Voyages to the East-Indies; by the late John Splinter Stavorinus, Esq.. The whole comprising a full and accurate account of all the present and late possessions of the Dutch in India, and at the Cape of Good Hope,
Author: Johan Splinter Stavorinus (1739-1788)
Year: 1798
Publisher: Printed for for G.G. and J. Robinson
Place: London
Description:
3 volumes. [iv]+572 pages with two maps. 512 pages with map. 598 pages with map, appendix and index. Octavos (8 1/2" x 5 1/2") bound in contemporary calf, rebacked with five raised spine bands with black labels in gilt lettering. Translated from the original Dutch, by Samuel Hull Wilcocke with notes and additions by the translator.(Cox I, p. 307; ESTC T100434; Mendelssohn II, p. 426) First edition in English. First published in Leiden in 1793.
"This work affords an accurate and valuable account of the Cape in the last quarter of the eighteenth century, with an interesting description of Cape Town and its inhabitants. Stavorinus visited Stellenbosch, Hottentot Holland, Vergeleegen, Klapmuts, and other places of interest in the Colony, and contributes notes upon the position of the country farmers, whom he regarded as being superior in character and manners to the colonists living in the towns. He remarks on the avarice exhibited by the residents of Cape Town, their indisposition to study, and "love of repose and inactivity - what may be denominated laziness"... He draws a gruesome picture of the Cape Town hospital, then opposite the Dutch Reformed Church, and asserts that the institution had, at times, to accommodate 1000 patients, and the sanitary condition of the place was so bad that the sailors who carried the patients to the building often brought back to the ships a fever contracted from the inmates... Stavorinus severely criticizes the Government for its arbitrary methods and the public officials for their rapacity, and gives some information respecting the grievances of the colonists, and statistics as to the revenue and expenditure and the settlement.' (Mendelssohn).
Condition:
One engraved map with slightly frayed fore margin, some light offsetting and dust-soiling, hinges reinforced, Mission House Library labels and shelf numbers to pasted downs or end papers, contemporary calf, rebacked, a little rubbed with some edge wear, corners bumped and rubbed, leather scuffed else about very good.
