Memoir (1840) including personal memoir of Joel Root, adventures while engaged in sealing operations, cast ashore on the Indian inhabited coast of Peru.
Joel Root, born in Southington, Connecticut, in 1770, was early orphaned; and with two sisters, he was reared by his elderly grandfather. After briefly attending Yale College, Root married and worked in various professions in Southington and New Haven, including farmer, dry goods merchant, and shipper. In 1802 he entered a sealing venture to the Pacific coast of South America as supercargo and director of the voyage.
The memoir, written in 1840, recounts Joel Root's adventures while engaged in sealing operations centered on several islands off the coast of Chile. There is a detailed account of efforts to take hair seal skins for the American market and fur seal skins for the Chinese trade, primarily from the islands of Mocha, St. Mary's, and Masafuero [Mas a tierra]. Also related are details of being cast ashore on the Indian inhabited coast of Peru, imprisonment by the Spanish at Concepcion, difficulty with the Spanish government while sealing on the Island of Masafuero, and the voyage home via China and Europe where he traded in Canton, Hamburg, and St. Petersburg. Root and his party arrived back in the United States in 1806, four years after their departure.
Loaned by Mr. Jake D. Moore
Processed by D. Lennon, February 1969
Encoded by Apex Data Services
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