SMITH, George.
Lewchew and the Lewchewans; being a narrative of a visit to Lewchew, or Loo Choo, in October, 1850 ... London, T. Hatchard, 1853.
3 works in 1 vol., 8vo, pp. viii, 95, [1], with engraved frontispiece; 32, with engraved folding map facing title; [2], 61, [1 (blank)], with engraved frontispiece; first title-page detached at foot, small marginal tear to map, a little toning, occasional light marks; very good in contemporary blue cloth, covers blocked in blind, ‘Loo Choo Mission’ in gilt to upper cover, ticket to rear pastedown ‘bound by Westleys & Co. … London’; some wear to extremities, covers and spine rubbed.
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Lewchew and the Lewchewans; being a narrative of a visit to Lewchew, or Loo Choo, in October, 1850 ...
Three scarce works on the Ryukyu Islands, a chain of Japanese islands between Kyushu and Taiwan.
George Smith (1815–1871), Anglican bishop of Victoria, Hong Kong, visited Okinawa to report on the condition of the missionary Bernard Jean Bettelheim (1811–1870), a converted Hungarian Jew and a naturalised British subject, who had experienced official hostility since arriving on the island in 1846. Smith explains that the obstructive policy of the authorities was due not to religious but to political concerns, for ‘they dreaded the vengeance of their Japanese masters, who would view the residence of a European in Lewchew as the first step towards breaking down the exclusiveness of Japan itself’ (pp. 6-7). The fears of the Lewchewans, who, while continuing to pay tribute to China, had acknowledged Japanese suzerainty since the seventeenth century, were not unfounded, for Smith himself remarks unabashedly: ‘At the present time Lewchew is the only avenue to Japan, the nearest part of which is only three hundred miles to the north-east. A mission to the former is in effect a mission prospectively to the latter country also’ (p. vi). The frontispiece depicts Dr Bettelheim’s residence and is engraved after a sketch by Captain P. Cracroft, RN, of the British naval vessel Reynard, which took Smith to Lewchew.
The seventh report of the Loochoo Mission Society includes a folding map of Okinawa, details the Society’s accounts, and lists subscriptions and donations. The frontispiece to Loochoo Mission depicts a ‘Loochooan priest and gentleman’, and the extracts from Bettelheim’s journal cover Smith’s visit, preaching the gospel, translation work, medical labours, and an assault on Bettelheim by Japanese soldiers.
Cordier, Sinica 3012 (all three items). Of the second item, OCLC finds no copies in the UK and only 2 in the US (Cornell, Harvard). Of the third, OCLC records 1 copy in the UK (SOAS) and 2 in the US (Cornell, Harvard).