First edition. 4to. Twentieth-century quarter morocco over marbled boards, spine gilt, extremities slightly rubbed, text toned, but very good. 153, [1]pp. La Rochelle, 1668.
Exceedingly rare: this is one of the few contemporary accounts of the life of the extraordinary Nicolas Gargot (1619-1664).
The rather breathless life of Nicolas Gargot can be summarised thus: born in 1619, he began fighting the Spanish at the age of thirteen. He took up privateering in 1639, which took him to New England, Nova Scotia, West Africana and the Mediterranean. He lost a leg in 1647, was exploited by the Comte du Daugnon, Vice-Admiral of France, who forced him into a partnership in order to deprive him of the profits from his captures, and was handed over to the Spanish in 1651 by mutinous sailors incited by the Count of Daugnon. He refused to enter the service of Spain, but was restored to freedom in 1653 after his captivity was ended at the behest of the Duke of Medina-Cœli and interest taken in him by a great Spanish lady. Finally, after sailing and fighting for another ten years in Italy, Catalonia, Canada and Sweden, he died in La Rochelle in 1664, so poor that the bishop had to pay for his funeral.
Around 1658, and by then known as Jambe de Bois (peg-leg), "the king granted him the port of Plaisance (Placentia) as a hereditary fief, including with it a grant of land 26 leagues in depth on the south shore of Newfoundland. In 1660, a royal commission did indeed name Gargot Comte de Plaisance and governor of the island. The minister of finance, Nicolas Fouquet, who had private interests in this region, was not without a hand in this appointment. When the English trespassed on his fief, Gargot set out at the head of a naval expedition and seized the settlements at Grand-Plaisance, Petit-Plaisance, and Petit-Paradis" (DCB).
The text here says that Gargot was posted as part of the larger effort to protect the French colony in Canada from Iroquois incursions. He accepted the post immediately, though his departure was delayed by ships insufficiently provisioned. Gargot himself was forced to buy biscuits for the voyage on which a number of the crew and passengers contracted scurvy and perished. Gargot had taken matters into his own hands and hired his own crew of 30 (from his own funds) and they disembarked at Tadoussac, being unable to get as far as Quebec because of ice. Gargot landed about eighty men at Port Plaisance with supplies and provisions under the command of M. Du Perron. They were to take the place of pioneer settlers left by Nicolas Fouquet two years previously. Gargot then recounts the tragic circumstances that befell those settlers in some detail which he learned on his second voyage there in 1663.
This work was put together by the lawyer, Pierre Groyeras as part of the case brought by Gargot and his younger brother, Jean, against Vice-Admiral and Marshal of France, Louis de Foucault, Count of Daugnon. They had signed an unfortunate partnership agreement in 1649: the count claimed a third of the profits while contributing only very modestly to the arming of the ships, and the two Gargot brothers estimated their loss of income at more than 240,000 livres. Nicolas died without obtaining compensation, and Jean attempted to pursue the case with the help of La Rochelle lawyer Pierre Groyer de Boiseraud. Jean likely contributed to the material here.
A contemporary of Henry Morgan, Gargot, whose privateering career saw him active on both sides of the Atlantic, died just as the Golden Age of Piracy was getting underway.
Rare: OCLC locates copies at NYPL, Clements, BnF, Lyon, and one in Germany. Just this copy at auction.
Provenance: bookplate of Ernest-Gabriel, Marquis des Roys, grandson of Marshal Hoche on his mother's side.
Comeau, J.-Roger, Dictionnaire biographique du Canada, vol. 1; Rainguet, P.-D., Biographie Saintongeaise, 1851, p. 255.
