TO KOREA AND THE RYUKYU ISLANDS
HALL, Basil.
Account of a voyage of discovery to the west coast of Corea, and the great Loo-Choo Island; with an appendix, containing charts, and various hydrographical and scientific notices … And a vocabulary of the Loo-Choo language, by H.J. Clifford …
London, John Murray, 1818.
4to, pp. xv, [1], 222, cxxx, [72]; without half-title; with 10 plates (8 coloured) and 5 maps (2 folding); small adhesion to inner margins of title and frontispiece, 2 marginal tears and some creasing to last leaf, some toning to plates, occasional light spotting, a few marks; overall very good in contemporary calf, spine in compartments gilt lettered ‘Voyages & travels vol. 98 Hall’, marbled endpapers; small loss at head of spine, some wear to corners and light marks to covers; armorial bookplate of Thomas Munro (see below).
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Account of a voyage of discovery to the west coast of Corea, and the great Loo-Choo Island; with an appendix, containing charts, and various hydrographical and scientific notices … And a vocabulary of the Loo-Choo language, by H.J. Clifford …
First edition of this important work on Korea and the Ryukyu Islands by Basil Hall (1788-1844), narrating his 1816–17 voyage aboard the Lyra in the company of Murray Maxwell in the Alceste. The first chapter is devoted to the west coast of Korea – ‘until then unknown except by hearsay, and drawn on the chart by imagination’ (ODNB) – and includes discussion of the character and language of the indigenous people Hall encountered. Chapters 2 and 3 then detail Hall’s experiences in the Ryukyu Kingdom, including nearly being shipwrecked, numerous feasts with the local chiefs, and notes on ‘the religion, manners, and customs of Loo-choo’. The handsome accompanying aquatint plates are based on drawings by the artist William Havell (1782–1857). The volume ends with a most interesting appendix on Ryukyuan languages by Herbert John Clifford, including sample sentences ‘English and Loo-Choo’ such as ‘When all are drunk we shall be permitted to go on shore’, and reproducing local tattoo marks.
Provenance: from the library of the Scottish soldier and administrator Sir Thomas Munro (1761–1827) who served as Governor of Madras from 1820 until his death. He was ‘the chief architect of the ryotwari land tenure, revenue, and judicial system, later known as “the Munro system”, which provided the administrative framework for much of southern and western India throughout the period of British rule’ (ODNB). His library included a Shakespeare First Folio.
Abbey, Travel 558; Hill 749.
