[Asia Minor]. - Lot 21

[Asia Minor]. JACKSON, John. Journey from India, towards England in the year 1797 ; by a route commonly called over-land, through countries not much frequented, and many of them hitherto unknown to Europeans, particularly between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, through Curdistan, Diarbek, Armenia, and Anatolia, in Asia; and through Romalia, Bulgaria, Wallachia, Transylvania, &c., in Europe. London, printed for T. Cadell, by G. Woodfall, 1799. In-8. (3)-XVI-277-(2) pp. one folding map, 5 plates. Contemporary fawn half-basane, smooth spine underlined with gilt fillets, fawn basane title-piece, gilt title (binding a little rubbed, a small wormhole not serious at one of the spines, some foxing to the plates). Uncommon first edition. With a large engraved folding map of Jackson's 1798 route from Bussora to Hermanstad (from Bulgaria to Iraq via Armenia and the Black Sea) and 5 black engraved plates by Cook. John Jackson, travel writer, went to India on business. He left Bombay in a small boat in May 1797 for Bussora on his way home. He sailed up the Euphrates and Tigris rivers to Baghdad, his route then taking him through Kurdistan, Anatolia, Bulgaria, Alachia and Transylvania. He arrived in Hamburg on October 28, 1797, and published his account in 1799, demonstrating that the route he followed was practicable all year round.