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8vo., [6], xvi, 248pp. [24]pp. including bookseller's advertisement, engraved frontispiece and 32 finely engraved maps, plans and plates (16 folding). Leaf L3 professionally repaired on extreme lower corner without any loss of text etc, some moderate age toning to text as usual, but the plates are remarkably clean and fresh. Bound in contemporary full speckled calf which has been professionally and tastefully rebacked with the original spine neatly relaid, some rubbing to extremities of three corner tips. A VG tightly bound copy of this extremely scarce work with the plates in remarkably clean condition. The first English edition, of the French Huguenot Leguat's account of his travels in the Indian Ocean, published the same year as the first French and Dutch editions. According to the narrative, a party of Huguenots under Leguat's direction were sent by the Dutch government in 1690 to the Ile de Bourbon (Reunion), although the island had already been controlled by the French since 1663. Leguat and his associates continued to Rodriguez Island, where he landed on May 30, 1691 seven others. Although no serious hardships were suffered there, the party left the island two years later for Mauritius, controlled at that time by the Dutch. Leguat eventually returned to Europe in 1698. According to Howegego, "the voyage has always been regarded with suspicion, some suggesting that it was composed by Francois Maximilien Misson from other French sources. To add to the confusion, other scholars regard Misson himself as totally fictitious. Despite its incorporation into a Hakluyt Society edition, the voyage was denounced in its entirety by Geoffrey Atkinson in 1922". However, many others believe it to be a true, and not imaginary, voyage. The volume contains descriptions of the islands of Rodriguez, Mauritius, and Batavia, together with an interesting account of the Cape and the Hottentots, and of the Dutch Settlements in the Colony. A number of quaint illustrations of the zoology and botany of these regions can be found in the work. Seller Inventory # 3622
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