A voyage from Mauritius to Mokha and the Red Sea
A voyage in the Indian Ocean and to Bengal, undertaken in the year 1790 [...] To which is added a voyage in the Red Sea, including a description of Mocha, and of the trade of the Arabs of Yemen [...].
8vo. 311 pp., final blank page. Contemporary full calf with giltstamped spine and title-label to spine.
€ 950.00
Second American edition. An interesting travelogue recounting a voyage from Isle of France (Mauritius) through the Indian Ocean to Bengal, and to Mokha and the Red Sea on the return journey, made by the Breton navy officer Louis de Grandpré (1761-1846), a Malouin of Irish extraction. The book includes descriptions of the Seychelles and Ceylon, along with an account of Mokha, mentioning the flourishing slave trade on the coast of the Red Sea and female slaves from Abyssinia, "of whom whole cargoes arrive at a time" (p. 235). This is essentially a European take on Arabian manners and customs, reflecting on Arabian dress, coffee making, and bathing, with remarks on the economy of Yemen, citing naming coffee, rose water and oil of roses as primary goods "exported to every part of the globe" (p. 273).
First published in Paris in 1801; the first English editions appeared simultaneously in London and Boston in 1803. No copies of the present edition in auction records internationally.
Contemporary ownership of Josiah Blake to front pastedown. Later in the collection of John Brinton; his bookplate to flyleaf (dated by hand London, July 1980).
Binding somewhat rubbed. Some foxing and browning throughout. Contemporary ink stains to first 4 leaves.
OCLC 3833525. Cf. Wilson, p. 84. Henze II, 386f. Gay 3317 bis. Fromm 11533 (other eds.). Not in Cox.