Account of a Voyage of Discovery to the West Coast of Corea, and the Great Loo-Choo Island; with an Appendix, Containing Charts and Various Hydrographical and Scientific Notices. And a Vocabulary of the Loo-Choo, by H.J. Clifford, Esq.

4to. London: John Murray, 1818. 4to, 2 p.l., [vii]-xv, [1] plate list, 222, cxxx, [72]. With a frontispiece and 7 plates all color lithographs by Havell, 2 uncolored plates, and 5 maps (3 folding). Modern quarter blue morocco lettered in gilt, by Zaehnsdorf (1962). A very fine untrimmed copy, partially unopened, with Hall's clipped signature at the front. § The Amherst embassy and an early account of KoreaFirst edition of one of the earliest accounts of Korea by a European. Hall captained the sloop Lyra which, with the Alceste, brought the Amherst Embassy to China. He made a voyage to Korea and to the island of Loo-Choo (present day Okinawa). “Korea had been sketchily explored by Europeans, but it was not until the Alceste and Lyra expedition of 1816-17, under Captains Murray Maxwell and Basil Hall, that detailed information was obtained about the Ryukyus” (Hill). The substantial appendices include charts, tables of observations, a meteorological journal, an abstract of the Lyra’s voyage, a geological memorandum, and a glossary and vocabulary of English & Okinawan words, alphabetically arranged with notes & references to the sentences in the second part.Bibliography: Abbey, Travel, 558; Cordier, Sinica, 3009 & Japonica, 469; Hill, 749; NMM Library Catalogue, 523; Tooley, 241.