Rare revised and expanded penultimate edition of a massive navigational directory, with exhaustive information on sailing routes, winds and other weather conditions such as monsoons, coasts, cities and their ports across most of the Southern and Eastern Hemispheres.
It was compiled chiefly from recent journals of ships employed by the East India Company, by James Horsburgh (1762-1836), hydrographer and chart maker to the Company. "As hydrographer Horsburgh was primarily responsible for supervising the engraving of charts sent back to London by marine surveyors in India and ordered by the company to be published, and for examining the deposited journals of returning ships for observations which would refine the oceanic navigation charts currently in use, besides other duties of provision of information laid on him by the court" (Cook).
The book appeared in a total of eight editions between 1809 and 1864 before being superseded by Findlay's A directory for the navigation of the Indian Ocean (1869).
With the sellers ticket of George Sweetser, "dealer in sextants, quadrants, telescopes and compasses, nautical books & charts, ..." and the early owners inscription of "Wm. A. Ordway, Bradford, Mass.". Bindings rubbed and re-backed. Some browned corners in the opening leaves and some tiny waterstains in the head margin of volume 2. Otherwise in very good condition. WorldCat (3 copies); cf. Cat. NHSM, p. 73 (5th ed.); Sabin 33047 (5th ed.); for the author: Cook, "Horsburgh, James (1762-1836)", in: ODNB (online ed.).