DAVIDSON, G. F. Trade and Travel in the Far East; or Recollections of Twenty-One Years passed in Java, Singapore, Australia, and China. London, Madden and Malcolm, 1846.
8vo. In the rarely preserved original red cloth, spine lettered in gilt, ornamented in blind; pp. [2], v, [5], 312; rebacked in the 1970s retaining most of the original back-strip, binding a little rubbed and spotted, title-page with light toning and old ownership inscription, otherwise very good.
Very rare first edition with an early and informed description of Singapore, Macau, the Straits Settlement, Hongkong, Penang and Southeast Asia, including Australia, written by a trader who lived off and on in Singapore from 1826 onwards for 18 years and was able to observe the rapid growth of the settlement's economy and the economic and social interaction between the ethnic diverse inhabitants, such as Chinese (mainly from Malacca), Indians from the Malabar Coast, including indented labourers from all over India, Malaysians, Arabs, Jews, British and other Europeans, including Armenians. 'The author provides a personal narrative of his travels to Java, Singapore, Malacca, Penang, Calcutta, China, as well as New South Wales in Australia in the early part of the 19th century, with special focus and observations on the trade and commercial activities of these countries. Included in the appendices are the author's proposals concerning China mails as well as British interests in Borneo' (National Library Board, Singapore).
'The best and most interesting sketch in the book is that of Singapore; partly because the author's knowledge of the place is great, and partly because that emporium is the resort of all the inhabitants of the Indian Archipelago, even as far as the Northern region of New South Wales. Here is the Chinaman, ever seeking to fulfil Adam Smith's destiny of man and better his condition' (Review in the Spectator, February 26, 1846).
Provenance: This copy seems to be the only one in the original publisher's binding on the market for a very long time. In 1971 it was part of a Malaysia lot at Sotheby's in New York (binding not restored). In 1982 the London dealers Maggs offered it with restored binding. The two other copies which have been on the market during that period were rebound.
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