A voyage from Mauritius to Mokha and the Red Sea

Grandpré (Degrandpré), L[ouis Marie Joseph O’Hier comte de]. 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 [...].

€ 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.