Privately printed presentation copy
DAVIS, John Francis. Vizier Ali Khan; or, the Massacre of Benares, a Chapter in British Indian History. London: John Murray. 1844.
Small 8vo. Original blue ribbed cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped illustration of a pike, spine lettered in gilt, ornamented in blind; pp. [viii], 88, lithographic frontispiece with tissue guards; a little offsetting from endpapers to half-title and fronispiece, as well as to final leaf; a very attractive copy.
Very rare privately printed first edition, presentation copy with inscribed half-title 'Sir Henry Strachey Bart - With the author's Compl.', of a first-hand account of the 'Benares Massacre' of 1799.
The 'Benares Massacre' was an armed uprising led by Wazir Ali Khan, the deposed Nawab of Awadh, in Benares, northern India, which resulted in the deaths of five British East India Company officials and civilians. The most dramatic episode is the attack on the house of the Magistrate of the district and city court of Varanasi (Benares), Samuel Davis. He single-handedly defended his family with a pike. His son tells the story and the geoplitical background, including a planned invasion of Northern India by the Afghans.
Provenance: Sir Henry Strachey (1772-1858) served in India from 1790 onwards, was translator to Sudder Dewanny and Nizamut Adawlut and Magistrate in Midnapur, before retiring in Somerset.
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