A PARADOX. PROOVING, THAT THE INHABITANTS OF THE ISLE CALLED MADAGASCAR, OR ST. LAWRENCE, (IN TEMPORALL THINGS) ARE THE HAPPIEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD. WHEREUNTO IS PREFIXED, A BRIEFE AND TRUE DESCRIPTION OF THAT ISLAND.WITH MOST PROBABLE ARGUMENTS OF A HOPEFULL AND FIT PLANTATION OF A COLONY THERE.

Hamond, Walter

Published by Printed for Nathaniel Butter, London, 1640

[38]pp. Small quarto. Antique-style three-quarter calf and marbled boards, gilt morocco label. 19th-century armorial library bookplate on front pastedown. Closely trimmed, just touching the first "A" at the top of the titlepage and cropping the upper portion of a few running titles and catchwords. Titlepage soiled, with small ink spots affecting a few characters of text. Very good. The only edition of this rare utopian work describing the island of Madagascar and its inhabitants. The author, Walter Hamond (d. 1648), had by his own account traveled several times to Madagascar in the service of the East India Company, once "resident there Foure Moneths together." During the 1630s, as King Charles I was advised that Madagascar would be an ideal location for English traders bound for India and the Far East to refresh and repair their ships, Hamond composed A PARADOX., encouraging further use of the island for colonization and trade. Describing the land of Madagascar in Edenic terms, Hamond begins his characterization of its inhabitants by referring to them as "a sluggish and slothfull people." "If any where," he writes, "the Proverbe, Terra bona, gens male, may here be applied" (A4v). He swiftly recasts them, however, as an innocent and virtuous race, whose "Nakednesse, Poverty, and Simplicity" demonstrate a happy, prelapsarian state instead of one of wretchedness or misery: "Now for Pride [of clothing and appearance], such is the Happinesse of these people, that they know not what it meanes, here is no man that respectech another the better for his Out- side, but for his inward vertue, and naturall Endowmens.They know that the inordinate desire of riches in the Root of all mischiefe, a Raging famisht Beast, that will not bee satisfied.As for Gold, the Soule of the World.[t]hese people know it not, or doe they know it, they regard it not, at least I am sure they value it not" (D4v-E1). Hamond continues with the observation that the Golden Age "so much celebrated by ancient Writers, was not so called, from the Estimation, or predomination that Gold had in the Hearts of men.[b]ut from the Contemps thereof"; this "happy Age these people doe at this present enjoy" (E1v). A fascinating precursor to the 18th-century imaginings of the Noble Savage, and a rare title on the market. STC 12735. DNB VIII, p.1137. Seller Inventory # WRCAM39636

Bibliographic Details

Title: A PARADOX. PROOVING, THAT THE INHABITANTS OF...
Publisher: Printed for Nathaniel Butter, London
Publication Date: 1640