with Occasional Remarks on the Adjacent Countries, and also Sketches of the Different Routes

By Capper, James

London: for W. Faden, J. Robson, and R. Sewell, 1783. First Edition. sm4to – 25.4 cm. Recent half-calf on marbled boards, burgundy morocco spine label with gilt title, five raised bands and decorative gilt-filled compartments. List of errata verso of dedication. 2 engraved fold-out maps. A complete and near fine copy. Scarce.

James Capper joined the army of the East India Company “in His Majesty’s Train of Artillery in the East Indies, first as a soldier cadet and later as an officer. He was then for a while a free merchant in Bengal before becoming in 1768 a captain in the Madras army and in 1769 he was senior writer for the presidency of Bengal – later appointed the East India Company’s commissary-general upon the coast of Coromandel” —Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. In early 1777 Capper was sent home to England with dispatches where he remained until the autumn of 1778, “to explore the feasibility of opening a new channel for transmitting intelligence between Europe and India. He later returned to Madras by way of Aleppo, the Arabian desert, and Basrah.” The present work contains details of Capper’s journey from India to England in early 1777, via Ceylon and Suez, and the return journey in 1778-9. Presented somewhat in journal form, this narrative contains very interesting details of local life, offering valuable information for travellers in the region. Blackmer 282; Wilson p.37.

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