[MÄMPEL, Johann Christian.]

The young rifleman's comrade: a narrative of his military adventures, captivity, and shipwreck.

London, Henry Colburn, 1826. 8vo (185 x 115 mm), pp. xxiv, 310; half-title present; contemporary marbled boards, rebacked in calf. First English edition. The German original, Des jungen Feldjägers Kriegskamerad, gefangen und strandend, immer getrost undthätig (1826), was edited by Goethe, whose ‘Editor’s preface’ is included here alongside a dedication by the English translator to the author of Faust for whom the high regard of the English people ‘has been already fully expressed in a variety of ways, – more particularly in the works of our Byron, Scott, Gower, Shelley, and other well-known names’ (p. vi). The translator, thought to be the Peninsular War and Waterloo veteran and author of Adventures in the Rifle Brigade, Sir John Kincaid, also notes ‘we are at a loss to know how much of this book may belong absolutely and bona-fide to the illustrious writer by whom it has been introduced to the world. With regard to the eloquence displayed in various parts, that is not much to the purpose; since of course the style would receive a tinge from the glowing imagination of the editor: but it must be confessed that, at times, the elevation of sentiment and refinement of taste displayed by the Rifleman seem somewhat beyond the sphere of his alleged rank’ (pp. xvii–xviii).The author begins his narrative with the French Revolution and the arrest of his father as a Royalist, continuing with his adventures in Dupont’s division in the Peninsular War, his capture and imprisonment in Cabrera, his employment with the British forces in Sicily and his visit to England. He then gives a detailed account of his service aboard the East Indiaman Cabalva, under Captain Dalrymple, and the ship’s subsequent shipwreck on the southern part of Cardagos Garagos shoals in the Indian Ocean in 1818. The survivors notoriously lived on a sandbank and inebriated themselves with brandy and beer saved from the wreck whilst fitting out their damaged cutter to seek help from Mauritius. He ends with his return to his homeland where he is re-united with his family.Sandler 2216; Speck 2337.

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