Rare Book Monthly
Articles - February - 2004 Issue
Voyages and Travels from<br>The William Reese Company
One of the joys of vacationing in the Philippines (see item 160).
Lieutenant Thomas Craven kept a journal of his travels at sea from 1832-1834. This unpublished manuscript, headed Journal of a Cruise on board the U.S. Ship Peacock & Schooner Boxer, recounts his adventures as they traveled to such places as Liberia, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Sumatra, Java, and Brazil. Craven wanted to sail with the Peacock, but at first had to settle for the cramped Boxer. He disliked the ship and its captain and makes frequent satirical comments about them. Eventually, he was assigned to the Peacock, although he would again return to the Boxer for his final journey from Brazil home. Craven would go on to have a long naval career, including service with the Wilkes expedition, suppression of the slave trade, and service on the Mississippi during the Civil War, before retiring as a rear admiral. Item 29. $4,000.
Alexander Dalrymple was a scholar who gathered information about early travels and who believed a southern continent would be discovered in the time before Captain Cook’s voyages. Dalrymple had hoped to lead the expedition that was eventually assigned to Cook. In 1775 he published A Collection of Voyages Chiefly in the Southern Atlantic Ocean. In it, he proposes a constitution to be established in a colony in newly discovered lands. Among the proposed laws which were way ahead of their time was “Women are not debarred from public office, but may enjoy their rights in the public assembly on the same footing as men.” And, in a rule that would probably be very popular today, he proposes “No person shall exercise the Profession of Law, by counsel or otherwise, for hire or fee, on penalty of forfeiture of all his property and perpetual imprisonment.” Who would argue against that? Item 34. $21,000.
Frequently we find books by Europeans who visited America in its early days. Here’s a reversal. It’s by an American who visits Europe, including England, during the early years of the Revolution, 1776-1777. Called The American Wanderer, through Various Parts of Europe… by an author who uses only the name “A Virginian,” he seems more interested in the ladies than more weighty issues. Item 166. $850. And, in another reversal of the norm, instead of a book by American missionaries to far off places, we have one by a Hindu missionary to America, Sketches of a Tour Round the World by P.C. Mozoomdar. The author describes much of what he saw during his visit in 1883. As Reese points out, “Needless to say, travel descriptions of America by Hindu missionaries are rare.” This is certainly the first I’ve seen. Item 118, printed in Calcutta in 1884. $600.
