KEITH, Sir George Mouat. A Voyage to South America and the Cape of Good Hope, in His Majesty's Brig Protector. London, Printed for the Author by J. B. G. Vogel, 1819.
4to. Original publisher's paste-paper backed boards with printed label to spine (worn, spotted and restored); pp. xxx, [2], 119; lightly toned or spotted, entirely uncut, a very good copy; bookplate I. & F. W. Hosken (collectors and bibliographers of books on South Africa, their bookplate); housed in a custom-made drop-back box.
First expanded edition. First published for Richard Phillips collection of voyages in 1810, this is the extremely rare and enlarged edition of Keith's voyage to South America, containing additional chapters and a list of subscribers. Lieutenant Keith was commander of the war brig, Protector, part of the fleet that sailed from England to the Cape of Good Hope in 1805. The fleet sailed to Madeira, then touched at Bahia, where they learned of the death of General Yorke, travelling in one of the two ships to be wrecked on the rocks of St. Peter and St. Paul. The ship sailed on to Rio da Janeiro, before putting across to the Cape of Good Hope. This enlarged edition contains additional material relating to the squadron sent out to capture the Cape and on the reduction of Cape Town. According to Hill, the "material on the Cape is of much interest as the Cape was thereafter to serve as the British portal to the Orient". Keith's book is uncommon due, as the author states, to "a very limited number of copies above those subscribed for [215] being printed". - A good eyewitness account of the events leading up to the British capture of the Cape Colony, together with an Appendix containing Official Documents relative to the Capture of the Cape of Good Hope and its Dependencies, beginning on page 97.
Mendelssohn p.808; Borba da Moraes p. 433; Sabin 37230; Hill p. 161 ('extremely rare').
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