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Tracts Relative to the Island of St. Helena; Written During a Residence of Five Years
Published by Printed by W. Bulmer for G. and W. Nicol, Booksellers to His Majesty, Pall-Mall; and J. Booth, Duke-Street, Portland-Place, London, 1816
Seller: Donald A. Heald Rare Books (ABAA), New York, NY, U.S.A.
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First Edition
4to. (11 x 10 7/8 inches). First edition. [*a]-*c2 [a]-m4 B-Tt4 Uu2. [i]-[xx] [i]-lxxxvii [1]-330. 418 pp. 7 aquatint engravings by William Daniell and Thomas Girtin after Samuel Davis including a "Geological Plan and Elevation of the Island of St. Helena" and an engraved frontispiece of its bay. Half-title, Frontispiece, Title, Dedication to the directors of the United East India Company, Preface, Contents, Directions to the binder, Introductory chapter, Part I: Tracts I-XXX, Part II: Narrative of the Mutiny, Appendix with "An alphabetical list of plants, seen by Dr. Roxburgh growing on the island of St. Helena, in 1813-14," pp.295-326. Publisher's grey paper-covered boards, printed spine label, uncut, neatly re-backed preserving original spine and label A work expounding St. Helena's virtues published the year after Napoleon arrived, written by its former governor. With six beautiful aquatint plates, plus an engraved plan of the island. Beatson was a senior army officer in the East India Company's service who carried out important research and published widely on the subject of botany. Beatson saw service in India in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War of the late-1790s and published an account of his experiences on his return to England in 1800. He then took up the position of Governor of the remote South Atlantic island colony of St. Helena between 1808 and 1813, directly before Napoleon's exile. As he describes in the book, during his tenure as governor of St. Helena, Beatson had to put down a mutiny in 1811 when a number of soldiers protested against measures he had introduced to restrict the availability of alcoholic spirits. As an isolated and desolate stop-off between Britain and her Asian colonies, St. Helena had acquired a reputation as an ill-disciplined and inhospitable outpost. It had long been generally supposed that St. Helena was a rocky and unproductive island and mostly devoid of soil. He wrote this book in an effort to alter contemporary views of the island's fertility and potential. After spending several years on St. Helena, Beatson became convinced that its lack of production was due to flaws in technique rather than its natural endowment. In making his case, Beatson describes the history of St. Helena's geological formation, its soil and climate conditions, minerals, and potential for vegetable production, as well as the qualities of the island that lend it to military purposes. During Beatson's appointment as governor of St. Helena he introduced a better system of cultivation and made many improvements to the island of St. Helena. Abbey, Travel 312. Gay 3088. Kress 21458. OCLC 2144837.
