A New Account of the East Indies…
A New Account of the East Indies. Now edited with Introduction and Notes by Sir William Foster.
London: Argonaut Press, 1930.
Two volumes, quarto, with plates and maps; uncut and partly unopened in original quarter vellum.
Important account of East Indies mercantile activities
One of only 975 copies of this excellent re-edition of a rare account, first printed in 1727, and 'One of the most valuable first-hand histories of English merchant shipping in the Indian Ocean and East Indies…' (Howgego). Hamilton described himself as 'having a rambling mind and a fortune too narrow to allow him to travel like a gentleman' (DNB). By his own account, he left for the East Indies in 1688 and did not return until 1723, being variously employed as captain or cargo of a great variety of ships, in which capacities he visited, it is said, every port between the Cape and Canton. Rambling, anecdotal, and, as Hamilton himself frankly admits, 'occasionally untrustworthy', this account of the East Indies is one of the rarest and most delightful general histories of the Orient: 'in the charm of its naive simplicity, perfect honesty, with some similarity of subject in its account of the manners and history of people little known, offers a closer parallel to the history of Herodotus than perhaps any other in modern literature…' (DNB).
One of only 975 copies of this excellent re-edition of a rare account, first printed in 1727, and 'One of the most valuable first-hand histories of English merchant shipping in the Indian Ocean and East Indies…' (Howgego). Hamilton described himself as 'having a rambling mind and a fortune too narrow to allow him to travel like a gentleman' (DNB). By his own account, he left for the East Indies in 1688 and did not return until 1723, being variously employed as captain or cargo of a great variety of ships, in which capacities he visited, it is said, every port between the Cape and Canton. Rambling, anecdotal, and, as Hamilton himself frankly admits, 'occasionally untrustworthy', this account of the East Indies is one of the rarest and most delightful general histories of the Orient: 'in the charm of its naive simplicity, perfect honesty, with some similarity of subject in its account of the manners and history of people little known, offers a closer parallel to the history of Herodotus than perhaps any other in modern literature…' (DNB).
Condition Report: One corner of the bindings bumped, spines a little darkened and a few spots to cloth sides, but a good set.