A SUPERB COPY OF
HALL'S VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY

HALL, BASIL. ACCOUNT OF A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY TO THE WEST COAST OF COREA, AND THE GREAT LOO-CHOO ISLAND . . . . London: John Murray, 1818. 4to. Contemporary marbled calf, with flat spine elaborately stamped in gilt. Half-title. [xvi], 222, cxxx, [2], [144] pages. Eight hand-colored aquatints after drawings by William Havell, one uncolored aquatint, one line engraving, five charts (two folding). Some light offsetting and foxing. A fine copy in a beautiful contemporary binding.

FIRST EDITION of Hall's first and most important book. Early in 1816, Hall was given command of the 10-gun brig Lyra, and dispatched to China in company with the frigate Alceste and Lord Amherst's embassy to the Chinese Emperor Kea K'ing. The purpose of the mission was to address "the complaints of injustice and exactions on the part of the Chinese mandarins . . . from the English merchants at Canton" (DNB). After the two ships landed the diplomatic party in Canton, Hall "went on to explore the little-known East China and Yellow Seas, together with the Alceste" (Abbey). As Hall claimed in A Voyage of Discovery, "[n]othing respecting the west side of Corea [Korea] has hitherto been accurately known to Europeans" and the "celebrated map of the Jesuits" then in use was "erroneous with respect to Corea" (Preface, pp. ix, x).

After sailing down the West coast of Korea, and taking the sightings for the chart of their track appended to A Voyage of Discovery, the Lyra and Alceste continued on to Sulphur and Loo-choo Islands, now known as Iwo Jima and Okinawa, respectively. Hall and his party were prevented from landing at Sulphur Island by high winds and a rough surf, but viewed from a distance the "sulphuric volcano from which the island takes its name" (p. 58). After nearly being wrecked on the reef, they spent some weeks on Loo-choo and the neighboring islands charting the area and observing native society. "On the return journey Hall had an interview at St. Helena with Napoleon, who had known his father, Sir James Hall, when a boy at school at Brienne" (Abbey). Shortly after his arrival in England in 1817, Hall was promoted to the rank of captain.

Hall's 21-year career in the Royal Navy also took him to North America, the battle of Corruna, Galicia, Ireland, Madeira, the East Indies, Bombay, South America, the Galapagos Islands and Mexico. He retired from the Navy in 1823 to spend his remaining years "in private travel or in literary and scientific pursuits at home" (DNB).

The colored lithographs in A Voyage of Discovery were executed from "drawings of scenery and costume . . . made by Mr. William Havell [1782-1857], the eminent artist who accompanied the Embassy, from sketches taken on the spot, by Mr. C. W. Browne, midshipman of the Alceste, and [Hall]" (Preface, p. ix). "Havell was one of the best of the earlier painters in water-colour, and did much to advance the art; and his pictures in oil, though neglected during his life, have recently risen greatly in estimation" (DNB). Abbey Travel 558. Tooley 241. BT000004.

$5000

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