South America (including Columbus). The introduction of Churchill's work is attributed to John Locke (1632-1704).
The timing of publication of the Collection was not a coincidence. After a 1694 Act of deregulation, Parliament passed the East India Company Act in 1697. This removed the Company monopoly on trade with the East Indies, and allowed any firm to trade so long as the Company had no presence in a given port. Other companies rushed in and interest for travelling grew. Travel accounts, once purely academic, now had real value to speculators and entrepreneurs to whom Asia and India in particular were now open. By gathering together nearly two centuries of voyages, the Churchills appealed to the newly-burgeoning market of those interested in the prospects of exploration.
The work has been re-backed, with the original spines laid down. The end papers are somewhat browned, the first few leaves are slightly foxed. Otherwise in very good condition. Borba de Moraes, pp. 181-5; Hilmy I p. 135; Hill 295; Sabin 13016.