The New Universal Gazetteer; or Modern Geographical Index.

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David Ramsay, for Bell & Bradfute, J. Dickson, W. Creech, and P. Hill Edinburgh, 1796. Octavo, six folding maps, very occasional manuscript annotations; a good copy in contemporary calf, neatly rebacked to style. Second edition of this important Gazetteer, and an attractive association copy (see below). This work is also of interest for its fine folding maps by Neele, a prolific and accomplished cartographer, with a double-hemisphere world map, as well as individual charts of Africa, both the Americas, Asia and Europe.

A relatively long entry on New Holland begins with a history of the exploration of Australia, but is more interesting for its early notice on the settlement at Port Jackson, including details of the initial attempts at agriculture, and a largely sympathetic depiction of the local Eora people. The article also comments on the settlement at Norfolk Island as the granary to the fledgling colony, 'which will put those who are settled on New Holland entirely out of danger from their barbarous neighbours'.

Several manuscript notes in this copy show it to have been in the possession of one Mary Roxburgh of Park Place, Edinburgh (see especially marginalia on page 'Hundsfeld-Huntingdonshire'). Mary was the eldest daughter of one of the most prominent botanists of his day, William Roxburgh, the expert on Indian climate, superintendent of the Royal Botanic Garden in Calcutta, and friend of Sir Joseph Banks.

Not in Ferguson, and rather scarce.
Not in Ferguson.

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• ordernr.: 706_042

• bookseller: Hordern House (AUSTRALIA)