HOWEL (Thomas). Voyage en retour de l'Inde par terre et par - Lot 102

HOWEL (Thomas). Voyage en retour de l'Inde par terre et par une route en partie inconnue jusqu'ici ; suivi d'Observations sur le passage dans l'Inde par l'Egypte et le grand désert par James Capper. A Paris, De l'Imprimerie de la République, 1797. 2 parts in 1 vol. In-4, (2)-XVI-385-(1) p., half green basane circa 1830, smooth spine decorated with gilt and black fillets, gilt title, restorations (spine rubbed and faded; tiny foxing, wetness on first map and following 2 f.). First edition of the French translation. Illustrated with two engraved folding maps: Thomas Howel's route maps from Basra to Constantinople and Colonel Capper's from Latichea to Basra via Aleppo and across the Great Desert; Egypt with both ancient and modern routes from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea by Colonel James Capper. Thomas Howel, a physician in the service of the Compagnie des Indes, recounts his journey from Madras to Constantinople, through Persia and Arabia. He gives interesting details of Armenia, Anatolia, Kurdistan and the city of Constantinople. His account originally appeared in English in 1789. The translator, Théophile Mandar (1759-1822), wrote a copious appendix describing Maduré, the Malabar and Coromandel coasts, Cochin, Baghdad, Basra and Babylon. The voyage of James Capper, a colonel in the service of the East India Company, took place from September 1778 to February 1779, and was first published in English in 1782. In the appendix is the Itinéraire de l'Arabie déserte ou lettres sur un voyage de Bassora à Alep par le grand et le petit désert published in 1750 by Messrs Plaisted and Eliot, captains in the service of the London India Company. (Chadenat, n°5072; Gay, 2066).