LOW, Hugh. Sarawak; Its inhabitants and productions: Being Notes during a Residence in that Country with H. H. the Rajah Brooke. London: Richard Bentley. 1848.
8vo. Original publisher's cloth, spine lettered in gilt, ornamented in blind; pp. xxiv, 416, engraved frontispiece with tissue guard, 5 engraved plates, one lithographic plate, 2 wood-engravings in the text; binding a little darkened and expertly rebacked, a little offsetting to illustrations, otherwise clean an fresh.
First edition, the very rare variant with 'H. H. the Rajah Brooke' and not 'His Excellency Mr. Brooke' on the title-page. An account of a thirty-month stay in Sarawak with James Brooke ('the White Rajah'), by Sir Hugh Low (1824-1905), a colonial administrator and naturalist. His primary interest was botanical, leading him to explore much of Sarawak, but his account is a general description. 'Low became closely associated with James Brooke, who was then establishing his regime in Sarawak. Low also travelled widely in north Borneo and acquired exceptional knowledge of the land and people, which he demonstrated in his book Sarawak: its Inhabitants and Productions.'Low developed a twelve-acre garden with a choice selection of plants. He made the first documented climb of Mount Kinabalu, the highest in Borneo, and repeated the climb three times, partly to collect specimens' (ODNB).
#2122142