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Rare journal of a voyage from Sumatra to Bengal published by Dalrymple

[DALRYMPLE, Alexander]. TAYLOR, Robert.
[Drop-title:] Capt. Taylor's remarks, in ship Ceres.
[London, George Bigg, 1787]. Small folio (31.5 x 24.5 cm). Contemporary half vellum, marbled sides. 12 pp.
€ 8,500
Rare second edition, second issue, of a journal of a voyage from Sumatra to Bengal, kept by Captain Robert Taylor on the ship Ceres, followed by additional comments from "a manuscript, which may be depended upon". Locations sighted include: Hog Island, the Cocos islands, Aceh, the Straits of Malacca, Barren Island and the Andaman Islands.
The journal was prepared for publication by the eccentric Scottish geographer Alexander Dalrymple (1737-1808), Captain Cook's leading rival. For years Dalrymple, as hydrographer for the East India Company, produced a series of memoirs and detailed ships' logs that he obtained in that function. He compared historical sources gathered from extensive archival research with newly obtained data straight from the ships and his own careful observations. With these publications Dalrymple became the originator of official British hydrography and as such they give a unique impression of the scientific background that laid behind the trade of the British Empire in the East and its development over the years.
A very good copy. A.S. Cook, Alexander Dalrymple (1737-1808), (PhD diss., 1992), A120; ESTC T75520 (6 copies); for Dalrymple: A.S. Cook, "Dalrymple, Alexander (1737-1808)", in: ODNB online (2008); Howgego, to 1800, D4.
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