[INDIAN MUTINY] First Geography for Natives : or, guide to the map of the world

A$750 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

Calcutta : printed at the Calcutta School-Book Society s Press, and sold at their Depository, Circular Road, 1846. Sixth edition. Octavo (177 x 110 mm), original plum cloth (faded and with scattered stains); ownership inscription to front free endpaper: R. Moore of the 1 Company 6 Bn. Bengal Artillery Feby. 12 the [sic] 1857 Anno Domino [sic] the year of our Lord God 180 [sic] I.H.S. in him ; pp. iv, 48; upper margin of page 1 with a partially legible inscription [MEERU]TT ART.Y: SCHOOL ; light soiling, a very good copy with a fascinating provenance (see below). An obscure geography textbook designed for Indian students published in Calcutta in 1846. Although there is understandably a focus on the Indian subcontinent, all of the world s regions are covered. The final two brief chapters are devoted to Australia and Polynesia, respectively. The text of the former reads: Australia consists of New Holland, Van Dieman s [sic] Land, New Zealand, Papua or New Guinea, New Britain, New Caledonia, the New Hebrides, and several other neighbouring islands. New South Wales (the eastern part of New Holland) and Van Dieman s [sic] Land have been colonized by the British; but the other islands are of little importance, and are imperfectly known. The natives are wretched savages, especially the New Zealanders, who devour human flesh. Sidney [sic] is a flourishing British settlement in New South Wales; Hobart Town, also a British settlement, is in Van Dieman s [sic] Land. Botany Bay was first

• Binding: Hardcover

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