Item #38831 REFLECTIONS ON MR. BURCHET'S MEMOIRS. OR, REMARKS ON HIS ACCOUNT OF CAPTAIN WILMOT'S EXPEDITION TO THE WEST-INDIES. Luke Lillingston.

REFLECTIONS ON MR. BURCHET'S MEMOIRS. OR, REMARKS ON HIS ACCOUNT OF CAPTAIN WILMOT'S EXPEDITION TO THE WEST-INDIES.

London: Printed, and sold by the Booksellers of London and Westminster, 1704. [18], 90, 95-171, [1 blank]. Pages 79 and 86 are misnumbered '76' and '96' respectively. Despite the mispagination, the text is continuous. ESTC notes an errata slip, apparently in some copies. Bound in original speckled roan [rebacked], with gilt-lettered red morocco spine label. Bookplate on front pastedown of William Trumbull: "Virtute et Industria." A thorough biography of Sir William Trumbull [1639–1716] is at the web site of David Nash Ford's Royal Berkshire History. Very Good.

Lillingston was, he says, badly treated in Burchet's Memoirs. He writes to expose "the black Circumstances of Actions hitherto conceal'd; my proper Business not being to reflect on any particular person's behaviour, any farther than I am obliged to it, in my own just Vindication."
Captain Wilmot, commander of the 60-gun ship Dunkirk, was appointed to lead an expedition, in cooperation with Spain, against the French in the West Indies. Colonel Lillingston commanded 1200 soldiers with the same purpose. After much discussion, "they attacked and on 3 July took Port de la Paix, out of which they collected a booty estimated as worth about 200,000 [pounds]. This seems to have been the cause of the bitter quarrel which broke out between Wilmot and Lillingston, though the particulars are unknown. Wilmot was anxious, late as the season was, to go on and capture Petit Goave and Leogane; but the sickly state of the troops, and probably also Lillingston's ill will, rendered this impossible, and leaving the 50-gun ships behind for the protection of Jamaica, Wilmot sailed for England on 3 Sept. But the fever, which had killed so many of the soldiers, had now spread to the ships, and very many of the seamen died, Wilmot himself among the first, on 15 Sept. Lillingston afterwards published a pamphlet accusing Wilmot of several irregularities, none of which, however, he could substantiate by any evidence except his own assertion; and Wilmot was dead. In the account of the expedition published by Burchett, who, as secretary of the admiralty, was in a better position for learning the truth than any other man could possibly be, the accusations of Lillingston are passed over with contempt." [Article on Wilmot at online Three Decks].
Cundall 1998. ESTC T117286. Sabin 41072. Not in Ragatz. Item #38831

Price: $1,250.00

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