A NEW ACCOUNT OF THE EAST INDIES

With numerous maps and illustrations

Now edited with Introduction and Notes by Sir William Foster

in two volumes.

Limited edition: 2 volumes: vol. 1 259 pages, vol. 2 225 pages, title page vignettes, frontispiece in vol 1, 6 maps, numerous text illustrations, uncut fore edges and bottom edges, quarter vellum with green cloth boards and a gilt device on the upper covers, titled gilt on the spines, a very good set.

The colophon reads; This edition of A new Account of the east Indies by Alexander Hamilton is the Eighth publication of the Argonaut Press and is limited to 975 copies on Japon Vellum numbered 1 to 975. The original woodcut appearing on the title page is by William Monk. The volume has been printed by Walter Lewis at the University Press Cambridge, in the year 1930. This copy is number 62

Alexander Hamilton: In his early years he travelled widely through Europe, the Barbary coast, the West Indies, India and South-east Asia. On his arrival in Bombay in 1688 he was briefly pressed into the employ of the British East India Company in a local war, and then set up as a private country trader, operating from Surat. He was appointed commander of the Bombay Marine in June 1717, in which post he suppressed piracy.

The main extant source of information on Hamilton is his own book, A New Account of the East Indies (1727). The term then covered a much wider geographic area than it does today - 'most of the countries and islands of commerce and navigation, between the Cape of Good Hope and the island of Japan.' Illustrated with lively anecdotes, it provides a valuable insight into life in early modern Asia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Hamilton_(sailor)