Hamond, Walter

Estimate

4,000 - 6,000 USD

bidding is closed

Description

A Paradox: Prooving, That the Inhabitants of the Isle Called Madagascar, or St. Laurence, (in Temporall Things) Are the Happiest People in the World. Whereunto Is Prefixed, a Briefe and True Description of That Island: the Nature of the Climate, and Condition of the Inhabitants, and Their Speciall Affection to the English Above Other Nations. London: Printed [by J. Raworth, B. Alsop, T. Fawcet, and M. Parsons] for Nathaniell Butter, 1640
paper, ink, leather

Two parts in one work, 4to (6 3/4 x 5 1/8 in.; 172 x 130 mm). Section title at D1, woodcut initial head and tailpiece, printer's ornaments; lacks initial blank, short tears to bottom inside margins of B2–3, a few headlines shaved or cropped, final leaf soiled and creased. Old limp vellum.

Literature

STC 12735; ESTC S103773

Catalogue Note

First edition of Hamond's fascinating albeit overly fanciful accounts of the island of Madagascar. Sent by the East India Company to assess the feasibility of colonizing the island, Hamond produced these two reports. The first comprises a description of the island, its climate and indigenous people while the second relays the benefits it would have to offer as an outpost for servicing the company's ships en route for the Persian Gulf and the Far East. "In his desire to present Madagascar and its allegedly primitive peoples as a semblance of the Garden of Eden, Hamond's writing can be seen as a precursor of the eighteenth-century salute to the noble savage" (ODNB).