Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Roberts, George (fl.1726)
ROBERTS, GEORGE (fl. 1726), mariner, was the reputed author of ‘The Four Years' Voyages of Capt. George Roberts; being a Series of uncommon Events which befell him in a Voyage to the Islands of the Canaries, Cape de Verde, and Barbadoes … written by himself’ (8vo, 1726). According to this work, Roberts, after having been engaged for several years in the Guinea trade as captain of a ship, engaged himself in 1721 as chief mate for a voyage to Virginia, touching at Madeira, the Canaries, and Barbados. At Barbados, however, as the result of a difference of opinion with his captain, he fitted out a small sloop, in which he undertook a voyage to Guinea; but, being captured by pirates, who cleared the sloop out and detained his men, he was sent adrift, without sails, without provisions, and with no shipmates but a boy and a child. After various difficulties, the sloop was finally wrecked on the unfrequented island of St. John, one of the Cape Verd Islands, where Roberts remained two years, and got back to England in June 1725. It is suggested (Wilson, Life of Defoe, iii. 543) that the narrative is fictitious, and was written by Defoe, and this suggestion has been adopted in the British Museum ‘Catalogue.’ It seems unauthorised and unnecessary. The style is rather that of some humble and incompetent imitator of Defoe, whose story is very probably based on fact. No reason can be alleged for doubting the existence of Roberts or the substantial truth of the narrative. Watt, whom Allibone follows, seems to identify Roberts with a Mr. Roberts who was shipwrecked in 1692, and whose story of the disaster is published in Hacke's ‘Collection of Original Voyages’ (London, small 8vo, 1699); but Mr. Roberts, commander and part owner of the vessel wrecked in 1692, can scarcely have been less than sixty in 1722; whereas George Roberts is described as a man of about thirty-five. William Lee (Life of Defoe, &c.) makes no mention of Roberts's narrative, thus tacitly denying Defoe's connection with it.
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