STAVORINUS, John Splinter.

Voyages to the East Indies; by the late John Splinter Stavorinus Esq., Rear Admiral in the Service of the States General. Translated from the original Dutch, by Samuel Hull Wilcocke. With notes and additions by the translator. The whole comprising a full and accurate account of all the present and late possessions of the Dutch in India, and at the Cape of Good Hope.

London, G. G. & J. Robinson, 1798. 3 vols, 8vo (205 x 130 mm), pp. vi, 572; [ii], 512; [ii], 598, with four folding engraved maps; contemporary calf, volumes one and three rebacked. First English edition. A first-hand account of two VOC voyages: the first, 1768–71, to Batavia, Bantam and Bengal; the second, 1774–78, to Samarang, Macassar, Amboyna, Surat and the Malabar Coast.Originally published in Dutch at Leyden in 1793, this English edition was translated and prepared by Wilcocke, who ‘was acquainted with Stavorinus’s family. Through this connection and other resources, he was able to correct many mistakes that were due to the negligence of the original editor. Wilcocke also added a large and informative appendix, comprised of regulations and orders in the colonies, tables of imports, lists of ships, stock-holdings, an abstract of an herbal by Henry Oldeland, and a biographical sketch of Reinier de Klerk, governor-general for the Dutch East India Company. This information was collected from accounst of other travelers, other Dutch writers, and various manuscripts, documents, and statements’ (Hill).‘Stavorinus was post-captain in the naval service of the States General; but a long period of peace, and the little employment that occurred in the Dutch navy for men of enterprize and abilities, prompted him to request permission to go a voyage to the East-Indies, as captain in the employ of the Dutch East-India Company, retaining, however, his rank of captain in the navy. The accounts of his two voyages, in that capacity, are here given; and his readers will find him, throughout, a man of observation and intelligence. He was afterwards promoted to the rank of rear-admiral, which he held at the time of his death’ (pp. iii–iv).Hill 1632; Landwehr 300; NMM I 451; SAB IV p. 386; Tiele, Nederlandsche bibliographie van land- en volkenkunde 1044.

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