A Voyage to Cochinchina, in the years 1792 and 1793. 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 Nation, being the remotest point in the interior of Southern Africa ... de BARROW, John (1764-1848) - 1806

London: (Strahan and Preston) for T. Cadell and T. Davies, 1806. 4to., (10 4/8 x 8 2/8 inches). 19 color-printed aquatint plates with additional hand-coloring, including one folding, by T. Medland after Samuel Daniell and W. Alexander, and two folding engraved maps, the first a hand-colored plan of the harbor and town of Rio de Janeiro, the second a "Chart of the Southern Extremity of Africa" (short tear to second map, maps and folding plate strengthened on fold versos, marginal repairs to 2 leaves of prelims, occasional soiling, a few very light spots.) Contemporary calf-backed boards, vellum corners (rebacked preserving original spine, extremities rubbed, endpapers renewed). Provenance: Note with a presentation inscription from the author laid down on the front paste-down "From the Author"; a few faint contemporary marginal annotations; Quentin Keynes (1921-2003) Collection of Important Travel Books and Manuscripts. First edition of the first illustrated English work on southern Vietnam, and is an account of Barrow's voyage to China with Lord Macartney's unsuccessful embassy to China. "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" (Hill). The work is dedicated to Sir George Staunton, who was also on the voyage, and who wrote his own account in 1797. The supplementary article "An account of a journey to Leetakoo, the residence of the chief of the Booshuana nation" "covers an overland expedition from Cape Town to the interior of South Africa into the then little-known territory of Bechuanaland, translated from a manuscript journal by Pieter Jan Truter, one of the commissioners of the expedition" (Hill). Barrow continued in Lord Macartney's service after he was appointed governor in 1796 of the colony of the Cape of Good Hope. He married a South African Boer, purchased a house in Cape Town, and intended to settle there permanently, but was forced by the surrender of the colony at the peace of Amiens to return to England in 1804. Abbey "Travel" 514; Borba de Moraes I, p. 88; Brunet, I, p. 672; Cordier, "Indosinica", 2424; Cordier, "Sinica" 2390; Hill 66. 6.4F.24ECatalogued by Kate Hunter.