The full title of this book is: "A New Voyage Round the World, by a Course never Sailed before. Being a Voyage undertaken by some Merchants, who afterwards proposed the Setting up an East-India Company in Flanders" is a narrative fiction of a merchant ship's captain who sails east via the Cape of Good Hope, landing at various ports until they arrive off the western coast of South America. Once they arrive in Chile, the captain decides to test the theory that the Andes can be crossed by foot by sending a group of his men across the continent. The captain then sails around the Horn and picks them up on the other side, where he is told all about their overland adventures. Daniel Defoe (approx 1659-1661 to 24 April 1731), born Daniel Foe, was an English trader, writer, journalist, pamphleteer and spy, who gained fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, as he helped to popularise the form in Britain and along with others such as Richardson, is among the founders of the English novel.