De Jong described his journey aboard the ship Mars, commanded by rear admiral Willem Crul, accompanying merchant ships on their way from Sint Eustatius to the Netherlands. At the time unaware of the outbreak of the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, they got into a naval engagement and were unexpectedly attacked by an English squadron near the island of Sombrero, some eighty miles to the north of Sint Eustatius from where they had set sail. The Dutch were woefully unprepared for the encounter and lost the naval battle despite their best efforts and vigorous counterattacks. The encounter claimed the lives of many sailors, including that of the commander Willem Crul. De Jong fared better: he was taken as a prisoner of war and transferred to St Kitts, where he was held by the English for several months. He was released following an exchange of prisoners and at the age of nineteen commanded the ship's return and by the end of 1781 he arrived back in the Netherlands. Cornelis de Jong was a master of turning his adventures at sea into books that found a wide readership. He told the story of his life on St Eustatius, the unexpected battle with the English squadron and his return to the Netherlands in a series of captivating letters. De Jong was an established author who knew how to entertain his reading audience. By the time he published his Reize naar de Caribische eilanden in de jaren 1780 en 1781, he had already published seven works on his travels at sea throughout the Cape of Good Hope, the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. De Jong had a talent for detailed descriptions of the political and socio-social conditions and the lives of influential figures in the areas that he travelled. His books vividly described the life at sea and in the colonies to curious readers in the Batavian Republic.
Some damage to the spine but good condition overall. Saakes 4 (1807), Tiele 555.