A compendium of authentic and entertaining voyages (2)

A View of the Whale Fishery

1766

Special Collections: de Beer Eb/1766/S v.1-7

London : printed for W. Strahan; J. Rivington; W. Johnston; J. Dodsley; T. Caslon; T. Lowndes; W. Nicoll; Richardson and Urquhart; T. Jefferies; and B. Collins at Salisbury

Smollett is best known as a novelist and historian, but his collection of voyages was popular during the second half of the eighteenth century. In his own travels, Smollett was a very grumpy character, but he clearly possessed a good idea of what his readers were after. These two engravings encompass the range of those readerly interests: the whale fishery implies a strongly practical and exploitative interest in travel, while the stereotypical cannibal scene, with whole appendages roasting on the grill and a toddler either nibbling on a small bone (imbibing cannibal culture) or nursing (itself a form of consumption of another human, albeit one acceptable to European culture), implies a fascination and/or revulsion surrounding the otherness of the new world.

Mitford, Ioh

Strahan, William, 1715-1785

Rivington, John, 1720-1792

Johnston, W. (William), -1804

De Beer Collection copy has bookplate: Ioh. Mitford

A compendium of authentic and entertaining voyages, digested in a chronological series. The whole exhibiting a clear view of the customs, manners, religion, government, commerce, and natural history of most nations in the known world. ...