Webley-Hope (Rear-Admiral Charles, 1829-1880). Six manuscript journals, 1852-76, ‘Journal of HMS Prince Regent-90-Bearing the flag of Rear Adml Lowry Corry. Commanding the Western Squadron’, 1 January 1852 to 27 May 1853, written from both ends, c.240 pages; ‘Private Journal of ... HMS Prometheus Volume 1st’, departing Britain for a patrol of the West African coast primarily to prevent slave traders, calling at ports including Sierra Leone, Porto Novo, and Lagos, describing a meeting with Rev. Samuel Crowther, the Yoruba scholar, and the King (Oba), written from both ends, some stubs from excised pages, 26 January to 25 December 1856, c.250 pages; ‘Private Journal of ... HMS Prometheus Volume 2nd [also when commanding the Flying Fish and the Brisk]’, the first portion continuing the West African patrol, including the capture of an American slave ship (“Adams Gray”) carrying 300 in gold, and negotiations (conducted under the village “council tree”) leading to a treaty with the King of Quicembo, Angola (“...an individual (evidently leader of the opposition) harangued the crowd to the effect that the King was selling his country and that they would lose it all piece by piece. This he illustrated by feigning to cut his staff into pieces with his knife...”), continuing with later voyages on the Flying Fish then in 1864-65 on the Brisk to New Zealand, including an account of the punitive expedition against the Whakatohea tribe of Opitiki, c.260 pages, written from both ends, 26 December 1856 to 7 October 1865; ‘Private Journal ... Volume 3. HMS Flying Fish in 1860 and HMS Brisk from Oct. 7th 1865 to Jan. 19th 1869 also HMS Resistance from Feb. 9 1875 to May 15. 1876’, the first voyage as part of the Squadron accompanying the Prince of Wales on a visit to Canada, 1860, then continuing his account of service in the South Pacific from the previous volume, including further travel around New Zealand, the Samoan Islands, Wallis Island, and Fiji (“...intelligence of a missionary Mr Daku & seven native teachers having been killed and eaten in the interior of Viti Levu...”), finally his record of patrolling the Mediterranean, written from both ends, c.260 pages, 1 July 1860 to 15 May 1876; ‘Private Journal ... HMS Resistance’, Mediterranean patrol, 15 May 1876 to 16 May 1877, notes on fortifications written from the reverse, c.55 pages, plus blanks; notebook containing miscellaneous notes and drafts, 61 pages, plus blanks, c.1878; all written in a clear hand, the first four in half roan over marbled boards, the last two items in limp wrappers, bindings rubbed and one partly split along upper joint, all 4to (23 x 20cm). Included with this lot are three modern spiral-bound typed summaries and partial transcriptions of the highlights of the first four journals. (9)
