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Atkins, A Voyage to Guinea, Brasil, and the West-Indies (1735)

The printed voyage narrative of John Atkins, published at London in 1735, describing the Royal Navy cruise of 1721 to 1723 against Bartholomew Roberts on the Guinea coast and the vice-admiralty trial of the captured pirates at Cape Coast Castle, where Atkins himself served as register of the court.

From1735Also writtenA Voyage to Guinea, Brasil, and the West-Indies; in His Majesty's Ships, the Swallow and Weymouth; Atkins's voyage narrative; Atkins 1735

"A Voyage to Guinea, Brasil, and the West-Indies; in His Majesty's Ships, the Swallow and Weymouth" is a single printed volume, issued at London in 1735. Its author was John Atkins. It combines a running narrative of the ships' movements with descriptive chapters on peoples, trade and health at sea.1

The surgeon who sailed with the Swallow

Atkins sailed from Spithead on 5 February 1720/1 in company with the Swallow and the Weymouth, victualled and stored at Portsmouth for a double voyage down the coast of Guinea, for meeting, if possible, with the pirates who were then infesting those parts and destroying English trade and factories, and with the Royal African Company's governors embarked under convoy. The squadron worked down the coast, reached Cape Lopez, and took three pirate ships holding about 200 Englishmen and 60 or 70 enslaved black men, with a large quantity of gold dust reckoned at eight or ten thousand pounds; the ships came home to Spithead on 8 April 1723 and were paid off at Woolwich on 11 May. Heavy mortality stripped the crews of officers, and about May 1722 Atkins was appointed purser of the Weymouth, everybody being dead almost, as he put it, that could do it.2

Register of the court

When the prisoners were tried, Atkins was made register, that is registrar, of the court of admiralty held at Cape Coast Castle from 28 March 1722 under a commission from the King under the seal of the Admiralty; the printed journal closes each day's proceedings "By Command of the Court. John Atkins, Register", and the court allowed him 26 days' attendance at thirty shillings a day. The office explains the detail his book carries about the proceedings at the trial; his is an eyewitness's account, and the court's own record stands above it.3

What the volume contains

The full title advertises the scope: the settlements touched at, from Madeira and Cape de Verd to Sierra Leone and Cabo Corso on the Guinea coast, and then Barbados, Jamaica and others in the West Indies; the diet, languages, manners, customs and religions of the inhabitants; the gold, ivory and slave trade; and winds, tides and currents. Away from the pirates, Atkins writes at length on the morality and mechanics of the Atlantic slave trade and on mortality among European crews. The book thus also records the world the pirates worked in: the Royal African Company forts, the naval patrol sent to protect them, and the jurisdiction that tried pirates on the spot instead of shipping them home.

The Cape Lopez matter

The Swallow, under Chaloner Ogle, came up with Roberts's squadron off Cape Lopez on the Gabon coast; the consort Great Ranger was taken first, and on 10 February 1722 the Swallow brought the Royal Fortune to action, Roberts being killed and his crew subdued. The captured men were carried to Cape Coast Castle, the Royal African Company's principal fort on the Gold Coast, and tried there in the spring of 1722. A large number were condemned and hanged, others transported or imprisoned, and the enslaved men taken out of the pirate ships disposed of separately.4

How the Archive uses it

Four cautions govern every citation. Atkins was the surgeon, so his vantage on tactical and command decisions was the medical branch's and not the quarterdeck's. The book was published in 1735, twelve to fourteen years after the events, and is retrospective work subject to the ordinary reshaping of memory. His numbers, of pirates, prisoners, executed men and gold, are approximate, and go to the printed trial of 1723 and to the Admiralty papers for checking before any figure is published from him. And Atkins was already a medical author, so his treatise "The Navy Surgeon" of 1732 is a different book and is not to be cited as the voyage narrative.5

Editions and access

The first edition was printed at London in 1735 for Caesar Ward and Richard Chandler, at the Ship between the Temple-Gates in Fleet-Street, and sold at their shop in Scarborough, the title page naming the author as John Atkins, Surgeon in the Royal Navy; a second edition or reissue of the same setting is recorded at London in 1737. Pagination differs between the digitised 1735 copy and the trade description of the 1737 issue; the two should not be run together. Access is free: a scanned original at the Internet Archive and a transcribed text at Project Gutenberg, ebook 72102, with catalogue records at the Wellcome Collection and the New York Public Library. No single shelfmark is authoritative, so citations name the copy or digital surrogate actually used.6

What the sources cannot yet give is the bibliographical spine. The Dictionary of National Biography notice on Atkins has not been consulted, so his dates are not given; each edition's collation wants a catalogued physical copy, not a single scan; and Atkins's figures for the Cape Coast prisoners have not been collated against the 1723 print. The sailing from Spithead, the squadron's cruise and its return come from Atkins's own book, and the Admiralty's papers have still to be read against it.

What the evidence does not settle

Publishers' forenames

  • Publishers' forenames, Ward and Chandler, remain not establishedUnverified

Edition pagination

  • Pagination differs between the 1735 and 1737 printings

Atkins's numerical claims

  • Atkins's casualty and gold figures not cross-checked against trial

Each line is one question with its own grade, taken from the register where a claim carries it. Nothing here is graded as a whole.

Sources for this record

Every statement above that rests on a checked claim carries a small number; the numbers lead here. Each entry gives what is claimed, how far the record supports it, and where it comes from.

  1. "A Voyage to Guinea, Brasil, and the West-Indies; in His Majesty's Ships, the Swallow and Weymouth" is a single-volume printed book issued at London in 1735, written by John Atkins, and combining a running narrative of the ships' movements down the Guinea coast and on to Brazil and the West Indies with topical descriptive chapters on peoples, trade and health at sea. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Period narrative: John Atkins, "A Voyage to Guinea, Brasil, and the West-Indies; in His Majesty's Ships, the Swallow and Weymouth" (London, 1735), digitised at the Internet Archive, item bim_eighteenth-century_a-voyage-to-guinea-bras_atkins-john_1735, and transcribed at Project Gutenberg, ebook 72102, for the title, the place and date of publication and the mixed narrative and descriptive structure (Confirmed)
  2. Atkins sailed from Spithead on 5 February 1720/1 in company with the Swallow and the Weymouth, victualled and stored at Portsmouth for a double voyage down the coast of Guinea, for meeting, if possible, with the pirates who were then infesting those parts and destroying English trade and factories, and with the Royal African Company's governors embarked under convoy. About 200 Englishmen and 60 or 70 enslaved black men were found in the three pirate ships taken, together with a large quantity of gold dust reckoned at eight or ten thousand pounds. The ships came home to Spithead on 8 April and were paid off at Woolwich on 11 May 1723. Heavy mortality stripped them of officers, and about May 1722 Atkins was appointed purser of the Weymouth because, as he put it, everybody was dead almost that could do it. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: John Atkins, A Voyage to Guinea, Brasil, and the West-Indies; in His Majesty's Ships, the Swallow and Weymouth (London, printed for Caesar Ward and Richard Chandler, 1735), read in the Project Gutenberg transcription of the 1735 edition, ebook 72102: "We took in eight Months Provisions each, at Portsmouth... for meeting, if possible, with the Pyrates; who did then very much infest those Parts, and destroy our Trade and Factories... For this Purpose we set sail from Spithead February 5th, 1720/1"; "We found in the three Ships about 200 Englishmen, 60 or 70 stout Negro Slaves, great plenty of trading Goods, and, what more attracted the Eye, a large quantity of Gold Dust, by computation, 8 or 10000l."; "About this time I was appointed Purser to the Weymouth... every body being dead almost, that could do it"; and, of the return, "arrived at Spithead, April 8th, whence we were ordered to Woolwich, and paid off May 11th, 1723"
  3. When the captured pirates were tried, Atkins served as register of the court of admiralty held at Cabo Corso Castle on the coast of Africa from 28 March 1722, sitting under a commission from the King under the seal of the Admiralty. The printed journal of the proceedings is subscribed at each adjournment "By Command of the Court, John Atkins, Register", and Atkins himself sets out the court's charge for the office at 26 days' attendance at thirty shillings a day. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Printed trial and period narratives: A Full and Exact Account, of the Tryal of All the Pyrates, Lately Taken by Captain Ogle, on Board the Swallow Man of War, on the Coast of Guinea (London, printed and sold by J. Roberts, 1723), read from the Internet Archive scan: "A Journal of the Proceedings of the Court of Admiralty, held at Cabo Corso Castle on the Coast of Africa, March the 28th, 1722", each day's journal closing "By Command of the Court. John Atkins, Register"; A General History of the Pyrates (London, 1724), attributed to Charles Johnson, read in the Project Gutenberg text, naming those present at the sealing of the indentures on 26 April 1722, "And Mr. John Atkins, Register"; John Atkins, A Voyage to Guinea, Brasil, and the West-Indies (London, 1735), read in the Project Gutenberg transcription, ebook 72102: "the Court allowing for the Office of Register, 26 Days Attendance, at 30s. per Diem"
  4. HMS Swallow under Chaloner Ogle pursued Bartholomew Roberts, took the consort Great Ranger and then, on 10 February 1722, fought the action off Cape Lopez in which Roberts was killed and the Royal Fortune was taken, the prisoners being carried to Cape Coast Castle, where a vice-admiralty court tried them in the spring of 1722, condemning a large number to hang, transporting or imprisoning others, and disposing separately of the enslaved men taken out of the pirate ships. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period trial print and museum account: "Death of Bartholomew Roberts," Royal Museums Greenwich, accessed 2026, for the Cape Lopez engagement, Ogle's command of the Swallow and the death of Roberts on 10 February 1722 (Probable); "A Full and Exact Account, of the Tryal of All the Pyrates, Lately Taken by Captain Ogle" (1723), Internet Archive, for the vice-admiralty trial of the captured men at Cape Coast Castle in 1722 and its outcomes (Probable). The exact figures for prisoners, executions and gold are not taken without collation against the 1723 print, and none are stated here
  5. The book is a retrospective memoir written and printed twelve to fourteen years after the events of 1721 and 1722, by an officer of the medical branch rather than the quarterdeck, whose numerical claims are approximate and need collation against the printed trial of 1723 and the Admiralty records; his separate medical writing, the treatise "The Navy Surgeon" first published in 1732, is a different work and not the voyage narrative. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Period narrative: John Atkins, "A Voyage to Guinea, Brasil, and the West-Indies" (London, 1735), for the 1735 publication date against the 1721 to 1722 events and so for the retrospective character of the book, for Atkins's rank as surgeon rather than a line officer, and for the separate existence of "The Navy Surgeon" of 1732 (Confirmed); "A Full and Exact Account, of the Tryal of All the Pyrates, Lately Taken by Captain Ogle" (1723), Internet Archive, as the record against which Atkins's figures are to be collated (Probable). The claim as a whole is no stronger than Probable
  6. The book was printed at London in 1735 for Caesar Ward and Richard Chandler, at the Ship between the Temple-Gates in Fleet-Street, and sold at their shop in Scarborough, the title page naming the author as John Atkins, Surgeon in the Royal Navy. The full text is freely available online, transcribed at Project Gutenberg as ebook 72102 from images made available by the Internet Archive. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Period printed book: Title page of John Atkins, A Voyage to Guinea, Brasil, and the West-Indies; in His Majesty's Ships, the Swallow and Weymouth (London, 1735), read in the Project Gutenberg transcription of the 1735 edition, ebook 72102: "By JOHN ATKINS, Surgeon in the ROYAL NAVY" and "LONDON; Printed for CAESAR WARD and RICHARD CHANDLER, at the Ship, between the Temple-Gates in Fleet-Street; And Sold at their Shop in SCARBOROUGH. M.DCC.XXXV." (the ligature in the first forename expanded); the same file's front matter for the transcription's origin, "produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive"