John Francis Bacon - Six years in Biscay. 1831-1837 - 1838

John Francis Bacon: Six years in Biscay: including a personal account of the sieges of Bilbao in June 1835, and from October to December 1836, as well as the main events that took place in that city and the Basque provinces during the years 1830 to 1837 - Published in London by Smith, Elder & Co. in 1838.

Published in 1838, with four engravings.

Without binding, map missing, part of the book has a wormhole at the bottom, margin partly affecting two engravings (no text loss).
But still, a reasonably good copy of a remarkable book.

First edition, viii, 478, [ii] pages, & appendix, illustrated with 4 folding plate views (lacks the folding map, no covers, block solid and compact).

Very rare, WorldCat locates two copies, both in Germany. John Francis Bacon was a British consul in Bilbao from 1830 to 1837, a period partly covered by the First Carlist War (1833-1839). He authored the book 'History of the Revolution of the Basque Provinces and Navarra', covering 1833-1837, in which he narrates his experiences during this period. He is also the author of the book titled 'Six years in Biscay' (1831-1837), where he describes the sites of Bilbao during the First Carlist War. The book, in its English edition, contains a plan (missing from this copy) and four engravings of the town of Bilbao.


The First Carlist War was a civil war in Spain from 1833 to 1840, the first of three Carlist Wars. It was fought between two factions over the succession to the throne and the nature of the Spanish monarchy: the conservative supporters of the late king's brother, Carlos de Borbón (or Carlos V), became known as Carlists, while the progressive supporters of the regent, Maria Christina, acting for Isabella II of Spain, were called Liberals, cristinos, or isabelinos. Aside from being a war of succession about the question of who the rightful successor to King Ferdinand VII of Spain was, the Carlists' goal was the return to an absolute monarchy, while the Liberals sought to defend the constitutional monarchy. Portugal, France, and the United Kingdom supported the regency and sent volunteer and even regular forces to confront the Carlist army. (Wiki).