A voyage to Guinea, Brasil and the West Indies : in His Majesty's ships, the Swallow and Weymouth

audiobook

A voyage to Guinea, Brasil and the West Indies : in His Majesty's ships, the Swallow and Weymouth

by John Atkins

EN·~6 hours·35 chapters

Chapters

35 total

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE

2:04

A VOYAGE TO Guinea, Brasil, and the West-Indies;

0:57

PREFACE

27:29

MADEIRA.

8:13

CANARIES.

1:15

Cape de VERD Islands,

3:39

AFRICA in general.

5:44

SIERRALEON.

22:26

The GRAIN and MALAGUETTA Coasts.

7:31

SESTHOS.

8:03

Description

A seasoned Royal Navy surgeon narrates an 18th‑century voyage that takes listeners from the bustling ports of Madeira and the Canary Islands to the remote coasts of Guinea, Brazil, and the West Indies. The early chapters capture the rhythm of life aboard the Swallow and Weymouth—tight quarters, shifting winds, and the ever‑present threat of storms—while offering vivid snapshots of bustling harbours, tropical shorelines and the daily challenges faced by sailors far from home.

Beyond the seafaring adventure, the work doubles as a meticulous natural‑history journal. The author records the climate, diseases, and remedies encountered on the African and Caribbean coasts, alongside detailed observations of the peoples’ diets, languages, customs and trade in gold, ivory, and slaves. Interwoven with practical notes on tides and currents, the narrative provides a rare, grounded view of early Atlantic exploration, making the distant world of 1730s maritime travel feel immediate and relatable.

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Details

Language

en

Duration

~6 hours (346K characters)

Publisher of text edition

Project Gutenberg

Original publisher

London: printed for Caesar Ward and Richard Chandler, 1735.

Credits

Peter Becker, John Campbell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)

Release date

Nov 12, 2023

Rights

Public domain in the USA.

About the author

John Atkins

John Atkins

1685–1757

An English naval surgeon who turned long voyages and hard-earned medical experience into vivid travel writing, he left behind one of the more striking firsthand accounts of the Atlantic world in the early 1700s. His books mix sea adventure, observation, and the attitudes of his age, making them fascinating and sometimes challenging to read today.

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