A VOYAGE TO NEW GUINEA, AND THE MOLUCCAS, FROM BALAMBANGAN Including an Account of Magindano, Sooloo, and other Islands; and illustrated with thirty copper plates : Performed in the Tartar Galley, belonging to the Honourable East India Company, during the Years 1774, 1775, and 1776 / by Thomas Forrest; to which is added, a Vocabulary of the Magindano Tongue.

Forrest, Thomas.

Published by G. Scott, London, 1779

About this Item

London: G. Scott. 1779. First edition. Tall 4to. (11½? x 9"). xxiii +[1] + 388pp +13 pp. Wide-margined. Although the title page calls for 30 plates, this copy has the complete number of plates and charts, namely Portrait of Captain Forrest as frontispiece and 32 plates & charts, mostly folding. Period style ¼ calf, 18th century style marbled paper covered boards, similarly styled marbled endpapers. Small armorial bookplate. Plates and maps are generally clean and crisp with occasional toning and offsetting here and there. A handsome copy. According to the University of Adelaide, Rare Books and Manuscript blog (April 28, 2020): Little is known about the personal life of 18th century navigator, Thomas Forrest, however, he is believed to have served in the Royal Navy, acting as midshipman in 1745, implying a date of birth of approximately 1729. He was engaged by the East India Company in 1748 and, according to his own writings, sailed the Indian waters almost continuously from 1753, making fifteen voyages from Hindustan to the East and four voyages from England to India. He gained an enormous amount of knowledge of the weather, winds and sailing routes, and eventually published, in 1782, A treatise on the monsoons in East India which documented many of his interesting experiences. In 1770 Forrest assisted in the formation of a new settlement at Balambangan (Malaysia), which had been recommended by the Scottish geographer, Alexander Dalrymple. Four years later, when the council, wishing to develop new sources of trade, wanted to send an exploring party in the direction of New Guinea, Forrest expressed his interest. His services were gladly accepted, and he set sail onboard the Tartar-Galley from Balambangan on the 9th November 1774 with David Baxter (mate), Laurence Lound (gunner) and a crew of eighteen Malays. He led the party as far as New Guinea's Geelvink Bay, exploring the Sulu archipelago, the south coast of Mindanao, Mandiolo, Batchian and Waygiou, which he was the first to chart with any degree of accuracy. When he returned in 1776, Forrest commenced work on a highly detailed account of the voyage, publishing A Voyage to New Guinea and the Moluccas? in 1779. Though his journey was reportedly one more of examination and enquiry than discovery, and the contributions he made to geographical knowledge tended to be corrections of detail rather than fresh ideas, he wrote with a tact that was seldom used by Europeans at the time. What he achieved in a relatively small and leaking boat, together with his gentle approach to local inhabitants and his recorded observations, with their lack of moral judgment, won him a great deal of credit. From the outset, Forrest's gift for writing in a manner simultaneously pragmatic and thoughtful is immediately apparent.

Seller Inventory # 009388

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A VOYAGE TO NEW GUINEA, AND THE MOLUCCAS, FROM BALAMBANGAN Including an Account of Magindano, Sooloo, and other Islands; and illustrated with thirty copper plates : Performed in the Tartar Galley, belonging to the Honourable East India Company, during the Years 1774, 1775, and 1776 / by Thomas Forrest; to which is added, a Vocabulary of the Magindano Tongue.
• Publisher: G. Scott, London
• Publication Date: 1779
• Binding: Leather
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Antiquarian
  • Travel / Exploration / Voyages