Two parts in one volume. [8], 369, [1] pp. Engraved frontispiece portrait, engraved title page, 45 full page engravings (27 folding), 4 folding maps (Brasil, Cape of Good Hope, Malabar and Batavia), and 33 additional engravings in text, including a dodo and three smaller maps. (Folio) 32x21 cm (12½x8¼") period blind-paneled calf, modern rebacking to style, red morocco label. First English Edition.
This venerable travelogue is divided into two parts; the first being concerned with Nieuhof's stay in Brazil and the second relates to his voyages in the East Indies and South Africa. As in all copies, there is a break in the pagination between the two parts (156-182). The two travelogues were first released posthumously published in Dutch in Amsterdam in 1682. Nieuhoff left for Brazil in 1640 as a reserve officer-candidate. Except for two short visits to his family in 1658 and 1671, he spent his entire life abroad. He is best remembered for his journey to and study of China (which form a later volume). Nieuhof was employed in Brazil by the Dutch India West Company to explore the regions between Maranhao and the Sao Francisco Rivers, made a particular study of the neighborhood of Pernambuco. He left Brazil in 1649 after the Portuguese victory in the Second Battle of Guararapes, and joined the service of the Dutch East India Company. He lived for several years in Batavia in Java and was a perceptive observer and recorder. The excellent copper-plate engravings, many of them done by Gilliam vander Gouwen and H. Cause, show exotic plants (Brasil pepper, indigo,cocoa, cucumber tree, pineapple) and animals (fish, coati, etc), various views and plans ( Amboina, Olinda, Recife, etc.) as well as many of the customs and costumes of the native peoples, of which perhaps the most famous is "A Malabar Shewing Tricks with Serpents." Malabar is part of the Indian state of Kerala, making this a very early illustration of Indian snake charmers. "Classic work on Dutch Brazil. bound together with the account of another voyage by Nieuhof to the East Indies. Both were issued in several collections of voyages, including the Church collection. Modern bookdealers have broken up the collection and bound the different voyages separately which leads some to the wrong conclusion that an independent edition of Nieuhof's work exists in English" (Borba de Moraes II, 614). This first edition of Nieuhof's work on Brazil and the East Indies is the second volume of the 1704 first edition of Awnsham and John Churchill's four-volume Collection of Voyages and Travels. Sabin, 13015; Nissen Zool. 2976.
Condition:
Binding rebacked and with some expert restorations, endpapers renewed; short marginal tear to plate between 316/317, plate at 223 with some light wear to outer margin (not affecting image), lacking rear blank; otherwise a fresh and complete copy in a restored contemporary binding.