First Edition with Hand-Colored Aquatint Plates
Voyage to Cochinchina In the Years 1792 and 1793:. Containing a General View of the Valuable Productions and the Political Importance of this Flourishing Kingdom, and Also of Such European Settlements as Were Visited on the Voyage: with Sketches of the Manners, Character, and Condition of Their Several Inhabitants : To which is Annexed an Account of a Journey, Made in the Years 1801 and 1802, to the Residence of the Chief of the Booshuana Nationa, Being the Remotest Point in the Interior of Southern Africa to which Europeans Have Hitherto Penetrated. The Facts and Descriptions taken from a Manuscript Journal. With a Chart of the Route.
London: Printed for T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1806.
First edition. Quarto (10 1/2 x 8 3/8 inches; 266 x 212 mm). xviii, [2], 447, [1, blank] pp. With twenty-one hand-colored aquatint plates and maps, two of which are double page and one which is folding.
Contemporary speckled calf, rebacked preserving original spine. Boards tooled in gilt. Spine with two morocco spine labels, lettered and stamped in gilt. Board edges stamped in gilt. Edges speckled red and green. Marbled endpapers. Previous owner's bookplate on front pastedown. Some toning from plates. Small hole to leaf G2, barely touching a letter. Small tear to bottom margin of leaf P2, not affecting text. Overall a very good copy.
"This is the first illustrated English work on what was then called Cochin China, now southern Vietnam. The work is described as being 'Illustrated and embellished with several engravings by Medland, coloured after the original drawings by Mr. Alexander and Mr. Daniell.' In the Paris edition of 1807, the plates were published in a separate atlas folio. The voyage visited Madeira, the Canary Islands, and Rio de Janeiro; a description of that city and of Brazil in general is given. Touching at Tristan da Cunha, the ship rounded the Cape and eventually reached Cochin China via the city of Batavia on Java. The volume is also of Cook interest, as it describes finding Captain Cook's Resolution transformed into a smuggling whaler under the French flag. This book is the account of Barrow's voyage on the way to China as a member of Lord Macartney's embassy and is dedicated to his traveling companion, Sir George Staunton. The detailed information on Cochin China is taken from a manuscript memoir drawn up by Captain Barissy, a French naval officer, who had the means and opportunity of collecting accurate information. A supplementary article, 'An account of a journey to Leetakoo, the residence of the chief of the Booshuana nation' (p. [361}-437), covers an overland expedition from Cape Town to the interior of South Africa into the then little-known territory of Bechuanaland. It is taken from a manuscript journal originally writ- ten in Dutch by Pieter Jan Truter, one of the Commissioners of that expedition, which had been ordered by the Cape government. The supplement is accompanied by a fine map of the country and four handsome aquatints from drawings by Samuel Daniell. Barrow continued in the service of Lord Macartney after the latter became governor of Cape Colony, from 1796 to 1798." (Hill, 66).
"As a writer Barrow is best known for his Mutiny on the Bounty (1831) but, during his lifetime, his accounts of his travels in eastern Asia and southern Africa, published between 1801 and 1807, were better known and more influential. These established new standards for travel writing. In all, he wrote or edited seventeen full length books... His interests ranged widely, but the great bulk of his output had a geographical focus, usually with an underlying imperial theme and a belief in progress and the superiority of British civilization. He wrote extensively about Asia, the Americas, Australia and the Pacific, the eastern Mediterranean, and Africa." (Oxford DNB).
Abbey, Travel 514. Hill 66
HBS 68671.
$5,000.
Price: $5,000.00
Item #68671