Lot 108: A remarkable unpublished manuscript of a voyage to South America in 1759-1764

QUESNEL, JEAN

Relation d'un voyage a l'Amerique Meridionale, fait pendant les années 1759-1760, 1761, 1763, 1764 par Jean Quesnel et redigée au Port Ste- Marie l'année 1765. Paris?: 1765? Original cream vellum, spine lettered in ink on spine. 8 1/8 x 5 3/4 inches (20.5 x 14.75 cm); manuscript on paper in brown ink, 327 pp., written in an elegant, legible hand. Very light wear, repaired short tear to the first leaf, which is blank but for "1765," a few leaves pale but perfectly legible, generally exceptionally fresh.

As described in the first chapter, Quesnel was living in Cadiz in 1758, before embarking as a passenger on a Spanish ship bound for the Argentine. This seemingly unpublished account of his adventures (we can find no printed work that corresponds with it) describes a six-year residence in South America, and the manuscript has every appearance of a fair copy prepared for publication, or (at very least) circulation. It contains detailed information on the agriculture, commerce, and mining of South America, as well as on the manners and customs of the major cities: Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Valparaiso, Callao, Lima, Panama, Portobello, Cartagena are all described in some detail. He returned to Cadiz via Havana at the end of his time in South America.

Chapter VIII describes a trip to Huancavelica and its infamous mercury mine, the mina de la muerta. This was worked by the Spanish using indigenous labor for 250 years. Mercury was essential for the extraction of silver from its ore, and much of Spain's wealth in that metal ultimately depended on the Huancavelica mine. Elsewhere, there are extensive descriptions of alpaca and guanaco. This manuscript was last sold at auction by Sotheby's London, 16th June, 1958 (140 pounds); subsequently offered by Davis & Orioli.