PRIOR, James. Voyage along the Eastern Coast of Africa to Mosambique, Johanna and Quiloa; to St. Helena; to Rio de Janeiro, Bahia and Pernambuco in Brasil in the Nisus Frigate. London, Richard Phillips, 1819.
[bound with:] PRIOR, James. Narrative of a Voyage in the Indian Seas in the Nisus Frigate, to the Cape of Good Hope, Isles of Bourbon, France, and Seychelles, to Madras, and the Isles of Java, St. Paul, and Amsterdam, during the Years 1810 and 1811. London, Richard Phillips, [1820].
Two volumes bound in one, 8vo. 20th-century navy blue half calf over cloth boards, spine with raised bands, decorated and letterd in gilt; pp. v, [1, errata], 114, large folding engraved map as frontispiece, engravedchart of the harbour of Mozambique and a beautiful engraved and aquatinted view of the same city from the sea; vi, 112, large folding engraved map as frontispiece, outline engraved view of the Cape, engraved map of part of Isle de France (Mauritius), and engraved table about the British invasion of Mauritius; brown-spotting to engravings as usual, text far less so; two good copies in first edition; collector's bookplate.
This volume unites the narratives by a young surgeon in the Royal Navy on board the Nisus, which undertook two impressive journeys during the Napoleonic Wars. The nature of these expeditions was a mix of exploration, commerce and colonialism. The East Coast of Africa, under Portuguese and Arab control had been rather neclected by the British up to that time and, Brazil rarely visited. 'The author describes Rio … He comments on the English commerce in Rio. He describes Salvador, the ill-smelling lower city and the high city with the cathedral, theatre, library with its 5,000 volumes … He obsxerves and comments on the manners and customs, the women, dress, architecture, slave trade, jewelry industry. Prior arrived in Pernambuco, describes the city, new bridge, cotton trade ...' (Borba de Moraes p. 689).
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