BARROW (JOHN)


A Voyage to Cochinchina, in the Years 1792 and 1793... with Sketches of the Manners, Character, and Condition of their Several Inhabitants. To which is Annexed an Account of a Journey... to the Residence of the Chief of the Booshuana Nation, FIRST EDITION, 19 hand-coloured aquatint plates (one folding), 2 folding engraved maps and charts (one hand-coloured, one hand-coloured in outline, offsetting and some staining), without half-title, contemporary diced calf gilt, rebacked in calf gilt with red morocco lettering label [Abbey Travel 514; Cordier Sinica 2390; Lust 366], 4to, T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1806
|Barrow accompanied Macartney's embassy to China (the subject of A Voyage to Cochinchina) in the position of comptroller of the household. "He served with distinction during this embassy and Macartney's governorship of the Cape of Good Hope (1797–9), collecting much of the commercial and strategic intelligence about the eastern seas and southern Africa that Macartney forwarded to Henry Dundas, president of the Board of Control and secretary of state at war" (ODNB). The work also includes descriptions of Brazil, and Java, and a separate narrative of a journey to the home of the Bechuanas and other tribes on the Orange River, South Africa.Provenance: Alpheus Fuller Williams, bookplate. See illustration on preceding page.