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ROBERT PERCIVAL (1765-1826)
An Account of the Island of Ceylon ... to which is added, The Journal of an Embassy to the Court of Candy. London: C. and R. Baldwin, 1803. 4° (270 x 210mm). Engraved folding map of Ceylon by A. Arrowsmith hand-coloured in outline, and 3 engraved folding plans. Letterpress tables. (Occasional light spotting and offsetting, light inkmark on folding map.) Contemporary English tree-calf gilt [rear free endpaper watermarked '1803'], turn-ins roll-tooled in blind, spine gilt in compartments, gilt morocco lettering-piece in one, others decorated with floral and other tools, marbled edges (extremities very lightly rubbed, corners very lightly bumped). Provenance: pencilled marginal annotation in an early hand.
FIRST EDITION. A FINE WIDE-MARGINED COPY IN A CONTEMPORARY BINDING. A captain in the 18th Irish Regiment, Percival saw service in South Africa against the Dutch, before travelling in 1797 to Sri Lanka with his regiment to effect the conquest of the island, where he seems to have remained for some three years. During that time he took the opportunity of exploring the island and the work covers the history of Sri Lanka under the Portuguese and Dutch, its geography, natural history, economy, and industry, concluding that: 'as a field for commercial enterprise, as a general depôt for stores and troops, and as a centre of communication with our other East India possessions, there can no other station be pointed out to equal it in that quarter of the world [...] By perseverance in a wise and moderate policy there is every reason to hope that the natives will speedily be brought to co-operate in our plan of improvements; and that the period is not far distant when we shall look to Ceylon as not inferior to any of our foreign possesions' (p. 374). Percival's work was translated into French by P.-F. Henry and published under the title Voyage à l'île de Ceylan in 1804 and a second English edition, augmented by 'an appendix containing some particulars of the recent hostilities with the King of Candy', appeared in 1805. Brunet IV, cols 489-490; Lowndes III, p.1829 (note).
An Account of the Island of Ceylon ... to which is added, The Journal of an Embassy to the Court of Candy. London: C. and R. Baldwin, 1803. 4° (270 x 210mm). Engraved folding map of Ceylon by A. Arrowsmith hand-coloured in outline, and 3 engraved folding plans. Letterpress tables. (Occasional light spotting and offsetting, light inkmark on folding map.) Contemporary English tree-calf gilt [rear free endpaper watermarked '1803'], turn-ins roll-tooled in blind, spine gilt in compartments, gilt morocco lettering-piece in one, others decorated with floral and other tools, marbled edges (extremities very lightly rubbed, corners very lightly bumped). Provenance: pencilled marginal annotation in an early hand.
FIRST EDITION. A FINE WIDE-MARGINED COPY IN A CONTEMPORARY BINDING. A captain in the 18th Irish Regiment, Percival saw service in South Africa against the Dutch, before travelling in 1797 to Sri Lanka with his regiment to effect the conquest of the island, where he seems to have remained for some three years. During that time he took the opportunity of exploring the island and the work covers the history of Sri Lanka under the Portuguese and Dutch, its geography, natural history, economy, and industry, concluding that: 'as a field for commercial enterprise, as a general depôt for stores and troops, and as a centre of communication with our other East India possessions, there can no other station be pointed out to equal it in that quarter of the world [...] By perseverance in a wise and moderate policy there is every reason to hope that the natives will speedily be brought to co-operate in our plan of improvements; and that the period is not far distant when we shall look to Ceylon as not inferior to any of our foreign possesions' (p. 374). Percival's work was translated into French by P.-F. Henry and published under the title Voyage à l'île de Ceylan in 1804 and a second English edition, augmented by 'an appendix containing some particulars of the recent hostilities with the King of Candy', appeared in 1805. Brunet IV, cols 489-490; Lowndes III, p.1829 (note).
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